maplelantern:

idefk what this is and it’s kind of the wrong way around but omg @jeusus drew viking Hux and its so beautiful fuck and then I had 30 minutes left of my commute…

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“Stop pulling.”

Resisting the urge to tug harder, Kylo jerked the comb from Hux’s hair and tried teasing the stubborn knot apart with his fingers.

Hux continued to sit impressively still, despite his nagging.

“Children aren’t as clumsy as you!”

Kylo wants to tell Hux to unbraid and unknot his own goddamn hair. Why the man has decided to make Kylo do this recently, despite his obvious lack of practise, is a mystery.

He’s seen Hux’s brother do it for his husband, lazily around the firepit in the dark evenings. Techie’s slim fingers combing through the mass of blonde curls without ever eliciting a single wince from Matt, before spinning it into perfectly even braids without so much as a single stray strand out of place as if it were the easiest thing in the world.

It should look ridiculous, braided tight along one temple and left free the other, or pulled back into one thick twist like a bird’s crown, but somehow it doesn’t.

Kylo had never seen men with their hair this elaborate before he ended up here. One scruffy braid down the back maybe, or a short tail like he occasionally ties his own, but intricate styles were the domain of court women. He had often wondered how his mother had time to pin all those intricate loops and knots everyday.

…Having seen Hux and Matt gut his entire monastery without a flicker of remorse for the blood they were spilling belated the notion of weakness somehow, despite his ingrained idea of intricate hairstyles as a feminine attribute.

He picks up the comb again.

He knows Hux used to have his brother do this for him as well, and did it better than Kylo. And he knows that the tangled mess he is currently wrestling with is his own fault for rolling Hux onto his back this afternoon.

…On second thoughts that is probably why Hux doesn’t want Techie doing this for him now.

Hux hisses again as he reintroduces the comb, but eventually he gets it all evenly brushed and hanging perfectly straight about his pale shoulders. Kylo smoothes it with one hand, revelling in the softness of it. Even after all his complaining, Hux sighs at the touch.

“Clumsy.” He grumbles softly in Kylo’s language.

“Barbarian.” Kylo retorts, a word he knows damn well Hux understands.