#bb hux

JakJak could feel his frown deepening as it always did when BB talked about their fathers  as singular ‘Dad’. It was hard to follow which one they meant, though the few times he’d seen them he hadn’t been able to tell them apart either.

Except that one time at a picnic when they’d taken their shirts off to play some sport or other. JakJak had been surprised to see that one of them had almost the exact same shoulder scars as his own father, though he lacked the ones one his belly and back.

That had been disorientating. JakJak was used to seeing copies of his father in every universe, but until then he’d thought only his father and Papa Carolus had those scars. He’d wondered how many others had them too, but he’d yet to work out an unwierd way to ask.

“Your fathers set up a day just so that people would buy them gifts?” He asked, mildly appalled. “I thought Empire Day was bad, but at least that wasn’t father’s idea.”

BB shoved him none too gently. He had the strength to resist but that usually worried people, so he let himself fall into the wall instead.

“What?! No!” They cried. “It’s like a hundred year old holiday or something! People had been celebrating Mother’s Day for years and they decided to make a Father’s Day to balance it out. So everyone buys their parents gifts. Well. Not everyone. Some people have awful parents… Dad gets a lot of work on those holidays.”

For some reason BB’s fathers still laboured under the misapprehension that their child didn’t know they were assassins. Of course JakJak’s Papa Kylo killed people all the time, but he was the Emperor’s Lord Protector. For some reason that seemed more honourable than assassination.

JakJak didn’t say that though. Last time he’d said that outloud BB had pushed him into the Puget Sound. He hadn’t liked that.

“Oh. Okay.” That seemed safe.

“Hah! Look at this!” BB called excitedly from the window. “You should get two of these! Oh, I might get two for Dad too.”

He really hadn’t understood the sentence but JakJak dutifully peered at the object indicated by BB’s finger. It was a white mug with incomprehensible local scrawl across the side.

“Uh, what does it say?”

BB sighed and looked ready to tell him off when they suddenly stopped mid-breathe. “Oh. If you can’t read it then they won’t be able to either, will they?”

JakJak shook his head.

“I wonder if they sell any kits?” They said thoughtfully.

JakJak liked sitting at the table in Dex’ apartment. There was cookie jar in the shape of a cat in the middle, and Dex never complained about him eating them all. Or about serving him raw meat. That was nice. A lot of people didn’t like to handle it.

He liked this Dex. This Dex laughed a lot more than his own. But then this Dex still had their Mitaka. In his universe Papa Kylo had killed Mitaka by accident long before JakJak was even born. That was a strange thing to think about. It made his chest feel funny, so he stopped.

BB had spread paper all over the surface of the table and arranged the four mugs so they could show him how to use the kit.

“Write on the surface with the pens. If you go wrong wipe it off with the alcohol wipes. When we’re done Dex can put them in the oven to cure before Dad gets here to pick me up, when you have to go home.”

“Ok.” He nodded and picked up a purple coloured pen. “What should I write?”

“The mug I saw said ‘Galaxy’s Number 1 Dad’.” BB said, writing the words on the paper as they spoke. “I thought that was funny since you said your father was Galactic Emperor.”

At the sink Dex snorted but didn’t turn around. JakJak put his tongue out at them anyway. It was a very long tongue, and forked today, so he felt it made his point.

Writing on the shiny surface took a lot of concentration and it was only when he’d finished that JakJak realised he still had his tongue sticking out between his teeth. BB didn’t notice- they were too busy staring at his writing with their mouth open.

“That’s Basic?!” They asked, apparently stunned but something as simple as writing.

JakJak laughed. “No, the letters are called Aurebesh.”

“Oh my god, that’s what Dad writes in when he wants to make notes no one can read!”

The last part was a conspiratorial whisper, like it was some kind of secret Dex shouldn’t know about. JakJak didn’t really understand why.

“Can you show me how do it?” Now that would be easy.

The Emperor kept a clear desk. It was a point of pride. It was also a point of keeping his Force damned sanity in the face of a horribly complicated galaxy.

Which made the pair of white cylinders sitting in the middle of the desk a source of irritation.

Who the pfassk had dared to leave… oh.

They were mugs. Very primitive stoneware mugs, exactly the opposite of the opulence that surrounded them.

A child had written on them.

He picked up the closest mug.

One side read- ‘GALAxY’s #1 fATHeR’ while the other bore the words ‘JAkJAK LoVEs YoU’.

Hux stared at it in confusion.

The other was the same but read ‘PApA’ instead of father. No, not the same. The writing was raised. It seemed like multiple layers of paint had been applied so fingers could detect the words.

With slightly trembling hands Hux carried them gingerly through the palace, opening doors with his elbows, until he reached the nursery.

Alia was standing on a box next to JakJak’s crib and clinging to her blind father’s robes as the pair watched the infant sleep. He was almost a month old but it didn’t look like the novelty would wear off anytime soon.

“Kylo?” He whispered, desperate not to wake the child he’d only persuaded to sleep an hour ago. “I found these in my office. Any idea what it means?”

Kylo studied them for a moment, borrowing Hux’ eyes to see what his fingers and the Force couldn’t show him.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it means we’re the best fathers in the Galaxy?” He said with a grin.

The stare Hux gave him should have caused him to combust on the spot, but he just let his grin widen.

“Who left them there?! I know it wasn’t Alia, her handwriting is much better than this!”

Without looking away from the baby their daughter gave a prim, “thank you!”

“The clue is on the mug, Bren. JakJak did this.”

“He’s only 27 days old!”

“And he saved me from Snoke a month after he was conceived!” Kylo snapped back. In his crib JakJak stirred. Kylo reduced his volume as he continued, “this is just the way he is. We always knew he was different. We should expect… different things.”

Yes, perhaps they should. But in the scheme of things, time travelling just to make sure they knew they were loved should not count as a cause for concern.

The bed shook at the sudden assault.

“We’re being boarded, all hands to battlestations!” A sleepy voice said from under its pillow.

“Dad!” BB squealed when the other man-shaped lump in the bed reared up to envelope her in the sheets.

“I’ve captured the interloper Lieutenant General Hair Dye, what shall I do with…”

There was more screaming as the other figure sat up and hurled its pillow at the first. “Lieutenant General Hair Dye! How dare you?!”

“DAD!!”

“I apologise, let us make peace and defeat the invader... with tickling!!”

“DAAAAD nooooooo….”

“What do you think Auren? No mercy?”

“Of course!”

It was another ten minutes, and one of their fathers literally falling out of the bed, before BB admitted defeat.

“I surrender! Also, your coffee is going cold!” That, at least, was enough to force Auren to accept the surrender while the coffee would still be drinkable.

BB sat on Eamon’s knee to watch as Auren reached for his own mug. He turned white when he saw the text, which was impressive for a man as pale as a Hux.

“Auren? Are you okay?” Eamon asked, concerned.

Auren’s weaker left hand was shaking and threatened to spill the beverage on the sheets.

“Did you write this, BB?”

They nodded. “Yes, Dad, I made one for both of you.”

Eamon glanced at the mug on his side of the bed. The writing on that one was in English, not the angular but oddly familiar text on Auren’s mug.

There was silence for a moment as Auren seemed to weigh his options. Finally he put the mug carefully back in its place and turned to hug them both.

“One day you’re going to tell me where you learned that, okay?”

BB didn’t entirely understand, but they knew enough to take the out when it was offered. “Of course, Dad, but I don’t think you’ll believe me.”