Lar ||| Firefly

No Gentleman
by Lar

EMAIL: HERE
RATING: PG
COUPLE: Inara/Mal
SPOILERS: None
DISCLAIMER: Not mine, Joss'.
SUMMARY: Why, haven't you heard my dear? He's not received...
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Written for boniblithe, who requested Mal/Inara, Gone with the Wind style. I'm quite sure this is not what she had in mind, but it was all that I could manage. Icon submitted:

A/N 2: Set during Inara's training, well before she would have rented the shuttle on Serenity. Written with no reference materials for my FF sources at hand, hence no Mandarin, damn it.

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"Not received? I'm hardly surprised," Inara says blithely as she meets Suki's gaze in the mirror. "The man looks as if he's been rejected by the outer rings."

Suki's smirk reveals that there is still more to tell. "Dearest, how can you have missed this deliciousness? A genuine Browncoat officer... if such a thing can be said about those people... right downstairs in the Governor's parlor. Athena suggested that the Governor attempted to make a contract for his entertainment this evening. Of course no companion would ever accept, but the very thought. Quite amusing. Don't you think?"

"Disgusting is more like it." Inara fusses over her hair a few more moments, touches her throat, stands. "Please, no more about him. I've got to stand and smile, and there is only so much diversion I can summon."

Suki's perfectly arched eyebrow raises. "Why Inara, if I didn't know any better, I'd say the good captain has gotten under your skin. Have you met him and not told me? Shame on you, letting me go on about him when you have the details we're all so sadly lacking."

"Malcolm Reynolds is a smuggler, nothing more. He cares for profit above all else and shows no respect for anything or anyone. These are all details that I am sure you were quite able to discover with one glance at him." Her cheeks want to flush and she controls it best she can. Training so basic should not desert her so easily and yet each time the man cast his eyes in her direction, she felt as lost and unsure as she did the day she entered the academy. Under Suki's catty gaze, however, her pride asserts itself and she remains poised and porcelain cool.

"Ah, so he's called you a whore already then," Suki murmurs and wraps the silk around her shoulders. "Do not take it personally, sweetheart." She leans over and kisses Inara's cheek as she sweeps past, pauses to whisper in her ear. "I'm sure he likes you, or he wouldn't make such an effort to single you out from the rest of us."

Inara stares after her as Suki opens the heavy carved doors and sweeps out, the hem of her gown rustling against the floor. The click of her heels fades as Inara turns to the mirror and stares, glaring at herself and wondering how she could be so foolish, wondering if every companion down there will know that she's fallen so far. Malcolm Reynold's stolen kiss, infuriatingly well-delivered enough to cause her to lose her head and kiss him back, must be her burden to bear tonight. She straightens her shoulders, smoothes her skirts, fixes a pleasant smile on her lips and swears that this will be the lesson she learns best no matter the cost.

When she arrives at the party and hears the girls whisper to each other between sips of wine that the man has taken an early leave of his host, due no doubt to the unexpected arrival of an Alliance officer, Inara excuses herself and stands alone in an empty room until her disappointment turns to something else. Another tool to use to set her ahead and apart from her class, to make her shine.

-end

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