Title: Lutz At First Sight: Chapter 10
Author: Me!
Rating: T for language.
Disclaimer: *repeats disclaimer from all other chapters.*
Distribution: Ask, my little leafies, and it shall be yours.
Notes: A big, giant THANK YOU to Garnigal, Brnt0fferings, Casedeputy, Sue, and Wicked Onna for all of their comments. Comments, even little ones, smash down writers block when it happens and when one is on heavy meds, blocks hit like level 30 Tetris!

Mirror skating is when two skaters mirror each other and is the opposite of unison skating.

Great mirror skating, in my opinion, is the mark of a true great pairs team. Not only do they need to know how the other moves, but also know their partner inside and out. Because a lot of mirrored movements happen when neither skater can see the other, such as while performing spins for example, a pairs team must have a solid foundation in order to really make mirror skating something special. There's nothing more powerful than seeing two people perfectly in synch like that, and it's also why I love to watch unison skating. Fantastic!

I had to mention Gina Torres words about a beige, red haired little kid cos I thought they were lovely words :D

Xxxx

The whistled song of Always Forever filled the Icecapades stadium as Mal entered ahead of his partner. Grinned as said partner shot him the dirtiest look imaginable as she walked through the door he chivalrously held open for her and the others.

"Tell Malcolm thank you." River said to Wash, button nose pushed right on up into the air. "Our exercise room is right down here."

He stopped whistling the catchy little tune long enough to reply. "You're welcome, darlin'. What?" He asked innocently when he caught sight of Zoe's expression.

"Ain't learned a damned thing, have you?" Were all she said, but gave him a quirky smile nonetheless. Her lil girl smiled, too, a carbon copy of both her folks, from the copper toned brown hair to the beige skin, as her mama often spoke of.

"Hey there, lil Emma." Mal pulled face after face to get himself one of them pretty girl smiles.

One baby hand went to hold her ear as she looked at him through them eyes. Wash's eyes. "Emma have pops?"

Pops? What the hell were pops?

"Say yes, cap'n." Zoe's gaze came at him sideways. "I dare you."

"Ah, no. No pops here." Mal shrugged apologetically and spun on his heel, effortlessly slipping between his lil partner and the door to the off-ice workout room. Grinned when amber eyes narrowed up at him. Couldn't wait for Nandi to get here so as he could tell about his lil fan turned partner.

"Wash, tell Malcolm he's a…"

"Little ears, honey."

"... Big, giant rat muncher." River finished.

"Rat muncher? S' true love right there." Mal made a point to grace her with his best, most charming grin right before he blew her a kiss and opened the door for her. "See how nice I am? S'why you love me, ain't it?"

"My friend has snakes. Sleep with one eye open."

"Did-did you just talk to me? Zoe, did River just talk to me?" He were rightly ignored. Naturally, it stopped him not at all, and he swanned into the room. "Ain't half bad."

There were plenty room to be getting on with and a good amount of equipment, plus dance bar securely fitted in front of a mirror. Only issue he took with the place were the lack of water fountains. Found himself saying as such. "Water?"

"Wash, tell Malcolm the water fountain is in the hallway." River dropped her bag at the top right hand side of the mirror, locked hands rose until her arms stretched high above her head. She bent to touch her toes and she were all apricot round little pi-gu.

Had such an urge to give that bitty rear a good slap and grope. Knew it would be one sweet lil piece that would just say as fill his hands.

He were right sure he could still remnants of last night's blushing. Unzipped his bag to the hummed tune of Forensic Files. Buddha, but an angry female were just the sweetest sight in the gorram 'verse.

River ignored him completely and set about swapping boots for training shoes, glaring in what he guessed were meant to be a threatening sort of manner. Only it didn't work so well, not seeing how her full mouth made her angry pout look more like a duck's beak than a fine set of lips.

He just had to tug on it. Twice, even. Okay, so he tugged until she were forced into giving him a good swat. "S'the cutest lil duck beak ever."

"You are so gross. God!" A bottle of lemon and lime water were offered up. "Drink?"

"Thanks, darlin'." Mal shot his new choreographer a bright grin. "She loves me. I mean loves, loves. As'in hearts an' smoochin' sorta love."

"Looks more like a longin' to dismember if you ask me." Zoe set about putting up a bitty travel crib that came complete with a play mat at the bottom.

