hadriel_logs | Even though your hate for me is strong (OTA)

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Even though your hate for me is strong (OTA)

A. There was only so long that Kylo could take being in an enclosed space with Hux. The two of them had been plotting each other's deaths for weeks now and had carried out at least a few half-hearted attempts. But today, Kylo couldn't stand it any longer. After yet another idiotic arguement about the proper way to make a bed, he'd put on his mask and stormed out, slamming the door to punctuate the end of his arguement. Who only knew what their neighbors thought of the two of them?

He stomped down the stairs, looking as his feet landed on each one as if he was five seconds away from murdering someone at any moment. It was best not to test that theory.

B. As Kylo made his way through Hadriel, his temper began to fizzle out. There was only so long he could keep his rage around him before he couldn't even remember why he was angry to begin with. Well, while he was out, at least he could pick up supplies for the apartment. Hux wouldn't know how to cook if the food jumped out of the fridge and into a pot on the stove, so it was up to Kylo to make sure that they didn't starve.

The shop ahead looked promising. As he made his way towards it, he had the sensation of a pair of eyes on him. Scanning the streets, he saw no one. He turned around three hundred and sixty degrees and still saw nobody. With an impatient growl, his voice distorted through the mask's vocoder, he said, "Come on out. I know you're there." He wasn't in the mood to play games.

C. Was there really a reason he was doing this? The woman who called herself Fulcrum had fascinated him from the start. She was a Force user but wasn't a Jedi. She was much more centered than he was. He could feel her balance in stark contrast to the turmoil he felt within. As with anything in Kylo's life, when he didn't fully understand something, it frustrated him. That frustration turned into anger and there was only one way to get it out of himself.

He tracked Ahsoka down, approaching her with a purposeful step. When he was about ten feet away, he ignited his lightsaber. The blade seemed to match its owner, unstable and crackling in ways that it shouldn't have been doing. He pointed it at the former Jedi. "Defend yourself," was all the warning he gave before he raised it high, aiming with a downward slash towards her face.

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It was hard to ignore that Kylo Ren was in the city, when he was a stormcloud in Ahsoka's periphery every time she meditated or reached out with the Force to sense for incoming danger. He was just there, but she was alright with that. Open conflict would have made things difficult anyway, so it was best when they steered clear of one another.

Except then there was this and she didn't have time to ask what his problem was before he was attacking her. He was too slow, though, Ahsoka with her lightsabers in her hands and lit before his swing could make it to her. Her parallel narrow, white blades intercepting his hissing red one above her head, she squinted at his lightsaber in confusion for a moment, taking it in. Red, she could have called already, but the crossguard was an interesting choice. But the crackling was... unsettling. It was a broken crystal, maybe, but not something that anyone in their right mind would willingly take into combat.

Her eyes dropped down to the other Force user's face. "Did I do something?"

"Come back here!"

He should have just dropped the argument and settled for passive aggressively destroying some of Kylo Ren's stuff but he refused to let him get the last word. Granted, he still would go back and do something incredibly passive aggressive later but he was determined to win this argument. They had been fighting all morning and he would get the last world in so help him.

He had a dirty plate in one gloved hand, holding it up.

"I am not doing your dishes especially since you have the table manners of a Wookie and you sure as hell aren't leaving them out because that is just disgusting," he said as he stood at the top of the stairs. "I know your mommy and daddy didn't teach you how to make a bed properly but surely you can manage the simple task of cleaning a few dishes."

He refused to so much as set foot in the kitchen unless to make coffee if he could help it. The last thing he was going to do was clean Kylo's dishes.

Huh. White lightsabers. That was interesting. He supposed there was some kind of meaning behind the color, but he'd have to save the questions for after he'd defeated her. "You're always here," he snapped as he pulled back, unable to overcome the twin blades by sheer strength alone. He meant how he could feel her presence in his head, a calm port in the storm of the Dark Side he so desperately was clinging to. It unsettled him, and when Kylo didn't know how to approach something, he saw only one solution. He had to destroy it.

He twirled his lightsaber, putting more force behind it before he slashed at her lightsabers, aiming at her midsection this time. Each time it made contact with the other blades, it seemed to spit and hiss, as if it was only a few seconds away from blowing up and taking out the two of them completely. Never let it be said Kylo had ever made the smartest decision when it came to crafting his blade.

An unbalanced Sith (or Inquisitor or fallen Knight or whatever he was) wasn't enough to worry Ahsoka. She could handle him no problem, provided that lightsaber didn't decide to explode anytime soon. She would have to be careful not to hit his hilt as she parried, as quick with her motions as he was with his. A few hits later and she jumped back out of his reach, twirling her mainhand saber over her fingers to settle it in her comfortable reverse grip.

