Fic: Role play

Pairing: Simon/Kaylee

Rating: PG-13 (for suggestive language)

Spoilers: Entire series and BDM

Summary: Simon tries to help Kaylee with some repairs; it doesn't go well.

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Role play

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The prospect of spending an entire day, alone, with Kaylee, away from the ship and its nosy crew, was one Simon had been looking forward to for quite some time now. As they had alighted on Beylix, the captain informing them that a bit of shore leave would be possible, Kaylee's eyes had lit with a mischievous fire, thinking of all the fun they could have off ship. Plus, Beylix was known for its overabundance of scrap yards and the idea of rummaging through some piles of spare parts was one Kaylee relished; it was after all, the only way she could ever find replacement parts for Serenity, as the captain was notoriously cheap.

So after a bit of begging with Mal for use of the mule and a promise from Inara to watch River, Kaylee and Simon hopped into the vehicle, Kaylee driving of course, as Simon would not have the first clue how to maneuver the thing. As she revved its engine, Kaylee gave him one of her best megawatt grins and asked, "Where to, sir?"

With a grand gesture, Simon returned her smile and said regally, "To the scrap yard, madam, to the scrap yard."

Giggling, Kaylee put the mule into gear and they were off, the wind whipping by as they rushed past the green hills of Beylix's outlining territories. Simon took a deep breath of the fresh air, and turned his face up towards the sun overhead. He didn't mind living on Serenity, most of the time, and especially not since he'd fallen so madly in love with the ship's mechanic, but some days, he missed the feel of the sun on his skin or the wind in his hair – he even missed rain and snow and wind. He supposed it was a common occurrence for those that lived in the black to either denounce these natural elements of planet life or pine for them, and Simon was afraid to admit, he more often did the latter.

Turning back to regard Kaylee, he saw that her eyes had darted over to him, her mouth open a bit as she regarded the peaceful way he'd turned his face to the sky. Giving her a wicked grin, Simon reached out a hand, and closed it around one of hers on the control yoke and leaned towards her. "Eyes on the road," he whispered in her ear, kissing her cheek. He felt more than heard her giggle again, as the wind whipped the sound away from them almost immediately.

Looking to him coyly, she shouted, "I can drive and –"

And with an abruptness that startled them both, they came crashing to a halt. Whipping forward as the suddenness of the stop caught up with their bodies, Simon looked up with blurry eyes to take in the tangle of tall grasses they had swerved dangerously close to – and now were stuck in.

Grimacing, Simon looked to Kaylee and asked, "You were saying?"

"Oh no!" Kaylee jumped down out of the mule, assessing the damage. Immediately diving underneath the body of the vehicle, Simon heard her groan and curse, quite extensively, as he knelt beside her feet.

"That bad, huh," he asked, guessing from the continued cursing that it was.

Sliding out from under the mule, Simon saw that she had tears in her eyes and he immediately felt guilty for teasing her. "This ain't funny, Simon," she told him hotly, wiping at her tears with the back of her sleeve. "The cap'n's gonna kill me."

Frowning at her, Simon leaned down and kissed her lightly. "No, he won't. We'll fix it."

Turning a skeptical look to him, Kaylee asked cautiously, "We?"

Nodding once, Simon told her, "It can be fixed right?"

Returning the nod, she peered back behind her and then looked back to him. "Well, yeah, but it's gonna take some time, an' I'll prolly need an extra set o' hands."

Extending his hands to her, palms up, Simon told her, "Consider them at your disposal."

Still not sure that this could actually work, as Kaylee had seen Simon try to fix things in the past, she cocked an eyebrow in his direction and slowly rose, heading for the back of the mule and her tools. "All right, but I ain't the most patient boss."

Simon grinned at the back of her head, highly doubting it would be as tense as all that, but when she again came into view, he made sure that his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and his vest was off. "What's the first order of business, ma'am?"

Unable not to smile at his silliness, Kaylee thrust her heavy toolbox into his arms, suppressing a giggle as he stumbled a bit under the unexpected weight, and said dryly, "Hold this."

"Yes ma'am," Simon muttered, watching as she selected a few tools and again shimmied her way under the mule. Kneeling beside her feet, Simon set the tool box on the ground and waited for her orders.

