When she opened the door to her shuttle, she knew the charade was finally over.

He looked through her with those clear blue eyes and simply arched a brow, waiting for her to step aside and allow him entrance. She set her jaw, thinking to deny him, before remembering the most basic of lesson of Companion training: hospitality to one's peers.

She stepped aside, allowing Jayne to enter.

He wore what she considered his battle fatigues: a threadbare garish yellow t-shirt, stained from she didn't want to know what, worn khaki pants with a knife tucked in the back, and boots layered with dust from a dozen moons.

He sat on the couch, low to the ground and couldn’t have looked more comfortable. It was a stark contrast from his demeanor the only other time he’d been in her shuttle; when Serenity had died and they were sure to die. Even then, he hadn’t slipped.

Not once.

Standing before him, she waited. So did he.

It was a game they had played, all those years ago, trying one another’s patience until one of them broke. She had been good. He had been better.

"I didn't think you remembered."

He smiled, quick and easy and it struck her how little he did that out here, in the black. "You don't forget the first, Inara."

"Could have fooled me."

"Have you forgotten Eli?" The back berth accent was gone, reminding her what a powerful weapon his voice could be.

Her heart skipped a beat, "How did you know? You were long gone by that time."

"I tried to keep track, for a while." He shrugged, his eyes roaming deliberately around the room, "But the 'Verse is a large place and..."

Her expression hardened, "And what, Jayne?"

"And I didn't find out until it was too late. I would have..."

"Would have what?" She shot back, "Appeared out of nowhere and stolen the information before I had? And where would that have left you?"

"Roamin' the black, like the rogue I am?" His voice dipped back into a rough drawl, the smile lingering a few more seconds before fading away. "You h