Author's Note: I have discovered that I really, really, really enjoy writing fluffy, smutty, Simon/Kaylee. Thanks to my betas, particularly Dangermom and Nita, and special thanks to all the LJ gang for encouragement as I went!

Privacy
by Tara O'Shea

Day One

Kaylee was good with her hands.

Always had been. Every since she was knee high to a grasshopper, her clever fingers had known almost all on their own how things fit together. It took her a while before she learned that not everybody was pleased with her taking things apart, no matter how patiently she explained that she could put them back together again—and better than they were before. She was lucky; her daddy had seen her gift, and put it to good use.

She'd been twelve when he pulled her out of school and kept her on in his workshop full time. She'd learned everything there was to know about engines by the time her mamma decided it was time she learned how to be a girl. Momma had shown her how to cook and clean, mend and wash, but the best parts had been when she'd managed to get her youngest daughter out of her grimy canvas coveralls and into actual dresses. As much time as Kaylee spent with the boys at work, she discovered she quite liked spending time with them where they actually looked at her and saw a girl and not another brother, cousin, or pal.

By fourteen, she could disassemble and reassemble an aught-six grav boot in the pitch dark and had gotten felt up by Michael O'Brien at summerfair. As far as she was concerned, it was the best of both worlds. It had also gotten her turned over her daddy's knee and unable to sit comfortably for a week, but she'd figured it was pretty worth it at the time.

Right now, she was intent on taking Simon apart.

She'd gotten his vest off, and the first two buttons of his crisp white shirt were undone. His breath hitched in his throat as her teeth grazed his collarbone, and her clever fingers had his shirt rucked up in the back and were explori