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Excitement filled the air. So many hopes, so many dreams. Young athletes from all over the world had come together to compete… to win.
It’s an honor to be chosen as flag bearer for the Parade of Nations. Hux was beaming, he was exhilarated and only slightly annoyed because some of the younger athletes were far more raucous than they should be.
After the Opening Ceremony, the Olympic Village turned into a wild party. Everyone was thrilled to be there. Those who were competing early the next day had retired and were trying to get some sleep. Almost everyone else was socializing.
Hux clenched his fists when he caught sight of his roommate again, having lost him in the crowd. Dopheld Mitaka didn’t look the slightest bit concerned about losing Hux; he had already found someone to share the room with for the night. Hux grabbed him by the arm.
“Don’t even think about it.” He hissed. Mitaka shook his arm free.
“Too late, Hux. Lighten up.”
“Where am I supposed to sleep then?” Hux asked indignant. Mitaka looked around and pointed with his head to a tall man with dark hair.
“How about with that new guy over there? Isn’t he your type?” Mitaka clapped Hux’s shoulder and left without another word. Damn him, Hux thought. But maybe he wasn’t wrong. The guy looked interesting enough, it could be good fun to let off steam before competing. Hux was still considering the pros and cons of this when he approached him.
“Hey, you’ve been staring at me for the past three minutes,” He checked his watch. “Do you want an autograph? A picture maybe?” The stranger said. Hux raised an eyebrow.
“Ren. Kylo.” He looked at Hux expecting a reaction. “Swimmer? Amazing at the World Championships? New hope for the country’s swim team?” Ren smiled widely. Hux rolled his eyes. A swimmer, of course. Well, he did have the right body. Hux sighed.
“Hux. Armitage. Fencing.”
“I saw you with the flag earlier. Quite dashing.”
“Listen, I’m not looking for anything just…” Hux looked around, Mitaka was long gone.
“Just a place to crash, right? I saw your friend left with my roommate.”
“Good. Maybe I could use his bed?”
“Mine is big enough.” Kylo laughed.
They were kissing as soon as they closed the door to the room. Kylo was all hands, tugging at Hux’s clothes, pulling him closer. Kylo took off his shirt and Hux admired his broad shoulders, all the perfectly toned muscles. He bit Kylo’s lip and when he let go, Hux kissed Kylo’s collarbones, his chest, until he left a perfect purple circle on his skin. They made use of a couple of the 450,000 condoms in the Olympic Village.
The next morning, Hux woke up when Kylo moved away from him.
“I need to go. Training.” He blew a kiss to Hux and went to take a quick shower before leaving.
Shit. Training. Hux pressed his palms against his eyes.
Hux went by the pool later. Not to see Kylo, he told himself. He had always thought swimming was a great sport and really exciting to watch and… who was he kidding?
He took a seat and waited. His heart jumped to his throat when he saw Kylo: he was laughing, putting his hair up in a tight bun to put on the cap. He took off his jacket and Hux caught himself staring, as though he had not seen that body perfectly well last night. Hux noticed the purple circle he had left on Kylo’s chest. He didn’t seem ashamed, if anything, he seemed to be showing off. Hux blushed. Then, one of his teammates put an arm around Kylo’s waist and leaned in to say something to him. Kylo laughed again. No, Hux was not jealous, that was just ridiculous.
Hux didn’t stay too long after that, he had his own training to worry about. He wasn’t sure Kylo was competing that day anyway. He told himself he didn’t care.
After training, he went back to his own room. Mitaka was there already, alone. Good. Hux was about to congratulate him on being sensible enough not to have someone over the night before he competed when Mitaka blurted:
“I thought you’d be consoling your boyfriend.”
“My what? Who?”
“Ren.”
“Why would I be consoling Ren? Did he…”
“Finished third in his heat. Individual medley. His time wasn’t enough to make it to the final.” Hux bit his lip.
“Why should I care?”
“Guilty conscience?” Mitaka shrugged.
Hux didn’t feel guilty. He reasoned in any case it was Kylo’s fault, he should’ve let Hux sleep and not exhaust himself before his first event. He thought this as he made his way to Kylo’s room. He was about to knock when someone came out of the room, it was the guy that had spent last night with Mitaka. He didn’t seem to mind Hux was going in.
Kylo wasn’t alone. He was sitting on the edge of his bed, the same guy Hux had seen hugging him earlier had an arm around Kylo’s shoulders. Hux turned around to leave when he heard Kylo say “It’s alright.” The other swimmer stood up and left the room.
“I suppose you’ve come to blame me for your poor performance today.” Kylo said.
“No. I didn’t compete today.”
“Lucky you.”
“So, you are blaming me?”
