"Hey, look! A rock!" Jyn grins, pointing to a pebble on the beach. "That's very gneiss."

I groan.  We're walking to the mountains, which isn't that bad.  However, Jyn has been pointing out random things and making puns with them for at least two hours.  Which makes the trip a lot less enjoyable.  How does she even come up with all of these horrible puns?  Why do I have to deal with this?!

"Hey, look! A bird!" she says, laughing at my frustration.  "Hey, I'm talon you, these puns are great!"

I smack my head. "Jyn! Stop!"

"Are you saying that my puns aren't-" she starts, but I cover her mouth, Jyn struggling under my grip.  

"Not another word." I warn.  "Think about your next sentence carefully.  No more puns."

She rips my hand off of her mouth.  "Are you saying my puns aren't any good?"

I sigh.  "Thanks for not making another pun about something stupid."

"Like a pun about bread?" she suggests.

I laugh.  "I'm sure you could never think of a bread pun."

"Oh, I dunno.  I'm on a roll today." she says casually.

I sigh, happy that she didn't make another pun.  Until I realize that she did make another pun.  I look over at her, seeing her silently laughing.

"Oh, that was sneaky!" I laugh, Jyn looking at me mischievously.  "Roll.  Ha ha.  You almost sneaked that one past me! That was pretty good, as far as puns go."

"See, I think you like my puns.  You're just too stubborn to admit it!" she accuses.

"No." I say honestly.  "I really don't like them.   But it's definitely you, and you look adorable when you laugh. So I tolerate it."

"Aww, you like my laugh! That's so sweet!" Jyn smiles.  "Now you just have to like my puns, and we'll be best buds forever!"

"Aren't we already friends?" I point out.

"Uh, yeah.  But we're not best buds forever."  she corrects.

"I'm pretty sure we've past that point." I laugh.  "I'm fairly sure that best friends don't make out."

She shrugs.  "So we're friends that kiss.  What do you call that?"

I can instantly think of a word to meet those requirements, but I have to stop for a minute.  Would Jyn like it? Would she shun me if I said it? However, she has kissed me a lot, so she probably won't mind.  Hopefully.  "A couple?" I suggest.

Her eyes go wide.  "Ooh, are we dating?  Please tell me we're dating."

"Uh, technically I don't think so, but sure." I confirm, laughing.  "Yes, we're dating now."

"This calls for a fist bump." Jyn insists, raising her fist up.  I grin, obliging her.  As I move my hand forward to bump her hand, she moves opens her hand and palms my fist.  

"SARLACC!" she yells, smirking.  She wiggles her fingers, mimicking the tentacles of a sarlacc.

I roll my eyes, chuckling. "Really? That's so immature."

"Is it?" Jyn says, looking bored.  "Hmm.  Whatever."

We continue walking, sharing short stories and the occasional pun when the conversation goes quiet.  As the day goes on, the conversation goes quiet, and we both become lost in our own thoughts.  I'm honestly quite worried about the Rebellion.  If they're found, the Empire will stop at nothing to completely obliterate them.  I really hope that there's a settlement on this mountain.  If not, we're doomed.  The Empire would probably surround and arrest us, and that'll be it.  My time with Jyn would be over.  No more kisses, no hope, no future.  Shaking that scary thought out of my head, I look over to Jyn, who's deep in thought.  Her eyes look to the horizon, blank and unfocused, and almost sad.  I wonder what the heck she's thinking about that could make her so numb and unaware to reality.  But that's probably okay, because she'd be making a lot of dumb puns if she wasn't thinking so much.  Her soft hair billows slightly in the wind in a steady rhythm, making me slightly obsessed with it.  I want to touch it so badly right now.  But she'd probably kill me if I did that, so I suppress my urge and try to focus on something else that's less distracting.  I try to look to something else, anything else, but I can't.  Jyn is too incredible and beautiful.  She's covered in grime and dirt, but that makes her look even tougher.  Somehow, it makes her look even hotter.  I have no idea how that works, but whatever.  I guess I'm a sucker for badass women who don't care at all about their looks.  Although I've never dated any other women... so maybe I'm just a sucker for Jyn.

"Hey, Jyn?" I ask carefully.

"Yeah?" she replies, still not really listening to me.

"Should we stop for the day and rest?" I ask her.

"I don't want coconut. I'm not hungry." she replies, lost in her thoughts.

I blink.  She clearly isn't listening to a thing I'm saying.  Which gives me a really great idea. I have a lot of really great ideas.

"So, I work for the Empire now." I state, seeing if she's paying attention.

"I'm not tired yet." Jyn says.

"A bantha just ran over me."

"Okay, soon."

"I'm going to set myself on fire."

"Did you say something?"

"I have decided that I like puns."

Suddenly, Jyn perks up and looks over to me.  "Really?!"

I laugh.  "Did you hear anything I said before that?"

"You said something?" she looks genuinely confused.

I roll my eyes.  "I said, let's stop and camp out here."

"Oh.  Okay." she says.  We stop on the beach, walking around and collecting sticks for the fire.

"But seriously, you like puns now?" she probes.

"No.  I was trying to get your attention.  You were pretty lost in your thoughts."  I explain.  "What were you thinking about?"

She turns her back to me and picks up more sticks, but from what I could see before she turned away, Jyn is upset. She clearly doesn't want to think about it again. "Oh.  Um..."

I mentally criticize myself for asking about something that she obviously doesn't want to tell me.  "It's okay, forget I asked.  I'm sorry." 

"No, no.  It's fine." she says, waving off my apology. 

"You don't have to tell me." I reassure her.  "But is there anything I can do to help?"

"I think you already know the answer to that question." she smiles sadly.

