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rivendellroseHappy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate. We had a lovely dinner, courtesy of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zinjadu, and now we're all settling in for games, writing, reading, sewing, etc. The usual post-turkey and pre-pie entertainments. ;)
Meanwhile... gods know I can't let a holiday go by without fic, and this one came fully formed to my mind a few days ago.
Fandom: Firefly
Title: Windfall
Notes: No spoilers, just the crew having more than their usual trouble getting by. I don't own it, I'm not making money, I just like to borrow Joss' toys. I promise to put them back where I found them.
“We gonna make it, sir?”
Mal finished counting credits and coin, and folded his worn leather wallet back into the inner pocket of his coat. “It’ll be a tight one, but I expect we’ll make do.” Zoe eyed him for a moment, and he deflated under her scrutiny, glancing around to make sure the rest of the crew was out of earshot before he answered. “You heard what the docks master said. Gorram Feds’ve raised the fees again, and I wasn’t counting on that. We’d have come out even if it weren’t for that. As it is…”
“Those replacement parts Kaylee’s been talking about aren’t going to be on the shopping list,” Zoe finished.
“Not much gonna be on the shopping list,” Mal admitted, mentally subtracting from the meager total in his pocket. “Refuel, protein packs, new filters for the water supply, pay off the crew from that last job, and we’re broke.” He didn’t add he’d be paying the refuel out of his own personal take from that last job, and just barely covering it, at that. “We’ll keep flyin’.” The reassurance was as much for himself as it was for her.
“I’ll tell Wash to fly spare for a while, make sure we cut corners where we can. No unnecessary expenses on any account.”
Mal shook his head. “Little Kaylee’s gonna have my hide. I promised her two months ago we’d have ourselves a harvest dinner this year, like if she was back home.”
“She won’t be mad, sir.”
Zoe was right - of course. Kaylee wouldn’t be mad. She’d be sad, and then she’d cover it up quick as she could, because she understood better than anybody on Serenity how much work it took to keep her in the sky, and how sacrifices had to be made sometimes. Holiday dinners were a luxury folk like them couldn’t afford, out in the black. Wasn’t like they could just run down to the river and catch some fish if the turkeys went for too much coin, or mash chestnuts into the potatoes and acorn flour into the bread like his mama’d done when food needed to be spread out a bit thinner. The next few weeks would be a lot of plain protein cooked seven ways from Tuesday and watery tea to still their stomach pangs, until the next job came through and gave them a bit more to work with. With jobs getting fewer and farther between as the days went by, it was hard to tell how long that’d be.
“I know.” Mal sighed and ran his hand through his hair. Gritty, oily… damn it, he’d have to take a shower when they got back to the ship. One more way to use up limited resources. “You know how it is, though.”
“Your mama didn’t raise a heartless bastard, much as you’d like to pretend, sometimes, sir,” Zoe agreed. “Still, she’s a grown woman, not a child. She knows nobody always gets what they want, even if people try hard to give it to them.”
Mal shook his head, but started walking back to the ship, Zoe falling into step at his side. “I shouldn’t ever have said a gorram thing to her. But she was reading that letter from her mama, wishin’ she could be back there for the holidays, and… Hell, nobody can say no to that girl, once she gets something in her head. Probably got lanterns up all around the kitchen right now, gettin’ ready.”
“Probably so.”
“Ain’t nothing to be done for it. We’ll just have to let her down easy.”
“Where did the ‘we’ come into this, sir?”
Mal glared at his first mate. “You’ll walk into certain ambush with me, but you won’t face Kaylee disappointed by losing her holiday dinner? Where’s that steely courage, now, woman?”
The corners of her lips tugged upward. “I’ve got a husband to deal with, sir, and he was looking forward to this, too. You handle Kaylee, I handle him. Don’t think you’d want it the other way around.”
He snorted. “That’s so, at least. Think you’ve got the easy side of the job, though.”
“That may well be.” She smiled at him as they walked up the ramp into the cargo bay.
Jayne barely nodded at them as they passed, and didn’t deviate from his reps, apparently unconcerned about their return. Up the stairs, however, they ran into exactly the person Mal had hoped to avoid just a bit longer.
“Welcome back, Cap’n!” Kaylee’s face was actually cleaned of engine grease, for once, and she’d twisted her hair up into those ridiculous little buns above her ears again, and worn her favorite bright pink shirt and green overalls, the sleeves tied around her waist. With all that unusual fuss over her appearance, it was pretty clear she hadn’t forgotten what day it was.