“No, that had nothing to do, I just -ah- couldn’t concentrate. I thought it would be enough, that I’d do better in the final but then it was over and I was out. By a full second.” Kylo smiled bitterly.
Hux didn’t know what to do, what could he possibly say?
“I’ll just have to do better tomorrow, that’s all.” Kylo ran his fingers through his hair, trying to appear calm but his stress was evident.
Hux felt slightly relieved now. He didn’t know how many events Kylo would compete in, but at least this hadn’t been his only chance to win.
“You’ll do better tomorrow, I know it.” Hux squeezed Kylo’s hand in a reassuring way. Kylo pulled him, Hux lost his balance and landed on top of Kylo. He wanted to protest but Kylo’s mouth was quick to find his. Hux tried to push him down, to stand up, but he was no match for Kylo’s strength. When Kylo broke the kiss to breathe, Hux scolded him.
“If you really want to do better tomorrow, you need to rest tonight.” He looked sternly at Kylo, finding his balance and getting up.
“Then why are you here?”
“I just wanted to check on you.”
“You were worried about me?”
“Don’t flatter yourself.”
Hux tried to avoid intrusive thoughts about pools and swimmers all the next day. He focused on his training and told himself he didn’t care when Kylo would swim. On the way to his room he bumped into Mitaka.
“Aren’t you coming?”
“Where?”
“Pool. Freestyle relay final.”
“Why would I…”
“Whatever.” Mitaka didn’t stay to listen. Hux was following him anyway.
They took their seats, there was still some time before the relay.
No, Hux was not nervous, thank you very much. He was gripping the rail because, actually what do you care?
Finally, the relay was announced, the swimmers introduced. Hux trained his eyes on Kylo and his teammates. They all had the words “The Knights” tattooed on the inside of their right arm. Hux couldn't see the words, but he'd seen Kylo's arm up close and the tattoo on the other guys' arms did look the same.
Kylo was the third to swim, he didn’t look quite comfortable, he struggled to keep up but in the end he blew his lead and the fourth swimmer had to pull a miracle to finish second. Kylo looked distraught. His teammates were cheering, raising their arms, waving. But Kylo knew he’d let his team down, they were counting on him to win and he almost made them lose. He looked impassive during the medal ceremony, he barely smiled for the cameras.
The guy Mitaka had been seeing waved at him on their way to the locker rooms. Hux looked around, waiting for some sign Kylo had seen him but he just walked on.
No, Hux wasn’t expecting anything. And no, he wasn’t hurt. The feeling in the pit of his stomach was probably what he ate earlier, it had nothing to do with the disappointment he’d seen in Kylo’s face.
Hux dug his nails into his palms, berating himself as he walked to the training pool the next day. He stopped on his way in when he heard Kylo’s voice.
“But what if…” Kylo stuttered.
“No one has to know. No one found out about my former trainee and no one will find out about you.”
“I…”
“You better take this seriously. I won’t tolerate another failure.” A thin old man was telling Kylo. When he noticed Hux was near, he stopped talking and walked away.
“Hey. What was that about?” Hux asked.
“Just my coach. Snoke.”
“What will no one find out about?” Hux pressed.
“Listen, I have training now. Can you wait here?”
No. Hux thought, but instead “Yes” came out of his mouth.
After his training, Kylo walked with Hux to their building. He didn’t say a word until they were in Hux’s room.
“Snoke wants me to dope.” Kylo blurted out. Hux thought he’d misheard.
“That’s a joke, right?”
“He thinks I’m not good enough. I think I agree with him.”
“Are you actually considering it?”
“No… I don’t know.” Kylo looked down. Hux slapped him, hard. Kylo was dumbstruck.
“Don’t be stupid. You will be ruined. So what if you don’t win now? You are young, you will have another chance, you can train harder, you can keep working. But if you do this now then that’s it. It’s over.”
“But Snoke…”
“He won’t take the fall for you, he will deny it was his idea and no one will believe you, he’s an experienced coach, he will just choose someone else to train and leave you to pay for it.”
“He will cut me from the team.”
“Then you swim by yourself. You made it this far, you must have some talent.”
Kylo held Hux tight. To Hux it felt as though a bear were hugging him.
“You barely know me and you have more faith in me than my team, than myself.”
“Well…” Hux was interrupted by Kylo kissing him passionately.
“And you slapped me.” Kylo touched his cheek.
“That’s what idiots get.” Hux muttered, taking Kylo’s hand away from his cheek and kissing it.
“Will you come see me swim tonight?”
“Of course.”
The 100m backstroke final. Hux arrived as the swimmers were taking their places. One by one, they jumped into the pool and waited for the bell. At the sound, Kylo propelled himself with his legs and was in first place after the first 50m. However, in the final 25m he was overtaken by two other swimmers. He finished third. He’d won bronze on his own.
