[ Wash blushes and York smiles at that -- if the moment wasn't so fraught he'd reach up and tickle one of his red ears but as it is he keeps his hand where it is and waits for Wash to come up with an answer for him.

He has no idea what Wash is thinking, but the first request is simple. ]

That's easy enough.

[ The last thing he wants to do is kill his friends, which Wash is one of as far as he's concerned. He does wonder if Wash is thinking of him the same way yet, or is still struggling with the distance that had been there even before he found York dead.

Wash keeps talking, then, pulling York back from the edge of another morbid spiral. He nods his understanding, not wanting to interrupt. Waiting until his friend is done saying what he has to say.

It should be easy enough. York's not the lying type, or a manipulating one.

As Wash continues, York thinks he's getting a better picture of what the other man has become. What he was made into. He seems guilty about it, though, and remorse is pretty much York's only requirement for a second chance. Wash says he doesn't want to be that way anymore. Explained how it happened. That's all it takes. York can hold up his end. ]

I understand. And if it helps, anybody who tries to screw you like that will wind up at the top of my shit list.

[ A beat, and he doesn't want to ruin the moment but he just has to ask: ]

...do you actually know somebody named 'Donut'?