Scent Of A Woman
Rated: PG
Category: Humor, Hints Of Mal/Inara UST, Hints Of Mal/Jayne Friendship.
Spoilers: None.
Summary: Mal Briefly Indulges Himself Dirtside, But The Fun Doesn't Stop There.
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Mal knew he was being a bit hypocritical, and that what he was doing might even be a little bit wrong, in light of some opinions he occasionally expressed, but he so didn't care.
See, some years ago, when fortune had miraculously smiled on him for a while, Malcolm Reynolds had acquired a taste for a few of the finer pleasures in life.
And while there were other things he could spend coin on, things were going pretty well right now, and he'd managed to justify this.
When it was over, he was as disappointed as ever at the briefness of the act, but he felt it'd been money well spent.
He felt pretty good about himself as he left… until he walked into a familiar wall of man just outside the door.
"Jayne."
"Mal."
"Let's keep this between ourselves, huh?"
"Done."
And it was. Neither man would rat the other out.
But Inara noted a faint odor to her captain that evening, and while the scent belonged nowhere near Mal, she recognized it at once. She said nothing, of course, but when dinner was finished, she headed straight to her shuttle and a little privacy.
XXX
Inara knew that what she was doing was more than a little bit wrong, but she so didn't care.
The world of companions and their related businesses is a small one, and when one knows the right buttons to push, one gets results.
It took her less than three minutes to discover the dirty secret of the two manliest men of Serenity.
They'd visited a spa. And apparently, they had a thing for massage-with lavender oil in Mal's case.
No other services had been performed.
Inara wore a Mona Lisa smile for days after her discovery, but she never shared it with anyone.
She did, however, take to wearing a hint of lavender from time to time.