Simon's in for a surprise. (for osirian_doctor)

[meimeimechanic]

The cat had found her really, that was the way she was going to tell it to everyone. She'd only stopped to say hello and give a few scritches. It wasn't that often she got to say hello to a kitten that was actually friendly. The one that was now following her because of her briefly stopping to say hello. She looked over her shoulder again and saw that she still had her shadow. What was Simon going to think?

She paused as she opened the door to look back at the cat again. "You better hope Simon ain't allergic." She sighed. "C'mon." Stepping aside to keep the door open she laughed as the cat ran in ahead of her and started to explore right away.

"Don't go breakin' anythin'!" At least nothing that was Simon's.

Comments

[osirian_doctor]

"Uh."

Simon heard Kaylee's voice and emerged from the bedroom in his half of the shared quarters, where he'd been sitting at his desk with his PADD.

He'd assumed, perhaps naturally, that Kaylee had been speaking to him when she'd entered the room, but that didn't appear to be the case.

His smile took a moment to appear, and it seemed a little stiff, but that wasn't out of any lack of feeling. It just took a moment to realize what he was seeing.

"Who's your friend?"

[meimeimechanic]

Kaylee grinned as she looked away from the cat to see Simon. "He followed me back here. I don't think he's got anyone t'look after him." The implications of that meaning before he followed her home. Kaylee clearly wanted to keep him. On the idea Simon agreed. So she was going to be doing her best to tread careful and make a good impression.

"I stopped to say hello to him and..." She shrugged as she started taking off her boots. "Well, here we are." The cat came running back over towards her so she had to balance fussing with getting the boots off. When she'd managed it she scooped the cat up into her arms.

"You ain't allergic are you?" Better safe to ask as she walked towards him.

[osirian_doctor]

"No," he said, sounding a little surprised, as if the question hadn't occurred to hi. "No, I'm not."

He still had that not quite natural smile on his face, but it brightened at the sight of Kaylee trying to untie her boots with a cat demanding attention from her.

Simon took a couple of steps further into the room, watching Kaylee. She did look very sweet with the animal curled up in her arms.

"How would a cat get onto the ship without anybody to look after it?"

[meimeimechanic]

"Quite possibly the same way we did." The cat started purring as she scratched between it's ears. "Don't matter now though, got someone to look after it now." She looked at him hopefully, of course she wanted to keep him. She was already attached. A hopeless case.

"Should have a name though..."

[osirian_doctor]

"Q's bringing cats here to annoy the Captain now?"

He said it with a frown, and with a cautious sort of skepticism in his voice, because it seemed like such a strange thing to do, but when he really thought about it, it wasn't that much stranger than some of the other things Q had done.

Pointless pranks, Simon would have said.

He wasn't surprised that Kaylee wanted to adopt the cat. She was always the one speaking out for the strays and helpless they came across in their travels on Serenity.

She'd been the one to champion Simon, at first.

He felt himself flushing, a little, as he looked down at Kaylee's shining, hopeful expression.

"I, uh, I guess it should."

[meimeimechanic]

"You're thinkin' too much about it." Kaylee wasn't going to stop him, just point it out. It was kinda cute after all.

She moved towards Simon with the cat still in her arms. "Any ideas?" Now she was holding the cat to her, he was an odd thing, looked a little like he'd seen too many scrapes but still purring away.

[osirian_doctor]

Simon gave a self-deprecating little laugh, tugging at one ear.

"I, uh, I guess so. It's not as though logic has had much to do with anything about this place."

He didn't say it like it was necessarily a bad thing, but Kaylee would surely have known that he tried to find logic, wherever he could. That was part of who he is, and had been so since he'd first met her.

"I'm -- I'm not very good with names."

[meimeimechanic]

Kaylee just gave him a look, but said nothing. There was trying to find logic in this place and trying to get Jayne to read a book with no pictures. It could happen but she didn't think it would as long as she lived.

She wandered around with the cat in her arms. He looked a little tatty, which was probably being kind about him. Kaylee realised he was missing part of his ear. Didn't seem all bothered by it either. It was endearing to her. Made her want to keep him safe all the more.