"Sorry?" She wasn't exactly sure what he was getting at, but at least he'd have to move again to come to her. Until she understood what he was up to, her moves were purely defensive, but she made them look easy. "It's not exactly a choice. I'm trapped here, same as you."

At first, the dark Knight ignored the general. This was nothing new and had in fact been a running argument the past week. Kylo refused to clean up after himself, which was slowing driving Hux into insanity. He might have made a token effort at keeping the apartment tidy if he wasn't so determined to piss off Hux. Now, he was just deliberately doing it, waiting to see if the general would finally snap. He continued down the stairs until Hux mentioned his parents. That was always a surefire way to get Kylo to react.

Kylo turned around, slow and cold and with an absolute murderous expression on underneath his mask. He raised one hand and used the Force to yank the plate out of Hux's hand. Then, he threw it against the wall right next to his head. It shattered into a million pieces. "There. Now there's no more plate for you to complain about."

That was one way to settle an argument, but Kylo wasn't done yet. He stomped a few steps back up, disliking being on a lower plane than his rival. "And do I need to remind you who is the one who does the cooking around here? You'd starve if it wasn't for me! The least you can do is clean up instead of being an ingrate."

Kylo moved back for a moment, studying the way she was holding her weapons. A reverse grip was an unusual way to hold a lightsaber. His own stance was different than the way most Jedi were taught to hold their sabers, high and away from their body. His natural tendencies left him holding his more like a broadsword, low to the ground, but making overhead strikes that much more powerful.

"You're. Always. In. My. Head!" He punctuated each word by jabbing and slashing with his lightsaber, trying to find an opening. That wasn't an indication of how unstable his mind was at all. Though he hated to admit it, Ahsoka was good. She'd clearly been trained when the Jedi had been at their peak, not the piecemeal training that Kylo had been through with Luke and then Snoke. Her moves were graceful and smooth in comparison to the Knight's blunt thrusts.

Hux only jumped slightly when the plate came crashing by his head, refusing to give Kylo the satisfaction of flinching if he could help it. He had come this far, he wasn't about to let Kylo think he was going to back down. He was glad he still was at least a few stairs higher than Kylo at least.

"I do clean up after you. Who do you think cleans the rest of the apartment, makes the bed properly, and picks up the dirty clothes you just toss wherever you feel like it. Just because you're used to being a complete slob doesn't mean I will tolerate it," he snapped. "And you expect me to cook on top of practically taking care of you? Do I look like your nanny droid?"

Normally he attempted to keep his temper in check but Kylo never failed to get a rise from him, even if it was over something so trivial as leaving a dirty dish out. "And you are replacing that if you want something to eat off of. I'm not rewarding your bad behavior."

Edited 2016-12-14 18:12 (UTC)

Kylo marched back up the stairs and right up to Hux, boots crunching the plate fragments underfoot. He using every inch he had to loom over the redhead. One gloved finger poked Hux in the center of his chest. He wasn't going to address the fact he was technically right about keeping the rest of the apartment clean. He'd agree with something the general said when Hell froze over. "You're certainly acting like a nanny droid! Or my mother. Nothing but nagging morning, noon, and night. I think you do it just to hear the sound of your own voice."

He poked Hux again. There was a certain satisfaction that came with the action. He was sure there'd be an even greater one if he strangled the general until his face turned purple. "If you don't like the way I live, you can always move out. But I doubt anyone else will be able to tolerate your personality. You'd send anyone running for the hills in a day."

Hux was well aware what Kylo was capable of but that didn't stop him from reaching out and grabbing Kylo's finger the second time he poked him. It was tempting to break the finger and the wrist, Hux learned quickly that he wasn't really suited for physical confrontations so he had learned his own way of playing dirty that would get the best of his opponents when they were bigger or stronger than him.

Granted, he knew Kylo was far more dangerous but that wasn't going to stop him today. If Kylo killed him, he would be on his own and he doubted Kylo knew how to survive by himself.

"Here is a novel concept for you, if you don't like my having to nag you because living with you is like living with a rancor, then perhaps you could move out. But then again, I doubt anyone could stand you for very long since all your life people couldn't wait to be rid of your whiny and insufferable presence."

Had Hux--? Yes. He'd dared to reach out and grab Kylo's wrist as though he was some common underling. Clearly, the man was no longer operating on all cylinders if he'd forgotten just what Kylo was capable of. The shards still left on the ground began to vibrate and tremble in tune to Kylo's anger. "Let go of me. Now." The vocoder made his voice into a robotic growl. The four simple words promised that Hux was going to be in for a world of hurt unless he complied.

