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Chapter 1: Minor Complications
It was Mal's fault.
Jayne was clear on this. It was all Mal's fault. Everything had been going great until Mal had had one of his brilliant ideas.
This brilliant idea had involved River and Jayne blending in, in a bar, while Mal collected their pay for a job that had actually gone reasonably smooth. Mal's reasoning, so far as Mal could be said to reason, had been that the two of them could pretend to be innocent bystanders until such time as Mal and Zoe needed rescuing, should that happen. This way Mal wouldn't look like he was coming in expecting trouble.
At the time, Jayne hadn't seen any flaw in the plan. He wouldn't have any trouble blending in, and pretty girls were welcome in any bar anywhere. River knew how to take care of herself, and he'd be right there if anyone got too friendly.
And that was where it had all turned to le se, really. He'd found a card game, low stakes and reasonably friendly, had a few drinks and flirted some with the bar girls. Maybe they was lookin' to earn some extra coin, maybe just to keep him in the bar and hopeful, but either way he was having a pretty good night. River was over by the bar, playing coy and being flirted with in her turn by a couple of fresh-faced young trappers.
He'd enjoyed a silent snicker at their expense - she might look cute, but she was way too much for either of those boys to handle - and turned back to his game. As the next hand was dealt, he'd looked around to check on her again, covering the movement by resting an arm around a bar-girl's ample hips.
One of the boys was gone. The other hand his arm around River's waist, and as Jayne watched, the boy leaned down and kissed her. Right on those soft pink lips.
And River didn't smack him or even push him away. Hell, she was cooperatin' more than a little.
Jayne's attention was called back to the game and he played mechanically, his teeth clenched. He felt like he'd been punched in the gut, and he didn't know why. He'd visited a whore or three while he and River had had their Arrangement. Hell, up until this very second he would have said he didn't give a good gorram if she picked up a guy in every bar on every planet they stopped on, just as long as she wasn't too tired for him.
But she didn't. And he'd got kind of used to knowing that his were the only hands had ever touched her. Knowing that he was the only one knew how she felt and looked and sounded during sex.
And she'd never kissed him. Never.
He'd given some thought to it. He didn't usually kiss on the mouth, bein' as that could be dangerous in more ways than one, but since they'd talked about trustin' each other... well, he'd thought about it. Wondered what it'd be like. How it'd feel to taste her first tentative kisses.
And some hun dan in a bar had just walked up and laid one on her, and she'd let him. She'd even looked like she enjoyed it.
Jayne felt cheated, although he couldn't have explained why even to himself. It was a downright relief when Mal's contact jumped up with a gun in his hand. "Fold," Jayne snarled, dropping his cards and pocketing what was left of the money in front of him. Before anyone could comment, he was fighting his way towards Mal, who looked more resigned than surprised.
River made good account of herself in the fight, and the four of them made it outside without more'n a bruise. "Well, that went well," Mal said optimistically. "We got paid this time, which I always consider a bonus."
"I think - " Zoe started.
Jayne cut her off. "I'll catch up," he said, not looking at River. He turned on his heel before Mal could more than open his mouth, and walked away.
River didn't say a word, and that just made it worse.
Jayne was nursing one king-sized hangover when he lurched back onto Serenity come dawn, but he'd bled off most of his inexplicable fury thanks to a good mean fight, a good busty whore, and enough alcohol to down an ox.
Or so he thought, until he saw Zoe doing those slow exercise things she did 'fore anyone else was up, that looked kinda like dancing. She stopped, when she saw him, and made that eyebrow-raised you-are-such-scum face. "Thought you'd given up coming home at all hours, now you've got a nice nubile teenager of your very own." She had that tone, too. Snide.
"Shut up," Jayne muttered, attempting to go around her.
"So what brought this on, Jayne? River finally come to her senses?"
"Screw you."
