Keepin' her flyin'

Kiss Simon
Make the Captain listen when we really do need a new part.
Wash my face
See if Inara will brush my hair out. It always looks so pretty when she does it.
Play jacks with River
Clean the engine room
Have strawberries
Maybe target practice a bit more, case something happens again.
Kiss Simon

Nice:

Fixed Serenity
Fixed Serenity without money for parts, so had to do it all with my own ingenuity.
Gave River my jacks set.
Didn't kiss that boy on Persephone.


Naughty:

Found myself swearin' a bit mor'n my folks'd like to hear.
Told the Captain 'bout River shootin' those folks
Couldn't shoot them myself.
Let Serenity break when I were too distracted an' not payin' attention.

If I could change just one thing about my appearance, it would be trying to be more elegant. Like Inara. Ain’t much of a bother most days. I know I’m not hideous, an’ I like to think no one’d want to put a bag over my head before takin’ me to bed. Then again, it’s been so long, I ain’t entirely sure that ain’t the case. Hard to remember, sometimes. But that ain’t the point really. Most days, I’m just fine with me and the mirror.

But sometimes, when I’m sitting in my bunk and I see the dress the Captain got me to wear to this party once? Sometimes I wish I could be more like her. That I could keep myself neat and clean and wear the most beautiful dresses and have men and women both wanting me, though I ain’t sure what to do with the women, necessarily. But, it sure would be shiny to have that, just for a few days.

‘Course her dresses wouldn’t be no use in the engine room, and it ain’t like it’s exactly possible to stay clean in there when I’m workin’ to keep things going smooth, and ain’t no way in the ‘verse I’d rather be anything but Serenity’s mechanic, not really. But maybe…maybe if I could look like her, and wear my hair all pretty and my clothes just so…maybe then it wouldn’t seem like I’m worlds beneath anything he anyone might notice an’ want to pull into his their life.

Though, I guess, if someone don’t want me for who I am, they ain’t really much worth wanting.

But…it’d be nice, you know? Some days.

An' I gotta say, this is about the most disturbin' thing I've ever seen.

Kaylee watched the other four sitting around the table. Jayne was sprawling a bit, no manner of manners at all, picking at his teeth while he studied the cards. Mal and Zoe both gave nothing away, though she weren’t particularly sure that they didn’t have some sort of system worked out the way they was winning most of the hands between them. Mal was relaxed, least a bit, a little smile on his lips. Zoe, too, looked to be enjoying herself, and all things considered, Kaylee was right glad to see that for a change. Truth was, they all still missed Wash something fierce, but life went on and they had to or they’d stay still an die, and that weren’t a’tall what he’d have wanted.

Of course, it was Simon who kept her gaze the longest. He didn’t seem t’understand the idea of a poker face in the least, every card he got reflected clear on his expression. His bluffing skills weren’t nothing at all, despite the fact she knew for a fact he’d pulled a good one a time or two. Weren’t like he was ever gonna let her die, that time she’d got shot. Even she’d known that, but Mal sure had believed him then. Seemed as if when River’s life weren’t on the line, he lost that skill, though, ‘cause he had to be about the worst poker player she’d ever seen.

“Kaylee, it’s your turn,” Mal said, his voice cutting across her reverie. “Mind you pay a bit of attention to the game, you hear?”

Kaylee knew her cheeks were hot as she looked down at her cards, then around the table again, before tossing another scrap of paper with her chores written down on it into the pile. “I’m in, with dishes for a week.”

Simon frowned more, and Kaylee could tell, sure as could be, that he ought to fold and take his losses. Likely, they could all tell that, but he glanced at her, then tossed a scrap of paper in. “I’m in, with washing out the cargo room.”

Jayne shook his head. “Boy, you really ain’t got a lick of sense, do you?”

It fell out as it had to, with Simon ending up with a mess of chores in front of him, including most of Kaylee’s.

“Don’t worry,” she said, voice low, when the other’s had gone off to celebrate their victory. “I’ll help.”

He shook his head, hand covering hers, just briefly. “No. You take the week and just relax a bit. Spend some time playing with River or doing whatever you want to do. You deserve some free time.”

