Curate, connect, and discover
*GIF not mine*
Summary: Someone left their panties in the control room after what must have been a night of fun and Hux is determined to find out who.
A/N: Small lil thing that I’ve had rolling around in the ol’ hat rack for a while. Hope you like it!
Word count: 643
“What the hell is this?” Hux’s voice when he was angry was all-too familiar, but today there was an added element of pure abhorrence.
Curious, you glanced up from your holopad to whatever the general had screeched about only to widen your eyes at the sight.
Panties.
More specifically, the black lace panties Kylo had torn off you after last night’s mischievous “rendezvous” in the control room.
Fuck. “Oh-” Hux turned his attention to you and maintained furious eye contact while one index finger continued to point at the pair of destroyed undergarments flung directly behind his main computer. “-Oh, my God, how disgusting!” you choked out, trying to avoid the burning of your cheeks. “Sir, I will take care of that right away for you.”
You rose from your chair and took two steps forward only to rethink your plan and grab two number two pencils, reaching for the panties and stabbing them ever so precariously. With pursed lips, you lifted them up at just the perfect height to make awkward eye contact with Hux over the torn waistband.
One lone eye twitched while the other was so wide you could almost see your panicking reflection in his cornea. “Burn them,” he hissed, “and never speak of this again.”
“Y-yes sir,” you nodded, “of course, sir.” As fast and discreetly as you could, you speedwalked over to the doors that led into the hallway.
“YN, wait!” Hux’s back was to you as you flinched and turned to face him.
“Yes, sir?”
Fuck fuck fuck.
“You hear any word of who might’ve done this, you bring it straight to me, understood?”
Hallelujah.
“Yes, sir.” Without another word, you dashed into the hallway, hightailing it as fast as you could run with your two arms precariously holding your own panties between a couple of pencils before you crashed into something solid.
“Oof,” you coughed, bouncing back and shaking away the disorientation of the collision, only to meet eyes with the very culprit.
“YN.” Kylo acknowledged your presence curtly as he had agreed to do for the past few months since your relationship had started. With his mask removed, you could almost see his eyes bug out of his brain when he noticed just what exactly you had been holding.
“Is that…?”
“Yep.” You nodded with nervous eyes.
“Yours?”
“Yep.”
“From yesterday?”
“Mmhmm.”
“Where did-”
“The control room.”
“Fuck.” Kylo ran a hand through his hair and breathed out a sigh, eyes still locked on the panties you were currently stabbing. “Who-”
“Hux.”
“Damn.” He nodded and gestured to you. “Does he know they’re-”
“No.”
“Thank God.”
“Yeah,” you scoffed and shook your head, trying to ignore the way even the sight of Kylo left you feeling. “Well, I better-”
“Yes, of course.” Once more, he nodded, gesturing to the panties. “You… do that.”
Awkward silence settled around the two of you as you watched the other over the outstretched pencils. Kylo’s eyes flickered with something more than you could decipher at such a moment while you squeezed your thighs together.
Finally, he made the first move to turn away and stepped aside to let you pass.
As you did so, a single hand snagged your hip to stop you in place before a pair of lips planted on the skin just above your collarbone.
“Same time tonight?” Kylo whispered, kissing the mark you had tried so hard to cover up.
“Yes,” you hummed, tilting your head to let his lips travel further up your already marked neck.
“Same place?”
“No!”
*GIF not mine*
Summary: After your very first mission for the Resistance goes awry, you can’t help but feel a connection to the Supreme Leader sent to interrogate you. However, when he lets you go after reading the name on your wrist, you can’t help but feel like the mission hadn’t accidentally gone so wrong after all.
A/N: So like… this was one of the dudes I’ve been drooling over for the past couple weeks. Just a warning, I’ve only watched the first movie of the prequels and even that was like four years ago, so I wish you luck. Kylo is just *mwah* so freaking pretty I couldn’t help myself. Enjoy my first fic about a *non-animated* person, and Merry Christmas y’all!
Word count: 4115
Hot. Dark. Dank.
The bag haphazardly shoved over your head blinded your eyes along with your other four senses. Stray hairs plastered to your forehead with ease thanks to the sweat you produced combined with the condensation from your own breaths.
“Please, let me go,” you sniveled. “I don’t know anything, I swear.”
Your hands flexed and tugged against the metal clamps strapped over your wrists, doing nothing but leaving behind a rash you yearned to soothe. The chair you were strapped into was more like a reclining board, leaving your head to rest on stiff metal while your feet hovered above the floor, ankles confined akin to your arms.
