Prompt #15 - The Future
Hmm... so I made this strong decision that the majority of my fics I write for the Mal/Inara challenge are going to be very short, because I really can't write 100 fics that are over 500 words long in any reasonable length of time.
And then I get this plot bunny that didn't even come from any of the prompts, and I spend hours after writing it trying to cut it down to the word limit of 1000 words. But I did it (just), and I just hope that the result was worth the effort!
Title: Never the Same
Rating: PG
Prompt: #15 The Future
Note: Thanks as always to notsoliljames for his help. This fic is set post Serenity, and contains MAJOR spoilers for the movie, so don't read if you haven't seen it yet.
Things would never be the same again, Inara realised one day.
It was a truth that had existed for so long, but she had never allowed herself to accept it before. It slipped into her consciousness as she tried to arrange her shuttle the way it had been before, too distracted to remember to block such thoughts out. Try as she might, she couldn’t get the drapes to hang in exactly the same way, and she couldn’t remember which ornament had gone where. With that, the realisation struck her as a harsh blow to the chest.
Everything was different. Everything about her life had been turned upside down and inside out, and there was nothing she could do to fix it. All that had defined her was lost. How was she supposed to continue being Inara after that?
The thought was brutally freeing. All of her training thrown to the wayside, she let out a scream of frustration and threw an ornament against the wall. It shattered, and the sound echoed dully throughout the room, as though the silence she had broken was too repressive to be cut through entirely.
She stood breathing heavily for a moment, unsure of what to do. Why had she chosen to stay? She had let Mal cloud her judgement, just as he always did, but that didn’t make the situation any better. She couldn’t stay here. Only a fool would choose to stay after all that had happened.
All days seemed the same now, united in everything that was different and wrong. Mal would sit in Wash’s chair, the plastic dinosaurs still all around him, and pretend that he had the slightest clue how to fly the ship as well as Wash had done; pretend that things could and would continue perfectly fine without him. Simon and Kaylee snuck about, trying to carry on with their lives without Zoe finding out, but it didn’t work. In all their attempts to avoid reminding her of what she’d lost, they managed to alienate the grieving woman even more. Zoe herself tried to act as though everything was normal, and Inara never saw as much as the beginnings of a tear in her eye, but she was quieter now, saying even less than she had ever said before and never smiling or laughing in the way that she had for him. Sometimes Inara would see her exchange whispers with the Captain, and that was different too, because despite all of their history, they had never kept things secret between them before.
Where did she fit into all of this? There wasn’t a place for Inara in the grievings of the crew. She sensed that her relationship with Mal had shifted once again, but was that enough of a reason for her to stay? Could she stay on in her position as Companion, providing comfort for the crew in whatever form they needed the most?
No. How could she? Less of that part of her remained than anything else. If it was painful to stay on Serenity after all that had happened, it would be agony to return to the training house and the life that that entailed. Being a Companion embodied everything that the Alliance represented; power, prestige, control. She had grown to accept Mal’s views of the Alliance during her time on Serenity, had even grown to believe them as she watched River’s progress day after day, but she had never truly understood that hatred until watching the message that had started this all. There was something so utterly foul about it all that she couldn’t even fully comprehend it, but the disgust and the hatred for the Alliance was as much a part of her now as it was a part of Mal. The very thought of continuing to work for them made her sick inside.
So she had stayed. It wasn’t the best thing for her to do, but no good options seemed to exist any more. There was only wrong or slightly less wrong, and she was going to have to adapt to that, whatever it would mean.
Sighing, she moved across the room to gather the shards of the broken trinket. Things would never be the same. That much was fact, and nothing she could do would change it. Why cling to the shreds of an old life, when there was so much more left that she could do with the new? This realisation fresh in her mind, she carefully went back to work.
It was a few hours later that she heard Mal’s tentative knock on the door. That was different too, she realised with a smile.
“Come in, Mal,” she said, and she could hear the smile creeping into her voice despite herself.
She watched as he strode confidently into the room, and then stopped short as he took in the surroundings. Gone were the red and gold hangings, the exotic trinkets and the tantalising scent of incense. In their place was a room that was still beautiful, still comfortable, still Inara, but as far from the room of a Companion as it was possible for her to go.
“Well isn’t this different?” he said, his voice a little too even to be believable.
“I suppose it is.”
He frowned, and Inara could see sparks of bitterness in his eyes. “What was the point of us going to pick up your fancy stuffs if you ain’t gonna use em?” he asked. “You decide you’re gonna leave already?”
“No,” she said firmly, moving towards him and taking his hand. “Exactly the opposite. I’ve decided that I want to stay.”
Confusion held his features for a moment, and then she leaned up and kissed him softly on the lips. It only lasted a moment, and it was far sweeter than she had ever imagined her first kiss with Malcolm Reynolds would be, but it was enough. When she stepped back to look at his expression once again, she knew that he understood.
