First Firefly Fic.
Jayne knew he'd made the right decision as he hauled his two duffles towards his new bunk on Serenity. Ain't no way he hadn't. 10% off the top? That was definitely a better deal than what he'd been gettin' off that gorram ugly merc. And a bunk o' his own. Shiny. He tossed his duffles, one after the other, down into his new space, listening to the thunks before turnin' back towards the hold and stomping off in that direction. There, he held his crate of shiny girls. They were his most important possessions, Vera, Tilda, Martha and Leopolda. Vera was the most valued.
He lugged the case back to his new quarters, grumbling under his breath about the distinct lack of women on board this ship-and he did like his women. Not that the number of women available to him had been all that high before. In fact, with Zoe, there was a fair 100% increase. Now, she was a fantastic specimen of woman. She was also cold. And seemed like a gorram bitch anyways. They'd get along well, but not 'like that' so to say. He punched the opening into his own bunk with his elbow, stifling a wince at the pain. Taking a swift glance around, he noticed the bright Christmas lights surrounding one of the doors. Rolling his eyes, he wondered how on earth Zoe would ever choose Christmas lights. In fact, she was the last person on earth he would have expected to have Christmas lights.
"I can't believe that gorram captain puts up with Christmas lights" he growled as he tromped down the rungs to his new quarters, balancing his crate of weapons. "Must be a nuwang hiding behind a gorram ice bitch." he said, quietly. He shook his head, one of his little voices questioning his very quick decision to join this crew. Surveying his bunk, he sighed and decided the wall above the bed would be the best place to store his Vera, his Tilda, his Martha and his Leopolda. It was a smooth wall, though and he needed some hooks to hold them by.
He drew himself out of his quarters and stomped towards the galley. Zoe was sitting there, cleaning her guns. "You know where I ken get me some hooks, hang m'guns?" he asked, crossing his arms, bulging in muscles, if he did say so himself, across his rather broad chest.
"There're extra hooks down that hall, towards the mechanic's room-who isn't in at the moment, but I'm sure the closet's well organized enough so you can find hooks." She didn't even look up from her cleaning, only a slight pause to say that. Jayne silently considered what to say when Zoe continued with "our food is yours, feel free to take some." Zoe glanced up, nodding to him as she stood up, gathering her guns.
"Good luck!" she said, before jogging out and heading to the bridge.
"Heh," was all Jayne said. He had been watching her move and was rather entranced by it. After a moment and a slight leer, he turned and stomped down the opposite direction. The slight closet took but a moment to open and Jayne growled at it under his breath even though there was no real reason to do so. He reminded himself of the money in it for him and the personal space. Even though all of this seemed like a bad place and that he'd probably wind up the butt of all the jokes in this dump of a ship. Not that he'd ever been on anything besides a dump of a ship. Seemed like a good 'un for being such a dump though.
Taking the hooks, he lay them out on the bed, before realizing he had forgotten a way to get the hooks into the wall. "Kuai de sile niu" he bit out, stomping back out, up the ladder into the hallway, muttering under his breath the whole time.
"Whoa there," a tenor voice said. Jayne looked up, glaring at the captain.
"s'cuse me. Forgot the gorram screws for the gorram hooks for my babies." He glared at the captain and side stepped, only to find the captain sidestepping as well.
"Now, I don't know you we-"
"You don't know me at all, you don't mind me sayin'" Jayne growled, eying the captain warily.
"Well, sure, but as I was sayin' I don't know you, but I won't have you stomping around this ship in a foul mood for no gorram reason. Now tell me, is there a gorram reason?"
And those words somehow cut through the fog Jayne was in. Scowling, he realized that no, in fact there wasn't. "'spect it was extra energy." he growled, sidestepping the captain who allowed it this time.
"Try not to let it happen again" Jayne said briefly and kept going to the closet. Truth, he didn't know why he was in a foul mood, but he wasn't 'bout to let it get him kicked off this new better deal. Sucking in his breath, he grabbed the screws and screwdriver and stomped back to his bunk.
For the next few hours, he sweated and growled, banged on the walls in frustration. Eventually, however, he had the rack of guns up just how he wanted. Instead of having to be strewn across the underside of his bed, possibly getting banged up in different ways, they were safe all on a wall.
***
It was later in the afternoon and Jayne was napping.
"Ngh-hoh?" he rolled over, blinking the sleep away from his eyes. "Ughhh" he groaned, sitting up slowly. It would take his body a little bit of time to get used to the bed. Throwing on his shirt, he climbed up to the walkway and headed for the kitchen. There was a young woman with light brown hair stretching to reach something in one of the top containers. Jayne swept his eyes down and up her back, appreciating her body for what it was-tight and lithe. He lingered on her backside before walking over, standing behind her and grabbing what she was so clearly reaching for.
"Here. You wanted this?" he asked, though he was positive she was.
The woman turned around and he felt like someone had punched him in the stomach. Her eyes-they were big and round and brown. And perfect.
"Thanks," she said and she smiled, though warily. And the smile did him in. He'd never seen one like that before. Or at least, that's what his heart told him even while he argued with it, saying he'd seen plenty of smiles, plenty of female smiles before.
"You're welcome," he said, nearly growling. Stepping back slightly, he watched as she slipped around him and pattered out of the kitchen.
