But that wasn’t the position he found himself in now. Kylo was Supreme Leader for no better reason than being able to kill Hux with his mind, and if the Supreme Leader wanted rough energetic sex across every surface of his quarters then Hux would provide it. Honestly Hux might have been willing to provide it once in a while whatever the circumstances- Kylo was unspeakably attractive under all those robes, but the whole ‘imminent death’ element was an unexpected aphrodisiac.Some horrible masochistic part of his mind reminded Hux that Snoke had been able to kill him at any second too, but he shut off that thought process before it began. For a brief moment Hux considered getting out of Kylo’s bed and raiding his cupboards for alcohol to drown the errant thought, but the mattress was unexpectedly soft and his limbs were already protesting the exercise of the last few hours. It wasn’t often Hux had to support his full body weight from an overhead beam.There were no rumours amongst the officer ranks about Hux’ lack of sleep. Everyone knew he didn’t sleep. It was a bad habit fuelled by tarine tea, caf, and an unseemly amount of stimulants. His work required focus and his work never ended, so he never slept. That was an exaggeration of course, he rarely went more than seventy two hours without getting a good five hours sleep. That’s what sedatives had been designed for after all. Kylo had been staring out of the viewports for a very long time now. Hux could see Kylo’s broad reflection in the transparisteel. He had to hope there were no TIE wings out on exercise at this time of the cycle. He wasn’t much of a pilot himself but he was pretty certain that seeing the Supreme Leader like that would make him crash into the nearest bit of hull.  Hell, he was very aware of the fact that he’d had that cock inside him less than half an hour ago and it’s size would still surprise him if he encountered it without advanced warning. At the viewport Kylo gave an odd little sigh and straightened his frame.Hmmm… could he hear his thoughts? Hux had always assumed so.“Stop.” The word broke the silence like a blaster shot, resonating oddly through the dark room like it hadn’t been little more than a whisper.“Supreme Leader?” The title still clung to his tongue every time he said it out loud. Kylo didn’t seem to notice.“Go to sleep, General, give us all a rest from your scheming mind.”Hux feigned looking around the room. He could see Kylo’s eyes reflected in the glass so he must be able to see him. “Us, Supreme Leader?” He asked, leaning over the edge of the mattress as if to peer under the bed. “We’re the only ones here, unless the possibly mythical Knights of Ren are hiding under your bed.”The noise Kylo made might have been a snarl if it had come from an animal, but it came from a man so it merely sounded strange and a little pathetic.Hux changed tack. Baiting him was far too easy at times. “You wish me to sleep here? Or should I return to my quarters where I can scheme in peace?”This time Kylo turned to glare at him. He was breathing heavily, those ridiculously ample pecs rising and falling like empires. Hux was so busy dreamily fantasising about fucking them that he didn’t hear any part of Kylo’s response.Suddenly Kylo was across the room in three short steps. His hand- warm and real and solid as steel- was around Hux’ throat without a word of warning, and Hux found himself half hauled up from the mattress. Under the cover of black satin sheets his exhausted cock made a valiant attempt at rising to the occasion.“I’m sorry, what was that?” He managed to choke out around his constricted airway. His hands had automatically come up to grip Kylo’s wrist. He pulled them closer, pressing more firmly on his own throat.Kylo dropped him like Hux had stung him. Hux let himself smile. He hadn’t used that trick in a decade, though the slow but persistent swell of his cock suggested that perhaps it wasn’t a ‘trick’ any more.“No more scheming,” Kylo said, leaning close as if he were berating a wayward pupil but also refusing to meet his eye out of some kind of embarrassment. “You live here now. You don’t leave my sight.”“Well, I never took you for that type,” Hux muttered distastefully. He looked deliberately towards the refresher.Kylo curled his lip. “Stop. You know that isn’t what I meant.”“Do I?” They stared at each other, Hux still reclining amongst the sheets while Kylo leant over him with trembling fists. Kylo should have been in control of the situation, but once again he didn’t seem to be in control of anything. Hux could feel the bruises deepening across his throat but he knew the room was dark enough that Kylo wouldn’t notice. He could also feel his own ego rising to meet the challenge just as it always did.Kylo raised a hand towards his face and Hux was briefly proud that he didn’t flinch. Instead the smile solidified into a sneer.“You’re not actually afraid of me,” Kylo said. He didn’t sound surprised, just curious.Hux raised an eyebrow at the statement just as Kylo’s hand fell to run down his side. He hissed as Kylo squeezed the bruises run along his ribs, but again he didn’t flinch away from the contact.“Fear is relative, Kylo, surely you know that.” He said with far more confidence than his situation warranted. “You’ve made your point- you can kill me in an instant, you can steal the thoughts from my mind, you can shatter my bones… but do you really think that makes you special?” Hux sat up, pushing against Kylo’s hand again. When he continued speaking he was almost surprised to hear that he was breathless. “Do you know how many of my officers carry poison? Did you think my blade was the only one on the bridge? Snoke was almost as powerful as you, wasn’t he? Do you really think any of this is new to me?”Instead of the outburst Hux was expecting Kylo regard him in silence for a beat, then he was crawling slowly onto the bed. Hux wanted to pull back, suddenly unnerved if not actually afraid, but the hand on his ribs had slipped around to cradle the back of his neck.“I think some things might be.”A treacherous blush raced over his face when that plush chest hoved into view again, but Hux kept his voice steady as he drawled a careless “Hardly.”Kylo laughed unkindly. He pulled away and turned back to the viewport, his eyes fixed on the same point as before. The lost of his heat was shocking despite the brevity of the contact and Hux suddenly hated himself for that even as he craved more. “Your feelings betray you.”Hux scoffed. He hadn’t had a feeling he was willing to acknowledge in thirty years and he had not intention of changing that now. “What are you doing?” He asked instead. He’d never sleep now with so much adrenaline in his system, so he rose and padded across the room, wrapping the sheet around him as he went. Kylo might be content to risk exposure to the universe, but Hux hoped he had at least this much dignity left.“There,” Kylo pointed. “Our position in the galaxy relative to Alderaan- the light of its destruction will reach us soon. I wanted to see it.”Hux nodded. Kylo had long admired his grandfather, of course he’d want to see one of the great events of Darth Vader’s life. The sheet swished softly against the floor as he came to a halt at Kylo’s side.

