Kylo took a deep, deep breath in through his nose, quite sure that everything that had just transpired was some kind of bizarre hallucination. His eyes were squeezed shut, as he tried to concentrate on the things that should have been surrounding him. The firm, standard issue mattress that he should have been lying on, the lumpy, scentless pillow beneath his head, the dark metallic walls and the pitch blanket of space out of the wall sized window.
The bed was unspeakably comfortable however, as was the pillow that smelt of mint and tea tree and when the ravenette lifted himself back off of the bed, he was once again met with white painted walls, and the two small windows that let the golden sunlight pour into the room, making it all the more bright.
He sighed and turned over, going instead to sit up in the bed, the pillow supporting his back against the headboard- the only way to find out what was happening was to get through it.
Just as Kylo settled into his new seated position, and begrudgingly began to once more enjoy the comfort of the bed, Hux appeared back in the doorway, a mug now in hand,
"Here you go" he said, approaching the bed.
He sat back on the side of the mattress he had been lying on earlier, and handed the white mug over to the other man,
Kylo eyed it for perhaps just a few more seconds longer than he should of, but then took it from his hands, their fingers touching briefly, making the taller man twitch his back a little, while Hux didn't react.
Deciding that he wanted to move his attention to something, anything else, other than the orange haired man beside him, he lifted the mug to his mouth, taking a sip of the hot, dark coffee,
The slightly sweet, bitter liquid warmed Kylo's entire mouth and throat, and he was suddenly glad of it, as not only was the warmth a great comfort, it was also far more delicious than anything he had drank on the Finalizer.
Licking his lips, he finally spared another glance up at Hux, who was now looking over his nails,
"Hux?" Kylo asked, frowning a little,
The other man looked back over at him, and let out a small laugh, "'Hux'? Why are we using last names Solo? Am I in trouble? Is the coffee that bad?"
The ravenette blinked and quickly shook his head, "No! It's good… thank you",
"Good" Hux nodded, before sighing softly, "I'm going to go and make some breakfast, take your time getting up", he said, before pressing a quick kiss to Kylo's cheek again and then clambering off of the bed.
As soon as the man was out of sight, Kylo deposited the still full mug of coffee on the bedside table, set to ransack the room if necessary to find out what was going on. A small black device that already sat on the table immediately caught his attention however, and a little cautiously, Kylo picked it up, weighing it in hand. He then pressed the small button on its side, the only imperfection on its surface, and the glass face of the object lit up. The ravenette raised an eyebrow at that, it seemed that the device was not all that dissimilar to a data-pad, only smaller.
His eyes then widened as he realised just what it was that he was seeing before him.
The screen now depicted a picture of him, although not one he could ever remember having been taken, or having posed for, for that matter.
It was he and Hux, their faces close together, his own head surrounded by his dark hair and a black knitted hat, and Hux's topped by a jacket hood, his ginger hair falling just into sight from beneath it. The minimal amount of sky that could be seen around them was bright white, probably warning snow, and their cheeks and noses were stained red, especially Hux's.
They were both smiling into the camera, but that was the least of it. Their eyes glowed with a kind of joy, tiny creases around them indicating just how pleased they were. They seemed oh so happy, not just that, but they seemed overjoyed to be together, and so close at that.
Kylo blinked and shook his head, tapping the small icon of an envelope instead, letting the image be covered by several message strands. There were a few names that stood out, familiar to him, but the most intriguing was the one at the top of the list- 'Armitage Hux 3'.
Kylo had hardly even heard of the name 'Armitage' before, let alone anyone called it.
He shrugged and selected the conversation, being faced immediately with reams upon reams of messages,
There were mundane ones about nothing in particular, serious ones about work (whatever work was), but more prominently, hundreds about their apparent relationship.
His eyes worked down the list until he noticed the frequency with which one particular phrase was used,
'I love you'.
