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Being that it was 2am in the morning, Hux was quite surprised when the doorknob started to rattle. He’d been curled up on the couch with his darling Millicent, rubbing her back as she purred contentedly, watching a documentary on Netflix, and enjoying a glass of wine. Perhaps he was awake much too late, but he was used to it from long nights working and didn’t tend to interrupt his schedule just because it was the weekend.
“Hello?” He called after pausing his TV, heart racing slightly from the surprise of it all. None of what he might consider friends were the type to appear unannounced at his door. Even Phasma, the closest to that type, would call him first. Perhaps not actually ask permission, but at least inform him. He just hoped it was just someone who got the wrong apartment and would realize it; he really wouldn’t be able to stand up to a burglar.
The rattling continued, then turned to loud thumping. Getting more fearful as well as annoyed, he set down his wine glass, the movement irritating the ginger tabby, who hopped off his lap with what one might think was a glare if she were human.
“Sorry, your majesty,” he muttered before sighing. Hux stood from the couch and pulled his robe tighter around his shoulders as he approached the door. He really didn’t want to deal with this; he wanted to finish what he was watching and then go to bed with Millie curled against his chest, as she usually did, not have to deal with a drunken idiot, the obvious reason of the disturbance as he started to hear strange ramblings from outside the door.
“Excuse me, but I thi--”
His words were cut off by a sudden slam! against the door. Hux jumped back in surprise.
“What the hell?”
Another slam and the door gave in, swinging against the wall with a sizeable hole by the knob, revealing a large man behind it, barely even breathing hard, which surprised Hux, given the amount of physical strength that would have been necessary for the door to break like that.
But more importantly, he had never seen this man in his life. He was sure of that, given he’d know if he’d seen such an attractive man before, but that wasn’t the point.
“Who the fuck are you and what do you want?”
If someone asked him, he would refuse to admit his voice trembled. He was not scared. He was also not a little turned on by that display of strength.
“Who’re you?” The dark haired man slurred, stumbling forward. “You’re not Poe.”
Poe fucking Dameron. Of course this beast of a man knew Poe. Who didn’t know Poe, especially given the strange people that often came through the halls of his building, all making their way to that man’s apartment.
Hux grumbled under his breath, then cleared it to speak up. “You better be planning on paying for that door.”
The man waved at him, moving further into his apartment. “S’not a problem.”
“Yes well. Poe is three doors down.”
A hum in response. Apparently ignoring him entirely, the man continued to stumble forward and eventually landing on his couch.
“Excuse me, what the hell are you doing?” Hux was entirely flummoxed; he had no idea who this man was, both in name, and in the fact that he apparently was trying to welcome himself to his apartment. He really didn’t want to deal with this. Especially not when he was trying very hard not to be a little attracted to this mess of a man.
He couldn’t help that he was quite Hux’s type. And well, the show of brute strength certainly didn’t help, even if he was beyond pissed about it--how was he supposed to explain that to his landlady?
“Bedtime.”
If he were a cat, Hux was sure he would be puffed up in anger.
“Your bed is not my couch. You must leave.”
“Comfy.”
Hux was going to strangle this man. Or he would if he thought he had any chance of overpowering him. Even drunk, he had broken his door down.
Just as he was about to reiterate his order to get out, Millicent once again appeared, nuzzling against the hand the brushed the floor. Hux closed his mouth.
A sigh.
He was losing this fight, he knew, and apparently his darling cat, generally not the type to enjoy anyone’s company (besides Phasma, but she was just a living exception), felt this disaster of a man should stay, given she abandoned the hand to hop up and curl on his chest. A very broad chest.
Hux looked away. He was better off not dwelling on this drunk man who was lying on his couch and stealing Millie’s attentions.
“Fine. But you’d better not steal anything.” He closed the door to the best of his ability, which wasn’t much, given the broken lock and the hole in the wood.
“Kylo.”
Hux turned back. “What?”
“M’name’s Kylo.”
“Very well Kylo. Mine’s Hux.”
Honestly, Hux wasn’t sure if this man--this Kylo--had even heard him, for soon after, he started snoring. A smile threatened to appear on his lips, but he refused to let it. Kylo was nothing to him, just a drunken idiot that had broken his door, no matter that he was attractive and had Hux’s pulse increasing and a thread of warmth curling in his belly.
Another sigh, and he went to his closet and pulled out a blanket. It was the least he could do. He carefully laid it over Kylo’s lower half, not daring disturb Millicent, before turning the TV off. He obviously wasn’t going to finish that documentary tonight. Pausing in the kitchen on the way to his bedroom, he glanced at the medicine cabinet, then back at the man asleep on his couch. Muttering to himself about idiotic crushes and general human decency, he pulled out a glass and filled it with water, grabbed a bottle of ibuprofen, and set both of them on the table in front of Kylo, removing the wine glass he’d almost forgotten there.
