Work Text:
“Fuck,” Jyn groans when she sees the event invitation on Facebook. “How has it already been ten years since high school?” she asks the empty apartment.
Bodhi’s already decided he’s going, according to his smiling face beneath the event title. Great. If he’s going, it’s going to be infinitely harder to come up with a reason not to. Let go of the fact that nobody in high school was pleasant to her, or that Jyn had exactly three high school friends, all three of whom she keeps in touch with, because Bodhi will want her to go.
As if on cue, Jyn’s phone buzzes.
did you see the fb event? we have to go!
“Fuck,” she says again, louder.
do not say you’re not going we HAVE to go
“Fuck.”
Jyn is not, on the whole, pleased. She tells Bodhi as much at dinner the next night. “I don’t want to go and, last time I checked, my parent’s are dead and I’m an adult. So there.”
“Wow,” he says, sliding into the booth across from her. “I don’t even get a hello?”
“Hello. Jyn nods, curt, then says, “Now please see my former stance. It stands.”
“Why don’t you want to go?”
Her face wrinkles in disgust. “You’re joking, right?”
“Humor me,” Bodhi answers, picking up a menu and giving it his full attention. He’s too engrossed in the specials to notice which finger Jyn has raised. “I’m waiting,” he continues, barely looking up.
“Let’s count, shall we?” Jyn squints in mock-concentration. “Half the school hated me, I keep up with everyone I actually gave a damn about, and I don’t have a date.”
“What’s that last one got to do with anything?”
“Have you ever watched a movie?” she asks with a flippant wave of her hand. “The only reason people go to these things is to brag about getting married and to see who turned out to be gay. Or to see who got fat.”
Bodhi lowers the menu. “You know that’s a bunch of Hollywood garbage, right?”
“You think people actually want to see each other?” Jyn picks her knife up, absentmindedly. “I guarantee they do not.” She stabs the air for emphasis.
“Oh!” a waitress starts, dropping her order pad on the table. “Would you like…another minute?” Bodhi nods.
“Now that you’ve scared the waitress away, would you consider being an adult?”
“I am an adult! One who does not want to relive high school, thank you very much. As for the waitress…I’ll cover the tip.”
“I’m not dropping this,” Bodhi says, matter-of-factly.
“Believe me,” Jyn starts, “I know.”
The next day, she wakes up to three texts in a row, all from Bodhi. Didn’t he ever learn that triple texting is social taboo?
morning sunshine! have you decided to go to the thing yet?
wait, how important is this whole date thing
i mean, theoretically, would that make you go???
Waiting for her Keurig to finish brewing her morning coffee, Jyn taps out a response. In her defense, it’s early, she has work in, like, twenty minutes, and she forgot to do laundry last night. That means going into the office in a pantsuit that the nosy administrative assistant will definitely recognize as the same one she wore yesterday, and then he’ll definitely give her some shit for not being “professional”. So the snark isn’t entirely her fault.
yea if u find me a date ill go to the fucking thing sure thing pal
Except Bodhi either doesn’t pick up on the sarcasm or ignores it altogether.
When he comes over for drinks the next night, he’s grinning ear to ear before she even lets him in the apartment.
“What the fuck is up with you?” Jyn asks, forgetting about her technical agreement completely. She’s texted him about a myriad of things since then, including, but not limited to: that dumbass administrative assistant saying, “You’d look 46% more professional if you’d show up to the office in different clothes from the previous day, Ms. Erso.”
(WHO TALKS LIKE THAT JESUS im going to strangle him i dont CARE)
“I have good news, is all,” he says, slipping his shoes off at the door.
“You look entirely too happy. Spill.” She makes a beeline for the wine left over from a work lunch and grabs two glasses from the drying rack.
“I found you a date,” Bodhi says with all the nonchalantness of her super dropping by to ask about rent. Jyn nearly drops the wine bottle on the ground. “Y’know,” he adds, noticing her deer in the headlights look, “for the reunion.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Are you so excited?”
“Who did you find?” Jyn asks, gripping the glassware with force enough to shatter it.
