#now to finish the friggin teachers one and maybe i'll finally start the food travel au

[moonprincess92]

Continually Unexpected (3/3)

1, 2  Read on AO3 

PART 3: End

Kay had been preparing himself for the day honestly ever since they had gotten back together, yet he found that he was still not even remotely ready for it when it came.

He’d put it out of his mind. Seriously, it was more of an abstract concept that had no meaning really, as Cassian and Jyn spent their time being all wrapped up in each other again. Ever since the award ceremony, they were once again joined at the hip! It was just like old times as she dropped by unannounced, continued to eat Kay’s cereal (scrawling ‘thanks! :)’ on the box every time) and once again finding himself investing in a pair of decent headphones to drown out any noises that may emit from Cassian’s bedroom. No, the idea stayed on a backburner, simmering away but never really coming to the front… until the day that Cassian came home from work with his anxiety levels apparently through the roof and an impulsively bought engagement ring in his pocket.

“Kay… I think I did something stupid today,” he said as a greeting. 

“Do I have to bury a body?” Kay asked, flatly.

“What? No.”

“Because I think we have a shovel in our storage space downstairs and if we’re going to do it, we had been get onto it before the rain comes–”

“While I appreciate your willingness to cover up a murder for me,” Cassian said, shutting the front door behind him and dropping his bag and coat onto the chair in their hallway. “No crime has been committed, except perhaps that I’m convinced someone has stolen my sanity.”

“I see,” Kay put down his phone. “Right, I’m listening. Explain.”

Cassian nodded, abnormally white-faced as he walked further into the lounge. That was odd. Even stranger still was the way he just blurted out the words without so much as a breath, “So I was just walking to the train station after work, when I noticed this jewellery store still open and I swear I only noticed because there were all these sale signs outside of it. Really, you couldn’t not notice! Anyway, there were these rings in the window and they were at a reasonable price and I didn’t even think about it, I just…”

He suddenly shoved his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out the slightly crumpled store gift bag. He reached inside and pulled out the box, which he then handed to Kay. Kay took it with some trepidation, before lifting the lid and seeing the engagement ring that Cassian had chosen.

Blimey. 

“That… is one hell of an impulse buy, Cassian.” 

“AM I INSANE?”

“Oh, definitely,” Kay said, scrutinising the ring. He didn’t know much about gems and precious stones, but considering that Cassian had said he got it on sale, he’d guess that he’d certainly gotten his money’s worth. “Does Jyn even wear rings?”

“Fuck,” Cassian squeezed the bridge of his nose. “I didn’t even think of that.”

“When are you going to ask her?” 

“YOU THINK I HAVE A PLAN?” Cassian said, wildly. “Kay, I bought that on a complete whim! Sure, yes, I would marry Jyn in a heartbeat, but we haven’t talked about it at all yet, I don’t even know if she wants to live with me! I really am fucking crazy.”

“Well, maybe you just… hold onto it, then?” Kay suggested.

“What,” Cassian finally came and sat down, flopping with a defeated whoosh next to Kay on the sofa. “just… hide it and never ask her?”

“Well, not never,” Kay snapped the lid closed, handing the ring back to him. “You said you’d like to marry her someday. Maybe just hold onto it until you’re actually ready to ask?”

“Yes,” Cassian said, with the kind of manic look that one might have if they had impulsively bought an engagement ring for their girlfriend. “Yes, that’s a good plan! But you’ll have to hide it for me.”

“ME?” Kay said, affronted.

“I can’t keep it in my room, she’ll find it!” Cassian said. “I don’t know how, but if anyone could, it’s Jyn. And how often does she ever go into your room?”

Kay unfortunately couldn’t argue with that logic.

“Fine. But know that if someone ever accidentally finds it, I’m calling you out.”

“Fair enough.”

Somehow, Kay had found himself at yet another party. How did this keep happening to him?

At least this time it was Cassian’s birthday, so it was for a reason that Kay somewhat cared about. Their flat was overrun with people, their friends and colleagues laughing and chatting over the top 40 music that was blasting from the stereo. Jyn was naturally binging on Mezcal because this was about Cassian, it was a Mezcal night damn it, and Kay had already been forced to intervene and rescue her from plummeting headfirst into the floor several times.

