Kaylee/Mal snippet

Set in the world of So Long. That fic ended two years after Inara's death. This snippet, which was (in a slightly altered form) the fourth section of the original "So Long" draft, takes place ten years after Inara died.

Kaylee/Mal, in which it's been so long and they're still happy. Hard R for sex.


Coda


She's so good to let him do this, to let him spread her and taste her and nip at the quivering muscles of her thighs. Her smell is thick in his mouth, tart slippery flesh under his tongue.

He puts a hand on her soft belly, slides it up to stroke the flushed skin of her breasts. Slips his thumb over the scar beside her navel. Light tracery of stretch-marks across her stomach which showed up after Saira and stayed no matter what she did.

He blows air over the tangle of curls and grins when she yowls. Fingertips press into his skull, pushing him closer. No nail-marks in his scalp, not from those hands. He tugs one hand out of his hair, licks at the webbing between her thumb and forefinger. Soap-tasting skin, scrubbed and sweet. Her fingers splay over his mouth, drag at his lips. He feels his eyes drift shut at the sudden hard pulse of blood in his groin.

"Quit teasin'," she says, trying to be threatening through a smile. She never could quite pull it off. Not that kind of woman and he loves her for it. He bends to kiss her inner thigh, open-mouthed, licks the glisten of sweat from her skin. He's sweating, too -- the crease of his elbow feels damp as he slides a hand down her sleek side.

"I hate you," she says, and breaks off into a laughing gasp. He kisses her there again, slow and wet and delirious with her. He could do this forever.

But, oh, the sweet sound of her voice as he slides two fingers inside her. Little moans he never gets tired of. Still remembers the first time he heard them, but he's got another memory he likes better, and that's the first time she made those noises for him. Lamplight across her body on the bed, grass still stuck to the backs of her calves.

He knew her then and he knows her now. Kaylee, her silk and honey body clenching tight around his fingers and her hips snapping up. She cries out something like his name. He groans against her, nuzzles until she shoves him away with a delighted sigh. Mal crawls up the bed, collapses beside her and pillows her head on his shoulder. Arousal fizzes low in his veins, sparks in his muscles. But they have time, they have the whole afternoon, and he's willing to wait while she breathes next to him.

Kaylee's frizzed braid flops onto his chest. Mal reaches up idly, tugs the tie from the braid's tail. He'll braid it for her again before they fetch the brats from Moli, run the brush through her hair and listen as she hums. Now her long waved hair spreads out over his chest and he buries a hand in it for a moment, lets it slide through his fingers. So long since they've had time for this. Everything's busy, busy like he never expected his life to be. The kind of busy you don't realize you want till you've got it.

And somehow he got lucky enough to have this giving woman, his wife. He has a house and two stables and a wagon and lines of fence that spread along the hills. Fence he has to maintain and repair and paint every few years and every time he paints it's a promise of sorts. This year Zoe and Joswa will both be old enough to help and when the paint begins to chip and flake, he'll still be there to fix it.

Every year or so, Serenity will land in the front field again. He and Kaylee have convinced Zoe and Wash to stay the night when they visit, now. They have a big dinner around the table and it's like meals on Serenity, only better, because none of them have recent wounds or that tight look around the eyes caused by too many nightmares. Nightmares have come to seem like an easy thing, a thing Mal can fix by getting up in the night and settling his child in his arms and just holding on. He holds on to everything a little tighter now. No sense in holding back, just waiting for the things you love to disappear.

His arm is slung loosely over Kaylee's hips and he feels her muscles shift beneath his hand. She's getting restless, stirring against his side in a way that warms his blood. He grins when she shoves up, props herself on her elbow, looks down at him sweet and calm. Shakes her head and frowns at her hair as it falls into her eyes. Strands stick to her pink cheeks. "Well," she says and grins right back at him. "Haoji.le."

"Glad you think so," he says, reaching over to trace the bitten swell of her lower lip. "You wanna pay me back now, or later?"

"Oh, I think now," she says cheerfully. "Later seems real far away." She swings up, settles with her knees on either side of his hips, dips her head to spread a constellation of kisses across his chest. When she finally looks up, sweet devil-smile curving her lips and brightening her eyes, Mal feels an answering smile form.

He drops his head back against the mattress, fits his hands to the twin curves of her hipbones, and just holds on.



'Haoji.le' means "excellent."