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FIC: Mal's Secret Admirer (Firefly)
Title: Mal’s Secret Admirer
Author: alexcat
Fandom: Serenity/Firefly
Characters: All
Prompt: 2. Hobbies
Word Count: 503
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don’t own them. Joss Whedon does and I hope he doesn’t mind my borrowing them.
Author's Notes: These stories are loosely joined into what I hope is one rather slice of life type fiction when it’s all done.
~~
Sheppard Book sat in his quarters the evening after the picnic, thinking about each of his fellow shipmates. He had a secret hobby that none of them knew about. He loved to draw, especially portraits. He had been working on drawings of the crew for a long time. He had Mal’s done.
The picnic seemed to mellow everyone a bit, even Mal, who was not usually a very mellow man. Sheppard Book wanted to give Mal his portrait but he didn’t want anyone on the crew to know he was the one doing them. That was why he even drew a portrait of himself.
He wasn’t half bad looking either, he thought to himself as he smiled at his own vanity.
Getting the portrait into Mal’s quarters ought to be easy for a man like him, right? It should have been easy but the captain kept that place locked down tighter than a farmer with ten pretty daughters. He’d have to find another way to get it to him.
He thought about leaving it on the bridge, at the captain’s seat but the bridge was almost never empty. Either Mal or Wash was always there. Zoe too, if Wash was there.
He considered the ship’s mess but since he did most of the cooking, he was pretty sure everyone would figure that one out pretty quickly.
The only option left was to take someone into his confidence and make them an accomplice in gifting the portraits. But he was reluctant to do so. He wanted this to be his and his alone.
So there he was, stuck on how to deliver his gift.
Then he had idea. Sheppard Book had not always been a Sheppard and he knew how to do many non-priestly things. One was forgery. Never mind where he’d learned it but he knew how to forge anyone’s handwriting.
So he wrote a note to Mal:
My dearest captain,
I hope you enjoy this small token of my affection. I hope that my humble talents are good enough to please you.
He placed both note and portrait in a large envelope and sent them out at the next stop by mail to Inara with a typed note to see that Mal got it.
**
It was several weeks before the package caught up with Mal. He opened it at the dinner table one evening and his faced turned a nice bright pink.
“What is it, Captain?” Kaylee was leaning toward him, trying to see what he had.
“Nothing to concern yourself with.”
She looked anyway, recognizing Inara’s handwriting on the note. Then she saw the portrait: Mal was sitting naked on a rock in the middle of the desert. Everyone looked up when she laughed so hard that she strangled on her drink.
“Captain, I’d say you’ve got yourself an admirer.”
Of course everyone, including Sheppard Book, had to see the portrait and the note.
Mal acted madder than he actually was. Maybe Inara really did like him a little…
~TBC~
Author: alexcat
Fandom: Serenity/Firefly
Characters: All
Prompt: 2. Hobbies
Word Count: 503
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don’t own them. Joss Whedon does and I hope he doesn’t mind my borrowing them.
Author's Notes: These stories are loosely joined into what I hope is one rather slice of life type fiction when it’s all done.
~~
Sheppard Book sat in his quarters the evening after the picnic, thinking about each of his fellow shipmates. He had a secret hobby that none of them knew about. He loved to draw, especially portraits. He had been working on drawings of the crew for a long time. He had Mal’s done.
The picnic seemed to mellow everyone a bit, even Mal, who was not usually a very mellow man. Sheppard Book wanted to give Mal his portrait but he didn’t want anyone on the crew to know he was the one doing them. That was why he even drew a portrait of himself.
He wasn’t half bad looking either, he thought to himself as he smiled at his own vanity.
Getting the portrait into Mal’s quarters ought to be easy for a man like him, right? It should have been easy but the captain kept that place locked down tighter than a farmer with ten pretty daughters. He’d have to find another way to get it to him.
He thought about leaving it on the bridge, at the captain’s seat but the bridge was almost never empty. Either Mal or Wash was always there. Zoe too, if Wash was there.
He considered the ship’s mess but since he did most of the cooking, he was pretty sure everyone would figure that one out pretty quickly.
The only option left was to take someone into his confidence and make them an accomplice in gifting the portraits. But he was reluctant to do so. He wanted this to be his and his alone.
So there he was, stuck on how to deliver his gift.
Then he had idea. Sheppard Book had not always been a Sheppard and he knew how to do many non-priestly things. One was forgery. Never mind where he’d learned it but he knew how to forge anyone’s handwriting.
So he wrote a note to Mal:
My dearest captain,
I hope you enjoy this small token of my affection. I hope that my humble talents are good enough to please you.
He placed both note and portrait in a large envelope and sent them out at the next stop by mail to Inara with a typed note to see that Mal got it.
**
It was several weeks before the package caught up with Mal. He opened it at the dinner table one evening and his faced turned a nice bright pink.
“What is it, Captain?” Kaylee was leaning toward him, trying to see what he had.
“Nothing to concern yourself with.”
She looked anyway, recognizing Inara’s handwriting on the note. Then she saw the portrait: Mal was sitting naked on a rock in the middle of the desert. Everyone looked up when she laughed so hard that she strangled on her drink.
“Captain, I’d say you’ve got yourself an admirer.”
Of course everyone, including Sheppard Book, had to see the portrait and the note.
Mal acted madder than he actually was. Maybe Inara really did like him a little…
~TBC~