Disclaimer: All belongs to the man they call Joss.

Prompt: A silk scarf and a scar for lulabo at the truthsome-fic ficathon on livejournal.
Spoilers: Through the series and BDM.

Author's Notes: Please note that this is my first attempt at Firefly fanfic ever, so I would very much love feedback. Thank you to the amazing goldydollar for the awesome beta and input. Thanks to lulabo for the great prompt, and to carmensandiego for organizing this great little ficathon that pushed me out of my writing comfort zone. I ended up doing something entirely different with this than I had intended, and I have to say, I'm pleased. Enjoy!

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Her hands trembled slightly as she tied the scarf around her neck. It took her several attempts to get it just so, untying and retying it until she was satisfied. She drew in a breath as she examined herself in the mirror. She was wearing one of her favorite dresses, a deep blue wrap, and her hair was brushed perfectly as usual. The only glaring difference about her appearance was the presence of the blue silk scarf around her neck. She attempted to ignore it, but it stood out like a blaring neon sign to her, a sign of something amiss. She didn't usually wear scarves. Luckily, she had found this one in the bottom of her trunk earlier, the one she had left aboard Serenity. She vaguely remembered receiving it as a gift from a client, politely thanking him while thinking that she would most likely never wear it.

Turns out it had come in handy.

She glanced at the exit to her shuttle. She had already contemplated simply remaining in it for the day. But her growling stomach was not willing to cooperate with that plan, so instead she was forced to go and face the crew as if it were any ordinary day. "Ai ya," she muttered to herself before turning swiftly and exiting her shuttle with nothing less than her usual grace and poise. Maybe no one would even notice.

She forced a smile as she entered the dining area. Everyone seemed to be assembled already, chatting noisily while Kaylee and River served today's meal. Inara's seat had been left open for her. "Good morning everyone," she said cordially, determinedly avoiding the eyes of the Captain.

"Good mornin', Nara. Say, that's a right pretty scarf," Kaylee said in her usual sunny voice.

Inara clutched the back of her chair so hard that her knuckles turned white. "Thank you," she said stiffly. She stood there for a moment before she slowly sank into her chair. By this point, she could tell he was staring at her, probably doing that little half-smirk that drove her crazy. She willed herself not to look at him. River spooned some food onto her plate and she smiled at the young girl in thanks. She saw her wide, dark eyes fixate on the blue scarf, and then they met her own as her lips spread into a knowing smile. For a moment Inara froze, but thankfully River moved on to serve Jayne, never saying a word.

"Yeah, Inara, that is a darn pretty scarf you've got there," Mal chimed in. "I don't ever remember you wearin' a scarf before."

Hwoon dan! She cursed inwardly. She had no choice but to look at him now. She slowly looked in his direction, meeting his gaze coldly. "I wear scarves all the time," she lied. She quickly gathered up a forkful of whatever the mushy-looking substance on her plate was and stuck it into her mouth. She saw him smirking at her in her peripheral vision and felt her blood boil. He could be so downright infuriating, she had known that he would make this even more embarrassing for her than it already was.

"So, little albatross, is the course set?" she heard Mal say. Inara felt brief relief at the change of subject. She focused on her food as the conversation continued as a lull in the background. Serenity's flight plan used to be crucial to her life, she had scheduled all of her clients around it, and often criticized Mal for the inconvenient delays that often resulted from the unexpected kinks in their "jobs". These days she found that she didn't even care where they were headed, it was just being here that mattered.

Soon they were finished eating, and people began slowly excusing themselves to see to their particular tasks: Kaylee to the engine room, Simon wandering after her a few moments later, making it clear to everyone that Kaylee probably wasn't going to do anything that remotely related to keeping Serenity in the air. River would go to her new home in the cockpit, and Jayne would go off as well, presumably to his bunk. Zoe would usually linger the longest these days, before quietly leaving the table. Mal would sit for a while before heading off to attend to his "captain-y duties." This was such the case today, and he excused himself, pausing next to Inara as he left the dining area. "That truly is a fine scarf," he quipped, winking at her slightly as he smiled coyly. She narrowed her eyes at him. He chuckled a little under his breath as he walked slowly down the bridge. Zoe watched with amusement, giving Inara a slight 'what was that about' look. Inara tried to look like she hadn't noticed.

"Is there something going on between you and the Captain that I should know about?" Zoe said with some degree of curiosity.

Inara felt herself blushing slightly. "N-no. You know the Captain and I have a way."

"You could say that," Zoe said flatly. Inara thought she saw a hint of a smile as the first mate stood up from the table and started to head towards the bridge. As she reached Inara, she paused. "That is a nice scarf." She continued on her way, smiling to herself.

