“I could just fall asleep right here.”

Inara slipped her comb through Kaylee’s thick hair and smiled. “Go ahead.”

“Nah. Got stuff ta do eventually.” Kaylee breathed deeply and let it out. “’Sides, if I was asleep, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy gettin’ all pretty like this.”

Inara laughed and gathered Kaylee’s hair into her hand so that she could comb the underside. Combing Kaylee’s hair was so… soothing. It was just as therapeutic… maybe more so… for Inara as it was for Kaylee. Inara tipped her head to the side and slid the comb through again.

Kaylee was holding something in her lap; Inara could just see it. It looked like a piece of paper, old and soft from handling, with deep creases cutting it in quarters. It had been folded and unfolded so many times that it looked to be held together by sheer will.

Kaylee folded it, then unfolded it again and looked down at it.

Inara lifted her hair up off of her neck and twisted it.

“You know my brother? Aeric?”

Inara smiled. “Of course. You’ve spoken of him before.”

“He was older than me. Four years.” Kaylee paused. Her head tipped toward the paper again. “Did you have any brothers?”

“I didn’t have the pleasure. I had one sister, but she was much older than I was.”

“Mmm.” Kaylee sighed. Her thumb slid along the edge of the paper. “I carried the biggest torch for his best friend. I mean, I guess that’s only natural, him bein’ over all the time. I was seven, the first time I met ‘im. He was ten. Year younger than Aeric. I thought for sure I was in love.”

Inara let Kaylee’s hair fall against her shoulders, heavy and glossy. She considered it for a moment, then decided on a complicated braid that had been popular back in her academy days.

“When Aeric turned 18, there was a call to settle a new moon—Titania. He left. Josh—that was his friend’s name, Josh—wasn’t of age yet, so his ma wouldn’t let ‘im leave. So he was stuck at home, just like me. We got to be real good friends.

“I thought I was in heaven, yanno?