[Hux]

"I won't really nibble on your ears," Poe teased after the door shut behind the Force users. "Not unless you want me to."

The flirting hit a bit of a false note with Hux. But only because he wasn't sure what Poe was up to with all of this. He covered his face with one hand. It seemed past time to find out, especially if he were confiding what was going on in his head and they were strategizing how to deal with Sidious.

"Hugs?" Poe sounded uneasy.

"Tell me why you're intimate with me."

"What?"

"Why do you like me?"

Poe's silence led Hux to raise his head and look at him. Poe's expression had turned sober. "I'm not going to justify liking you – not to you, not to anyone. I will prove it. I will show it. And I do like you, but there's no 'why' more than there has been for anyone else in my life."

Hux's eyes narrowed slightly. His gaze did not waver. Poe seemed honest (and possibly a little offended), but it didn't give Hux any understanding of the situation. Was he dissembling and Hux just wasn't seeing it? Hux was trying his best to read into this, just as he'd been required to all his life.

Poe said, "Do you want me to list the things I like about you?"

Hux didn't know if that would help, but it might. "Please do."

"I like your finicky personality. I like your diligence. I like your intelligence. I like your looks. I like the challenge you pose."

Hux snorted in disbelief. "I would have thought this was the easiest seduction you'd ever had. Are you telling me you've had simpler?"

Poe smiled. "You have been the most surprising – a good surprise. You have challenged my preconceptions, let's put it that way." He moved over to the door, raising one arm to lean against the frame, his weight mostly on one leg. His expression shifted to discomfort for a moment and he moved a little, flexing or stretching in place. He was nicely muscular, Hux couldn't help noticing. He wondered why Poe hadn't ended up in one of those fake First Order uniforms. Not that he minded. He liked him better this way – no disguise.

Poe resumed. "I like the way you trust me. I like how much you seem to need me and how much opportunity I have to help you. I like how much you like me. I was telling the truth last night – I've never had anyone fall for me like I think you have."

Hux gave a small smile. He wanted to argue he hadn't fallen for Poe. He wanted to point out he was in complete control of what passed as their relationship and could end it the moment Poe made a false move. He was, in fact, interrogating Poe this very moment on his motives, in Hux's ship, on Hux's terms. But saying none of that would help. He wasn't even sure it was true. "Go on."

Poe's smile turned into a smirk. He left the door to saunter to Hux. "I like the way you taste. I like the way you feel in my arms." He put his hands on Hux's elbows. Hux straightened involuntarily, his skin prickling so nicely. He wanted more, immediately. He was breathing faster, just from the way Poe had walked over.

Poe's hands slid up his arms and Hux shivered. Poe's voice turned husky. "I like the way you sound, the way you touch me back. I know that you're level-headed and hard as nails, but you want me and that is so, so good." Poe kissed him and Hux couldn't stand it anymore. This … interrogation had gone off the rails.

He kissed back and they made out until he was even more ridiculously disheveled and Poe was grinning against his skin. His tunic was half-open (he'd opened it; Poe seemed oddly diffident about undressing him) and his upper chest had been as thoroughly kissed as his mouth. He was sitting on the flat part of the console where the holoprojector sat, his legs wrapped around Poe's hips and hooked behind his thighs. Neither of them had touched below the waist but he was aching. More than once, Poe had rolled his hips as though trying to find the right friction, but given the level of the console, he'd be fucking the hard counter if anything. Poe had not persisted.

Hux played with Poe's hair as they calmed down. He had not explicitly told Poe this was as far as he wanted to go, but Poe either understood anyway, or agreed. "What do you intend to get out of this?" Hux asked.

"I don't know," Poe said, his voice heavy with tiredness and maybe the unresolved desire. His head was tucked against Hux's chest at the moment, beard bristle scratching against his skin as Poe spoke. "A friend. A partner? Whatever you feel is right."

"If Palpatine had never been part of the equation, what would you expect after we escaped from here? Would you expect me to let all of you go to return to the Resistance and keep fighting us?"

Poe moved his head against Hux's hand, which had stopped moving after asking the question. He went back to petting Poe's hair. Poe said, "Well, that would be n- no, that wouldn't be nice. I guess in that very hypothetical situation, I'd want to see if there was some way to work things out so we weren't fighting each other."

Poe lifted away enough to see Hux's face. Poe said, "Maybe I could stay on and we could talk something out. There has to be some common ground here. You guys are …" He shrugged. "You're not machines. You're not sadists. You have goals – some of which I can get behind. You have your good traits, even as an institution."

"Some of us are sadists."

Poe rolled his eyes a little. "Listen, I'm sure you noticed not all your stormtroopers came back." Hux nodded. "The corporal shot one of them. I guess for having the bad luck to get injured. But I stopped him later when he wanted to shoot Finn for the same thing. And he stopped. The First Order doesn't have to keep doing what it's already done. Hosnia's gone. The New Republic is gone. Hells, the Empire is gone. Whatever happens next, I want to be part of that with you."

"Ah. So. For political advantage?"