He tturned to their new choreographer, arching an eyebrow at the sight of an image recorder being set up so as to be focused on them. Glanced at his partner, who were as clueless as he. "S'that for?"

"Posterity." Wash scratched his head. "If I can get the thing to work. Is there a genius in the house? Oh, wait. That would be River. Come help papa."

It took the girl less than two minutes to do what Wash couldn't. "Smile, Malcolm." He smiled a smile that fell when she snickered under her breath. Scowled when Wash pointed and nodded.

"Hey!" Mal glared, but were basically ignored. He didn't like this much. No, sir.

River sighed happily and pulled her hair back into a high horse tail. "There. I'm ready."

"I want you two facing each other in the middle of the room.

"Ain't we warmin' up first?"

"Nope." Wash pulled back from his image recorder. "Emma honey, want to come help dad?"

The young 'un perked up at that. "Emma have pops?"

"No, no pops."

Her chubby little face shook. "Emma no help."

"That girl knows." Mal nodded approvingly and took up the space in front of his partner. One look at her were all it took. "Hee!"

The hell, but he weren't getting over that anytime soon, and in truth, didn't want to get over, neither. It damned well tickled him blush pink to know he were partnered with that lil girl from a decade ago, and now he remembered…

Well, the image of that lil face and that smart ass mouth caked in toffee had been his constant thinkings all the day long. Each time he looked at her, there it were at the front of his brainpan, and perhaps having her re-enact it line-by-line might have been a touch mean, but he couldn't blamed. She'd do the same damned thing and she knew it.

He took his chances and leaned down to pop a kiss off her adorably enraged face.

Snarl.

Girl hissed. Amber eyes narrowed, and she actual and whole hissed out her extreme displeasure. "Wash, tell Malcolm he's going to pay."

"What is going on, here?" Wash laughed, and he were again taken aback by the difference in the fine fellow.

"Just waitin' on Nandi." Mal rolled his shoulders. "She say what time she'd be here?"

"Tell Malcolm Nandi said seven. Some traffic on the hopper route. Natalie can't come as she's going over Andre's contract renewal, and Andre said he'd come by when he can." River huffed. "Wants to know if you'll still sign his programs."

Zoe answered before the fellow ever got the chance. "My husband will be more n' happy to sign, honey." Woman paused. "How many he got?"

"About a hundred and fifty." His partner's grin were all pretty when she spoke of that former partner of hers. "All mint condition, too. No fingerprints. Wouldn't even let me touch them."

"Helloooo…" Wash waved his hand, his skin pale in the room's natural light. "How in the…" The mama glared mighty. "...Holy month of Tuesday did he manage to find hundred and fifty programs?"

Mal touched chin to chest to hide his grin. When River knew an answer, it were like watching a young 'un raise their hand in school.

"Oh! That's easy." She sat straight. "Andre's a collector. He got his first program from Osiris performance of The Four Seasons Cirque la Glace. Then, he got his second from the Rample Brothers on Sihnon. Then…"

"I get it!" The choreographer shot him a wide eyed glance before he shook his head. "So since wifey here has signed me up to sign forever, let's get a move on, shall we? We've got work to do here, people. Work, work, woooorrrkkkk… All domestics at the door, if you please…"

Pain had him slamming a hand over his right ear and he glared at the wretched yao nu in front of him, hands innocently clasped behind her back.

"Okay, I'm done." River smiled much to Zoe's amusement.

"Eye contact in three, two… Ow!" The choreographer glared at his wife, his hand holding his left ear.

"Yes, husband?"

Mal bit his tongue and exchanged a look with his partner before he moved to the stated position. She were such a bad influence. He liked it.

"Eye contact in two, one…"

He closed his eyes, deep inhalations with slow exhalations until he were on solid ground and able as to hold onto River's gaze without floating away on his merry. There she were, all amber irises and soft little lashes framing almond eyes, not a lick of makeup to be seen excepting that lipbalm she used each day and night. The hodgeberry one, the one that left a sheer hue of pale berry to her lips. Made them look pretty.

Longer he looked, the more there were to see. There were a depth to her, a strange pool or such under the youthful surface, like River herself were way down in there and couldn't get out. Her eyes weren't mirrors like most folk. Oh no. They were like windows, only he weren't sure if he were looking in or if she were looking out.

