#rcvalentine

They had barely survived Scarif. She had thought that the sight of the very last transport scanning the beach for survivors (far too few) had been a mirage of the cruelest sort - at least until the hatch opened and Baze’s gruff face appeared.

And then, just as suddenly, they were unceremoniously yanked aboard by two long durasteel arms, even though the haste with which they were rescued probably exacerbated already dire injuries - at least in Cassian’s case. “Punch it, pilot!’, he ordered, and Jyn wanted to ask how, but the burns inflicted by the oncoming kyberwave made it mostly impossible for her to speak.

The ship rocketed in the atmosphere, and for a moment - one terrifying, heartstopping moment in time - they ship shuddered violently, and, they held their collective breath as they worried that it might break into pieces around them. But it didn’t, and the small group of survivors hurtled through hyperspace, screaming toward Echo Base, toward safety to a medbay where doctors and medics could help, because none of them had come away from Scarif unscathed.

“It’s alright, little sister”, Baze tried to reassure Jyn, holding her tight against his broad chest when Cassian stopped breathing and Kay - rather, the new chassis holding old Kay - commenced performing chest compressions until he gasped back into life, Jyn’s wild sobs echoing throughout the ship.

She had never felt so lost, never felt so alone than in the moment when she believed that even though they had escaped the destruction of Scarif, she had lost Cassian anyway.

For the first time in a long time, when Cassian had said ‘welcome home’, Jyn had begun to believe that maybe she had, however inadvertently, found someplace to belong.

But she found herself bereft at the thought of a life without Cassian in it. And as she stared at his silent, still body lying on the floor of the ship, all Jyn could do was pray to deities and Forces she didn’t even believe in anymore in a last ditch effort to spare his life. She would give her own if it meant that he could open his eyes for her once more.

But he didn’t - and if not for the shallow rise and fall of his chest, he could be mistaken for any one of the fallen soldiers they’d had to leave on destroyed planet they’d barely gotten away from.

When all of the frenetic energy had drained from her body and her heart-wrenching wails turned into sniffles, she was finally allowed to slump down to the floor, where she clutched Cassian’s limp hand tight and buried her face against his chest, quietly begging him not to give up just yet, please just hold on.

When they touched down on base, all of them, save for Kay, were swept away for treatment. Bodhi’s mangled arm couldn’t be saved, so he was fitted with a mechno-arm instead. Chirrut, rendered temporarily deaf from walking through close explosions, serenely recovered from a blaster wound to his side, which miraculously hadn’t hit any vital organs. “All is as the Force wills it”, was all he would say when asked how any of them had managed to survive what they’d gone into knowing was a suicide mission. Baze grumbled as he was treated for two wounds severe enough to have taken down anybody else, but he was perfectly content to rest and recuperate by Chirrut’s side.

Perhaps luckily, the worst injuries that Jyn suffered from were burns from the kyberwave that had almost atomized she and Cassian on that beach. A small handful of bacta treatments later, and she was healing well, new, sensitive patches of pink skin littering her right side from her ace to her toes, mostly hidden underneath her Rebellion-issued sleep clothes. And although Jyn was not exactly a vain woman, the less anyone said about her newly shorn, chin length hair, the better.

“Irreparably damaged”, they’d called it. Jyn thought that was a nice way of saying ‘burnt to a crisp’.

Cassian was the most severely injured of them all. Blaster graze, multiple broken vertebrae, internal lacerations as well as bleeding, bones broken and shattered from ribs to pelvis to leg. It truly was a miracle that somehow, he had managed to pull through.

Although Jyn couldn’t be present for every surgery performed to wire Cassian’s broken body together again, she insisted upon sitting with him through every bacta treatment afterwards. Most likely, he didn’t even know that she was there, so deep in his medically induced coma was he, but that hardly mattered to Jyn.

He was her home now, and she was never going to leave his side again for as long as she possibly could.

.. If that was what he wanted.

But Jyn thought … she’d felt … she hoped that the connection she had felt on that beach was real and not just borne from the knowledge that they were going to die together. Fleetingly, she’d wondered what could have been if they only had the time to find out.

And now they did.

And Jyn was terrified of the prospect of … being open and vulnerable with another person when she was far more used to being on her own, but … she trusted Cassian. What she felt for him was more than she’d felt for anyone in her life, and despite the fear, wasn’t that worth exploring?

So she sat, and she kept vigil over Cassian as he went through surgeries and bacta treatments, and she sat by his bedside as his body slowly began to heal, and even though she couldn’t be sure that he could even hear her, she began opening up and talking about herself little by little, the sorts of stories and details that would be missing in een the most complete dossier.

She was dozing, sitting right by his side in a hair, where she’d faithfully been every moment that she wasn’t receiving treatment herself, or visiting with their recuperating teammates - friends - to check up on them and to report on his condition. Through her dreamy haze, it took a while for Jyn to realize that the gentle pressure she felt were Cassian’s fingers tenderly carding through what remained of her hair. Her breath hitched in her throat, and it took a moment longer before she raised her head, afraid to find out that she’d been imagining it all along, like so many times before.

But Cassian was awake, and as alert as could be expected, given the sheer amount of painkillers and antibiotics being fed to him intravenously. Despite that, though, the relief he felt upon meeting her eyes was palpable between them, as was her own. She could finally allow herself to believe, at long last, that he was going to be okay. Maybe not the same as he’d been before, but okay nonetheless. A tear silently slipped from one eye and down a cheek and she -

Well. She’d never seen a more wonderful sight in all her life.

“Jyn”, he rasped out, his voice a hoarse, thin whisper. “You’re here.”

A soft, shaky chuckle passed her lips and she searched out his free hand to hold, squeezing gently as though to reassure him of her presence all the more fully.

“All the way, remember?”, she murmured, heart beating back into life at the recognition and the light in his dark eyes as he held her hand more firmly, and lifted it to his lips to press a gentle kiss against her knuckles.

“All the way”, he answered, and Jyn couldn’t know how or why, but she believed with everything that she was that Cassian meant it with everything that he was.

Even Joreth Sward at his smarmy best couldn't quite get past the cadre of security surrounding him at all times during the weeklong and seemingly endless conference. Zel Djo Sward was having an easier time ingratiating herself with the General's mistress, but time spent gossiping with the wives, mistresses, and other paramours the most lauded men in the Empire had brought as arm candy to the entirely boring goings on was not exactly exciting nor conducive to getting the job done.

At least they were somewhat placated with the knowledge that the more information they gathered, the better for the Rebellion. Still, the longer the mission dragged on, the more it felt like it might never come to an end.

The frustration was wearing on them both. But being in such close quarters and having to feign being a happily married couple intent upon working their way up the ranks was wearing on them worse.

It wasn't as though both of them weren't very well practiced when it came to taking on new names and personas both in service to the cause and in order to survive. They were far more accustomed to operating by themselves. And it wasn't as though they hadn't played those parts to perfection, but this was different. This was each other. And this was having to pretend as though they were ridiculously in love and having to sell it to everyone who set eyes upon them.

That wasn't the problem.

The problem was separating the fantasy from reality, the real feelings from the fake. Or recognizing that maybe none of those feelings were as fake as both of them assumed.

 The same affectionate little gestures that had become second nature when mingling with the crowds had easily translated to the times Jyn and Cassian found themselves alone in their uncomfortably opulent hotel room, sending missives, waiting for missives, both feeling stir crazy and trapped as all they could do was wait until the next opportunity to plant the tracker presented itself.

 At first, neither one of them thought much about the little touches that they offered each other - the way that Jyn didn't hesitate to brush Cassian's overlong hair out of his eyes when he couldn't be bothered to do it himself.

 And when Jyn was standing at the full-length window, gazing out at the city, it surely didn't mean anything at all when he quietly joined her, the warmth and weight of his palm pressed gently against her back a reassuring and calming force that she hadn't known how much she needed.

 Surely, the way he urged her closer to his side didn't mean a thing. Surely, this was all just part of playing their roles. Surely, it shouldn’t hurt as much when one or the other or both eventually realized what they were doing and jerked away from each other as though they were burned.