Kay had already drunk his quota of alcohol for the next 10 years of course, so he was happy to stick to his virgin rum and coke. “You realise tha’s jusss coke, righ’?” Jyn had slurred at him at one point, but he digressed. He was able to experience more or less the same taste of a usual rum and coke, only without the side effects of falling down! It was foolproof. Why didn’t everyone do this?

Cassian thankfully wasn’t quite as shit-faced as Jyn currently was, despite the fact that he was now only 2 years away from 30 and that concept did seem a little daunting, even to Kay. He’d been somewhat on edge ever since the whole ‘Ring Incident’ (Kay technically wasn’t allowed to call it that, but how else was he supposed to refer to it?) only tonight he seemed calm. Happy. He was dancing with Jyn in their lounge, his arms tight around her waist and her hands in his hair. It could barely be called dancing, if truth be told, but they were having fun and that was the main thing.

He watched them from across the lounge, the self-appointed DJ of the evening, since apparently no one else had the ability to choose a song that hadn’t been overplayed on the radio yet. Honestly, Kay didn’t think they’d never been this loose before. Before they’d broken up, when they were first together, there had always been a kind of tension to them and they’d always been happy of course, but they’d never looked quite so… free. Jyn’s head turned with the beat, giving Cassian access to her throat and he spent the next several minutes exploring it with his mouth. She laughed, grinding her hips up into his and it turns out that they must have been walking on eggshells the entire time. He’d never seen them this close before.

Not physically close (he’d unfortunately seen a bit too much of THAT before) but emotionally close. Which wasn’t something he’d ever thought Jyn Erso capable of.

He tore his eyes away from them. There was something there that seemed too intimate to witness… that, and by his usual calculations, this was about when tongues would start to become involved, and he had no intentions of seeing that! Shara was there in front of him now, requesting a certain song and he happily allowed himself to get distracted. He played whatever inane pop songs everyone wanted and quite honestly, Kay was able to forget about Cassian and Jyn entirely… right up until he walked in on them in the hallway.

Naturally. 

Still wrapped up in their own world, they thankfully didn’t notice him stumble to a hasty stop. They’d apparently been in the middle of dragging themselves off to Cassian’s room (Kay’s was technically closer, but they would never dare, surely) when they’d apparently gotten side-tracked. He had shoved her up against the wall, Jyn’s legs up around his waist and seemingly permanently attached at the mouth. Kay sighed. Every time! 

He was about to do an about face and walk back off again, however, when he heard his name.

“But I need to talk to Kay first–”

Jyn groaned a little, although it could have been more of a pained whimper. “That’s really not a name I want to hear when making out, Cassian.”

“Sorry,” he murmured against her. “just – this affects him too. I can’t just announce ‘oh by the way, Jyn’s moving in with us’ it doesn’t work that way–”

“True,” Jyn hummed. “it would probably send him into shock.”

“Jynnnn.”

“You’re too nice,” she smirked into his lips.

“We’ve been living together for almost 10 years, it would be the end of an era–”

“It was the end of an era when you first met each other,” Kay helpfully pointed out.

The two of them broke apart, yelping slightly. Jyn almost fell as she was hastily dumped back on her feet and Kay stepped forward, unable to help revealing himself. Cassian clutched at his heart a little, the other arm gripping around Jyn’s waist.

“Where’d you come from?” Cassian asked. “Fuck, Kay, I didn’t mean – I’m so sorry–”

“Stop apologising,” Kay waved away at once. “it is clear that at some point during this party you have decided to move in together, but you do not have to worry. I am completely on board.”

Jyn exchanged a disbelieving glance. “But you hate me.”

“You are mistaken. I only hate you every second day.”

She actually let out of a bark of laughter, burying her nose into Cassian’s shirt for a second. “It’s really ok with you?” Cassian asked, tentatively. “We’re not asking you to move out or anything–”  

“Oh, I understand,” Kay nodded. “Couples live with flatmates all the time, and a third person would help keep the rent down. Really, there are no downsides to this scenario.”

