Authors Note: Howdy. This is my first Firefly fic, and I hope to continue it for awhile. I was very nervous about posting (First fic!) It’s not my first time writing fan fiction, but I wanted it to be perfect, so I think it’s past the part where I tried so hard that it sucks. I also apologize for any spelling and/or grammar errors which occur. Hey, we all make mistakes. Anyways I hope you enjoy it and I hope to update soon.

Disclaimer: I do not own Firefly or Serenity or any of the characters, or events in either in any shape or form. This is a leisure time activity and I am not earning a cent for it (sadly).

Learning to be Patient Chapter 1 Oil Prints

“You ain’t ever been to Tempest?” Kaylee questioned as she stuck her head out from underneath Serenity’s spinning engine. Two dark smudges of grease stained her left cheek and the bridge of her nose.

Simon shook his head, and her eyes grew wide with shock, “Wow, almost all rich people’ve been to Tempest. It’s got some of the most expensive shops and fanciest restaurants.” Her eyes glimmered as she crawled out from beneath the ship’s heart.

“We didn’t travel much when I was young,” Simon explained as he adjusted himself against one of the cool metal walls.

Kaylee let out a small giggle as she approached him, wiping her hands on her stained overalls, “Tempest ain’t for children, Simon,” she informed with a smile, “It may be classy and all, but it’s one of the highest death rates of the inner planets. Not to mention the drugs.”

“And you’ve been?” he questioned her skeptically, his arms folding over his chest, wrinkling the dress shirt that he wore.

She moved closer to him, standing only a few inches away, “Captain ain’t never let us before, said that it was too dangerous to get on the bad side of town like he knew some of us would,” her lips grew into a rueful smile as she tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear, “’Sides, it ain’t like all the rich people are in the market for smuggled pickings.”

“Well they are now,” he answered, questioning why they were talking about Tempest when she was so close to him, he could smell the engine grease on her skin and see each individual lash that laced her emerald eyes.

“You shouldn’t come close to me,” she told him as if she’d read his mind, “grease is stickin’ to me,” she explained as she held out her arms for evidence, “and I wouldn’t wanna wreck that shirt.”

“I’m sure Tempest has a Laundromat,” Simon whispered as his hands moved to her hips and slowly slinked up the side of her body. The slick complexion of engine grease felt all too familiar under his fingertips. He could feel her shudder as he rested his hands gently on her ribs and slowly moved closer.

His lips were so gentle against hers, kneading away the exhaustion of a long day’s work as his hands traveled up her back and to the warm skin of her neck. Her hands linked around his neck as she pressed her chest to his.

“Simon,” she murmured softly against his ear as his lips lay infinite kissed down her neck. He smiled at her deviously as his hand slowly unzipped her overalls, the heat radiating off their bodies too concentrated in the small room.

His hands moved inside her overalls and under her shirt, coming in contact with the soft skin on her stomach. She leaned in, kissing him passionately and urgently while his fingers stayed splayed across her navel.

He was about to move them lower when stamping came from down the corridor, accompanied with aggravated hollers of the mechanic’s name. Before the couple could separate, Mal had already barged into the engine room and regretted it.

“Kaylee,” he began upon entering the room, “Did you- Hwoon dahn!” he exclaimed as he turned around and adverted his eyes to the floor, staying that way for several minutes.

“Captain?” Kaylee questioned curiously when he made no point in turning around.

“You two dressed?” he questioned, his eyes still glued to the floor.

“Yes?” Simon replied quizzically, giving a side glance to Kaylee, who was zipping up her overalls.

“Good,” Mal announced as he turned around, “Never, ever do that again. You both got bunks, make good use of them. You wanna go doing stuff like that, be polite and do it where no one is liable to walk in on you, ever.”

Simon scratched the back of his neck innocently and Kaylee only smiled, “We weren’t doing nothing Captain,” she began.

“Weren’t doing nothing?” Mal queried, then looked at Simon, “I can see the oil you left on him, I can see the outline of your, oh God,” he exclaimed as he turned away once again placing his hand over his eyes.

Simon blushed slightly as Kaylee giggled. “Look,” Mal began while staring at the back of the door, “I just wanted to see if you’ve fixed up the engine.”

“Yep,” she replied happily, “Everything’s A-OK in here Captain,” she informed as she nodded towards the lazily spinning engine.

“Great, we land in less then an hour,” He answered hastily and hurried through the door and out of the engine room.

Kaylee smiled as she watched him, but Simon held a much more solemn expression, “He’s right you know,” he spoke slowly as if the words were muddled up in his mind. She glanced to him, a quick look of confusion passing her face. Simon caught it and continued, “We should wait until the work is done, before we,” his hand wavered through the air as he tried to find the words.

“Yeah,” Kaylee grinned in acceptance, “But all the work is done now,” she informed, her eyes twinkling as she reached up to rub the grease of her face.

Simon found himself grinning along with her, reaching down and gently brushing his fingertips to the black stain on her cheek. He moved to kiss her, when they both heard a small, muffled giggle protruding from the doorway.

He stopped and watched Kaylee’s face hold a regretful happiness as he turned around to find River leaning in the doorway, her slender hand brought up to her lips as she tried to contain another giggle. Her eyes were bright and her smile was genuine as she stared at the pair in the engine room.

“Mei mei?” Simon questioned without being able to contain the small spark of delight he felt for his sister to be content, “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing,” she replied quickly, as she brushed back her dark hair and stared at the doctor and mechanic as blankly as she could, but it was only a few moments before she began to laugh again.

“What is it River?” Kaylee questioned as she took a step up to stand beside Simon who was idle, looking at his sister with surprise.

