River woke first. She usually did.
Dim light filtered through the cracks in their shelter. Jamie's rickety tent-like lean-to would suit them for a few days, but she needed to comb the data she had on constructing permanent dwellings.
She was sore from sleeping on the collection of leaves and grasses that she had gathered. Apparently they needed more padding. In particular, there was a stone poking into her thigh.
She used that slight discomfort to distract her from the very comfortable feeling of Jamie's hand on her breast. At least until his thumb moved.
She was unable to regulate her startled intake of breath. Sweet heat spread through her woman parts.
"Sorry, Riv-Santh-girl." He mumbled. Still asleep, he withdrew his hand and turned away slightly.
Santha rolled onto her back in the small space, mostly to avoid that stone. A swift probe toward his mind told her Jamie was sleeping soundly and wouldn't notice her absence. She needed to escape his presence in order to think through her course of action in regards to their physical relationship.
She crawled out of the small shelter and went to stir up the fire.
Allowing him to take charge of the first night's shelter had been the right thing to do. It gave him something he could control. Psychologically, he needed something he could use his strength and talents to achieve. Unfortunately, it was also a task he had never attempted before.
Santha glanced back at the shelter and smiled. It would serve until he could build them something better. Oh, she would help, but his psyche required him to provide.
She dug the tubers she'd left to roast out of the coals. Turnips, carrots, and beetroots all softened by the heat. They were too hot to handle with her hands, but a handy stick served as a tool. Then she added some small combustible material and blew on the coals.
On Osiris, the fireplace was an ostentatious affectation. Luckily for them, she'd been allowed to tend the hearth if properly supervised.
Santha realized her mind was skirting around her intened topic. What was she going to do?
She didn't love James. However, in the society in which she was raised, neither love nor marriage was a prerequisite for intimacy. She did like him.
They weren't precisely friends before coming here. She winced. Alright, he rather hated her, didn't he? Honestly, he probably still would if he thought about it.
Santha added logs to the coals and babied them until they caught. They would need cooking vessels of some sort. In the mean time they would make do with what they could roast in the coals.
Back to the question at hand: did she want sex with Jayne? She deliberately let herself use his proper name.
Santha frowned. She caressed her breast where his hand had cupped it.
His hands on her body thrilled her. His innate honor was attractive. His countenance likewise. She shivered. Since they had been pushed together by their circumstances, she had become drastically more receptive to the concept of passion between them.
Santha called up her original emotional calculations. She examined them and herself as objectively as she could. Her original findings stood. She was not emotionally ready for a serious romantic attachment.
She briefly considered the likelihood of physicality without… no. Not given the circumstances and timeframe. They might have managed sex without attachment in a busy, people filled environment, but not here.
In forced solitude she knew they would both inevitably have intense emotional involvement. There was no one else to interact with.
Actually, that was a strong argument in favor of seduction. He wouldn't leave her if he was emotionally attached to her. He would stay, protect her and provide for her. That thought something stirred deep within her, some primal urge.
That was a sort of entrapment. As a civilized person, the idea appalled her more and more as she thought it through. She wasn't emotionally ready for that level of responsibility.
In addition, he didn't seem to need the incentive. He wasn't itching to leave her behind. She would have noticed that.
"I am not ready." She said the words aloud to the world. Then she laughed humorlessly.
On the other hand, she also superficially seemed to be falling in love with him. Or at least she longed for the physical contact his unintentional caresses promised.
Santha reached an internal compromise. If he decided to deliberately initiate sex, she would enthusiastically participate. When she felt she was physically and emotionally ready, she would convince him by any means necessary that they should become intimate. Always assuming he didn't take it for insane ramblings.
Always assuming that he actually wanted her. Her lips twitched. Oh, yes, he wanted her physically, that wasn't at issue.
Knowing that he wanted her body gave her a sense of feminine confidence she'd never known before.
Santha rolled a charred turnip towards her. It was still hot to the touch. She held it down with her forked branch and scraped at the sooty heat-blistered skin. It was soft inside and smelled wonderful. It tasted even better.
Jayne panicked slightly when Ri-Santha wasn't touching him when he woke. He was half up before his eyes were fully opened and he narrowly missed knocking the tent thing down.
He crawled out of the shelter and immediately spotted Santha staring intently at her data book. He caught his breath and leaned against the rock wall behind him. She was safe.
She needed new clothes. Her little sundress was too thin to be useful work clothes. It was already torn right at the knee.
Maybe they could alter one of the blankets to cover her up. Um, protect her skin, rather.
Santha raised her head and smiled at him.
"Breakfast is here on the ground." She said.
He moved towards her, suddenly smelling the roasted vegetables.
He blinked when he saw the burnt lumps.
"Just pull back the outsides, Jamie." Ri-Santha was laughing at him. "The insides taste good, I promise."
"We gotta rig a pot to cook in." Jayne muttered. He wasn't used to eating food that had sat in the dirt.
