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Kylo was just pushing his dinner plate away when the tell-tale, mechanical schliik of the front door opening was followed by the quick staccato rhythm of overpriced, tailored heels clacking on tiled floor. With a quiet sigh Kylo leaned back in his chair to wait.
He didn’t have to wait long.
“Where were you?” Hux demanded, “How dare you ignore such an important meeting. You offended not just our guests – who, I may add, are very interested in destroying the remnants of the republic resistance that are hiding in their system but only with the monetary support of the Empire - but your blatant disregard for the meeting also insulted my rule and the strength of my orders. Not to mention the fact that your absence put my safety in jeopardy.” Hux’s fist met that table and the cutlery on Kylo’s plate rattled. “And for what? So you could sit here and eat by yourself like a recluse? What position do you think you would be in if I were to be murdered by guests because they felt slighted by the Empire’s ‘hero’ and blamed me for that slight. Showing your face and being sullen and unapproachable is one thing; not showing up and sending no excuse is a grievous insult and it will not happen again. Do. You. Understand. me?”
Kylo blinked and tilted his head to the side like a confused cat, “And how will you ensure such a ‘grievous insult’ does not happen again?”
Hux inhaled sharply and straightened his posture and tugged on his coat-sleeves, but even such a well-practiced mask couldn’t hide the red in his face from his outburst only moments before “I will take away-“
Kylo’s bark of laughter cut him off, “Take away what? What do you have left that I would want; that you haven’t already taken away from me?”
“These apartments for a start.”
Kylo leaned forward in his chair and propped his elbows on the table, “Oh, you mean our apartments? I know they may appear unfamiliar. It has been so long since you’ve visited; but the shelves still show off your trophies, awards, and military memorabilia.”
Hux was silent for several moments, his eyes narrowing slowly as he stared at an unflinching Kylo.
“Is this a game to you?” he asked.
“No. Nothing with you ever is.”
“Did you refuse to go to that meeting in an attempt to get my attention?”
Kylo chuckled darkly as he stood, grabbing the plate to deposit in the sink, “Honestly, no. At most I expected a strongly worded message on my datapad. Private visits with the Emperor of the Galaxy? Practically unheard of for anyone these days.”
Hux rounded the table until he was standing in front of the other man, his fury once more tainting his perfect composure, “You dare mock me? I have a galaxy to run, rebellion to quash, dignitaries to please and you’re upset that I don’t, what, join you for dinner?”
“And what if I am? Why can’t I be? You used to enjoy sharing meals; you said it was grossly domestic, yes, but comfort would roll off of you in waves.” Kylo sighed loudly, the twinge of pain recalling such pleasant memories would have caused him had long since dulled, “But you’re too busy and I long ago tired of trying to get you here. If I knew all I had to do was ignore a meeting I would have done it when it still mattered.” He muttered.
As the knight made to step around the Emperor, effectively ending the conversation, a glove clad hand wrapped around his bicep – not in an attempt to turn him around but merely to halt his progress in leaving the room. Hux’s throat clicked several times as he swallowed, his eyes never leaving the faucet above the sink.
“Does it not matter any longer?” he asked quietly, oddly subdued compared to the raging galactic ruler that had initially interrupted Kylo’s evening..
“You’ve turned me into my own father.” Kylo said, enunciating clearly.
“What?”
With a quiet growl Kylo shook off the Emperor’s hand and made sure Hux was truly paying attention before he spoke again, “My mother was a diplomat, a politician, she started the resistance later- after I was gone. But before then she was busy; all the time, she was working regardless of where she was. The city, home, at the dinner table, on the weekend, there was always a datapad nearby and calls during all hours that ‘must be seen to, it’ll only be a second honey, I swear’” Kylo smiled sadly at his poor imitation of his mother, “and there was my father, a hero from a war already won, a fighter with nothing to fight, a smuggler that was too infamous to properly smuggle, a figurehead always asked to retell the same old stories because his skillset was no longer required and no knew stories could be told.” Kylo shook his head and took a step back, realizing he had moved closer to Hux as he spoke. “You’ve turned me into that, and I don’t want to do it any longer.”
“What do you expect me to do about it? I can’t change how you feel” Hux’s faced was twisted with confusion and Kylo rolled his eyes, utterly unsurprised that the Emperor couldn’t understand – for such a clever man he was often incapable of following emotional leaps of logic.
“Delegate!” Kylo snapped. “You’re the fucking Emperor, and you don’t delegate. Hell, Armitage, I’ve told you this hundreds of times. Delegate and come home once in a while and maybe I would be more willing to sit beside you at your meetings and dinners and put on a show.”
“You should want to do that anyway, for your Emperor.”
“I put on a show for Snoke. I won the war for you. Stop speaking to me like that’s all you’ve ever fucking been to me. I didn’t fall for ‘Emperor Hux’, I fell for the man under the uniform of a General. I won a war for the man under that uniform. I don’t have an emperor, and since you’ve gained the title I’ve lost you. So no, I don’t want to do anything for you any longer and if you are too goddamned self-involved to do something about that then next time you come in here don’t expect such a pleasant reception.”
With that Kylo left the kitchen and locked himself into the bedroom, for a moment he felt the urge to pull out his lightsaber and tear the room apart. But these rooms still held pleasant memories and he couldn’t do that to himself. Instead he pressed his face into the pillows and dug his fingers into the mattress as deeply as he could, cursing himself for being such a sentimental fool.