Reunited (and it feels so good)

It had been six long months since Ryder had been deployed. The moons shone brightly in the night sky as Ryder walked up to the coffee shop that also acted as Jackie’s home. Ryder was surprised to see the lights still on as she stepped inside, ignoring the closed sign in the window. The faint smell of coffee put Ryder at ease as she looked around, spotting Jackie asleep at one of the tables with an empty cup of coffee in front of her. Across the table was a second cup, long cold by now, filled with Ryder’s favorite drink. 

Smiling softly, Ryder made her way over, setting her bag down and she gently shook Jackie’s shoulder to wake her up. Jackie opened her eyes slowly, squinting at the light before she awoke quickly. 

“Ryder!” 

Jackie quickly stood up, stepping forward and crushing Ryder in a hug. Ryder laughed as she hugged back, picking Jackie off the ground a bit as she kissed her cheek. 

“I’m sorry I was late. I had some trouble getting your present delivered properly.”

Jackie looked surprised. “My present? You didn’t have to get me anything! I’m just happy you’re home.” 

“Quiet. I wanted to get it for you.” 

Ryder pulls away from the hug and goes over to her bag, searching around for a second before she pulls out a bag of light green coffee beans. Jackie’s eyes light up at the sight. 

“Ryder, you didn’t”

“Oh I most certainly did” 

Jackie grabbed the bag, staring at it in a mixture of awe and disbelief.

“But you can only buy this in that small village on Insurn. I thought your deployment didn’t go by there.”

“Actually, we had a detour and ended up passing through. I thought I would grab a bag for you-”

Ryder was cut off as Jackie pulled her down into a kiss, smiling happily. “Oh, Ryder, this is amazing! I’ll make this bright and early tomorrow morning. I already planned to have the shop closed all of tomorrow too.” 

Jackie stared at the bag again, flattered that Ryder remembered such a small detail of one of Jackie’s many ramblings about coffee types. 

“That’s not all I got. I managed to find something very special while I was there.” 

Ryder reached into her pocket, pulling out a small item wrapped in tissue paper.

“I didn’t have time to find a bow, hope that’s okay”

Jackie set the coffee bag down as she took the item, unwrapping it. She nearly dropped it when she saw what was inside. A small tin of a dozen or so coffea seeds lay inside with an instructional pamphlet on how to grow them. 

“Ryder! How did you-?” 

“Eh, I had a few strings I could pull.” 

“How can you be so casual about this!? These are literal coffea seeds! Oh my stars, I can grow my own, this is incredible! Oh Ryder, thank you thank you thank you!”

Jackie pulled Ryder into another kiss as she started to ramble on about the beans and their properties. The two spent the night together cuddling and sharing affection, happy that they were reunited once again.