Hello Kylux and folklore, I see two of my greatest weaknesses got together. So this is pretty inspired by Song of the Sea (which Domhnall's father did voice acting for, so it's appropriate) and I'll post translations for the songs too.
Eilis Hux was a great beauty, known to be sad and known to answer questions of her ancestry with a secret smile. Her husband loved her dearly, that everyone knew, but her love was all directed to her son, Little Brendol, who had been born unexpectedly while she was walking by the sea. She had given birth to him entirely on her own, stumbled back to the house with a wailing baby in her arms. When Little Brendol had first been presented, he had been wrapped in fine furs, the mark of Eilis’ doting.
Eilis and Little Brendol were always at the sea, while the elder Brendol was at work with the Academy. And Little Brendol loved her with all his heart, his father too absent and when he was around too terrifying. So it was to Eilis he gave all his love, going to the sea with her and listening to her lullabies. Going to the sea was his favorite thing, when Eilis wore her white coat and helped him into his own red one.
When the Empire fell, marked by the death of the Emperor with no living heir, Little Brendol didn’t know about it. On Arkanis, in their estate by the sea, Little Brendol had already been put to bed. But he was woken by Eilis coming to him and waking him. “Mum?” he asked, still mostly alseep. She was wrapped in a fine white fur coat, the one that every lady at those fancy dinners complimented and wanted to know where she got it. Little Brendol didn’t know why she would be wearing it, there wasn’t any fancy event that night, and they weren’t going to the sea. They never went at night.
“My little Brendol,” she murmured. “I can’t stay. I’m so sorry. Keep your coat, no matter what. And come to the sea when you can. Your father won’t let me take you, but I will always be in the waves.”
“Mum, wha…?”
“Shhh. Shh, go back to sleep, my little one.” And she began to sing, her voice soft and warm. “Idir ann is idir as, idir thuaidh is idir theas. Idir thiar is idir thoir, idir am is idir ait. Casann sí dhom amhrán na farraige, suaimhneach nó ciúin agchardú go damanta, mo ghrá…”
When he woke the next morning, it was to face the rest of his life on a starship so far away from Arkanis and the estate on the sea. It was to face exile and cold and dark. But at least he had his coat of red fur with him.
-------
The greatcoat had to make do. It covered him like his red coat used to, but it didn’t quite fit him like the old coat did. But like the red fur one, Hux shed his greatcoat when close to one he loved and trusted. As a child, it had been his mum and his father, but now that he was grown he was still shocked to realize that it was Kylo Ren that he was willing to shed his coat for.
It was unwieldy and got in the way of sex, he justified.
Kylo was holding him now, resting his head on Hux’s chest as they settled, and Hux found his fingers winding in Kylo’s too long hair, feeling the man’s breath in a slowing rhythm that was approaching sleep.
“Idir gaoth is idir tonn,” he sang softly, barely realizing he was doing it. “Idir tuilleadh is idir gann. Casann sí dhom amhrán na farraige, suaimhneach nó ciúin ag cuardú go damanta. Idir cósta, idir cléibh,idirmé is idir mé féin. Tá mé i dtiúin…”
“What is that song?” asked Kylo, apparently not as asleep as Hux had thought.
“My mother used to sing it,” he answered. “She sang it to me the night she disappeared. The day before my father and I left Arkanis forever, she woke me up and told me to keep my coat then sang me to sleep. After that, she was gone.”
“Your coat?” asked Kylo, raising his head. “The one you insist on wearing everywhere?”
“Of course not. I was four when she disappeared. It’s long gone. My father sold it, it helped fund the Second Academy.”
“One coat?”
“Of Arkani seal fur. Arkani seal fur is rare enough, but that it was red helped make it even more valuable.” Hux couldn’t tell why he was telling Kylo all this, maybe it came from the closeness and the gentle lay of Kylo’s hand on his stomach.
“How did a four year old have a coat of red seal fur?”
