Author's Note: Ficlet for the LJ ff_friday challenge. June 26's subject: money. Length: 293 words. SPOILERS FOR "HEART OF GOLD." The viewpoints are kind of shifting in this, so I hope it's not too confusing. Now that I think about it, it doesn't entirely address the challenge theme except in the beginning. Ah, well.

Differential Treatment

By Trisana McGraw

For the first time in a long while, it hadn't been about money. It hadn't even been a trade the way Jayne saw it – "I protect you, you give me sex" – Mal had respected Nandi too much to do that. He learned about her as a person, not just a body. He'd needed her that night, and she'd probably needed him in some way too. In that back room, the two leaders had been able to let out their anxieties and burdens without worrying about consequences.

* * *

Maybe that was what had bothered Inara so much; not just that the woman Mal had bedded hadn't been her. There'd been more fire and life in Mal and Nandi's one night than in the entire year Inara had spent on Serenity. She'd planned from the beginning that the way she would act toward the captain would always be of detached politeness, never allowing matters to become personal. She'd been too foolish to realize that what he'd needed was a friend; if she'd taken that role she might have been the one soothing him before the morning's fight.

* * *

The only downside of going beyond a simple transaction was the complications it brought about later. Nandi's death was like a punch in the gut. Mal couldn't rest until he'd avenged her, and even after she was buried he felt a restless need to do her justice.

Their brief relationship had been powered by frantic need, not conducted in a calm, businesslike manner. With Nandi the emotions came spilling out unheeded; she didn't force him to hold his feelings in. Inara saw that in an instant – gorram Companion face-reading or whatever it was – and that was what ended whatever feelings had finally begun to flourish between them.