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Kaylee wasn't entirely sure what the logistics were of this job. Zoe had arranged it, had told her that their contact was interested in dealing with a crew who understands how important the technology is they'll be transporting, which in turn meant that the second meeting needed to be with Kaylee present.
How this translated to Inara taking Kaylee to a fancy party on Londinium was the murky part.
"I just feel like…everyone's going to be able to see that I work for a living," Kaylee said as she tried on ballgowns at a store that Inara picked. She'd assured Kaylee that this boutique was very exclusive, and that there won't be any comments at the event aside from how lovely the dress is.
"What do you mean?" Inara wondered.
"My shoulders," Kaylee explained. "Just…I'm not exactly slim and elegant there."
"There are women on Londinium who will be at that ball who pay a personal trainer a thousand credits a year and spend an hour in a gym every single day to get shoulders as strong as yours," Inara told her, squeezing one of those shoulders affectionately as she finished tightening the cream satin ribbons that laced up the back of the gown. "And besides it's something to be proud of, all that work you do on Serenity—"
"Well, I know that. And you know that. But all the people who go to fancy parties on Londinium?"
"I guess you're right," Inara conceded. "But they'll play nice."
The dress Inara selected as her first pick for Kaylee to try was a shimmery baby blue, with about enough fabric in the overskirt to make a tent, and Kaylee's favorite: ruffles. There were layers and layers of white, lacey ruffles on the skirt, half covered around the back by the heavy blue silk with the woven-in pattern. The bodice was tightly fitted and had big balloons of sleeves that were attached to the dress by ribbon loops.
"Very practical," said the sales associate as she helped Inara tie the sleeves on. "They're show stopping when you enter the ballroom or the gala; very ancient princess, but when it's time to dance or even to eat dinner, they can come right off and not get in the way. Perfect for long gloves or showing off bracelets, too."
Kaylee walked to the little elevated platform in the middle of the atelier surrounded by mirrors, holding the skirt in her hands, and stood there as Inara and the sales associate both looked at her for a long moment of silence.
"I think it's too icy," said the associate eventually. "You look like more of a sunflower girl."
"I was thinking exactly that," Inara agreed. "She usually wears pink, but—"
"I think yellow would be nice," the associate said, already walking away to search through the garment racks. "We have this same style in a beautiful yellow. It's a little bold, you know, sort of a fresh lemon rather than a soft buttery shade, but I think she can pull it off."
Kaylee and Inara went back to the dressing room and Inara set about freeing Kaylee from the corseted bodice. Her fingers slipped in between the crosses of ribbons and grazed Kaylee's back in a way that had shivers running up her spine. The associate returned with the yellow gown in question before Kaylee could sink too far into the quiet closeness they were sharing in the dressing room, and they got Kaylee into the gown. Once she was in front of the mirror, it was hard not to grin at herself. The style was the same, but the ruffles were bright yellow and the overskirt had some gold accents throughout the pattern.
"I think this is the one," Kaylee said. "If I had to pick something from this store."
"It needs a bit of alteration," Inara said as she circled the platform. "The event has no processional and the dancing is limited."
"Of course," said the associate immediately. "That's easy enough to arrange."
"Do they have these gowns available for rent?" Kaylee wondered as the sales associate went off to look for their in-house seamstress. "Or do you think there might be some extra funds squirreled away that the captain will let me borrow since this is for a job and all?"
"Oh, I'm buying the dress," Inara told her.
"Oh. Okay, we'll…set up a plan for me to pay it back? Or is it a dress for you after I wear it?"
"It's your dress," Inara said, fussing with the tiny ruffles that accentuated the neckline and the top of the detachable sleeves. "It's a present from me."
"No, oh no, Inara, I can't let you—"
"I have the money for it," Inara interrupted, and then grinned at Kaylee fondly. "I rarely just go shopping at the level I used to on Sihnon; there's no room in the shuttle to store the sort of handbag and shoe collections a lot of Companions amass when they live in flats or at training houses. Besides, now that I no longer have daily access to luxury boutiques on a walk home from lunch…the money really does accumulate. I'd like to buy this for you."
"Okay…if you're sure, Inara. It's awfully generous of you."
"It would make me happy to. If you like, we can try to get you a ballgown in every color of the rainbow," she said, laughing. "Just see how many parties we can get you to for ship business."
