Hux does not miss things; there has not been very much in his life to miss. As far as Hux is concerned, the constants of his childhoodāhis father, life at the Academy, his rivals and enemies and pawns. He has fondness for a few formative non-family members, but for the most part, Huxās mind is aimed, always, at the future.
Which is why itās so strange to see Hux touching the food at the table in front of him like it is art, like some strange trove of artifacts, something that requires further study, and then requires locking up in a museum.Ā
āWhat is all that?ā Ren asks. Heās pretty familiar with a lot of food that Hux has never eaten, a result of his nomadic childhood traveling on political business with his mother and, well, leisure trips with his father to a wide variety of casinos and watering holes.Ā
āYouāll love this, kiddo,ā Han had often said, and he was wrong about a lot of things, a lot of things, but not about that, because RenāBenāhad a hearty appetite and wasnāt too picky. Sandwiches slathered with colorful sauce and covered in spicy little vegetables, he recalls, were his favorite, once upon a time.Ā
But this, whatever it is Hux has in front of him, doesnāt look or smell familiar. Breads and cheeses of some kind. Nothing Ren has tried.
āA gift from a very old friend of my fatherās,ā Hux says. His pronunciation of the word friend makes it clear this person was anything but. āShe remembered my favorites.ā
His mother? No, couldnāt be. Ren knows even Hux becomes isolated with emotion when his mother is brought to the forefront of his thoughts. But someone else who knew him long ago.
āI would have eaten these every single day if I could have. Just these. I was a finicky boy and didnāt like much food. But my father said a man needed to eat meat. Or else. So I ate it. And nobody eats what they like at the Academy. I forgot about them.ā
He didnāt, though, that was a lie. The slow, deliberate way he tears the bread with his hands is almost unbearably sensual; it is the way he wouldnāt do it if he really had forgotten. Ren gets a jolt right up his spine when Hux meets his eye and indicates that he sit down, so that he might share this strangely intimate little feast with him.
āYouāll love this, Ren,ā Hux says, and Ren has no reason to doubt him.