Hux finished off the little that was left and set the glass in the sink. With a last look at Kylo, he turned off the lights and padded into his bedroom.
Going about his nightly routine, he tried not to think too much of the stranger now asleep in his living room. Hux had been enjoying his life, even if it was rather uneventful, and now he had this. A complete stranger, drunk, breaking his door, and he was extremely attractive to boot.
Phasma would have a field day with this, he thought, amused, as he crawled into bed.
He tried not to think too much on why he wasn’t able to sleep immediately, though the reason was all too obvious.
----
Kylo woke with a great pounding in his head and a strange vibration on his chest. Groaning, he opened his eyes, squinting as the light only increased the pain. Raising a hand to the the weight resting on his chest, he found fur. Strange. Slowly, he lifted his head to find a ginger tabby cat purring away happily.
“Who the hell are you?” His words came out raspy.
The cat regarded him silently before leaping from her perch onto the floor, padding away.
“How nice.”
Kylo slowly sat up, trying not to groan again. Honestly, he felt like complete shit, his head pounding, a slight nauseous feeling in his gut, and he had no idea where the hell he was.
There was nothing about this place that he recognized. Which didn’t add up to a good story from last night, though, at least he was not in a bed and had his clothes on. So he would assume it wasn’t too bad, but still, not an ideal situation.
Looking down at the table in front of him, he noticed a glass of water (he hoped) and painkillers. Well. Wherever he was, apparently someone had the idea to take care of his hungover self. For all he knew, it could have been his drunk self; he remembered very, very little of the night before.
“So you’re awake.”
Kylo jumped, not expecting a voice to sound from behind him. He turned, perhaps too sharply given the state of him and the roll of nausea that flowed through him at the movement, to look at the source of the voice and then proceeded to try--and fail--to not stare.
Apparently drunk Kylo had done one good thing and that was find himself in the care of one gorgeous man. A man who was a total stranger.
That thought had his cheeks quickly warming up and his eyes pulling away. This was a stranger. He’d foisted himself upon a total stranger and he was just lucky he hadn’t ended up waking up in an alleyway.
“Who’re you?” he muttered, voice still raspy, with none of the heat he’d wanted when he’d only heard the voice and not the body attached to it.
“I’d ask you the same, except you did tell me your name was Kylo before you passed out.” The man moved into his field of vision, standing by the table. “You should drink some water and take the ibuprofen. It’ll help.”
His cheeks reddened more, he could feel the flush spreading to the back of his neck and his ears. Well, at least his drunk self was considerate enough to provide his own name.
“Still doesn’t answer my question,” Kylo responded, perhaps a bit petulantly, studiously ignoring the water despite the pounding in his head.
“The name is Hux. The owner of this apartment whose door you broke last night.”
“I what?” Kylo looked up sharply, again, a bad idea, mouth open. Fuck, if he’d done that...well, still probably not the worst thing he’d done drunk, but perhaps one of the worst he’d done to a complete stranger.
A thinly veiled snort came from the other man. “You broke my door and then refused to leave even after I informed you that this was not Poe’s apartment.”
Kylo groaned and hunched over, head cradled in his hands. Of course he would manage something like that. Of course he would attempt to go to Poe’s apartment and end up somewhere else instead. At least that explained the slight familiarity of the place; Poe’s was of a similar layout.
Something brushed his leg and he startled, lifting his head to find the cat that had been laying on him earlier rubbing her side against his calf.
“However, Millicent seems quite taken with you, so I suppose I can forgive your trespass.”
Looking over at Hux, Kylo noticed an odd sort of smile on his lips. His own lips quirked up slightly as he reached down to pet the feline that twined between his legs.
“I’m sorry about that. I...honestly don’t remember anything. Uhm. What...can I do? I can’t just fix you door, but…” He trailed off, looking up at the man, biting his lower lip. He really did want to help. One, because it was just the decent thing to do given he’d just drunkenly decided to kick in a door. Two, he really wanted to see this man again.
Even with his still slightly sleep-muddled state and the fact he was hungover, he could still appreciate this man, the beauty in his thin frame, sharp cheekbones, and red hair. Kylo couldn’t get enough of watching him, each careful shift of his body, the way his hair fell into his face, the not-quite-subtle shift of his green eyes down to--oh.
Oh.
His lips, the bottom still caught under his teeth, grew into a grin, knowing the other was watching them. Hux’s eyes flicked back up and flushed under his gaze.
“There you are!”
Kylo jumped, twisting around with a wince (he really needed to stop doing that), to find the broken door open and Poe standing there trying not to laugh.
