Learn to Fly
Title: Learn to Fly
Author: Ru_salki99
Rating: PG 13
Pairing: Mal/Wash
Disclaimer: Firefly belongs to Fox/Universal
Author's notes: Written for this year's washathon.
Summary: AU - Mal's friends take him out for his birthday and get him the best present ever.
Mal was nineteen today.
Nineteen years old.
It wasn’t anything special. Hell eighteen wasn’t even special. He’d officially become an adult at seventeen. Nineteen was downright old in comparison.
Most of the guys he grew up with were married and had at least one child of there own, a couple of them having two. Where as he still lived with his mother. He wasn’t ashamed of the fact that he still lived and worked at the ranch. He loved it there, couldn’t imagine doing any other kind of work. But of course, working and living on the ranch didn’t leave much time for a social life.
His mother was desperate for him to get married.
It wasn’t that she wanted rid of him. Far from it. Any wife he took would move onto the ranch with him. Only problem was, he didn’t want a wife.
When he was sixteen and his mother had started talking to the local matchmaker, hoping to get the best girl for him, he had been horrified when she’d come in and started taking his measurements and asking him all sorts of personal questions, so much so that he’d snapped and blurted out the fact that he was sly.
He was pretty sure that he’d never seen his mother so embarrassed before, not to mention the matchmaker looked like she’d been slapped. But he’d had to tell them. He couldn’t just stand there and let them plan his future, when it just wasn’t the future he’d wanted.
His mother had said it was a phase, that he’d grow out of it and that when he did, she’d call the matchmaker again.
He hadn’t grown out of it, far from it. Every day as he saw his fellow ranchers, their large muscles and toned bodies shining in the sun, he knew what he wanted. He wanted to feel strong hands on him, rough, stubbled skin against his own and strong, firm muscles under his hands. However, finding that on Shadow was near impossible.
A group of his friends decided to take him into town to get him drunk for his birthday. Jayne, Kaylee and Zoe. Jayne and Kaylee had been married for a year now and were expecting their first child, so Kaylee wouldn’t be drinking… not that she need it. That girl was hyper all the time, God only knew how Jayne had the energy to keep up with her.
Zoe, like him, was sly. She wasn’t interested in relationships though, after all there were less sly women on Shadow than there were sly men. She’d often joked with Mal about how they should just get married, put their parents out of their misery, but they never did. It would’ve been weird and just complicated and probably ruin their friendship.
And so together the four of them headed into Rudy’s tavern. Usually there wasn’t much special going on in there. Of course there were the usual whores and card games going on, but everyone who was in there were folk from town. They were a few miles over from the nearest trade town and so didn’t get many people passing through.
So it was with some surprise, as Jayne came back with their third round of drinks that the doors to Rudy’s swung open and in strolled a small group of pilots. The entire bar went silent as they noticed them. They were all rather young and had what Mal recognised as meaning ‘airman’ patches on their jackets. Which meant that they had only just qualified.
There was five of them in the group and they all looked about nervously before going up to the bar. When the only female in their group ordered in a round of drinks, everyone started talking again, going back to their own business.
“Wonder what they’re doing here,” Kaylee said as she looked at them.
“Probably on some training exercise or something,” Zoe said.
“I don’t like ‘em,” Jayne said flatly, “Never trust folk who wear a uniform into a bar.”
“Aw sweetie,” Kaylee said as she patted his knee, “When I said I liked a man in uniform, what I really meant was I liked you in uniform.”
“That why you bought me that sheriff’s shirt?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Might be,” she said with a grin.
“Please guys, it’s my birthday,” Mal said, “I could really do without the mental scarring.”
“You trying to tell me you don’t like a man in uniform?” Kaylee asked him.
Mal looked up at the group, noticing a rather attractive red headed fella standing at the back of them all, sipping his drink and surveying the other patrons.
“That’s not what I said,” he told her, picking up his own drink.
As one, Kaylee, Jayne and Zoe turned to look at what he was looking at, all of their faces breaking into smiles at the same time.
“You want us to leave you two alone?” Zoe asked, humour in her eyes.
Mal rolled his eyes, “Don’t be ridiculous. He’s probably not even sly.”
“Well you never know unless you try,” Kaylee said as she turned and started waving at him.
“Kaylee,” Mal hissed, grabbing her hand and pulling it down before the guy saw it. However, he hadn’t counted on Jayne whistling at him to get his attention.
“Hey,” he shouted at him, “Little Man.”
