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Hux didn't know how long he'd been in the OAD, but his body felt as though it'd been running on empty for days. He moved slowly through the hospital-not-hospital, desperate for a place to lay down and close his eyes; even if he wouldn't be able to sleep, he'd be able to rest. He should've guessed it was a futile effort.

He'd just settled into a room that was more or less empty- save for a couple murmurs floating in the corner- when he heard footsteps out in the hall. He glanced at the door to the room and flicked his wrist so it slammed firmly shut. Hopefully the intruder would get the hint.

Of ******** course.

Hux frowned at the doorknob as it turned. He rose from the bed he'd only just sat on moments before. He glared at the woman whom decided to enter, despite his very blatant attempt to shut her out. He remembered her. She'd been the one to lead the rest of the tithes out that talking window, hadn't she?

Her name bubbled up to the surface of his memory bank. "Temperance." He said, voice husky and almost a growl. He looked at her, then the door. It slammed shut behind the blonde. "Did that seem like an invitation to you?"

He was still covered in bruises, though they were mostly healed now. Exhaustion announced itself quite plainly in the dark crescents beneath his eyes, in his hunched and tired shoulders.

Hux returned Temperance's step forward with a step of his own. Backwards, of course. There was a sick feeling in his stomach. One he couldn't quite place as an emotion he'd felt before. One of the vines snaked out from beneath the bed and wrapped itself around the blonde woman's ankle; making it that much harder for her to approach. Though, of course, it could easily be torn away. Even willed away, if she thought the expense of energy worth it.

"I'm not interested in choosing anyone." He said, matter-of-factly and with a glower. "And if there's anyone wanting to be chosen, they're fools." It was an obvious jab at her. She'd chosen not to wear a mask before, hadn't she? And she was here. Looking for something. Someone. Obviously.

"I'm okay as I can be." He lied. He didn't offer any more chance at conversation, just stared at her; quite content to keep the distance between them as lengthy as it could be within the overgrown room.

"Some wounds can't be healed." Hux murmured in response to Temperance's concern, his tone as morbid as his statement was meant to be.

He crossed his arms over his wide chest, allowed himself a once-over of the nurse as she spoke. He looked over her shoulder, at the door, and then at the window behind him. It was dark outside. Too dark to see past the dust-covered panes.

He focused his attention on Temperance again.

"I'm not interested in discussing the topic." He said rather gruffly. "I came here to rest, not to be questioned by some foolish young do-gooder." He looked at the door and it flung it open once more.

"Go." He commanded. "Or I'll make you go."

Had he been less exhausted, Hux might have laughed.

"You're stupid to think you'll be able to do anything against them." He said. "There is no good in the court. They make sure to break it out of you long before you're given the title of noble." He watched Temperance with disgust as she took up the only bed in the room. The one he'd planned to lay down on himself, before she'd decided to ignore his warning and step in anyway.

With a twitch of his fingers, he lifted her from the plush mattress and sent her hurdling through the air. His mouth twitched into an almost smirk then dissolved back into a grimace when she thudded into the wall next to the room's exit. He'd meant to send her through the door... hadn't he?

"Go." He said again, firm. "Public or not, it's power that rules here. And I've got more than you. And I want you out!" Rage had crept into his voice, slowly and then with vigor. The murmurs in the corner shuddered and fled. The bed flipped into the wall next to Temperance, cracking the already decaying drywall. "I won't warn you again."

Again, Hux lifted her in the air with a look and raise of his chin. Meaning for it to be more threat than anything else, he let her dangle there.

"It's necessary when I've asked you to go and you've made yourself at home instead. What do you want from me? I'm not interested in rebellion. I just want to <******** sleep." He growled.

"The same could be said to you, seeing as you entered a closed room. Weren't you taught to knock, or, maybe that when a door is slammed shut the occupant isn't interested in company?" He dropped Temperance to the ground abruptly, uncaring as to whether she landed on her feet or in a more uncomfortable fashion.

"I had responsibilities." He said. "And they took all of them away from me. I don't care about the court or humanity or whatever the ******** it is you want me to care about." Hux turned away from her. He stared hard at the caked-with-dust window to the outside world.

"Do you even understand what happens, when you're chosen as a tithe? Not to you specifically, but to your life afterwards? If you return to it, it'll be ruined. You'll be a different person after spending time with the court, and your life will be different too. I doubt you'll be very eager to preach about responsibility then."

He kept his back to her, anger simmering in his grey-blue eyes. "You don't know as much as you think you do, Temperance, get off your goddamn high horse and go the ******** away."

'master doesn't love you.' Said a soft voice, quite suddenly, within the both of their minds. Hux groaned, and Lilt appeared. She poked her head into the threshold of the door, then edged- carefully- around the wall so that she was inside. She glared at Temperance, then offered Hux a tentative look of complete awe and adoration.

'i've been looking for you, master, i love you though she does not. shall i get rid of her for you? would that make you happy? would that make you love me?'

Hux had stiffened even more than he'd been a moment ago, his back and shoulders a rigid line; silhouetted by the dull grey light that barely filtered through the window.

"No, Lilt." He said without turning to look at the pathetic creature. "I want you to go away as well. I want you both. Gone." He his voice was a growl again, hands fisted at his sides. "I need to rest."