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Hux is beginning to worry that he's letting things slide just because he's tired. Kylo Ren has worn him down, just like a child might. Enough tantrums and enough pouting, and even the sternest man can be exhausted into just not caring. This has to be the explanation for why he's just not as concerned, post-Starkiller, about Ren's mood swings, the way he went from sulking to furious even faster than he used to. Hux has better things to do. He has plans to make. He has to try and restore morale. He has blueprints to design--
It's late in the night cycle and someone wants entry. Hux doesn't even look up from his data pad, just admits them. He's tired. He doesn't care who it is. He doesn't, he's certain, care that it's Ren.
"What?" he asks Ren, so flatly it's barely a question.
"I'm sleeping in here tonight," Ren answers. It's more like a declaration, a statement of colonization. This is conquered territory. It makes Hux look up.
"What in the hell are you talking about? Sleeping in here? Go back to your own quarters."
"My quarters are..."
Hux sighs. At times like these, it's impossible for him to remember how his heart was in his throat at the the moment of Ren's rescue on Starkiller, how he prayed for the first time in years that Ren would be alive. How his heart was crushed into a wet red pulp of relief to see Ren was breathing.
"I may have wrecked it," Ren says, refusing to sound ashamed. He doesn't really sound proud, though. More like defiant. Daring Hux to get angry, like he would have before.
"Wrecked...?"
Ren taps the saber at his side with one finger, as if pointing out the culprit, as if he were merely a witness to his saber's naughtiness. "Everything's wrecked, and now, well, it's apparently going to be another day cycle before my bed can be replaced."
"You ought to sleep on the floor for your impulsiveness."
"I was considering it. But. You never seem to use yours. Shame to let it go to waste."
Hux sighs. He's got too much to do and he won't give Ren the satisfaction of a fight. There's always the chair in his sitting area. He turns back to his work. "Fine. Get in bed. Pleasant dreams, commander."
Ren blinks, as though he hadn't planned to get this far. Maybe he hadn't. But he says nothing, just strips to boxers and undershirt, which Hux is not, absolutely not, noticing from the corner of his eye. After a moment of silence, Hux adds, "I'm keeping the light on until I'm finished."
"I can still sleep."
Hux grunts in acknowledgement and continues his work.
It's a large enough bed, he thinks as he finishes a message to Phasma, eyes it for any missing details that need to be added. Even with Ren's bulk sprawled all over the place, there's plenty of room. After years and years of sleeping on Academy and military bunks barely bigger than the data pad he was now working on, Hux allowed himself the indulgence of an enormous bed when he became a general. When he finally finishes, an hour later, he carefully stows his data pad away for the morning, turns the lights down to five percent, and undresses.
He's not used to the bed being warm. Ren is like a little walking furnace. How does he stand his own heat, under all those layers? Hux wants to force himself to stop imagining Ren under his layers, but can't.
They're facing one another, only barely visible, but even in this light Hux can see the still-glaring scar across Ren's face. He'd seen it fresh, nearly glowing red, just like Ren's saber, when he found him in the snowy dark. Hux tries to control his breathing, tame his anxiety thinking about....
"You don't have to worry about me," Ren says in a low, sleepy voice, barely more than a rumble.
"You're a liability to others and yourself. Of course I do."
"I don't mean worrying about what I'll break or who I'll hurt."
"Well, I do."
"You worry about my safety, too."
Hux grunts again, neither affirming or denying that statement.
"I knew you were coming for me, minutes before you arrived."
"Did you think Snoke would let his star pupil die alone?"
"I knew you in particular were coming for me." Ren yawns. "I could hear your heart beating."
"It was a rather terrifying event."
"You were afraid," Ren goes on, "Of losing me." Hux can't seem him smiling, smug as a cat even as sleepy as he is, but he knows that that's what Ren is doing.
"You're rather essential."
"High praise from the General."
Hux is too tired of Ren's antics to argue. He has a long day ahead of him tomorrow. He knows Ren just wants him to scoff and argue some more. "Go to sleep."
Ren goes to sleep. Hux goes to sleep.
Much later, Hux awakens to find Ren's arms around him, spoons-style. How did they end up like this? Ren's breath is so perfectly measured and steady that Hux knows he's sound asleep. He wonders what's going on in Ren's head.
He's too tired to be irritated.
It's actually rather nice.
Hux doesn't mean to shift, to back himself up so he's pressed tighter, but he does, and Ren stirs a bit, and then goes still. All is so quiet, just the sound of them breathing. Hux is almost asleep again when Ren wakes, just enough to run his hand lightly through Hux's hair.
"Ren."
"Hm?"
"I do mean that, when I say you're essential."
"You don't have to tell me," Ren murmurs.
"And you think I'm pompous."
"No,no," Ren says, sounding so genuinely hurt that Hux immediately regrets it. "What I mean is, you literally don't have to tell me. I can hear it."
Hux considers this.
"You're not as tired as you think you are."
"I'm tired now," Hux protests, but he shifts in Ren's grasp so they can face one another. "Ren."
"Hm?"
"What upset you enough for you to destroy your room?"
Ren chuckles. "Nothing. I needed impetus to come here. I half suspected you'd check."
"You really destroyed your room to have an excuse to get in my bed?"
"Mmmhm."
Hux wants to be annoyed, but he can't help but be flattered. No one can say Ren won't go the extra mile to get the job done. He presses a kiss to Ren's forehead. "Back to sleep."
Ren goes back to sleep. Hux stays awake for a little while longer. He's tired, but not too tired to watch, to savor this, to send radiant thanks out into the universe because Ren came back alive and he finally was too tired to hide what he was thinking. Finally.