“I think you know more than you’re letting on.” The voice was gruff and modulated, giving signs that this was the masked man you oh-so wanted to be the last person to interrogate you.
It was frustrating and terrifying all at the same time. Not only did you have no idea what information they wanted to extract from your brain, you also knew your denial of such would only cause them to hound you more.
“Come on,” you whimpered, head slamming back with a clang. “Just let me go. Please.”
Silence followed your words for a solid minute before a whoosh of fabric met your ears.
“Leave us,” the robotic voice mumbled, causing two or three heavy pairs of footsteps to trail out of the room. What you assumed was the door hissed to a close with one final click.
More footsteps, these ones drawing closer to you, left you only to tense up in anticipation as the heat of another person took the place of the stale air on your right side.
The bag over your head was ripped away in an instant, causing you to gasp and swallow as much cool oxygen as possible. The light of the room stung your eyes less than you expected, most likely because it itself was dimmed with hues of deep blue climbing up the walls.
Taking in your surroundings, you immediately noticed your interrogator was nowhere near your field of vision--probably on purpose.
His presence, instead, was palpable behind you as the heat of his form rolled off in waves.
“There’s no one here to save you now.”
Though you didn’t need to be told that, the thought still drove a cold stake of fear through your heart.
“Come on, I don’t know anything,” you pleaded, shifting your position to try and stare at the man who seemed adamant on not allowing you even a glimpse of his form.
“Then perhaps I should stop bothering with the theatrics.”
The man the Resistance had warned you about was… intimidating. At least you knew you could trust them about that fact. Black leather covered every inch of his powerful figure, save for his helmet and cape, and a lightsaber was strapped to his hip. Watching the way his hand twitched just near the handle of the weapon, you feared he would pull it out and slice you right in half any second. Your heartbeat pounded in your ears but it couldn’t silence his voice. Sweat dripped down your face and clammed your palms when his head tilted to the side.
He wasn’t shy about observing you, doing so for what felt like hours.
“What is your name?” he finally grunted out, posture never changing. You, on the other hand, twitched and shivered every few seconds, itching to crawl into a hole and never come out.
Should I lie? Should I tell the truth? Would he be able to know even if I did?
This man held your fate in his hands. To him, you were just another prisoner to gain information from and deposit into the nearest waste planet when he was done.
But to you, he was the man who could kill you without batting an eye. It didn’t matter if you were someone’s soulmate or daughter or friend; you were just someone who happened to get involved in this galaxy’s war. A poor soul among many this man was ready to sacrifice in order for him to gain power.
You were nothing but another bug to squash.
“YN,” you dropped your head to your chest, acknowledging your fate. “YN YLN. And I still don’t know any information that might-”
Clang!
You flinched as the lightsaber crashed onto the floor, following its path back to the shaking hand that had dropped it. The man before you now stood stiff as a board but you could hear him suck in a breath between his teeth.
“Your name is-” he cut himself off and cleared his throat. “What’s your name again?” Unlike the last five minutes, his voice suddenly sounded less sure and demanding. He sounded unstable--one of the many emotions you never expected from one of the most feared people of the galaxy.
You hesitated, furrowing your brows before forcing your eyes to trail from his still-trembling hand to his mask. “It’s… YN.” You swallowed, licking your lips before continuing, “Why?”
“Your wrist. Let me see it.”
“What?” Suddenly, his every movement had your attention. You reared back in your chair and tensed all your muscles, trying even harder to rip straight through the solid metal. “No!”
“Show me,” he ordered, his tone now sharper than a blade.
To hell with him.
The second he reached for your hand, you ripped it away, keeping your wrist face down against the metal clasp he had unlocked to reach it. Just when he grasped your hand for the third time and tried to rip it away from your side, you did something that shocked both you and him out of the stupor of war.
Spit dribbled straight down the middle of his helmet, sparkling in the dim lighting of the room while trailing down every indent in the silver detailing around his eyes.
Oh shit. I’m fucked.
Ever so slowly, he dropped your wrist and straightened his posture, facing his head towards something just off in the distance past your own. You bit your tongue and watched his every move with a hawklike focus, knowing that a man trained as much as him could kill you in a split second without you even realizing.
Even when his hand raised in what you expected to be the last backhand of your life, you never looked away or braced for impact.
So you grew confused when his hand traveled up to his mask, which came undone with a small hiss of pressurized air.
Oh.
Oh okay.
Wow.
He was…. His hair was…. Damn.
