Jyn has many regrets as she wriggles uncomfortably in her costume and a Danish aide flutters around her fixing her make up. Chiefly among them is letting Bodhi talk her into this whole thing in the first place. That is the last time Jyn drunkenly accepts a dare from Bodhi.
Spain's group is milling around on stage, waiting to run their set, and Jyn gestures the aide away so she can watch unimpeded, wrapping her sweater more firmly around her. She hasn't made a lot of friends here; one of the Italians is Danish and they've been chatting since Jyn pettily told Bodhi she wouldn't speak English the entire contest — he shouldn't have suggested the join a Danish contest if he didn't want her to be Danish — and she speaks Icelandic and French and Dutch so she can politely extract herself from conversation when the need arises. Despite her poppy hit, Jyn is not the social butterfly of her song.
A tiny hand touches her glittery heels and she almost jumps out of her fucking skin, but the tiny hand belongs to a tiny child with a mop of soft brown curls who looks at her with a gummy smile before going back to patting at her shoes. It turns out the child belongs to one of Spain's band members — "Shara, she's my wife," says Kes, father to little Poe who is eventually scooped up and held in Kes's arms while the band rehearses on the stage. Jyn, despite saying all of one word ("okay") hears the entire story of Shara and Cassian, siblings, and their Mexican band making it in for Spain, despite their song being generally counter-culture and anti-colonialism. Kes tells her like it's a secret and she supposes it probably is.
Eventually the band drifts off the stage and Kes finds his wife and Jyn finds herself alone in the wings with Cassian while Italy takes their place.
He still isn't sure why he's here, except Shara excitedly agreeing to try out for it, and given their drummer's Spaniard maternal lineage, they not only squirreled away a spot but won. Shara insisted it would be good publicity but Cassian couldn't see how, given no one in Mexico gives a shit about Eurovision. Yet here they are, in the Netherlands, prepping to rehearse a song Cassian specifically chose because he hates Spain and Shara foolishly agreed to let him have the final say.
Their performance goes fine, but Cassian knows they're a good band. He's just not sure they have the vibe Eurovision fans want to see, but who knows? He's not about to ruin Shara's glee, even if she rushes off to her husband and son and abandons him to the Danish contestant, who he's pretty sure doesn't speak English. All her interviews so far have been in Danish. Her act on stage is remarkably different from the way she stands now, shoulders hunched and a little grumpy, but it's not like anyone is wholly themselves, especially on a stage like this one.
"No." A beat. "Taler du dansk?" When he shakes his head no, she presses onward. "Spreek je Nederlands? Parlez-vous français?" She stretches for the limits of her language proficiencies, despite not knowing if she can carry on a real conversation in either of her last two options. "Talar þú íslensku? ...Parla italiano?"
She sees the recognition light in his eyes and groans immediately.
She goes through several languages, each one a bust, and he starts to get the feeling he won't be able to talk to her. It's a little disappointing, until she brings up Italian, and he knows his face lights up, though hopefully it only comes across as simple recognition.
Even as she swears in English, Cassian replies in Italian, "I learned it in high school, though I am not very good at it anymore." It's definitely passable, though his accent is weak. "Do you speak English too, or just for the swears?"
"Only a little," Jyn manages in Italian, her accent an absolute horror. She glances at the stage where Italy is stalking around like they own it and wishes she'd asked her friend for more Italian help.
He is going to find out very quickly she cannot carry on a conversation in Italian. She could admit defeat and converse in English but she does not want to because she does not want to talk to people.
"You sound like me when I speak French." In that there are terrible accents and delayed understandings. But he looks more amused than anything else by her pitiful attempts at Italian, and he will gladly drag it out just to keep talking to her.
It's a little strange, given the most they've exchanged prior to now is an eye glance. But he'll sludge her through Italian to keep chatting. "Which one is your best, after Danish?"
The smile she flashes is small and fleeting and quickly fades when the Danish aide skitters back, jabbering away a mile a minute about the lights and sets and blah blah blah as Italy wraps up their rehearsal. Olly, her name says on her nametag, spares Cassian a glace and a perfunctory smile and circles behind Jyn to help her out of her sweater.
"Sorry, I must go on." She doesn't know how to ask him to stay so they can keep talking because she doesn't mind his company and she can't say that about most anyone else, but she can't say that in English either so she gives up and shrugs one awkwardly bare shoulder at him. (She gets to wear regular cotton shorts for rehearsal, but they need her glittery costume still to check the lights.)
His worst language. He knows like five phrases. He'll just have to... continue forcing Italian on her. Her aide (Olly, if he's reading it right) chatters away and he has no idea what's being said, but it doesn't really matter because then Jyn is in her costume directly in front of him and he must only Look Respectfully.
"Good luck," he says, not really sure how to say he'd like to stick around either, given they've barely spoken outside a brief exchange in shaky Italian. But at least his sister and friends are hovering nearby, so maybe he can just loiter with them.
As Jyn moves towards the stage, Shara passes off her son to Cassian to go chat with one of the techs, and Kes leans in, waving his fingers at his baby. "You know she speaks English, right?"
