(no subject)
It's her birthday and Mal has seen fit to put thirty candles on her cake. He's grinning at her as he puts it in front of her, on her silk-sheet-covered-legs. "Happy Birthday, 'Nara."
"This is a fire hazard." She sighs, drawing in a breath to blow the candles out.
"Don't forget a wish."
Inara stares at the candles and thinks of all the things she could wish for. Aging beautifully, money, prosperity. She settles for wishing for a family with her husband...and cheats, and adds safety to that wish as well. She's thirty, she's allowed two wishes. The candles flicker under her breath, then go out in soft wisps of smoke.
"I'm going to make you thirty-eight cupcakes, come your birthday." She tells him, barely able to hide her grin. "And I'm going to hide one in every room and you have to find them all."
"I'll be far too old for that." Mal sighs sadly. "You'll have to carry me around the ship."
"You're old now," Inara swipes her finger through the frosting and then wipes it on his nose. "Couldn't even duck that."
It all deteriorated from there.