"Not in your wildest dreams." Zoe smiled thinly. That was Zoe's way. She'd hardly ever shout, she'd just needle a man slowly to death. She must be real dynamite in the sack, elsewise Jayne couldn't see why even a fellow as easygoing as Wash would put up with her for long. "Saw River flirting with a trapper in the bar. That what got under your skin?"
"No," Jayne said, angry because it was. "And ain't none of your business where I was or why."
"True. Let's just stay I'm curious." Zoe shrugged. "This your way of breakin' it off? Goin' out whoring as a subtle way of letting River know you'll be finding your fun elsewhere from now on? 'cause if so, it wouldn't kill you to find some way less hurtful to the kid."
Jayne growled, rubbing a hand across his eyes. They were throbbing. His whole head was throbbing. "Was trying not to hurt her," he muttered, the words escaping before he could bite them back. Gorrammit, she was about the last person he wanted to explain himself to.
"Oh, really." Zoe's eyebrows ascended. "You went out to fight, get drunk, and bed whores because you didn't want to hurt River."
"Get outta my way." Jayne's fists had clenched, and he had to force them to uncurl.
"So how does that work, exactly?" Zoe's voice was full of icy needles that went right through his head. "How is this not hurting her, huh?"
Jayne didn't hit women, 'less they were going for him first. Never had, never would. Or he would have punched Zoe right in the mouth. But he wasn't Mal and he didn't have to put up with this. So, since she was in his way, he grabbed her arm and moved her out of his way hard enough that she wound up on the floor. "That's how," he growled, stalking up the stairs towards his bunk.
Mal wasn't pleased to be summoned from Inara's cosy bed by an agitated Wash. Nor was he pleased to reach the infirmary and find Simon dabbing at a rising bump on her temple. "What the hell happened?"
"Self-inflicted injury, sir. Sort of." Zoe winced as Simon dabbed. "Go easy, doctor."
"I repeat, what happened?" Mal frowned, leaning in to look. Wasn't a bad bump, by the look of it... just a little knot and a small split.
"It's nothing, sir."
"It don't look like a nothing. That there looks like a something. So you tell me, Zoe... what happened?"
Zoe sighed. "Well, Wash and I had a fight this morning, real early."
Had it been any other man but Wash, Mal would have raised the question of 'did he inflict that injury right there'. But Wash wasn't only a genuinely nice man, he was a sissy Zoe could take with both hands tied behind her back.
"And?" Simon prompted, apparently having reached the same conclusion.
"And I was down in the hold 'bout ten minutes ago, working out, when Jayne got back."
"He only just got back now?" Wash frowned, still hovering protectively over Zoe and getting in Simon's way. "I thought he'd stopped doing that, now that... you know..."
"He's sleeping with my sister?" Simon said, sounding kind of grim.
"Yeah, that. Sorry, tactless, but... why the coming home so late? Or early?"
"Needled him about it some," Zoe admitted. "I was in a foul mood, still, and I took it out on him. I do that, sometimes."
"Well, that's part of why I keep him around." Mal frowned. Wash wouldn't hit Zoe. Jayne, on the other hand...
"Got to where I asked him if this was his way of telling River their little understanding was off, and that it wouldn't kill him not to set out to hurt the kid." Simon frowned at that, and Zoe shook her head. "He said he'd been out all night 'cause he didn't want to hurt her."
"Okay, how does that make sense exactly?" Mal asked, suspicion falling behind puzzlement in the race to get his slowly wakening brain's attention.
"That's what I asked." Zoe winced. "He explained."
"Explained how?" Simon's eyes flicked up to the bump.
Zoe shrugged slowly out of her shirt. The thin singlet underneath did nothing to hide the purpling bruise on her arm in the shape of a big, beefy hand.
"I'm going to kill him," Wash breathed, and Mal believed him.
"I honestly don't think he meant to throw me as hard as he did," Zoe said, just to the finish. "I was in his way, pickin' at him in a real raw spot, and he was angry and hung over, and he just... went to move me out of the way. He's done it before, with no harm done. This time, he just didn't hold back like he usually does. The man could arm-wrestle a bull."
