Cassian is a planner. He has back up plans for contingency plans, he has trajectories and goals, he wants to get enough influence to really make a difference in his little corner of the city. But Marisol breaks up with him just after Thanksgiving because she wants to move to New York, and it's not like he was insanely in love with her, but it's a big change, that combined with missing out on a promotion at work, despite how frustrating it all is, he still has plans in place for dealing with both.
Which is why it makes no sense that he signs up for the house switching service and finds himself in a tiny cottage in the middle of England, and yet there is he in England, just in time for Christmas. The owner is Bodhi Rook, a man he's only spoken to over the phone and via text, discussing the finer details and the how-tos of each other's houses. Apparently they both needed a break.
The cottage is more cluttered than his own Spartan lodgings back in Los Angeles, and it's even decorated for the holidays, something Cassian can appreciate. He's always loved the winter season, but the last couple years have made it difficult to really celebrate. His rental car barely makes it down the snowy dirt driveway, and he definitely should have packed better winter boots. They don't exactly get snow in California either.
He gets the fire going, turns on the twinkle lights, and settles into the couch with one of the books he pulled off the shelf. It's only the first night here, but he's already pretty into it. It's quiet, it's isolated, there aren't sirens blaring in the distance or cars flying by. Leia might have been right all those times she warned him he should take a break to decompress before he completely lost it. He supposes Kay may have also had a point about how much work he kept taking on.
Maybe that's why the pounding on his door jars him more than city noises. That never happens back home. He stares at the door like it's going to stop, but it doesn't. It just gets more and more incessant, so Cassian reluctantly and with a heavy sigh crawls out of his blanket nest. He opens the door with tiredness and vague annoyance. "Can I help you?"
Well, she's not drunk, she's just drunk. She can't drive but she could conceivably still operate heavy machinery and make a groan man cry or bake a slightly lopsided souffle that immediately collapses under the weight of the economy. She's drunk enough that she has to pee or she's going to burst and Bodhi's always let her kip on the couch during the weekend so naturally that is the first place she stops.
And then someone who isn't her brother answers the door.
She blinks.
"You're not my brother." She glances back at the number on the house, that's the right one. This is not her brother. She looks back at the strange man in her brother's house and squints a little like that will make all of this make sense. "Sorry, is Bodhi around? I've got to pee. He always lets me pee."
The woman is drunk. It's the first thing he notices, from the way she's standing to the slightly glossy look in her eyes. Not unbearably so, maybe just a pleasant if not heavy buzz.
The second thing is her use of Bodhi. His sister? He frowns, because maybe they should have thought about this part? How are they supposed to let other people know their houses are temporarily serving like an airbnb? He didn't even know Bodhi had a sister, much less one who doesn't look a thing like him.
"Clearly." He is definitely not Bodhi. "He is not here. Didn't he tell you he was going away for two weeks? Though I suppose it may have slipped your mind, currently."
"Oh that's why he'd been calling, I thought he just wanted to guilt me into going to see the holiday lights again." She's obviously a terrible sister, but it's a little bit of the instinct thing. She's sure he mentioned going away and he probably mentioned a guest but she'd clearly forgotten and here they are.
"Do you mind if I use the loo? I'm fit to burst and Bodhi doesn't exactly live in town." Not a lot of other places to stop to use the bathroom, honestly. The pasture with the sheep.
"Cabinet next to the fridge has got a picture of us taped up inside if you don't believe me." They're children, Bodhi a gangly twelve year old with too long limbs and not enough body to support him yet and a tiny, scowly nine year old at his side with freckles and two lopsided pigtails because she'd done up the plaits herself. "Please, I've really got to go."
"I find it hard to believe you have forgotten where he is." Now he doesn't even want to tell her, if she asks. It's her brother, she should know!
People tend to be easier to read when they're drunk, and there isn't anything about this woman that suggests she's lying about anything. He does glance over towards the fridge, vaguely visible through the doorway but there's a lot of clutter and he can't see any pictures. She's familiar with the house, that much is clear, so it's with a sigh and the spirit of the season that he steps back to let the mystery woman inside.
"Only because I think letting someone piss on the doorstep the first night I am here seems like a bad way to start my stay. Go, please."
She has a lot of shit going on! She doesn't have time to answer Bodhi's phone calls because he ignores her preference of texting! #siblings.
