Chapter Text
He strode with long, confident steps down the school hallway, destination in sight and determination in his heart as he tightly gripped a small stack of posters in one hand and red colored duct tape in the other. Kylo Ren. The man, the myth, the legend. Complete with a limited edition 'Thorn For Every Heart' tee, black skinny jeans, overpriced headphones around his neck, and hair down to his shoulders with a slight curl, Kylo Ren was everything a middle school girl could dream of, and everything a middle school emo boy hoped to be.
Unfortunately, Kylo Ren happened to be a junior in high school.
No matter how ashamed you are to admit it, everyone has an emo phase. Kylo Ren, however, never grew out of his. Instead, he got a job at Hot Topic just so he could get a discount on shitty band tees and Darth Vader dolls-- sorry-- figurines. He would be teased mercilessly if he weren't so fucking ruthless.
As it stands, he--
"Rey! What the fuck!?" Kylo Ren yelled, pausing in front of the water fountain where a shorter girl with a no-nonsense expression and hair in three small buns was standing on tip-toe to finish pasting a poster with Vote Rey for Student Council President-- Your 'Rey' of Hope written in big letters above a hand-sketched picture of a ray of sunlight flooding a darkened forest with light. Kylo Ren frowned, as much as he hated to admit it, her sketch was excellent.
"Oh!" She said, turning to face him with a completely innocent look on her face. "I'm sorry Ben, were you hoping to put a poster here first?" She smiled, and Kylo Ren immediately began to simmer with silent rage.
Did he want to put a poster there? Did he want to put a poster there? It was only the most coveted campaign spot in the whole school! There were only so many walls, most of the school was made up of windows for some reason (much to the dismay of ADHD diagnosed students everywhere), and Principal Organa was very strict about where students could and could not put up posters after the...unfortunate event last year.
There was really only one place in the entire school where it was guaranteed that every single student would see it. That was above the water-fountains by the cafeteria. And she had taken it. Kylo Ren's face twisted in disgust. Not only had she taken his spot, she'd also called him ' Ben' even though she knew he changed his name to Kylo, and she had the nerve to smile at him while doing it! He could see straight through her little innocence act, and she was pure evil.
He strut past her, completely ignoring her question in favor of covering her poster up with his anyway.
He stepped back, crossed his arms over his chest, and looked over at Rey with a satisfying smirk.
She tried, and failed, to stifle a laugh.
"What's so funny?" Kylo Ren tried to maintain his cool composure, but his smirk faded fast and his arms fell a bit lower.
"Nothing, it's just--" She burst into a fit of giggles again.
Heat began to crawl up his neck, and he brought his hands back down to his sides and clenched his fists.
Rey took a deep breath to compose herself, pasting back on the mask of fake professionalism. "I just can't believe you're think that sign could beat me in an election. You strut over here like a man in charge, like you know what you were doing, then you’re rude enough to cover up my poster in front of me...and it's all...it's all for that? " She pointed at it, a smile tugging at her lips.
Kylo Ren was trying very hard not to lose it. He sent a silent prayer for patience to Darth Vader, and asked "What's wrong with it?"
"For starters," She said, not even hesitating, "You used perhaps the most cliche campaign idea in the world. ' Free drinks on me!' above the water fountain? Where did you get that idea, Pinterest?"
"No!" He shouted, a little too quickly. Browsing Pinterest for campaign ideas seemed like a good idea at the time...he should have accepted Hux's offer for help.
"Also, the skulls seem a little tacky," She added, "but that's just my opinion."
She turned back towards the water fountain and took Kylo's sign down again, but rather than throw it away she simply walked towards Kylo Ren and handed it back to him with that same kind, innocent looking smile. "Take my advice, Ben, you don't want to embarrass yourself."
Barely containing his rage, Kylo crushed the sign into a small paper ball as Rey turned and walked away.
He grit his teeth, and tried to count to ten like Hux taught him.
He didn't make it past three. "My name isn't Ben, it's Kylo Ren!" He yelled, throwing the crumpled up ball straight at her head just as sixth period let out and the halls flooded with people. Rey simply picked up the paper ball and threw it in the trashcan behind her. It landed perfectly.
"Don't vote Kylo Ren for Student Council President!" She yelled in a chipper voice, "He litters."
When Kylo Ren returned home, he coped with his earlier humiliation in the only way he knew how. He locked the door to his room, cranked up his angry music, and sat down to brood.
He needed a better campaign. He needed to beat Rey. First, winning this election was almost entirely about the power involved, but now? Now his pride was tied up in the whole thing as well. Besides, why would she even want to be Student Council President in the first place? She was already star of the soccer team, and popular, and friends with Poe, which made her more popular. With Poe and co. dominating theatre, couldn't they at least leave something for him to come out on top in?
