Artistic Pretender

Title: Prologue
Series Title: Wandering Home
Author: FabledFigment
Disclaimer: There is no original content, except for the original content. All Hail Joss.
Timeline: Post BDM with sufficient ‘growing-up’ time for River.
Rating: R
Series Rating: R

A/N: Ah, so Fig has been silent for quite some time. She rather threw herself a curveball in Reinvention, and Alantris... Alright, so Fig has been very distracted. In any case, this is a fairly short, mostly finished piece that should post fairly smoothly over the next few weeks. (I do promise to find some time for the others... Before August)

*

Jayne took possession of the weapons Crazy took off the Reavers. She’d left them where she dropped them, covered in gore.

He cleaned them up, scoured off the rust. He honed them for days in the privacy of his own bunk. Then left them on her bed, carefully wrapped in gauze and leather.

She looked at him questioningly after she saw them.

Jayne just shrugged, wincing as he pulled at his wounded arm.

It was his peace offering, his declaration of respect. He couldn’t tell her what he didn’t know he meant.

Crazy looked deep into his soul and understood.

*

After Miranda, Jayne paid more attention to Crazy. Not on purpose. He just let her stay close rather than driving her away. If she was quiet and undangerous, he let her watch while he did whatever it was he was doing.

Then he started talking to fill the silence. About the work in his hands, about anything on his mind, even about his past.

She laughed at his jokes, she was interested in what he was doing, she made him feel good.

When she started talking to him too, in words he could understand, Jayne realized they had become friends.

*

River still had Bad Days.

Jayne found her in the water reclamation room. Not that he was looking for her exactly.

She was muttering and shaking her head. Acting, well… crazy.

He watched as she tried to focus on clenching and opening her fists.

“Should I get Simon?” Not that he wanted to interrupt the lovebirds.

“Doesn’t help, doesn’t heal.” River shook her head violently. “Comes and goes. This too shall pass.”

“Well, should I go?” Jayne was lost in this situation.

“No.” She keened, reaching a claw shaped hand towards him.

So Jayne didn’t go. He even held her.

*

Jayne caught Crazy in the kitchen one night, trying not to burn a pot of gruel.

Not succeeding.

Without speaking, Jayne turned the heat down, added more water and waved his finger in a stirring motion.

That was the start of the cooking lessons. He showed her how to use the staples of their diet.

He shared the password for the file of recipes from his Ma. He demonstrated his best dishes.

It didn’t take long for her to surpass her teacher in the excellence of her cuisine. He wrote away for more complicated recipes. Crazy shared with him first.

*

River waged an inward war with her sanity. She built walls and defenses. Every victory came at a price.

Simon could only help so far, drugs were not the answer.

Stability came first in learning to care for herself. Cooking, tidying herself, finding useful occupation around the ship.

When a new pilot was hired, River struggled to integrate the new consciousness into her awareness. That was a victory indeed.

She emerged from the inward battle mostly sane, she reassigned sensory words to help describe her newly reliable extra senses. She observed her crewmates and friends, finding her place among them.

*

There was power in knowing what words meant. Jayne had always known that, but had never met anyone who could get him to understand the way River could. She taught him with rhymes and teasing. He learned just to keep up with her, without noticing the new knowledge.

People started noticing Jayne’s increased vocabulary at around the same time they started noticing River’s.

She scandalized her brother, but Jayne encouraged her with laughter. It was gorram hi-larious to hear a pretty little girl talking worse than a drill sergeant.

Jayne wasn’t the only one who agreed. Zoë encouraged her too.

*

Jayne was the one who remembered her birthday, which surprised everyone.

“Hey, I can read a warrant as well as Mal can.” Might not have been funny if there were warrants outstanding.

“I could do without the dire emergency, though.” River deadpanned.

Jayne grinned wolfishly. “And I had a right nice one planned too.” Only River laughed.

He’d asked Ma to send a cake. It came in a jar, just add water and bake. It came out lopsided and fell in the middle, but it tasted like cake.

He didn’t get her anything else, but she didn’t expect him to.

*

River went on all their jobs. Mal called her his intelligence officer.

When he first took her to see Badger, Mal gave her a pistol from the ship’s armory. No one asked for it back after.

That was all River carried, one tiny pistol covered by her skirt. She still went barefoot.

Usually she kept them from having to fight, but when violence broke out she fought hard.

Jayne carried extra guns for her and didn’t mind if she drew them from their holsters as she was hiding behind his armored chest. She didn’t need to look to shoot anyway.

*

River loved to play with Jayne’s aura. It was so vibrant. He spiked and buzzed and flashed like nobody else.

Her favorite game was provoking reliable responses. Humor, sadness, pride, lust.

She poked, prodded and provoked, becoming adept.

Lust was the best. He spiked the hardest.

Not that he really noticed her that way. Not really. It was more like he couldn’t help unconsciously observing that she was female.

Occasionally she felt a little guilty for provoking his lust without fulfilling it, but she got over it quickly. His aura was so pretty when he got all spiky like that.

*

Jayne noticed that Crazy was growing up. Kinda hard not to. Lush, beautiful woman sitting close, smelling nice. He treated her like a friend and thought of her like a sister. Honest.

Wasn’t his fault that her teasing sometimes hit home. He just breathed deep and reminded himself she didn’t mean to be lust inspiring and she was crew besides.

Jayne didn’t mess around with crew, that was bad business. Caused uncomfortableness in the Black, something to be avoided.

If he sought alone time down in his bunk more often than ever… Well, that was life on a small ship.

*

River noticed Jayne noticing her.

She was a reader. His thoughts were refreshingly open, even when he was trying to hide them.

At first his regard was disconcerting, but it was quickly becoming… Amusing? Comforting? Acceptable?

Her opinions on the subject were nebulous. She avoided direct introspection.

However, as the sensations made her feel female, alive powerful, she unconsciously pursued them.

When she observed this tendency, she chided herself about not teasing…. but he made it so easy.

Besides, Jayne spiked intensely over every attractive woman. It wasn’t personal.

Was it?

No. Impossible.

Besides, she didn’t want it to be.

Back to stories : Next