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Kaylee don’t mean to disturb Inara, ‘cause she knows the other woman’s usually got a yoga routine she commits to ‘round this time a’day and generally likes her solitude for that. But she also knows Simon occasionally joins her, and she’s been lookin’ for him because—
Well, when Kaylee opens the shuttle door, she finds him, and in consequence forgets why she was lookin’ in the first place.
“Inara—” she starts, but stops in her tracks as she fully processes both of ‘em sitting up on Inara’s bed, Simon’s back to the edge that meets the wall while Inara sits in front of him, a small, thin tool in hand, but Kaylee can’t totally make it out. “Oh! You have seen him.” Kaylee grins, rubbin’ awkwardly at the side of her head to smooth her hair back. Simon looks caught-out, but Kaylee don’t know why. All of this is still pretty new to ‘em, and they’re not shoutin’ it from the rooftops ‘round the rest, but they got an arrangement that works jus’ fine.
Simon and Kaylee are dating. They’ve cleared that all up. Kaylee and Inara are also dating. Kaylee don’t fully understand what Simon and Inara are; they’re certainly closer than she thinks most would consider platonic, certainly closer than what she’d consider platonic, herself. But it’s not quite the same? She just knows it works for the pair. She’s even seen ‘em kiss before (mainly only in here, and always very casual) and is pretty fine with it, actually. But neither of ‘em seem in particular much interested in more with each other, when Kaylee’s done more with both of ‘em.
So she maybe would have been surprised to find ‘em in bed together in that way, but she don’t really think she would have minded, ‘cause, well. Ain’t she doin’ the same thing?
But what’s goin’ on here don’t seem overly salacious, yet there’s a tension hangin’ in the air she can’t quite make sense of.
But then she zeroes in on the brush in Inara’s hand, and looks to Simon’s face more closely. He’s a little made-up, and his throat works as he gulps.
“Kaylee… would mind locking that?” Inara asks of her, nodding toward the door. “Sorry to ask; I thought I had done it before.” Words caught in her throat a minute, Kaylee nods and turns to do it quickly, before walkin’ over to the bed. Kinda slow, so as not to startle Simon, who’s lookin’ pretty nervous.
Simon, impossibly, goes even more still as Kaylee reaches them, and she don’t know how that’s possible, because it ain’t like he was movin’ before.
“Oh, honey.” Kaylee moves to sit on the edge of the bed; Inara shifts to make room for her, though her knees still graze against Kaylee’s left outer thigh. She glances at Inara, who smiles with encouragement and gives the slightest nod. Maybe it should be a little weird that she’s waitin’ for Inara’s—not permission, but her okay, her confirmation that she should broach the topic with her own boyfriend, but she seems to know what she’s doin’, and Kaylee, while not bothered, strictly speakin’, is a little out of her depths jus’ now.
Kaylee’s other leg’s hangin’ off the edge of the bed; it ain’t the most graceful, comfortable position of all time, but they’ll adjust when it’s necessary. She’s got more important things to tend to, jus’ now.
She reaches a hand to cup Simon’s face and hums as his dolled-up eyelashes flutter, throat still workin’ like he’s tryin’ to find somethin’ to say, but can’t. She leans forward to kiss him, show him that this is all really okay. His lips, already usually plush and soft, she notes before they meet and her eyes close, are candy-bright. They’re also wetstickywarm against hers, his mouth lovely as it parts for her. It seems like a long while they’re like that, lazy and soft and slow and so, so sweet. He can be so sweet when he finally lets himself. Always melts into a kiss like he could just stay there for hours. It ain’t hours, but she don’t know how long it’s been when they part, what she was even worried on before by now. It can’t have mattered much.
His eyes have gone cloudy and his posture seems less tense, she thinks, but he still don’t seem able to move or say much on his own yet. His skin is jus’ subtly evened out, not too much coverage, and Inara’s got his eyelids painted over with a soft, muted pink, hardly noticeable, just testin’ somethin’ out. And then there are those eyelashes. It’s a little not fair, actually; his eyelashes were long and fluttery and did somethin’ to her already without much help needed.
She glances down to Simon’s lips again, his gloss a little messed up. Seriously, though: he has really, really never looked more kissable. Which is kinda sayin’ somethin’, because hello, she’d wanted to know what it’d be like kiss him practically since they met.
“So pretty,” Kaylee says finally, reaching to wipe away the bit of gloss that’s gone astray underneath his bottom lip, then trailin’ her hand up to stroke her thumb along the high point of his cheekbone, which she can see now is glitterin’ subtly with some kind of highlight, and oh, they were gettin’ a little bolder before she came in. She leans her forehead to his, and feels Inara shift some, the warmth of her silk-clothed knee a grounding presence against Kaylee’s outer thigh. ‘S all so soft and warm right now, ‘specially with Simon startin’ to relax more. She repeats in a low murmur, a ghost of breath against his skin,“You’re so pretty.”
“You, too,” Simon chokes out. It’s the first thing he’s managed to get out since she came in, tryin’ for a shaky smile, and Kaylee smiles back.