Kylo felt the need to avert his eyes suddenly, getting the odd sensation that he was intruding on something very personal, something he shouldn't be seeing, even though half the conversation, half of the 'I love yous' were coming from him, in a way.
'Armity'
A few of the messages saw Kylo calling Hux 'Armity'.
That would do.
He pressed the button on the side of the device again, and put it back on the bedside table, scrambling out of the bed as he went.
Kylo paused briefly, his eyes on the messy bed- it could be made later, present matters were more important,
He left the room, finding himself in a short, sparsely decorated corridor. To the right lay two more doors, both of which were closed, and to the left the corridor opened up. Kylo opted for the latter, and he made his way down it in a few steps, discovering the much larger space that waited there. To his left was a comfortable looking communal type area, with seats draped with blankets and cushions, a low table that was neat, but stacked with a few well-ordered piles of books, and a huge window that lit the space liberally. Finally, there was another large screen that was currently off, reflecting what lay behind him in its shiny black surface.
Kylo turned to get a better look at the final uninspected room.
It was some kind of kitchen room, a room in which Hux was now busying himself in.
"Oh, there you are" the man said as he turned, finding Kylo stood behind him, "Are you not cold?" he then smirked, raising an eyebrow,
The ravenette looked down to find that he was only dressed in a tight pair of black briefs, having hardly considered getting dressed when he left the bedroom, "Ehh-" he shrugged, feeling his cheeks darkening a little, "-I'm alright"
"Okay" Hux said, letting out a little laugh, using a spatula he then transferred some bacon from the pan that sat on the stove to a plate on the adjacent countertop, "Breakfast" he then announced, placing the plate on the small breakfast nook that separated the kitchen from the communal space, "Go on then" he added, gesturing at the plate.
Kylo blinked, but then swiftly sat himself down on the stool by the table top, regarding the breakfast as he had been instructed to. It looked far better than what passed for a breakfast on the Finalizer, that was for sure, and it smelt better too.
The ravenette took up the fork that was waiting beside the plate and used it to cut into a fried egg, making the bright orange yolk split, and pour out over the rest of the plate and its contents. He then jabbed the soft piece of egg, now drenched in yellow goop, and raised it to his mouth, placing it on his tongue, before chewing it slowly.
Kylo was pleasantly surprised, it was hardly a culinary masterpiece, but it was far better than anything he'd had for the past few months, perhaps years even, and soon he was finishing off the plate, temporarily forgetting where he was, and just how bizarre the situation he was stuck in was too.
Once the plate was empty, he looked up again to find that Hux was watching him with a wide smile,
"What?" he couldn't help but reply, raising an eyebrow,
The redhead laughed once more and walked around the kitchenette, going to stand beside him, "Nothing" he said shaking his head, before pressing yet another kiss to Kylo's cheek, "I'm going to get dressed" he then added, heading back towards the bedroom.
His eyebrows now knitted together with further confusion, the ravenette stood from the stool with a sigh and took another look about the living area. He made his way to the centre of the room, his hands on his hips and he turned to look out through the huge, ceiling to floor window that led out onto a balcony, and looked out over what appeared to be a city.
Briefly checking that Hux was nowhere in sight, Kylo approached the door and opened it, letting a gentle, but cold breeze roll in and touch his bare skin. He stepped out onto the balcony regardless, his bare feet on the freezing stone, and he observed the buzzing city about him. Like old Coruscant, the place was made up of tall reaching buildings as far as the eye could see, but they seemed to be made of stone rather plate metal. Kylo was quite sure he hadn't seen anything like it before, but right now he would hardly consider that the biggest of his problems,
The balcony was small, but there was space for two people to comfortably spend time there when the weather permitted, as he didn't doubt there had been. There was a tiny table in the corner, with two rickety looking deck chairs. Most importantly however, there was a punching bag set up at its centre, hanging from a metal frame.
As soon as Kylo saw the small pair of thickly padded gloves lying on the floor beneath the bag, he took it as an invitation to playout his regular morning routine, and as such he pulled them on and regarded the vinyl covered bag.
