"This can't possibly be comfortable for you." He voices Bodhi's thoughts aloud, but gives a warm smile back, letting Bodhi's hands explore his face and hair.
"And of course it is. You don't get very far in life without being stubborn."
He knows he's just being tolerated, but it's hard to stop. Cuddlesnake. "Having tried both, I can attest to folding immediately and making yourself scarce being a decent method, too. For purposes of not dying. Superior, even, if just the life part is what you're after." He might be babbling a little.
"And yet what kind of life is that, to cower?" His stocky pride clearly wants to come out to play. "If all you're doing is folding, without plans to stab the one who made you fold in the back, then what has it all been for?"
Well, good job turning it back on him. "I suppose, well, opinions... would logically have to vary, wouldn't--definitely starts with being alive, though, right?"
They've known each other too long for him to pretend he doesn't know what Hux means. So even though he'd much rather keep teasing, he takes a deep breath and answers as best he can. Thinking about good things, let alone perfect things, is hard. Talking about it is harder. "Perfect? A big, real window to watch the rain, good noodles nearby, more cats than I would have guessed, apparently." He keeps his tone light, coasting on the honest but frivolous. "Work to do that matters and couldn't be handled by an obsolete droid." He tries very hard not to sound any different and maybe he succeeds. "You."
He nods a little along with all of it, giving a grin at the mention of cats.
The smile fades into something more real when that last part is mentioned. Hux, carefully, shifts in his chair.
"...My home planet rains all the time. I haven't been back there since I was five, but if you ever wanted to visit it. Figure out if it's a planet you'd like to settle..?"
Like he hadn't been making serious plans on the side for an eventual future together.
The beginnings of tension fade away, though he's definitely flustered himself. Hux doing him the kindness of zeroing in on the rain part earns him some fresh gratitude. "It's funny, rain feels like... like a luxury? I can't take heat o-or bright sun, so it's not just, um, the opposite of what I'm used to." He reaches the end of his spine's tolerance for being coiled around Hux like a spring and reluctantly straightens up, hands settling on his shoulders. "But listening to a good storm, in... good company, that sounds like home."
"You're in luck, then. Most beings born on rainy planets can barely stand to be in the sun of deserts, because our complexions can't take it very long. On Arkanis you hardly ever see the sun for the rain. And it could be cozy."
It wasn't very, from what he remembered of his distant childhood. But with Bodhi and the cats, it might be.
He could make a few pointed remarks about Hux and sunburns, but the moment doesn't seem right. Later. He can almost believe there'll be plenty of laters to do it in. "Perfect. Now how're the cantinas, or is one of us going to have to learn to cook properly?" It takes a little effort to keep his hands still. It's hard not to be suffocating, especially right now.
Well, he could have answered that question. Hmph. "I just thought we'd both had enough of military rations to last a dozen lifetimes, that's all." Having stretched out a bit, Bodhi can no longer resist hugging him again, resting his chin on Hux's shoulder. Even tumbling into endless cascades of conversational nonsense with him is so good. "Close to the ocean, then?"
"I can't even herd cats." Bodhi is once again very nearly in Hux's lap. Good. "That much surface water. It must be incredible to have it just... be there."
Bodhi nods. "It was rare. Once a year, sometimes. But when it came, everyone had their windows open. The smell of it, too, even in the city..." Bodhi isn't a poetic soul. This comes out sounding silly. He probably should have kept his mouth shut, but he doesn't regret it as much as usual.
Bodhi curls around him cooperatively. "Well, that ought to be enough," he teases. "What else should I know going in?" Which is is way of asking Hux more about his previously unmentioned homeworld. He's sort of never imagined the man much of anywhere but the deck of a very brutalist, efficient ship.
"Going into the atmosphere of my planet?" he says, just to jokingly clarify.
"Well, it's small. And I think I likely have an estate somewhere I inherited but it was bombed in the last few days of the old Empire. It has a lot of local fauna. Ah, what else...rolling grass hills, lots of herbivores."
An estate. Wow. (Even a bombed-out estate. He's got some experience living under those conditions, after all. Depending on the degree of bombing.) "And that's our view? From... the estate?" Alright, he's a little stuck on it. It's funny, in a way. Hux does not read as a rich kid, for plenty of very good reasons Bodhi knows of and no doubt more that he doesn't. It's also a little weird. Picturing telling anybody at home where he was going--It's not like there is anybody left from home, but if there were.
"From what I can remember. Honestly I don't know what kind of repairs it may need, or if there are new owners, or if I technically was stripped of property after becoming a war criminal. I suppose we'll have to find out."
"I can do repairs," Bodhi says lightly, trying to keep in the spirit of the thing. "Well, maybe. I have no idea what an estate actually consists of." It sounds more like something out of a bad holodrama than anything real.
"Not by yourself. I know part of it was being five since I saw it last, but part of the estate was a huge building. Served as one of the Imperial academies back in the Empire's day. It was shelled over a long period, so there are likely pockmarks and cracks in its foundation. Then there are the lands surrounding it, the farms and smaller dwellings rented out for the people needed to live and work there. It's a lot to manage, and that's assuming I'm even welcomed back."
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"And of course it is. You don't get very far in life without being stubborn."
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"All right. Living to do what? What is the perfect life?"
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The smile fades into something more real when that last part is mentioned. Hux, carefully, shifts in his chair.
"...My home planet rains all the time. I haven't been back there since I was five, but if you ever wanted to visit it. Figure out if it's a planet you'd like to settle..?"
Like he hadn't been making serious plans on the side for an eventual future together.
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"You're in luck, then. Most beings born on rainy planets can barely stand to be in the sun of deserts, because our complexions can't take it very long. On Arkanis you hardly ever see the sun for the rain. And it could be cozy."
It wasn't very, from what he remembered of his distant childhood. But with Bodhi and the cats, it might be.
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A pause.
"There are a few pubs in the villages. Nothing extravagant, most of the trade and food come from the seas."
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"Yes. Of course. Unless you fancy yourself herding nerfs across the plains."
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He hugs Bodhi closer to him.
"It rains about two to three times a week on my planet. Five or six isn't even that unusual."
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"Well, it's small. And I think I likely have an estate somewhere I inherited but it was bombed in the last few days of the old Empire. It has a lot of local fauna. Ah, what else...rolling grass hills, lots of herbivores."
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"From what I can remember. Honestly I don't know what kind of repairs it may need, or if there are new owners, or if I technically was stripped of property after becoming a war criminal. I suppose we'll have to find out."
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"Not by yourself. I know part of it was being five since I saw it last, but part of the estate was a huge building. Served as one of the Imperial academies back in the Empire's day. It was shelled over a long period, so there are likely pockmarks and cracks in its foundation. Then there are the lands surrounding it, the farms and smaller dwellings rented out for the people needed to live and work there. It's a lot to manage, and that's assuming I'm even welcomed back."
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