***Just a little bit of fluff about Kaylee and Wash while they wait for the others to return from a job. Set before Simon turns up and Kaylee starts jonesing for him!***
"Got it!" Wash snapped his fingers with. "What about Jayne?" He couldn't help but laugh at Kaylee's appalled expression.
"Ewww, no way!" The mechanic wrinkled up her nose at the thought of her, and Jayne, in his bunk, bunking. "How could you even suggest that?"
"You're the one who started this line of investigation, I just kept it going. C'mon, you know better than to ask me who your next bunk mate should be."
"I just asked for your opinion, Wash, not for you to gross me out" Kaylee giggled.
"How about Inara?" Wash grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. "She caters for both men and women, you know". He laughed loudly when a dirty, oil stained rag hit him in the face.
"You're terrible."
"I'm just trying to be helpful, is all" he shrugged as he pulled the rag from his face. She rolled her eyes with a small smile lifting the corner of her lips. Kaylee always enjoyed these moments. Just her, Wash, and the hum of Serenity's engine in the back ground.
"Any news from the others?" She asked, leaning her head back against the wall behind her. Wash shook his head as he fiddled with the radio, sending a small hiss of feedback into the air.
"You think everything's OK out there?"
"No news is good news, right?" He offered with more than a hint of uncertainty in this voice.
"Yeah. Unless Mal lost it in a bet with Badger."
"Or Zoe used it as a deadly weapon because they've ran out of ammo."
"Or Jayne blew it up again." The pair of them laughed at the memory of Jayne's soot covered face as he gave back the charred remains of the radio to Mal, explaining that it wouldn't work for him so he shot it instead.
Wash nearly dropped the radio when Mal's panicked voice came across the airwaves, demanding Wash pick them now. Both Wash and Kaylee jumped to their feet and prepared the ship for takeoff.
"That doesn't sound good," Wash yelled over his shoulder as he ran up to the cockpit.
"Does it ever?" Kaylee yelled back with a laugh as she made sure the fuel pump was holding true after she had repaired it earlier. She laughed again when she heard Wash yell a no in reply to her question.
She patted the main engine chamber and softly whispered some encouragement to it as it roared into life. She felt the ship rise up from the ground and bank to the left as Wash piloted it towards the rest of the crew. Soon, the ship would be filled with the noise of the other crew members. Sure Kaylee loved the quiet moments, but she wouldn't change the noisy ones for the 'verse!