Disclaimer: All hail Joss.
A/N: Here I go again. Another Rayne series. This is different than The Mouse because is lacks angst. It's similar because I don't have a plan for it. Read and review/rant!
River shrieked as she was thrown to the floor of the med bay. Simon and Kaylee stood above her, shocked. Jayne, too, towered over her. He looked ready to spit fire.
"If'n you don't keep her outta my gorram way, doc...!" He turned and left, not finishing the threat.
Simon knelt down and attempted to help her to her feet. "What did you do this time, mei mei?" River looked down at her bare feet. Simon now knew that most of Jayne's outbursts were cause by some fault of River's.
Kaylee came to her rescue. "Simon, you don't know she did anything."
"Mei mei?" Simon asked again, as if she was five, not seventeen.
River looked down again. "She may or may not have thrown his magazines out of the airlock."
Kaylee giggled and Simon just looked puzzled. "Jayne reads magazines?"
Kaylee giggled again. "No, Simon. His magazines. Ya know, his glossies."
"Oh... Oh!" River felt her eyes roll. top three percent indeed. She could scarcely imagine the stupidity of his classmates. "River why would you do that?"
"He would not participate in the seeking!"
"The seeking of what?" Simon was talking to her like she was a child again.
"The seeking!" He was so dense. "When we were small you would seek! I was rarely the seeker! Seek!"
"Hide and seek, mei mei?" She felt her face slip into a 'duh' expression. "Right. Well, River," Simon sat her down and Kaylee politely excused herself. "Jayne is a grown man. He doesn't want to play hide and seek. Just because someone doesn't want to play with you doesn't mean that you can destroy their property. Understand?"
River nodded and rolled her eyes. "Wu dong."
"Good. Do you want to go apologize to Jayne?"
"No." Leave it to her brother to suddenly think of Jayne as a human being.
"Will you do it anyway? For me?"
River grumbled to herself, but got up and proceeded out of the infirmary. "Ben dun... Rather play with ink and paper than the girl... Hope he gets hit by a transport..."
Kaylee was waiting outside the infirmary, grinning ear to ear. She couldn't believe that she couldn't see it earlier! And why didn't 'Nara tell her? 'Nara could always tell 'bout these sorta things. It was so shiny!
River sulked past and Kaylee stopped her. "Hey, Riv." River just stopped and tilted her head a bit. "If you wanna play with Jayne, maybe you could play something he likes. What about Tall Card?"
River beamed at her. "She thanks you for the advice!" River then skipped off.
Simon, her sweetie, came over and grabbed her hand. "Ain't it sweet, Simon?" she asked, now beaming, herself. "River's crush on Jayne?"
"She has a crush on him?"
"Mhmm."
"I was afraid of that."