Emperor!Rhys preview. If you guys like this I’ll try to finish it in my next few days off. 

Now in the privacy of his office, with the initial shock of Rhys’ arrival worn away, Jack could take in the emperor’s new look a little better. What a change, jeez. Jack remembered well the nubile little slip of an alien he’d bedded months ago, and while those memories resembled the imperial figure in front of him somewhat, Jack could pick out more differences than things that’d stayed the same.

The drastic shift in clothing struck Jack first. The innocence of that young heir at the ball on Japetus was what had drawn him in the first place—accentuated by the filmy robes of white and glimmering blue. He’d looked gorgeous on the white stone balcony of the palace, the moonlight making him shine like a surreal, enticing illusion.

All that gauzy blue and white had been ripped away and replaced with solid black, gold, and fiery red. Instead of robes that clung to the skin Rhys wore a massive, dark greatcoat that made him look even more daunting than any bandit or mercenary Jack had ever come across. The collar blossomed up high behind his head, framing it with shimmering red and gold that seemed to bubble and shift like lava. An opal-buckled belt cinched the coat together high on his abdomen, weighty sheaves of his coat billowing out over the rest of his body. It hemmed around his knees, shadowing the heavy black boots Rhys now sported.

They looked different, fearsome and far more suited for combat than the blue and white shoes Rhys had worn back on Japetus, straps and clasps delicate as fish bones. He remembered them well—when they laid over his shoulders, reflected in the mirror above the heir’s headboard.

There was still that elegance in Rhys, even now. Even as he stood towering and bulked with power he kept his boots heeled with the same roiling orange fire that blazed on his collar. He looked like a statue ready for worship—a look Jack had become familiar with over his years as Hyperion’s most eminent CEO.

No fair. He’d spent all this money on likenesses peppered all around Helios but Rhys had cut out the middleman through virtue of already looking as grand and intimidating as a frikkin’ sculpture.

But it wasn’t just the clothes that had Jack shaking and swallowing behind a face of bravado. Even discounting the height of the heels he was sure Rhys had grown even taller than before, with Jack’s head only barely coming up to the emperor’s shoulders. And bigger…Rhys looked a lot bigger, whether it was all muscle or the layers of clothes he wore or if Rhys had been pounding back the growth hormone, Jack didn’t know. But he hardly ever felt small, even in the presence of vault monsters and untamed planets. Yet Rhys’ size unnerved something inside of him, his neck prickling and mouth running a little dry.

“It’s nice to finally get you in private again, Jack.” Rhys broke the silence, gloved hands coming to lace in front of his body.