Chapter Text
Cassian wasn’t sure whether he wanted to punch her or punch himself when he answered the door and saw her standing there.
“Nice wreath,” she said, casually gesturing up at the Christmas adornment on his apartment door.
“NO,” he declared before slamming said door in her face.
Of course the hammering started up once again as soon as he walked away. He really shouldn’t have expected anything less. Honestly, the most sensible and safest option here was to snap his headphones back on and drown out the knocking with yet another cheesy Netflix Christmas movie. Absolutely nothing good could come from letting her in, but he heard her muffled voice yell through the wood. “Come on, Cassian! Just hear me out!” and against all of his better judgement, he ended up wheeling back around to round on her in retaliation.
“I said NO, Jyn,” he yelled. “I don’t need to hear you out because I know exactly what you’re going to say. ‘Oh, Cassian, I have the perfect job lined up, we’ll split it, I can’t do it without you,’ well, forget it!” He threw up his hands in exasperation, knowing she’d be able to hear it in his voice. “Last time really was the last time.”
“Well, now, you’re just being dramatic.”
“You threw me under the bus and left me to get questioned by the cops,” he thundered.
“It was that, or we both went down! Come on, I wired you your share of the money.”
“Don’t you get it, Jyn?” Cassian shook his head. “Leave me alone, it’s Christmas.”
He was sure that she would have another argument. She always did, and he knew if he hung around long enough she would somehow manage to convince him to still help her. Jyn Erso activated the part of him that found it impossible to say the word ‘no’.
It had started with mostly pick-pocketing. Living on the streets hadn’t given Cassian and his sisters many other options for survival, and so as the oldest, he’d turned to stealing as a way to provide. Eventually, he realised that he’d grown quite good at it. The first time he stole a purse he had been twelve and the first time he stole a car, he’d been seventeen. The first time he stole a painting had been three years ago, and that was of course not the first time he’d ended up having to shake the police off his tail.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” she’d said to him.
He’d seen her before. He knew how to spot when someone was casing a place, and she had visited the museum three times within a week. She had a different disguise every time, but Kay had hacked into the video surveillance so that they could do the same thing and she had been a pattern that kept cropping up. Not about to let their target get stolen before they could, he’d gone in to confront her before he could stop and think that that it was probably a bad idea.
“Stunning,” he’d mentioned. “So when are you planning on stealing it?”
She’d feigned innocence. “What are you talking about?”
“We’ve seen you in the surveillance footage,” he’d said, keeping his voice calm and casual. “I can tell when someone’s planning a heist.”
She’d been silent for a long while. He’d noted the large hat on her head, the bleached ends of her home dye job and the way her hand twitched ever so slightly, as if he would already have a bullet or knife through his chest if they weren’t currently surrounded by hundreds of fellow museum goers here just to appreciate the high art around them. His lips had curved in a smile when finally, she'd replied,
“What do you want?”
“Cut us in.”
“Who else is involved?”
“Just me and my partner. You?”
“I work alone,” she’d told him.
“Even better,” he’d said, turning back to the unsuspecting painting in front of them. “There’s no way you could get this out by yourself.”
She’d snorted. “Maybe you couldn’t.”
He’d shrugged off the dig. “Are you in or not?”
“Do I even have a choice?” she’d smirked at him. “Fine. I’m in. What’s your name?”
“Jeron. You?”
“You can call me Lyra.”
The great thing about Los Angeles was that there were always plenty of rich people ready and willing to buy plenty of expensive things. That had been the first job they’d worked together, and it certainly hadn’t been their last. He knew that he shouldn’t have grown to trust her so much, but they’d sporadically run into each other on and off over the years, stealing something here, scamming someone else there. They didn’t always come away unscathed. She’d conned him, he’d stolen from her, and last time he’d been arrested because she’d decided to rescue herself and leave him to deal with the mess. She was just damn lucky that there had been zero evidence to charge him with anything.
No. He was never working with her again.
“Look, I get it!” Jyn called through the door. “I fucked you over, but it’s not like you would have done any different. It was either get myself out or we both went down, so I chose to salvage the job in any way I could. I knew you'd be fine, there was no evidence – oh, just fucking let me in already, it’s as hot as balls out here!”