Mal bit his tongue and counted slowly to ten. Zoe could be mighty annoying when she was in a mood, and Jayne was more than strong enough to inflict damage without ever intending to do so or realizing that he had. Didn't make him any less angry about it.
Wash still looked angry too, but he'd softened much more than he usually did if someone hurt his wife. "So... I'm guessing he and River had some kind of fight?"
"Didn't see anything, but they were in the bar well before we were. They coulda." Zoe winced again as Simon smeared ointment on the bruises. "And Jayne don't got much in the way of self-control, and he knows it."
Simon's mouth was a thin, flat line. "So when he said he didn't want to hurt River..."
"He could break her bones just by gripping her arm too tight, and that's the truth," Zoe said quietly. "He was angry enough, he wouldn't even have to mean to. I think that's why he stayed away." She sighed. "Then I went and stirred it all back up by needling him about her the minute he set foot on board."
"Zoe, this is hardly your fault - " Wash said, putting a hand on her shoulder that was likely meant to be comforting.
"No, it is. I picked a fight with someone I knew was cranky and hung-over and I kept picking it until I got picked back." Zoe met Wash's eyes squarely. "Wouldn'ta blamed him if he'd hit me, truth be told. All he did was move me outta his way a little too hard, and that even Mal's done a time or two. Not quite as hard, but I can be mighty annoying when I put my mind to it."
Mal winced. "I didn't ever leave bruises, though."
"Only 'cause you ain't got strong enough hands." Zoe shrugged. "Way I recall it, I've given you a few."
"Usually when I had it comin'." Mal scowled. His visceral reactions to seeing Zoe - or any woman - bruised up aside, he knew she was right. Had it been Inara or Kaylee, well, that would have been one thing. But Zoe was a soldier and a fighter, and she'd picked a fight Jayne couldn't be blamed for finishing."Take it you don't want me to make an issue of this?"
Zoe shook her head. "No harm done. Best it's forgotten."
"No harm done yet," Simon said quietly. "He's still angry with River."
Jayne had avoided her as much as he could for two days.
River was angry with him, for that and for his relapse into whoring and drunkenness, but her anger was blunted by the confused pain that was fueling his own anger. She had hurt him, somehow, and he'd retreated into anger and solitude like a wounded bear.
She waited to see if he would seek her out. When he didn't, she sat in wait late one night, when everyone else had gone to bed. He was exercising down in the hold, and she waited in the pilot's chair until aching muscles drove him to his bunk.
He saw her, coming down the hall, but he ignored her, trying and failing to open his door.
"I engaged the central lock," River said quietly. "Keep the others away, so we can talk." She hadn't yet picked up the reason, but Simon, Wash and Mal had all been going out of their way to ensure that she and Jayne were never alone, full of some vague fear that she couldn't pin down.
"Got nothin' to talk about." Jayne wouldn't look at her.
"You are behaving like an angry boyfriend," River said, her own anger rising. "The whole point of the Arrangement was to avoid things like this."
"Yeah, well, figure the Arrangement's about run its course." He glared at her from under lowered brows, face twisted into the brutish scowl that he used to cover pain.
"What have I done?" River's lip trembled. "Am I inadequate in some way? Is that why you sought out another partner?"
That startled him, his face twisting from anger to puzzlement. "I... no, that ain't..." Then the anger rose again, and he looked away. "You know damn well."
"No, I don't! I don't know. All I know is that you have been oozing pain and anger everywhere since the fight in the bar, and that it's focused on me somehow." River shook her head, fighting to keep her words straight. "It's all... sticky, and I want it to go away, and you went to someone else, as if I were not enough for you!"
Jayne's mouth worked for a moment, as if he wanted to speak but couldn't find the words, and then he was up the steps in two strides, slamming the door behind him. They were alone together for the first time since it... whatever it was... had happened, and his anger filled up the cockpit like gluey black. "I ain't the one was actin' like it wasn't enough!" he snarled. "You were... in the bar, you..."
