Title: The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Author: Rev. Alixtii O'Krul V
Fandom:Firefly
Pairing: Mal/Saffron
Disclaimer: Joss owns 'em.
Summary: In response to karabair's challenge, "Any characters, any fandom, talking about the Star Wars movies. GO!" Title and a line of dialogue or two come, paraphrased, from Joseph Campbell. An "h" comes from fleshlycherry. Unbetaed, although as usual I'm still looking for volunteers.

Saffron stares up at the stars. On Sihnon, she had learned the names of a hundred or so constellations, memorized the patterns they made in the night sky and the stories people would tell about them. But this is a different planet, with a different view of the stars, and Saffron doesn't know the constellations here. Doesn't know the stories. "There was a myth, back on Earth-that-Was—"

Mal cuts her off. "You know an awful lot of religion for a whore, you know that?"

She sighs dramatically, making a show of her exasperation. Doesn't hurt that it makes her breasts rise and fall, either. "The more you understand mythology, the better you understand human beings."

Mal harrumphs. "Myths don't tell you anything 'cept what ain't the case. Is why they're called myths and all."

Saffron smiles, crosses her legs. "That's why you're not made for deceit, Malcolm Reynolds, why you'll never be a champion con artist. All religions are true. It's just none of them are literal." After all, if anyone understands the truth, how completely mutable it can be, it's her.

Mal squirms, clearly uncomfortable. God, he can be so easy to manipulate sometimes. "Look, you wanna talk religion, we got a honest-to-God preacher back on the ship."

And what would she want a preacher for? There isn't a sin in his Bible she doesn't already know about. And she's much more comfortable out here. "You're in the myth, you know."

This makes him pause, as she knew it would. He stares at her with that dumbfounded look he is so good at. "I am?"

"The rogue. The handsome spaceship captain with the devil-may-care attitude. Struggling against the hegemony of an evil, oppressive government. Claims he doesn't care about good and bad, just out to make a profit, caring for himself and no one else, but when push comes to shove, he'll do the right thing, even if comes back to bite him later. Stupid like that."

"That's me, huh?" He doesn't say anything more, she knows, because he's too afraid to confirm or deny it.

Saffron stands, looks him straght in the eye. "Deep down people are all the same, Mal. There's only so many types in the world. You know the myths, you know them all. Then you can play them." Just like she is playing him right then.

"Wait. They had spaceships on Earth-that-Was?" He pauses, considering. "Course they did. Had to get off somehow, right?"

"This was pre-space travel," Saffron explains. "I think. Anyway, that's why it was a myth: people projecting their hopes and dreams into the unknown. Even then, space had a powerful hold on the human imagination."

"So, this myth guy who's me have a name?"

Saffron nods. "His name was Hansel. Hansel Oh."

"Wasn't he the guy with the bread crumbs?"

"Same name. Different myth."

"Oh." Mal just sits on a nearby rock, looking up at the sky himself. He doesn't know the constellations either, she's sure. "So what's this myth about?"

"Same thing as every myth," she answers. "Good versus evil."

"Good win?" She doesn't answer, and he glances back at her. "What'm I saying? Course Good wins. Is a myth, not like real life."

She knows a dozen or so myths where good loses out to evil, but doesn't mention them. "No," agrees Saffron, as she sits down on the rock next to him, "not like real life."