This takes place post BDM. Disclaimer: Joss Whedon is a god. I am just a lowly priest. Simon and Kaylee slipped into his bunk as secretively as they could, not even walking to their destination together, to avoid suspicion. They have been avoiding each other on the ship anytime a crew member was around to avoid hints of their changed relationship from being dropped. It was so nerve-wracking, when all they wanted to do is hold each other, kiss each other, and be in each other’s company all of the time. They knew if they lingered too long, or spoke too much, someone in the crew would figure it out, which will have disastrous results. Zoe was still in mourning for Wash, while Kaylee knew that Mal would not abide in a shipboard romances. Jayne would just tease Simon endlessly, and River, well, River definitely knew already. ________________________________________ As soon as the two made it to Simon’s bunk, they could not keep their hands off of each other. Simon pulled Kaylee into a deep, passionate kiss, exploring her body with his gently hands. He pulled each bit of her clothing off, never breaking his kiss. Kaylee broke the kiss and started to unbutton his shirt, kissing his chest every inch of the way. When she got to his pants, she smirked and slipped them down, kissing just inside of his thigh, letting out a small giggle when she saw how aroused he was. She sipped is boxers off and licked just the tip of him, which twitched in response to touch. “You don’t have to do this” he practically sighed out, loving what she was doing. She stood up, looking straight into his eyes and said, with a smile on her face, “I just want to thank you for your attention last night, ‘sides, I wanna.” She slinked back down his body, onto her knees. Putting the sensitive tip to her moist, gentle lips, she kissed it slowly, wrapping her lips around him. With one hand, she cupped his balls, massaging gently. As she slipped his length into her mouth, softly running he tongue on the underside, she let out a contented moan, sending vibrations through him, making his knees weak. Kaylee’s warm mouth around him was enough to make him cum right there, but he held back, loving every movement she made, as he ran his long fingers through her hair. “Oh Kaylee” was all he could gasp, he could feel he lips form a smile, while not breaking contact with him. She loved making him feel this way, seeing him in such pleasure sent a tingle down her spine which settled in between her own legs. With her free hand she started rubbing herself in time to her head movement, moaning in ecstasy. Every moan was a drug to Simon, he could not get enough. When he noticed her touching herself he managed to whisper, “I am going to really thank you later”, then he came. She swallowed every drop, loving the warm, sweet taste on her tongue. She slowly pulled away, running her tongue along his member, and let out a small, trademark giggle. Hearing Mal’s voice was the last and worst thing she expected to hear. “GUH JUN DUH HWOON DAHN!” Mal bellowed, not believing his eyes. ________________________________________ Mal had noticed that the Doc and lil’Kaylee haven’t been speaking much, and one walks out the room when the other walks in. It was enough to drive Mal nuts, and figuring Simon did something to hurt Kaylee, he decided to walk down to Simon’s bunk to have it out with him. When he opened the door, too mad to knock, he saw Simon’s naked back, with his pants around his ankles, whispering something too low for Mal to hear. Thinking that he just walked in on the Doc pleasuring himself, he went to walk out, hopingly unnoticed. Then he heard a giggle, and saw something he never wanted to know about, let alone see; he saw hands: Kaylee’s hands, creep up Simon’s back. Then the yelling ensued. ________________________________________ Kaylee jumped up as Simon hastily pulled a bed sheet around Kaylee and him, pulling closer to him, as if to protect her from the intrusion. “What in the gorram ‘verse is happening in here?!”, Mal sputtered to Simon; “You get away from her right now!” Kaylee was reddened with embarrassment then paled with fear, but Simon reassured her, pulling her to him and holding her in his arms. “Mal, I–” Simon began, before being cut off. It was just as well, as he had no idea what to say to literally being caught with his pants down. “No, you listen here. I don’t know how ya did it, but it’s not right taking advantage of Kaylee. What’d you do? Get her to drink too much, start kissing, knowing she is sweet on ya, and make her do… that? She ain’t some chòu biǎozi that would do a thing like that, so how’d you do it? ” With that, the captain stepped forward, eyes showing how livid he was, to take Kaylee by the arm. She pulled away from him, holding onto Simon with her eyes cast down, before muttering, “That’s not how it happened…”Clearly she was hurt at the captain calling her a whore. Simon looked appalled at the captain’s words, his eyes matching the anger of Mal. “No, now you listen. I would never take advantage of Kaylee. Ever. Neither of us was drinking. And as I recall, we were in the privacy of my bunk. Now, apologize to Kaylee.” Mal was stunned that the boy spoke to him like that. He looked at Kaylee, her eyes still on the floor, but her arms were firmly around Simon, and that’s when Mal realized that whatever he walked in on, it