Taking Command Book 1 (Kylux) (#Wattys2016)

Chapter Twenty Two: Affection

Kylo PoV

I woke up to a splitting headache and sense that were overly sensitive. Everything seemed simultaneously too loud, too bright, and too pungent.

"Shoot me," I groaned as I tried to burrowed into my blankets.

"That can be arranged," Hux's loud, cultured voice rumbled through my head, and I tried to further bury myself.

"Please," I groaned into my pillow,"stop talking."

"You're hungover, aren't you?" The smugness in Hux's tone was unbearable. "Don't you Force users have something to cure that?" I heard him stomping over to the bed and I shuddered a little.

He loomed over me, a smirk on his face. "Get off, you nerfherder," I grunted angrily at him,"you're too loud."

He laughed loudly as I slowly got up and staggered to the bathroom and proceeded to vomit up my expensive dinner into the toilet. I then filled two buckets with hot and ice cold water and started to alternately douse myself liberally with them.

After about an hour of this and vomiting, my hungover state improved, although the headache lingered like a bad taste.

"Better now?" Hux smirked at me as I slowly walked out of the bathroom. "Come on, you need to get dressed. We need to check out the areas around the Temple, loiter a bit."

"I am dressed," I raised my arms and let them fall again against my upper legs.

"That shirt is stained and wet and your pants are also stained and wrinkled. There're other clothes that I got." He looked at me pointedly. "Get dressed."

I rolled my eyes at him and rummaged around and found a shirt and some pants and stumbled back into the bathroom. I examined the clothing more closely behind closed doors.

The pants were dark grey and tight, almost too tight, and the shirt was brilliantly crimson red with sleeves that went to my mid forearm. I pulled it on, aware that I did not exactly have massive options. I looked at myself in the mirror and tried to flatten my curly hair. I gave up on that pretty quickly.

"Ready," I told Hux as I walked out.

"Looking good," he grinned at me,"let's go." He took my arm once more, and I let him. What harm could it do?

We walked outside the apartment and hailed a taxi to take us to one of the gardens near the Temple ruins.

I sat inside, tense. I did not actually have my lightsaber. It was in the apartment, my clothing offering nowhere to put it. Granted, it was unlikely I would need it. If conflict arose, my Force powers would suffice.

It was a quick ride, after which Hux paid the driver and we were off once more. We walked to the balcony of the terraced garden and stared down at the Temple remains.

"I could get down there if I had a cable firmly anchored between here and there," Hux said softly to me.

"How long would you need?" I replied just as quietly. "If it's less than ten minutes, it's probably doable if we can get our hands on a cable gun."

"Not sure." He whipped out a datapad and scanned the surrounding area. "Now I can measure things at leisure and know where everything is. I wonder if we could have gotten to the Temple through the restaurant we were in last night."

"Not sure," I replied,"most likely. Come on, we should keep moving. From what I saw, there are some good vantage points on those two buildings." I pointed at two tall skyscrapers, one which was an apartment and the other appeared to be a municipal building.

We both made our way around the Temple, using taxis to traverse every few blocks. We found some fairly goo places to set up to get in, but my favorite was by far the restaurant we had gone to.

Boasting good vantage points, open windows, and a close proximity to the Temple, it was an obvious choice. I decided that we should come back in about two nights and rig up cameras there.

"I wish we could do it sooner," Hux confessed to me as we took a break to eat lunch.

"I don't feel good about going to that place again so soon. It seems like the kind of place most people only go to occasionally. We need to blend in. The last thing we need is for someone to recognize us, due to us coming in too often." I responded. "In the meantime, we can be making rounds around the ruins during the day."

"Good point." Hux responded, then he looked at me seriously. "How do you feel about me?" He looked as if though he was about to be sick.

"I feel fairly benign. You are my companion and you are intelligent and comely in aesthetics. Your personality is lacking, but overall, you seem a decent type. Why?" I looked at him suspiciously.

"Because I like you, a lot, and I felt like you should understand that before we get into pretending to be a couple." He was turning red now.

"That's nice," I replied, absentmindedly. "I don't have any particular attraction to you," I lied,"and we have better things to do. Come on." I stood up and he joined me. It was nearing the day's end. "Back to the room?" I asked him.

"Sure." He seemed dejected now. He would get over it, I hoped. I wished that he would understand that this was just not a good time for relationships or undue affection. Those things only slowed you and distracted you, and for this, I needed to be single minded.