Happy fandom swap, dramaphile!
Happy fandom swap, dramaphile!
Title: Beauty in the Black of Night
Author: starrysummer
Fandom: Firefly
Pairing: Kaylee/Inara
Rating: PG
Summary: Kaylee belongs to the dirt and the grime of Serenity; but the stars and the world beyond her reach are beautiful.
Author's Notes: Apologies for the lack of smut. Somehow my mind refused to let them get there. Thanks to S and S for looking this over.
Kaylee only feels balanced with the rumbling of Serenity beneath her feet. The subtle shaking that reminds her of world to come and dry, parched earth left behind. Inara's shuttle doesn't feel like Serenity at all. Gauzy silks and satins line the walls. The cold gray din of metal walls, of a capsule embracing them is gone, covered over in gold and bronze, silver and red and orange. Fabric like fire, like scorched earth and glittering rings around wrists and fingers.
Kaylee sits unsettled, Inara's fingers - long and soft and cool - run through her hair. She closes her eyes and smells cinnamon, cloves, spices and ginger. There's no soot in the air, or the dust that reminds her of home, miles away and yet so close behind.
"What are you thinking about?" Inara asks, the question left dangling, open-ended. It's Inara's voice, honey-coated and assured and Kaylee doesn't think she needs to answer, but she wants to.
"What was it like - where you're from?" It wasn't what she was thinking about, but now, she thinks, it's what she wants to know. "Home?" Kaylee adds, almost involuntarily.
"Nothing like this," says Inara with a bit of a laugh. She stops and thinks, her hands stilling themselves in Kaylee's hair, and she feels like she does when she shuts the engine down. Calm and yet slightly uneasy - floating.
Inara almost tugs at her hair as she walks away - Kaylee feels a soft tug, a tingle, and she looks up. Inara is staring at a tapestry, at the swirls of golden thread as they draw circles, spirals, stars on burnt red-orange, dyed like sunlight. There's something in the way she's staring - as if she can see the whole ‘verse from there.
"Have you ever stared out at the stars, watched each one glitter?" She takes a breath. "The way from far away they seem so close together and yet, there's so much space between?"
Kaylee nods. She doesn't go up to the bridge much, but sometimes when Wash is silent - when the jokes let up and it's just space open and empty beyond - she knows that feeling.
"Sihnon is like that," Inara says. "Except you always know, no matter how close or how far the glimmering jewels seem, that it's like that because we made it that way."
Kaylee nods. Inara's looking at her and she doesn't know what to say or how to say it. There aren't the words, not in the language of dusty outer planets and greasy mechanisms for this - for this desire to want to make something that shines like that.
She's pretty sure she'd only mess it up anyway. That's not what she was made for, not even when Inara smiles and shines her eyes at her, drapes her shoulders in silk.
"It's beautiful," Inara says, finally. But there's something, a caveat and disclaimer waiting unsaid at the end of the sentence. Kaylee doesn't want to know what it is - wants to leave it glittering, sparkling like stars just out of reach, somewhere in the past and unstated.
"Why'd you leave?"
There's an awkward silence; Inara lights a candle and fingers the sheets on the edge of the bed. They're dark as spilled ink and when she sits the satin ripples like water.
"I should go," says Kaylee. "Serenity probably needs me - oil the engine or tune the gears. Ride's getting a mite bumpy."
Inara stands and her fingers are in Kaylee's hair again. "It's all right." There's no answer, but it's okay. Inara's very close, and she smells like vanilla and musk, essential oils and spices. Kaylee hopes she at least smells like soap at this distance rather than grease and grime and sweat.
"Not that you don't fit here, that we don't want you." Kaylee's speaking quickly, and she's sure something awful's going to come out. It's not that she means it, but she doesn't want to leave off on some awkward, improper thing so she keeps going, keeps talking about the ship and how they like her here. About how Mal doesn't mean any of it, at least the best she can tell.
But Inara's fingers are on her lips. "Serenity's fine," Inara says, and that's all she says.
"Come here," Inara says, pulling back at the tapestry that Kaylee always thinks looks like sunlight painted over with someone's earthbound imaginings of the sky.
Behind it rest the stars, bright white from a distance and glittering against empty black.
The sculpted silver around Inara's neck reflects the tiny specks of light, so immense and yet so far away. Kaylee wants to reach out and touch her, wants to step forth into the black of night, but the thought alone leaves her short of breath.
"Inara?"
Inara turns towards and Kaylee feels exposed - as if Inara can see through her with intuition. The silence sets Kaylee on edge - she's nervous, she's scared, she's leaning in and kissing Inara quick and chastely, but on her lips.
And Inara's fingers are soft on Kaylee's bare wrists, and Inara tastes like cinnamon and isn't pushing her away.
It's over in an instant. Kaylee steps backwards, halfway off-balance, and she smiles.
"You're beautiful, Kaylee," Inara says as she closes the curtains, covers the stars and their darkness in spun gold and color.
