Spoilers for Shindig and Jaynetown, set after the series but before the movie, warning for language. A/N at the end.
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When Simon thinks of Kaylee he thinks of engine grease and strawberries and ruffles on big pink frilly dresses and warm eyes and smiles that light up the whole room.
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She's tinkering with the engine, oil covering and staining her hands, hair mostly fallen out of the band it was supposed to be stuck in; and he thinks that he's never seen anyone more beautiful. None of the woman in the Core in all their finery could measure up to his Kaylee, especially when she's staring intently at the pieces of machinery that make up Serenity with a look that's equal to the reverence that he gives his patients ills.
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Sometimes when they're planet-side, far enough away from the Core and any Alliance Bases, River and him take walks into the town while the crew is out pulling a job or finding a contact. River is always fascinated by the cheap trinkets that every remotely touristy town has in their shops, staring at them and begging her ge-ge to buy something.
And whenever they have any extra coin he always relents.
On their way back he stops by the fruit vender and haggles till their both blue in the face and River stands by his side grinning like a little guai. They eventually agree on a price (Simon still feels cheated and money doesn't grow on trees anymore but nothing is too much for Kaylee) and he takes a box of strawberries and pays the man before returning to the ship with his gift.
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She places a strawberry between her teeth and bits down, groaning at their mouthwatering taste. When she bends over the table and kisses him she tastes sweet and he doesn't want the moment to end. But the Captain yells at them to 'take it out of the galley because he's trying to eat and he don't care what they do behind closed doors but gorramit he don't wanna see it'. So Kaylee grabs Simon's hand, smiling widely at him in a way that makes his heart beat faster and faster, and drags him to the engine room with the rest of the fruit that she insists she share, so they spend the night feeding each other and he's never felt more like he belongs.
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Sometimes when there's no one around he knows that she stares at the dress the captain bought her for the party on Persephone and that she wishes she could be fancy all the time. Though he'd be sad if she was; it just wouldn't be Kaylee without all the grease and dirt and improper language and contrary to what she thinks he would not change a single thing about her even if he had the option.
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She put it on for him and he can't help but think that she looks wrong in the pink frilly dress. It's not that she looks bad, she looks beautiful, but she does not look like Kaylee the Mechanic and he can't see her any other way than that and frankly he doesn't really want to. He likes who she is and he would never ask her to change for him.
But she turns on the music she got from the ball and asks him to dance in her cluttered little room and he has no choice but to accept. It's cramped and clumsy and he can't help but love every minute of it. Dancing with her is so different from dancing at the society parties that his parents forced him to go to where he stumbled on his words trying to ask a girl to dance and all his smiles were faked.
But with Kaylee they trip over their feet and stare into each other's eyes and laugh until their sides ache and they wind up in a tangled pile on the floor while she worries about wrinkling the dress and snorts with suppressed mirth and he watches her like she's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen (she is, even when she's wearing the dress that makes her look different and less Kaylee-like).
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She still tries to get him to swear sometimes when she thinks he's being too proper. He doesn't tell her that he's being more improper with her than he has with anyone else in his whole life, even River. And every time he gives in and swears he can hear her giggling in the background because she got proper, polite Simon Tam to use coarse language.
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When they first see the statue of Jayne in the middle of the town square and he swears because, come on, there's a statue of Jayne in existence, albeit in a poverty stricken and dirty town, he sees her eyes meet his for a split second and the smile that she wears is not all for the anomaly of mud and concrete mixed together to commemorate tyen shuh duh to do with Jayne.
And for weeks afterward she hounds him, trying to get him to swear again and to be a little less uptight, although she never quite phrased it that way. He refuses and when she finally quits asking he drops a crate he was helping her move off of the ship and he yells out, "Tzao gao" and she grins and chuckles and doesn't stop smiling at him for the rest of the day.
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When Simon thinks of Kaylee he thinks of the future and happiness and love, he thinks of smiles and laughs and bright colors and swearing and slang, and he thinks that maybe he finally has a place where someone will accept him for who he is rather than what they think he be.
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finis
A/N: I wondered why there wasn't a scene in Shindig where Kaylee shows Simon the dress and so the part where they dance is my attempt to come up with a reason why he might avoid commenting. And in Jaynetown when Kaylee makes fun of Simon for not swearing and then when he does she doesn't say anything about it, so I tried to incorporate her reaction in here as well.
Reviews are love.
Chinese Translations:
ge-ge: older brother
guai: devil
tyen shuh duh: God knows what
Tzao gao: Oh Shit!