A/N: A little bit o' Kaylee/Mal for you guys.

Disclaimer: Joss is boss.

Rating: T for language and all that other fun stuff.

Chinese: hūndàn – prick
wǒ kào – holy shit

LIGHT

It was rare that the whole crew could sit down to dinner without somebody bleedin' or missing or arguing with Jayne over where the right and wrong places to put his porn magazines were. For example, somewhere River could find them, tear out the pages and post them on bunk doors in likeness of hair color and a muscle tone was a very bad place. They had a big pay-off a few days before from carting around some rich, former clients of Inara's, and a celebration in the form of so much food that they didn't know what to do with themselves took place. Of course, Kaylee preferred purchasing a new "somethin' shiny" for Serenity instead of fresh fruit, but she was a regular old gear-head at heart.

All day, Mal kept an apprehensive eye on his new pilot as she tinkered away in the kitchen, mixing things that shouldn't have been mixed and wielding around a knife with a blade that was longer than her foot. River had more talents than anybody bothered to recognize, especially her cooking skills. Because they had been eating dehydrated protein packets for so long, she'd never really gotten the opportunity to show them off – she certainly knew her shit. It didn't make him any less nervous. He trusted River with their lives in flying the ship, but not around open flame.

The atmosphere in the mess hall was warm and homey, and Kaylee had dug out some fancy candles from the closet where they kept the Christmas decorations and spare blankets. Zoe set their places, not able to stop beaming, Jayne helped with carrying the big tray of food to the table because he feared that River would have a sudden desire to smear with walls with the glazed ham, and they all settled around the creaky, wooden table. Mal noticed how Kaylee and Simon were a minute late coming to dinner, but they quickly apologized before digging in with the rest of the crew. He piled his plate high with ham, vegetables, sourdough biscuits and enough gravy to kill a small farm animal.

"Wǒ kào, Moonbrain," Jayne garbled between spoonfuls of mashed potatoes, his eyes wide. "Is that real bacon in these 'taters?"

River grinned. "From a real mother-pig."

The corner of his mouth twitched, but he just went back to his dinner, muttering to himself. "Smart ass kid."

"Inara, be sure to thank those friends of yours for me the next time you see them," Zoe said, pouring everybody a tall glass of ale. "We're living good tonight."

They all clinked glasses to these words. "We've earned it," Mal said, smiling.

Soon, everybody lulled into normal dinner conversation. "Do you mind passing me the biscuits, Cap'n?" Kaylee asked, not looking at his forehead instead of into his eyes like she normally did. He didn't register that anything seemed different about his mechanic, but when he handed her the basket, she just set it beside her plate and spoke to her empty drinking glass. She hadn't taken much time in draining the alcohol. "Before we all get started," she said, "Simon and I would like to tell you all something."

"What's that?"

Kaylee was blushing up a storm as Mal watched Simon's fingers tangle with hers, and she was looking everywhere but at her captain. "He's asked me to marry him."

Silence.

"And?" Mal probed.

"And I said yes."

Inara gave them her blessing, a secret smile behind her red lips, Zoe went on and on about having another married woman on the ship, Jayne muttered that they better keep their romancin' to themselves, River said something about a duck and Mother Teresa, and Mal just looked at Kaylee from across the table. "Congratulations," he said.

Everybody was in a jovial mood about the new engagement, but Mal hung back behind them and took the liberty of doing the dishes. He told the crew to take the night off. As he scrubbed at one of the pans under warm, soapy water, he couldn't help thinking about they way Kaylee had started acting around him since dinner, and he deduced that she was actually afraid of his reaction to Simon's proposal. This didn't make a whole lot of sense because the only thing Kaylee feared in this world was stiletto heels because she didn't know the last thing about walking in them. He could smell Simon proposing to her from a mile away, so why did he feel so strange and cold about it? A thought festering in the back of his head told him that he was jealous because he'd never actually had his chance with her. There had been a moment before Miranda when she'd bounded up to him from the engine room, the straps of her work overalls clicking behind her because she was so excited that she'd fixed coolant system in the engine after all those months that she forgot to refasten them, and flung her arms around his neck, nearly knocking him over. He hadn't said anything, but rather wiped a smudge of oil off her cheek when she had pulled away. Then that was it. There would be times when they were out drinking in celebration after a big haul, and she would just look at him with a goofy smile on her face that would make him turn away because he'd rather her be drunk and lonely than drunk and taken advantage of by his stupid ass.

