A Galaxy is Not Enough
Chapter 11: A Faded Vision
Rey.
Her lips pressed against Hux's, insisting, demanding as she pulled him down against her and her tongue prodded its way inside. Hux didn't respond for a moment but then acquiesced to her before he suddenly pulled away. He scrambled backward frantically, releasing his hold on her arm and tumbling—rather awkwardly—onto the floor.
Rey stared down at him from her place on the bed, confused by his behavior. Her heart thundering loudly in her chest, she felt her cheeks heat. He'd seemed to be enjoying the kiss before he pulled away.
Her stomach lurched uncomfortably. She felt like she might cry.
Hux.
The press of her soft lips startled Hux for a moment. But then he gave in to the kiss, slowly letting her lead, as his heart was pounding too much for him to move. He was afraid that if he did move, he would ruin the moment. So, he sat frozen, his lips barely moving until he finally closed his eyes and leaned into it.
Her mouth was so hot and warm, and her skin so soft and sweet. Her tongue prodded at the seam of his lips, and he opened.
But then something swam across his vision, inside his mind. A choking haze, a scene of fire and ash, though he could see it all quite clearly, fire falling all around and Snoke's throne behind a shadowed figure. It was someone he recognized instantly. Kylo Ren stood before him, his gloved hand extended out as if he was beckoning Hux. Hux looked up at him to find not the hardened glare he expected, but soft eyes, full of concern and hope.
"Please," Ren whispered, his hand opening in an unspoken offer.
Hux pulled back, anger and rage bubbling up inside, scrambling back from Rey and her deadly lips. The vision faded just as rapidly as it had appeared, and everything snapped back into focus as Hux rushed back.
In his haste to pull away, he toppled off the bed and landed painfully on the duracrete floor.
What had she done? What was that? What had he seen?
He lay, immobile on the floor, shaking from the adrenaline, while a half-naked Rey looked down on him from the bed. The wind knocked out of him, and unable to call for assistance, he lay for a moment, catching his breath. But then he was startled by a loud boom behind him before realizing the door had been knocked in.
Filing in a formation that thoroughly demonstrated their training, the Grand Marshal's personal guard entered. They rushed into the room, led by an overzealous and out of breath Mitaka.
"Sir—I, oh, I—It sounded as if you were in trouble," Mitaka offered, somewhat exasperatedly. His eyes fell on the half-clothed form of Rey, and Mitaka blushed admirably before he looked back at the Hux. His words stumbled over themselves before he was able to form another coherent sentence.
"A—A—Are you alright, Sir?"
Hux blanched, his body was rigid, his entire being at attention because of this woman, and here was Mitaka, come to ruin any potential the night had held. Though he doubted, he would touch her again, not if he received strange visions every time.
Hux stood, unabashedly, and turned to Mitaka, "I'm quite alright. Fetch me another robe, please."
At that, Rey rose off the bed, pulling the robe around her so that it drew the attention of every person within a 1 km radius. Mitaka continued to blush furiously, and several of the stormtroopers stared stupidly at Rey. Hux, however, eyed her approvingly before he turned back to his guard.
"See to it that we are not disturbed for the remainder of the night," he commanded as he ushered his guard and Mitaka out of the room once they'd retrieved another robe. "And I want this door fixed first thing in the morning!"
The stormtroopers were able to pull the remainder of the door back into place, at least to offer the Grand Marshal and his wife a bit of privacy.
Hux felt a mingled pride and frustration in his guard. They'd certainly attempted to protect him. Though he wanted to blame them for ruining the night, he knew it was done for the moment he'd kissed Rey and seen the vision of Kylo Ren.
Rey.
Rey sat upon the bed when they were alone again, anxious and horrified over her unexpected behavior. If he'd merely returned her kiss, that would have been one thing. But he'd pulled away from her, like he was disgusted with or her or terrified of her. She couldn't be sure which. He'd looked alarmed and surprised when he'd pulled away. But before that, she would've sworn that he wanted the kiss, and her and Rey had been hoping to see what could come after such a kiss. However, the intrusion from the First Order guard had set her in a completely different mood.
Hux, on the other hand, did not seem bothered; as soon has Mitaka and the Storm Troopers had left their quarters, he had turned his attention entirely back to her. He looked calm again, his face always a mask, not revealing much. He looked her over without speaking before he sat down on the bed again, farther away from her.