He was going straight to hell for this. He opened the door.
“It’s December in LA,” he told her. “It’s probably not even 70 degrees today.”
“I’m from England, I don’t understand your Fahrenheit bullshit,” she said, crinkling her nose at him. “To me, this is still hot.”
She slipped inside with an ease that he hadn’t quite realised she had until that moment. She looked so at home here. She knew which cupboards to go into to make coffee for them both and she had no problems flopping herself down onto his couch, snorting with laughter at the ‘watch again’ category that she could clearly see on his open laptop. God, this really was a bad idea.
“The Knight Before Christmas?” she said.
“It’s a terrible movie. I love it,” he said, folding his arms across his chest and refusing to sit with her. “My sister watches them.”
“Is this the sister that’s studying economics, or the sister who re-posts viral videos of cats on her YouTube?”
“Neither, it’s the sister who had my niece and nephew actually.”
“Shit, how many sisters do you have again?”
He ignored that. “Honestly, what do you want, Jyn? You know I’m not going to do whatever job it is you’ve lined up, so why are you still in my lounge, drinking my coffee?”
“You let me in,” she pointed out. “Come on, a part of you at least wants to hear what it is. Sit down, for fuck’s sake, here–” She held out the second mug and he took it with a sigh, sinking down next to her on the couch.
“There’s this Christmas fundraiser that’s happening in two weeks,” she explained to him. “An art auction. There’s one painting in particular that I’ve got my eye on. We go in as guests, stay behind in the gallery after it’s over and everything is closed. I’ve been watching, I know where all the blind spots are, so we wait until the right moment and boom, painting is ours! It’s kind of big,” she added. “It’ll take two people to get it out, and I could use Kay on the surveillance. I can’t do it without you.”
“That’s fair.”
“So you’ll do it?”
“No.”
“But–”
“Look, Jyn, I appreciate you thinking of me,” Cassian rubbed his eyes. “but after three years, I think I’ve finally learned my lesson. Find someone else.”
“I don’t work with anyone else except you.”
She said it so matter-of-factly. The words stabbed him in the chest, much like they did any other time she said something relatively sentimental. He remembered a particularly rough job that they’d done around about this time last year. They’d fucked up on the timing and ended up having to run, run a lot faster than they usually would. They’d run so much that by the time they’d gotten back to Cassian’s apartment, their prize safely stashed inside her backpack, they’d both collapsed onto this very same couch and laughed their asses off. Instead of saying her usual cursory thanks and disappearing without a trace as she normally did, she’d ended up staying for drinks, the two of them eventually falling asleep together. He’d been awkwardly propped up against the arm of the couch, refusing to move lest it jostle Jyn as her head rested in his lap and they’d both hastily woken in the early hours of the morning, rubbing their eyes and realising how much time had gone by.
“Shit,” she’d murmured, glancing at her phone and quickly sitting up. “Shit, I need to get moving, we should have found a potential buyer by now–”
“Ye – yeah…” he’d muttered back. He’d stared at the back of her head for a moment as he stretched out his neck, hesitating on his next words until eventually he burst out, “Why did you stay?”
She’d glanced back at him.
“I don’t know. I feel safe here I guess,” she’d shrugged.
The rational part of his brain was constantly at war with the tiny emotional part that he kept hidden locked away in the depths of his hypothalamus whenever he was around her. He quickly cast around for something to say that would stop him from blurting out that he would help her.
“How’s school?” he ended up going with.
She snorted. “It’s crazy, but I’m still alive. I’ve finished my assignments for the semester, so I’m officially free for the holidays.”
“Just in time to go Christmas shopping with all the overtired soccer moms and underpaid retail workers.”
“As if, I buy everything online,” Jyn waved her hand. “I’m taking the bar next year.”
“Holy shit,” When he’d first met her, she had only just gotten in to law school. While at first they’d tried hard to keep their partnership strictly professional, barely even talking outside of whatever heist they had planned, it had slowly derailed as time went by. She had a pretty good understanding of the law and always turned up with a bag full of text books, it was pretty clear that she was a law student, and quite desperately needed the money. The more they worked together, the more they talked and the more he realised that under any other circumstances, they’d actually probably be rather good friends.
