Author's Notes: This was supposed to be a three sentence drabble from a tumblr prompt, but my mind had other ideas and refused to let this go, so now it's becoming more. Nothing major planned, just some fanciful daydreams. I've never written a College AU before, so now it's time to remember what college was like since I graduated three years ago.
Disclaimer: I don't own shit. Look how poorly I'm coping.
A Brief Lesson in Chemistry
part one: breaking & entering
Cassian tried not to make a startled or offended sound when he pushed open the janky door to his dorm and spotted one Jyn Erso lying on his bed reading what looked like his Physics notes, but one of these days, he was going to find out how she managed to effortlessly break into his dorm room without anyone catching her.
At the sound of his door shutting, Jyn pulled out one of the ear buds of the extremely outdated iPod that she was listening to and looked back to smirk at him, seeing as how she was probably able to read the disgruntlement on his face and thoroughly enjoyed it. She rather liked torturing him, he thought as he looked her over, his eyes unfortunately catching onto her shorts and the way her t-shirt was riding up and leaving an expanse of smooth skin to be seen.
"You take excellent notes, Cassian," she told him, eyes glittering. "You should look into making a business out of this."
"It's school, not a business," he pointed out, which only made her shrug her shoulders and roll back to look down at his notes.
He never asked her outright how she got into his dorm and he never asked why she did so. He couldn't even remember her ever telling him her exact reasons, at least not until he managed to slowly coerce them out of her. He was good at getting people to talk, even people as stone-walled as Jyn. He had the kind of face that made people want to talk to him, according to his professors, made him seem trustworthy even when he gave no reason to be. Besides politics, he didn't know how that would help him, and he hated politics. He much preferred to stay out of the spotlight.
Dropping his backpack on the floor, Cassian was torn between sitting at the one desk in the room that he shared with his dormmate, Kay, or on the bed with Jyn. The chair seemed too distant and formal, the bed too close and personal, even if a part of him wanted to sit on the bed next to her, lay his hand on the small of her back, maybe even under her shirt. He blinked to get that thought out of his head. He did not need treacherous thoughts about his classmate and sometimes friend that broke into his dorm to bother him and stole his favorite hoodie.
In the end, Jyn made up his mind for him, reaching out to snatch the edge of his shirt and tug him down towards her, making him clumsily sit down on the edge of the bed, just inches away from her. "Look at this video I got of Professor Krennic practicing his research award speech. It's terrible." Her hand left his shirt to fiddle with her phone and start the video. She had small hands that would've looked delicate if not for the old scars on her knuckles and blunt, uneven nails.
He forced himself to look at the phone. He did not ask her how she was able to capture embarrassing videos like this of their professors, but the secret of them thrilled him in an almost shameful way. He did not think about how he could smell the chlorine from the campus pool on her skin and hair, how her side had eventually rolled against his hip as his weight made the mattress sink towards him, how he really didn't mind entering his dorm and finding her waiting for him. He didn't think about a lot of things.
Instead, by the end of the video, Cassian was holding a barely contained grin and Jyn was snorting into her hand. When she glanced up at him to get his approval, her eyes shining with a hopeful sort of light, he managed to say, "That was…truly painful," and she nodded her head triumphantly. She laid her head back down on her arms as she took to examining his carefully written Physics notes, so different from her chaotic ones, and didn't move when the side of her head was close to brushing against his thigh.
Cassian breathed and he answered questions whenever Jyn asked them and he did not put his hand on the small of her back like he wanted, but he didn't move away from her either. It was a good enough compromise.