“Hey, little Kaylee.” Mal pulled her into a one-armed hug and gave a half-mocked glare at Zoe as she slipped right by them toward the bridge. “We gotta talk. I’ve been over the accounts for this month, and it ain’t too shiny. We’re gonna have to run her smooth, be careful on the supplies for a bit til we get some better work and some surplus under our belts, dong ma?”
“Sure thing.” Kaylee grinned at him, tugging him toward the kitchen. She wasn’t getting this as easy as he’d hoped.
“Thing is, what with the dockmaster’s fees and a few other things piled up…”
“S’okay, Cap’n - won’t be the first time we’ve had to conserve a bit.” She patted him on the shoulder as they walked, good cheer completely untouched by what all he was trying to get into her head. “Anyhow, we’ll have leftovers from today to last us a week!”
“That’s what I’m tryin’ to tell you, mei mei.” He stopped her on the stairs just outside the galley, leaning close to talk to her. “Ain’t gonna be any leftovers from today.”
She turned, brows drawn together and eyeing him like he’d just said he was planning to wear a floral dress and a shiny hat to dinner. “Don’t think even Jayne could eat all the food we’ll have, Cap’n. Shepherd’s got a lot planned, and Wash and Simon and I are gonna help, and River’s even--”
“Forgetting for the moment that I’m not sure having Wash or the girl near food is anything I like the sound of…” Mal trailed off, as Inara brushed past them carrying a large bag.
“I don’t mean to interrupt, Mal, but could you help Jayne, please?”
“Help him with...” Mal turned to see the big mercenary coming up right on Inara’s heels, carrying a huge crate that seemed to be straining even his not-inconsiderable musculature. Figured - he was having a hard time paying their way to stay off the ground, and Inara’d gone shopping for… what, new furniture? “’Nara, now ain’t exactly the time. I’ve got a crew needs enlightening on a few matters of basic economics, and then all number of waves to send out, see if we can’t get a job sometime this month. I don’t have time to help you with redecoratin’ your shuttle or whatever…”
The glare she turned on him reminded him strangely of Zoe, at one of those moments when he was sure he’d be the next with a bullet in his throat if he didn’t shut his trap. Hell if he was going to take that on a day like this. “Oh, no - I am not gettin’ into this with you now, Inara. You want to fight, you pick a time when I am not already in a fine gorram mess of it, and I will be happy to oblige you. But today has not been one of my better days, and I’d like to get right past all this and go drown myself in the shower while we’ve still got clean water.”
“Fine.” She shoved the bag she’d been carrying into his arms, then turned and took hold of part of the box Jayne carried and turned her attention to Kaylee, who’d been standing at Mal’s side. “Mei mei, if you would? I’m sure the three of us can get it up the stairs to the kitchen without Mal’s help.”
“Hey, I… What the hell?” A tangy… green scent wafted up from the bag in his arms, overlaid with something fruity and a vaguely earthy scent. “What’ve you got in here, woman?”
Even with her slim arms full of obviously-heavy crate, Inara found the energy to roll her eyes at him. “Out of the way, please, Mal. I know you’re very busy with all your captainly things to do, so if you would just let us by, we have a lot of work to do, too.”
“Turkey!”
Everone turned to River, who alighted on the steps from the kitchen, hands fluttering and eyes alight like some kind of maniacal chickadee.
“Beg pardon?” Mal looked from one to the other, even more perplexed as River snagged the bag from his hands and darted away to the stove with it, ripping open the ties like a child on Christmas morning. “Somebody want to start explaining all this, or am I to be left clueless on my own damned boat?”
“You’re not the only one who keeps track of accounts around here,” Inara informed him curtly as she and Kaylee led the way up the stairs with the crate.
“But you don’t even…”
“That’d be me she’s talking about, sir.” Zoe appeared at the top of the stairs, waving Inara and Kaylee away and easily helping Jayne haul the box the rest of the way into the kitchen. “I saw ahead of time we were going to be tight on money around now, and Inara and I talked. Agreed it’d be good for us all to have a holiday.”