Hux was slightly nervous about Kylo’s reaction. He’d disliked silver, what would he think about bronze? But Kylo was smiling. He smiled all the way to the locker rooms and back out to the medal ceremony. Hux waited for him after that but he couldn’t find Kylo anywhere so he went back to his room thinking bitterly that Kylo was probably celebrating with his friends.
His room was dark when he arrived. Maybe Mitaka was already asleep? Hux stepped inside carefully and almost yelled when he walked into someone. He couldn’t yell because that someone pinned him to the wall and kissed him roughly. Kylo.
“You could’ve turned on the light.” Hux said between kisses.
“It wouldn’t have been as fun.” Kylo grinned, his hands underneath Hux’s shirt.
“Mitaka could come back any minute.” Hux swatted Kylo’s hands away.
“I sent him to my room.” Kylo growled, his hands back on Hux’s waist. Hux laughed.
“You sent him… Well, in that case,” Hux pulled Kylo’s pants down, and knelt in front of him. “I might have a reward for you.
Kylo was in heaven. Whether the stress of the last days was fading away because of his medal or because of Hux’s wonderful mouth, this was the best he had felt in weeks. As he came all of the doubts he had faded away. He helped Hux stand up and led him to the shower, covering him with kisses. Hux didn’t let him return the favor though, he had strict rules before he competed, but he did let Kylo sleep with him.
“You looked way better today, much more confident.” He whispered to Kylo.
“Someone told me I must have some talent if I’d made it this far.”
“And you’re not mad it wasn’t first place?”
“No. I’ll keep working for it. But I am pleased with my effort.”
“I am glad to hear that. Now shut up, I need to sleep.” Hux said in fake annoyance.
Hux’s head was in the clouds the next day. He hadn’t noticed he was smiling sheepishly until his coach asked him if he was feeling ill. Hux shook his head.
“Remember to keep the tip up.” The coach instructed.
“Oh, he does keep it up.” Mitaka whispered. Hux went bright red and put his mask back on.
Hux couldn’t make it to the pool that night for the 4x200m freestyle relay. His coach wanted him well rested before his event. Hux texted Kylo “Good luck” but didn’t stay awake to see the reply, a gold medal.
The next day, Hux woke up earlier than usual. He would be competing all day. This was his day. He’d have to make it past the Round of 32, the Round of 16, the Quarterfinals, the Semifinals to make it to the Finals and claim his gold. He was prepared, he felt ready. He realized he hadn’t asked Kylo if he’d come see him. He knew Kylo still had to swim that day but he wondered if he’d show up. He didn’t see him at all during the first rounds, where he won effortlessly. He was probably still at the pool, Hux thought. He checked his phone during the break before the Quarterfinals “first of my heat! I’m in the Semis” Hux smiled. “I’ll see you there.” He replied.
Soon, Hux was fighting in his own Semifinals. He didn’t exactly struggle, but he had to admit it hadn’t been easy at all. But he’d done it, he was in the Finals, now he’d wait for his rival. He looked around the stands not really expecting to see anyone but there he was. Kylo, sitting with Mitaka, who had competed the day before. Kylo looked nervous, he was biting his nails, Mitaka was telling him something, pointing at different things, explaining.
The time of the Final bout came. Hux stepped on the piste, and saluted his opponent and the referee. Then he faced the side of the stands where Kylo was sitting and raised his sword again, then lowered it.
Kylo turned to Mitaka at a loss. Mitaka’s mouth was hanging open.
“Is that part of the protocol?” Kylo asked.
“I think he just dedicated this bout to you.”
“En garde!” The referee called. Hux put on his mask. “Allez!” Hux lunged forward.
What followed was a blur to Kylo, mainly because he was squeezing his eyes shut every time Hux was awarded a point and every time his opponent was. He could hear Mitaka laughing at him and cheering Hux, though. Hux won. He didn’t look particularly pleased with himself. This is what he expected of himself.
That night, Kylo came back to his room after winning his Semifinal to find Hux sitting on his bed.
“Where’s my roommate?” Kylo asked feigning surprise.
“I thought he wouldn’t like to be here so I sent him to my room.”
“You misjudge him, he’d love to watch.”
Hux laughed and this time it was him who pulled Kylo closer, telling him to undress between kisses, needing to feel him, all of him.
“So what do we do now?” Hux asked, his legs tangled with Kylo’s.
“We take it one day at a time,” Kylo replied. “I’m dropping Snoke. I think there’s a pool near where you train. Maybe there’s an extra room in your apartment?”
“There might be.” Hux laughed.
“You got your gold.” Kylo whispered in Hux’s ear.
“You did, too. And you could still win another one tomorrow.”
“True. But I also got something better.”