He couldn't voice it, but he finally thought about it clearly enough for River to see. Herself, kissing a charming young trapper, as Jayne watched. His fury as she bestowed on a stranger what she had not deemed him worthy to receive... not that he saw it that clearly.
River looked away, forcing her voice to remain level. "I was fourteen when I had my first kiss," she whispered. "It was just before I went to the Academy."
"What?" Jayne's anger was slow to cool, but puzzlement rose to wash the glue away.
"I don't even remember his name. It was at a party, a function, that my parents took me and Simon to. To show us off. A gathering where offspring were paraded and boasted of." River looked down at her hands. "There was a boy there who thought I was pretty. He didn't know enough about me to be wary or deprecating, and he kissed me behind a willow tree." She touched her lips with her fingertips. "It made me feel like a real girl. I remembered it, at the Academy. It was one of the things that reminded me I was more than a weapon."
"Oh." Embarrassment was displacing the puzzlement, as Jayne realized that he had once again leaped to an erroneous conclusion, and been angry over nothing. "I didn't know that."
"Never told anyone, not even Simon. It was my secret." River looked up at him, wanting him to understand. "I would not have kissed that man in the bar, if the all-important first were not already gone. Every first yet remaining to me I have bestowed upon you."
Jayne shifted uncomfortably. He'd taken pleasure, even pride in knowing he was the first, that she would always remember him. "Ain't ever kissed me," he muttered.
"I have. In many places." River sighed. "I know, that isn't what you meant. You didn't want me to. You don't kiss 'em on the mouth."
"Well, yeah, but..." Jayne scuffed his boot against the deck, angry at his own inability to analyse or explain his emotions. "Ain't like I was gettin' sentimental over it or anything. Just..."
"Hurt your pride," River explained for him, since he couldn't find the words himself. "Thought I didn't value you enough to give you something I would bestow on a stranger in a bar."
Jayne nodded, looking at his feet. "Thought we had kind of an understandin'," he muttered. "That trust thing you was talkin' about."
River nodded. "And I was angry for the same reason. Never expected fidelity, any more than you did. That is for relationships, not Arrangements. But it... hurts... to fear that you aren't good enough. That you are inadequate."
He nodded again. "That wasn't why I did it," he said quietly. "Just... I was real angry, an' I didn't want to..." He trailed off, mumbling unhappily.
River understood what he meant. "You feared that if I sought you out you would do me harm, when your self-control was weakened by anger."
"I've left bruises before." Guilt nibbled at him. "Didn't ever mean to, just... sometimes I don't know until afterwards that I held on too hard, or somethin'. If I was that angry... I dunno, thought I might do something worse 'thout meaning to."
River nodded, reaching out tentatively to lay her hand flat on his arm. "Thank you. For being worried for me even when you were angry."
He didn't pull away, but he tensed a little under her hand. "You're so little," he said plaintively. "I could hurt you by accident so easy."
"Yes." It was true, and he would be annoyed if she tried to lie to make him feel better. "But you are always careful."
"Not careful enough."
"I don't mind the bruises." She stood up, moving to rest her forehead against the swell of his bicep. "I like knowing that I can make you stop thinking, can drown your thoughts in sensation until you can only clutch at me and ride the waves of it."
He swallowed hard. "Uh... well, didn't ever think of it quite like that."
"I do not have your extensive experience. It is a matter of pride that I can still make your brain shut down completely." River smiled a little against his arm. "That's much harder than the others think."
He laughed a little at that, surprised and not displeased. "You think?"
"I know. I can hear it, rumbling away like a bear under the babble of the others. It hardly ever stops, except when you're with me."
Jayne nodded, and his free hand came up to cup her shoulder tentatively. "You're the best I've ever had, y'know," he said, a little embarrassed but wanting to return her compliment. "Ain't one of the pros could match you 'tween the sheets."
