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magnetvrs · 5 years

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my @kyluxsecretsanta fic for @litchi-prince <3 I hope you enjoy!

tags: kylux, HS au, fluff, first kiss

Mr Skywalker was far from Hux’s favourite teacher. He was nice enough but that had never impressed Hux - Hux didn’t really know how to handle nice people, he always felt like he was ready for everyone to bite him and when they didn’t he felt off-balance.

His room always felt like it had a layer of dust covering everything - the books that lined the walls, crammed in on overburdened shelves and his desk which was covered with knick-knacks that almost drove Hux to distraction with the urge to sweep them all off into a big plastic bin bag and throw them into the bins at the back of the kitchen - just to have a little order in the place. It was really like an emperor's ancient tomb filled with all his worldly possessions and left untouched for centuries, except a little more scatterbrained and untidy. Mr Skywalker himself seemed like a bit of a relic, not just because of his wild hair and weathered face and the strange robes he seemed to favour - sometimes he seemed like he was from a different planet entirely.

It was a shame really because Hux did love history; he spent many evenings with his nose buried in musty old textbooks in his room, as his only companion. It was his favourite subject, one that he could always pass with his eyes closed even if Mr Skywalker seemed to be able to make everything so boring - with his diplomacy this and his forgiveness that.

Mr Skywalker did have one redeeming feature, however.

‘Ben! I won’t tell you again,’ he snapped, turning around from what he was writing on the whiteboard. For all that sometimes he seemed like he was on a different planet, Mr Skywalker did seem to have a sixth sense for Ben Solo and when he was doing something rebellious or obnoxious. Which was, to be fair, almost constantly.

There was a shuffling sound behind Hux, a few curse words and ‘it’s Kylo’ muttered under his breath before Kylo was slamming his bag down onto the desk next to Hux’s - front and centre, of course. Everything bounced with the force and a few of Kylo’s keychains and pins clattered to the floor but Kylo didn’t seem to notice, slouching down at his desk and picking at his nails. His long hair, streaked obnoxiously with bright colours that Hux was sure didn’t meet school policy - hung like a curtain around Kylo’s face so that Hux couldn’t see his expression. That didn’t stop Hux from aiming a self-satisfied smirk in Kylo’s direction, though.

Mr Skywalker seemed unsatisfied by this, running his hand through his hair, but doesn’t push it any further. Kylo’s foot was already tapping away underneath the table to some silent beat and Hux watched in sick fascination as the sole of his black converse flopped away from the rest of his shoe with every movement of his foot, as if it might rip off completely. Hux’s own shoes were loafers, black and specifically fitted to his feet that he’d shined that morning. It summed up their entire dynamic really, not exactly enemies but hostile to each other – on complete opposite ends of the social spectrum while both managing to be outcasts. Two extremes.

‘Well, Lei-... Mrs Organa pointed out that a group presentation is a part of your assessment and since you haven’t completed yet…,’ he pauses to clear his throat. ‘I’ve paired you all up and you’ll present your topic to the class next week.’ He picks up a stack of papers and starts placing them on their desks.

Hux sinks down into his chair as Mr Skywalker places the paper down on his desk. He’s never enjoyed group work, especially not presentations - Hux has either ended up doing all the work himself despite trying to designate it or butting heads when the other group members didn’t like him taking charge.

He picks up the paper half-heartedly, mentally preparing himself for whatever he’ll have to endure. But when he reads the name, Hux realises that nothing could’ve prepared him.

‘Phasma!’ Hux hisses, tugging at her sleeve. ‘Stop staring! He’s going to notice.’

‘I can’t believe Skywalker paired you with him,’ Phasma says, apparently unwilling to drop the subject. But she does at least stop staring and turns back to her own lunch with the barest hint of a smile playing around the corners of her lips. ‘Doesn’t he know you’ll eat him alive?’

Hux chokes on his crisps, the sharp pieces scraping the inside of his throat on the way down. ‘What!? Phas?’

Phasma didn’t reply, instead smirking to herself as she ate her pasta.

‘Hey,’ a familiar low pitched voice just over his left shoulder says. Hux wonders, faintly, how long Kylo has been stood there and therefore how much of his panic Kylo had seen. It would certainly be troublesome if Kylo thought he cared about what Kylo thought of him, or had a crush on him or something. Foolish. ‘I guess we’re working together. Skysucker must want you to rescue my grade. You’re top of the class aren’t you?’

