Welcome to a one-shot! I've been stuck, just a little, on my other story- kind of lost my groove. I do plan to finish it, but not just yet. I figured that this fuzzy little story would tide my few reviewers over for a little while, so I can get my head back on track. Story written for isefyr. Canon pairing, set before Serenity the movie. Numerous references to Out of Gas. :) StarDrop
"Wash?"
Bonk.
Muttered curses, and then Captain Malcolm Reynolds's bruised head appeared through the door that doubled as the ladder out of his cabin. Rubbing the lump that had formed on the top of his head, Mal repeated the plea for his pilot, staring towards the doors to the cockpit. A sandy-haired head appeared around the corner.
"Yes, O Grumpy Captain?" Hoban Washburn, sarcasm-supplier and pilot supreme upon the Firefly-class transport Serenity, watched with a small smile as Mal slammed the door to his cabin with unnecessary harshness. He waited as Mal stomped up into the cockpit, attempting to stifle a snicker and failing miserably.
Mal glared through dark eyes at the cheerful Wash. Even the faint laugh was painful upon the ears of one who hadn't slept for more than two hours in the past two days. Turning away from a rather maddening grin, Mal started to outline a new course. "Bear port to Triumph, but take this route-" he outlined said route with his finger- "take this route 'stead of the normal path, so we reach it at perihelion. I don't want the feds anywhere round when we get there, so we take the long way."
Wash thought this wasn't the best idea. "Uh, Mal? Remember what happened the last time we took the long way around? We were kind of stranded in the middle of space? And with no life support? Remember? Yeah, that wasn't the greatest. Can't we just go-"
"No."
"Okay, then." Wash turned to the controls. "I'll just set our death trap, and you can go prep the shuttles for immediate takeoff in case of compression coil trouble."
Mal started off towards the kitchen, thinking of tasteless protein coffee. "I'll do that, thanks for the optimism."
"Anytime." The parting shot reached his ears just before he ran into Kaylee. She'd popped out of her bunk with typical enthusiasm, and her wide eyes and white teeth were almost unbearable to Mal's sleepy brain. He'd been up for hours plotting this new course, and he was not in the mood for her perky comments and sunny outlook.
"Hi, Cap'n!" Oh erzi de yi zhi gou he yi zhi luotuo… she was happy. When she wasn't happy, she said hello with about as much enthusiasm as a jellyfish. "Hear we're off to Triumph. I've missed it."
"Yeah. Um, Kaylee, would ya go do an engine check or something?" he tented his fingers on his nose, trying not to fall asleep. He'd attempted to ask her to buzz off as politely as possible, but she was offended anyways. She gave him a hurt look, and then turned away.
He continued on towards the kitchen, coffee still on his mind, when he heard Kaylee behind him. "What?"
"Just remembered, Cap'n," she said, the hurt now gone from her voice- Kaylee didn't stay beaten down for long. "I think 'Nara's looking for you."
What, Mal thought, as he drank some truly disgusting barely-coffee-like-protein, would Inara want with him at such a time? He was going to tell her their new course soon, obviously, but she didn't even know he'd set one yet. Normally, at what was considered to be early morning, Inara was still sleeping in her shuttle.
Well, she could come find him if she wanted him. He had important things to do, like check that Jayne wasn't trying to break into Simon's room to steal his things again. Simon was fond of his things, especially the clothes, and Jayne had developed the uncomfortable habit of sneaking into Simon's suitcase and slicing up his pants. While it was, admittedly, hilarious to see Simon attempting to walk around in a generously-lent pair of Shepherd Book's pants, which were far too baggy, it was near impossible for the boy to do any doctoring when he was constantly tripping.
But before Mal had a chance to find Jayne, Inara found him.
She was wearing another midriff-exposing dress in that lavender-lilac color, encrusted in silver, with many shiny necklaces that Mal had often thought could pay to keep the ship flying for years, if Inara didn't need them for her job. Her hair was styled, her nails painted blue, her eyelashes curled. Seriously, who curls their eyelashes?
"Mal, can we talk?" she asked, and gave him a soft look with her big, dark, liquid eyes. How could he refuse?
Apparently, with ease. "Sorry, Inara, but I have to find Jayne." He didn't want to leave her there, but for some reason he was reluctant to talk to her. Maybe it was just because her midriff was so distracting. She had a lovely navel.
But she was insistent. "Mal, I mean it. I have to talk to you." She glanced around like they were doing something naughty, and then grabbed his arm and dragged him to her shuttle.
He hated to sit on the bed- how many other men must have sat there, he always thought- so he sat on a pouffe. The delicate teacups were out on the low table- always a sign of bad news. The last time Inara had pulled the teacups out and had a talk with him, she had been about to tell him that she was leaving the ship. She hadn't left in the end, mostly because River and Simon had arrived, but the teacups still reminded Mal of it.
"So, now that you have me here, what exactly did you want to talk about?" Mal stared suspiciously as Inara filled the teacups with some dark unidentified liquid. It could have been tea, but it could just as easily have been some kind of seduce-juice. What did he know?
Still, he took a tentative sip at the piping-hot drink as Inara took a deep breath and started to talk. "Mal, I'm leaving."
Mal spat out his seduce-juice. "What?"
She nodded, gold earrings clinking gently. "I have to leave, Mal. I can't stay on Serenity any longer."
He'd just known those teacups were bad news. "But why? Is it something to do with your Companion-ism? Because I've got no problem with really not calling you any names about it if that's what's wrong…"
"No, it's- it's not that." Inara's long eyelashes blinked, curved into perfect semicircles, dark and mysterious. "I- I just did something that… that I'm not- well, that I'm not allowed to do… and I can't stay any longer."
