The marble drops onto the floor of the ship. It’s a long fall from up here. Surprising it didn’t break.

The hollow sound of metal to glass echoes through the room as the marble rolls towards them. It’s been a long day, so everyone congregated in the main loading bay. The marble could have followed any path, but it rolled towards them. The captain and the companion. She’s laughing about something. He’s pretending to laugh.

He doesn’t know what to do. He doesn’t know how to show her he’s there. He’d willingly burn down one of the capital cities if it’ll make her see him.

What he doesn’t know is that she sees him just fine. But she can’t let him know that. So, she lies to cover it. She practically sings them out. He willingly believes it. But that’s one of the best parts of belief. The lies...

Now he’s laughing. He grabs onto the railing and gives it an extra pat as he regains his breath. He loves her as well. This ship. Serenity.

In this place, we’re like the gypsies of Earth-That-Was. Traveling from place to place, keeping from the law and living like birds in the sky. But our luck has been much worse than theirs and our gold is much less. He wouldn’t have it any other way. As long as she was still here to love. She doesn’t care what we used to be. If we were the loved children who grew old. If we’re those condemned from the start. It doesn’t matter to her.

I don’t think it matters to him either. Somehow, we’ve kept him together. Like...family. Even when he feels like one of them is making him fall apart.