Disclaimer: Words are mine, world ain't.
a/n: So, these will be no kind of coherent story, just separate snippets of life that are too tiny to be posted on their own. I will try to note a timeframe for each of them, either pre-relationship or established relationship. Feedback is welcomed!
Timeline: Pre-relationship
Fell in Love with a Face
"He's got a funny looking face," River says to Kaylee, her nimble fingers scooping up jacks.
"Huh? Who does?" Kaylee asks, grabbing for the ball, mind more on her strategy than River's ramblings.
"All full of lines, cares and worries and laughs. Very mobile," River goes on, ignoring the question. "The eyelashes are too long, belong to a more feminine appearance. The smile is acceptable."
When Kaylee, captured jacks in her palm, looks up, ready to repeat her question, she sees that while River's hands are darting over the jacks, her eyes are fixed on the Captain.
"Oughtn't add up to beauty, yet it does," she says, far away and still winning the game.
x-X-x
Ain't right that she should be so pretty, not really. Hardly enough of her there to be called a woman, after all, and what there is always being swallowed up in borrowed clothes don't help. Her face is all made up of big eyes and forehead and that endless curtain of hair she never does a thing with, not that he's ever been one for fancy styles. Or one for fancy clothes either, come to that.
But he's also never been one for girls just lately become adult women, and that's why it's getting to him so much, how he can't seem to stop staring at the way her mouth curves when she grins, at the graceful way she's got even when she ain't doing more than sitting on the floor playing games.
And now she's looking up, straight at him, and he knows for damn sure he's let a few too many thoughts slip for comfort.
"You think I'm pretty too?" she calls from across the cargo bay, sounding surprised.
Well, that pretty much reduces him to incoherency. "I – What? Wait, what do you mean, too?"
x-X-x
Neither one of them can understand why Kaylee's going off into peals of laughter, echoing around them in their stillness, eyes locked on each other.