Chapter 21: Hux is Kind of a Dick

But the front door of Kylo's quarters opened to reveal a man, apparently standing just outside. Some clean-cut, most likely high-level officer with red hair. It was difficult to tell whether he'd just stomped up to the door, or had been standing there waiting.

"Ren!? Where the devil have you been?!"

Kylo glared up at the ceiling, as if imploring the Force itself to give him patience, stepping to the side, as if he hoped to hide Rey's presence.

"Five weeks without a single plan vetted! Five weeks -" the officer stopped mid-rant, noticing Rey. "I assume this is the slip of a garbage picker you've been obsessing over?" he said, tone sounding just as unimpressed as his words.

By this point, Rey was rather done with condescending men who spoke about her as if she wasn't standing right there. "Slip of a garbage picker who beat your best warrior," she announced fearlessly. She sensed a brief burst of pride from Kylo, either at her audacity, or her acknowledgment of him as the Order's best.

"She's got spunk," the officer commented, sounding bored. "Shouldn't she be in a cell?"

"She is my apprentice," Kylo declared. "And she's here with the express permission of Supreme Leader."

"I can't say I'm that surprised," the red-headed officer stated, shaking his head. "You spend the better part of a year hunting down the untrained waif who humiliated, disfigured and left you to bleed out on an imploding planet. And then you decide to take her on as your protégé. How characteristically whimsical." he paused, shooting Kylo a skeptical look. "You actually seduced her to the Dark Side?"

"And other things," Kylo replied, clearly trying to sound ominous, but mainly just sounding proud of himself.

The officer arched a brow, even as he gave his condescending response. "Too much information, Ren. I think you're confusing me with someone who gives a whit about where you stick it. Frankly I couldn't care less, as long as you do your duty - which you have have been shirking for several weeks."

"Convenient that your opinion matters so little to me," Kylo snapped. "And that my objectives have priority over yours."

"I wonder if that policy will remain in place after I report on the vast amount of time and resources you've devoted to chasing a girl."

"And I wonder how many dozens of better-qualified officers are standing in line for your job. Either way, I think they outnumber my potential replacements by quite a bit."

Rey knew a macho pissing match when she saw it. This needlessly confrontational discussion wasn't really about policy, but about who was the bigger man. She decided that these two idiots should just get a ruler, drop their pants and have done with it.

This idea in turn let to some surprisingly engrossing notions about what else those two idiots could do with their pants off. But no sooner had those thoughts crossed her mind, when Kylo whirled around, shooting her a horrified glare, eyes narrowed, and shaking his head chidingly.

The officer apparently tired of the argument. "If she causes any trouble, any trouble whatsoever, I am holding you personally responsible," he stated as he turned on his heel and walked away.

Kylo took the liberty of making an insulting gesture at the officer's back.

"Did you really have to tell him?" Rey demanded, once the man was out of earshot.

Her companion turned to face her. "Look, first of all, you're literally in my bed. And next, thanks to your little outburst, he knows that I haven't tortured you into complete submission. And if I told him that I brought you to the Dark Side using my immense interpersonal charm, he wouldn't believe me. But knowing - what I implied, he'll just assume that you've converted because you're infatuated with me. At least that's remotely believable, since that sentiment has a well-known tendency to be completely irrational."

Rey conceded the point with a quiet huff.

"Alright, I seriously should go. There are meal bars in the front cabinet." He turned back to the door. "Don't do anything stupid." He stepped out, but before the door could close, he stuck his head back in. "Or clever."

The door shut behind him, leaving Rey alone in the room. After a few moments, she decided she may as well get up and go about her morning routine.

She stepped into the 'fresher - a utilitarian, polished steel affair clearly designed for easy cleaning rather than aesthetics. At least it had separate toilet and shower stations.

As she prepared to bathe, she reflected on what Kylo had said. In particular, she was focused on him all but telling her, to her face, that he was just using her for her specific ability.

Rey glanced up at the mirror. "What's wrong?" she asked her reflection, affectedly playful. "Did you actually think that he brought you here because he likes you? Because you're pretty? You know perfectly well that he didn't."

She had no idea why that notion bothered her at all. Why should she be disappointed when she knew that he'd thought of her only as a tool, from the beginning? The only thing that had changed was that now he probably thought of her as an easy tool, useful for one other thing in addition to helping him get his hands on greater power.

She bathed and dressed. At that point there wasn't much else to do but practice with the sofa, as he'd said. She was a good fifteen minutes into said practice by the time she realized that he'd never really explained exactly why he wanted her to do this, and she'd never asked for clarification. Either way, it was practice with the sofa, or stare at the wall.

The day passed slowly, but by the end of it, she felt that she had gained a lot more control when it came to picking up and maneuvering large objects.

Eventually, Rey sensed a familiar presence approaching. She felt a little flutter of excitement as she set the couch down gently and precisely where she'd found it. But her excitement promptly died when he walked in the door and she got a good look at him - and the familiar filigree-adorned black mask that she'd assumed she'd seen the last of.

Rey gave a little grunt of disgust and distress. "Ugh, I thought you lost that ghastly thing!"

"I commissioned a new one."

She shuddered at that grating metallic basso.

"Well, take it off when you're in here, will you?!"

"These are my quarters. I can do as I like!" the mask growled.

Rey's aversion was so great that she felt zero hesitation or remorse in telling Kylo how to dress in his own home. "I flatly refuse to be in the same room with you while you wear that thing," Rey declared vehemently. "I'm perfectly happy to sleep on the shuttle."

The hideous mask emitted a low growl as it was yanked off, and then pitched through a nearby glass accent table. A pair of small cleaning droids emerged and immediately began vacuuming up the mess.