Something flashed in them, a reflection or some kind, and a chill prickled hot from shoulders to palms, made them itch and tingle and feel ten kinds of warm. Rubbed them on his pants, but it were no good. He saw something plain as day.

Mal swallowed thick. "Do I want to know?"

"No." Her breath remained perfectly even as them irises turned glossy bright.

She were worried. Actual and whole worried about him. His reaction. What he thought of her. Then he realised. Her entire life were one big apartment building, weren't it? For all her riches and doting family, River Tam lived in a cocoon, and he were from the outside. That were why she were clinging to him, weren't it? Because he'd been outside and met folk from all walks of life, not just them as deemed to be like her. And could be folk she did meet were prone to being scared off by her talent. Gift? Curse? Probably a bit both, he imagined.

"Ain't a thing, River darlin'. I ain't a man as to flinch." Mal cracked grin. Ignored the tiny white spec he could just as see on her left pupil. "Tell me. About what it's like. They talk?"

A pink tongue swept over her lips, nervousness rolled off of her and yet not once did his partner ever break eye contact. Nodded. "Some can talk, some have voices that got scared away. My parents thought they were imaginary friends. I thought they were monsters under the bed. They're not. Just..."

Words were out of his mouth before he could put an end to them. "Folk-that-were?"

Only he watched it close up. How that fine sheen of teary gloss dried up on instant and them amber irises of hers just brightened and widened and he could it see it. The smile on her face without so much as a glance at her lips. Teeny tiny little crinkles tugged at the edge of her lashes, pulled her pale sunkissed skin a little tighter, a little higher.

Soft pressure wrapped around his hands and gripped firm, strong, and River took a deep breath and took her first step away from him. Weren't much on its own, of course, but when a split second later Wash spoke out?

"Take one step baaack…" Both Zoe and Wash were staring at his partner, realising she had quite a ways about her as to render them taken aback their own selves.

Mal didn't look away from his partner. Kept her hands in his, arms stretched to maintain that contact over the small distance between them. "Yeah, River? She got a thing as to help folk. S'what my partner does. She helps folk to be free."

Xxxx

"Yeah, River?" Blue eyes said. "She got a thing as to help folk. S'what my partner does. She helps folk as to be free."

Only they weren't blues eyes. Not really, because blue pigment didn't exist in either the stroma or the ocular fluid, and the epithelium in blue eyes was, in fact, black-brown due to the presence of melanin. It was her very favourite optical illusion, truth be told.

"Rayleigh Scattering." River said, pointing to her own. "In the turbid medium of the stroma. Absorption of longer light wavelengths and reflection of shorter wavelengths undergo Rayleigh Scattering. Blue eyes, blue skies. Same frequency dependence."

"That why they seem to as change colour in different lightin'?" Mal asked. "Shiny."

"Yes. Also? Colour Number 661-024 on Inkwell's 2518 Spectrum." She added, grasping the hands not belonging to Malcolm Reynolds, childhood crush and sports idol, but the hands of her partner. Mal Reynolds, pain in the behind. Kept her gaze locked on his and took a deep breath. "Folk-that-were? I've never thought of them like that before. You're a good man."

"Well, I'm alright." Deep, defined wrinkles narrowed his slightly hooded eyes and her arms stretched a touch more as he stepped back. "I got me temper, see. Known to say things I don't as mean to say. Which you know personal."

He had strength where she had confidence. Needed to bridge the gap between them so they were both equals with each trait. "Just need to keep your eyes on the prize, Malcolm."

"Eyes on the prize, you say. I like that. Could be we use that for when I get my blood up." Mal cracked. "I start yellin'? You say…"

"Shirt." She quickly slapped a hand over her mouth and he grinned until her hand landed in his. Had to give him something to make him see she had forgiven his temper. That she trusted him. "I see them all the time, Malcolm. Small and tall and red, and black. I talk with them in my mind and from my mouth. Get caught up in once upon a time."

"You get caught up? I say happily ever after."

"Agreed." River could only just feel his fingertips on hers as she took another step back.

Awkwardness rolled off him. "I take issue with things that ain't even personal to me. I find myself arguin' on things I don't believe in just to push a button or two."

"You start pushing buttons, I say Elizabeth Bennet." Delight burst out of her mouth when Mal's understanding sounded out on a half wheezed cackle. It shouldn't surprise her, not when she knew he was a reader of classical literature, but it did.