 Surely it wasn’t anything more than the mission wearing them thin. Surely …

 As far as missions went, this was hardly the most difficult assignment Cassian had been tasked with. But finding himself alone with Jyn was turning out to be one of the biggest challenges of his career.

 It wasn't much of a hardship to look at her with an easy affection lighting up his eyes and to touch her with a familiarity only those comfortable in their shared intimacy could. But that was as Joreth and Zel, newly married upstarts in the Empire. They were in love, ambitious, intent upon making their way up the ranks by any means necessary.

 Cassian and Jyn were another story altogether. Cassian and Jyn had been orbiting each other since before Scarif - since Jedha, actually. Cassian and Jyn both recognized that something had been growing and surrounding them well before they held each other in the hot sand, awaiting their imminent demise. They were too young to die, but at least they would die together. And as they held each other tight, they'd both found some measure of comfort in that.

 But they hadn't died that day. They'd hurriedly been picked up by the very last transport ship scanning the beach for far too few survivors, barely making it off-world before the destruction hit.

When Cassian's eyes had fluttered open in medbay, Jyn was by his side, sleeping in what looked to be the most uncomfortable chair on base, and she was clutching his hand tightly. And as he went through bacta treatments and surgery after surgery to repair his broken body, Jyn was there every step of the way. And even afterward, too, as Cassian learned how to walk all over again, encouraging him, kicking his ass into shape when needed it, and reassuring him in his darkest moments that even though he might need to inhabit a new role within the Rebellion, that hardly meant that he was as useless as he felt.

 Through it all, they'd grown closer still, so close that they'd become indispensable to one another. And yet, neither had known quite how to bridge the feelings that had only grown stronger with time.

 Neither really knew how to navigate the new level of intimacy they had found with each other. At least - not when they weren't using that intimacy in service to the cause.

 But when they were alone, when they could shed Joreth and Zel in favor of being Jyn and Cassian, that easy intimacy faded into uncertainty and tiptoeing around each other that left them both feeling strangely empty.

 Jyn's skin prickled every time she caught Cassian watching her. The hair on the back of Cassian's neck stood on end every time he felt her doing the same. And yet ... doing anything more seemed impossible.

 It was the last night of the conference, and as of yet, Cassian had not found a way to get close enough to the General to plant a tracking device, and the strain was wearing on him - it was wearing on them both. They should have completed the mission by now. They should have been on their way to Yavin 4. They had been avoiding the fact that every touch they shared only just set the blood in their veins on fire .. and only just left them both wanting more.

 Jyn breathlessly shuddered her way through another too-quick orgasm as she imagined that it had been given to her by Cassian’s hands, and Cassian’s mouth, and Cassian’s body as it moved in time with hers, Cassian exploring every inch of her body while murmuring in her ear how proud he was of how good she was being for him, Cassian nipping at her lips until she gasped his name, Cassian kissing her into incoherence, and Cassian holding her close in the afterglow, helping her slowly return to reality.

 In the shower, hot water cascading all around him, Cassian sighed as he spilled against the stark white of the stall, his hand wrapped firmly around his cock, his breath harsh and fast as the pleasure of his release quickly subsided. Not for the first time, Cassian wished that it was Jyn’s slim, strong fingers wrapped around him, Jyn whispering terrifically naughty things in his ear, and Jyn’s mouth as she pressed tiny kisses along his jawline to his lips, where she’d then press punishing kisses, designed to steal every breath in his body, Jyn getting him off.

 But neither could afford to indulge in their fantasies for too long when there was one more night and one more chance to plant their tracking device and get the hell off-world and back to base as soon as possible. The longer they lingered, the higher the chances of being caught.

 Cassian and Jyn prepared in silence and by themselves - Cassian in the bathroom and Jyn in the bedroom, both well aware that their mission would be considered a dismal failure even if they brought back information gleaned from other sources. Cassian efficiently dried off, pulling on decadently soft underthings before shaving what little scruff had accumulated since the day before.

 Jyn put on piece after piece of exorbitantly luxurious underthings, marveling at the thought that the people that they were emulating lived like this every day.

 Cassian pulled on his - Joreth's - dress uniform, careful to ensure that not a single piece was out of place. He regarded himself critically in the mirror, almost unable to recognize the man staring at him in return. In another life, maybe this is exactly where he would have found himself - some smarmy suck-up looking for any and every opportunity to work his way into a position of power.

 A wave of nausea washed over him , and Cassian looked away, busying himself with slicking his hair back, his face all sharp angles and even sharper expression. Despite everything - the pain and loss and heartbreak, the death and destruction, some of which had been caused by his two hands - Cassian felt that he was exactly where he belonged …

 Jyn had spent a lifetime struggling to find a way out of the dark that had enveloped her since she was a child. She'd thought that she'd found a place to belong with Saw, but she'd been unceremoniously left behind when she was sixteen, and still needed guidance, structure, a family unit, and although he'd said, back on Jedha, that it had been for her own good, a part of her would always feel heartbroken and betrayed by the man she'd thought of as a surrogate father.

 Maybe Jyn never thought that she would find a place to belong within the Rebellion, but when Cassian had leaned in close and murmured 'Welcome home', she felt that after everything she'd suffered, she had found a home for herself.

 With Cassian.

 Jyn was so lost in her thoughts it hardly registered that the soft knock at the bedroom door was Cassian, finished with his bathroom routine, checking to see if she was decent. Had to come in to retrieve his ridiculous boots, after all. Even though her dress was wide open in the back, Jyn still coughed before acknowledging the unspoken query. “Coast is clear, you’re safe to enter.”

 The door cracked open and Cassian peeked inside. The sight of him clean-shaven and in uniform was always jarring, and now was no exception. Jyn’s breath caught in her throat as she watched him through the mirror, watched and noted the way his posture and mannerisms had already changed, even though all he was doing was pulling on one shiny knee high boot and then the other.

 Cassian felt Jyn’s eyes on him and raised his head to meet her discerning gaze in the mirror, arching an eyebrow curiously as he stood up and stomped one foot and then the other in quick succession, making sure the boots were on properly.

 “What?”, he asked, his tone gently amused, despite his stony expression. “You’re staring.”

 Again, he wanted to add, even though that would clue Jyn in to the fact that he watched her more often than she probably realized.

 Jyn’s cheeks flared red from the embarrassment of being caught looking. She tried to nonchalantly shrug, carefully applying the last of her eyeliner before turning in her chair to face Cassian fully.

 “It’s just - “, she began, gesturing vaguely at his face, her own expression a little sheepish as she considered admitting just what was leaving her so disconcerted. “You look like a totally different person when you shave.”

 It was easy to play the part of a lovestruck young wife, totally captivated by her handsome husband. Who wouldn’t be awestruck in the presence of such a remarkably handsome man?

 Cassan’s lips tugged into a tiny, smirking smile as he slowly made his way closer, his eyes alight with his amusement. “Tell me, Jyn, is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

 Realistically, Cassian knew that being able to blend into whatever environment or situation he found himself sent to was an asset - but as it turned out, it was seeing Jyn so flustered that caused a warmth to pool low in his belly and his thoughts to turn down ungentlemanly paths. But those were just thoughts, and Cassian would never put them into action without knowing without a shadow of a doubt that Jyn wanted the same things that he wanted, wanted him in the same ways that he wanted her. He wouldn’t take any liberties with her without her express permission.

 Jyn dropped her gaze for a fraction of a second before lifting her chin and meeting Cassian’s warm, dark eyes again. “It’s just different”, she answered shrugging gently. “It’s you, but it’s not you … “

 Just as Zel was Jyn, but not quite the same Jyn who had stolen his attention (and his heart, if he was being honest with himself) from their first belligerent interactions. Force, he’d been captivated from the beginning.