“I’m scared. Why’s he being so reasonable?” Jyn stage hissed at Cassian.

Honestly. The truth of the matter was that they were probably ready to move in together and if it was going to make them happy, then he was willing to go along with it. Less rent was just a bonus. However, that reasoning was incredibly sentimental which he just knew that Jyn would rip him apart for, so in the end he just settled on saying,

“But if I have to catch you guys making out one more time, I’m going to smash something.”

Cassian threw back his head in laughter, although Jyn was already quickly reaching up for him. “Punch a hole in the wall then,” she grinned, before crushing her lips back to his.

Kay rolled his eyes.

Somehow, there ended up being an evening in which Kay and Jyn actually Hung Out.  

It wasn’t exactly by choice. Cassian was busy working a case, and Jyn had been living with them for three weeks now, so an argument over who got to use the T.V. had only eventually been settled when they had decided that watching something together was the only fair solution.

“But just to make it clear,” Kay pointed out from his end of the sofa. “I only agreed to watch something together, I did NOT agree to specifically watch Harry Potter.”

“Do you want to fight me?”

On any other day maybe, but he was tired and his head hurt from dealing with her.

“I don’t understand any of this movie, it makes no sense,” Kay gestured vaguely at the screen, where the children were currently flying around on broomsticks with CGI backgrounds. “They have magic, yet they write with quills? What about electricity? Are you telling me that they live alongside the modern world, yet are less updated than them? What if there was an emergency, an owl isn’t going to deliver something in real time–”

“OH MY GOD, it’s a movie about kid wizards ok?” Jyn burst out. “Don’t overthink it.”

“But. It. Makes. No. Sense.”

“It’s 2017 and you’ve never seen Harry Potter, you don’t get to talk about what makes sense.”

Kay grumbled a little, but otherwise didn’t have an argument for that one. He sat in silence, watching Harry’s broom go haywire. At least the child actors in this movie were decent enough. It was odd that none of this actually felt… well, odd. Despite all of his assurances that he was ok with it, Kay had admittedly kind of dreaded the inevitable move-in day that he’d known was coming. However, in the end Jyn becoming a part of the flat felt… strangely natural. She had been practically living with them anyway so moving in officially really hadn’t made much difference, except that they also got her mail now too and that their rent was of course slightly lower. Sure, there were more frustrating scrambles to get the bathroom first and Jyn always complained that Kay was slowing down the internet with his programming, but at the end of the day, she more or less fit seamlessly into their lives.

(She still stole his cereal, though. It seemed that nothing was going to stop THAT).

As Harry’s adventure continued, Kay made sure to keep providing his always thought-provoking commentary while Jyn consistently threw popcorn at his head. Right when Harry and his friends were running through a poorly constructed set of a forest, however, there was a knock at the door. Kay was more than eager to take a break to go and answer it.

“No, you don’t have to pause!” he called back down the hall. “In fact, please don’t pause it,” he added in a mutter.

He opened the door to find a weary-looking middle-aged man standing out in the hall. Kay narrowed his eyes at his bulky stature, dark hair and heavy eyes. He wasn’t someone he had ever seen before, and Kay said, “Yes, can I help you?”

“Hello. Is Jyn Erso there?”

“Who are you?” Kay stared, but within the next two seconds, he answered his own question. He’d seen the case files often enough to recognise the face. He’d seen him on the news and hell honestly, just from the way the man held himself told Kay everything he needed to know.

Huh. Maybe he was better at reading people than he originally thought.

“You’re her father, aren’t you?” Kay blurted out.

Galen Erso sighed. “I’ve heard that she’s been trying to find me–”

Kay slammed the door right in his face and promptly locked it.

“Kay?” Jyn’s voice echoed from the lounge.

“PLEASE BE AWARE THAT MY FLATMATE IS A POLICE OFFICER,” Kay barked through the door. “I AM CALLING HIM IMMEDIATELY. IF YOU ATTEMPT TO ENTER THE PREMISES I WILL NOT HESITATE TO USE FORCE AGAINST YOU.”

Jyn skidded into the hallway within five seconds.

“What the hell is going on?” she said in alarm.