"Your performance is very impressive, too," River said, blushing a little and lifting her head to smile at him. "I achieve sexual climax more often, when we are together, than any other female on Serenity. I think it's because we usually go for much longer."
Jayne smirked. Naturally he was pleased to know that he had the greatest sexual prowess of the men on board. "I try," he said, attempting modesty and failing.
"You succeed."
Jayne nodded and then he frowned, another thought rising to unsettle him. "Don't like that it got to me, though," he said quietly. "You're right. The Arrangement's supposed to stop that kind of thing from bein' a problem. If it don't work, ain't that a sign that it ain't... uh... workin'?"
"Not necessarily." It would not be. River would not let it be. She needed the Arrangement to continue. "Even the merest stranger can wound one's pride. Make us feel inadequate."
"Yeah, but if you was a total stranger I wouldn'ta cared. I don't like the carin'." He frowned.
River sighed. "Please don't be intimidated," she said seriously. "But I think we may have become friends. Inadvertently."
"Oh." Jayne thought that over. "Kinda like Mal and Zoe?"
"But with sex." River nodded, pleased that he was taking it so well. "I've examined the relationship, and I think it's comparable. Mutual reliance as warriors, and concern for the well-being of the other to some extent, but not... sentimental. Not getting all worked up about whether the regard is sufficiently mutual, or fussing endlessly about the need for sacrifices. Because we will make no sacrifices, we have made that quite clear."
"Well, maybe sacrifices of, y'know, sleep." Jayne grinned. "Even of eatin' time, once or twice, 'cause I'd rather eat you up than food, sometimes."
River snickered. If he could make crude comments, everything might be all right again. "Well, yes. Sometimes sexual gratification is a very high priority."
"Only sometimes?"
"Survival, keeping Wash from crashing the ship, not letting anyone steal Vera..."
"Well, okay, there are some things more important..."
"But I've been keeping careful watch on our emotional states," River said seriously. "If we had begun to reflect Simon and Kaylee... or even worse, Mal and Inara... I would have warned you immediately and ended the association. But Mal and Zoe isn't so bad, is it?"
She watched as Jayne turned that over in his mind, examining the potential benefits of having a zealous guard at his back and a reliable ear to listen when he had a grievance. "I can live with Mal an' Zoe. I'm Mal, right?"
"Well, you do most of your thinking with your testicles and your temper..." River grinned up at him.
"So I'm Mal. Right." Jayne nodded. "But if we take over the ship - "
"We're not going to take over the ship."
"But if we have to, like if Mal's brain implodes or something an' Zoe ain't here to stop him..."
River considered. That was an unsettlingly plausible possibility. "Very well, if we have to. Just temporarily."
"Right, if we have to, then I think maybe you should be in charge. 'Cause you're Zoe, and we all know Zoe's plans work better'n Mal's, and you're smarter than her, so I figure we'd get real rich if you was planning our criminal activities." Jayne nodded. "You think?"
River stared at him. "You would allow me to take command if we took over the ship?"
"Well, yeah." Jayne shrugged. "I mean, I'd like to be in charge, I just figure we'd make more money if you were. And I'd be next in charge."
"That is the most complimentary..." River shook her head. Jayne voluntarily offering her hypothetical command, offering to stand beside her....
She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling his head down and kissing him firmly on the mouth.
It was awkward, due to his greater height and their shared lack of practice, but much better than the one in the bar.
Much better.
It was several minutes - or possibly hours - later that Jayne pulled away, breathing hard. "Well. That went pretty good," he said smugly.
It took River a moment to remember how to speak. "I want to do it again," she said, eyes focused on his mouth.
"Yeah?" He smirked down at her, his hand sliding up under her shirt. "Liked that, huh?"
"Yes..." River couldn't drag her eyes from his face, but by now she didn't really need to look to start unfastening his belt.
"Better'n in the bar?" He glided his fingers up over her ribs.
