cosleia

The key gave him fits going into the lock. It was like it was trying not to let him get into his own apartment. When it finally went in and turned, a fucking miracle, Kylo kicked the door open so hard it slammed into the entryway wall.

“Fuck!” he announced.

“Jesus,” Rey responded from the couch, where she was cuddled up in a blanket with Rose and Finn. “Psycho much?”

“I just.” Kylo tried to get his anger under control. “I can’t. With that guy.” He closed the door with slightly less power than he’d used to open it, and the front window rattled in its frame.“We got pizza,” Rey said, poking one hand out of the blanket to gesture at the coffee table. “You can have some.”

Kylo’s boots clomped heavily on the hardwood floor as he stalked over to grab a slice and push nearly the entire thing into his mouth.

“Dude,” Finn said.

“Oh, right,” Kylo said around the enormous bite. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome!” Rey sang cheerfully.

Kylo swallowed the pizza slice down and grabbed another one, flinging himself violently into his secondhand leather recliner, which squeaked so hard he was sure he’d finally broken it this time. But the chair rallied, rocking him back forward, and he reached down to put up the foot rest.

“Did you want to talk about it, Kylo?” Rose asked. She was the nicest of Rey’s lovers, Kylo decided.

“Yes, I do, Rose, thank you,” he said, giving Rey a meaningful look. Rey just stuck her tongue out at him. “So this guy, right? I just don’t get what his problem is. He’s always messing with me. I don’t get why he won’t just leave me the fuck alone.”

“And what did he do this time?” Rey asked.

“Okay look, I know you don’t think this is a big deal, but it just keeps happening. And today was the worst. Stop grinning. Wait till you hear what he did.”

“You gonna tell us, or…?” Rey did not stop grinning.

Kylo shoved the second slice of pizza into his mouth and chewed furiously. “So he doesn’t even do kendo, he does aikido. But he’s always there, like he owns the place. I’m Snoke’s apprentice, Hux just helps out with paperwork for the dojo. And I guess he runs a couple beginner aikido classes. But I’m the one Snoke wants in charge when he retires.”

“Yes, yes, a rivalry for the ages, we know,” Rey said.

“There’s no rivalry! He’s just a fucking nuisance. So anyway, I’m running the advanced class, and he just comes in like he belongs there with a fucking water bottle and a towel, puts them next to my bag, gives me this look, and walks out. Like, his class wasn’t for another hour, he didn’t need to be bringing stuff in already. So I’m pissed, right, and I let my class go over a couple minutes. He comes in with this simpering look on his face and he’s like Can I help with anything? and I’m like No and he’s like Are you sure? You’re usually so punctual and I just want to crack him over the head with my shinai.

“So then I’m training in one of the other rooms, and when his class ends he comes in there with me, like there isn’t another room he could practice in, or do whatever the fuck he wanted to do.” Kylo punctuated the complaint with a violent rock backward; the chair creaked so loudly Finn looked alarmed. “And he brought that same water and towel. So he didn’t even use them in his class. Why the fuck did he bring them in, then?

“And he just watches me run through forms for awhile, and it’s really fucking annoying, and then when I stop for a break he walks up and says You must be thirsty, you’re sweating so much, and seriously? Seriously, dude. You’re gonna insult me after I’ve been training advanced students all afternoon? And there he is holding that stupid towel and water bottle trying to make me feel thirsty so I’ll quit training and go get some water. I’m not that weak, Hux. That’s what I told him. He at least looked embarrassed about his little game, and that got him out of there for the rest of my practice.

“But then!” Kylo paused, feeling three sets of eyes intently staring at him. He didn’t think the story was that riveting. “Then,” he went on, suddenly self-conscious, “I was about to get in the shower and he handed me some frou-frou bottle of shampoo or body wash or something, and he tells me, I thought this would suit you, like, what is he trying to say, that I don’t use soap? That was going too far. I threw the bottle on the ground.”

“Oh, Kylo,” Rose said.

Kylo flushed. “Fine, that probably wasn’t the right thing to do. But come on. He insulted me all day. How much longer was I supposed to take it?”

“You’re an idiot,” Finn said solemnly.

“Oh fuck off, you’re better at this whole becoming a better person thing than I am. I’m trying!”

“That’s not what he means,” Rey said, and she wasn’t grinning anymore. “I think we’re all thinking the same thing here.”

“What?” Kylo demanded.

“I don’t think we should tell you until we make sure,” Rey said, infuriatingly. “Let me look into this for you, okay?”

Kylo scowled. “What’s there to look into? The guy hates me.”

Rey opened her mouth, but before she could answer, the doorbell rang. Rose disentangled herself from the blanket and went to answer it, checking through the peephole first. “Uh, Kylo?” she whispered. “What does Hux look like?”

Kylo lurched out of his recliner, collapsing it back into a rocker with a scream of gears and springs. Rose stepped aside to let him see.

“Oh, what the fuck,” Kylo cursed, unlocking the door and wrenching it open.

“Kylo,” Hux said, “I’ve come to ask for an apology.”

“You—what now?” Kylo screeched, disbelieving.

“If you’re not interested, all you had to do was say so. There was no need to lead me on like this for weeks and then reject me in the showers of all places. In front of everyone.”

“I. What?”

“I expect a handwritten apology letter on my desk by end of day tomorrow,” Hux continued. “In this letter you will recount your crimes against me and indicate your understanding that you were wrong and your commitment to never do such things again. You will also put your agreement to never speak or otherwise act on this subject again in writing. I will have the letter notarized.”

“Hux,” Kylo said, bewildered. “What the fuck?”

“We were right,” Rey piped up from the couch. Hux blinked, seeming to notice the others for the first time. The tips of his ears went red. “He likes you, Kylo,” Rey said, and Hux’s whole face turned pink. “He wasn’t insulting you. He was trying to flirt with you.”

“He. You. What?”

“You guys are so cute,” Rose said. She was smiling.

“Why don’t you take him out to dinner, Kylo?” Finn suggested.

“I—he—” Kylo stammered.

“I don’t—” Hux began.

“Okay,” Rey said. “You boys have a lot to talk about. Finn made a great suggestion. Go have dinner. Hux, Kylo does not take hints, you have to hit him over the head with it. Tell him you like him.”

“Um. I–I like you, Kylo,” Hux whispered.

“You…you do?”

“…I didn’t mean now, but all right,” Rey said.

“Get out of here, man,” Finn called. “Both of you.” And then Rey and Rose were hustling Kylo out the door and shutting it behind him.

Kylo stood on his front stoop staring at Hux. Hux stared back and glanced quickly away in turns.

“Really?” Kylo said finally.

“How could you not have known?” Hux asked, almost pleadingly. “Have you never—did you never think—”

Kylo chewed on his lower lip and looked Hux up and down, eyes lingering on his mouth and wrists and waist. It was like it was his first time ever seeing him. How had he not noticed how, well, hot Hux was?

“Never,” he said, and Hux went red again. But before he could demand another apology letter, Kylo added, “Until now.” Hux blinked, licked his lips, and then suddenly grabbed Kylo by the ears and dragged him into the most intense kiss he had ever experienced.

When at last they broke apart, breath coming hard, hands still in each other’s hair, Hux ducked his head and looked up at Kylo through golden eyelashes. “So…dinner?” he asked.

Kylo had just eaten two pieces of pizza, and until about two minutes ago he had hated Hux with every fiber of his being.

He smiled. “Yeah.”