Hux wanted to share it with Kylo, much like how his mum probably wanted to share it with his father. But Brendol Hux Sr. would have had to be shown, and Hux couldn’t do that now, but the memories were there, precious and guarded, and Kylo could see those. And when he felt Kylo nudging at his mind, he let the other man in, pushing forward the memories.
Eilis’ soft singing, teaching him the words to lullabies and bright songs of seaweed. “When you sing these, you’ll always think of home, and it’ll nearly be like you’re there.”
Holding his mum’s hand as she led him into the water, following when she spread her arms and fell backwards with a grin on her face, her white fur coat soaked through.
His brown eyed friends come to say hello, looking to their mothers for permission before going to explore the cave and singing to the crabs to let them pass without getting pinched.
“Your father won’t be back another day, we can float if you want. But if you’re to take a nap, Little Brendol, hold my hand so you don’t drift away.”
Sitting in the private fresher of his family’s quarters, tucked into his coat and trying not to cry because it’s been three years on the ship now and this is as close as he'll get to the sea.
“The Selkies of Arkanis,” breathed Kylo. “They’re real?”
“Entirely,” said Hux. “My mother, Eilis, she was one. When the Empire fell, she took her coat and went back to the sea.”
“And your father sold your coat?” that was anger in Kylo’s tone and the tenseness of anger in his body, and Hux was oddly touched by it.
“It funded the Second Academy.”
“And tied you to land forever. He can’t do that to you.”
“He’s my father.”
“He’s still human. You’re more than that. Why would your mother have ever been with such a man?”
And soon Hux found himself telling the stories of the Stolen Pelts, how selkies were trapped on land by husbands who took their pelts. His father had allowed his mum her coat, and she chose not to run from him. There were stories painted on his nursery walls, tales of Owl Grandmothers who stole emotions and turned people to stone, of giant kings who hunted with their hounds, of fairies with hair so long that you couldn’t see their bodies anymore, of how the songs of the selkies called everyone home.
--------
“I’ve heard you trade in rare goods,” said Kylo, staring down the trader in front of him in the dark corner of the cantina.
“That I do. What are you looking for?” the man asked, raising a brow.
“Arkani seal fur.”
A low whistle was his answer. “That’s rarer than most things I’ve ever dealt with. Arkanis is hard enough to get to, and to catch one of those seals and skin it? Harder still.”
“I don’t care about the difficulty. I know there is a red pelt that went through the market at one point, do you know where I could find it?”
“Listen, if I knew where to find any Arkani seal pelts, let alone one as rare as red, do you think I’d be making deals here? No, I’d be living like a king.” The man really knew nothing. A useless waste of time. Kylo stood, walking away and wiping the encounter from the man’s mind as he did.
---------
“‘Caidé thug tú ‘na tire?’ arsa an dúlamán gaelach. ‘Ag súirí le do níon,’ arsa an dúlamán maorach,” Hux was singing, Kylo listening closely with a smile on his face. “‘Chan fhaigheann tú mo ‘níon’ arsa dúlamán gaelach. ‘Bheul, fuadóidh mé liom í’ arsa an dúlamán maorach.”
“And what is this song?” asked Kylo.
“Seaweed from the channel singing to the seaweed of the shore,” answered Hux. “She says the shore seaweed won’t take her daughter, but the shore seaweed woos her with a comb to groom herself.”
“Is this a song about how selkies are wooed away from home?”
“Yes. We like to keep clean, and a comb to groom our fur is very enticing.”
“I’ll remember that.” Hux rolled his eyes. “You said selkie song calls things home.”
“Or so the stories say. My mother used to sing in the mornings when she took me to the sea, I think it was her way of celebrating going home. I never felt any need to follow her beyond just wanting to spend time with her and wanting to go to the sea.”
“Is the sea home for you? Given the chance, would you go?” Hux didn’t answer that, just drew Kylo ever closer and sang,
“Dúlamán na binne buí, dúlamán a’ tsleibhe. Dúlamán na farraige is dúlamán a’ deididh…”
-------
The smuggler was more machine than man, so many prosthetics were attached to him. But he dealt with rare and entirely illegal things, and so Kylo met him in the dark den beneath the city. Above, the speakeasy flowed alcohol and above that barber went about his business. And through it all, this smuggler’s men waited. Were he anyone else, Kylo might have even felt a little intimidated.
