The former was gray and snowy, harsh mountains covered perpetually by a low-lying level of dreary fog; whereas the latter was clear skies conquered by the occasional violent thunderstorm, green land and black sand and cold, vicious ocean.
Fest and Lah’mu may have had nothing in common, but Cassian Andor and Jyn Erso acted like they did.
Cassian was reserved, responsible, the youngest Senator that the Republic had seen in decades – and the greatest representative the Festians had ever elected. Fest and its problems were brought to the forefront of galactic politics for the first time in living memory because of his efforts, and he was respected because of it.
Jyn Erso was the daughter of Senator Lyra Erso, the latest in a long political dynasty stretching back to the Sith Wars. She was brought up in the political arena, grew up in the Senate chambers and prepared to take over her mother’s position one day. But she lacked the passion her mother seemed to have for bureaucracy and debate.
They met a one of Leia’s parties; a classy yet unbridled affair intended for the youngest generation of democratic representatives, responsible young beings with reputations to maintain but still a burning desire to have fun, even if just for a night.
They met because Jyn hid from the rest of the party in one of the spare rooms in Leia’s penthouse, and Cassian found her there. They kissed because they were both slightly buzzed and each found the other to be the most beautiful person in that moment.
(His lips were warm, and soft, and they moved over hers in a way that made her knees weak. She curled her arms around his neck, threading her fingers through his thick, beautiful hair and tugging lightly.)
(Her lips were restless, always moving; from his lips to his cheekbone to his neck and back again, nipping and biting and then smoothing over with the tip of her tongue. He kept one arm around her waist and used the other to cup her face, gently, delicately, as if she wasn’t all fiery passion and need.)
(They did not sleep together, but she fell asleep in his arms that night; and when he woke in the morning she was gone.)
He didn’t see Jyn again until she came to his office, weeks later, with a trade proposal she had developed; a proposal that would strengthen the bond between Fest and Lah’mu, allow for their respective industrial-manufacturing and agrarian economies to complement each other.
It was brilliant, the proposal – the proposal that would eventually become the Mid-Rim trade pact and span sixteen systems, fifty-eight planets, and countless minor moons – but so was her smile when he offered his help in passing the proposal into law, and he found himself more transfixed by the latter.
(Fest and Lah’mu, depsite having nearly nothing in common, became the closest of political allies after Cassian Andor met Jyn Erso.)
(This was due in no small part to the efforts of Senator Andor, in finding every possible excuse to seek out the advice of the Lah’mu Senator’s daughter. For diplomatic purposes.)
say you love me 