Rebelcaptain fic: Hey, Neighbor

cats-and-metersticks:

Aka, a very silly bike au written for @leaiorganas and @gloriouswhisperstyphoon

In which Cassian is an adorable nerd and Jyn has a chip on her shoulder. 

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After a year and a half of living on a grad student stipend, Jyn liked to think her needs were simple. Decent coffee, a reasonable landlord, and an apartment close enough to bike to campus. So she didn’t think it was too much to ask to be home by 6 when she was lucky enough to leave work by 5:30. If she really booked it up that first hill, she’d make it home before it was predicted to rain. She’d gotten to work early, securing a prime spot on her favorite bike rack before it filled up. Of course, there were plenty of spaces now, but it must’ve been packed earlier because there was another bike locked to the other side of the same arch.

She frowned as she got closer. It was much nicer than hers, and secured with a bewildering combination of three (three) locks connecting the frame and both wheels to the rack. It was awkward to reach around and get her key into her U-lock, and then to untangle the handlebars and brake cables.

The air was getting heavier by the minute, the sky turning an ominous dark grey. She needed to get out of here. Her handlebars free, she started to pull her bike away from the rack.

Or, tried to. She turned around to see what the back end could possibly be caught on, and her heart sank when she realized her rear wheel had been looped in by the other bike’s thickest cable lock.

“God fucking dammit!” Jyn looked around, willing the owner to walk out of the building and free them, but of course the door remained stubbornly shut.

Her options, she realized, were limited. If she started walking now, chances were good she’d be caught in the rain, so she might as well wait and be caught in the rain on her bike, where it would be over faster. So she retreated, fuming, into the library to a table with a good view of the bike racks, ready to give this guy a piece of her mind.

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