"Zoe? What's wrong?"
"Nothin'." Zoe hurried down the ramp, right past Wash and into the rain that was cascading down from the sky.
He hurried to catch her up. "You're lying."
"Yep." She kept walking for a few seconds before stopping abruptly and turning to look at him. She sighed. "It's Mal."
"He use up all the hot water again?"
"That too." She walked a few more paces, then stopped again. "Kaylee tried to talk to him about Christmas."
"Ahh. He wasn't too pleased?"
Zoe shook her head. "Every year she tries, and every year she ends up cryin' in the engine room and he ends up stalkin' around the ship in the worst kinda mood possible. It ain't right."
"Maybe someone should advise Kaylee to give it up?"
"No. It ain't Kaylee that's the problem. It's that gorram faith issue the cap'n has."
Wash nodded. "The issue where he takes issue with people who have it."
Zoe sighed again. "I tried to talk to him about it once, you know. First Christmas after Serenity Valley. Thought it might be good for him to get into the spirit of things. He very near bit my head off. Complete turnabout from Christmas in the trenches, where he'd get us all to sing dirty carols to annoy the Feds. Losin' the war made him lose his faith, an' losin' his faith made him change. An' sometimes I just wish he'd change back. Wash," she said, her eyes betraying this rare moment of vulnerability, "Promise me you'll never change."
He took her hands in his. "I'll never change," he said seriously. He squeezed her hands. "Except for my shirt, because it's wet, and all my other shirts would get jealous if I favored just one."
Zoe rolled her eyes, amused, and they resumed walking down the street, one of her hands still tightly intertwined with his.
A few minutes later the sun came out.