"No, I'm just saying I'd rather stay here and work something out than go back to fighting you. Especially now that I know for a fact we can be civil. Or even, as you said … intimate." Poe tickled his side where he'd wormed his hand under Hux's shirt.

Hux swallowed and squirmed, running his heel along the back of Poe's thigh. "But. That is all, as you said, very hypothetical. What will happen then when …" Hux glanced up, thinking about the sky, the stars, Sidious. He changed course slightly. "Ren is convinced Sidious will find me, isn't he?"

"Yeah." Poe's voice was low, like he didn't like admitting this.

"And I know my father. He wouldn't have been looking for me in the first place unless I was of use to him. That use likely hasn't stopped. What does he need me for? It can't be sentiment or any desire for legacy. Not if Brendol was his clone. This is practical."

"I … don't really know."

It seemed unlikely that Poe was telling the truth. He wasn't a bad liar – he just wasn't a good one. Rather than call him on it, Hux laid out what he knew: "I'm his son. He wants to possess me. Not in a parental manner, but as a," that was when it came to him; the implications of Ren and Rey's words earlier that day, "as a vessel. That's why he made the clones in the first place, isn't it? Brendol … they'd all be dead now. I wonder if after his own death, he can't make new ones? Or maybe he's unwilling to wait the years it would take to mature one when I'm available?"

Poe raised his brows and pursed his lips as though some part of that wasn't something he'd considered before. Hux went on speculating, "If he is as certain as Ren is, then it explains why he didn't hold back in the ambush. He had to have been there himself. Everything that could have possibly gone wrong for me, did. While everything worked perfectly for him. That's the Force at work. But now he can't find me – not without my help."

"Um … yeah, that makes sense."

Hux looked off to the side. "He must want me alive and intact. We should be able to leverage that, somewhat. But if I threatened suicide, he'd simply call me on it." Hux turned his eyes on Poe. "If this is the situation, then why are you trying to gain my affections? All you need do is kill me."

Poe opened his mouth and failed to find words. He tried a second time with the same lack of success. Clearly, killing him wasn't a new idea.

"I can't imagine it's pity, that you think I shouldn't die virgin. This won't prevent him from trying to acquire me. Nor will it make me any more eager to stay out of his clutches."

"It won't?" Poe obviously thought a great deal of his own attractiveness, but he misunderstood Hux's situation.

"Do you think I will deliver myself to him willingly?" Hux's voice rose in disbelief. "Under any conditions?"

Poe shrugged helplessly.

"Truly? Is that your motivation, to be a better option?" His voice stayed shrill, but he didn't move. They were still nearly in one another's arms. "You fear that I have nothing else to live for and would let him end me upon request?" Poe shook his head and put up his hands in surrender, but Hux went on without giving him an opportunity to speak. "He is not my commanding officer. He's not even my father and I killed him!"

Hux was expecting a reaction to that – disgust, disdain, something. Not what Poe said, utterly straight: "Yeah, I knew that."

"What?"

"You had Phasma poison him with a Parnassos beetle."

"You know that?" Hux was hurriedly trying to recall exactly what he'd told Poe the night before, sitting on that log and eating a meal bar. He didn't think he'd confessed explicitly and he was certain he hadn't mentioned the beetle or Phasma.

"Yeah, I know that."

"Oh. Well. I … commend the Resistance's intelligence-gathering efforts." Did everyone in the Resistance know that? If so, how long until the First Order did?

"Yeah, thanks."

He shook it off. Poe didn't seem to care, anyway. "In any case, I am not going to capitulate to Sidious' demands. So you need not cultivate a relationship with me on that account."

"Got it. But I want to cultivate one just because."

Hux swallowed, feeling like his balance had shifted, or his stomach lurched. One of those. Maybe he should have eaten last night after all. "With me?" His voice squeaked a little.

"With you." Poe's fingers moved on his side.

Hux squirmed again, but his brows drew together in confusion. "For all the stars … I still have to ask why?"

Poe grinned widely and it was such a sight to behold. "You keep blushing when I tell you how handsome you are! How beautiful I think your hair is. How soft your skin is. How much I like looking at your eyes."

Hux rolled his eyes, but he could feel his skin heating. He exhaled heavily. And blinked. His eyes were … burning.

"Exactly," Poe said, grinning wider. "Right there." He reached up and touched Hux's cheek, which made it feel like every hair on the back of his neck stood up along with the heat in his face intensifying. Poe was staring at him like he was the most wonderful thing in the galaxy.

Hux swallowed, sniffed, and tried to gather his wits. "If we were to … somehow … get, or stay, together, you know my responses will fade." He shook his head at Poe's foolishness.

"Maybe that one," Poe said with a throaty rumble. "I'll find others."

Hux found himself shifting his hips in sudden arousal, with an intensity he hadn't felt … maybe ever. He hopped down from the console, finally, and closed his tunic. Poe took a couple steps back, giving him space. Hux spoke as properly as he could manage, "We should … actually stand watch. Sit. And look at the scanners. It's possible this planet has intelligent life that simply hasn't approached us yet. They could do it," he took his seat and looked out the window pointedly, "tonight."

"Uh-huh," Poe said, the smirk audible in his voice. But he went to his seat as suggested.