Cassian does a double take, just as Jyn's song starts. "What?"
Jyn's song is a delightful pop romp with four back up dancers and a "love interest" who doesn't seem to be on the stage before Bodhi sprints in from the other side of the stage to stand in for the missing girl. He and Jyn do an elaborate handshake and in a plot twist, Bodhi Rook, UK Champion, knows all the dance moves.
(Honestly he performs them better than the actual dancer but the rules mean he can't be on stage with Jyn normally.)
They start and stop a bunch of times before the light cues hit correctly and light Jyn up like a disco ball and they can run through the whole song again. When she and Bodhi leap up to the platform at the end the pair of them scream "FIRE!!!!!!!!" at the top of their lungs. There is supposed to be a kiss there, Jyn and her partner surrounded by flames and sparks, her only demand, but she isn't going to kiss Bodhi and they tested the fire the rehearsal prior. At the very end she shoves him off the platform with utter relish, only to yelp when he drags her down with him.
Eventually they make their way off the stage and there Cassian is still, with Kes. Still, flushed and energetic, Jyn's grin doesn't fade.
"Hey, I'm Bodhi. You're Cassian right, from Spain?"
He watches the whole thing with a baby in his arms because Kes is too busy whooping and cheering, but it quickly becomes clear from watching the show that 1) Bodhi is either a brother or a best friend and 2) Jyn really does speak English.
The practice is missing some of the flash and flare but it's clear her act is much more suited to Eurovision. Kes is absolutely delighted (but honestly, everything about being here delights him so Cassian isn't sure how to parse that bar). But Jyn herself still looks exhilarated so he doesn't try to dampen that.
"Mexico," he corrects, quickly and firmly. "Our drummer is technically half-Spaniard, but we are all from Mexico. Are you both from the U.K.?"
"Unfortunately." Jyn's nose wrinkles and she takes care to keep her voice low. "We were born there but raised in Denmark and Iceland. Dad's Danish, Mum was British."
And yet Jyn has a deeply British accent, slightly softer from her older brother's, but she lived in England for less time.
"We have dual citizenship," Bodhi offers. "And it wasn't luck that we're both here. The UK committee thought I'd get more than nil points because of our charming story." Bodhi is much more personable than his sister, clearly, but Jyn is the one Poe reaches out for when he eyes her glittery top, trying to launch himself at her.
With a look at Kes who nods easily, she lets Poe clamber into her arms, murmuring sweet words to him in Danish as he pats at the gemstones on her chest. "Yes, you're going to vote for Denmark, aren't you? Blinded by the sparkles."
Cassian is secretly pleased that she knows English; after Spanish it's his best, and she's clearly more than fluent. He's not sure why she tried to hide it, but the fact that she's still keeping her voice low means she's trying to keep it on the down low.
"I am surprised they are not playing up a rivalry." Does that happen here?? Cassian really does not know much about Eurovision. "But at least now you both get to compete?"
Poe is just as distracted by the sparkles as Cassian is, but only the baby is allowed to actually reach out and touch it. When Kes gives the okay, Cassian lets Jyn scoop the baby out of his arms into hers, and it's like nothing else but glitter exists. Cassian's not sure there's any way to Look Respectfully now.
"I don't think he has any voting rights given he's not European," Kes notes, briefly cooing over his son and his love of the shiny. "But you've already won him over."
"Well if his points don't count then he should vote for Bodhi."
"Wow." Jyn stretches her hand out to shove his chest and Bodhi rocks back on his heels like a weeble. He'd probably put her in a headlock were she not holding a stranger's baby.
Poe is still playing with the gems on her costume but she would love to change into anything else, but she doesn't know if he is the kind of baby that will scream or just let it go. She doesn't really know much about babies at all.
"Will he, uh, will he lose it if I try to change?"
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but everyone hates the uk so zero points
Spain's group is milling around on stage, waiting to run their set, and Jyn gestures the aide away so she can watch unimpeded, wrapping her sweater more firmly around her. She hasn't made a lot of friends here; one of the Italians is Danish and they've been chatting since Jyn pettily told Bodhi she wouldn't speak English the entire contest — he shouldn't have suggested the join a Danish contest if he didn't want her to be Danish — and she speaks Icelandic and French and Dutch so she can politely extract herself from conversation when the need arises. Despite her poppy hit, Jyn is not the social butterfly of her song.
A tiny hand touches her glittery heels and she almost jumps out of her fucking skin, but the tiny hand belongs to a tiny child with a mop of soft brown curls who looks at her with a gummy smile before going back to patting at her shoes. It turns out the child belongs to one of Spain's band members — "Shara, she's my wife," says Kes, father to little Poe who is eventually scooped up and held in Kes's arms while the band rehearses on the stage. Jyn, despite saying all of one word ("okay") hears the entire story of Shara and Cassian, siblings, and their Mexican band making it in for Spain, despite their song being generally counter-culture and anti-colonialism. Kes tells her like it's a secret and she supposes it probably is.
Eventually the band drifts off the stage and Kes finds his wife and Jyn finds herself alone in the wings with Cassian while Italy takes their place.