"Better than either of my other attempts. Much better." She dropped the belt and began on his pants. "More."
"Or what?" He leaned down to lick the upper curve of her ear, making her shiver all the way down to her toes.
"Or your pants stay on." River squeezed him gently through said pants, to be sure she had his undivided attention.
"Ahhh..." He pushed eagerly into her hand. "That's... uhn... okay, more. Sure."
Kissing slowed down the process of mutual undressing somewhat, but it was worth it. Jayne hesitated before pushing her shorts down, though. "You sure they're all locked in?"
"All but Inara, and she doesn't pry." River considered it. "But you could lock the door just in case."
"Right. Good plan." He locked the door, then turned back to her. "Now... it's your turn. The chair?"
River looked at it and wrinkled her nose. "No. That's Wash and Zoe's spot."
Jayne looked at the chair. "You mean they... right there?"
"Often."
Jayne moved away from the chair. "So not there."
"No." River pouted. "And I am not yet fully undressed, which I think is a shocking oversight on yourmmmph!"
Jayne silenced her very effectively while he stripped her bare. They were getting much better at the kissing already. "Got an idea," he mumbled against her lips... and then he lifted her, perching her on the edge of the console. Still not quite high enough to kiss effortlessly, but... "Nnn..." she moaned, arching as he rubbed his thumb lightly over her clitoris. "Oh, yes..."
Jayne grinned, rubbing a little harder, taking smug pleasure in making her pant and squirm. "You like that?"
"I always like that..." River pushed against his hand. "More, please..."
"Hmm.... no." Jayne grinned. Before River could protest, he'd pulled away and slid to his knees. "Your turn, ain't it?"
"Oh. Oh, yes." River shivered, bracing herself on her hands as he leaned forward. He kissed the inside of her thigh, teasing her, and she whimpered. "You just want to make me beg."
"Yeah." His tongue teased her as his thumb had a moment before, broad hands pushing her thighs further apart. "Is it gonna work?"
"I th-think... oh..." River bit her lip, trying to at least resist briefly. That lasted right up until he chuckled and trailed his tongue down - slowly! - to dip inside her. "Oh, please, please..."
Jayne growled smugly, and River let her head fall back, trying to remember to breathe. He was good at this, so good at this, and his smug pleasure at making her melt only made it feel better.
"Please... oh..." He eased a finger inside her and she moaned. "Oh, God... Jayne, please..."
"Good girl," he groaned, voice muffled. "Know what I like t' hear..."
River held out as long as she could, while he licked and nuzzled and teased until she could hardly string words together. "No..." she managed, pushing weakly on his shoulder. "Up. Please?"
"Thought you'd never ask." Jayne's self-control, never great, was a bare thread holding him back as he rose to his feet. "God, River, need you..."
"Yes." River curled her legs around him, pulling him closer. "Now, please, now..."
Jayne steadied her with one hand and thrust deep and hard. "Oh, Jesus..." he groaned, clutching at her hips. "Oh, fuck..."
"Fuck... yes... good plan..." River leaned back, tilting her hips so he slid even deeper.
Jayne let go of her hip to slide his hand up her back and cup the back of her head, lacing his fingers through her hair. He growled wordlessly, and then he covered her mouth with his, kissing her hard and deep.
River shuddered, sliding her arms around his neck and kissing him just as hard as they rocked together harder and faster, twined so close that she could hear his heart beating as clearly as she heard her own. Key to the lock, sword to the sheath, perfect...
Jayne groaned, fingers flexing in her hair. "More," he mumbled against her lips, thrusting faster. "God, River..."
He'd meant what he said... she was the best ever, and every time he sank into her it felt like they fit together better. He'd nearly gone crazy wanting her, the last two days.
River curled her silky thighs around his hips, holding him tight and making him clench his teeth as he tried not to lose it right there. "Yes," she purred, her soft hands moving on his back.