 (And at the end of all things, he thought that he could have loved her, if only they’d had the time … )

 “It’s still us, underneath it all”, he replied, clenching his hands into fists, unclenching them just as quickly. He wanted nothing more than to set hs fingertips against her jaw, to tilt her head up just a touch higher, press his lips to hers and steal the kiss that he’d wanted for so long that it hurt.

 Instead, Cassian coughed softly, setting his palm lightly against her back. “Want me to get this zipped up or is this how you were planning to show up to the gala?”

 Jyn scoffed quietly, rolling her eyes, even if there was no particular annoyance in the action. “Yes, I suppose Joreth and Zel are not the type to utilize the lift for their particular nefarious purposes, now would they? The Empire probably looks down on that kind of thing, even if they are newlyweds.”

 Cassian huffed out what passed as a laugh as he slowly pulled the zipper of Jyn’s dress up, making sure it was fastened tightly. “When they’re alone, though”, he breathed, his voice tightly controlled, “All bets are off.” He hardly knew if the way that he allowed his fingers to brush gently against the bare skin of her back so lightly was real, if not for the way Jyn shivered underneath the soft caress. Cassian might have even tricked himself into believing that he wasn’t even really touching her at all, save for the warmth and softness that left his fingers tingling in the aftermath.

 In an act of extraordinary boldness - or maybe it was sliding into the personas of Joreth and Zel instead of Cassian and Jyn - he leaned in closer, a breath wafting across her sensitive upper back, only considering his options momentarily before pressing a tiny kiss just at the base of her neck, his voice a low rumble as he offered (not anything close to what he truly needed to say to her) - “Grab your terrible shoes, we’ve got a job to do.”

 And then, regrettably, he pulled away and forced himself to look for the cap that would complete his transformation from Cassian Andor into Joreth Sward for the last time on this mission.

 For as much as Jyn wanted Cassian to stay right where he was, as much as every atom in her body craved more of the touch of his hands against her bare skin, she knew that there were better and far more important things to focus on other than her hormones gone haywire.

 It was all just a ruse, after all, all the tender glances and affectionate touches, and …

 One more night to enjoy the façade. One more opportunity to relish an intimacy they both seemed to shy away from when they were standing in front of each other as Jyn and Cassian, no aliases to hide behind, both too afraid to take a step into the unknown -

 Silly, that, considering the fact that only a handful of months before, they had held each other tightly as they awaited their imminent demise - not at all ready to die for their cause, but grateful to be facing it together (both silently mourning the fact that they wouldn’t have more time, wouldn’t have an opportunity to discover what ‘home’ could mean for the both of them … )

 Jyn tried to keep her composure, but it was a losing battle to quell any sort of reaction to the heartbreakingly tender caress and a kiss so soft she thought she might have imagined it into being, just because she wanted it that desperately. She held back as much as she could, but there was no hiding the shiver that rocked her from head to foot. There was no explaining away the goosebumps that cropped up in the wake of the kiss. And there was certainly no obscuring the heady little sigh that escaped her lips in the aftermath.

 Suddenly, Cassian was gone, and so was the warmth he’d brought with him. Jyn shook her head as though the motion would be enough to clear her head, very well aware by now that no matter the situation, he was hardly ever far from the forefront of her mind. But stars, did she ever want to commit that moment in time to memory.

 She stood and stretched and eventually padded over to the bed (too soft, too big, too lonely) where she’d carefully placed her ridiculously high heels, grimacing as she slid one on, and then the other. She’d much prefer boots, something easy to move in. At least the thin, spiky heels could be used as an improvised weapon, should the situation call for it. She pointedly would not think about the extra height they afforded her, the way she found herself fitting just underneath Cassian’s chin instead of eye-level with his mid-chest. When they were close, she could luxuriate in how good he smelled, his warm, rough palm against her lower back, reassuring her of his presence.

 And that made all the difference, really, knowing - trusting - that Cassian would always be there. How and why it had happened, Jyn could hardly know, but … he settled her. He grounded her. He had become, in every sense of the word -

 Her home.

 Cassian was grateful to have a chance to clear his mind before having to step back into Joreth’s headspace. It wasn’t a headspace that he particularly wanted to occupy often. This version of Joreth was proud and brash, shrewd and unconcerned with anything other than climbing the ranks as quickly and as ruthlessly as possible. And maybe he relished the way some of the officers clearly jealously admire Zel, his radiant and equally wily wife, standing proudly at his side.

 (Jyn didn’t need much protecting, but Cassian wanted to shield her from the covetous stares, anyway.)

 And then she appeared  in the doorway, and Cassian’s breath caught. It wasn’t as though he didn’t find her beautiful in regular, every day situations, Force knew he did, but seeing her standing in front of him in her slinky dress, knowing that underneath, strapped securely to her thigh was a vibrobade, just in case, with her hair tumbling over one shoulder, he knew exactly why Joreth would have fallen head over heels for the little spitfire.

 The clear admiration lighting Cassian’s eyes would have brought color to her cheeks - but with the last attempt at finishing the mission looming in front of them, Jyn was too distracted to allow herself to get lost in Cassian’s expression for too long. She squared her shoulders and nodded curtly, offering her hand. “Well, husband, shall we? A party just isn’t a party without us.”

 The sly little grin that lifted Cassian’s lips was purely a Joreth characteristic, but the amusement was his own. A determined Jyn Erso was truly a sight to be seen. And if she believed that they were going to get the job done, so did he.

 Cassian swiftly took Jyn’s offered and hand squeezed her fingers, a reassurance that after all the time spent in planning and preparation for this operation, all the near misses and frustration, they would get it done.

 She nodded again, almost imperceptibly, returning the squeeze in the moment before she stepped forward, leading him through the door and toward the lift that would take them to the opulently decorated ballroom to mingle once more among the very people they were fighting so hard to defeat.

 Both Jyn and Cassian felt sick to see how unconcerned the Empire seemed, even knowing that somewhere out there, a re-energized Rebellion was making plans to smash the Empire once and for all, to free the galaxy from their iron grip. These people had no idea that Zel and Joreth - Jyn and Cassian - were leading the charge.

 With a well-practiced, cavalier gaze, Cassian scanned the packed ballroom until he caught sight of the General, again surrounded by his cadre of well-equipped guards. A waiter passed, carrying drinks in an array of colors. Jyn squeezed Cassian’s fingers as if to ask if he wanted one, and when he shook his head no, she waved the waiter on.

 Later, maybe, after the job was done.

 They needed to find a way to get close without being conspicuous about it. Cassian leaned in and nuzzled Jyn’s ear briefly. “Does my lovely wife want a nibble?”, he murmured, gesturing to a long table filled with sumptuously decadent dishes, the likes of which they had both never seen before. It would put them in a position better suited to perhaps ingratiating themselves into the General’s entourage, and so -

 “Please”, Jyn replied, smiling indulgently as Cassian led her through the crowd. That smile never faded, even when Cassian - Joreth - insisted on feeding her a bite sized bit of the most delicious dessert concoction she had ever had the pleasure of eating. The blush staining her cheeks was very real, though, as was the pleased little noise she made as she took that first bite.

 Cassian’ barely held on to any little shred of composure as Jyn’s lips closed around one fingertip and a blaze of white hot heat crackled up and down the length of his spine. Force, if they weren’t in the center of a very public venue - if they weren’t in the middle of a mission, he’d …

 The flash in Cassian’s eyes had nothing to do with anger, Jyn knew it as clearly as she knew her own name. Her blush only deepened, and for as much as she wanted to look away - wanted a moment to gather herself, she didn’t, couldn’t take her eyes from Cassian’s face, his expression, wondering if it was what he was feeling rather than if it was what Joreth was supposed to be feeling.

 Gently, almost tentatively, Cassian reached out and brushed his thumb against the corner of her mouth, his lips lifting into a small smile. “You had something”, he breathed out, “ - just there.”

 Maybe they both imagined how long it took Cassian to drop his hand.

 Maybe they didn’t.

