Title: Stocking Up

Author: hisgoodgirl

Disclaimer: All belongs to Joss. I got nada but imagination.

Rating: NC-17; Het with a hint of slash.

Setting: Post BDM

Pairings: Jayne/Kaylee, Mal/Simon

Words: 1850

A/N: A little one-shot serving of wassail fluff written for the Christmas / New Year’s prompt at the LiveJournal FireflyHolidays Comm. Hover for translations. Whatever holiday you celebrate, may it be joyful!

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Stocking Up

Vestigial or not, the Terran solar year and the calendar it had spawned was one of the remnants of the culture of Earth That Was that traveled with settlers out into the Black. The various settled worlds reflected the huge diversity of religions, beliefs and holidays that the ancestors of those first settlers had followed, making for no small amount of confusion but a wealth of opportunities for celebration and gift giving.

Since members of Serenity’s crew celebrated several different holidays toward the end of December, the result tended to be a raggle-taggle two-week period of gift giving and fancy cooking, as could be accomplished with whatever resources were available. Mal had originally opposed such foolery by his crew, only to find himself ignored and over-ridden. “Pick your battles,” his Ma’d always told him, so he’d relented over this one.

Cashy money being tight, most gifts tended to be of the homemade variety, and December found the crew member’s frequently sequestered in their quarters or other private places on the ship, working on secret “projects”.

Much of the decorating seemed to be driven by River and Kaylee, since Inara had returned to her teaching position at the Training House and Zoë hadn’t felt much inclined since Wash’s death the year before. While Mal wasn’t keen on seeing his ship all floozied-up with tinsel and such, he had to admit it was amazing what the girls managed to accomplish with a year’s worth of saved-up colored paper, ti