A/N: It's been a rough couple of days, so to make myself feel better, I wrote ... sappy porn with a side of domestic fluff. Call it a coping mechanism.

Warnings for: cisgirl Kylo, Kylo/Hux, sex, unrepentant fluff (involving a certain ginger baby.) Yeah, I know, they don't deserve any of it, but ... here we are.

Kylo wakes halfway draped over Hux, one of her legs crooked over his thigh and her face tucked uncomfortably against his neck. His warmth and the familiar scent of him never fail to inspire an aggravatingly sappy response in Kylo, especially when she's only half-awake; she wants to stay like this forever, perhaps.

Kylo shifts, finally, squinting against the pinkish dawn light filtering into the house and gently tilting her head to work a crick out of her neck. Hux is still asleep, not dreaming, his posture relaxed. Like this he is a study in contrasts. There's something oddly masculine about the way he sprawls, long-legged and taking up far more than his allotted half of the bed. Still, his ruffled hair and the way he pouts slightly in his sleep are charmingly boyish, and make Kylo want to kiss him. Among other things.

Hux's sweater has rucked up slightly during the night, and Kylo is particularly taken by the sight of the faint trail of golden-orange hair that disappears under the waistband of his trousers. Her brain helpfully conjures up a mental picture of Hux, still in that sweater, head thrown back while she leisurely rides him. It's been a long time since they had lazy sex – no, Kylo realizes suddenly, it's been a long time since they had sex at all. She can't remember the last time, which is actually sort of horrifying. It feels a bit cruel to wake him, but Kylo suspects Hux will agree that this situation ought to be rectified as soon as possible.

She rests her head against his shoulder, close enough to his ear that she barely has to breathe to be heard. "Hux," Kylo murmurs, her voice still husky with sleep. Even before he actually wakes, Hux shivers at the sound, his body responding to her instinctively.

"What is it?" he mumbles without opening his eyes, his normally crisp accent rather slurred.

Kylo puts a hand on the bare flesh below the hem of his sweater and trails her fingers downward, until they meet the fabric of his pants. She almost says look alive, but trips on the expression at the last moment and merely says, "Wake up."

Hux opens his eyes halfway, torn between interest in the proceedings and wanting to sleep for as long as possible. Padmé had been fussy the night before, and Hux had sat up with her, leaving him grouchy now. "I'm awake," he says, somewhat begrudgingly. Kylo snickers and then changes her position, moving to straddle his thighs. Hux allows it, automatically moving his hands to rest at her waist.

His gaze flicks away from her then, and Kylo would know where he's looking even if she couldn't see through his eyes – the baby's crib is in the kitchen, the least drafty area of the tiny house. Padmé herself is hidden by the thin, silvery curtains hanging over her crib. "Is she –?" Hux begins.

"She's asleep," Kylo hisses. She doesn't even have to check; Kylo is more attuned to Padmé than she's ever been to another being, with the arguable exception of Hux. "Although she won't be for long if you don't keep quiet." With that thought in mind, Kylo takes a few seconds to call upon the Force and construct a sort of ward between them and Padmé – nothing tangible, of course, but enough to muffle any psychic disturbances.

Hux, oblivious to this, rolls his eyes and huffs quietly. Kylo can tell he's directing a thought at her because he sort of mentally yells it, which is not remotely necessary but is endlessly amusing. As if I'm the noisy one here.

"Shut up," Kylo mutters, already leaning down to kiss him. Much as he enjoys playing coy, Hux is a willing participant, kissing her back and moving one hand up to tangle in her hair. For a while they stay like that, necking like a pair of teenagers, but soon enough Hux is tugging impatiently at the waistband of Kylo's leggings.

Through some rather awkward shimmying, Kylo squirms out of her pants and tosses them aside, leaving herself in just a long tunic. Hux's fingers are between her legs in an instant, and Kylo sucks a bruise into the skin of his throat to withhold her whimpering. When she comes, sleep-heavy limbs shuddering, she digs her teeth into him, and he grunts but doesn't pull his fingers free of her until she's done.

"Kylo," Hux rasps after a minute, insistent.

I told you to be quiet, Kylo says in his head, too busy recovering to chance real speech. She uses the Force to gently drag Hux's arms to his sides, mostly to keep him from pawing at her until she has time to compose herself. His reaction is not unexpected; his breath catches, and he strains against her hold for a second, but without any real desire to break free. Kylo smiles.

We don't have time for any teasing, Hux points out. It's as close to he'll get to asking for it, a layer of want coating the thought.

"Yeah," Kylo mumbles, feeling merciful as she moves slightly so that she can tug Hux's pants and shorts down to his lean thighs. "Yeah, okay."

Kylo lifts her fist to her mouth and sort of kisses her fingers while she rocks atop him, muffling moans and whimpers that threaten to escape. Hux is clenching his jaw, his hair falling messily across his forehead, body still halfway pinned under Kylo's control. Kylo keeps her eyes open until she comes again, and then she lets them fall shut at last, digging her teeth into her knuckles hard enough to hurt.

Hux is still moving his hips under her, unable to get proper leverage. Lazily opening her eyes, Kylo releases his arms from her hold and lets Hux grab her hips, moving her the way he wants. Following a whim, Kylo reaches down and lightly clasps his throat, thumb pressing gently against the tender bruise she'd left behind, and Hux comes with a soft gasp.

