Kylo had hoped that making Hux call him Supreme Leader would make him feel stronger, but it really didn't. Possibly it made things worse.
Admittedly, this had become a whole pattern. Jedi training, Sith training, killing his father, killing Snoke-it seemed that always he was hoping to prove something to himself, and always he ended up proving the opposite. Still. This was supposed to be the pinnacle of it all-ruling the galaxy and making everyone, even the arrogant general with his nasty, perpetually judgmental face, acknowledge it. This was the moment he had always dreamed of, the test he had finally passed. So why did he still feel so weak?
The problem-or at least one problem-was that the situation didn't seem to affect Hux as much as it should have. Oh, sure, he was livid. A tornado of frustration and resentment blowing around the base. He was as superciliously professional in his work as always, but every order he gave seemed to fly from his mouth like a blaster bolt, seeking something or someone to destroy. But. But. But. It wasn't right. It wasn't enough. There was something else Kylo wanted that wasn't happening. What was it?
Hux said Supreme Leader, but he didn't say it right. He said it matter-of-factly, like it was an incontrovertible new detail about the world, on par with the loss of a particularly expensive warship, infuriating perhaps yet at the same time not terribly meaningful. If he were to say it sarcastically, it would mean he was in denial. If he were to say it eagerly, obsequiously, it would mean he was impressed. But he had accepted Kylo's new role and there was no sign that he was impressed. Kylo had considered ransacking his mind to check, but he was too afraid of what he'd find.
It was important that Hux be impressed. Why? Kylo couldn't entirely articulate an explanation. Something about his undeniable competence, the way he was too annoyingly useful to kill, the way he had long been the real backbone of the First Order's strength and well did he know it, regardless of his title or lack of Force-sensitivity or how strenuously both Kylo and Snoke would have insisted otherwise. Something about how it was hard to feel like you were ruling the galaxy when you couldn't even rule the space between your best general's ears. Or maybe just something about his hair.
At first Kylo tried to assert his new strength with physical force, but he gradually gave up on this after he began to suspect that Hux counted every time Kylo ended an argument by choking or throwing him as an intellectual victory. He then decided to stick (mostly) to taunting and berating Hux verbally. This worked much better. Hux was too self-serious to react to Kylo's insults with anything resembling grace or wit, and instead reliably became more and more upset until he was vibrating not only with anger but with something more potent, a strange buzzy tension that Kylo couldn't name but relished to behold.
Still, it wasn't enough. A piece was missing from the puzzle, a mysterious something had been left undone. Kylo paced around the base, stewing. If he didn't find that something soon, he was absolutely going to kill the general, backbone of the First Order's strength or not.
