River quietly crawled out of her hiding space and headed up the stairs to Inara's shuttle. She took a quick look around to make sure no one was around, specifically wayward Captains with misguided intentions. She knocked lightly on the door three times and waited for Inara to grant her entrance.
Inara heard the knock and opened the door, not surprised that it was River at the door. In fact, she had been expecting her ever since Mal left her shuttle earlier in the day. So, as was her fashion when people came to her for help, Inara beckoned River to enter and indicated that she should sit on the couch. She gracefully walked over to where she had a fresh pot of tea brewing, in preparation for this meeting, and knelt down, pouring both River and herself a cup of tea. Quietly, she handed River the cup and sat down beside her, taking a small sip as she waited for River to begin.
The Companion was struck by how similar River looked to how Mal looked earlier and thought it to be quite comical. The young pilot was frustrated, that much Inara could tell. She was also exasperated and Inara couldn't blame her for that. She was well aware that Mal had spent the entire morning and afternoon hunting for his little albatross in an attempt to 'woo' her in a courtly fashion. How River had managed to hide was beyond Inara's comprehension, although she gave the girl a lot of respect for managing to stay hidden among all the crates and illegal contraband. Inara tried to suppress a chuckle at the memory of Mal crawling around on his knees in the cargo bay looking for River in all the nooks and crannies. Unfortunately, she wasn't very successful at holding in her mirth and soon burst out laughing.
River looked over at the Companion who was currently in hysterics and tried to hold in her own laughter, which was currently threatening to spill over. However, River was not successful in reigning in her own amusement at the Captain's antics, and began laughing herself.
They made quite the pair, the crazy, assassin, fugitive pilot and the core-trained, Guild-certified, licensed Companion. They laughed together for what River estimated to be approximately 12.73 minutes before they finally calmed themselves enough to produce intelligible phrases. Inara wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and took River's hand in her own.
"My dear River," she began solemnly. "I do not envy you in the least!" At this, the Companion began to giggle once more and before they knew it, her and River laughed for another 4.56 minutes. Once River was sufficiently calm, she reached up a hand and brushed her hair out of her eyes, then looked over at Inara.
"He did look rather silly, didn't he?" she asked.
"Yes, he really did," Inara responded. River would have laughed again, but she found that her external obliques were aching from laughing a total of 17.29 minutes. Instead, she settled for a wide grin as she sipped at her tea.
"What should I do?" River asked after a moment. Inara took her other hand and positioned her body so she was directly facing the pilot.
"River," she replied. "You have to do what you feel is best. Nothing else matters. What do you want?" River sighed and flopped back on the couch, resting her hand on her stomach.
"I don't know," she answered. "I have fun with Badger. He understands me, in his own twisted fashion, and makes me feel like a real girl, not a puppet on a string. Mal, however, sees me as a little girl in need of his protection. He just doesn't see the logical end result of his actions."
"What is the logical end result, mei mei?" Inara asked. River looked over at the women beside her and paused for a moment as she contemplated the wisdom of revealing this particular future to her friend. In the end, she decided that if she truly wanted Inara's help, she would have to let her know all possible outcomes.
"Copulation with the possibility of commitment," she replied calmly as Inara took a sip of her tea. The result of her declaration caused Inara to choke on her tea, then cough and sputter. Inara quickly tried to regain her composure, but failed quite miserably.
"Mei mei, I don't thinkā¦" she began to say. River held up a hand to stop her.
"Captain may not have intended it to turn out this way, but it will," she interrupted. River had considered all variables, and except for the possible outcomes leading to death and destruction, she was quite certain that the most probable result of Mal's actions was some sort of engagement.
"The only way to prevent this outcome is to prevent the events that would need to occur from occurring," she continued. The Companion tried to make sense of her statement, but was unfortunately unable to follow the psychic genius' line of logic.
"What do you mean, River," Inara asked gently.
"Mal still sees me as a little girl and therefore has not thought of the consequences of courtship," River replied as though it should have been obvious. "If he sees that I am a woman, then he will think twice about courtship and he will see that I am capable of making my own decisions."
A look of understanding finally crossed Inara's face, although it was her personal opinion that things would turn out much differently than River imagined. She smiled at the thought of the Captain wooing the young girl and knew it wouldn't take much for the young woman to be wooed. River already had a healthy respect for the Captain and Inara knew they worked well together. Inara had long since given up any hope for a relationship with the man, and just wanted to see him happy. She smiled to herself at the secret knowledge that, out of everybody on the ship, River already made him very happy. Although this might not work out exactly the way River imagined, Inara would see to it that Mal saw her as the woman she was.
"Well, then," Inara responded after a moment. "Looks like we have some work to do. I think I have another dress that might fit you. By the way, did Badger like the other one I loaned to you?" River giggled and smiled as Inara rummaged through her trunks.
"You could say that," she said as a blush crept across her cheeks. Inara held out a swath of blue material for River to examine.
"River," she exclaimed. "Have you been holding out on me? You have to tell me what happened."
So River told Inara everything, including the part about the kisses she very much enjoyed.
Back in the cargo bay, Mal tried to occupy himself by lifting some of Jayne's arm weights. However, he was quite distracted by the sound of loud giggling emanating from Inara's shuttle. The Captain was certain River was hiding in there and had to contain the impulse to barge in, although he couldn't imagine what was so gorram funny that they had to laugh about it for twenty minutes.
"Captain," Jayne said from the sidelines. Mal turned and looked at his hired gun.
"Oh hey, Jayne," he replied, placing the weight on the floor. "Didn't hear you come in. Everything shiny?"
"Zoe told me to let you know we'll be landing on Beylix shortly..." Jayne stopped in the middle of his sentence and stared up at Inara's shuttle. Mal followed his stare to the shuttle and swallowed thickly at the sight that met him. Inara had just exited her shuttle followed closely by River.
Beautiful. Mal couldn't stop the thought from flitting through his mind. She was indeed, quite a sight to behold, dressed up in some sort of blue shiny material with her hair all piled up and her eyes shining. He watched as River made her way across the catwalk and toward the dining hall without a glance in his direction. As Inara walked by she gave a slight smirk, but Mal was too distracted by River to notice. He heard Jayne whistle lowly and turned to look at the mercenary.
"Jesu, Mal," he said with a leer. "Badger's one lucky hun dan. If'n I'da known she looked like that, well, let's just say the little man'd still be playing with junior."
"She's just a girl, Jayne," Mal replied in a dangerously low voice, crossing his arms across his chest.
"Hell, Mal," Jayne said as he straightened his gun holster. "That ain't no girl. That there's all sorts of woman." Mal frowned at his mercenary and glanced back up to where the his pilot had just been. Jayne smirked and bounded up the stairs toward the dining hall.
"Think it's time for dinner, Mal," he called back as he left. Mal pondered the double meaning of that sentence and took off after his merc.
Great, he thought. Now I have to save her from Badger AND Jayne.
