Carving Out a Future

By: Dreamfall

Summary: Her crew doesn't know that Serenity's new passenger, a carpenter with an 'unusual upbringing', is a relic from the past. And Xander's not looking for trouble. Then again, neither are they. Not usually, leastwise. It just tends to come calling anyway. Gen. Canon couples mentioned, but definitely not the focus of the story.

Written for: NaNoWriMo and TTH100: Xander/Firefly

TTH100 prompt: 062-Game

Rating: FR13/PG13/T

Disclaimer: I own neither Firefly nor BtVS.

Spoilers: Takes place post Season 7 for Buffy, and post-Objects in Space (and post the comic books, for that matter), but pre-Serenity for Firefly.

Author's Note: This is the story I started in November for NaNoWriMo. I'm thirty or so chapters into it, but since there's going to be at least one hundred chapters (since it's for tth100, too), they're mostly pretty short. If you're coming from this from my HP fanfics-- it's very different. Way less dark. It's also an incredibly fun story to write, and I do intend to continue with it to its conclusion. And no, it's not taking any real time away from Cat, now that I'm not working obsessively on it, like I was in November. I'll be posting every couple/few days at least till I'm caught up with my livejournal (username dreamfall(underscore)nnwm). Hope you enjoy!

Review Response: Responses to any reviews will be posted in the same livejournal as my other review responses-- username dreamfall(underscore)ff.

Chapter Fourteen
A Brief Game

Xander took his time eating despite Jayne's good-natured prompts to hurry up, but finally he rose with a laugh. "I don't know what you're so excited about -- I'm sure you can knock any of these other guys around the cargo hold just as well as you can me."

"Yeah, well, they don't play much no more," Jayne complained.

Mal snickered. "Enjoy yourself, kid. Jayne here tends to take dirty fightin' to a whole new level."

"I don't want either of you hurting each other enough that you wind up back in the infirmary," Simon added.

"Nah, we'll just be playin'," Jayne insisted. "Just didn't get ta see much of his fight back on Persephone, but what I got made me curious."

The others followed the pair down to the cargo hold, to a large empty area, and gathered slightly to one side, out of the way. "You hurt anything down here and you'll find me a mite displeased," Mal added.

"Sure, we'll stay in the clear area, right, Xander?"

"Whatever you say," he agreed, glancing around with a practiced eye.

Jayne grinned like a kid in the candy store as he rolled his shoulders and moved forward to the center of the cleared out area, waiting for Xander to join him. "Anyone falls unconscious or calls 'done', we stop. Beyond that, no rules."

"Sure," Xander said again, stepping forward to face him. He stopped a cautious few feet back, and waited, balance spread evenly between his feet and forward just slightly, carefully relaxed, eyes locked on his opponent.

"Right then. You both ready?" Mal asked.

"Any time."

"A'course."

"Now," Mal called.

Neither moved, both waiting, watching each other, and Kaylee let out a nervous giggle. "Usually someone does somethin' about then," she commented.

A hint of a smile played over Xander's lips, but he didn't speak, just edged right as Jayne edged left. Jayne suddenly charged, and Xander leapt to one side, rolling and coming back up. His smile widened fractionally as he saw the bigger man turn quickly to face him again, a broad grin on his face. Like he'd thought, Jayne was big, but he wasn't slow. And he was clearly in his element during a fight.

"Not entirely without practice," Jayne commented. "I gotta say again, you musta had some real interestin' bullies at yer school if that's what ya learned."

Xander laughed, spinning out of the way of a punch. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he promised, ducking under another blow to rabbit-punch his opponent, who turned, deflecting the blow to his side rather than his stomach and kicked out, catching Xander's hip and sending him flying back.

Attention completely locked on his opponent and the terrain, Xander realized in the air that he was going to hit something. He twisted to dodge it, back on his feet again before he'd realized that it had been Kaylee rather than a wall or a crate. He moved back in. It had taken him a long time to break his habit of rushing in, and he had finally learned not from yet another concussion that could be directly blamed on an impulsive attack, but from training baby Slayers. The only way he could convince them not to risk themselves with stupid attacks was by not using them himself, and it had the interesting result of a lot lower hospital visit to fight ratio.

A fist to his jaw knocked his head back, and he lashed out instinctively while internally reprimanding himself for letting his attention wander during a fight. He focused on Jayne once more. He only vaguely heard the shouts of mockery and advice addressed to both of them by those watching, mostly Mal and Wash, with an occasional concerned shout from Kaylee. He didn't spare any attention for interpreting either them or the expressions he occasionally caught on faces in his peripheral vision.