Within a few minutes, sweat was already collecting on his brow as he punched the bag repeatedly, making it shudder about wildly,
"Starting early this morning?" came Hux's voice after a few more minutes of relentless exercise,
Kylo gave a brief sideways glance to the man in question, catching sight of him of him leaning in the doorway back into the apartment, his arms folded and a huge smile spread across his face,
The ravenette simply nodded in response, clenching his jaw a little tighter and hitting the punching bag only harder,
"Well you might want to get dressed, the forecast says there's going to be rain" he said, "Oh, and you might want to stop giving the neighbours such a spectacle" he added, raising his eyebrows suggestively.
That made Kylo stutter, and he missed the bag as it swung back towards him, luckily he caught it however, and he was left holding it, his gaze now focused on Hux who was still smirking at him,
"Y-yeah, okay" he nodded, licking his lips nervously,
The redhead returned the gesture and then disappeared back into the apartment.
Kylo released one long breath and then went back to look at the city,
For Hux to have kissed him on the cheek repeatedly was one thing, but to openly flirt with him was another,
If it was down to him, he would've chosen to stay on the balcony for longer, as that way, he was away from the other man, and had space to mull over what was happening as much as he wanted, but as a fat droplet of water hit the centre of his forehead, and then rolled quickly down his nose, he knew it was time to go in.
Kylo entered the apartment cautiously, hoping not to bump into Hux, but as soon as he stepped inside, he found him. He was currently lounging on the sofa in the living room, a thick hardbacked book resting in his lap,
"Remember to take a shower too" he said as the ravenette attempted to creep past him without being noticed,
He nodded but didn't speak as he made his way back towards the bedroom, each progressive footstep getting faster and faster until the door was closed behind him.
Kylo let out a long, deep sigh, his back against the bedroom door as he slid down it, finally meeting the floor,
The obscurity of what was happening was overwhelming, nothing made any sense and yet as far as Hux seemed to be concerned, everything was as it should be, although the man in question hardly acted like the Hux Kylo knew.
Each solution the ravenette came up with seemed more unlikely than the last.
He could've been kidnapped and subjected to some kind of mind control- but why on earth would his enemies wish him to see what he was seeing? What would be the gain of this?
A solar flare could've sparked up from the closest sun and hit the Finalizer, some kind of ancient sun which made people hallucinate- but had that actually happened to anyone else ever?
Hux could've drugged him as some kind of joke or punishment- but how, and again, more importantly, why?
None of this made sense.
Kylo sighed once more and stood, bustling out of the room all at once, and entering the room across the corridor, which was luckily, as he had expected, the bathroom.
He closed the door behind him, and turned on the shower, making it blast scolding hot water against the glass wall of the cubicle. The ravenette stripped down, depositing his underwear by the door, and turned down the dial on the shower, making the water just bearable, before he climbed into its spray, immediately allowing his hair to be drenched.
Kylo played out the morning routine he would usually perform, making the moments he closed his eyes almost feel like he was back on the Finalizer, back to normality.
After a good fifteen minutes, he was done, and he wrapped a towel from the heated rack around his waist, as well as a smaller one around his shoulders, catching all of the water dripping from his hair.
He then regarded himself in the cloudy mirror, and was almost disappointed to find that he looked as he always did, meaning that not everything was out of the ordinary,
He brushed his teeth, and roughly dried his hair with the towel, now opting to be exhausted by whatever was happening, rather than overly concerned.
Kylo then opened the bathroom door once more, allowing the steam to escape, and the cooler apartment air greet his skin,
It was now that he finally faltered in his otherwise robotic movements, pausing in the doorway as he checked for any sign of Hux.
When he was sure that the man wouldn't see him moving across the corridor, dressed only in a short towel, he darted to the bedroom, closing the door behind him as he went with a little more of a slam than he had intended.
As the ravenette stood where he sat before, thinking on the obscure solutions of the situation he was in, a thought crossed through his mind.
