Written for the "Several Ways" lj community challenge, challenge #2: "several ways to make love".

Four little drabbles that focus on Kaylee and her perceptions on some of her other crew members and, of course, making love. (They are not, specifically, about Kaylee making love *to* the characters.)

I wanted to challenge myself, so there is no Jayne/Kaylee. There is, however: Kaylee/Wash, Kaylee/Inara, Kaylee/Book and Kaylee/Simon/River.

Be warned: the fourth one contains minor hints and suggestions of dubious-consent, but it's incredibly minor and subtle.

Disclaimer: I believe in fairies! (are they mine yet?) I believe in fairies! (are they mine yet?). I do!

Feedback: Is so very shiny, so please comment or send email: wily_one24@yahoo.com.au

*** RUNNIN' IN NEUTRAL. ***

She's always had a sharpness to her, something bright and honest, something that can tune into anything and slide herself in on that frequency. It helped her fix a million and one things a time or two and, sometimes, it helps her fix herself.

"Got a half line over there?"

"Yeah."

It's easy like this and she likes easy, the two of them lying on their backs, all smooshed in together under the console, their shoulders side by side and forced to touch. Nature of the job that makes them this familiar with each other, they're the only two on board that know the ship like this, the only two that know what to do, that would get anything solved in a mess of parts and wires.

She can't help but think that it's a stark contrast to the shy, awkward doctor, the pretty man that always makes sure his flesh is a safe and proper distance from her own, that always makes sure he thinks about every word he says before he can bring himself to say it.

Her fingers slide, greasy and slick, over his as he hands the wire to her.

"Thanks Wash."

Now Wash, he's a man that knows polite from proper, he knows respect and she ain't ever felt nothin' else from him. But she's felt a thing or two else and it don't mean anything, she knows it, but sometimes she can't help but like his eyes when they stray.

Or the way he gives that nervous little laugh, half breath and half groan, when their teasing gets a little too risky. It's about then she knows to pull it back, to keep it playful and innocent.

Like he could be anything but.

"Is that what I think it...?"

"Yup." She nods. "A leak in the main drive connector."

"Wouldn't that...?"

"Yup."

Her leg shifts, slides against his, and it's warm.

"Shouldn't we...?"

"Gettin' there."

A few quick snips of the shears she keeps in her coverall pocket, some deft twists of the new wire he handed her, and Kaylee has it just about good as new. Well, good as competently repaired, anyways.

"You two just about done down there?"

They scramble out, Kaylee pressing a hand down on his knee as she sits up and grins at Mal.

"Just finished now."

"The engine's runnin'." Mal doesn't grin back. "Mind telling me why my ship's all powered up when we're docked and half the crew's out planet side?"

"She ain't powered up." Kaylee doesn't falter in her good mood. "She's idlin', runnin' in neutral."

Her hand caresses the panel behind her, feels the hum of the ship as she purrs.

"Sometimes you just gotta let her run, Cap'n, let her get it all outta her system. She knows she ain't goin' anywhere."

*** FLAWLESS. ***

"That feels good, 'Nara."

Kaylee lets her head be pulled back as she groans, a nice, deep, contented groan and her eyes close. There are soft, sure fingers threading their way through her hair, tugging gently at the skin on her scalp, lulling her into a stupor.

"That's the whole point, mei mei." Just like her hands, Inara's voice is soothing, sliding over her like warm honey drizzled over hot pancakes. There's a slight pause. "I missed you."

"Well, yeah." Kaylee can't help the delighted little giggle. "You been gone days, 'Nara. Days!"

She can sit here, with her eyes closed, and not feel a lick of guilt for not doing anything. There are so many things that need doing out there, in the ship, but here in Inara's shuttle, it's just a cloud of sweet smelling incense, the soft tinkling of music somewhere and familiar, comforting hands in her hair.

It's a little bit selfish of her, she knows, because there's so much for her in here. She gets pampered and spoiled and gets to see and play with all of Inara's pretty things. And she gets to spend time with Inara, something which is more valuable to Kaylee than anything else. She gets so much out of these little visits that she just can't always picture what Inara takes from them.

Kaylee twists her neck into it, lets her cheek brush against slender fingers.

"I had noticed." Comes the amused reply. "It's not often a client books me for a whole week."

"A whole week." Kaylee echoes with a sigh. "He must've been rich. Was he rich?"

Laughter, she pictures it like little bells.

"Money isn't the point, Kaylee." A small, firm chide in her voice, but even Kaylee can tell that Inara isn't serious. "You know that."

