![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
realists) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
riverviewlogs2018-08-01 08:31 pm
ππππππ β§ πππππ, πππ, π πππ ππππ πππππππππ
what: housewarming party
when: mid-august
where: jyn & cassian's home
warnings:
--
It's not a very inviting text but since technically Jyn did invite the recipients to come to a location at a predetermined time, that counts as an invitation and Cassian cannot complain. The location is a small cottage home, space masonry covered in the same creeping leafy ivy as the rest of the moon, an overgrown garden on the side of the house being (what looks like violently) cut back to make room for the fresh plots of tiny herbs, each carefully labeled. There's a welcome mat and the door is open with the sounds of music drifting out of the screen door.
(Side note: none of that was there if early recon happened on the [LOCATION], so jot that down. This happened nearly overnight.)
Once inside, it's... shit, is it a party? Is it a party in Jyn and Cassian's new home that they got without telling anyone, moving in the cloak of night so that they could steal literally all of the furniture in their apartment that wasn't nailed down? Well, the shrimp dispenser is there in the kitchen and Jyn's wall of herbs are still there so that must be the case.
That's 100% what happened.
The kitchen is full of food, made by Cassian, and alcohol, and there is a small ginger cat prowling around and a small grey pile of fluff that occasionally makes a noise so it must be alive, the music is low enough to hold a conversation, and of course there is shrimp. Never ending bottomless shrimp. This is the extent of the party but be grateful that a year after Jyn and Cassian arrived in the Quarantine, they're inviting their, like, five friends to their home. Some people have never even seen the apartment, but that time has passed. Pour one out.
In addition to the food, there is one single cake, homemade, because turns out this party doubles as a joint birthday party. You know, for the birthdays neither of them told anyone about.
Yay! Party!
no subject
Contain yourself, Captain, we haven't run away yet.
[ she is still smiling though, so there's that. ]
no subject
[ Case in point, he boldly and shamelessly leans in to press a kiss to her cheek. She hates that, he knows. He also doesn't care. ]
no subject
she simply accepts jim's affection without complaint for the first and possibly last time. ]
It's almost a year since we've known each other, you know.
no subject
Yeah, I know. I've been keeping track. [ He raises an eyebrow at her. ] Thought you didn't care about stuff like that.
no subject
[ and her gift to him, her anniversary gift to him is acknowledging that she did keep track of her friendship with him because it is very important to her. not many people can get her to open up or relax or be playful and jim is almost always successful. he pushes only as far as she's willing to go and she appreciates that so much.
this life that she's built on this little green moon, this is the life her father had wanted her to have. a life where she was safe and happy and free from war. it took too long but she finally did right by her papa. ]
I haven't known someone for this long in something like five years. [ hadn't bothered, had left before anyone could stick around, including jyn. even her prison sentence hadn't made it past seven months. ] Don't let it go to your head, but I'm glad it's you. And I'm glad you're my friend, Jim Kirk.
no subject
He looks over at her, smiling, quietly watching her with fondness in his eyes. Wordlessly he reaches out and wraps his arms around her in a hug, kissing her temple almost tenderly. Sorry, she'll have to fight him if she doesn't want him doing that, because it's happening. ]
I'm glad you're my friend too, Jyn. [ He huffs a soft chuckle. ] You're more like a sister to me, at this point. Is that weird?
no subject
hearing him call her sister twists something in her gut and for a moment she might even actively hold him, remembering the rumble of baze's low voice as he clapped his hand on her shoulder and said good luck, little sister. she'd been desperate to know what the significance of the words were when the holographic remnants of rogue one came to the moon earlier in the year.
baze had laughed at her, of course, because what else could "little sister" mean? ]
No.
[ she tucks her forehead against jim's shoulder, suddenly overwhelmed because she's spent so long making her feelings small and untraceable that even a small hint of emotion is still liable to make her stumble, and her fingers tighten against his shirt, unintentionally dragging this hug out longer than probably expected. ]
no subject
He doesn't point it out. He barely dares breathing for fear that she might pull away immediately. He lets his arms stay around her for as long as she lets him, petting the back of her head gently.
It's fine, really. He wishes he could just make her stop being so afraid of showing when she cares, but this isβ it's good enough. To him, anyway. He's never really needed Jyn to tell him in so many words, and right now this gesture alone is worth more than anything she could've ever told him. ]
no subject
eventually she draws back, mouth slanted in an idle frown. ]
Don't gloat. [ not that she thinks he would! but. just in case. ]
no subject
I wonβt! [ God why are yβall always giving him crap about that?? ] But I can still be happy about it, right?
