![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fan_eluneFandom: Firefly
Title: Something humped with the 'verse
Characters: Jayne, Kaylee and River mostly
Rated: PG-13 maybe?
Notes: This is for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yodah, since he knew where the quote on my layout is from. It was supposed to be a drabble with Jayne and River, and a branch of Christmas tree. However, it seems that I can't just write drabbles. It had to be far bigger than a drabble. Oh well. And I couldn't write Jayne without having Kaylee be rather prominent in it, just because. It's Jayne we're talking about here. In any case, Yod', I hope you like it!
Thanks: togreenie_breizh who beta'ed this for me. Also, if anyone actually remembers which of Boo and Blinky is the knife and which the gun (or has the video where Adam introduces Jayne's weapons and can check), please let me know! I can't for the life of me remember which is which.
Something humped with the 'verse.
For Yod'ah
She'd made it a tradition on the ship. That girl had too much niceness in her, but Jayne did his best not to hold it against her. In this instance, he didn't really care one way or another. If Kaylee wanted to hang up tinsel all around Serenity's engine room and Mal got no objection because it didn't hinder the running of the ship, it was fine by Jayne. If she set up a tiny little skeleton of a tree in the mess and added a star cut out of shiny paper on top, who was he to give a gorram?
So long's she didn't expect him to offer no gifts to nobody. Jayne had made that clear the first time they'd celebrated Sheng Dan three years ago. No ruttin' way he was giving gifts. Kaylee had pouted a bit, tried the puppy eyes trick, argued that Sheng Dan wasn't Sheng Dan without the traditional exchange of presents. "Tough luck," Jayne had replied, "'cause I ain't giving nobody nothin'."
She'd gotten him a gift anyway. That was Kaylee for you. He'd looked at the wrapped bundle, then back up at her with a frown. "What you gone and done that for? I don't got no gift for you."
"It's okay," she'd replied with one of her bright smiles. "I didn't expect anythin'. I just hope ya like it." And she'd moved on to opening the present Wash and Zoe had gotten her and squealed with joy at the state-of-the-art second-hand synchronizers, before hugging the living gui right outta them.
She'd gotten him a book, of all things, some sort of adventure story of the paper kind, which meant you couldn't even overwrite it, replace it by a porn novel or somethin'. Twentieth century feihua he wouldn't be caught dead with, about some sort of doctor-that-wasn't-one. The name of his job Jayne had never heard; it took him a good ten seconds to read it out on the back cover, and then again he wasn't sure of the pronunciation. Archaeologist. Sounded like niushi if you asked him. But he'd seen Kaylee look at him hopefully and he couldn't bear to disappoint her. He'd plastered a grin on his face and let out some wise-ass remark that meant thank you though it didn't have the words, not even in Chinese.
The next year he'd tried to avoid her all day long, because he didn't wanna have to pretend again. There was something about Kaylee that made him not wanna lie to her. So he pretended he had things to do in his bunk, and he went and grabbed food from the mess when he knew she was busy in the engine room, and as soon as they hit ground he'd slipped off – good timing, that, he'd have had a hard time avoiding her for much longer if they'd stayed up in the sky.
Except that when he came back to his bunk in the small hours of the next morning, completely sloshed and feeling much the better for it, there had been a present waiting for him on his cot. Apparently the book had only been the first in a series, and there was the next one. Jayne had frowned fiercely and failed to mention it the next day, barely looking at Kaylee. That was, until Mal decided to stick his nose in it and came to tell him that he had better go and thank her because her wounded puppy looks were getting on the captain's nerves.
Softie, Jayne thought, captain's gone and turned into a softie. He went to find Kaylee in the engine room, determined to tell her the naked truth – that he hadn't read a word of the first story, wouldn't read a word of the second one neither – and found himself fiddling with a spare part of Serenity while he thanked her for the present. She'd stood on tiptoe, grabbed his shoulders and made him bend down a little so she could peck him on the cheek. Then she patted his arm comfortingly. "There now, it wasn't so hard was it?" And she'd gone back to her business, and he to his, and they hadn't mentioned it again.
