Another LiveJournal challenge refugee from way back when. I wrote this in the space of about four minutes on no sleep, but I dug it out of my computer archives to share it with you lucky folks. I own nothing, and remember, feedback is shiny.

Free

"Don't worry, baby," Kaylee soothed, her voice muffled. She sat perched on the upper catwalk rail, heavily gloved hands buried in the ship's innards. "I ain't gonna listen to that smarty-pants fool."

A shower of sparks punctuated her statement, raining down from the paneling to the catwalk and through the grating. Protected by her welding mask, Kaylee's face was set aglow by the backsplash from the flame jet.

"Ruttin' son of a… thinks he knows everything," she grumbled, easing up on the handle. The flame vanished.

"Anyone I know?"

Kaylee didn't look up as her captain addressed her from the hall. "That jerk at the fueling station just now. Called Serenity a hunk of luh suh."

She could practically feel Mal's bemused smile below her. The dry leather of his gunbelt squeaked softly as he approached, sliding his hands onto her hips to steady her on the rail. "That's what's got you cussin' out whatever's in that panel you're playing with?"

Now she glanced down at him. "You wanna call this 'playing,' you can march yourself right back onto that bridge and wait for me to give the word to run pre-ignition again."

"Hey, easy, girl. You wanna be pissed, you go right ahead. But I ain't leaving you here alone to take a header off this rail," he told her.

In reply, she extracted the lighting flint from her back pocket and snapped it in front of the blowtorch as she opened the jet. She was rewarded with a spark and a whoosh of welding flame, and set to work inside the panel again. "Sorry. He just worked me up a little is all."

"Apparently." Mal blinked as a fresh onslaught of sparks flew from the opening, threatening to alight in his hair or clothes and set him ablaze. "That all he said?"

She wrapped her legs around him and sighed, a touch of