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One of the effects of living on a midsize cargo ship with a small crew was that it was incredibly obvious when someone's routine changed and fairly easy to tell what those little changes meant. Wash noticed when River started to stabilize a little because she could go to the galley by herself in the morning to make herself tea, and he noticed when she started making tea for her brother too. Wash could tell when Jayne started sending more of his take back home (he was hungover less frequently), and he could tell when the Shepherd settled into the ship, because his routine was suddenly like clockwork.
Wash also noticed when Kaylee and Inara suddenly started avoiding each other.
To be fair, that one was so obvious he was pretty sure that literally everyone on board had noticed it too. It felt wrong. If Kaylee was not curled up with Simon, doing whatever passed for date night on a ship (Wash was also familiar with that struggle), then she and Inara were usually together if they were both on the ship, playing games or gossiping or just sitting in companionable silence. No one had designated spots at the dinner table, but they often tried to sit next to each other, occasionally withdrawing from the general conversation to have a little chat, just the two of them.
So now that Inara wouldn't even enter the galley if she saw that Kaylee was at dinner and River had replaced Kaylee in Inara's shuttle for games or hairbrushing time and the infirmary was a little more cluttered because Simon had less free time to spend organizing it compulsively because more of his time was spent with his girlfriend, Wash definitely noticed.
He couldn’t help but feel bad that Kaylee and Inara were having a falling out on board a spaceship of all places. There was only so far one could get away from another person when they were all contained on a spaceship in the middle of deep space, and he knew that well. Developing the skill of talking through issues with Zoe was a never ending journey that Wash may have been getting better at, but still found difficult to handle at times. The luxury of being able to storm out of a café and go home and not even risk seeing the other person among the thousands in a city was something that Wash was grateful he'd experienced back home.
Eventually the tension got so bad that it couldn't be ignored any longer. Kaylee skipped dinner, which meant that the rest of the crew shared Inara's company for the first time in what felt like forever. They were glad to see her, but something still felt off and when Simon ate with record speed and then fixed up a plate and mumbled something about taking it to Kaylee in the engine room, Wash almost envied him for having a real excuse to leave the galley.
"Shouldn't someone do somethin'?" Jayne asked once Inara had said goodnight and returned to her shuttle.
"You volunteering?" Mal countered. Jayne's eyes flickered to Wash like he knew they would.
"Wash, would you mind speaking with Kaylee?" Zoe asked. "Usually I'd ask Inara for help when Kaylee was going through something, but considering the circumstances…"
"I'll see if I can't get Inara to open up a little," Shepherd book spoke up.
"Yeah, alright," Wash surrendered. "I'll see if I can find out what's been bothering her. If it hasn't blown over by now, it might be something serious."
Kaylee was in the engine room, her plate of dinner half-eaten. Simon was surprisingly nowhere to be seen.
Wash briefly considered making a joke about the great disappearing boyfriend or maybe faux horror that Kaylee had lost her healthy appetite, but thought better of it at the last moment and went with plain sincerity.
"Hi there, Kaylee."
"Hi Wash."
"I thought I'd come check up on you."
"That right?"
"You're starting to worry us," he said. "Nobody likes seeing you so upset. Is there something we can do?"
"Talk to Inara," Kaylee mumbled. It was as good an in as anything.
"Yeah…so, what exactly happened between you two?"
"We had a fight. I just…I don't know. Things are changing and I know that's fine but I don't think she's going about it the right way."
She must have been talking about Inara's venture into dating outside her professional appointments. It had been a surprise, to be sure, and Wash had tried to make himself scarce while Mal processed it, but in the end it seemed like he didn't entirely know what to make of the new development and so hadn't been able to justify mustering up a lot of anger. The idea that Kaylee was the one who was the most upset about her close friend exploring the idea of a new relationship was honestly shocking to Wash.
"You're talking about her going out with that gal on Albion?"
"Yeah, kind of," Kaylee admitted.
"What's the issue with it?"
"Shouldn't she be upfront with her situation?" Kaylee asked.
"I'm sure she was," Wash said, frowning. "I'm sure she was very clear about the fact that she's a Companion—"
"I meant that she has us," Kaylee said. "That she…that she moves around a lot, I mean."
"She probably did say all that, Kaylee. Inara knows how to navigate her own relationships."
"Well she sure didn't seem to navigate her friendship with me all that well!" Kaylee said, her voice shrill for just a moment before her shoulders slumped and she started to sniffle.
