Hideous Ties and Respectful Folk - Firefly (Mal/Inara)
Title: Hideous Ties and Respectful Folk
Pairing: Slight Mal/Inara
Rating: pg
Summary: Done for a comment_fic prompt. Mal contemplates a piece of hideous clothing and his thoughts on Companions.
He glared at the tie laid out on his bunk. He'd rather face a ship of Reavers than loop that scrap of material around his neck, but Inara had insisted. He grasped it with two fingers, holding it up disdainfully for inspection. It wasn't even a nice tie; it was ugly. The colors and patterns were hideous.
Not showing up properly dressed would be taken as a purposeful insult and could cause more than just some ruffled feathers. It could place the opportunity to score a job with these folk in danger. Not only that, but it could place his, Inara's and the lives of the rest of his crew in danger, if he refused to wear a tie. On this planet, respectful folk wore ties and in their way of thinking, if you didn't wear a tie, you weren't respectful.
He loosely tied the knot and tugged his jacket on, then checked his concealed weapon. No weapons, another point Inara had been insistent upon, but unlike the tie, he wasn't going to cave on that for anyone.
It wasn't just the tie what was chaffing him. Inara would be at his side, but as far as these folk knew, she would be at his side because he had hired her and her services of a Companion. He growled slightly as he looked at himself in the mirror. Respectful folks didn't go around purchasing the wares of whores, at least not according to his code. The world at large could dress up what a Companion was all it wanted to, the rest of the world could fool itself into legitimizing such blatant disrespect of a person's body all it wanted, but not him.
It wasn't that he was inflexible- he considered her part of his crew and he knew you couldn't always fight city hall. Her presence on the Serenity had gotten them out of more than a few scrapes. Her position as a Companion had made folks not look to deeply at the Serenity which came in handy.
Didn't mean he had to personally like what she did though. Nor did it mean he had to like this tie, but the needs of his crew always came first and they needed this gig.
Pairing: Slight Mal/Inara
Rating: pg
Summary: Done for a comment_fic prompt. Mal contemplates a piece of hideous clothing and his thoughts on Companions.
He glared at the tie laid out on his bunk. He'd rather face a ship of Reavers than loop that scrap of material around his neck, but Inara had insisted. He grasped it with two fingers, holding it up disdainfully for inspection. It wasn't even a nice tie; it was ugly. The colors and patterns were hideous.
Not showing up properly dressed would be taken as a purposeful insult and could cause more than just some ruffled feathers. It could place the opportunity to score a job with these folk in danger. Not only that, but it could place his, Inara's and the lives of the rest of his crew in danger, if he refused to wear a tie. On this planet, respectful folk wore ties and in their way of thinking, if you didn't wear a tie, you weren't respectful.
He loosely tied the knot and tugged his jacket on, then checked his concealed weapon. No weapons, another point Inara had been insistent upon, but unlike the tie, he wasn't going to cave on that for anyone.
It wasn't just the tie what was chaffing him. Inara would be at his side, but as far as these folk knew, she would be at his side because he had hired her and her services of a Companion. He growled slightly as he looked at himself in the mirror. Respectful folks didn't go around purchasing the wares of whores, at least not according to his code. The world at large could dress up what a Companion was all it wanted to, the rest of the world could fool itself into legitimizing such blatant disrespect of a person's body all it wanted, but not him.
It wasn't that he was inflexible- he considered her part of his crew and he knew you couldn't always fight city hall. Her presence on the Serenity had gotten them out of more than a few scrapes. Her position as a Companion had made folks not look to deeply at the Serenity which came in handy.
Didn't mean he had to personally like what she did though. Nor did it mean he had to like this tie, but the needs of his crew always came first and they needed this gig.