What if he was stuck in some odd dream?
Dreams were meant to be culminations of experiences from the days before. Perhaps what he was experiencing now was his brains way of resolving the problems from the previous day?
It solved his loneliness with the companionship of the person he had been at odds with.
While it was peculiar that Hux was the choice company, some sort of telling thing Kylo was sure, that he definitely didn't want to go deeper into, it made sense didn't it?
That must've been it, yes, in fact he was almost sure.
That didn't make it much better though did it?
Kylo frowned and took to drying himself off with the towel, thinking on his dream theory further as he approached a wardrobe on the other side of the room.
After a bit of rooting, he found underwear, a pair of tight but comfortable black trousers, a black t-shirt and a dark grey jumper, which he all applied to his body.
The ravenette then left the bedroom, now more adamant than ever that he was stuck in some kind of dream, a dream unlike any he'd had before. He approached the living room once more, but paused at the fresh hold, his eyes focused on the back of Hux's head.
There was nothing else to do, but to let this dream playout, until his alarm went off, bringing him back to normality.
Kylo sighed but finally took the final step into the living room. Hux did not react to his presence, even as he joined him on the couch, and gave a sideways glance to watch the man as he continued to read.
One of the ravenette's eyebrows lifted slightly in surprise, but instead of drawing attention to himself, he instead took up one of the other books from the table and opened it on the first page,
He noted after a few silent moments of reading, that the story upon the pages seemed familiar to him, as though it were a tale he had only heard once before, and had since forgotten, only for it to feel new now, with slight moments of recognition, from an unknown source.
The dark leather cushion of the couch he as sitting on suddenly shifted, bringing him back into his current time and place,
Hux was shuffling over to him, still half concentrating on his book.
Soon enough the redhead was right beside him, and with his eyes still upon the pages of the novel he was reading, he gently rested his head on Kylo's shoulder, nuzzling into it slightly to get comfortable.
Kylo was not left uncomfortable by the action, the other man was warm and a pleasant pressure against his shoulder, the only thing that threw him off about the situation was once again he fact that it was Hux who was beside him.
As he had before, the ravenette decided not to raise the issue, instead going back to what he was reading, finding the whole ordeal easier to deal with if he did just that,
After another handful of silent minutes, Hux lifted his head for a moment, leaning forward to deposit his book back on the table, before going back to leaning against Kylo, his side now even closer to the other mans.
Kylo thought that he must've been tired, and likely to fall asleep. It was then that he realised that he wouldn't have necessarily minded if Hux fell asleep on him, as there would be no obligation to talk that way, but he would still have the comfort of his body heat against him.
Eventually the other man sat up however, licking his lips just audibly as he did,
Kylo continued reading, finding himself about half way through his book now, and fairly determined to finish it, that was, until he felt the insistency of the gaze upon him.
His hands still holding the book in his lap, the ravenette looked across to Hux, who was now smiling softly at him,
He was obviously giving the man a particularly confused expression, as he chuckled after a moment, and then plucked the book from his grasp.
Kylo watched as the redhead placed his now closed book on the table, and then turned back to regard him. The man's pale hands came up slowly and gently encompassed Kylo's jaw,
He froze on the spot, and watched as Hux, his eyes now closed and smile having fallen as his lips puckered slightly, inched towards him.
Seeing little other option, the ravenette simply closed his eyes and waited, briefly having the foolish thought that maybe, just maybe he was misreading the situation, something that in his opinion, would be the better outcome, he thought, trying to convince himself.
He was wrong however, as almost as soon as his eyes closed, Hux's lips met his own as he had expected them to, a warm and ever so slightly damp pressure, rolling against his skin, and moulding gently with each kiss.
Hux's hands moved upwards, instead coming to rest on the back of Kylo's neck, where his fingers could tangle in his hair,
The man in question had never felt so conflicted in all his life.
He could hardly claim to not be kissing the redhead back, as he was, barely of course, but he was, pursing his lips, and moving them in time with the rhythm of the kisses.
