Seven months before Miranda...

Mal wandered into the galley, finding Inara once again enthralling his mechanic with a conversation he couldn't cotton to.

"You mean never?" Kaylee asked, hands fidgeting with her playing cards.

Inara's smile was gentle. "I wouldn't say never, but I'd be hard pressed to think monogamy is even possible for an active companion. Especially away from guild worlds."

"Why's that?" Kaylee asked.

"What're you filling her brain up with now?" Mal said, busying himself at the counter.

Kaylee looked over her shoulder at him. "Inara doesn't think that Companions can have sweethearts."

"That is not what I said." Inara kept her eyes on the table. "Kaylee asked if companions engage in long term relationships, and I said it's rare."

"What's the fuss?" Mal asked, rounding the counter with a hard bread roll and a flask in his hand. "Find yourself stifled by commitment?"

Inara gave him a thin smile as he plopped himself down at the dining table. "The idea of being with one person at the exclusion of anyone else may antithetical to my job, but the problem is usually not with the Companion."

"How's that," he said, taking a long drink.

"I've committed myself to a vocation of intimacy," Inara said, trying her best to ignore the captain rolling his eyes. "I express love to all my clients, in one form or another. Yes, it's often physical, but it can also be emotional, or spiritual. We search for whatever glimmer of human connection we can find, and celebrate it."

Kaylee shuffled the cards in her hand. "You said you don't think a companion can have just one someone, though."

"A client is not the same as a lover," Inara answered, "Jealousy has a powerful influence on people."

"But everyone knows about companions," Kaylee said, frowning, "Even out on the Rim. Just find yourself a boy who don't care."

"People respect our vocation, but it can be difficult mixing love and commerce. To love a Companion as a romantic partner is one thing. To regularly know that your partner is involved with other people is something else."

"You get a lot of jealous types?" Kaylee asked her.

"Seems par for the course, given your clientele." Mal picked at the bread crust stuck in his teeth, grinning through his fingers. "Pickin's are slim if you're lookin' for an eligible bachelor with a liberal mind and a generous bank account."

"It's a nuanced issue," Inara said, her eyes drifting from the captain."There are also many people with certain religious beliefs-"

Mal huffed.

"Or upbringing," she corrected, smirking, "who consider monogamy a moral choice."

"It ain't?" he asked.

Inara met his gaze head on. "You think promising yourself to one person is a sign of respect. And that is a perfectly valid opinion," she said, "but you also think having multiple romantic partners is therefore immoral."

That got her a shrug. "You can bed a dozen people if you got the mind to," Mal said, "Can't love 'em all equal."

"You've called my work 'dishonest'," Inara said. "You think that trust and genuine love can't exist when a relationship isn't exclusive."

"You know my mind, all of a sudden?"

"Am I wrong?" she asked.

Mal let a silence hang in the air, ignoring the question.

"I don't volunteer every aspect of my personal life to clients," Inara continued. "If I ever chose to share my life with someone, my private thoughts are what he or she would earn from me." She took a long, quiet sip of her tea.

Mal downed the rest of his drink and hauled himself from the table.

Inara watched his now empty chair. "It's also been my experience that those who want that level of exclusivity don't know how to share."

Notes: Thanks for all your patience with this! Felt like I should put a little something up to tide you over while I work on the next major chapter update.