Now that the third Sheng Dan Jie was come, he knew it would happen again. He could just feel it coming, she would offer him the third story. He just knew it. He felt fatalistic about it, he knew it was something he couldn't escape. He'd get the book, and pretend like he was happy, and thank her, and that in turn would ensure she kept smiling.
It was all that mattered in the end, that she kept smiling. 'Cause if Kaylee wasn't smiling somethin' was seriously humped with the 'verse.
Jayne finally got off his cot and stretched as his eyes swept over his Wall o' Weapons, doing the usual inventory. Everybody was in place, but he leaned over and wiped a little dust off Vera. It wouldn't do to let her get dirty, the dust might settle in the mechanisms and he couldn't expect nothing but the best from her.
He yawned and slid on the first t-shirt he got his hands on, yawned a couple more times as he put on his boots, then opened his hatch and started, almost slipped on the ladder at the unexpected head that appeared above him.
"Feifei de piyan!" he grumbled with a scowl. "What you lookin' at, fenkuang de?"
The girl could bend at ruttin' unnatural angles and this time was no exception. For what he could see her legs were still straight, but she had bent her upper body almost to the vertical. She was watching him blankly, and then she broke into a grin.
"I remember Christmas," she told him, using the less common English equivalent for Sheng Dan. And then she was hurrying down the ladder and he could only step back, too thrown to react otherwise. She advanced on him as she spoke, backing him right against his cot where he plopped down, and then she stood above him and kept babbling away. "It used to be all the family together, and it was before everything happened. Or maybe after, time gets weird and the past comes back to the future." Doc could say all he wanted about how the drugs were helping her and she was doing better these days, to Jayne she still sounded like a downright nutcase. "There were gifts and laughter, and there was love. Family. It's all about family." She paused, frowning as if in confusion. "But it was all there, the seeds, they were just waiting to grow. My seed grew wrong."
Jayne rolled his eyes, got up and grabbed her shoulders, easily pushing her out of the way. "Ruttin' wonderful, freak, but how's about you go tell your childhood memories to your pansy-ass brother and leave me alone?"
He'd brought her to the foot of the ladder but she didn't seem to take the hint, head tilted to the side as she stared at him hard. It made him want to fidget and he only just refrained. Jayne just didn't fidget, and certainly not in front of that girl. He looked expressively at her, at the ladder, and nodded upwards to indicate that she better get moving, now.
Instead she smiled again, that big huge ruttin' smile that would probably have had more power over him than even Kaylee's if he actually gave a gorram. "You didn't read."
He scowled. "What you goin' on about now?"
"You didn't read the note. There's a note." She smiled again. "I remember Christmas. It's all about the tree."
And she slipped up the ladder, leaving Jayne there, puzzled and angry. No, he hadn't read the ruttin' books, hadn't even opened them, and he was more thrown than he would admit by the fact that River knew about all this. Girl just wasn't natural, always knowing more'n she should. He locked the hatch and opened the secret cache behind his Wall o' Weapons. There was his savings, some ammo, and a couple of hardcover books. Jayne took the first one out and read the title. Raiders of the Lost Arch. There was a guy drawn on the cover, dressed in brown linen and a hat, wielding a whip. A whip.
A note, huh?
He opened the book and indeed, the freak was right again. Kaylee's round handwriting greeted his eyes. Even the way she shaped her letters managed to convey her cheerfulness, it was near disgusting.