Rey stared at him, arms crossed, entirely unmoved by the mini-hissyfit. "Are you quite finished?"

"Yes," he grumbled.

"Good. And thank you for that little reminder of who you really are."

The conflict was abruptly diffused when an unfamiliar protocol droid came shuffling in with a tray of food. "Supper is served, Milord," it said primly, laying it's bounty on a large onyx table in the corner.

Kylo shrugged. "Shall we?" he grunted, still sounding annoyed. Rey answered only by plopping herself in a dining chair. Kylo approached, and Rey immediately realized that there was only one chair at the table. She stood, feeling a little awkward for taking his seat.

"Don't get up," he barked. Kylo left the table for a moment, returned with a non matching, but serviceable chair, and took a seat.

Rey was rather distracted by the mouthwatering aroma coming from the tray. Without further ado, she reached for what she assumed was her plate, and eagerly began to eat. It tasted even better than it smelled - apparently First Order big shots ate pretty damn well. She could help letting out a little hum of pleasure at the nuanced taste. Before she knew it, her plate was clean - really and truly clean, every last morsel licked off with gusto. She looked up to find her companion smirking at her, and barely halfway through his own dinner.

With no food to distract her, the silence at the dinner table began to seem a little awkward. That was when Rey asked what felt like was both the most mundane and the most bizarre thing that had ever come out of her mouth. "So, how was work?"

"Borning," he replied. "I was in tactical meetings all day."

Rey considered that. It struck her as a little odd that so many people seemed to want his opinion on military strategy. In her admittedly limited experience with him, he seemed rather prone to rash and foolish decisions on the battlefield.

As usual, he seemed to sense her opinion, and instantly became combative. "I don't always make stupid tactical decisions. Only when you're around. I am pretty good at this stuff, you know. They wouldn't put up with me if I wasn't." He paused. "That's the biggest weakness of fanatical regimes like this - they feed off each other's overconfidence until no one has the sense to speak up when they've bitten off more than they can chew. It's my job to reign them in when I forsee failure."

"So, you're a sort of military tactical psychic, is that it?"

"Sort of. You don't always need the Force to see the future. More often than not, all it takes is some damn common sense."

Rey suppressed a smile. It sounded so much like something General Organa would say.

The rest of the meal passed in silence. Rey waited until he'd finished eating to bring up the subject she'd been considering on-and-off for most of the day.

"Could you teach me how to do a Force faint?"

His smile was just as broad and triumphant as if she'd asked for a lesson on Force lightning.

"It's not really a Dark power, is it?" she asked, a little defensively. "I'd imagine that it's useful for non-lethal takedowns."

Kylo rubbed black-gloved hands together eagerly. "We'll need someone to practice on."

Rey hadn't thought of that. "Oh, well - maybe not then. I don't want to mess with some poor, random stormtrooper."

His smile turned most decidedly evil. "What if it wasn't a stormtrooper?"

A quick holo-call was made, and after a few minutes of Kylo mansplaining the basics of the technique to Rey, the redhead General, apparently named Hux, came stomping in. "What? This had better be impor-?"

Kylo gave a casual flick of the wrist, and Hux froze in place.

"Aren't you going to get in trouble for this?" Rey asked uneasily.

Kylo snorted. "No. I'll just pluck out the memory while he's down. No problem." He beckoned to her, still grinning wickedly.

"Shouldn't we put him on the sofa, so he doesn't hit his head?"

"Whatever," her companion stated indifferently. A quick Force push, and Hux was sitting awkwardly on the couch.

Rey stepped up to the paralyzed ginger, reaching toward his face.

Visualize it, the components of his brain," Kylo instructed. "Go on past the mind, the thoughts and feelings are irrelevant. You have to get to the core."

Rey did so - this was rather interesting, she could almost see visual representations of different areas of the mind - emotions, memories, cognitive faculties.

"Now, reach for the area that gives off the strongest Force aura. On a simpleton like Hux, that should be the center for basic biological functions. Do you see it?"

"Yes," she murmured.

"Give it just the lightest little pinch."

Rey frowned. "What happens if I do it too hard?"

"He'll die," Kylo explained, sounding entirely unconcerned.

Rey gave an uneasy hum. "Maybe I shouldn't..."

"He pulled the trigger on the Hosnian System, Rey. That should be enough moral justification, even for you."

She took a deep breath, and lightly pinched at the visualized structure. Sure enough, Hux's eyes rolled back and he collapsed into a red-crested heap on the couch.

Kylo gave her an appreciative pat on the head. "Nicely done. Keep practicing, and eventually it becomes fairly automatic." He then proceeded to place his hand on Hux's forehead. "There. He won't remember a thing."

Rey studied her tutor for a moment." You can kill that easily? Why not just always do it that way?"

"It's not very sportsman-like, now is it?" he replied.

"You're sick," Rey said flatly.

"No, I'm just utterly despicable. Haven't we already been over this?"

"Whaaaaa?" Hux mumbled, sitting up.

"General!" Kylo snapped irritably. "You weren't paying attention to a word just I said, were you?!"

Hux just blinked several times.

"Grown man, spacing out," Kylo grumbled rather convincingly. "We can discuss the matter when you're less distracted!"

The ginger General stood, and left the room wordlessly, looking authentically embarrassed by his own apparent distractibility.

Rey turned to Kylo. "How often do you mess with that man's head?"

Kylo grinned, just a touch of Solo-swagger creeping into his manner. "Not nearly as often as you'd think, considering how entertaining it is."

Kylo: I don't always make stupid tactical decisions, but when I do, there's a hot scavenger girl involved.

Next time: Compatible Kinks

So yes, there will be smut. But don't get too excited, my stuff tends to be pretty vanilla.

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