Something deep in Mal was a bit frightened to think of Zoe and Inara talking, especially on subjects like this, but he didn’t have time to properly react before he was faced with Kaylee staring earnestly at him. “It weren’t meant to be the whole thing, but I heard some of the other mechanics talkin’ about the new fees, when I went to check the parts yard. I was just price-checking, window-shoppin’, sorta,” she assured Mal before he could get out a protest. “But when I heard that, I got back here fast as I could, told everybody we’d have to focus our money on the basics, ‘stead of getting all the froofy bits and trimmin’s.”
“Basics?” Shell-shocked didn’t begin to describe the feeling as he watched Book and Zoe pry the crate open to reveal a fresh and wrapped gorram turkey nestled in with cans of fruits and vegetables and the like, a big sack of rice, another of flour, and a small sack of sugar. “Wha… You’ve all been plannin’ this!”
“Not exactly.” Zoe heaved the turkey up on her shoulder and carried it to a big pan laid out on the kitchen counter, where Shepherd Book set immediately to work on cutting open the wrappings. “As I said, I had a notion we’d be hurting by now. We took up a bit of a collection, everybody chipped in.”
“So you planned a... gorram ambush?!”
“Mal, calm down.” Inara stepped in front of Zoe, who appeared to visibly resist the temptation to laugh at the smaller woman ‘defending’ her. “We wanted it to be a surprise for you. Zoe didn’t even know that we were doing the whole thing. She had no way of knowing.”
“It’ll go easier if you just relax about it, son,” Book suggested from the kitchen, busily rubbing herbs from Inara’s bag on the skin of the turkey. “We’ll have a nice big dinner in a few hours, and in the mean time you can have a hot shower for your nerves.”
“It might do you some good.” Inara’s lip curled ever-so-slightly as she spoke in that dry way he could never determine as a joke or honest insult.
“I give up.” Mal waved them all off, shaking his head, and turned back toward his bunk. “I’ve given up any delusion this is my command, here, anyway. Do what you want. Except you,” he added, with a glare in Jayne’s direction.
“Hell, I ain’t gonna do anything to risk not gettin’ some of that food.” Jayne settled himself at the table, watching intently as the various foodstuffs were unpacked.
“If you’re going to sit there, might as well put yourself to use.” Book’s voice carried through the hall as Mal pushed open the ladder to his bunk. “Why don’t you cut these potatoes?” Mal shook his head, descending into his own space. At least he’d be missing the carnage of Jayne involved in food preparation.
As often happened, the world did seem a mite rosier after a hot shower, and by the time Mal had dried off and dressed again in a clean shirt and trousers, he was feeling a bit more inclined toward goodwill and peace between himself and his seemingly mutinous crew. The smells coming from the kitchen weren’t exactly hurting that feeling, either - he hadn’t smelled anything that good since he’d left home and his mama’s cooking back on the ranch. He did as he’d said he needed to and did the background research on several clients, waved the ones he thought might hire them, and then sent word to their usual contacts, too, for good measure and the hopes they might have heard of something his crew could use. That and some odd jobs ate up a few hours, and by then the scent of food was too strong for him to avoid it any longer.
The kitchen was quite a sight. Kaylee and River were just finishing with setting the table when he came in, and Book had just cut into the crisp, golden skin of the turkey. A pie - apple, he guessed, from the smell of it - sat cooling on a rack on the other side of the kitchen, and Simon, Wash and Zoe were arranging plates of potatoes, cranberry sauce, dumplings, and greens on the table. Jayne sat off to the side, sulking as he’d apparently been banished from the table once the food was put out.
“I see you managed to drag yourself out of your self-indulgent temper.”
Mal turned to find Inara at his elbow, two silver candlesticks tipped with tall red tapers in her hands. “And here I thought it wasn’t ladylike to rub a man’s failings in his face.”
“And I didn’t think you’d ever admit to having failings.”
“Got plenty of ‘em.” He caught her arm as she tried to pass him, lowering his voice to keep the conversation between only them. “What is this, Inara? Really. I seem to recall something about our relationship needin’ to stay purely business-like.”
She rolled her eyes. “I make allowances for friends, Mal. I know that concept is novel to you, but...”
“So I’m a friend?” He allowed himself a little smile. “Funny how you can do favors for me, but when it comes to me doing favors for you...”
“Who said this was for you?” Inara’s eyes flickered over to the table, touching on each of the crew for an instant before returning to him. She looked tired, he thought; younger and more vulnerable than he was used to seeing her, and it took him a moment to realize that her perpetual mask of flawless makeup was absent, and her long hair curled loose around her shoulders, unencumbered by the usual jeweled pins and elegant twists. “Take it as you want, Mal, since that’s what you’ll think no matter what I say. We all deserve a good time every now and then, and it will be good for us to have a bit of a holiday. I wanted to help with that.”
