xiao_meimei | (no subject)

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Kaylee had discovered that Warren made a very nice pillow, being as how her bunk was a bit too narrow and necessitated them sleeping curled up close together. Not that she were adverse to that anyway. He was warm, and the ship was more often than not a bit on the cold side. But sleeping with someone else after so long of not doing it was a bit disconcerting as well, and she found herself awake earlier than she might otherwise have been.

She smiled and stretched a little, content to watch him sleep, listening to his breathing. She weren't sure exactly when how or if this had become something more than scratching an itch, but having him here felt good. Right. The way he'd fit in so nicely so quick, and just having someone who looked at her and saw her were one of the nicest treats she'd had in a long time.

She was tempted to wake him up, but refrained, closing her eyes again to snuggle into him.

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"Two hours?" It was the first Kaylee had spoken since they'd come in, and her voice was faint and more than a little distressed.

Her eyes finally left Layla to swing up to Warren, half-pleading and half-trying not to, ashamed of herself for the flare of panic. He'd only been here a couple of days. It was just silly to be this upset, but she was.

Mal's eyes narrowed, looking at Warren in a way that suggested he best be careful about how he responded to her, fire throwing ability or not.

Warren nodded slightly, drawing Kaylee against him with one arm around her shoulders, looking at Layla a moment longer before lowering his eyes. Every moment drove home the need to make a decision he didn't want to make, a choice he didn't like being forced to.

At least he had that much of an answer. Kaylee wouldn't be upset if this was still at a casual romp in the hay. She could have been faking, but even in two days he trusted what he'd seen enough to know that she wasn't. That it wasn't in her to play games like that.

And he knew how he felt. So that was what it came down to, homesickness against heartache.

"You'd better give it some thought, then," Inara said, standing, mentally calculating who she would throw out and who she would keep in. Mal would be first to go, of course. He wasn't going to help anyone decide anything, although of course he'd worry.

"It's a big decision," she looked at Warren. "You'll want to discuss it, I'm sure." Looked at Mal. Then, significantly, at the door.

She had no idea what was going on here, but even Jayne would have been able to read the body language present in the three young people in her shuttle. Mal hadn't been wrong when he'd spoken of Warren and Kaylee. She did wonder how it had happened. But that was a question for a later time.

Mal gave Inara a fairly significant look of his own, because leaving Kaylee in the middle of this was not what he felt comfortable doing. Kaylee offered him a tentative smile, though, so he moved to leave, pausing to kiss her cheek in an uncharacteristic show of affection.

Kaylee smiled a little at that, but it wasn't a very bright smile nor did it last longer than his exiting of the shuttle.

Warren sighed, relaxing a little when Mal and the other woman, Inara, that must have been, left. Of all the people to be around, at least it was Kaylee and Layla. Two people he trusted...

... he wasn't sure how to finish that any longer. Wasn't sure where they fit in his life.

Especially not when he was going to have to leave one or the other of them behind, two hours ... no, less than that. Because there was travel time, at the very least. Travel time, time travel.

Something occurred to him. "So, opening this rip in time and space, or whatever it is. They can do it pretty easily?"

Kaylee was trying to remember how to breathe and not just leave the shuttle. The engine room would be far preferable to Inara's shuttle, designed for seduction which was reminding her of everything she wasn't gonna have once he was gone. Back to bein' just everyone's little sister. But more than that, without this part of her that seemed to have found itself in a way it hadn't before.

"I don't know..." Layla shook her head. Still trying to get used to the way Warren was acting with the girl, with Kaylee. Although it was easier if she just pictured them at school.

"I don't know. I mean, the Professors figured it out when they realized you'd gone through. They were working around the clock to figure it out. So I think they've figured out what went wrong..."

"And they can do it again," Warren interrupted. Because that was the main point, here. That they could do it again. "At least to this time, if not this planet."

Layla's eyes went a bit wide. "P-planet?"

"Yeah, this is a spaceship... it's a long story."

Kaylee was back to watching Layla.

