fic: Seize the Moment [Firefly]
Title: Seize the Moment
Fandom: Firefly
Characters: Mal, Wash, Inara, Jayne
A/N: Another day, another bar fight.
“MAAAAAL!”
Mal smiles at his gambling partners and throws his cards down on the table. “Well, gentlemen, my hand is terrible and the clientele is getting a mite strange for my taste. I’ll take this as my sign to quit while I’m ahead.” He gathers up his remaining chips and hopes he can make it to the cage and exchange it for real cash in time.
Two men crash out of the doors on the other side of the room that separates bar from playing area, one of them Mal’s merc. Mal quick-steps behind a larger patron and pushes towards the cage.
Wash sidles up from the mahjong table. “Bar fight? Again?”
“I warned Jayne about this kind of thing,” Mal growls as he elbows ahead further.
“Mal, it weren’t me!” Jayne yells as he double-fist punches his opponent in the back.
Mal slouches down lower.
Wash cranes his neck until he can see the violence happening on the other side of the room. “I don’t think he can see us.”
“Don’t matter if he can see us, it’s the fellows he’s brawling with I’m concerned about.”
The crowd parts and Inara steps through; no one makes her throw elbows to let her pass. “Didn’t you say you were going to talk to Jayne about this?”
“What - so it’s my fault now?” Mal turns, another stranger bumping into him, to face Inara. She makes a face that says no but implies yes. “I warned Jayne! Not my fault he’s dumb enough to keep doing it anyway.”
There’s a particularly loud crash and Wash winces. “Ooh, he’s gonna need stitches for that.” Mal looks between the alcohol-stained back of the man currently at the chip exchange and the direction of the fight. Something else breaks and then there’s a loud howl. “But that guy will need more,” Wash continues.
The man at the exchange moves out of the way and Mal cuts off another patron to step in front of it. Inara looks vaguely horrified at Mal’s priorities, but he pays Jayne to win fights all the time. He should be fine on his own a mite longer even if Zoe doesn’t launch a devastating flanking attack soon.
Wash watches him dump his chips and looks at him strangely. “I didn’t know you were that good.”
Mal shrugs and smiles crookedly, pretending innocence for the benefit of the crowd around them. Another reason he is leaving Jayne to his own devices: once the distraction is over there will be a few patrons patting their lighter pockets and realizing Mal hadn’t left his table with as many chips as he was cashing in.
Inara sighs and places her hands in the crook of Wash’s elbow to pull him away. “We’ll be on the ship.”