Voting His Conscience

Rated: G

Category: Double Drabble, Gen, Mal Backstory.

Spoilers: None.

Summary: Sometimes, a man's just gotta do what a man's gotta do.

Note: Written in response to the LJ prompt of 'Against' onfirefly100. 200 words.

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On Shadow, the law said you were supposed to be eighteen to vote, but reality said you might count at sixteen, or even fifteen for some of the girls. Kids grew up fast on the Rim.

Malcolm Reynolds was barely seventeen, and while he could've probably already been a mayor somewhere if he'd been so inclined, he'd never paid much attention to politics. In fact, both he and his ma had missed the last town election due to a stampede that had cost them twenty head and left them nursing twenty more.

That hadn't bothered Mal in the least, but as he rode into town today, following his ma's trusty gelding on his own, he knew times had changed. There was no way he wasn't registering his opinion in this poll.

As he passed two kids, brother and sister from the looks of them, scrounging for food, any doubts about his ballot evaporated. He knew which way he leaned on the Unification issue without the slightest hesitation.

When the time came, he signed the ledger neatly, and no one questioned if he was to be counted.

His name joined many others in a column headed by one simple word: against.