“That was indeed foolish,” Luke was debating on firing the first shot, before Analith could prepare.

“Yeah, I’m the personification of complete idiocy, Luke,” Ah sarcasm, thought Luke. Her specialty. But before he could retort, Mal was practically on top of him.

“Now, now, sir, can’t be having people pointing guns at my passengers. So what’s the problem?”

“You’d better keep yer nose clean, Captain, or he may think it his duty to remove it from yer face,”

“He’d better not take the consideration into his head,” Mal was giving Luke suck a look, Ana could see the fear in his eyes.

“Oh, and I believe that on the way here I told you I’m Mal to you, right Ana?”

“Sure,”

“Okay, now that that’s cleared up, sir I’m going to have to ask you to get your carcass out of here,”

“Somehow,” Luke was feigning annoyance- now that the rest of the crew had made something of a semicircle around Ana, his eyes dripped with fear. “I don’t find myself particularly obliged to do anything you ask,” Ana’s eyes flickered to Luke’s hand- he’d made the mistake of lowering his gun. She was getting annoyed with the whole ordeal.

“Oh, gun-hoe-tze-bee-dio-se,” Her gun was fast as a flick, and Luke and his other bodyguard fell dead on the floor. The bartender’s face was somewhat deformed by his expression. “Sorry about the mess,” Ana said to him, and walked outside. Mal was at her heels.

“Is this kind of thing going to happen a lot if I have you in tow all the time?”

“Oh, ’s bound to happen some. Made ‘nough enemies, I suppose. But not a lot, I wouldn’t say,”

“You had better be right, because if you jeopardize my crew too much I might have to get you off of my boat,”

“Don’t like me, do you?”

“Never said that,”

“I can look at yer face and tell what you’re thinking, you don’t have to say a thing,”

“Point taken,”

“You didn’t answer. Do you not like me?” Mal’s eyes danced to the left, his mouth curled around, choosing its words.

“Haven’t decided yet,” He went back into the bar, and Ana smiled like a mischievous child.

***

Ana was sitting in the kitchen, just looking at it in slight awe, when Jayne came in, likely for a drink.

“Oh, hey, erm, what was your name?”

“Analith,”

“Uh huh. Want a drink?” Somehow she’d known.

“No thanks,”

“Sure?”

“I’m fine, thanks,”

“Alright, then,” He drank from the whiskey flask, looking at Ana with a desire to say something disgustingly impressive.

“You know what kind of ship she is?”

“Firefly class. It’s little beauty, I think,”

“Damn bucket of bolts,”

“Really?”

“You haven’t been on her and conscious long enough to see bits of her falling off behind you into the Black,” Her smile was irony itself.

“Huh. What are you on this boat ‘zactly?”

“Oh, mostly I just shoot people if I need to,”

“Would like to have a job like that, rather than just being a passenger,”

“What, you wanna join the crew?”

“Got nothin’ else to do, no place else to go,”

“Should ask Mal,”

“Was considering that,” The speaker system blipped.

“This is your captain, Jayne- please get your ass in the cockpit, as in right now,”

“Ah, damn,” And he was gone. Almost as soon as he was, River meandered in.

“Hello,”

“Hey, kiddo,”

“You want to join the Captain’s crew,”

“Yeah, I was thinking about askin’,”

“You should. They are family,” Ana smiled at her. “So what’s your story?”

***

It was officially the closest thing to bedtime on Serenity, on Ana’s third day aboard. Jayne, Zoë, and River were already in their respective areas, Wash was setting the autopilot, Kaylee was putting away her tools, and Simon was re-bandaging Ana’s blistered skin.

“I’m really sick of this room,”

“It has beds,”

“Sleepin’ on the floor would be preferable,”

“What’s so awful about it?”

“It smells bad,”

“Dang-ran,” He put up the ointment and the gauze. “Maybe I’ll find the Captain and you two can sort something out,”

“Thanks, Simon,”

“Yeah,” He left, and Ana could hear him asking Wash where the captain was.

“In his room, I think,”

“Thanks,” The footsteps faded. Ana really liked Simon; he was a nice guy, and smart. Not too harsh on the eyes, but she didn’t like him in that particular sense. And even if she had, he was taken. Or as close to taken as you could be without actually being officially ‘taken’.

“Getting picky on me?” Mal was in the infirmary, his eyebrows raised.

“What?”

“Simon says you want a place of your own to sleep,”

“Simon says,”

“Well, there isn’t really anywhere to go, except…” his voice trailed off, his eyes lost a touch of radiance.

“Where?”

“Inara’s old room,” His voice was cold.

“Ya don’t want me to go there, do you?” Mal was silent. “What happened?”

“It’s a long story-“

“Summarize,”

“Alright,” He looked at the ceiling. “Uh… Inara was an old friend. A, um, really, really good friend,” Ana’s eyes met his.

“I’m sorry,” she said, “I’ll go someplace else,”

“No, it’s alright. You can have her room,” He said, and turned to leave.

“Mal,”

“Yes?”

“Can I… I was wondering…” It wasn’t the right time. And God, those pants were distracting.

“Can you what?” Well, right time or not, she couldn’t get away from it now.

“I wanted to ask you if I could… well… join the crew?” Her last words were small. His eyes had another look altogether- but this look certainly wasn’t bad.

“I’ll think on it,”