He closed his eyes, MCR's 'Thank You For the Venom' playing in the background, and leaned back in his chair. He attempted to take deep calming breaths.
Not even four seconds into his count, he remembered that stupid, sweet smile she gave him, remembered her condescending tone, remembered that disgustingly impressive trashcan shot, and completely lost it, screaming in rage as he stood up, sweeping everything off of the desk in a fit of furious passion.
Then, Poe began to knock on the door.
"Go away!" Kylo yelled, kicking the door to further stress his point.
"This is my room too you know!" Poe yelled back, trying to be heard over Kylo's music. "And for the love of God, Ben, turn that shit down."
This time, Kylo didn't even bother correcting him. He just crawled onto his bottom bunk, closed his eyes, listened to the music, and screamed into his pillow.
A few minutes ticked by, before he once again heard the fierce knock on his door. He lifted his face up from his pillow. "For the love of God, Poe, I said--"
"This is Leia." Her voice was firm and harsh, and it stopped Kylo mid-sentence. "For the last time, you can't just lock Poe out of your room when you're angry. Now, I'm going to count to ten--"
"Don't bother," Kylo Ren muttered, silencing his record player and moving over to unlock the door. "It doesn't work anyway."
He unlocked the door, then immediately returned to collapse on his bed again, staring up at the ceiling with a look of pensive reflection on his face.
Poe sighed the sigh of a defeated man. “Really, Ben? Again?” He looked down at all of the things Kylo had swept off his desk, now all lying in disarray on the floor. ‘I just cleaned this stuff up, too.”
“My name isn’t Ben, it’s Kylo Ren. We’ve been over this.”
“Sure, whatever ‘Kyle,’ but would you mind not throwing my stuff all over the ground?”
"I'm not sorry," Kylo Ren said with a huff. "You shouldn't have had your stuff all over my desk."
"This is my desk!" Poe shouted, before taking a deep sigh to calm himself down. "If I had a dollar for every time you threw a temper tantrum and destroyed things, I would get change for those dollars, put the change in a sock, and beat you with it."
Kylo Ren ignored him. Poe was his absolute arch-nemesis, and the day he moved into Kylo's house was probably the worst day of Kylo Ren's entire teenage life. Han rescued Poe from some sort of trouble a few years back and took him in. It started off casual, with Poe just crashing at their house from time to time, but eventually when everything fell apart at Poe's house Leia's mom gene kicked in pretty hardcore and she took him in completely, no questions asked. Now Poe says Han Solo is like the dad he never really had, and Rey and Finn kind of say the same thing as well.
Kylo Ren hates his family.
"Your idle threats mean nothing to me, Poe Dameron," He said after a time. "Talk about beating me all you wish, but you completely underestimate my power. I'm growing stronger and stronger every day, and soon when I get cast as Hamlet over you you'll see that--"
Poe cut him off. "First, I was kidding, I'm not going to fight you Kyle."
"Kylo."
"Whatever. Second, the cast list is already out. Didn't you see it?"
Kylo Ren shot out of his bed completely, racing to his desk and flipping open his laptop, flinging it open and pressing refresh on his email faster than Poe could say "William Shakespeare was a flaming homosexual."
Full of passion and excitement at first, Kylo Ren's face fell flatter and flatter the further his eyes skimmed down the list without seeing his name.
Hamlet-- Poe Dameron. Of course. He shouldn't have even been surprised.
He kept skimming, seeing name after name of people he didn't care about.
"I know your name is on there somewhere." Poe said, picking up one of his model airplanes to tinker around with. "Maybe somewhere near the bottom?"
"I can't find it."
Poe sighed, setting down his airplane and coming up behind Kylo.
"No, wait, see! Here it is!" Poe said, pointing to a name on the screen. "Gentlemen #2."
Kylo Ren stared at the screen in annoyance and disbelief, his face completely devoid of emotion, betraying nothing. "It says Kyle Lauren."
"Isn't that what you said you go by now?" Poe said in genuine confusion.
"I go by Kylo Ren! We've been over this! It's on a sign on my door!" Kylo's fists were clenched tight, growing white at the knuckle.
Poe frowned. "Try and cheer up, okay? It'll be okay. I think Han said he'd take us out for ice cream later. Your dad's the best."
Kylo exploded once again. "I'm lactose intolerant! God! I hate this fucking family!" He slammed his laptop shut, pushing himself away from the desk and moving towards the door to their room.
"Where are you going?" Poe asked.
"I'm going to Starbucks to pressure Hux into giving me a free drink. Please move out." He turned, and slammed the door behind him.
"Have fun!" He heard Poe call out behind him, "If Hux tries to talk you into joining the dark side, don't do it!"
Even after all this time, Kylo Ren could never quite tell when Poe was joking.