I know you're not the book type, but those are books Mama always used to read to me when I was littler. The hero guy reminds me of you. Sometimes he wants to pretend like he's no good, and he got this badass attitude like he doesn't need nobody, but he's got a big heart inside, and he feels very lonesome. He keeps sleeping with girls, too, so I thought you'd enjoy that part if not the rest. Sheng Dan Kuai Le, Jayne.
xXx
Kaylee
Jayne thought about it, intensely, for a good few minutes, hesitating between feeling touched or offended. Offended was more his style, sure, but this was Kaylee here. She didn't do offending. He finally decided not to decide just yet. No, he'd have to see what the fellow was like. Make his own opinion of him, and he'd see whether the comparison was flatterin' or not.
With that in mind, he sat on his bed and turned to the first page. His brow was furrowed with effort as he read the first line.
When he got to the bottom of the first page, he thought it wasn't too bad. When he got to the end of the first chapter, he decided it wouldn't be a bad way to pass time now and then, rather than go and bully Doc.
Somebody's boot knocked on his hatch. "Jayne?" came Zoe's voice.
He started and hid the book under his blanket, checked that the cache was closed and went and opened the hatch, leaning against the wall in an overdone attempt at nonchalance. "Yeah?"
The second-in-command looked down at him suspiciously. " Nobody seen you all morning. You haven't even raided the mess yet."
He heard the unvoiced question. "I had things to do. In my bunk. Personal stuff."
Zoe's face showed a hint of distaste. "I don't wanna know. Book's holding a prayer meetin' of some sort, if you want in, and in ten minutes' time we'll have lunch." She made to go, then paused. "Don't stay holed up in here this time. Kaylee's in one of her moods and the captain wouldn't take it too kindly if said mood got ruined. Dong ma?"
"I'll be there," he grunted with much annoyance, and after a beat she nodded and moved off.
They had this sort of understanding, Zoe and him. She left him well enough alone so long's he didn't get stupid, and in return he didn't try to kill her in her sleep. It worked fine.
His gaze was drawn to the bump in his blanket that marked the location of that gorram book. In ten minutes they'd have lunch. He'd spent the whole morning readin' a ruttin' chapter! Something was seriously humped in the 'verse, and it didn't had nothin' to do with Kaylee not smilin'. He made to place the book back in the cache, but after a moment's hesitation slid it in one of the thigh pockets of his pants instead.
He made it to the mess just in time for the prayer-meeting sort of event. Mal was standing in the doorway, scowling at the whole scene, and when Jayne arrived he raised his eyebrows in something like surprise, before moving out of the way with something like amusement or mockery in his eyes. Jayne couldn't decide which, and as Kaylee threw him one of her giddy smiles he decided he didn't care what Mal was on about this time, and instead took his seat at the table and let the captain be the odd one out.
Book said some stuff about what Sheng Dan was all about, the birth of Jesus and all, but Jayne was hardly listening. He was too busy wondering what was gonna happen in that book. He only perked up when River intervened to correct Book's sayings, babbling something about angels and time-space quantum things, or something like that. Jayne didn't pay attention to her words, but he looked at her instead, her long skinny arms, and legs, but mostly the stubborn set of her eyebrows and the spark in her eyes. How did she know all that stuff that she knew about all of them? The doc was trying to hush her, throwing apologetic glances at Book, who simply smiled patiently, the picture of zen. He too had his secrets and Jayne was sure of one thing, he didn't wanna be the one to break the preacher's zen. He felt pretty sure that Book's wrath wasn't something he wanted to see directed at him. Preacher looked gorram dangerous at times, made Jayne's hair stand up at the back of his neck.
Nothing like River, of course.
Finally the praying was over, Jayne muttered "Amen" along with the rest of them, adding his own short prayer to god in his mind. Keep 'ma alright, and get me some platinum. Please. Food was brought and Mal joined them at last. Jayne couldn't tell – didn't much care neither – if his jolly good mood was faked or not. They ate and joked, and something came back to him that the skinny lunatic had said. It's all about family. He guessed she was right again, and saluted this deeply philosophical thought by grabbing some more potatoes and downing some more of that wine Book had gotten from a monastery of wine-maker brothers where he had a friend or two.
