A/N: My first post here... I hope y'all like it! Thanks to LJC and Ying for the Mandarin dialogue help. I've probably still got stuff wrong... if anyone catches anything, please let me know.

Gift Horse

Kaylee was certain that her smile was in danger of actually splitting her face in two. She loved birthdays, and though her daddy probably would’ve blushed to know he’d raised such a selfish child, she had to admit that she loved her own birthday the best. She’d been lucky this time around, too—presents and parties aboard Serenity were always something of a crapshoot, but they’d cleared a tidy profit on a job a few weeks back, which meant that the table in front of her was littered with presents and she had the remains of a fine breakfast in her belly.

She let her eyes drift over her treasures, drawing out the moment as long as possible. Even though it was first thing in the morning, they’d already eaten most of the cake, made with real chocolate and flour and eggs that Kaylee was sure Shepherd Book must have had to go to God Himself to find. There was a new automatic wrench from Zoë and Wash, self-adjusting and self-rotating; there was a whole box of only-slightly-used spare parts from Mal, because he knew there was no challenge in brand new ones; Jayne had cleaned, oiled, polished, and sharpened all her tools; River had given her a detailed and lifelike drawing of Serenity just firing up, rolled up and tied with a lacy purple hair ribbon; Inara’s present was more of a promise, the prospect of a shopping trip for a fine new dress the next time they docked on a proper planet.

That just left Simon’s gift, a carefully, colorfully wrapped box that she had saved till last on purpose. Through her eyelashes, she looked at him across the table, basking in the light in his eyes and the grin on his face. He did that more often now—finally, after months aboard Serenity, he actually seemed to be loosening up a bit—and every time he did it, she had to think that