This was written some time ago to answer a request at livejournal.

Beach Story

The water lapping at her toes brought back memories of perfect family vacations to a perfect beach house on a perfect beach in a perfectly temperate climate. River sighed and dug into the wet sand with her toes, enjoying the feel of the cool sand squishing between them.

"Wassa matter? Ain't ya neva seen the ocean before?" Jayne demanded from behind her. He looked around for help in case she was gonna go loopy or somethin', but everyone else had moved on down the beach.

"Long time," she sighed again. "Not seen since little with the parental figures." She looked wistfully out toward the horizon to watch a far off sailboat parading back and forth.

Guilt enveloped Jayne. He was trying to be nicer to her lately; after all, she had saved his skin when no on else could, not even himself.

"Sorry, dinna mean to make ya sad or nothin'," he said. He looked down the beach. The others were small pinpoints in the distance.

"Come on, we shouldn't let 'em get too far out of sight, who knows what trouble they'll get into without us to watch their backs."

River giggled and turned to look up at him. "Yes, you are right. They take such looking after." She smiled at him then, brilliantly. He swore she was going to make him blind; she had been doing that more and more lately. He turned to start walking up the beach, unconsciously wrapping a big arm around her shoulders to help her along. She snuggled closer into his side as they walked along. He tried not to notice how good it felt. Almost perfect.

Jayne let his arm slide off River's shoulder as they approached the rest of the crew, already camped out with towels spread and suntan lotion being passed around. Simon had noticed the two closely walking up the beach together and managed not to comment. He was happy that River had been feeling better, and he didn't want to discourage any sort of happiness she might find in their new life. Even if it was with a large, grumpy, uncouth, uneducated, behemouth.

Who had definitely been more cordial of late. To everyone, but especially to his sister. Simon's first instinct had been to strenuously object to the looks River and Jayne started giving each other a few months ago when they thought the other wasn't looking. But she started smiling more, and he started making his jokes a little less crude.

Kaylee thought it was cute, the way Jayne would try to be casual about hanging out on the bridge, and the way River would adjust her story-telling to contain smaller, simpler words. She made a point of pro-actively elbowing Simon whenever he would start to lean forward to make a comment, and shaking her head at him. Everyone had to find their way in the black, and having a friend made the going easier.

Inara, who noticed the change in dynamics before anyone else, had made her job to be keeping the Captain off their backs. Mal wasn't blind however, and he wanted to make sure that the stability on his boat stayed that way for at least a short time, so he waited until Inara wasn't around one day before approaching River.

"Li'l albatross?" he inquired. She turned around in the co-pilot's chair to stare forlornly at him.

"No worries, father figure. I have the ape-man well in hand." She turned back to the console. And that was that.

So no one said anything as Jayne and River came strolling up to the beach camp twenty minutes later. And no one called Jayne on having had his arm around her shoulders two minutes earlier. And no one certainly said anything as River tugged on his shirt to get him to follow her over to a spot she picked to lay out her blanket. And no one definitely said even a peep as he wordlessly took the blanket from her outstretched hand and shook it out for her.

The End