“Jyn, CALL THE COPS.”

She did without hesitation. Punching the number into her phone, she glared at him and all but demanded, “What is it?”

“Your father is here.”

— 

It was a lot of commotion.

Harry’s adventure was abandoned in favour of their own drama that was unfolding within their very building. Kay wasn’t even sure how the man had gotten inside, but either way Cassian was called, who apparently then brought with him what felt like an entire battalion of cops. Galen Erso was arrested and Jyn had refused to say even one word to him the entire time.

“He faked his death to go and work for a shadow government that was developing illegal drugs and weapons,” Jyn had snapped earlier when Kay had questioned it. “I don’t want to even know him.”

Kay didn’t really understand, as he stood on the front steps of their building, watching Galen get put into the back of the police car. Jyn had spent a good majority of her life thinking he was dead (or maybe hoping he was dead?) and when she’d learned that he was alive, she’d wanted nothing more than to find him. Only now that he had reached out and found her… she was pushing him away.

Kay supposed he didn’t really need to understand, though. Figuring out Jyn Erso was a job best left to Cassian, who had wrapped an arm around her some time ago and had his hand firmly anchored in her hair. He couldn’t see Jyn’s face, but Cassian seemed to be whispering to her and Kay was satisfied knowing that he was there. He would take care of her.

Kay was a little confused, therefore, about how Jyn managed to go from Cassian’s arms to cornering him up on the steps only minutes later.

“So… you won’t hesitate to use force, huh?” she mentioned.

He huffed. “I’ll admit that came out in the moment. I apologise.”

“Don’t,” Jyn’s voice was quiet, but he heard her. He turned to see her with her arms folded tightly across her chest, hair hiding her face. “Thank you,” she whispered.

“Well,” Kay spluttered, quite unsure about how to answer. “You’re welcome?”

It seemed that she made a split second decision because suddenly, she was moving forward and wrapping her arms around him. Oh dear lord! Kay quite honestly floundered, because he didn’t do hugs, where was he supposed to put his arms, did she even want him to hug her back? She squeezed tight, almost too tight, but as annoying and grating as she could be sometimes, Kay realised that his earlier statement of it all being ‘in the moment’ wasn’t entirely true. If it meant protecting Jyn Erso… he would always use whatever force necessary.

He never expected this.

He awkwardly patted her on the back. She laughed.

Kay got the phone call at roughly 8pm.

“I was just about to watch Goblet of Fire, this better be important–”

“KAY,” Cassian hissed down the line. “I need you to bring the ring!”

Kay hit pause immediately.

“Is this for real this time?”

Cassian had called with that exact phrase no less than twenty times since he’d actually bought the damn thing half a year ago. Every now and then, he would suddenly decide it was time and Kay would bring it out of its hiding place amongst his socks (he thought it was probably best not to ever inform Jyn of that fact) only to go and find Cassian rocking back and forth on the floor, shaking his head and saying, “Never mind, never mind, maybe next time…”

Apparently, it was next time. AGAIN.

“This is real as fuck, I promise you!” Cassian stage whispered. “How quickly can you get to the park?”

“Maybe twenty minutes, if the traffic is good – but Cassian, I’m not going all the way into town, just for you to back out again.”

“I promise I’m not backing out. THIS IS IT,” He assumed that Jyn was still nearby, since Cassian was still attempting to keep his voice low. “We went to dinner at the same place we went on our first date, and there’s this night market with a bunch of lights and it’s cheesy but she’s happy and I’m happy and I have to marry this girl, SO PLEASE GET HERE–”

“Ok, ok!” Kay heaved himself up off his bed. “But be warned that if you’ve dragged me away from Harry Potter Night for another fake out, then I will be mightily displeased.”

Kay didn’t even know how Cassian ended up giving him directions to where they were. Their city was a big place, and he was left wandering the paths somewhere throughout the park, with nothing but a vague one-sided text conversation as his guide

From: Cassian We’re next to the doutain  *foundtain  *FOUNTAIN  U know in the park go down the path nxt to the pond   Have u found the market??  Just walk right thru  Ashahdfhjdfhj  She keeps asking me who im txtng HRURRY UP  WE’RE @ THE FOUNTAIN WHERE R U  Hold up I see u!!!! dnt move!!!!