Kaylee's surprised to find that she believes her.
Title: Beauty in the Black of Night
Author: starrysummer
Fandom: Firefly
Pairing: Kaylee/Inara
Rating: PG
Summary: Kaylee belongs to the dirt and the grime of Serenity; but the stars and the world beyond her reach are beautiful.
Author's Notes: Apologies for the lack of smut. Somehow my mind refused to let them get there. Thanks to S and S for looking this over.
Kaylee only feels balanced with the rumbling of Serenity beneath her feet. The subtle shaking that reminds her of world to come and dry, parched earth left behind. Inara's shuttle doesn't feel like Serenity at all. Gauzy silks and satins line the walls. The cold gray din of metal walls, of a capsule embracing them is gone, covered over in gold and bronze, silver and red and orange. Fabric like fire, like scorched earth and glittering rings around wrists and fingers.
Kaylee sits unsettled, Inara's fingers - long and soft and cool - run through her hair. She closes her eyes and smells cinnamon, cloves, spices and ginger. There's no soot in the air, or the dust that reminds her of home, miles away and yet so close behind.
"What are you thinking about?" Inara asks, the question left dangling, open-ended. It's Inara's voice, honey-coated and assured and Kaylee doesn't think she needs to answer, but she wants to.
"What was it like - where you're from?" It wasn't what she was thinking about, but now, she thinks, it's what she wants to know. "Home?" Kaylee adds, almost involuntarily.
"Nothing like this," says Inara with a bit of a laugh. She stops and thinks, her hands stilling themselves in Kaylee's hair, and she feels like she does when she shuts the engine down. Calm and yet slightly uneasy - floating.
Inara almost tugs at her hair as she walks away - Kaylee feels a soft tug, a tingle, and she looks up. Inara is staring at a tapestry, at the swirls of golden thread as they draw circles, spirals, stars on burnt red-orange, dyed like sunlight. There's something in the way she's staring - as if she can see the whole ‘verse from there.
"Have you ever stared out at the stars, watched each one glitter?" She takes a breath. "The way from far away they seem so close together and yet, there's so much space between?"
Kaylee nods. She doesn't go up to the bridge much, but sometimes when Wash is silent - when the jokes let up and it's just space open and empty beyond - she knows that feeling.
"Sihnon is like that," Inara says. "Except you always know, no matter how close or how far the glimmering jewels seem, that it's like that because we made it that way."
Kaylee nods. Inara's looking at her and she doesn't know what to say or how to say it. There aren't the words, not in the language of dusty outer planets and greasy mechanisms for this - for this desire to want to make something that shines like that.
She's pretty sure she'd only mess it up anyway. That's not what she was made for, not even when Inara smiles and shines her eyes at her, drapes her shoulders in silk.
"It's beautiful," Inara says, finally. But there's something, a caveat and disclaimer waiting unsaid at the end of the sentence. Kaylee doesn't want to know what it is - wants to leave it glittering, sparkling like stars just out of reach, somewhere in the past and unstated.
"Why'd you leave?"
There's an awkward silence; Inara lights a candle and fingers the sheets on the edge of the bed. They're dark as spilled ink and when she sits the satin ripples like water.
"I should go," says Kaylee. "Serenity probably needs me - oil the engine or tune the gears. Ride's getting a mite bumpy."
Inara stands and her fingers are in Kaylee's hair again. "It's all right." There's no answer, but it's okay. Inara's very close, and she smells like vanilla and musk, essential oils and spices. Kaylee hopes she at least smells like soap at this distance rather than grease and grime and sweat.
"Not that you don't fit here, that we don't want you." Kaylee's speaking quickly, and she's sure something awful's going to come out. It's not that she means it, but she doesn't want to leave off on some awkward, improper thing so she keeps going, keeps talking about the ship and how they like her here. About how Mal doesn't mean any of it, at least the best she can tell.
But Inara's fingers are on her lips. "Serenity's fine," Inara says, and that's all she says.
"Come here," Inara says, pulling back at the tapestry that Kaylee always thinks looks like sunlight painted over with someone's earthbound imaginings of the sky.
Behind it rest the stars, bright white from a distance and glittering against empty black.
The sculpted silver around Inara's neck reflects the tiny specks of light, so immense and yet so far away. Kaylee wants to reach out and touch her, wants to step forth into the black of night, but the thought alone leaves her short of breath.
"Inara?"
Inara turns towards and Kaylee feels exposed - as if Inara can see through her with intuition. The silence sets Kaylee on edge - she's nervous, she's scared, she's leaning in and kissing Inara quick and chastely, but on her lips.
And Inara's fingers are soft on Kaylee's bare wrists, and Inara tastes like cinnamon and isn't pushing her away.
It's over in an instant. Kaylee steps backwards, halfway off-balance, and she smiles.
"You're beautiful, Kaylee," Inara says as she closes the curtains, covers the stars and their darkness in spun gold and color.
Kaylee's surprised to find that she believes her.