[After this.]

When Simon steps onto the nearly-repaired Firefly in the Milliways garage, he's carrying a heavy brown paper bag; the contents jostle against each other with the flat click of plastic.

He sets the bag down just outside the engine room, and taps with his knuckles on its open door.

When Simon's datareader starts to flash with casual insistence, the accompanying message below reads:

Guess where I'm waving from?

(The image indicating the person on the other end is a cigar-chomping monkey wearing a crown.)

Simon grins, and touches the control to accept the wave.

They came to an agreement early on: since Kaylee's much busier than Simon right now, even if he helps, and since Simon will be much busier after they've moved, it only makes sense for him to do the bulk of their packing now and for her to do the bulk of the unpacking later ( Read more... )

He isn't surprised at River's decision.

He may have to keep reminding himself that he isn't surprised, but he isn't.

It's in this frame of mind that he steps into the room he and Kaylee share, later that night.

Kaylee holds out a hand from under the engine block, and Simon stretches to hand her the spanner.

They're in Serenity's engine room. Not their own Serenity; the one in the Milliways garage.

Being here still feels strange, in so many ways -- but helping to put it back together feels right.

He sits staring at the screen for something close to a minute, trying to persuade himself that it's real.

This is to confirm our receipt of your formal acceptance ( Read more... )

"He says he's not mad at you."

They're sitting on the green couch in the upstairs room at Milliways that he's come to think of as theirs. Simon's cradling a teacup between his palms.

Serenity has a cargo pickup scheduled on Hadrian in a week. They've been there before; Mal likes to get there well ahead of time, so as to be sure they set eyes on whoever's coming before they land. They'll be there for about a day ( Read more... )

After Kaylee's conversation with Mal, Simon's a lot more uncertain about how this one is going to go.

But he's twice as certain as before that it's necessary.

It's late at night, and he's hoping to find Mal on the bridge.

It's midafternoon, ship's time. Nobody else is likely to be around.

Simon taps lightly on the door to River's room.