The wing that had been assigned to Ren was far from being the best of the Imperial Residence, but it was the newest, remodeled by the former owners just before the fall of the Empire. After the lord and the lady of the house had been exiled in those tumultuous first months of the New Republic, the palace had been made into an embassy, but naturally it had to be abandoned after the Senate seat was moved to Hosnian Prime. When Hux had taken Coruscant, a decade and a half later, he’d much appreciated having his pick of places to choose from.

Ren led him to what he’d clearly taken as his personal suite, if the overabundance of flashy décor was any indication. “Do you like it?” he asked, gesturing to the large canvas and rich curtains and the sculptures Hux was quite sure had also been flown in from Kuat on his own dime. Every room was made in a different color than he could see – the sitting room had been a light violet, and the small library a rusty red. The dining room was all gold.

“It’s a bit flashy,” Hux said.

Ren looked him up and down. “I suppose,” he began, dramatically. “That after a life spent on Star Destroyers one is bound to lose all aesthetic sense for anything that is not grey.”

Ren had a droid come in a set the table, which Hux had not been expecting. From what he’d come to learn of the man in front of him, he’d imagined Ren would be the type to have a retinue of attractive young people in matching uniforms whose only job was to hand him the right glass for whatever vintage he fancied at the moment.

“Please,” Ren said. “As if. I detest people handling my things.”

The food was brought in; some kind of thick, creamy mushroom soup and some kind of well-cooked, spicy meat. There were two sets of eating utensils and three different glasses, one for each beverage including a sweet red wine that had Hux refill his glass several times.

They mostly ate in silence, which Hux appreciated. The situation was entirely too strange as it was, and he didn’t think he could take another discussion with Ren at the moment. When they were finished, the serving droid came back with some sort of mousy berry cake, which looked and smelled almost as delicious as it was.

“Do you like it?” Ren asked, gesturing at Hux’s plate. “I’ve had to hire a chef. I hate to say it, but your people couldn’t satisfy all my dietary needs.”

Hux stared at him, eyes narrowing, wishing he could see into Ren’s head and finally figure out, once and for all, if the man was truly as prissy and spoiled as he looked or if he were just doing for the hell of it.

“That must have been tragic.”

Ren laughed low in his throat. He had a very deep laugh, and very pleasant, even more so when he wasn’t being entirely an asshole.

“You have such an esteemed opinion of me,” Ren said, which was – unsettling, to say the least. Hux usually prided himself on being hard to read, but this must have been the fourth or fifth time in the past few days he’d had Ren spelling out his own thoughts. He resolved to ignore it, and resolutely set himself to finish his dessert, acutely aware of Ren’s eyes on him the entire time. The man had finished with his own portion, and he was sitting with his back straight and hands crossed over his chest, staring intently at Hux’s face.

He could see it every time he happened to look up, Ren’s intense dark gazed fixed on him – his lips, Hux realized at one point. He pursed his mouth around his spoon, just to see what would happen, and saw Ren’s tongue slide out to lick at his own lips, large and wet and red.

He felt dizzy all of a sudden, and very warm

The wine, Hux decided. That had been strong wine.

He hastily finished and dropped his spoon into the bowl with a resounding clank that would have greatly embarrassed him otherwise, but the sound didn’t seem to shock Ren from his reverie. They remained still, Hux’s eyes locked on Ren, almost squirming under that hot stare, a flush creeping through his face.

He cleared his throat.

“Stop doing that,” he told Ren. “You’re being indecent.”

But Ren – damn him – only smiled. “Oh?” he asked. “And what is that I am doing?”

“Stop staring,” Hux enunciated slowly. “At me. Like that.” He grasped the handrests of his armchair and stood up to leave. Now he just had to walk, he told himself. It was only a few steps to the door –

“Like what?” Ren asked – he all but singsonged, that awful, awful man. Hux found his own feet were bring him around the table, walking over to Ren’s chair. The wine, he repeated to himself. That must be it. Surely he wouldn’t approach Ren otherwise, wouldn’t put himself within reach of such a terrible, obnoxious –

“Like you’re picturing me naked,” he heard his own voice say, and Ren kept looking at him just like that even as his smile turns wider and wider and he pushed his hair off his face with the kind of practiced offhandedness Hux knew well by seeing it every morning in the mirror.

