Inara-Sick!Mal

[badinlatin]

There is sneezing.

There is coughing.

There are even pajamas going on instead of lack thereof as Mal does his best to hide in bed manfully, a pale sheen and sweat across his face.

Mal really does not do sick very well.

Comments

[ff-ambassador.livejournal.com]

Inara winces at the hacking cough that greets her as she walks into the shuttle, a tray loaded down with glasses of juice, bottles of medicine and a steaming bowl of soup.

"Hey, băobèi. Still alive?"

[badinlatin]

"Uuungh."

That's a no.

"Wha'd you bring?" Mal asks, peeking over the covers.

[ff-ambassador.livejournal.com]

Inara hides a grin as she brings the tray over to the bed.

"Well, I made a special trip to Milliways and got some supplies. I squeezed you fresh orange juice and made you soup. There's also some cough syrup here and something to bring that fever down."

She sets the tray down and goes to help Mal sit up.

[badinlatin]

Mal beats her to it, only to feel like not a complete invalid.

Not mobile enough to negate his need for wife-waitressing, of course.

Rubbing at his eyes, "Xiexie." Mal sticks to the soup first; simply holding the warm bowl makes his hands feel nice.

[ff-ambassador.livejournal.com]

Inara presses a kiss to his temple, then puts the back of her hand to his forehead, feeling for his temperature. She frowns and takes the fever reducer from the tray.

"You feel warmer than earlier, Mal. I think your fever is rising a bit." She begins to open the bottle.

[badinlatin]

Mal slouches back again with a loud grunt.

"I still blame River for this. Somehow. In the way that she didn't even go planetside last time we were in the world."

[ff-ambassador.livejournal.com]

Inara rolls her eyes. "I blame you not getting enough sleep recently. Now, are you going to take this or am I going to have to take drastic measures?" By which, she means slipping it into his juice.

[badinlatin]

"Depends on how interesting those drastic measures are."

[ff-ambassador.livejournal.com]

Inara rolls her eyes, but grins. "Nothing too interesting until you aren't contagious any more."

[badinlatin]

"Fine. Gimme that stuff."

Mal reaches out one palm for the fever reducers, taking a chug that can't be less than two or three times the dose.

[ff-ambassador.livejournal.com]

"Mal!" She grabs the bottle and smacks his hand. "You idiot. I'm going to have to find you some bread to absorb some of that, before you start hallucinating."

[badinlatin]

"No, I'll just sleep it off eventually, crazy woman. Even Ng Ka Pe don't make me hallucinate."

Even though now Mal's considering faking hallucinations just to freak Inara out.

[ff-ambassador.livejournal.com]

Inara sighs. "I swear, sometimes living with you is like living with a 5 year old. A stupid one."

Even as she says that, she's gently straightening the covers and hands him his glass of juice.

[badinlatin]

"That makes you kind o' perverted."

[ff-ambassador.livejournal.com]

"You are a sick man, Malcolm Reynolds." Inara's fingers are itching to thwap him, but he is sick. Gorram it.

[badinlatin]

"I agree," some of the humor fading slightly, not really drinking the juice so much as bringing it to his mouth and putting it back down again.

"Might get you sick -- contagious and all."

[ff-ambassador.livejournal.com]

"Don't worry about that. It takes a lot to get me sick," Inara replies, sitting on the edge of the bed and leaning over to kiss his forehead again.

"Now are you going to drink that or just stare at it?"

[badinlatin]

"Stare at it."

Mal's feeling particularly contrary at the moment, but the wrinkles in his forehead deepen. "Duibuqi."

[ff-ambassador.livejournal.com]

"It's okay. If your throat hurts, I probably shouldn't have given that to you anyway." She takes the glass out of his hands before he can spill it every where.

She eyes him a bit, still not convinced that all the fever reducers isn't going to have bad effects.

[badinlatin]

"I'll have some of it later, promise."

Breaking up the silence between the coughing is an offered: "So I have a new pet."

[ff-ambassador.livejournal.com]

Inara raises an eyebrow. "Oh really? What is it and where did you get it?"

[badinlatin]

"It's a pony the size of a small dog."

Beat. "Monkey gave it to me."

Staring harder at Inara now, "The boddhisatva Monkey."

[ff-ambassador.livejournal.com]

"..." Inara replies eloquently.

"The boddhisatva Monkey?"

[badinlatin]

"Yup. Apparently Buddha comes through."

[ff-ambassador.livejournal.com]

"Good to know," Inara replies weakly. "There is really a boddhisatva in Milliways??"

She glances at her Buddha statue.