Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jyn snuck out of the cabin in the morning before anyone else had woken up, as usual. She had slept very poorly between all the drama the night before and her brain working overtime thinking about Cassian when she distinctly ordered it not to, so she was up even earlier than usual. It was raining very lightly, she was taking the steep and dark path up to the main part of camp and had just rounded the staff parking lot by the mess hall when she nearly ran face first into a huge, hulking shape of a person.

“Oh god Erso, you scared me.”

“Han, what are you doing up so early? And what are you carrying”

“I…umm…Fuck. Okay, if I tell you can you promise not to tell Leia?”

“What did you do?” Jyn was getting alarmed, “Han, I swear if you broke or stole something of hers she’s definitely going to know it’s you.”

“It’s not like that,” Han sighed, “Alright, just come with me to the music room. I’ve been working on this all night. I stole her keys yesterday while we were fighting in the office.”

They trudged up to the music room and as the sky got a little lighter she could see he had an enormous black bag strapped to his back. She opened her mouth to ask him again what it was but he shushed her before she had a chance.

He opened the door silently and placed the large bag on his back in the far corner of the room, not on display but among a handful of beat up old musical instruments. He looked over his shoulder and smirked at her.

“Now you promise that you won’t tell? This is going to ruin my reputation as a free man, she’s going to demand I be her official boyfriend after this.”

“Well now you have to tell me.”

He pulled the black cover off the prize underneath and Jyn gaped at him in shock. In the bag had been two guitars, four ukuleles, and a handful of smaller handheld musical instruments such as recorders, tambourines, and triangles.

“Oh shit, Han. You’ve really outdone yourself. Leia’s going to flip.”

“I’ve been collecting them all summer every time I drive down the mountain for supplies. Saturday mornings are good times for yard sales, you know. So I’ve been hiding this bag under my bed trying to find a good time to surprise her. Since we fought so bad yesterday I figured now was a good time to make it up to her.”

Jyn’s face suddenly got hot and her eyes prickled and she realized she was about to cry. She hadn’t cried since she was 16, since her father… It had to be a fluke, she was probably just tired. She wiped her eyes discretely and cleared her throat,
“This is great, Han. I’m proud of you.”

He laughed, “Fuck Erso, that’s high praise from you.”

She punched him lightly on the shoulder then pivoted to leave.

“Hey Jyn?” Han said, still laughing, “What’s up with you and Andor?”

Jyn groaned, sent Han the finger which made him laugh harder, then left. She needed coffee.

-

Cassian wouldn’t admit to anyone that he was disappointed when Jyn didn’t meet him on the walk up to breakfast, not even to himself. She was a free woman, they were just friends, and it’s not as if they had talked about walking up to breakfast every morning, it had just started naturally happening. So when she entered the mess hall a little later with Han at her back and the two of them laughing he shouldn’t have been surprised or worried or jealous. But he was somehow all of those things, despite knowing that Leia and Han had been dating on and off since they were seventeen, despite knowing that Jyn had frequently mentioned that Han wasn’t her type, despite it being none of his business. But when she broke off from Han to take a seat at his side, he couldn’t help but feel like he had won something.

“Sorry I bailed on you this morning, I stumbled on that idiot,” she jerked her thumb toward Han, “crashing around the forest in the dark and decided to lend him a hand with a surprise for Leia.”

His shoulders visibly loosened, which he chided himself for. So he cleared his throat and changed the subject, “Your advanced lifeguarding students finish up today, right? What’s their final test?”

“They’re doing rescues on each other all morning, doing an unguided backboard on me right before lunch, then taking a written test right after. It’ll be easy, this group has been great. They’re really fun kids.”

“I have some of them in my survival class, fun group this year. I hope some of them are willing to step up to join the staff next year.”

For some reason that made Jyn’s face fall and she stared into her coffee, swirling it around the mug, “Yeah, for sure.”

“What’s wrong Jyn?”

She looked into his eyes, her own were wide and glistening, and she opened her mouth as if to speak, to deny, to explain, to do something - but she was interrupted by the arrival of the rest of the senior staff, led by Amilyn who was shouting.

“You arrogant son of a bitch, Solo! You left us! We were nearly late trying to hike up that damn hill.”

Jyn snapped her mouth shut, then raised an eyebrow at him before turning to watch the drama unfold. Cassian let out a breath that he hadn’t realized he had been holding. He knew he had no right to ask her to share her thoughts or feelings with him, he knew that she rarely shared thoughts or feelings with anyone, but he was still upset that he had seen that look on her face, as though she was lost and miserable and helpless. He never wanted to see that look on her face; he wanted to be the one responsible for making sure that look never darkened her beautiful face again. He knew he didn’t have the right, but he was starting to hope that there might be a future where he did.