Title: First Time Foolishness

Summary: Wash finally convinces Zoë to go out on a first date.

Word Count: 838

Prompt: Deviant Muses Foolishness

 

 

 

“Come on Zoë. What’s it going to hurt? I promise you real food and I’ll make you laugh,” Wash cajoled.

 

Zoë shook her head. “Got a job to do. Ain’t got time for dinner and laughin’.”

 

“Mal said that we’d be here three days scoping out the job. One evening is taken up by said scoping, plus most of your afternoons, but that leaves two evenings that you can have dinner with me,” Wash insisted.

 

Zoë rolled her eyes and sighed. The man was nothing if not persistent and she wasn’t quite prepared to admit he didn’t bother her as much as he once had. “Independents coulda used you in the war. Just send you over to the Alliance side so you could bother ‘em ‘til they surrendered.”

 

“I would have given them three days, four tops,” Wash grinned, sensing that he was beginning to get to the warrior woman.

 

“They’d a lasted a few weeks, just starved you out the way they did us,” Zoë said as she turned and left the galley.

 

Wash kept asking though. They’d been on Beaumonde one day before he started in on her again.

 

“Take your leave, do what you want but don’t call no attention to yourselves an’ make sure you’re on this boat come sundown,” Mal said as he started into town.

 

“So, how ‘bout that dinner? I saw a little café off the main street. Promised home cooking. I’m not sure who’s home cooking but anything is better than protein,” Wash asked as he strolled up beside her, his hands tucked in his pockets.

 

“Don’t have time for such foolishness,” Zoë answered with barely a sidelong glance at the man.

 

“Mal practically encouraged foolishness. Take your leave, that’s go be foolish in Captain speak.”

 

“Changed my mind. Shoulda worked for the Alliance in the war. You got all the doggedness that breaks a person down,” Zoë answered. “Coulda been in their torture unit.”

 

“That mean you’ll have dinner with me?” Wash grinned.

 

“Will you stop askin’ if I do?”

 

“Well, you’ll be having dinner me so yeah…I’ll stop asking if you’ll have dinner with me,” Wash agreed. It didn’t mean he wouldn’t ask her to do other things with him.

 

“Alright but I don’t want no place fancy, no flowers an’ I ain’t dressin’ up,” she told him point blank.

 

Wash nodded. “That works for me. I don’t have money for flowers and this,” he said as he tugged on the hem of his Hawaiian shirt, “is as dressed up as I get.”

 

It was by concentrated effort that Zoë didn’t even glance in a mirror before she went down to the cargo bay to meet Wash for their dinner. She suspected she still had a streak of dirt across her cheekbone but cleaning it off would imply that he no longer bothered her and despite the fact that he’d shaved that god awful mustache, that just wasn’t the case. He still bothered her plenty. Of course the way he bothered her had changed.

 

It bothered her the way she’d begun to look forward to his floppy, goofy conversations designed to make her laugh or at the very least make her crack a smile. It bothered her the way the nearness of him unsettled her in a way nothing had ever unsettled her. It bothered her that she liked his eyes and his hair and his smile. It bothered her that more than once she’d lain awake in her bunk, wondering if he was alone on the bridge and it bothered her that on occasion she worried he’d give up before she gave in.

 

He’d convinced the captain to loan him the mule to take Zoë into town, insisting that he couldn’t ask her out on a date and then expect her to walk. She dreaded the teasing she’d endure for that later and for a moment wondered if it was worth it. The question was answered by the big smile on Wash’s face. It was the sort of smile one couldn’t help returning even if one wasn’t so inclined to smile.

 

The home cooking had been awful but he’d kept his promise to make her laugh so much that she scarcely noticed. Neither of them noticed it was dark until the café owner ran them off. They returned to a glaring captain who was less then thrilled that his crew had disobeyed his orders.

 

“Sorry, Sir won’t happen again,” Zoë said as she got off the mule.

 

“It’s my fault Zoë was being foolish, Mal,” Wash said as he walked up beside Zoë, taking her hand in his.

 

Zoë’s expression matched Mal’s so exactly it was comical. Wash was happy for the total shock, as it prevented her from pulling away from him.

 

Mal finally nodded. “See that it don’t,” he answered gruffly and stalked toward his bunk.

 

Wash ended the date the way that Zoë thought few men did anymore. He walked her to her room and stopped at the door, told her what a good time he had and hoped they’d do it again then he’d kissed the knuckles of her hand and turned to walk away.

 

He stopped about half way down the corridor and turned to her. “Oh, and if you wanna be foolish later…” he paused and waggled his eyebrows at her. “I’ll be in my bunk.”