A/N: To my loyal LotR readers, I know this is probably not what you were expecting to find when you checked your e-mails and saw that I'd posted a new story. I apologize for not having written a new É/L story. They've been dormant for several months, giving me a chance to experiment with a new fandom: Firefly. Anyways, I hope you read this even though it's not LotR-related.
Disclaimer: I don't own the crew of Serenity. Which is too bad, because Mal is the coolest space pirate since Han Solo.
Ashes
He held the letter in his hand, turning it, watching it slowly burn into nothing. This was the third one in as many days. All of them said mostly the same things – that River was showing signs of improvement, Zoe and Wash were happy as always, Jayne had not yet killed him, Simon still stuck his foot in his mouth around Kaylee. And that he missed her more than anything in the 'verse, and he wished she had never left, never even considered leaving. He told her how much he wanted her, needed her, how she had filled a part of the gaping hole in his being and that her leaving had made that hole even bigger than it was before they'd met. He wrote the letter, and then, he burned it, letting it flutter into ashes that pooled on the floor, smouldering like the incense that she had burned every night.
She held the letters in her hands, feeling their weight and holding them as if they would fall apart if she let them go. There were seven – two of them, oddly, were from River. There was nothing from Mal. Again.
Sighing more deeply than she should have, Inara read the letters, starting with Kaylee's. The bubbly mechanic filled her in on everything that had happened since the last bundle of letters. They had celebrated Jayne's birthday by visiting his mother and were planning to surprise Mal in a few weeks, when his arrived. Wash and Zoe both wrote that the advice she'd given them had proved helpful and if she had any more tips, she was more than welcome to share them. Jayne's message simply said that meals were less fun without her and that Mal had grown more and more annoyed with him since her departure. Inara was not sure what to make of that; she and Jayne had rarely had any real contact while she was aboard Serenity. Simon told her that River was improving daily, and sometimes he didn't even have to use the meds to calm her.
She opened River's packages last – she was surprised that the girl had sent two things, though Simon had explained in his letter that she insisted they be sent separately. Inara opened the first one, pulled out the letter, and smiled. It was a picture River had drawn of the crew, placing Mal and Inara next to each other, facing opposite directions. Below it she had written, "When making a fire, people like to join you. When cleaning the ashes, you are often alone." Inara frowned; the old proverb did not seem to fit with the drawing. She picked up the second letter. The envelope bulged slightly at the bottom, and Inara wondered what she would find in it. She slid it open and looked inside. There was no message, only ashes.