Hux must has killed a man like this before, under the persistent weight of his hands. Ren resists the urge to seek the evidence without Hux’s permission.

In response, Hux gives him a show of teeth, warning Ren to stay out of his head.

Hux gets his feet under him and grinds down on Ren’s cock, over and over again, eyes alight with something dangerous and beguiling around the edges.

“Beg me for it,” Hux demands.

Ren isn’t sure exactly what he should beg for— permission to pry Hux’s memories from their carefully guarded hiding place, or for his own life while Hux is poised to choke it out of him, free it from his throat.

Probably, Hux wants both.

Instead, Ren takes hold of Hux’s erection, barely has to move his hand before Hux is arching back, spilling along Ren’s stomach with his mouth open wide. He clinches around Ren’s cock, hard enough to make him writhe from the pressure.

The release of tension from coming allows Hux to ease up, though his hands stay where they are, even as he’s gasping through the aftershocks. While new sweat is rolling from his face, a pretty flush upon his cheeks and trailing down his chest, Hux squeezes his eyes shut, finally calm while Ren remains unsatisfied. Ren digs a bruise into his hip to remind him who’s still filling him up and stretching him wide. Hux twitches, but remains where he is, a stubborn deadweight upon Ren's hips.

Closing your eyes doesn’t make me disappear.

Ren’s too hyper-focused on Hux to keep this thought from drifting between them, woven through his arousal and catching along Hux’s web of consciousness.

“I know exactly who’s under me,” Hux says aloud, rolling his hips forward in a way that pulls twin groans from from each of them.