This man, the man before you, was hot. Beauty marks decorated his right cheek as hazel eyes burned into your own. A long, straight nose sat naturally lifted above lips that seemed too plump for their own good and dark brown curls that had never heard the words “helmet hair” just barely reached the end of a pointed chin--all of which made you consider your sanity.
How-… how?
“Sorry about the helmet.” Nice one, YN. Apologizing to the enemy.
His face never changed; he only looked you up and down, properly this time. You were too caught up in the shock of his surprising allure to notice just where his eyes had landed.
It was only when you felt your arm being lifted away from your body that you were shaken from your daze. “Hey-”
“Hmm.”
Your brows furrowed. “‘Hmm’?” You tried to rip your wrist from his iron-tight grip but you soon noticed the effort was useless. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Your soulmate…” he trailed off, cheek twitching as he glanced away. “He is…”
“What?”
“He’s…” the man set his jaw and returned his gaze to yours. You only noticed there had been a warmth in his eyes when it was gone; all he gave you now was stone-cold nothingness. “He’s dead.”
His gloved hand dropped your right wrist and it only flopped down to your side. He’s dead. Whatever emotion you’d had on your face dropped in exchange for a blank slate. Tears pricked your eyes and yet you felt stupid for even mourning someone you’d never met.
“Oh.”
The logical part of you that had shriveled to the size of a worm still questioned the relevance of this all. How did this man know your soulmate? Why had he been so adamant on seeing his name in the first place? What did he have to do with any of this?
The man you still had no name for clenched his jaw and turned away as a tear slipped down your cheek.
“We have no use for you.”
“What-”
“You will be returned to where you were found. Now that we know you have no relation to the Resistance, your name will not be blacklisted and you will be left alone.”
“Why-”
He left no room for your confused--albeit broken--questions as he turned away and pressed his hand against a glowing panel near the entrance to the room. The door slid open to reveal a blinding, white hallway guarded by a single stormtrooper.
“Hey, wait!” You tugged against the restraints as your eyes stayed locked on his back, only to crash onto the cold floor when the clasps suddenly released. “Oof!”
Click. With his mask situated back over his face, he finally faced you once more, his soldier standing at attention by his side.
“I’m sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.”
+++
“YN, you’re back!”
The Resistance leader, Leia, glanced up from the holopad. Her dark brows raised high enough to meet her hairline as her lips separated in shock.
“YN.”
You struggled to meet her eyes or even fake a smile at the one who had greeted you. “General,” you cringed at your raw voice, feeling the onset of crying side-effects attack you all at once, “can we talk in private… please?”
Leia schooled in her surprise enough to nod at the other Resistance members, gesturing her head towards the exit just behind you. They filed out accordingly, each one more concerned than the last about your distraught appearance.
Finally, when it was just the two of you left in the room, Leia directed you to the table she stood at, shutting down the holopad so the only light in the room buzzed from the ceiling, flickering every two seconds due to the overgrown tree roots weaving in and out of each electric wire.
“YN, I’m so sorry we got separated on that mission. I never meant for you to be left behind like that.” Leia shook her head at herself in shame, but something told you she was avoiding eye contact for a reason. “Did you-... are you okay?”
“Yes,” you nodded, dropping into a single leather chair sitting at a computer a few feet away from the holopad’s table. “Yeah, for some reason, I’m fine. They-,” you glanced at your wrist before swallowing and returning your eyes to her face, “-they let me go. I don’t know why they did, but they let me go.”
“Did you-”
“General,” you interrupted with a shake of your head, “please, I need to tell you something.”
Leia got the hint and grabbed the second chair in the room, sitting with a straight back and hands splayed out on her lap. They seemed to twitch for something--something like a weapon to protect herself. You guessed it was a habit of hers, but since you had only known her for six months or so, you tried not to think too much of it.
Ever since she had found you holed up in your home hiding from the First Order soldiers that had attacked your town, she had taken you in. “Something about you,” she had said with a knowing smile, “I just want to make sure you’re safe.” She had treated you like her own daughter, much different from how she’d treat the other Rebels. Every two seconds, she would scan you for injuries or ask if you were okay. She’d even let you stay in her own home, in a spare room.
At least, you had thought it was a spare room.
It only took her two months of knowing you before she revealed the name on your wrist was her son’s. The very room you stayed in had been his, Ben Solo’s, and she’d wanted to make sure her son’s soulmate was safe and healthy in case she’d ever found him again.
She’d told you the story of how she got separated from him during a skirmish with the First Order and ever since she’d been searching for him.