Hux takes a moment to cringe at the nickname.

‘Oh,’ he replies, more snottily than he intended. He sees Phasma silently laughing out of the corner of his eye but elects to ignore her and instead stares steadfastly ahead.

‘Well, here’s my number if you want to talk about it,’ Kylo says as a hand appears over Hux’s shoulder, holding out a piece of paper. Hux turns to look at Kylo, his gaze sweeping up from Kylo’s outstretched hand to Kylo’s face - where Hux realises, Kylo has a habit of rolling his lip piercing with his tongue. Disgusting.

‘Yeah,’ he says, snatching the ragged paper from Kylo’s hand and trying not to think about how many germs it could possibly carrying as he shoves it into his pocket. ‘We’ll definitely need to talk. Don’t think that I’m going to work on this on my own, Ben. You don’t get to ride my coattails and half-ass this.’

Kylo simply shrugs, obviously unaware of the intimidating aura Hux is attempting to project and heads back to his friends across the cafeteria.

‘You sure showed him,’ Phasma teases once Kylo is out of earshot. Hux rolls his eyes.

His backpack lays discarded on the edge of his bed, the A-Level coursework inside begging to be done - experiment write-ups and graphs and essays that usually Hux would’ve completed with gusto already. Instead Hux stares at his phone, the crumpled sheet of paper clutched between his fingertips. There’s a kind of suffocating anxiety settling in his chest already, at the thought of not having done his work but it’s not getting him to do this any faster. It should be nothing, a string of unconnected numbers shouldn’t intimidate him like this. And yet…

It’s Ben Solo’s number and that alone has Hux frozen, unable to think of anything to write. Was ‘hey’ too simple? Hux isn’t sure that he’s ever said ‘hey’ in his life. Listing off the sections that Hux had already earmarked for Ben seemed a bit too cold and impersonal (not to mention that there were so few of them because Hux wanted to limit the things that Ben would no doubt mess up, and wouldn’t Ben notice that straight away).

There’s no reason to be scared of Ben and his stupid distractingly pale and freckled face, Hux tells himself. He takes a deep breath and starts typing. He’s not used to having someone to text, except for Phasma who he’s known for so long that he doesn’t feel that overwhelming anxiety to keep himself neatly laced up and together around her, as he does around everyone else.

She’s been there and seen his worst, known his deepest secrets, lived through the terrible haircuts and ache and squeaky voice and come out the other side. She’s practically family so it’s different with her.

Hello Ben.

He hits send before he can think about it, tossing his phone aside and burying his face in his hands. He thinks that he’d rather die than read Kylo’s reply until his phone actually buzzes and he’s yanking it towards himself without thinking.

Hello Armitage.

Hux’s teeth sink into his lip and he huffs in annoyance, taking a moment to stare at one of the bare white walls of his bedroom while he composes himself. Kylo is definitely fucking with him.

It’s Hux. I’ll write up the notes since I know more about the Russian Monarchy than you. I’ll send them to you and you can put them into the powerpoint. Do you think you can do that?

He doesn’t leave any room for Kylo to argue with him, simply setting out their roles in this. Hux supposes that if Kylo has a problem with this he’ll no doubt voice it. Sure, it’ll mean Hux doing most of the work but at least he’ll have control and God knows what Kylo would come up with.

It’s Kylo. Of course, I can.

Hux snorts in surprise, his fingers playing with a loose thread on his duvet. He’d been expecting Kylo to… well… be more argumentative than that, but it had gone easier than Hux was expecting. Maybe this wouldn’t be too bad after all.

Should I come over to your place?

Hux reads the message over and over again. A noise from downstairs catches his attention, a barely audible sound that could be someone clearing their throat or the scrape of a chair against the floor.

No. The library tomorrow at lunch.

Hux sets the phone down safely on his bedside table and takes his bag over to his barren desk, pulling out the lab report that has to be done tomorrow and willing himself to concentrate on it -on anything except for Ben Solo.

The library is busy when Hux gets there, so Hux ends up only being able to find a table at the back - squashed between biology textbooks and medical journals, behind a table of Year 7’s being loud and annoying. Hux glares at them as he pulls out his notes from his backpack and lines up his highlighters in colour order and thankfully, they seem to take the hint and head off outside.

