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Hoth is a remote planet, far enough from any civilized systems to throw the Empire off their tail. While its location makes it a perfect place for the base, Hoth’s climate is nothing but inhospitable, which is something that Jyn learns within a day of her arrival.
It’s cold. Extremely kriffin’ cold.
Upon learning that the Rebel Alliance was being moved to an icy planet, she was kind of excited. The coldest she’s ever been to was Jedha and that, to be fair, wasn’t even really cold, Chirrut told her with a wistful smile on his face, Baze listening to their conversation in the background. Even Bodhi was used to frosty weather, apparently, being raised on Jedha like the guardians and, as Jyn learned, Cassian’s home planet was Fest, which was constantly covered in snow, much like Hoth (he didn’t say anything else besides that, even though she wanted to ask him so many things).
Nothing could have prepared Jyn for that amount of cold, though.
No matter how many layers she puts on, how many blankets she wraps herself into, she’s freezing her ass off. Even in the corridors of Echo Base, she finds it hard to part with her brown parka (she might have traded a bottle or two of corellian whiskey to get it, constantly eyeing Cassian’s puffy jacket with jealousy), scarf tied around her neck. It’s barely any better in her quarters, which she shares with Aeris, a girl only few years younger than herself who’s part of the Blue Squadron, wide smile always on her face. Their ranks are still low enough that they don’t get a room with their own refreshener, however, and the walk from the showers back to the quarters is torture. That is why, upon some consideration, Jyn breaks into Cassian’s room every now and then, using his refreshener and hanging out till she decides it’s safe to move to her bunk without freezing to death (he doesn’t mind, half of the time not even being there when she uses it).
What certainly doesn’t help to improve her grumpiness caused by constant cold is the teasing. The smiles. The amused looks that the rest of Rogue One sends to each other when they think she can’t see them, complaining about the weather. The blankets she’s being offered whenever she comes into the meeting, her teeth chattering.
At first, her glare was enough to stop them but nowadays, it seems that Jyn Erso, the hero of Scarif and her hatred towards Hoth is one of the main attractions in the base. While she had no problems with telling Solo to kriff off when he made some crude joke about that — he might be her higher-up but that gives him no right to be a jerk — she can’t quite do the same to princess Leia, when she comes up to her one evening after a particularly nasty mission outside, apologizing for „harsh working conditions“ with a smile on her face.
(Alright, maybe she doesn’t find that half as annoying as Solo’s remark. And maybe she admires Leia Organa, so no matter what she says, Jyn can’t really bring herself to be angry at the younger woman).
As usual, she’s walking towards Cassian’s room after finishing her daily duties, which thankfully didn’t involve going outside this time. She still finds herself being chilled to the bone and picks up her pace, not bothering to greet any of the soldiers she meets on her way — not that their faces look familiar to her, anyway.
Jyn only needs a second to punch in the code to his room, having learned it by heart by now, the doors sliding open. It’s dark inside, a sign that Cassian hasn’t returned yet, probably still on some sort of meeting. The five of them go of missions together, of course, but he remains one of Alliance’s Intelligence best agents, more than often taking jobs that require skills different than those possessed by Rogue One as a team.
She flips on the light switch, already shrugging off her parka and dropping it carelessly on the bed. Rest of her clothing soon follows, cold gnawing at her flesh and she quickly enters the refreshener, a towel and bathroom necessities bag in her hands.
Jyn can’t be fast enough to jump into the shower, a sigh escaping her lips when warm water rains over her body. The usage of hot water in the base is limited but she relishes every second of it, washing herself as quickly as possible, taking the rest of remaining time to just relax, let the water wash away all the stress that the day has left behind. She overheard some soldiers complaining about having to take short showers, which sounded ridiculous to her ears — Jyn is glad to have the luxury of daily showering at all, no matter how long or short her time spent there is.