It was only today that you knew she needed to give up the search.
“Leia, I-,” your breathing grew quicker and your headache grew worse and before you knew it, you were shedding tears. “Leia, I’m so sorry.”
The former princess tensed up and reached a hand toward you. “YN, what-”
“He’s gone,” you whispered, shaking your head and pursing your lips, “I found out when I got captured.”
“Kylo’s dead?” she breathed out, eyes growing forlorn. You paused, raising your eyes to study her face.
“What?” You sniffled, wiping away the tears and growing confused at her words. “What do you mean? Who’s Kylo?”
“The man who…” Leia’s words broke off when a sort of realization dawned in her eyes. “Oh.”
You were at a loss for words, utterly confused at her silence when you noticed something.
Her eyes. Her nose. The hair, the nervous habits, the “lost” family pictures, all of it.
“Kylo was the man who captured me,” you muttered, eyes growing wide and thumb running over your wrist, “but he’s not Kylo on my wrist, is he?”
Leia was trained in keeping secrets and her expression was as calm as one could expect, but it was only for one single reason.
She wanted to let you down easy.
“No, YN. His name used to be Ben Solo.”
“And it’s not anymore.”
“No. Now he goes by Kylo Ren,” she closed her eyes and dropped her head. “That’s his name now… in the First Order.”
“You knew?” A spark of betrayal flickered in the pit of your stomach. Though he was Leia’s son, he was also your soulmate. Some part of you felt like you had a right to know what had happened to him--especially if he had done something as significant as turning to the dark side.
Instead, she had lied to you, omitting just enough of the truth that you would stick around.
Lord knows you would have left months ago if you had learned of the person he had turned into.
A thought hit you--a terrible, painful thought that had you gulping and biting your cheek. “Did…” your fingernails dig into your palms to steady your breathing, “did you want me to get captured? By him?”
Her lack of a response was all you needed to know.
“Oh, my God. You knew. You knew the entire time. That’s why you took me in. You thought I could save him.”
“YN, please, I had to-”
“You didn’t have to do anything,” you clenched your eyes closed, resentment overtaking anguish deep in your chest. “You didn’t have to lead me to him like a lamb to the slaughter.”
More tears fell, and the one person you thought you could trust in this galaxy only sat by and watched, opening and closing her mouth without a single word escaping.
“I just wanted my son back,” she finally whispered, “I didn’t want him to lose himself like my father had.”
“Yeah,” you scoffed, licking your lips and rising from your seat. “Well, now you’ve just lost another person.”
“YN, wait-”
“I’m leaving,” you breathed out, shaking your head hopelessly, “so please don’t bother coming after me.”
Nobody said a word to you as you walked to the nearest empty craft and boarded, and the only ones who tried were hushed by Leia.
“Let her go. She wants to be alone now.”
+++
The bar was chattier than usual, though you blamed it on being a Friday afternoon. The outside was hot and though you could still feel the beating sun through the glass windows, the tan building was a hell of a lot cooler. Air conditioning clanked and buzzed as you cleaned glasses and bused bottles.
“YN,” the bartender of the night handed you a damp rag and gestured to a table just over the bar ledge, “stop moping around or I’ll cut more than your paycheck.”
You sighed and grimaced, accepting the dripping cloth before tiptoeing your way around the many customers already reaching their alcoholic limits.
Only two weeks had passed since the worst day of your life and you still felt the sting of betrayal and rejection. Not only had the man you were supposed to spend the rest of your life ended up being the daunting Supreme Leader of the First Order, but the woman you had almost grown to love as your own mother had delivered you straight into the palms of his hands.
You were lost and confused, trying to find some sort of way to keep traveling across the galaxy by making money anyway possible. Sadly, only bounty hunter bars seemed interested in allowing an unknown, unwanted female to wash their dishes and tables.
“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” you muttered under your breath, wedging a used fork under what must’ve been the third piece of gum stuck to a wooden chair that day. Gambling and poker around the room must have reached an all-time high as cheers and groans ringed in your ears. An all-around unpleasant buzz settled directly between your temples as you bit your lip, scraping at the gum harder and harder until finally--finally--the last string of green tore away from the seat and gathered around the fork’s prongs.
Forearm burning, you almost permitted yourself a small cheer in success until you noticed a change in the bar’s atmosphere.
Everyone was dead silent as the bell atop the entryway stopped jingling. The wooden door creaked to a close and five to ten pairs of heavy footsteps thumped against the dusty concrete of the bar’s floor.
