Flee
The morning had dawned, such as it was in the middle of space, and Mal felt no better for having slept on his thoughts of the previous night. Matter of fact, he was fair certain that he felt worse. Needless to say, Serenity’s captain was a might tetchy come evening chow time, and the crew eyed him warily, scattering to their respective bunks or hiding places as quickly as was possible.
Only Kaylee seemed not to notice, Mal noted with irony. She poked her food round her plate all distracted like and generally pretended not to notice him. Or at least he figured she was pretending. Cautiously, Mal cleared his throat. Kaylee lifted her puppy-like brown eyes to him, raising her eyebrows in question.
“Er, Kaylee,” Mal began, his speech slightly stilted, “What’s wrong, mei mei? Seems something’s botherin’ you and I wouldn’t mind knowin’ what in this ‘Verse could make the cheeriest gal I know all sad like.”
Kaylee smiled what Mal interpreted as a sad smile. In truth, she just didn’t want to show him the elation that his concern brought to the forefront. Gingerly, she tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear and self-consciously wiped at a grease stain she was certain was on her face at this very moment.
“Well Cap’n, nothin’s really wrong. Just not feelin’ so shiny as usual is all,” she brushed away his concern, but Mal was far from convinced.
He beckoned her to move down the table towards him. After all, they were the only two left seeing as how the rest of the crew had headed for the proverbial hills as soon as they could following their meal. Kaylee obliged, shuffling down towards him, every step heavy as she wished that she could just have a repeat of the previous night where she had found herself locked in his very enjoyable embrace. Mal extended an arm to wrap around her as she settled in the spot nearest him.
“Now mei mei,” he continued, “What is it that’s got you pushin’ your protein round your plate like that, starin’ out into the black all moon brained?”
She longed to tell him. Every fibre of her ached to let him know what she had felt the night before, how she had nestled happily into the warmth of his touch. How he had made her feel safe and loved and…and needed. How she desperately wanted to feel that again, to take solace in his arms. But even as the young girl opened her mouth to speak, she knew that it was something she could never tell him. It would stay locked inside her for those days when she needed such a happy thought.
His arm draped around Kaylee, Mal was fighting with himself to hold her close again. She seemed so quiet, so sad. And yet it was more than that. He could feel a heat rising from her that he hadn’t felt in a terrible long time from a woman. He found himself breathing in the scent of her hair, and though it smelled much like engine grease, he still found it somewhat intoxicating. In a good way, he thought, not the engine-distilled kind of intoxicating.
Kaylee began to look up at her captain, scrabbling in her mind for a decent answer to why she seemed upset. As she looked up at him, Mal found himself face to face with her and for a split second all reason flew out the hatch. Consumed by his desires, Mal acted purely out of instinct and gently pressed his lips to hers in a soft kiss.
Kaylee felt herself melting into him. She had hardly expected to find herself in a liplock with her captain, but nonetheless, she found herself enjoying it. She felt her stomach churning in a most delightful way, not to mention a stirring in her nethers. And then it was gone, and she was looking him in the eye. He was giving her a most bewildered look as if he wasn’t quite certain what had just happened here. Unhinged from any amount of certainty she might have had herself about what was going on here, Kaylee backed away from Mal as if in a trance and fled to the engine room, flopping into her hammock to attempt to mull things over.
Mal, who had felt some twitching in the nether area himself, was dumbfounded with his own actions, and just sat there with a shocked expression on his face. One second he had been in utter bliss, and then she had run away on him, leaving him there to…well, he wasn’t certain what he ought to be doing just now actually, but he was certain that he’d better wipe the dumb look off his face before he started doing it.