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"Jyn, what are you doing?"
Jyn has to clamp her lips together to keep herself from giggling. She shakes her head slightly, turning her attention back to the task at hand.
Even in the dim light she can see Cassian shifting around in bed, sheets and covers rustling at his drowsy but insistent growing discomfort. He lets out a muffled curse and she can't help but look up to the messy pile of tangled covers and limbs he's turned into, as he battles with sleep and that inherent perpetual worry for her of his. She guesses she ought to feel a pang of guilt at such knowledge, given the circumstances, but all that comes to her is laughter. It bubbles in her throat, and judging by her sudden shortness of breath is definitely on the verge of breaking free through her lips. She manages to stifle it down.
But then Cassian sits up and she can't fight against it any more. Cassian grunts, rubbing his eye with the heel of his hand, his hair is oddly puffy and sticking out in all directions, as though it were defying laws of physics. He seems to glare sheepishly at her, which up to that very moment she'd have thought to be an impossible combination.
"Stars, Jyn," he complains, voice still slurring. "What is it you're doing?" the question comes across as purely rhetorical, for he quickly adds after a frustrated groan, "come back to bed, it's freezing."
I'm freezing.
"In a minute," she says, biting down the smile that curls her lips, unannounced save for the the sudden warm flutter in her stomach.
A year ago, Jyn would have smacked herself from harbouring such ridiculous silly thoughts, but things have changed. When Cassian flops down onto bed with a thud and another grown, she can't help to think it cute. She shakes her head, sighing, and leans forward again. Her fingers hover inches away from the duracrete surface, but even at that meagre distance she can feel the heat radiating from it. Triumph and pride tug at the corners of her mouth, she allows herself to smile this time while reaching for the towels at her feet.
Cassian shifts towards the sudden alien weight at his feet. He moves his foot forward and his brow furrows when his toes graze against something hard, rather than plump. Definitely not the feel of Jyn's thigh. The confusion brushes off the remaining veil of drowsiness clouding his senses. He blinks, repeatedly, trying to adjust his gaze to the semi-dark room. He's greeted by a teasing Jyn who, even though she is trying, can't hide the amused curving of her lips.
"You said you were cold," she says simply, smile spreading over her face as she leans forward.
His retort about having said that, in part, to hug her tighter and huddle for warmth gets tangled with the lungful of that reverberating hum of hers that breezes over his tongue. She presses harder, demanding, conducting an audacious lazy search in his mouth, and he figures complaining at her teasing is pointless. He does capture her bottom lip when she pulls back, caressing it softly. It's when a heavy elated gasp shrilled with a chocked-back whimper escapes her that he shifts, stubbing his toe.
His grunt mingles with her giggle, the way she cradles his face in her hand makes his heart miss a beat. He gazes into her eyes, an elusive spark to them as the pad of her thumb traces the scruff on his chin. She chews her lip, but the smile touches her eyes the moment her fingertip presses down, dragging downwards. His hand eases down, finding a cradle in the small of her back. He leans forward, but instead of reaching for her mouth, he rests his forehead in hers with a quiet sigh.
"I am still cold," he whispers, half-serious and half-teasing, a breath away from her lips.
Jyn rakes her fingers through his hair, a gentle scrape on the back of his neck right before she pulls him forward, just to give him a swift peck on the lips. He makes a little sound of protest in the back of his throat when she slides away from his grasp to her side of the bunk,yet against all his prognosis he finds himself wrapped in her arms again, the comforting heat of her chest on his back, her ankles brushing against his hips, her thighs against his arms.
She didn't slide to her side of bed after all.
"Better now?" the question tickles his ear.
He strokes her knuckles, humming. She stretches her legs and her hand meanders down to his hip, swerves to his stomach and spreads, warm, thetering him to her. She burrows her face in the curve of his neck, her exhale soft against his skin before she nurses the spot with her lips.
"Where did you learn that?" he asks, feeling the comforting warmth oozing from the heated bricks lying, cloth-wrapped, under the covers.
"An ol' twi'lek," Jyn replies in a hushed voice.
She falls silent and Cassian waits, fingers grazing over the back of her hand and tracing her wrist. She lets out another sigh, heavier this time, and Cassian strokes her palm.
"She saw me on the street, said I didn't have to be cold at night at all."
His throat tightens at the implication her words held, he finds himself closing his fingers around her wrist, brushing his thumb along its side, back and forth. Her toes graze his ankle.
"It was faster, though," she says, voice still small, her hand waking from its rest, travelling aimlessly along, across, his chest. "Embers and an open fire are better," she adds, almost clearing her throat.
"Guess they keep heat better as well," he forces out of his mouth.
"Yeah," Jyn concurs in an almost hushed murmur. "Though this is nice," she speaks against his neck.
A smile tugs at his lips upon feeling the soft touch of her thumb brushing against his.
"Yeah," he echoes in agreement. "Very nice."
Jyn presses her lips to him again, this time on the soft hollow by his jaw. He is tempted to turn around and cradle her face in his hands and kiss her, properly, in turn, until both of them are gasping for air against each other's slightly opened mouths. But he doesn't, the soft rocking of her chest on his back and her breathing fanning on his neck are lulling him to sleep.
"Are you still cold?" she mumbles, out of the blue.
"No. You?"
"No, I'm good."
Another smile tugs at his lips at the slight slurring in her voice. Her arm is heavy around his waist, sleep is apparently claiming her sooner, in spite of the recent circumstances.
"Good night, Jyn."
"Good night, Cassian."
No sooner have the words left her mouth, she is feebly but surely tightening the grasp on his frame, pulling him even closer. With a murmured I love you, she gently drags them both down to lie on the bed again, never drawing her arm off from around him. There's nothing his battered mind cherishes more than this, lying on his side with Jyn clinging to him, hugging him, humming and littering small, swift kisses on his shoulder before she falls asleep.
Before the darkness closes in, he can't help but think there is no more comforting warmth than that of Jyn's embrace.