After the battle of Endor, the Empire was not defeated but Reborn. The jedi Luke Skywalker joined his father and the Emperor, crushing the rebel alliance once and for all. Leia Organa and Han Solo, the last of the Resistance, fled to the Unknown Reg...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The punch hit him hard, harder than he had felt in a couple of days. As the rough metal hand swung at him again he ducked, pulling against the restraints. He could hear the cheers all around him, yelling obscenities only Outer Rim trash would know.
This truly wasn't his fault, technically. He was set up, again. How he kept getting himself into these types of situations was beyond him. The undying hope of wanting to leave the slums of Cornelia. He even thought about joining the Empire a few times when he felt he was at rock bottom, but even he knew signing up would be a death sentence.
He felt that same hard metal puncture his body once more, now this time lower and in not such a delicate spot. He toppled over once more, his vision going fuzzy, only able to focus on one man he saw through the metal cage.
Hux did not smile at him, he hardly did anymore these days, especially when he had gotten himself into these types of situations.
Before he could think anymore about the one man who had stuck with him all this time, his body succumbed to exhaustion, the loud yelling fading in the background and everything becoming dark.
"Ben."
His name right? Maker everything hurt. Why did everything hurt? Was he hit by a freighter?
"Ben Solo, if you do not wake up this instant I will feed you to the Rathtars in sector D myself and will watch as your corpse is pulled into millions of pieces."
That woke him up, green eyes staring back at him, unmoving from their place directly in front of his face. He pouted, leaning up just enough to kiss those soft lips he called his.
"You wouldn't...You wouldn't survive without me." Ben closed his eyes again, trying to stop his head from spinning. He heard Hux force out a laugh that ended in a shaky sigh. Those cold, delicate hands that didn't belong to someone who was housed in the slums were placed on his cheeks, and then his forehead.
It was instant relief, and he still didn't know what Ben did to deserve him. "I wouldn't survive without you? You can barely survive yourself. I told you it was too risky. Were you careful getting back in? I know one of those rats from sector A probably saw you. I'll kill them."
"Hux it's okay really-"
"You're an idiot, you know that? Anyone else would have given up but not you. I don't know why you still try. Our next shot at getting out of here won't be until the next cycle. How your not dead is really-"
"Hux, I got it." Hux paused, watching as Ben took out a tiny tube with specks of blue dust floating inside. Hux became silent, the soft hands leaving his face to take the small tube from his hands, marveling at its contents.
"Ben, I-"
"I know. I got it. We'll leave in a couple of hours." He sat up a little more, knowing that they could rest once they were out of here and on Takodana. Hux turned to him, eyes soft with love. No matter what they had been through, they would always be there for eachother.
Ben doesn't remember who initiated the contact, but when their lips met all of the uncertainties melted away, the Coaxium burning between them.
Hux backed away just before things could go further, patting Ben on the cheek, moving around their small dugout to start packing their things.
Ben layed back down, smiling up at the Coaxium in his hand. Yes, now they were finally free.
Why they had to leave now was because the night guard always left at the same time, the same day, every month for a couple hours. No one knew why, probably something to do with schmoozing up with the Empire but no one cared, as long as it didn't affect them.
Ben had made sure Hux stuck close to him as they made it out of the slums and into the upper level space port. The hustle and bustle of everyone else made them invisible to the eyes of the stormtroopers.
He tried to not glare at the Imperial propaganda, elbowing Hux to move along as he noticed one of the stormtroopers grip their blaster. Those white suits were so glorified in the Holo's and posters, standing there and staring at others as if they were there for protection. As if they didn't have the power to shoot them without a cause.
Ben and Hux made their way up to the ID Chip Check. So close to freedom behind those metal gates. He moved them to the front, picking a female officer who looked like she wanted to be anywhere but here.
The Imperial woman in the bullet proof box glared at them, looking at her data pad and then at them again once more. "Your Chips." She said in her clipped imperial accent that made it seem like they knew they were better than you.
"How about something better?" He shined the Coaxium under his coat, the woman's eyes widening. She then glared at both of them once more, opening the slot for him to drop it in.
Ben moved forward, hand still wrapped around the glass tube. "Two tickets to Takodana for me and my friend here right?"
"You are overconfident in your hope that I will not turn you in." Hux went rigid next to him, the stormtroopers and the security droids becoming more pronounced.
"We both know this is worth three times what you make within a year. Let's not cause a riot on this slow day, yeah?"
"Fine." She said, eyeing the Coaxium as he set it in the tray. The gate opened and Ben hurried through, holding Hux close but right as he went through, something was wrong. He felt Hux pull away, the metal gate closing down again.
"Ben, Ben!" Hux scrambled, arm grabbing between the bars as the alarm blared, stormtroopers running towards him. Ben shook the bars, tears already streaming down his face. "Hux, Hux I can't-I"
"Take this, run Ben, run like you've never run before," Hux handed him his necklace, soft hand touching his one last time before he was taken away into the crowd. Ben stepped back as if the metal burnerd him, and ran. Ran into the shuttle as Droids followed him. The door thankfully shut before they could secure him, but what did it matter.He had left Hux there, alone, They would kill him, or put him in the mines, he didn't know which was worse.
He looked down at the necklace. It was a broken clear crystal, with a twine wrapped around it. It was the most important thing Hux had owned. Ben only knew about it because of the nights they spent together, promises and stories told in the dead of night.
He wiped his face, knowing he couldn't show himself being vulnerable in front of too many people. Too many suspicious eyes on him. Soon the Cornelian Spaceport got smaller and smaller until all he could see was the deep expanse of space.
Ben hadn't seen space in so long, and yet all he wanted to do was to go back to the place he wanted to be free from for years. He turned away from the window, sitting down on one of the seats. He swore, no matter what, to get back to Cornelia. To get back to Hux.