"Her name's Serenity," she offered, quietly, one hand going to rest on the wall in a gentle caress, trying to reassure herself. She still had her home. Her family. Her girl.

Layla glanced at Kaylee, at Warren. "Serenity," she repeated. She kind of liked the name.

But that wasn't the point. "What do you mean, could they do it again..." She knew what he meant, but it was hard to comprehend that he'd be suggesting it. "Warren, what are you thinking of doing, here?"

"Could they do it again," he said, "Could they make it into a device, a, a platform. Or something..." He barely stopped himself from saying 'I' "A person could carry."

Kaylee felt the first faint flicker of hope that maybe he didn't actually want to leave her.

"I don't know..." Layla really wasn't all that technologically apt. "I mean, I guess they could. Professor... Warren, what are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking ..."

He took a breath. Closed his eyes. Brushed a kiss over Kaylee's temple for a moment before he opened his mouth and said something he wouldn't be able to take back.

"I'm thinking that I want to be able to come back, if I go home."

Kaylee looked up at him, eyes wide, and that faint flicker of hope blossomed a bit into an almost smile.

Layla looked at Warren. Glanced for a second at Kaylee and back to Warren, who looked right back at her.

Warren didn't socialize at school. Even after they had saved Homecoming together she still had to be the one to go sit at his table at lunchtime. But he knew her well enough to read her, and she had learned a thing or two about him just listening to him and paying attention. They were, had been, as close as he'd been with anyone from school. And she wasn't blind. Maybe he thought she was stupid for not telling Will sooner, but she wasn't blind.

She sighed. "I don't know. I don't know enough... I don't know. And even if you came back, how could you find her again?" To Kaylee: "No offense, Miss Kaylee, but ... it's a big universe."

Kaylee nodded, just a little, eyes dropping again. "Ain't no one knows that better'n we do."

"I'll find a way." Warren did not do desperate. "There's got to be some way to get in contact. Someone, a message drop. Something."

"Maybe?" Kaylee tried to think. "There's places people hold mail for us. Places we go more'n others. An' there's waves. You could send a wave an' we could..." She frowned a bit. "It'd have to be encoded, 'cause we wouldn't want Alliance pickin' it up. They don't know we got Simon and River, but it's still best we fly under the radar."

Layla had only the faintest idea of what Kaylee was talking about, waves, and Alliance.

But even that was enough to give her an idea. "Or, not encoded? Not really. But what if it was a message only the two of you understood?"

Warren grinned at her. "Like the way you and Will talk and none of the rest of us can follow what you're saying?"

"Like that," Layla said, bright red and smiling ruefully.

Kaylee was still frowning. "Not sure how we'd manage somethin' like that with hundreds of planets he could end up on..."

Warren and Layla exchanged another look.

"Probably just this one..." he said, although tentative.

Layla nodded. "At least to start with? I mean, this is where we both ended up, and Mrs. Stronghold was very careful to make sure that the spatial coordinates didn't change."

Warren gave her a sharp look at that. "Will's Mom?"

"I told you he was worried about you."

"I guess you could just send a wave sayin' you was here. Might...take us a while to get back over here, dependin' on where we was." Kaylee was equally tentative, especially with the discussion of someone's mom.

"I could..." He stopped. "Maybe I could come over for an hour, let you know when I'd be over, and then you could get here when you get here?"

She nodded a little. "That might work. We'd have to clear it with the Captain. He might get tetchy 'bout having to fly back an' forth cross the 'verse unless there's work in it."

Warren flinched, nodded. He couldn't go dragging them all the way back and forth.

"There has to be some way to get the spatial coordinates right," Layla was thinking out loud. "So that we could revisit any planet, if we had the location of it..."

Kaylee looked at her a bit blankly, since how the technology was even possible still confounded her.

Warren just shook his head slightly. Mad science wasn't his area of expertise.

"We'll work it out. The machine... we'll figure it out. There's a way, there's got to be."

His arm tightened a bit around Kaylee's shoulders.