"Someone needs to keep River busy," said Mal, looking over at Jayne with a somewhat meaningful expression. The big man was busy checking his guns, so it took him a moment to look up and see the way they were all looking at him (except Simon, who looked grimly resigned).
"What?" he demanded, feeling an unsettling sensation curl in his gut. "Why're y'all lookin' at me?" he asked, scowling at the Captain and Zoe, who shrugged one shoulder.
"Someone's gotta look after her, Jayne," she told him and he gaped at her.
"The hell—what's it gotta be me for?" he snapped. Sure the shootin' lessons had been goin' okay – the girl always seemed all manner of flushed and fidgety when they were done, but her aim and accuracy had improved. Still, that didn' mean they were friends or nothin'.
"Everyone else is busy. Simon, Zoe, and I are pullin' the job. Kaylee's out fixin' our engine problems with her shiny new load of money—"
"What about Wash?" Jayne suggested, looking at Cal, who arched an eyebrow. Mal looked annoyed at his crew's continued use of their former pilot's nickname, despite how appropriately it applied to their new one.
"Callie's stayin' to watch the ship. She don' have time to make sure no one makes off with the ship and keep an eye on our albatross. An' Inara ain' here. That leaves you."
"Aw, hell, Mal, I can—"
"Jayne," Mal said, and Jayne cursed. "Stop arguin'. All ya gotta do is watch her."
"Great. An' what am I s'posed t' do, jus' stay on the ship?"
"You could take her shopping," Simon suggested, and they all looked at him, Jayne's face carrying a noticeable trace of horror. "I keep meaning to – she's grown out of some things – but there never seems to be time," he explained.
"There, y'see?" said Mal with a tight smile. "Shiny. Have fun, stay outta trouble."
"I made a list. This is everything she needs, but there are extra credits if she sees something that she likes," Simon told him, handing him the list and the cash. Jayne glared at him, shoving it all in his pockets. "Thank you for doing this," the doctor added, his expression genuinely grateful. Jayne rolled his eyes and gritted his teeth.
"Only doin' it t' get off the ship, Doc," he snapped, but Simon just smiled softly and left. Jayne watched him go and went to go find his sister.
Jayne fidgeted uncomfortably as he sat in the chair outside the dressing room and waited for River to try on the under-things that the saleslady had helped her select, wanting to get out of the store as soon as possible to avoid being seen inside. River was of course thwarting his desire to escape the lace and satin filled outlet. He could see her feet from under the door, turning this way and that – no doubt as she inspected her potential purchases from every angle.
She'd been in there for a while.
"Shèng mŭ jí zào luó zi, girl, how long's it take t' see if they fit?" he barked through the door, watching her feet give a little jerk, as though she'd been startled.
"Having a malfunction. The clothing is problematic," she replied, and he cursed, rolling his eyes.
"Well figure it out, dŏng ma?" he snapped, going back to his chair. He cursed his rotten luck, wonderin' what the others were doin' and hopin' that they were havin' just as bad a time as he was.
"Is this right?"
He looked up at the soft, uncertain words and felt a surge of adrenaline course through his gut. River was standing by the open dressing room door, wearing almost nothing. It was the most skin he'd seen since she'd crawled out of the cryo-box, and she'd been naked then. He hadn't realized how much of a difference those two scraps of material could make, especially with that long, rich brown hair tumbling down about her shoulders and that shy, innocent blush. The small linear burn on her abdomen drew his eyes downward over her stomach—
"Gorramit, ya crazy—" he snapped, averting his gaze a little belatedly.
River looked down at herself, hair falling forward to hide how deeply her blush had spread, and the way she was biting her lip. He was pleased by her appearance, but disturbed by his own reaction.
"Is it wrong?" she asked him, with a believable semblance of innocence.
Yes. So wrong. So very, very wrong. Sĭ wáng bā pí.
"How the hell should I know? 'S not as if I examine the things afore I –" He jumped from that explosive laden train of thought before it could come to a conclusion and looked around. Where in the ruttin' hell was that sales woman?
"Simon says Jayne helps River today," she told him, and he rolled his eyes, looking up towards the ceiling.
C'mon, Preacher. I ain' been that bad...lately.
"Jayne," River whined, and he felt an unexpected shudder, getting to his feet and hurrying over to her in order to get her to stop making the sound that was making his guts clench like they did when he spotted a particularly pretty whore.
"Alright, alright, yē sū," he muttered, forcing himself to look at her (not the hard part) with a critical eye and an unlecherous mindset (the hard part). River turned around, looking over her shoulder to watch him inspect the clothing. Nothing seemed to be wrong with the clasp so he motioned for her to turn and then looked at the front of it. Everything looked fine.
More than fine.
Supple.
He blinked, feeling his skin flush with a familiar, wanting sensation, looked at River's expectant (and innocent) face, and then turned and walked away, his guts curling into knots of equal parts desire and disgust.
"Jayne!"
"It's fine!" he shouted back, startling a few unwary customers. Outside the store, he took a few lungfuls of air to get control of himself, pushing the image of an almost completely naked River out of his mind. He might get his rocks off every now and again to thoughts of Kaylee, or 'Nara, or Zoe, or – hell, even li'l Callie Wash, but they was full grown women, and fair game. River was not, and she was the Doc's crazy sister. An' the Doc wouldn' be the only one comin' after 'im if it ever came out he'd seen River in her underwear.
"Sir?" came a tentative woman's voice, and he took a breath, turning to face her. It was the saleswoman from before. "Your young lady has requested that I tell you she has selected her purchases and that it is safe for you to come back in," she told him, and he fought the blush that was creeping up his neck at her arched eyebrow.
