Kaylee rapped on the wall with her knuckle. “’Nara?”

Inara turned toward the door of the shuttle and smiled. “Kaylee!”

Kaylee smiled an’ folded her hands behind ‘er. “You got a second?”

“Of course! Please, come in.” Inara turned back toward the screen an’ touched it, then let the curtain drop down in front’ve it. Kaylee sat on the bed an’ kicked her shoes off. She pulled her feet up an’ sat cross-legged with her hands in her lap.

Inara came over an’ sat on the bed next to her. “I haven’t seen much of you lately.”

“I’ve been sleepin’ with Jayne.” Kaylee looked over at Inara, who had the grace to try an’ look surprised.

“Not… well, of course I’ve been… but you already knew that.”

Inara smiled. “I had my suspicions.”

“But the thing is… of course we… yanno… but what I mean is that I’ve been SLEEPIN’ with ‘im. All unconscious an’ snuggly-like.”

This time, Inara really did look surprised for a second. “Oh.”

“Yeah.” Kaylee looked down at her hands. “When it started out, it was just… sex. Well not just sex. Really good sex. He does this thing—“ she looked up at Inara, who was lookin’ down at her hands all delicate-like.

Kaylee cleared her throat. “Anyway… just sex. But then I started stayin’ around longer after. At first it was because I couldn’t walk real good right away. Then I started stayin’ ‘cause he was warm an’ you know how Mal turns the heat down durin’ sleep time.”

Inara smiled. She was lookin’ at Kaylee now, facin’ her, leanin’ back on one hand. Felt kinda weird to actually be talkin’ about it.

“An’ then I started stayin’ ‘cause… I wanted to. ‘Cause I slept better with his smell all around me an’ him near me. ‘Cause… somewhere in there, he wasn’t just the other body to bump into anymore.” Kaylee looked over at Inara again. “You know what I mean?”

Inara nodded. “It’s difficult to be so close to someone physically and not start to become close to them emotionally—not start to care about them.”

“You do it all the time!”

Inara’s smile widened. “But not as… regularly… as you do. Sometimes two people just have a connection. You and Jayne have spent a lot of time together, even before you started ‘bumping into each other.’”

She put her fingers lightly on Kaylee’s knee. “You’ve seen more of Jayne than any of us have. A lot more.”

Kaylee laughed.

Inara reached up an’ tucked some hair behind Kaylee’s ear. Kaylee looked at ‘er.

She was smilin’. “I don’t really know Jayne. Maybe if I did, I’d get a crush on him, too. Not that I want to know him as well as you do. No offense.”

Kaylee smiled. “None taken.”

Inara ran her fingers through the ends of Kaylee’s hair. Kaylee pulled her knees up to her chest an’ wrapped her arms around ‘em. She sighed.

“You think I have a crush on ‘im?”

“Do you?”

Kaylee thought for a second, then turned toward Inara. She put her cheek on her knees. “Yeah.”