Hux nodded off for a moment and when he woke up he saw that she reached into the pot and took a bite of the larvae she had roasted. He grimaced a little and watched her eat the whole thing without batting an eye.

He was hungry of course, but the prospect of eating these … things wasn't appealing at all. He grimaced a little. Well, it didn't matter – they had to eat something. He sat down next to her and slowly reached into the pot. He cautiously took a little bite; strangely enough the taste reminded him of bland oatmeal.

He inhaled and ate the whole larva and swallowed it quickly. After a few bites he had gotten used to the taste and his thoughts returned to … her.

From the corner of his eye he observed her. Rebel, rank unknown, app. 25, skilled survivalist, poor shot.

After they had finished the larvae she filled the pot with water and boiled it before cutting the reptile meat into little pieces. She added the meat and used a thin twig to stir in the pot. After a couple of minutes she impaled a piece of meat and took a bite.

She looked at him and said: "It could use Shiso Leaf, but at least it has a little more taste than the larvae."

He used the sleeves of his uniform as a heat absorber and lifted the hot pot from the fire and put it next to the fireplace. "I'm not familiar with Shiso Leaf," he admitted.

She took two twigs that were lying next to the fireplace and used his dagger to sharpen them. Seeing his precious dagger used for such a mundane task irritated Hux but he didn't say anything.

"It has a musky, earthy taste and goes well with soups and fresh rolls," she explained. She handed him a twig and used hers to fish the pieces of meat out of the hot water.

Again he took a small bite first; after the larva it tasted quite good actually. He felt himself relax, it felt good to eat something that passed as real food. The sun was already setting, Hux felt the last rays on his face as he busied himself in finding another chunk.

"How old are you?"

He froze and slowly looked up. She stared at him with an unreadable expression on her face. What in the blazes was she going on about? "Why do you care?" he cautiously asked.

Obviously it wasn't the answer she had hoped for, she scoffed and pulled the dagger out of her pockets. She started to whittle a twig.

He observed her for a moment, even with a broken arm her movements were elegant and sure. She was indeed very skilled. Why had she asked? Perhaps … she tried to assess him as he assessed her?

He impaled a piece of meat and ate it slowly. Perhaps he could learn more about her, who she was … "I'm 34," he finally said.

She put the twig down. "I've never heard of a general that young."

Ah, so she's curious about his career? That was something he could talk about! Then he saw a movement in the corner of her lips and her lifted eyebrow. He knew it. She was only mocking him. At first he felt angry but his anger tickled away. It didn't matter.

"It's not uncommon in the First Order," he just said and put the rest of the meat in his mouth. He swallowed and decided to gather more information nonetheless. "How old are you?"

"26."

Hux waited for a moment, insecure if he should ask further. Well, he had to assess her properly … "And what's your name?"

"Rose Tico," she said.

Why wasn't she telling him her rank? Was there a reason for withholding this information? He would get to the bottom of it! "What's your rank?"

She continued whittling the twig. "I'm a specialist." She finished her task, and held the twig up. He realised that she had made a fork. Then she turned her attention to him. "Why are you interested in my rank?"

He stared at her incredulously. "I wanted to know how to address you correctly, Specialist Tico."

"Why is that important? I mean we're at the arse end of nowhere."

Was she tooling with him? "So that I know how to talk to you of course – how to address you." Now he knew her rank, but she still puzzled him – what a strange woman. Well, at least he now knew that she wasn't an officer. That should make things easier, he should clearly take command. "We should stock up our food supply and one of us should return to the shuttles to salvage-"

"-cables, yeah I thought so, too," she interjected.

"Don't interrupt me, specialist!" he flabbergasted retorted.

Then she laughed. Hux felt himself turn red.

"You're pulling rank on me? Really?" she asked.

"I shouldn't be surprised that you wouldn't know common decency. No respect and no order whatsoever!"

She just laughed again and took a twig to whittle another fork. "Yeah, yeah we're real animals, you tell me, Hux."

He wanted to yell at her, order her to respect him! He outranked her! His irritation grew when wisps of hair fell in his face, with an angry gestured he tried to slick them back. It was in vain, he felt silly and uncomfortable.

Before he could stop himself he got up and tramped out of the camp into the forest. He walked for a bit, then he leaned against a tree. Of all the fractious and vexing people in the galaxy … no, she was not the problem! He was! He didn't command the respect … he just had to do something to show her that he …

Suddenly he remembered Captain Narye. She had been an ace pilot, back when Hux had gotten his first assignment after the academy. His father had taken him on a tour through his ship, showed him his troops.

Of course Brendol Hux did it for a reason. When they arrived at the hangar he pointed out Narye – a beautiful, proud woman. She wasn't afraid of his father: She knew that she was a valuable and skilled pilot. She bowed before him as protocol dictated, but her gaze – her gaze was something else entirely.

Brendol noticed of course, he always did.

Later that evening he called his son into a conference room for the sole purpose to show him Captain Narye, who was holding her bruised and broken hands while sobbing on the floor.

Brendol was a large man, with large meaty hands with calluses. He grabbed him by his neck with an iron grip.

"Sometimes you have to clip their wings, Armitage," he said in his deep voice that always seemed to resonate through the whole room.

Narye never flew again. She could have had her broken tendons and fingers replaced by artificial limbs but his father took care that she never received the appropriate treatment. He saw her sometimes after the incident. Gone was her pride. All that was left was a woman with shattered dreams.