And then I get this plot bunny that didn't even come from any of the prompts, and I spend hours after writing it trying to cut it down to the word limit of 1000 words. But I did it (just), and I just hope that the result was worth the effort!
Title: Never the Same
Rating: PG
Prompt: #15 The Future
Note: Thanks as always to notsoliljames for his help. This fic is set post Serenity, and contains MAJOR spoilers for the movie, so don't read if you haven't seen it yet.
Things would never be the same again, Inara realised one day.
It was a truth that had existed for so long, but she had never allowed herself to accept it before. It slipped into her consciousness as she tried to arrange her shuttle the way it had been before, too distracted to remember to block such thoughts out. Try as she might, she couldn’t get the drapes to hang in exactly the same way, and she couldn’t remember which ornament had gone where. With that, the realisation struck her as a harsh blow to the chest.
Everything was different. Everything about her life had been turned upside down and inside out, and there was nothing she could do to fix it. All that had defined her was lost. How was she supposed to continue being Inara after that?
The thought was brutally freeing. All of her training thrown to the wayside, she let out a scream of frustration and threw an ornament against the wall. It shattered, and the sound echoed dully throughout the room, as though the silence she had broken was too repressive to be cut through entirely.
She stood breathing heavily for a moment, unsure of what to do. Why had she chosen to stay? She had let Mal cloud her judgement, just as he always did, but that didn’t make the situation any better. She couldn’t stay here. Only a fool would choose to stay after all that had happened.
All days seemed the same now, united in everything that was different and wrong. Mal would sit in Wash’s chair, the plastic dinosaurs still all around him, and pretend that he had the slightest clue how to fly the ship as well as Wash had done; pretend that things could and would continue perfectly fine without him. Simon and Kaylee snuck about, trying to carry on with their lives without Zoe finding out, but it didn’t work. In all their attempts to avoid reminding her of what she’d lost, they managed to alienate the grieving woman even more. Zoe herself tried to act as though everything was normal, and Inara never saw as much as the beginnings of a tear in her eye, but she was quieter now, saying even less than she had ever said before and never smiling or laughing in the way that she had for him. Sometimes Inara would see her exchange whispers with the Captain, and that was different too, because despite all of their history, they had never kept things secret between them before.
Where did she fit into all of this? There wasn’t a place for Inara in the grievings of the crew. She sensed that her relationship with Mal had shifted once again, but was that enough of a reason for her to stay? Could she stay on in her position as Companion, providing comfort for the crew in whatever form they needed the most?
No. How could she? Less of that part of her remained than anything else. If it was painful to stay on Serenity after all that had happened, it would be agony to return to the training house and the life that that entailed. Being a Companion embodied everything that the Alliance represented; power, prestige, control. She had grown to accept Mal’s views of the Alliance during her time on Serenity, had even grown to believe them as she watched River’s progress day after day, but she had never truly understood that hatred until watching the message that had started this all. There was something so utterly foul about it all that she couldn’t even fully comprehend it, but the disgust and the hatred for the Alliance was as much a part of her now as it was a part of Mal. The very thought of continuing to work for them made her sick inside.
So she had stayed. It wasn’t the best thing for her to do, but no good options seemed to exist any more. There was only wrong or slightly less wrong, and she was going to have to adapt to that, whatever it would mean.
Sighing, she moved across the room to gather the shards of the broken trinket. Things would never be the same. That much was fact, and nothing she could do would change it. Why cling to the shreds of an old life, when there was so much more left that she could do with the new? This realisation fresh in her mind, she carefully went back to work.
It was a few hours later that she heard Mal’s tentative knock on the door. That was different too, she realised with a smile.
“Come in, Mal,” she said, and she could hear the smile creeping into her voice despite herself.
She watched as he strode confidently into the room, and then stopped short as he took in the surroundings. Gone were the red and gold hangings, the exotic trinkets and the tantalising scent of incense. In their place was a room that was still beautiful, still comfortable, still Inara, but as far from the room of a Companion as it was possible for her to go.
“Well isn’t this different?” he said, his voice a little too even to be believable.
“I suppose it is.”
He frowned, and Inara could see sparks of bitterness in his eyes. “What was the point of us going to pick up your fancy stuffs if you ain’t gonna use em?” he asked. “You decide you’re gonna leave already?”
“No,” she said firmly, moving towards him and taking his hand. “Exactly the opposite. I’ve decided that I want to stay.”
Confusion held his features for a moment, and then she leaned up and kissed him softly on the lips. It only lasted a moment, and it was far sweeter than she had ever imagined her first kiss with Malcolm Reynolds would be, but it was enough. When she stepped back to look at his expression once again, she knew that he understood.