 A heartbeat passed, and then another, and then both of them seemed to snap back to the realization that they were here with specific orders. They couldn’t just make an approach, they’d be escorted away by the General’s security forces. They could, however, make use of the orchestra hired to play music for the night, like many of the other couples already occupying the dance floor. With a brilliant smile, Jyn extended a hand and hardly hesitated before sweeping Cassian out and onto the floor as fluidly as though she’d been born for it.

 There was little for Cassian to do but allow himself to be swept along with Jyn’s - no, Zel’s - enthusiasm. This wasn’t he and Jyn, he had to remind himself, and not for the first time. This was Joreth and Zel. Or at least it was supposed to be. Cassian and Jyn could not afford to be so carefree.

 And yet, that didn’t mean that he didn’t enjoy her soft gasp as he placed one palm against her back, urging her close, and that didn’t mean that Cassian couldn’t take pleasure in the pink coloring her cheeks as his other hand settled at her waist, holding her steady.

 The smile that he shared with her then was pure Joreth, all cocky charm, but the soft fondness in his eyes was all Cassian, all for Jyn, only ever for Jyn.

 Jyn curled an arm around Cassian’s neck, and wound one loosely around his middle, and on the silent count of one, two, three, he whisked her into the crowd, blending in seamlessly as they swirled around the floor, the music ebbing and flowing, softening and strengthening, flowing through their veins, coaxing them to dip and twirl, to glide along the floor like there was nobody else around.

 The music came to a crescendo - Jyn and Cassian staring into each other’s eyes, breathing hard, needy, there was nothing stopping them from - nothing left in the moment to do other than …

 Their mouths crashed together like waves crashing on a beach, their arms tightening around each other, the only two people in the room …

 The only two people in the world -

 Until a hand clapped down on Cassian’s shoulder, startling he and Jyn away from each other, Jyn looked down, flushing madly, and Cassian’s glassy eyed stare took a moment to clear, only snapping to attention the moment that he realized that it was the General himself that had interrupted their … moment.

 “Sward, was it?”, the General asked, his voice as slick and oily as Jyn had imagined it would be. “We haven’t had the pleasure of speaking yet, have we? I’m sure your lovely wife - “, he paused, blatantly looking Jyn up and down before turning his gaze back to Cassian, “Won’t mind if I steal you away for a bit?”

 “Of course not, sir”, Cassian replied, nodding, “Just as long as you bring me back to her in one piece.”

 “No promises, Lieutenant”, the General answered, sweeping Cassian away before Jyn could get a word in edgewise. Good. This was very good indeed. She busied herself speaking to some of the other guests taking up residence at the dessert table, with an eye always on Cassian, on him as he -

 Spoke seriously with the General …

 Gesticulated wildly …

 Laughed conspiratorially …

 And as he congenially patted the General’s shoulder as they smiled and spoke a little bit more, which she knew was Cassian planting the tiny tracker on the older man’s clothing.

 But before he could take his leave, make his way back to Jyn’s side so that they could make an escape …

 A loud boom and screams filled the air as people began to panic and run for the exits. It wasn’t the Rebellion, though - it must have been a homegrown group that had tired of the Empire’s presence on their planet. Cassian ducked low, pulling the General with him, sharp eyes scouring the room until he caught sight of Jyn, kicking off her shoes and making a run for it. She’d meet him at the rendezvous point later, he was certain of it. He’d have left the General to fend for himself if the man wasn’t such a highly valued target.

 They needed him and the valuable intel he would provide. “With me, sir”, he ordered, prepared to fight his way out of the ballroom if need be.

Three excruciatingly long hours later, Cassian limped aboard the transport, and Jyn nearly jumped out of her skin. He was battered and a little bloody, but he was still with her, still in one piece. “I’m fine”, he offered, well before she even asked the question. “Let me get us out of atmo, and then I’ll clean up a bit.”

 She didn’t ask questions. He didn’t offer many answers, hissing softly every time she wiped dried blood away from bruised and skinned knuckles, still and patient even when she pressed too hard against a lip split at the corner. “He’s fine”, Cassian finally stated, breaking the silence surrounding them. “Mission was a success.”

 “I don’t care about the mission”, Jyn replied, damning the tremble in her voice. Maybe this wasn’t the right time, but maybe there never would be. She wasn’t going to wait anymore. She couldn’t. Not after the thought that she might have lost Cassian all over again, a thought that she couldn’t bear to entertain. “I care about you. Don’t do that again, Cassian. Don’t scare me like that. I don’t know what I’d do if … “

 Cassian surged forward, breaching the distance between them until there was barely any space leftover. “I’m sorry”, he murmured, his hand gentle as he brushed stray hair away from her eyes. “I can’t promise anything else, though.”

 Jyn couldn’t ask for anything else, and she knew that. What they had was not ideal, but it would have to be enough. “Just come back to me”, she mumbled, and although no more talking was done when their lips were better occupied with kissing, she thought she could feel ‘always’ in every single kiss, and every single touch Cassian graced her with.

 Cassian wished that their first time could have occurred in that big, lavish bed in their hotel room, and could have lasted an entire night through, but there was no holding back when Jyn was kissing him, and touching him, undressing him, exploring him underneath deft fingertips. And when she straddled his lap and took him into her, he knew he would never be the same.

 Afterwards, curled up together in their too-small bunk, he huffed out a breath as he traced nondescript little patterns into the skin of her shoulder. “Suppose I should’ve prefaced that with I love you … “

He decided not to concentrate on the goat that was currently trying to eat the hem of the girl’s pencil skirt and rather stare pointedly at the numbers on the elevator wall as they climbed. If it hadn’t been for the subtle side-eyes, he honestly would have questioned the goat’s existence entirely, considering the lack of attention it got. People slowly filtered out without a word, and the girl and goat thankfully got off at floor eight. Cassian himself exited on floor 12, breathing a sigh of relief upon finding the giant sign indicating that he’d found the offices of Alliance Industries… although it was rather short-lived. The reception appeared to be utterly abandoned. Cassian glanced around anxiously, but he was rather alone apart from some haphazard papers scattered behind the reception desk and what looked like a gnawed on stapler.

Shit.

The email had just said to ask at reception once he arrived and that their receptionist would show him through the offices until his supervisor arrived at ten. What the fuck was he supposed to do now?

He was just debating whether to email back or whether to try and find someone else, when he heard the elevator door open once again behind him. He turned to see the goat girl from before rushing out, her face flushed, hair coming out of its superb bun and swearing like a trucker.

“Fucking bollocking balls – I’m so sorry!” she called out. She dashed for the reception desk, not even taking the time to walk around, but instead catapulting herself over top of it. Sliding gracefully on her ass, she even managed to stick the landing in her high heels before turning and facing him. “We had a bit of an emergency – you must be the new intern!”

“Is the goat ok?” he asked, dumbly.

The woman, who was clearly the receptionist, blinked at him once before letting out a bark of laughter. “That goddamn fucking goat – it escaped from the insurance company on floor eight, we’ve been trying to catch it all morning. You saw?”

“I was in the elevator.”

“Jesus, I really am sorry – my name’s Jyn, I’m supposed to show you around,” she held out her hand over the desk and Cassian might have been a little blindsided, but at least had enough sense to shake it. She smiled at him, before hastily gathering up all the paperwork that had been scattered. She made to go and staple them all together, when of course she noticed the mangled stapler and cursed once more.

“I’m going to kill that goat.”

“It’s fine, I swear–” Cassian said, quickly.

He accepted his copy of the Alliance Industries Policies and Guidelines all in loose pages, although not without Jyn insisting that she at least find him a clip or something to keep it all together with. “Anyway, let me do my actual job and show you round,” she said, moving around the desk once more.

He was almost disappointed that she didn’t leap over it this time.

A few days later she was in the elevator again, only this time she was sans goat.

“Hey!” she said brightly upon seeing him.

“Oh, hey,” he said, talking awkwardly over the forced quiet that always accompanied every elevator journey. “no farm animals today?”

“You talk as if that was a regular occurrence.”

“When it’s the first time you walk in the building, can you blame me?”

