(no subject)
Jul. 20th, 2006 12:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flybywashIt's late. Naomi's having a fitful night, but it seems like she's finally settled down for good.
Her parents? Not so much yet.
Wash falls back onto the bed with all due melodrama, seizes a pillow, and claps it down over his eyes. "Nnnnngh."
Her parents? Not so much yet.
Wash falls back onto the bed with all due melodrama, seizes a pillow, and claps it down over his eyes. "Nnnnngh."
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-07-20 04:49 am (UTC)"Hang in there, dear."
no subject
Date: 2006-07-20 04:53 am (UTC)Beat.
"Only for another six or seven months, right? Until the sleeping through the whole night and not just three-hour chunks of it happens?"
no subject
Date: 2006-07-20 05:01 am (UTC)"'Course, it ain't like she's never gonna wake us up again after that, but so long as it ain't every night, I think I can deal with that."
no subject
Date: 2006-07-20 05:05 am (UTC)He flips back the pillow and stuffs it under his head, then drapes an arm around Zoe's waist.
"I mean that literally," he adds. "It's shining way in the distance like a beacon of actual rest and joy."
no subject
Date: 2006-07-20 05:12 am (UTC)Zoe shifts into a more comfortable position, turning onto her side.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 03:17 am (UTC)As serene as one can be when they've spent the last hour trying to get a crying baby to sleep.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 03:20 am (UTC)"What, we don't get up t' enough trouble with th' one ship?"
no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 03:27 am (UTC)Absently, he traces a small line up and down her hip with his thumb.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 03:34 am (UTC)"Whatever you say, dear."
It's too late to maintain normal levels of snarky banter.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 03:39 am (UTC)Then, for a while, he doesn't say anything else, and the smirk fades away.
Quietly, "How're you doing?"
no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 03:48 am (UTC)Finally, "Mal talk to you about settin' a new course yet?"
no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 03:52 am (UTC)It falls flat, much as he may try.
"He told me he talked to you about it."
And that tips up into a question.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 03:57 am (UTC)It's another moment or two before she adds, "I got no problem with him goin' back, I just...I'm not sure what I'm gonna do when we get there."
no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 04:06 am (UTC)"You could keep me company," he suggests. "Or I could keep you company. Company-keeping can happen on somebody's part somewhere."
He wants to say you don't have to go back there.
He doesn't.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 04:35 am (UTC)"Was thinkin' I might hide out in Milliways for a while. If I decide not t' go with Mal."
And that last part comes out as uncertain as anything Zoe ever says.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 04:40 am (UTC)"You want me to come with you if you do go with Mal?"
Slight emphasis on the 'if.'
no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 04:46 am (UTC)"...Would you want to?"
It's hard to think of Serenity Valley as a cleaned-up site with a memorial, as anything but the battlefield she knew it as. Which doesn't make the thought of Wash being there the most pleasant.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 05:00 am (UTC)They don't speak about it much, if ever. And he's been curious about it, but he's got no right to trample all over something like that; bring it up, intrude when there's no need.
Wash doesn't want to go. Not really. But if there's a need, well, there's no question.
"If you want me there, yes."
A beat. A tiny smile.
"Not to go all circular and spiral-y on this conversation or anything."
no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 05:15 am (UTC)But there's a difference between delivering the facts as stoically as she can manage to someone else, and really talking about it to Wash.
Zoe's smile is faint, and a bit shaky, and she covers one of his hands with hers, rubbing gently.
"It means a lot t' know you would." That's a little shaky, too.
She pauses, then adds, in a firmer tone, "Thing is, though, 'm not sure I'd want Naomi there. So if I did end up goin'..."
no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 05:26 am (UTC)His smile goes a bit crooked.
"I can do that."
Even if it takes a firm mental reminder that she won't be alone out there, and another to tamp down on a brief, familiar flash: that this is something for her and Mal, and never for Wash.
He squeezes her hand, leaning in to kiss her.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 05:35 am (UTC)When the kiss breaks, she drops her head against the curve of his neck, with another faint smile.
"Xiexie."
no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 05:41 am (UTC)He rubs her shoulder, hiding a grin. Some of it leaks into his voice anyway.
"Well, that and my sense of humor and rakishly handsome looks."
no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 06:04 am (UTC)The effect is slightly spoiled by the fact that she leans in to kiss him a moment later.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 06:11 am (UTC)Which is probably why it lasts a while.
Though it's not long afterward, and with little fanfare, that exhaustion gets the better of both of them. Their bunk drifts into a sleepy silence.
(Until the next time Naomi wakes up crying.)