“I know, right?” she said.
“But you only just started school,” he teased.
She shoved his shoulder. “Ya girl’s gonna be a lawyer,” she grinned. “Are you proud of me?”
Yes. Always.
“Will you represent me if I ever get arrested again?” he asked.
“Assuming I haven’t also been arrested right alongside you,” she said. “How’s the family?”
“They’re good,” Cassian said. “Mari is flying in on the 23rd, I’m picking her up from the airport and she’ll stay with me for a night. Frankie is driving up on the 24th and then we’re all spending Christmas day at Teresa’s house.”
“She’s the one who lives in Pasadena, right?”
“You have a good memory.”
“I don’t think so,” Jyn shook her head. “I’m pretty sure you have a fourth sister, but I can’t remember her name.”
“Ana,” Cassian snorted.
“ANA, that’s right,” Jyn said, triumphantly. “I watch her TikToks.”
“I’m sure she’ll be thrilled to hear that.”
“I’m glad they’re doing well.”
“Thanks,” he said. “Anyway – this has been real fun, Jyn. Nice seeing you and all that, but I think I really should be getting back to my work–”
She eyed the laptop on his coffee table.
“…watching Christmas movies on Netflix?”
“It’s very important.”
“Will you at least think about it?” Jyn huffed, only half-heartedly resisting as he stood up and started ushering her back through his apartment and towards the front door. “I didn’t even tell you the best part, yet–”
“Literally nothing you say can change my mind,” he said cheerfully, opening the door.
“We split it 60-40?”
“Merry Christmas, Jyn.”
“70-30!”
“Let’s catch up in the new year,” he said. “BYEEE.”
“Orson Krennic is the mark!”
SLAM.
He’d shut the door in her face but her words made him freeze before he could turn around and storm away. Very few names could do that to him, but shit, she’d managed to find the one thing to make him reconsider everything. Orson Krennic ran in their circle. A controversial public figure well known for his millions of Twitter followers, billions of net worth, performative philanthropy and with half the LAPD on his side, they’d run into him more times than he’d ever wished they had. He’d fucked them both over plenty of times. He knew Jyn had a personal vendetta against him (for reasons she’d still not really divulged entirely, something to do with her parents but he’d been too afraid to ask) and if there was ever a chance for Cassian to be able to steal from Orson Krennic…
Goddamn it. He went back and opened the door, Jyn simply waiting for him on the other side with a smug look on her face.
“Fuck you,” Cassian said. “I’m in.”
“Don’t do it, man,” Kay said, sucking his boba tea through the straw without even taking his eyes off his phone.
“Yeah, about that…”
Kay slammed his phone down onto the table. “You already said you’d do it, didn’t you?”
“Look, I know it’s a terrible idea, but I couldn’t say no!” He threw up his arms in exasperation. “We’re stealing from Orson Krennic, I can’t pass up that opportunity.”
“Don’t even try and make this about Orson Krennic,” Kay scoffed at him. “Jyn could ask you to steal from an innocent old lady and you’d do it.”
“I… I would never.”
But Kay knew him better than Cassian probably knew himself at this point. Having known each other since their early days of college, he’d been there before Jyn came into his life and he would be there long after her. Kay could no doubt read the helpless look on his face like a book.
“Cassian, you’re half in love with the girl,” he pointed out.
“Shut up,” he hissed.
Kay stared pointedly around the south Hollywood boba shop. Full of freelancers typing away at their laptops, aspiring actors and girls wearing branded athletic gear swinging by for a drink after a workout, no one even glanced up at his statement. Right. No one exactly cared about how he felt… still, hearing it said out loud made it all too real.
“Absolutely nothing good can come from you working with her,” Kay quite reasonably pointed out. “All she does is break your heart and take your money.”
“You have a point,” Cassian admitted. “but also consider: this time I break her before she even has another chance to break me.”
“I’d go for that, if I didn’t know that you’re full of bullshit,” Kay snorted.
“I’ll do it!”
