#lenina phasma

(((OOC: This is a WW2 AU with some mentions of period typical homophobia, so everyone please read at your own discretion! This drabble has also been uploaded to my Gingerpilot drabble collection on AO3, found here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14079366/chapters/32571330)))

Hux carefully removed his saxophone from its pristine case. It was just another show, another chance to make money from the world that had treated him poorly. It was 1943, the year of the second great war. He had lost everything that made him who he was to the cause back home. Once a prestigious soldier, fighting for the Royal Army back in England, Hux had been discharged for various reasons. His father, a high ranking officer, hated him, for one. He hadn’t thought Armitage was rather prepared to fight, but pushed him through the process of becoming a combat soldier, nonetheless. Just as his career was heightening, he was discovered to be homosexual. His father, furious with him, made it his business to have his son removed from the military altogether and cut off all contact. “To hell with him, then,” Armitage had thought as he boarded a ship the next day with his things, ready to leave his disgraced legacy behind.

Now he was here, at a practically run-down club in New Orleans playing the bloody saxophone for a bunch of drunk, loud ass Americans. However, playing meant no one bothered him. And as much as he liked to hate the dinky little club, it had its charm and the job paid him decently. Plus, no one here knew of him or his past. As soon as he began to play notes, the Americans would finally settle in. Every night when Armitage played, this sort of trance went over the patrons of the bar. They sat down, usually with glasses of bourbon in hand, and listened. Hux had an agreement with the club’s owner, never to play the dreary war songs that were becoming overdone at other clubs. Only jazz, which was loved by many and gave the club’s regulars a way to forget.

He began to play a popular song for the crowd, and Phasma, the singer for the club, began the lyrics. The patrons listened, but Hux noticed one handsome stranger in the back mouthing the words as well. He looked like an American fighter pilot, with a strong jaw and some stubble, dark curly hair that he wanted to run his fingers through… The stranger met his gaze, and Hux immediately looked back to his music. The man’s eyes stayed on him until he was done playing, and the crowd clapped. Hux realized he was blushing a bit, and took his backstage break early. He tried to take his mind off of the man, but something in his gut was telling him to go back out.

As Hux attempted to compose himself, fiddling with his hair and checking the condition of his saxophone reeds, he heard someone in the hallway whistling to the tune he’d just played. He had begun to pace while thinking of the stranger in the bar, but stopped when he heard the noise. The whistling got closer, along with some footsteps, until it was clear someone was right outside his door. Armitage’s heart thundered in his chest as a small piece of paper was slipped under the door. The footsteps started again, moving away from the door and back the way they came. When he thought it was safe, Hux went over to the note on the floor and picked it up to read it.

“You play well, come have a drink with me sometime.” A simple, yet clear message. Hux smiled to himself, endeared by the advancement. He had a feeling this was the start of something good and long overdue for him. Though doubts tugged at him, Hux pushed them away. After all…What did he have to lose?

I will never be able to see Hux as anything but the worst sick person ever. It really is a good thing Kylo refuses to let him make himself worse (and Millie helps too). Anyways, thank you for the prompt and hopefully this hits the spot!

Words: 944, no warnings apply

Kylo returned to the bedroom, mug of soup in hand, to seethat Hux had, miraculously, put away his datapad after informing the crew hewould be off that day. It had all started with a sneeze, one that Hux hadignored but had been a warning to Kylo. Sure enough, two days later, Kylo hadwoken to Hux sitting on the edge of the bad, a wet, hacking cough shaking hisframe and a burning fever radiating off him.

It had then taken the better part of an hour to actuallyconvince Hux to stay in bed, but Kylo was determined. The last time Hux hadbeen sick, he’d ignored it to the point of passing out on the bridge due to ahigh fever and Kylo had decided then and there that he wouldn’t let it happenagain. Fortunately, Hux didn’t get sick too often, since he rarely left the shipand was thus mostly exposed to disease only when it made it onboard, but Kylo knew it would come eventually.Now that it had, Kylo was not going to let Hux do that to himself again. Just the thought ofnot enough rest turning Hux’s simple illness into something serious made hischest tighten with concern.

@lenina-phasma