Mal trod down the three small steps into the dining room and surveyed the group quietly. So far, it was just Jayne and Zoë. Inara tended to sleep through the days so she could stay up nights with Kaylee. Kaylee was on her way up from the engine room, complaining about second-rate copper valves. Hawk, their new pilot, was on the bridge attending to some kind of ‘piloting emergency.’ Hawk’s absence suited Jayne just fine – the man was sly and ever since he came aboard, he’d been mercilessly flirtatious around Jayne. Zoë had never realized how homophobic Jayne could be, and it was funny as hell, because she knew Hawk wasn’t really interested and only did it to torment him. Jayne would figure it out sooner or later, but until he did, they always had a good laugh about it behind his back. And to his face.

“We’re headed for Perth,” Mal stated, deciding to start without Kaylee. Zoë sat up straighter and listened to the spiel. Jayne slurped loudly through a bowl of noodles in broth that smelled more like disinfectant than food. About half way through the Captain’s briefing, Kaylee wandered in, surveyed the room with half-dead eyes, and then sat on Zoë’s lap, and leaned on her shoulder. Kaylee always cuddled up to someone these days. No one minded. They accepted it as a toll for her present-mindedness. She listened, she conversed, she ate, she even laughed. Her time was strictly rationed - hours of mirth, hours of anguish, and hours of listless wandering.

Zoë shifted a little, wrapping her arms around Kaylee to secure their balance. The dining room chairs weren’t ideal for cuddling. Zoë glanced across the table and smirked as she caught a jealous sneer on Jayne’s face. The merc grumbled about Kaylee’s neediness, but he was always jealous when she didn’t choose him to nestle up to. Captain got jealous, too. Though she never admitted it to anyone, it helped Zoë tremendously to have Kaylee snuggle up to her and draw comfort from her mere presence. She’d grown so tired of the piteous glances she’d received after Wash