“’Nara?” Mal said again after a while “your head feelin’ like mine?” “If yours is feeling like very small people had a very large party in it last night then yes” she replied, her face showing a whole range of emotions. This she allowed for only an instant before her Companions mask slipped back on. She got slowly off the bed and stood up, then tried daintily to step over Mal but her drunken head would not allow this and she tripped. Mal rolled sideways and in one fluid movement caught her, stopped her from falling. Inara gasped when his calloused brown palms touched her silken skin and their eyes locked as he lowered her gently to the floor beside him.

Their eyes never left each others as for a few moments they lay together on the floor. “Man could get lost in those eyes.” Mal thought as he stared deep into her warm brown orbs, his hand tentatively reaching out to touch Inara’s face. As for her, she knew that if he touched her then, in that moment, everything would change, and there would be no turning back. So she did what she always had done. She left. Leaving him alone on the floor.

**** It was almost an hour later when a grumbling stomach forced him to emerge from his bunk. His hazy memory had allowed him various snippets of last nights “Shindig”. He was now convinced that his misbehaving crew had something to do with the shock he had received this morning. Which meant they would be waiting for news, and that was a meeting he could do without. He also wanted to avoid Inara, he didn’t know what to say to her. All he knew was that last night he had slept, with her in his arms. And it had felt right. This morning he had woken happy, without knowing why.

As he moved along the empty walkway to the Galley he slowed. She was there. Inara had also been called from her shuttle by a complaining stomach and was making herself some breakfast. He stood in the shadows, watching. She always moved so gracefully, always looked so beautiful. Her dark eyes were so mysterious, held secrets. But lately her eyes had taken on a haunted look, and there were dark circles under them. She concealed it well but he had noticed, he would always notice, always worry, always care.

**** That night the ship was quiet, everybody was asleep or, in Simon and Kaylee’s case, otherwise engaged in their bunks. Inara was in her shuttle, she and the Captain had spent the day avoiding the crew, and each other. She was a Companion, or at least, she was supposed to be. She had spent years learning to control her emotions, learning to understand the emotions of others. How did this man manage to erase all that so easily? He undid her so completely and he was so hard to read. While she tried to sleep Inara pondered the imponderables, trying to tire her brain out so she wouldn’t dream. She always did though. Ever since Miranda. Nightly she would toss and turn, plagued by the recording, visions of Reavers, Mal dead. Then she would wake in a cold sweat, thankful that she was far enough away for nobody to hear her screams. Sometimes the nightmares would feel so frighteningly real that she would go to stand outside Mal’s door. Straining to hear the comforting sound of his breathing. It had been three months since Miranda and she had only had two full nights sleep. Once she had gone to the infirmary and taken a sleeping pill. The second time, was last night. She had slept so peacefully in Mal’s arms, no nightmares, no screams and no drugs. Just the steady rise and fall of his chest against her back and feelings of safety and warmth. Remembering those feelings made her long for his arms, long for the safety they brought, long for the warmth of his sleepy body cradling her. “ Tyen-sah duh UH-muo” she thought, getting out of bed and wrapping a robe about her she padded softly down the deserted walkways towards his bunk. She pushed open the door and climbed softly down the ladder. “Mal?” she whispered “Mal, are you awake?” He mumbled something indistinctly in his sleep so she gently shook him awake. “Say anything and I will kill you” she warned when he woke, slipping in beside him. Mal was not completely awake and he had no idea why she was here but he knew instinctively not to ask questions. Instead he wrapped his arms around her and drank in her scent by burying his face in her dark hair. Inara smiled softly to herself and closed her eyes, no nightmares here. Here, with him she was safe. Here there was only love. Sleep overtook her instantly. He looked down at her for a while, listening to her steady breathing, then he pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her head and fell asleep.

Everything was where it should be.

________________________________ Chinese

Tyen-sah duh UH-muo - Goddamn Monsters