When she gets the go ahead to use the bathroom she all but sprints past him, curving around a small table like second nature and throwing herself into the bathroom, closing the door behind her somehow both with force but without slamming it. She's obviously very familiar with the house.
It's a few minutes later that she emerges, looking brighter and more refreshed. "LA. The twat went to LA and left me here, in the snow, to do Christmas alone." She shrugs, unconcerned. "Sorry. I only get one weekend to make questionable decisions and all of those decisions are alcohol based. Usually Bodhi lets me sleep it off on the couch so he can scold me in the morning."
Moving past the fridge, Jyn pulls the cabinet open and pulls the picture off the door, holding it out to the strange man in her brother's home.
She practically runs to the bathroom and he thinks Bodhi owes some gratitude for disallowing his front door to be a bathroom. He closes it behind her with a sigh, trying to recalculate how the rest of his evening is going to go now. If she's really drunk, he should probably call a cab or an Uber, but he doesn't know if the latter even exists here.
"It sounded like he needed a break." The holiday timing is strange, he supposes, considering Bodhi has family here. At least Cassian doesn't have that to leave behind.
He takes the picture and nearly laughs at it, but it does leave him with no doubts that this woman is Bodhi's sister. "I have no interest in scolding you, but I was planning to read all night myself." A beat. "On the couch."
Does she still want to stay over?? Wouldn't she feel weird, with a stranger in the house?? Cassian is not particularly interested in that either, but he isn't going to kick her out if she hasn't got a way home. "How much have you had to drink?"
"He was dating this utter rubbish cow that wanted to stay in the closet." Jyn had thought he'd gotten over it, shoved his emotions in the trash like Jyn does because that's an excellent coping mechanism. Something must have set him off but his voicemail said nothing and a quick perusal of her text messages had shown nothing either.
"I've had enough to make Tinder sound like a good idea again but not enough to actually put it back on my phone?" She's reasonably buzzed. She'd been expecting to crack open a bottle of one of Bodhi's nice wines and drink more with Bodhi, as was tradition, but alas.
"Wait, why are you here, alone on almost Christmas?" She has no right to ask, but does not look like she feels even a little bad about asking.
Oh, excellent, they're both running away from break ups in different ways. He supposes the next time he actually talks to Bodhi they can bond about it, if they really feel the need to.
She's drunk, watching her more closely combined with how coherent she is tells him she isn't completely wasted. Pleasantly buzzed, maybe, which is his own personal favorite level of drunk, because he's still reasonably in control of himself.
"I might have also needed a break, and I have never been to England before." He will casually ignore the alone part and the Christmas part. "We do not get snow in southern California."
"You came from California to... Surrey." Her eyebrows lift and it's adorable how baffled she looks by this turn of events. Sunny, warm, beautiful California to snowy, dreary, hideous Surrey, with a sheep across the dirt road and a full twenty five minute drive to the grocers.
That sounds horrid.
Did he lose a bet? "Were you drunk when you planned this?"
Her complete bafflement almost makes him laugh. At least it sort of loosens him up from the tension of her loud arrival. She looks... cute, which is not a thought he should be having, but there it is.
"It is a lot quieter here than where I live. I have already found it quite nice. You need blackout curtains at my apartment if you want even an illusion of solitude."
It's definitely different, and he hopes Bodhi is enjoying it too. "I wanted something... far away."
"Paris. Paris is far away, excellent chocolate. Or Florence, also far. Or Ankara, very far and very beautiful, just don't mention genocide they get cross. Marrakesh is also far! The entire world at your disposal and you picked Surrey. Land of sheep and a fictional teenage wizard."
She leans forward and pats his arm. "You made the wrong choice, mate. Lemme guess, you're a Gryffindor."
"They speak English here, and Spain was very expensive. I only have two languages in my repertoire." He wanted to try and relax, not grapple with words he didn't understand.
He wrinkles his nose. "I had not been thinking about wizards when I decided England, sorry to say. Besides, all of those are cities. Remember how I wanted something more quiet?"
Alright, she'll give him that, a language barrier is not something everyone wants to cross.
"Surrey's not quiet, it's silent. It's boring." And a bit racist, but she decides to mention that later. Brexit and small towns is not a good combination. Cassian isn't as dark as her brother, maybe he won't get shit right off the bat when he goes to town.
