Note: Translations for the Chinese - Tianna, nî hâo mêi. = Oh God, you are so beautiful. Xièxie nî. = Thank you.

Mal awoke slowly. He tried to gather his thoughts, but they seemed to be just out of his grasp. Where was he? In his own bed, must be on Serenity then. OK. Was he alone? No, he could definitely feel a presence next to him, warm and pleasant, snuggled in close. Mal cracked open one eye, dark curls, Inara.

Now he remembered. She had been waiting for him in his quarters last night. He smiled, what a vision she had been. Tired of waiting for him to make the first move, she had taken it upon herself to do so. They had made love, then fallen asleep entwined in each others arms.

He pulled her closer with the memory, and lightly kissed the top of her head. She stirred, but did not awaken. Probably for the best, Mal needed time to think.

He realized that he had slept through the night, no nightmares. First time in, he didn’t know how long. And awaking next to a woman he loved, that was nice, too. But now what? He didn’t even want to start thinking about the future, even the not-so-distant future of this very morning.

He had finally told her that he loved her, and she him. But was that enough? No. There were just too many difficulties involved. He certainly couldn’t afford to support her. Hell, he needed her rent money just to get by. So she would have to continue working. And that was something he really didn’t want to think about.

It had been hard enough before. Loving her and then watching her go off to be with other men. His imagination always bothered him when she was gone and now that he had experienced her himself... The thought of her in another man’s arms was almost more than he could bear. She was his, gorram it....his.

“Mal....” Inara looked up at him. Lost in his thoughts, he had squeezed her a bit too tightly and woken her up. She reached up and gently cupped his cheek. “We’ll be OK, we’ll find a way.”

He looked down into her eyes, h