"S'better n' bein' kicked in the buzzards."

Her eyes widened, horrified. She'd seen the damage of testicular injuries courtesy of her poor brother. A drunken patient with an allergic reaction to what was infamously known as the Good Night Kiss. Patient still had his work boots on and her brother needed a scan and straight up Hydrozepam pain relief. Took him almost three weeks to fully recover.

"Somebody kicked your testicles? But that's mean. Dangerous. Signals are sent to the brain at 265 miles per hour and Substance P, an undecapeptide. A neuropeptide that acts as a neurotransmitter and neuromodulator. The testicles share pain receptors in the abdomen, which is why a man lies down or doubles over or collapses. A kick to the testicles can result in testicular torsion, where the blood supply is effectively cut off from the testicles and is a medical emergency. Testicular rupturing occurs from a blow hard enough to crush the testicles off the pelvic bone. Also a medical emergency. Somebody goes to kick you in the testicles? I'll kick their testicles right back."

There was silence in the room as Mal stood and stared at her, those blue eyes unblinking and a rather ghastly pallor to his complexion. River frowned. "Are you alright?"

"That, ah…" It appeared to her as though he was trying to suppress both a smile and grimace. "S'plains a lot. My buzzards an' I have a fine 'preciation for your generous offer of defence. Could be useful."

She beamed. "You're very welcome."

"I'll keep that in mind." Mal appeared oddly twitchy as he took a large step backwards. He cleared his throat and rubbed the nape of his neck, his eye contact dropping for the shortest of moments. "I get petty jealous, darlin'. An' I ain't the most sensitive fellow. Known to be a mite ruthless."

River almost moved, but that wasn't fair. If he got jealous over nothing, it meant a lack of trust on his part. Something they couldn't have and so she stayed right where she stood. "Most of my friends are male. Andre is my best friend. We did date, but I introduced him to Eve Duchamps because I know what their babies will look like."

Blue eyes reflected the warm smile on his face. He understood enough to take half a step back. They would work on it. "I get jealous, you say…"

"Trust me, Malcolm." Returned his smile. "People say I can be intimidating. So I hide away. Makes me feel arrogant. Rude. Condescending. I don't mean to be. Just…"

"I hear you." And she heard him. More to the point, she believed him enough to step back. "You ain't have to do that no more, darlin'. Guessin' you get an idea an' hop to it 'afore you see fit as to shed light on why you're doin' what you're doin'?"

River felt her jaw drop. "How?"

"I know who you are." Mal shrugged easy as he pleased. "You do that an' I say whatcha doin'. Timin' ain't down to just you, neither. If we let that brain o' yours calculate timin' 'tween us? We ain't doin' it right."

"But I wasn't…" He arched an eyebrow. "Alright."

He didn't step back.

"I said alright. God!" Stomped her foot for good measure.

He grinned, but moved.

"Now walk towards each other. Strengths, this time." Wash's voice startled her into jumping out of her skin, but she didn't break eye contact.

"I'm a sure partner. My grip? S'always locked." Mal said.

"One hundred percent." River very much agreed with. When he said something would get done, then it got done, and it was just that simple. So she took two steps forward. Went to speak, but stopped short.

It was a strange thing, she thought as she stood with her gaze focused on his, how difficult it was to speak openly about personal strengths when it had been so easy to speak on personal weaknesses. As she faced Malcolm Reynolds, a man who had the t-shirt both on and off the ice, it was stranger still. He knew his strengths in and out, while she found herself floundering to find even one that didn't revolve around something they already knew.

She wet her lips. "I'm creative." Yes, it was a lame thing to say, but it was all she had off the top of her head. Held her breath as she watched her partner take one step and another, relief and confidence elevated her just a little, and it was enough.

Mal quirked a grin at her. "I'm organised. Might not come across as suchlike, but it's there."

River took half a step forward. "You need to be more specific. It's me, not you. I know so much and it's hard to distinguish sometimes. What you mean, I mean. Do you know what I mean?"

His eyebrows twitched. "S'it bad I understand that? Could be you help me with that. Make it so as you know what I mean. I'm honest."

She took a step forward. "Me, too. I can be… Determined."

He got closer. "I read in bed."