He was her captain and protector, so when Simon came along, Mal was happy for her.

he pan was not cooperating with him, and he scrubbed until the tips of his fingers were raw. "Goddamn dishes," he growled. He threw the dishrag into the water, incensed, just as a head of auburn hair carrying more plates walked over the sink.

"You all right, there?" Kaylee asked with big eyes. "I"m sure the pan did nothing to you."

"Mmmpth."

"Thought I'd bring these over from the table." She laid the plates carefully on the counter. "Dunno why we use porcelain plates on a ship."

"Wasn't that your idea?"

"I voted plastic."

"Oh." Mal went back to the pan, deciding that he had cooled down enough to wash like a sane person. When he felt the slightest brush of her fingers on his shoulder, he stepped to the side. "What, Kaylee?" he said shortly, not even looking at her.

Because he'd moved over, she grabbed a spare rag from the cabinet and started helping him with the dishes. "It looks like you need help."

They worked in silence, and they would periodically stop to rinse of what was already washed. He had all of these thoughts running in his head, and he asked them before he realized that they had gotten past his tongue. "When is the big day?"

"Some time in the spring."

"Kids?"

"What?"

"Kids," he repeated.

She blushed. "Gosh," she mumbled, rinsing out a glass. "I guess so, I mean – "

"Where're you gonna live?"

Kaylee glanced askance at Mal. He felt it, but concentrated on the pan before him. "Me an' Simon talked about some nice place with green grass and a white fence in the Core once he and River's names are cleared."

"Hūndàn," Mal muttered.

"How so?"

"He's going to take you away from Serenity. Your job," he said, wiping off his hands on a towel. "Your home, Kaylee?"

She took the towel from him rather fiercely. "I don't see how this is your business." Her voice was low and dangerous (a very un-Kaylee like tone) because neither wanted the rest of the crew to overhear. "This doesn't even concern you."

"It does when he's taking away my mechanic!"

"'Your' mechanic?"

"Damn straight."

"Where do get off on sayin' that?"

Mal put his big hands on her shoulders to make sure he was looking at her; he felt her hot skin under the shirt, and the straps of the bra he knew was a light purple because he'd accidentally walked in on her once while she was getting ready for a shower. It was the little things about her that made his brain spin. "When I first introduced you to Serenity's engine room, your eyes lit up. When you're around Simon, your eyes light up. They don't light up when you see me, so if I can't have that, then I at least need you as my mechanic."

In one motion, she took his hands off her shoulders. "My eyes may not light up, Cap'n, but my heart sure as hell does."

With that, she walked out the room.

He found her on the floor in her work coveralls at one in the morning, an oil-stained cardboard box of spare parts on her lap. She was noisily going through its contents, dismissing part after part. Mal was about to step into the room when her head lifted up.

"Simon?" she asked.

Shit, he thought. She heard me.

Just at that moment, the Doctor Tam himself walked in from the other side of the room. "Kaylee? Hon, what're you doing with Serenity at this time of night?"

Mal leaned against that wall, and he waited for Simon to leave. They still hadn't seen him yet.

She set he box on the floor and dusted off her hands. "Where're we going to live?"

"What do you mean?"

"After the wedding."

"I thought we all ready discussed this," he said gently. "The Core, remember?"

Kaylee stepped back from his open arms when Simon held them out to her. "Serenity's my home, Simon."

"Then we'll stay here. Whatever makes you happy. I'm sure that Malcolm won't mind."

"He will," she whispered.

"I don't see how. Us being engaged doesn't change anything." He moved aside the cardboard box and stepped with as much grace as he could around the strewn tools and engine parts. The metal hatch floor creaked when he walked.