Maybe deep down he is a homebody who is suffering Los Angeles because by the time he settles in at home for the night and wants to order food, everywhere is closed but the people are still out. His first night here and all he wanted to do was sit on the couch and read! He didn't even want to leave the house! He could have done that at home, but instead he's here.
They're not arguing, they're having a lively discussion!
"Then I. Should let you get back to that." Does she shoot him some finger guns? She sure does, spinning to orient herself back to the door and wobbling a tiny bit because of who she is as a person.
"You didn't answer me about Gryffindor but I know it's true."
Well. That's the thing that gets him to laugh. The stupid fingerguns. It's a short laugh, barely a puff of air, but at least his bad mood about being interrupted is gone - and not because she's leaving.
"Are you sure you can even walk?" A beat. "I wanted to be one when I was a kid, but we all do."
"I didn't. I'm walking, aren't I?" She's standing, but that isn't what she meant, not really. She'd walked from the door to the loo without much trouble, the spinning was simply a bad idea.
Her mouth slants in thought. "Bodhi usually lets me crash on the couch." She's said that already. "But you're not my brother, it's hardly appropriate."
"You are technically walking. But can you keep it upright the whole way home?"
Cassian doesn't want to invite he to stay! He wants his peace and quiet!! And maybe it isn't a city like LA like she so eloquently declared, but he still can't shake the concern about her getting home just fine. "It is not like I would be sharing the couch. How far away do you live?"
"I live in London." Which is 40 minutes away by train. So really she would just only need to get to the train, but she doesn't say that because she wants to stay. Not just because she's lazy and doesn't want to go back to the city only to come back tomorrow night to make more questionable decisions and get drunk again.
He has a cute smile and his arms are offensively nice under his tee shirt.
"You know he has a bottle of tequila that he hides for special occasions." She shrugs, gesturing expansively, and looking a little hopeful despite literally being about to leave. But maybe... she's about to stay? "I think Almost Christmas counts as a special occasion."
"And you came all the way out here just to drink?"
It seems like London would be bustling with far more options, unless she wanted to escape the loud and the aforementioned bustle - but then why would she make fun of him for doing the same? He's not going to ask, she'll just be ridiculous about it, he can already tell.
"Fine. If you would not feel too awkward, you can sleep it off on the couch." She got him in the guilt. He wouldn't send anyone, especially a woman, off on a solo adventure to get home at least forty minutes away. Besides, it's her brother's house, not his.
"What makes you think I like tequila?" Expression unreadable, mostly because he wants to fuck with her. It's literally the least he could do for having his quiet evening so rudely interrupted.
"I don't like to drink with people I might have to see when I'm sober." She is already half-drowning in guilt and self-loathing because society hates women, she doesn't need to purposefully add the the pile.
She flashes him a grateful smile once he agrees to let her stay and she moves to the bookshelf to stand on her tiptoes and pull down the heavy Bible. Inside is the tequila.
"Blasphemy and booze. I took you for more the tequila type because you don't look like the brandy type, that being a twat. If you want racism look next door, her name's Louise and she thinks Bodhi might be a terrorist." Jyn knows because Louise told her. "Now do you want the tequila or do you want to be a twat?"
He watches her move around and dig out the bottle, still seconding guessing this decision.
It is probably, definitely, 100% a bad idea to drink tequila with a stranger who happens to be the sister of the man whose house is he currently staying in. But wasn't the whole point of this trip to fuck off and do whatever?? This can clearly only help that escapism along.
"I prefer mezcal, actually, but a good tequila is up there. Since we are drinking your brother's alcohol, the least we can do is use his preferred glasses if he has any?"
"I guess." Jyn wanders back into the kitchen, rifling around in the kitchen until she finds two matching glasses that are small enough for tequila without being shot glasses. She's pretty sure they were stolen, by her, from a hotel once upon a time so. They'll work.
"Ta-da, glasses. What's mezcal?" While he is fielding her question she is going to unscrew the bottle and carefully pour two fingers of tequila into each glass. And then she adds another finger to the glass that will be Cassian's. She has already been drinking, he needs to catch up.
He trails after her if only to make sure she doesn't fall over and that's it. Despite the wobble to her everything, she still manages to find the bottle and glasses and pour with relative ease, saving him the offer on the tip of his tongue to pour it for them instead.
