Title: Maybe.
Author: Drula/Karmawiccan
Rating: G
Pairing: Mal/River
Summary: "If anything happens to her, anything at all... I swear to you I will get very choked up. Honestly. There could be tears." Sarcasm. It was Malcolm Reynolds' specialty.
Spoilers: The first 15 minutes of the movie.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, including the very first line because that's one of Mal's lines from the BDM.
Author notes: I'm thinking of turning this into a series called Moments, thoughts on each major Maliver moment in the movie.
Review: Please. Tell me what ya think!
Distribution: Want. Take. Have. Tell me where it's going.
"If anything happens to her, anything at all... I swear to you I will get very choked up. Honestly. There could be tears."
Sarcasm. It was Malcolm Reynolds' specialty. Or least it had become his specialty since the war. He used to be able to tell real jokes, and laugh real laughs, the kind that reached his eyes. Instead he was sarcastic and dry. It was his defense mechanism. The one he used to hide his true feelings.
He hadn't been lying. If anything happened to River, he really would have gotten worked up. And there wouldn't have been a 'could.' There would be tears and he knew it. But Simon didn't need to know about that.
Unlike Simon, Mal actually had faith in the girl. She was stronger than her brother gave her credit for. Not that Simon actually saw that she was getting better. He still liked taking care of the sick little girl they'd pulled out from the box. But Mal and River had worked out an arrangement. He'd start bringing her on missions to prove to her brother that she was getting better and she'd stay out of his head. The perfect arrangement, well aside from things that would land him in the Special Hell. Not that he wasn't going their any way. He'd already accepted that fact.
But that didn't mean he was going to lose the sarcasm. In fact, that only meant he was going to use sarcasm more. He even used it on her now—to dodge the soul-searing glances she shot his way and to avoid her piercing questions that suddenly began to make perfect sense to him. The bruises on his shins were beginning to heal faster now anyway.
Still, he knew that one day she'd call him out on his feelings, in front of everyone. But for now she didn't say a word.
At all.
The entire mule ride.
So what if she was a mite angry? His defenses were still up and undamaged. And really that's all that mattered to Mal.
One day, maybe, he'd stop with all the sarcasm and let his defenses down—actually put feeling and meaning into the things he was saying.
But for now he'd just let everyone think he was a bad man. Then maybe that would make it true and there wouldn't be any tears at all.