fandom_muses: Topic 23 - Pain

Good things ought not to hurt…least that’s what he’d been taught all his natural life. Well…most of his natural life. Some good things were supposed to hurt, like fightin’ for a cause you believed in. That could hurt something powerful, but that was the ‘standing up’ part of ‘standing up for your beliefs’…when it hurt, you stuck firm.

Mal watched the capture in his hand…the smiles and laughter as Inara packed her things. Kaylee’s bright little voice, soft and imploring…

“The Captain wants you to stay…”

It was a happy scene, and her face was the kind of thing high-falutin’ poets and writers and the like tried to capture when they plied their trade. Sculptors tried to make statues that had that grace and beauty, and men like that rat done skewered him a while back dreamed of having that much class. Her smile lit up rooms, her voice was like rubbed velvet on the ears, and she was sharp…hoo boy, was she ever sharp. When she yelled about offense and hollered about manners…facts was facts: you couldn’t knock that gorram woman over with an Alliance cruiser.

Strong, beautiful, and as nigh on to perfect as a man could find…he’d only ever seen anything that bright and shining and promising once before in his life…the day he laid eyes on SERENITY.

Good things ought not to hurt…but Inara Serra cut him deep. Soul deep.

Because good things ought not to hurt…unless you weren’t good enough to have them.


Muse: Malcolm Reynolds
Fandom: Firefly/SERENITY
Words: 249