BLUE SUN ROOM FAN FICTION - GENERAL

ARCADIA

Spill
Saturday, September 23, 2006

Mal and Inara play cards. The loser has to share a secret. A good one.


CATEGORY: FICTION    TIMES READ: 3257    RATING: 9    SERIES: FIREFLY

Title: Spill Challenge: 35, secrets Words: 418 Disclaimer: It’s all about Joss Summary: Written for Firefly Friday at livejournal. Mal and Inara play cards. The loser has to share a secret. A good one.

Mal laid down his cards with a triumphant, “ha!” Plum tall. Inara sighed involuntarily. The man hadn’t been bluffing. He smiled, downing a hefty-sized drink from his mug of Kaylee’s engine-wine. When he put it down, it hit the table with a large thump. “Spill,” he demanded.

“All right. Once, about a month after I starting training, I…”

“Uh!”

Inara raised an eyebrow. “Uh?”

“Yes. Uh,” Mal repeated. “Uh, as in, ‘uh, no.’ I will not listen to another story about how you broke some silly rule at the training house. We’re trading secrets here. I wanna hear a real secret, Inara. A juicy one. For when I need to blackmail you.”

She shook her head, smiling despite herself. “Blackmail me?”

“Yes, blackmail.” He was grinning, so proud to have beaten her. “You know, repeatin’ every word I say ain’t gonna make me forget you owe me a story, here. So quit stallin’. Spill.”

Secrets. Inara did have secrets. All kinds of secrets. Some were hers. Others she had inherited from clients. Some were dark secrets, some light. Some were painful, other merely embarrassing. All of them she held close, guarding them with each beat of her heart.

“All right,” Inara said, growing more somber. She looked him square in the eye when she told him. “I want to have children.”

He nearly choked on his drink.

“Relax, Mal. I don’t want to have them with you.” Truth be told, the prospect didn’t bother her, but they could barely manage to spend an afternoon together without bickering.... “There isn’t room in a Companion’s life for children. It’s not strictly prohibited. Some even joke that’s in an occupational hazard. Hundreds of years of medical breakthroughs and it’s still impossible to be one hundred percent sure…”

She looked away. His eyes were too much for her.

“But I… I used to think it would be nice to have a child, to care for it, to kiss it on the forehead and sing it a lullaby before it went to sleep, to tell her I love her, to do all the things that I never…” She shook her head, looking up at him. “Terribly sentimental of me, isn’t it?”

“It ain’t,” he said.

“Oh, yes it is. Terribly sentimental. Fatuous…”

“I’m being serious here, ‘Nara.” His tone was insistent. “There ain’t nothin’ silly about it. It’s…”

But he didn’t say.

“Are you going to deal?” Inara asked, gesturing towards the cards.

“Sure,” he said, picking them up and beginning to shuffle.

COMMENTS

Saturday, September 23, 2006 11:21 AM

DQBABY76


I like this one, its so like them to dance around things and then abruptly change the subject. I think they would make good looking kids.

Saturday, September 23, 2006 2:29 PM

LEIASKY


And a baby is something that Inara had, isn't it? One of her many secrets? Looking away from him was a very telling sign. . .

Nicely done. Would be nice to learn about more secrets as well . . .

Saturday, September 23, 2006 5:28 PM

BLUEEYEDBRIGADIER


Ohh...so gotta get Mal to spill one of his own via a sequel, Arcadia. It's only fair;)

BEB

Saturday, September 23, 2006 10:14 PM

KAYNARA


“You know, repeatin’ every word I say ain’t gonna make me forget you owe me a story, here."

haha, nice tactic, Nara.

she's definitely not telling him the whole story here. would love to know more. and mal's gotta have a whole barrel of secrets. sequel?

Sunday, September 24, 2006 12:53 PM

KACIDILLA


seriously, it's only fair that Mal has to share a secret, too.

C'mon...spill...

Tuesday, March 20, 2007 7:45 PM

ARIANE


Nice slice of life.
There were some lines in "Our Mrs. Reynolds" that suggested that Mal really liked the idea of children someday. I think it's touching how quick he is to try to convince Inara that she's not being silly, that she can want what she wants. They would make lovely parents, those two. They already take up that role to some extent on the ship.


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