“What can I acquire for you? Are you looking for a slave? Order’s outlawed them but there’s ways to get by that. Or something to take the edge off? Or something to give you an edge?” asked the man, clearly a practiced pitch.
“I’m looking for Arkani seal fur,” said Kylo calmly. “Can you acquire that?”
“Arkani seals are dead difficult to find,” warned the smuggler. “Why are you in the market, may I ask?”
“You may ask your price to obtain it, no more than that.”
“I’m afraid I can’t, not as easily as all that. Arkanis is outside of the Order, any craft going there from here is immediately suspect.”
“There’s one I know already passed through the market. I’m not looking for you to kill a seal. A red pelt. I know it passed through the market.” There was recognition.
“Can’t say I’ve seen it.”
“But you know of it.”
“Maybe I do, but it’s in private hands now. That red pelt could let a man live like a king. There’s no use for pelts, not practical ones, anyway. Whoever bought it has to sell it at some point. I’ve been waiting for it to be sold for years now.”
“If you can’t get it, then or business is done. Thank you for your time.”
----------
“Ma ‘s e ‘n cluasag dhut a’ ghaineamh, ma ‘s e leadbaidh dhut an fheamainn, ma ‘s e ‘n t-iasg do choinnleann geala, ma ‘se na ròin do luchd-faire, ò hi shiùbhlainn leat. Hì rì bhò ru bhì, hì rì bhò hò rinn o ho, Ailein Duinn, ò hi shiubhlainn leat,” sang Hux, this time held against Kylo’s chest, his voice quieted against the Knight’s chest. The song was slow, sad, lamenting of something.
He didn’t say a word when Hux was done, not until Hux asked, “Where have you been? You’ve been gone so often now.”
“Business. I’m sorry.” Hux hummed against his chest, quietly. “What was that song about?”
“A drowned lover, dark haired Ailein. The one who lived would follow them if they could, but they can’t. So instead, they drink what’s left of the heart’s blood.” Kylo started to hear such a sudden violent end to the lament, but it only made Hux laugh and said, “Selkies are hunters, Kylo. All Arkani seals are.”
“Are you going to drink my heart’s blood?”
“Not unless you do something stupid and die,” said Hux, a finger tapping over Kylo’s heart, the nail more than the pad, a quiet reminder. But all it did was make Kylo press a kiss into Hux’s hair and say,
“I can’t follow you into the sea. If you were to go back, what am I to do?” Hux said nothing, merely pressed closer.
--------
Yunta Winf was one of the richest gang lords who operated just below Order jurisdiction. They couldn’t find anything concrete on her, but they knew what she did. They just couldn’t legally go in and take her out of power. But that worked for Kylo, who entered her manor with no less than twenty mercenaries keeping watch within each room. They were opulent, decorated with spoils of her looting.
Yunta herself was at dinner when Kylo entered, and waved him to a seat. He sat, but didn’t touch anything before him. “I hear you’re in the market for rare and exotic goods from outside the Order. Lucky for you, so am I,” she said, gesturing grandly to what was around them. “I’ve also heard you’ve got credit to pay for most things. Or at least your employer does. Now what is it your employer is looking for?”
“He’s looking for one specific item, one that he knows passed through the market years ago. A red Arkani seal pelt.”
Yunta’s smile never flickered, but Kylo could sense the shift in her mind. That pelt, he saw, lay on her bed. He would have shuddered were he anyone else to see that she liked fucking on that pelt more than anything else. The feel of it against her naked skin, the knowledge that such a luxurious fur was hers to do what she pleased with it, it made Kylo want to slay her where she sat for ever laying claim to Hux’s pelt let alone for what disrespect she showed it.
And if he did slay her, leaving her and her guards sprawled around the feast, who was going to criticize him for ridding the Order of such a criminal?