Surprisingly, the guy turned to look at him, pointing to himself in surprise.
“Yeah you,” Jayne said, “Pull up a chair.”
The guy looked a bit nervous, giving them all a once over to make sure they weren’t crazy or nothin. When he looked at Mal, he couldn’t help but blush and look away, which apparently was enough to give him the courage to approach them. As he turned to let his friends know where he was going, Mal buried his face in face in his hands, “I’m gonna kill you,” he told Jayne, “Slowly.”
Jayne just grinned at him, “You’ll thank me in the morning,” he told him, holding up his drink in salute.
“Um… hey,” the guy said as he reached their table.
“Hi,” Kaylee said with a grin, “Sit yourself down.”
Turning he found a spare chair at the table behind him and sat down, in between Kaylee and Mal,
“I’m Kaylee, this is my husband Jayne, that’s Zoe and the bashful one there is Mal.”
“Oh, I’m Wash,” he said.
“Wash?” Zoe asked.
“My surname is Washburn, but everyone calls me Wash.”
“What’s your first name?” Kaylee asked.
“Embarrassing,” he told her, making them all smile slightly in amusement, even Mal, “So uh, there a particular reason why you invited me over here?” he asked.
“We was just curious,” Jayne said.
“Curious?”
“We don’t get a lot of folk visiting our town,” Zoe said, “Let alone five pilots.”
“Oh,” Wash said, “Well, we just graduated last week and we have two weeks before we get assigned to a sector, so we’ve been planet hopping.”
“Planet hopping?” Mal asked, speaking for the first time.
Wash turned to look at him, smiling and shifting his body to look at him, “We take our ships and fly to the next planet over, spending the night there. We’ve been to Persephone and Londinium so far,” he explained, “After this we hope to go to Bellephron and Santos before heading back to Heinlein.”
“Sounds like fun,” Zoe said, sipping at her drink.
Wash shrugged, “We don’t really get a chance to blow off steam, and we’re probably going to get into hell for this when we go back, but uh, I have a feeling it might be worth it,” he said, looking sideways at Mal.
Mal blushed again and used his drink to shield himself, taking a large gulp of it.
“So, what are you all doing out on this fine night?” Wash asked them.
“It’s Mal’s birthday,” Jayne said with a grin, the scowl Mal directed his way not affecting him at all.
“Really?” Wash asked.
“Uh, yeah,” Mal said with a nod.
“You get anything nice?”
“Not yet he hasn’t,” Jayne said with a laugh.
“Jayne will you quit it,” Mal snapped before standing up and storming out of the bar.
When he got outside he stopped, leaning up against the wall as he took a deep breath. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Wash, it was just… well he’d never done anything like this before. He didn’t know how to act and Jayne just wasn’t helping matters.
“Are you okay?”
Looking to his left, Mal was a bit surprised to see Wash standing there having followed him outside.
“Yeah,” Mal said with a sigh, “Shiny.”
Wash nodded, “So uh, was I picking up on the right signals in there or have I got this completely wrong? Cause I don’t want to make you all uncomfortable on your birthday.”
“No, you got it right,” Mal told him, “It’s just… I’ve never done this before.”
“Picked up a guy in a bar?” Wash asked with a smile.
“No. Yes… kinda. This town, there ain’t a lot of sly folk, let alone a lot of available sly folk,” he told him, “So I ain’t had a lot of practice.”
Wash leaned back against the wall next to him, “I kind of forget, coming from a big city and all, that being sly isn’t as common out here in the smaller towns… God those stars are beautiful,” he added, his head pointed towards the stars.
“Suppose,” Mal said with a shrug.
“Suppose?” Wash asked in absolute astonishment, “Mal, you have no idea how lucky you are being able to see those every night. Where I grew up you couldn’t see the stars at all. It’s why I learned to fly, so I could see the stars.”
Mal stood and watched as Wash talked excitedly about the stars, waving his arms about and grinning ear to ear. He really was very pretty, his smiling blue eyes sparkling in the moonlight. He couldn’t help but smile back.
“What?” Wash asked as he finally noticed Mal smiling at him.
But Mal didn’t say anything, just pushed forward and placed a soft kiss on his lips. When he pulled back, he was happy to see Wash still smiling.
“Alright then,” Wash said reaching down and taking hold of his hand, “Now are you going to let me buy you a birthday drink?” he asked.
Mal nodded, “Yeah. I’d like that.”
“Good,” Wash said, before leaning back in and kissing him again, “And if you’re really luck, maybe later I’ll teach you how to fly.”