Then Hux had the gall to suggest he be the one to leave. While that would have been the easy solution, he wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of letting him know that he'd won. No, he was going to stick this out until the general left or he finally gave into the temptation to smother him in his sleep. "I'm not leaving. The apartment is mine. You have all the charms of a rabid womp rat, not to mention that expression on your face that says you've had coal shoved so far inside of you it's going to make a diamond the next time you go to the fresher, so you can be the one to leave."

They were quite a pair. Neither of them willing to budge an inch on the subject of the apartment. At least it provided Kylo with a fresh source of anger each day to fuel his powers.

"What are you going to do, kill me? Break my hand? You can't clean up after yourself and wouldn't know the proper end of the mop if it hit you in your face," Hux pointed out.

"The apartment is yours? The apartment where I'm the one who cleans and keep in order is yours? What color is the sky in your world, Kylo Ren? I'm curious to know." He gave Kylo's wrist a forceful squeeze just enough to make it hurt before letting go, just to make a statement. "I'm not going anywhere when it's my apartment so you can either behave less like a rampaging rancor or move out. The choice is yours but if you are staying, I suggest you march right back up there and clean your dishes."

He refused to give any ground on this. He had had to lay down the rules on Finalizer as well and let Kylo know that he was not going to tolerate some behaviors.

Edited 2016-12-14 19:12 (UTC)

Muscle memory and the Force served her well here, letting Ahsoka parry or dodge all of Kylo's blunt, sweeping attacks while she tried to parse his words. It didn't make any sense for him to be complaining of her in his head when she always refrained from reaching out to him, when they didn't have any sort of bond beyond that of two Force users in a relatively small, enclosed space. But you had to be used to that to not find it invasive, didn't you? She'd had the benefit of being raised in the Jedi Temple, the benefit of having spent her weeks before coming here in the presence of Kanan and Ezra. She was used to having people around and aware of one another.

And maybe he wasn't.

"You don't spend a lot of time with your Order, do you?" she asked over the sound of their lightsabers coming together once again, Ahsoka's shoto out to the side to block his latest attempt to hit her. "And you're not used to fighting Force users at all. You have no idea know what you're doing."

[Well, this is just great.

Thus far, Hux and Kylo Ren haven't done anything destructive to the city or the people under her protection, though Maketh lives in dread of the day that Hux finally gets it in his head to do something clever. A man like that can only hold off for so long and if she's more worried about Hux, it's only because the General is known to her - at least somewhat - and has a tendency to get under her skin. Kylo Ren, wherever his allegiances lie, has kept largely to himself. Plans have been made in case he does not, of course, but Maketh hasn't had to put anything drastic in motion. Yet.

All she had to do was avoid the man and let him exhaust himself against whatever monstrosities Hadriel would inevitably drop on him. Give him something to kill and maim that isn't her.

Except, of course, that Hadriel is a small place in the grand scheme of things and that plan was never going to work long-term. Case in point.

Maketh schools her face into polite stillness and steps into view.]

Master Ren. How--unexpected.

Ahsoka's words spurred him on, feeding his anger as she hit the nail right on the head. He was the only member of the Knights to carry a lightsaber, so he had no one to practice with or spar. Most of his fighting techniques are largely theoretical and patchwork, what he's picked up from his uncle and Snoke. What was driving him was his stubbornness and general toughness rather than any sort of actual finesse with the blade.

She blocked his latest attempt and so he was forced back a step or two, unable to gain any sort of advantage over the former Jedi. "If I'm not used to fighting them--" Parry and an attempt to slash again. "--it's only because I killed the only ones that were left." That was something he might brag about, but Kylo didn't like to think back on that often. He wasn't so far gone as to take pleasure in the killing of the Jedi students, most of whom had been children.

"It's a tempting thought to remove you of a few limbs. I hope you're not fond of your left foot." Hux just had to keep pushing him. One of these days, Kylo was just going to snap like a rubber band and attempt to do some serious damage to his roommate. Maybe Hux would finally develop a healthy sense of fear for him when he finally stabbed him in the arm with his lightsaber.

The order in Hux's voice was galling. If he was actually expecting Kylo Ren to obey, he was sorely mistaken. There was no way he would be doing anything the way the general was barking out orders as if he was some mewling subordinate on the Finalizer. He lifted up a hand, using the Force to shove Hux back into the apartment. "If it upsets you that much, clean it yourself!" He slammed the door with his mind to punctuate his point. Holding it there in place, keeping Hux inside, he turned around and began to stomp back down the stairs.

You.

[There's a definite growl behind the voice, something that the vocoder turns into a distorted metallic mess.]

You tricked me, Maketh. I'd almost be impressed. [Almost being the key word there. He's far too angry at her to focus on anything but possibly running her through with his lightsaber. He lifts up a hand, pinning her in place with his strange powers, and he slowly walks towards her.] Hux was kind enough to inform me of your true nature.

