#thereigning lorelei

This is my Rebelcaptain Secret Valentine story for @thereigning-lorelai - hope you like it!

A power failure in the east bunker sends Jyn looking for somewhere to sleep; she goes the only place she can, to someone she trusts...

(yes, I’ve finally written a bed-sharing story!  It’s one of my favourite tropes so I just hope I’ve done it justice).

After the Storm

Hoth is uninhabitable, everyone knows that.  The Anoat sector as a whole isn’t exactly welcoming, and as for this ice-ball – well, the atmosphere is breathable but that’s about the only good thing you can say for it.  Pretty much everything else about the Force-forsaken hole is inimical to organic life.  Average temperatures of -35 degrees, dropping to -60 at night, all surface water bound up in solid ice, and weeklong blizzards with wind speeds upwards of 120 miles an hour.

Every storm seems to do some kind of damage to the newly-excavated Echo Base.  Denting the outer hangar doors, ripping apart entire artillery emplacements, burying emergency exits under metres of snow.   Triggering power outages.

It’s secret, and it’s safe, but it’s hell.  Even most of the cold-world natives hate the place.

Cassian has been telling himself It’s not that bad, it’s not that bad, ever since he got here.  Winters at home were much the same, and he’s never minded the cold, not since childhood.  But childhood and home are a long time ago, and Hoth is – Hoth is extreme.

It’s not that bad.  Pull yourself together, Andor.  

He’s been here for almost two months.  Jyn is here too, has been on base longer than him.  More personnel arrive each week, as the construction proceeds.  Echo Base should be fully operational before the year’s out.  Operational, that is, except for when the power goes.

He wakes to the sound of his door opening; wakes and sits up, a single moment taking him into high alert, a single movement sweeping up his blaster from under the pillow and bringing it to bear on the doorway.  All he can make out is a silhouette against the faint backlighting from the passageway; but it’s familiar, and dearly so.  He lowers the weapon instantly.

“Jyn?”