THE END
Author: Ru_salki99
Rating: PG 13
Pairing: Mal/Wash
Disclaimer: Firefly belongs to Fox/Universal
Author's notes: Written for this year's washathon.
Summary: AU - Mal's friends take him out for his birthday and get him the best present ever.
Mal was nineteen today.
Nineteen years old.
It wasn’t anything special. Hell eighteen wasn’t even special. He’d officially become an adult at seventeen. Nineteen was downright old in comparison.
Most of the guys he grew up with were married and had at least one child of there own, a couple of them having two. Where as he still lived with his mother. He wasn’t ashamed of the fact that he still lived and worked at the ranch. He loved it there, couldn’t imagine doing any other kind of work. But of course, working and living on the ranch didn’t leave much time for a social life.
His mother was desperate for him to get married.
It wasn’t that she wanted rid of him. Far from it. Any wife he took would move onto the ranch with him. Only problem was, he didn’t want a wife.
When he was sixteen and his mother had started talking to the local matchmaker, hoping to get the best girl for him, he had been horrified when she’d come in and started taking his measurements and asking him all sorts of personal questions, so much so that he’d snapped and blurted out the fact that he was sly.
He was pretty sure that he’d never seen his mother so embarrassed before, not to mention the matchmaker looked like she’d been slapped. But he’d had to tell them. He couldn’t just stand there and let them plan his future, when it just wasn’t the future he’d wanted.
His mother had said it was a phase, that he’d grow out of it and that when he did, she’d call the matchmaker again.
He hadn’t grown out of it, far from it. Every day as he saw his fellow ranchers, their large muscles and toned bodies shining in the sun, he knew what he wanted. He wanted to feel strong hands on him, rough, stubbled skin against his own and strong, firm muscles under his hands. However, finding that on Shadow was near impossible.
A group of his friends decided to take him into town to get him drunk for his birthday. Jayne, Kaylee and Zoe. Jayne and Kaylee had been married for a year now and were expecting their first child, so Kaylee wouldn’t be drinking… not that she need it. That girl was hyper all the time, God only knew how Jayne had the energy to keep up with her.
Zoe, like him, was sly. She wasn’t interested in relationships though, after all there were less sly women on Shadow than there were sly men. She’d often joked with Mal about how they should just get married, put their parents out of their misery, but they never did. It would’ve been weird and just complicated and probably ruin their friendship.
And so together the four of them headed into Rudy’s tavern. Usually there wasn’t much special going on in there. Of course there were the usual whores and card games going on, but everyone who was in there were folk from town. They were a few miles over from the nearest trade town and so didn’t get many people passing through.
So it was with some surprise, as Jayne came back with their third round of drinks that the doors to Rudy’s swung open and in strolled a small group of pilots. The entire bar went silent as they noticed them. They were all rather young and had what Mal recognised as meaning ‘airman’ patches on their jackets. Which meant that they had only just qualified.
There was five of them in the group and they all looked about nervously before going up to the bar. When the only female in their group ordered in a round of drinks, everyone started talking again, going back to their own business.
“Wonder what they’re doing here,” Kaylee said as she looked at them.
“Probably on some training exercise or something,” Zoe said.
“I don’t like ‘em,” Jayne said flatly, “Never trust folk who wear a uniform into a bar.”
“Aw sweetie,” Kaylee said as she patted his knee, “When I said I liked a man in uniform, what I really meant was I liked you in uniform.”
“That why you bought me that sheriff’s shirt?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Might be,” she said with a grin.
“Please guys, it’s my birthday,” Mal said, “I could really do without the mental scarring.”
“You trying to tell me you don’t like a man in uniform?” Kaylee asked him.
Mal looked up at the group, noticing a rather attractive red headed fella standing at the back of them all, sipping his drink and surveying the other patrons.
“That’s not what I said,” he told her, picking up his own drink.
As one, Kaylee, Jayne and Zoe turned to look at what he was looking at, all of their faces breaking into smiles at the same time.
“You want us to leave you two alone?” Zoe asked, humour in her eyes.
Mal rolled his eyes, “Don’t be ridiculous. He’s probably not even sly.”
“Well you never know unless you try,” Kaylee said as she turned and started waving at him.
“Kaylee,” Mal hissed, grabbing her hand and pulling it down before the guy saw it. However, he hadn’t counted on Jayne whistling at him to get his attention.
“Hey,” he shouted at him, “Little Man.”
Surprisingly, the guy turned to look at him, pointing to himself in surprise.
