Come what may

Rafterius sat on the bunk, hunched over to stop his head from hitting to ceiling of the berth above. The blue curtain across the opening resting against his left arm. The lights were dimmed down, the rest of the flight bar one all sleeping, curtains drawn across their berths, stack three high in the square room. The small table in the middle was covered in papers and data slates, and glasses, some half full, others with a thin film of liquer left. Rafterius placed his right hand on hers and looked up ever so slightly as she turned and looked at him. He paused to speak, his face contorted in emotional agony, the words not spilling out.

"In five hours...we're...never going to see eachother again" He said almost choking. "Only in the next life"

She tried not to cry herself. Of all the things...of all the damnest things. They had to get split up.

"I..."She began as he looked at her. "Have served with you, for four years. In which, I have wanted to kill you, love you, break your head over a table and sometimes just cry on you" She said calmly, though her speech was intermittent with tearfull whispers. "We have flown; every major mission together" She smiled, sadness throughout her face. "Everytime..." She looked over across the room, and wiped away a clumsy tear from her cheek with her free hand. "Everytime" She began again, "I have thanked Serenity we are totgether, even when back on this ship, we have...soemtimes other people. Or at war with eachother"

"Out there" He said "We were always together out there"

She looked at him once more, and looked down at the blue sheet of the bunk.

"I know..." She smiled and flciked away some of the blonde neck length hair that had crept across her blue eye.

The rooms lights dimmed thurthur as ship time krept into the midst of night.

"When you got with Remilia, I cried for days....I stared out of the washroom window for hours at atime, crying. Knwoing she ahd your love..."

"You were fucking Fradin"

"See...we just fuck eachother over"

They paused.

"That time in the mess when we fought. Major Reynolds had to have four marines help me get from out under you when you pinned me. I still have the cracked knee"

She smiled and rested her hand on his knee. It was the other one, but Rafterius said nothing.

Getting up from under the berth he stretched out, his tall frames muscles expanding. He lifted the tank top rom over his chest and lay it over one of the chairs. He then slipped off his black comabt trousers and motioned for her to get up. She stood infront if him, her hands centimetres from his face, his hands on her waist...