"Fine," he replied gruffly, and she nodded, going back into the store. He sighed, trying to think of other things as he walked back into the store, deciding to stay near the front, where it was relatively safe. He looked around at the other women in the store, who were perusing the lacy and satiny bits and then stopped when his eyes fell upon one of the models.
She was about River's height and weight and build, and she wore a silky looking red slip with matching panties. He didn't blink for a long time, replacing the girl's dusky skin with a fairer complexion and darker hair. Cursing he glanced around and then moved purposefully towards the model.
"Hey, there's our baby-sitter," said Mal as Jayne drove the mule onto the ship. Everyone assembled gaped at the sheer number of bags and boxes that weighed it down. "Wo de ma, did you buy out the entire town?" he asked. Jayne didn't answer, grabbing two of the bags and walking off without a word, leaving the others to help River unload and carry things to her room.
The young woman in question looked transformed – the frayed dress that she'd been wearing earlier was replaced with a new, flowing shirt in dark green that fell down to her thighs while it clung to her arms and upper torso. On her legs she wore a new pair of patterned leggings that cut off at the knees, and her beat up combat boots had been replaced with black soft leather boots with three sets of criss-cross buckles up the sides. She wore black gloves on her hands and a black pauper's hat adorned with silver goggles perched primly and perfectly on her head.
"River, wow," Kaylee said, delighted by River's new look, and the reader smiled, blushing. "You look so pretty," gushed the mechanic. River did a twirl for her friend and then kept on dancing because it felt good to do so and because she was pleased with the day's results.
"She does at that. Poor Jayne – she must have dragged him all over that complex," Mal commented, still looking at the bags. Simon came into the cargo bay from the infirmary and smiled at the sight of his sister in one piece. And dancing. Kaylee clapped when the younger woman bowed theatrically.
"Looks like you had a good day," he said, and River beamed at him. "Are there any credits left?" he asked, expecting the answer to be 'no'. He was surprised when she handed him a small wad of remaining cash.
"Wow."
"Silly boy thinks this is a Core planet," she teased, before twirling and dancing over to the Mule and grabbing a few of the bags. Kaylee grabbed a couple too, following her friend to the passenger dorms to gush over her new acquisitions.
Jayne stood at the foot of the ladder leading out of his bunk for a long time after closing the door, holding onto one of the iron rungs with one hand and looking at the bags he held with the other, jaw clenched as he tried to quiet the turmoil within himself. Turmoil was a weakness out here, a weakness to the life he lived. It got men killed – men who weren't sure exactly what they were doing or what their place was in the scheme of things. Jayne was good at creating turmoil – better when he was with Zoe or Mal or Ri—other smart people who were good at manipulating their enemy.
He walked to the small bed he slept in and opened the first bag, dumping its contents on the rumpled blankets and sorting through them. The belt buckle was a replacement – a little shinier than he usually liked (shiny metal on a merc wasn't good. Dull was better, wouldn't catch the light as much, give their position away), but it'd caught his eye, and he didn't often buy himself things. The shirts and pants went into his clothes bin. He crumpled the bag and threw it into his trash chute before looking at the other bag, fists clenching at the hurricane of opposites his emotions became.
He was angry at himself for buying it, and disgusted with himself at why he'd bought it, and he sneered as he sat on the bunk, rubbing his face with his hands and then scrubbing them through his hair. It weren't right. He shouldn't've done it, he'd felt guilty even as he paid money for it – cash, untraceable – and he stared at the bag for a short eternity before reaching out with shaking hands and drawing it closer. His pulse raced with equal parts shame, fear of discovery, and excitement as he opened it and looked inside.
They seemed so innocuous, lying in the bottom of the bag. Shapeless scraps of bright red silk. They could have been anything. Except that they couldn't, and he swallowed the lump that had clogged his throat before closing the bag and pushing it under the bunk, behind the box he kept there of all his old girl-calendars. He sighed, feeling sick at himself and not knowing what to do about it. A thought crossed his mind – something the Preacher had once said to him – and he looked up, glancing around his small bunk before sliding off of the bunk onto his knees. Feeling utterly ridiculous, he folded his hands together and searched for words.
"Uh, Preacher...if you c'n still hear me...if yer still around...I could sure use some o' that Preachin' you used t' give me," he said, sighing after a moment and unfolding his hands. Book used to say that talkin' to God or those that passed was like talkin' t' anybody, and he didn't talk t' nobody on his knees with his hands folded and head hung low like some dog. "It ain' right, Preacher," he said, getting to his feet and pacing. "It jus' ain' right for me t' be havin' thoughts like that. I ain' never touched a girl in my life, women only. Never even thought about it 'afore. This some kinda test, Preach? Cause it ain' right," he snapped, before sitting on his bed and holding his head in his hands. "Maybe I ain' a good man, but I'm not...I'm better'n I was 'fore I met this crew...this Captain, even. I'm better'n I was, an' I ain' never been that bad. Take it away from me, Book. Please," he asked, closing his eyes and wishing that he'd feel better like the Shepherd said he would.
Two posts in one day. Whew. Alright, so I do have a small confession to make. I've lost my translations (I have a little mandarin pinyan app on my ipod, that's where I got most of the translations from and they're probably riddled with mistakes. I apologize). I will do my best to remember where I wrote them down and once I find them, I will post them for you, because they're really rather funny (or at least I thought so when I wrote them). Thank you, that is all.
