[Fic] Indecent Proposal
Apr. 23rd, 2009 12:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittydesadeTitle: Indecent Proposal
Fandom: Firefly
Characters: Malcolm Reynolds, Inara Serra
Rating: PG. Ish.
Word Count: 848
Summary: Mal's got a proposal for Inara. As per usual, things don't go smooth.
"Marry me, Inara."
He said it as though asking her to pass the sauce, and at first she thought that's what he said, so much so that her hand was halfway to the bottle before she blinked and realized the truth of it.
"... what?"
Two weeks, three days, and a few hours since they had barely made it through the battle between Reavers and Alliance. Malcolm Reynolds had turned her world upside down and shaken it inside to out more thoroughly than he had ever done before, including all that mess with River and the Reavers.
Inara blinked at him. "What did you say?"
"I said..." Mal kept his head down, fiddling with his dinner, the rest of the crew having either taken it in their quarters (Zoe, Simon, Kaylee) or left the table (Jayne, River). Inara wondered if River had known this was going to happen. "I think... we should get married."
Her lips formed the words after he said them but she couldn't give them breath. She was dreaming. It was a dream, brought on by too much stress and a few too many cups of that special tea Jayne liked to pretend wasn't laced with whiskey.
"Why on earth..." she started, quickly realized how that could be taken and attempted to retract it. "I mean, what are you..." No, that wouldn't do either. Was there any way to ask the man if he was out of his damn fool mind without making it sound like a rejection?
... and why was she worried about it sounding like a rejection? Was she considering this? Was she taking it under advisement as a possibility?
"Married," she said finally, because she had to say something, because if she didn't he would go on not staring at her as though it would make any kind of a difference. As though not looking at her would ease the awkwardness between them. "Mal..." This is absurd. We're not even lovers. We don't even like each other.
Well, that patently wasn't true, but she couldn't very well tell him, could she?
"Never mind." He cut off whatever she hadn't been saying with that curt tone he used when the discussion was closed and he was done laying himself open for hurt. "Sorry I asked. Stupid thing to say."
Her hand closed around his forearm before she quite knew what she meant to do, fingers digging in as he stood. "It's not stupid."
Their eyes met quite by accident, and for a second Inara felt her heart leap for joy and tears spring to her eyes all at once, just from the fact that he was looking at her. She lowered her gaze because she didn't want him to see her cry. She didn't ever want him to see her cry. That was a perfectly good reason not to be married to the man, wasn't it? That and the fact that he was an insufferable, idiotic...
She was still holding on to him. And he wasn't pulling away. She didn't want to let him go, didn't want to say no. Was grasping at several very legitimate and good reasons why she couldn't or shouldn't say yes, either.
"We'd make a horrible couple, Mal," she tried to tell him, trying to look at him and not meet his eyes all at the same time. "We already fight all the time..."
"So what? Married couples do that. Heh," he snorted, false cheer through his voice. "Never saw a married couple that didn't."
"I'm..." But, no. You couldn't be a Companion and be married, it didn't work that way. The rules of the Guild forbade it. "You always..." spoke ill of her vocation. Repeatedly. "You called me a whore." Now that just came out petulent and childish.
"And you called me a petty thief, I think we're even."
Inara laughed. She couldn't quite help it, and somewhere in between the startled laugh and looking back up at him and the shy, tired smile he gave her back... somewhere in all of that, she found her answer. Or perhaps her answer was several minutes late, having fought through all the justifications she'd thrown up against it in an effort to find a reason she could use to say no.
"This is possibly the worst idea you've had in your grand and glorious history of bad ideas," she told him, tugging him to sit back down. He went, eyes widening as he realized the implications of her rebuke.
"So... that's a yes?"
"On several conditions to be determined later, and with the stipulation that I want it on the record that I said this was a bad idea in the first place..."
She didn't get much further on account of him pulling her against him almost to the point of her falling over sideways and kissing her the way she'd wanted him to for months, perhaps years by now. After that, there wasn't much more to say.
