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With a hand clapped hurriedly over your mouth, you manage to stifle yet another yawn. A quick glance at Cassian tells you that he hasn’t noticed, he is far too absorbed in the maps he has been hunched over for the past fifteen minutes.
It’s already well past midnight and Cassian and you are still struggling with the linchpin of the model recon plans for Jedha City that you need to present tomorrow at your final assessment. The one that will determine whether you are ready to graduate training and take on actual missions- your future as Rebel intelligence officers depends on the success of this presentation. And right now, that future isn’t looking very bright.
“What if we land here, on the north side,” you begin, gesturing at the relevant point on the maps spread out in front of you. Cassian looks up from his calculations and comes around the table to stand beside you as you speak, and almost immediately, you lose your train of thought.
He is standing so close to you that you can feel his warmth, as if the pair of you are in some bubble of your own that separates you from the world.
And he’s leaning into you, as he has done so many times before. But the hour is late and you are tired and all your defenses are down and this time you can’t hide the effect he’s having on you.
The hand he lays on your forearm is warm, and for a second you are distracted by the very sight of his skin against yours. Of course, as soon as you wrench your gaze away and look up into his eyes instead, you realize that’s a mistake too. Because have his eyes always been that breathtaking, and more importantly, has he always looked at you with such absolute focus?
It takes you a minute to snap out of it, to remind yourself that now is not the time to let yourself think about how much you like your friend, or how much you want to kiss-
“Spacing out a bit there, ___?” he chides, but he’s smiling indulgently even as he says the words so you know he doesn’t really mind.
And he’s shaking his head and moving back to his pile of flight maps by the time you find words again.
“It might help if you weren’t so damn distracting,” you mutter under your breath. And it’s only when he goes completely still and you look up to find him staring at you with some unreadable expression in his eyes that you realize he’d heard you.
Your brain jumps into overdrive and you’re scrambling to find some excuse, some explanation, anything to rationalize your stupid slip of tongue. But just as you give up and decide to simply tell the truth, Cassian starts speaking too.
“I’m distracting? You’re the one who’s so distracting it’s driving me crazy.”
“I mean, all I’ve been able to focus on is how much I want to kiss you and-” you finally realize what he’s said and it takes you a second to find your voice again, “wait, what?”
“So why didn’t you?” he asks, expectant, smirking just a little, no doubt due to your uncharacteristic loss of composure.
You simply stare at him, so nonplussed by the direction this conversation has taken that you don’t even grasp what he’s talking about now. And a few seconds pass in awkward silence before he understands your confusion and clarifies, “I meant, why didn’t you just kiss me?”
He takes a step towards you as he speaks, getting dangerously close to completely invading your personal space, for the second time in the span of minutes.
“I wasn’t sure if you felt the same way,” you admit finally, blushing even as you say the words, “I guess I was hoping you’d make a move.”
It’s enough to get a smile out of him, the kind of smile that starts in his eyes and makes his cheeks dimple, the smile that first drew your attention.
“I’m going to take that as an invitation, ___, unless you stop me now.”
“And why would I want to do that?” you ask with a smile of your own, and that’s all the confirmation he needs to take the final step that places him right in front of you.
He’s close enough now that you can feel his breath on your face. And yet again you are transfixed by the specks of gold in the amber of his eyes, the way his hair falls soft over his forehead, and the curve of his lips as he continues to smile down at you.
This time, you let yourself look. After all, he seems equally bewitched.
His hands cupping your face are rough, calloused from long hours spent in the hangar learning from the mechanics, but his movements are ever so gentle and as he tilts his head just a little to the left and bends to fit his lips to yours- it hits you.
There is no awkwardness, no second-guessing and bumping noses or clashing teeth; Cassian and you are so perfectly in sync that you know, even as you let your eyes slip shut to match his, you know that he has thought about this just as much as you have.
It starts out slow, his lips on yours barely there, hesitant like he’s testing the waters, and you kiss him back equally soft.
And still there is a part of you that can’t quite believe that this is actually happening. So with your eyes still shut, his lips still feather-light against yours, you reach for him, hands settling on his hips, urging him closer still, and that one movement changes everything.
It’s almost as if you’ve flipped a switch or something.
Cassian’s hands fall away from your face, one hand lacing into your hair, the other finding it’s way to the small of your back and suddenly he is kissing you with such yearning that you practically melt in his arms.
And when his lips leave yours, it is only because you’ve both grown equally breathless, and you find that you’ve lost all sense of time and space.
“___,” he breathes your name onto your lips a minute later, his forehead resting on yours, his arms still warm around you. And you simply hum in response, a smile blooming almost involuntarily on your lips.
“I probably should have led with this,” he begins, voice still husky, “but I really like you.”
He trails off like he’s about to say something else so you wait in silence but when he doesn’t, you pull away a little, and raise a hand to cup his face, fingertips tracing gently over his cheekbones. He leans into your touch even as he opens his eyes and smiles that dimpled smile again.
“I really like you too, Cassian,” you tell him, laughing a little, “though I suppose that’s obvious.”
“Just a little,” he replies, and his arms tighten around you, “I’m not complaining though.”
“Hmm, yeah, I didn’t think so,” you lean in for a quick kiss that turns into anything but, though you don’t really mind.
Several minutes and enthusiastic kisses later, Cassian begins to blindly back you into the table, knocking over a stack of notebooks. The resulting crash serves to jolt you both back to the present, reminding you of the fact that the rest of the world and it’s many tasks still exist.
“We should really get back to work,” you say once you’ve both stopped laughing, though you’re still smiling like idiots, and you still keep your hands on his shoulders, and his hands remain on your hips, both of you equally loath to let the other go.
“Okay, but ___, it’s just...” he trails off, face suddenly wiped clean of laughter, and he looks strangely nervous.
“Just what, Cassian?” you ask, sobering up to match him.
“We’re not going to just pretend this never happened or something right?” he looks genuinely worried as he asks this, “you’ll be with me?”
“As in be in a relationship with you?” your voice shakes a little too but he nods before the words are even completely out of your mouth and your heart is already feeling lighter, “Yes, of course!”
He sighs, releasing the breath he’d been holding and visibly relaxing, and then he’s smiling again, eyes sparking mischievously.
“Just one more kiss?” he asks, biting his bottom lip for a split second before releasing it and smirking at you, “and then we can get back to work.”
“Okay, just one more,” you agree, smiling even as he leans in and captures your lips in yet another searing kiss.
After all, who are you kidding, you just can’t get enough of Cassian, and you’re beyond ecstatic that he seems to be feeling the same way.