Love is The Drug
Armitage Hux winces at the bright lights over his face and orders it off, but it remains annoyingly bright. He groans and sits up with the full intention of switching off the lights and going back to sleep, but then he takes in his new surroundings. He's not in the hotel's plush bed nor his own simple bed on the Finalizer. He's in a holding cell with an energy barrier preventing his escape. Through the barrier, he sees Kylo Ren in another cell directly across from him. He's sporting red-purple bruises and a split lip. He's sneering directly at Hux, and Hux ascertains that the Force suppression collar around his neck contributes to his current foul mood. He inhales and then exhales, mentally preparing himself to deal with Lord Ren.
"Kylo, what happened to you? I thought you were doing whatever the Supreme Leader has you do like pillaging defenseless villages." Kylo's scowl turns into a vicious sneer from the taunt. Hux knows that it's better to lance the boil that is Kylo's temper now if only to save himself from hours of petulant whining.
"A Wookie," Kylo gritted out, "and at least I went down fighting! You clearly got caught at some brothel that caters to what you think is a kinky fetish."
"Oh this?" Hux twirls his green and gold shimmersilk gown with gaudy golden boots, hoping to further aggravate Kylo. Strangely, those brown eyes are more focused on his long, red hair. "If you have bothered to read any of the memos for like the past week, you would know that this was all for the charity gala."
"Charity gala? For what? More Super Star Destroyers?" Kylo scoffed incredulously.
"For my Stormtrooper education program. High Command diverted the funding for my program to cover all your property damages," Hux replied tersely.
"Education program? In what? Properly kissing their superiors' asses?"
"In careers outside of the Corps. We need medics, farmers, educators, scientists, and technicians, and the troopers could fill those roles upon retirement."
"What, no artists? Let me guess, only the New Republic can appreciate the fine arts."
"I wouldn't have gotten funding the first time if I included any careers deemed frivolous to the FO's needs, until said budget got squandered on you. I had to stage a charity gala to re-fund my program which led to me having greater freedom with it since I didn't have to deal with High Command's input. In a strange way, your destruction led to the expansion in the program's scope."
"You're welcome then," Kylo sassed. "Any reason for the dress and the far too golden boots? Did Grand Admiral Sloane donate enough credits to earn the tier of you dressing like a fool?"
"She thought it was a bad idea and would ruin my image for an unworthy cause," Hux snorted with his eye roll, "but I've never been good at adhering to her advice."
"She was right though. My image of you being an unfeeling, calculating Imp with a rod shoved so far up his ass is ruined by this. Now, I think you're just a weirdo with nice hair."
"You actually like me with long hair?" Hux inquired as he purposely curled a long lock around his elegant finger.
"Yes, please keep it. I swear if we get out of this and back to the Finalizer, I won't break anything on the ship for a month." The borderline pleading in Kylo's brown eyes almost convinced Hux of his sincerity.
"Wow, a whole month! What a generous offer of your magnanimity, Lord Ren!" Before Kylo could retort, someone enters the brig. It takes a moment for that someone to reach their cells, and Hux immediately recognizes the man as one of the performers at the charity gala. He still wears his glittery white suit with the perfectly fake pencil mustache. However, his once coiffed hair is in a bedraggle ruin, while his neck sports a bitemark.
"Pfassk, the trooper was not gentle!"
"What?"
"I caught him snogging a trooper in the supply closet."
"Of course, Poe Dameron would do that!" exclaimed Kylo.
"He's Poe Dameron?" Hux looked Poe up and down for a moment before agreeing. "You really are him. I never figured you could sing and dance; you struck me as the kind of person only good at piloting and rebellions."
"Yes, we all have our hidden talents," Poe mused, "just like you and your performance."
"If you're thinking about blackmailing me with a holovid of my performance for information, you're going to be sorely disappointed. It was a live feed on the HoloNet with a donation link!" Hux grins proudly, while Kylo shakes his head.
"I wasn't going to do that. Besides, I know neither of you will divulge whatever evil plans that the FO has cooked up, but at least you two won't be carrying them out anymore. And considering all your arguing, your fleet is going to enjoy the silence."
"Which means the Resistance will get that privilege instead!" piped Hux.
"Do you think we'd keep you two together? Sithspit no! You two will be separated and kept apart."
"Well, Kylo, we may never meet again, but I will keep this short. We were co-commanders, but we couldn't work together. We could have done great things together, but your Master didn't want that." He wonders if Kylo will jump to Snoke's defense, but Kylo nods slowly with an epiphany dawning in his dark eyes.
"Hux, since we may never meet again, I might as well make my feelings clear. When we first met, I thought you were a heartless, shrill sleemo that only cared about lording his rank. In all honesty, I was mostly wrong. You don't constantly shove your superiority down your fleet's throat, and you do care about them. To the point of harassing me for minor property damage and making a fool out of yourself for some honest credits. I wish that I showed you a better side of myself."
This exchange came far too late to help them now. However, they will remember this as they spent the rest of their days apart.
Author's Comments- Here are the links:
Here is the link to Oscar Isaac's performance in Sucker Punch which I had to use for Poe's cover story: a href=" watch?v=VtN6MIf4JGo"Link/a
Here is the link to "The Supermen" by David Bowie which Hux did a cover for the charity gala and dressed-up similarly to Bowie on the cover, including the hair, but without the high collar since Hux just can't pull that off: a href=" watch?v=t0871DYyHSE"Link/a
If you were wondering which Stormtrooper that Poe was making out with the answer is always Finn. Anyways, this idea of Hux and Kylo being held together, separated by cells, was bouncing around in my head for a while. I decided to just write what came to mind, and it resulted in a short story. I happen to have a couple of Kylux stories in the pipeline that are much longer than this one, but this one demanded to be finished first.