“Sorry Hux, about this. I saw the dent and figured this human disaster was responsible for it.”
They both stared in silence at the man. Poe looked between them, grin changing to a smirk. “Did I interrupt something?”
Kylo looked at Hux as the other cleared his throat, their eyes meeting for a moment before he looked away. “No, it’s fine, Poe. You can take this, ah, human disaster. He did say he was looking for you after he kicked my door open, but chose not to continue on and instead stayed here.”
Poe laughed and Kylo felt himself reddening all over again.
“Yup, sounds like him. I’m really sorry about it all, buddy. I just thought he had passed out in an alley or something.”
“You know I’m sitting right here,” Kylo grumbled as he pushed himself off from the couch, ignoring his body as it protested his movements with pain. Or at least he tried to.
“Not anymore. Now you’re standing.” The grin on his lips was infuriating. He wanted to slap his face
“Poe, I’m going to fucking murder you.”
The curly-haired man only laughed again. “Yes, I’m terrified of hungover you,” he said with a roll of his eyes, shooting a quick grin at Hux. “I apologize again for him, hope you don’t take it too personally.”
Kylo looked back at the other man as he heard a soft laugh. A smile lit up his features and Kylo honestly wasn’t sure if that was the reason his insides gave a little jump or if it was just his hangover. “It’s fine. Millie seemed taken with him.” A shrug towards Poe before Hux looked at him. “Besides, with knowing where he was, I could make sure he planned on at least helping with the door he broke.”
He sputtered in protest. “Of course I would help with it! I’m not that much of a monster!”
Hux’s lips turned from a smile to a smirk, though amusement was still obvious in his eyes. “Well you didn’t even remember that you did it, so I apologize that I don’t quite believe you.”
There wasn’t much he could say to that. Perhaps he would have remembered eventually, but he had no guarantee of that. Hell, he didn’t even actually quite remember it now, though the reminder had made a few things fill in his memory enough to point in that direction.
Hux only snorted at his silence. “Yes, well. I’m sure you and Mr. Dameron have important things to attend to, so I shall let you take your leave.”
Kylo could only blink at that. He was being kicked out. Granted, this was still practically a stranger (though maybe he could get some more information about him out of Poe…), but he had really thought maybe there was... something in that look they had shared just minutes ago. And yet here he was, being shown the door.
“Right, let’s go, Kylo. And don’t even think about breaking my door down.”
Poe grinned back at him as he moved out of the apartment and back down to his own. Kylo moved to follow him out, though at a slower pace given his head was still pounding.
“Kylo, wait.”
The words sounded a bit more nervous. He turned to look at Hux, waiting. His bottom lip was pulled under his teeth and he avoided looking directly at Kylo.
Silence.
“Well if that’s all…”
Finally, Hux looked up at him, still biting his lip before sighing. “No, just...hold on.”
Kylo watched as he walked to his kitchen counter and scribbled something on a piece of paper before ripping it off the pad.
“This is my number,” he said as he walked to Kylo and pressed the paper into his hands. The contact lasted for perhaps too long, his skin feeling like it was buzzing where it pressed against Hux’s. His mouth suddenly felt a little dry and he could only nod. “Just so we can...ah, discuss the door and your plan to reimburse me.”
Kylo swallowed and nodded again. “Yeah, I...I’ll do that. Definitely. I’ll text you when my phone is alive again.”
Hux only smiled as he stepped back, their hands releasing. Kylo instantly mourned the contact, feeling the loss of heat.
“I look forward to that.”
---
Five days and Hux couldn’t get that dark-haired stranger out of his head. He had found himself thinking of those big brown eyes with every little glance at the door, even though it had been quickly replaced the day after he’d last seen him. It had been six days and that time seemed both too long and too short, like it had been years since he’d laid eyes on Kylo at the same time that it felt like yesterday.
The phone sat on his coffee table while Hux stared at it.
Six days. Nearly a week since he’d last seen Kylo leaving through the door frame.
Kylo had texted, as promised, but they had said little to one another, besides agreeing they needed to talk.
Mustering up the courage to actually set time to do so was harder than he had thought. Dozens of deleted messages and he still had nothing.
It shouldn’t be that hard, Hux reasoned with himself. Just a simple text asking when a good time to meet would be. To talk things out.
But every time, his mind fell into an endless loop of anxieties. There was no reason for this, he told himself. They could just have a coffee and discuss the matter like adults. It would be simple. Nothing weird about two men getting coffee. It wasn’t like it was a date.
The very thought had his pulse speeding up.
It was not a date. It was just discussing business. Nothing even vaguely romantic about that.
However, he couldn’t get that “what if” thought out of his mind. What if Kylo thought it was a date? What if Kylo acted like it was a date? What if it was a date? Hux was terrified that it could turn out that way at the same time he wanted it like little else he’d wanted in the past several years.
