Hey crew! Thanx for the fabulously hyperbolic praise! this chap is something kinda new for me. I don't want to spoil it, but let's just say...how long do things stay quiet on firefly?
Shiny
Chapter 5
By WannaBlessedBe
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“How is it?” Inara asked anxiously, tucking a stray lock of hair behind Kaylee’s ear while the younger girl sipped a steaming cup of soup.
“Good,” Kaylee sighed, closing her eyes with a contented expression as the hot liquid hit her throat. “It’s clearin’ out my head a little, too. Shoulda’ known you’d be a good cook, on top of everything. That somethin’ they teach you at the academy?”
“Nope,” Inara shook her head, grinning shyly, which confused Kaylee a little. “That’s something my mother taught me, a very long time ago. She was very skilled with home remedies…she always made this soup whenever one of us was ill. I haven’t made it in years, though. I was worried it might not come out very well.”
“Well you can stop worryin’, cause it’s perfect. I don’t think I could stomach anythin’ else right now, anyhow.” Inara beamed, her expression so innocently joyful that Kaylee felt momentarily older than her companion; like she was seeing the little girl inside her lover’s bottomless brown eyes. “You’re perfect, too,” she added softly, leaning over to kiss the dark-haired girl below her ear.
Suddenly, the ship shuddered and lurched sideways. The soup spilled and crashed to the floor. Kaylee immediately jumped up, stumbling a little even after the walls stopped shaking. Knowing there would be no stopping her, Inara just followed, reaching out a steadying hand toward Kaylee’s back.
“Wash?” Kaylee spoke into the comm, rubbing her forehead as if to rouse her brain to full alertness. “What’s…
*cough, cough*…what’s goin’ on up there?” She waited a beat, but nothing came back through the comm but crackling silence. “Wash? …Anybody on the bridge?” Kaylee called again, a bit louder. Again, there was no response. “Aiyah tyen’ah,” she groaned, releasing the comm.
“What’s happened?” Inara asked anxiously, one hand still resting lightly on Kaylee’s lower back.
“No idea,” Kaylee sniffed, wiping her nose absently on the back of her arm as she twisted around and grabbed her clothes off the floor, hastily yanking them back on. “I gotta go check this out, baby. You stay put ‘till you hear from me, ‘kay?”
“Tsai boo shi,” Inara said flatly, eyes flashing. “I’m going with you.”
“’Nara…” Kaylee trailed off, her expression going out of focus as she cupped her hands quickly to her face. “Ahh-
tshiiew! …*sniff.*” She rubbed her nose with the end of her sleeve. “Ai’yah,” she groaned softly.
“Bless you. And don’t argue with me, it will only waste time,” Inara said calmly, folding her arms across her chest. “You’re in no condition to be running around the ship looking for trouble, bao-bei. I know you’ve got to anyway. But you
are not going alone, do you hear me?” They stared at each other silently for a moment; then Kaylee nodded, and reached for Inara’s hand. Together, they hurried out the shuttle’s doors and into the dimly lit hall, where the emergency power grid below the floor was activated. They didn’t have time to take in anything else before an ugly man with an enormous rifle stepped in front of them. They both squealed and jumped backwards.
“Into the cargo bay,” he snarled, baring his rotten yellow teeth (or at least, what was left of them). This was no fed; this was an outlaw. Whether this was better or worse than the alternative, neither of them was really sure. Too terrified to speak, they made their way silently down the stairs, gripping each other’s hands tightly. At the first landing, Kaylee stumbled dizzily into Inara, who managed to keep her on her feet until the momentary vertigo passed.
“Keep movin’!” The thug barked, and Inara wanted to scream at him to be quiet and leave her baby alone. Years of training her impulse control kept her in check, though she did cast an anxious sideways glance at Kaylee’s pale face, trying to catch her eye.
“Okay?” She whispered urgently, wrapping her arm firmly around her companion’s waist.
“Uh-huh,” Kaylee mumbled, but Inara knew she was lying; she could feel the shivery fever chills starting up again in the warm body beside her. Why hadn’t she insisted the younger girl take a jacket before they’d left the shuttle? As if that would help her if ugly here decided to blow a hole through her. Pushing that thought firmly out of her mind, Inara pulled Kaylee along to the cargo bay, where she could see the others already congregated, also held at gunpoint. Relief flooded through her when she saw that no one had been hurt. Yet.