“I swear, goats are not a usual thing at Alliance,” Jyn said. “But hey, I never caught up with you earlier, how’s your first week going with us so far?”

“It’s going…” Cassian racked his brain for words in English that would accurately describe the last few days he’d had. After the goat and his new supervisor Draven, he was starting to wonder if his university actually understood what kind of internship he had signed up for. “Is it always like this at Alliance?”

“Whatever it was that happened, probably,” Jyn answered with a slight smirk.

“They gave me my own office at least,” Cassian said. “Well – I say office – it’s just a spare cubicle they said I could have because the current employee is on leave until after I finish, but it’s nice to feel like I have a place here.”

“How long’s the internship?” she asked.

The tone was casual. Cassian couldn’t kid himself that there was anything more to it than that because flirting with the objectively hot receptionist was not exactly one of his tasks that would go towards his university credits. Still… he would be an idiot to not realise that with her ability to jump desks in tight skirts and heels, he wouldn’t exactly say no to flirting. It was fine. His heart was allowed to race a little imagining that she was asking because she wanted him to stick around.

“Eight weeks,” he answered.

“Sounds like ages, but that’ll go really quickly,” she said. He wanted to say more, except that was when the elevator stopped on their floor, and they clattered out along with several other people. He lagged near the reception desk as she walked behind it, booting up the main computer and opening the phone lines.

“Yeah, I guess it will. See you around?”

“Of course,” Jyn smiled at him from over the desk. “Have a good day.”

“You too.”

She was always there.

In the elevator, without fail, they somehow always managed to arrive at the same time, about ten minutes before eight. She would come over, pushing through the meagre space until she was at his side and would ask how his time with them was going. He was always brutally honest because he hadn’t been kidding when he’d wondered what he’d gotten himself into, and it seemed that if he wanted to survive this internship he needed someone like the Alliance Industries receptionist on his side.

The goat hadn’t even been the start of it. To be perfectly honest, Cassian wasn’t even sure any more about what the company actually did, which had to be saying something. From the initial application it had looked like a law firm, but the data he was analysing as his tasks covered everything from taxes to supply lists to transportation costs. One day there would be a meeting about the local market and the next, a photoshoot for the latest issue of Vogue, complete with full make-up crew, wardrobe and background models that would take over the entire office bullpen with their smoke machine and dramatic headpieces until eventually, several secretaries would manage to rope them into the right part of the building. Nothing about the company seemed to make sense, and every time he asked for clarification, the only answer he could ever get was along the lines of,

“I don’t know. Something to do with computers?” Jyn had told him quizzically once.

“You’ve worked here how long and you still don’t know what your company actually does?”

“I’m the receptionist! I schedule shit and take angry calls from clients, you think I know what kind of operation the CEO is running? This could be a black-market trade centre for all I know.”

(Cassian hoped to god he wouldn’t have to explain how he’d interned for two months with a black-market trade to his college professors).

Either way, the company kind of terrified him so much that it took an entire week just to get up enough courage to use the break room. 

Look, on his first say he had set one foot inside the room only to find everyone practically screaming as apparently, someone had accidentally set the toaster on fire. Rather than brave that, Cassian had promptly turned right back around and opted to eat his lunch at his desk. He might have just stayed there again if it weren’t for the fact that his lunch needed reheating today. Much to his relief, he’d only been hovering in the doorway to the loud and packed break room for a minute when someone had called his name and he’d looked up to see Jyn waving him over.

Thank god.

“So what’s it like having Draven as a supervisor?” she asked him through a mouthful of pasta once he had sat down with her.

“It’s…” he debated. Davits Draven, HR Advisor and Head of the Alliance Internship Programme, at least seemed competent and like he knew what he was doing. Cassian figured that he could be trusted to sign off on all his paperwork needed to get the required credits at the end of the internship… although there was the fact that according to two very gossipy PAs, he also apparently had a reputation of being ‘that dickhead who keeps calling meetings about shit that could 100% be solved through email’.

“It’s interesting,” Cassian decided on.

Jyn scoffed so loudly she nearly choked on her pasta. “You’re so nice,” she coughed. “Honestly, I’m pretty sure Draven hates me because I keep accidentally-on-purpose redirecting angry clients to his office phone.”

He tried not to laugh too much. She had sat with her legs resting long ways across one of the sofas that dotted the break room, but she’d swung them down when she’d called him over so that he’d have a place to sit. He noticed her heels had been tossed to the floor some feet away and she apparently didn’t give a damn if her pasta spilled all over her.

“Thanks for eating with me,” he said. He glanced over again at the other side of the break room where an argument was still apparently brewing over who was first in line for the microwave. It looked like it was all on the verge of boiling over and he added, “Also look, tell me the truth, am I going to get to heat this up today or not?”

“First rule about this office,” Jyn said. “never bring lunch that needs heating. You’ll never eat.”

“Noted,” He bitterly clipped the lid of his lunch container closed.

Jyn wrinkled her nose in sympathy. “Want some of my pasta?”

“Oh, I couldn’t–”

“Nah, it’s fine, promise–” She practically shoved the container into his hands. “It’s not the best, sorry. I’m not a chef for a reason.”

“I’m sure it’s fine,” Cassian said, warmly. “Your accent is British, right?”

“I am in fact one of like three British people in this office, yes,” she nodded. “I’m fairly certain my accent was the sole reason I was hired as the receptionist.”

“It wasn’t for your goat-wrangling skills?”

“No, believe it or not but those were just bonuses,” Jyn grinned. “What’s your accent?”

“I’m from Mexico.”

“Oh, nice. Sucks to be so far away though, right?”

“I’m not as far from home as you.”

“Still,” Jyn said through her food, barely pausing to swallow. “We’re the foreigners, we gotta stick together, you and I!”

He watched her in slight bemusement as they carried on eating in mostly companionable silence. The arguments over the microwave got louder and escalated to the point where someone actually started an official ‘Microwave Order’ list and others ditched the building entirely to go and buy something from the street vendors opposite.

Jyn snorted and shook her head at them. “Idiots,” he heard her say. 

“Ok, so on the first day, I was required to give you the official bullshit orientation of Alliance Industries,” Jyn was saying as she lead them through into the office bullpen. Cubicles lined the large room, phones ringing, colleagues talking over walls and the tell-tale noise of fingernails clacking on keyboards. Jyn glanced up at him and carried on, “You know, about getting your paperwork in on time and how to file complaints with HR, shit that no one really cares about. Today, I’m going to give you the real orientation.”

She started down one hallway lined with cubicles. Her hair was always tied back in some kind of bun, always professional, always poised, but the way her eyes sparked as she looked up at him said that this receptionist knew things. He was glad that she’d practically insisted on becoming his friend. She pointed out the first cubicle and said, “We start in legal. That’s Jason Biggs, he’s all right. Next to him is Han Solo,” she snorted a little. “You’ll never meet a bigger arsehole in your life, but he at least tries. Will hit on almost anyone, despite the fact that he is 100% in love with our PR manager.”

Jyn continued in this stride as they traversed most of the entire office. She pointed out colleagues, friends, the managers to watch out for, the ones to not cross under any circumstances, and the ones who could be bribed with coffee to extend your deadlines. She pointed out one of the HODs Raddus, who had apparently borrowed her hole punch once and never given it back, and a new hire in graphic design who everyone knew had a ridiculous crush on his boss.

Cassian’s brain practically swam with the onslaught of information. “That’s Shara Bey – hey, bitch!” Jyn called out then into one of the fancier corner offices. “You can count on her for anything, except being on time. She’s 30 weeks pregnant and insists he’s the reason she’s so slow. Her husband works in IT.”

“So… it’s ok to date colleagues here then?” Cassian asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Jyn leaned in the doorway to Shara’s office. “What was it Draven said at the Developing Professional Relationships seminar?”

“‘You can fuck each other in the copy room all you like, so long as no one has to see it’,” Shara snorted, not even turning around from her computer.

“It’s good, though,” Jyn mentioned after laughing. “It means everyone can just get it out of their systems, rather than cluttering up the office with sexual tension. Unless you’re Han and Leia, amiright, Shara?”

