A/N: Oh, hell. I didn't even try for a plot this time. The fluff continues.

I know everyone is still hoping for something that you'd only find on late-night cable, but as I thought about some more, it occured to me that after all the emotional wringing they'd absorbed, Simon would be very careful and gentle and slow with Kaylee. And so he is. Time to start categorizing this into "Romance". It's getting pretty gooey.

And of course, having them show up at breakfast with bed hair was required.

*******

Kaylee wasn't really a religious person. Sure, she bowed her head at meals like her Daddy had taught her, but it wasn't like she went to church or nothin'. She tended to leave the moral questions to the Shepherd and the Captain. Although she had been known to listen in when the two of 'em really got goin', it was only for the fun of hearin' the Captain make up new cuss words. The whole religiosity thing was kind of an afterthought in her world.

Which is why if there was a God up there, he'd find it all manner of funny listenin' to the words in her head this morning. For the past five minutes, she'd been alternately thanking Him - or Her, she weren't picky - and beggin' whatever Powers That Be for a favor: if they was gonna kill her, please do it now, 'cause her life weren't gonna get any better that this if she lived two hundred years.

She and Simon had moved in their sleep, and now she found herself rolled over on her other side, facing him. Her face was buried into his shoulder with half her body flung over his. His hands had come up around her - one on her shoulder, one around her waist - and were clutching her like he was drowning. Even in his sleep, Simon's over-active brain kept churning through whatever it was he worried over, and every once in a while he'd murmur something out loud, before sighing and falling quiet again. She nuzzled her nose into his shirt, taking deep breaths. He smelled kind of like the infirmary - no surprise there - but now he also smelled a bit like her sh