Walking out of her manor with that soft red pelt in his arms, Kylo decided he would at least clean the damn thing before giving it back to Hux.
[Fill] Between the Here, Between the Now (1/2)
Eilis Hux was a great beauty, known to be sad and known to answer questions of her ancestry with a secret smile. Her husband loved her dearly, that everyone knew, but her love was all directed to her son, Little Brendol, who had been born unexpectedly while she was walking by the sea. She had given birth to him entirely on her own, stumbled back to the house with a wailing baby in her arms. When Little Brendol had first been presented, he had been wrapped in fine furs, the mark of Eilis’ doting.
Eilis and Little Brendol were always at the sea, while the elder Brendol was at work with the Academy. And Little Brendol loved her with all his heart, his father too absent and when he was around too terrifying. So it was to Eilis he gave all his love, going to the sea with her and listening to her lullabies. Going to the sea was his favorite thing, when Eilis wore her white coat and helped him into his own red one.
When the Empire fell, marked by the death of the Emperor with no living heir, Little Brendol didn’t know about it. On Arkanis, in their estate by the sea, Little Brendol had already been put to bed. But he was woken by Eilis coming to him and waking him. “Mum?” he asked, still mostly alseep. She was wrapped in a fine white fur coat, the one that every lady at those fancy dinners complimented and wanted to know where she got it. Little Brendol didn’t know why she would be wearing it, there wasn’t any fancy event that night, and they weren’t going to the sea. They never went at night.
“My little Brendol,” she murmured. “I can’t stay. I’m so sorry. Keep your coat, no matter what. And come to the sea when you can. Your father won’t let me take you, but I will always be in the waves.”
“Mum, wha…?”
“Shhh. Shh, go back to sleep, my little one.” And she began to sing, her voice soft and warm. “Idir ann is idir as, idir thuaidh is idir theas. Idir thiar is idir thoir, idir am is idir ait. Casann sí dhom amhrán na farraige, suaimhneach nó ciúin agchardú go damanta, mo ghrá…”
When he woke the next morning, it was to face the rest of his life on a starship so far away from Arkanis and the estate on the sea. It was to face exile and cold and dark. But at least he had his coat of red fur with him.
-------
The greatcoat had to make do. It covered him like his red coat used to, but it didn’t quite fit him like the old coat did. But like the red fur one, Hux shed his greatcoat when close to one he loved and trusted. As a child, it had been his mum and his father, but now that he was grown he was still shocked to realize that it was Kylo Ren that he was willing to shed his coat for.
It was unwieldy and got in the way of sex, he justified.
Kylo was holding him now, resting his head on Hux’s chest as they settled, and Hux found his fingers winding in Kylo’s too long hair, feeling the man’s breath in a slowing rhythm that was approaching sleep.
“Idir gaoth is idir tonn,” he sang softly, barely realizing he was doing it. “Idir tuilleadh is idir gann. Casann sí dhom amhrán na farraige, suaimhneach nó ciúin ag cuardú go damanta. Idir cósta, idir cléibh,idirmé is idir mé féin. Tá mé i dtiúin…”
“What is that song?” asked Kylo, apparently not as asleep as Hux had thought.
“My mother used to sing it,” he answered. “She sang it to me the night she disappeared. The day before my father and I left Arkanis forever, she woke me up and told me to keep my coat then sang me to sleep. After that, she was gone.”
“Your coat?” asked Kylo, raising his head. “The one you insist on wearing everywhere?”
“Of course not. I was four when she disappeared. It’s long gone. My father sold it, it helped fund the Second Academy.”
“One coat?”
“Of Arkani seal fur. Arkani seal fur is rare enough, but that it was red helped make it even more valuable.” Hux couldn’t tell why he was telling Kylo all this, maybe it came from the closeness and the gentle lay of Kylo’s hand on his stomach.
“How did a four year old have a coat of red seal fur?”
Hux wanted to share it with Kylo, much like how his mum probably wanted to share it with his father. But Brendol Hux Sr. would have had to be shown, and Hux couldn’t do that now, but the memories were there, precious and guarded, and Kylo could see those. And when he felt Kylo nudging at his mind, he let the other man in, pushing forward the memories.