He took another step forward, unable to resist the temptation to push their limits just that tiny fraction further. “Thank you. For... all of this.”
She smiled, and the twisting reaction in his stomach reminded him why he sometimes wished he could avoid her. “You’re welcome, Mal.”
“You two planning on joining us, or do I get your share of the turkey?” Over at the table, Wash pulled a drumstick off the platter, laughing as he dodged Jayne’s knife, aimed for the same piece.
“We’re coming.” Mal offered his arm to Inara, and puffed out with a bit of unconscious pride when she graciously accepted, then smiled at him as he pulled out her chair. Across the table from them, Wash lifted Zoe’s hand to his lips, and Simon traded off between grinning at his sister and turning a more hesitant but equally glowing smile on Kaylee, whose chair had somehow ended up very close to his, allowing her to lean her head on his shoulder while the platters made their way around the table.
“One last thing before we’re ready...” Book ducked behind the kitchen counter for a moment, and emerged with a big ceramic bottle and nine glasses. “Plum wine, and a good vintage, too, if I don’t miss my guess.” He poured out a bit for each of them, passing the glasses around, then sat. “I’d offer to say a few words, but I think our esteemed captain might prefer to make the toast himself, perhaps?”
Mal pursed his lips and swirled the golden liquid in his cup. It reminded him a bit of the flash of Serenity’s engines, and late afternoon sunshine back on Shadow. Two kinds of home, the old and the new. He glanced around the table again and found all eyes on him. “To the harvest, people. Dig in.”
The words weren’t out of his mouth before Jayne tore into his food, but Zoe took an extra moment to lean over to him. “That was a bit anticlimactic, sir,” she teased.
“Just eat, Zoe, or I’ll eat it for you.” Mal reached over to grab a bit of turkey off her plate, but found his hand stopped abruptly by Wash’s.
The smaller man smiled and snagged the bit of meat right out from under Mal’s fingers. “Ah - nobody steals food from my wife. Except me.”
Mal sighed and made a show of shaking his head, but he looked around as he sipped from his wine. All was as it should be.
zinjadu, and now we're all settling in for games, writing, reading, sewing, etc. The usual post-turkey and pre-pie entertainments. ;)Meanwhile... gods know I can't let a holiday go by without fic, and this one came fully formed to my mind a few days ago.
Fandom: Firefly
Title: Windfall
Notes: No spoilers, just the crew having more than their usual trouble getting by. I don't own it, I'm not making money, I just like to borrow Joss' toys. I promise to put them back where I found them.
“We gonna make it, sir?”
Mal finished counting credits and coin, and folded his worn leather wallet back into the inner pocket of his coat. “It’ll be a tight one, but I expect we’ll make do.” Zoe eyed him for a moment, and he deflated under her scrutiny, glancing around to make sure the rest of the crew was out of earshot before he answered. “You heard what the docks master said. Gorram Feds’ve raised the fees again, and I wasn’t counting on that. We’d have come out even if it weren’t for that. As it is…”
“Those replacement parts Kaylee’s been talking about aren’t going to be on the shopping list,” Zoe finished.
“Not much gonna be on the shopping list,” Mal admitted, mentally subtracting from the meager total in his pocket. “Refuel, protein packs, new filters for the water supply, pay off the crew from that last job, and we’re broke.” He didn’t add he’d be paying the refuel out of his own personal take from that last job, and just barely covering it, at that. “We’ll keep flyin’.” The reassurance was as much for himself as it was for her.
“I’ll tell Wash to fly spare for a while, make sure we cut corners where we can. No unnecessary expenses on any account.”
Mal shook his head. “Little Kaylee’s gonna have my hide. I promised her two months ago we’d have ourselves a harvest dinner this year, like if she was back home.”
“She won’t be mad, sir.”
Zoe was right - of course. Kaylee wouldn’t be mad. She’d be sad, and then she’d cover it up quick as she could, because she understood better than anybody on Serenity how much work it took to keep her in the sky, and how sacrifices had to be made sometimes. Holiday dinners were a luxury folk like them couldn’t afford, out in the black. Wasn’t like they could just run down to the river and catch some fish if the turkeys went for too much coin, or mash chestnuts into the potatoes and acorn flour into the bread like his mama’d done when food needed to be spread out a bit thinner. The next few weeks would be a lot of plain protein cooked seven ways from Tuesday and watery tea to still their stomach pangs, until the next job came through and gave them a bit more to work with. With jobs getting fewer and farther between as the days went by, it was hard to tell how long that’d be.