He saw Jayne punching out again, and dropped, sweeping out the other man's feet and aiming a kick to his ribs as he landed. He only got one in before Jayne had rolled away and was up again, a grin of pure enjoyment on his face as he ducked under Xander's punch and came up with a fist to his solar plexus that made his vision blank out for an instant. And suddenly he wasn't fighting Jayne, he was fighting a vampire, a demon, and he came in with a fierce flurry of blows that drove his opponent back, ignoring the ones that landed on him in return, and reached for his knife.

An intense whisper of, "No! Bad!" caught his attention as none of the shouted advice had, and River's voice reminded him of where he was.

"Done!" he called, stopping himself with a gasp and jumping back.

"Jien tah-duh guay! How come?" Jayne demanded.

"'Cuz he stopped fightin' you," Mal said, eyes locked on Xander.

"Yeah, I know he gorram well stopped fightin' me, and I stopped like I said I would. But I wanna know why! You weren't outta the game yet," he complained, turning back to Xander. "Not by a long shot! We was havin' fun!"

"Not what the captain was sayin'," Zoë said, her eyes, too, locked on Xander as he very slowly relaxed and managed to move his hand away from the knife in his belt. "He stopped fightin' you before he called out. I was near ready to involve myself."

Xander offered his opponent an apologetic shrug. "Sorry," he said. "I just -- for a second there it wasn't you. And it was about to stop being a game and start being life or death if I didn't stop."

Jayne stared at him. Finally, he shook his head. "Some bullies," he muttered, wiping the sweat off his forehead with the back of his arm. Then he grinned. "Well, that was too short, but you ain't half bad. 'Specially at the end, there, you got some definite moves on ya." He held out his hand.

Xander laughed, stepping forward to shake it. "Good fight -- even if you were humoring me in the beginning."

"Naw, I just wanned to wait fer you to get yer act together," Jayne said. "Figured you ain't had a fight in a while, best let ya warm up b'fore knockin' ya down too hard."

"So who were you fighting, there at the end?" Mal asked, his eyes still locked on Xander.

He turned to face the captain, studying him for a long moment. "Does it matter?"

"Call me curious."

"It wasn't actually anyone specific," he answered after a moment. "It wasn't a flashback to a particular fight or anything, if that's what you mean."

He noticed the captain and first mate exchange a quick look, but couldn't read whatever passed between them before Mal turned back to him and stepped forward to clap him on the shoulder. "Well, like Jayne said, you ain't half bad. Wouldn't mind havin' ya at my back in a bar fight, if'n I was in the habit of gettin' into any such thing. Which, of course, I ain't."

Zoë snorted. "Course not, sir."

"Course not," he repeated, grinning at her, and then turned to Wash. "You're down here. I'm down here. Who in guay's flyin' the boat?"

Wash laughed. "Dunno, Mal -- bet we're all gonna die. We were all set on course before dinner. Wouldn't hurt to check up on her again, though. I'll--"

"I'll get it," Mal said. "Zoë was sayin' somethin' 'bout demanding your presence after dinner tonight."

"Well, that's the kind of demand I'm always open to," Wash said, turning to his wife with a wide grin, which she returned with a smile that warmed her face and lit her eyes, for all that it hardly turned up her lips. "I'll be around to check my other lady sometime over the night," he added, wrapping an arm about Zoë's shoulder and heading for the door.

Jayne pounded Xander on the back. "Nice fight," he said.

"You too. Sorry for dropping out so early, but I was about to do something I would have regretted."

The bigger man nodded agreement. "Yeah. You woulda definitely regretted pullin' that knife. Was surprised to see ya lookin' to. You don't seem the type pulls a blade in a friendly game."

"I'm not," he agreed, a shadow crossing his eyes for an instant. "Sorry about that, too."

"Nothin' to be sorry for. You didn't do it. And if you had, well now, that woulda been real interestin'," Jayne pointed out, voice suggesting he wouldn't have been averse to trying it.

Xander grinned at him, cautiously feeling the area the last blow, the one that had made him see stars, had caught him.

"You okay?" Kaylee asked, coming up beside him to look back and forth, making it clear that her concern was for both of them.

"Sure, that there was hardly a warm up," Jayne said cheerfully. "Next time maybe we'll have more of a go."

"I'll be a little stiff tomorrow, but no harm done," Xander promised, smiling at the girl, who had turned anxiously to him after Jayne's answer. He noticed Simon stiffen, and deliberately turned away a bit, amused but not wanting to step on any toes. "Think I'm gonna try to get a bit more done tonight. Seeya tomorrow, guys."

Jayne thumped him on the shoulder again, and Xander left with another amused glance at the doctor and a general wave.