Rose took a gulp from her cold beer and stared absentmindedly on the holo. The announcer was introducing the teams. She should be in the lab, working - not sitting here drinking alcohol and watching some silly game.

But then again she was no use to anybody if she didn't take any breaks. Well, she could finish the work later - a huttball game didn't last longer than two hours.

She leaned back against a crate of spare parts and adjusted the pillow she was sitting on. Finn entered the hangar and waved at her. She waved back as he went to the cooler to get a beer.

"Long day?" asked Finn when he sat down next to her.

"Ugh, I look like crap, don't I?"

"Nah, you look lovely like always, Rose," he replied with a smile.

"Liar." She looked at him from the side, he was focussed on the holo. After Crait they had never talked about the kiss she had given him, but there really wasn't any need to. She had eyes - she saw how he looked at Poe. She still liked him a lot, but she knew that she would only ever be his friend.

She licked her lips. "Any news from Rey?"

Finn shook his head. "Not yet, but General Organa said that she feels that she's alright. I don't like this Rose, not one bit. I wish they had sent me with her."

"You know her - she is the most badass Force user there is," said Rose, "she'll be back." It was true, Rey looked quite harmless with her big brown eyes and her cute buns but she was also the one who had handily defeated Kylo Ren and busted them out of Crait - a true hero. Somehow she reminded her of Paige, they had the same fearless look in their eyes.

"Stars! He really brought him here," whispered Finn suddenly.

Rose followed his eyes and saw Poe and Hux walking into the hangar. Poe waved at them.

"Why is he doing this?" asked Finn in a low voice. "Why is he spending so much time with that jerk?"

"I don't know. Maybe he just wants to make sure that Hux doesn't bail on us."

"Speaking of Poe," whispered Rose, "have you told him yet?"

Finn sighed. "Of course I haven't. I tried but- I don't know how to even start. 'Poe, I like you'?"

"That's a good start, isn't it?"

"It's hard, okay?"

Before she could reply Poe and Hux had joined them. Hux looked grumpy and Poe beamed at them. "I brought Hugs along! Poor guy has never seen a huttball game."

"You are merciless," said Rose with a grin.

Poe shoved a cold beer in Hux's hands as soon as he had sat down on a crate. "So, as you can see there are two teams, their goal is to carry the huttball over the other team's goal line. There are traps on the playing field and the players are allowed to tackle each other to get the ball. There are a bunch of other rules nobody cares about - just sit back and enjoy the game."

"Casual violence is hardly good entertainment," retorted Hux.

"Just wait and see."

Rose watched the game with mild interest, she liked watching it well enough but she wasn't an ardent supporter like Poe or some of the other Resistance members who booed and yelled and clapped at some passes and applauded cunning moves from the lead baller.

She noticed that Finn was already gulping down his second beer, and that he was stealing glances at Poe who was explaining the game from time to time to Hux who looked a little less grumpy than in the beginning.

During half-time she watched Aish take a couple of pictures with his holo. His friends laughed and made faces when he told them to stay still.

She noticed that Hux was observing Aish, looking mildly interested and without a scowl to her surprise.

"What? Have you never seen a guy taking a few holopics?" she asked. "You look like you disapprove."

Hux looked taken aback. "No- I just don't understand why-"

"Duh, because he wants to commemorate the occasion."

"Ah."

She thought of the holoflowers in her quarters. "Maybe he even put up the holopics in his room so that it won't look so depressing like the concrete bunker that it is." Come to think of it, maybe it was really what he was doing. Some of the Resistance fighters liked to do that, she herself had also pictures of her family on her wall.

Hux looked pensive. They continued to watch the game.

When Finn got his third beer she realised that he was building up liquid courage to talk to Poe. Yes, there was a hint of determination in how he drank his beer, eyeing Poe.

If this kept up he would be drunk before the game ended. Damn it. She had to give Finn the opportunity to talk to Poe before that, from the corner of her eye she saw Hux sitting stiffly on his crate. Somehow she had to move Hux away. Wait… or perhaps she should just create an opportunity for Poe and Finn to talk to each other alone.

She stared at her half-full beer and with one gulp she drowned it, next she eyed Hux's barely touched beer that was standing on the floor next to him. She pretended to shift on her pillow and knocked it over, pouring it's content over the floor.

"Oh no," she said. "I'm sorry."

Poe jumped on his feet. "Don't worry - I'll go get a rag or something." He went over to the cooler.

"Finn, could you get me and Hux a new beer?" asked Rose.

Finn blinked. "What?"

"I don't need-" protested Hux.

She winked at Finn. "Get me and Hux a new beer please."

Realisation flashed over Finn's face and he quickly got up and approached Poe who was still looking for a rag. Rose pulled an old oily rag from one of her pockets and wiped up some of the beer.

"I don't need another beer," said Hux. "I don't like it."

"Don't worry," she said while glancing over her shoulder. Finn was obviously nervous, but he was talking to Poe who looked at him intently. "I don't think they'll come back."

"What? Why?"

She sighed. "Doesn't matter, just watch the game."

The next time she looked back Poe and Finn had disappeared. Rose allowed herself a satisfied smile. Finally. It had driven her mad looking at these two idiots in love prancing around each other - how could they not see that the other had fallen for them? Unbelievable.

She remembered how difficult it must be for Hux to get a beverage with his crutch. "I think I'm going to get a cup of tea in the Cantina, do you want one too?"

The scowl on Hux's face faded. She could almost see him thinking, he was probably wondering if this was an attempt to poison him. "Yes please."

"Be right back."

She returned with a black tea and a jasmine tea, she handed Hux the black one and sat down on her pillow.