“No, you won’t,” Kay shook his head. “You’ll put all your trust in her like you always do and continue to be surprised when she ultimately betrays you. You’re the living embodiment of the ‘shocked Pikachu’ meme.”
“I regret letting my sister teach you about memes.”
“Excuse me, I curate my own niche memes now,” Kay said. He glanced up at Cassian and for a long moment, a simple look passed between them. He could not do this without Kay, and his partner knew it. When Kay sighed, Cassian tried not to outwardly jump for joy. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, I know you’re going to do it no matter what, so of course I’m in. But let it go on record that I think this is a ridiculously bad idea–”
Cassian didn’t even let him finish. He just leaned in and flung his arms around his partner.
“Jesus Christ…” Kay said, exasperatedly.
“Thank you,” Cassian replied.
“You’re welcome, now get the hell off me.”
The Jonathan Scarif Art Gallery was so elaborately decorated, Cassian rather thought he’d just stepped inside a snow globe. Someone had clearly been given an unlimited budget and told to go nuts, because there were at least twelve Christmas trees, tinsel wrapped around the stair banisters, wreaths and lights and naturally an entire Santa’s grotto set up in one of the main wings. He didn’t know how Kay was able to hack the guest list to include their fake personas, but somehow the man managed to work Christmas miracles.
“It’s no miracle,” Kay had huffed the night before. “It’s just simple coding, once you get the password, pretty much everything is accessible–”
Anyway. Cassian had made sure to wear the fanciest suit he had and hanging off his arm next to him, Jyn wore a shimmering gold dress that admittedly made him go a little speechless when she’d first walked out in it. After altering their appearances enough with blond wigs, fake glasses, and coloured contacts, he remembered glancing at her as she appeared from her room and ended up doing a rather embarrassing double take as they all started heading out the door.
“What?” she’d asked.
He’d just shaken his head and followed.
They’d done this before, of course. The sneaking and lying, acting and pretending. They were pretty good at it by now. She knew exactly how to position herself to make it look believable. They pretended to drank champagne while she slipped her free arm around his waist, letting it sit just low enough to cross into romantic territory. If he needed to speak to her, he would lean in and pretend to kiss her neck and it was going to straight up kill him one of these days, because ‘massive, inexcusable crush’ really was the tame way to describe how he felt whenever he was around Jyn Erso, but what other choice did he have? Ask out the girl who once stole ten thousand dollars from him? Sure. It was torture having her tucked under his arm, her skin red and flushed from adrenaline and her hair smelling like a tropical breeze, but he still managed to scan the crowd, using the wire in his ear that Kay had managed to DIY together himself by watching a lot of videos on YouTube.
“Any sign of Krennic’s representative?” he murmured to Kay.
“That’s a negative,” Kay sighed as he no doubt sat hunched over his iPad in the non-descript van somewhere. “So far haven’t seen anyone we know who works with Krennic over the surveillance.”
“We’ll keep looking,” Jyn said, looking directly at Cassian, even though he knew her words were meant for Kay.
Fuck, her eyes. “I haven’t even seen this painting yet,” he told her. “Is it even good?”
“You don’t care what the painting looks like,” Jyn smirked. “you just want to fuck over Krennic.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
She just laughed. “Come on,” She let her hand trail down his arm, linking her fingers through his. He hoped that he didn’t shiver as she led him through the crowd. They weaved through the celebrities mingling, the many different journalists and photographers, the Los Angeles Philharmonic as they blasted out ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ and the pockets of people gathered around each of the art pieces that were currently on sale. The silent auction was apparently all app based these days (much to Kay’s delight, as it would be much easier to hack), everyone making their bets through their phones and waiting to see who would win at the end of the night. Even though Cassian knew that Kay would make sure that Krennic would win, he still eyed the crowd around their chosen asset with apprehension. How many of them would be pissed to find out they didn’t get it? Would any of them get pissed enough to try and take it as well? He wasn’t sure if Jyn even had a contingency plan for a wild third party showing up.
(To be fair, it wouldn’t be an Insane Jyn Plan without at least a portion of said plan being ‘wing it and hope for the best’).
Eventually, a rather high end model and her date moved out of the way and Cassian was finally able to get a good enough view.
