milliways_bar | (no subject)

(no subject)

Wash is once again by the fireplace with his copy of Jurassic Park. He's curled the cover back on itself in a way that makes his book-loving mun wince, the better to try and hide the title; no use in scaring Dr. Malcolm if they happen to cross paths again.

The streak of paint from last night is still on his forehead, though it's quite smudged and much fainter. You'd think technology from five hundred years in the future would be better at getting that stuff off.

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He has good ears. Lucky for Ace, all he does is cant his head and raise his eyebrows, silently skeptical. It's one of those looks that says he's not going to push, but implies that she really, really should tell him what's going on.

"Ah, I see there's a startling lack of excitement around here," he says. "Though I guess that in itself's kind of exciting since it happens, oh, next to never."

Ace nods. And Wash is very wise for keeping quiet, since she's only doing it at his request.
"Quiet for me, I should say. One of the gals on security got kidnapped." She snickers. "I'm expecting the kidnapper to show up at any point, getting marched in here at swordpoint."

Blink.

"Kidnapped?"

"Mmm." Surprisingly, Ace doesn't seem terribly concerned. "The gal's Alanna of... somewhere or other, a knight. A real one, with a sword and everything. I take it some pirate got her falling-down drunk last night, and hauled her off before anyone could do anything about it. I'm figuring she's sobering up just about now, and will be rather ticked off."

"...Ohhh, that kind of kidnapping." Wash snickers. "Bet a lot of my old flight school buddies'd be shocked to hear that's what they're calling it nowadays."

And a pause, during which his eyes drift to the ceiling and he taps the book on his knees. "Alanna, I know I've heard that name before."

"Err... taller than me, is a knight, works on security, has a jedi for a boyfriend, has red hair... ringing any bells yet?" Ace tries, helpfully.

He shakes his head, still tapping the book...then the metaphorical lightbulb clicks on. "Oh! Right. Inara mentioned her a while back. Thought it was kind of weird that she kept referring to a woman as 'sir.' An honest-to-God knight, huh?"

"Yup. She's got a wicked sword. I think she still had it on her when the pirate took her, so it should be an interesting return, anyway." She looks downright languid, for an Ace. "So what've you been up to?"

"...Pirate. This pirate wouldn't happen to have big thick hair and a thing for rum, would he? 'Cause I can only think of one pirate here, unless another one's shown up, and the thought of having two people like that in such a small place is kind of scary.

"Anyway." He shrugs and smiles. "Not a lot. Zoe liked the cocoa, and most of the bread's already gone, so I need to thank you again for that genius idea."

"I think that's the one. I didn't actually see it, but Val mentioned rum, so I'm guessing we're thinking of the same bloke. S'gonna be fun when they come back." Of course she didnt' tell Val that, because Val wouldn't have appreciated it.
"See? Told ya. She planning on coming back any time soon, or does she think we're all a bunch of nutters who should be kept as far away as possible?" she asks, grinning wickedly.

"Oh, I'll get her back here eventually. Not a chance she'll be able to resist the call of fresh food after we've been sailing for weeks and weeks." A chuckle. "But, I don't know, she's been caught up doing first mate-y things. Jobs haven't been too hard or big, but there's been a lot of 'em all of a sudden. I'm getting a little wary of all this good luck."

She raises a hand, threatening to smack him.
"No worrying, flyboy. Especially when you technically have nothing to worry about. Sheesh." She rolls her eyes at him.

"It's my job, Ace. Fly, crack jokes, and worry all the time. And can I point out that the last time I started worrying, it ended up being for a very good reason?" Eyebrow.

"It did?" She frowns, and wonders how she had missed this. "Everyone alright?" She gives Wash a narrow look. "You alright?"

Wash holds up both hands. "I'm fine, I'm fine. It was a while ago. 'Bout a month back we had to do a drop in a blackout zone -- they're really dodgy sort of places, you can get arrested on sight if the Alliance spots you in one. So, me being me, I worried. A lot. And then the nav proceeded to break down right as a cruiser was coming in and left us at the mercy of sarcastic interrogators and way-too-thorough cargo searches. Took us days to get airborne again."

He scratches the back of his neck. "Plus, Simon and River had to hide here so they wouldn't get caught and we wouldn't get charged with harbouring known fugitives. That was a whole other level of nothing even resembling fun. But everything's shiny," he amends hurriedly. "Like I said: a while ago."

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