Smartly, while he takes the glass: "Alcohol."
He squints down at it, because she definitely gave him more, and it is definitely a bad idea, but he doesn't call her out on it. "It is made from agave, just like tequila. It is often smokier, I suppose, would be the word English."
"Smokier," Jyn muses, taking a sip of her tequila and immediately making her face. Ugh no she doesn't actually like tequila but she can't back out now. Jyn prefers beer because she is honestly a lightweight but she is a stubborn lightweight. And she's sleeping on the couch so
He doesn't laugh at her face, but it's a very close thing. The amusement flickers across his own, and it is out of a sudden urge to Do Better than her that he tilts the glass back and drinks about half.
"Feliz Navidad," he offers, holding out his glass towards hers. Might as well make it a real toast! To this... weird Christmas tequila celebration. He's not expecting much out of this holiday season, but at least it's already better than being in LA.
"Feliz Navidad," Jyn repeats, making a face as she absolutely mangles the phrase. "Wow, no, that was not it. Say it again so I can get it right."
She speaks broken Danish and knows a handful of Urdu so she doesn't look like an asshole when she accompanies Bodhi to holiday events, this is not the first time she has heard Feliz Navidad uttered. If she hears it a few more times she should be able to get it right.
She stumbles over the pronunciation, and it draws the smallest of laughs out of him. Not at her expensive, it's just... funny. At least she is genuinely trying!
"Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad." He takes another sip of his drink, probably a little too big a sip. He raises the glass up. "Prospero año y felicidad."
He isn't singing it, but the lyrics are so simple, it's almost natural to just dictate the song.
A whirlwind weekend with a cute boy who sees through her bravado and danced with her in the kitchen and was, bar none, the best shag in England was a delightful escape from reality. It isn't that she doesn't love her live, she adores Rose, it's only that it's incredibly stressful and she needs a god damn break sometimes.
So it was nice, if kind of bittersweet, to have a lovely weekend. It ended on a bit of a sour note — the weekend ending at all was sour, having to leave Cassian specifically was not great either. If she was the type of person to have a diary, the weekend and Cassian would definitely be diary worthy.
Still, it's nice to be home too, nice to have Rosie clinging to her legs while she tries to make pasta. The doorbell is even a nice way to redirect her, asking her to set the table while Jyn gets the door. Except when she gets the door it's...
He hadn't come to England to do anything else except disconnect and get a solid break from work. And his weekend with Jyn had proved to be exactly that. They'd parted on bittersweet terms, mutual appreciation and understanding for the future - he recognized he was going to head back to the states in a few days - but the longer he sits in the little cottage pouring over take out menus the more he sits with the idea that he really wants to see Jyn again.
So he does something incredibly uncharacteristic and goes to her house. He brings a bottle of mezcal he managed to track down from a shop, not sure how good it's going to be given it's from England, but it'll do.
He greets her with a lopsided, almost awkward smile when she opens the door, looking sheepish in the same breath. "Hi. Jyn. Sorry, I know what we agreed - " He holds up the bag in offering. "I just..."
He trails off. He'd gone over what he wanted to say on his way over, but now he's wondering if this was a stupid idea after all. "Maybe it can be a three-day weekend."
Jyn doesn't look unhappy to see him, her smile is just as easy as every time he agreed to keep spending time with her this weekend. And it isn't as if she doesn't have the time off to keep the weekend going, school holidays inevitably equals Jyn's holidays because schools are... closed. It's just that she is no longer alone.
She sags a little, disappointed. "Oh, I'd love that, it's just-"
The table setting seems to be going tremendously well because there is no noise of shattered plates to interrupt Jyn, but there is a chime of cutlery hitting the glasses on the table and Jyn looks back instinctively to check on Rosie even though she can't see her, before she turns back to Cassian.
"I, um..." Oh bollocks she didn't think she would have to explain this. Wait, the bag. "Did you bring me a present?"
He's initially reassured by the soft look on her face, but the rest of what she says rings an alarm.
Cassian hears the clang as Jyn does, expression faltering as she looks behind her. He can't help the way his eyes follow, though he'd been trying not to be invasive. There is definitely someone else in the house. He stiffens.
