#HHIAHC

[gdotsand]

Heavy Head in a Heavy Crown - Intro

Pairing - Armitage Hux x Reader 

Summary - When a father who was the only thing holding a family together dies, who is to say what secrets and lies that bubble to the surface. Who is to say that the underworld of New York City cannot have a queen rather than a king. 

Warnings - Minor character death, funeral scenes

A/N - This has been a long time coming and I really hope you like a good mob AU because i’m all about charming yet cunning Hux. Let me know if you’d like to be tagged in future chapters however please enjoy the taster of what i’ve been working on. 

The rain has stopped, thank god, however, the droplets that once fell have disturbed the grass and dirt underfoot and it's bringing up that scent. Bright and earthy all at once, it's not a heavy smell. Won't seep through clothes and be buried into the fibers of the fabric, its only purpose to bring up the memories of today when you find the dress in the back of your closet some years down the line and some part of you makes a mental note to be thankful of that if that is the only thing you're thankful for today.

You're watching the casket, intently, no tears as of yet but their threatening to be released from the corner of your eyes. Not here, you take a steadying breath, here you have a duty to uphold and an image to protect. Your family's image. The one your father and grandfather built, the empire, the businesses, however shady or legit they were all for your family. All for a legacy that he didn't get to see flourish without him. For a family torn apart by lies, blood-stained concrete and barrels of handguns. So you stand strong, as tall as you can make yourself considering the fact your heels are slowly sinking into the mud. Lift your chin a little bit higher as the priest continues his service. Your mother weeps, she weeps enough for you and your brothers. She weeps for the man in the casket, the man she loved with such reckless abandon she almost lost her life for him, more times than she cares to count, to be honest. There are no more words to say, it's not like anyone would hear her anyway so she just weeps, and prays to whatever God is up there that the words running through her head are heard.

Ren and Hux stand to the back of the crowd, they're almost matching in their suits and dress coats. All black, serious and somber, appropriate for the occasion. They both didn't want to be here, but its courtesy, its pride that leads them to the cemetery on that bitter day in February. Maybe there's a layer of curiosity behind their attendance. They worked with your father, not closely but as close as two rival families could. Your family's majority rule over the city was always something being used as a weapon, to be bartered and traded for further power and therefore they knew your father. Knew his business, his family, his empire inside and out. It was their jobs. So yes, a layer of curiosity beneath the surface of tight-lipped nods to acquaintances and the muffled words of the priest as the services draw on. Mostly because there is only one of your brother's standing with you, word on the street is that as soon as your old man's health started to fail, Bobby, the eldest, having absolutely no desire to become what his father had, up and left without a trace. No note, no contact not so much as a peep from him for over 6 months. Which left you and Henry. But Henry is 14 and he's not exactly the person you would choose to head up the mob when he comes of age. He's slight, weedy almost, has about as much backbone as a dollar bill. Henry is mouldable, pliable and will pretty much do anything to please anyone, all he wants is someone to pat him on the back at the end of the day and tell him he's done a good job. That's what happens when you're the youngest, you will always remain the baby of the family.

Hux can see from a mile away from the way that Henry's shoulders shake under the suit that's too big for him. His curly dark hair is slightly damp at the edges from the earlier rain and he can see how the tendrils bounce under his stuttering breath. He feels for the boy. Its too young to lose a father, god if anyone knew that it was Armitage. Although he knows your father was a good man who did bad things for the people he loved, his father was a bad man who did bad things for even worse reasons, and for all his trying he can't bring himself to draw parallels between your lives. So he shuts that thought down the minute it enters his head.

"She won't last the year, we'll have the city before then," Ren says, cigarette dropped from his fingers into the damp grass and stamped out with a dress shoe and Armitage scoffs, partly because he believes it. However all of his assumptions are based upon what he's heard of you, which granted, is not a lot. The world in which the men of your family work is no place for a woman he thinks. He's not sexist by any means he just, can't picture you heading up the family, and then he realises that you don't have a choice. So he hums out a response to Ren. Not giving him the satisfaction of agreement. Kylo doesn't seem pleased by the lack of response and turns to Hux, staring coldly into in his side profile.

"Do you think she knows?"

Hux's gaze doesn't leave the back of your head, fixated on the strands of hair which have become loose and now dance along with the bitter breeze.

A cocked smile plays at the side of Hux's mouth, "She'll know soon enough".