He’s almost given up waiting when Kylo finally shows up, after all, there’s only so many times that Hux can rearrange his highlighters and shuffle his notes. Kylo’s swapped his black ripped jeans for tartan today, covered in chains and zips, and a faded band t-shirt. Hux stares for a moment, trying to make out the band before shaking his head at the faded fabric as if it’s personally offended him.

‘You’re late Ben!’

‘It’s Kylo,’ Kylo shouts back and Hux catches the librarian glancing over towards them. He aims his glare squarely at Kylo. Kylo throws his bag down onto the table, sending Hux’s neatly arranged highlighters scattering across the table. He unzips it with an unnecessary flourish and pulls out a giant, ancient and beaten up looking laptop whose fan buzzes loudly when he opens it up. The back is covered by stickers - bands that Hux has never heard of and skulls and pentagrams, scuffed and peeling away. He catches sight of a rainbow on one corner and averts his gaze, heart hammering in his chest. Was that…?

‘I’m not surprised that your laptop looks like that if you throw your things around. Don’t you care about anything?’ Hux snaps back, unable to disguise his envy - his father would never allow him his own private laptop, even though they could most definitely afford one. There’s just something about Kylo like Hux can’t quite control himself around him - every little thing Kylo does just gets under Hux’s skin. Usually Hux would hate it but again with Kylo… with Kylo it almost makes him feel strong.

‘Can we just get on with this so I can leave?’ Now that he looks at him, Kylo does look as if he’s being followed around by his own personal rain cloud. Or more so than usual at least. His hair hangs limply around his face, grease caking the roots and there are two angry spots of colour high on Kylo’s elegant cheekbones, just below his more smudged than normal eyeliner.

‘Here are my notes,’ Hux says as he pushes them across the table, shifting easily into business mode and turning off those annoying thoughts that are eating away in the back of his mind. ‘I’ve divided them into sections and highlighted the important parts. All you need to do is make each section into a slide,’ he realises suddenly that he’s talking slower than usual - that he’s trying to annoy Kylo, just because he wants to. ‘If you can do that we’ll call it even, we can share the grade. Even though I’ve done all the work.’

Kylo splutters angrily but otherwise doesn’t panic, not bothering to glance at Hux as he pulls the notes towards him. Hux’s eyes narrow and he can feel his brow furrowing. Despite the little he knows about Kylo this is definitely not the usual Kylo - always pushing back, trying to get the final word in.

‘Is something…,’ Hux starts to say before he realises how ridiculous and caring he sounds. He doesn’t want to seem like he’s gone soft. ‘Do you have a problem with that?’

‘I have to go see Leia later,’ Kylo grumbles as if that should be enough to answer all of Hux’s questions, not looking up from where he’s furiously typing away on his laptop.

‘Don’t you mean Mrs Organa,’ Hux says, highlighter poised in mid-air.

‘I definitely mean Leia,’ Kylo says, popping another M&M into his mouth. ‘She’s my mum after all, she doesn’t mind what I call her as long as I’m still talking to her. We agreed.’

‘The Head Teacher is… your mum?’ Hux says slowly. Now that Kylo’s said it he can definitely see the similarities there, something in Kylo’s smile and his high cheekbones. Not that Kylo smiles much. Frankly Hux is surprised that he even knows what Kylo’s smile looks like, but he can see it as clear as day in his head so maybe Hux has been looking more than he’d like to admit - more than he’d even realised. ‘You don’t have the same name?’ He blurts before he can stop himself.

‘My family’s pretty dysfunctional,’ Kylo says, leaving it at that. It’s almost like he’s embarrassed about it, apparently unwilling to expand on this any further. He doesn’t need to though because it hits Hux like a ton of bricks, his chest feels tight with understanding and his lips dry; he’s embarrassed to realise that he’s shaking. It feels like the world has shifted on its axis but nobody else seems to have noticed.

There has been a change though, a spark of connection that’s passed unspoken between them. For the first time, Hux understands - understands Ben Solo, understands Kylo Ren.

Where Hux conforms, wrapping himself in his order and unity, Kylo Ren rebels - pushing against authority, against everyone, making himself The Other that Mr Antilles the English teacher had kept banging on about in Gothic literature. Hux understands.

He glances over at Kylo again, meeting Kylo’s gaze this time. They share a look for a moment, Hux’s chest squeezing until he’s afraid he’s going to suffocate under the weight of that look - of whatever it is that is passing between them.