Then it was dessert time, another proteined cake but at least they tried to make it taste like chocolate, Kaylee told him with a wink. And then she ushered them all to their respective presents, all piled up in a corner of the room. For the first time in three years, Jayne felt bad he hadn't gotten Kaylee nothing. Maybe he shoulda made the effort.
But it was too late anyway, and dwelling on selfless thoughts wasn't his thing. Selfless thoughts wasn't his thing to start with. He was surprised to find two presents in his pile and unwrapped the one that wasn't book-shaped first. It was a long rectangular box, and when he opened it he found a wicked-looking knife, better-looking than Boo even. He smiled appreciatively, wondering who had gotten him that.
"I thought you'd like it," came Simon's voice, and Jayne frowned and turned to the doctor.
"I didn't get you nothing'."
Simon smiled condescendingly. "I didn't expect anything from you, Jayne. And you're welcome."
Jayne shrugged and turned back to his other present. Another book indeed, Indiana Jones and the Peril at Delphi. He opened the first page and found a much shorter message, realizing he hadn't even checked last year's note.
With love,
Kaylee
Next to her name she had drown a ridiculous little heart and Jayne pursed his lips in disapproval.
"Did you even open the other ones?"
Jayne turned to her, closing the book promptly. "Sure did. I, er..." Yeah, he'd planned on thanking her, but he wasn't big on thanks. They never came easily, not unless they were to his ma. So he just blurted it out, "Xiexie," and stalked off.
Right outside the mess, however, River was waiting for him, leaning to one side as if she was a ruttin' tree the wind was swaying that way. She straightened up as he came near, and stepped in his way, hands in her back.
"Got something for ya."
Jayne halted. "You got somethin' for me?"
"Sure. It's a piece of the Christmas spirit. Family, yeah?"
Jayne waited in silence a few more seconds, but she just stood there and smiled her insane little cryptic grin. "So? You gonna gimme it or what? I don't got all day."
"Words to go back to," she nodded sagely, then extended her hands towards him.
Lying across them as you might expect a sword to was a branch of the tree Kaylee had put in the mess. Jayne stared at the branch, wondering whether he was seeing correctly. He blinked, stared some more, and came to the conclusion that it was just a ruttin' branch. "That's a piece of tree."
"Yeah," she agreed with another slightly manic smile, stretching her arms out so the branch would be just under his nose.
"Yeah," he nodded, and jostled her on his way down the walkway. Branchless. A ruttin' branch. Whatever went through that loony's mind, he thought he was better off not knowing. He headed for the cargo bay and set to do some workout. That night when he went back to his bunk, he cleaned all his weapons out as he did once in a while, and found a spot for his new knife. After that, he put his new book in the cache and slid the first one out his pocket as he lay down on his cot.
By the time he was done with the novel, he'd decided that the comparison wasn't too bad. He didn't feel offended. But if you asked him, there was much more of Mal in Jones than of himself. Also, he hoped the other plots would be less about weird mystical goushi, and more with the ladies and the fighting. But he guessed you couldn't have everything. And before he got started on the second one, he set out to find Kaylee and talk a little bit of this one with her. Get her to explain a few plot twists he hadn't really gotten. It got a bit complicated at times.
'Course, he'd make her swear on the dress Cap'n had bought her in Persephone. Swear that she wouldn't breathe a word of their conversation to any living soul. She was Kaylee, you could trust her with stuff like that. It was a bit puzzling to Jayne to realize that he'd now come to trust someone, even though it was with something so small as that.
And whenever he saw River after that, he thought of the note Kaylee had put in the first book, and of a proffered tree branch. And he kept an eye on her as always, and he thought she was just as crazy as ever, but he paid a little bit more attention to what she ranted on and on about.
Well, at least he did for a couple months. Then he decided it had just been a stroke of luck and the rest of it was just feihua. You just couldn't ask that much from Jayne Cobb, hero of Canton or not. As he liked to point out, it didn't make no sense.