“I ain’t the only one,” she protested, but his hand on hers was right distracting, and she wasn’t sure she wanted him to take it away, ever.

He didn’t, at least not right away. In fact, he held it a bit tighter and a bit longer, and when he let it go, he was still smiling that smile that made her all warm on the inside and chores and poker were the two last things on her mind.

Ain't nobody gonna tell you that we get the best food out here in the black. We make do with protein and other processed things, canned goods and the like. I try to make it a bit more festive than it might be, but really, there's only so much you can do with most of that.

When we get something fresh, like when the Preacher came on board, it's a real treat. And to my way of thinking, there's nothing that's more of a treat than fresh, real strawberries. Right when they're all ripe and bursting with juice. They're sweet, but not too sweet, 'cause they've always got just that bit of tartness to them. You bite in, an' it's like a little bit of heaven dancing there on your tongue with the sweet and tart all mingling and making your tongue curl up and your cheeks tingle.

I can't ever stop at just one, but I'll take as long as I can with that one, making every bite mean somethin' special, 'cause you never know when you're going to get another one. You got to make it last, and if there's more than one, you got to make that last even longer. It won't do just to gobble them up without takin' the time to savor them, really feel the way they feel and the way that they taste.

At this party we went to once, they had 'em served with cream. It was real cream, too, all thick and sweet, but, like the strawberries, not too sweet. Just right. The strawberries seemed tarter for it, and the cream just swirled all around them like the clouds scattered through a clear atmosphere when you're bringing the ship in low and they just lie there and make everything that much prettier.

I can't think of anything better in the 'verse, least not for eating.

Weren't much on the rock I grew up on. Folks came an' went for trade occasionally. Mostly prairie, mostly farms. Same folk you knew as a child were the folk you knew as a teenager an' would be the folk you married, raised children an' died with. No one new came an' stayed I reckon. Most excitin' thing was when a ship would land, stay for a bit. Sometimes town went off and threw a party, sayin' they'd arrived just in time for this or that festival. Gave the girls time t'dance with new fellas, which didn't really make the boys at home all that happy, but they knew soon enough the ship would leave an' the girls would be theirs again.

Who else were they gonna turn to?

Sometimes folk signed on to those ships, headed off the rock an' never looked back, but that were rare. We weren't the place people came lookin' to hire on new crew.

It was isolatin' sometimes, but it was protected, too. We were too far in from the border for Reavers to pay us much mind, and too far out from the Core for Alliance to interfere too much. We were just...us, I reckon. An' we never changed. It was suffocatin' in its own way, an' I dreamed about breakin' out an' away for most of my life. Didn't think it'd ever happen, though. Weren't no ships came 'round that didn't have a mechanic on board already. Even Serenity had one.

But when he couldn't fix her, an' I did, everything changed. I got a chance to break outta there, an' I took it. I miss my folks sometimes, an' it's always nice to get mail from them, but I ain't ever goin' back in there, trapped like that. I'll take my ship, an' my Captain, an' the black expanse any day an' twice on Sundays over livin' back there again.

Ain't that many flowers out in the black. They don't grow so well in the life support systems on the boat. Or maybe they would if any of us had a knack for it. I keep wanting to ask Shepherd if we hooked up some sort of heating system maybe he could do some of his gardening on board and then maybe we'd have fruits and vegetables more often rather than just protein. Seems to me if Alliance can make it work, surely we can, right? He could water them and stuff...I mean, yeah, we'd have to take on more water, but water ain't really something we don't end up having, so I don't think it really ought to be a problem.

But if he did have a sort of garden, then he could have flowers. It would brighten the place up a lot and it's real hard not to be cheerful when you're surrounded by growing things.

I got them all painted on the door to my bunk, and my walls and then the kitchen. Lots of flowers. Lots of colors. Captain sort of rolled his eyes at me when I started painting them and told me to keep them off of the engine at least. He acted all tetchy, but he's pretty good about laying down the law, so I figure if he had a real problem with them, he'd say so.

I just think they make things look a lot prettier, don't you?