Blinded by the Dark | General Hux

XXVII

The next few weeks were tough.

And it wasn't that Amelia didn't want to see Armitage or vice verse, no, quite the opposite. But with what her master had said to her in the training room: the warnings and that he saw the General to be overly interested in her they knew they had to bring his suspicions down a little if they wanted to go on uncaught.

The reality was their feelings were a death wish, insolence toward their cause and even the vaguest of hints on anyone's radar would be a problem.

Any attempts to sneak out too seemed to be against them. Amelia had gotten caught two nights in a row 'going for a walk' by the one person who could question her and sent back to her room to get up early for training the next day. If Ren found her out again he might not be so lenient nor likely to believe her and instead look into what was causing her apparent insomnia. In fact, he had even gone so far as to tell the troopers to report to him if they saw her wandering around again the next couple of weeks so he could scold her again for jepodising her sleep patterns and affecting her training.

It was lonely and a dark time for them both. When one is so newly in love it's a hard thing to be forced to keep secret, let alone be held back from spending every waking moment, even sleeping moment, by their side, in their arms. The pull is near unbearable.

Even the smallest of smiles or tiny looks might be picked up seeing as nearly everywhere she went she was accompanied by her master. If not in training then a meeting or on the bridge, the latter two her only possible interaction with her lover.

They wanted, needed to keep this a secret, but at what cost? How worth it was it? It hurt more than anything.

The closest they had gotten to a meaningful interaction was after a meeting when her master was distracted by talking to an officer on the other side of the room. She had immediately leapt at her chance to speak to Armitage for even just a few seconds about anything other than work.

"How are you, Miss Amelia? How are you holding up?" he asked under the guise of formality in case any officers were listening in.

"As well as I can, General...I apologise we've spoken less than usual lately. My master...he's a little protective."

"I understand, you don't have to apologise. I just hope I can see you again...soon."

"Me too-"

"Amelia." Ren called from across the room with a hint of irritation in his voice. "Come along."

She nodded once to him then turned back. "I hope to see you soon, General...I'm sorry."

She hurried away in her master's trail, managing to catch a glimpse quickly over her shoulder with a tiny smile; the most fleeting of moments.

This seperation was, unsurprisingly, becoming difficult to live with. The problem wasn't that they were away from each other such as they might be if on a mission or visiting a planet, but that they were right there, all the time, just out of their grasp. In the day standing beside them on the bridge or opposite each other in a meeting, in the evening just a couple of corridors over, a few doors even. It was hard to sleep alone after getting so used to sharing their beds.

They hoped, they prayed that this was just a temporary setback.

But around a week after their short encounter after the meeting he finally could no longer take it.

When he approached her on the bridge, knowing her master had been called away for some time, she turned to him with the most professional of relieved smiles. But he seemed...almost annoyed. His face was set with eyebrows furrowed, only raising his chin in acknowledgement of her.