See guys, I am trying to catch up 😉

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"Uh… sorry." Jyn stops herself from taking a step back at seeing the unfamiliar handsome man in the doorway of Nairi's apartment. Well, not entirely unfamiliar; she recognizes him from the holo at their mission brief. "You must be Davin Jace."

"I am indeed." His somewhat formal manner is belied by a broad grin. In real life, the guy does not look particularly cold or arrogant. He does not even look particularly Imperial, being as he is out of uniform, dressed in a loose shirt and plain trousers. "You must be Jan."

Jyn bites her tongue before she can correct him. Nairi may know her real name, but to the rest of Coruscant, she is, indeed, Jan Andor, Captain Andor's civilian wife. She should remind Nawara when he gets here; he is astute enough, and is probably used to her sporting different aliases by now, but a slip-up would be too costly. "Yes, I am. Nice to meet you."

"And you. Nairi will be right here, she had to run an errand. If you want, I can give you girls a ride to that archaic class of yours." He is grinning again. Not at all what Jyn expected.

"Thanks for the offer, but we'll manage." If he drops them off at the class, he might offer to also pick Nairi or both of them up afterwards, which would undermine their real plan of going about town picking dead drop locations from among the list Jyn put together. With the free time on her hands, she has had a chance to scout and select quite a few, but while Nairi may not be a Coruscant native like Jyn, unlike Jyn, she is by now a local, and can tell which ones will be the safest, easiest and least conspicuous for informants to access. "We were thinking of maybe going shopping after class, window shopping at any rate. Maybe some other time."

"Sure. We could go out for dinner sometime, with you and your husband. If his duties allow, of course."

Now that would be an interesting idea. She wonders if Cassian will be curious to meet this pair, or if there is any risk of him having met Jace elsewhere under a different guise. "I'll ask him and let you know."

"Please do. Ah, there you are." This is addressed to Nairi, who has just pulled up behind Jyn on the landing pad. "Your friend is telling me you plan to go shopping when you're done with culinary experiments."

If Nairi is surprised to hear about her apparent plans for the evening, she does not show it. "Yeah, we were thinking of checking out some of the new swoop bike models."

"Oh, not those again. The one you have now is dangerous enough." His frown and concerned tone are the first signs of his Thyferran patriarchal mentality, though, to be honest, she was expecting worse.

It looks like Nairi takes it in stride, though. "But that's the point. The new ones are more stable. Anyway, I'm not buying it just yet. Just want to take a look around, maybe test ride a couple."

"Shall I wait for you for dinner?"

This time Nairi does hesitate for a second, and curiously, looks to Jyn for a cue. It does not seem like her fiancé is insisting on the two of them having dinner together; so if she wanted an excuse to skip it, their hypothetical window-shopping excursion would suffice. Which means that she'd like to join him, and is checking with Jyn that it is all right with her.

"I guess we don't have to see them all today," Jyn says, and sees the flicker of relief in Nairi's face. "We can always go again next time." Which will be a good cover for more of their real work.

"I'll see you here about twenty standard, then, Dave." Nairi takes a step toward her partner to kiss him on the cheek. The way his arm wraps around her shoulders and she leans into the gesture, it looks genuinely affectionate.

"See you then, darling. And I'll cook. I don't trust the stuff they're teaching you in that class."

xxx

"He really is a nice guy, you know." Nairi sounds almost apologetic, which is strange considering that Jyn has come to the same conclusion on her own. "Despite being an Imperial." So that's where the apologetic tone comes from.

"Come on, I know they aren't all the same."

"His family, well, the men, have all served in the Navy, it's a family tradition, even before the Empire. When I met him five years ago he'd just arrived to be stationed here, and I was still finishing my graduate degree. I was no fan of the Empire but I wasn't planning on being a Rebel, either. And then, after Alderaan… he really was there for me. So even after I started working for the Alliance, I never really thought of leaving him. Doesn't make things easy, but here we are."

Living with someone is never easy, Jyn figures. Not even the best couples have it all perfect. Not even her parents, not she and Cassian; the trick is not having it easy, but making it work.

