He could smell her. Inara. That scent could drive him mad...

Mal felt his eyes flutter open. He was expecting to see the curved ceiling of his bunk, but instead saw stone. Concrete to be exact.

“Sir,” shouted Zoe in the distance, “Wake up! We got Alliance bombing!”

Mal shot up and looked in his lap. His rifle from the war was laid against his old uniform. “Gou shi...” He propped himself up and looked over the put together fort. Soldiers were running about, ducking for cover. Low whistles of bombs could be heard in the distance and were growing louder. Zoe was running as fast as she could but tripped over concrete and fell. Not taking any risks, she crawled towards the nearest makeshift shelter, shouting, “I’ll get back to you later, sir!”

“Just protect yourself, Zoe,” he shouted back. He got ready to crawl further into the makeshift fort when he saw it. A flash of red. That scent. He looked back up and there she was. Inara. Standing as poised as ever, looking at the sky. She turned to Mal, tears in her eyes. Mal felt his heart speed up. He knew in his head that it would be dangerous to jump out and grab her, but his head wasn’t ruling his body right now.

Mal climbed over the wall, gun in hand and ran to Inara. He reached out for her hand. “C’mon, we have to get to safety!”

“Find a safe place and brace ourselves,” she muttered as she looked to the sky again. She looked at Mal’s hand and ran her fingers across it before grabbing it and practically digging her nails into his skin. Mal ignored the pain as he pulled her back towards the fort and pulled her down in there. He pulled his rifle close to him as Inara curled into a little ball. “Some secrets weren't meant to be told...”

Mal groaned as he pushed aside his rifle and moved himself in front of Inara. “Well, you picked a good time to start actin’ like the girl.”

Inara’s eyes flashed as she looked at Mal. “What is wrong with you?”

“Me?! You were the one standing in the middle of a gorram war zone!”

Inara kept on talking thou