“Yeah you,” Jayne said, “Pull up a chair.”
The guy looked a bit nervous, giving them all a once over to make sure they weren’t crazy or nothin. When he looked at Mal, he couldn’t help but blush and look away, which apparently was enough to give him the courage to approach them. As he turned to let his friends know where he was going, Mal buried his face in face in his hands, “I’m gonna kill you,” he told Jayne, “Slowly.”
Jayne just grinned at him, “You’ll thank me in the morning,” he told him, holding up his drink in salute.
“Um… hey,” the guy said as he reached their table.
“Hi,” Kaylee said with a grin, “Sit yourself down.”
Turning he found a spare chair at the table behind him and sat down, in between Kaylee and Mal,
“I’m Kaylee, this is my husband Jayne, that’s Zoe and the bashful one there is Mal.”
“Oh, I’m Wash,” he said.
“Wash?” Zoe asked.
“My surname is Washburn, but everyone calls me Wash.”
“What’s your first name?” Kaylee asked.
“Embarrassing,” he told her, making them all smile slightly in amusement, even Mal, “So uh, there a particular reason why you invited me over here?” he asked.
“We was just curious,” Jayne said.
“Curious?”
“We don’t get a lot of folk visiting our town,” Zoe said, “Let alone five pilots.”
“Oh,” Wash said, “Well, we just graduated last week and we have two weeks before we get assigned to a sector, so we’ve been planet hopping.”
“Planet hopping?” Mal asked, speaking for the first time.
Wash turned to look at him, smiling and shifting his body to look at him, “We take our ships and fly to the next planet over, spending the night there. We’ve been to Persephone and Londinium so far,” he explained, “After this we hope to go to Bellephron and Santos before heading back to Heinlein.”
“Sounds like fun,” Zoe said, sipping at her drink.
Wash shrugged, “We don’t really get a chance to blow off steam, and we’re probably going to get into hell for this when we go back, but uh, I have a feeling it might be worth it,” he said, looking sideways at Mal.
Mal blushed again and used his drink to shield himself, taking a large gulp of it.
“So, what are you all doing out on this fine night?” Wash asked them.
“It’s Mal’s birthday,” Jayne said with a grin, the scowl Mal directed his way not affecting him at all.
“Really?” Wash asked.
“Uh, yeah,” Mal said with a nod.
“You get anything nice?”
“Not yet he hasn’t,” Jayne said with a laugh.
“Jayne will you quit it,” Mal snapped before standing up and storming out of the bar.
When he got outside he stopped, leaning up against the wall as he took a deep breath. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Wash, it was just… well he’d never done anything like this before. He didn’t know how to act and Jayne just wasn’t helping matters.
“Are you okay?”
Looking to his left, Mal was a bit surprised to see Wash standing there having followed him outside.
“Yeah,” Mal said with a sigh, “Shiny.”
Wash nodded, “So uh, was I picking up on the right signals in there or have I got this completely wrong? Cause I don’t want to make you all uncomfortable on your birthday.”
“No, you got it right,” Mal told him, “It’s just… I’ve never done this before.”
“Picked up a guy in a bar?” Wash asked with a smile.
“No. Yes… kinda. This town, there ain’t a lot of sly folk, let alone a lot of available sly folk,” he told him, “So I ain’t had a lot of practice.”
Wash leaned back against the wall next to him, “I kind of forget, coming from a big city and all, that being sly isn’t as common out here in the smaller towns… God those stars are beautiful,” he added, his head pointed towards the stars.
“Suppose,” Mal said with a shrug.
“Suppose?” Wash asked in absolute astonishment, “Mal, you have no idea how lucky you are being able to see those every night. Where I grew up you couldn’t see the stars at all. It’s why I learned to fly, so I could see the stars.”
Mal stood and watched as Wash talked excitedly about the stars, waving his arms about and grinning ear to ear. He really was very pretty, his smiling blue eyes sparkling in the moonlight. He couldn’t help but smile back.
“What?” Wash asked as he finally noticed Mal smiling at him.
But Mal didn’t say anything, just pushed forward and placed a soft kiss on his lips. When he pulled back, he was happy to see Wash still smiling.
“Alright then,” Wash said reaching down and taking hold of his hand, “Now are you going to let me buy you a birthday drink?” he asked.
Mal nodded, “Yeah. I’d like that.”
“Good,” Wash said, before leaning back in and kissing him again, “And if you’re really luck, maybe later I’ll teach you how to fly.”
THE END