While kissing Hux seemed like the most ridiculous, wrong and unlikely thing possible, he couldn't deny how nice he found the contact,
So much so in fact, that he sought to improve it, if at all possible, resting his own hands on the other man's hips and ribs, so he could pull him closer, and even increasing the involvement of his lips.
Soon, Kylo was entirely transfixed by the feeling of Hux kissing him, and he was not even taken aback as the man clambered from the couch to instead sit on his lap, their lips never disconnecting as he went.
The redhead's legs now rested either side of Kylo's, and his breathing had picked up considerably. His tongue then slid from his mouth, and lapped at Kylo's lips, which he opened without hesitation, allowing his own tongue to meet the probing muscle,
Hux preened in his lap, and hugged himself closer still to the ravenette, a muffled groan coming from his mouth, as they switched rolls and Kylo busied himself with putting his own tongue in Hux's mouth, revelling in the taste of coffee and mint.
"Ben" the other man then moaned, as their lips finally parted, his head going to rest on his shoulder, where his nose brushed gently against the ravenette's neck,
"Armity" he replied, bringing one hand up to rest in his hair,
Hux's mouth then met with Kylo's throat, his teeth racking across the sensitive skin, and his tongue then soothing it, making him gasp and groan, "Come on, let's go to bed", he said with husky breath.
Kylo froze on the spot, and everything seemed to come crashing down around his ears, "What?",
Hux looked up at him and smiled, his eyebrows raising suggestively, "Come on" he repeated, now standing, his hand going out to take the other mans.
Suddenly feeling the obscurity of the situation bearing down on him once more, Kylo stiffened up, but still allowed himself to be pulled from the couch, and indeed the room.
He watched as Hux opened the door to their bedroom, and finally let go of his hand, instead going ahead to clamber onto the bed, where he could in turn watch the ravenette, his teeth now tugging at his already red lips,
The sight of the man spread across the white covers of the bed, his pale skin flawless in the dim light, made Kylo's mouth go dry, and as he remembered the sensational feeling of kissing the man in question just moments before, he no longer felt any apprehension.
He approached the bed, and knelt on the mattress, moving slowly towards the other man,
Hux beamed and sat up, placing his hands on Kylo's shoulders, "I love you" he said softly,
Kylo couldn't help but think how un-Hux he was coming across, but how right those words sounded coming from him in that moment,
"I love you too" he nodded, convincing even himself as he spoke,
"Good" the redhead laughed, before he pulled the other man down with him to the bed, their lips meeting once more.
0o0o0
Kylo woke with a start, sitting up in his small, one person bed with the covers wrapped around him,
He was on the Finalizer, in his dark room, and from the looks of it, his alarm was minutes from going off.
So, it had been a dream then?
He blinked and violently rubbed the crystals of sleep from his eyes,
What was wrong with his mind to create a dream like that?
One in which he not only lived with Hux in some strange apartment, but was romantically involved with him. They had embraced, kissed, told one another that they loved each other, and even-
Kylo let out one, long, shaky breath at the thought of what he had done, even if it were only in a dream.
If he closed his eyes, he could almost still see Hux beneath him, moaning and writhing, and he could practically feel where bruises would've developed on his shoulders, from the redhead holding onto him so tightly, as if it was the only thing keeping him grounded.
Much to Kylo's charge-in, this dream wasn't fading as they usually would, if anything the memories were getting broader in his mind, even making him blush as he recalled some of the heavier moments.
The ravenette then shook his head however, deciding to ignore the thoughts and hopefully expel them,
He yanked the duvet from away his legs and climbed out of bed, turning off his alarm before it could go off, and gathering up a towel to take to the training room, pausing for just a moment as the messy bed before him came as oddly reminiscent, reminding him of the twisted covers that covered he and Hux after their-
That was quite enough of that,
Kylo then whisked from the room, in perhaps a worse mood than the day before.