Let him try to kill me, Ren thinks. If Hux continues bearing down on him like he is, finally giving enough to let Ren spill deep within him, Ren won’t care in the slightest.

After, when Hux reaches over him for his cigarras, lights one up with Ren’s sensitive cock still buried deep inside, dragging along the slick heat of his own come, Ren admits this, all of this, is far from under control.

2.

This could have been anyone, Ren reminds himself. There are more than a few people who would rather see him dead than continue as their Supreme Leader.

There are three enlisted docking bay attendants lined up at the edge of the Silencer, trying not to shake with fear as Ren stands with his arms crossed, frowning at their clumsy attempts to explain why the Silencer filled with toxic exhaust just before Ren was set to pilot her for an ill-advised, solo scouting run along the Outer Rim.

If Ren had taken off before the cockpit started leaking the gas, if he’d made it to hyperspeed, there’s no telling how quickly it would have killed him.

“Take them to the brig,” Ren finally decides, beyond tired of their groveling. They’re lucky he doesn’t snap their necks where they stand for being so careless. Ren will personally choose his next attendants.

Six ‘troopers drag the attendants away, still protesting. None of them have the authorization codes to enter the Silencer without permission, or the knowledge to alter her innards, they're saying.

No. It’s their job to check she’s in working condition before Ren is set to pilot her. They failed and should pay for their oversight.

There are only a handful of people with authorization codes who would know how to alter the Silencer without getting caught, Ren reminds himself as he’s stalking away from the docking bay, furious about his interrupted plans.

Hux is one of them.

3.

Ren can smell it before he takes the first bite.

There’s a distinctive gritty texture and an earthy tinge to the sauce covering the vegetables that make him recoil with disgust. The smell sends him into reliving a traumatic event from his childhood—great tears streaming his face while he looked at Han with pure, helpless terror. Han could only squawk at him about spitting out the problem so he could help, so fearful that he’d fucked up yet again while Leia was off-planet. Ren was unable to breathe, let alone explain the problem—or scream from the pain in his throat like he really wanted.  

Newly discovered Force abilities aside, that was the moment Ren realized he wasn’t as far above the laws of human mortality as he had thought.

Without taking a bite, Ren puts down his fork with care and shoves the plate away with the Force. Ren is curious to see if Hux will address Ren’s hesitation.

Hux doesn’t, just continues undressing from his shift, eyes on his comm as he moves about their shared rooms.

“Hux,” Ren says, using a slow and warning tone. “Did you order Kola nut sauce for my meal?”

Hux stops where he is. There’s nothing telling about his expression, and that’s more infuriating than an attempt at murder. This is exactly how he reacted to word of the Silencer’s exhaust problem from last week as well.

“I noticed you’ve never tried it before. It’s quite good.” The false enthusiasm makes Ren grit his teeth.

Hux has read every bit of Ren's medical history on file, and Hux knows everything anyway, including Ren’s frustrating weakness to any and all tree nuts.

If he took a bite of that sauce smothered in Kola flour, his throat would swell, restricting his breathing within seconds. If he ate enough of it and had no access to an epinephrine hypo, he would suffocate in minutes, with Hux standing over him, peering down with mild curiosity as he convulsed without a way to take oxygen into his burning lungs.

Ren keeps a hypo in the refresher cabinet just in case. He seeks it out with the Force.

It isn’t there.

Actually angry now, Ren reaches out as Hux passes, grips his wrist hard enough to earn a whimper, bones protesting under the pressure. Ren could, should, break his wrist just to remind Hux of the dangerous water he’s treading upon. The beat of Hux’s heart quickens. Ren can feel it through the pulse in his wrist—probably gets a sick thrill out of it, not because he thinks he’s in any kind of danger.

“You’re attempting to assassinate me,” Ren states evenly.

Hux snorts, leaning forward to take the fork and shove a big bite of the vegetables smothered in the Kola sauce into his own mouth. “Well, if that were true, I’m doing a terrible job. I haven’t succeeded yet, have I?” He swallows just before bending forward to press a kiss to the corner of Ren’s open mouth, the offensive sauce on his breath.