"Oh, I know." She opens her eyes, tilts her head back to look up at Inara behind her. "It's just... a whole week to do nothin' but take his time, be real nice. I ain't ever had a man take a whole week to do nothin' with me."

Inara makes some small sound, a little hum to move the conversation along, as she begins to stretch out the strands of Kaylee's hair. Kaylee knows that it won't be long before it'll be piled up on top, a thousand pins sticking into it just to hold it in place.

"Must be real nice to have someone be that slow and gentle." Kaylee keeps prodding, anyway, can't help the curiosity. She loves hearing about all the men that love Inara. "Was he? Was he real nice?"

Even upside down, with the underside of her chin dwarfing the rest of her, Inara is flawless. Inara is always flawless.

Sometimes Kaylee thinks that if she was born a man, and a man with money at that, then she'd be awful nice to Inara. Her brain won't stop the pictures, the fuzzy outline of herself against crisper, darker skin. It's always soft and gentle, she can't imagine it any other way.

Lips and small, tender kisses. Mouths parting with soft, gusting pants. Small, low moans and shallow keening. Skin glistening with sweat and effort. Nothing but love and warmth and kindness and dark, coal curls, a voice thick and warm like caramel.

"You don't want to hear all the tawdry details, mei mei."

Inara is always flawless, but Kaylee has had practice looking at flawless things and seeing the cracks, the tiny imperfections hidden from everyone else. She can feel it in the way Inara's fingers give a slight tremor against her neck, can hear it in the moment of silence in the pause.

"No." Kaylee lifts her hand and covers Inara's. Warmth mingling against her skin. "I don't need to know nothin'."

She pretends not to see the way Inara bites her top lip for just a second.

"Right then." And the curtain falls, Kaylee can feel it, Inara is flawless again. "Tell me about that young doctor?"

It's always soft and gentle, she can't imagine it any other way.

*** PASSION. ***

“It ain’t natural.”

Kaylee feels the urge to either smile to herself or just roll her eyes and sigh. She’s pretty sure that Zoe’d be able to pull it off as one little movement. She stands up straighter, instead, just as Jayne leans his forearms on the banister.

“Would you give it up?” There are many other things she could say, but she has a sneaking suspicion that they’d be wasted words. “It don’t always gotta be the way you like it.”

“But it just ain’t natural.”

She can tell he’s honestly confused and puzzled by it.

“He doesn’t want to.”

They both look down to the cargo bay, at the Preacher sitting on the weight bench reading his bible.

“He didn’t say nothin’ ‘bout never wanting to, Kaylee, he said he got vows.”

“Same thing.” She says with a shrug. “He don’t have to follow no vows out here, not if he didn’t want to. He chooses to follow them. So he must not want to… you know…”

Jayne grins at her.

“You know? C’mon, girl, you ain’t that shy and we both know it. Say it.”

“Besides.” Her head flips around, flicking her hair as she ignores him. “Just ‘cause he don’t bed with women, doesn’t mean he don’t have passion in his life.”

“Nope.” Jayne shrugs. “He said he don’t masturbate none.”

“Shh!” She hisses it, giving another frantic look back down to make sure that Book hadn’t heard them. “That ain’t what I meant.”

“Huh.” There’s a pause and then Jayne’s eyes widen. “You mean… boys?”

“No!” She punches his shoulder lightly. “’Course I don’t mean no boys. What boys ‘round here you been seeing?”

“What other great passions he got, then?” He challenges her.

“Well…” It’s not a big stretch, not really. “That bible for one.”

“Wha?” Jayne’s face screws up. “Gorram it, Kaylee, that’s disgustin’. He reads that book on the table we all eat at.”

“I. Don’t. Mean. Sex.” She spells it out for him. “Great passions aren’t always about gettin’ laid, Jayne.”

He puffs up his chest.

“Don’t hurt none.”

Yup, wasted words. She knew it. Her eyes drift down to the Sheppard, a calm body if she’s ever seen one, as he lets his finger slide reverently under the flap of a page and leaves it there, waits for his eyes to catch up.

Then he turns it and she can see, when he lifts his face slightly, that he’s whispering the words along with reading them.

It’s a whole different form of fervor, a faith that she’s only ever seen and not felt. She wonders, just for a second, if it’s just plain wrong to be jealous of a preacher for the amount of peace he gets from believing, the amount of love he can give and get from just one book.

“What’re you two talkin’ about, lookin’ so serious up here?”

Kaylee turns to Mal, but she doesn’t get to answer, because Jayne speaks up first.

