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The lavish steps leading up into the senatorial complex might be impressive to the regular citizen, but Supreme Leader Armitage Hux has no such ties to the New Republic.
He much prefers his palace on Coruscant, with its gold and red theme and the practical design that is exactly what he had requested. He’d only had to execute two architects for it, too.
Yet this isn’t a place he has much influence in and it shows. It’s a mess: people of different species who have no business there mingling and earning the attention of his loyal trooper squad, meandering hallways and walking through buildings instead of an objective course that leads him to the one place of interest in this planet.
The conference building, where Chancellor Solo awaits him.
Even then, it’s the man’s presence that makes it relevant, as this building itself is no different from the others. Hux can’t think of any other reason why he would subject himself to Hosnian Prime than Solo’s request, but he’ll maintain the notion that he’s here for politics. It’s a simple image to hold, the pretense of struggle that all eyes want to see against the private moments shared behind locked doors.
Doors that stand before him at long last.
“Stay put,” he orders his squad. They take their places next to the door like they’d been trained to do and leave him to go inside on his own without so much as a glance back.
Ben is sitting on an uncomfortable auditorium chair, legs crossed over the back of the chair in front of his. Hux rolls his eyes at the sight as the doors fall shut beside him. “Don’t roll your eyes at me,” Ben protests, perceptive as usual.
“Don’t act like a child,” Hux retorts as he takes the seat beside Ben’s, kicking his legs so he’ll lower them. “I thought you would have contacted me sooner,” he says once it’s clear that Ben won’t start this conversation himself.
He can’t blame him. Ben started something far larger months ago, when he killed Supreme Leader Snoke and let Hux take credit for it.
“I wanted to.” Ben takes a long pause, looking down at his long, dark grey robes as he fiddles with its edges. “I thought you might be...busy.”
Of course. As leader of a government himself, Ben has an idea of the challenges Hux has faced since the last time they met on that fateful day. The Order could have collapsed as easily as the Supremacy did had Hux not put his full attention in keeping it together. While Ben had no experience with such a crisis, Hux knows him well enough by now to expect such displays of empathy from him.
It’s been almost twenty years, he realizes.
Twenty years since that fateful day Brendol had sent him to his death and he’d found friendship instead. Twenty years since he was just an academy student and Ben a padawan and their paths crossed to bind them together for every day since.
Twenty years no one but them will ever know about.
“I have been.” Hux can’t and won’t lie to him. Even if Ben didn’t know well enough to notice, he doesn’t want to deceive him. “Still, it might have been easier if I could understand.”
Ben takes in a deep breath. Of course, he doesn’t have to ask. The two of them know exactly what Hux is talking about: his ascension to power at Ben’s hands can’t have been something Ben didn’t want or predict. As much as Hux teases him about his intellect, Ben isn’t an idiot.
“It’s not that simple. We can’t exactly hold a holocall about this,” Ben points out.
“I could have been here.”
“Because the new Supreme Leader visiting not just a Republic planet, but Hosnian Prime so early into his government is the kind of image you want your people to have of you?” He’s right, but the words sting him. The reality is that he can’t do everything he wants, even now that he’s one of the most powerful people in the galaxy, and acknowledging that hurts. “I don’t want to ruin everything you have, now, just because I want to see you.”
“You wouldn’t ruin everything I have.” Hux places his hand over Ben’s and stops his anxious fussing. “You can’t ruin us.”
Ben chuckles, self detrimental. Hux had thought that when Ben became a Senator he would be more self-confident, learn to trust himself, and in a way he did. Through holos, he followed Ben’s campaign and career, successful enough to grant him the rise to Chancellor, yet whenever they saw each other, it became obvious that he was still the same insecure kid who saved his life.
He’s no different now and neither is Hux.
He bumps their shoulders together with a hint of a smile, raising an eyebrow. “What are you thinking? Are you going to betray me and have me executed for political gain?” He jokes. Ben would never, he trusts him with everything he is.
“Come on,” Ben laughs, turning his hand so they can entangle their fingers and leaning his head into the back of his chair. “If I was going to betray you, it would be to force you to eat some actual food instead of your awful rations.”
“You’re a monster,” Hux jokes, squeezing his hand. He didn’t miss that Ben accepted the change in topic, but it’s too early to press. If he weren’t so curious, he wouldn’t consider it at all, he would be happy to bask in his friend’s presence. “Tell me, I might be able to help.”
“You want to help me ruin our friendship?” Ben words it like a joke, but Hux can hear the fear behind it. Whatever it is he has in mind, he’s actually worried that it might affect them. As if Hux would let anything get in their way.
“I want to help you stop thinking that our friendship can be ruined,” Hux corrects him, now nudging Ben’s foot with his. “It can’t. Ben, you’re all I have.”
“I know,” Ben quickly assures him, “but that’s why I’m worried. You’re all I have, too.”
Hux wonders for a brief moment what he can do to assuage Ben’s concerns without knowing where they’re coming from when it hits him. The way Ben is looking at him, his words, everything they had done for each other.
It all makes sense.
He chuckles, relieved that they’ve been such fools and everything is much simpler than either of them had thought. “Ben,” he breathes, letting go of his hand.
For a brief moment, Ben looks panicked, then Hux’s hand is on his shoulder and Hux is leaning in and just as suddenly as he had moved his hand, he’s pressing his lips to Ben’s.
Any shred of fear he may have felt leaves him when Ben kisses him back, soft and slow and everything Hux had wanted for so long. It’s perfect.
He moves back to pull away so they can maybe talk about this but Ben doesn’t let him, pulling him into another kiss as if he thinks they have years to make up for. Maybe they do. That’s one way to see it, but Hux prefers to leave the past as it is and see that they’re building a future instead. Still, kissing is nice.
It can’t, however, last forever. Though the smile on Ben’s face is so radiant that Hux doesn’t mind, he can stare at it for the rest of his days and be just as happy as he had been for the past few moments.
“Did that ruin our friendship?” Ben asks after what may have been ten seconds or two hours. He sounds like he’s joking but Hux can tell that there’s some insecurity in there.
“Never,” he promises. “That’s why you did it.”
“I want to give you the galaxy,” Ben agrees.
“You’re the only part of the galaxy I need.”
Ben laughs in happy disbelief and pulls Hux into a firm hug. “I never thought…”
He doesn’t finish the thought, but he doesn’t have to. “I know. It’s not your specialty. I mean, giving me a leadership position in the government that opposes yours?” Hux teases him, unusually happy as he is, with his face nestled in Ben’s neck.
“They’re only opposing if we want them to be. Do you?”
Ben makes it sound simple. Easy. Like they can just get out of this auditorium and tell the whole galaxy that the First Order and the Republic are one and the same.
At the end of the day, though, it doesn’t matter. As difficult as things might seem, with Ben at his side, nothing is impossible.
“I don’t. Although I do enjoy being Supreme Leader.”
“Then, Supreme Leader, allow me to be your Chancellor.”
Even if Ben hadn’t spoken it with as much charm as he can, Hux has never been one for resistance.