His father would've known how to handle specialist Tico.

Hux straightened himself and a shiver ran down his spine. He felt uneasy. He didn't like physical violence. He had tried it of course. But there was something about it that made him anxious. It also left a bitter ashen aftertaste in his mouth. And- and it was ineffective. Yes, that was it, it wasn't effective.

Hux exhaled and slowly got up.

ooOOoo

When he returned to camp he forced himself not to look at her and was about to settle down in the shelter.

Tico's voice rang out: "Don't you want me to take a look at your cuts?"

He glanced at her. Of course it would be sensible to check on the inflammation.

He licked his lips and approached her, after a moment of hesitation he sat down next to her. She leaned forward and palmed the cut on his head.

He clenched his hands, it was strange to let her touch him. We waited for her to whisper insults, to suddenly slap him. But she just kept cleaning his wounds with care. He relaxed and couldn't help but notice that she looked pretty in the warm light of the fire. She seemed completely at ease, didn't seem to care who she was treating.

She sat back and obviously waited for him to show her his chest. He only opened the topmost buttons.

She brushed his shirt away, and he almost flinched when he felt her hand on his naked skin. She was very close and he looked in her dark-brown eyes. They seemed so kind … wait! What in the galaxy was he thinking? There was no such thing as kindness.

"It's still red and swollen. I can clean it tomorrow. We still have enough water, right?" she said and looked directly at him. There was no malice in her gaze, no disgust.

He felt how his heart quickened. A warm feeling spread out in his chest. It felt nice – somebody looking at him like that. Not angry or with an underlying contempt.

He realised that he was staring at her like a fool. He cleared his throat and started to close his jacket. "Do you want me to check your splint?"

She shook her head. "Perhaps tomorrow. It came loose last night."

He felt slightly disappointed. Suddenly he remembered that he was supposed to strike fear … respect into her heart. Instead he wanted to talk to her. He had no idea what about, he just wanted- what? He didn't know what he wanted.

He got up and went into the shelter. He lay down put his hands behind his head and stared up at the ceiling. It wasn't like him not to have a plan, not to know what he wanted. Everything was usually clear: who was trying to conspire against him, who he had to kill in order to archive his goals.

Hux had worked hard to become the man he was – expunged his weaknesses, learned to hide the ones he couldn't get rid of. Played the role he was supposed to play: dutiful son, competent officer, ruthless general.

Which role was he supposed to play here?

ooOOoo

The sound of rustling clothes woke him up in the morning, just as Tico was about to leave the shelter.

"Where are you going?" he mumbled. Stars! Why was he still feeling exhausted?

"Just stepping out for a moment," she replied and exited.

He closed his eyes again and groaned. There was no way he would sleep longer than necessary. He slowly got up and joined her outside. The fresh air did wake him a little.

"We should find food," she said as she popped a red berry in her mouth.

He crossed his arms. "It's paramount that we repair the comm."

"If we die from starvation a fixed comm won't help us."

"At least we could call for help if one of us is dying from poisonous fruits or a potentially deadly snake soup."

"All right, we can check the shuttles for ropes and stuff and go find food afterwards."

Hux blinked in surprise. He had actually won the argument. Perhaps it didn't matter which role he played? At least not here.

ooOOoo

The familiar sweet smell of decay and rot greeted them when they approached Tico's shuttle. Insects were buzzing around and Hux had to shoo some of them away when he entered the cockpit. He glanced only briefly at the pilot – the weather and the local wildlife had gotten to him. It wasn't a pretty sight but Hux had seen worse.

He started shifting through the compartments and noticed after a few moments that Tico was nowhere to be seen. He frowned and returned to the airlock; she was still standing outside.

"Do you intend to let me do all the work?"

She looked pale, a film of sweat was visible on her brow. Yet she set her lips in a thin line and stepped inside, but just as quickly as she had entered she exited – just in time to vomit.

Hux had followed her, unsure what to do – had she eaten something bad?

She wiped over her mouth and turned to face him. "I can't. I should've buried him." She averted her gaze.

He frowned and crossed his arms. "I'm not surprised that your training didn't cover basic desensitisation."

"What are you talking about?"

Hux stared at her disbelievingly. "You mean to tell me that you don't have desensitisation training in the resistance at all?"

She just shook her head. She still looked quite pale. Hux decided to let her catch her breath and returned to the cockpit on his own.

They didn't talk about the excursion to the other shuttle, but the look on her face told Hux everything he needed to know: She wouldn't join him when he rummaged through his shuttle.

He found some especially long cables and metal pieces they could potentially use to climb the tree.

After a while he started to feel sick as well, and his head started to hurt again. He reached up and felt his forehead – he was still glowing.

They had found enough materials, so he decided to look for Tico near the shuttle. He found her pretty quickly – she had stayed close by.

"Head back?" she asked and he only nodded.

ooOOoo

When they finally reached their camp Hux wanted to lay down and take a nap, but he forced himself to accompany her back to the clearing with the nerfs. They were gone, judging from the trails they had headed further back into the forest.

"We should follow them," said Hux.

"Why?"

He exhaled. "So that we see where they went."

"Yeah, but what's the point?"

"Do you have to question everything?" he asked in a low voice.

She rolled her eyes. "By the stars! Let's go already if it shuts you up."