Bodhi takes a step forward to take the wine from her before she actually drops it. “I remembered a while back your assistant said his roommate was single and not a serial killer, so I made a phone call.”
Oh, god. “Kay? My ridiculous assistant who doesn’t know how to have normal, human interactions with people? You think his roommate is going to be my type? Jesus, Bodhi!”
“He seemed normal enough when I texted him!”
“You already texted him?”
“I knew you wouldn’t!”
“Fuck!”
She stares him down for a full thirty seconds, then concedes. “God, I hate myself. What’s his name?”
Bodhi smiles, then pulls a slip of paper from his pocket. “Cassian Andor. If it’s any consolation, Kay said he was conventionally attractive according to most adult females, whatever that means.”
“It’s not. Now pour me some wine before I throw you out.” She hands him her glass and takes the number, scowling the entire time.
One week later, Jyn’s in her high school gym with Bodhi, a drink in one hand and cell phone in the other. Cassian’s meeting her here — he had to work late — and she’s just a little nervous. Sure, they’ve been texting on and off since Bodhi left her apartment last week, but there’s something…weird about preparing to see him in person.
Before she can send a text calling off the whole thing, Leia materializes, dragging Han with her.
“Jyn! I can’t believe you came!”
Bodhi shakes Han’s hand and adds, “My influence.”
“I coulda guessed that,” Han says, rolling his eyes. “How you doing, kid?”
“Fine,” Jyn answers, not technically lying. “Just waiting for someone.”
“Who?” Han asks, clearly intrigued. Jyn swears, if he weren’t married to one of her best friends in the entire galaxy, she’d punch him way more often. (If he weren’t a great drinking buddy, she’d probably punch him less often, but that’s neither here nor there.)
Leia shoots him a look, but Han persists, that smarmy grin that Leia swears grows on a person plastered across his face.
“My boyfriend.” Fuck, Cassian is so not her boyfriend. This is what she was afraid of in the first place: being pressured into making up some sort of relationship to appease the masses.
Except Han and Leia aren’t the masses. And she hasn’t made everything up. Still, Bodhi’s eyebrows are damn near raised to his hairline, so Jyn still wants to punch something out of frustration.
God fucking bless Leia and her newfound Mom Habit of showing everyone in the world pictures of baby Ben. Without missing a beat, Leia has her phone out and is passing around pictures of her one year old to them. Bodhi, distracted by one particularly cute picture of Ben in the bathtub, replaces his shock with an expression of unadulterated awe.
Crisis averted.
Well. Almost. As if he knows Jyn just shoved her foot in her mouth, she gets a text from Cassian.
I am outside the school, if you're still comfortable with this.
“I’ll, uh, be right back,” Jyn says, hoping nobody notices the pink spreading across her cheeks. None of her friends look up, all engrossed in a video of baby Ben stabbing Han with a foam sword.
Walking through the hallways to the parking lot, Jyn’s heart feels like it’s about to beat out of her chest and run back to they gym to tell everyone she’s a fucking phony. It’s not an unfamiliar feeling. Back ten years ago, she’d felt that same way walking to class most days.
Kids in high school are dicks and don’t take lightly to the daughters of people found to be working for enemy governments. Tonight alone, Jyn’s already been on the receiving end of more than a few dirty looks.
Things are about to get better or so, so much worse.
She pushes the heavy double doors open and straight up gasps.
Leaning against a Prius, looking way too good for the event going on inside, is who Jyn assumes is Cassian Andor. They sent each other selfies, just so this first meeting wasn’t unbearably awkward, but wow. Sure, he looked nice in the slightly grainy resolution from his iPhone 5, but in person is another ball game entirely.
“Jyn?” he asks when she gets closer. Oh, fuck, even his voice is attractive.
“That’s me,” she answers, heart still going a mile a minute. Cassian sticks his hand out like an actual gentleman from a movie and shakes hers. It’s firm and nice, even though her hands are definitely sweaty.
“You are still okay with this, right?”
