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A candle flame shimmered.
In the pitch-black room, living bodies seemed to shine with a bright warmth, like lighthouses for the lost. Hux watched the sleeping figures on the bed. The wife was a woman he’s only heard of, and the husband was a man he once hated. They knew a peace he could never know.
“Gen- I mean, Hux?”
The blanket rustled as the larger figure on the bed shifted. Kylo Ren sat up and saw him. If Hux could, his breath would hitch.
“Can’t sleep?” Kylo Ren asked.
He watched Hux’s mouth form a name.
Kylo Ren sighed, “That man died with the First Order. I go by a different name now.”
Hux made no reply.
“I see. Come, I’ll bring you back.” Kylo Ren said. He found his slippers on the floor and the bed creaked as he rose.
The other figure moaned.
Ben...
Just a moment, sweetheart.
Kylo Ren did not turn the hallway lights on. Instead, he took the candle holder.
“Come,” He repeated.
Hux followed.
Each of Kylo’s steps sounded on the wooden floor. Hux’s boots made no noise at all. He looked down on his own clothes. He wore the same uniform as he had always remembered - from the moment he stepped up to be General of the First Order, to the moment when the First Order exploded into debris and Nothingness swallowed him whole.
Hux was birthed by a kitchen woman and raised by war. He watched his mother’s friends light candles so that the souls of their husbands, wives, sons, and daughters could find home. He built the First Order to have his father executed. But he was more surprised by the things that went through his mind at his last moments, because they had nothing to do with the First Order at all. All he could think of was how Kylo Ren had reached out a hand for him to leave the First Order, how Hux had slapped that hand away, how he spent the rest of his life on the bridge of the great ship watching Kylo’s taking off, wondering what would have happened had he taken up his offer.
Kylo Ren walked towards a door. On the other side, Hux knew that Nothingness waited for him. He felt like an infinitely small child.
“Take all the time you need.” Kylo Ren said.
As Kylo looked upon him, his eyes shimmered with the flicker of a memory. He held out his hand, like he did once a long time ago.
Hux's fingers passed through his.
“You chose to live in the past, and there’s nothing more I can do. I can’t be with you anymore, even if I wanted to,” Kylo said.
Kylo opened his mouth as if to say something further, but looked away instead.
“Good night, Hux.”
Hux did not scream for him to stay.
Kylo blew out the candle.
And he was all alone.
Ben Solo walked back to his wife. The blanket covering her rose and fell with her breaths. She slept without fear of tomorrow.
“What was it?” Rey asked as she tugged her husband to bring him closer to her.
“A memory,” Ben replied. He laid an arm around his wife and drifted off to peace.