But in retrospect, it was a good thing that everyone else had left the mess hall early.
Fandom: Firefly
Characters: Malcolm Reynolds, Inara Serra
Rating: PG. Ish.
Word Count: 848
Summary: Mal's got a proposal for Inara. As per usual, things don't go smooth.
"Marry me, Inara."
He said it as though asking her to pass the sauce, and at first she thought that's what he said, so much so that her hand was halfway to the bottle before she blinked and realized the truth of it.
"... what?"
Two weeks, three days, and a few hours since they had barely made it through the battle between Reavers and Alliance. Malcolm Reynolds had turned her world upside down and shaken it inside to out more thoroughly than he had ever done before, including all that mess with River and the Reavers.
Inara blinked at him. "What did you say?"
"I said..." Mal kept his head down, fiddling with his dinner, the rest of the crew having either taken it in their quarters (Zoe, Simon, Kaylee) or left the table (Jayne, River). Inara wondered if River had known this was going to happen. "I think... we should get married."
Her lips formed the words after he said them but she couldn't give them breath. She was dreaming. It was a dream, brought on by too much stress and a few too many cups of that special tea Jayne liked to pretend wasn't laced with whiskey.
"Why on earth..." she started, quickly realized how that could be taken and attempted to retract it. "I mean, what are you..." No, that wouldn't do either. Was there any way to ask the man if he was out of his damn fool mind without making it sound like a rejection?
... and why was she worried about it sounding like a rejection? Was she considering this? Was she taking it under advisement as a possibility?
"Married," she said finally, because she had to say something, because if she didn't he would go on not staring at her as though it would make any kind of a difference. As though not looking at her would ease the awkwardness between them. "Mal..." This is absurd. We're not even lovers. We don't even like each other.
Well, that patently wasn't true, but she couldn't very well tell him, could she?
"Never mind." He cut off whatever she hadn't been saying with that curt tone he used when the discussion was closed and he was done laying himself open for hurt. "Sorry I asked. Stupid thing to say."
Her hand closed around his forearm before she quite knew what she meant to do, fingers digging in as he stood. "It's not stupid."
Their eyes met quite by accident, and for a second Inara felt her heart leap for joy and tears spring to her eyes all at once, just from the fact that he was looking at her. She lowered her gaze because she didn't want him to see her cry. She didn't ever want him to see her cry. That was a perfectly good reason not to be married to the man, wasn't it? That and the fact that he was an insufferable, idiotic...
She was still holding on to him. And he wasn't pulling away. She didn't want to let him go, didn't want to say no. Was grasping at several very legitimate and good reasons why she couldn't or shouldn't say yes, either.
"We'd make a horrible couple, Mal," she tried to tell him, trying to look at him and not meet his eyes all at the same time. "We already fight all the time..."
"So what? Married couples do that. Heh," he snorted, false cheer through his voice. "Never saw a married couple that didn't."
"I'm..." But, no. You couldn't be a Companion and be married, it didn't work that way. The rules of the Guild forbade it. "You always..." spoke ill of her vocation. Repeatedly. "You called me a whore." Now that just came out petulent and childish.
"And you called me a petty thief, I think we're even."
Inara laughed. She couldn't quite help it, and somewhere in between the startled laugh and looking back up at him and the shy, tired smile he gave her back... somewhere in all of that, she found her answer. Or perhaps her answer was several minutes late, having fought through all the justifications she'd thrown up against it in an effort to find a reason she could use to say no.
"This is possibly the worst idea you've had in your grand and glorious history of bad ideas," she told him, tugging him to sit back down. He went, eyes widening as he realized the implications of her rebuke.
"So... that's a yes?"
"On several conditions to be determined later, and with the stipulation that I want it on the record that I said this was a bad idea in the first place..."
She didn't get much further on account of him pulling her against him almost to the point of her falling over sideways and kissing her the way she'd wanted him to for months, perhaps years by now. After that, there wasn't much more to say.
But in retrospect, it was a good thing that everyone else had left the mess hall early.