was not their first encounter. “Now, it’s time to come clean. What exactly is going on here?” Kaylee was the first to offer an explanation, “Well, I…. we… umm,” as she turned to Simon, at a complete loss for words. “We didn’t want you to find out, especially like… this” was all Simon could offer to the captain. “Find out, what exactly? That you are taking advantage of my mechanic!?” was Mal’s reply, his anger and hatred towards Simon increasing at every moment that ticked by. “No!”, as Kaylee found her voice, “Simon does not take advantage of me; we didn’t want you to find out that we are together.” She dropped her head onto Simon’s shoulder, not really sure where to go from there “So what? You just been ruttin’ behind my back? I do recall threatening to laugh a certain doctor out of the air lock if he laid a hand on you, so you tellin me I better say my goodbyes to him now?” as Mal looked at Kaylee. Kaylee looked terrified as she clung to Simon almost possessively. Her better judgment knew Mal would never actually do it, but the threat felt all too real at the moment to not be taken aback. “We haven’t ‘just been ruttin’ as you so delicately put it. I care very deeply for Kaylee. Hell, Mal, I love her.” Kaylee looked just as shocked as Mal at this point. While she and Simon knew they cared for each other, they never expressed those exact sentiments yet. “You… you love me?” “Of course bao bei.” With that, Simon pulled Kaylee in for a sweet tender kiss, ignoring that the captain was in the room. He wasn’t exactly planning on telling her like this, but Mal needed to know, as well as Kaylee that this relationship wasn’t about sex. Well, not totally about sex; sex was great. “Oh, Simon, I love you too,” Kaylee was able to whisper when the kiss broke, her eyes filling up with tears as she looked at him. His thumbs gently whipped them away as he pulled her into a tight hug. Mal just looked stunned, watching the emotional even before him. “Now wait one gorram minute! This ain’t happening! Just how long have you two been together?”

Both with sheepish grins on their faces, the couple turned to face the stammering man interrupting an otherwise touching moment. “Bout three months…” Was Kaylee’s response. “THREE MONTHS? How in the ‘verse did you hide this from us for three months,” Mal sputtered “It is us, right? You ain’t hiding it from just me?” “No, no,” Simon quickly interjected “Aside from Kaylee and me, River is the only one to know, and we didn’t exactly tell her. Although we thought about telling Inara, just to tell someone, it felt wrong to hide something from only certain crew members.” “We didn’t want to show off our happiness when everyone, even us, was still grieving. We knew we hadda tell you all eventually, but it was just so much easier to sneak around,” she stated, as a smirk appeared on her face, “more fun too.” “Love huh? I think I’d like it better if the two of ya were just fooling around. Not that I’d approve of that either, just that we live dangerous lives, I think we all see what happens when ya get so attached to one person. Just look at Wash and Zoe.” “No disrespect, but I could care less if you approve of Kaylee and I. While I am sure that would make you hassle us less, you’re feeling towards us are not going to alter mine.” “Same here, Cap’t. I hope you could be happy for us, but if not, keep those feelins to yourself.” “Aw, Mei mei, of course I want you to be happy, but I don’t think any man is good enough for you, and when he hurts you, I am going to lose one hell of a doc to the black.” “Why would I ever hurt Kaylee? She is what my life revels around, without her, I hope you space me, because I don’t think I would be able to live.” “Right.” And with that, Mal left the bunk, appeased for now at the sentiments. Simon cupped Kaylee’s chin in his hands and tenderly kissed her, rapidly allowing it to become more. Pulling away, a crooked smile on his face as he said, “Now, how about I thank you?” ________________________________________ The next few days were something of an eye opener for the crew. Presently, Kaylee sat on Simon’s lap in the common room, giggling as he told some story about some crazy patient he had when he was an intern at the hospital. His arms were wrapped loosely around her waist while one of her arms was around his neck. Her other hand rested comfortable on his chest as she gently moved her thumb back and forth, barely noticing what she was doing. The whole crew had seen the interaction, and all had different views on the subject. Mal, who knew, just sort of glared at the couple for a few seconds before deciding to ignore it the best her could. River let out a sigh of relief when she realized she didn’t have to harbor their secret any longer. Zoe was happy to see her family happy, and she thought fondly of the times she and Wash had been in similar situations. Inara was also happy to see Kaylee and Simon working so well together. Just watching them act so happy brought an uncharacteristic silly smile to her face as she strode into the kitchen for some tea. Jayne just grumbled something about wanting to see how the doc messes this up and went back to cleaning his guns, grinning at the prospect of watching Mal space Simon. Simon and Kaylee slipped into his bunk not so secretively, not even walking to their destination apart, confirming any suspicions.