“I know.” Mal sighed and ran his hand through his hair. Gritty, oily… damn it, he’d have to take a shower when they got back to the ship. One more way to use up limited resources. “You know how it is, though.”
“Your mama didn’t raise a heartless bastard, much as you’d like to pretend, sometimes, sir,” Zoe agreed. “Still, she’s a grown woman, not a child. She knows nobody always gets what they want, even if people try hard to give it to them.”
Mal shook his head, but started walking back to the ship, Zoe falling into step at his side. “I shouldn’t ever have said a gorram thing to her. But she was reading that letter from her mama, wishin’ she could be back there for the holidays, and… Hell, nobody can say no to that girl, once she gets something in her head. Probably got lanterns up all around the kitchen right now, gettin’ ready.”
“Probably so.”
“Ain’t nothing to be done for it. We’ll just have to let her down easy.”
“Where did the ‘we’ come into this, sir?”
Mal glared at his first mate. “You’ll walk into certain ambush with me, but you won’t face Kaylee disappointed by losing her holiday dinner? Where’s that steely courage, now, woman?”
The corners of her lips tugged upward. “I’ve got a husband to deal with, sir, and he was looking forward to this, too. You handle Kaylee, I handle him. Don’t think you’d want it the other way around.”
He snorted. “That’s so, at least. Think you’ve got the easy side of the job, though.”
“That may well be.” She smiled at him as they walked up the ramp into the cargo bay.
Jayne barely nodded at them as they passed, and didn’t deviate from his reps, apparently unconcerned about their return. Up the stairs, however, they ran into exactly the person Mal had hoped to avoid just a bit longer.
“Welcome back, Cap’n!” Kaylee’s face was actually cleaned of engine grease, for once, and she’d twisted her hair up into those ridiculous little buns above her ears again, and worn her favorite bright pink shirt and green overalls, the sleeves tied around her waist. With all that unusual fuss over her appearance, it was pretty clear she hadn’t forgotten what day it was.
“Hey, little Kaylee.” Mal pulled her into a one-armed hug and gave a half-mocked glare at Zoe as she slipped right by them toward the bridge. “We gotta talk. I’ve been over the accounts for this month, and it ain’t too shiny. We’re gonna have to run her smooth, be careful on the supplies for a bit til we get some better work and some surplus under our belts, dong ma?”
“Sure thing.” Kaylee grinned at him, tugging him toward the kitchen. She wasn’t getting this as easy as he’d hoped.
“Thing is, what with the dockmaster’s fees and a few other things piled up…”
“S’okay, Cap’n - won’t be the first time we’ve had to conserve a bit.” She patted him on the shoulder as they walked, good cheer completely untouched by what all he was trying to get into her head. “Anyhow, we’ll have leftovers from today to last us a week!”
“That’s what I’m tryin’ to tell you, mei mei.” He stopped her on the stairs just outside the galley, leaning close to talk to her. “Ain’t gonna be any leftovers from today.”
She turned, brows drawn together and eyeing him like he’d just said he was planning to wear a floral dress and a shiny hat to dinner. “Don’t think even Jayne could eat all the food we’ll have, Cap’n. Shepherd’s got a lot planned, and Wash and Simon and I are gonna help, and River’s even--”
“Forgetting for the moment that I’m not sure having Wash or the girl near food is anything I like the sound of…” Mal trailed off, as Inara brushed past them carrying a large bag.
“I don’t mean to interrupt, Mal, but could you help Jayne, please?”
“Help him with...” Mal turned to see the big mercenary coming up right on Inara’s heels, carrying a huge crate that seemed to be straining even his not-inconsiderable musculature. Figured - he was having a hard time paying their way to stay off the ground, and Inara’d gone shopping for… what, new furniture? “’Nara, now ain’t exactly the time. I’ve got a crew needs enlightening on a few matters of basic economics, and then all number of waves to send out, see if we can’t get a job sometime this month. I don’t have time to help you with redecoratin’ your shuttle or whatever…”
The glare she turned on him reminded him strangely of Zoe, at one of those moments when he was sure he’d be the next with a bullet in his throat if he didn’t shut his trap. Hell if he was going to take that on a day like this. “Oh, no - I am not gettin’ into this with you now, Inara. You want to fight, you pick a time when I am not already in a fine gorram mess of it, and I will be happy to oblige you. But today has not been one of my better days, and I’d like to get right past all this and go drown myself in the shower while we’ve still got clean water.”
