"Are you crying?".
He dreams. The Director of the Advanced Weapons Research doesn't always dream of death and blood.
This time he dreams. Of Galen.
Galen's parents died when the boys were young, still at the Academy, that Jyn knows. It is of tremendous importance that she doesn't find out more. Galen had never been that way, actually crying. Even when his mother passed, he could keep it together, but his father now…
Krennic feels this desire, this need to comfort him. Maybe he just won't handle someone who cries. Maybe he sees it as opportunity. Or the noise is a bother.
"You have to go back there? On Grange?". He tries hard not to sound gruff. He hates to think of Galen on such backwater planet, but his friend had a taste for duty and for the things that remained unworthy of his legendary mind.
"I don't want to. But I have to. There will be…". A ceremony, Orson assumes. Galen shrugs, annoyed. The last attempt at not caring that bad.
"How is it on Grange?", he asks. Mourning. He doesn't say the word. Decorum is pretty inflexible and gloomy on Lexrul, even to Orson's taste, and the Krennics never, ever do things half-way.
"Sucks", Galen mutters, and Krennic laughs. He gets a death glare.
Then tears, again.
"I can't, can't, can't". Orson ponders that he sounds like Jyn and then he realizes it is not real.
"Just go. Do it. Go through the motions".
"You would be an expert", Galen bites. Orson doesn't take it as a taunt.
The night before he leaves. Galen keeps crying and he doesn't tell him to cut it out because the look suits him.
"I have no one left. Help me", he pleads, and it comes out sounding like hold me. There is no resistance as he tentatively runs a hand along his arm, reaching for the back of his head. He gently plays with the dark hair before gathering him. Galen tucks his face in Orson's neck and breathes. Then sighs.
"Cry all you want", Orson murmurs then. "I'll be there for you".
Galen hiccups once. "I swear, one day… I'll build a family, I'll…". Fucking joke. The Death Star is the closest they will have, their creation. Galen has subzero interest in the few girls they meet. Orson shall make sure it stays that way. Orson's grasp gets harsher. If Galen notices, he doesn't say.
The blond boy buries his nose in Galen's hair. He doesn't mean to tell him he smells good. Orson is already filling from the embrace, from Galen shivering in his arms, and his friend's whine could be just another form of crying. It isn't, though. Their love is born from loss, he thinks darkly, it can only end in more of the same. But for now…
Galen presses against him and he is at least as hard. Orson gasps, and Galen's hands trail down his back, resting above what would really be inappropriate.
"T... touch me", he begs more than whispers. Orson wonders if his friend meant to say take. There is no way he can refuse.
Orson didn't wear gloves then. His hand is warm when it rubs Galen's front, the other hand caressing his back, not caring if he occasionally grazes lower, if he even kneads at his ass. Galen pushes back, tries to gain more friction. Beautiful.
"I'll help you", Orson coos. "But I'm not…". He will not abuse the situation, he swears. He cannot let him discover what his tears and vulnerability do to him. When his friend really feels better, when he's back from that forsaken world, they will see. He cannot take him, not when this is so obviously a first for both, not when Galen is in the deepest stage of mourning, not…
"I just want to feel something. I just want to stay alive". Orson's lips graze against his mouth. Galen nips at him. Even then already, the Director was no stranger to the fact that pain can feel good. "Whatever you want, Galen. Everything for you, always". I love him, he betrayed me. In more than one way. This is what that damned Lyra never understood. Their first kiss is drenched in tears, as their last will be, but he always did it all for Galen. Galen opens for him, gives in, gives up, and Orson, who never forgets, allows himself not to remember his oath.
The books are must reads. Seriously. Can't credit it enough for inspiration and hidden Krennic/Erso gems (kyber).
Quotes of the day:
"Her death and that of his father in a vehicular accident, only a few years later, were brutal blows to his sense of continuity, of permanence. Shortly after those events he met Orson Krennic."
"You know what I find interesting—or maybe ironic is the word. It's that each of us wants what's best for you. In a way, we're competing to make you happy, as old-fashioned as that sounds. And each of us has a different idea about what you should be doing."
also, of course. "Galen, who would scarcely raise his eyes when a pretty woman entered a room, in love? It had to be a joke."
source: do a search for "orson-krennic-things-from-the-novels-mainly-about"
Seriously, how does Disney not throw a tantrum or something?
one last for the road
""Towards the climax it becomes apparent that Lyra Erso, the wife, is somehow nemesis number 1 for Krennic in a totally laughable, domestic drama way that somehow has GALACTIC IMPORTANCE. You'd think Krennic was secretly gay and trying to woo Galen Erso away from his wife the way he carries on.""