"So… what's our real plan?" Nairi prompts her when they have ridden her "official" vehicle, a beat-up airspeeder, a few blocks away from the apartment.

"You want to go to the class? If not, we could start straight away with the dead drops."

Nairi ponders the question for a couple of seconds. "I don't mind going to the class. And it will look better for the benefit of anyone who may be watching you."

"True. It's just that I've got about thirty locations lined up, there's no way we can get to all of them between the end of the class and dinner."

"Well, like you said to Davin, we don't have to see them all today. Plus, his ground leave ends tomorrow, so if you can think of another holodrama to go to, or another shopping arcade to explore, we can arrange to meet and see the rest of them tomorrow afternoon. That way we'll have time next week to finish the code patches for data feeds from the dead drop terminals and safehouses before the relay arrives."

"Sounds good." It is true that Jyn has become quite accomplished at pretend activities by way of a cover for her real work. The holodrama trick was an accidental discovery; she found out that the way the projection theaters are built, she can slip out via the refresher exit five minutes into the action – most of them are mind-numbing Imperial propaganda anyway – and then walk over to a turbolift to ride out on a rental swoop from several dozen floors below; and then arrive at the garage two hours later with potential minders none the wiser as to whether she came back from the projection hall or from an outside excursion. Shopping is more obvious subterfuge; not as good for covering up for her and Nairi's code-writing sessions in the safehouse, but perfectly suitable for scouting trips. Besides, shopping for civilian clothes for the first time in years gives her an unexpected thrill, especially seeing how Cassian enjoys seeing her out of uniform and in elegant dresses, for a change

"Let's do that," Jyn goes on. "Let's just see the dozen or so closest to the campus after class, and leave the rest until tomorrow. That way," she shoots Nairi a teasing sideways look, "you can spend more time with your sweetheart before he's due back on board the destroyer."

"Sweetheart. Really," she snorts. "No, I know it sounds terribly antiquated, but I actually prefer fiancé."

"Are you guys really thinking of getting married?"

Nairi's grin fades. "You know, the crazy thing is, I'd like to. He'd like to for sure, he's already asked me, like, three times, and every time I've said sure, just not right now." Her downbeat expression gives way to a scowl. "If I'm ever busted, his career will be over, at the very least. And I'm not sure how he'll react if he ever finds out by himself."

"Ever thought of telling him?"

"I have, but it's just… the risk is too great. If it were just me, just my life we were talking about, I'd be OK with it. But I can't endanger the intel. Maybe once we've seen that the relay works, I'll – no, I won't tell him, but maybe I'll say yes next time he asks me."

That's something, Jyn thinks. Nairi's AI dream may have to wait until a decisive victory, but all things considered, her marrying Davin does not look like such a bad idea.

xxx

"How was your day, darling?"

Sitting next to her on the couch, Cassian answers her truthfully, if silently, with a sour scowl, before following up with an official answer for their eavesdroppers' benefit.

"Uneventful, but productive. I trust to have been able to contribute to the Empire's glory."

"Ah, that's just wonderful, darling," she coos, and is immediately answered with a sarcastic eyeroll. In the three standard weeks they have spent here so far, Cassian has continually impressed her with his non-verbal vocabulary, using at least half a dozen different kinds of eyeroll to describe his days, and by now she has learned the meaning of each of those.

"Of course I could never dare to aspire to the invaluable contributions and wise leadership of Major Merkon," Cassian continues, struggling to keep an earnest tone. "He never fails to impress me with his intelligence and foresight."

Jyn has it easier than Cassian in terms of fooling surveillance, as no one but him can see the suppressed laughter on her face, but she still has to be careful not to snort or snicker out loud.

At this point into their stay, Cassian has found if not a cure, then at least an effective palliative for work frustration by regularly singing the praises of the Empire in general and Major Merkon in particular, in a deliciously sarcastic manner that is both extremely entertaining and somewhat unexpected. She never heard him use it before; then again, that should not be surprising as she knows that Cassian respects his Alliance peers and superiors too much to mock them.

This charade in itself would be great fun to witness, had he not recently taken to courting danger by taking it from the sitting couch onto the bed.