"A peace offering of snacks and mezcal." But he sounds even less sure of himself with the noise from inside the kitchen. He assumes the kitchen. "I should have called, you have company -"
Oh, no no no, that relaxed set of his shoulders has vanished. Jyn's mouth slants down, but she's momentarily distracted still because snacks and also her completely inability to explain that her company is not company just...
"No, it's not- you brought mezcal?" A beat. "You found mezcal?"
Before she can say anything else, the door is pushed further open and a small girl with huge brown eyes and a disheveled halo of dark curls appears, curling her arm around Jyn's leg. She's dressed nearly identically, jumper and corduroys and woolen socks, though her hair is held back with a headband with cat ears. "Mummy, I finished!" She beams a toothy smile at Cassian with a gap from missing teeth. "Hi. Are you coming for dinner?"
Jyn looks at Cassian with a somewhat helpless expression. "You can... if you'd like?"
He's about to tease a little about the mezcal hunt, but any further conversation is interrupted by the surprise guest. Who, seconds later, Cassian realizes is less of a guest and more of a roommate. A roommate who is a daughter.
Jyn has a daughter.
He's thrown off, but Cassian is quick on his toes and at her cat-eared invitation he adopts a friendly smile and meets her gaze. "Thank you. I would like that." With a closer glance, he can see the similarities - the shape of their eyes, the curve of her chin, the way her lip curls into a smile. She looks like a browner, six year old version of her mother. He looks back up at Jyn, somewhat sheepishly himself too. "Are you sure I am not interrupting? My surprise does not seem to be well timed."
Rosie dances away and Jyn ushers Cassian inside, showing him where to set his coat while Rosie prances about, cheerfully talking about mittens before she abruptly just walks away toward the kitchen, leaving Cassian and Jyn alone in the mudroom.
She gives a sheepish sweep of her arm. "Surprise? She's called Rose. And listen to this—!" Because Jyn will interrupt being apologetic to talk shit. "She knew Bodhi was going to LA!"
(Because Bodhi and Jyn's dad knew, of course, and he was looking after her.)
He has never heard of Christmas fettuccine, but it's self-explanatory enough that he doesn't linger. Cassian steps inside, only half listening to what the girl is saying - the girl named Rose, he discovers, though the rambling seems to be another habit mother and daughter share. He hangs up his coat and gives her a gentle but awkward smile.
"Maybe she thought you already knew?" He can't even begin to understand their familial communication when he is only discovering half her family today. It's starting to sound like more and more her fault she didn't know about her brother's travels, but he's not about to start up that argument again.
It is... definitely her fault, but she will not admit that. A good sister would know, but a good brother wouldn't abandon her on Christmas so they're even.
"Mm, still can't believe you came to Surrey for the hols." His jacket is hung up and Jyn shifts awkwardly now that there is nothing to attend to between them. She doesn't date so explaining Rosie never comes up and it's hard to know where to start, she doesn't even know if she even should? Obviously Cassian knows she's a bit of a slag when she's tipsy, maybe he'll just make that assumption and Jyn won't have to explain anything? But Cassian is so kind, that seems unlikely.
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ohnofeelstho2018-12-02 11:36 pm
i need some peace and quiet... or whatever it is people go away for.
Which is why it makes no sense that he signs up for the house switching service and finds himself in a tiny cottage in the middle of England, and yet there is he in England, just in time for Christmas. The owner is Bodhi Rook, a man he's only spoken to over the phone and via text, discussing the finer details and the how-tos of each other's houses. Apparently they both needed a break.
The cottage is more cluttered than his own Spartan lodgings back in Los Angeles, and it's even decorated for the holidays, something Cassian can appreciate. He's always loved the winter season, but the last couple years have made it difficult to really celebrate. His rental car barely makes it down the snowy dirt driveway, and he definitely should have packed better winter boots. They don't exactly get snow in California either.
He gets the fire going, turns on the twinkle lights, and settles into the couch with one of the books he pulled off the shelf. It's only the first night here, but he's already pretty into it. It's quiet, it's isolated, there aren't sirens blaring in the distance or cars flying by. Leia might have been right all those times she warned him he should take a break to decompress before he completely lost it. He supposes Kay may have also had a point about how much work he kept taking on.
Maybe that's why the pounding on his door jars him more than city noises. That never happens back home. He stares at the door like it's going to stop, but it doesn't. It just gets more and more incessant, so Cassian reluctantly and with a heavy sigh crawls out of his blanket nest. He opens the door with tiredness and vague annoyance. "Can I help you?"