I smile back, dropping the sticks on the beach and holding my arms out for a hug.  "C'mere, you."

She drops her sticks, coming over to me and wrapping her arms around my torso.  I lightly run my fingers on her back, comforting her as best as I can.  She shivers ever so slightly in my grasp. I squeeze her a little tighter just in case she's cold, although I don't think it was from the temperature.  Leaning into my touch, she stands on her tiptoes to peck me on the cheek, sliding her hand up to my neck. She slowly shrinks down to her regular height, and presses the side of her face into my chest.  

She sighs happily, making my heart melt just a little.  "You always know just what to do.  Thank you, mi luna."

"You're absolutely welcome, mi estrella." I reply, kissing her on the top of her forehead.  

"I'll tell you someday.  I promise." she says, gazing up at me.

I nod, and Jyn gently removes her arms, going to pick up the sticks that she dropped. 

Building the fire takes no time at all.  The hard part is trying to get it started.  I attempt to start it using friction between a stick and a log, but the wood is really wet here, for some reason.  It's not really working.  Jyn is off collecting something in the brush.  I have no idea what she's doing, and she doesn't want me to see it, so I really have no idea.  Since the sticks aren't working, I walk on the shoreline, seeing if anything else might work.  The waves run over my feet, moving shells and pebbles.  I come across two rocks.  One of them sparkles and is a brilliant green color, and the other looks a lot like flint. For some reason, I'm drawn to the green one.  I can't quite place it, but I really like it.  Maybe Jyn can identify it for me.  I pick them both up, knowing that I can always put them back.  I know that the flint can help me light the fire, but I need metal to do that. 

I go back to the wood, searching for a piece of metal, but I can't find any.  "Hey Jyn!" I yell.  "Do you have any metal?"

"Are you kidding?" she yells back.  "You can't seriously think I go anywhere without a knife!"

"Can I use it to start the fire?"

"Yeah, sure! Want me to throw it to you?" she asks.

"Uh, no! Please walk it over.  I don't want to be impaled."

Even from this distance, I can tell she's rolling her eyes.  She walks over to me.  "It's a pocket knife.  You wouldn't get hurt."

"Throwing knives is a bad idea." I counter.  She hands me the pocket knife, and I scrape the flint on the blade, trying to get it to spark, but I have no luck.  Jyn looks over at me.

"No, no.  You're not doing it right.  It needs to be more at an angle." she says, holding her hand out.  "Can I try?"

"Sure.  Go for it." I reply, handing the rock and knife to her.  She sits down, makes one stroke and lights the small twigs on fire.  My jaw drops.  Here I am, trying to do this for like thirty minutes, and she does it in less than five seconds.  The fire starts to ignite, slowly becoming stronger as time passes.  She hands the knife and flint back to me.

"How did you do that?" I marvel.  

She shrugs. "This isn't the first fire I've had to light."

She sits down next to me, laying out the things she's been collecting.  She has a variety of white flowers of different shapes and sizes, a few leaves and long twigs.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"You'll see." she grins.  Her hands begin to weave, intertwining the flowers and the sticks.  I watch in awe as she does it effortlessly, like it's second nature.  She continues to twist them over and over, almost braiding it together.  She connects the two ends, creating a wreath.  It's a flower crown.  Smiling, she leans over and sets it on my head.

"I look fabulous." I grin stupidly.

She laughs.  "You look great."

I take off the wreath, gesturing for her to sit in front of me.  "It'll look better on you."  I carefully turn her around so she's facing the same direction as me. I take out the bun that she has in and I slowly run my fingers through her hair, combing through as many of the knots as possible.  I lightly place the crown on her head.  Picking up a few segments of her hair from the front of her head, I cross them over the crown where there isn't any flowers, lacing it into the hair.  Every crossover that I do, I pull in a segment of hair from her neck, pulling it up into the braid.  I continue to work my way to the other side, making sure that I pull all of her hair into the braid, leaving nothing behind.  I finish it off by tucking the remaining hair into the crown. In the end, the twigs of the flower crown are covered with a dutch braid, the flowers peeking out of either side.  All of her hair is in the braid, and I must say, she looks absolutely amazing.  Her strong, slender neck muscles show through her skin as she turns her head sideways, talking to me.

"I wish I could see what you did." she laughs.  "I don't know if it's a good or bad thing."

I give her the knife so she can see her reflection.  Her face shines in the blade, and her expression turns to one of wonder as she sees what I did.

"Oh my, Cassian.  This looks incredible.  I didn't know you could braid so well!" she says, awestruck.  

"I learned it when I was-" I start.

"In the Rebellion." Jyn finishes. "Let me guess. Some girls were braiding each other's hair, and you learned how to do it."

I laugh.  "Yeah, pretty much."

She turns around to face me, her knees touching mine.  "How do I look?" she asks jokingly.

Upon seeing her from the front, my heart does a back flip.  She's ethereal.  Her beautiful face and hair have a timeless simplicity to them.  The white flowers complement her face, making her look sophisticated and elegant, yet powerful at the same time.  My body weakens slightly at her beaming expression.  She's so freaking beautiful I could cry.  And I know I could, because Jyn wouldn't care at all.

"You look so beautiful." I reply weakly.  Her ineffable eyes lock onto mine, beaming with joy. "You're such an incredible woman."

"I don't deserve you." she replies.  "I've done too many bad things in my life to deserve such an amazing boyfriend."

"I don't deserve you either." I reply quietly.  "So I guess that's another thing we have in common."

Before either of us fully realize it, we're kissing again, filling each other with passion and hope.  We may be trapped on a desolate world.  But we have each other, and in my opinion, that's all that we'll ever really need.