Birkhoff & Mal
Hands off included not being physically affectionate but she looked miserable. Birkhoff put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to him. "I did say rides, but we can just walk and talk if you want," he offered. She had her mind spinning in all kinds of circles, worried as she was about her friend. The VKs sort of reminded him of Nikita and how their little circle was always more important than everything else. Mal was clearly their Nikita and he was gonna support her whether or not she asked for it.
"I'm not exactly the advice sort of guy and I definitely am not an advocate of talking about shit, but." Birkhoff shrugged. "You kinda look like shit and I don't like it." That was as uncomfortably close as he was going to get to saying he was worried about her. "Should I buy us some beers or something?" Clearly he wasn't going to win star guardian award anytime soon, but at least Mal appreciated his approach. Most of the time. Hopefully, she'd appreciate this one, too.