It wasn't a long wait. In quick succession, Kaylee started barking commands to him, asking for tool after tool, her hand thrusting out from under the mule and wiggling impatiently at him until he slapped the proper instrument into it. After he had handed her a socket wrench, a drill and a mallet, instead of the screwdriver she'd asked for, Kaylee pulled herself back out and looked at him with an annoyed expression. Simon's own face held a look of complete befuddlement as he studied all the tools at his feet, trying to determine just what exactly she was looking for. Holding his gaze steadily, Kaylee reached her hand into the box, not even looking as she gripped the screwdriver she needed and plucked it out.

Holding it in front of his face, she watched as his eyes ran the length of it, and said hotly, "This." Then she went back to work, hearing Simon's sigh and what she could only assume were mumbled curse words as he placed the discarded tools, none too gently, back in their box.

Unable to keep herself from smiling any longer, Kaylee had to stifle a laugh. It was actually kind of funny – Simon was smart, really smart, but only when it came to doctoring and books, give him a tool chest and a broken regulator valve and the boy was as lost as a blind toad. Deciding to give him a hard time, well, more than she already had been, Kaylee called out to him, "Hey! Go easy on those. My pa gave 'em to me."

As Simon's grumbling grew in volume and intensity, Kaylee purposefully banged hard against a part so that he would not hear the giggle that escaped her lips. Soon absorbed again in her work, Kaylee felt she might actually be making progress. While the grass had tangled in their rudder and the navigational controls, she could get it out, it was just going to take some time, and the dismantling and reassembling of almost the entire front end.

Knowing she'd need help for that, she called out sweetly, "Hey, Simon, I need ya."

Poking his head down into her line of sight, he looked to her skeptically and pointed. "Under there?"

Cocking her head at him, she said, "No, on top of a mountain." With an exasperated sigh, she said, "Of course, under here."

With a sigh of his own, Simon crawled in beside her and flipped onto his back. He realized as his arm brushed against Kaylee's that were their circumstances different at the moment, these tight quarters would not be such a bad thing. "Okay, what can I do," he asked, trying to regain his patience.

Pointing above their heads, Kaylee said, "See that? I gotta take it apart and it's a bit cumbersome, so I need you to steady it while I unscrew it. Dong ma?"

"Got it," Simon said confidently, reaching his hands up and bracing the piece of metal.

Satisfied with his hold, Kaylee groped at her side for her screwdriver and began to turn the bolts. Simon watched her as she worked his fascination at her skill increasing as the minutes passed. He had watched her work on Serenity often enough, but in such tight quarters, he could see the look of concentration on her features, the look of determination, the look of pure confidence that she knew exactly what she was doing. And it was damn sexy.

As he felt the part fall a bit more heavily against his hands, Simon tried to refocus his attention to his job, continuing to brace the metal as Kaylee had to lean over him to reach one of the fastenings. As her body was now uncomfortably close to him, Simon felt the very real urge to reach out and kiss her lips, as they hovered just a few inches from his mouth. But guessing, based on her earlier annoyance with him, that distracting her at this moment would probably not be a good thing, Simon again snapped his eyes back above him, trying vainly to ignore the way she was panting against his cheek, the way her breasts were rubbing against his side.

Closing his eyes a bit and trying to think of anything else, he heard Kaylee ask, "You okay?"

Opening one eye to her, he felt his face flush as he said, "Yeah, sure, I'm fine."

Looking down at him and noting how close they were, Kaylee dropped her arms and said coyly, "It ain't botherin' you is it? Bein' so close?"

Unable to let the comment go, Simon smiled wickedly and told her huskily, "Let's just fix the mule and then I can show you how bothered I am."

Wiggling her eyebrows at him suggestively, Kaylee leaned over him and kissed him, hard. Returning the kiss, Simon knew this was not a good idea; his arms were already burning from the exertion of having to hold up the equipment. Now as he felt his mind turn to mush as thoughts of Kaylee consumed him, he knew he would lose his grip and that would be very, very bad.

But whether Kaylee didn't realize the predicament they were in or didn't care he wasn't sure. All Simon knew was that she proceeded to deepen the kiss and in moments, he felt his hands slip, the part falling on Kaylee's head and eliciting an "Ow!" from her, before Simon could steady it. Rising quickly, she banged her head again, this time causing tears to well in her eyes at the pain.