“I ain’t even got any make-up on,” she counters, preenin’ nonetheless at his words as she tucks a stray strand of hair behind her ear. She had been workin’ in the engine room prior to this, and she’s long-since learned there’s little reason to wear it when it’s all gonna sweat off, anyway. She’s jus’ lucky she wasn’t so covered in grease today, so she could kiss Simon without ruinin’ what he’s got goin’ on now.
“Like I said.” He says this with a tilt-up of his chin, his smile more genuine now.
“I agree with you both,” Inara chimes in, and Kaylee turns her head to grin at her, gigglin’ a little. She feels somethin’ inside her swell a great deal. Truth be told: she loves Inara all on her own, and she loves Simon. Took a minute to get here, but she don’t doubt now at all that either of ‘em loves her, too.
And she really, really loves that they love each other. Enough that Inara would help him explore somethin’ like this when he needed it. That she’d take the time and care with someone so precious to Kaylee herself, and that she knows Simon would do the same (and will, with times to come) in other ways. When it’s needed.
How could she not love that?
Maybe, she thinks yet again, it should be weird that he went to Inara and not her, and Kaylee do think they should prob’bly oughta talk about it, if he was really worried to tell her. But in this moment, it don’t matter so much. Everythin’s okay.
So okay, in fact, that when she leans in to kiss Inara then, she don’t got one worry in her head that Simon will mind. And he don’t, only tryin’ scooch that much further back to give Inara a little room as she leans forward, even though there’s nowhere, really, for him to go.
It’s somethin’ they haven’t done much yet, ‘round each other. The kisses Kaylee’s seen between Inara and Simon have mostly been pecks on the cheek or chaste brushes of the lips. She’s spent a lot of her time with Inara, since this arrangement started, without Simon around. Kaylee figures Inara’s probably seen her and Simon a little more, but… ain’t nothing quite like this. Both of these today have been longer, and, as Inara winds a hand through Kaylee’s hair again, it occurs to her that everyone might not do it like this? Maybe they’re supposed to keep things more separate?
But when she and Inara finally pull back gasping, and Kaylee looks to him, Simon don’t seem to mind none at all. She’s wanted to bristle around Jayne before; she’d been too awe-stricken to say much that time the Councilor came around, but the way he was talkin’ ‘bout it left her feelin’ pretty irritated with him.
Once she recovered from how good Inara had looked with the other woman.
And, she can admit now, recovered from the simmer of hurt she’d felt that apparently Inara did feel that way about other women—just not her.
But then, she’s since learned she’s the tiniest bit prone to sometimes jump to makin’ assumptions and conclusions.
Anyway, Kaylee knows Jayne’s gotta different side to him, she’s seen it; they also all know he can be pretty awful ‘bout some things. Mal keeps him ‘round for a reason, but that moment, with a lust borderin’ on lookin’ pretty demeaning shinin’ in his eyes, she hadn’t so much known for what.
It ain’t like that with Simon, though. Only thing shinin’ in his eyes in the aftermath is fond affection for ‘em both.
Prob’bly it should be strange, how strange it doesn’t feel.
But Kaylee finds she don’t care to try to feel what other people might. This thing between the three of ‘em, it’s theirs. They can do whatever the hell they want with it.
Reachin’ for Simon’s face again, she cups his cheek, and looks at him with consideration. Wonderin’ how long this has been somethin’ he wants. If this would have gotten him in trouble, back on Osiris. What the other guys on the ship, or whoever, might say. If he wants to keep going.
“A little blush, maybe?” she suggests, thumbin’ at his cheek in a gentle circle.
“I don’t know… “ Kaylee watches as his eyes dart to the door. She tries to soothe at his cheek some more. Okay as things have turned out, her comin’ in was prob’bly a harsh awakening back to reality for Simon. Most of the crew, she thinks, wouldn’t be so bad about—about whatever this is, whatever he wants it to be. But if he ain’t ready, that’s his business, and fact is, there’s a world outside this ship. Kaylee likes to see the good, but she ain’t got no actual illusions that means there’s no bad out there.
“It will wash off, Simon,” Inara promises, pressin’ an assuring hand to Simon’s knee. Kaylee bites her lip, and tastes, funnily enough, some artificial strawberry from his gloss transferrin’ over to her. Inara hadn’t been wearin’ anything on hers when they kissed, though faintly, Kaylee realizes she must have passed it from Simon to her, and ducks her head, smilin’ some at the thought. “This is just for us—well, the three of us,” Inara adds, and Kaylee’s chest constricts. She never knew she could feel this happy, and it weren’t like she were ever much a melancholy person to begin with. It’s a little easy to feel overcome by it, but right now, she really jus’ wants to make sure they’re all of them okay. “Unless you say otherwise.”
It’s another moment, but then Simon’s agreeing “Okay,” in his quiet voice, the one he uses when he’s admittin’ to somethin’ he wants, ‘steada somethin’ he’s jus’ agreeing to outta habit.
Inara hums before handin’ over a different brush from her collection to Kaylee, and a compact full of dust-rose blush. Kaylee begins to apply it to Simon’s cheeks as he closes his eyes, and they all sit a while in the comfortable quiet.