[AU: Kaylee in Eden]

[meimeichanic.livejournal.com]

This ain't Persephone.

Kaylee ain't exactly sure what this place is, but it ain't Persephone. And that wall with "Eden" written on it, that ain't Serenity, which it should be, seeing as she just left her.

"Uh..." she hazards, rotating around slowly, checking out her surroundings, her smile fading with worry. "Cap'n?"

Comments

[meimeichanic.livejournal.com]

Kaylee grins and helps him push the damp hair away, tucking it behind her ear.

"Do people come here regular?" she asks, genuinely interested.

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

"Just once, then never again, that I've seen," Sokka admits, more interested, for the moment, in Kaylee Hair than Talk of Kaylee Leaving. "But I really don't know. Some people have shown up here that I knew elsewhere, but they didn't remember me. Different dimensions, timelines, all of that."

[meimeichanic.livejournal.com]

Kaylee smiles a little sadly. But only a little. She hadn't intended this to be anything more than a fleeting visit, so the disappointment ain't exactly big.

Instead she rolls off him, only to lie nested against him, fingers tracing a patterin on his stomach.

"Must get kinda awkward," she says instead, in blissful ignorance.

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

"Not since we figured out how to get people home." Turning his head to smile at her, he curls his arm around her shoulders, fingers playing in her hair. "Not everybody hangs around like you are now - not that I'm complaining at all, but most people now are here for a couple hours at most before they're on their way home."

[meimeichanic.livejournal.com]

"Well, there's so much to see," Kaylee says, looking around.

Well, things to see. Because she's looking at the generator.

"I think it's shiny. New machines, new people. It's nice."

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

He grins and has to swallow back a laugh. Her honesty is refreshing and the innocence makes just about anything she has to say suddenly completely undeniably good-natured.

"You really can hang around, if you want to," he offers again, watching her rather than the machine. "...and the lights and alarm really are controlled upstairs, I wasn't just..."

Trying to stall so they could have hot, sweaty, engineer sex on the floor.

[meimeichanic.livejournal.com]

"No doubt they are," she says, but her smile really does hold apologies now.

"I got my girl to get back to, though..." her eyes suddenly snap wide. "How long have I been here? The cap'n'll be

mad

..."

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

"No clocks," Sokka explains, wincing when she reacts like that, sitting up immediately after carefully dislodging fingers from her hair. "Don't worry - I'll get you back.

"...after I find pants, anywaaa... how did they get over here?"

[meimeichanic.livejournal.com]

Kaylee laughs lightly, and reaches over to get them for him, handing them over sheepishly.

"Guess I kinda lost track," she says. "I guess I could hope he'll be to glad to see me to start yellin'"

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

"Can't imagine anyone yelling at you." Pulling up his jeans and getting them fascinated, Sokka's up a moment later to pick up Kaylee's clothing and bring it over before searching out his shirt. "Does he come to see you often? It couldn't've been... more than an hour, maybe."

[meimeichanic.livejournal.com]

"Well, he did just see me at the docks," Kaylee explains, staying seated to pull on her clothes casually.

"Maybe he'll be off talkin' to Badger and won't notice me gone. But if

Serenity

's left open...

"OK, Wash is on board. He'll take care of her."

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

Wash.

Pulling his t-shirt on over his head, Sokka smiles and offers his hands to help her up. "Don't worry," he says again, reassuring her. "I'll send you back home."

When she's dressed and standing, anyway.

[meimeichanic.livejournal.com]

Kaylee smiles gratefully at him, taking his hands in both of hers, standing before reaching behind herself to do up her bra.

"Not that I ain't had fun," she says promptly. "You ain't forgotten anything in those years."

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

"Nice to hear," Sokka replies, laughing. Once she's up, hands are occupied: one in a pocket, the other resting at the back of his neck. "Trust me, if you weren't so worried about your captain, I'd be trying a lot harder to get you to stick around."

[meimeichanic.livejournal.com]

"Really?"

Kaylee's sweetened by the flattery, but dismisses it.

"That's awful sweet. And believe me, if there was a way of gettin' back , I'd be up for more of that any time."

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

He blinks and Sokka looks at her again, quiet for a moment. He can't imagine why any Kaylee would have trouble believing she was beautiful (or very, very talented) but he hopes, at least, that Simon managed to fix that in Apocalyptica.

Or wherever it was that they started sleeping together.

He does the best he can, just in case, leaning forward to kiss her cheek and replying with "Of course."

Except that she's going and there is, so far as he knows, no way to get back.

This, somehow, doesn't stop him in the slightest from grinning like a fool when she asks him to believe, nodding once. "Now, now, don't get my hopes up - now you're just being cruel."

[meimeichanic.livejournal.com]

Kaylee grins brightly when he kisses her, shrugging her shirt on over her overalls.

"No kidding," she says, utterly innocent. "That tight ass of yours? I could ride that all night."

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

This time when laughter bursts from Sokka, it's accompanied by a red tinge to his dark face. "I'd say the same for you except I had a lot of fun being ridden."

Which is why he didn't protest to being thrown on the floor.

"...though if you do manage to get back, I think we should really finish the experiment with the wall."

[meimeichanic.livejournal.com]

Kaylee laughs sweetly, and leans forward to kiss his nose.

"You're on."

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

He wrinkles it for her and then just goes back to grinning, tightening the tie in his hair. "Don't forget - it's wood with a copper casing, not copper with a wood one. The friction will set the whole thing on fire if it's backwards."

[meimeichanic.livejournal.com]

"Gotcha," Kaylee says. "Though I think I knew that already."

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

"Well, I don't want your boat catching on fire and get my name spread through the whole universe as the idiot that made you explode."

[meimeichanic.livejournal.com]

"Oh now see," Kaylee says, "our boat catches fire in the black? No one's going to be around to tell who's fault it was."

[notanoptimist.livejournal.com]

"...well, that... doesn't really make me feel better at all, really." Smirking a little, hands sliding into his pockets, Sokka leans back against the wall. "Don't die, okay? Promise?"

[meimeichanic.livejournal.com]

Kaylee even snaps a tiny salute.

"Ain't managed to die so far," she says.