Inara paid for the dress and then after Kaylee was measured and the pins were put into the dress for the skirt length, she paid for the alterations too, and then for the delivery to Serenity at the docks.
"That was a lot of money," Kaylee said quietly as they left the boutique. "I don't want you to feel like you need to pay for the delivery. I can come back and collect it. And I could have paid for the alterations, since they're tailoring it to my body."
"I like buying you things," Inara said simply. "And our next stop is finding shoes that will match." She reached into her pocket and pulled out two scraps of fabric: a little two inch ruffle of the yellow tulle and a square of the silk from the overskirt.
"Oh. I…I mean, I won't say no to trying on shoes," Kaylee finally said.
Inara took her to a busy department store for that, and the staff brought out every yellow pair of shoes they seemed to have in stock. Kaylee picked one pair almost immediately because they were unlike anything Kaylee had worn before; lemon yellow leather to match the dress's ruffles, two tiny criss-crossing straps held together by the most delicate buckles, and a long heel that tapered down to a point that was narrower than the tip of Kaylee's pinkie finger.
They were exorbitantly expensive, but Inara paid for them without blinking and then treated Kaylee to lunch at a little open air café, where they ate unbelievably decadent pasta dishes and drank orange colored cocktails for what felt like the whole afternoon.
"I have some jewelry that I think would really go well with that gown," Inara told her once they were walking up Serenity's ramp. "Would you like to borrow it?"
"I would love to."
The party was five days later, a week into their stay on Londinium. Kaylee felt a little bad about being so excited about the event when Simon and River were clearly starting to go a little stir crazy alone on the ship, unable to go anywhere, but she couldn't help herself. The dress had been delivered and she'd tried it on and it fit like a dream. She brought it to Inara's shuttle a few hours before they were meant to be at the event hall and they spent a little bit of time on hair and makeup.
Inara's heels were even more impressive than Kaylee's, stitched in gray-blue silk and featuring a stiff sculpted strap that spiraled up her ankle and had dozens of short strands of crystals and little pearls hanging along it.
"You want to know a secret about these shoes?" Inara asked when she brought them out.
"Sure!"
"A client from New Melbourne gave them to me, and the pearls are real."
"Real!?"
"Sure are. I don't really know what the point of it is, since glass pearls would look just as impressive on shoes, but I appreciated the gesture of such a valuable gift, of course."
Inara's dress was the same blue-gray as her shoes, with a lace and mesh bodice and the tulle skirt was dotted with pearls too, though these were fake.
"You won't be too uncomfortable if we sit down?" Kaylee wondered.
"I've figured out how to place the skirt exactly so only the really tiny pearls are under me when I sit," Inara told her.
They dressed leisurely, helping each other with buttons and zippers, saving Kaylee's bodice lacing for the end, even after she'd buckled her heels on.
"You can pull it tighter," Kaylee told Inara.
"Are you sure? I want you to be comfortable. There's a buffet table, too. I know we're there to talk to whatever contact Zoe found, but there's no reason we can't have fun, too."
"Okay, then that's good for the lacing," Kaylee decided, and then Inara was flying them to the hall's small craft parking area.
Realistically, Kaylee knew she wasn't going to fall over and get tangled in the skirts of her new ballgown and shatter into a million pieces in front of all the fancy people on Londinium. Realistically she knew that, but it didn't take away from the fact that she'd never in her life worn shoes with a heel this tall and spindly. She had practiced walking, mostly in her bunk and Inara's shuttle, because she didn't want anyone to make fun of her wobbling around in the galley, and it seemed like walking on the grate of the rest of Serenity's walkways with those stilettos could be a recipe for disaster. The crew had enough injuries for Simon to deal with already.
"I practiced walking in these as much as I could," Kaylee insisted as they walked up the broad stone steps, surrounded by other guests and flanked by staff. "I really did, but—"
"You just hold onto me," Inara said, holding out her hand. "I'll keep you steady," she promised.
"Kaywinnet Lee Frye and Inara Serra!"
The smooth stone floor was different from the short, rough carpet that Kaylee had practiced walking on, but Inara's grip was steady and comforting. They made it down the short flight of steps and into the sprawling ballroom, where Kaylee noticed a woman in a sleek red gown look up at her name. Zoe had told her that their contact would be in a red dress.
"I saw the contact for the job," Kaylee whispered as Inara carefully guided her around the room.
"Okay, good. We'll make our way to them. Just let me know when you want to talk. In the meantime, I see some people I know. Let me introduce you."
