[ there is something uniquely liberating in acting a fool with cassian, a freedom in not having to keep walls up and keep themselves vigilant. it's nice to feel all traces of anxiety and fear burned away by happiness that is a foreign as it is welcome. it's difficult though, she finds, to keep kissing when ridiculous smiles are spread across both their faces. it doesn't stop her, cassian's smile does funny things to her stomach even still. ]
You've got me in bed, Captain. Whatever shall you do with me now?
[ it's his rodeo, as they say. he wanted the bed, ]
[ her worry, like most things they share between them, mirrors his. there's a lot about this that's scary, and cassian doesn't know any better what he's doing. he can shoot a man with his eyes closed, but romancing jyn is another field. ]
You do not have the monopoly on mistakes.
[ he knows they're both going to make them, but maybe acknowledging that in advance will... help. he brushes his lips against hers. he can give her reassurances, and take them for himself too. ]
I love you, Jyn. That is always going to be true, regardless of our missteps.
[ jyn feels like she makes enough mistakes to have at least enough of a stake in mistake making to control the market. she does not make the mistake of arguing her monopoly though so clearly she is actually listening. ]
I love you, too.
[ she knows he likes to hear it, more than she does. she can exist with just the feeling but she knows cassian likes the verbal reassurance, likes the communication. and considering this whole fight started with her lack of communication...
[ arguing about making mistakes feels like it would be right up their alley. ]
[ warmth flutters in when she says she loves him, because he never gets tired of hearing it. no matter how much he knows it to be true, he likes the sound of it out loud, he likes the reminder. it always seems to surprise him to be loved. ]
[ his hold on her tightens, briefly, and he kisses her temple, barely resisting the urge to say thank you. thank you for loving him. ]
[ cassian never feels soft, but now he feels pliant. easy. relaxed in a way he hadn't really thought possible for how utterly exposed he is on every level. he steals another kiss, languid and eager while one of his hands disappears between them, nudging at her thighs, opening her legs wider. ]
I was thinking I could fuck you, finally.
[ it's on the tip of his tongue to ask, one more check in, but he can feel it - her readiness and her want. the blue glow is all but forgotten because he can feel it down to his bones how desperately she wants him and that's all that seems to matter. yes, it's there, her yes is in her touch crystal clear. ]
[ he readies himself, shifts her leg a little bit more, then long at last he pushes inside her with a soft, quiet groan, shuddering as he sinks in slow. ]
[ cassian was always the one with the hope, steadfast, enduring, persistent hope that lit up the people around him. rebellions weren't built on hope, not really. rebellions were built on people like cassian who clung to hope with everything they had, people who made hope into reality.
of course he has hope in the two of them. ]
In fifty years I'll admit you were right.
[ but not now. not when they've got fifty years ahead of them. ]
[ it's always we and most people know it by now. jyn and cassian are a team. they might have separate hobbies, different vocations, different taste in water temperature, separate friends, but they're still a team at the end of the day. or the middle of the night.
maybe it's early morning by now. ]
That power, it sounded like hers.
[ reflexively, her arm draws back to her chest. the pain of clarke's power had been excruciating and at the time jyn stubbornly powered through it until it was consumed by the grief of almost losing cassian and very much losing caroline. but in the aftermath, once clarke had come to her senses and returned the life to jyn's shriveled, blackened arm, there were still phantom pains. ]
[ he's about to argue, but then it clicks that she's said in fifty years. another little bit of confirmation that she does want to stay with him, grow old with him, that he is already right because she's agreeing to make their future anyway. he had hope for the rebellion; he can have hope for jyn too. ]
[ he smiles at her, leaning in to kiss her yet again. ] I am taking that as a win, you realize. I can wait the fifty years to hear you say it.
Doesn't count unless I say it, [ jyn argues, because she can't not argue. it's built into her personality and this kind of petty bickering is enjoyable, especially when it is peppered with kisses.
or more.
she pushes him back on the bed, leaning down to follow him. that heavy emotional hangover of having feelings is pressing down on her, but she knows the best way to chase it away is replacing it with something happy. kissing her boyfriend makes her very happy. ]
I remember. [ jyn had told him about the experience in zerzura, another horrifying story to add to their collection of terrors. ]
[ but. ]
[ it reminds him of something that's slowly been nagging at him as he organizes his thoughts. if the displays were powers - ]
If that power is Clarke's, what if - what if the ground shaking was mine? [ it's not something he thinks he can do, but then again he's never really tried to do it. his running theory for his spine was power loss to a medi unit, presumably from an earthquake - but he'd just witnessed the ground shaking beneath a medi unit, alongside a handful of other powers scattered in the facility. he has control over the ground, who knows where that could lead? ]
[ her lips purse, considering it. she can feel the dangerous ground it could open up for how cassian feels about his back. they've been running on the theory that he was in a medi-unit during the earthquake in 2510, that is why his back didn't heal properly, why he has the cybernetics.
if he caused the earthquake...
maybe that is why their powers start so small, because they can't control them otherwise, but it could be a different explanation all together and she refuses to put cassian's own injuries on his shoulders until she knows more. ]
[ he hasn't even touched on how it would make him feel, if he'd caused his own injuries and necessitated his own surgery. first he wants to confirm or refute it. power loss to the medi unit still seems the most likely cause - it's just what initiated that disconnect he's evidently added another theory in. ]
[ his frown is deep, but more thoughtful than unhappy. ]
The last time I had a dream like this, it was not the only dream nor was I the only person. I will give it a few days, but if no one else comes forward, I can.
[ he gUESSES. people don't seem as willing to share as they used to be. ]
Finally, [ jyn breathes, but it's not particularly a complaint. he'd certainly made the delay worth her while and she wasn't in any rush to begin with.
(that is a lie, she was definitely in a rush when he'd first kissed her on the couch.)
she exhales sharply, a little breath of a sigh that turns into an indulgent moan. ]
[ he always feels a lot with jyn. that's not a surprise. but now everything is just... more. he forgets to move and breathe for a second, overwhelmed by the love and the want and all that's in between he can feel from every single place they're touching. it's only when she wriggles her hips with a spike of annoyance that he finally starts to move, breathing out his own quiet sigh. ]
[ fucking her is far more than he expected, even if he'd never forgotten about the bond and what it might mean for this. everything is more, and he wants to chase after it in this desperate grip he has on the feeling of being loved. he's never felt it so solidly. it's unwavering. ]
[ cassian knows she can feel it from him too, but it doesn't stop him from reminding her in her ear, muttering out how much he loves her as moves in her, among other less romantic words all meant to push her further and closer to the edge. he already feels so close to her, but he can't stop from pressing his whole self against her too, because everything is so much and he is drowning in it. he wants to stay under the waves. for once in his life, he just wants to let himself go in everything good that comes from being wound up in and fucking jyn erso. ]
Page 32 of 51