“The less said about those two, the better.”

“Anyway,” Jyn turned back to him. “next thing to know: understand what someone means if they say they need help with the photocopier.”

Cassian was about 90% sure the entire conversation was going too damn fast. His mind was overloaded with information, his brain couldn’t keep up in English (or maybe it was the way she laughed) but whatever the reason was, he didn’t quite catch Jyn’s meaning and he ended up asking,

“I’m sorry? What does it mean?”

Thankfully, she didn’t tease him. 

“It means they’re asking to go do it.”

He blinked. “But what if I actually honestly need help with the photocopier?”

She smiled. “Then you’re fucked.”

“Either way you’re fucked!” Shara threw back, making Jyn choke a little with laughter and step in to swat her upside the head.

They moved on from Shara’s office after that and honestly, Cassian was a little disappointed. She eventually told what seemed to be the life history of the entire office – who was sleeping with whom, who was looking to move up and who was looking for a new job, who had just transferred and who to make friends with so that you got free home-made muffins at four o’clock every Friday – but honestly, Cassian only wanted to know about her. And if there was anyone whose story she didn’t mention, it was her own.  

But it was fine. He had several more weeks to go, after all.

The first time she wasn’t in the elevator was a few weeks in.

Honestly, he was fine with it. He barely even knew the woman, he had no right to be disappointed or whatever the hell feeling it was that he was swallowing down from creeping its way up his throat. No, instead he gripped his briefcase harder and thought of what kind of data he would be analysing that day.

When the elevator dinged on his floor, though, he at least quickly figured out where Jyn was. She was already at her desk, ten minutes early and apparently in a heated argument with Draven over what seemed to be a broken email attachment.

“I don’t know what the hell else you want me to do!” she was saying hotly, work phone tucked under one shoulder and also clicking around on her computer, clearly flustered.

“I’ve told you, get it fixed!”

“I’M ON HOLD, do I look like bloody tech staff?!”

“Is that how you talk to all of your direct superiors?”

“I’m the receptionist, not your PA, I don’t work for you,” she snapped. Someone on the phone must have answered her then because she suddenly snapped up straighter and grabbed the phone in her hand. “Yes! Thank god, look none of the attachments are opening in email and–” 

“I have to print 50 copies of this by eight thirty!” Draven yelled in the general direction of the phone.

“WHAT DO YOU THINK I’M TRYING TO DO?”

Cassian honestly didn’t know what to do. Other workers were eyeing the two with interest, but ultimately just walking on past like it was no big deal. Cassian, on the other hand, was loath to even approach should he accidentally get stuck in the crosshairs. No one deserved to be chewed out like Jyn was, at least not this early in the morning, but Draven was also his boss, and he needed this internship to pass. Shit, shit, shit.

In the end, he hid himself behind a group of workers from customer service and walked in alongside them. He managed to avoid Draven’s eye, but accidentally caught Jyn’s just as he clearing them and heading for the main office. She smiled a little and mouthed, “Hey,” before rolling her eyes at Draven.

His heart pounded back.

The day naturally ended up being a bit of a crazy one. It just had to be one of those days when Han Solo would declare, “OFFICE FLOOR IS LAVA!” and Cassian was forced to spend most of his day trying to get places without touching the floor. Usually, it meant climbing over cubicle walls and hastily stepping around his collegues PCs and photo frames. At least Cassian had discovered that he was rather adept at the game, (“Andor’s light on his feet, who knew?” Han pointed out, impressed). However today all he had wanted was to reach Jyn’s desk, and without anything lining the corridor down to the elevators, nothing short of wheeling himself there on his desk chair was going to make it (which he kind of interpreted as a bit pathetic). As a result, he didn’t see her until the end of the day, as they were all leaving the building.

“I’m sorry Draven chewed you out this morning!” Cassian practically yelled after her once he caught the sight of her retreating back out on the street. For a second, he feared that Jyn wouldn’t or didn’t want to talk to him, but she paused when she heard his voice and turned.

“Hey, thanks,” she called back. “Sorry, I can’t stop and talk, the bus leaves at ten past and if I miss it I have to wait another half an hour–”

“I’ll walk with you,” he hurried forward to fall into step with her.

There was something about walking alongside her through the busy financial district in the early evening. They were out of the office, her in her leather jacket over top of her business casual and him simply trying not to trip over that fact.

“Draven’s an arse,” Jyn said, quietly.

He was starting to become familiar with the sentiment. “Is he like that with everyone, or…?”

“Or just with me?” Jyn shoved her hands in her pockets, heels clacking against the concrete beneath their feet. “He’s hated me ever since I started working there. I always assumed it was because I was young, but now I think it’s just because he’s a prick.”

“You’re not that young.”

“Exactly what a girl wants to hear,” she grinned.

“I just mean,” he held back the urge to knock her shoulder with his. That would be far too familiar, considering how long they’d known each other. Yes, definitely. “You can’t be much younger than me and I’m 26.”

She smiled a little. “I’m 24. I’ve been with Alliance since I was 19.”

“As the receptionist?”

“I know,” she rolled her eyes. “five years and I’m still only a receptionist. Will I ever figure out what I want to do with my life?”

“I wasn’t thinking that,” Cassian assured her.

“I know,” she said. “or at least I hoped. Just ignore me, I’m wallowing and feeling sorry for myself.”

They were approaching the bus stop now and the quick pace she’d kept up the entire time was apparently worth it as it seemed that the bus was only just pulling up now. “You’re allowed to – what was it? Wallow?”

“Yeah,” Jyn walked backward so that she could keep him in her sights as she joined the line. “thanks for listening.”

“No problem.”

“Hey,” she added, quickly. “who won the floor is lava today?”

“I did. Apparently, I’m light on my feet.”

Jyn laughed in response, congratulating him just as she climbed onto the bus and disappeared into its depths. He waved once and turned away, a grin on his face.  

“So you’re the new intern?”

Cassian glanced up at the head that was staring over the dividing wall between his cubicle and the next. He had dark scruff, hair pulled back in a ponytail and a smile spreading across his face that was far too bright for someone at work at eight in the morning. “Um, yes,” Cassian replied.

The man leaned even further over the wall, extending his arm down so Cassian could shake his hand. “I’m Bodhi!” he said, happily. “So good to meet you, it’s been boring without a cubicle buddy.”

To be honest, Cassian wasn’t sure how anything in this office could ever be described as ‘boring’. Within his first three days, there had been at least six emergency drills for wild animal attacks (“Back away slowly! NEVER play dead!”) two minor fire incidents in the break room and one rather epic wheelie chair race from one end of the office to the other without touching the floor. He STILL didn’t know what the company actually did, but that was about when Leia Organa had kicked herself off a wall and spun her wheelie chair in front of Han Solo’s by about an inch, declaring herself the winner of the race and all fucking hell had broken loose.

“Boring! Right, wouldn’t want that,” he said, hastily.

“You’ve met Jyn, right?”

“The receptionist?” Cassian really needed to work on his self-control. Get it together, idiot. Don’t sound so excited.

“Yeah! She said that she’s been showing you around and stuff. Me and her and a bunch of others usually go out for drinks after work on a Friday,” Bodhi explained. “It’s just casual, no benders or anything, we do the pub quiz, that kinda thing. Did you want to come this week?”

“Oh,” Cassian suddenly blanked on words. Quite honestly, it sounded great. A chance to get to know his colleagues more, a chance to really get to know Jyn… “I’d love to – but I’ve got a lot of work to do and – I wouldn’t want to impose or anything–”

“No, no!” Bodhi insisted at once, frowning. “I swear, we all want you to come! Gotta get you on our side before Draven turns you into one of his mindless slaves, haha.”

Cassian hesitated. “It’s just drinks?”

“Just drinks.”

“And you’re sure no one minds if I come?”

“Jyn would have asked you herself, except she apparently had some kind of meltdown and made me do it,” Bodhi rolled his eyes. “Please, I’m dying to get to know the man who made Jyn Erso speechless!”