“Git’ over there, now,” their captor growled, circling around to join the two other unwelcomed guests. The captain was stone-faced, with Zoe at his elbow. Jayne was leering at the intruders like a caged animal, baring his teeth, while Sheppard Book stood perfectly still beside him, his expression revealing no hint of how he felt about having a gun trained on his face. Wash and Simon had the sense to look terrified, and River’s expression was the same as always—blank and vaguely curious.
“Right, now,” one of the dirty men said, apparently the leader. He stank to high heaven and had an ugly scar down the left side of his face. “Y’all gonna take a little detour, like. Me an’ my boys be needin’ a little cover from the law, an’ this here fei-yu boat gonna give it.” Kaylee stiffened, and Inara had to fight the wildly inappropriate urge to laugh—even in the deadliest of situations, she knew, the young mechanic couldn’t abide aspersions on her beloved ship. It reassured the companion to know that her bao-bei wasn’t too sick to get pissed off.
“If’n everybody’s smart, here,” chief ugly continued, “ain’t no need for bloodshed today. Y’all gonna take us on outta here, drop us where we say, an’ that there’s the end of it. Anybody decide to get heroical-like, we’ll have ourselves some carnage. Dong ma?”
“We get you,” Mal said evenly, his eyes calm and unblinking.
“Smart man,” ugly #1 nodded. “Now where’s your pilot?” Wash reluctantly raised his hand. “Pedro, take ‘im up to the bridge. Make sure he points this fei-yu boat the right way.” Ugly #2 grabbed the back of Wash’s shirt, and shoved him toward the stairs.
“Hey! I’m walking! No need for the manhandling,” Wash yelped indignantly. Kaylee bent over and coughed, but no one seemed to notice over the racket the pilot was making on his way up the stairs. Inara slipped out a hand and rubbed her back, feeling the heat radiating through her shirt as her whole body seemed to rattle with coughing.
“The rest of you can jus’ sit down an’ shut up,” ugly #1 said, gesturing with the end of his gun toward the rest of the crew, who sat down uneasily on whatever crates they were nearest to, while the second thug went around tying their wrists with thick rope. Inara could hear Kaylee take a small, sharp breath beside her, and glanced over in time to see her scrunching her eyes shut and pinching her nose, trying her best to hold back the itchy sneeze inside her head.
“Tchiiew! …*snrf.*” “I believe I asked for some peace and quiet,” chief ugly snarled, whipping around to glare threateningly at Kaylee, who wiped her pink nose hastily on her sleeve.
“Sorry,” she whispered, sounding terrified. He narrowed his eyes at her, taking in the sheen of perspiration coating her pale face.
“What the hell’s wrong with you?” He growled suspiciously, like he thought she might be faking in hopes of causing some diversion for the others.
“Nothin’,” Kaylee mumbled, rubbing her nose on her arm again and staring at the floor. Inara could hear the ticklish note in her voice, though, and knew that there was nothing she could do to keep it in.
“Ksshhiew! …*snrf, snrf.*” “Gorram it, girl! I told you to shut it!”
“Hey!” Inara snarled, jumping up and putting herself between Kaylee and the end of ugly’s gun. “She’s just got a cold, all right? She can’t help it. Are you really going to shoot her for sneezing?” The room buzzed faintly with tension as they all waited, frozen, praying that Inara hadn’t pushed old ugly too far; each of them tensed to spring in case she had. The end of his gun was barely a foot from her stomach.
“Get in my face again, an’ I
will shoot you,” he rumbled, his voice low and threatening. “I’m sure your crew here would miss a pretty lil’ thing like you, wouldn’t they? Now sit down and keep that girl quiet, dong ma?” Inara swallowed her terror and nodded, feeling Kaylee grab her and yank her back clumsily with her tied hands. The younger girl’s face was so pale now, Inara was worried she might pass out.
I’m sorry, Kaylee mouthed silently. Inara shook her head and leaned her shoulder against the trembling girl, trying to soothe her the only way she had left. They all sat mutely as the minutes stretched into hours, the silence absolute except for Kaylee’s irrepressible sneezing every few minutes, made worse by the fact that she couldn’t blow her nose with her hands tied. She wiped her running nose on her sleeves so often, it quickly turned raw and pink. Once their hijacker was convinced that she wasn’t trying to signal the others, and that she really did just have a cold, it didn’t seem to bother him much, and he didn’t yell at her again.