“I have no idea what you’re–”

Hux kissed him.

The instant their lips touched he heard Ren groan, felt the soft burst of air over his lips and that mouth – that wet, warm, beautiful mouth – open pliantly under his own, sucking at his lips, tongue darting out to slide along the row of his teeth, demanding entrance. He pulled back to plant a close-mouthed kiss over Ren’s mouth, at the corner of his lips, over his chin and jaw.

“You’ve no idea, don’t you?” he said, words whispered against Ren’s skin, trying for teasing but only managing breathless instead.

He felt a pair of strong arms enclose him, two hands pressed on his shoulders until he gave in and found himself straddling Ren’s lap, panting. “None whatsoever,” Ren agreed, and then Hux bit at his lower lip and pulled it into his mouth and bringing their foreheads close together and he felt Ren shake under him.

“Oh,” Ren breathed out as Hux kissed a trail down the underside of his jaw, found a point just over the pulse in his neck that made him shudder. “Oh,” Ren said, and one large hand was in his hair, bringing his head back up so that Ren could – open his mouth and swallow Hux’s every sound, it seemed like; the interior of Ren’s mouth tasted sugary and sour just like that cake they’d just had, and the pressure of his teeth was divine when he sucked at Hux’s tongue, drawing him in.

Ren kept his hand in Hux’s hair as he kissed and licked at his mouth, held his head steady as he made a path down Hux’s neck, all over his throat and down to his collarbone, and he knew he should be telling Ren to stop before he left a mark, but he was too gone to care, his own hands busy trailing all over the well-defined planes and lines of Ren’s taut stomach, his chest, his back. He threw his head back and moaned as that mouth bit and sucked into his skin, breath hitching when Ren found a spot at the base of his neck that made him buck wildly in Ren’s lap, whimpering in pleasure.

“Yes,” Ren was saying. “Yes, just like that–” and his free hand moved from where it was tracing aimless patterns over Hux’s shoulder to down along his back until it was right above the swell of his ass, pressing down, urging him to grind down against Ren and so he did, feeling his hardness rut against the man’s thigh, the outline of Ren’s cock jutting against his hip.

“Isn’t this a little – ah – undignified?” he found himself saying. This felt like something schoolboys would do, not grown men – and distinguished members of society at that – but Ren’s lips were searing hot nibbling on that spot right under his hear and Hux felt him grin against his skin. He shivered.

“You’re the one who’s on a schedule,” Ren said, letting go of Hux and learning back in his chair, bringing his hands to his side and taking off the heavy, over-decorated red coat. “It’d get dirty,” he started to explain, but Hux couldn’t have cared any less, transfixed by the sight in front of him – Kylo Ren, it turned out, looked very, very nice under his stiffy robes, and Hux felt his throat go dry as he took in that well-muscled chest and bulging arms.

“Well,” he started to say, and Ren laughed, bringing his hands up to unbutton Hux’s shirt.

“Do I get the Imperial seal of approval?” Ren asked, dark eyes gleaming, and Hux felt himself redden even as he made a show of looking him up and down and thoroughly licking his lips just to hear Ren moan at the sight.

“I suppose,” he said, and suddenly he felt one of Ren’s hand slide under his ass as the man stood up to shove his trousers down to his knees and sat back down – it was too quick for Hux to really appreciate it, but he did take notice of the impressive display of strength. “You could have asked me to get off you,” he told Ren, but he just chuckled and kissed him once again, on the lips, on his neck, on that damned spot just under his collar that must certainly have turned purple by now.

“You’re a showoff, Ren,” he said, making quick work of his own slacks and easing himself out. Ren’s eyes followed him as he stated stroking himself slowly, once, twice, hissing at the sensation.

“I get that a lot,” Ren said, and then, “let me,” and he spat on his own hand and brought it down around Hux’s cock as he leaned down for a kiss. Their lips met as their hands did, wrapped around the length of him, and he shrugged, whimpering. Ren’s touch was warm and solid; he soon figured the trick of thumbing at the head as he rotated his wrist just so to drive him absolutely mad, drawing little moans he would never admit to making.

