A/N: another love of mine. Dear Mal. How many sequels or rewrites of franchises am I doing?
This was a request from the 800 Follower To Infinity and Beyond Celebration ! Thank/Blame @chickadee-djarin
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“It’s like...ammunition.”
“Sir?” Her voice was a little tight.
“You know how it goes, Zoe, you go firing off a few times and then you think you always will. You don’t count on it. Don’t respect it, just assume it’s going to be there.” Mal pushed back his shot, “Then it ain’t.”
“A real kick to the shins, sir.” Zoe smirked, tapping on the bar for her own shot which she took in one go. She had a mild sheen of sweat on her brow.
“Or like...you ever jump out a window?”
She tried to hold the smirk in, “It's happened a time or two."
Her attention was on him but her arm raised up and she twitched it like she was working out a kinked muscle.
Zoe darted out and pulled someone towards her, Mal vaguely recognized the outline of Wash who coughed, "Are we about done with the drinks?"
"In a moment, dear, Captain's waxing poetic." She cocked an eyebrow at Mal, "You were saying, sir?"
"Luck's like jumping out a window--"
"Likely to … break your legs?" Wash rubbed the back of his neck and his wife elbowed him as Mal pointed at him.
"That's not bad. But no, I was thinking… you ever jump out of a window and you get that nice feeling like you're flying before you start falling?"
Wash's brow knit and he shook his head, "Sure? I mean I avoid the falling bit by flying in only approved vehic-- ow!"
Zoe had elbowed him again. Mal snorted a laugh, "Well Wash, luck's like flying in a vehicle unapproved for flight--"
Zoe raised her arm again and Wash seemed to tuck into her a little closer. He seemed annoyed, almost nervous. Mal called for another shot but the bartender just slid a bottle and Mal grabbed it, reading over the label, nodding as if he were a connoisseur and tipping the whole thing to his lips, "--- you don't know when or how hard you're going to crash."
"There's actually reliable equations to--OW!" Wash rubbed his side which Zoe had elbowed and then cleared his throat, "Or you know. The simple chaotic beauty of gravity and its victims. That too."
Zoe gave him a smile and Mal was chugging the bottle...now only half full.
River's face slowly poked out from behind the bar, "Are the men with the banshee voices gone?"
"The band?" Wash cocked his head, "I mean I feel that's a little harsh, they were a hair pitchy but--OW! Quit it!"
Zoe elbowed him and River seemed placated by that, standing up to almost full height, "Do we...do we…"
She tried to remember what Mal said and looked at him but he held up a finger for her to wait and he kept drinking until the bottle was empty and then stared first at it and then at River, "Yes?"
"What is the exam we came for?"
Mal snorted in amusement and gently petted her head, "Test our luck."
River's brow knit, "Is it multiple choice or open forum?"
Zoe turned her attention to the crowd and pinged a shot at someone who was about to break a chair over Jayne's head, "There's choices. Multiples of them."
Wash put his hands over his ears, Mal was looking at the chaos in the bar, nodding proudly, "I never took much to formal education."
Zoe reconsidered her gun, holstered it, and grabbed an advancing woman by the shoulder and tossed her physically over the bar where River stood over her and calmly looked at her. Zoe raised both brows at Mal, "You are a peasant poet for the ages, sir."
Mal smirked, "You studied, didn't you?"
Zoe's smile went wide, familial, "There isn't much call for luck if you do."
Mal laughed, "That's it! Luck...it's like a test you--"
A shot pinged right next to his ear. River glared at the shooter.
"Well! Excuse me, sorry to bore you..." Mal slapped the bar and grabbed his gun, "Happy Unification Day! Come on, witch, let's go multiple choice the luck in this dump."
River didn't understand, or understood too well, and just smiled widely and padded after Mal into the fray.
