To find a home (A Modern Setting Rogue One Story)

Tough Love

It was 10 minutes before the first bell would ring, and Cassian was standing by his locker. His gaze locked upon Jyn, standing across the hall. He wasn't looking forward to this confrontation, but she needed to know about how he was feeling, and it couldn't wait. He took a deep breath as he balled his hands into fists, feeling his nails dig into his skin. He walked over to Jyn.

'Jyn.'

She turned around, smiling as she saw him. 'Hey.' She said cheerfully, but slowly dropped her smile as she saw Cassian's sad face. 'What's wrong?' she asked?

He again took a deep breath. 'Did you really get a black eye from getting hit by a rake Jyn or...'

'Yes, of course.' She cut him off.

'Or did your foster father hit you?'

Jyn looked surprised, but not a look of surprise that indicated she was surprised by the accusation. It was a kind of surprise that was mixed with fear, showing she was surprised he had found out. 'Why would you say that?' she stammered.

Cassian's face hardened slightly and he took her wrist, rolling up her sleeve, revealing more bruises. 'I asked Kay to look up your foster father, Jyn.' He shook his head, avoiding her gaze. 'I know we haven't been dating for that long, but I can't believe you lied to me about this.'

'What good would it do to tell you?! We can't change it.'

'Yes!' Now sounding angry, Cassian, without noticing had hardened his grip on Jyn's wrist. 'Yes, Jyn, you can. You can press charges.'

She shook her head. 'They'll never believe me.'

'You don't know that.' He let go of her wrist. 'But if you don't want to try to fix it, then I don't want to do this anymore.'

'No.' She mouthed, and the expression on her face nearly broke Cassian's heart.

'I'm sorry Jyn but I can't stand by and watch as you let someone hurt you without taking action. I love you too much for that.'

For a moment they stared at each other before Cassian finally turned around and left. He heard Jyn calling after him, bit he pressed his eyes closed, pushing away the tears and just kept walking.

It was nearly 4 in the afternoon when Kay found Cassian running around the track field. By the look of it, he had been running for over half an hour, but it took at least another 10 minutes for Cassian to finally top running. He sat down on the lowest bench of the bleachers, breathing heavily. Kay moved down the steps and sat down next to his friend.

'How long have you been running?'

Cassian took his phone out of his backpack to check the time and turned his attention back to his friend. 'About 50 minutes.'

'You know that there was a pretty high chance of you passing out halfway through.'

'Not now, Kay. I don't need that kind of stuff, right now.'

'I saw Jyn crying. What happened?'

Cassian rubbed his face and ran his hands through his hair. 'I broke up with her.' He mumbled. The tiredness obvious in his voice, his accent thicker than usual.

Kay looked somewhat confused. 'Why?' There was very little emotion in his voice other than the pure confusion. Cassian sighed. 'You know she lied to me, Kay. Her foster father is abusing her, and she refuses to do something about it. I can't sit by and just watch her ruin her life. I can't sit by and watch as she lets someone hurt her without doing anything about it. I just can't do it.'

Kay just looked at his friend. 'That seems strange. I thought you loved her, wouldn't that mean you would want to stick around and help her?'

'I love her, yes. And because of that, it hurts to see her get hurt. Even more so if she is letting someone do it. I broke up with her, because staying around that hurts too much.'

'I still don't understand it.' Kay stated dryly, making Cassian smile slightly.

'Yeah, thanks kay.' Another chuckle as he got up from the bench and picked up his bag. 'I'm gonna head home, man. I'll see you around.'

Kay shrugged, satisfied that his friend laughed,assuming he'd be okay. But as soon as Kay was out of sight and earshot,Cassian's smile fell quickly and the tears pricked at the back of his eyes.