↫Story↬

A heavy rain patters against the hull of the currently disabled ship you’re in, the previous adrenaline from the crash landing that took place mere minutes ago ebbing away from your body as you haul yourself from your seat, stumbling into the cargo bay. Your Partner, Cassian Andor, had done the same earlier, stumbling out into the apparent storm to assess the damage to the vessel, leaving just you and your thoughts as you sigh heavily, unrolling the sleeping bag from the duffel bag you always bring along on Missions like these. “Hopefully this storm keeps up and keeps us hidden down here,” His familiarly warm tone sounds as the door whisks open, revealing the wind and rain before he steps inside. You nod silently as he sheds his outer jacket. “Hopefully - considering this bucket of bolts doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon,” You mutter, tossing the manual you’d been flipping through absentmindedly aside in frustration, snuggling into your sleeping bag. “We’ll have to hope there’s still an Imperial ship left to steal,” Your Partner suggests, taking a seat on the floor by your side as he passes you a glance, his gaze carrying something you can’t quite make out within it. But, as you both sit there, in the quiet of the half lifeless ship - the odd beeps and whirrs occurring - it finally clicks with you at what the man you’ve grown closer and closer to each day since you’d joined the Rebellion is likely trying to convey. “They were never going to believe you.” At this, you sigh heavily, knowing right well where this conversation is no likely headed - the usual lecture about how whenever he tags along with you on your Missions against the Council’s wishes, this is where the pair of you always seem to end up: stranded in the middle of nowhere. But, as the man sitting at your side begins to speak once more, the softness in his tone takes you by surprise, coupled with the light squeeze as he takes your hand in his. “But I do. I believe you,” Cassian assures, offering a small smile to which you return on instinct, still trying to get your head wrapped around the seemingly intimate moment at hand. “I often wonder how you can believe me, considering I used to live the life of a liar,” You muse with a frown that turns into a thin lipped grin as you continue. “But then again, we’ve all done things we regret, right? And besides, I’m fighting the good fight now…” You allow your voice to trail off, a rumble of thunder sending a shiver down your spine as your thoughts begin to wander, memories, or more like jagged recollections of past events prick your headspace. Even fighting the good fight has its own horrors - horrors that you know for certain Cassian has witnessed himself. And almost as if he had somehow read your mind, the man at your side wordlessly shifts closer to you, wrapping an arm around your torso and pulling you into his side, voice lowering slightly. “Everything I did, I did for the Rebellion. Every time I walked away from something I wanted to forget, I told myself it was for a cause that I believed in,” He hums lowly, his voice alone soothing your troubled mind as he passes you a glance once more. But this time, you recognize the glimmer in his gaze. “A cause that was worth it. Because without that, we’re lost. Everything we’ve done would’ve been for nothing.” All you can muster up is yet another thin-lipped smile, your head resting heavy against his shoulder as you gaze up at him through fatigued eyes that mirror his own. “Thank you, Cassian,” You mumble drowsily, the rain and thunder beginning to lull you to sleep. And as you drift off into a rather light slumber, the soft melodies of the few songs the pair of you have stored on the datadrive you carry for times like these, join you. But when the first song ends and you feel your Partner relax beneath your touch, you could swear you hear him whisper, “Welcome home,” before he joins you in your slumber.