Disclaimer: These characters aren’t mine, so don’t sue. I’m a poor college student. I ain’t worth your time. Long live the Browncoats!

Independence Part 2

As the sun peaked through the drapes early on Friday morning, its rays hit Mal directly in the face. After a few seconds, Mal began to moan and complain, still half-asleep. He turned his face into the pillow, hoping to hide from the sun. His sudden movement did not go unnoticed by his bed-mate, Zoë. She woke, not quite with a start, but close to it. She rolled over onto her other side and saw Mal, face into the pillow, looking like he was fighting the inevitable dawn of a new day. She smiled to herself, trying to burn this semi-peaceful, semi-funny moment into her memory before she had to wake him up.

They were in Mal’s quarters at the Independent Garrison. She was still getting used to waking up with Mal every morning. They had let each other know their true feelings a little more than a week ago. They had slept side by side in the trenches on several planets, but the waking in the same bed as each other was still strange to her. Zoë looked at the clock on the far wall. It read 0636, local time. They both had to muster their troops at 0800, so they had to start getting ready. With a devilish glint in her eye, Zoë began lightly pushing Mal towards the edge of the bed. He rolled closer and closer, seemingly unaware of what she was doing. In reality, he was awake as soon as she touched him. When he realized what she was doing, he decided to play along.

He was nearly over the edge; one last push would send him over on to the floor in an ungracious flop. As he went over, Mal showed he was awake and grabbed onto her, pulling her off the bed as well. He landed first on his back, Zoë landing on top of him. Mal groaned with the sudden impact of Zoë, but laughed anyways. Zoë was giggling as well, looking at Mal with love. She leaned down and kissed him sweetly, before getting up off the floor. She went over to her pile of clothes from the previous night, get