Ren is too shocked to pull away from him.

No. He hasn’t succeeded yet. Not yet.

Interlude

They’ve had a quiet, guarded understanding between them for weeks now, so Ren is stunned when Millicent takes a swipe at his forearm one morning in the refresher for no reason at all. After, she bounds away with a hissing growl, tail held high.

Ren flinches from the sudden, bright edged pain, and looks down to see three perfectly straight cuts welling up with beads of blood. It’s fitting she's the first to draw blood.

While she’s never been especially friendly, it seems Millicent is also in on Hux’s conspiracy to kill him.

4.

It’s possible Ren has underestimated the cost involved in his plan to keep Hux near, to keep an eye on him, so that he can at least see it coming, the moment Hux will succeed in killing him.

When Ren makes it back to the Finalizer’s docking bay, Hux isn’t there to greet him, to hear him bark with seething rage at anyone near enough. Ren finds Hux on the bridge, conveniently surrounded by a handful of witnesses loyal to Hux first, regardless of what they may say to Ren’s face.

“Hux!” Ren booms, loud enough that everyone freezes and silence falls over the bridge.

All of these people know what Hux has done, and none of them protested Hux’s decision. Hux authorized an evacuation of the planet while Ren was still on its surface, without informing him. Then he ordered the fleet just outside of the range of the Silencer’s fuel stores, so it’s taken three cycles for Ren to return after a stop-over for fuel at an ill-equipped outpost. “You will explain yourself.”

Hux is at parade rest, eyes unblinking. “I have no idea what you mean, Supreme Leader. In your absence, I assumed command as agreed. I determined the fleet was in danger of attack by an unknown source and planned accordingly. Provisions were put into place to ensure your safe return. The docking bay could have easily refused your entry if it weren’t for my authorization.”

He doesn’t care that he’s making a scene, pulls Hux to him across the bridge using the Force, heels dragging across the shiny floor. There’s barely a gasp from the others. Good. They need reminding of who’s in charge here.

“Would you kill me here?” Hux challenges, voice pinched and breathless, but still so calm, even as Ren holds him in the air and Hux grabs at the phantom crush on his throat. “In front of them all in a blind rage? You could do so much better than this.”

That’s enough, Ren projects, loud enough Hux will feel its intensity searing into his nerve endings. You’ll stop this right now.

Ren releases him before he passes out, and Hux falls to the floor, gasping on all fours, but he’s also smiling, the insolent fucker.

This has to stop.

5.

Hux doesn’t flinch when Ren pulls back, only closes his eyes out of instinct when the hot splash of come covers his cheeks and chin and eyelashes. Slowly, Ren pumps himself a few times more, smearing the last of his come along Hux’s swollen bottom lip until it’s shiny and wet. With his eyes still closed, Hux presses his lips together and licks at them with the tip of his tongue, expression carefully neutral.

Ren had ment this as punishment for insubordination, but it’s hardly working the way he wants.

Ren’s own breath is too ragged to his own ears when he wipes the sweat from his brow and grunts in irritation. He’s not sure why he’s still feeling keyed up and on edge. Hux has done everything he’s asked, went to his knees when Ren shoved his datapad and mug of tea aside to grab at his uniform shirt, only complained minimally when Ren ran rough hands through his hair until it stuck up unevenly.

And even now, Hux is somewhere else. Somewhere beyond this stifling room where Ren cannot reach him.

“Will that be all—Supreme Leader?” The title is added after a beat, just long enough Ren knows he considered not saying it. No. That won’t do.

Ren grabs at Hux’s chin, digs his fingers in before dipping two into Hux’s mouth until his jaw is pulled wide enough to earn a choked protest. Fine. Ren will make him pay attention.

Catching on quickly, Hux sucks at Ren’s fingers covered in his own sticky come, but scrapes along the skin too, pinches it between his teeth like he’d consider drawing blood if Ren challenges him further.

Good. That’s—better.