~~ fin ~~
Title: Something humped with the 'verse
Characters: Jayne, Kaylee and River mostly
Rated: PG-13 maybe?
Notes: This is for
yodah, since he knew where the quote on my layout is from. It was supposed to be a drabble with Jayne and River, and a branch of Christmas tree. However, it seems that I can't just write drabbles. It had to be far bigger than a drabble. Oh well. And I couldn't write Jayne without having Kaylee be rather prominent in it, just because. It's Jayne we're talking about here. In any case, Yod', I hope you like it! Thanks: to
greenie_breizh who beta'ed this for me. Also, if anyone actually remembers which of Boo and Blinky is the knife and which the gun (or has the video where Adam introduces Jayne's weapons and can check), please let me know! I can't for the life of me remember which is which.Something humped with the 'verse.
For Yod'ah
She'd made it a tradition on the ship. That girl had too much niceness in her, but Jayne did his best not to hold it against her. In this instance, he didn't really care one way or another. If Kaylee wanted to hang up tinsel all around Serenity's engine room and Mal got no objection because it didn't hinder the running of the ship, it was fine by Jayne. If she set up a tiny little skeleton of a tree in the mess and added a star cut out of shiny paper on top, who was he to give a gorram?
So long's she didn't expect him to offer no gifts to nobody. Jayne had made that clear the first time they'd celebrated Sheng Dan three years ago. No ruttin' way he was giving gifts. Kaylee had pouted a bit, tried the puppy eyes trick, argued that Sheng Dan wasn't Sheng Dan without the traditional exchange of presents. "Tough luck," Jayne had replied, "'cause I ain't giving nobody nothin'."
She'd gotten him a gift anyway. That was Kaylee for you. He'd looked at the wrapped bundle, then back up at her with a frown. "What you gone and done that for? I don't got no gift for you."
"It's okay," she'd replied with one of her bright smiles. "I didn't expect anythin'. I just hope ya like it." And she'd moved on to opening the present Wash and Zoe had gotten her and squealed with joy at the state-of-the-art second-hand synchronizers, before hugging the living gui right outta them.
She'd gotten him a book, of all things, some sort of adventure story of the paper kind, which meant you couldn't even overwrite it, replace it by a porn novel or somethin'. Twentieth century feihua he wouldn't be caught dead with, about some sort of doctor-that-wasn't-one. The name of his job Jayne had never heard; it took him a good ten seconds to read it out on the back cover, and then again he wasn't sure of the pronunciation. Archaeologist. Sounded like niushi if you asked him. But he'd seen Kaylee look at him hopefully and he couldn't bear to disappoint her. He'd plastered a grin on his face and let out some wise-ass remark that meant thank you though it didn't have the words, not even in Chinese.
The next year he'd tried to avoid her all day long, because he didn't wanna have to pretend again. There was something about Kaylee that made him not wanna lie to her. So he pretended he had things to do in his bunk, and he went and grabbed food from the mess when he knew she was busy in the engine room, and as soon as they hit ground he'd slipped off – good timing, that, he'd have had a hard time avoiding her for much longer if they'd stayed up in the sky.
Except that when he came back to his bunk in the small hours of the next morning, completely sloshed and feeling much the better for it, there had been a present waiting for him on his cot. Apparently the book had only been the first in a series, and there was the next one. Jayne had frowned fiercely and failed to mention it the next day, barely looking at Kaylee. That was, until Mal decided to stick his nose in it and came to tell him that he had better go and thank her because her wounded puppy looks were getting on the captain's nerves.
Softie, Jayne thought, captain's gone and turned into a softie. He went to find Kaylee in the engine room, determined to tell her the naked truth – that he hadn't read a word of the first story, wouldn't read a word of the second one neither – and found himself fiddling with a spare part of Serenity while he thanked her for the present. She'd stood on tiptoe, grabbed his shoulders and made him bend down a little so she could peck him on the cheek. Then she patted his arm comfortingly. "There now, it wasn't so hard was it?" And she'd gone back to her business, and he to his, and they hadn't mentioned it again.