The water turns cold and she reluctantly turns it off, stepping out as she reaches for the towel. Even after she’s dried and dressed in her underclothes, Jyn finds it hard to leave the refreshener, as it’s the only place in the entire base that’s remotely warm. The longer she stays, though, the bigger possibility of Cassian coming back to his room, and so she gets out, hissing when she steps into the cold. She puts on her clothes as quickly as possible, only comfortable enough with her parka draped over her shoulders.
Leaving for her quarters straight away after a shower is a death sentence and Jyn settles herself on the single cot under the wall instead, grabbing a datapad on her way. It’s logged out, naturally — she resists the urge to roll her eyes — and types in her security number, followed by the password. There aren’t any new messages, except for the one she got from Bodhi but the title says "I’m sorry!" and she has a suspicion it has to do something with him joking around with Luke Skywalker about her, so she decides to ignore for now. She checks over the mission log, not a bit suprised when there’s a new report uploaded by captain Andor and before she knows it, her lids grow heavy, datapad slipping out of her hand as she falls asleep.
Jyn awakes upon the feeling of something touching her arm. To her credit, she jumps only a little and recognizes her surroundings — non-threatening — before actually grabbing her blaster. It takes her few more seconds to shake off the sleep from her mind and when she does, she notices Cassian standing in front of the bed, a blanket draped half over her.
"Sorry. I didn’t want to wake you," he says, corners of his mouth turned upwards just the tiniest bit.
She hopes that he can’t see the redness of her cheeks as she scrambles to her feet, quickly throwing the blanket off. Jyn definitely didn’t plan to end this evening by falling asleep on her superior’s bed.
"No, it’s okay. I, uh, was just leaving. Didn’t mean to fall asleep."
Cassian shakes his head, sitting down on a chair to remove his boots. She notices that his jacket is already hanging by the door and wonders, briefly, how can he stand the blasted chill in his room.
"It’s okay," he replies, looking up at her, amusement shining in his brown eyes. "Not like I was using it, anyway."
"Right," Jyn nods. "I think I’ll be going now, then."
Her hand is already on the control panel when Cassian calls after her.
"Wait."
She hesitantly turns around, looking at him with her eyebrows raised. His gaze is focused on the floor and Jyn can’t be quite sure in the dimmed light, but she thinks she can just make out the light blush on his cheeks.
"You could stay, you know," he says quietly, his eyes not quite meeting hers.
It takes few moments for his words to fully register in her brain. When they do, all she manages to utter is:
"What?"
Cassian finally glances at her, looking just as nervous as she feels. This — whatever this is — isn’t something either of them has experience at, it seems.
"You don’t have to, of course," he quickly offers. "But you could. I know you haven’t been sleeping well."
She wonders whether her bunkmate sold her out, to her captain no less, but then again, it’s probably obvious to everyone without Aeris telling them that Jyn sometimes wakes up with a hoarse scream in her throat, drenched in cold sweat and it takes her hours to fall asleep again. She supposes all of them suffer from nightmares.
It’s bad idea, spending the night in Cassian’s room. Their relationship since Scarif has been a shaky one, though she couldn’t deny the connection between them. Jyn supposes they’re friends — everyone in Rogue One is — but the word sounds foreign to her, as she never really cared for anyone enough to call them a friend. They’re partners, perhaps, but not in the intimate way that Baze and Chirrut are (the mere thought makes tips of her ears redden). They’re... something, and Jyn doesn’t want to make things awkward between them.
More than anything, she’s scared of ruining whatever they already have.
"Sure," Jyn says, against her better judgement.
If Cassian is surprised by how casual she appears to be about it, he doesn’t let it show, nodding.
"Alright. I’ll grab a quick shower," he says, standing up. Without another word, he disappears behind the refreshener’s door and Jyn lets out a loud breath.
This is such a bad idea.
This is the worst idea she’s had since agreeing to take Sergeant’s position in the Rebellion when Mon Mothma made the offer. It’s also her best one.