Retracting his fingers, Ren swipes the come from Hux’s eyes with his thumbs, lingers there until Hux opens them. They’re holding at a muddy shade of green in the harsh light of Hux’s office, and—yes, there it is. The fiery hatred flaring bright enough where Ren can fucking see it. That’s what he was waiting for, not the detached reverence Hux performs for the others, for him while still plotting his assassination.

Ren never wants the lie, no matter how awful the truth. He thinks he’s earned that much from Hux.

Ren grabs at Hux’s wrist, shoves his sleeve higher to reveal the blade strapped to his forearm. Ren’s never seen it up close, but has felt the edge of it brush against him more than once.

Into Hux’s ear, Ren barks, “Tell me what you want. Say it.”

Say you want me gone. Say you’re plotting my death so you can succeed me.

Hux smiles and lets out a conceded laugh, edging toward hysteria before he composes himself. There’s a pause and Ren wants to take a step back because he knows whatever’s about to leave Hux’s mouth will cut him deeply. He’s not sure he’s ready—

“You should fuck me first,” Hux challenges, voice pitched low and controlled, and there’s a show of teeth, a rabid animal cornered. “Once you’ve had your fill, I’ll tell you exactly what I want, Ren.” Almost as an afterthought, he says, “Of course that is if you can manage to keep yourself from forcibly extracting it from my mind.”

Ren takes hold of Hux by the forearm and pulls him up until they’re standing toe to toe. It doesn’t take much effort, and Ren is reminded how easy it would be to snap Hux in two when he wobbles on his feet for a moment, how easy it would be to pull his arm from the socket, rip muscle from bone just to hear the satisfying squelching crunch of it.

No.

Ren refuses to ruin the only thing that has given him any satisfaction lately.

Ren can control himself. He can.

“I should do it here.” Ren feels it all bubble over, a gush of nothing helpful while faced with his own impatience and a far deeper fear of rejection. “I should bend you in half and shove into you until you understand there’s exactly one person in this galaxy who can give you everything you desire.You need me.”

You need me as much as I need you.

“Do it,” Hux hisses, shrugging Ren’s hold from him. He looks like he’s as likely to claw at Ren’s face as he is to shove his trousers down and let Ren bend him in half like he promised. It’s enough for Ren to feel the want growing in himself, the need to march Hux out of here to someplace more private and—do something.

“Kill me before I have the chance to kill you,” Hux spits out.

That would be too easy, and nothing has ever come easily between them. Maybe this is where they back up. Start again. So then Ren can say the right things at least some of the time.

I’ll try to be better.

Hux lets out a great breath, and Hux is still shaking with rage, but he seems to come back to himself, too. He holds Ren’s gaze as he palms the blade at his sleeve, wrapping his fingers around his forearm like he needs physical reassurance its still there. Just in case. Within reach if he needs it. He takes one glance at the door, swallows, and then stares defiantly back at Ren. The fight is mostly gone.

“You know I can’t kill you,” Ren says. Then quietly adds, “You know why, too.”

Hux looks tired, like he’s holding the galaxy together with two hands and cannot bear to see it crack and crumble at his feet. Ren wants to tell him, No, that’s my job now. Let me do that for you.

“In your obsession with fucking some kind of indiscernible emotion out of me, I think you’ve forgotten there is an actual military operation to oversee aboard this starship.”

Before Ren can deny any kind of obsession, because—that is just fucking ridiculous he says, “I don’t think you could kill me either. Not really.”

“I haven’t yet. That doesn’t mean I won't,” Hux says, face contorting through a series of complex emotions—fear, longing, disbelief, like he can’t settle on one way to feel about any of this.

“Okay,” Ren reassures, pulling Hux closer, and Hux goes to him easily this time, frames Ren’s face with his hands, sighs in resignation before leaning forward for a kiss.

“I still despise you,” Hux says against his mouth. He bites Ren’s bottom lip, just to make sure he’s understood.

“I know,” Ren says back. The blade strapped to Hux’s forearm slides along the back of Ren’s neck, but he doesn’t let go.