“Fine.” She shoved the bag she’d been carrying into his arms, then turned and took hold of part of the box Jayne carried and turned her attention to Kaylee, who’d been standing at Mal’s side. “Mei mei, if you would? I’m sure the three of us can get it up the stairs to the kitchen without Mal’s help.”
“Hey, I… What the hell?” A tangy… green scent wafted up from the bag in his arms, overlaid with something fruity and a vaguely earthy scent. “What’ve you got in here, woman?”
Even with her slim arms full of obviously-heavy crate, Inara found the energy to roll her eyes at him. “Out of the way, please, Mal. I know you’re very busy with all your captainly things to do, so if you would just let us by, we have a lot of work to do, too.”
“Turkey!”
Everone turned to River, who alighted on the steps from the kitchen, hands fluttering and eyes alight like some kind of maniacal chickadee.
“Beg pardon?” Mal looked from one to the other, even more perplexed as River snagged the bag from his hands and darted away to the stove with it, ripping open the ties like a child on Christmas morning. “Somebody want to start explaining all this, or am I to be left clueless on my own damned boat?”
“You’re not the only one who keeps track of accounts around here,” Inara informed him curtly as she and Kaylee led the way up the stairs with the crate.
“But you don’t even…”
“That’d be me she’s talking about, sir.” Zoe appeared at the top of the stairs, waving Inara and Kaylee away and easily helping Jayne haul the box the rest of the way into the kitchen. “I saw ahead of time we were going to be tight on money around now, and Inara and I talked. Agreed it’d be good for us all to have a holiday.”
Something deep in Mal was a bit frightened to think of Zoe and Inara talking, especially on subjects like this, but he didn’t have time to properly react before he was faced with Kaylee staring earnestly at him. “It weren’t meant to be the whole thing, but I heard some of the other mechanics talkin’ about the new fees, when I went to check the parts yard. I was just price-checking, window-shoppin’, sorta,” she assured Mal before he could get out a protest. “But when I heard that, I got back here fast as I could, told everybody we’d have to focus our money on the basics, ‘stead of getting all the froofy bits and trimmin’s.”
“Basics?” Shell-shocked didn’t begin to describe the feeling as he watched Book and Zoe pry the crate open to reveal a fresh and wrapped gorram turkey nestled in with cans of fruits and vegetables and the like, a big sack of rice, another of flour, and a small sack of sugar. “Wha… You’ve all been plannin’ this!”
“Not exactly.” Zoe heaved the turkey up on her shoulder and carried it to a big pan laid out on the kitchen counter, where Shepherd Book set immediately to work on cutting open the wrappings. “As I said, I had a notion we’d be hurting by now. We took up a bit of a collection, everybody chipped in.”
“So you planned a... gorram ambush?!”
“Mal, calm down.” Inara stepped in front of Zoe, who appeared to visibly resist the temptation to laugh at the smaller woman ‘defending’ her. “We wanted it to be a surprise for you. Zoe didn’t even know that we were doing the whole thing. She had no way of knowing.”
“It’ll go easier if you just relax about it, son,” Book suggested from the kitchen, busily rubbing herbs from Inara’s bag on the skin of the turkey. “We’ll have a nice big dinner in a few hours, and in the mean time you can have a hot shower for your nerves.”
“It might do you some good.” Inara’s lip curled ever-so-slightly as she spoke in that dry way he could never determine as a joke or honest insult.
“I give up.” Mal waved them all off, shaking his head, and turned back toward his bunk. “I’ve given up any delusion this is my command, here, anyway. Do what you want. Except you,” he added, with a glare in Jayne’s direction.
“Hell, I ain’t gonna do anything to risk not gettin’ some of that food.” Jayne settled himself at the table, watching intently as the various foodstuffs were unpacked.
“If you’re going to sit there, might as well put yourself to use.” Book’s voice carried through the hall as Mal pushed open the ladder to his bunk. “Why don’t you cut these potatoes?” Mal shook his head, descending into his own space. At least he’d be missing the carnage of Jayne involved in food preparation.