"Clean, sterile ash." Santha corrected.
"Hey, keep outa my brain." He grumbled. He was still sleepy and that made him ornery.
"Don't have to poke to know your meaning." Santha said cheerfully.
He sighed. "Sorry." He didn't want to fight with the girl. She needed him.
"I am not offended. I agree about the cooking pot." She lowered the data book to the ground and picked up one of the dirty lumps. She deftly pulled the skin off. The dirt peeled away too. She handed him the insides without further comment.
"Thanks." He said. "I'm sorry anyway."
"Apology accepted." She smiled. "How long do you think…" She waved her hand around at the whole moon.
Jayne took a bite and swallowed before answering. "How long the place has been abandoned?"
She nodded.
"About ten or twelve years, I'd say." The plain root vegetable was the best thing he'd ever tasted. "Just as the war started. From what we saw yesterday, some of the places were abandoned before, as much as twenty or thirty years at a guess."
"You conjecture the hostilities played a role in the final ceasing of colonization?" Santha asked.
Jayne wasn't exactly sure what she'd said, but he thought he understood her meaning.
He grunted. "More than one moon was evacuated during the war." He grimaced. "Damn shame too. If its so nice abandoned, think about how it must have been before they left."
She let him eat in silence, unwrapping his food for him just before he would have reached for it.
"Certain of the domiciles were not fully deteriorated." She said after a while.
"Stay out of them." He was alarmed when he processed what she meant. "Might fall down on top of you. We'll build us a nice little house right here. I like the spot."
She smiled, but didn't meet his eyes. She fiddled with adding to the fire instead.
"Something else on your mind?" He asked when the silence had stretched on too long.
"Serenity." She looked up at him. "Missing home."
Jayne nodded. "Missing your brother." He added gruffly.
"Yes." She stood abruptly. "Now that you're awake, I'm going to bathe in the river."
"But…" He had sudden visions of her pale, water drenched body…
"With my clothes on." She clarified quickly. "They also need a wash. You may join me or wait on the bank. I am a strong swimmer."
"Don't go in deep." He cautioned. His jaw worked as he thought it over. He was supposed to protect her. What if…
She looked at him oddly. "Would you prefer that I tie a rope around my waist."
"Yes." He felt a bit sheepish. "I don't swim so good. I don't think I could save you if a strong current caught you."
Ri-Santha nodded. "Safety is a good idea." She conceded.
"At least until you know the river." He said. "I won't go in past my knees."
Santha pulled the coil of rope out of a crate and began tying knots in it.
"Shall I tie the other end to you?" She asked playfully.
He nodded. "Good idea."
Her hands brushing against his waist made him change his mind. Very bad idea. He gritted his teeth.
She rushed off as soon as the line was secure. He followed more slowly, pulling off his boots and socks before stepping into the water.
His foot sank farther than he expected it to, and the bank crumbled slightly under his other foot. He managed to keep his balance, but he was glad she wasn't watching.
Jayne rinsed his socks in the slightly murky water and tossed them up next to his boots. He pulled his shirt off and wetted it, using the cloth to scrub at his body. If they weren't both here, he might strip bare. He settled for getting wet instead.
He kept himself from looking over at the girl until the line connecting them grew tight. Slightly confused, he realized that she was upstream. He looked. She'd swum against the current and was now floating back to him. When she reached the other end of the range of the rope, she turned again and fought the current again. She did that twice more before joining him in the shallows.
Her broad grin spread to him without him noticing.
"I'm tired." She said, still smiling.
"You should be." He answered. She looked cold too, maybe.
Santha's head turned suddenly, as if she'd seen something. Her manner changed, she hunched over and trailed her hands in the water.
Jayne was about to ask what was going on when she moved suddenly again. Water sprayed upwards, narrowly missing him. He almost yelled in protest when a silvery movement caught his eye. There was a gorram fish up on the bank, flopping around almost on top of his shoes.
Jayne looked back at Santha who was purposefully scanning the plants along the river bank.
She struck again and there were two fish next to his shoes.
"Do you know anything about cleaning fish, Jamie?" She grinned up at him. "Santha has never had the need before."
"How the gorram hell did you do that?" He demanded.
Santha laughed, which brought his attention back to how thin her dress was. Not to mention how wet. "My grandfather always claimed he could do that. I didn't quite think it would work."
Jayne followed her out of the water. She handed him her end of the rope and picked up both fish by the gills. They flopped around in her hands.
"I want a nap." Santha dropped the fish next to the fire. "If you don't want to cook them, fetch some water and keep them alive until I wake up. Close your eyes, Jamie boy."
He obeyed, still flabbergasted.
When she called that he could look, her clothes were all laying out to dry on the shelter and she was nowhere to be seen. Apparently napping meant naked.
Jayne looked down at the fish flopping on the ground. He shook his head.
Crazy.
But crazy was useful in her case.
He picked up the hatchet and the first fish.