Title : Stolen Moments (1/1)

Disclaimer : In here you will find sunlight and happiness. Therefore, I am not Joss, and do not own Firefly .

Pairing : Mal/Inara

Word Count : 1, 531

**

His thumb traces over her back, dipping into the crevice of her spine. Sun drifts in from the shuttle’s cockpit, creeping closer to the corner of the bed. It’s strange for him, being planetside, but Inara’s soft breathing tells him she finds it soothing.

He continues tracing the column of her spine. She’s all white, soft skin, Inara. Like a sheet, a freshly laundered sheet, kind that you don’t want to lie in or else it’ll get messed up. He grins, glad she can’t read his thoughts.

Her sheets are red (he doesn’t like to dwell too long on that, thoughts go other places, not so good places), and covering her buttocks. Which is disappointing. Not quite high enough to cover the mole, though. The tiny brown thing just over her right buttock. She calls it a beauty mark (no different from a mole in Mal’s mind, but he’s careful not to share that with her after that first time). He traces it with his fingers, liking that part of her, had liked it from the moment he’d discovered it.

Inara’s hands are curled up under her chin, pressed together like she’s saying a prayer. Her nails are peach coloured, the paint starting to chip at the edges. Her hair splays down along her shoulders and back.

He swears he sees a smile beginning to curl at her mouth. It gives him leave to bend down and kiss the back of her neck. She likes when he does that, and she’s smiling in earnest now, hands unfolding, body stretching out as he moves from neck to cheek to chin.

It’s all going along well until she plants two hands on his chest and pushes him backwards. “Morning breath,” she explains, completely serious, like she hasn’t just taken out his ego and stomped all over it.

She always knows what to say, his Inara.

“Yeah? So?” he moves back again, and she doesn’t protest. There’s some disapproving g