#post breakup Kylux | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

magnetvrs · 6 years

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kylux & 40

Thank you so much on ao3 because I hope to continue it and make it… well less awful.

Kind of urban fantasy/coffee shop au thing. f///nnpoe is mentioned.

40. exes meeting again after not speaking for years au

‘Friday the 13th,’ Poe says, wiggling his fingersin front of Hux’s face, intimating a ghost, ‘spooky right? You’d better watchout Hugs, karma’s gonna catch up with you.’ Whatever spooky atmosphere he’strying to build up is at odds with the gentle jazz music played throughout theshop.

‘Yeah, right,’ Hux scoffs, fastening his apron around hiswaist. While Dameron definitely has a point about his karma, Hux is pretty surehe’s already paid what he’s owed between being disowned by his father andworking at this place. Let alone Hux’s past bad luck, the anniversary of thebreakup of his first and only real relationship, Hux is pretty convinced he’sset for life even if he is pretty terrible in general.

Dameron seems to sense thathe’s not in the mood to joke around – as if he ever is, and heads into thebreak room after Finn. Hux stares after him for a moment, leaning against thecountertop until he hears the faint sound of laughter from the break room. Hisheart clenches painfully at the sound, he grabs the stack of dishes with a huffand starts loading them into the washer.

He’s not jealous of their relationship exactly – the waythey are around each other all jokes, soft looks and even softer kisses whenthey think nobody’s looking makes Hux’s stomach turn. But he’s jealous ofhaving somebody, a weakness he cannotafford. He sighs, striding across the store to flip the stores sign from closedto open.

He pauses, the plastic sign clasped between his thumb andforefinger, staring out at the street through the frosted glass door. He’dnever thought his life would be where it is at this moment – working for justover minimum wage while juggling University studies. Then coming home to hisdark and quiet apartment to sleep in his cold bed, empty except for Millicent.Rinse and repeat the next day and the next, he’s become a creature of habit.The order of it calms him as the ordinariness disgusts him, and he can hardly bear it. Being just another ant in the citywhen he should be running things. As he watches, a downpour of rain startsoutside despite the bright sunshine.

He squishes those thoughts under the heel of his boot – theywon’t lead anywhere useful, heading backbehind the counter and pulling out his cleaning supplies. He eyes the door tothe breakroom but can still faintly hear Poe’s and Finn’s voices from inside.Neither seems to be coming back, so he douses the counter in disinfectant andbegins scrubbing. Back and forth in even strokes, he loses himself in themenial task until he hears the bell above the door jingle at the same moment asthe music over the speaker’s crackles, going out completely for a few secondsbefore it restarts. He turns, ready to serve the customer except when he doeshis breath catches in his throat…

Its Kylo kriffingRen in the flesh, stepping inside out of the rain and brushing leaves off hiscoat, hair damp and sticking to his forehead. Of all the people, the thousandsin the city, the regulars to the coffee shop Kylo Ren is the last person Hux isexpecting to see. He’s different, Hux realises with a start, but stillunmistakably Ren. He feels his heart thumping in his chest, as anger roots himto the spot – the memories still fresh on his skin.

A ghost in the flesh, the past living and breathing right infront of him in a shitty hipster coffee shop. The neon hair, neon and pastelclothes, and bold black makeup are gone, replaced by soft earthy tones – earthybrown pants, a loose green shirt, a jacket around his shoulders and a leatherbelt around his waist with an object hanging at his hip. He’s grown his hairout too, it looks softer and fluffier than before, where it brushes hisshoulders. Hux feels his cheeks betraying him as he looks Ren up and down, as ahot blush flushes across them.

Ren walks up to the counter as if it’s nothing, stoppingnext to the display case filled with cakes and pastries while Hux can’t helpbut stare, still frozen to the spot. His dark eyes are upturned as he studiesthe drinks menu pinned onto the wall above Hux’s head.

