Tentative repost, second attempt.

This one was inspired by the works of Thomas Zhang (Steamed) GillianRose (Coming Clean) Alliase (Steam Clean) and 2x2 (It was a Dark and Steamy Night). Pure Mal Inara snark and fluff, mostly friendship, but with hints of romantic interest. You know, like them when they're not fighting.

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The warm droplets hissed against the marble tiles and ankle deep water, raining down from the elegant wooden trellis overhead. The bath salts dissolved in a swirl as she poured them, sprinkled from the ladle set aside on the steps around the pool.

Inara leaned back into the spray and wrapped her arms around herself, tilting her head back to look up, through the atrium at the evening sky. She closed her eyes, dark as the night themselves, and let herself feel it all: the steam, the massage of the water over her body, the jasmine fragrance beginning to fill the air. The sadly sweet music of the érhù piped over the sound system shifted in response to the chemosensors. A contented sigh left her as the tension washed away.

Here, she didn’t have to think of the idiot captain, as she privately called him, sometimes affectionately, and sometimes not so affectionately. About his near heart attack when he found out how much she was paying for their rooms. And the way he kept eyeing the guests, staff, and decorations like they were about to attack him. Or how he fought with the bellboys over their luggage… Her luggage in particular.

A door opened, and closed, and she stopped to listen. “Hello?” No response, but she couldn’t bring herself to care yet. She raised her hands, lifted her drenched black tresses from her neck, a soothing stream running down her shoulders and back.

But slowly, the quiet built into a sense of unease. This was Persephone, and although a nicer part of the world, they weren’t without enemies here. Dripping, she stepped out of the pool, reaching for the robe she’d hung off one of the posts, wrap