Inara muttered to herself in Chinese as she swiftly left the now-deserted dining area, heading back to her shuttle. All of this fuss over a silly scarf! It wasn't really possible that so many of them had noticed it. She was a well-dressed woman, wearing a matching accessory shouldn't exactly be the cause of a news bulletin. She angrily stepped over the threshold into her shuttle, closing the door behind her. As she was about to turn around she froze slightly, sensing his presence before she even saw him. She turned around slowly, trying to look unruffled despite her current mental distress, and wasn't surprised to see him lounging casually on her couch, staring at her with a smug smile. "I suppose some things never change. As long as I'm here you will always be barging into my shuttle uninvited," she said, annoyed.

He slowly rose to his feet. "Come on, 'Nara." Mal slowly moved closer to her, stopping only inches away before reaching out to gently caress her cheek. "I thought we were past that."

She didn't know how he managed to do it, but as usual she felt a large portion of her coherent mind fade into a blur just from his simple touch. Years of training and schooling as a Companion, and one simple touch of her cheek by Malcolm Reynolds could make her melt. She felt the now-familiar stirring deep in her stomach that always accompanied his intimate gestures. "Mal..." her voice was slurred, passionate.

His fingers lightly brushed her scarf. "It's funny, you wearin' this silly thing. You didn't really think I was gonna let that one slide, did you?"

Her eyes narrowed slightly. "Mal, that's not funny."

"Really, cause I find it pretty gorram amusin'," he said, holding back a chuckle. "You didn't have to hide it, you know..."

"You gave me a hickey, Mal!" Inara hissed. She blushed immediately. "Now there's something I never thought I'd say."

"Didn't seem to mind much when I was making it," Mal said with a smirk, leaning in to kiss behind her ear.

Formulating a defensive response was incredibly difficult while he was doing that, so it took Inara several moments to come up with anything to defend herself. Finally, she pulled away from his kisses, catching his roaming hand in hers. "I'm a companion, Mal, a highly respected..."

"You haven't taken clients in months," he interrupted her, moving her hand to his mouth to kiss it.

"That doesn't mean that it isn't a part of who I am. It's just...I'm not used to this!" Inara said with frustration. "Having this...thing on my neck, it's embarrassing."

"Is this...whatever this thing is with us...does this embarrass you too?" he asked quietly, still touching her.

She closed her eyes. "Mal...no. You know that it doesn't...this life that I have now...it's just so different from everything I've been used to."

"Good different, or bad different?"

She paused. "I'm not sure yet. Just...different." She stared at him. "You think I'm the one who's embarrassed, yet I don't see you jumping to tell the others about the changes in our relationship."

"After all the grief I give little Kaylee and the doc about cavorting round the ship the way they do, wouldn't wanna seem like some sorta hypocrite," he stated matter-of-factly. He looked into her eyes, reaching up to touch her chin lightly, as he had once before many moons ago, right before she had left Serenity. "What is it about us that's so different?"

Her eyes wandered around the room, not looking directly at him. "It's just..." She sighed. "When I'm a companion, everything is generally...proper, and-"

"Ah, so you're callin' me improper, then?" he said, looking pleased.

She rolled her eyes. "Only you would take that to be a compliment, Mal."

He smirked as his hands moved to the scarf. "You never seem to mind my bein' improper too much."

Inara was finding it harder and harder to formulate convincing arguments due to their extremely close physical proximity, not to mention the way he was trailing his fingers all over her in the way that he knew drove her crazy. Tzao gao! Her lips parted, longing to
find a comeback, but none came.

"'Nara," he began, speaking slowly and clearly. "What's different about you and I is that there's no frills. No wiles. Maybe to a high-class woman like yourself, that's improper. But to me, it's just right." He gently untied her dress, and it fell open.

"Mal..." she muttered. Her tone was no longer one of frustration and anger, but one of lust and longing.

"See, all of this..." he paused to gently nudge the dress off her shoulders, causing it to pool around her feet. Then he moved to the scarf, gently untying it. "This don't mean nothin'. It's you that I love."

She stepped closer to him, touching his chest. She knew that underneath his shirt existed a myriad of scars, some long and jagged, some small, as was the one he had gained in the sword fight defending her honor. Each one had a story and, in their beautiful imperfection, they were one of the things she loved most about him. His lips met hers and they kissed, tenderly and passionately at the same time, as any anger or differences in the room seemed to evaporate for a moment. He began to guide her towards the bed, which was ironically one of their less-frequented spots, contributing much to her association of their relationship with the word 'improper'. As they fell backwards, becoming even more lost in each other, they were aware that they would probably never completely agree on anything. Despite their new intimate relationship, they still seemed to spend half of their time bickering, as they had today. But they had finally come to agree on their love for each other, and fornow, that would have to be enough.