thereigning-lorelai:

for @ssa-alexandria who requested a rebelcaptain!serendipity au

(what it means) a fortunate accident

When Jyn Erso meets Cassian Andor she wouldn’t consider their meeting fortunate. It’s the last pair of black cashmere gloves they have and she wants them. It’s too cold outside to leave the mall without them and she definitely has not suffered this chaos two days before Christmas for nothing. Too many people in a too tiny place, grabbing everywhere, pushing and shoving ahead relentlessly. It takes every ounce of willpower to not throttle anyone.

Especially not the guy tugging at her pair of gloves.

“I saw them first,” she cries out and her eyes pierce threateningly into his. He has the audacity to smile at her. “I’m sorry,” he says. “You take them. It’s the last pair.”

Taken by surprise she just stares at him for a moment longer than strictly necessary.

“Excuse me,” he directs at the shop assistant next to them. “Do you have another pair of these?” She lays the gloves on the counter so the young man on the other side has a better look at them.

“Whatever’s out is what we have, sir,” the boy responds. “No stockroom?” the man next to her asks. “No. No attic or basement either.” And with this, the boy’s already gone – it’s probably not the first time today he had to answer a similar question.

“Well then, these are yours, I think.” His eyes are on her as he says it and she suddenly feels fuzzy and warm. They are warm and look like chocolate and she catches herself melting beneath their gaze. She reminds herself to breathe and tears her eyes away from his face. Before she can take the gloves again, someone pushes past her from behind and snatches them from the counter.

[continued under the cut because it got a bit longer…]

“Hey,” Jyn and the man with the nice brown eyes yell at the same time. His response is as quick as hers as they grab the gloves and make the other man stop in his tracks. “These are mine,” Jyn bursts out.

“Well, not when I buy them before you do,” that other guy has the guts to argue. Now she’s ready to throttle someone. She stares him down with a death glare and at least he’s smart enough to falter slightly.

“You see,” brown-eyed guy next to her starts, “these are meant as a special gift for someone and we’ve discussed this for a long time and they are quite perfect.” The other guy looks skeptical. “Who are they for?” 

Her… well, he’s her partner now, isn’t he? He’s looking to her, waiting for a cue, “For my boyfriend,” she says at the same time as he says, “For my girlfriend.” And they could have done this better but now they’re running with it.

“You see, he’s my boyfriend right now but…” she begins but doesn’t have much else. He looks at her comically, “… but, in a few months, he, well she, will be my girlfriend after… after the transition.” The other guy looks at them like they’ve each grown a second head but he finally lets go of the gloves. He backs away slowly, shaking his head. “You know, whatever. Merry Christmas.” And with that he’s gone and Jyn smiles triumphantly. Her partner-in-crime also lets go of the gloves and meets her gaze with a smile as bright as hers.

“Thanks for helping me there, I… think I owe you one?” It’s more a question than anything else. She’s not quite sure why she says it – she definitely could have handled this on her own. Maybe with more violence but she could have done it.

They end up having a coffee anyway although Jyn’s still not sure what it is about him that makes her want to spend one of her last evenings before going back home with him. But then he smiles again and there is that weird and fluttery feeling in her stomach again.

“This is a nice place,” she says over the rim of her cup. “How’d you find it?”

“The name,” he says matter-of-factly, swirling the milk in his coffee. “Serendipity?” It comes as a surprise to him, she sees it, that she’s noticed and remembered it. But he recovers quickly and nods. “It’s one of my favourite words. It means ‘a fortunate accident’.”

She looks at him curiously. She didn’t take him for the guy being interested in linguistics. Not that she knows him. Not that she knows anything about him, really. They haven’t even exchanged names yet.

“Not that I really believe in accidents… it’s more like… fate.” And with this he looks directly into her eyes and she knows that he feels it, too. This strange connection. He doesn’t feel like a stranger, more like a kindred soul. (If Jyn ever really believed in such a thing.)

“It’s like having faith,” he continues softly. “Faith?” She didn’t take him for a religious person either. “Faith in what?” His answer comes fast and without a doubt in his voice. “Destiny.” And she realises it probably has nothing to do with religion.

–

They want to go their separate ways, afterwards. He pays the bill, they say their goodbyes – she goes left, he goes right, intending to never see each other again. At the next traffic light she notices she’s left the gloves behind – and he left his shawl, she realises when she’s back to grab her shopping bag. They look at each other again, and this time she smiles, too. (She has a boyfriend, she knows he has a girlfriend… whom he wanted to buy gloves for. It isn’t meant to be, it’s not the right time, but still…)

“Let’s do something.”

–

At the end of the evening, she at least knows his name – Cassian – and she knows the feeling of his hands tracing the freckles on her arms when he connects them with a pen and tells her it looks like Cassiopeia. She knows his laugh and his smile and his favourite movie. She also knows that the both of them have the worst timing ever.

“So,” she starts when they’re standing on the pavement waiting for a cab. She hands him the pen and watches as he writes down his number on the five dollar note before grabbing it and throwing it into the hands of the next person walking past them.

He raises his eyebrow but says nothing. She smirks at him. “If it was fate that we met tonight, then this will find its way to me and I’ll be able to call you.”

“What about you?” Now it’s her turn to look at him surprised. “Shouldn’t there be something with your name and number out in the universe for me to find?” he challenges her.

She looks around and finds the small bookshop at the corner. He stays behind, waiting patiently while she grabs a first edition of “Love in the Time of Cholera” and scribbles her name and her number on the first page right beneath the title.

“Okay, see this?” She shows him the cover. “I’ll sell this to another bookshop first thing tomorrow. And from now on, whenever you’ll walk past a copy of this book, you’ll have to look inside and see if it’s the right one.”

She can’t believe she’s doing this. It’s insane, absolutely ridiculous. She doesn’t know this man.

“My name’s Jyn, by the way.” And with that she hails a cab and says her goodbye. A real one, this time around.

They won’t see each other again for five years. They won’t stop thinking about each other until they find each other again.