rivendellrose | belated birthday fic!

I'm sorry I'm a day late, but here it is,

nekokoban!!! ♥

It's Firefly, and a silly little job, but I hope you like it anyway!

“Tell me again, Husband... where in all the ‘verse did you find these things?”

“The cortex is a marvelous place, Lambie-toes. You should spend more time exploring it. You’ll find wonders, if you just know where to look.” Wash folded up the brown paper the two packages had been wrapped in, eyeing his purchases as proudly as if he’d made them with his own two hands.

Zoe snorted. “’Meaning you ran across them late one night when you should’ve been on duty.”

“The ship flies herself, so I used a bit of quiet time to find a present for my beautiful wife. How is this not winning me accolades?” Wash widened his eyes, the picture of wounded innocence.

“And a present for yourself.”

“They’re a matched set. Like us.”

“In that they’re not matched at all, I see where you’re going with that.” She leaned over to poke him in the ribs, then sighed, turning serious. “Can we afford them?”

“Do I look like a fool?” He raised his hands. “Never mind, don’t answer that. Yes, we can afford them. I don’t buy things we can’t.”

“Didn’t mean nothin’ by it, baby. We’re just runnin’ short, as usual.”

“I know.” Wash leaned his forehead against hers and sighed. “It’s okay, though. I was careful. And there was that big pay-off we just got from the job on Greenleaf, too. So I figured we could use a treat.”

“And fuzzy slippers are a treat.”

“Fuzzy fanged bunny slippers,” Wash corrected, holding up the white slippers and making their plush jaws snap at his wife’s fingers.

“I’m tryin’ not to think what comment you’re making on my personality with this.” Zoe picked up the other pair, bright green with horns and a crest over the foot-hole. “You get the dinosaurs, and I get rabid carnviorous rabbits. There’s something funny about that, Husband.”

Wash snatched the dinosaur slippers out of her hands and stuffed his feet into them, waving the twin reptiles around as if making them dance. “I like dinosaurs. And you’re all... fuzzy and cute with big teeth.”

She let that pass with a shake of her head. “You realize I’m not wearing these things out of our bunk, I hope.”

“I thought you’d say that. Which is exactly why I got them.” Wash grinned at Zoe’s confused expression. “They’ll be our... little... secret,” he informed her, tapping up her leg with a triceratops-slippered foot on each word, and ending with his foot propped atop her knee.

Zoe laughed, that low, sexy laugh that had first caught Wash’s attention... well, after the legs. And everything else. “You thinking we’re going to play footsie with those things?”

“No. I’m thinking I finally get a piece of you that Mal doesn’t know about.”

“Baby, we’ve been over this...”

“I’m joking. But still.” Wash grinned.

“We have better secrets than that.” Zoe returned his grin, running her hand through his short blond hair.

“We do?”

“I might have to remind you, I guess...”

Wash laughed as he fell back onto the bed, pulling his wife with him. The slippers lay forgotten on the floor next to their bunk... and his plan had worked perfectly.