"Not allowed? What kepa de jin thing could you have done that's forbidden? You're practically above the law!" He honestly didn't know why he was getting so worked up about this. He just didn't want to lose her rent, that was it. It was a substantial amout, and it was important to the health of his beloved ship. That was all.
"I haven't done anything against the law, Mal." Inara didn't sound angry that he'd suggested it, just rather sad. "It's just not in my job description."
"Who checks on what ya do out here in the black? Inara, just tell me what you did, and we'll… pay 'em."
"Pay who?"
"Whoever you made mad. The Grand Council of Companion-ing."
"There is no Grand Council of Companion-ing."
"Well," Mal articulated, with exaggerated patience, "tell me what's wrong and maybe I got a solution up my sleeve. Tell me nothin', I ain't able to help you." He pretended to be making for the door, waiting for her to call him back and tell him what was wrong. It was a trick that never failed.
It failed. She didn't say a word as he walked to the door of her shuttle. When he reached it, he lost momentum and turned to look at her. "Please, 'Nara. Just tell me. I won't be mad at ya or whatever you're all worried about. I promise."
Inara wouldn't meet his eyes anymore. Shangdi, whatever she'd done had to be terrible. Eaten all the food? Broken the compression coil? Gone into his room and found the battered teddy bear he'd brought all the way from Shadow when he was just a boy?
"Mal… I…"
"I love you."
What?
"I love you, Mal."
Oh. Oh. Well, that wasn't what he'd been expecting.
"I know you don't return my affections, and as a registered Companion I am not technically allowed to fall in love, so I have to go back to Persephone and be reassigned, and I will miss Kaylee and River and everyone but you can see I have to go…" Inara was babbling, making excuses and trying to justify her actions, eyes pleading for him to understand, to realize why she was leaving the ship.
But the thing was, Mal thought, pondering his own emotions as they roiled through his mind, he still didn't want her to leave. What on Earth-that-was could that mean?
The longing he'd felt when he first saw her- he'd attributed that to lust. I mean, a registered Companion, right? But now, knowing that she was a touch-me-not sort of woman, there was no way he was lusting after anything. Well, not much. But the longing tug was still there. Kiss her, it said.
And he realized what it was just as Inara turned away. In a rush of happiness, he knew that he loved her in return. An emotion he'd refused since he'd seen her, no, you can't love her, she's a Companion, she meets men and more men all over the finest parts of the 'verse. She's for one of those men, not for a boy from Shadow, a smuggler on the wrong side of the war. But that wasn't true- she was for him.
He was across the shuttle a second after this revelation, careful to overturn her little table and shatter the foreboding teacups on his way. When he reached her, he gently put his hand on her shoulder, the lavender silk soft under his fingers, and turned her to face him.
"Ya really mean it?" he asked softly, voice cracking to an embarrassingly low pitch halfway through the sentence. "Ya mean what you said?"
She nodded, dark eyes downcast, expecting him to cast her away, or somethinglike that. He'd never do that.
As reassurance, he wrapped his arms around that midriff of hers, hugging her close, hoping he wouldn't also have to say the three words that had taken a lot of coaxing to get out of her. But he knew that she also needed to hear them to believe them.
"I love you too, "Nara."
A shriek of delight echoed throughout the shuttle and for a moment, Mal thought it was Inara's. But as he glanced around, looking for the source of the sound, he caught a glimpse of a pale, delicate face framed in wavy brown hair, soulless eyes alive with glee. The glimpse was brief, as the intruder vanished into the bowels of the ship once more- but Mal knew that the secret he'd hoped to keep a secret was now River's.
Not like the crazy reader hadn't known what he was about to say, but now she had definite proof. Everyone on the ship would know of his confession before he could step out of the shuttle.
The simple solution? Lock the shuttle door and never leave again.
Mal tried to let go of Inara to lock the door, but her arms were now wrapped around him, and he noticed with some confusion that she was now crying into his favorite brown shirt. Why was she crying? He freed his arms with some difficulty and patted her shoulder. "Uh, 'Nara, what-"
The door burst open.
The crew streamed in.
After the confusion that followed, during which Inara was peeled off of Mal and they both had to hear the same congratulations and it's about times over and over, the two sat together at the table in the kitchen. Inara was leaning her head on his shoulder- a position he realized he'd often fantasized about, but had never realized until now- and they were talking softly.
"So when did ya realize… you know?" Mal asked quietly.
It took her a moment to respond. "Probably when I brought the shuttle back after Serenity was dead. When we came into that cockpit, and you were on the floor… I will be forever grateful to Simon for all that he did. But when I saw you there… and I honestly didn't know if you'd ever call me names again- that was when I knew."
Mal thought about how horrible it would have been to find him there, nearly dead, in the middle of a large puddle of blood. "Kind of a bad time to know, when your love's about to die," he responded thoughtfully. "I only just now figured it out."
"How soon is 'only just now'?" she teased. He started to answer, but she cut him off. "Never mind, it doesn't matter."
He still had something to ask, however. "What about the Companion-ing laws or whatever? How are ya goin' to change the minds of the Grand Council of Companion-ing?"
Inara was about to tell him that there was no Grand Council of Companion-ing, but Jayne got there first. "I propose a toast… to Cap'n Mal and 'Nara fer finally getting' their heads on right!"
And as the crew repeated the toast with gusto and drank some of the still-questionable tea that Inara had provided, Mal realized that for once Jayne had gotten it right. He did finally have his head on right.
And he kissed Inara in full view of the rest of the crew, and so neither of them noticed when Kaylee started inching closer to Simon.
"Simon, can we talk?"
There you go. I don't write one-shots, not normally- even my stories that have no definable chapters have breaks in them. And I don't normally write romances either. I leave the canon where it is, and that's the end of it. So be kind- if you find it fluffy, that's how it's meant to be. Reviews are much appreciated.