We all know Joss Whedon is a genius. This time let's hear it for the amazing cast of his glorious show.

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CHECK MATE: Deep Blue.

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There are the moments before when he floats, weightless on the edge of the precipice. Pure spirit. With no past, only future. An infinite, inviting future studded with brillant stars. He hardly dares breathe, for in this glorious, painful state of anticipation, the slightest inhalation makes the crackling energy smouldering at his every nerve ending burst into searing heat.

He waits. Balanced, yet ready to fall.

And then her mouth is on him. Hot, greedy. Sucking, pushing, pulling, devouring. Her tongue swivels and slicks, hard and yielding by turns.

He tries to keep it all in. Resist the reflex to arch and thrust. Tries to just be. Let himself be in the now.

His hands clench against the sheets.

And then he is falling, heavy as a stone, plummeting into her. With her. Through time and space and beyond. Without and within everything is rushing. He can't breathe fast enough, move quickly enough, get deep enough.

A shudder and he bursts. Heat and light exploding into a 'verse of his own creation, filled with galaxies of new stars, each orbited by perfect worlds where no desire goes unfulfilled, no dream unrealized. Pleasure so intense he loses himself in it.

The coming back is a sadness but she smiles at him and he knows he is safe. He twists a dark curl around his finger.

“I thought I'd lost you. I didn't think you'd come back to me.”

“I will always come back to you. You're on my crew. And in my heart. I could never leave you.”

“Promise?”

“Cross my heart and hope to die.”

... It's only a dream. But an undeniably shiny one. Mal stretches out luxuriously in his bed. He crosses his arms behind his head and smiles to himself.

Yup. It's gonna be a real good day.

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“You wait here – keep a look out,” Mal says suddenly and before Zoe can ask why, he dives into a store. Her eyes slide up and down the street, looki