Word Count: 5453

Rating: PG-13

Spoilers: Takes place post BDM

Pairing/Characters: Mal/Inara

A/N: Special thanks to my co-author anjulie for writing this with me and making things work when I couldn't do it myself! You rock! *G*

Title: A New Beginning – Part 5 – Sushi!Fic

By: anjulie & 2x2

Mal grunted and pulled Inara tighter against his side with one arm as he draped the other over his eyes, masking a sigh with a yawn.

“Xù shù. You’ve been distracted since the moment you walked in the door,” she coaxed.

He sighed heavily. “Been ponderin’,” he said, eyes still hidden and voice rough. “Conjure it might be time we moved back to Serenity full time.”

Inara’s eyes widened. “What?” she exclaimed, lifting off him in shock. "Mal!” She tugged his arm off his face but he turned his head away, avoiding her gaze.

“Getting’ too comfortable here, ‘Nara. Complacent-like.”

“Comfortable? I thought that was the point!” she said, confused. “This is a safe place for us, for Alley to grow u—“

“Ain’t nothin’ wrong with growin’ up shipboard,” he cut in, voice harsh and she blinked in surprise. “Told Abel as much, too.”

“Mal, shenme shi?” she asked, attempting to stay calm. She knew him well enough to know his anger wasn’t really directed at her, and that this wasn’t the real issue, that there was more to it. Ren ci do Fo Zu getting anything out of him when he was in one of these moods was nearly impossible. “What happened today with Abel?”

“Nothin’ happened—“

“Hú shuō!” she said, her own voice taking on an edge. “‘Nothing’ didn’t make you suddenly want to run back to Serenity.”

He looked at her sharply, jaw set, and she waited for the heated retort, but it didn’t come. Instead, the anger seemed to drain out of him as he met her sympathetic stare and he sighed again, tugging her back against his side.

She went easily, her head coming to rest over his heart, and she listened to the unusually fast, unsteady beat beneath her ear, stroking ge