“Huh,” he said, his hand still in Jyn’s. “I see why you needed me now.”
“Right?” Jyn squeezed his fingers. “Imagine trying to carry that by yourself.”
The painting portrayed a beautiful galaxy of stars, roughly the size of a movie poster. The most notable feature, however, was the fiery explosion that was depicted in the middle, reds and golds contrasting with the black background. Cassian glanced at the app on his phone again, saw the number under ‘starting bid’ and didn’t even want to think about what they could do with the amount of money the painting was worth.
“It’s called Death of a Star,” Jyn said.
“It’s beautiful,” Cassian admitted. Someone then elbowed past him in their attempts to see the painting and he was momentarily distracted as they hastily stepped back out of the way. “Holy shit, Jyn, I think that was Taylor Swift–”
“Shut up,” she hissed.
“Oh, right – I mean, Lyra–”
“God, I forgot how shite you are at this,” Jyn shook her head. “Pull your head in, we have a whole evening to get through. Also, you need to kiss me.”
He choked on his champagne.
She snorted. “Well, that’s nice.”
“Sorry–” he gasped. She was literally going to murder him one of these days, and she wouldn’t even know it. He knew it wasn’t a big deal. They’d kissed before on several other jobs that they’d worked together and he somehow managed to keep it professional every time (he honestly thought he deserved a medal). Honestly, she was right in her exasperation, he definitely should have been playing the roles they were assigned properly by now, but hearing those words come out of her mouth…
He leaned in and pressed his lips to hers. His arm curled around her waist, she clutched the lapel of his suit and Jesus Christ, he hoped that she couldn’t hear the thumping of his heart through his chest because it was reverberating through his brain like someone had smashed a rather large gong inside it.
She pulled away, a spark in her eyes.
“I am so lucky to have a husband like you,” she told him.
“You owe me an island holiday after this.”
She rolled her eyes with a scoff. She moved to subtly tip out the last of her champagne, but that was when she suddenly slammed him in the chest with her back of her hand. “Oh my god,” she breathed. “Is that Leia Organa?”
“Oh, now look who’s star struck,” Cassian huffed, but he noticed that she was right. Award-winning actress, Leia Organa, was indeed apparently attending the fundraiser that evening. She was currently talking with a journalist not too far away from them across the room, a professional smile gracing her lips and Cassian snorted at the look on Jyn’s face.
“Tell me honestly,” he said. “How many times have you seen Galaxy Wars?”
“Nothing, shut up.”
“It’s ok, I think she’s cool too.”
“Fuck my life, she’s so hot,” Jyn tried to contain herself by tugging heavily on his jacket sleeve. “and so funny, have you seen her interviews? She seems so genuine–”
“I think she’s finished her interview now,” Cassian pointed out as the journalist moved on. “Come on, we have to talk to her–”
“I would just like to point out here,” Kay’s disembodied voice chimed in through their ear pieces. “we’re literally in the middle of a heist.”
At some point, you kind of had to forget that part. It was a weird life that they lived. They always seemed to be on the fringes of society, so often around the flashing lights, cameras and celebrities of Los Angeles, but always there under false pretences. Always with an agenda, always fake, and never exactly fitting in. Cassian wasn’t even sure what part of society they belonged in at all. All the money that he and Jyn made from their heists went back into education, whether it was Jyn’s own studies, or how Cassian was paying for all four of his younger sisters to get through college (he didn’t want any of them to turn out like he did). Not poor, not rich, capitalist society would place him at the centre, but he was hardly living the American Dream with a house, a dog and white picket fence either.
Sometimes, they simply had to pretend they belonged. They were good at that, after all.
“Leia Organa?” Cassian had to be the one to say something, seeing as Jyn looked like she might just die. “Hope you don’t mind, my wife here is a huge fan of you.”
“Of course not, thank you,” Leia said earnestly, looking like she'd just stepped off the runway in her white designer dress. “Have you made any bets yet tonight?”
“We’re still weighing up our options,” Cassian gestured vaguely over his shoulder at the paintings on display. “Yourself?”
“Oh, I’m the same, I just love all of them–” Leia replied.
