open ✧ the time to fight is now

[realists]

☒ ᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴsᴘᴀᴍ ☒ ᴘʀᴏsᴇ ☒ ᴘɪᴄᴛᴜʀᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴍᴘᴛs ☒ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ᴡᴏʀᴅʟʏ ☒ ᴏᴠᴇʀғʟᴏᴡ

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[evasives]

He almost grins. "You could just go step quickly again into the water too."

He pointedly does not startle when she touches his leg, and the flash of pain from the fall is already slowly fading back into the dull ache from the swim. It's nothing lasting. "It's fine," he's quick to reassure. "I'll move in a moment, I just need a second."

And a second to figure out if it's at all possible for him to get to his feet without suffering the same muddy consequence.

[realists]

"You need a second?" Her eyebrows jump up, mouth slanting into a brief smirk because of their sort of compromised position. It blossoms quickly into a smile as her free hand lifts to touch her fingers to his cheek, leaving a swipe of cold mud across the same stubble that had tickled her own cheek when he had kissed her.

"You need to be hosed off too, now."

[evasives]

He is far too easily distracted by the smirk turned into a smile, but it's not like he would have been able to move fast enough to avoid her hand.

There's a faint snort of a laugh as he grins down at her, amused. He also throws any concern about getting muddy out the window, because Jyn.

"For deadly minerals and mud alike." A beat. "It looks better on you."

[realists]

"Mud? Maybe I should move to one of those planets that's just swamps and mud flats then."

Using her good arm -- so she doesn't accidentally knee him and because her shoulder is a little more sore than she'd expected -- she pushes herself out from underneath him, feeling kind of grossed out at the squishy feeling of the mud. This was a lot less gross when she was seven.

"If you come with me."

[evasives]

He does his best to avoid falling while she wriggles out and he shifts to help her along, but once she moves enough, he drops down on his good knee to balance more of his weight. He sinks a little. It's too squishy. He does not want to live on a mud planet.

"I'm not coming with you to a mud planet," he says out loud too, tone light. "But I would come with you to most others."

[realists]

"Most?" Her eyebrow arches up, defiant in a teasing way as she shoves herself to her feet, leaning down to help him to his feet so he can loom over her once more. That is the sign of true love, she will willingly let him be taller than her.

"What happened to being with me all the way? I didn't realize it was 'all the way except for mud'." She sounds like she's judging him, like she's imply he is afraid of mud.

[evasives]

"If I am going to live somewhere with you," in this teasing hypothetical move, "I would prefer we pick a place that suits both of us. We can make sure there's some mud for you, don't worry."

He takes her hand, grabs her arm with the other, and pulls himself up, putting most of his weight on his good leg. Once he's upright, he doesn't let go of her arm, and his grip is a little tight for a second while he regains his posture and balance. There's the tiniest of grimaces, but he still tries to look amused.

[realists]

Once he's upright, Jyn easily extracts her arm only to loop the same one around his waist. She's not going to attempt the piggy back ride across the field again now that she knows it's too soft. At least the plants are getting enough water, so there's that.

"What would suit you?" If he says desert then she'll just have to knock him in the head a couple of times until he realizes that he is wrong. She sets off again, easily acting as a cane for Cassian without prompting.

[evasives]

Cassian barely even thinks about the way he adjusts, settling his arm easily over her shoulders when she slides hers at his waist. It's easier, he thinks, less odd than hanging off her feeling too big. He moves when she does, keeping in step as they walk, also without really thinking about it beyond watching for the wetter looking mud patches.

He has a little bit of a limp though, even if it's mostly being offset by her support. "Something temperate. Busy enough to keep from going bored, but avoiding the bustle of a place like Coruscant might be nice."

[realists]

"It didn't feel so busy when I was small," she offers, even as she's already admitted she doesn't remember much of it. The playgrounds and Galen's office were her number one memories, but she spend the most time there so it's not surprising.

"I'd like somewhere with a lot of unspoiled land." Much like Lah'mu. Jyn just loves nature so much and she hasn't had an abundance of time to soak it in in the past fifteen years.

[evasives]

"The top and bottoms levels have different kinds of busyness. I'm sure it feels quite different to a child too." It felt different even when he went there for the first time as a teenager.

Something almost like a smile slips onto his face. "Does the kind of land matter?"

[realists]

"I'd rather die than live on a desert planet." Literally death would be better than a desert. SHE WILL DIVORCE YOU, CASSIAN ANDOR. "Or snow, I've never been particularly fond of the cold so I wouldn't like to live on a cold, icy planet."

Neither of their birthplaces for her, thank you.

"Or a cold desert because the idea of that is stupid." Stupid weather! It offends her on principle because it doesn't make any sense. "I don't like sand all that much."

[evasives]

Cassian laughs, a little. "Deserts are not so interesting. I don't want to worry about keeping hydrated either." No divorce concerns here, Jyn. "The cold ones are worse, worrying about water and hypothermia."

He makes a thoughtful noise. "I might like to visit Fest one day. I don't want to live there, but I don't remember much either. Temperate still sounds like our best bet, for both of us."