Hux bit down sharply on Ren’s lip and trailed his free hand down his chest, brushing his fingers over rock-hard muscle before reaching down to grasp firmly around Ren’s cock, red and swollen, head dripping wet. He trailed his thumb along the underside of it, experimentally, then increased the pressure as he pumped him through the circle of his fingers, pressing a pad over the slit to hear Ren’s breath catch and feel his hips jerk. He did it again, more sharply this time.

“That’s dirty,” Ren pointed out, though he didn’t sound like he particularly minded. Hux was at eye-level with the man’s neck; he bent his head forward to plant an open mouthed kiss over a tense tendon, watched the skin glisten as he pulled away, a wet mark in the shape of his lips. He dove back in, sucking further down, tongue flickering lightly over a dusky nipple as he kept working at Ren’s cock, pulling slightly and thumbing viciously at the sensitive spot he’d found just over the head. His other hand was still trapped under Ren’s larger one, clasped around his own length, and it was too much – he let his eyes close until he was plunged into darkness, and the only things that mattered were Kylo Ren’s throaty moans and the sound of his own ragged breath.

Hux finished first, spilling all over their joined hands in a long, bodily shiver. It wasn’t long after that he felt Ren’s breath turn more erratic, limbs trembling and hips thrusting, and he kissed a trail up Ren’s chest and throat until he had his mouth just under the man’s ear, lips tugging at his earlobe. “Ren,” he whispered. “I’ve been wanting to do this for weeks,” and he flickered his wrist one last time and suddenly Ren was coming, too.

When they were done, Hux allowed himself a few seconds to catch his breath – but Ren apparently didn’t need any time to revert back to his usual, pesky self.

“That was obvious,” Ren said, smug as always. “You weren’t exactly subtle about it.”

Hux leaned back so he could look him in the eyes, feeling vaguely disappointed. He’d been – comfortable, with his head resting in the crook of Ren’s neck. “Oh, please,” he said, putting the barest minimum of effort into something resembling a glare. “Like it was only me. You told me to bend over, Ren.”

“Don’t feel special. I tell the same to all my clients.”

He almost frowned at that – what exactly had Ren meant? – but he was distracted when he felt Ren shift and something soft and dry against his hand, and he looked down to see that he’d been handed him a handkerchief. He should’ve expected that, Hux admitted to himself. The kerchief was dark red with a silver pattern printed on it, and looked altogether too expensive to end up soaked in come, but he wasn’t surprised by that, either.

He caught Ren smiling, which left him frustrated. Again. Was he really this easy to read? Hux took in a deep breath, trying to compose himself. He really, really wanted to bring one hand up to fix his hair – but that’d probably be extremely unhygienic, handkerchief or not. And he wasn’t looking forward to having to get off Ren, either; the man was surprisingly warm.

Ren snorted. That was all the incentive Hux needed; he got up and fastened his trousers, then his shirt, and went back around the table to recover his still half-full glass of water, resolving to leave that wine be for the time being. He noticed with some amusement that Ren’s heavy coat had somehow ended up there, laying perfectly folded on an immaculate spot of tablecloth, and he wondered how Ren had even had the time to fold his clothes while they’d been –

His gaze landed back on Ren – still sprawled obscenely on his own chair, hair mussed and face reddened , legs spread and his spent cock jutting out, looking larger than any man ought to be when soft. That bare chest was just as impressive when seen from a relative distance, and a multitude of purple bruises all over his throat and chest. I did that, Hux thought, and he swallowed.

Ren’s eyes were fixed on him, just as intense as always, that perpetual half-smile tugging at his lips. He watched him scurry in and out the dining room, washing his hands and retrieving his jacket and trying to do something about his hair. After he was done he looked at Ren and cleared his throat, trying to decide what to say, but the man beat him to it.

“I’ll see you in five days,” Ren said – no longer quite as sweaty or flushed but still every bit as pornographic. “Sire,” he drawled. His smile was very wide, and very dirty. “It’s been an absolute pleasure.”

“Likewise,” was all Hux managed to say; and then he all but fled.