"Jynnnnn," Bodhi caroled, bouncing back to where Jyn hunched over the cash box, grousing to herself as she sorted nickels out of the quarter dish. "You're up."

She looked up at her best friend since kindergarten. "I'm what?" She thought she must have misheard him over the sounds of the school carnival going on outside the canvas walls of their booth.

"Up, you're up." He slapped two crumpled dollar bills and a fistful of change onto the table. "Special request. Pucker up, buttercup."

"Oh, no," she said firmly. "I may have agreed to this archaic, sexist - "

"Hold up, it's not sexist if we've got guys on staff too."

" - totally batshit idea of yours for a kissing booth - "

"Because I can talk you into anything."

"Because it's going to charity." And because he could talk her into anything, and for the past twelve years, he had. "But it was on the clear condition that I'm in charge of the money - "

"I know that - "

"- and that's it. These lips are not for sale, bub, so you can tell whoever it is where they can stuff their special request."

Bodhi kept grinning. "Why don't you check who it is before you reject them out of hand?"

"I don't need to check who it is," she said. "Some troglodyte who thinks because he paid three dollars for a kiss, he also gets to grope my boob and make lewd remarks - "

Bodhi groaned, grabbed her shoulders, and twirled her around on the spinny stool so she faced the front of the booth.

Two boys stood on the other side - one tall, red-headed, with a supercilious look on his face. K-2, so named because he was very tall and very cold. (Also because his initials were supposedly K.K., although nobody remembered what that stood for anymore.) And the other -

Cassian Andor, who sat three seats up from her in trig. And two seats behind her in debate class. And three rows over in English.

Cassian Andor, who she'd spent most of senior year sneaking looks at, wondering what he was thinking, and straining her ears to hear his quiet comments in class. When they came, they were always beautifully accented and devastatingly accurate, sniper's bullets puncturing the self-importance of whoever was speaking, even if it was the teacher.

Cassian Andor, silent, impenetrable, plain to look at until you'd been looking at him awhile, and then you realized he was gorgeous. She'd only seen him smile once, when she'd eviscerated an opponent in debate class, and the vision was branded on the inside of her eyelids.

Cassian Andor, who stood shifting his weight from foot to foot. When her eyes landed on him, he lifted one hand in a little wave.

She stared at him until his hand dropped, then muttered out of the side of her mouth, "Is it K-2?" Doubtful - highly doubtful - but she had to check.

"Nnnnnnope," Bodhi practically sang.

She scooped up the little pile of money - Cassian's money, she realized now - and looked at it. She stirred the pile of change - several dimes and a mess of pennies, counting them silently. Then she hopped off the spinny chair, and pushed her way through all the other kissing booth staff, until she stood exactly opposite of Cassian, divided only by the thin plywood of the booth.

"You're short seven cents," she told him.

The faintest tinge of color crawled up his cheekbones. "That's all the change I have left."

"Yes, and the bills were mine," K-2 said waspishly. "Cassian spent all his money on sweet things and then the minute he realized you were helping out in this booth, he was positively begging me for - "

The color over his cheekbones intensified. "Shut it, Kay," he mumbled. He looked back at her, hesitant, his eyes flickering, his ridiculous long straight lashes catching the late afternoon light.

She jingled the coins for a moment. Then she went up on her toes, put her free hand to his cheek, and pressed her lips to his.

He went stock still for a moment, then kissed her back. His mouth was soft and sweet, like he'd been eating cotton candy. He didn't try to stick his tongue in her mouth or put his hands anywhere. Just a kiss, just two sets of lips moving against each other -

Just?

She felt like the top of her head was lifting off, floating, spinning. When he pulled away, after a few minutes or an eternity - way too soon, either way - she tried to chase his lips and almost fell over the partition. She heard a snicker, almost certainly from Bodhi.

Under normal circumstances, she would have at least flipped him off, but these weren't normal, because she'd just kissed Cassian Andor and she wanted to kiss him a whole lot more.

He was definitely blushing now. And possibly so was she - her face felt hot, anyway. Her whole body tingled.

She took his hand and dumped the money back into his palm. "No charge."

FINIS