#kylux

Phasma and Dolph walked ahead of Hux, cheerfully chatting. The sun set behind them as they walked back to their rental condo. The sleepy town had two bars and both were buzzing full on the main street. A small ice cream shop and movie theater stood tall among the slowly abandoned store fronts. 

“Oh, Hux, we have to check this place out!” Phasma excitedly called back to him, pointing at one of the store fronts. Hux stopped and looked at the sign in the window, Winner’s Arcade it read in faded white lettering bracketed by more recent decals of video game characters.

”Are you sure? This place looks like it’s seen better days.” The red head said.

”This whole town has seen better days, Hux. We don’t have anything else to do tonight and when was the last time any of us has been to an arcade?” The blonde argued, throwing her arm around Hux and Dolph’s shoulders. 

“It does look rather fun.” Dolpheld agreed. Hux heaved a small sigh and nodded in acceptance. Phasma gave a whoop and shoved them through the open door.

The arcade looked like it hadn’t been updated since the 80s, the sticky blue carpet and neon lighting had certainly seen better days. The stench of cigarettes and candy clung to the air. The arcade machines were a mix of newer and older. One looked like an original Donkey Kong game. There was a couple of kids, completely without their guardians, running around and booping each other with some blow up sword likely given from the lone employee standing behind the prize counter.

Phasma strutted over the coin machine and stuck a ten in, the machine groaned in protest as it tried to spit out the quarters. 

“Hey, wait, that machine is broken!” The employee warned as he came out from behind the counter. He had black hair and dark eyes and his t-shirt was tight around his muscled arms. He looked about their age. He was quite handsome. 

“Sorry!” Hux cringed slightly at the way his voice pitched up a bit.

”It’s okay. I had an out of order sign on it but those kids took it down.” He promptly unlocked the machine and pulled the ten dollar bill out of the mechanism and then filled a cup with coins. 

“Here ya go!” He handed the cup to Hux and he got a better look at his face. There was something familiar about his strong nose and deep brown eyes. 

“Thank you, sorry to be a bother.” Hux awkwardly smiled.

”It’s no bother. Certainly not as much as those kids.” Just as he finished saying that, one of the children threw a cup of soda on the ground with a loud crash. 

The worker gave a great sigh, clearly holding onto the last of his sanity. He then excused himself and slinked away.

His friends smiled at Hux.

“What?”

“You were having a moment with him.” Phasma snickered as she took the cup of coins from Hux’s hand. He hadn’t even noticed the tight grip he had on it. 

“I was not!” He exclaimed as they wandered over to one section with a couple of classic Super Mario games.

As they played, Hux couldn’t help but steal glances at the handsome arcade worker. He was fighting with his brain to find out why he was so familiar. He didn’t want to accept that maybe he’d just seen him around before when he visited. There was something intimate about the way they’d locked eyes earlier. It seemed too familiar.

By the time they were done, they had accumulated a small mountain of tickets. The handsome worker was vacuuming the carpet, as if that would help with the stickiness. As they approached the prize counter, the man looked up and smiled before halting his task to assist them.

“That is quite a few tickets. Sorry our ticket counter is out of commission too, so this might take awhile.”

“Wow, it is a miracle that this place is still open.” Phasma commented as the worker began to count the tickets.

“It’s a miracle anything in this town is open. When I was a kid, there were a lot more tourists and locals. But everything has gotten more expensive since then so… less people here in general.” He said, almost wistfully.

“Yeah, I guess being a local, you would have seen that decline first hand.” Phasma podded.

The man nodded, “Yep. Less and less people every year. But some still come, often the same groups of people with the occasional influencer or wannabe influencer. People who like this place keep coming back.”

He looked at Hux with his intense brown eyes and something sparked in his memory.

“Ben?” Hux asked. There was no way that this large man was the same scared little boy he would play with as a child.

“Glad to see you still remember me, Armitage.” Ben smiled at him.

And now they were having a moment. It was as if no one else was there. Ben had really grown into his face and now Hux couldn’t help but notice the muscles that strained against his shirt. He could feel the heat creeping up his body in embarrassment.

“Wow, I really didn’t think I’d see you again… It’s been what? eight years?” Hux was desperate to keep the conversation with his childhood crush alive. 

“More like ten… I’ve gotten a lot taller since the last time you saw me so I am not surprised that you didn’t recognize me.”

“Well, it is great to see you.” He awkwardly rubbed his hand on the back of his neck.

“It’s great to see you too.”

“So, you both must have a lot of catching up to do!” Phasma butted in, all to happy to meddle in Hux’s love life.

Before Hux could save face, Ben let out a long hum.

“Yeah, we do. What do you think about getting together for coffee tomorrow? I have the day off.”