Chapter Text
Hux stepped into his new college, letting out a heavy sigh of relief to finally be there - the anxiety was gone, he’d turned up on time and ready to do what he loved. Now just to find his class - now he’d been told that he should wait in the reception area and so following that great big sign right in front of him was probably the best bet. It took only a minute or so for the wiry framed boy to find where he was meant to be - the joy of being at college was drained from him though when he saw the group of people all also sitting around reception… There was the group who were all clearly art students; something was always quite obvious and distinctive about those who were ready to get creative but one of those faces stood out in particular. And the bastard hadn’t even noticed him.
He watched as the black haired boy just sat there, staring at his fucking phone with those fucking obnoxiously huge headphones covering his ears and that stupid stupid little smile on his face. He turned back around so he didn’t have to look at him , taking in a few deep breaths and trying to calm down, ‘It’s not like you guys will be in the same class, there’s plenty of other people in this college studying art, too many in fact for the odds to be even remotely in favour of us having to spend another fucking year in each other’s presences…’ he snapped out of his angry thought train when some twenty-something year old guy with a ‘staff’ badge walked over and instructed all the art students to follow after him to be assigned their classes.
Kylo only looked up when the other students around him started moving and heading off in the same direction, he frantically grabbed for his bag and stood up straight - only to freeze for a second as he saw the back of a certain ginger’s head just ahead of him. His already pale face became even paler as in the back of his mind he knew exactly who that fucker was… but at the same time the rational part of his brain tried to convince him that ‘no, no this couldn’t possibly be the ginger he’d been fighting with for the past seven years of his life.’
Alas. When they finally got to the great big hall where they were to be sorted, Kylo saw the boy turn around and it was none other than Brendol Hux. The pretentious bastard he had never wanted to see again. And then he listened as names were called out and people were sorted into groups and he began to internally swear as both of their names were called out. No… No, this was not happening.
*
Hux had been on edge ever since seeing Ren this morning - and having been sorted into the same tutor group as him he was now even more agitated. This was like some weird nightmare and he was honestly hoping it would turn out to be just that and he would wake up, go to college and everything would be fucking perfect and roses.
Things got even worse when the whole class steadily filtered into the room one by one - and most of the seats were taken
very
quickly by those who already knew one another, leaving very few free for him to sit in that would keep him away from Kylo. He let out a small squeak of delight that luckily no one else heard when he spotted an empty seat across the room, darting straight for it and glancing back at Kylo who was several places back in what was left of the line of art nerds waiting to find seats.
And then the unthinkable happened. When Kylo did enter the room, Hux realised that there was an empty seat
behind
him.
*
The two boys managed to blank and ignore each other for those first two hours of class while their new tutor explained their expectations for the class and what the class should expect from them - it was when it hit the morning break that the two finally found themselves facing each other, ready to leave class. But they had unfinished business. And neither could find it in themselves to leave well enough alone.
At first they just faced each other in silence, Hux pulling his trenchcoat around his shoulders and staring Kylo down while the other just pulled his bag onto his shoulders slowly, the rage almost
visibly
building up inside him as he waited to see if Hux would say the first word until he finally burst.
“DID YOU COME HERE ON PURPOSE JUST TO PISS ME OFF?!”
Hux scoffed to himself and rolled his eyes in the most dramatic way that he possibly could. “As if,” before turning around and just walking away.
Kylo was seething as he stood there staring after him, going slowly red in the face until he felt the lightest of taps on his shoulder and turned to see a much shorter guy giving him a small smile that gave him the urge to actually smile back.
“Dude, calm down, he’s just a dickhead right?” the kid said softly - Kylo judged that he was probably only a year or two younger than him despite the baby face and big eyes, a whole look that did not match up with the way he’d just spoken.
“I guess,” Kylo replied, letting out a heavy sigh and starting to make his way towards the door, smiling a little as Finn followed close at his heels. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Finn, what’s yours?”
“Kylo.”
“It’s nice to meet you Kylo- is it cool if I spend break with you? I don’t exactly know anyone here and we are sorta sat next to each other at least for today…”
“Sure Finn. That’d be cool. I don’t really know anyone else here either.”
“You know tall ginger and stupid though.”
Kylo laughed properly for the first time in a while… he would have to remember that one.
*
Hux had found a table and sat on his own for break, but no sooner had he pulled a book out of his bag than the tallest girl he’d ever seen sat on the other side of the table. “Can I help you?” he asked, raising his eyes to meet hers as he attempted a polite smile.
“No, but I’ve been sat next to you for the last two hours and wanted to know what’s going on with you and pretty boy staring evils at each other,” peroxide girl said with a small smirk before holding her hand out, “Phasma.”
“Hux. And nothing. We just hate each other.” He was blunt in his reply but didn't see why any of what had happened between himself and Kylo was any of her business, still, he shook her hand and then dropped it fairly quickly. He disliked physical contact with people he knew, so he was very uncomfortable when it came to strangers.
“Mhmm. So what’s your beef?” Phasma was curious and honestly her curiosity always got the better of her.
“We just… we’ve not gotten along for a long time, he was the last person I expected to see when I got here and… now I have to spend even more time in his presence.”
“Yeah well we all have to spend time with people we don’t like.”
“Not usually seven years of time though.” Hux’s lips twitched up in the hint of a smile.
“Touche,” she replied with a chuckle before taking a bite out of her sandwich, “so what kind of art are you into?”
