Captain Cassian Andor (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
twelvestories) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
exsilium2017-01-24 12:31 pm
twelvestories) wrote in exsilium2017-01-24 12:31 pm
( log | closed ) you been on my mind girl since the flood
Date & Time: ??? whenever now is
Location: somewhere
Characters: cassian and jyn
Summary: we do what we want
Warnings: references to death and dying probably? idk. i'll update this if stuff actually happens.
[ he remembers the light, mostly. the burning came almost as an afterthought to that, inconsequential in some ways to the way the bright white seared everything before ever touching them.
he remembers the strength of her arms, stronger than his, the warmth of her body as they held on to each other, the last moment left in life and nothing to do but believe in softness and kindness, nothing left but to hold on.
except then it isn't, and there's no welcoming party here, just almost abandoned headquarters, almost catacombed. the muscles of his body still ache and pull in protest against movement, but he drags himself through rooms, searching but not daring to call out yet.
if he is here (wherever here is) surely she is too. whatever rescued him from scarif must have rescued her too.
the alternative does not bear thinking of. ]
Location: somewhere
Characters: cassian and jyn
Summary: we do what we want
Warnings: references to death and dying probably? idk. i'll update this if stuff actually happens.
[ he remembers the light, mostly. the burning came almost as an afterthought to that, inconsequential in some ways to the way the bright white seared everything before ever touching them.
he remembers the strength of her arms, stronger than his, the warmth of her body as they held on to each other, the last moment left in life and nothing to do but believe in softness and kindness, nothing left but to hold on.
except then it isn't, and there's no welcoming party here, just almost abandoned headquarters, almost catacombed. the muscles of his body still ache and pull in protest against movement, but he drags himself through rooms, searching but not daring to call out yet.
if he is here (wherever here is) surely she is too. whatever rescued him from scarif must have rescued her too.
the alternative does not bear thinking of. ]
i can't believe this
it's all gone now.
in its stead, there's a cold kind of emptiness, familiar in all the worst ways. a chill settles into her bones as easily as if it'd never left. her footsteps echo, loud as blaster fire, as she stalks through corridor after corridor. there's a part of her, the part that's kept her alive for so many years, the part of her that knows that being on her own is both precedent and reality, that says she's searching for an impossibility. that says give up; the leg can't go much longer. but she catches a glimpse of the the corner of her eye, and —
breath catches in her throat.
a beat passes, and then she's calling his name. and then she's moving as fast as she can, screaming muscles be damned.]
can't you though. CAN'T YOU.
jyn. he listens for the sound of her voice, her footsteps, already as familiar to him as anything he's ever known, puts one foot in front of another and then does it again.
it still somehow comes as startlement to hear her voice, his head snapping towards where the sound comes from, his own voice strangled in his throat as he tries to say her name. but he pushes off from the wall, lets the shove give him enough momentum to carry him towards her and catch her in his arms again (back to the beach), bury his face against her shoulder and hold on to the only thing left that seems real. jyn erso, brighter than the sun, brighter than the light that had washed over them both, and even as his leg buckles under him again and pulls him down to his knees he won't let go.
where they are and how it came to pass no longer matters, at least not for this moment. ]
I'm here. [ he murmurs it into her shoulder, voice cracking with pain and the weight of everything lifting. ] You're here.
no because i refuse to accept this
but just as she'd thought the man in white would take away one more thing that'd mattered most, her chance, something else had happened. against all odds, there'd been cassian, coming back to her, somehow even brighter than the impossibly bright skies of scarif. the man who'd betrayed her, then admitted his guilt, then chosen to fight by her side, had come back to her.
as she lets herself fall into his arms for a second time, against all odds, wraps her own around him and clings to his shirt so tightly that her knuckles go white, remains this way even as they sink to their knees, she can't quite hold back the tears threatening to fall.
("i'm here. you're here."
"trust the force."
she does, she realizes then. not on the basis of a fleeting memory from years gone, or of a wild hope that dares to flicker like the small beam of a flashlight against the dark, but on the basis of solid conviction.)
she closes her eyes, breathes him in. stays silent for a time. eventually, she manages to whisper:]
I thought we were dead. [such a stupid thing to say, she thinks in the immediate aftermath. but then again, saying the right thing has never really been her strength.]
it's too late for us i'm afraid
the smash of the first girder had been as jarring as anything he'd ever known, the pain of the blast to his side searing through, but he hadn't felt the others until he woke up, everything in his body protesting movement. but there had still been that one overriding thought. jyn. it was her faith that pushed past his injuries, pulled him upwards, the longest twelve stories he'd ever climbed, the weight of his body risking to dislocate joints that were already protesting. there had been only one thought in his head as he climbed, one constant overriding all of that. jyn's safety. jyn's mission. knowing that the man in white was still climbing after her had given urgency to his moves, kept him holding on the times a hand slipped and he dangled in air for a moment. there was no k2 anymore to carry him and enumerate the injuries in some vain anxious attempt at comfort. he had only himself remaining. himself, and the knowledge of jyn at the top of the tower.
the aim had been true, at least. in that moment, despite everything, it had never wavered.
and she is here, warm and solid in his arms, and his breath catches in his throat when she speaks, holds on tighter, ignores the pain pressure on his ribs causes, the strain in his shoulders. ] Me too. [ that's all he can get out at first, can only close his eyes and drink in the smell of gunsmoke and salt and jyn, closer than she's ever been before.
how like him, to fail to realize how starved he was of touch until he had it. he cannot remember the last time before scarif he'd been held like this. perhaps he had not been old enough to form the memory. for right now it is all he needs, even as his protesting body tries to inform him that he needs medical aid. ] Maybe we are. But whatever happens. [ his voice is thick still, hoarse. ] You did it, Jyn. They know.