"Sorry that you had to leave so hastily because of me," Cassian apologized from his pilot seat in the cockpit. Jyn had taken the copilot one, though it was patent that he knew extremely well his way around ships, whereas she on the other hand had very limited experience flying them. The partisans were experts at guerrilla tactics and ground operations, not at airborne or space attacks. And besides, they didn't have enough resources to afford more than a handful of old secondhand ships and very few pilots. So Jyn had just learned the basics of flight, and she only trusted herself to act as a copilot if the circumstances required it and there was no other way around it. But seeing that Cassian was such a natural, she didn't offer her assistance. For the time being at least. The trip to Ferrix was short and sublight anyway. It was already a miracle that the ancient rusty bucket they were in could do more than falling apart. She smiled to herself, wondering how Cassian would have managed to take her to a further destination before both of them turned old and grey inside that piece of junk.

"Don't be sorry. Knocking out those ruffians made my day. And you've spared me from having sex with them. I would have had to agree to it one of these nights if I wanted to keep the job for the couple of weeks I originally intended to. Now I don't regret one bit running away from that place and from those sons of bitches. At least this night hasn't gone totally to waste. They carried decent weapons and a fair amount of credits with them, mostly a result of extortion, I'd bet. They blackmailed a lot of businesspeople around the district. Everyone hated them, especially the girls in the brothels. I should have cut off their cocks for good measure," Jyn confessed bitterly.

From the corner of her eye, she saw how Cassian bit his lip, undoubtedly hesitating to ask her the inevitable question she knew would come out. "Excuse me for my nosiness, and of course you don't have to answer. But... how can you endure it? I'm not judging you, for the record. I admire your strength, truly. I don't think I'd be capable myself."

Jyn felt surprised and touched by his declaration, in spite of herself. No one had stopped to regard her as a person with feelings in a very long time. "I'm not a regular sex worker," she admitted honestly and ashamed. "I only resort to it in desperate times. Though unfortunately, lately I've been through a few of those rough times. A couple of weeks ago I was assaulted and robbed. Starvation was on the horizon for me after that, so you can imagine the rest," she finished in a dull tone, not looking at him. She felt more than saw Cassian's sympathetic shudder next to her, and his genuine concern was like a balm to her battered spirit. Then she added: "Each time I have to do it, I imagine that I'm in another place where I'm happy. Or how I imagine happiness should be."

"Hey," he said softly, grazing her knuckles very softly with his fingers, like the kiss of a feather. "I'm sorry for making you sad. I shouldn't have asked."

She shook her head and offered him a grateful smile. "Don't worry. It's a question I've asked myself whenever I've had to sink that low. And I haven't found a proper answer yet. I think that the most convincing one is to consider the alternative: giving up and letting myself starve to death in some corner. I suppose that the fear of ending up like that is enough to help me endure becoming a part-time whore."

He squeezed her hand. "Please, don't speak of yourself like that. That's not who you are. That's not how I see you. It doesn't define you. You carry a blinding light inside you, Kestrel."

"Jyn," she blurted before she could stop her tongue. That man was making her lower her carefully built walls faster than anyone she'd ever met since she was a little girl, and that scared and thrilled her. "My real name is Jyn."

His wide smile was dazzling to watch. "It suits you. Short and strong," he added teasingly, in a soft effort to lighten the air around them. It worked.

"Hey!," she protested in fake offence, swatting his arm. She couldn't help her own wide smile. "And what about you? What should I surmise from your name?"

"Oh, not much. That I'm a good-for-nothing loose cannon with a big mouth, perhaps? That's what a few of my acquaintances and friends would tell you, so I'm warning you in advance," he replied in self-deprecation disguised as humor.

Jyn opted for going along. "Thanks for the tip." And then, she remembered something. "What were you at the brothel for? I don't peg you as someone who is a regular of those places, right?" For some reason, she hoped that his answer would be that he didn't visit brothels. She didn't want to dwell much on why she should care about that.

"You're right. I'm not. I've never been to a brothel before, and won't be ever again if I can avoid it." He trailed off for some moments, unsure. "I went there for a personal quest. I was looking for my lost sister."

Jyn opened her eyes wide at his declaration. "Oh. Is she working there?"

He denied with his head. "A contact of mine told me that someone believed to have spotted her in the brothel. But tonight the madam told me that the girl I was searching for had worked there and left a long while ago. I'm not even sure that she was truly her. The madam didn't know her real name, of course. But my gut tells me that that girl was Kerri. It's the first time I've had some clue about her whereabouts, and it's hopeful. Maybe I'm getting closer to finding her. I just have to persevere."

Now it was Jyn's turn to graze his knuckles. "I hope you will."

They smiled at each other and the rest of the trip passed by in companionable silence.