don’t know what to do anymore I’ve lost the only love worth fighting for I’ll drown in my tear storming sea that would show you, that would make you hurt like me

Inara Serra stood facing Mal on the catwalk over the cargo bay, knowing what he was trying to say to her now, in the long hours after leaving behind the Heart of Gold. And she was damned if she would let him. Her finely honed control, her peace of mind had been so deeply shaken, she finally acknowledged the truth that had been building, ever since her reaction to Saffron. She had to leave, as soon as possible. She had to save what was left of herself, get away and rebuild before the fire of this man melted her completely. “There's something - there's something I should've done a long while ago. And I'm sorry, for both of us, that it took me this long. I'm leaving.”

all the same, I don’t want mud-slinging games it’s just a shame to let you walk away

Malcolm Reynolds watched her walking away from him, towards her shuttle…his shuttle really. She was just a tenant after all. He could find another tenant. ‘Yeah,’ he thought. ‘And if you believe that pile of go se, I have some nice beach front property on Haven I could sell you.’ The lingering scent of her perfume, jasmine with a tinge of spice, suddenly left him with the powerful urge for some rot-gut wine from Kaylee's still. He figured if he drank enough, maybe he wouldn’t feel so much like he was gut shot.

is there a chance, a fragment of light at the end of the tunnel, a reason to fight is there a chance you may change your mind or are we ashes and wine?

Malcolm Reynolds took to sitting up nights on the bridge, far enough away from shuttle two that he couldn’t hear the tiny chorus of destruction when Inara left the door open, as she began to dismantle her things. The sound of her tea set being carefully wrapped in linen. The light crack of a throw from the couch having the wrinkles snapped out before being folded into a box. The creak of the hooks holding the artifice of cloth that gave the place its sultan’s harem appeal being removed from the ceilings. If he stayed on the bridge with a flask and a blanket, he could pretend that everything wasn’t literally being taken apart at the seams.

don’t know if our fate’s already sealed this day’s a spinning circus on a wheel I’m ill with the thought of your kiss coffee-laced, intoxicating on her lips

Inara Serra bolted awake in her rapidly emptying shuttle. The image seemed burned into the back of her eyelids, Mal with is tousled hair walking out of Nandi’s room in the early morning hour, buttoning his shirt. It shouldn’t affect her like this. She had years of training, for Buddha’s sake. It wasn’t like he was her husband. Half the time, he wasn’t even her friend. The half when he was calling her a whore. Curling up in the silken coverlet that now gave the graying walls a tawdry sense of grandeur gone to seed, she let the tears come and tried to tell herself it would be better when she was gone away.

shut it out, I’ve got no claim on you now I’m not allowed to wear your freedom down

Malcolm Reynolds watched as Kaylee clung to Inara, could imagine the girl’s whispered pleas for the Companion to change her mind. Jayne and Wash gave them distance as they worked unloading Inara’s boxes, bags, and trunks off of Serenity and handing them to the waiting staff of the training house. Finally, the little mechanic let go, and with tears in her eyes, ran deep into the bowels of the ship. The silk-clad shoulders of the older woman sagged under the weight. Mal stepped forward, and offered her his hand. “Well, I guess this is it,” he said, trying to search her eyes to see something different. “Take care of yourself, Inara.”

is there a chance, a fragment of light at the end of the tunnel, a reason to fight is there a chance you may change your mind or are we ashes and wine?

Inara Serra stood in the portico looking at the ship as it broke atom, watching the only place she’d really felt at home fly away from her. She could feel the tears trying to come to her eyes, but she knew Sheydra was watching her, trying to determine the reason Inara would give up everything to come to this relatively minor training house. Steeling her resolve as the breeze moved her skirts, she put on her most serene mask and turned to walk inside, trying desperately to lockdown the last of the emotions that roiled inside.

I’ll tear myself away if that what you need there is nothing left to say

Malcolm Reynolds sat alone in his bunk, shirt off, starring at the capture he had filched from the engine room. Every time he walked in, he’d catch Kaylee starring at it, crying to beat the band and not getting any work done. It tore him up to hear her. So one day, while she was off ship scavenging the salvage yard, he’d taken it and put it in the box on his desk in his bunk, intending it to stay there. Only it didn’t. Somehow, the image called to him, and before he knew it, it was in his hands, and he was running his finger over her hair in the shot, wondering how things had gotten so humped.

is there a chance, a fragment of light at the end of the tunnel, a reason to fight is there a chance you may change your mind or are we ashes and wine? reduced to ashes and wine or are we ashes…

Inara Serra told herself every morning that she had put the ship and it’s Captain out of her mind. She would manage that belief fairly well until she caught another group of students starring at her across the school’s dining room, knowing they were whispering the rumors of her romantic adventure with the space pirate. It took everything she had not to let her face burn red at the gossip. Finally, she had given up on eating with the other full-fledged companions at the head table and had begun to seek the solace of meals in her room. She had just been finishing breakfast one morning, looking out of the mists of the valley below her veranda outside of her room when a servant came to tell her that someone from the government was here to speak to her. As she watched the tall dark man approach, she realized all her loss, all the pain of separation to try to save herself had been for naught. Because Inara knew exactly just who and what this man was, and in that instant, she knew the Malcolm Reynolds was going to be responsible for the destruction of her world as she knew it, no matter what she had done to stop it.