Star Wars Rebels: Hera & Kanan

Chapter Twenty

Kanan was sitting at the far end of Old Jho's bar, on a stool that gave him the best vantage point for seeing who came through the door. He wasn't sure exactly what his plan was in sitting there- was he going to dive behind the bar to hide, if Hera happened to walk in? He felt like an idiot, and worse, the possibility of running into her had completely frayed his nerves. Some Jedi he was.

The Pit Stop was unusually busy, so Kanan hadn't had a chance to talk to Old Jho yet, although he'd gotten a very enthusiastic wave when Jho saw him. Jho had a droid bartender helping out, and the droid was the one who took his drink order. Aside from the crowd and the droid, not much seemed to have changed, though.

Jho finally got away from the pair of belligerently drunk Ugnaughts he'd been squealing and snorting back and forth with for the past fifteen minutes, and he made a beeline for Kanan.

"Kanan! Good to see you! Where've you been?" he said. The volume on his translator had been turned up so that he could be heard over the racket in the bar, and it made his voice sound tinny.

"Nice to see you too, Jho," he replied, smiling at the Ithorian. "I had to leave Lothal for awhile. Business has really picked up, though, huh? Are you giving away free drinks?"

"You know, I think it's the Empire. They're good for business but bad for everything else- I'd rather things went back to the way they were. Lothalians are getting kicked off their land and squeezed by the Empire, so they're spending their few spare credits here to drink away their sorrows. And I have been giving free drinks to some people who can't afford them otherwise."

Kanan nodded. "The Empire definitely makes people want to drink more, that's for sure. I'm sorry to hear about what's been going on here, though."

"There's not a lot we can do about it, so we're just trying to help each other out. It's sure nice to see you back, though. I've seen Hera a couple of times, and she didn't seem to want to talk about where you were, so I didn't keep asking. Thought maybe you two had a falling out," Jho said, giving Kanan a look.

"I wouldn't say that exactly," he replied.

Jho didn't answer- he's gotten distracted and was peering over Kanan's left shoulder. "Oh, here comes Rotta the Hutt."

"What?" Kanan said in surprise, turning to look.

"Well, that's what he told me his name was, after a few Fogblasters," Jho said.

The man walking towards them was the opposite of a Hutt: tall, dark-skinned and good-looking, with carelessly messy black hair. He was in head-to-toe black- typical smuggler gear- but of a quality indicating it had more likely been purchased on a Core world, with a long, black leather jacket over the ensemble.

Most interestingly, at least as far as Kanan was concerned, he bore a striking resemblance to the holo-image Dravik had sent him of Nash Arkanian. He hadn't expected to find his target in the first place he looked, so this was a huge stroke of luck.

"Jho, my good barman! I'll take another one of those outstanding Fogblasters, if you've got a minute," Arkanian said, once he reached the bar. He was loud enough to be heard clearly over the din in the cantina, and he spoke with rakish confidence.

"Sure thing, Rotta," Jho said, shrugging almost imperceptibly at Kanan as he moved away to make the drink.

'Rotta' let out a chuckle and leaned on the bar, turning his head towards Kanan. "My name isn't really Rotta," he declared, slurring the words together a bit.

"Is that right?" Kanan replied, feigning interest.

Arkanian nodded, his eyes slightly unfocused. "It seemed like a fitting alias- so many people have told me that I'm a slimy slug. You're a handsome devil. What's your name?"