"Hang in there, Jyn. We'll get through this, together"
Jyn groans and cracks her eyes open. It's all green around, she's swimming on her back through a sea of greenery, with bits of blue directly above her.
"Thank the Force! Stay with me, don't close your eyes again!"
This unusually panicked voice belongs to Cassian, and she just wants to say that of course she stays with him, forever, but only a painful cough escapes her lips, followed by thin trickle of blood.
"Shhh, don't try to speak. Going to find you a medic as soon as we reach the camp"
The camp. The one on incredibly foresty moon of Endor. She knows now what happened, mostly. After her group of Pathfinders got involved in shooting with bucketheads that could actually aim, she was grazed by blaster shot and fell into Ewokese booby trap, dusty deep hole full of sharpened sticks. Kriffing toy-like fuzzies be damned, them and their traps.
"We're not far, you're going to be just fine"
Just fine. That's an expression she understands very well. For years she was just fine surviving on her own. Then she was dragged into Rebellion, and she was just fine too, with Alliance providing her with means to survive, and Cassian giving her reasons to survive - not that she'd admit that to him. Now she's even more than just fine because those are Cassian's arms that cradle her broken bloodied body and carry it through the forest, but she won't admit that neither. She lets her head loll onto Cassian's chest instead.
"No! Wake up, Jyn, look at me!"
And she slowly looks up at him, and is amazed by so many various emotions in his eyes, fear mixed with things she can't - doesn't want to try - to recognize. Again she wants to say something, ask something. What is he doing here, wasn't he on some highly classified assignment for weeks already? And, as always, he understands her unspoken question just by looking into her eyes.
"Shhh, told you not to speak. I've never been so happy to be sent chasing Rebellion's own people through the galaxy. I'm not sure your Pathfinder mates would drag you out of that hole in time, none was around when I found you"
Jyn tries to smile, but it hurts. She tries to fist Cassian's jacket and that hurts too, but she manages to take a hold of it and lean into him in a soft, controlled way. With a corner of an eye she can see that his face softens a bit and he smiles too, a small smile but she knows it's a genuine one, not a spy's mask.
Suddenly Cassian's comlink comes to life with crackling and static noises. He jerks to an abrupt halt, and this movement brings Jyn a wave of pain, sending her into darkness.
She wakes to curious noise of excited talks, laughter and cheers. Apparently it's the camp already, and something strange is going on here. Her neck aches from stimshot and probably painkiller meds too, but she's still in Cassian's arms, he's sitting on a tree log with her on his lap.
"Welcome back", he smiles, again. But now it's a truly bright smile, the brightest she have ever seen on his face. It almost blinds her with intensity, yet she can still see suspicious traces of moisture around his eyes.
"It's over, Jyn. The second Death Star is destroyed. We're really going to stop this war now"
She tries to understand what he has just said, tries to process the news that they all succeeded, but is unable to. She just stares into Cassian's face, searching for signs of this being a sick cruel joke, but she doesn't find a single proof of a lie, finding honesty and something like hope instead. Then Jyn smiles too, also the widest smile of her own she can actually recall. It doesn't hurt all that much thanks to the meds, and now she feels alive again, and she feels that there's finally plenty of time to say all those things she was afraid to say so far. And again, she doesn't have to, because it's Cassian for Force sake, their wordless communication skills strong from the very beginning.
"Shhh. I always knew. Should've told you sooner that I do too"
Jyn doesn't know whether to cry, to laugh, or to try and hit him right in that beautiful, loving face. The choice is soon taken from her, because he just tugs her up, up - and starts to kiss her senseless. Her head is spinning, a bit from unexpected movement, but from the kiss itself mostly, as hidden emotions are flowing from them both, finally released. They kiss each other oblivious to whistles and calls and cheers around them, they kiss like if the world was to end right now, instead of starting anew. The kiss tastes of dust, blood and tears, of bitterness and desperation, all those things constantly present in their lives. But, maybe, now things will be different. Now there is a future ahead, maybe one where peaceful life is possible for civilians and soldiers - or are they ex-soldiers already? - alike. Maybe it's possible that their kisses will never have that bitter and desperate taste again, and will be sweet and passionate only. They will get through this, that wide open unknown future, together.
A/N: Just a forest/jungle scene that was clawing at my brain for at least a week. I had to do something with it, so went with matching, though definitely not my favourite, trope: Jyn in Pathfinders. Sorry for mistreating Endor, Ewoks and whole ROTJ so badly. I also tried a bit different type of narration - in present tense; the story wasn't written in the middle of sleepless night; on top of that the ending is pink'n'fluffy; it's all a huge mix of experiments and accidents, really. Very different from my usual style, but then I'm still new at writing, so hard to tell what's really usual for my stories, apart maybe of at least trails of hurt, and that's present here ;) Still, I'm somehow glad that this tiny thing happened to me, I'm kind of fond of it.