Wash did give her an incredulous look from underneath his arm before she corrected herself. He recovered his face.
It was very, very easy to see Oswin as Kaylee. It was almost disturbing. He, himself, was dressed in his favorite flight suit. But as the hours were going he had shoved the top of it down to stave off the heat revealing the white a-line tank under.
He groaned and propped himself up with his elbows, careful of his braced arm.
"Mal," he started, squinting at her, "was the captain of this."
He pointed sloppily to the enormous Serenity that would have been shading then had the sun's position been cooperating.
"Zo's army buddy turned space pirate. Oddly enough, he never liked me calling him that much. I kind of liked the term. Any excuse to use the word swashbuckle!
"Had a kind of...rough exterior but a decent sense of humor for whatever traumatic events he and Zoe went through. At least, the ones they didn't talk about constantly, like they were describing nearly blowing up as if it was some sort of normal thing. Then everyone would get all quiet and reverent at it.
"Not gonna lie, sort of tore me up knowing Zoe had been through all that. But if one dinner coulda gone without hearing about the guts of a soldier splattering their faces I'da been happy.
"No, Mal was a rough and tough space captain. And I was his first mate's quirky husband that he withstood because, well, I'm a really good pilot," he said with a faint smile.