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The last bell of the last period of the last day of school rang. Students bolted for the door in a squeal of stairs, ignoring Mr. Krennic as he shouted at them to put their chairs up.
Ben didn't join the stampede. Instead, he started going around the room, turning chairs upside down and putting them on the desks.
"I would have thought you'd be at the head of the pack, Ben," Mr. Krennic said as he started at the other end of the room. "Not that I mind the help."
"It's okay. I'm picking up Rey from school today, so I've got a half an hour to kill." That wasn't the real reason he'd stayed behind.
Once he and Mr. Krennic had finished, he went across the hall and helped Mr. Erso with his chairs, too. His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he ignored it.
"Do you have big plans for the summer, Ben?"
Ben paused, hands clenching on the edges of the chair, before answering. “Nah.” He hoped that would discourage any further questions, but Mr. Erso continued.
“That’s good, actually. Young minds need time to rest.”
“What about you?” Thanks to his mother’s programming the question slipped out. Mastering the skills of casual conversation will get you far in life, son.
“The usual. Meetings, planning for next year. We might go on a trip for a week or two.”
Ben didn’t ask who he meant when he said ‘we’. Mr. Erso and Mr. Krennic had never outright said they were in a relationship but everyone knew they were practically married. It was the worst kept secret in school.
They finished with the chairs and Ben checked the clock. Enough time should have passed.
“Well, have a good summer, Mr. Erso.”
“You too, Ben.”
Shouldering his backpack, Ben headed out. When he reached the front doors, he scanned the parking lot to make sure that Hux had given up waiting for him. He didn’t see Hux’s car. That was good.
The walk home didn’t clear his head like he’d hoped. His mind kept repeating to him, your last summer, over and over. Even Rey couldn't break his mood. It didn't seem to phase her, that they were walking instead of catching a ride in Hux's battered old Civic. She bounced along beside him listing off all the things she'd planned for the summer. He dropped her off at Luke's and then headed home. Tossing his phone on his desk, he ignored the little green light in the upper left hand corner of the screen, notifying him of unread texts.
He broke down after dinner. It was inevitable. He couldn't stay away from Hux, no matter how much it would hurt, come the end of August.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“You’ve been an absolute prick for the last few days, Ben.”
“Oh, you’ve noticed.”
“I could hardly miss it. So, what’s wrong? Out with it!”
“What’s wrong?” Ben laughed, a broken sound that ended in what suspiciously sounded like a sob. “What’s wrong is that you’re leaving!” he shouted, then rushed to add, “and I know, I get it. You need to get away. Your father’s an asshole and you want to put as much distance between you and him as possible. That’s good. I want that for you. But you’re my only friend.” More than a friend, he thought but didn’t dare say. “And I’m imagining what next year will be like without you and it’s going to suck.”
“Ben …” Hux started, and Ben cut him off.
“Look, let’s just not talk about it, okay? That makes it more real. Let’s, I don’t know, go to the quarry?”
“I hate the quarry.”
“I know, and you can bitch at me about it the whole time. Make up for what an ass I’ve been and get in some of your own.”
Hux stared at him, as if he knew Ben wasn’t telling him something, then shrugged.
“Fine, but only if you can snag some beer.”
“I can do that.”
Han was notoriously lax about his alcohol and Leia pretended not to notice. They piled into Hux’s car and headed out, down the winding roads that led to the old quarry. The water was blue at the edges and black in the middle. Ben had tried to reach the bottom several times and had never made it. After the last time, after he almost hadn’t made it back up again, Hux made him promise he wouldn’t try again.
Ben started stripping off his clothing as soon as he got out of the car and made a run for the pool. He splashed in until the water reached his knees and then did a shallow dive, heading towards the center. When he reached it, he turned around, treading water, and saw Hux still fully dressed, leaning against his car.
“Come on in, the water’s fine!” he called out, his usual taunt.
“Cold as balls, you mean. No thanks.”
While Ben swam Hux spread out a blanket and sprawled across it, a book before him and a beer in hand. He was so engrossed in his book he didn’t notice when Ben got out of the water, stepping carefully to avoid the crunch of gravel. He circled around so his shadow wouldn’t fall on Hux and when he got close enough, he shook himself like a giant dog, spraying Hux with water. Hux shrieked, then glared up at Ben.
“Happy?”
“Not yet,” Ben replied, and Hux’s eyes grew wide as Ben lunged at him.
“Oof. Get off me, you oaf. You’ll get me soaked.”
“Well, since you won’t swim….”
The wrestling match ended as it always did, with Hux pinned beneath Ben. Hux’s eyes were blue today, Ben noticed, and his body was warm. He stared up at Ben, bottom lip caught between his teeth, and Ben thought he might kiss him this time, he really might. And then a drop of water fell from his hair into Hux’s eye.
“Dammit!” Hux swore, blinking furiously, and the moment passed. Ben rolled off of Hux and flopped over onto his back. Staring up at the sky, he tried not to think about the warmth that still flooded through him, or the phantom pressure of Hux’s body against his.
Retrieving his book as if nothing had happened, Hux went back to reading, propped up on his side, his head resting on one of his hands. Ben snuck glances at him from time to time until it got to be too much.
“I’m getting a beer. Want one?” He didn't wait for an answer, shoving himself up and heading back towards the car.
Hux only ever had one, since he always drove. That one was still enough to bring a flush to his cheeks.
“Lightweight,” Ben teased, and Hux flipped him off, nose still buried in his book. He only had a few pages to go, Ben saw, so he waited. He amused himself by scanning the ground around them, looking for four leaf clovers. Just as Hux finished the last page he spotted one.
“Aha!” he exclaimed, leaning over and plucking it. “Here,” he handed it to Hux.
“Is this an Irish joke?” Hux asked. His accent had mostly disappeared after years of living in the states, but it still came out when he got excited.
“No, it’s a good omen. For this summer.” When Hux frowned at him, he rushed to add, “Because we’re going to make it the best summer ever. Before you go.”
“Ben,” Hux stared, and Ben cut him off.
“C’mon, let’s make a list of all the trouble we can get into. You love lists.”
He wasn’t going to ruin their last weeks together with his moodiness, he promised himself. He also wasn’t going to possibly ruin it with declarations of feelings, feelings that Hux might not return. If this was their last summer together, then he wasn’t going to waste a minute of it.
Grumbling at him, Hux still pulled out one of his notebooks from his backpack, and a pen, and opened it to an empty page. He wrote across the top in all caps in his precise handwriting.
HUX AND BEN’S LAST SUMMER
“First of all,” Kylo began, “we’ve got to crash Dameron’s party this weekend.”
Hux stared at him in shock, pen poised above the page. “No,” he said, horror thick in his voice.
“Imagine their faces!”
They spent the rest of the afternoon filling up the page, front and back. If they got through it all, he promised himself he’d tell Hux how he felt. As they packed up and got back into Hux’s car, he couldn’t decide whether he hoped they’d cross everything off or not. Hux had handed him the notebook and he opened it back up to their page.
“Okay, so the next thing we should do …”