As he watched her slide out from under the mule, Simon cursed his incompetence and continued to lay there, the piece of machinery once again balanced in his grasp. After a few moments, when Kaylee did not return, Simon tried to shift his gaze to find her feet. Unable to see anything, he finally called, "Ah, Kaylee?"

When there was no answer, Simon actually started to panic; she had hit her head pretty hard, and he feared that perhaps she had passed out. "Kaylee? Bao bei?"

"Don't sweet talk me, Simon Tam," her angry voice called out to him.

"Kaylee," he whined, wishing he could see her. "I didn't mean it. You distracted me."

"Oh, so this is my fault," she asked him haughtily.

Cursing again at his idiocy, he tried to speak in the most even of tones as he said, "No, Kaylee, of course not." As a few minutes passed in silence, Simon finally said, "I really should take a look at your head, make sure you're all right."

With a heavy sigh, Kaylee slid back in beside him and went back to work. "Let's just get this done," she said sullenly.

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By the time they got back to the ship, night had fallen and the captain was beside himself with anger over their lateness. As the young lovers both brushed past the crew, Kaylee heading in one direction, Simon heading in another, everyone's recriminations died on their lips – something had obviously gone wrong during their day of fun.

With a sigh, Simon moved towards his bed, his sister stepping into his path with a wide grin on her face. "Have fun?" she asked him, knowing perfectly well how awful Simon's afternoon had been.

Not stopping, Simon simply stepped around her and muttered, "Brat," before slamming his screen door shut behind him.

Skipping down to Kaylee's bunk, River descended the ladder quickly, hanging off one of the middle rungs. Kaylee looked up, her eyes again filled with tears at the crappiness of her day. Smiling sadly at her, River said, "You did distract him, you know."

Kaylee nodded once before flopping herself back down on her bunk. "I know, I ruined the whole day."

Smiling at her knowingly, River sing-songed, "Maybe not," before ascending the ladder just quickly as she'd come and closing the hatch behind her, running into Mal on his way to the bridge.

Pointing towards Kaylee's door, he asked, "She all right?"

Shrugging once, River told him, "Simon's not as good with his hands as she thought," and then she was gone.

His eyes following her, Mal decided he did not want to know what the teenager meant and shaking his head, hard, he went about his merry way.

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Simon was still stomping and snorting about his room, wondering how his day had turned out so spectacularly bad? He had had it planned, it was supposed to be fun, but now, Kaylee was mad at him and probably suffering from a mild concussion she wouldn't let him treat, and what was worse, he hadn't done anything – he'd really only been trying to help. Sitting heavily on the end of his bunk, he let his head fall into his hands with disgust.

He had no idea how long he'd been sitting there, when he heard his door slide open. With a heavy sigh and assuming it was his sister back to torment him some more, he kept his head down and said angrily, "You know, River, I would –"

"I'm sorry."

Kaylee's small broken voice caused his head to snap up and he met her tear-filled eyes, his heart swelling with concern and love for her instantly, his previous anger forgotten.

Taking a shaky breath, Kaylee dropped her gaze to the floor of his bunk and murmured, "I'm really sorry that I yelled at ya an' I blamed you for hitting me, I know it was my fault, 'cause I distracted ya."

Smiling at her lightly, Simon murmured, "Well, yes, I've always said your lips are quite distracting."

Raising her eyes to meet his, Kaylee put her hands on her hips and said, "Simon, are you makin' fun o' me?"

Shaking his head quickly, Simon rose and reaching around her, slid the door shut and locked it. "Oh, no ma'am," he told her, affecting the same tone from earlier in the day when she had been bossing him around. "I would never be insubordinate to a superior."

Kaylee cocked her head to one side, giving him the perfect view of her delicious neck and he dutifully dropped his head to it, his teeth and lips sucking on her flesh there. Her eyes closing against the sensation, she murmured, "Well, that's right. Maybe if'n you'd followed my instructions a bit more closely, we wouldn't of found ourselves in that situation."

Smiling against her skin, Simon wrapped his arms around her waist, and pulled her tight to him, getting the gasp of pleasure he'd been hoping for. Moving his lips up her neck and to her ear, he whispered hotly against her cheek, "Well, then, I guess I had better practice following your orders."

Her eyes widening with delight, Kaylee spent most of the night and the next morning instructing Simon on the finer points of obeying her.

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