Your
He was never one for the ocean. The sand and salty water. Getting covered in the sticky stuff. Being surrounded by who knows what. Crabs, jellyfish, seaweed. Yet there he was walking along the coast letting the water hit his bare feet and his good pair of black pants.
When she asked, he had said no. Then she asked again sweet-like. He compromised saying that they could go if he didn't have to get wet. She agreed and they left for the beach.
But then she looked at him, sweet-like once again, saying that she didn't want to go down to the water alone and he caved faster than a cardboard roof in a blizzard.
She was something else, half dancing and half walking along the shore. Maybe Jayne was right, he thought to himself as she moved. Maybehaps she is a witch.
The footprints she made in the wet sand were barely visible, as if she simply glided across the earth. The heavy stuff didn't even weigh her tiny feet down as she walked…danced…whatever…
"Captain," she began as she spun to look at him.
"Yes River?"
"Do you know what a double entendre is?"
He paused and thought about it for a moment. "No."
"That's when something has two meanings. Albatross is one of them."
"Is it now?" he asked with an amused smirk.
"Albatross can mean a burden or it can be a seabird."
"True."
"You call me albatross."
"That I do."
She continued walking with her arms outstretched towards the wind. "I should be able to fly," she stated. "If I'm a seabird. Love is the first rule of flying, you know."
He was going to say something back, but stopped in his tracks as she gracefully moved into the oncoming waves, twirling about with those fragile little arms still spread-out like ruttin' wings.
He couldn't help thinking that she looked natural in the ocean. It was like she belonged there and nowhere else in the 'verse.
She caught the thought and pulled him by the hand into the water with her. He reluctantly allowed the petite thing to tug him towards her. She leaned in until her mouth was pressed tenuously against his ear.
"That's because I'm your albatross, Captain."
His heart stopped at the word, "Your" and resumed beating when she pulled away. He mindlessly rubbed the spot where her lips had been just seconds earlier.
She took his hand and pulled him further down the beach. He had a smile that even a Reaver couldn't wipe off plastered on his lips. He didn't care for oceans, but he was quite fond of rivers…