Title: It Doesn't Matter

Author: Laura

Characters: Mal/Inara

Distribution: Any, just ask please?

Rating: G

Summary: Inara is leaving. Zoe has an opinion.

Disclaimer: Joss is god. None of this is mine. I wish. Don't sue, I'm a poor uni student.

Lyrics: It Doesn't Matter by Alison Krauss & Union Station

Word Count: 952 words, including the lyrics

Author's Note: I don't know what to do about this one. I was listening to Alison Krauss and it was a plot bunny that entered into my head. It's my first Mal/Inara fic. Actually, it's my first Firefly fic I've ever written, full stop. As it is, it's standalone. But, I have ideas in my head. Might make it part of a series. Much love to my beta. Be gentle. I crave feedback.

It doesn’t matter what I want

It doesn’t matter what I need

It doesn’t matter if I cry

Don’t matter if I bleed

You’ve been on a road

Don’t know where it goes or where it leads

It doesn’t matter what I want

It doesn’t matter what I need

If you’ve made up your mind to go

I won’t beg you to stay

You’ve been in a cage

Throw you to the wind you fly away

It doesn’t matter what I want

It doesn’t matter what I need

It doesn’t matter if I cry

Doesn’t matter if I bleed

Feel the sting of tears

Falling on this face you’ve loved for years

****

Mal's POV

She was leaving. The words echoed in his mind, like the ringing of a bell long after the bell had stopped. He stood there, slack jawed, his feet firmly planted to the metal beneath them. He wanted to follow, to go after her, to beg her to stay, but he just couldn't will himself to move. It felt like a piece of his soul had been ripped out, leaving a black hole where she had been.

Slowly, he made his way back to the lonely bunk he occupied. Along the way, he had stopped at the door to her shuttle. He even had gone so far as raising his fist to knock upon the door, but he couldn't go through with it. And entering as he used to, without her permission, just felt wrong somehow. So, he had turned, walking away, the smell of her inc