Title: Rest in Pieces
Rating: G
Pairings/Characters: Mal/Inara
Summary: They're apart. Now maybe their hearts can rest in peace... or pieces.
Set: Post-series, pre-Serenity
Length: 300 words
Genres: zomg, the ANGST!
A/N: Inspired by the Rascal Flatts song "Pieces."
Rest in Pieces
Mal pressed the play button on the capture in his hand again, and the small rendering of Inara was set in motion again. He didn't know how many times he'd played it now, or how long he'd been sitting here watching it and mulling over his thoughts.
From the time he had first met Inara, she had turned his world upside down. Made him feel things he didn't want to feel, and made him question himself. Every time he'd see her, his heart would shatter knowing he couldn't have her. And every time he would managed to pick up the pieces and put them back together, she'd walk by again, and his heart would shatter like glass again.
Now, though, she was gone.
He hoped now he would be able to put it back together, but without her being around, he wasn't sure he could.
His heart would have to rest in pieces.
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Inara thought about him all the time here. When she was teaching the young Companions-in-training, her mind would wander. The free time she had, she spent in her room, staring at a wall or out the window as her mind traveled back to him.
She missed him. She really did.
But she had firmly decided that she didn't want to see him anymore. She just wasn't strong enough to bear the breaking of her heart anymore. She liked to be around him, but she knew that she was better when he was gone.
Any fire that they might've had was only bitter ashes.
Her heart laid among those ashes, broken into a million miniscule pieces that she doubted could ever be put together again. She wasn't even sure if she ever wanted to put them back again.
She would rather her heart just rest in pieces.
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