Title: Paint by Heart

Summary: A missing scene from the movie Serenity takes place while they’re fixing up the ship before Inara starts painting Serenity’s logo.

Rating: So PG

AN: Lisa asked me to write this for her and viola I wrote.

 

 

 

The lilac dusk fell over Serenity like a fall of velvet, cloaking everything in whispers. Zoë, Simon, Kaylee, River and Jayne had retired to their bunks hours ago, although Inara noted that Zoë took a bunk in the passenger dorm. She couldn’t say she blamed her. She supposed the memories of time spent there with Wash were just a little too painful right now.

 

Inara drifted up the stairs to the bridge. She knew Mal was there working on the controls, trying to Serenity back on her feet. She found him on his back, underneath the console and paused a moment, a smile lifting one corner of her mouth. She was content to watch him for a few moments before he noticed she was there. He got up brushing the back of his pants off.

 

“You need something?”

 

Inara shook her head with a soft smile. “No. Everyone else is in bed and I couldn’t sleep.” She took a seat in the co-pilot’s chair. Mal hesitated, his hand brushing over the back of Wash’s seat. Kaylee had spent hours scrubbing Wash’s blood out of it. Inara had found her near tears when the blood wouldn’t come completely out. They’d taken a blanket from Zoë and Wash’s bed, with Zoë’s blessing, and Inara had sewn a seat cover out of it. Mal sat down on that newly covered seat now, his eyes the only thing that let on he was mourning Wash.

 

“You know…I loved this ship from the moment I set eyes on her,” Inara half whispered, her voice filled with awe and reverence. “She just…she’s got heart and spirit. There’s life in her walls and her rooms.” She ducked her head, a blush rising on her cheeks.

 

“Well that’s one thing we got in common,” Mal said in a breath. The woman sitting next him never failed to amaze him. “You telling me I coulda rented that shuttle to you full price and you woulda paid?”

 

Inara laughed and it echoed off the walls, almost as if Serenity herself was laughing. “That’s what I’m telling you,” she said, glancing over at Mal, delighted to see a boyish grin on his face despite the pain still in his eyes.

 

“Aiya,” Mal cursed under his breath teasingly then looked around the bridge. “No…I know what you mean. I thought the same thing the first time I saw her. My breath was…taken away.”

 

Inara smiled listening to Mal. If she’d been any other woman or if he’d been any other man, she’d be jealous of a ship but Serenity had taken her breath too.

 

“She needs a logo,” Inara told Mal, breaking the moments of silence.

“Guess she does. I’ll get someone to screen something on her next time we’re ‘round one of the core planets,” Mal responded.

 

“I’d like to paint it,” Inara said.

 

Mal quirked an eyebrow at her. “S’pose you could help design the logo then they just put it in a computer, print it off and it sticks right to the hull.”

 

Inara shook her head. Mal was an intelligent man but sometimes it seemed when she spoke to him it was in another language. “I want to hand paint the logo on Serenity. I’ve had years of guild training. I’m no Michelangelo but I’m fairly good.”

 

“Michelangelo…wasn’t he the one that painted all those naked babies?”

 

“Cherubs…Angels,” Inara fought back a smile.

 

“Yeah…good thing you ain’t him. We don’t need naked babies painted on my boat.” Mal raked a hand through his hair as he considered Inara’s offer.  Finally he nodded. “Alright…you can paint on my boat.” In truth, he couldn’t think of a more fitting person to do so. Serenity obviously held her heart…and Inara held his.