Work Text:
"It's not a date," Rose said for what must have been the hundredth time that morning. Maybe this time, she thought, Poe would believe her.
Instead, he just raised one skeptical eyebrow at her as they left the refectory. It was a good thing he had flight training with the new pilots today; otherwise, it would have been a very, very long day.
"Yeah? Because it sure sounds like a date." Poe's eyes were sparkling, and Rose almost felt bad for how crushed he was going to be when he found out just how wrong he was.
"It's not. It's just—two engineers doing engineer stuff," she said firmly. "Jannah's going to show me some designs she made for a new flux stabilizer." She felt her face heat up a little, because the thought of Jannah, goggles pushed up to hold her hair back and an intense look of focus on her face—
Rose really, really wished this was a date.
"Two engineers," Poe said flatly, "poring over designs for a flux stabilizer."
"Yes," Rose said, because that was what it is, after all. That was all it was.
"A flux stabilizer," Poe said again, drawling the words out like they were some kind of revelation, "and two engineers, one of whom has a crush on the other as big as the Corellian System."
Rose glared at him. "You said you wouldn't tease me about that." He'd only gotten it out of her in the first place because they'd been drunk. She was never letting him con her into drinking with the pilots again.
"Oh—I didn't mean you," Poe said innocently. "I meant Jannah's billion-mile-wide crush."
She smacked him on the arm. "It's not nice to tease, Poe Dameron."
Poe gave her a salute as he headed off towards the flight room, walking backwards so he could wink at her as he went. "Good thing I'm not teasing, then," he said.
---
Rose tried not to think about it when Jannah arrived at her workshop on the base. Jannah visited frequently, whenever she was in the sector. There was nothing different about this time just because Poe had gotten some idea into his head.
She thought about other things instead.
The flux stabilizer designs—
"These are brilliant," Rose breathed where she was leaning against the worktable, flipping through the designs on the datapad resting on the surface. She could feel Jannah beside her, their arms just barely brushing, and she tried very hard to concentrate on the designs.
Rose peeked over at Jannah, and was met with a beaming smile that made her heart feel like it might bubble over with giddiness. Very quickly, she turned back to the designs.
"There's this one part in particular I really want your opinion on," Jannah said, reaching for the datapad. Her hand bumped against Rose's, and Rose's body couldn't seem to decide whether to freeze with surprise or lean into it. "I'm a little worried about heat build-up in this quadrant. I was thinking I might need to use titanium for the grounding structure here."
Self-consciously, Rose picked up the datapad to examine the shimmering blueprints. She touched the screen, rotating them one way and then the other, before flipping back through a few pages to scrutinize the other three quadrants.
Finally, she returned to the quadrant Jannah was worried about.
"Titanium," she agreed, and then slowly continued. "And maybe just a touch of chromium. That would help balance out the weight in the second quadrant."
She held the datapad out to Jannah, who took it back and peered at it. Then she set it down on the worktable and gave a big sigh as she turned and leaned her back against the edge. "And that would in turn stabilize the feedback with the first quadrant. Rose, I could kiss you."
"I could kiss you," Rose blurted out. "These designs could revolutionize starship design. Our fighter pilots would be able to—"
She stopped, rewound her words, and belatedly felt the heat rushing into her face. "Um, I mean—"
Then she stopped again, and rewound further, because—because Jannah—
"Really?" Jannah asked, looking at her sidelong, and there was a questioning look on her face.
Rose took a deep breath. It's not a date, she tried to remind herself, because she really, really didn't want to be crushed in the end.
Somehow, she didn't feel as certain anymore.
"Um…yes?" Rose said, and then steeled herself, because she really wasn't good at uncertainty. If she was going to do this, then she was going to do this.. "I mean—yes."
Relief broke out over Jannah's face like a sunrise. When she reached out this time, it wasn't for the datapad, which lay forgotten on the worktable. Instead, she curled her hand around Rose's waist and leaned in.
The kiss was soft, exploratory, right up until it wasn't—Jannah's mouth firming up against hers as Rose reached up on her tiptoes to wind her arms around Jannah's neck.
Rose hadn't known it was possible to feel this giddy, with Jannah pressed warm against her.
There was an excited chirping sound, and when Rose pulled back, it was to find BB-8 rolling excitedly back and forth beside them. When he realized Rose was looking at him, the little droid spun and headed straight for the door.
"Don't you dare tell Poe about this, BB-8!" Rose called after him, because Poe was never going to let her live this down. She had a suspicion that the amount of "I told you so"'s she was going to be hearing over the next few months was going to be legendary.
"Or Finn," Jannah added. "He'll never let me hear the end of it."
BB-8 chripped again and then was gone, wheeling off to find whoever he could locate first. Rose stared after him forlornly.
"You know," she said slowly after a moment. "If we could finally get those two together, we might have some peace and quiet."
"Now that is some excellent thinking," Jannah said wryly. "And the sooner the better."
Rose shot her another look. "Let's make it a date then," she said, and Jannah laughed.
"Let's," she said, and then reached for Rose again even as Rose was leaning back into her. "But first—"
Jannah's mouth fit against Rose's again, and all thoughts of Poe and Finn and BB-8 were gone from her mind. She was in complete agreement.
First, she wanted to enjoy the rest of this date.