There won't be update tomorrow most probably, so I'm posting the third chapter today.
Note: I've made a small plot change concerning Jyn's stay in Kafrene, nothing important. I've changed a line in chapter one, to make it coherent with the development of the story. If you check chapter 1 end's note which I've left there, you'll see which line it is.
Sorry for the minor inconvenience, it's just a very small change, truly. :-)

Tikus was taking the measure of the two strangers in front of him. He didn't try to hide his initial mistrust. "So these are your saviors. And why would a human with the appearance of a thief and an Imperial droid want to save a pretty girl's life?," the zabrak asked corrosively.

"Not Imperial anymore," Kay highlighted, with an offended inflection. Again, Jyn was on the verge of giggling at the droid's reactions.

"That's what you say. But you haven't answered my question, guys. This wouldn't be the first girl targeted here on Kafrene by pervs and sex traffickers. What reason would you have apart from exploiting her for your own filthy depravations and others' as well?"

Jeron kept a respectful stance, but he didn't look intimidated either. "I know it's difficult to believe, but we heard she was in trouble and went to the rescue without thinking twice. I'm not a saint, but looking the other way while an innocent is being attacked next to me is something my damned conscience batters me about."

Tikus was piercing Jeron with his stare, and he must have found at least part of what he was looking for, as he relaxed slightly, Jyn noticed.

"As a droid, I'm aware that it's impossible for sentients to read my true intentions, as I have the advantage of expressionlessness, what the underdeveloped sentients lack." At that, Jyn passed a snort for a cough. Kay was the less expressionless droid she'd crossed paths with. "But I vouch for my friend's sincerity. He's saved people in danger before, even if that got him into trouble and against my sound advice."

Force, this droid. At that point, she couldn't tell if Tikus was planning to deactivate Kay and sell his bodily parts as junk, or if he was giving him the benefit of the doubt. She watched Jeron shoot an exasperated glare at his friend.

"So you admit that you'd allow an innocent girl to be raped and murdered, droid?," Tikus lunged accusingly.

"Only if saving her were incompatible with keeping my boss sound and safe. Other than that, I see no quandary in stepping in," Kay admitted with his blunt honesty. Jyn ignored if that feature was incredibly sweet or bizarre, or if the droid was earning points with Tikus or the other way round. The situation couldn't be more absurd.

Jeron must be thinking the same as her. She was sure he was contemplating committing crime with his own companion. "As you see, my droid has the habit of saying everything that crosses his circuits. And he can't help being very loyal to me, it's another consequence of his reprogramming, so please don't blame him for it. I'm the one who should be judged here," the man said in Kay's defense.

That's sweet. I've rarely seen people who treat droids with so much tact, deference and affection. That says a lot about a person's nature. Jyn herself had never had occasion to deal a lot with droids. She remembered vaguely a domestic droid in their apartment on Coruscant, who her parents treated with respect and care, and who Jyn herself, as a little girl, tried to engage in her mischiefs, to the poor creature's dismay and infinite display of patience. But once they fled and settled in Lah'mu, their parents didn't acquire any more droids to help them with their daily tasks.

Now, watching her new human acquaintance interact with his peculiar partner, her residual doubts about his nature were dissipating little by little.

She'd met lots of heartless and haughty people who believed that droids were inferior beings. That because they weren't sentients, they didn't feel or have their own thoughts and inner worlds. That they were as disposable as any piece of junk.

That was one of the Imperials' views on the implacable social hierarchy. And that was the reason why their droids were programmed for just obeying and being single-minded. It didn't do for an authoritarian and oppressive regime to produce droids with their own free will and personality. Tyranny was the enemy of freedom.

And Kay was one of the most striking banners of freedom that Jyn had ever seen. He had his own unique personality and he followed Jeron by his own will, not by imposition, because it was evident that the man had earned his friend's total devotion.

Yeah, that said a lot about a man like Jeron. And Jyn was beginning to respect him much more for that.

He was much, much more than he let on, and Jyn was very intrigued by him. Once more, that scared her, because she didn't want to feel that kind of attachment. She'd managed quite well on her own for years. Attachments are a weakness. Saw's stern voice drilled her mind. Don't let yourself get attached, that way no one will betray you. They can only betray you if you let them in. If only she'd truly learned that lesson. The only person she'd trusted for years, since her parents' loss, had been the one to betray her the worst. Saw had ditched her like garbage, abandoned her to her own devices.

She'd learned the hard way, but either way, attachments were unavoidable sooner or later, no matter how much one tried to avoid them.

Since Saw had left her behind, there had been other inevitable attachments, born of desperation and necessity. Akshaya and Hadder, both lost as well, like everyone else she had loved. A long while later, Tikus had succeeded in breaching her defenses. But he'd been her only attachment in entire years. All the other people she'd met were like shadows, including her scarce sexual partners. They'd been males she'd worked with during her brief periods in some cities and towns on different planets. They weren't romantic involvements, just sex. Sharing her body with those strangers was the only source of warmth and touch she allowed herself, but she never gave anything of her soul, of her heart. Not a single bit of her past was given away. After a while staying in the same place, she invariably felt trapped, felt the need to flee, so she ran away like the criminal and madcap she was (she'd actually been a thief, a forger, a smuggler and a swindler, and she had left behind her a trail of dead scum) and that had been her life since Akshaya's and Hadder's deaths, until the present day.

Since Hadder, no other man had come close to even grazing her heart. No person had won her friendship, except for Tikus. He was like a father figure, a protector. She stayed in his apartment and started to work in his bar and no clients dared to disrespect her, both because Tikus was fearsome in his tough way, and because Jyn knew how to deal with the type. She'd lied to Jeron and Kay when she'd said that they were going to visit an old friend. She hadn't felt like giving away yet that she actually lived there.

That day was the first time she'd been attacked since she'd settled in Kafrene. She normally was more careful than that.

And then, Jeron and Kay had made their appearance as her saviors. Not something to be proud of, but otherwise she would be dead, or worse, enslaved as a sex toy by the Hutts. In her range of priorities, there were worse fates than death.

Well, she supposed it couldn't do so much more harm than she was used to endure, to get to know that pair better.

She tried to shush the inner voice which whispered in her ear that her interest in the human male was more than she felt comfortable with.

She realized she'd zoned out from the scene in front of her. It seemed that Tikus had decided to give the man and the droid a chance, and offered Jeron a drink, which he accepted.

Jyn went to take her place behind the counter and beside Tikus.