"Oh…okay, why don't you tell me what happened?"
"It was my birthday last month."
"Right."
"And Inara didn't do anything for me," Kaylee said. "And when I say that out loud it feels like I'm being such a baby, but last year she took me out to lunch and made a little batch of bai tang gao and we had a sleepover. It was lovely. Maybe I shouldn't have gotten used to it, and she did give me a little silk kerchief, but…she planned a whole day last year."
"Is that not something that Simon should be doing?" Wash asked.
"Simon did do that," Kaylee said, starting to cry.
"Okay, that's good, right?"
"Well…yeah
"But I…shouldn't Inara have…" she trailed off and looked up at Wash with huge forlorn eyes, apparently confused at what she was saying.
"These are all things that a partner should be doing," Wash reminded her. "Something a lover does."
"Right," Kaylee said. Her brow was still creased.
"Inara isn't your lover," Wash pointed out hesitantly. "I mean, unless you've been keeping something under wraps, which I wouldn't blame you for, because it can be nice to have a little something that's private, but uh…yeah. Simon's job."
He and Kaylee stared at each other for a little while.
"It just felt like something…" Kaylee trailed off.
"Something you expected of Inara," Wash provided.
"Yeah."
"Because Inara is…somehow, maybe, sort of, possibly, the person that your brain might kind of somewhat be considering…a partner, and if a previously very attentive partner had only given you a token gift for a birthday and not made any plans, plenty of people would feel upset?"
"No! No, I know that Simon…I know…" she trailed off, obviously frustrated.
"Do you think that maybe…some part of you maybe would prefer Inara as a partner?"
Kaylee looked at him indignantly for a moment and opened her mouth to respond but then closed it again and resumed crying.
"I don't know!"
Wash figured it was time to break out the big guns. He reached out to take Kaylee by the shoulders, helped her sit down against the wall, and put his arms around her as she cried.
"You ever thought about that before?" Wash asked softly. "About the possibility that you fell in love with Inara?"
Kaylee shook her head.
"You ever had a girl before?" Wash wondered. Kaylee shrugged.
"Never went steady with one. Just did the usual kissing during sleepovers and goin' to school dances together. Everybody does that."
Wash knew girls who'd done that. He wouldn’t go so far as to say it was every girl.
"Right…ah…you know, they do say that sometimes best friends make the best relationships," he said awkwardly. "I think it happens pretty often, right? Because they understand each other so well and they spend a lot of time together. It isn't always the case, of course, and I'm not saying that it has to be the case for you, because there's no set rules for how you have to approach a relationship, right? Sometimes you marry your high school sweetheart and sometimes you find your soulmate on vacation and sometimes you meet the most beautiful and scariest woman alive while you're interviewing for a pilot job, or—"
"What if I am?" Kaylee whispered. She sounded mortified. "What if I'm in love with Inara? What about Simon?"
"Maybe you and Simon should take a bit of a break," Wash suggested. "You could think about it, and if you come to the conclusion you want to be with him, I'm sure that would work out. If not, Simon's a good guy, he wouldn't be able to stay mad at you for too long. And sometimes people make it work in threes or fours, but…I'm gonna be honest, Kaylee, with the way you uh…didn't really seem to register that Simon did all the things a boyfriend is supposed to do for your birthday…"
"Yeah, no. I heard you," Kaylee said glumly. "Gosh, don't I feel horrible. I gotta make sure he knows it ain't his fault."
"You gotta take care of yourself, too," Wash reminded her. "I can talk to Simon if you like."
"Well, no…I oughta…I oughta do it," Kaylee said. "And I need to talk to Inara too." She tensed suddenly. "Just to apologize," she said hastily. "I need to think about…things."
"It's a lot to think about," Wash told her. "I can talk to one of them just a little bit before. To soften it? Oh, and Shepherd just volunteered to talk to Inara, also. So I think it won't be so scary."
"Yeah, maybe…yeah, if you would say something."
"I'll go have some man to man time with Simon, how about that?"
"Okay."
"But! I don't think either of us should do that right now. I think you should take a bit of an early night," Wash said, standing and then reaching down to help Kaylee to her feet.
"Thanks Wash. I really…you're a good friend."
"Aw, shucks, little Kaylee. I do my best. Otherwise it was gonna be Mal in here trying to cheer you up, though maybe you could have leveraged those tears into having him pay for a new multi-load thermal regulator."