The Cruellest Thing

The Truce

She dreamed about Finn. They were on Canto Bight, in the middle of the casino. Suddenly she couldn't find him anymore; panicked, she started to call out. With a jerk she woke up. She wiped across her face and exhaled.

Then she rolled over to face Hux. He was still sleeping. His usually neatly slicked back hair had fallen in strands over his face. Again it was perplexing how young he looked without the constant angry glare.

She sat up. Sleepily, she reached for the canteen and drank. Then she glanced again at Hux. He had to be dehydrated; she scooted over and patted his cheek.

"Hey, wake up. You have to drink something."

He groaned and finally opened his eyes. At least he seemed to recognize her, he frowned.

"What-"

"You need to drink something." She shoved the canteen in his hands.

He slowly took a few sips. Then he reached for his chest and winced when his fingertips touched the injury.

Rose realised that he was about to discover that she had disarmed him. She scooted back into safe distance and waited.

His hand wandered from his chest to his empty holster, he went rigid when realised that his blaster was gone. Whatever colour had been left in his face disappeared and he gritted his teeth as he stared at her.

"Yeah, I got your blaster – and your knife, too. I figured you wouldn't need them while being passed out."

"Gloat all you like, rebel scum! Get on with it and kill me already!"

"Shut it, do you really think I would go through all this trouble to build this silly shelter if I wanted to shoot you first thing in the morning?"

His frown deepened, then he took a look around and exhaled. "You need me," he said slowly.

"Well, I didn't stick around because you're good company." She pulled what was left of her ration bar out of her pocket and threw it to Hux.

She fully expected him to refuse the bar out of arrogance, but to her surprise he didn't even snare at her before he picked it up and started to chew.

"I found a runlet not far from here. We don't have to walk all the way back to get fresh water. But I wasn't as lucky with food." She showed him the berries she had gathered.

"They could be poisonous."

"I know, I ate one yesterday and so far I feel fine." She popped three berries in her mouth. "Let's see how I'm doing in a couple of hours."

His eyebrow rose. He was clearly questioning her judgement.

"What? Got a better idea to check whether we can eat this stuff?" she snapped.

He just continued to eat.

"You still have fever – I guess it's going to take another day before you can even think about climbing that tree," Rose mused loudly.

"Climb a tree?" Hux said disbelievingly.

"Don't you remember? The fuel injector chips are in the wing up in the tree. One of us has to climb up there to get them."

He blushed a little and snorted. "W-why don't you do it?"

"With a broken arm? Don't be stupid. You have to go or we'll rot on this planet."

He turned his mouth down. After a while he said. "Physical training wasn't- is not exactly my forte."

"Welcome to the club," scoffed Rose.