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Jyn is drunk.
Well, she's not drunk, she's just drunk. She can't drive but she could conceivably still operate heavy machinery and make a groan man cry or bake a slightly lopsided souffle that immediately collapses under the weight of the economy. She's drunk enough that she has to pee or she's going to burst and Bodhi's always let her kip on the couch during the weekend so naturally that is the first place she stops.
And then someone who isn't her brother answers the door.
She blinks.
"You're not my brother." She glances back at the number on the house, that's the right one. This is not her brother. She looks back at the strange man in her brother's house and squints a little like that will make all of this make sense. "Sorry, is Bodhi around? I've got to pee. He always lets me pee."
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The second thing is her use of Bodhi. His sister? He frowns, because maybe they should have thought about this part? How are they supposed to let other people know their houses are temporarily serving like an airbnb? He didn't even know Bodhi had a sister, much less one who doesn't look a thing like him.
"Clearly." He is definitely not Bodhi. "He is not here. Didn't he tell you he was going away for two weeks? Though I suppose it may have slipped your mind, currently."
Instincts do often take over when inebriated.
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"Do you mind if I use the loo? I'm fit to burst and Bodhi doesn't exactly live in town." Not a lot of other places to stop to use the bathroom, honestly. The pasture with the sheep.
"Cabinet next to the fridge has got a picture of us taped up inside if you don't believe me." They're children, Bodhi a gangly twelve year old with too long limbs and not enough body to support him yet and a tiny, scowly nine year old at his side with freckles and two lopsided pigtails because she'd done up the plaits herself. "Please, I've really got to go."
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People tend to be easier to read when they're drunk, and there isn't anything about this woman that suggests she's lying about anything. He does glance over towards the fridge, vaguely visible through the doorway but there's a lot of clutter and he can't see any pictures. She's familiar with the house, that much is clear, so it's with a sigh and the spirit of the season that he steps back to let the mystery woman inside.
"Only because I think letting someone piss on the doorstep the first night I am here seems like a bad way to start my stay. Go, please."
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When she gets the go ahead to use the bathroom she all but sprints past him, curving around a small table like second nature and throwing herself into the bathroom, closing the door behind her somehow both with force but without slamming it. She's obviously very familiar with the house.
It's a few minutes later that she emerges, looking brighter and more refreshed. "LA. The twat went to LA and left me here, in the snow, to do Christmas alone." She shrugs, unconcerned. "Sorry. I only get one weekend to make questionable decisions and all of those decisions are alcohol based. Usually Bodhi lets me sleep it off on the couch so he can scold me in the morning."
Moving past the fridge, Jyn pulls the cabinet open and pulls the picture off the door, holding it out to the strange man in her brother's home.
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"It sounded like he needed a break." The holiday timing is strange, he supposes, considering Bodhi has family here. At least Cassian doesn't have that to leave behind.
He takes the picture and nearly laughs at it, but it does leave him with no doubts that this woman is Bodhi's sister. "I have no interest in scolding you, but I was planning to read all night myself." A beat. "On the couch."
Does she still want to stay over?? Wouldn't she feel weird, with a stranger in the house?? Cassian is not particularly interested in that either, but he isn't going to kick her out if she hasn't got a way home. "How much have you had to drink?"
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"I've had enough to make Tinder sound like a good idea again but not enough to actually put it back on my phone?" She's reasonably buzzed. She'd been expecting to crack open a bottle of one of Bodhi's nice wines and drink more with Bodhi, as was tradition, but alas.
"Wait, why are you here, alone on almost Christmas?" She has no right to ask, but does not look like she feels even a little bad about asking.
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She's drunk, watching her more closely combined with how coherent she is tells him she isn't completely wasted. Pleasantly buzzed, maybe, which is his own personal favorite level of drunk, because he's still reasonably in control of himself.
"I might have also needed a break, and I have never been to England before." He will casually ignore the alone part and the Christmas part. "We do not get snow in southern California."
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That sounds horrid.
Did he lose a bet? "Were you drunk when you planned this?"
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"It is a lot quieter here than where I live. I have already found it quite nice. You need blackout curtains at my apartment if you want even an illusion of solitude."