“You’re joking, surely.”

“Well… half joking,” Bodhi snorted. “Please?”

Cassian took a deep breath.

“Ok.”

She looked about as hungover as he still felt in the elevator on Monday.

“I blame you,” he told her at once.

“I did nothing,” she insisted, not even moving from where she was leaned back against the elevator wall, dark sunglasses covering her eyes even inside under the artificial lights.

“You’re a dirty enabler is what you are, getting me to drink two nights in a row so that I’m literally still feeling it on Monday morning.”

“Not my problem that you can’t handle tequila.”

He grinned though, despite himself. His weekend had been a blinding two days thanks to her. What had started as ‘casual drinks’ on a Friday night had of course turned into still hitting the clubs at three am, Jyn’s skirt almost up around her hips as he gave her a piggyback home. They had made quite the scene, Bodhi crying as he carried Leia’s heels in one hand and a bottle of wine in another, Han belting out Queen songs with his tie around his head, Leia barefoot and with her arm around who was apparently her brother Luke, who had turned up somewhere around midnight and worked in graphic design. Cassian couldn’t even remember adding Jyn on Facebook, but the next morning he had woken dumped outside his apartment door and with about five messages from her saying that they should hang out later. She had talked to him Saturday night over the aforementioned tequila, told him stories about office pranks on Draven and Han, told him about how she’d always wished that she’d gone to collage, about the one time a criminal from the Bail Bonds Office on floor 17 had taken someone hostage and the entire building had been forced into lockdown, and he had laughed and taken it all in.

Taken her in.

“Why did you never go to collage?” Cassian remembered asking her. They’d invited everyone else on Saturday, but they’d all had the sense to bail early this time. By eleven, they’d been the last ones left in the bar and she had sighed underneath the lights.

“I guess I didn’t think I could,” she’d answered him.

He glanced at her now, leaning her head back and attempting not to groan against what was no doubt a throbbing pain in her head. He watched the line of her jaw as she stared at the ceiling, the curve of her neck, the dip where her collarbone met her blouse and… oh, shit. 

Yeah, he really was in trouble.

Thing is, it hadn’t been long.

Technically, he knew it was normal. People develop crushes within hours, let alone weeks, but the point he was trying to make in his head here, was that he was only going to be with Alliance for the next month and a half. Couldn’t he have at least, like…TRIED? What had started as a fleeting ‘I wouldn’t say no’ when he’d first met her had at some point turned into a monstrous crush so yeah, he was fucked, for sure. He at least liked to think he could also be subtle about it. He could subdue the smile that came to his face whenever he saw her in the elevator in the mornings, pretend that it wasn’t the highlight of his entire day. He could hold back, remain friendly and professional, asking for work advice and being able to admire the way she would lean over his desk without flipping his shit. Yes, he had this. He could do this.

Apparently, Bodhi didn’t seem to think so.

“Ok, what’s the deal?” he asked.

“What?” Cassian asked dumbly, ignoring how the other man’s head had stuck up over the dividing wall once more, like it usually did at varying times throughout their day.

Bodhi rolled his eyes in exaggerated exasperation. “You and Jyn!” he said. “I thought you totally liked her!”

“I’m trying to work here, can’t this wait until later?”

“I’m sorry, you think office hours are for work?”

Cassian shot his new friend a look, and Bodhi grinned.

“Ok, ok, but seriously. Ever since drinks last week, you’ve been acting weird. Did something happen between you guys?”

“NO,” he said, perhaps too quickly to ever actually be reasonably considered the truth. He caught Bodhi’s look and he groaned, “No, seriously, nothing happened. I just…” He shoved his chair away from his desk and computer, rubbing his forehead warily. “I like her, yeah, but I’m trying to be professional about it, all right?”

“And how’s that working out?”

“Divine,” Cassian grumbled. Luckily, before Bodhi could grill him more, Jyn herself suddenly burst into Bodhi’s cubicle. Cassian tried not to have a heart attack as she practically threw herself up to the wall alongside Bodhi and exclaimed,

“Guys! You have to come witness this!”

Apparently unable to get out of whatever it was that was happening, Cassian and Bodhi followed Jyn all the way down to Shara Bey’s office on the opposite side of the office bullpen. Shara was apparently finding it tough to find things to do in her last week of work, since she totally welcomed them all piling slightly suspiciously into her office. She swung herself around in her chair like Doctor Evil while Jyn happily boosted herself up onto her desk.

“What’s going on?” Bodhi asked in amusement.

“Ok, I’m going spare with nothing to do, so I’ve been fucking with Han all afternoon,” Shara explained. “I got Kes to go and change the settings on his computer while he was at lunch so that every time he gets an email, the notification is a duck quacking. It’s driving him mad and he doesn’t know how to change it back – watch!” She turned and hit send on what must have been a pre-written email. They all listened carefully and sure enough, a faint quacking from out the door and down the other end of the corridor echoed down. As if on cue, someone roared in annoyance and quickly yelled out,

“SHARA BEY, I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD!”

They all burst out laughing. Cassian tried not to, but it was hard when Jyn looked at him like that (doubled over, face and neck flushing red). She caught his eye and he was unable to help it.

“You – you want to know the best part?” Shara added once they’d all somewhat calmed down.

“What?” Cassian asked.

“Watch what happens when I send out a group email.”

With ‘reply to all’ entered into the recipients box, Shara hit send once more. Almost at once, what sounded like an entire menagerie of animals sounded off. Ducks quacked, cows mooed, and horses neighed as the entire office collectively groaned in exasperation and Jyn nearly fell off the desk in her hysterics at the office turning into a zoo. Cassian hastily moved forward, arms outstretched, to keep her from face-planting. It was only once he was assured she wasn’t going to fall and was moving back when he caught the look on Bodhi’s face from across the office.

“Stop it,” Cassian insisted later that day.

“Stop what?”

“It. That look. Everything.”

“Yeah,” Bodhi grinned. “You’re brilliant at staying professional.”

“So you’re a math major, right?”

Cassian nodded in the affirmative, glancing at her from where he was keeping her company on his lunch break. Jyn wasn’t allowed to have hers today since at approximately 11.59am, someone had fucked up and some kind of Statistical Disaster had apparently happened that, according to the HOD, SHE had to fix since it had already been emailed through. “Goddamn motherfucker…” she had been grumbling when he’d swung by her front desk and he’d tried not to be too pleased when she’d called him an angel upon finding out that he’d brought her lunch to her desk for her. Now, she turned her computer screen to face him and he tried not to have a mini heart attack when she grabbed his hand, pulling him forward and closer towards her.

“I’m going bloody nuts! Look at this, am I even doing this right?”

Cassian squinted at the spreadsheets. He was silent for so long, Jyn started whacking his arm.

“Oh god. Oh fucking lord. I fucked it up even worse didn’t I? Mothma is going to FIRE my arse–”

“Jyn, you literally did this?”

“Yeah – I mean, I tried, but this really isn’t my area and I wasn’t really sure what I was doing with the–”

“You could fucking do my job,” he laughed, turning back to her. He might’ve been slightly in awe.

“Seriously?” Jyn peered back at the computer in amazement. “You mean I did good?”

“Fucking good,” Cassian said. “Do people make you do analysis like this all the time?”

“I usually wing it and hope for the best after a lot of Googling. Honestly, what even is your job?” 

“I’m still asking myself that and I’ve been here weeks now,” She snorted, leaning back in her chair. Cassian copied her stance opposite her against her desk as he added, “Jyn, I wasn’t kidding. You could do this job, if you wanted. Really, why did you never go to collage? You said before you didn’t think you could, but you’ve really proved yourself wrong just now.”

Jyn shrugged a little, but sighed. “Have I ever told you about my dad?”