“LYRA,” Jyn stuck out her hand randomly, causing both Leia and Cassian to stare at her. “I mean – I’m Lyra,” she added in a slightly calmer tone. “This is my husband, Jeron. You probably won’t have heard of us, we run the charity ‘One Roof’ together.”
“It’s aim is to provide support to the homeless,” Cassian hastily elaborated.
It was a rehearsed story, complete with a fake website that Cassian had created earlier, should anyone feel the need to google them. “Nice to meet you,” Leia told them. “What made you decide on homelessness as your cause?”
Jyn glanced up at him with a pause.
“Personal experience,” he said. “My sisters and I, we grew up in and out of foster care and there was a period of time when we were homeless. I wanted to create something that could help people who were in similar situations. I’m just lucky enough my wife felt the same and was willing to help.”
The art to any good lie was of course to base it in truth.
“I will have to look into your charity,” Leia said, warmly. “It was so lovely meeting you both, Merry Christmas!”
She left the conversation so diplomatically, Cassian barely even noticed that it had ended. He could only imagine how many more conversations like theirs she would have to get through that evening. Despite that, she left them with Jyn’s fingers digging into his arm as she tried not to jump up and down on the spot, Cassian turning to grin at her.
“We just met Leia Organa!”
“Holy fuck, we just met Leia Organa!”
For a moment, they both just silently screeched. So engrossed in the moment, Cassian barely remembered what Kay was talking about when he eventually chimed in.
“I think he’s here!”
“Wait, what?” Jyn said distractedly, glancing over her shoulder.
Cassian clicked. Oh shit, that’s right, they were indeed in the middle of a heist.
“Where?” he asked at once.
“Beard and pony tail guy, over by the shrimp fountain, has two body guards with him.”
Cassian leaned in and kissed Jyn’s neck, using it to cover up him subtly checking out the man Krennic had apparently sent that evening. He wasn’t immediately recognisable, and Cassian noticed that he kept tugging at his suit sleeves as if they bothered him. He had the wide-eyed and scattered look of someone who, like them, wasn’t exactly well-versed in this kind of environment.
“What do you have on him?” Jyn muttered back. Thank god she had a voice, because his mouth was otherwise occupied.
“I’ve social media stalked him. Name is Bodhi Rook, no priors, appears to be squeaky clean.”
“Clearly he’s not as clean as he looks.”
“Apparently he’s Krennic’s new art consultant and authenticator. He’s already made a bid on ‘Death of a Star’, and don’t worry. He’s currently in the lead.”
“If Krennic finds out that we’re the ones who stole the painting that he won, we’re as good as dead,” Cassian felt the need to point out.
“That’s the beauty of the plan,” Jyn reached up and snaked her arms around his neck. “He’s never going to know it’s us. His Twitter said he was holidaying in Bora Bora, so it was the perfect opportunity. This art consultant has never met us before and we’ve disguised ourselves pretty damn well.”
“Yeah, make up really has come in leaps and bounds,” Cassian had realised that earlier than evening when she’d literally taped his jaw into a different shape.
“Exactly,” Jyn grinned. “So Kay scrubs the security cams and we blend into the background so there’s no visual evidence of us ever even being here. Krennic can go through the entire guest list and figure out that Jeron and Lyra were the ones who got in with fake IDs, but he’ll have a hard time finding us because Jeron and Lyra don’t exist. We’ll get zero hits off of facial recognition even if something does manage to get through the cracks and we have our ways to hiding the money trail. Krennic has plenty of other enemies to suspect stealing off him, so we get his profit and he gets to suck it.”
“This plan is honestly insane.”
“Yeah,” she laughed. “Why did you agree to it again?”
Because I think you’re amazing.
“Because I hate Krennic just as much as you.”
It wasn’t a complete lie. The last time Cassian had come directly face to face with Orson Krennic, the man had shot him. The scar on his shoulder screamed for revenge, however risky and stupid it might be to get it, but it was always going to be because of this woman who somehow simultaneously brought out the best and worst in him.