Now that the third Sheng Dan Jie was come, he knew it would happen again. He could just feel it coming, she would offer him the third story. He just knew it. He felt fatalistic about it, he knew it was something he couldn't escape. He'd get the book, and pretend like he was happy, and thank her, and that in turn would ensure she kept smiling.
It was all that mattered in the end, that she kept smiling. 'Cause if Kaylee wasn't smiling somethin' was seriously humped with the 'verse.
Jayne finally got off his cot and stretched as his eyes swept over his Wall o' Weapons, doing the usual inventory. Everybody was in place, but he leaned over and wiped a little dust off Vera. It wouldn't do to let her get dirty, the dust might settle in the mechanisms and he couldn't expect nothing but the best from her.
He yawned and slid on the first t-shirt he got his hands on, yawned a couple more times as he put on his boots, then opened his hatch and started, almost slipped on the ladder at the unexpected head that appeared above him.
"Feifei de piyan!" he grumbled with a scowl. "What you lookin' at, fenkuang de?"
The girl could bend at ruttin' unnatural angles and this time was no exception. For what he could see her legs were still straight, but she had bent her upper body almost to the vertical. She was watching him blankly, and then she broke into a grin.
"I remember Christmas," she told him, using the less common English equivalent for Sheng Dan. And then she was hurrying down the ladder and he could only step back, too thrown to react otherwise. She advanced on him as she spoke, backing him right against his cot where he plopped down, and then she stood above him and kept babbling away. "It used to be all the family together, and it was before everything happened. Or maybe after, time gets weird and the past comes back to the future." Doc could say all he wanted about how the drugs were helping her and she was doing better these days, to Jayne she still sounded like a downright nutcase. "There were gifts and laughter, and there was love. Family. It's all about family." She paused, frowning as if in confusion. "But it was all there, the seeds, they were just waiting to grow. My seed grew wrong."
Jayne rolled his eyes, got up and grabbed her shoulders, easily pushing her out of the way. "Ruttin' wonderful, freak, but how's about you go tell your childhood memories to your pansy-ass brother and leave me alone?"
He'd brought her to the foot of the ladder but she didn't seem to take the hint, head tilted to the side as she stared at him hard. It made him want to fidget and he only just refrained. Jayne just didn't fidget, and certainly not in front of that girl. He looked expressively at her, at the ladder, and nodded upwards to indicate that she better get moving, now.
Instead she smiled again, that big huge ruttin' smile that would probably have had more power over him than even Kaylee's if he actually gave a gorram. "You didn't read."
He scowled. "What you goin' on about now?"
"You didn't read the note. There's a note." She smiled again. "I remember Christmas. It's all about the tree."
And she slipped up the ladder, leaving Jayne there, puzzled and angry. No, he hadn't read the ruttin' books, hadn't even opened them, and he was more thrown than he would admit by the fact that River knew about all this. Girl just wasn't natural, always knowing more'n she should. He locked the hatch and opened the secret cache behind his Wall o' Weapons. There was his savings, some ammo, and a couple of hardcover books. Jayne took the first one out and read the title. Raiders of the Lost Arch. There was a guy drawn on the cover, dressed in brown linen and a hat, wielding a whip. A whip.
A note, huh?
He opened the book and indeed, the freak was right again. Kaylee's round handwriting greeted his eyes. Even the way she shaped her letters managed to convey her cheerfulness, it was near disgusting.
I know you're not the book type, but those are books Mama always used to read to me when I was littler. The hero guy reminds me of you. Sometimes he wants to pretend like he's no good, and he got this badass attitude like he doesn't need nobody, but he's got a big heart inside, and he feels very lonesome. He keeps sleeping with girls, too, so I thought you'd enjoy that part if not the rest. Sheng Dan Kuai Le, Jayne.
xXx
Kaylee
Jayne thought about it, intensely, for a good few minutes, hesitating between feeling touched or offended. Offended was more his style, sure, but this was Kaylee here. She didn't do offending. He finally decided not to decide just yet. No, he'd have to see what the fellow was like. Make his own opinion of him, and he'd see whether the comparison was flatterin' or not.