Jayne forced air into protesting lungs, thought about dissassembling Vera, Mal naked, anything to slow this down. After two days of feeling like she hadn't thought he was enough, damned if he was going to finish before she did this time. He'd made her beg him for more, and he'd have her screaming before he let go.
He kissed her again, long and deep, and then he lifted his head to look down at her. Eyes wide, lips swollen, gasping as he hammered into her... He squeezed his eyes shut before the sight of her could push him over the edge. "River..."
"Please," she whimpered, and now her nails were digging in, urging him on. "I want... I need... so close, please..."
He eased a hand in between them, sliding it down her stomach, between her legs, feeling for just the right spot. Funny how that tiny little bud could make a woman fall apart...
"Oh, God... ohgodohgodohgod..." River arched back, her eyes huge. "I can't... too much..."
Then she screamed, spasming around him, and Jayne let her pull him down with her into climax.
When the spasms ended he eased away, his knees trembling. "You're gonna kill me one day, girl."
"No, I won't." She ran her hand lightly over the scar she'd left on his chest. "No more damage, inside or out."
"Sounds like a plan." He found his belt and picked it up. His pants had never made it all the way off, and he hitched them back into position.
"You want to stop?" She was pouting when he looked up at her.
"No, I wanna move. Don't get me wrong, this was fun, but I figure your bed's going to be a lot more comfortable for round two, you know?"
River nodded. "Excellent reasoning." She slid off the console, wincing a little. "I believe I have a dent in my behind now."
He turned her around and grinned. There was a red mark just the width of the console's rim across her backside, and he gave it a consoling pat. "Ah, it'll go. So'll the grid pattern on my knees."
River nodded. "The bag is in my room, anyway." She looked at him after she said that, kind of thoughtful. "If you wish to continue the exchanges."
He opened his mouth to say 'of course' then frowned. River was having a bad influence - she kept making him think about things. "Well... we could, I guess. I kinda like havin' my turn and being able to ask for anything I want. But... I dunno, maybe we don't gotta every single time? If we've got this friends with sex thing going."
River nodded. "We could still take turns with the three hours and special requests," she said thoughtfully. "For which the bag is a suitable marker. But it would certainly be more convenient not having to renegotiate terms for shorter encounters."
"Or longer." River gave him a funny look, and Jayne shrugged. "Well, you know, some days in the black there ain't much else to do."
"There is that. If I gave you longer to rest between bouts..." River grinned wickedly at him, pulling her shirt on over her head.
"Gave me longer to rest? I'm not the one who fell asleep that time!"
"I did not fall asleep, I briefly lost consciousness. Most men would consider that a compliment!"
"Well, if I'd known you did it 'cause of me..."
"River?"
River allowed a brief divergence from her set course towards breakfast and leaned in the cockpit door. "You have a question."
Wash nodded. "Why did I find my triceratops halfway across the room and my raptor under my chair this morning?"
River considered her options. "Have I ever commented on why the chair sometimes smells funny when you and Zoe have been in here together alone?"
Wash's face contorted amusingly, embarrassment and amusement and peturbation chasing each other through its folds. "Ah... no. Never. Let's continue that trend, shall we?"
"Yes. Let's." River turned to go, then turned back, sensing the need for further reassurance. "We didn't do it anywhere you'll put your hand on, either," she said, since Wash was staring at the console with some worry.
"Oh. Well... good. Let us never speak of this again."
River nodded and turned to leave. It was the spot Mal regularly put his hand on, of course, but she'd wiped it off. And anyway, Mal's hand had been much worse places. On Mal, for example.
Please post a comment on this story.
Title: Keeping It Simple
Author: Dyce [email]
Details: Work-In-Progress | NC-17 | het | 30k | 04/16/07
Characters: Jayne, River
Pairings: Jayne/River
Summary: No matter how simple you try to keep it, even Just Sex gets complicated eventually.
Notes: There's plot in my smut! The contamination is irreversible!
Sequel to: The Arrangement
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