Panic froze you like a deer in headlights, hoping your location in the back corner of the bar hid you from whoever had entered. You didn’t even dare raise your head for fear of drawing attention to yourself.
The person who had the power to silence a crowd of former soldiers, bounty hunters, and drunk mechanics was not someone you wanted the focus of.
More footsteps pounded on the floor, drawing closer before a familiar voice spoke up.
“Clear everyone out,” Kylo ordered. “Then leave us.”
Your heart jumped at his firm, mechanized tone and a warm wave of fuzzy feelings washed over you. After being by your bitter self for so long, you suppose the new emotion wasn’t completely unwanted. You just… weren’t sure if you were happy about its cause.
Eyes still locked on the tabletop, you listened as people filed out of the building without question, more than likely at gunpoint with hands raised above their heads. A solid five minutes passed before the room was left completely empty aside from you and your soulmate, and you chastised yourself for deriving some sort of pleasure out of the opportunity of getting to see him again.
“YN.”
“Why are you here?” You spun around to face him, surprised to find his hand outstretched and reaching towards you. Almost immediately, it dropped to his side as he straightened his posture.
Deep down, your heart glowed at his presence, and you hated it. You hated that even after everything that had happened, everything you had learned, that you still wanted to see him. You wanted to feel his touch and see his face again. And maybe, just maybe, you wanted to see your own name in your own handwriting on his wrist.
You cursed at whoever had placed his name on your wrist, because you were falling for the man before you before you had even seen his face twice.
Kylo’s hands raised from his side, pausing midway for just a second before reaching up fully and removing his helmet. Like before, it clicked and pulled away with a hiss and, of course, his hair looked untouched.
That said nothing of his appearance, however.
His eyes held dark circles you didn’t quite remember from your last meeting and his lips seemed paler. The brown locks, as you took a second closer look, seemed more flat and dull than you remembered.
Maybe it had been the glory of your first meeting, or maybe it just so happened to be that he was feeling as bad as you had been without having your soulmate by your side.
No, it wasn’t physical, like a stabbing pain in your side. It had been more like a piece of yourself had been missing; like there was a hole in your heart that ached and ached, but you just didn’t know how to solve it.
Seeing Kylo now made it fade just a little, but just as much time together would be needed to heal how much time you had spent apart.
The Supreme Leader set down his helmet just next to your forgotten rag and gum-fork on the table before returning his attention to you. With a twitch of a muscle in his jaw, he met your eyes and spoke.
“I thought tracking you down would have been hard, and yet you decided to find home in a place where information can be bought at any price.”
“Maybe I wanted to be found.” The words slipped from your lips without volition but you couldn’t deny their truth. You wanted to see him again because, though your first meeting had only lasted minutes, you found it hard to focus on anything else.
His lips twitched at your confession and he took that as an invitation to step closer. “I’m glad then.”
“Kylo-”
“Because you’re coming with me,” he latched a hand around your wrist, “willingly or not.”
Your eyes widened and some part of you screamed to pull away; maybe it was the logical part of your brain, or perhaps it was your brain altogether.
Either way, you didn’t care to listen.
“I’ll go with you,” you nodded, “but only on one condition.”
Hazel eyes met yours and he nodded curtly. “Anything.”
“Let me see my name.”
His brows furrowed for a split second before he released your wrist and removed his right glove, tugging up his sleeve and flashing just the minimum amount of bare skin.
YN YLN. Same easy handwriting, a little too heavy in the beginning but lighter in tone at the end. Your name was a bold black, a stark contrast from the rest of his paled wrist.
Without a word, you reached forward and snagged his hand, running your index finger over the name and smiling at the quick breath he sucked in.
You felt it too--the rush of pure endorphins travelling down your spine, through every nerve ending in your body.
Unconcealed happiness. Sheer pleasure. You shivered a tad at the giddiness running through your veins.
Kylo was much better at concealing his emotions, allowing only a small tilt of the corner of his lips while his pupils widened at the feeling.
“I’ll go with you,” you nodded, a small grin making its way onto your face. “I want… I want to be with you.” If possible, his eyes glowed even brighter and a hint of adoration creased the corner of his lids.
“Good.” Ever so hesitantly, he reached a hand up to cup the side of your face. “Then we shall rule this galaxy together, my empress.” You leaned into his hold and pressed a hand against his own, intertwining your fingers with his against your cheek.
“Just one more request.”
“Anything for you.”
“Stop wearing that goddamned mask.”