It's definitely different, and he hopes Bodhi is enjoying it too. "I wanted something... far away."
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She leans forward and pats his arm. "You made the wrong choice, mate. Lemme guess, you're a Gryffindor."
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He wrinkles his nose. "I had not been thinking about wizards when I decided England, sorry to say. Besides, all of those are cities. Remember how I wanted something more quiet?"
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"Surrey's not quiet, it's silent. It's boring." And a bit racist, but she decides to mention that later. Brexit and small towns is not a good combination. Cassian isn't as dark as her brother, maybe he won't get shit right off the bat when he goes to town.
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Maybe deep down he is a homebody who is suffering Los Angeles because by the time he settles in at home for the night and wants to order food, everywhere is closed but the people are still out. His first night here and all he wanted to do was sit on the couch and read! He didn't even want to leave the house! He could have done that at home, but instead he's here.
Arguing with his host's sister.
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"Then I. Should let you get back to that." Does she shoot him some finger guns? She sure does, spinning to orient herself back to the door and wobbling a tiny bit because of who she is as a person.
"You didn't answer me about Gryffindor but I know it's true."
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"Are you sure you can even walk?" A beat. "I wanted to be one when I was a kid, but we all do."
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Her mouth slants in thought. "Bodhi usually lets me crash on the couch." She's said that already. "But you're not my brother, it's hardly appropriate."
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Cassian doesn't want to invite he to stay! He wants his peace and quiet!! And maybe it isn't a city like LA like she so eloquently declared, but he still can't shake the concern about her getting home just fine. "It is not like I would be sharing the couch. How far away do you live?"
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He has a cute smile and his arms are offensively nice under his tee shirt.
"You know he has a bottle of tequila that he hides for special occasions." She shrugs, gesturing expansively, and looking a little hopeful despite literally being about to leave. But maybe... she's about to stay? "I think Almost Christmas counts as a special occasion."
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It seems like London would be bustling with far more options, unless she wanted to escape the loud and the aforementioned bustle - but then why would she make fun of him for doing the same? He's not going to ask, she'll just be ridiculous about it, he can already tell.
"Fine. If you would not feel too awkward, you can sleep it off on the couch." She got him in the guilt. He wouldn't send anyone, especially a woman, off on a solo adventure to get home at least forty minutes away. Besides, it's her brother's house, not his.
"What makes you think I like tequila?" Expression unreadable, mostly because he wants to fuck with her. It's literally the least he could do for having his quiet evening so rudely interrupted.
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She flashes him a grateful smile once he agrees to let her stay and she moves to the bookshelf to stand on her tiptoes and pull down the heavy Bible. Inside is the tequila.
"Blasphemy and booze. I took you for more the tequila type because you don't look like the brandy type, that being a twat. If you want racism look next door, her name's Louise and she thinks Bodhi might be a terrorist." Jyn knows because Louise told her. "Now do you want the tequila or do you want to be a twat?"
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He watches her move around and dig out the bottle, still seconding guessing this decision.
It is probably, definitely, 100% a bad idea to drink tequila with a stranger who happens to be the sister of the man whose house is he currently staying in. But wasn't the whole point of this trip to fuck off and do whatever?? This can clearly only help that escapism along.
"I prefer mezcal, actually, but a good tequila is up there. Since we are drinking your brother's alcohol, the least we can do is use his preferred glasses if he has any?"
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"Ta-da, glasses. What's mezcal?" While he is fielding her question she is going to unscrew the bottle and carefully pour two fingers of tequila into each glass. And then she adds another finger to the glass that will be Cassian's. She has already been drinking, he needs to catch up.
"Here y'go."
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Smartly, while he takes the glass: "Alcohol."
He squints down at it, because she definitely gave him more, and it is definitely a bad idea, but he doesn't call her out on it. "It is made from agave, just like tequila. It is often smokier, I suppose, would be the word English."
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FUCK IT.
"So, happy Christmas." That's a toast, sort of.
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"Feliz Navidad," he offers, holding out his glass towards hers. Might as well make it a real toast! To this... weird Christmas tequila celebration. He's not expecting much out of this holiday season, but at least it's already better than being in LA.
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She speaks broken Danish and knows a handful of Urdu so she doesn't look like an asshole when she accompanies Bodhi to holiday events, this is not the first time she has heard Feliz Navidad uttered. If she hears it a few more times she should be able to get it right.
