“Why the hell did I marry you?” Freya shouted over her shoulder as she stepped down into the galley.

“No idea,” Mal called back, heading for the bridge. “Oh, yeah. ‘Cause no-one else was stupid enough to ask you!”

Freya opened her mouth to retaliate, but instead strode to the counter, picked up a mug and hurled it across the room. Unfortunately it wasn't metal, but one of the few bits of china they had, and it shattered into fragments against the wall. For a long moment she just stared at the pieces, then crossed the dining area and started to pick up the shards.

“Mal getting to you again?” Zoe asked, not having moved from her seat.

“That man is such a sha gua chun zi , a qiang bao hou zi de hun dan … as well as being a ching-wah tsao duh liou !”

“Freya?”

“What?”

“Why don’t you say what you really think?”

Freya glared at her, then she smiled ruefully. “Sorry,” she said. “It’s just … sometimes …”

“I used to fight with Wash like that,” Zoe admitted, sitting back in her chair. “Just throwing insults at each other until neither of us had any breath left. Then he’d storm off to the bridge and I’d break something.”

“Very similar,” Freya agreed, picking up another piece of mug. “What were you fighting about?”

“Nothing much.” Serenity’s first mate sighed. “Just fighting. When you’re married, there’s no real need for a reason.”

“I’ve found that out.” Freya sat back on her heels. “How can he do that?”

“Do what?”

“Wind me up so tightly that I bust?”

“Is that what you’ve done?”

“I don’t know what I've done!” Her hand closed tightly over a piece of china, and suddenly she realised blood was seeping between her fingers. “ Tzao gao ,” she breathed, lifting her arm. Red liquid dripped to the floor.

“Uh oh,” Zoe said, out of her seat in a moment. “Better get that looked at.” She grabbed a tea cloth and wrapped Freya’s hand in it.

“It’s fine.”

“You’re bleeding.”

“It’ll stop.”

“Humour me.”

---

“I gather all is not well in