Disclaimer: all things Firefly/Serenity are the property of Whedon et al. I'm not making any money off this, just playing with the toys.

Set: post-BDM

A/N: amazing what will inspire a fic... Not beta'd.

Kaylee bounded into the galley for a late night glass of water. She smiled cheerily and even hummed. She did that only when she was very happy, like tonight. She bit her bottom lip, remembering how a certain doctor had done the same thing a short time before.

Skipping in, her hands clapping in front and back, Kaylee saw Inara standing over the sink. “Hey you.” The younger woman grabbed a glass and poured some water from the cooler. She peeked over Inara’s shoulder. “What’s up?”

The Companion pursed her lips and scrubbed even more furiously at the cloth in her hands. “Oh, just...removing...a stain.”

Kaylee looked down to see one of Inara’s prettiest tapestries being nearly scrubbed to threads with a scrub brush. “What happened?”

The look Inara threw her friend made the mechanic take a step back. She could practically feel the venom. Kaylee finished her glass then made a hasty retreat to her bunk and a sleeping Simon.

A few more minutes of scouring and Inara threw down the brush. It was useless. The stain was not going to come out regardless of how much Inara wished it to. Letting the cloth drop, she counted to five to control her emotions.

She was only at three when a brown haired head poked into the kitchen. “You still tetchy?”

Inara’s nostrils flared, giving Mal all the answer he needed. He stepped back and quickly went back to Inara’s shuttle. He moistened a cloth and began wiping a wall. “Finally start makin’ a bit a progress,” he said under his breath. They had been doing a little more than ‘a bit’ when she offered him a drink. And he just had to be a man and get one for her and for him. Couldn’t have just let her do it for him, her knowing the shuttle so well.

“Oh, this ain’t good,” he muttered. He stepped back and eyed the wall before resuming his cleaning. “Gorram Buddha. What kinda folk puts statues in the path of the liquor cabinet and bed?” He wiped the wall harder. Who knew red wine would be so hard to get off the walls?