stardust

Where he’d normally be standing up straight, his posture is slouched ever so slightly to take some strain off of his spine. (She’s one to talk – the way she’s positioned with her arms crossed over her chest and shoulders hunched forward makes her look more like a question mark than a person.) 

She almost feels bad for saying anything at all when he straightens his shoulders, until – 

“The way you’re standing tells me your hip is sore.” 

It comes out of nowhere, just as she’s trying to think of something else to say to distract him (and herself). She bites the inside of her cheek to try and school her reaction, but she still turns her head to glare at him. To make matters worse, he isn’t even looking at her. The perfect picture of discipline and obedience. 

Fair play.

Because she had to dig in deeper, he doesn’t let her go with just a single comment. “All your weight’s balanced on one leg.” 

And it’s even worse when he’s right. Scowling, she subtly shifts her posture so it’s more evenly dispersed, just out of spite. The pain in her hip flares as she does so, and she clenches her jaw as she pushes through it. 

Cassian’s arm brushes against hers as he says softly, “Don’t bother. No one’s paying any attention.”

Though she considers not moving just to make a point, she moves back to the loose, slouchy way she’d been standing earlier. Yet she lingers closer to Cassian, eliminating the space between them: arm against arm, leg against leg. 

“That applies to you, too, Major.” 

Jyn feels his exhale rather than hears it, a look of consternation passing over her face when he doesn’t relax like she had. “Cassian. . .” 

“I know, I know,” he mutters – yet does nothing. If anything, his posture gets even more rigid.  

Stubborn bastard. Good thing she is, too. With a roll of her eyes, she immediately locks up her joints, full weight on her bad leg and standing so ramrod straight it’s like someone shocked her with a stun prod. 

Cassian inhales sharply like someone has shocked him with a stun prod. She takes a good amount of satisfaction from that, fully intending to play this silly little waiting game until he finally fucking gives in and relaxes. 

“Jyn,” he hisses under his breath. 

“Cassian,” she hisses right back, moving in to nudge him gently with her shoulder in an attempt to shake him off his balance and–

“ – and Captain Erso will be leading the second strike team.” 

At the sound of her name, Jyn’s head snaps up; Draven’s looking right at her as he says it, like a school teacher chastising a misbehaving student. She waits, wondering if he’ll call her out on it – she wouldn’t put it past him – 

After a pause, he continues on without interruption; huffing out a breath, she tucks her chin into her chest and glares, feeling not unlike a chastened schoolchild. 

At her side, Cassian snickers quietly. “Seems like Captain Erso needs to be paying more attention.” 

She pinches his ribs in retaliation. “So that’s what gets your rocks off,” she hisses. “Me getting in trouble.” 

He doesn’t deny it, so she tacks on, “Sadist.” 

“Funny,” he says on an exhale, amused. “You said something similar last night.” 

Memories of the previous night come rushing back at his comment – how he’d kept her teetering on the edge for what felt like hours, leaving her cursing in every language she could think of while he’d smiled into her thigh and told her that patience was a virtue. 

The way her ears redden at the recollection must be visible even in the dim lighting of the briefing room by the way Cassian’s grin tugs even further upward, so she pinches him again, right in the same spot. 

But now that he’s got her mind on it – and pushing back the ever-growing urge to jump his bones here and now, briefing be damned – last night’s activities are probably the reason both of them are sore today. They’re not as young (and uninjured) a few years ago, and especially not like they had been before Scarif. It likely hadn’t been a good idea to wrangle her leg up over his shoulders as he’d nearly bent her in half, but – well. In the moment, it’d been worth it. 

For the remainder of the briefing, she does her best to remain focused, but it’s a futile battle. Though it’s not like she pays much attention to these sorts of things anyway, Cassian’s thoroughly distracted her enough that there’s no chance in hell she’ll retain anything useful. After a painfully long time spent fidgeting and sighing – much to her partner’s stoic amusement – Draven finally finished his tirade. 

Had this not been the only time she’d see Cassian all day, she would have bolted out of there. 

As everyone begins to filter out of the room, they linger. Not too long to be suspicious, but she busies herself with her data pad as if there’s something relevant on it, if only to spend a few more seconds at his side. 

Cassian seems to feel the same, a scrap of flimsi in his hand, even if all of his attention is on her. “See you later?” 

Jyn snorts good-naturedly. “You’re that desperate for me, huh.” 

His mouth twitches upward. 

“Fine,” she drags the word out, as if they don’t sleep in the same bed every night. As much as she tries to keep her expression neutral, she can’t quite manage it. “I’ll swing by the mess on my way over. We can have a picnic.” 

As they part, their hands brush, pinkies curling around each other for an extra second as they leave the room together. A fleeting moment of warmth that cuts through the chilling cold of Hoth.