Kylo doesn't fight the urge to drape herself over Hux in the moments afterwards; he is still for a few moments, resting, but then she feels him toying with her hair. It's gotten far too long, Kylo realizes absently. She's been too preoccupied to notice.

"Satisfied now, Lady Ren?" Hux mumbles, tangling his fingers in her hair. He's nearly asleep again, which is probably the only reason he hasn't complained about not being able to breathe with her on top of him.

"Never," Kylo says, and Hux huffs a laugh.

Hux drifts off, and Kylo moves away carefully, trying not to jostle him. Kylo lacks Hux's militaristic ability to sleep or not sleep as convenient, but she dozes, too. She only opens her eyes again when she senses the familiar glow of a waking mind nearby. Sure enough, within a few seconds, Padmé lets out a little whimper, filled with an abstract sense of discomfort when she cannot feel Hux or Kylo nearby. Kylo lowers the barrier immediately, already clambering barelegged from the pallet to fetch Padmé before she gets too upset.

Kylo parts the curtains with a flick of her wrist, and then peeks through the folds to look at Padmé. "Good morning, little one," Kylo murmurs. "I didn't mean to scare you."

Padmé favors Kylo for the most part, but her angry little pout smacks of Hux. Kylo grins, and Padmé, seeing this, begins to babble – "ma-ma-ma", as restless and demanding as ever.

Even now, taking Padmé into her arms still stirs some almost unnamable feeling in Kylo's chest. There's love, of course, enough of it to be almost terrifying, but it goes deeper than that, down to the very core of her being. Sometimes it stirs up thoughts of her own mother, which are always very quickly smothered.

By the time Hux comes into the kitchen, freshly showered and dressed for the day, Kylo has already changed Padmé and fed her, and is attempting to eat some toast while the baby squirms in her arms and yanks at locks of hair that Kylo has not had a chance to tuck out of the way. When Hux appears, in the process of adjusting his shirt collar to hide the bite on his neck, Kylo says through a mouthful of bread, "Your tea is brewing."

Hux rolls his eyes at her table manners – Kylo picks out the word appalling from his thoughts – but is sincere when he says, "Thank you." He fixes himself a cup and sips from it, even though it's still steaming. Padmé notices her father then, and reaches for him, cheerful now that she's fully awake. Hux takes her, and Kylo gratefully attacks her toast with more vigor.

"Hello, darling," Hux says to Padmé, and Kylo tilts her head to hide her involuntary smile with the curtain of her hair. "No, this isn't for you. It's very hot, and you wouldn't like it anyways."

"So," Kylo says. This time, she finishes chewing first, if only to spare herself from more complaints about eating properly. Even this far removed from the pomp and showmanship of the First Order, Hux can prattle on like no other. "What's on the day's itinerary, General?"

Kylo doesn't often use that title with Hux anymore; it's no longer accurate, of course, and it would only raise eyebrows if anyone ever heard it. Still, old habits die hard.

Hux arches an eyebrow at her and says dryly, "I have to go into town. Apparently there's been some sort of dispute over trading laws, and the locals seem to think I'll be able to make sense of it." Padmé babbles, looking up at Hux with her big dark eyes, and Hux tells her, "Yes, I'm sure it will be very boring, dear. I wish I could bring you along so I'd have an excuse to leave, but the objective here is for me to actually fix this mess."

It had only taken a few months after their arrival here for Hux to become regarded as a sort of legal authority in the area. He'd complained about it at first, until Kylo had pointed out that if he'd simply refrained from loudly commenting on local politics in the first place, he'd be left well enough alone. At any rate, Kylo is certain he will have whatever issue he's dealing with resolved by the day's end. She's long thought that if Hux had been born to different parents, his childhood untouched by the growth of the First Order, he could have made a rather successful lawyer or politician.

"I didn't know their government had trading laws," Kylo muses.

"Neither does anyone else, apparently," Hux says, finishing his tea and setting the mug neatly by the sink. He presses a kiss to Padme's hair – which has so far proven to be every bit as red as his own – before moving to hand her back to Kylo. Padmé gives a cry of protest, not wanting to be parted from him so soon, but she quiets when Kylo murmurs some soothing nonsense in her ear.

Hux fetches his coat and puts it on; it's just warm enough out that he could probably forgo it altogether, but Kylo privately suspects that the heavy, dark coat makes him feel safe, in a strange, subconscious way. Even now, when they have been at peace for longer than either of them could have predicted, neither of them is entirely sure it will last. Old habits die hard, indeed.

"I'd better be off," Hux says. He braces his hand on the back of Kylo's chair and leans down to kiss Padmé's cheek in farewell; she understands that this gesture means he is leaving and begins to frown and squirm. Hux, trying to avoid triggering a full-on cry, lingers for but a second more to press his lips to Kylo's cheek, too.

"If I'm not back by sundown," Hux says, "assume that the villagers have driven me mad with boredom and come and fetch me." He straightens and sweeps toward the door, but not before nicking Kylo's second piece of toast from her plate.

"That wasn't for you," she says hotly as Hux reaches the door.

Purely to spite Kylo, Hux takes a bite of the toast and waves goodbye – although the last act seems to be mostly for Padmé's benefit. Kylo, torn between exasperation and affection and unsure how to deal with any of it, lets out a frustrated noise. Padmé finds this sound very amusing, and drowns Kylo out entirely with a peal of laughter, waving goodbye to Hux as he goes.