Eventually, Wash radioed down from the bridge that they’d reached the designated coordinates, and were docked with whatever crappy space station was servicing this forgotten edge of the ‘verse. “Good man,” ugly growled, jerking his head toward his second. “We’ll jes’ be gettin’ off here, an’ y’all good people is free to carry on. Course, we’ll be needin’ some bit of insurance you ain’t gonna be turnin’ round on us for some payback the minute we get off this gorram crap-float.”
“We ain’t the vengeful types,” Mal said stonily, sitting as still and straight as ever. “No percentage in it.”
“That’s a mighty smart attitude, son, but we got to be sure, you understand.” He reached over and grabbed Kaylee by the back of her shirt, yanking her awkwardly to her feet. “I reckon I’ll take this little one what looks like she’s about to drop. You ain’t gonna fight me none, are ya darlin’?”
“No!” Inara shrieked, leaping to her feet before anyone else could react. “Take me! Don’t take her. Take me instead!”
“’Nara, shut
up,” Kaylee hissed through gritted teeth.
“Ain’t nobody gettin’ took,” Mal said firmly, getting to his feet though his hands were still tied. “I told you, Mister, ain’t no need. You can see our ship ain’t armed, an’ we got nothin’ to gain by comin’ after you. You just leave my crew be, an’ you can be right on your way. Everyone wins.”
“You almost got that right, son,” ugly snarled, with an obscene smile. “You all jes’ sit tight here, while little blondie takes a trip with us. You stay here ‘till we call, an’ we’ll tell you where you can fetch her, like. Won’t find her in any damaged condition unless you give us a reason, hear? That’ll give us time to get good an’ gone ‘fore you come around.”
Suddenly, Jayne’s meaty arms came down around the hijacker’s throat, at the exact same moment that Zoë’s foot connected with ugly #2’s face. The momentary distraction allowed Mal to head-butt the man choking on Jayne’s muscle, while Zoë calmly stamped on the second man’s face once he fell to the ground, and Sheppard Book kicked their guns away for good measure. The whole thing was over in less than fifteen seconds. With their captors out cold, it was easy for the crew to untie each other’s hands, and Mal and Zoë quickly rushed off to liberate Wash from the third ugly thug on the bridge. Inara threw her arms around Kaylee’s trembling shoulders and burst into tears.
“S’okay,” Kaylee murmured faintly, leaning heavily into Inara’s arms. “I ain’t hurt…” Her legs wobbled dangerously, and suddenly Book and Simon and River were all there, helping her sit back down on the crates before she fell on her face.
“I’m going to get my med kit from the Infirmary,” Simon said brusquely, all business now that the immediate danger was past. “Stay here, all right?”
“Yep…here’s good,” Kaylee agreed dazedly, curling up with her head in Inara’s lap as her exhaustion overtook her. The companion’s hands were instantly upon her, running all over her body in search of some invisible injury. “Told you I ain’t hurt, baby,” the drowsing girl sighed hazily, as the aftershock and adrenalin drained away. Inara knew she must really be out of it, because they’d never called each other by any of their affectionate pet names in front of the others before; but right now, the companion couldn’t care less who knew what.
“I’m just making sure,” she whispered, smoothing the light brown hair back to press a hand to Kaylee’s forehead.
“That feels soooo good,” the younger girl sighed, closing her eyes and putting one of her hands over Inara’s to hold her there.
“You’re so hot,” Inara sighed worriedly, anxious for Simon to return with the med kit.
“That’s what you say every night,” Kaylee joked, giggling drunkenly. Then she shivered and cupped her newly freed hands to her face.
“Hetchhiiew! …*snrf.*” “Bless you, baby,” Inara murmured quietly, leaning down to kiss Kaylee’s warm temple. She could feel Sheppard Book’s eyes on her, and she looked back up, ready to throw him a death-glare if his expression was disapproving. But much to her amazement, he was smiling serenely down at the both of them. Inara’s shock only lasted a moment, before River knelt down in front of her to pat Kaylee on the head.
“It’s okay now,” River said in a calm, lulling voice. “Inara will fix you.”
“I know,” Kaylee yawned, grinning dazedly. Before Simon returned with the med kit, she was fast asleep in Inara’s lap in the middle of the cargo bay.
Thanks so much for posting!
lol i like this so much its so cute. love the "irrepressible" sneezing. and the itchy sound in her voice.... 