‘I have to go,’ he says, the words coming out strangled and half-formed. ‘I’ll do the rest at home.’ He takes off, heart-pounding, unwilling to think about what’s just happened.

Hux runs a comb through his hair one last time, securing that a few flyaways are meticulously glued down flat to his head. He admires his reflection for a moment with a critical eye, noting the impressive circles beneath his eyes that surely every A-Level student approaching exam season has as well as the pale, sallow colour of his skin. Apart from his hair and his clothes, Hux has never particularly cared about his appearance. But apparently in the middle of a school bathroom is the moment his mind has decided that he really should do. He leans closer as if examining his skin in more detail will reveal some unknown secrets and his thoughts turn to Kylo Ren. He shakes his head, trying to rid himself of that thought but too afraid that he knows exactly why he would care about Kylo Ren’s opinion of his appearance.

The alarm on his watch goes off - only 10 minutes until class, and so Hux gathers up his things and leaves the bathroom. It’s not like he’s going to be late, there’s no need to rush and yet to Hux not being early is as good as being late. The halls are busy but Hux is used to it, ducking around hordes of Year 8’s with P.E. kits and other Sixth Formers who were totally not mitching off to get McDonald’s for lunch in a completely obvious way. He finally reaches the history department, sinking back into the alcove against the wall between rows of lockers as he waits for the previous class to be over.

He’s not exactly excited about the presentation per se, he’s always liked public speaking but his classmates weren’t exactly motivating to try and present to. He’s got some kind of strange energy that’s been building in him all day, though, tingling at his fingertips and the back of his neck. Maybe it’s not the presentation he’s excited for… maybe it’s seeing him… Hux swallows thickly, staring down at his USB and pages of notes.

‘Hey so,’ Kylo says as he flops down next to Hux, all limbs and elbows and knees - as if he’d heard Hux’s thoughts. ‘I’m not doing the presentation. Good luck.’

Hux swallows, unable to form a coherent thought for a moment. He’s distinctly aware of the sound of blood rushing in his ears and the way his fingertips are tightening around his sheet of notes.

‘You’re… You’re what! Ren! You absolute fucking…. You…. fucking…. Shit…. Fuck…,’ Hux is truly at a loss for words. Somewhere along the line, his mouth seems to have become disconnected from his brain and both of them can only reel at Kylo’s stupidity. ‘You’re not going to do this to me, you prick. You’re not!’’

Kylo is silent, his face far less stormy than Hux would’ve thought after that barrage of curses, Hux manages to think through the fog of rage clouding his mind.

‘You called me Ren,’ Kylo says quietly, after a moment.

‘Well of course I did! It’s your fucking name isn’t it?’ He shouts back, getting angrier by the second.

‘Thank you,’ Kylo says softly and before Hux can process what’s happening, Kylo is leaning in until their lips are only a few bare inches apart. Oh, Hux realises, he wants to…

Hux realises that he also wants to. He wants to kiss Kylo Ren, for all his stupid haircuts and terrible personality and annoyingly beautiful face.

Closing the gap is easy, it’s only when their lips meet that Hux starts to panic. Kylo feels warm against him, his lips slightly chapped and rough, and Hux is frozen - taking in the feeling with a kind of distant panic. What if he forgot to brush his teeth that morning, what if he’s no good at kissing, what if….? Luckily, Kylo takes the lead and starts to move his lips softly against Hux’s, tipping Hux’s head back. Hux loses himself in the feeling, kissing back as much as he can.

When Kylo pulls away Hux decides that it wasn’t terrible all things considered.

Kylo smiles as he gets up. ‘See you later.’

Hux breathes for a moment, his hand moving towards his lips of its own accord - as if pulled by some invisible magnet. His lips feel the same as always - smooth and soft thanks to a regular Chapstick routine although they tingle slightly at the touch of his fingertips - slightly sensitive now. Once again, the world feels like it’s changed, shifted around the two of them like an alternate reality. Hux wonders how he can ever go back to just ‘being’ now, now that he knows what it’s like to kiss Kylo Ren.

That was… that was…

‘Kylo you bastard!’ He shouts at Kylo’s retreating back.

‘Armitage!’ Mr Skywalker bursts out of the classroom. ‘I don’t expect that kind of language from you! Is your presentation ready?’

#kylux #kylo ren #armitage hux #general hux #hux #kyluxsecretsanta

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