"Hola."
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Their performance goes fine, but Cassian knows they're a good band. He's just not sure they have the vibe Eurovision fans want to see, but who knows? He's not about to ruin Shara's glee, even if she rushes off to her husband and son and abandons him to the Danish contestant, who he's pretty sure doesn't speak English. All her interviews so far have been in Danish. Her act on stage is remarkably different from the way she stands now, shoulders hunched and a little grumpy, but it's not like anyone is wholly themselves, especially on a stage like this one.
But he did see her playing with his nephew.
"Hola." A beat. "¿Hablas español?"
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She sees the recognition light in his eyes and groans immediately.
"Fuck."
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Even as she swears in English, Cassian replies in Italian, "I learned it in high school, though I am not very good at it anymore." It's definitely passable, though his accent is weak. "Do you speak English too, or just for the swears?"
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He is going to find out very quickly she cannot carry on a conversation in Italian. She could admit defeat and converse in English but she does not want to because she does not want to talk to people.
Cassian excepted apparently.
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It's a little strange, given the most they've exchanged prior to now is an eye glance. But he'll sludge her through Italian to keep chatting. "Which one is your best, after Danish?"
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The smile she flashes is small and fleeting and quickly fades when the Danish aide skitters back, jabbering away a mile a minute about the lights and sets and blah blah blah as Italy wraps up their rehearsal. Olly, her name says on her nametag, spares Cassian a glace and a perfunctory smile and circles behind Jyn to help her out of her sweater.
"Sorry, I must go on." She doesn't know how to ask him to stay so they can keep talking because she doesn't mind his company and she can't say that about most anyone else, but she can't say that in English either so she gives up and shrugs one awkwardly bare shoulder at him. (She gets to wear regular cotton shorts for rehearsal, but they need her glittery costume still to check the lights.)
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"Good luck," he says, not really sure how to say he'd like to stick around either, given they've barely spoken outside a brief exchange in shaky Italian. But at least his sister and friends are hovering nearby, so maybe he can just loiter with them.
As Jyn moves towards the stage, Shara passes off her son to Cassian to go chat with one of the techs, and Kes leans in, waving his fingers at his baby. "You know she speaks English, right?"
Cassian does a double take, just as Jyn's song starts. "What?"
"Shh, time to listen!"
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(Honestly he performs them better than the actual dancer but the rules mean he can't be on stage with Jyn normally.)
They start and stop a bunch of times before the light cues hit correctly and light Jyn up like a disco ball and they can run through the whole song again. When she and Bodhi leap up to the platform at the end the pair of them scream "FIRE!!!!!!!!" at the top of their lungs. There is supposed to be a kiss there, Jyn and her partner surrounded by flames and sparks, her only demand, but she isn't going to kiss Bodhi and they tested the fire the rehearsal prior. At the very end she shoves him off the platform with utter relish, only to yelp when he drags her down with him.
Eventually they make their way off the stage and there Cassian is still, with Kes. Still, flushed and energetic, Jyn's grin doesn't fade.
"Hey, I'm Bodhi. You're Cassian right, from Spain?"
no subject
The practice is missing some of the flash and flare but it's clear her act is much more suited to Eurovision. Kes is absolutely delighted (but honestly, everything about being here delights him so Cassian isn't sure how to parse that bar). But Jyn herself still looks exhilarated so he doesn't try to dampen that.
"Mexico," he corrects, quickly and firmly. "Our drummer is technically half-Spaniard, but we are all from Mexico. Are you both from the U.K.?"
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And yet Jyn has a deeply British accent, slightly softer from her older brother's, but she lived in England for less time.
"We have dual citizenship," Bodhi offers. "And it wasn't luck that we're both here. The UK committee thought I'd get more than nil points because of our charming story." Bodhi is much more personable than his sister, clearly, but Jyn is the one Poe reaches out for when he eyes her glittery top, trying to launch himself at her.
With a look at Kes who nods easily, she lets Poe clamber into her arms, murmuring sweet words to him in Danish as he pats at the gemstones on her chest. "Yes, you're going to vote for Denmark, aren't you? Blinded by the sparkles."
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"I am surprised they are not playing up a rivalry." Does that happen here?? Cassian really does not know much about Eurovision. "But at least now you both get to compete?"
Poe is just as distracted by the sparkles as Cassian is, but only the baby is allowed to actually reach out and touch it. When Kes gives the okay, Cassian lets Jyn scoop the baby out of his arms into hers, and it's like nothing else but glitter exists. Cassian's not sure there's any way to Look Respectfully now.
"I don't think he has any voting rights given he's not European," Kes notes, briefly cooing over his son and his love of the shiny. "But you've already won him over."
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"Wow." Jyn stretches her hand out to shove his chest and Bodhi rocks back on his heels like a weeble. He'd probably put her in a headlock were she not holding a stranger's baby.
Poe is still playing with the gems on her costume but she would love to change into anything else, but she doesn't know if he is the kind of baby that will scream or just let it go. She doesn't really know much about babies at all.
"Will he, uh, will he lose it if I try to change?"