"Commander Dameron and Captain Finn haven't returned," said Hux. He stirred his tea. "Thank you."

"Apparently not and you're welcome."

They watched the game, Rose's thoughts returned to the dinner. "Did you really think that I would put sharp objects in your food?"

He chewed his lower lip. "I don't know what to think. I can't get a read on you Rebels."

"Well, I really wouldn't do that. Even after everything you did." She stared at the holo, a murmuring rang through the room at a specially rough tackle. "Even after everybody we lost."

"Why not?"

She turned her head towards him, there it was again, this expression of surprise. As if he really didn't understand why anybody would want to kill him. "More killing doesn't make anybody alive and hurting people doesn't make the pain go away. I wish it was that easy but it isn't."

They watched the rest of the game in silence.

.

-o-

.

It was past midnight when Hux finally finished the cannon plan and the first draft of the idea of disrupting the navigational shields. He yawed and decided to take a shower. At this time of the night there hopefully weren't a lot of people in the common shower.

He grabbed a towel and limped to the showers - it turned out that he had been right. They were empty. He soon discovered that it wasn't easy to move on the white tiles with a crutch, especially when they were wet. Water huh? He thought they would be using sonic showers. So there had to be a water supply nearby.

He checked the bandage and wrapped a plastic foil around it before he turned on the shower. The water was cold at first but slowly turned warmer. He was just shampooing his hair when noises from the outside startled him. The door burst open and none other than Commander Dameron and Captain Finn stepped inside.

Kriff! Hux wasn't keen to show his weak physique to anybody - but he specially hated the thought that Dameron would see him like that. Even the memories of him mocking Hux above D'Qar made him almost blush.

Finn and Dameron were equally taken aback, staring at Hux for a short moment before letting go of their hands. Only now Hux realised that they had been holding hands in the first place. They both turned their back to Hux and started to undress. Hux hurried to finish and hobbled back to his pile of clothes. He angrily rubbed his body dry until his skin was red and dressed himself.

Only after he was out of the shower did he register that his heart was hammering. He took a deep breath, realising that he had been scared. He scoffed at himself. Weak indeed. He wasn't at the academy anymore. Nobody waited in the shower for him, nobody was punching him in the stomach until the taste of blood and vomit mixed in his mouth.

Stars! He wanted tea so badly, just to get rid of the memory of the taste in his mouth. He went back into his quarters and drank water from the tap.

His chronometer beeped in the morning, at first he was confused where he was but a fraction of a second later he remembered and he turned the chronometer off. He limped to the loo and washed his face, he noticed the beard stubble on his cheeks and brushed over it. He reached for the sonic razor sitting on a shelf next to the wash basin when he suddenly hesitated. Most of the Rebels weren't clean shaved. Even senior officers sported a three-day-beard.

If he really wanted to disappear in the crowd he shouldn't shave, he realised. He stared at himself in the mirror, took in the gaunt, pale face, the too soft lips, the not entirely blue eyes and his cursed ginger hair. He looked strange without any product in the hair, even stranger with the stubble.

He should stick to the plan. It was safer to blend in, too bad that most of the Rebels weren't as tall as he was. He would still stick out a bit.

He put the razor away and brushed his teeth, after that he put on the same blue shirt and dark trousers from the day before. Then he filled up his bottle, put it in the bag and headed to the Cantina for breakfast.

He noticed that all he got were tired glances by the soldiers sitting in front of their oatmeal and their caf. He didn't register any glares. Huh, it seems that most of the Rebels had gotten used to him already. That was fast.

He got his portion of oatmeal and the cook brought him his tea to the table like the last time. Hux thanked him and started to eat while scrolling through the plans on his pad. Then he sent them to Sergeant Tico, after all she was the one to build the prototype.

She was already in the tech lab when he arrived. She only briefly looked up. "Morning Hux."

"Good morning, Sergeant Tico."

She continued to read his blueprint, he settled in and returned to his work with the hyperlane tracker.

"Hux?"

"Yes?"

"This is brilliant stuff - it's-" she broke off. "How could you come up with this in a couple of hours?"

He frowned. "I merely did what you told me to do. I just modified some old blueprints." What was her game? Saying these- these things? Was it sarcasm?

She stared at him. "You're serious, aren't you?"

He didn't know what to say so he remained silent.

Tico cleared her throat. "Well, I'm starting to build it right now."

They worked for about two hours when the door slipped open and the quartermaster appeared. She was holding a tray with little sandwiches, Hux noticed with confusion.

"Morning," the quartermaster said.

Sergeant Tico threw her hands in the air. "I can't believe you! I'm at work! I don't have time-"

The quartermaster scoffed. "Who said that this was for you?" She slammed the tray on Hux's table and grinned at him. "These are for you!"

Hux crooked an eyebrow. "Pardon?" After yesterday the woman thought it was a good idea to bring him food? And here he had thought that she hated him. So perhaps her comment on his physique hadn't been meant to mock him?

Sergeant Tico buried her face in her hands. "You are horrible, mom."

Mom? The quartermaster was Sergeant Tico's mother? He looked from one woman to the other, they were both certainly about two heads smaller than he and there was a resemblance.

"Just admit that Hux is an excuse to check on me and bring food here! You think I would eat some of it too, don't you?" She lowered her hands. "Seriously. You need to stop, it's not cute. It's just annoying."

Hux realised that it had been silly to assume that the sandwiches had been for him. Of course they weren't. Why would anybody prepare sandwiches for him? Silly.

He just nodded at the quartermaster and continued his work.

The quartermaster huffed and left.