Hux can’t do anything except stare at the pale line of Ren’sneck, the soft curls of his hair brushing against it. He remembers with ashiver running his hand along the pale column, up past Ren’s clavicle, the feelof the smooth and delicate skin there. Pressing his lips against the cool skin,against Ren’s pulse… He risks a glance at the break room door but neither Poenor Finn show any sign of coming back. Normally he’d bask in the silence butnow he wants nothing more than to take his break early, to run away from hisproblems. Or at least the problem currently studying the drinks board.

‘Oolong tea,’ just the sound of Ren’s voice has Hux suppressinga shudder, jumping towards the register.

‘With milk?’ He manages to grit out, pulling out his notepadto hide his blushing face. He wants to shout, to yell at Ren, to bring up oldwounds but all he can do it blush and bite his tongue.

‘No,’ Ren replies, eyes fixed at a point over Hux’sshoulder.

Hux cringes as he writes the order down. He can’t stand teawithout milk himself, no matter the blend. It’s something of a calming littleritual, sitting with a cup of tea and watching the milk swirl as he stirs it.Not that he’s been drinking much tea lately although he refuses to think aboutthat, the way that’s he’s been favouring the bitter taste of coffee. That he’dpicked up the same shitty instant stuff that he’d used to drink…

He’s pouring the boiling water through the strainer,watching the leaves float to the surface before dropping back down when itslips out. ‘I thought you didn’t like tea.’

He regrets it as soon as he’s said it, snapping his mouthclosed with a click and almost spilling boiling water over his hand. He knowswho Ren is and he’s pretty sure Ren knows who he is, after all, he’s practically the same as he was even 5years ago - only with larger dark circles he’s carefully layered concealer overand, to his horror, a few tiny wrinkles at his brow. Still, neither of them has acknowledged that they aren’t strangersout loud until then and Hux swallows waiting for Ren to sneer at him or torealise who Hux is and storm out of the shop. To be rejected again, as always.

‘I’ve changed,’ Ren replies after a pause, looking up at Huxthrough his hair as he sorts through a pile of change in his palm. He slides eachcent over the countertop to Hux with a smirk as if he knows exactly how muchpain he’s causing (as usual) and Hux counts every coin before stuffing theminto the register.

He slides Ren’s tray over the counter, staring down at hishands rather than up at Ren. He can’t bearit, even these few moments of being close to him are too much – painful in moreways than one. A reminder of the goods times - of slipping an arm around Ren’sshoulders as they’d both laughed at a movie, running his fingers up the smoothskin on the inside of Ren’s thighs, pressing his nose into Ren’s hair. But italso shows him how much he’s missed, all of the little things.

He turns away, half-relieved at not having to look or dealwith Ren anymore, half-miserable for thesame reason. His hands fumble for something to do, finally landing on hisdiscarded cloth while his mind fumble for something to say – anything to keeptalking to Ren. To not let this slip pasthim.

‘Come and sit with me?’ Ren’s voice is soft and unsure,completely different from what he’s been like so far. It’s exactly what Hux hadbeen hoping to hear, strangely. It catches Hux’s attention at least, has himnodding and hopping over the counter with a last glance at the break room doorand out of the window at the pouring rain. He can surely spare a few minutes –there’s not likely to be any customers in this weather, he decides.

Ren pauses for a moment, seeming to be deciding where tosit. Not one to ever be a follower, Hux huffs and strides over to his favouritetable next to the window and sinks down into the armchair. He aims a glance at Ren, schooling his features into coldblankness even as he burns with anger and embarrassment in equal parts. Hischallenge works and Ren takes

‘So,’ he finds himself saying, pretending to look out of thewindow as he watches Ren from the corner of his eye, ‘What have you been doingall these years?’ It’s a risky question – it opens the door for Ren asking himwhat he’s been doing, but Hux isn’t one for polite conversation preferring tocut straight to whatever interests him.

‘Oh you know,’ Ren shrugs noncommittallyas if it is really nothing and fixing his gaze on a point beyond Hux’s shoulderstill. Almost as if he has something to hide.

Hux narrows his eyes, leaning forward so that his elbows areresting on the table top. ‘I don’t actually. I don’t hear anything from you for5 years and then suddenly here you are – at the exact coffee shop I work at when I’m on shift no less.’

