Quiet Moments... Part 2: ~ DREAM FAERIE ~


It was in the morning the day after next that Kaylee woke up in bed. River was with her, curled up on her side next to her. It took her a while to really feel awake though, so she just lay there a bit, letting her mind wonder.

Sleeping arrangements was just like this now.

There was just the one big, really nice and fancy bed after all. At first, River had insisted on camping out with some blankets and pillows on the floor, to avoid the chance that she'd hurt Kaylee if she got to kinking in her sleep or something. But as the days went by and Kaylee got to feeling better, she'd come to notice River wasn't feeling in too great a shape in the mornings. Obviously, she hadn't been sleeping too well. So she'd insisted River share the bed with her the next night and it had been fine, no problems.

River slept soundly next to her, always just curling up a little on her side facing her. She looked... really adorable, if Kaylee was being honest. Downright cute. It was definitely a beautiful, womanly kind of cute though, not any other kind of cute, she noted to herself, unsure why she was making a distinction like that in her head exactly, other than maybe she knew River didn't like being treated, well, not like she was immature exactly, more not like as if she was... damaged. Like she needed to have things done for her, needed for her brother and other people to be looking after her all the time.

River had let Simon treat her that way more than a little though.

This last while, shipwrecked planet side like they were, no one but River for Kaylee to count on, it was obvious that people, her included maybe, hadn't given River Tam enough credit. Or reckoned on just how strong she was. Not strong in a mussels way, though she obviously was in really good shape, athletic looking and everything, but strong in a... soul kinda way. Like, all those horrors she musta seen, that they couldn't really touch her. Not in the ways that mattered.

She turned on her side so she was looking into River's sleeping face and a little of a smile came to her lips. "I seen you, River. You just shine inside, don't you?" She said softly, brushing a little hair from the woman's face. River made a soft little sleeping sound and moved her cheek into the touch in sleep.

Kaylee felt a little flutter of something inside her and yanked her hand away, looking at the hand she'd touched River's face with and wondering at why she'd snatched her hand away like that. She lay on her back again and looked up at the ceiling. "Right then." She said to herself, sitting up and quietly crawling out of bed.

Twenty or so minutes later, she'd pretty much got breakfast put together, when she started to hear sounds coming from the bed.

"Mmnnn, uuuh!" She looked over at the sound and saw River sitting up in bed, looking off into the room blankly. Kaylee put down the pan of tofu stakes she'd been taking off the cooker and went over to the bed.

River was wiping the sleep from her eyes. "You alright there?" She asked, concerned for some reason having to do with the quality of River's startled moan.

"Bad dreams." She River explained softly.

"Have those a lot?" Kaylee asked.

River just nodded yes.

"Huh, I must be more of a sound sleeper than I thought, not to have noticed fore now. What do you dream about?" Kaylee asked.

"...The bad times. And I don't..." River trailed off, looking up and meeting Kaylee's eyes.

"Don't what?" Kaylee asked.

River looked at Kaylee's forehead and pointed there, touching the center with her finger. "You have a dream faerie living in you, Kaylee Frye. One that likes me very much, I think." She explained, falling back onto her back on the bed and staring up at the ceiling, much like Kaylee had done not long before.

Kaylee was a little stunned to hear that, but it made her smile. "You saying..." She lay down beside River. "You saying you don't have bad dreams, long as your sleeping next to me?" She asked, playing her fingers through River's hair a little.

"I don't." River confessed. "It was most unexpected... A miracle of a thing, you might say..."

"Huh. What ah yaknow about that." Kaylee replied. "Think it means anything?" She mused.

"I think that everything means something, even if I don't always know what that is. Why should that be any different?" River asked, rolling on her side to meet Kaylee's eyes. "You made us breakfast?" She asked, a spark playing behind her eyes somewhere.

"Probably won't be as good as when you make it, but yeah." Kaylee smiled, a bit proud of herself. "I thought it was about time I started doing more of my fair share." She told her friend.

"It makes you feel good, right?" River asked.

"What?"

"Doing things for yourself, or for... another person. It makes you feel good." River explained.

"Oh. I mean, yeah. Yeah, River, it does at that." She smiled, kissing River on the forehead and getting up. "Care to take your life into your hands? Try my cooking?"

"I trust you." River replied simply, getting up and crawling on the bed towards the food Kaylee'd cooked.

Kaylee smiled and ran a hand through her own hair to straighten it out a bit more. "I trust you too." She said unexpectedly. Unexpectedly because she hadn't expected to be saying it.

River turned to her from sitting on the edge of the bed and smiled. "Do you really, you think?" She asked.