"What were you dreaming about?" He inquired; one brow quirked curiously as he studied her from across the bed.
Apparently, he'd decided that they were not going to discuss the kiss. Not that she wanted to—or did she?
She shrugged; she couldn't remember her dream. Something had attacked her, what she didn't know, and that something had come for her. It left a strange foreboding within her that she was loathed to share with anyone, let alone Hux.
"I'm not sure," she hesitated, "something—it was a presence. It tried to—to penetrate my mind and I—." For some reason, her voice broke. Perhaps because it reminded her of the throne room. Kylo had knelt while she was tortured, while Snoke went through every piece of her mind so painfully and so excruciatingly slowly. Her throat tightened, and her eyes pricked with tears. She looked away from Hux and back down at the bed.
"I gathered that much," he said gently. "I tried to wake you, but then you attacked me."
He wasn't accusatory; he sounded—pained. Hurt by the fact that she'd lashed out at him through her dream. He leaned forward slowly and hesitantly placed his hand over hers. He blinked expectantly at her hands before he slowly reached out, stroking the skin of her knuckles with his thumb.
"I'm sorry," she choked out, "I didn't mean to attack you. I was so—." Scared? Was that the correct word? She couldn't be sure. She had been terrified, but more than that, she'd been angry. She'd had only one thing racing through her brain when she struck out at her attacker—survive.
"It's alright," Hux said, smiling weakly. "I'm used to force users— asserting themselves like that. Though I hadn't expected it from you."
Rey looked up suddenly, eyes meeting his as his hand tightened over her own. "I'm not like that. I'm not—."
"Not that aggressive?" He cocked his head to the side, studying her. "You might not think you are, but you definitely come off that way."
She shrugged, "you try growing up in a place where there's no one to protect you but yourself. I don't try to be that way. I can't help it. Sometimes attacking first is the only way to survive."
"Well," he sighed, scooting slightly closer to her, "to that we can both agree."
They sat quietly for a moment before Rey gathered the courage to speak again. He may not want to talk about it, but she needed to.
"I'm sorry about the kiss—it—it won't happen again," she glanced up to see Hux watching her with a frown. "I think I was just startled by everything, and I've never—experienced something like this. Had someone treat me like you do."
Hux pursed his lips and then looked away again before he cleared his throat.
"That's probably for the best. Attachment is a tricky thing," he sighed, but his grip didn't loosen on her hand. "At some point, we'll have to—well, we'll have to make this marriage official. But I don't want you to feel pressured. This is new to both of us, and rushing it won't help anything."
It sounded like an excuse. Like a well-rehearsed speech. He was good at those.
"Or," she shrugged, ever the devil's advocate. "We could just get it over with now. Sometimes when people have something hanging over them, it creates more pressure. If we just deal with it now, we might um—feel more comfortable with each other?"
She'd suggested it before, only earlier that week. But then it was actually her hope to do it and not have to think about it ever again. Only once. They just needed to do it once, and then their marriage would be considered consummated. Then she could stop thinking about it, worrying about it, and wondering what it would be like.
Now she suggested it because she felt slightly hurt at Hux's earlier rejection and wanted somewhat to see if he would continue to put it off.
Hux.
Hux didn't say anything for a long time, his eyes slowly raking over her. She was still dressed in the black silk robe of his, and he'd already seen her mostly naked. He lifted his heavily lidded eyes back to her face before he spoke.
"I think we've had enough excitement for tonight." He whispered hoarsely. "Perhaps on our honeymoon, we can attempt to—fulfill the requirements of our marriage contract."
It was ridiculously cowardice of him to refuse her right now. But after the terrifying vision, he'd had when they'd kissed, he couldn't imagine what would happen if he did… anything else. The fear of that swirling vision of red and fire and pain had dissipated. Still, the lingering chill and adrenaline had left him with a level of anxiety he couldn't ignore. In fact, it had also left him with a deep pang of curiosity that had driven him to touch her again, just to be sure.
Since her skin didn't immediately cause him to fall into the strange dream state again, he felt reasonably certain that he could touch her without the visions happening. This leads him to conclude that it wasn't the touch alone but the touch coupled with some other aspect that led to the vision.
