Title: Circles

Summary: Post BDM Post my stages of love first round. Mal and Inara are in a relationship and have been for some months post BDM.

Author: Bashipforever

Prompt: Trouble in Paradise: Making Up

Word Count: 520

 

 

She heard him come in, the clomp of heavy boots on the floor couldn’t be mistaken for anyone else.  “Mal, fighting may be the most fun we’ve ever had for you but I don’t share the same sentiment.”

 

“Didn’t come to fight,” Mal said as he stepped inside the shuttle. He stopped several feet from her, watching her kneel at the small altar.  “Always wondered what’s going through your head when you do that,” he gestured toward the altar.

 

“I’m praying, Mal.”

 

Mal nodded. “Figured as much. More curious as to what for.” He hooked his thumbs in his suspenders and watched the line of her back. It took everything he had not to run his fingers down the line of her neck, trace her spine and pull her into his embrace. He’d known her long enough to realize she’d rebuff him right now and rejection from Inara in any situation never got easy.

 

“You wouldn’t like it,” she snapped but her tone was softer than before.

 

“Didn’t ask if I’d like it.”

 

“I pray for Serenity…that River keeps the peace she’s found…I pray for Zoë, that she finds peace. Simon, Kaylee…I pray for you.” The last was said in a quiet whisper.

 

“Sorta suspected you did. Not that I think it’ll do any good, but s’nice to know anyway.” He stepped closer to her. “Nara…”

 

Her sigh was heavy, a surrender of sorts. “Is this how it’s always going to be? We fight and we say hurtful things and then we just brush it all under the rug?”

 

He knelt behind her, pulling her back against his chest and buried his nose in the crook of her neck. She smelled of incense and jasmine.  “This don’t seem such a bad thing to me right now.”

 

She closed her eyes, silently praying for the strength to pull away from him and knowing that she’d never have it. “Mal…we’re going in circles. We fight. We make up and we fight about the same things.”

 

“Nothin wrong with fightin, ‘Nara. It’s the makin up that’s important,” he told her, his lips moving against her skin. “Some things worth fightin for.”

 

She took a deep breath, trying to find the resolve that crumbled when Mal was involved. “A person isn’t meant to go in circles forever, Mal.”

 

“Nara, know why I came in here? Couldn’t stand bein’ away from you a minute more. Literally hurtin to see you. I'm not real schooled on how relationships s’posed to go so I’m thinkin’ there’s got to be some patience involved…Nara, you know how I feel about you. Ain’t been straight forward ‘bout that but ain’t made no secret of it either…not since you came back.  We’ll figure this out. Just give me a chance. Won’t ever quit trying on you. Don’t know how. Just need the chance.”

 

If his words hadn’t been enough to cave the fragile resolve she had, the rough, broken texture of his voice would have. She turned to face him, her lips meeting his. So they went in circles. She was finding that the path mattered less and less, particularly when the companionship on the journey was right.