‘I heard this place does pretty good tea,’ Ren smirks, bringhis cup to his mouth and slurping on his tea obnoxiously, ‘fate something,something.’ His lips pull up into a smile, so self-satisfied that it tells Huxall he needs to know - that it wasn’t just fate, that Ren had planned this.Mostly likely to taunt him or embarrass him.

He slides his hands into the pockets of his jeans to stopthem from shaking. It’s easier this way, this Kylo is almost the polar oppositeof ‘Hux’s boyfriend’ Kylo, so it’s easyfor Hux to push those old feeling away. Except that he almost misses the old Kylo, as much as he’d told Kylo how much hehated his style at the time. They’d been so close, one whole made of twohalves. They’d hated each other, they’d shouted, they’d argued, they’d foughttooth and nail, and Hux had loved it. Had loved him. But he doesn’t know thisman, gets a strange feeling from him – the way he barely seems able to look Huxin the face that makes Hux grit his teeth.

‘Just tell me what’s going on Ren, it’s been,’ he does themental calculations, ‘5 years. 5 years exactly, since we broke up. Since youbroke up with me to “find yourself” because I was “holding you back”,’ he saysunable to hold back the disgust in his voice as he imitates Ren.

‘Hux.’

‘No. Tell me, Ren. Whyare you really here?’

‘You’re not going to believe me,’ Ren says, yet again refusingto meet Hux’s eyes. ‘I-I became a wizard.’ Hux feels his eyes go wide as hisbreath hisses out in a gust from between his teeth.

‘So, let me get this straight,’ he says slowly, angersimmering beneath his skin. Ren is teasing him, he’s got to be, that’s the onlyexplanation. Of course. ‘We broke up. 5 years ago to the day, in fact. I workedwith my father for two years, got disowned, moved out to my own shittyapartment, bought a cat, started working towards my Business degree and got adead end job here in 5 years. While you… you got a new look and became awizard? Is that what you’re calling it?’ He can barely keep a straight face,can’t decide between wanting to slap Ren for actually making him say that outloud or laugh at him. God, he’smissed this, being swept up in a debate or argument with Ren’s ridiculousness.So that nothing else matters, except laughing at Ren and boosting his own ego.

Except that Ren can’t seem to look him in the face and Huxfeels his face fall, as his heart stops. ‘Yeah, I’m a wizard. My whole familypractices magic but I don’t want to talk about them. And I realised I’m in lovewith you, even if I kind of hate you,’ Ren replies shyly as if it’s a perfectly normal thing for him to say.

‘So when you said you needed to find yourself,’ Hux feelshimself say, ‘you were really breaking up with me to become a wizard.’

‘Correct,’ Ren says, and with a flick of his wrist floatshis teacup and tray back across the shop and onto the counter next to theregister. Hux watches, feeling his jaw drop, as he frantically looks for the glintof light reflecting of wires that he knows can’t be there. For anything to makethis seem like something rational, something other than what it is.

‘Here’s my number,’ Ren says, producing a business card fromsomewhere inside what Hux now realises is his cloak. A wizard, hisex-boyfriend, wearing a cloak as if he’s from a fantasy novel and giving Huxhis number. Hux can barely believe it, forcing his mouth closed with a click. ‘Youshould call me some time,’ Ren gets up, sparing Hux one last look before hestrides out of the door.

All Hux can do is stare afterhim, fingers clutching the business card as if it too will disappear. But itseems like a normal business card (although why Kylo Ren has his own businesscards is almost as strange as the whole being a wizard thing), with a phonenumber printed in a bold font across it. Hux feels himself frown, despite the wrinkleshe knows it’ll cause. The bell above the door jungles again, drawing Hux’sattention away from the card finally.

‘If you uh want to,’ Ren says, awkwardly poking his facearound the door. Even from this distance Hux can see that his cheeks are red, ‘Wecould get pizza some time and I could… try and explain.’

He takes a deep breath as Poe and Finn finally reappear fromthe break room laughing and smiling. ‘Sure.’

#kylux #kylo ren #armitage hux #general hux #hux #ezri.txt #fic #like i know i apologise for every fic #but this one is actually awful #i feel so bad posting it for someone #im sorry :(

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