"From one fellow librocubicularist to another, it's a pleasure to meet you." She laughed at his bug eyed expression.

"There's a word for that?"

"Words for everything. I'm a logophile."

"Lover of words." Mal pinpointed straight away and took two steps forward. "I'm a… Nyctophiliac."

"Also called scotophiliac." River shrugged. "Your experience might outweigh mine, but I know things. Ways to make things…"

"Better?" There went his eyebrows again. "You can have all the smarts in the 'verse, darlin'. Have ideas ten ways from Sunday, but if you don't got the courage as to speak up an' share 'em?"

Felt herself nod as another of her weaknesses countered her strength. "Ballet is routine. Set in stone. Unchanged. I'll learn to speak up."

He shot her a little wink and moved closer. "I know you will. An' I'll listen. I'm 'fraid I'll let you down. That I ain't as what's made out to be. That…"

"If you were so good, you would have an Olympic gold." Prickling heat made her eyes sting as she watched the short nod. "And maybe Inara wouldn't…"

Mal stopped her there. "Inara. We weren't best suited as sweethearts. Just took me time to realise that is all. Could be what went on off-ice were seen on it. It were fightin', River darlin'. Felt as though s'all we did were fight or push buttons. She saw a world she wanted an' it weren't mine."

A frown tugged her eyebrows together. "A world?"

"Floatin' chandelier world. Nobility. S'like a rancher's boy weren't good enough."

River stared, unable to fathom how or why one party would seek to make their partner, romantic or not, feel not good enough and it all became so painfully clear. Mal had spent so much time having that feeling reinforced, that he truly believed he wasn't good enough and so he'd stopped trying. A self-fulfilling prophecy, and as she stood there, looking into those blue eyes and feeling all of what he felt, right from the lack of confidence to his exhaustion from running in circles and getting nowhere, fast.

She thought of Andre, how they worked and built each other up, how he saw himself as her pedestal and she his ladder. Tried to imagine how it would be to have him pull on her ankles, not push at her feet, to have him drop instead of lift, and she couldn't imagine it. Destroying your partner was a cardinal sin and that sting in her eyes grew hot, itchy, made her lashes sticky wet.

He was warm and solid, his build pure cowboy muscle made lean from hard ranch work and figure skating. There was residue of it, too, and it clung to his hair and skin and clothes, both the pleasant scent of fresh cut grass and the unpleasant smell of manure. Could smell the horses and hay, the bonfires he made as a kid, the watering hole he skinny dipped in with a girl named Betty Deacon.

Felt him shrug and say something, but the barking of a large black and white herding dog pawing at her beloved master's right heel. A large hand smoothed down her spine as she snivelled and subtly wiped her runny nose on his shirt. "Tops says hello."

Mal froze and pulled back, shocked and unsure whether or not to believe her. "Now how in the hell do you know that?"

River sniffed and pouted, looking up at him through her wet lashes. "I uploaded a photo of you to our C-site."

He went to speak, but a sigh came out instead and he patted her shoulders. Paused as he glanced down at her. "Is that snot?"

Xxxx

Zoe stood back and quietly watched her husband as he watched his students. Their daughter also watched him, her eyes wide and focused until her play mat caught her attention and thesippy cup was given. A distracted child allowed for a mama to really focus on the man behind the camera, and only the good lord would ever understand the relief bursting inside her chest.

Wash had, true to form, been up until the late hours, gaze on two screens at the same time. One of River Tam and the other Mal Reynolds. He watched, rewound, and watched again, and rewound. Somehow or another, her husband managed to come across a video of the pair when they were young. River's recital of The Golden Goose at the age of six and Mal's first competitive free skate at the age of eight.

Just when Zoe thought she had that man's mind all figured out, he would go and pull a white rabbit out of his hat, and she would be left scratching a head that echoed the words what the rut. He hadn't been so invested in anything since the shuttle crash beyond Emma and even then, Wash shied away from picking his girl up in case he dropped her, yet this morning after he'd been up until two am? Emma made her way into their room and he'd been so damned tired, he didn't think twice about scooping her up and dropping her between them in bed.

No fuss was made and she simply let it be, but the hell if she hadn't wanted to say something other than "What time do you call this?"

Her gaze drifted back to the pair in front of them and sighed at the sight of Mal's face, then looked to River.

I hope that girl's strong.