Eilis’ soft singing, teaching him the words to lullabies and bright songs of seaweed. “When you sing these, you’ll always think of home, and it’ll nearly be like you’re there.”
Holding his mum’s hand as she led him into the water, following when she spread her arms and fell backwards with a grin on her face, her white fur coat soaked through.
His brown eyed friends come to say hello, looking to their mothers for permission before going to explore the cave and singing to the crabs to let them pass without getting pinched.
“Your father won’t be back another day, we can float if you want. But if you’re to take a nap, Little Brendol, hold my hand so you don’t drift away.”
Sitting in the private fresher of his family’s quarters, tucked into his coat and trying not to cry because it’s been three years on the ship now and this is as close as he'll get to the sea.
“The Selkies of Arkanis,” breathed Kylo. “They’re real?”
“Entirely,” said Hux. “My mother, Eilis, she was one. When the Empire fell, she took her coat and went back to the sea.”
“And your father sold your coat?” that was anger in Kylo’s tone and the tenseness of anger in his body, and Hux was oddly touched by it.
“It funded the Second Academy.”
“And tied you to land forever. He can’t do that to you.”
“He’s my father.”
“He’s still human. You’re more than that. Why would your mother have ever been with such a man?”
And soon Hux found himself telling the stories of the Stolen Pelts, how selkies were trapped on land by husbands who took their pelts. His father had allowed his mum her coat, and she chose not to run from him. There were stories painted on his nursery walls, tales of Owl Grandmothers who stole emotions and turned people to stone, of giant kings who hunted with their hounds, of fairies with hair so long that you couldn’t see their bodies anymore, of how the songs of the selkies called everyone home.
--------
“I’ve heard you trade in rare goods,” said Kylo, staring down the trader in front of him in the dark corner of the cantina.
“That I do. What are you looking for?” the man asked, raising a brow.
“Arkani seal fur.”
A low whistle was his answer. “That’s rarer than most things I’ve ever dealt with. Arkanis is hard enough to get to, and to catch one of those seals and skin it? Harder still.”
“I don’t care about the difficulty. I know there is a red pelt that went through the market at one point, do you know where I could find it?”
“Listen, if I knew where to find any Arkani seal pelts, let alone one as rare as red, do you think I’d be making deals here? No, I’d be living like a king.” The man really knew nothing. A useless waste of time. Kylo stood, walking away and wiping the encounter from the man’s mind as he did.
---------
“‘Caidé thug tú ‘na tire?’ arsa an dúlamán gaelach. ‘Ag súirí le do níon,’ arsa an dúlamán maorach,” Hux was singing, Kylo listening closely with a smile on his face. “‘Chan fhaigheann tú mo ‘níon’ arsa dúlamán gaelach. ‘Bheul, fuadóidh mé liom í’ arsa an dúlamán maorach.”
“And what is this song?” asked Kylo.
“Seaweed from the channel singing to the seaweed of the shore,” answered Hux. “She says the shore seaweed won’t take her daughter, but the shore seaweed woos her with a comb to groom herself.”
“Is this a song about how selkies are wooed away from home?”
“Yes. We like to keep clean, and a comb to groom our fur is very enticing.”
“I’ll remember that.” Hux rolled his eyes. “You said selkie song calls things home.”
“Or so the stories say. My mother used to sing in the mornings when she took me to the sea, I think it was her way of celebrating going home. I never felt any need to follow her beyond just wanting to spend time with her and wanting to go to the sea.”
“Is the sea home for you? Given the chance, would you go?” Hux didn’t answer that, just drew Kylo ever closer and sang,
“Dúlamán na binne buí, dúlamán a’ tsleibhe. Dúlamán na farraige is dúlamán a’ deididh…”
-------
The smuggler was more machine than man, so many prosthetics were attached to him. But he dealt with rare and entirely illegal things, and so Kylo met him in the dark den beneath the city. Above, the speakeasy flowed alcohol and above that barber went about his business. And through it all, this smuggler’s men waited. Were he anyone else, Kylo might have even felt a little intimidated.