“Well I quite like textiles based work but… fashion as a subject is too confining for my creative needs so I figure I can take things down a fine art based route.”
“Sounds good. I’m more into applied arts, especially metalworking, jewellery isn’t at the top of my list of things to make, I like armour and swords better but there aren’t exactly many places offering blacksmithing courses.”
“Yeah, that’s true, I think I wouldn’t mind dabbling in a little smithing myself,” he replied softly, taking a sip of his coke, “We get to go ‘round and try that stuff out right?”
“Yeah for the next few weeks… I get the feeling it’s gonna be a bit of a ball ache but y’know… you gotta do things you don’t want in life,” she replied with a shrug.
Hux decided he liked Phasma. She was easy enough to talk to and her lack of shyness made for easy conversation.
*
When they got back to class Hux and Phasma were discussing the morals of Peter Pan as a story, how they’d gotten onto such a conversation topic they weren’t even sure anymore but it was a shared interest and that was always good when one was trying to make friends. However their enthusiastic conversation was cut short by a drawling comment from Kylo.
“Hey Huxy, who’s your girlfriend.”
“You know, I thought you would’ve worked out a long time ago that I’m not
into
girls.”
“Well fuck me then.”
“Take me for dinner first, dick.”
Kylo blushed and rolled his eyes before he turned away a little dramatically and Finn began talking his ear off about some comic books he’d been reading earlier on.
“That was rude,” Phasma muttered, glaring at the back of Kylo’s head with a distasteful look on her face before she turned back to Hux.
“I don’t think I like him,” she hissed quietly.
“Welcome to my world,” Hux replied with a heavy sigh as he pulled out some materials and began a quick sketch of Phasma’s profile while they waited for Maz their tutor to organise herself and start the lesson.
Meanwhile behind them Kylo and Finn were exchanging their conversation using sticky notes and doodles that took each of them a few seconds to decipher - eventually Finn grew bored of the game since Kylo’s messages tended to be too cryptic and had to decipher and the tall boy had to explain what he was trying to say under his breath anyway.
“So why’d you choose art?” Finn asked quietly, leaning very close to Kylo… in such a way that it looked like they were holding some sort of a secret meeting in their little corner of the classroom.
“It gives me a healthy outlet for expressing my thoughts and feelings without causing harm or damage to anything.”
“So basically you like it because you can break shit and call it art?”
“...Not quite.”
“Whatever.”
“So what made you choose art?”
“I actually always really liked sewing and knitting and my dad always made fun of me- but then my brother took me to this gallery where there were all these textile based pieces and it got me really excited and… I dunno I just wanna make art using fabric and sewing and everything-” Finn was cut off from his excited babbling when Maz gathered herself and began getting the classes attention to begin the lesson that was now running ten minutes late...
*
At lunch, Hux and Phasma found themselves a table very quickly. He was already prepared for her to begin bombarding him with questions about Kylo; the eighteen year old had watched her twitch and cast angry looks at the seemingly ignorant boy. The tall, blonde woman took a quick look around the lunch room before leaving close and practically hissing at him, “what is that boy's problem?”
“I honestly couldn't tell you and I’ve known him for a stupid amount of time now,” Hux replied rather boredly, resting his cheek in his hand as he sat opposite her.
“He called me your girlfriend - do I need to start wearing a T-shirt that says ‘hi I'm gay’ or something?”
Hux just shrugged and muttered, “his gaydar is just really broke I guess,” before raising his hand with a little enthusiasm. “High five, we can be the gay crew.”
Phasma laughed and slapped his hand before muttering, “you do realise most of the art department students are already ‘the gay crew’ right Hux?”
“Shush! We were having a moment don't ruin it!!!” he replied, raising his voice a little more and looking slightly happier as she just giggle a little and punched him gently in the shoulder. “You know Phas’... I can see you and I becoming good friends during this course.”
“Mmm… me too Hux. Have you heard about that Paris trip being planned?”
“I read something about it on the information sheet I got for the course - why?”
“How much do you bet they’re gonna make us stay in same sex rooms with people?” she asked with a small smirk, it took a few seconds for him to realising what she was getting on to.
“It depends on how intune the college staff is with the prevalent gayness in the art department.”
“True… there’s this one cute girl who I met last year so you won’t know her… but I’m kind of hoping I get to share with her.”
“Making plans already are we?” he asked with raised eyebrows before leaning across the table curiously with his arms folded in front of him, “you take her on any dates?”
“I plucked up the courage in the first few weeks of college during my second year - she’s a drama student, your age I think… we went on quite a few dates… did a bit more too,” she added, unable to help chewing her lip as she smiled at the memories.
“Nice to know,” he replied with a small snigger before pausing a moment and leaning back again. “How old are you Phas’?”
“Twenty.”
“Oh right… how come you didn’t-”
“Do the course sooner? I figured I could just leave school at sixteen and find work. Didn’t work too well though. Bit of a stupid move really because now I have to pay for this course instead of getting to do it for free,” she said with the heaviest of sighs, “Luckily my dad is not a homophobe and is well off enough that he can help me out with the payments. I don’t know how I’d get through it otherwise.”
“That’s good then,” Hux said with a small nod before grabbing his drink from his bag and starting to sip at it as he wondered how he would’ve coped if he’d taken a gap year and had to pay for this whole thing… Paying for a course where he had to see Kylo Ren every day would’ve been out of the question though.