"It should be something pretty." Even if the cat wasn't. "He kinda looks like he's been in a few fights."

[osirian_doctor]

He recognized the look, but he'd learned not to take too much offense when Kaylee looked at him like that. If he did, he'd never have stopped being offended.

He did, though, take it as the cue to shut up she probably intended it to be.

"Well, I'd, uh, say 'Kaylee', but that one's already taken."

He tried a chuckle, but he still didn't have a very good record with actually making compliments Kaylee liked.

"What about Ramesses? He was, uh, a warrior-king in ancient Egypt. They worshipped cats."

[meimeimechanic]

It was a way of saying she cared. In an odd sort of way that only made sense to her.

She frowned at him. Had he really just compared her to a stray cat that she'd just said had been in a few fights. Kaylee wasn't sure what to do then. She wanted to be offended at him, instead of storming off she stood there muttering to herself.

Simon's next suggestion was actually okay, it kinda made sense and fitted the cat. Her expression softened slightly, didn't mean Simon was off the hook but it helped. "That... I like that."

[osirian_doctor]

... He should have known better. He'd meant a cute compliment on how pretty her name is, since she'd just said the cat needed a pretty name. But, as so often happened, he'd upset her instead. He winced, berating himself internally, and folded his arms across his chest.

It was an old, defensive gesture.

"It makes him sound very noble."

If there was one thing Simon had learned since he'd arrived aboard Serenity, it was that nobility and worth had more to do with a person's character than their appearance.

[meimeimechanic]

"An' you said you weren't good with naming things." She managed a smile at Simon, the anger was definitely receding. The cat might be a very good thing.

"I think you found him the perfect name." She held the cat up, "Ain't that right Ramesses." That smile was getting a little brighter and not just for the cat next time she looked over to Simon. "Tell me more 'bout Egypt?"

[osirian_doctor]

When Kaylee smiled, he smiled back, his chest filling with warmth that she'd liked his idea. That she'd praised him. And, as she said it, he realized that he agreed with her: it really was a good name for the slightly battered but somehow still regal creature.

Simon took another couple of steps towards Kaylee and reached out a hand towards the cat.

"I've never had a cat before."

The slight wonder in his voice was, however, overridden when Kaylee asked about the Egyptians.

"Well, for one, they knew a lot about medicine, and they passed that on to the societies that established medical theory as we know it. And they built many of the greatest monuments on Earth-that-Was. Scientists never learned how they did some of the things they did, even thousands of years later."

He'd been reading, since he'd arrived here, and the ancient societies of Earth-that-Was provided a fascinating topic.

[meimeimechanic]

Kaylee moved to him, standing close. Of course it was so Simon could pet Ramesses not just a nice excuse to get close to him. She'd never do that.

"Well now we have one." All their own to look after and fuss over.

Kaylee listened to him speaking, fascinated by what Simon was saying. He clearly enjoyed the topic and well it was something new to her. "Like what you said about the mudder's milk?" She remembers what he said.

[osirian_doctor]

Whatever the reason, he appreciated it. The chance to run his hand tentatively over Ramesses' fur was nice, and he smiled again, because the fur was so much softer than he'd thought it might be.

"I guess we do."

It was an understated way he'd said it, but it was quietly pleased.

His smile flashed, broad and happy, when she commented on what he'd said about the mudder's milk. He ... might have had some fuzzy memories of that night, but he did remember how charmed she'd seemed at what he'd said.

"Exactly. That was when they were building those monuments."

He kept scratching the cat's eats.

"If you wanted to sit down, with him. And me. I could tell you some more."

[meimeimechanic]

She nodded. "I think we'd both like that." She likes being all close and cuddly with Simon, there isn't enough of it for her liking though. Though there could be lots and she'd still say not enough.

The night with the mudder's milk and Jayne being the big hero was clear enough to her still. It was one of those jobs that she didn't seem to ever forget.

Kaylee moved to go sit down, settling Ramesses in her lap so they could both fuss him as they talked.