Hux watched Kylo watch him, uncertain of what to do and dully aware that being caught like this would be horrible press.
Kylo didn't seem to recognize him at first, looking at him wildly like he really was a terrified beast. His fingers twitched, and he sucked in a sharp breath.
The queen stumbled a step back, drawing his hands to his chest.
"...Hux..?" He asked, barely a whimper. Immediately, Hux stepped forward, hands out as if he could push Kylo back into his body. Indeed, it felt like Kylo wasn't really there; someone else was standing in front of him in Kylo's skin, as if Kylo had shattered into the air.
Hux knew how ridiculous it sounded, but it had to be somehow true because every move he made closer to Kylo felt more difficult, like air and gravity were pushing him away.
"Kylo, what happened? You look like you've been attacked!"
Hux suddenly glanced to the door. What was on the other side of it?
He looked back to Kylo, making a short sound in his throat.
Kylo's hair seemed to be lifting up from his head slowly.
"Get-"
Kylo heaved a breath with intense difficulty, stepping backwards and curling forwards, bending at his hips like he was trying to protect his chest. "Get away from me!" He demanded, suddenly turning on his heel and darting around the corner.
"No, Kylo, wait!" Hux called out, far more commanding than he meant it to sound, giving chase.
He barely saw Kylo's heel and the final flourish of his robe flash around the next corner of the hallway, and distantly heard a pained cry as there was the unmistakable sound of a person falling to their knees.
Hux managed to follow to that next corner, damning himself for not training harder, and saw Kylo scramble to his feet again and push into a doorway at the end of the hall, blurry and almost too fast to register.
Huffing from the cardio he wasn't expecting to get that day, Hux followed as quickly as he could manage.
The door opened into a room with a long conference table, stacked high with boxes of paperwork and haphazard piles of unused furniture, dusty and forgotten.
Hux chased to the door at the other end of the room, but slowed as he reached about the middle of the room. His hands felt stiff, his mind sharper and clearer, and as he turned again, knew Kylo had not moved to the next room.
He placed a hand on top of the table to steady himself and crouched down.
Kylo Amidala was curled up under the table, holding his knees to his chest like a frightened child, and regarded Hux with such a wild terror that Hux had to really fight the instinct to leave and act like none of this had happened.
Hux stared dumbly for a moment, and then cleared his throat, trying not to sound as winded as he was.
"Well," he began, "that was certainly energizing. Care to tell me what's got you so panicked?"
He asked it like he didn't really care to hear the answer, hoping it would snap Kylo back to some kind of indifference.
It didn't work.
"Go away." Kylo croaked, and he leaned his head back as he gasped sharply, grabbing at his shoulder.
Hux looked at the bottom of the young queen's face and saw a mark that definitely hadn't been caused by crying, a smear on his jaw that dragged around to the back of his neck.
"Now, that's not a good answer. You know I can't just leave; goodness, what would your mother say?" He tried, sitting on the ground. He felt equally childish, but really, wasn't Kylo known for temper tantrums? If there was ever a time for him to have one, it was definitely now.
Certainly, Kylo was shaking, and though he was desperately looking everywhere except at Hux, he could still see Kylo's mouth, red makeup smeared away from lips almost equally red underneath. "Please, Kylo, if something happened, can't you even tell your fiancé?"
Kylo suddenly gave a laugh, sharp and cruel, and it ended in a distressed sob too quickly, wrapping his hands around the back of his head and tucking it to his chest.
"You never proposed. We're just betrothed, not engaged." Kylo's muffled voice came through his knees, another sharp breath, followed quickly by a pained sob.
Hux crossed his legs.
"Would you rather I had proposed?" Hux asked casually. If Kylo wouldn't tell him what was wrong, the least he could do was sit around until Kylo did something.
Kylo's entire body shuddered.
"Don't talk about this. Not now." Kylo murmured, fingers tightening around his head.
Hux tried not to think about what that meant.
It was odd; when he was around Kylo, usually his thoughts felt too heavy, warm and slow, but now, while the queen grieved some invisible loss, he was as cold and clear as ever before, and was still washed over with the want to crawl under the table and curl up next to Kylo like there was no danger to it at all.
He didn't, though.
He felt himself shudder, felt the hair at the back of his neck stand itself upright, and he had to exhale sharply and see his own breath to realize that the room was getting colder.
"Go away." Kylo said again. "I don't want to see you."
"And why not? Kylo, I swear, if someone has hurt you, I'll bring the full force of the First Order-"
Kylo gave a sob, sharp and high, and it silenced Hux effectively. "Kylo," he said quietly, though not softly, "let me help you. I'm sorry if that isn't good enough, but it's the only way I know how."
"No," Kylo began, lifting his head and resting his chin on his knees. He tucked them closer and raised his hands, so the bottom half of his face was covered still.
"You only know how to defend what is yours. I don't belong to you, Hux. I don't need to be defended. I just need to be left alone."
Hux's response died in his throat, and he stared. What else was he supposed to do?
Kylo sighed softly.
"You're not going to leave, are you?" He asked the wall to Hux's left.
"No." Hux answered, as easily and quickly as anything.
Kylo sighed again.
"I'm sorry to hear that." He murmured, tears spilling down his face again.
He gave a quiet whimper, and began to sob heavily, entire body shaking.
Hux leaned forward, knowing duty dictated it, and crawled forward in the least dignified way possible.
He reached out for Kylo, and almost immediately, Kylo was not there.
Hux gave a pained groan as he jumped, hitting his head on the underside of the table, retreating from under it as quickly as possible, but the door was already closing, not a single sound since Hux had begun to move forward.
Somewhere, distantly, he heard a pained shriek, a scream of loss, falling into loud, grievously wounded sobs, followed closely by loud crashing and some sound he couldn't recognize.
He followed it out into the hallway, back the way he had come, to a manual metal door.
The sounds within had fallen silent by the time Hux worked up the bravery to open the door, bracing himself and pushing it open in a single swift movement.
Kylo stood in front of a long-decommissioned control panel, which smoldered still with long blackened lashes across it. All the furniture that had been left in this space, what appeared to be a second storage room, was thrown about, things far too large for an individual person to lift alone, most of it equally smoldering.
Kylo stood facing away from him, hunched forward, and Hux watched a wet, red mark on Kylo's shoulder spread bloody wings into the fabric, some wound reopened by too much strain.
Hux, dully, was aware that he recognized that wound.
Kylo turned slowly, starting at his shoulders, and he looked at Hux without seeing.
His eyes were blank, and his mouth had gone pale, what of it that was left exposed from the defiled makeup.
He seemed to shrink, curl into himself once more, and he shook his hair, having been freed from a hasty knot at some point during his flight.
He stood straight, then, shoulders back, and stalked past Hux, still without seeing him.
And he was gone, just like that.
Hux didn't try to follow.
He stepped forward, into the middle of the room, watching the control panel smolder.
He dared to reach out to it, finding that heat radiated forward regardless, and knelt closely over the burns.
They looked electrical, but…
He turned around again, not hoping to catch Kylo, not sure he even wanted to.
Reasonably, Kylo had made his position quite clear; he didn't want to see Hux and didn't want to talk.
...What was Hux even doing, down here in the forgotten rooms of a useless government's useless building?
He tightened his hands in their gloves, too aware of how pointless they were on such a temperate planet, too proud to take them off.
He left the room, closing the door behind him.