Title: Defintion of Something Different

Summery: M/I nonesense

Rating: G

Disclaimer: Joss started it!

Author's note: For certain people who have been complaining about the lack of fic...

Definition of Something Different

Inara stepped into the near bare shuttle, taking a breath, taking it all in. Rays of light streamed in through the windows, lighting the dust in the air. Save for the bed and the chest she’d left behind, the shuttle was as empty as it had been the first time she’d seen it, and it provoked the same old feelings: wonder, anxiety, hope, and another, untouchable feeling she couldn’t name.

“Well, you gonna take it?” Mal asked, stepping inside behind her. He looked worn, but satisfied. They’d just take on cargo for the first time since Miranda, a small heard of goats. They’d been on an hour – not long enough, even, for Serenity to take flight – and already the whole ship smelled of droppings. Part of her recoiled. Part of her loved it.

Inara smiled. She was in a playful mood.

“I don’t know,” she told him. “It is smallish…”

He laughed. A free, open laugh she hadn’t heard in a long time. She couldn’t help joining him. She hadn’t said anything funny. It was just, they were free. They could be happy now. Inara was happy.

“Not overly,” Mal said when he recovered. “How much space you really need for what you do, anyway?”

She could do little more than shrug. “I have no idea,” she said. He raised an eyebrow. Elaborate. So, she did. “I have no idea what I’m doing.”

He tried to act casual, like this didn’t change a thing. “I thought you’d be back to, you know, the usual. That’s what we’re all trying to do, right? Get back to normal.”

She didn’t know what to tell him, not really. She wasn’t ready to talk with him about them yet. It wasn’t the time. If she brought it up now, he would accuse her of… well, she wasn’t sure what he’d say, but had a very good idea of what he’d feel. He’d resent her. Inara Serra, playing the noble and stepping away from her whoring because she didn