[ Even if he canβt, well too bad. Happening anyway. ]
no subject
Of course you can. I want you to be happy.
[ and that is weird too! she isn't used to caring about other people, much less caring about other people as much as she cares about jim. caring is A Lot. ]
no subject
I am happy. [ He assures her, smiling as he fixes a loose strand of hair on her face. ] Are you?
no subject
Yeah. I am. [ and it's terrifying still because her pile of good things is still very small and she is very protective of it. ] I don't think I am very good at it.
[ but she's trying? ]
no subject
Yeah... takes some getting used to. [ He should know; there was a time in his life when he resisted any sort of happiness too, any chance at being more, or better, than what he was. ] But you accept it, and that's a start.
no subject
[ DO YOU HAVE THE ANSWERS, JAMES??? GIVE HER THE ANSWERS OF HOW TO BE A FuNCTIONING HUMAN BEING! also, greedy for information, jyn welcomes any kind of new information about her friends. ]
no subject
[ He shrugs like it's no big deal. Honestly, a big part of it was just meeting the right people. People who mattered to him, and people to whom he was important. People who wouldn't leave him behind, no matter what. ]
It was a long time ago.
no subject
[ please tell her how to be a human being while also letting her be less than social at her own party, it's fine. ]
no subject
Well, when your dad dies the day you're born and your mom spends more time off-world than she does with you, like she's scared you might grow up to look like him...
[ He trails off with a shrug. He's gotten over it now, but there's still a lingering trace of hurt and bitterness to his words. Saying them alone brings back a vivid memory. He was sixteen, doing something completely inane like grabbing a drink from the fridge or sitting down on the couch, his mom had been home for barely an hour and she just looked at him and--
You look just like him.
And then she burst into tears, while Jim couldn't think of doing anything else but walking out the door. She wasn't home anymore by the time he came back. ]
People leave. People left me all the time, when I was a kid. My mom, my friends... if you could call them that. And I'm pretty sure a stepdad who beat me up doesn't count as a good example as the only person who stuck around. Pretty sure he only did that to make my life a living hell.
[ Not that Jim ever spent much time at the house when he was there, mind. ]
A background like that, it's just hard to accept good things, when they start coming to you. It takes a while to get used to the fact that people are with you because they like you, and trust you. Not just because you're useful, or just... there. And even then, it terrifies you to think that they all could just up and leave, from one moment to the next.
no subject
she is quiet while he talks, taking it all in. she does reach out to curl her fingers around his, lightly holding his hand. it's been a lot of touching but! she finds herself compelled to offer him some kind of comfort even if comfort is not her forte by any stretch of the imagination.
she makes an idle mental note to find that stepdad and deck him. ]
Yeah.
[ she swallows, licking her lips. ] My Papa worked for the Empire. But he and Mama fled when I was very small. It was nice for a few years until they found him again. They'd planned for it, they made me practice. Mama and Papa and I would hide in this little cave, the three of us together. When it actually happened, Papa went to meet him in the fields and Mama and I ran. Except Mama went back and I was eight... [ so naturally she flouted instruction and followed her mother like literally any eight year old would do. ]
They shot her. She died. And then Papa left with him.
[ and that was reason number one jyn stopped depending on people. ]
no subject
He doesn't look nor sound too terribly upset over his own backstory. It's in the past, he's moved on from it for the most part. There's still a deep-seated fear of being abandoned and left behind, something that hasn't exactly been soothed by this place. Bones leaving might've been the harshest blow he's had to survive in recent years, and he didn't even leave willingly.
The hold of her hand is mirrored when she starts sharing her own story, his fingers curling tight around her own. He presses his lips thinly, feeling the very pain she must have felt, going through all that. He's quiet well past the end of her story, and when he speaks his voice is tiny and heartfelt. ]
I'm sorry, Jyn. [ Not that it was a contest on who had the worst life before Riverview, but damn. She wins by a long shot. (Although 'winning' is subjective, in this case.) ]
Did you ever see him again? Your father.
no subject
He... turned against the Empire, planted a flaw in their weapon, but when we went to rescue him to find the plans... [ she frowns, glancing out the window to look at the stars. ] It was an Empire controlled outpost, the Alliance bombed it. He died.
[ in her arms and honestly, what is it with her parents being killed right in front of her, including saw not too much earlier than that. ]
We did find the plans. And I'm told that the Death Star was destroyed, but by then we were already-- [ she shrugs because, you know, dead. which jim does actually know already so she feels no need to elaborate again. ] Ironically, by the Death Star.