She shrugs off her parka, immediately wincing at the lack of warmth and, after a short debate in her mind, decides to hang it next to Cassian’s. Exposed to the cold, she doesn’t need any further convicing to slip under the thick blankets laid on the bed, her boots kicked off under it.
It doesn’t feel any different than her cot back in the quarters she shares with the pilot girl. The covers might be a bit nicer — privileges of being a captain, she guesses — but other than that, it’s exactly the same. Even the pillow smells of familiar, freshly-scented soap, just like hers. Jyn doesn’t know why she should feel a little disappointed, but she does, laying on her back with eyes wide open.
Cassian comes out of the refreshener all too soon. She watches as he puts his neatly folded clothes into the closet, ever the perfectionist (she has a strange feeling he’d probably suffer a heart attack if he saw her room) and then turns towards her. He seems a little tense approaching the bed but she can’t blame him for it, not when she feels similar herself. Instead of speaking, she scoots over, until her back hits the cold wall; an unspoken invitation.
He lifts the blankets and Jyn groans at the unexpected wave of cold air, invading warm space she has created for herself. Cassian chuckles.
"Still not used to the cold?" He asks, gently slipping under the covers. She takes a sharp breath, surprised by the sudden closeness of his body.
"No," Jyn replies, trying to focus on anything but Cassian, which is quite a hard task, given that he occupies her entire personal space right now. "Those conditions are too cruel for any living thing."
"I’m sure that Kay-tu would be happy to provide you with a list of creatures that find those conditions enjoyable," he murmurs, his breath hot on her forehead.
Last time they were this close to each other was probably Scarif, Jyn realizes.
"Oh, he would," she says. "But I’m not sure how enjoyable you’d find it if your droid had a hole in his head."
He lets out a laugh and Jyn startles. His laughter is a sound she heard on only few, rare occasions but she decides it suits him.
Before he can respond, she shifts, trying to put some space between them and fails. His body is flush against her, his warmth enveloping her and she can’t exactly say that she doesn’t enjoy her current position, as embarassed as she feels. She hesitantly places a hand on his chest — her fingers sprawling on the soft material of his shirt — as if she could feel the solid, steady heartbeat underneath. Cassian tenses only for a second before relaxing, so she doesn’t retreat her hand, but doesn’t dare to look up at him either.
Jyn feels his arm slowly wrapping around her waist, her skin hot at the contact even through the top she’s wearing.
"Is that okay?" He whispers, sounding more vulnerable than any other time she’s heard him. She nods, not trusting herself to speak.
In truth, she doesn’t remember last time she felt so safe, so... content with where she was. Sleeping with someone in a bed just for the sake of rest is something she never had luxury of experiencing, as the act seemed too intimate, too strange in the harsh, unforgiving world she lived in. Trusting someone enough to let them hold you in your sleep — she couldn’t afford that. Couldn’t allow herself the tenderness it brought.
Jyn wonders if it’s the same for Cassian. His touch on her body is gentle, almost hesitant, as if he’s not sure what to do as well. She hopes that he’s just as scared as she is, so she doesn’t have to discover alone what the warmth of their bodies resting against each other means.
No nightmares plague her sleep this time.
When she wakes, Cassian is already out. Jyn doesn’t bother wasting any time, hoping to come back to her quarters before her bunkmate wakes and can get suspicious about where she spent the night. By the time she enters their room, however, Aeris is already up, humming some catchy tune as she zips up her orange jumpsuit. She meets her gaze in the mirror, mischief sparkling in black eyes.
"Slept well last night?"
Jyn does her best to hide the smile fighting its way on her lips.
(Somehow, when she reaches the mess, all bundled up in her warm clothing, Bodhi’s usual comments about her hatred towards the cold don’t annoy her as much as they always do. Chirrut grins at her in a way that’s a bit too knowing for her liking but she ignores him, digging in her breakfest.
Hoth doesn’t seem quite as miserable as it used to, she thinks, as Cassian notices her across the room, small smile tugging at his lips.)