AUTHOR'S NOTE: This note applies to this chapter, as well as all others that are to come.
I do not own the characters of Wash, Zoë, Mal, Jayne, Kaylee, or the spaceship Serenity. The idea/storyline of "Firefly" is credited to Joss Whedon and his fellow writers/creators of the series, and this is just my interpretation on what may have happened before the series took place.
Quotes and references may be made to episodes of the show (many taken, in particular, from "Out of Gas", to explain how each crew member came to be on the ship) and all Chinese translations were found on the "Firefly" Wikipedia fanpage.

"So what do you think, Zo? Startin' to feel a bit like home?"
Malcolm Reynolds spread his arms out and walked in a circle, motioning around the kitchen, which had just been recently cleaned. If you could call it that.
Zoë's face held a sarcastic smirk as she eyed the room, hands held firmly behind her back. She heaved a sigh and looked at the Captain mockingly, "It could start to feel like home, Sir." She said, earning an almost childish smile from Mal, "But even after passing a broom in here, I still think you got robbed."

Mal groaned, dropping his arms to his sides in resignation.
"Oh wow, someone finally cleaned up in here?"
Zoë turned her head around to the door at the end of the kitchen, only to find their newly-hired pilot, Hoban Washburne, on board. She quickly snapped her head forward and lowered it, sending a significant, none-too-subtle glare at Mal while he passed the new crew member a friendly smile.
"Yup! Did it m'self! Don't you find it's startin' to feel a bit more like home, Hoban?"
Hoban, who had been on Serenity for about a week, stuffed his hands into his pockets and let his bright blue eyes roam appraisingly, going along with the Captain. Zoë didn't budge.
"Does it have food in it?" He asked, nodding towards the cooking area.
"Sure does!" Mal replied, almost too cheerfully. Zoë rolled her eyes, back still turned to Washburne.
"Then home it is, Captain!" Hoban said happily, almost prancing over to the cupboards. Zoë turned her head slightly to the side, raising a sarcastic eyebrow in his direction, hands now set firmly on her hips.
"Y'know Hoban, you're part of the crew now. So you can be callin' me Mal."
Hoban stood up from his squatting position in front of a cupboard, eyes wide, almost dazed, but a comfortable smile on his lips, which was practically covered by his moustache. "Fine by me! And while Hoban is such a becoming name, I'd prefer Wash."
"Wash." Mal said, smirking.
"Mal." Wash replied, giving him a curt nod.
"Zoë."
Zoë's head snapped up to look at the Captain, her eyes still holding the sarcastic glare she had been sending towards "Wash".
"Sir." She replied, tersely. When she heard silence from the cooking area, she turned to see that Wash was just standing there, looking at them expectantly.
Without a word, she turned and walked away, laughing inwardly at the knowledge that she must have left a very confused Hoban behind her.

A few hours later, Zoë found herself in the kitchen, about to open up a can of beans for dinner, when the Captain walked it, making himself comfortable on the nearest chair.
"So!" He proclaimed, propping his feet up on the table and resting his hands behind his head.
"So." Zoë replied absent-mindedly, still opening the can of beans.
"You still don't like 'im."
Zoë's eyes met Mal's when she looked up from the can. After a few seconds of silence, she looked back down at her meal. "Don't know what you're talking about."
Mal just laughed. "C'mon, Zo! He's a good pilot! Can fly this bird like none other, and picked us over quite a few other offers, too! What's there not to like?"
Zoë just snorted, not looking up from her food.
"Is it the lip-ferret?"
Zoe chuckled and looked up at the Captain, who rose his eyebrows in mock-concern.
But when Wash's face flashed into her mind, her smile left from her, and she poured her beans onto a plate with a serious expression on. "I jus' don't like him, Sir. Like I said a week ago, he just bothers me."
Mal let out another groan, taking his legs off of the table and straightening up. "Well, he's here for good. Better get used to him!"
Zoë smiled despite herself as the Captain walked slowly around the kitchen, hands linked loosely behind his back, looking as if he were staring at his very own masterpiece.
"Don't know if that mechanic will be around forever though, or that lip-ferret…"
Zoë let out a little laugh as she dug into her beans with a fork.
"Well what're you gonna do about it, Sir? Could always say that you're worried it'll interfere with his vision."
"Aha!" Mal yelled, earning a startled look from Zoë, fork half way to her mouth.
Mal just stood there, pointing at her triumphantly, and she stared at him, waiting for a response. "I knew it was the lip-ferret!"
Zoë just looked after the Captain, a look of amused disbelief on her face, before getting back to her food.

It wasn't the lip-ferret. Looks didn't make Zoë particularly dislike anyone. There was just something about Hoban Washburne that made her anxious, as if she was standing at the edge of something she wasn't sure she wanted to be at the edge of.
Zoë stared into her plate of beans, almost willing them to give her an answer.
They didn't, but her ears picked up something that did: Mal's voice down the hall.
"Oh hey there, Wash! How's Serenity doin'?"
"She flies like a leaf on the wind, Mal! Smooth sailin' for a bit, so I put her on autopilot. Wanted to grab some dinner, if that's okay?"
Zoë hastily shoveled down the last few bites of her beans, threw her plate into the sink, wiped her hands off with a towel before going to exit the kitchen, only to come face to… chest, with the pilot.

Wash, while caught by surprise, just took a little step back and moved to the side, giving Zoë her room.
"Well hey there, Zoë!" He said, his voice a few octaves higher than before, and an almost pleading 'don't-kill-me' smile on his face.
Zoë just looked at him for a moment, noticing his nervous smile from underneath that bushel of hair.
"Wash." She replied, the way she greeted all of the new crew-members.
"You on your way out? I was about to grab some beans, if you wanna – "
"Already ate." She said quickly before shouldering her way through the door and walking down the hallway. Her mouth was pursed, a look of irritation in her eye, and she just wanted to get away from that man's gaze.

"Ah… well. Have a nice night, then!"
Zoë stopped abruptly to look at Wash, who smiled nonchalantly, waved his hand, and descended into the kitchen.
Zoë's eyebrows furrowed, but she just shrugged her shoulders and wandered to her bunk.