Title: No Shame In It
Disclaimer: These characters aren't mine. All hail Joss, he of the big fancy ideas.

Pairings: Simon/Kaylee, Jayne/River
Rating: R

Spoilers: post-BDM
Notes: This is my very first Firefly fic; constructive feedback happily welcomed.

Kaylee sees sparks, red and blue and green. Best damn fireworks show in the 'verse, here in Simon's bed. Kaylee clenches her hands on Simon's shoulders, and her fingers slide on his sweaty skin. "Bao bay," he whispers in her ear, and shudders in her arms. She opens her eyes to see a slim white hand silently slide the door to the room shut. Anger rushes through Kaylee as Simon kisses her cheek and rolls off of her.

He smiles at her, his face flushed. "I'm so glad we got a few minutes to ourselves."

Kaylee leans forward and kisses him. "Me too, sweetie." She rolls out of the bed and pulls on her coveralls.

He grabs her hand. "Where are you going? Is something wrong?"

Kaylee moves her lips into a smile she doesn't feel. "I'm thirsty from all that messin' around, need a drink. I'll be back in a blink."

Simon's head flops back on the pillow, his eyes closing. "Don't be long."

"I won't be." Kaylee slides open the door and leaves the room, closing it behind her. She walks down the hallway, and makes her way through the ship to the mess. Jayne sits at one end of the kitchen table, with River at the opposite end, eating slices of apple. The mercenary looks up briefly when Kaylee steps into the room, and then his attention returns to the knife that he is sharpening. "River, I need a word," says Kaylee.

"Cerulean," River replies, and looks at Kaylee with a wide smile.

"I'm not playing with you," Kaylee says sharply. Her gaze shifts to Jayne, engrossed in his task."You know what you done. It ain't right," she says in a low voice.

"There's no shame in it. Sex is a biological imperative," says River.

Jayne's head jerks up, instantly alert. "Sex?"

Kaylee's cheeks flush red. "I'm not the one feeling shame. You should be. Sneaking around, watching people's private business. It's sinful, River."

"Sin is a religious construct based on superstition. My observations are purely scientific," River explains. "It's impartial and analytical."

"Simon and I are not gorram lab rats. We're people, one of us your own flesh and blood." Kaylee points a finger at her. "I'm warning you. You pull this go se again, I'm telling your brother." She slams open one of the metal cabinets, grabs a bottle of water, and leaves.

Jayne leans back in his chair. "Sounds to me like we got a peeping tom on board." He snorts. "Or a peeping Tam, actual like."

"I'm not peeping," River says slowly. "I'm studying."

"Watching your own brother rutting?" He shakes his head. "That's plain nasty."

"I'm not a pervert, I'm a scholar." River's hands twist in her skirt. "I watch so that I can understand."

"Don't have to watch your brother," Jayne says. "We got seven cortex screens on board. Pick any one of 'em and look at some skin shows."

"What's a skin show?" She looks at him, eyes wide, and he is reminded of how young she is.

"Nobody ever done explain to you about sex?" he asks. "Your ma never sat you down, had a talk with you?"

She frowns. "No need. Pistils, stamens, gametes, embryos- I know all the words, all the concepts."

Jayne shakes his head. "That's reproduction. Not the same thing, dong ma? I'm talking about screwing."

"Mother told me that we'd discuss it when I was older," she explained. "But I went to the Academy soon after. At the Academy, they focused on teaching-other things."

Like how to kill, Jayne thinks. How to be an ass-kicking, mind reading whirlwind of destruction.

River looks at him intently. "There's so much I know, that I shouldn't. And so much I should, that I don't." Her hands form into frustrated fists.

"You're just a little girl," he reminds her. "When you're grown, you'll figure it all out."

She makes a strangled noise of frustration. "I'm not a child! I'm an adult!" Her fist slams into the table, and the plate of apples jumps.

"Yeah, you're proving that real good with this here temper fit."

"I can pilot this ship, kill a man thirteen different ways without a weapon," she hisses. "I can hear what people think, the things in their heads that differ from the words they say."

"That don't make you grown," he says, as gently as he can. "That makes you creepy."

"I'm not ignorant! I know what sex sounds like. I know what people's thoughts look like, during. I can see the colors." Her fingers draw patterns in the air, waves and then fireworks. "But I don't understand the connection. Flesh sliding into flesh, becoming heat and sparks?" She shrugs. "I'm not used to feeling stupid. But I don't understand this."

Jayne blinks. "Well, you're innocent that way. Virgins don't know nothing about fucking, and they ain't supposed to know. Lot of men like it that way, too. Some favor a woman who's pure."

"That's medieval and ignorant," she proclaims. "A hymen's just a piece of flesh, no more and no less. Its significance is no greater than an appendix or an earlobe."

"That's where you're wrong," Jayne says. "That's where all your book learning got you exactly jack squat nothing."

"You don't know-"she begins.

"No, you're the one don't know a thing about how things work." Jayne gets up and sits next to her. He takes a slice of apple from her plate and bites into it with a crisp snap. "Look, back where I come from, there ain't nothing. Whole planet full of nothing, really. There's mines to work in and shacks to live in and that's about it. Back home, the only thing a young man wants to do is get hisself a virgin. Pleasing to the eye, that's nice and all; but virgin, that's important."

"That's absurd," River says flatly.

Jayne shrugs. "Maybe to you. You grew up in the Core, had it all handed to you. But when you've got nothing, little things are all you can hope for. Taking a woman for the first time, knowing nobody but you has ever kissed her, been inside her, that's special. That's something clean and bright in a mean dirty world."

River meets his eyes, looks deep within. "You loved her, your wife."

He looks away. "You stay out of my head, crazy, or I'll knock you down."

"I'm not in your head," River replies. "I can hear it in your voice. You're talking from your heart." She leans forward and presses her hand flat against his chest.

He slaps her hand away and glares at her. "I ain't got no heart. It's been dead and gone longer than you been alive."

The door to the mess opens, and Mal walks in, his jaw set. "I know that you're new at this job and all, River, but you're the damn pilot. You been prancing around my ship for near an hour now. Get your scrawny ass up to the bridge and fly my boat."

River jumps up out of her chair, and curtsies low before the captain, her long hair brushing the toe of his boot. "Sorry, got distracted by all the sex," she says clearly, and scoots out of the room.

Mal turns and looks at Jayne. "You wanna explain any of that?"

"Got nothin' to do with me. I'm sitting here minding my own business. Apple?" Jayne offers, holding out the plate.

"I don't pay you to mind your own business," the captain snaps. "I pay you to do mine. If you got nothing better to do, go scrub down the cargo bay, pretty it up before we land on Sihnon."

"Hwoon dahn," Jayne mutters under his breath. He throws down the plate and stomps out of the mess.

Mal helps himself to an apple slice. "Not worth finding out about," he tells himself, and takes a bite. "Ignorance is gorram bliss."

Translations

Bao bay- sweetheart

Dong ma?- understand

Go se- crap

Hwoon dahn- bastard