One of Inara's friends was a short woman named Sarja who was wearing a glittering purple kaftan and had such a stunningly large necklace around her neck that Kaylee was sure the diamonds were fake.
"This is Kaylee," Inara said.
"A pleasure," Sarja said as she grasped Kaylee's hand. "What do you do for work, Miss Kaylee?"
"She's a spaceship repair specialist," Inara answered for her. "She travels constantly due to how in-demand she is." She turned to smile at Kaylee. "I'm lucky I managed to arrange both our schedules around this event."
"Spaceship repair! I assume that means you know as much as all our husbands put together," said another woman behind Sarja as she took Kaylee's hand. "I'm Erlinda. My husband just did months of research and bought himself a Schlitz Woodpecker. That's his toy budget for the next three years, if I have any say in the matter."
"Oh it's an excellent ship," Kaylee said immediately, the relief of being able to speak her native language flooding through her. "Make sure you have him take it in sooner than he'd like to have the gravitational regulator checked, though, because Schlitz has a history of recalling those parts specifically. It hasn't been a problem for the latest model of Woodpeckers so far, but you never know."
"Oh my god, don't let us get you started, or else you'll have to start billing us," Sarja said. "Please, Inara, take this young lady to the buffet table before she spends the evening working for free."
Inara laughed.
"I'm sure we'll talk more this evening," she said, and took Kaylee's hand again.
"You don’t have to cover for me," Kaylee mumbled once they were a few yards away. Inara readjusted their hands so she had one arm around Kaylee's waist and the other still holding her hand. The positioning made Kaylee feel like a princess.
"What do you mean?"
"The whole thing about being a spaceship repair specialist."
"But that's what you are, aren't you?" Inara said.
"Well. I mean, I guess." Kaylee thought about it for another moment. "Well, yeah, actually. I am, ain't I?"
"Of course you are," Inara said, grinning. "Smartest person I've ever accompanied to an event like this."
"Surely that ain't true."
"It is!" Inara insisted.
"But the businessmen…"
"Yeah? You think those businessmen are the ones optimizing their factories?"
"Oh. Well, I did," Kaylee admitted. "But I guess that don't make a whole lot of sense."
"A lot of folks are just pretending," Inara confirmed. Kaylee suddenly felt her ankle go sideways on the next step she took and she was ready to go sprawling on the floor, but Inara’s arm tightened around her waist.
“Oh, gosh—”
“I’ve got you,” Inara soothed. “You’re okay. People fall over all the time, especially on floors like this one.”
“But everyone—”
“No one noticed,” Inara promised. “And if they did, all they saw was me catch you. And if I need to do it again, I will; don’t you worry. Let’s get some food. Dessert first?”
The dessert buffet was extensive, and Kaylee got her hands on a few fresh strawberries before trying anything else.
"Here," Inara said, handing her a little plate with a perfect lemon meringue tartlet on it. "Matches your dress!"
Kaylee took a bite and thought that maybe it was worth whatever social faux pas she might be committing if she asked the chef for the recipe.
"Oh, it's perfect," Kaylee said. "You want a bite?"
"Sure."
Kaylee took a risk and instead of holding the tiny lemon tart out for Inara to take, she held it at mouth level. Inara didn't hesitate, leaning in and taking a bite without making so much as a single crumb. They locked eyes and Kaylee realized she'd been staring. It didn't feel like something she needed to be embarrassed about, so instead of looking away, she just smiled. Inara brushed a loose strand of hair behind Kaylee's ear.
"Would it be okay if…"
"If what?"
"If after tonight we had some tea in my shuttle?"
"Were we not going to do that anyway?" Kaylee wondered.
"Well, of course, but…I thought more like—"
"Oh! You mean like invitin' someone in for coffee. After a date."
"Ah, yes. That's what I mean," Inara confirmed. She wasn't blushing (did they have a way to train that reaction away at the Companion House?) but something in her voice sounded like she ought to be.
"Oh. Really?"
"I mean, if you'd like that," Inara said. "But we can also just drink tea the way we normally do."
"No, I'd like that. In the after a date way," Kaylee said. Inara's face lit up and she let out a happy sigh before leaning forward to press the lightest kiss to Kaylee's lips.
"I'm glad. In the meantime, I think the contact that Zoe mentioned is making her way over to us."
"Well, we gotta get our work done before we can play, I guess."