Translucent

Nearly completely hidden underneath a large, groaning piece of machinery, Kaylee artfully maneuvered her torque wrench at a rather tricky angle. Teasing the metal access panel carefully, she spoke to her beloved Serenity.

"There now girl, I'm just gonna have a look here inside and we'll find out what's been giving you a tummy ache." As if to answer, the machinery groaned again and lurched upward, shuddering.

"Oh my poor girl," She rubbed her hand lovingly over the panel closest to her. Loosening the last bolt, the pressure inside the afflicted part gave way in a wet burst of oil and warm coolant, drenching the girl.

"Aww geeze, condenser coils again? What is Wash doing to you?" She worked fast to stop the cross contamination and sealed off the leak, then shimmied out from under the now humming metal behemoth. Standing up, she shivered as the once warm coolant drenching her shirt now chilled to the surrounding air temperature.

"Dang it, now I need a new shirt."

Simon was on his way back from yet another River retrieval. This time she had found her way to the laundry chute and had spent the better part of an hour sliding down it. Rubbing his temples in frustration, he might have missed the girl breezing past him. He would have missed her, that is, if she hadn't smelled so thickly of piston lubricant and been drenched in coolant.

"Kaylee? Did something explode on you?" He looked her over, trying not to notice how translucent the coolant made her light pink top.

Kaylee laughed. "This? Oh Serenity threw up on me. I'm freezing my girls off so I need to get something dry on."

Simon was well aware at what parts she was freezing off as they were making themselves known under her t-shirt. He was failing badly at holding his glances at just her face.

"Oh, anything I can do to help?" He froze, mortified at the unconscious statement that somehow fell out of his mouth. "I mean...I didn't mean that I could...what I was trying to say was..." he stammered quickly, trying to cover the error in judgement.

"Oh Simon," Kaylee smiled, the corners of her mouth twitching in an adorable attempt not to laugh in the humiliated man's face. She winked, then spun around giggling as she walked away. "You could, but it looks like something's come up."

Horrified, he chanced a glance down at his trousers before he realized what she actually meant as River ran past, the skirt of her dress pulled up over her head, "YOU CAN'T SEE ME, SIMON. I'M INVISIBLE!"

author's note: holy crap it's been awhile, hasn't it? Here's a resurrection from an old drabble challenge I had hidden away, just to get things moving along again.