He blinked a little at how on earth the conversation had suddenly gone in this direction. It suddenly seemed all so personal, too personal for the little length of time that they’d known each other, but somehow at the same time the exact right amount of personal for the way they’d been getting to know each other. He shook his head and Jyn carried on,

“He’s a scientist. Chemistry, specifically and something else even more so, but I never exactly understand what it is. All I know is that he’s world-renown, published what feels like thousands of articles in journals and shit and is probably the smartest man you’ll ever meet. I love him to pieces because at the end of the day he’s just my dad, but… it was a lot to live up to.”

“Wow.”

“Thing is, I was always interested in business,” Jyn shrugged. She gestured back at her computer screen and added, “This kinda thing, it fascinates me, but I guess I never thought it was as good as studying chemistry so I just… never did. Dad’s always supported me no matter what, but…”

“You could do this, Jyn.”

“I think I’m finally starting to realise it, yeah,” she said. She nudged his leg with her own and said, “Thanks, Cassian. I’m glad you chose this insane company as your internship.”

He might have blinked a fraction of a second too long, burning the feeling of her looking at him like that into his brain.

“I am, too.”

Sometimes an unexpected fire drill could be a great thing… and other times, not so great.

“This presentation is going to run late now!” Leia was huffing next to Cassian as they were all forced out of their wonderfully air-conditioned office and out to the evacuation point across the street. “and since the presentation will run late, my meeting with Mothma will run late, which means I will probably miss the ten past bus, which means I WILL MISS PILATES AGAIN, GODDAMN–”

“Oh no,” Jyn’s voice turned up, rolling her eyes as she flung an arm around Leia’s shoulders. “not Pilates!”

“Get off me, it’s like a tropical sauna out here,” Leia said in disgust.

Jyn just laughed. “So what set off the alarm this time? Any bets? Rats chew through the wiring again, or was it yet another Microwave Incident?”

“For some reason,” Leia was glaring in the direction of the building. “I shrewdly suspect Han.”

“You suspect him for everything.”

“And I’m right about 90% of the time,” she pointed out.

Cassian stayed quiet. He’d quickly learned that that was the best approach to surviving whenever Han and Leia came your way. They seemed like such a contradiction, Leia always looking very professional in her blouses and elaborate up-dos, the PR Manager always ready to talk their arses out of anything… and then there was Han Solo, with his tie always shoved rebelliously in his pocket, bedazzled briefcase and known for always accidentally spilling confidential details about clients on prime time news channels. Half the time Cassian couldn’t tell if Han and Leia even liked each other, although Jyn had at least assured him that his guess was as good as the rest of theirs.

“Yeah, for two people who can’t seem to talk without bickering, they sure as hell are terrible at staying away from each other,” she’d once mentioned.

They were forced to stand out on the lawn in the park across the street for a good half an hour while the designated fire wardens cleared the building. The fire department then arrived to inform them all that the cause of the fire had probably been someone attempting to cook instant mac and cheese with the fax machine again. Han looked smug for all of five seconds before Leia was yelling his name, and then he had the decency to look ashamed.

“Look, Princess–” he began hastily.

“You moron!” she thumped him hard on the arm. “I am not forgiving you for this!”

“How do you even know it was me? I deny everything!”

“Because who the hell else would attempt to use the fax machine as a cooking implement?”

“Hey, that thing is so damn ancient I literally risk exploding every time I’m forced to use it! It’s so obsolete, I don’t even know why–”

“So you admit that it was you!”

“I confess to having used said machine before at some point in time,” Han pointed out cheerfully. “Nowhere in that statement, however, did I confess to setting off the fire alarms.”

“You really are a lawyer, aren’t you?” Cassian pointed out.

“I don’t know, sometimes I think he got his degree off the internet,” Leia glared, causing Han to furrow his eyebrows and exclaim,

“Oi!”

“I don’t know why you’re all still arguing, there’s clearly only one solution here,” Jyn pointed out. When both Cassian, Han and Leia all turned to stare at her, she shrugged and said, “Leia’s pissed because she’ll be missing pilates. It’s hot as balls out here. Make him do pilates as punishment.”

“I like this plan,” Leia said with a smirk, turning her folded arms onto Han.

His expression was stricken. “But this is a new suit.”

“On the ground. You’re working your core.”

It was as good as a confession when Han finally conceded and allowed himself to get ordered into doing crunches on the hot grass.

At around 3.30pm, the late-snack munchies apparently ran rampart throughout the office.

You couldn’t so much as rustle a protein bar wrapper without getting at least ten people’s heads popping up from over their cubicle walls like meerkats, all in search of who had the coveted snack. Therefore, whenever Cassian wanted to eat his trail mix in peace, he usually ended up seeking refuge underneath Jyn’s desk. The only downside was that he had to share as payment.

“God, I could live off this stuff,” she said with her mouth full of pecan nuts and M&M’s. “Only an hour and a half to go.”

“Only four weeks to go,” Cassian said. Jyn pulled her chair out from her desk then so that she could glance down at him.

“What? You’re halfway through already?” she asked. “It feels like you’ve been here forever.”

Her tone changed slightly with her words, though Cassian couldn’t figure out how. Jyn had never exactly struck him as a overly cheery person, but she could laugh. She could smile. But now she wasn’t doing either and maybe that was because now that he thought about it, he wasn’t sure he’d ever seen those laughs or smiles directed any anyone other than himself, excepting maybe Bodhi and the occasional prank on Draven. He didn’t know what that meant, or even if it did mean anything (not to mention that he berated himself for even thinking that he might want it to mean something in the first place).

“I know,” he forced himself to say casually. “This place is nuts, but I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t want to leave.”

“Then don’t.”

“Sorry?”

He stared at her a moment as Jyn swung back to her desk. She gestured for him to come up and he clambered to his feet to join her. She was pulling up an open tab on her computer screen, which if he wasn’t mistaken at first glance, looked like a job vacancy for somewhere within Alliance Industries. Jyn pointed it out and said,

“The lady on maternity leave who’s desk you’ve been using – she told Mothma that she’s not coming back anymore, so the job’s open,” She nudged him with an elbow and added, “You should apply.”

“No… really?” Cassian peered at the screen closer. “Wait, what does the title say, I need to know what this job fucking is–”

“‘Reporting and Data Analyst’, apparently.”

“Well, that is moderately unhelpful,” Cassian muttered. But on a louder note, he added, “but I can’t apply – I haven’t even finished my studies yet, I have another entire year to go!”

“Oh, who needs a fucking degree?” Jyn waved a hand.

“Seriously–”

“You might think I’m joking, but I’m serious too – look –” She pointed out a headline that said ‘Potential applicants should have the following’. “They don’t even specify a degree, they’re asking for shit like ‘experience with leadership’ and ‘positive attitude’. Plus they know you! You’ll have worked here for two months doing this sort of thing, I’ll bet if you applied, you’d be guaranteed an interview, if not the job entirely.”

Honestly, it was a serious consideration and a tempting one at that. He had heard their CEO Mothma talk on more than one occasion about how she always preferred to hire within the existing company, that it was ideal since the candidate would already have affiliation with them and know how things worked and operated. Not to mention the appeal of staying and working alongside Jyn for however long he wanted, rather than having to face the bright red deadline of a few weeks from now when his internship would be over…

But he glanced up at her hopeful face and realised that there was a much better candidate who should apply, rather than him.

“You should do it.”

“I’m sorry?” Jyn snorted.

“You should apply!” Cassian insisted. “We both know you have the knack for it, you just pointed out that you don’t need a degree, and you already work for the company! It would be better pay, work that you’re more interested in… Jyn, you should honestly do this.”

She shook her head, scoffing. “You’re out of your mind. Gimme more trail mix.”

He handed out the bag exasperatedly and she practically snatched it off him. “You’re being stupid,” he pointed out. 

“And you’re hogging the snacks!”

It seemed that she wouldn’t discuss it any further, since his attempts at pushing the subject fell on distractions and otherwise deaf ears until eventually, Draven tracked him down and forced him back to work. Still, as he was being practically frog-marched away, Cassian glanced back and noticed her sitting and staring at her computer screen hard. Like her mind was blowing through a million thoughts per second.

She could do it.