Kay glanced up from his phone then, staring around in confusion across the market ‘square’ that was currently being hosted within the park. The ambiance was admittedly romantic, so Kay could at least accept that this was an appropriate time. Lanterns and other fairy lights were strung up through the makeshift streets, setting everything with a multi-coloured glow and he finally saw Jyn not too far away, apparently saving their seats at the edge of a large, ornate fountain. Cassian looked a little crazy-eyed when he hurled up to him from amongst the crowd, but Kay didn’t fault him. This was a big deal.

If he actually did it this time.

“Thank god, where is it?” Cassian asked a little frantically.

Kay pulled the ring from his pocket and handed it over. “I expect this to be beautiful,” he warned. “I’ve been live-tweeting about it ever since you called.”

“KAY.”

“What?” Kay shrugged. “Shara says that if I go viral, I might get on Ellen.”

Cassian just turned and stomped away. As he approached Jyn once more, Kay pulled out his phone and started filming on selfie mode.

“Well, he took the ring… as you can see, target is in sight. Also Ellen, if you’re watching this, my friend Shara loves you.” 

They didn’t end up on Ellen, but she DID retweet his video and apparently that was all it took to go viral these days.

“Guy Livetweets His Best Friend’s Proposal And It’s Hilarious,” Kay read.

“Oh my god, you legit got on fucking Buzzfeed,” Shara snatched the phone right out of his hand.

Apparently, his ‘clinical, deadpan approach’ was a hit with people and the fact that he wasn’t even trying to be funny at all had made it all the more funnier! Kay was kind of in awe over the entire thing – he had gained thousands upon thousands of Twitter followers practically overnight, which was slightly overwhelming when he remembered that he’d had a grand total of 12 before this entire thing had happened. He was getting messages from all sorts of websites asking for comments, but he was content to just keep deleting them. Shara got her shoutout, and Cassian and Jyn were engaged. That was all that mattered to him.

“It gets better,” Jyn called out from the other side of the room, currently sitting snug under Cassian’s arm. “I think you’re a meme now.”

“WHAT?” Shara leapt across the room.

“Show me,” Kay insisted.

They all crowded around Jyn and her phone. She held up just one of what appeared to be many posts, all featuring his screenshotted face with the subtitle target in sight. He watched Jyn scroll through the endless sea of posts.

When u see bae across the room… target in sight.

When it’s nearly the end of the semester… target in sight.

When it’s September 30th… this time he had a pumpkin photoshopped over his head.

“THIS IS INCREDIBLE,” Shara was apparently beside herself.

“Work is actually going to fire me,” Kay noted.

“Hey, it’s not like you ASKED to go viral,” Cassian pointed out. 

Kay literally did not know how to dignify any response, so instead he just walked out of the room amidst peals of laughter from Jyn and Shara. One of these days he needed to get better friends. He decided to leave his phone behind, since every now and then it still pinged with a message or another, even though he had turned off all notifications that he possibly could several days ago and he was already looking through the pantry for something to cook when Cassian joined him.

“Oh, hello,” Kay noted. “Jyn and Shara laughed themselves into comas yet?”

“You’re ok with this, right?”

Kay turned to stare at Cassian. He stood in the middle of their quiet kitchen, barefoot with nerves written all over his face and Kay scoffed incredulously.

“Are you asking for my approval?” he asked.

“I… I don’t know,” Cassian ran a hand restlessly over the back of his neck. “Kay, with everything that’s happened, with it blowing up this big when I know you didn’t mean it to, I guess I just wanted to… to know whether you… we’re ok.”

“Cassian, I am ok.”

“Because it’s been you and me for so long and–”  

“Are you kidding?” Kay asked. “It hasn’t been just me and you for years! Jyn’s your life, Cassian, and that’s fine. I love both of you, I want you to be happy, and no amount of Twitter followers is going to make me change my mind.”

Cassian smiled weakly. “Shit, Kay.”

He winced. “I got emotional… I apologise.”

