simon_doctor | (no subject)

(no subject)

It's Kaylee's turn at laundry on the chores roster. Accordingly, Simon finds her off the side of the cargo bay, sitting cross-legged on the deck and pairing clean socks.

He drops down next to her and reaches for a shirt in the not-yet-folded pile. "Hey."

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"Hey." Her smile's a bit larger than it would ordinarily be; anybody who helps Kaylee fold laundry earns one.

Simon folds shirts with meticulous care. Even Jayne's t-shirts, which are probably terribly confused by such treatment.

"There was some kind of party going on at the bar, the other night," he says idly.

"Yeah?"

The mate of this sock has to be somewhere.

"Yes. Some, ah ... fairly bizarre costumes."

Oh, there's the other sock, right next to Simon's foot.

Folded around something lumpy.

"And people handing out strings of beads."

Sock thief!

"Wish I knew holidays from Earth-that-Was better than I do. Then maybe I could join in more often." Kaylee leans forward and snags it.

"I didn't get to hear what holiday it was."

Simon's watching her out of the corner of his eye while shaking a few incipient wrinkles out of one of Wash's hawaiian shirts.

There's something in there. Something lumpy.

Cue raised eyebrows; Kaylee turns the sock upside down.

And out spills a string of iridescently gleaming purple beads.

"...But I did get you a souvenir," Simon adds.

"...look at you." Her smile is sudden, and surprised, and pleased, and very shortly Simon can find himself being hugged with an arm around his shoulders, and lips pressed to his cheek. "Thank you."

He beams, and turns slightly to return the kiss on her forehead.

"It looked like something you'd like."

"You're good at knowin' that kind of thing."

Really. He is. And it never stops surprising her, just a little.

He's gotten better at it

(they're asking money for this crap?)

than he once was.

"I'm glad of that." He smiles, and picks up another t-shirt.

Kaylee -- with great ceremony -- dons the necklace. It clashes with her shirt. And she doesn't care.

(If she even notices.)

And continues folding socks.

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