Chapter 1 and 2: http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=14567

Chapter 3: http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=14577

Chapter 4: http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=14593

Chapter 5: http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=14621

Chapter 6: http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=14721

*****

Chapter 7

Xing Bayou had sent Mal a nice jacket, saying that he “needed it to look respectable.” Mal like to think that he looked respectable enough, but he wasn’t going to say that to Xing.

He spent so time trying to remember how exactly he was supposed to tie that damn tie. He was feeling a little bit to arrogant to ask someone, but he was beginning to get desperate.

He did his best and went to the kitchen. Inara was standing there in a red dress that made Mal drool a little bit. “Damn,” he though to himself, “I wish I could afford to be one of her clients.”

Inara turned and looked up to him and laughed a little bit. “Mal,” she said, shaking her head. She quickly, gracefully, moved across the floor and retied his tie.

“Are you ready to go?”

“Yes.” She looked at him. “Are you?”

Mal nodded and he opened the door to the hallway, gesturing, exaggeratedly, that Inara walk in front of him. Mal offered her his arm and she took it. Whether it was affection or simply procedure, Mal didn’t really care. He was too enamored to say something witty.

When they got down to the cargo bay Mal looked briefly in the window of the medical bay. He saw Kaylee and Simon looking, well, the way that a young couple should look. Mal resisted the urge to shout, “please, not on the clean equipment.” But he decided to let them have their fun.

When they reached the ground, Mal looked at Inara and worked up the balls to say what he’d been thinking in the kitchen. “You look incredible.”

Inara looked up at him and tilted her head a little bit, as though questioning her own ears slightly. “Thank you, Mal. You look good, too.”

“You think so, I’m thinking that I should dress nice more often