Something New
Sunday, October 9, 2005
Post-Serenity (BDM) story. Inara has to deal with change.
CATEGORY: FICTION TIMES READ: 4706 RATING: 9.0 (PG) SERIES: FIREFLY
Spoilers for the movie!
Sometimes at ff_friday they issue a re-challenge: to pick a previous assigment you hadn't gotten to before. This is a longer-than-the-rules-there- allow response to the 2nd challenge: A first kiss.
Inara has to deal with a new version of Mal. Rated PG.
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"Something New"
by HawkMoth (10/8/2005)
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What was that?
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They couldn't risk re-entry into Persephone's atmo with the primary buffer panel gone again, so Mal instructed River to set course for the closest outbound fueling station. Serenity should be safer there and in space, they could hope, rather than back on the very ground the Operative might yet be prowling.
He sought Inara out straight off and told her the detour might set them back several days from delivering her to the Training House. And judging by the look on his face, her softly-spoken, "I don't mind" had been another good answer.
It was mostly true, although she hadn't quite reacquired her bearings, still feeling unanchored despite the sense that she had come back home. With Kaylee's help, her shuttle was slightly more habitable, if only a little less austere than one of the passenger rooms, with the aid of some of the "sundries" unearthed from the trunk she'd left behind.
But that night, as Serenity wove carefully through the black toward safe harbor, sleep eluded Inara, despite the comfort of a soft pillow, candlelight and lavender incense. An hour of meditation was of no help either, and in the end she gave up, wrapped a shawl around her shoulders and headed for the galley.
It wasn't a surprise to find Mal there, sitting half in shadow away from the soft glow of the table-lamp, although she tried to convince herself she hadn't been hoping he would be. He seemed just as unperturbed by her arrival, pushing out the chair near to his at the end of the table, with his foot, in wordless invitation.
"You all right?" he asked as she sat down
"Yes," she replied. "I was just feeling a little..."
"Unsettled?" he fi
You can't take the sky from me
Lovely, thankyou
RubyMoss
X
It's beautifully written and my inner shipper is doing a happydance!
Thanks for posting!
I love fanfic that makes me smile and tingle. So very sweet. Please write more and more and more.
Terimaru
Let me start by saying that although I enjoy and love all the characters and the 'verse of Firefly, it is certianly the two characters of Mal and Inara that litteraly bind my soul.
That being said, I would like to offer some constructive critisim of this piece. Please don't take this as anything other. Or you can also simply take this as a differing opinion upon the inner workings of these two characters.
I have recently posted some of my thoughts upon Mal and Inara in a thread called "Mal and Religion" in the general discussion area of this site. So I won't repeat it here, other than to mention it if you or anyone else wants to look it up and read what I had to say.
That being said, I haven't read a whole lot of fan fiction yet, but something tells me that a lot of fan fiction that revolves around Mal and Inara probably follows something along the lines of what you have written here.
Let me state that I beleive it to be well written and I even enjoyed it, and there were even a couple of lines that I loved. Like Mal telling Inara not to faint..
Great line! However, where my own opinion disagrees is that I see Mal and Inara's relationship, or their draw to one another, is born of pain. We all know that Mal is a bitter and angry man. His soul died, or at least he no longer continuted to learn and grow or live starting right at the very moment he realized that the indepdants gave up and abaonded them there at Serenity Vally. The man that Mal would become died, and still remains, at that place. And it is Inara that will be the one that will bring him back to life. She will saturate his soul and take all that pain and anger and bitterness from him and turn it into pleasure. And that is what Inara sees glimpses of in Mal and what draws her to him like an irresistable force. She sees a soul that truely needs her, and loves her, Inara the woman.. not Inara the companion. That's putting it briefly. I go into more detail in that thread I mentioned.
Anyway.. IMHO, It seems like you have reduced their attraction, need, and love of each other into a very sterotypical "flowery" romance that you might see in umpteen million women's romance novels ever written. IMO.. their need and love of each other is born of pain. It's much more likely that it will be tradgedy... beautiful tradgedy.. but tradgedy none-the-less that will ultimatly show each other their true colors. And in this tradgedy, their true feelings towards one another will show that will bring them together. I realize you may have simply wanted to do something short and just get ot the point.. Mal and Inara kissing.
But it's too "cute", which is NOT Mal and Inara. I could almost see swictching out Mal and Inara in this story for Simon and Kaylee by just changing a few details.. and it would make more sense. I don't see Mal reciting poetry to finally swoon Inara into a first kiss. I would more likely buy seeing Mal reciting poety at some future point after they are already "together" as a way to show that she is bringing him back to life. And she is taking the pain and anger from him, thus he is becomming less "dark". And I could buy him doing such alter as a way to suprise her. For him to do something like that, something she would never have expected, could make her realize that he is STILL a mystery.. and one that she will never tire of until she figures out every last piece of his soul.. She has to know and she won't stop exploring him until she does.. even if it takes the rest of their lives. I could buy it as something like that, but I don't buy it as a way to bring them to there first kiss.
Again.. just some constructive critisim.. and a differing of opinion.
Smaug..
Thank you for posting your take on this story. It's simply a one-shot idea that came with sudden inspiration and admittedly developed into something light and perhaps a bit too sweet. As they say on the internet, YMMV.
But it's by no means my only take on Mal and Inara. I've tackled their relationship from a much more serious angle, as well as "Mal and religion," in other stories. I've also written things that do allow them to have some "sweet" moments at more appropriate times in an AU more advanced relationship.
Anyway, I couldn't ignore the lovely (and funny) movie-canon notion that Mal's "read a poem." And other people keep mentioning the "try not to faint" line, which of course I stole from Joss.
~~HawkMoth
I didn't think this was too sweet at all. They've just been through a life-altering experience. They have both had their eyes opened to the fact that life is short and some of their previous behavior has caused them to waste precious, precious time.
As to the poetry, perhaps it doesn't seem so far fetched to me because I go to storytelling festivals and hear cowboy poetry. Believe me, hearing Mal's rusty start to a poem he's recalling is no stretch when you see these rough men on stage reciting poetry that will bring tears to your eyes.
Helps take some of the sting out of thinking maybe we've had our last with the BDM...
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