"Huh? Um, well, yeah. I just said it, didn't I?" She replied.

River just seemed to consider that a moment. "Okay." She agreed finally, turning away and getting up from the bed, going to investigate the food. "There's going to be a test later though, I'm almost certain." She offered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kaylee asked, a little offended actually, as she got out of bed again too.

"I don't know. It hasn't happened yet." River explained, putting food on her plate.

"You going to test me then? See if I'm lying?" Kaylee asked, starting to annoyed some now.

"No. Why? Should I?" River asked, apparently confused.

Kaylee just looked at her a little skeptical for a few moments, then shook her head a bit and smiled. "Sorry." She said.

"What for?" River asked curiously.

"Being stupid I guess." She replied.

"Oh... I guess I didn't notice that." River said, scratching at her hair a little, and fidgeting a bit. "The food's good." She offered, looking at Kaylee a little uncertainly.

Kaylee met her eyes and saw River was looking for reassurance. Whenever River got fidgety like that, Kaylee had learned, it meant she was feeling lost or unsure of herself. Unsure of her ability to relate or communicate well. "Thanks." Kaylee smiled. "Um, I do mean it though, River. That, um, that I trust you? I mean... I was, you were right." She admitted, looking down at her plate. "Part of me was scared of you before." She looked up and met River's questioning eyes. "I'm not now." And she was pretty sure she wasn't, either.

River looked into her eyes for what seemed like a long while, though it probably wasn't really all that very long. Kaylee made sure to keep eye contact. Like, she wanted to prove to River, and herself really, that it was true what she'd said.

River started to smile, a little shyly, and look away. "Um..." She looked up a little uncertainly and met Kaylee's eyes again. "Name zhe shi hao de." She said, looking down then up again. "Should we hug?" She asked. Asked in that way like she was just wondering if they should, not like she had any particular stake in the answer, one way or the other. River asked questions that way a lot, Kaylee was noticing. Kaylee'd never known anybody else who asked things that way before. Took some getting used to.

"Um, if you want?" Kaylee offered.

River considered that. "Can I have a voucher?" She asked.

"For a hug?" Kaylee asked.

River nodded, yes.

"If you want. Sure." Kaylee agreed easily.

"...We should eat, or the food will slow down again." River said.

By which she meant get cold. Heat being a function of how fast the bits of matter that the food was made up of moved. River had explained it to her a few days ago when she'd used the same phrase and Kaylee had asked about it. River thought a lot in terms of sciency things, Kaylee had come to realize. She half thought River talked like she did as much to keep herself from getting bored as anything. Kaylee had noticed that too: how much energy, a nervous sort of searching energy, River always had about her. Always thinking about this or that. "Sounds like a plan." Kaylee agreed.

They ate for a while in silence, until Kaylee caught River watching her in that certain way again. So, she just decided to watch right back at her this time, see what happened.

River seemed a little surprised by this, but kept looking back into her eyes, for a while at least, before she blushed a little and looked away again, getting up and saying she needed to go relieve herself.

Kaylee just nodded okay and sat there, eating the last bits of her food and trying to work something out in her head. She wasn't quite sure what.


That night, Kaylee was still thinking as she got into bed beside an already sleepy River.

"River...?" She started to ask something, she wasn't sure what.

"Hmm?" River replied.

"You think we're... You think, if it's just us here, we'll be okay? Long term, I mean?" She asked.

"Mmm?" River opened her eyes and Kaylee turned her head so their eyes met. "I'll protect you." River told her simply. "I'm scary, remember?" She asked.

Kaylee swallowed and smiled, kissing River on the forehead. "Okay then." She said. "Time to sleep I guess..." She offered.

"...Kaylee?" River asked.

"Yeah?"

"Don't make breakfast again, okay?" River asked.

"What? Food I made was really that bad?" She asked. "Well, guess ah can't fault you your honesty, now can I?" She smiled a little to herself, having mixed feelings about the whole thing.

"Not that." River corrected.

"What then?" Kaylee asked.

"...You keep bad dreams away. It's more valuable than tofu." River explained.

"Oh..." Was all Kaylee could manage to say in answer.

"Tired... sleep..." River said.

Kaylee looked over and River was already asleep apparently.

"...Pleasant dreams then..." She touched her friend's hair a little and smiled to herself, snuggling in under the covers and closing her eyes. Somehow proud of herself now, despite knowing she probably had no real cause to be.


Chinese translations:

"Name zhe shi hao de" = "That's good then."

(please note: I'm only getting my Chinese from Google Translate, so I can't guarantee it's accurate at all)


to be continued

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