“Yes!” she says, a little too quickly. “I mean,” she adds, “I am. Really. There’s just…been a little addition. To what tonight entails.”
They’d agreed to not give too many relationship details to people, as that could lead to more confusion and some particularly bad acting. So when Cassian quirks a brow, she isn’t surprised. “Okay,” he starts. “What exactly…?”
“I said you were my boyfriend.”
Instead of running for the hills or even looking mildly alarmed, Cassian just cocks his head to the side, says a casual, “Okay, got it,” and adjusts his tie. It’s silver and somehow matches the cocktail dress Jyn had picked out three days ago.
“Well. Good. We’re on the same page. We should, uh,” — she points back to the school — “get inside.”
“Right,” Cassian says. “Just one thing before we do that, though.” He grabs her hand again and brings it to his mouth, where he presses a kiss to her knuckles. Jyn’s entire body combusts. “If we’re dating, I figured we should go ahead and get a first kiss out of the way.” He smiles, then rests his hand at the small of her back and walks toward the front doors.
On the walk back to the gym, Jyn gives him a crash course in…well, her. “Graduated in 2007, obviously. Went to a local college, but nobody’ll mention that. We met…um. At a work think? Since you know Kay?”
Cassian nods. “Sounds good. Kay says hello, by the way.”
“Fuck, I am not loving the fact that he’s somehow involved in this.”
“I don’t think he’s loving it, either. If that’s any help.”
“It doesn’t hurt,” Jyn says, still acutely aware of his hand on her back. Cassian laughs, a warm, resonate sound that she wouldn’t mind hearing again.
That’s how they enter the gym, smiling and laughing and probably looking like they’re actually together. In her absence, Luke’s joined his sister and has one arm slung loosely around Bodhi’s shoulders.
“The gang’s all here!” Luke calls, smiling wide and waving at Jyn. She can’t help but smile back — he’s got that infectious joy about him that’s hard to ignore.
“Guys, this is Cassian. Cassian, these are my friends from high school. And Leia’s husband.”
“Wow, I’m hurt, Erso!” Leia jabs Han in the ribs, but she doesn’t look mad as much as amused.
“Han didn’t go here,” Jyn clarifies. “Plus he’s like, thirty years older than us, anyways.”
“I would say something rude, but that seems inconsiderate around the stranger.”
“Like that’s ever stopped you!” Luke exclaims. Everyone laughs.
Cassian slips an arm around her waist amidst the commotion, leaning into her frame ever so slightly. It doesn’t feel awkward or force like Jyn’d been scared of. It feels nice. Comfortable, even.
“So, Cassian,” Leia starts, once the laughter’s died down and Han's back to looking at his wife like she's the only woman on the planet, “how did you meet Jyn?”
“At a work thing,” he answers smoothly. “My roommate works at her firm. He invited me. I took one look at her and knew I had to talk to her.”
Bodhi and Leia aw in unison. He’s better at this than he let on when they were texting. Even so, Jyn doesn't want to let their ruse get too out of hand. Ignoring the warm feeling in her chest, Jyn changes the subject. “So, Han, where’s little Ben tonight?”
“With Chewie,” he says, hands circling Leia’s waist.
“You trust him with a baby?” Bodhi asks. Luke snorts.
“While I think he needs a haircut and a shave, he’s actually a fantastic babysitter!”
Cassian bends down just enough that he can speak into her ear. “What’s a Chewie?”
“Han’s college roommate. Tall and hairy. Apparently good with babies.”
“Ah,” he whispers back, warm breath making Jyn shiver.
Eventually, Leia makes it known that she wants to dance. Han groans, but follows her like the puppy he really is. Bodhi politely declines. Luke offers to get him another drink.
“Jyn, come on!” Leia calls from the middle of the gym, where couples dance with little more coordination than they had at prom. At least the grinding is classier.
She looks up at Cassian through her lashes. “You totally do not have to dance. Leia’s just excited to be around people who speak in full sentences and use the toilet on their own.”
