So…seventh chapter! Whoo! With forty eight chapters written ahead I can't believe I'm just now posting seven!
On the less hyper side of things we have reviews:
casedeputy- Aw, thanks! I love the speech and I hope you love the rest of the conversation! Yay!
Gwenfrewi72- Thanks! I'm trying for daily! I hope you like where it's going!
Okay, so, I'm editing and even doing some rewriting. I'm looking to tentatively saying I'll have this finished by nest Sunday. And that I'll be posting every day or every other day. This story is one of my favorites to write so trust me when I say it's still going strong!
River sits curling into herself beside Mal. Her head rests on his knee as he lays his hand on her shoulder.
She talks with Mal, only one who she verbally speaks to regularly. No one ever sees it. It isn't always long or even that important-just something they do.
Around him River can speak. It is like a rule.
River catches herself thinking on the first time she had spoken since the events of Mr. Universe's moon.
No one had approached her or tried to talk to her. She hadn't spoken for a month.
Finally Mal had burst and exploded to his crew and gone searching for River. She didn't say anything to him as he did most of the talking.
Finally she had hugged him and he had held her. She spoke to him. Since then she spoke regularly to him and only him, except mentally with Zoe but that wasn't always true.
River sighs and Mal shifts his gaze from the starry black to River and smiles.
He closes his eyes, "You ever gonna talk ta me or we jus' gonna sit 'ere?"
River thinks for a moment, "As much as I enjoy sitting with you we can talk too."
Mal grins and River glances up at him. She watches him with a slight smile.
"Where should I start?" she murmurs and Mal opens his eyes slowly.
Their gazes lock and River wants to look away, but her compulsion for Mal is like her compulsion for drinking or fighting.
She can never be rid of them.
She lets out a shuddering breath and lets her eyes fall.
"Start on the fight, Little 'Tross." Mal's voice is closed off and distant, he tries to keep everything he is feeling out of it.
River shivers and leans back to rest her head on Mal's knee.
"Well, he cornered me and thought he was going to hit on me. That yin jue pian lu zi tun thought that he was going to use me as a piece of trim.
"I was in the mood to fight. I did. Saw that Zoe was going to die.
"I had to stop it. I caused it, let it get out of hand and reeled it back in. If you guys weren't there I would have fought until I was down or all of them were."
Mal feels his gut clench and he lets out a long breath, "Why?" River bites her bottom lip.
The words are getting mucked up in her brain.
She can't explain.
She looks up at Mal and suddenly the words come, "Love. She can know all the math in the 'Verse, but she takes a boat in the air she don't love it'll shake her off just as sure as the turning of the worlds.
"Love keeps her in the air when she ought fall down, tells ya she's hurtin' 'fore she keens. Makes her home."
Mal looks into River's eyes and sees the truth behind her words.
He swallows, "You love Serenity. And our crew, our family."
River looks away now, "That's the only thing that keeps her in the air Captain."