A/N: For the femslash_kink prompt "River/Kaylee, sensory deprivation"
Disclaimer: Um.. Again? I'll recycle an old favourite, then. They ain't mine, the verse ain't mine and I gain no profit from writing but the satisfaction and the warm fuzzy glow of good reviews. All hail Joss and such
Distribution: Please do, I'll love you forever, just keep my name on it.


"You have to count to one hundred."

Kaylee turns over in her cot, groggy and overheated. Her eyes are bleary, the gloom of the bunk dizzying to barely waking brains. "River, that you?"

Cold, small hands wrap around her eyes, darkening the already-blackness.

"You close your eyes, she hides in all the places your too scared to look." River's face is close to hers, the breath is warm on her cheeks, but the voice, the words, seem very far away.

Kaylee tries to sit up in the bunk, but her body is tired, weary, "River, you wanna play hide and seek? Now? But it's late. Now's time for sleepin', not playing." She yawns, sleep tugging at her eyelids, even as River tugs at her arms, pulling her up.

"She does not think it's a game."

**

Kaylee glimmers, like sunshine. It's too bright, almost. Blinding. River is blinded by the girl's brightness, even in this dark.

Her Sunshine whimpers when small soft hands cover hers and place them over her eyes. Kaylee is her own blindfold, and she whimpers again. That's wrong. No sound. "Shh", she whispers, "no words. They're listening. Ears pressed to walls and doors, stealing secrets." One finger reaches forward, soft against bee-stung lips. Bees that buzz promises of bliss and honey.

"But—"

River's finger presses more firmly against a soft, ripe-peach mouth. "Shh! No words, only numbers, they do not speak in numbers. We count from one to one hundred to infinity. You count to one hundred, then you have to come, okay?"

Her Sunshine nods, eyes still covered with scintillating fingers.

"Count with me; One. Two."

Voices count in tandem until they reach ten, then River grows silent. Purpose steals her voice away. Hands reach under light, soft covers to pull at bare legs.

"River!"

"No words! Thirteen. Fourteen." Kaylee continues counting, and River continues tugging, until legs are released from fabric captivity and feet hover above ground like gold leaves caught in breeze.

Against the dusky clay of the shorts that mask Kaylee from her gaze, River smiles.

**

Kaylee don't know why she's doing this. Her hands are still pressing firm over eyes, and she's still counting, waiting for River to run off and hide. Then she'll slip back into the sleep that's pulling at her, and say sorry to the little one in the morning.

But River's still there, somewhere. She can feel the heat off her body, even though in the swelling dark, that gentle voice and deft, small hands feel so far away.

She's cut off, a whole verse away.

Until the nimble fingers wriggle quick under her shorts and towards her nethers..."RIV—"

"No. Words."

Kaylee bites back a scream as River's fingers pluck at her clit better than her toy does, and she thinks if the girl works any harder, she might just blow a fuse. "Twenty three, twenty four…"

River slips two fingers into Kaylee's dripping core and begin pumping as the mechanic's body melts to putty.

Kaylee doesn't make it to one hundred.

**

River watches Kaylee shudder and glow as she flutters in brightening bliss.

A supernova.

And as her fingers withdraw, and she pulls Kaylee's hands from her face, she can hear Serenity sing, thanking her for repairing her lonely heart.

Then Kaylee's eyes meet hers, and she's being pulled down, melting into pretty sunshine, feeling warmth as together they glow. "You found me."

Kaylee smiles, and River feels sunny hands drifting down.

"Now it's your turn to count."