For some, it would seem that Bodhi Rook with his two bodyguards would be a overkill, but honestly, he didn’t look out of place at all. The entire event was crawling with security, there to simultaneously protect the paintings, and those who were looking at buying them. As such, getting to a place where they weren’t supposed to be was going to end up particularly challenging. They remained in the background during the rest of the night, watching all the fanfare of announcing the auction winners and pretending to look appropriately disappointed as they learned they did not win anything. Eventually, Orson Krennic was announced as the winner of Death of a Star and they politely clapped as Bodhi Rook shook hands with the auction manager and posed for several photos.
It was time to move into position.
“The back stairwell is your better bet,” Kay’s voice said in his ear as they held hands, dashing through the crowd. “They don’t do a physical sweep there. So long as you stay in position, the cameras will never see you.”
Jyn’s fingers squeezed his as they entered the stairwell. She had already scoped out the tiny corner on the first floor landing of the stairwell that was perfectly hidden from the camera’s view. The only issue was that the space was barely big enough to hide one person, let alone two. Climbing the stairs two at a time, she pressed her back to the wall and he took a subtle glance at the security camera in the corner.
“I’m still in view,” he mentioned.
She rolled her eyes before pulling him in. His chest hit hers and she huffed a little, reaching out and grabbing hold of his jacket to seemingly keep him in place. God, he barely knew where to look.
“How long do we have to stay like this again?” he asked.
She smirked, so close that he could feel it against his neck.
“Sick of me already, Cassian?”
“Jeron,” he said.
“Oh, now you remember the cover,” she snorted.
Time ceased to exist in that stairwell. Despite standing still, the adrenaline kept their hearts thumping erratically and Cassian found himself matching his breathing to hers in an attempt to keep it under control. They basically had to stay still until the museum closed, which was likely going to take a couple of hours at the very least. He hoped his legs could hold out that lot. He could smell the sweat on her forehead and was certain the heat radiating from his jacket collar was about to roast him alive. Her dress slipped under his grip.
He wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but at one point there was a sudden thud, thud, thud from somewhere above them.
They both turned and stared at the stairs.
“I thought they didn’t do a physical sweep of this stairwell!” Jyn hissed as fear stabbed through Cassian’s chest.
“They don’t–” Kay said, furiously.
“Then who the fuck–”
“We have to abort, Jyn–”
“WAIT,” He could almost imagine Kay feverishly tapping through different cameras on his iPad. “It’s not security! I think they’re party guests – incoming twenty seconds–”
Jyn looked up at him and in that moment when their eyes locked, he knew exactly what she was saying to him. He didn’t know how they did it, but sometimes they just had moments where he could basically read her mind. All she had to do was look and he just knew.
Our cover can stay intact, she said. We can save the job. KISS ME, YOU BAFFOON.
He plunged a hand into her hair and dragged her mouth to his.
She responded in earnest, arms snaking in under his jacket. There was a kind of roaring in his ears. He couldn’t see anything, he couldn’t hear anything, all he knew was her body pressed against his and the way her leg had lifted to hitch around his hip. He smoothed a hand from her knee to thigh and genuinely wondered whether he’d stopped breathing. Her arms moved to wrap around his shoulders and he lifted her, her dress shifting up to her waist. Her legs gripped his hips and he realised his body was the only thing keeping her against the wall. Each kiss was accompanied by a sound from somewhere inside him that he was simultaneously very embarrassed about and yet unable to control.
This woman was going to murder him one of these days.
After several moments – or possibly several hours? – they both seemed to realise that they could no longer hear the footsteps that had been approaching. Their lips slowed until eventually they pulled away, Jyn glancing over his shoulder in confusion.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Kay?” Cassian tried to make contact. There was nothing, no static or background noise at all. “Kay? KAY – I think he’s turned the mic off.”
Jyn let out a snort of laughter and he couldn’t help but join her, letting his forehead smack into the stairwell wall next to hers as she ungracefully slid back down to the floor. It took several minutes for Kay to check back in with them.
“Are you quite done, yet?”
“I take it they went right past us?” Cassian asked.
“You made out for way longer than was necessary.”
“What can I say,” Jyn said, dryly. “We’re thorough.”
Cassian tugged on his collar. Only a few more hours to go.