Note: Here lies my debut into the realm of fan fiction. Please, inform me if I get anything wrong, especially by way of characters. This is a somewhat sombre piece, as I can never quite deliver humour in a way that others find funny. I hope you’ll forgive me for that, and any attempts I decide to make.

Summary: Based on Out Of Gas, though set somewhere between where the series ends and the movie picks up. Mal/Inara/Serenity.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated in any way with Joss Whedon, Tim Minear, or any of the brilliant minds behind the ‘verse. I am, however, forever grateful.

Like Serenity:

The black vacuum of space surrounded and engulfed the almost biotic ship as she glided silently and serenely through space. Zoe had taken Wash back to their room, Wash glaring at the captain after he had jokingly referred again to the so-called ‘agreement’ pertaining to the captain taking Zoe back to his bed.

The smile slipped instantly from the captain’s face as he dropped heavily into the pilot’s chair, staring out of Serenity’s view port in an effort to stem the flow of unsavoury thoughts currently leasing his tired mind.

He thought about how, back on Shadow as a boy, he had gazed longingly from the roof of his house at the night sky. Laying back, hands behind his head, the names of all the constellations that were visible running through his head. How grand it must be out there. Heroic adventures and daring deeds riddled his daydreams until his mother would call him in out of the cold.

He didn’t know the name of a single star in the space they were currently idling their way through. Couldn’t remember when he had given up learning, neither.

He turned to the sound of footsteps as Wash re-entered, collecting the jumper he had left on top of the locker closest to the captain.

“Captain,” he said by way of good night before turning around and hurriedly returning to the woman that awaited him.

It was funny - in a strictly humourless manner, of course- how the ship and its people seemed to embod