[She'll have to give him a good reason not to tear her apart. Kylo's fury is always just bubbling beneath the surface, ready to be taken out on someone or something.]

[Maketh sucks in a hard breath, fighting the urge to panic. She can't move and the mechanical hiss of his voice reminds her too much of Vader. There's nothing to stop him from killing her.] I gave you an enemy worth fighting.

[She narrows her eyes, holding her ground. She can't flee or fight back, but she can stare him down.]

What has Hux given you?

"You wouldn't dare." He was sure that if pushed enough, Kylo would snap but Hux wasn't going to allow himself to be ordered around by a petulant pretend Sith.

He nearly tripped back when Kylo suddenly shoved him back but quickly recovered, pulling on the door before realizing it would be useless. He wouldn't give Kylo the satisfaction of pounding on the door but instead decided to make use of the suggestion the other man had provided. Oh, he would clean alright.

He grabbed a few of Kylo's shirts to do just that, making sure to clean the most unpleasant places as well as the dishes with them before neatly folding the clothes back and putting them away. By the time Kylo returned, the apartment would be spotless except for the dirty dishes stacked neatly by the sink. Hux himself was laid out on the couch reading calmly on his datapad as if the argument from earlier had never happened but still looking rather pleased with himself.

For starters, he didn't lie to me.

[Hux might have been a pain in the ass and butted heads with Kylo on a near constant basis, but even the Knight had to admit he knew better than to lie to Kylo Ren.]

He also informed me of your true nature as a traitor to the Empire.

Kylo returned several hours later, still stubborn and petulant, but his anger had subsided to its usual level rather than the fury it had been at earlier that day. He was pleased to see that the apartment was almost spotless. Maybe he was finally beginning to win in this never-ending argument between he and Hux. He still pointedly ignored the dishes and the other man both as he went to their shared room. He'd been off training with his lightsaber and wanted to change out of his sweaty outfit.

Taking his helmet off, he opened up the drawer. That's when he found his clothes streaked in grime and cleaning supplies. Just like that, his fury had returned, stoked high again like the embers of a fire being blown upon. He grabbed the first shirt and stomped back out to the living room, throwing it in Hux's face. "What the hell is this?"

Hux didn't look up from his datapad at first as he waited for Kylo to discover what he had done.

"Clearly you need to do laundry. I trust you've figured out the washer," he said as he caught the shirt with a smug smirk before throwing it back at Kylo. "You should take better care of your clothes, though," he said as he set his datapad down, looking at Kylo with amusement. "I know you were raised by a Wookie but it doesn't mean you have to act like one."

The mention of Chewbacca made Kylo's eyes narrow as he caught the shirt. His family was always a sore spot. He knew that there would be no one happier to see him return home than his honorary uncle. While he may not have ever wished to see his mother or father again (a lie that had grown comfortable over time), his uncle was a different story. "I wish I was a Wookiee. Then I could tear your arms right out of your sockets."

He was going to get Hux back for this, oh yes. The idea Alphys had given him about taping everything he owned to the ceiling was having more and more merit. He went back to his room, gathering up the clothes. He stomped across to the laundry, turning it on. Look at that, Hux had finally gotten him to do something in the realm of cleanliness "I can't imagine who raised you." There was no warmth inside Hux. Kylo could only guess what sort of a father he'd had. Everyone in the Rebellion had heard of Brendol Hux. "Or did the First Order just put its cadets through the same program the Stormtroopers went through?"

The Empire is dead.

[Maketh narrows her eyes. She's done pleading. Done weaseling around the truth and trying to get the upper-hand from someone like Vader.]

And you should have known. He always knew when we lied. Why didn't you?

"You could have fooled me. You sound like a Wookie when you snore." A petty jab but he couldn't resist.

"I was raised by a droid." It was said in a flat tone with no emotion though it was the truth. He had no sentiments about his mother who had been left behind on Arkanis and he had never met his father's wife. When it came to Brendol, his meetings with his father were always brief and to the point even when he was a child.

"And then I was raised by the Imperial military. I didn't go through the same training as stormtroopers, I went through officer training on a star destroyer in the Unknown Regions under a former Imperial admiral. All information I would have thought you would have gotten from my personnel file in the First Order records," he remarked as he watched Kylo stomp towards the washer, pleased that he had gotten him to do some cleaning.

[He doesn't reply, but his masked face ducks down in a manner that suggests Maketh has hit on a point. It's always been a sore spot for Kylo. He's never going to be as strong as Darth Vader, never able to control his abilities as well as his grandfather. The Light within him won't allow it. It keeps him forever walking on a thin line, neither fully Sith nor Jedi.]

Do you have any good reason as to why I should keep you alive?

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Even though your hate for me is strong (OTA)

c (i'm still laughing a lot about this)

A

i aim to please!

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