With that in mind, he sat on his bed and turned to the first page. His brow was furrowed with effort as he read the first line.
When he got to the bottom of the first page, he thought it wasn't too bad. When he got to the end of the first chapter, he decided it wouldn't be a bad way to pass time now and then, rather than go and bully Doc.
Somebody's boot knocked on his hatch. "Jayne?" came Zoe's voice.
He started and hid the book under his blanket, checked that the cache was closed and went and opened the hatch, leaning against the wall in an overdone attempt at nonchalance. "Yeah?"
The second-in-command looked down at him suspiciously. " Nobody seen you all morning. You haven't even raided the mess yet."
He heard the unvoiced question. "I had things to do. In my bunk. Personal stuff."
Zoe's face showed a hint of distaste. "I don't wanna know. Book's holding a prayer meetin' of some sort, if you want in, and in ten minutes' time we'll have lunch." She made to go, then paused. "Don't stay holed up in here this time. Kaylee's in one of her moods and the captain wouldn't take it too kindly if said mood got ruined. Dong ma?"
"I'll be there," he grunted with much annoyance, and after a beat she nodded and moved off.
They had this sort of understanding, Zoe and him. She left him well enough alone so long's he didn't get stupid, and in return he didn't try to kill her in her sleep. It worked fine.
His gaze was drawn to the bump in his blanket that marked the location of that gorram book. In ten minutes they'd have lunch. He'd spent the whole morning readin' a ruttin' chapter! Something was seriously humped in the 'verse, and it didn't had nothin' to do with Kaylee not smilin'. He made to place the book back in the cache, but after a moment's hesitation slid it in one of the thigh pockets of his pants instead.
He made it to the mess just in time for the prayer-meeting sort of event. Mal was standing in the doorway, scowling at the whole scene, and when Jayne arrived he raised his eyebrows in something like surprise, before moving out of the way with something like amusement or mockery in his eyes. Jayne couldn't decide which, and as Kaylee threw him one of her giddy smiles he decided he didn't care what Mal was on about this time, and instead took his seat at the table and let the captain be the odd one out.
Book said some stuff about what Sheng Dan was all about, the birth of Jesus and all, but Jayne was hardly listening. He was too busy wondering what was gonna happen in that book. He only perked up when River intervened to correct Book's sayings, babbling something about angels and time-space quantum things, or something like that. Jayne didn't pay attention to her words, but he looked at her instead, her long skinny arms, and legs, but mostly the stubborn set of her eyebrows and the spark in her eyes. How did she know all that stuff that she knew about all of them? The doc was trying to hush her, throwing apologetic glances at Book, who simply smiled patiently, the picture of zen. He too had his secrets and Jayne was sure of one thing, he didn't wanna be the one to break the preacher's zen. He felt pretty sure that Book's wrath wasn't something he wanted to see directed at him. Preacher looked gorram dangerous at times, made Jayne's hair stand up at the back of his neck.
Nothing like River, of course.
Finally the praying was over, Jayne muttered "Amen" along with the rest of them, adding his own short prayer to god in his mind. Keep 'ma alright, and get me some platinum. Please. Food was brought and Mal joined them at last. Jayne couldn't tell – didn't much care neither – if his jolly good mood was faked or not. They ate and joked, and something came back to him that the skinny lunatic had said. It's all about family. He guessed she was right again, and saluted this deeply philosophical thought by grabbing some more potatoes and downing some more of that wine Book had gotten from a monastery of wine-maker brothers where he had a friend or two.
