Over The Hills and Far Away - Ch 10
Saturday, April 8, 2006
Set after OIS. Much to Inara’s chagrin, Mal accepts a job offer that takes Serenity far away from New Melbourne and to an unremarkable moon called Three Hills... Chapter ten. Gilbert and Inara... and Mal is not happy about it
CATEGORY: FICTION TIMES READ: 3481 RATING: 9.0 (NC17) SERIES: FIREFLY
Note: This chapter in NC-17. If you're uncomfortable reading about sex, skip the beginning.
Ch 10
September 12, 2510. Sihnon. Bedchamber of Inara Serra.
The knock on her door came five minutes before midnight struck. Inara was in her feet instantly, dashing soundlessly across the room. She pulled him inside by the shoulders and threw her arms around him, barely taking time to close the door. “Abaddon, oh Abaddon…” the words fell from her red, swollen lips. “Abaddon, my Abaddon… Thank goodness you’re safe…”
His arms engulfed her, his embrace so tight Inara feared that the force of it would fuse them together. “It’s okay,” he whispered into her ear – but his voice was trembling. Inara felt the tears beginning to fall from the corner of her eyes. Shaking as it was, hearing his voice, touching his skin, smelling him… Inara was overcome with relief. “It’s okay.”
“You didn’t come,” Inara cried, her voice threatening it fail. “You didn’t come, and then you didn’t send a wave… I looked for you and I couldn’t find you…”
“Inara, Inara, it’s all right.” He was crying, too. He put his hands on her face, forced her to look at him. “It’s all right, it’s all right.” He used his thumbs to wipe the remaining tears out of the corner of her eyes. “See, now there she is. My calm, composed, Inara Serra.” He kissed her forehead. She smiled without meaning to. “Ah, yes. Definitely my Inara.” He was smiling, too. “You know, for someone who all but just told me that she thought I was dead, you answered the door pretty fast.”
“Dougray. We had lunch today. He implied that…. I cancelled my appointment tonight, told my client I had a fever…”
Abaddon’s smile vanished. “Dougray shouldn’t be doing that,” he said sternly. “I could have waited, come another time.”
“But Abaddon….”
“He doesn’t know that you know, Inara,” Abaddon said quickly. “As far as Dougray is concerned, you are an agent of the….”
“Yes, I know,” Inara said, cutting him off. She curled her arms more tightly around him. He drew his arms a
This fight however....this fight strikes me as a very plausible reason for why Mal is basically abominable towards Inara in the comic series. He just hurts so badly from seemingly discovering Inara capable of that kind of duplicity that he feels were perpetrated again him.
Definitely can't wait for more of this series, Arcadia:)
BEB
You can't take the sky from me
Now the big stuff:
Whoa. Gilbert. What a sneaky job you did, making me like him and them twisting that around, making his part of an enormously creepy scene, making him creepy by association and yet... how much creepier is he than any of her regular clients? Not much, not really.
It's all in the circumstances and attitude, sex itself is neutral, it's the how that informs it and in those two scenes that you contrast that becomes crystal clear.
There's the love and personal passion, there's the mechanical process and trained facade. Worse than ever before because of when she is forced to "perform", right after that moment of being NOT a companion where she is flooded with that honest emotion again.
Very creepy and painful and powerful to read.
And Mal's reaction. Oh. Ouch. I adore the disjointed nature of his POV, the half-started thoughts that stumble over each other and bring out the parallelity of every emotion. Betrayal, longing, loss, aggression. The whole spectrum of jealousy that would come out after finding that dorm unused after their moment the night before.
What I said in one of my earlier comments about them pushing and pulling and going back and forth with ever greater amplitude? Yup.
Pain is so pretty. *g*
More soon?
I liked the juxtaposition of the two different sexual encounters, the loving, warm moment between Inara and Abbadon as opposed to the cold, empty one with Gilbert, full of false smiles and lies, Inara practicing her art to the fullest.
Mal's reaction just about killed me... the utter vehemence at her betrayal, made all the more valid to him in the way she couldn't meet his eyes... if she'd been able to meet him stare for stare without shame or guilt, maybe she could have played it off as nothing, her job and nothing more... but to avoid his gaze implied an acceptance of the betrayal he feels she's commited and makes him all the more justified in his anger and... gods... I don't think I've ever seen Mal portrayed more angrily... and it was terrifying and horrible to see (that means it was good, of course)
This:
“Don’t you touch me,” he said. It didn’t sound like his voice, but it sure looked like tears glistening in her eyes as she backed away. A half-shriek escaped her lips and she jumped back, further away, as he violently spat at her feet. “Don’t you ever.”
...some of the hardest stuff I've ever had to read... and I was screaming "NO! How could you do that?!" while understanding perfectly how at the same time....
wonderful
I can't wait for more
Post Your Comments
You must log in to post comments.