Cassian swung forward two steps before throwing his arms around him. Kay staggered slightly under the weight, but carefully figured out how to hug him back tightly (he liked to think he was starting to get better at it). He didn’t say anything for a long moment. The only sounds were Jyn and Shara’s voices chatting muffled in the other room, and Kay concentrated on just being there in his best friend’s presence. Friends liked that kind of thing.

“Thank you,” Cassian muttered into his shoulder, voice a little choked.

“It’s fine,” Kay replied.

“I mean it,” Cassian held him tight. “Thank you for being there for her. Thank you for looking out for her, even when she makes you watch stupid movies and steals your food. It means a lot that you care.”

“Hey, Harry Potter isn’t that stupid.”

Cassian laughed. “I love you, Kay.”

And for a moment, Kay did have that slight touch of emotion. A brief second of what if, what if everything did change from here? What if they got married and forgot about him, what if they grew up and they eventually become too different over the years, their lives slowly drifting further and further apart until their only interactions were happy birthday messages on Facebook? Rationally, Kay knew it wouldn’t likely happen, but it only took a second to second guess yourself and Kay let himself have that second to worry.

He clenched his arms tighter.

“I love you too, Cassian.”

Sometimes, Kay looked at Cassian and Jyn and wondered what it felt like.

He was honestly just curious. Back in the early days he’d almost thought that he was jealous of what they felt, certain his interest had to come back to why a love as strong as theirs never seemed to happen for him, but turned out it wasn’t about that at all. He knew now that it just wasn’t something he wanted or needed, but damn it they looked at each other like they each set the world on fire and he needed to know how they could stand it without burning up. Maybe they didn’t, he figured. Maybe they were both like stars, burning bright in this endless universe until eventually they would expand and explode. Become stardust.

Or something (he wasn’t good with analogies).

At one point, he had been resentful. He and Cassian had been doing just fine, he didn’t need this explosion of a girl to come in and shift their entire universe because things were just fine the way they were! But as much as Jyn was a pain in the arse, she hadn’t just changed Cassian’s life. She had significantly tilted Kay’s as well, to the point where he couldn’t even see the horizon anymore and he couldn’t imagine his life without her in it. Something in him still shuddered at the thought of calling her a friend, but he knew that he was willing to die for her if need be, and considering that Cassian was the only other person in the world he was willing to do that for, it said a lot.

Maybe he’d never really understand what it was that drew Cassian and Jyn together. They were certainly enigmas! Either way, he was still proud to be the one who was stepping up to her, offering his arm. 

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Kay did at least felt the need to that point out.

Jyn just shot him a look that he might have interpreted as disdainful, if he hadn’t actually known how nervous she was.

“That’s exactly what a girl wants to hear five minutes before her wedding,” she said.

“I just mean–” Kay cut himself off, frustrated. “What if I fall over? What if I say the wrong thing?”

“It’s the bloody 21st century, we’ve been over this, you don’t have to say anything!”

“BUT TRADITION DICTATES–”

“WE’RE NOT ARGUING ABOUT THIS NOW,” Jyn attempted to press warily onto her eyes before remembering the make-up. “Look, just – just walk me down the aisle and get me to Cassian in one piece, ok?”

Kay nodded, perhaps a little frantically. “Ok. Ok.”

“It’s gonna be fine, Kay! Jesus Christ, we should have eloped.”

“I approve whole-heartedly of that plan – we could leave right now and no one would be any of the wiser?”

“Tempting,” Jyn said, dryly. “but I think Cassian might get a little pissed in that scenario.”

“HA, HA,” Kay muttered. The doors opened then, the guests rising to their feet beyond and Shara turned to exchange an excited grin with them before music played and the Maid of Honour started the progression down the aisle. Oh, god!

Jyn suddenly turned to Kay. 

“Thank you,” she said, somehow panicked and earnest all at once. “I know I give you shit all the time but honestly, thank you for agreeing to do this.”

Kay squeezed his elbow around hers. 

“Of course. Do try to not fall over.”

“God, why do I bother?” Jyn muttered. 

Kay almost laughed. “Let’s just get you married.” 

And the two of them stepped out to start what felt like their miles long journey down the aisle. 

- FIN