As often happened, the world did seem a mite rosier after a hot shower, and by the time Mal had dried off and dressed again in a clean shirt and trousers, he was feeling a bit more inclined toward goodwill and peace between himself and his seemingly mutinous crew. The smells coming from the kitchen weren’t exactly hurting that feeling, either - he hadn’t smelled anything that good since he’d left home and his mama’s cooking back on the ranch. He did as he’d said he needed to and did the background research on several clients, waved the ones he thought might hire them, and then sent word to their usual contacts, too, for good measure and the hopes they might have heard of something his crew could use. That and some odd jobs ate up a few hours, and by then the scent of food was too strong for him to avoid it any longer.
The kitchen was quite a sight. Kaylee and River were just finishing with setting the table when he came in, and Book had just cut into the crisp, golden skin of the turkey. A pie - apple, he guessed, from the smell of it - sat cooling on a rack on the other side of the kitchen, and Simon, Wash and Zoe were arranging plates of potatoes, cranberry sauce, dumplings, and greens on the table. Jayne sat off to the side, sulking as he’d apparently been banished from the table once the food was put out.
“I see you managed to drag yourself out of your self-indulgent temper.”
Mal turned to find Inara at his elbow, two silver candlesticks tipped with tall red tapers in her hands. “And here I thought it wasn’t ladylike to rub a man’s failings in his face.”
“And I didn’t think you’d ever admit to having failings.”
“Got plenty of ‘em.” He caught her arm as she tried to pass him, lowering his voice to keep the conversation between only them. “What is this, Inara? Really. I seem to recall something about our relationship needin’ to stay purely business-like.”
She rolled her eyes. “I make allowances for friends, Mal. I know that concept is novel to you, but...”
“So I’m a friend?” He allowed himself a little smile. “Funny how you can do favors for me, but when it comes to me doing favors for you...”
“Who said this was for you?” Inara’s eyes flickered over to the table, touching on each of the crew for an instant before returning to him. She looked tired, he thought; younger and more vulnerable than he was used to seeing her, and it took him a moment to realize that her perpetual mask of flawless makeup was absent, and her long hair curled loose around her shoulders, unencumbered by the usual jeweled pins and elegant twists. “Take it as you want, Mal, since that’s what you’ll think no matter what I say. We all deserve a good time every now and then, and it will be good for us to have a bit of a holiday. I wanted to help with that.”
He took another step forward, unable to resist the temptation to push their limits just that tiny fraction further. “Thank you. For... all of this.”
She smiled, and the twisting reaction in his stomach reminded him why he sometimes wished he could avoid her. “You’re welcome, Mal.”
“You two planning on joining us, or do I get your share of the turkey?” Over at the table, Wash pulled a drumstick off the platter, laughing as he dodged Jayne’s knife, aimed for the same piece.
“We’re coming.” Mal offered his arm to Inara, and puffed out with a bit of unconscious pride when she graciously accepted, then smiled at him as he pulled out her chair. Across the table from them, Wash lifted Zoe’s hand to his lips, and Simon traded off between grinning at his sister and turning a more hesitant but equally glowing smile on Kaylee, whose chair had somehow ended up very close to his, allowing her to lean her head on his shoulder while the platters made their way around the table.
“One last thing before we’re ready...” Book ducked behind the kitchen counter for a moment, and emerged with a big ceramic bottle and nine glasses. “Plum wine, and a good vintage, too, if I don’t miss my guess.” He poured out a bit for each of them, passing the glasses around, then sat. “I’d offer to say a few words, but I think our esteemed captain might prefer to make the toast himself, perhaps?”
Mal pursed his lips and swirled the golden liquid in his cup. It reminded him a bit of the flash of Serenity’s engines, and late afternoon sunshine back on Shadow. Two kinds of home, the old and the new. He glanced around the table again and found all eyes on him. “To the harvest, people. Dig in.”
The words weren’t out of his mouth before Jayne tore into his food, but Zoe took an extra moment to lean over to him. “That was a bit anticlimactic, sir,” she teased.
“Just eat, Zoe, or I’ll eat it for you.” Mal reached over to grab a bit of turkey off her plate, but found his hand stopped abruptly by Wash’s.
The smaller man smiled and snagged the bit of meat right out from under Mal’s fingers. “Ah - nobody steals food from my wife. Except me.”
Mal sighed and made a show of shaking his head, but he looked around as he sipped from his wine. All was as it should be.
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