Chapter Text
When Hux made his big move from the UK to America, the land of opportunity, he had imagined things to be different than they'd turned out. He was leaving behind a few friends but he was sure he was going to gain tons more. He imagined he'd land the perfect job to put his audio engineering degree to use, he'd work on the latest up and coming films, he'd be hanging out in all the hottest places with unique, like minded and creative individuals.
Instead Hux stood at the cinema ticket kiosk, staring across the dull unpolished mall floor watching the custodial workers clearing away dirty dishes from the food court tables. Things could be worse, he told himself, he could have their job...
Hux had managed to land a job, night shift at the local cinema. At least it had something to do with film, right? Well that's what he'd think to reassure himself. 'Good things take time. You've never been one to land on your feet, you've always had to work hard for what you want, this is no different' was becoming somewhat like his daily mantra.
He hadn't made any new friends, yet. He would though, soon he'd tell himself. Unfortunately he worked at the cinema in a sole charge position, they didn't need many staff on the late shift. There was just him and the projectionists, none of which he'd met yet, he couldn't even tell you their names.
The worst part of Hux's night was drawing close, cinema clean up. The last few theatre goers had filed out of cinema six about 15 minutes ago. Hux collected his cleaning supplies, a long handled brush a land shovel, from the cleaning closet and made his way down the hall.
He was surprised when he entered the cinema that there was a film playing, the last film had screen over two hours ago. They were officially done for the night, so what was this?
Hux stood staring up at the screen, watching as several shots of trees, birds, blue skies, early dawn, starry skies – the shaky unsteady filming created a sense of movement and motion. The combination of imagery playing made Hux feel an overwhelming sense of nostalgia. They reminded him of being a child, lying in the back seat of the car watching the trees and the clouds, everything passing by, the car moving fast but time somehow standing still, the feeling of such peace and absolute stillness, a stillness that doesn't end but slowly drifts into sleep. He closed his eyes and let himself relish in the feeling, he zoned out so much he dropped his brush and shovel, they hit the ground with a loud clatter.
The film came to an abrupt end, followed by a voice billowing from the projection room, "Who the fuck?!" A lot of loud thudding followed, before the door of the projection room slammed shut, heavy booted feet stomped down the stairs to towards the exit.
Hux ran out to the hallway to see the projectionist leaving - a tall guy, a decent head of dark raven hair, he wore his maroon cinema waistcoat unbuttoned over a well worn black t-shirt, his black skinny jeans were tucked into heavy black combat boots.
"Wait, I... " Hux didn't even know what he was going to say but he was cut off anyway by the projectionist yelling back at him, "Fuck off!" before throwing up his middle finger.
Hux sighed. There goes the idea of making friends with the projectionist...
~~~
Kylo Ren had studied film after high school and had high hopes of hitting it big straight out of college.
But much like the rest of his graduating class, he'd had no such luck. He still spent his spare time filming and editing together his own projects, but his main gig was working as the senior projectionist at the local cinema.
He didn't love it, but he didn't exactly hate it. He got to sit in a small dark room by himself, he didn't have to interact with the other pleb cinema staff, he got to watch movies all day and the best bit - after hours he got to screen his own work on the big screen. Of course there was never an audience, but that was okay. He wasn't ready for one yet.
So the night he'd played a new piece on the screen in cinema six, he was furious to find that skinny little ginger new kid had snuck in and was essentially spying on his creation, his work that wasn't finished yet, it wasn't for anyone else to see. He couldn't help but tell the kid to fuck off when he'd yelled out after him.
~~~
Hux was slightly taken aback by the dude's angry reaction, telling him to fuck off was a bit much. He sounded like he was throwing a tantrum up in that projection room before he stormed off like a petulant child.
But Hux still felt bad, maybe that guy was nervous about people seeing his work, he shouldn't be though, Hux thought - he's good.
On the train ride home Hux tried to think of anything but the giant darkly dressed tantrum throwing man child, with no success.
When he arrived home to his tiny cold hovel of an apartment - also not what he'd seen himself living in, he'd had grandiose plans of living in a hip loft uptown - he slumped down onto the couch and turned on his laptop.
No emails. 'Good to know my friends at home are thinking of me...'
After feeding his hamster Millicent, and giving her some unwanted cuddles, He decided to open up his sound mixing software and work on some new pieces, midway through he thought of a brilliant idea. Maybe this would help make him a friend...
~~~
Kylo barreled into the staffroom after his Thursday night shift and rifled through his locker to find his latest payslip, instead he came across a square paper sleeve, inside was a compact disc. A note on the back read:
"Hey I liked your film from the other night, I probably wasn't meant to see it and for that I'm sorry, but I really did like it. I burned some music for you that I composed myself. Maybe you could use it in your films, think of it as a collaboration of sorts - Hux" followed by his cell phone number.
"What a douchebag..." Kylo snarled to himself before shoving the disc in his bag.
~~~
Hux stared his shift on Friday night, first putting his jacket away in his locker.
He found the paper compact disc sleeve in his locker, the disc had been shattered into a hundred pieces and scrawled across the back of the sleeve read "COLLABORATE THIS"
"Okay, that doesn't even make any sense... " Hux mumbled, tossing the sleeve and shattered disc into the bin.
He tried to tell himself he didn't care, but deep down his feelings were quite hurt. His first attempt at making a friend had failed miserably.
He moped around the ticket kiosk all night, barely making conversation with the small number of patrons coming in.
He got quite short with one overly loved up couple.
"You choose the movie, babe!" a young woman had whined.
"No you choose babe, it's my treat" the guy said, nuzzling his nose against the young woman's, as they giggled and carried on.
"Jesus wept..." Hux mumbled with a roll of the eyes "Here, let me help you. I'll choose, two tickets to this, you'll love it - enjoy" he said as he flapped his hands for them to leave, "up the hall, second door on the right!"
The couple screwed up their noses and left in a huff. Hux didn't care, he didn't need their public display of affection jammed down his single lonely throat.
When it came time to clean the cinemas he did so with a heavy cloud of melancholia hanging over him. The more he thought about that stupid disc and that fucker Kylo Ren, he'd figured out his name after looking at the roster, the more the feeling of sadness overwhelmed him.
He took a seat in cinema four, buried his head in his hands, and began to weep quietly. Which unfortunately soon turned into rather loud sobbing. It felt cathartic to cry, so he just let rip.
~~~
Kylo looked up from his laptop when he hurt a strange noise down in the cinema, he peered out the projection room window.
'It's that little ginger prick...' Kylo thought, 'Wait... Is he crying' Kylo squinted out the window. 'Oh God he's wailing...' Kylo realised.
He began to feel sympathy for the kid, 'it's not his fault he's a giant nerd, maybe I shouldn't have been such a dick...'
Kylo packed up his laptop ready to head home, he had a new project in mind.
~~~
Hux had eventually wiped up his tears and made his way home. Feeling even lonelier when he'd got there, he crawled into bed and fallen asleep after a little more sobbing.
In the middle of the night Hux was awoken by his phone beeping.
He pulled the phone off the charger, unlocking it and holding it above his face, the bright screen stinging his swollen post crying eyes.
"Hey look, I was a real jerk to you. Let me make it up to you, meet me for a drink after my shift tonight, 11.15pm, The Brewery Bar? - Kylo"
Hux stared at the message, blinking heavily, was he dreaming? He kept waiting for the message to disappear.
"Okay, I'll see you there :)" he hit send, regretting the addition of the smiley face straight afterward, 'Such a nerd' he cringed and clenched his eyes closed.
He fell asleep instantly, feeling happy and content for the first time in a long time. Maybe he was finally going to make a friend.
~~~