“The preacher sexin’ up little boys.”

“Oh.” Mal’s face doesn’t change. He blinks three times. “Shiny.”

Then he turns and leaves as Jayne chuckles.

“Aw, hey, Cap’n!” She yells and chases after him. “That ain’t it!”

*** A QUESTION OF... ***

She smiles. Kaylee doesn't think she can do anything else. There's really nothing left to do when she leaves Simon's bunk all slow and lazy, sated and just about brimming over with pleasure, aftershocks of it rippling through her.

It might have taken him nearly a year to get his act together, but damn, he's certainly worth the wait.

He's proved that over and over again in the last few months that they've been together. She can picture him now, asleep on his belly, face digging into the pillow, his back bare and open. Long, slender, sculpted spine, shining bronze like his skin.

There are patterns, there are always patterns.

When they're being slow and soft, Kaylee finds herself just as drowsy and lulled as he does, finds herself snuggling down, deeper into and around him so that they sleep together, lost and murmuring nonsensical things.

But times like tonight, when it's all hard and fast and fire and hot, building waves that crash and burn, then Kaylee finds herself sizzling and awake. She can't sleep, she can't lie there and stare at the walls, no matter how much she wants to keep his arms around her.

She finds herself walking to the bridge.

It's the middle of the night, nearly everybody with even a lick of sense would be asleep, but there's always someone on the bridge. Most likely, it'll be Mal. Man just doesn't know when to take a break. She's often spent time there with him. It's nice, the two of them, having time to talk when no one else is around.

Although, Kaylee has learned the hard way, that Mal's not really one for details about her and Simon and why she's so buzzed. She figures he probably wouldn't be up to hear how they'd been all over each other tonight, hands grabbing furiously and joints jutting awkwardly where they didn't belong, but neither much caring as long as they could keep going. It's like an orgy of greed, sometimes, how much they both try and take and give and take again.

There is someone on the bridge, but it's not the Captain and Kaylee doesn't even blink, just stretches her arms out, twists her shoulders so that they pop.

"Hey Sweetie." She steps further into the room. "Couldn't sleep, huh?"

"Not for want of trying or trying not to want."

River's words tumble over Kaylee's brain, she wants to sit down and muddle her way through them, 'cause lately the girl has made a whole lot more sense if people actually think about the words, but Kaylee just doesn't have the brain power to do that right now.

"I was just rambling along." She says instead and sits in the empty pilot’s chair. "Needed to clear my head."

A small choke sounds out of River's throat.

"Me too." She says it quietly.

Kaylee grins out at the stars.

"They're so pretty, aren't they? Like a million bits of sparkling glass."

"Bursts of gas, nothing more and nothing less." There's a sigh off to Kaylee's left and she frowns. It's not like River, really, to be so mopey. "Foolish to bring meaning that isn't there."

"They're still pretty." Maybe her voice has lost a little of it's shine, taken on the slight tint of a pout, but Kaylee plods on. "You hafta admit that."

"I should sleep now."

River places one foot on the ground, slowly, tentatively, then the other. Even standing is a dance of beauty. Sometimes she makes Kaylee feel too big and awkward, but mostly Kaylee just likes how graceful the girl is.

"Now? You couldn't before...?" Her face reddens. "Oh!"

"It's okay." River quickly adds. "Been and gone, nothing to stop now."

"But..." She rushes to try and make it better. "But if you could hear us… we should work somethin’ out, maybe go to my bunk, I mean..."

"Not hear. That's easy, I can leave a room." There's a stretch of silence that Kaylee doesn't want to think about. "You feel it. He feels it. I feel it."

"You...?" She doesn't know what to say. "... feel?"

"It's too loud, sometimes, all of it." The words are coming in a rush now, as if River's been waiting a long time to say it. "The need of it, the rush, blood and boil.”

“I’m sorry.” Kaylee practically gushes it, mostly to cover the gnawing sense of unease. “It must be horrid.”

“Not horrid.” River whispers it like a secret. “You feel it, you like it. He feels it, he likes it.”

The rest of the litany doesn’t need to be said.

“Oh god, River.” It’s not something she’s thought about, not really, and she can’t even get her brain around it, can’t seem to come up with the proper words. “Do you… want to…?”

It’s there, less than a second, the briefest of moments, but Kaylee sees it. And it sucker punches her in the gut, makes her feel violently ill. That flinch, that twisting of River’s face before she can smooth the pain of it away.

“Kaylee.” Her voice is soft, absolution, but Kaylee can’t breathe. “It’s not a question of want.”

***