As she disappeared, he frowned. Why in the world would they have another pretty girl on board? The captain had introduced him to the companion-Inara-already, making clear she was off-limits. Not like he'd ever go with a companion. They were too high class for him. Too needy. Maybe she was Captain Mal's 'special' friend. He ignored the slight tightening in his belly, warning him of his far too strong attraction to the girl. He wondered idly, though, if he could get a 'special friend' of his own, if he found one, that is, on some planet or another.
He banged around the kitchen, opening drawers until he found what he wanted, a protein pack. He heated it up, spicing it with a cheese flavoring. He tossed it in the heater and banged around again, looking for something to eat it on. Finally, he found a plate, just as the timer dinged, saying his food was...well, edible at least. He opened the packet, and tossed it on his plate. Carrying it over to the table, he snagged a fork and started shoveling it in his mouth. It had been a long time since he'd been able to fully eat a meal. Oh, he'd gotten enough food with the last group, but he certainly hadn't been able to eat whenever he wanted, plus at meal times. Granted, he knew they only had a certain amount set aside for beside meal times, but at least they had that.
"Pigging out already, are we?" a voice sounded from the door. Jayne stiffened, one hand reaching for his weapon that wasn't there while his eyes flew to look at who was standing there.
"Mmphgmm" He half mumbled and grumbled at the first mate of the ship, Zoe. He did his best to look as intimidating as possibly. All Zoe did was raise her eyebrows and look at him, before sauntering into the room and taking a seat across from him.
"Of course, you're always welcome to eat whenever you want, but be warned-dinner's in an hour," she said, without so much as a hint of a smile.
Jayne found himself rather confused by this woman. He'd met women soldiers before, but not many. And usually, he'd been strongly attracted to them. In that matter, at least it wasn't different. However, he found himself wondering why she never smiled. Quickly though, he shoved the thought out of his mind, snorting at his stupid thoughts.
He chucked the plate and fork into the sink, intending to get to them later. "You gotta do your dishes. Only time someone does 'em for ya is when it's a mealtime. And you have to do them when it's your turn." Zoe spoke up from the table, where she was carefully cutting apart an apple.
"Grralright!" Jayne said, growling under his breath and turning back to the sink, cleaning off his plate and rinsing it. He stomped back towards his bunk, wondering how well he'd be getting along with this crew.
***
A little over an hour later, Mal's voice came over the intercom, announcing that dinner was ready. He was still hungry so he hurriedly climbed the rungs out and hurried the few feet down the walkway to the galley. The table was set and there was a lot of food there. He heard footsteps just behind him and whirled to find Mal right there.
"What'd you go and do that for!" Jayne sputtered.
"Do what?" Mal said, eyebrows raised.
"Sneakin' up b'hind a man, it's no' good fer tha heart." Jayne growled.
"I wasn't sneakin'. Just coming back from announcing that it's dinner time," Mal said, in a rather annoyed tone of voice.
"You were sneakin'" Jayne said, frowning at the fact that he hadn't heard Mal. He turned and headed for the table, realizing that perhaps he had been so caught up in looking for that girl that he'd not paid attention to the footsteps behind him.
Sitting down, he realized that he ought to wait for the rest of the seats to fill up, as that was what mal seemed to be doing. Just then, light footsteps hurried in from the same direction Mal came in.
A somewhat short, rather skinny guy hopped in and Jayne couldn't help but stare at the guy's bright red hair clashing with his Hawaiian shirt for a few seconds before scowling slightly in annoyance.
"Heya, I'm Wash. Well, the name's actually Hoban Washburn...but then, I assume you can see why I go by Wash?" he said cheerfully, sticking out his hand.
"Jayne Cobb," Jayne growled, grabbing the guy's hand and resisting the temptation to try and break it. Wash sat down, leaving a space between him and Jayne.
Zoe, the first mate was in next, coming from another direction. "Hi sweetie!" she said, smiling for the first time Jayne had seen. He looked around, wondering who she was greeting and suddenly realized it was Wash. Shrimpy little Wash that she was greeting. Well, if that don't beat all... He wondered how on earth that had happened. Well, Zoe was certainly out of the picture...Not that she'd been in it much anyways, besides those fine looking legs.
It was only then that the prettiest girl he'd laid eyes on sauntered into the room, looking rather grimy for someone who was only here to be th'captain's pet. He raised his eyebrows at her and she only smiled prettily.
"I didn't introduce m'self earlier," she said, in a voice that was rather pretty-not too low and not too high. It also sounded rather like she came from a similar place as he did, which was rather a surprise. "I'm Kaylee" she nodded to him with a smile. Kaylee, he rolled the name around in his head as he continued to look at her, assess her.
Breaking the slightly long silence, he said "I'm Jayne Cobb" not bothering to say anything more.
"Shiny," Kaylee said as she dropped into the seat besides Mal. "I love my captain!" she said, kissing Mal's cheek.
Mal responded by squeezing her shoulder and continuing to eat. Yep. She was definitely the captain's plaything. He stuffed the small voice voicing disappointment into the tiniest corner of his stomach. He ate his dinner quickly and stood, intending to take a tour of the meager work out equipment he'd spotted down in the hold.