#his big beautiful brown eyes have reeled jyn in and this is just her reckoning with that

[ragedagainst]

@k4ssa : you and me, we're in this together now.

jyn doesn't trust cassian -- doesn't trust anyone, let alone someone who's trained as a spy ( trained to lie ) for nearly his entire life. but sometime between her release from wobani and nearly dying on the beach, her opinion on him changed -- stark hatred to an unfamiliar feeling she'd rather not think too much about. best to lock it up in the cave in her mind, where everything else of that nature goes, so she doesn't have to think about it. it's startling, how, over the course of less than a week, she'd started to let walls down. upon this realization, she'd immediately built them back up, but it'd been so long that she hadn't even realized that it'd been happening. ( that, in itself, is the scariest part of this. how he'd been able to disarm her so easily -- are all alliance spies like him ? )

there's a part of her that feels like she . . . knows him, recognizes portions of herself staring back from his gaze when he looks at her. realistically, logically, she has no reason for this feeling -- hell, she doesn't even know how old he is or where he's from, yet there's no denying the ( inevitably one-sided ) connection that tethers a small part of her to him. she'd be lying if it hadn't factored into her joining the alliance after scarif -- it hadn't been her only motivation, but it's been so long since someone had come back for her and he'd done it more than once.

her hands clench tight around her weapon, knuckles white as they curl over the blaster. the steady anticipation of a fight thrums through her veins. the pair ofthem haven't been running missions together long –– it hadn't worked out at first -- but even the council can't deny the results now. despite how often they butt heads, they're an effective team on the battlefield, playing to each other's strengths and covering the other's weaknesses. her brain doesn't trust him. . .but in moments like these, her body does -- when she's acting solely on instinct, she trusts that he'll have her back without a second thought.

" you talkin' to me or yourself ? " she retorts, the corner of her mouth quirking up despite herself. the adrenaline coursing through her veins makes her feel lighter than usual, though she's not fool enough to let it distract her from their surroundings ; just because the last fight had been in their favor doesn't mean the next one will, and there's always a possibility that a rogue imp will be hiding around the next corner. but it's enough to make everything else in the world outside of her narrow focus a little farther away. it's just her, cassian, and the mission on hand -- nothing else.

" if you needed a pep talk, then you should've asked, captain. " she clicks her tongue, expression morphing into something more serious. if their intel is correct, the information on the database in the next room will save hundreds of lives. the thought of that is enough to sober her slightly. " let's finish this, then. together. "