A series of knocks at the door pulled him out of his spiralling. He took another glance at the phone before standing and answering it.
Fuck. Fuck .
Kylo fucking Ren.
Hux’s mouth was suddenly dry as he stared at the dark haired man. Kylo’s head was ducked down slightly, though he looked through his eyelashes at him, those big brown eyes practically melting Hux where he stood. Shit.
“You got a new door already.”
This startled a laugh out of Hux. Even sober (or so he assumed given it was three in the afternoon; he really hoped he wasn’t infatuated with a complete drunk) the man had a strange humor about him that he couldn’t help but enjoy.
“Indeed. Maz does believe in the security of her tenants’ rooms, so she had it replaced as soon as she could.” Hux leaned against the doorframe, watching the man in front of him, trying to ignore the warmth that curled in his abdomen.
“Ah.” The man’s posture spoke of awkwardness as he stood there, glancing between the door and Hux, one hand rubbing the back of his neck. “Well I was just leaving Poe’s and thought I’d stop by and see if it was a good time to talk...you hadn’t messaged so…”
Hux only blinked a few times. All options for what he could have said in a message were taken out of his hands. This was happening right here and right now. He wasn’t sure he was prepared for it, but it didn’t matter.
Taking a breath, he gave a short smile as he stepped aside and gestured towards the interior of his apartment. “Of course. Feel free to take a seat.”
Only a nod in return. Hux tried to convince himself to relieve the knot of anxiousness bundled within his gut but it was impossible. This was all a mess and he wasn’t sure if he was going to get out of it.
Closing the door behind Kylo, he followed into the living room, decidedly not staring at his ass before they sat on the couch. Well, if his eyes had happened to glance down and see how dark jeans clung to muscular legs...well, who could blame him if they shifted slightly upward to see how they clung to other muscles?
He was all too aware of the flush that had been slowly taking over his skin since Kylo’s arrival, warming his cheeks much more now from that observation than before. Hux pulled his lower lip under his teeth, worrying it as he tried to look anywhere but at Kylo directly, something that proved futile, as his gaze was continually drawn back to him.
A soft meow saved him from trying to start this conversation, saved the awkward tension that had permeated the room, neither saying anything. Millicent padded into the room, headed straight for Kylo, rubbing her body against the man’s legs.
Hux’s heart clenched. He was so lost. If he were to be honest with himself, he’d known it from the first time he’d set eyes on this man, and especially so when his cat had immediately warmed up to him, despite Kylo’s obvious issues with personal property and space.
“So about the door…,” Kylo cut through the silence, bending over to pet Millicent, the little traitor purring contentedly under the attention.
“Don’t worry about it.”
Kylo’s head snapped up to stare at him, and he felt his blush grow deeper. Curse his pale skin and its penchant for turning too red too easily. “What?”
Looking at the other man proved too much once more, and his gaze was drawn down into his lap, his fingernails pressing into his palms as they clenched there. He took a deep breath. “Don’t worry about the door. It’s fine.”
“Look, I can pay you or whatever you want...I can do your boring chores or run errands or whatever.”
He couldn’t help but look up and stare at Kylo. It was preposterous, what he was suggesting. It was just a door. There was no reason for him to go to such lengths over such a silly thing. “What? Why?”
A shrug and it was Kylo’s turn to refuse eye contact, instead looking back at Millicent, still basking in the attention. “I don’t want to be indebted to you,” he said slowly, before his eyes flicked back up to meet Hux’s. “And, well. You’re interesting, so I kind of wouldn’t mind spending more time around you…”
His heart was beating so fast, Hux thought it might explode. Surely it was exploding and he was just hallucinating this in his last minutes on earth. This couldn’t be happening.
“Hux?”
Evidently, he’d been quiet for too long, just staring at Kylo instead of responding. He cleared his throat. “I would...be amenable to that.”
Kylo only snorted, grinning at him. Just that grin had his insides squirming again, having only just barely settled down from the man’s proclamation. “Amenable? Really? That sounds like something my grandf--”
Leaning forward, Hux cut him off by pressing his lips to Kylo’s, revelling in their soft plushness, everything he’d thought they would feel like against his own. The other man, having tensed briefly, relaxed, sighing into the kiss, bringing a hand up to cup his jaw, tilting his head just slightly. Hux moved his own hands, one coming to rest on one of Kylo’s thighs, the other wrapping around his neck, toying slightly with his dark hair.
Reluctantly, he pulled away, grinning at the slight whine his action elicited from the man.
“Shut up about my choice of words or I won’t invite you out for coffee.”
Kylo only grinned and pulled him back in.
Perhaps getting his door broken in wasn’t such a bad thing.