Kaylee succumbed to his hug before abruptly pulling back. "I want kids," she blurted. "Lots of them."

That made Simon smile. "As do I. Ones with cowlicks that like to fix space ships."

"And swear in Chinese."

"Absolutely."

She took his hand, fidgeted with her own for a moment before slipping a ring into his palm and closing his fingers around it. "But I'm not ready to marry you, Simon."

Mal would've heard this, but he left right after she'd said that Serenity was her home. That was all he needed to hear.

It was dark in his bunk when Mal finally turned in at "night," the clock creeping around three in the morning. Usually when they were cruising around in the black, they just fell asleep whenever they felt like it because there was no difference between seven in the morning and seven at night. He snapped off the light above his bed and sat on the edge of it, fully dressed. The springs groaned under his weight as he propped up one foot on his knee to take off his boots.

He heard some stomping around upstairs and figured it was Jayne all in a fury because River had done gone and hid all of his girly magazines again, but the door in the ceiling of his bunk opened. "Cap'n," Kaylee's voice said from the top of the ladder, "I'm sorry about intruding on ya like this when you're gettin' ready for sleep and all that, but I've got somethin' real important to do." She was talking a hundred miles and minute, and all of her words jumbled together. His heart jumped up somewhere in his throat when he saw her climbing down the ladder with nothing on but a pair of boy shorts covering her butt and a ribbed tanktop. "I told Simon that he could have his ring back because if I don't do this, I'm never going to know, and I have to know, Mal," she continued at a fast pace, brushing her bangs out of her brown eyes as she walked towards him, "'cause it's just killin' me inside."

That's when she took his rough face in those blessed hands of her hers and kissed him.

Her lips barely brushed his when he immediately pulled away. "What'd you say?" he said in a strained manner, getting up off the bed as quickly as possible.

"I gave Simon his ring back."

"Why?"

"I thought I explained myself quite nicely there," Kaylee said, now standing before Mal with barely any clothes on, those goddamn purple bra straps staring at him.

He shook his head. "No, you don't think like that. You wouldn't throw away what you have with Simon just because you want to know what it's like to roll around with me for a bit."

"I disagree."

"Kaylee – "

She stepped forward and put a hand on his chest. A warm, small hand that had a thin white scar running across the back of her knuckles because Serenity's engine had bit back at her, at that. He was so preoccupied with her hand, that he wasn't paying attention to the rest of her until her mouth touched his again. Softly, she kissed his bottom lip and moved her hand up his chest at the same time before arching her feet, so she was on her tip-toes, and pressed her lips against his top one. Mal stood still, his arms hanging down at his sides until that one hand wound its way around to the nape of his neck, her thumb tracing the bottom of his hairline.

That was when he lost it all and stepped forward, closing the gap between them until her breasts were pushing against his chest. He took the kiss and made it into something it wasn't before when he finally applied pressure back to her, his hands securely latching onto her hips. Her mouth had been warm, but now it was hot. Kaylee pulled back to breathe, but he cupped her chin with the hand that still wasn't on her hip, playing with the hemline of her shirt and kissed her back so hard and good that their teeth clashed. She eagerly returned the favor, and it was starting to become a wet tangled mess – a completely different animal than what it had been – as they stumbled towards the low bed.

His tongue pushed up against her teeth and ran along inside them when she opened up, finagling herself onto his lap. She tasted like the cinnamon that she put in her coffee before bed, the chocolate milk he knew she'd filched from the ice box because they never had chocolate milk on the ship and this other flavor that made his chest hum and brow itch. Kaylee gasped his name when he pulled his mouth away and bit her collarbone, his running over all the hills and valleys that made her ribcage.

It didn't matter that she'd been with Simon because now that Mal had his chance, he knew it wasn't too late. The pretty mechanic with brown eyes and pink lips was now straddling his lap, on his bed and in his head. He'd make it so good that she'd never go back to him because no matter what happened, Mal was the only one that could make her heart light up.

A/N: FIN.