“I really don’t mind,” he says, a small smile playing at the edge of his mouth. “I think, as the boyfriend, I have to defer to your judgement.”
Like a sign from the heavens above, a Fall Out Boy song starts over the ancient sound system. “Well we have to now,” Jyn replies, taking his hand to join Han and Leia. “This was sort of my song in high school.”
Cassian laughs again and lets her lead. It’s more messy jumping and scream-singing the lyrics than dancing, but nobody seems to be paying an inordinate about of attention to the two of them. The song fades out and Jyn sees Leia tugging her husband back toward Luke and Bodhi.
“We’re tired,” she laughs. “Gotta go home and see the little hell-raiser.”
Han waves back at Jyn. “Bye, Erso. You’re new man friend seems decent enough. Don’t fuck it up!”
“I’m decent enough,” Cassian repeats, still smiling. “Good to know.”
“He means well. Honestly,” Jyn says. “Han and Leia are good people. They balance each other. But god help you if you catch them arguing.” She shudders.
“And Luke is her brother?”
“Yeah. Quite the story there, actually. Involves adoption and dead parents and secret fathers. Real cinematic.”
“A story for another time?” he asks, looking down at her.
“I think so, yes.” She isn’t even bothered by the implication of another date. Rather, a real date.
While they were talking, a slower song must have started. Well, as slow as music from 2007 gets, anyway. The Plain White T’s singing about a long distance relationship floods the gym, making couples sway rather than reenact their hormonal homecoming days.
Cassian rests his hands on her waist, drawing her closer. “Wanna dance?” he asks, voice pitched lower than before.
Jyn nods.
They don’t do much other than stand in one spot and shift their weight, but Jyn winds up leaning her forehead against Cassian’s chest. It’s nice. Sweet, even.
So sweet that she doesn’t even notice the dirty looks from those same people who hated her ten years ago.
When the evening ends, Cassian walks Jyn back to her car like the gentleman she's gathering he must be. It’s chilly out — he takes his jacket off and wraps it around her bare shoulders. The action has that warm feeling blooming in her chest again.
On a whim, as Cassian’s searching through his pockets for his car keys, Jyn leans up on her toes and kisses him, for real.
He makes a noise between confusion and appreciation, but fits his hands at her hips and pulls her tight against his body. Jyn smiles into it, reaching up to wrap her arms around Cassian’s neck.
She pulls away, lipstick smeared and cheeks flushed.
“What was that?” Cassian asks, breathing a little heavier than before.
“I figured we should get that first kiss out of the way,” she says breezily. “Y’know. In case anyone asks us about it in the future.”
“I am going to have to buy Kay dinner.”
Jyn frowns. “I have to say, that wasn’t the reaction I expected.”
“No! I mean,” he adds, “to thank him. For helping set this up.”
“Oh. That’s a relief.” She shrugs his jacket off and gets her own keys from her purse. “Wait. Does this mean I have to give him a raise or something?”
Cassian snorts. “I think dinner will cover it.”
“Good. Because he doesn’t deserve a raise.”
Cassian leans down to kiss Jyn one last time, then opens her door. “Goodnight, Jyn Erso. I hope I made this reunion bearable for you.”
“You did,” she replies, sliding into the driver’s seat. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Cassian Andor.”
When she’s finally back in her apartment, Bodhi’s waiting for her.
“Jesus, do have a key?” Jyn asks, slipping out of her shoes at the door.
“Did you have a nice time?” he asks, eyeing her up and down. He raises a brow at her smudged lipstick.”
“Shut up.”
“I didn’t say anything!”
“Shut up,” Jyn repeats, trying to keep the grin off her face. It’s working until phone buzzes.
My 15 year reunion is coming up next week, if you’d like to accompany me. I think we make a pretty good team, after all. ;)
“You had a good time,” Bodhi says, laughing.
“Oh, fuck off.” The smile across her face isn’t going anywhere, though. “Fine,” Jyn concedes. “I guess I had a good time.”
“So I can put you down as a yes for the twenty year reunion?”
Jyn chucks her purse at him.