Title: New Leaf

Rating: PG-13 to be careful. Probably more on the PGish side.

Disclaimer: If you recognize them, they're not mine. They're Joss's.

Summary: Her heart says yes the moment he asks, tumbled in a heap at the bottom of the cockpit stairs, groaning before he fliply pops an interesting variation on “the question”. A stand-alone PC fic. Or perhaps a precursor to PC.

Author's Notes: Written for the Truthsome Ficathon on LJ. A stand-alone, but can also be considered the first (chronologically) PC fic.

Thanks: Kaynara, Kaynara, and, oh, Kaynara. Who listens to me whine about cuddling and freaking out and has read this about three times because I'm a freak. And also, because she's evil and got me hooked.

***

Her heart says yes the moment he asks, tumbled in a heap at the bottom of the cockpit stairs, groaning before he fliply pops an interesting variation on “the question”.

They’re fighting, as usual, and he’s trying to escape by claiming he has work to do. She doesn’t know how the fight started, but she can probably blame it on the secret she’s been carrying since her trip to the infirmary that morning.

“Wo de ma, Mal, I’m pregnant!” she cries mid-argument, chasing him onto the bridge, ignoring poor Wash who’s only trying to do his job.

Tumble.

Grunt.

Crash.

“So, ya gonna marry me?”

But it isn’t that simple, and he has to know that if she is to agree to anything. Hand pressed to the life, their child, growing inside her, she sighs.

“Mal…”

“I’m hopin’ that’s a yes, darlin’,” Mal says, picking himself off of the ground, blue eyes lit with something she barely recognizes. Fear? Hope? Somewhere in between?

“This is serious.”

“I’m ‘ware of that. ‘Was a serious question.”

Inara sinks into the now-empty pilot seat. Wash must have sneaked away when the yelling started.

“You okay?” he asks quickly, crouching beside her, checking her for any sign of injury or illness.

“We’re still fighting,” Inara says weakly, trying not to melt under his sweet ministrations.

“D