Then it was dessert time, another proteined cake but at least they tried to make it taste like chocolate, Kaylee told him with a wink. And then she ushered them all to their respective presents, all piled up in a corner of the room. For the first time in three years, Jayne felt bad he hadn't gotten Kaylee nothing. Maybe he shoulda made the effort.
But it was too late anyway, and dwelling on selfless thoughts wasn't his thing. Selfless thoughts wasn't his thing to start with. He was surprised to find two presents in his pile and unwrapped the one that wasn't book-shaped first. It was a long rectangular box, and when he opened it he found a wicked-looking knife, better-looking than Boo even. He smiled appreciatively, wondering who had gotten him that.
"I thought you'd like it," came Simon's voice, and Jayne frowned and turned to the doctor.
"I didn't get you nothing'."
Simon smiled condescendingly. "I didn't expect anything from you, Jayne. And you're welcome."
Jayne shrugged and turned back to his other present. Another book indeed, Indiana Jones and the Peril at Delphi. He opened the first page and found a much shorter message, realizing he hadn't even checked last year's note.
With love,
Kaylee
Next to her name she had drown a ridiculous little heart and Jayne pursed his lips in disapproval.
"Did you even open the other ones?"
Jayne turned to her, closing the book promptly. "Sure did. I, er..." Yeah, he'd planned on thanking her, but he wasn't big on thanks. They never came easily, not unless they were to his ma. So he just blurted it out, "Xiexie," and stalked off.
Right outside the mess, however, River was waiting for him, leaning to one side as if she was a ruttin' tree the wind was swaying that way. She straightened up as he came near, and stepped in his way, hands in her back.
"Got something for ya."
Jayne halted. "You got somethin' for me?"
"Sure. It's a piece of the Christmas spirit. Family, yeah?"
Jayne waited in silence a few more seconds, but she just stood there and smiled her insane little cryptic grin. "So? You gonna gimme it or what? I don't got all day."
"Words to go back to," she nodded sagely, then extended her hands towards him.
Lying across them as you might expect a sword to was a branch of the tree Kaylee had put in the mess. Jayne stared at the branch, wondering whether he was seeing correctly. He blinked, stared some more, and came to the conclusion that it was just a ruttin' branch. "That's a piece of tree."
"Yeah," she agreed with another slightly manic smile, stretching her arms out so the branch would be just under his nose.
"Yeah," he nodded, and jostled her on his way down the walkway. Branchless. A ruttin' branch. Whatever went through that loony's mind, he thought he was better off not knowing. He headed for the cargo bay and set to do some workout. That night when he went back to his bunk, he cleaned all his weapons out as he did once in a while, and found a spot for his new knife. After that, he put his new book in the cache and slid the first one out his pocket as he lay down on his cot.
By the time he was done with the novel, he'd decided that the comparison wasn't too bad. He didn't feel offended. But if you asked him, there was much more of Mal in Jones than of himself. Also, he hoped the other plots would be less about weird mystical goushi, and more with the ladies and the fighting. But he guessed you couldn't have everything. And before he got started on the second one, he set out to find Kaylee and talk a little bit of this one with her. Get her to explain a few plot twists he hadn't really gotten. It got a bit complicated at times.
'Course, he'd make her swear on the dress Cap'n had bought her in Persephone. Swear that she wouldn't breathe a word of their conversation to any living soul. She was Kaylee, you could trust her with stuff like that. It was a bit puzzling to Jayne to realize that he'd now come to trust someone, even though it was with something so small as that.
And whenever he saw River after that, he thought of the note Kaylee had put in the first book, and of a proffered tree branch. And he kept an eye on her as always, and he thought she was just as crazy as ever, but he paid a little bit more attention to what she ranted on and on about.
Well, at least he did for a couple months. Then he decided it had just been a stroke of luck and the rest of it was just feihua. You just couldn't ask that much from Jayne Cobb, hero of Canton or not. As he liked to point out, it didn't make no sense.
~~ fin ~~