And Hux knew that eventually, his curiosity would win out over his fear. Eventually, he would kiss her again just to see if it would bring another vision. But tonight, he wasn't confident his body could handle any more excitement.
Rey.
He didn't want her. He hadn't said the words, but she felt the sting of that rejection. It shouldn't hurt like this. In fact, it shouldn't hurt at all. She hadn't wanted him in the beginning. But finding that he was so different than she'd first suspected it had intrigued her. She wanted to know more, and for some strange reason, she felt compelled to want him to like her.
The way he spoke about things, such as the training program he'd designed, well—he held such pride in his work and his soldiers it made her long for him to speak of her the way he said of those things.
But he was perhaps at best, indifferent to her. Her stomach tightened painfully, and she did the only sensible thing she could do and nodded dumbly.
"Okay, yes, we can wait."
"I suppose, I ought to tell you," he replied gently, his eyes softening, "I've had your friends reassigned. Lieutenant Connix and Commander Tico, they should arrive before we leave for our diplomatic mission, I believe."
Rey swallowed numbly, she ought to be excited about this, about having her friends returned to her. Some of her friends anyway. Finn and Poe, they were still gone, and Leia… well Rey had resigned herself to never seeing her again.
She managed to give Hux a tight smile, "I know. They told me."
"Did they?" Hux seemed genuinely surprised. "I didn't realize they were even informed of their duty stations as of yet."
"Aren't you watching all of my communication? Mitaka said he was there on your orders," Rey said with obvious frustration. "I don't care if you monitor everything I do, it's what I expected, but it's downright insulting to have you assigning someone to follow me around."
He gave her a strange look, almost one of exasperation before he squeezed her hand again and then released it as he stood up.
"I'm sure we could both use a good night's rest," he said softly as he left the room, her gaze trailed after him. He wasn't gone long and returned with a full glass of water and some sort of small blue pills.
"It's a sleeping pill," he offered, holding it out in his palm. "It should help us get a bit of shut-eye before we have to deal with the harsh realities of our marriage tomorrow." He said the last bit with a humorless chuckle, and Rey took the tiny pill from his hand without reply.
She swallowed the medication without preamble, ignoring the glass of water in Hux's hand before she rolled over onto her side and closed her eyes.
"Goodnight," Hux whispered. She could feel his hot breath on the back of her neck, and she shivered.
"Night," she replied, her throat tight and her eyes full of unshed tears.
She slept for the rest of the night without dreaming.
Hux.
Hux took the other pill and washed it down with a massive gulp of water from his glass. He'd been given much to contemplate tonight.
Something was amiss, and it left him uneasy. He hadn't given Mitaka orders to monitor Rey. However, he was observing her communication; he'd been far too busy to review it. Was someone else keeping a watchful eye on his wife? He'd need to check with Mitaka in the morning. If his soldiers were receiving separate orders from the Emperor, then Hux would need to be cautious.
He laid down on the soft bed and rolled to his side towards Rey. She wasn't asleep, he could tell. But she wanted privacy, and that was something he understood. Part of him ached to pull her back against him, to thread his fingers through hers again and fall asleep tangled together.
Instead, he leaned forward and whispered, "goodnight" against the back of her neck.
It was barely a moment before she responded, "night."
His wife was upset with him. His soldiers may have another master. He couldn't even kiss his wife without the fear of a monstrous vision of some kind. His attempts at wooing her had all gone wrong.
He sighed and tried in vain to get comfortable, shifting his weight to his arm. But nothing helped. He was still aching for something, apparently even Mitaka's interruption hadn't entirely chased away the pangs of desire he'd felt only a short while ago. It nearly felt like a physical pain, saying no to her, asking her to wait. Because it was both something he shouldn't want and something he shouldn't need. He'd never been much for physical intimacy, and now suddenly, his mind seemed obsessed with creating scenarios in which he might receive a scrap of affection from his beautiful wife.
It was utter and complete ridiculousness, and he needed to remedy it tomorrow. He couldn't allow these fantasies to continue. He'd always been good at suppressing things, and this was just another one of those things. If he buried it deep enough, he wouldn't even have to think about it.
He rolled onto his back and groaned. His back ached terribly. He stared up at the ceiling until he inevitably fell asleep.