Written for comment_fic on livejournal
Prompt was for Logan/Firefly character, 'my ship, my rules'
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Offing a member of your own crew was a terrible thing. But as Captain, Mal knew it was a choice that sometimes had to be made.
He would have done it with Jayne. If he had to. But even that idiot was capable of learning to follow orders.
These new additions, though. Zoe had made it sound so humanitarian. Gather the ones that the Alliance made different. Them and River could fight what needed fightin', and the good doctor would help them deal with the pains and problems that came with being a manufactured weapon.
But most of these special folk? Weren't nothin' like River. She started as a scared girl and ended as a right powerful one, but even when she was frightful strange, there was good inside.
But some of this new crew sure weren't innocent kids who got tricked into it. He could tell, even without them sayin', that they were soldiers first. The kind that would want the extra power, so they could put extra hurt.
Remy. John. Wade. A bunch of scoundrels, clear 'nuff. He would lay down the law with them. He would make it clear that their special skills meant not a dang thing when out in the black. "My ship, my rules!" would be the motto of the day, and every danged day after that.
Mal would keep order whatever way he had to. They couldn't be any tougher to rein in than Logan was. When Logan first showed, he had about as much respect for Mal as... well, as Mal had for any other authority figures. Sure, the man proved to be good in a fight, Alliance technology havin' made him harder than steel. But when he got a whiff of something, some trail he wanted to follow, some memory he wanted to drift on, he would be off. And the whole damn crew would have to linger around to find him, usually some place that was dangerous to be lingerin' around that long.
There were many times Mal wanted to just leave him there, let him die on his latest fool venture. But Logan was crew, and Mal'd rather shoot him out the airlock himself than let Logan look up at the sky and see Serenity abandoning him.
Besides, Kaylee wouldn't have allowed it anyway. When he so much as joked about ditching Logan, she would whine, "But you said we could keep him."
So keep him they did. And Soon enough, Mal learned to read him the way he did the rest of his crew. Knew when he was getting a dumb idea about runnin' off in that pretty little head of his. Saw that gleam in Logan's eye, and then Mal would have his fingers digging into Logan's hips, tongue down his throat, knee between his thighs, backing Logan against the wall. And Logan would growl, dangerous-like, but would always let Mal keep going.
And Logan stopped runnin' off.
Mal knew that being a captain means running a tight ship. It means knowing your crew. These new ones, they might be a handful. They might be a waste of time. But at least now he had Logan to help him rein them in. And, tough as they all were, not one of them looked like they wanted to make Logan angry.