Suddenly realised I've been forgetting to give credit where credit's due; I own nothing, all the characters belong to the almighty Joss Whedon et al. In other news, I won't be posting chapters quite as often as I have been due to real life getting in the way.

…..

Mal oversaw Serenity's guests getting themselves settled in the hold where they were to sleep and spend most of the trip as the rest of the crew were turning in after Inara's excellent meal. Aside from the Jesus-ness, they seemed like pleasant folk.

As he stood on the gantry overlooking the hold he happened to look across to where Inara's shuttle door stood ajar, the normally exotically decorated room was now bare. A thought struck him with the force of a Fed sonic rifle, Inara wasn't going to be sleeping in her shuttle, she was going to be acting the part of his wife and all the crew cabins were already taken. Gorram it all to hell, Mal! How did you overlook this?

….

Kaylee sat with Inara in her bunk; she was sorting her out with enough clothes to last her until they made it to New Oceania. She had also been plotting to use the opportunity to finally get the captain and Inara to build one hell of a bridge and get over their insecurities, issues and stubbornness and get round to what had clearly been brewing since Inara had joined Serenity's crew.

Inara had dropped several hints to Kaylee about how she should probably stay in her room that night, but Kaylee was subtly brushing them aside with ease. All she needed now was a bombproof way of getting that pair to stay in the same room.

Inara tried asking a little more diplomatically to bunk down in kaylee's cabin; "I think it would be best if I stayed here tonight, I get the feeling the captain is a little offended by my attempts at looking like someone from the rim and might not appreciate me taking up his cabin space."

Kaylee decided to meet this head-on; "Now that's just plain untrue 'Nara! I'm sure he reckons you're just Yíngjin lookin' like this and absolutely shiny for coming up with a plan to get the cargo onto that rock. Anyway, you two seemed to be getting along fine at dinner."

Inara massaged a temple with her thumb, "You know he can't stand what I do for a living, he has no respect for me and we'll be at each other's throats inside of five minutes if we're stuck in a cabin together."

Kaylee raised an eyebrow, "It's a funny Companion what hasn't taken a client going on what, five months now? I know we've been hiding out at the corner of nowhere and noplace but you never once complained or hinted that you wanted to get back to work."

Inara had to admit to herself that Kaylee was right; she wasn't feeling any particular desire to get back to her "day job" and had started feeling right at home with everyone else on the crew. There was something to this life, just floating around the black, flying by the seat of one's pants and living like a rogue. The crew of Serenity weren't just colleagues; they were family and no matter what Inara knew they were the six people in all the verse that had her back. Even that stubborn, thieving, disrespectful, crude, brave, noble, protective, handsome húndan of a captain!

As Inara mulled over these thoughts and folded the clothes Kaylee saw the longing look play across her face and decided she could get away with one more push for tonight before Inara caught on to her matchmaking attempt, her guard was down and all Kaylee had to do was give her the ammunition to make an assault on her own nervousness. "Y'know if he couldn't stand you're bein' on this ship he could have told you to get gone anytime, and he went to get you back as soon as he thought you were in danger, risked us all to do it too."

Inara bit her lip at this but Kaylee had lit a spark and now her head was filling with all the times she and Mal had gotten into fierce verbal battles, worse and more frequently than those Mal had with Jayne, but they always made up quickly and managed to function together. All these examples confirmed what Kaylee had told her, not to mention Mal flying Serenity under the nose of a battle fleet, breaking into a Companion training house (how he managed it with that ridiculous disguise she had yet to fathom) and getting her away from the most terrifying man she had ever met in her life.

Now that she had the fuel, her mind raced and started devising the best way to show Mal she wasn't just another Companion, she had a plan.

…

Zoe had been sitting on the bridge, ostensibly taking the first watch but mostly ignoring the instruments and staring out into the black. She was sure Wash would have absolutely loved their current job and would have had no end of witty comments and veiled jokes to direct at their passengers.

Would have had… Red battle lights, a crash of glass and metal, a crunch of flesh…

She ground down the memory and sense of loss that was threatening to slip its fingers around her throat and started recalling every single time Wash had made her laugh, it was the best way she had found of calming herself down when the memory of her husband's fate tried to drag her down.

Her reminiscing was interrupted by Jayne's appearance on the bridge, he had the look on his face that meant he was about to try and be polite, that is, he was concentrating hard. "So Zoe, how d'ya want to play this whole bein' married thingy? If you don't want me in the same room as ya that's fine, or I can sleep on the floor?"

Zoe appreciated him giving her the choice, but replied in her usual dry manner, without looking around at him, "I reckon the floor's a good place for you Jayne, but in the interest of fairness we can swap out each night."

Jayne had been expecting a worse deal than that, he nodded to himself and was halfway down the stairs to the crew quarters when a thought struck him and he poked his head back into the bridge. "Hey, since yer taking this watch can have the bed this evenin'?" Zoe slowly revolved the pilot's chair to face him, the look on her face made Jayne cough and he quickly retreated down the steps and he went to grab a sleeping bag from his room and get set up on the floor of Zoe's room.

As Jayne emerged from his room he encountered Simon waiting outside the door, Simon was going to be staying in Jayne's room as the proper guest rooms were filled with luggage. Their passengers had declined to use them as there were few and the families preferred to sleep all together. The deacon and his wife had also decided to sleep in the hold. Simon looked sour, something to do with not being allowed his usual place in Kaylee's bed Jayne knew.