“What can I acquire for you? Are you looking for a slave? Order’s outlawed them but there’s ways to get by that. Or something to take the edge off? Or something to give you an edge?” asked the man, clearly a practiced pitch.
“I’m looking for Arkani seal fur,” said Kylo calmly. “Can you acquire that?”
“Arkani seals are dead difficult to find,” warned the smuggler. “Why are you in the market, may I ask?”
“You may ask your price to obtain it, no more than that.”
“I’m afraid I can’t, not as easily as all that. Arkanis is outside of the Order, any craft going there from here is immediately suspect.”
“There’s one I know already passed through the market. I’m not looking for you to kill a seal. A red pelt. I know it passed through the market.” There was recognition.
“Can’t say I’ve seen it.”
“But you know of it.”
“Maybe I do, but it’s in private hands now. That red pelt could let a man live like a king. There’s no use for pelts, not practical ones, anyway. Whoever bought it has to sell it at some point. I’ve been waiting for it to be sold for years now.”
“If you can’t get it, then or business is done. Thank you for your time.”
----------
“Ma ‘s e ‘n cluasag dhut a’ ghaineamh, ma ‘s e leadbaidh dhut an fheamainn, ma ‘s e ‘n t-iasg do choinnleann geala, ma ‘se na ròin do luchd-faire, ò hi shiùbhlainn leat. Hì rì bhò ru bhì, hì rì bhò hò rinn o ho, Ailein Duinn, ò hi shiubhlainn leat,” sang Hux, this time held against Kylo’s chest, his voice quieted against the Knight’s chest. The song was slow, sad, lamenting of something.
He didn’t say a word when Hux was done, not until Hux asked, “Where have you been? You’ve been gone so often now.”
“Business. I’m sorry.” Hux hummed against his chest, quietly. “What was that song about?”
“A drowned lover, dark haired Ailein. The one who lived would follow them if they could, but they can’t. So instead, they drink what’s left of the heart’s blood.” Kylo started to hear such a sudden violent end to the lament, but it only made Hux laugh and said, “Selkies are hunters, Kylo. All Arkani seals are.”
“Are you going to drink my heart’s blood?”
“Not unless you do something stupid and die,” said Hux, a finger tapping over Kylo’s heart, the nail more than the pad, a quiet reminder. But all it did was make Kylo press a kiss into Hux’s hair and say,
“I can’t follow you into the sea. If you were to go back, what am I to do?” Hux said nothing, merely pressed closer.
--------
Yunta Winf was one of the richest gang lords who operated just below Order jurisdiction. They couldn’t find anything concrete on her, but they knew what she did. They just couldn’t legally go in and take her out of power. But that worked for Kylo, who entered her manor with no less than twenty mercenaries keeping watch within each room. They were opulent, decorated with spoils of her looting.
Yunta herself was at dinner when Kylo entered, and waved him to a seat. He sat, but didn’t touch anything before him. “I hear you’re in the market for rare and exotic goods from outside the Order. Lucky for you, so am I,” she said, gesturing grandly to what was around them. “I’ve also heard you’ve got credit to pay for most things. Or at least your employer does. Now what is it your employer is looking for?”
“He’s looking for one specific item, one that he knows passed through the market years ago. A red Arkani seal pelt.”
Yunta’s smile never flickered, but Kylo could sense the shift in her mind. That pelt, he saw, lay on her bed. He would have shuddered were he anyone else to see that she liked fucking on that pelt more than anything else. The feel of it against her naked skin, the knowledge that such a luxurious fur was hers to do what she pleased with it, it made Kylo want to slay her where she sat for ever laying claim to Hux’s pelt let alone for what disrespect she showed it.
And if he did slay her, leaving her and her guards sprawled around the feast, who was going to criticize him for ridding the Order of such a criminal?
Walking out of her manor with that soft red pelt in his arms, Kylo decided he would at least clean the damn thing before giving it back to Hux.