RinnyPJ
ezOP
Posts: 5
(8/13/05 8:41 pm)
Reply
|
Mistletoe and Christmas Trees
Okay, so this is my first Firefly fic. And I basically just started...but I wanted to throw it out there as I write it bit by bit.
Dresthme was one of the nicer planets that Serenity frequented and Inara Serra inhaled a deep breath, letting the lush scent waft over her. Feeling a tug at her hand, she allowed Kaylee to pull her toward town. Like most planets on the rim, Dresthme’s climate was extreme, but rather than a desert, it was hot and damp, like the rain forests of earth-that-was. As such, it was often a vacation spot for the more daring of the core’s inhabitants, and Inara, for once, had difficulty choosing a client because of an inundation of proposals rather than a lack.
Her first appointment was not until that evening, which allowed her a rare moment of free time planetside and Kaylee had begged her to go shopping together. The girl’s eyes were wide with excitement as they moved through the crowd, wearing a simple pink tank top and her jump suit bunched down around her waist, the thick locks of her beginning to curl at the ends with humidity. Inara smiled to herself, wondering what a picture they must make together. No wonder they were on the receiving end of so many odd looks.
“Now, you’re sure this is safe Kaylee? Mal said it was okay?” She asked.
She nodded exuberantly, “Once I told him he wasn’t gettin’ a Christmas present ‘less he let us off ship, he ‘greed straight away.”
“Smart girl, appealing to his greedy nature.”
“’Nara,” Kaylee gave her a piercing look, or at least as piercing a look as she was capable of. “It’s not nice to speak of the Cap’n that way. He ain’t greedy, he’s just… lookin’ out for hisself.”
Feeling appropriately chastened, if a little annoyed that Kaylee wasn’t allowing her to make her usual scathing remarks about the Captain, she nodded toward the colorful outdoor market, “Let’s start there.”
Forgetting all about the Captain, Kaylee smiled with glee and skipped toward the nearest booth, leaving Inara to follow behind. Watching the younger girl--not so much younger, she reminded herself-- finger the expensive silk-like material made her smile. “A gift for Simon?”
“Oh no,” she dropped the material quickly, shaking her head. “I don’t-- he probably wouldn’t--”
“Of course he would, Kaylee,” she said kindly.
“I ain’t so good at pickin’ out thinks he’d like,” she admitted. “The boy is jus’ so confusin’ is all. Can’t never tell what he’s thinkin’ or what all he likes. Only thing matters to him is River and…” she trailed off with a sigh.
“Kaylee, bao bei, River may be the most important thing to him, but it isn’t the only. From what I’ve seen, being a physician is quite high on his priority list, and frankly, I think most of the time on Serenity, he doesn‘t feel like one. My suggestion,” she gave the younger girl a smile, “Is find a gift that will show him he has a place among us. Sometimes, I think he doesn’t truly believe it himself,” she murmured, having noted that particular similarity between herself and Simon from almost the moment he stepped on the ship. It hadn’t really dissipated for either of them.
This seemed to cheer Kaylee up however, “Hafta think on that one. Don’t have to be nothin’ special. Just don’t want to be embarrassing myself ‘gain. Seem to have a right good talent for that when it comes to Simon.”
“I think he feels more embarrassed than you do most of the time,” Inara supplied, “Simon is just…”
“Simon.”
They exchanged a smile, and Inara paused to look at some jewelry, “I know you care for him, Kaylee, but don’t hinge all your hopes on one man. That’s just no way to live your life.”
Kaylee stopped, tilting her head gaze at Inara, “We ain’t talkin’ bout Simon anymore, are we?”
“What?” She blinked her eyes, her coal covered lashes fluttering against her cheek, “Of course we are. Who else could we be talking about?”
“Uh huh,” Kaylee smiled knowingly, biting her lower lip. “Couldn’t possibly imagine.”
“I was just saying that it’s unproductive to--to--”
“Be in love with the Cap’n?” Kaylee finished for her, reminding Inara again that there wasn’t much age difference between the two of them.
“I am *not* in love with Ma--the Captain.” She shook her head, the heavy earrings she wore tinkling with the movement. “That would absurd. Most of the time, I don’t even like the man. He’s repugnant.”
“He’s a good man, ‘Nara,” Kaylee smiled serenely, and moved to the next booth, examining a stuffed elephant for River. “And that’s all I’m sayin’ ‘bout that.”
Relieved to drop the subject, Inara set to the task of shopping. Christmas was, after all, only a week away and this was likely their last stop before then.
“Why’s he actin’ so figity?” Zoe leaned toward Captain Malcolm Reynolds, her voice low in the rowdy bar.
Mal glanced across the table at Jayne, who kept glancing at the clock on the far wall. “Hey, Jayne, Why you actin’ so figity?”
“Me?” The hulk of muscle tried to look innocent, a feat he’d never managed to successfully accomplish, “I ain’t actin’ figity.”
“There, see,” he lifted his mug of beer to his mouth, amusement glinting in his eyes, “He ain’t actin’ figity.”
Zoe gave him a flinty look, and he sighed, “Jayne, you got somewhere else you wanna be right now?”
“No.” He paused and finally capitulated when he was on the receiving end of Mal‘s glare. “Well, I just…promised someone I’d help ‘em with somethin’. That’s all.”
“This someone wouldn’t be Kaylee, and this somethin’ wouldn’t be a Christmas tree, would it?” Mal felt his blood pressure rising, he told that girl no foliage on his ship, gorramit.
“Aww, come on, Mal,” his usually gruff voice dipped into a whine, “She jus’ want a lil holiday spirit, that’s all.”
He pursed his lips and glanced at Zoe, only to find her usually stony brown eyes soft with pleading. She didn’t ask for much, and when she did he was hard pressed to turn her down. “Ni juede wo hen ben ma. Fine,” he leaned back in the chair, defeated. “Go get your Christmas tree,” he waved Jayne off.
The large man leapt from his seat and took off, leaving Zoe smiling sweetly at the Captain, “There a reason you hate Christmas so much, Sir?”
He fixed her with a dark look, “You remember the last eight or so Christmases? Those first two we were fightin’ a war. The next two we were till tryin’ to get Serenity off the ground, and then the last four we’ve been woefully destitute. So where ‘xactly is the fun there?”
Zoe tilted her head, “We’re doin’ a mite better nowadays, sir. Might maybe be time to celebrate the birth of our lord and savior again.”
He gave her a dirty look, “Only reason I’m goin’ ‘long with all this is lil Kaylee’s got her heart set on the whole crew celebratin’ together.”
“Right, Sir,” She nodded, her eyes taking on the knowing secretive look he hated. “The only reason.”
“It is,” he stubbornly replied, trying not to think back any further than eight years, to his last holiday leave home during the war.
Edited by: RinnyPJ at: 8/13/05 9:55 pm
|
Email This To a Friend
Topic Commands
Click to receive email notification of replies 
Click to stop receiving email notification of replies