She's drunk, give her a break.
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"Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad." He takes another sip of his drink, probably a little too big a sip. He raises the glass up. "Prospero año y felicidad."
He isn't singing it, but the lyrics are so simple, it's almost natural to just dictate the song.
i'm looking for corny
So it was nice, if kind of bittersweet, to have a lovely weekend. It ended on a bit of a sour note — the weekend ending at all was sour, having to leave Cassian specifically was not great either. If she was the type of person to have a diary, the weekend and Cassian would definitely be diary worthy.
Still, it's nice to be home too, nice to have Rosie clinging to her legs while she tries to make pasta. The doorbell is even a nice way to redirect her, asking her to set the table while Jyn gets the door. Except when she gets the door it's...
"Cassian?"
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So he does something incredibly uncharacteristic and goes to her house. He brings a bottle of mezcal he managed to track down from a shop, not sure how good it's going to be given it's from England, but it'll do.
He greets her with a lopsided, almost awkward smile when she opens the door, looking sheepish in the same breath. "Hi. Jyn. Sorry, I know what we agreed - " He holds up the bag in offering. "I just..."
He trails off. He'd gone over what he wanted to say on his way over, but now he's wondering if this was a stupid idea after all. "Maybe it can be a three-day weekend."
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She sags a little, disappointed. "Oh, I'd love that, it's just-"
The table setting seems to be going tremendously well because there is no noise of shattered plates to interrupt Jyn, but there is a chime of cutlery hitting the glasses on the table and Jyn looks back instinctively to check on Rosie even though she can't see her, before she turns back to Cassian.
"I, um..." Oh bollocks she didn't think she would have to explain this. Wait, the bag. "Did you bring me a present?"
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Cassian hears the clang as Jyn does, expression faltering as she looks behind her. He can't help the way his eyes follow, though he'd been trying not to be invasive. There is definitely someone else in the house. He stiffens.
"A peace offering of snacks and mezcal." But he sounds even less sure of himself with the noise from inside the kitchen. He assumes the kitchen. "I should have called, you have company -"
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"No, it's not- you brought mezcal?" A beat. "You found mezcal?"
Before she can say anything else, the door is pushed further open and a small girl with huge brown eyes and a disheveled halo of dark curls appears, curling her arm around Jyn's leg. She's dressed nearly identically, jumper and corduroys and woolen socks, though her hair is held back with a headband with cat ears. "Mummy, I finished!" She beams a toothy smile at Cassian with a gap from missing teeth. "Hi. Are you coming for dinner?"
Jyn looks at Cassian with a somewhat helpless expression. "You can... if you'd like?"
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Jyn has a daughter.
He's thrown off, but Cassian is quick on his toes and at her cat-eared invitation he adopts a friendly smile and meets her gaze. "Thank you. I would like that." With a closer glance, he can see the similarities - the shape of their eyes, the curve of her chin, the way her lip curls into a smile. She looks like a browner, six year old version of her mother. He looks back up at Jyn, somewhat sheepishly himself too. "Are you sure I am not interrupting? My surprise does not seem to be well timed."
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Rosie dances away and Jyn ushers Cassian inside, showing him where to set his coat while Rosie prances about, cheerfully talking about mittens before she abruptly just walks away toward the kitchen, leaving Cassian and Jyn alone in the mudroom.
She gives a sheepish sweep of her arm. "Surprise? She's called Rose. And listen to this—!" Because Jyn will interrupt being apologetic to talk shit. "She knew Bodhi was going to LA!"
(Because Bodhi and Jyn's dad knew, of course, and he was looking after her.)
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"Maybe she thought you already knew?" He can't even begin to understand their familial communication when he is only discovering half her family today. It's starting to sound like more and more her fault she didn't know about her brother's travels, but he's not about to start up that argument again.
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"Mm, still can't believe you came to Surrey for the hols." His jacket is hung up and Jyn shifts awkwardly now that there is nothing to attend to between them. She doesn't date so explaining Rosie never comes up and it's hard to know where to start, she doesn't even know if she even should? Obviously Cassian knows she's a bit of a slag when she's tipsy, maybe he'll just make that assumption and Jyn won't have to explain anything? But Cassian is so kind, that seems unlikely.
"Bit complicated now, isn't it?"