[realists]

Her nose scrunches up at the mention of his home planet, because snow, but she relents because love. "If we don't stay long."

She can't say she wants to ever visit Vallt. Maybe Coruscant, once the war is over, but Vallt was never really anything she ever considered home, even if it is where she took her first wailing breaths. She has absolutely zero memory of it.

[evasives]

His face softens a little, at her agreement. "A few day, at most. Honestly I'm not even expecting to find anything familiar. I just never thought the chance to go back would ever fall into my lap."

He's still not sure it will but - it's nice to think about, like it's nice to think about being able to do it with Jyn.

[realists]

"In that case, I'll make sure to put it in your lap." For herself, Jyn won't ask for any favors from the Rebellion, but for Cassian she would move mountains, plateaus, entire planets. If it means begging a transport off Mon Mothma for a couple days in Fest, whatever, she'll do it.

(And she'll do it secretly, not telling Cassian until the ship arrives on Lah'mu.)

"Once your leg is better. You'll be giving me a piggyback through the snow."

[evasives]

He steals a glance at her face, only half fighting off the smile that's trying to make its way on his. Cassian isn't used to people going to bat for him so hard, but when Jyn decides to do something, she goes all out. It flips his stomach to think of her going hard for his sake, whatever the reason.

"Pick a warmer planet for that. We'll have so many extra layers on Fest, and it will be even more slippery than the mud here."

[realists]

"Mustafar?" That's a joke. She is joking. Cassian was right that they should aim for something with a temperate climate because Jyn would hate the volcanic heat of Mustafar as much as she hated the oppressive humidity of Scarif as much as she hates cold in any form.

"There's some fields, over that ridge--" She gestures to a hill to the left of the house. "--because of the way the hills sort of surround it, it gets protected from most of the mist." Which means it's dry! "The grass smells sweet, like... starfruit or those big red berries that grew on Yavin."

[evasives]

He snorts. He knows it's a joke, but. "Have you ever been to Mustafar?"

Cassian looks over in the direction she's pointing, hobbling along and glad the house is finally in sight. He really wants to sit down. "Are you saying you want a piggyback ride through the supposedly dry field, or that you want to live on a planet like this one?"

[realists]

"Not yet I haven't." She looks up at him with a teasing smile. Not yet.

She isn't actually sure where she was going mentioning the dry valley, she only wanted to point out it wasn't all foggy mist all the time, but she decides it would have been neither of those options anyway. "If you want to take more walks outside, we can go over there."

We because now that she has gotten over her abandonment issues (for the most part, for this specific scenario) she has also decided to take part in his physical therapy.

[evasives]

"And probably won't for a while." He hasn't even been there yet. It's too big a stronghold for the Empire, and the Rebellion hasn't had a reason to send him yet.

Cassian looks out over the drier land and tries to pretend his face doesn't soften at her use of the word 'we,' like she's casually putting herself into the equation. To stay, with him here, to help him. Any of the concerns he had about her leaving have been washed away just because she used we. "It would be better than staying cooped up inside all the time. I do want to." A beat. "Maybe we can keep swimming sometimes too."

Since he can only go swimming with her around, it's more acceptance of her involvement in said physical therapy.

[realists]

"Yeah?" She bites back a small smile, unconsciously ducking her head against his chest as they continue toward the house. Soon they will be able to spray the mud off and change into dry clothes and eat. So soon.

"I'd like that." All of that. Walking, swimming, probably Mustafar eventually, if only for the sake of saying she's been.

[evasives]

Oh. He likes that. It makes him smile to feel her tucked against him, and he wonders if this could become something common.

"I'd like it all too," he says, not sure if he's glad the house finally comes into view or if he's disappointed they'll have to break apart once they're inside. "Do I get to know what you're going to cook, or is it a surprise?"

[realists]

"It's a surprise," she decides, if only because she doesn't know what she could begin to cook them for a snack now that she's thrown the gauntlet down and fussed enough to defend the honor of her cooking.

It's gonna be toasted cheese.

She pulls them to a stop when they reach the grass in front of the house. "Alright. Take your pants off." Jyn. She chokes a bit when she's realized what she's said. "Because they're muddy. Take your muddy clothes off and I'll hose you off and then you can do the same to me and I'll run in to get us dry clothes."

[evasives]

A surprise is not reassuring in the slightest, but he's distracted by her quick and easy command to take off his pants. He'd stumble if he were on his own, but instead his arm just tightens around her shoulder, the only sign he was maybe caught off guard.

It's not that Cassian is particularly modest; being in the rebellion doesn't allow that kind of thing most of the time. But it's Jyn, and they've just talked about becoming - together. So he still hesitates for a second.

"I'll need to -" he trails off, because it's hard to admit he'll still need her to support him for this. At least in his room there's furniture and walls to lean on. He grits his teeth and lets go of her shoulder to fumble with the drawstring, shucking them downward to let gravity do some of the work.

But he grabs her arm and doesn't look at her as he tries to finagle them off the rest of the way, his bad leg making it slower than usual and feeling frustrated by it, because it should honestly be far simpler, and yet!! It's not. For two seconds he seriously considers whether or not it's even worth putting new ones back on.