A/N: Hi all! This is a fic that's been collecting dust on my hard drive for a while now, so I thought I'd share.

There are five chapters total, all written so it will probably all be posted within a week! Enjoy!

River’s face was glowing, lit from below by the bright candles. Her smile was more radiant than Simon could remember seeing in a long while and he returned the wide grin as the rest of the crew finished their off-key rendition of “The Birthday Song.”

As it wound to an end Kaylee, sitting at Simon’s side and holding his hand tightly, told the younger woman, “C’mon River, blow out the candles an’ make a wish.”

With an even bigger grin and a devilish twinkle in her wide, brown eyes, River pulled her hair back and bent her mouth close to the small flames. Closing her eyes for a moment, the crew watched in anticipation as her lips moved silently, obviously reciting some kind of want for her eighteenth year, before she puffed out a big breath, dimming all of the ten candles at once.

“Good job, lil’ one,” Mal nodded approvingly. “’Course if’n you’d had eighteen candles, I ain’t so sure you could it done it with just one breath.”

“Oh, I don’t know Captain,” Simon drawled, his eyes dancing as his sister shot him a look, fully aware of what he would say. “She is full of hot air.”

More laughter echoed through the room, as Kaylee moved to River’s side and helped her dish out pieces of the protein-based cake. It was fairly similar to the one she had baked for Simon all those months ago, except that the frosting was just a bit more chocolately-tasting on account of a recent stop on Persephone.

Easy banter encompassed them all, but it was Kaylee’s next question and River’s subsequent answer that brought the conversation to a halt. “So, sweetie,” Kaylee asked innocently, licking her fingers of the excess frosting and moving back to Simon’s side. “What’d ya wish for?”

Raising her gaze from her p