“Nothing,” she implored, her eyes starting to water as her fingers fiddled with the silky blue material of her sundress, “I have to learn to be patient,” she answered then smiled brightly.

“River,” Simon pressured with a serious hint to the cadence of his voice, but his sister cocked her head to the side and made no intention to hear his thoughts.

“The Captain is coming,” she spoke blandly, “And he’s angry. Angry about the pieces in the darkness.”

“Kaylee!” The captain bellowed as his stomping feet slammed into the metal paneling, echoing throughout the ship, “There’s pieces falling off my gorram ship!”

“You two should get out of here,” she suggested, “he ain’t gonna be pleased if he sees you ain’t doing nothing.”

Simon nodded and grasped River’s arm gently, maybe with some persuasion he could get an answer to what was so funny. She sent a small smile towards Kaylee, as Simon guided her down the hall.

“Kaylee,” Mal shouted angrily as he reached the doorway of the engine room, “There’s piece’s falling off Serenity,” he informed once again, his eyebrows furrowed in mock irritation as he chided her.

“That’s ‘cause we were supposed ta straighten that out back on Persephone, but we ended up leaving there in a hurry,” she reminded gently as she rang out a sullied rag in a small bowl of water.

“Well in Jayne’s defense, I had no idea that the girl was a fed. She certainly put on a good show,” He smiled as he remembered Jayne getting caught in difficult position. Shaking his head free of the memory he continued, “We gotta start being more careful, which is why I don’t want no one setting a foot on Tempest,” he explained as the mechanic began to wipe away at the smudges of oil against her skin.

“What?” she questioned looking up, “No Captain, you can’t do that.” She held the tarnished material between her hands gently and glanced over to Mal, “Simon and I, we were gonna go out for a nice dinner, it woulda been the first time, I’ve been savin’ for months,” she rambled, her eyes growing large and shiny with unshed tears.

“Sorry lil’ Kaylee,” he apologized as he held up his hands, “Tempest ain’t no place for you to be running off by yourself in. You get lost, it’s too big to tell where you are, and it ain’t all classy restaurants, it’s a mite dangerous after dark,” he explained to her calmly, as he shoved his hands in his pocket. He could tell by the look in her eyes that she’d been truthful about planning the date for months, but he couldn’t risk any of the crew’s safety.

“But Simon’ll be with me, if anything even happens, and he’ll protect me,” she argued, her fingers fumbling as she tried to think of a loophole.

“Mei mei, he ain’t gonna be able to protect you,” Mal answered quietly as he turned to see meet her eyes, her happy expression seemed to slide away more and more with each passing second.

“Yes he will,” she argued, a small flush of frustration grew on her cheeks, “He may not show it, but he’ll surprise you. ‘Sides I can yell really loud.”

The engine droned softly as silence engulfed the room. She looked at him with such hope in her eyes. He glanced at her with skepticism, then sighed and placed his hand against his forehead, “If anything happens to you Kaylee, I ain’t gonna be happy,” he warned her.

She let out a squeal of delight and wrapped her arms around Mal’s neck, bringing him into a strong embrace, “Thanks Captain,” she grinned, “I promise nothing bad ain’t gonna happen.”

“Yeah, well you’d just better be right,” he grumbled, her arms still hooked around his neck, “now go see how Zoë’s doing in the bridge, we shouldn’t leave her alone for so long to pilot the ship.” Kaylee nodded with a smile on her face and left the room quickly, the sound of her boots hitting the common area echoed, but soon disappeared.

Mal’s smile followed her, but slowly disappeared along with Kaylee. He was left standing alone in the engine room, discontented with having his crew freely walk around Tempest with no protection. Something about the planet got under his skin and the lingering feeling that something awful was going to occur wouldn’t leave his mind.

His head jolted back to the doorway as he heard calm footsteps approaching. River stood, her slim fingers clasping the cool metal frame of the archway, with a giddy smile plastered on her face.

Mal hid his uneasiness swiftly, looking up to the young girl with a grin, “Now you look positively tickled,” he announced, then stopped for a moment his lips pursed together and he continued, “You don’t think you can set foot on that planet do you?”

A small amount of joy was extinguished from her face, but she still looked overly chipper. When she made no response he continued, “Bad enough I got Kaylee and your brother wandering around on an inner planet that’s crawling with alliance. But if I send you out there, you’ll get spotted for sure.”

She watched him cautiously as he paced back and forth in the small room seemingly rethinking what he’d just stated. After a few moments he let out a sigh, “For once I’d just like to get paid without any complications.”

Her smile lit up again, “Complications are good.”

Mal’s eyebrows cocked in a quizzical manner, “You ain’t understanding that you’ve been on the run for almost a year now. You can barely go anywhere without someone recognizing your face,” He clarified stoically.

“I don’t mind staying on the ship, I have to learn how to be patient,” she answered calmly, a small giggle emitted from her mouth afterwards.

“Yeah, well you’ll learn how to be patient with Inara. Don’t know what’s gotten into my crew today, but you all don’t seem to notice the seriousness of our situation,” Mal exclaimed, trying to cover up his concern for his crew with a dark callousness, “So I don’t see why you’re so gorram cheerful.”

River beamed and pointed towards Mal, “You’ve got Kaylee on you,” she declared, then brought her palm up to stifle her laughter.

Mal looked down and sure enough there was a stamp in engine old of Kaylee’s body against his clothes where she had embraced him. He groaned angrily, “Wuo de ma! Kaylee!” He barged angrily out of the room to give an earful to his mechanic leaving River laughing joyfully.

TBC