Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: By popular demand the story continues. I should have the next chapter up in a day or two. And I'd like to just address the requests I've had for longer chapters. Sorry folks, they end when they want to and I've never been able to write long anything. Even my assignments for school have always been shorter than the teachers wanted. And now on with the show.
Chapter 2
The variables just were not adding up.
River kept running the equation but it just would not compute the way she wanted it to. It was like the ice planet, problematic in the extreme.
That was another equation but one that did seem to add up; Jayne equals ice planet. Neither one functioned the way she thought they would.
Of course the other similarity between the ice planet and Jayne was that as much as she wanted to lick the one she wanted to lick the other. And just as that gorram ice planet kept swinging away from her on its string tormenting her with its nearness and her inability to master the simple dessert so too Jayne continued to swing away from her. Every time she thought she was making progress he would move away from her.
The most annoying thing was that the more they danced this dance of two steps forward three steps back the more she wanted him.
And he wanted her. That was the most puzzling part of the whole equation. Jayne was not a man who held back when he wanted something. That was one side of the equation of her attraction to him she'd realized. Unlike most people in the 'verse Jayne Cobb was not a man of contradictions. When he was hungry he ate, when he was tired he slept, and when he wanted a women and she was willing he took her.
The other side of the equation of her attraction was his intelligence. Jayne Cobb was not a stupid man. He was uneducated according to the standards Simon and River had grown up with and maybe even the standards Kaylee had grown up with but he was not stupid. Far from it, he had chosen to specialize his knowledge in certain areas, particularly weapons and tracking. And when he decided he wanted to learn something he was perfectly capable of mastering it.
And so River had a problem. Her attraction to Jayne made sense to her. It was Jayne that was unbalancing the equation. He refused to act in such a way that would allow her seduction would to succeed. It had honestly never occurred to her when she had begun to pursue Jayne that he would have continued to refuse her beyond the first few attempts. But for some reason the man continued to refuse to complete the equation.
It seemed obvious to River that she had missed a variable along the way, some reason why Jayne continued to refuse her advances. Her endeavors had ranged from simply sneaking up behind Jayne while he was washing dishes and jumping him to a very creative effort involving whipped cream and strawberries. Nothing worked long enough for her to achieve her goal. He would give respond for a moment and then, just as she thought she was going to get her way at last, he would move away.
It was the gift that finally pushed her over the edge.
A small thing, it was only a charm bracelet, and coming from any other member of the crew it would have been cause for a hug and a kiss on the cheek. It was by no means expensive or made of fine materials. No, that wasn't why River's heart had skipped a beat when she opened the small box.
It was because she had finally found the missing variable. She felt she could be forgiven for not having found it. After all, who would have ever thought to look for the missing piece to the equation on a charm bracelet?
Admittedly, it wasn't just any charm bracelet. There are plenty of charm bracelets with ballet slippers hanging off the links but how many bracelets do you see with ballet slipper and a variety of miniature guns?
And it wasn't for a special occasion. Her birthday had come and gone months ago. There had been a cake and gifts but none had been as thoughtful as this one.
When she had looked at him with a question in her eyes he'd shrugged his shoulders and said it had reminded him of her.
That was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back.
As Jayne had turned to leave the mess River had launched herself at Jayne.
And then she had done the one thing she had never done in all her seduction attempts.
She kissed him.
River Anne Tam kissed Jayne Michael Cobb on the lips.
In all her planning and scheming she had never thought about kissing him as an introductory maneuver because he had made it so clear in the past that he did not kiss on the mouth. It had seemed reasonable that her kissing him would cause him to panic and that would not be conducive to sex.
But his unexpectedly thoughtful gift had caused her organized and well thought out equations to fly out of her mind.
Jayne had caught her in his arms by instinct and when she had leaned against his chest put her hands on his shoulders and jumped up to his him his response had once again been an instinctual one-he had kissed her back.
At first they had just stood there with their lips pressed together. But suddenly he had taken charge and had opened his lips and run his tongue along the seam of hers asking for permission to enter and she granted it willingly.
It seemed to both of them that they had been standing in each other's arms for hours when the urge to breathe got overpowered their desire to cling together. Pulling apart they both struggled to catch their breath gazing into one another's eyes.
That was when the missing variable had popped into River's mind. It was so simple she could not believe she had not understood before. It was love. She was in love with Jayne. Yes, she desired him physically, oh Buddha, how she desired him. But it was more than that. She wanted more than to sex Jayne. She wanted a life with him.
So when he pushed her away and left the mess without a word she knew what she had to do. There was only one way for the equation to end the way she desired.
She had to leave.
She had to leave Serenity.