First off, I'd like to thank everybody who read and reviewed Horseman - truly, I was overwhelmed. Thanks to all of you, I've decided to keep going with Firefly fic! I'm still in love with the idea of Inara sick!fic, but I thought I'd give her a break and try writing for someone else. This time, it's River and Kaylee. I just think they have an adorable sisterly dynamic and I really wanted to explore that. Be warned, this is my first attempt at writing in Riverspeak, so I apologise if it falls flat. Anyway, enjoy!
The room was quiet, save for the omnipresent humming of Serenity's engine, the low sound lulling both inhabitants into a dreamy, drowsy state. A blanket had been thrown across the metal grating and strewn with a few stray pillows. Kaylee sat in the direct centre, legs spread-eagled, feet bare and overalls removed for the night. In one hand she clutched a wooden hairbrush – a crudely-carved thing she'd snatched up from a junk stall.
River sat silently in the expanse of blanket between Kaylee's legs, practically in the older girl's lap. Neither girl was discomfited by the proximity; if anything, they both welcomed it, Kaylee especially, who viewed River as someone as close as a sister, a best friend, someone to protect and care for just the same as people'd done for her in the past.
The young Reader was curled tightly into herself, knees drawn up to chin height, balanced precariously on her tailbone, never fully relaxing, always ready to stand up and flee, if necessary. Her eyes were distant, lost, but she drank in every word that Kaylee said as she brushed the damp, tangled mess that was her freshly-washed hair.
"The trick," Kaylee said, her voice bright, yet calming, "is to start from the bottom. That way you don't get caught up in a big ol' tangle." She demonstrated, easing small knots out of the ends of River's hair.
"Start from the bottom," River agreed in a hushed tone. "Slowly, up the ladder. Wonder which land will be at the top today." Occasionally she'd let out a sound not unlike a purr, relishing in the sensation of having her hair gently brushed, the mechanic's hands wonderfully gentle, never pulling like Mother used to, apologising if she accidentally did.
"Doesn't work, though. No ground at the top of a tree for a Land to rest on, is there? No earth, the branches are not roots." She giggled. "Branches. Roots buried in the sky. Can't stand on a cloud; you'd fall right through!"
"I used to wanna stand on clouds," Kaylee rejoined absently. "When I was little, I mean. I'd look up at the sky, an' all those big white fluffy things just drifting about…they looked so soft, y'know?"
"Can't. Just water vapour." River giggled again, and sighed to herself, arching her neck as Kaylee's brush got caught in a particularly stubborn tangle.
"Sorry, mei-mei. It looks better now, though. All straightened out."
"Can't."
"Hmm?" Kaylee just caught the thinnest edge of despair creeping into River's tone, and she immediately tensed, placing a gentle hand against her shoulder.
"Can't what, sweetie?"
"Can't straighten her out. She's knotted up for good; useless." How quickly had the tone of things shifted? That was just how it was with River Tam: one minute she'd be perfectly content, and the next she'd be in the corner, babbling nonsense, cowering from shadows that had been harmless just a second ago. The younger girl shook her head slightly, despondent. "Can't be fixed, no matter how hard you try. The knots will get too bad to be managed, and they'll have to send her away to get them taken out, make her good again." She shook her head once more, and laughed, that sad, hollow little laugh that always made Kaylee want to weep. River turned around where she sat, now facing her. She smiled, held her hand out and made a jerky snipping motion with two fingers.
"Will you still love her with pieces missing?" In that moment, in that one split-second, River became terrifying, her eyes glinting madly, thankfully weaponless but no less intimidating for that. But it didn't last, fading off almost as quickly as it had come. Her smile was fragile, wavering, and, soon enough the tears began to fall. Sudden as a summer rain, and as saddening. On impulse, Kaylee reached over and pulled River into a tight embrace. She continued to mutter to herself, punctuated by tears and muffled by Kaylee's shoulder.
"…saw the puzzle in the window, in its beautiful box. Took it home, but you can't put it together because the pieces aren't all there, and they're not in the box, and they're not under the lid or under the floorboards and the mice didn't take them…!" Harsh, heartbroken sobbing took over, and Kaylee began to slowly rock back and forth, stroking her still-damp hair, shushing and murmuring in time with Serenity's engine, a rhythm that soon quietened them both.
Finally, River lifted her head, a little shaky, a little red-eyed, but lucid. Grounded. An ordinary teenage girl again, running her fingers tentatively through her hair.
"You got rid of the tangles," she said quietly, giving Kaylee a small, grateful smile. The thank-you was unspoken, but Kaylee still felt it.
"Always will, baobei. Always will."
Just like that, the storm had passed, and were it not for the wet marks on Kaylee's top, or the tears still streaking River's pale cheeks, the last few minutes might not have happened at all.
That's just how it was with River Tam.
Kaylee loved her anyway.
-end
(All Mandarin used in this is sourced from the Firefly Wikia – no, I can't do languages, and I don't trust Google Translate. Baobei apparentlymeans 'sweetheart'.)
Thanks for reading, and be sure to review if you enjoyed it, heck, even if you didn't, but flames aren't friendly.