Where Jyn, in an ostensible effort to frustrate those spying on them, has discovered a heretofore-dormant propensity for sublimely dirty talk, Cassian, instead of trying to match her in that department, has been making full use of his seemingly unlimited capacity for sarcastic verbal mischief. He exacts a sneaky payback for her salacious suggestions by invoking his brilliant boss and the pillars of Imperial ideology at the least appropriate moments, severely testing her ability to suppress laughter, to the point that his shoulders are now covered in light bite marks from all the times she was too close to losing it.

"Have you met any interesting ambassadors?" she prompts him presently. Sure enough, if Nawara had showed up in person, Cassian would have found a way of alerting her; but this may be a cue for him to let her know if he has received any official information about the alleged Ryloth ambassador's upcoming arrival.

"Not today, my love." He raises his eyebrows for a fraction of a second to show her that he is similarly nonplussed.

She picks up a datapad from the low table and types up a note on a blank page. Do you think we should send him a message? Our data drop arrangement is almost done.

She deletes the words as soon as Cassian has read them; she formats the datapad memory every night, but it won't hurt to be careful.

He takes the pad from her hand and types the reply, likewise erasing it once she has read it. Let's wait a couple of days. We agreed he'd be here in a month and that is tomorrow. And I still need time for my data gathering.

Jyn nods her acknowledgement. The data gathering, of course, refers to the surreptitious daily data sweeps he does at his duty station, using several identical rigged datacards with undetectable virus-like executables that let him access and copy mainframe files without leaving any trace of the cards ever being plugged in. Every evening he brings the day's spoils to her on one of the cards, and she takes it to Nairi the following day, or the day after if they cannot arrange to meet, for the data to be sent on to the Alliance. Trouble is, the data they need most, the records that can inform them about the Emperor's upcoming travels, will only be within their reach once Cassian gets additional access rights as "Ambassador" Nawara's personal minder.

"Oh well," she mock-sighs, picking up the presumable thread of their pretend verbal conversation. "There'll be another chance tomorrow. How about we go out for dinner? I spent so much time shopping today that I never got around to setting the cooking program." In truth, they have come to consider the opportunity to regularly eat out as one of the best perks of their assignment, a welcome change from dry rations and MREs at the Alliance HQ officers' mess.

"I'd be happy to." This time, the good humour in his response is fully reflected in his face. "In fact I was about to suggest it myself." Their trips around Coruscant, be it to restaurants or under the pretence of sightseeing, have another collateral benefit, giving them a precious opportunity to actually talk, at least when they are out of the rigged speeder. It is there that he occasionally lets slip the details of the Imperials' detestable actions, but most of the time they just chat about whatever comes to mind, and she can tell that his reluctance to discuss Imperial business is due, in an equal if not greater measure, not just to the desire to shield her from ugly business, but from a need to forget and unwind.

Ironically, here, in the enemy's lair, they are probably having more unadulterated fun than they normally do on the Home One.There, they are often busy or tired, and their free time is often spent talking about Alliance business and looking at data. Here, unable to do either, they can just enjoy each other's company.

It reminds her, oddly, of the time they were stationed on Yavin.

When they came back from Dorvalla, after the Scarif stint, they got five standard days' leave by way of a honeymoon, which they mostly spent at their new quarters, save for a couple of bike rides into the jungle; but later on, they kept on riding around the verdant moon when they both had free time, and while the scenery could not be more different, the romantic chatter they share on their outings now is occasionally reminiscent of those times. She missed Yavin after they had to leave, six months after the battle; it was a happy place for them as places go, even if they were still at an early stage of finding their footing as a couple. What followed was a year and a half of jumping around and arguing about which of them was putting themselves at greater risk; and then, when they got past that hurdle, a year on Hoth, the base draughty, cramped and sort of forlorn, so much so that it was a relief to go back to living on a capital ship after that.

She wonders how they will ultimately remember their time on Coruscant.

They both are making good progress on their assignment, but all too often, she is uneasy with foreboding. They are not supposed to be enjoying this so much, which can only mean one thing.

They are likely headed for trouble.

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TBC

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I will aim to post the next chapter, where Nawara shows up and they hit the first glitch on this mission, by next weekend.