"You touch any o' my stuff doc, and I'll cut off yer head and use it for target practice, y'hear?" Simon narrowed his eyes at Jayne, who just snorted in laughter and clapped him on the shoulder hard enough to make Simon put a hand on the bulkhead to steady himself.

"Good night to you too," muttered Simon as Jayne disappeared with his sleeping bag into Zoe's cabin. He swung himself down into Jayne's room and wrinkled his nose at the slight smell of body odour and the metallic tang of propellant and cleaning oil that came from the quite extraordinary amount of firepower the room contained. As he gazed at the weapons lining the walls a small, boyish part of him, the part that was a lot more prominent in people like the captain and Jayne, couldn't help but feeling gleeful at the sight of so many guns.

Oh hell, this life is really getting to me isn't it? He wondered to himself and to his surprise, he started grinning.

…..

Mal wandered slowly through his ship, turned off a few lights in the kitchen and made his way towards his cabin. He caught Zoe's eye from the corridor as she sat on the bridge and they both gave the other a jerk of their heads in acknowledgement. He pushed open his door and was halfway down into his cabin when he nearly put his boot into Inara's skull, narrowly missing by jerking his foot outwards and nearly fell the rest of the way. "'Nara! What the hell?!"

Inara backed into the room to give Mal room to get down off the ladder. Not the start I was hoping for… She winced mentally. "I was just getting a sleeping bag ready." She motioned at the half-rolled sleeping bag on the floor. "Sorry about that."

Mal was highly confused. She willingly came down here? Am I hearing this? "Look, you don't have to sleep down here if you don't wanna…"

I knew it; he doesn't want me in here. Inara's steely resolve that she had gained in Kaylee's room earlier faltered slightly. Gah! Don't give up yet. "If you want me out of here I can go and sleep in Kaylee's room." She said quickly.

"Oh no! I just wanted to tell you that, y'know, you don't have to put up with me if you don't want to. I don't mind it at all if you stay in here." Mal hoped she didn't think he wanted her out. Think before you speak Mal!

Ok, we're back on track. Inara had deliberately kept her hair tied back and had on a thick nightshirt with a high neckline so Mal would feel more comfortable and less like she was using her feminine wiles on him. Just sleeping in the same room without an argument would be a win in her book. "Alright, I'm going to the bathroom to wash my face and give you some privacy, I'll be back in five minutes."

Mal gawked after her as she climbed out of the room. What the díyú just happened? He started getting changed into a vest and some light trousers he reckoned could pass as nightclothes.

When Inara returned a few minutes later she found Mal holding the sleeping bag out at arm's length. "Mal? What are you doing?"

There was no way Malcolm Reynolds was going to let anyone sleep on the floor when he himself had a perfectly good bed. "Just checking to see if I'd fit in this thing, which I reckon I will. You're taking the bed, I changed the sheets for ya an' all."

"So now you're going all honourable on me for once?" As soon as she said it, Inara regretted it, He's going to think I'm being insulting and we're going to get in another falling-out, couldn't you have held your tongue, Inara?

Mal shrugged, "Yeah, looks that way." He smiled at her.

Inara cocked her head to one side at this, No acid remarks? No throwing the word whore around? Well this is incredible. "Aha, no. This is your cabin Mal, you get to sleep in your own bed…" She made a grab for the sleeping bag, but Mal whipped it behind his back and held his other hand in front of him, keeping her away from it. "You said it; it's my room, so I make the rules. You also forget that this is my boat, so I… eh, still make the rules and I say you're sleeping in that bed!"

They stared at each other for a long moment, and then Inara thought of plan; "Oh fine, if that's the way you want to do it…" she sat down on the bed and began to move the covers. Mal grinned victoriously and came alongside the bed to get into the sleeping bag. While he was doing this, Inara suddenly spun around, grabbed the bag with one hand and pushed Mal away from the bed with her feet, sending him to the other side of the cabin and leaving her holding the sleeping bag. While Mal was still turning to counter attack, Inara quickly slid into the bag and wrapped herself up in it, then lay down on the floor and stuck out her tongue at him.

Suddenly on the other side of his cabin and without a sleeping bag, Mal forgot whom he was dealing with and in the spirit of the game, picked Inara up bodily and dumped her onto the bed. He grabbed the foot end of the bag and lifted it up, intending to empty her out onto the bed, but she was too well wrapped up and he couldn't get her out. Inara tried to keep her laughter down while the big tough captain attempted to shake a small woman out of a sleeping bag and failed.

After a minute or so of shaking around Inara yelped "peace!" and Mal stopped shaking. Inara grinned up him, the rate she was coming up with new plans was surprising her. "I'll sleep in the bed on one condition… You do too!" She grabbed the front of his shirt and shoved him down beside her. Before he had time to protest about it not being proper or something stupid like that she reached up and turned off the light. "Happy now Mal? I am in the bed like you said!"

Mal was too shocked to move. "Well I…"

"Oh shush. I'll see you in the morning!" She said brightly, then turned over, still in the sleeping bag and said "'night." Success!

"Em, Ok then?" Mal lay in his bed, wondering what the hell just happened to him.