Simplicity
Jayne considered himself a simple soul.
He liked it that way; he liked bein' simple. Bein' simple meant he could do what he wanted, when he wanted.
Simple meant no one expected him to step up or take responsibility; it meant he could sit back and let others do the thinkin'. It meant folk would often underestimate him – and not realise their mistake until it was too late. And best of all, simple meant loyalty could be bought and sold to the greatest profit – his greatest profit.
Joining Serenity had caused the first crack in that world view. Mal, Kaylee, Zoe – Wash and Book, before they'd gone – it had taken him a while to see it, but he'd realised it would take a hella lot of gold to make him sell his loyalty 'gainst them. That maybe there weren't even enough gold in the 'verse for that... Okay, no, there was, but still – his price would be a lot higher than he'd ever thought it coulda been. What the crew thought… mattered. Their opinion of him mattered.
He'd known that the day the cold wind from an opening airlock stung the back of his neck, even as the cold gaze of a deadly Mal had stung his face.
And what had caused that fight? The Girl.
The Crazy Girl.
Her entrance into his life had tangled everythin' up, had complicated everythin'; had spread the cracks much further.
She was the opposite of simple; impossible to pin down.
A genius stumped by an Ice Planet.
A Reader who no one understood
A woman in body, but a child in mind – and half the time the other way 'round agin.
A slender reed so easily snapped... an unstoppable weapon of death.
Miranda – that was when his gorram world view had shattered.
Weren't nothin' simple 'bout what the Alliance had done there (that was a kinda betrayal Jayne couldn't even get his head 'round); weren't nothin' simple 'bout The Girl's actions there neither.
A slip of a girl taking on a peck of hún dàn Reavers and not only surviving but slaughterin' them.
And that left Jayne with the most unsimple part of all: a life debt to someone he had once betrayed – an admirin' for someone he had once hated.
A bone-deep longing for someone he knew was far too shiny for the likes of him, even with her head all wán dàn le.
To Jayne's way of thinking this led to one unavoidable conclusion:
Pure and simple, he was humped.
Glossary:
hún dàn – bastard
wán dàn le – ruined