Deadwood
Jayne heard Annie groan and silently cursed whoever was pounding on the door as she rolled away from him. Cracking an eye open, he saw her slam a pillow over her head before peeking at him from under it, an irritated glint in her green eyes. His chuckle was cut off by the pounding on the door resuming.
The pounding was followed by his ma's voice this time, "Jayne Cobb, it's the third Sunday. You get yerself up and dressed this instant!"
Jayne groaned and buried his face in his pillow, ignoring the question in Annie's still narrowed eyes.
"Jayne! You best let me know yer up an' movin' or I'm comin' up!"
Jayne reached over the side of the bed and threw a boot down the stairs, where it hit the door with a thud.
"Jayne Anthony Cobb, I know you're not throwing things in my house!"
Jayne heard the door open and hollered down the stairs swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and sitting up before his ma could come up, "I'm up, gorram it!"
"You plan on takin' that mouth to church, boy?" her voice drifted up, no longer muffled by the door.
"I ain't plannin' on goin' ta church."
"It ain't an option, boy. Your friends may be exempt, but you are family and you will follow family rules. Shepherd only comes through once a month and you are going," Lareina's no-argument tone responded.
"Ma, ain't no church wanna see the likes 'a me."
"Church best serves the likes 'a you."
"Shepherd might disagree." Jayne grumbled as he felt Annie sit up behind him and turned to look at her.
"There's a real Shepherd out here?" she asked quietly, hopefully.
"Yeah, there's a real Shepherd."
She looked even more hopeful, "Think your ma'll mind if I come along?"
"You wanna go ta church?"
Annie nodded.
"Jayne? You gettin' outta that bed?" Lareina's voice came again.
Jayne shot a quick glare toward the stairs before looking back at Annie, which he probably shouldn't have done, 'cause her lookin' at him all hopeful like just knocked the fight right outta him. He shook his head in defeat and Annie's grin lit up her face as she launched herself across the bed and threw her arms around his neck, placing a quick kiss right on his lips as he froze, stunned, before launching herself over him.
"We're up, Lareina! Be down in a bit!" she called cheerily.
Jayne heard his ma chuckle and the door close behind her as Annie bent over to dig through her bags.
"What're ya so excited 'bout church fer?" Jayne tried to sound grumpy, but it sounded more curious than anything.
Annie spun and beamed at him, clothes in hand, "I like church."
Jayne just shook his head in amusement and stood up to rummage through his own bag. He'd have to ask ma to iron a shirt for him.
"Dibs on first shower!" Annie called as she headed down the stairs. "If you leave your shirt on the bed, I'll iron it when you're taking yours." she called back up from the bottom of the stairs.
Jayne just stared toward the stairs, shirt in hand. He thought River was supposed to be the mind-reader.
Shepherd Clay wasn't a bad sort. He was younger and louder than Book had been. Jayne didn't really have much to compare his preachin' to, anyhow. If he was bein' honest, he didn't really hear much of the message. He was too focused on Annie. She was wearin' a dress. It hit just at her knee and was real light green, with short sleeves, and covered in little blue and purple flowers. Jayne didn't know much about dresses, but this looked like a nice one. And the heels she'd borrowed from Inara were doin' right pretty things to her legs.
After the service, Lareina ushered Jayne and Annie both up to Shepherd Clay. He actually seemed real happy to meet Jayne, and to Jayne's relief – didn't ask what he'd been doin' in the Black. Annie gushed over his sermon, and Jayne fought the urge to roll his eyes. But with Annie talkin' about it, he actually listened. Apparently it'd been somethin' 'bout pairin' yerself with someone like you, similar beliefs and lifestyles – Annie gave Jayne a pointed look and he ducked his head before makin' an excuse to shuffle off and talk to an old friend. Jayne heard his ma chucklin' as he walked off and bit back a curse. Weren't proper ta use that kinda language in a church.
Stepping outside a little while later, all the curses Jayne'd bit back earlier came right back to the surface. Obviously, he weren't the only one who noticed how fetchin' Annie looked in that girly get-up. A good slew of the boys and men from 'round town were gathered 'round her. Jayne's fists clenched at his sides as he felt a hand on his arm. Looking down and seeing his ma he relaxed just a bit.
"You listen to the message?" she asked.
"Well enough." Jayne answered, returning his eyes to Annie.
"You get the point?"
Jayne looked back down at his ma and took a deep breath, relaxing a bit more, "I reckon."
"Good," she grinned up at him, eyes shining, "you gonna let one of them boys steal your girl's attention?"
Jayne hesitated then grinned back, "No ma'am."
With that he straightened up and headed toward Annie. From a distance, she seemed relaxed, smiling indulgently and laughing at jokes and stories from the men surrounding her. As Jayne got closer, he noticed her hands twitching near where he alone knew she had blades strapped to one leg and a gun to the other under her skirt and chuckled. That knowledge just made the whole package prettier, in his mind. He also noticed her smile was tight and wasn't quite reaching her eyes. He was selfishly thrilled that she wasn't enjoying all the attention from other fellas. He was close enough now to realize they were all tryin' ta convince her they were the lunch date she wanted, and 'til she chose one of 'em, they wasn't takin' no fer an answer. Jayne bristled and saw red 'fore he remembered she could kill each an' every one 'a them no-good húndàns if she had a mind.
A particularly lewd suggestion from one of the guys standing closest to her had Jayne seeing red again. Before Jayne could reach whoever it was to throttle him, Casey appeared and threw an arm across Annie's shoulders and laughed, and Annie relaxed against him, clearly grateful for a familiar presence, even if it was Casey.
"Joe Carver, language right outta church? Fer shame!" Casey chided, "'Sides, suggestions like that're dangerous 'round this one."
"Little thing like her, dangerous? No way!" Carver replied incredulously.
Casey's eyes widened dramatically even as Annie's finally found Jayne over the heads of the crowd. She shot him a desperate look and he nodded reassuringly, skirting the edge of the group to get to her. Casey pushed himself upright, removing his arm from her shoulder to unbutton his shirt enough to reveal the angry red scar on his shoulder, "Got this just fer tellin' 'er I liked how she looked."
Carver looked disbelieving, "Gǒushǐ."
Annie gave up all pretense of smiling and just glared at the man until Mattie spoke up from where he'd appeared next to Casey, "Oh, believe it, gentlemen. She almost took both our heads off for suggesting she share one of our beds as opposed to Jayne's. The only reason she didn't, I believe, was that she only had one blade on her at the time, wasn't it?" Mattie leaned forward to look at her and she nodded regally, all cold-blooded Core socialite, aside from the warrior's gleam in her eye.
Carver went pale, "Jayne?"
Jayne finally reached Annie and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, squeezing her even tighter when she leaned into him, "Damn straight. I know even you ain't yúbèn enough to hit on my girl, right Joe?"
As Carver stuttered for words Jayne looked down at Annie as she raised her eyebrows dramatically.
"Huh. She says you are that stupid." Jayne raised an eyebrow toward Joe.
"Didnaknow." Carver finally mumbled.
"Shénme?" Jayne held a hand up to his ear and leaned forward slightly.
"Didn't know she was yers." Carver glared at Jayne.
"Now ya do." Jayne smiled, all teeth, "So why don't the lot of you shove off 'fore I let 'er give you all scars ta match Casey's."
Carver's eyes widened, "He was kidding."
Annie threw her head back against Jayne's shoulder and let out her first real laugh since she'd stepped outside. Damn, but he loved the sound.
"You'd really like to think so, wouldn't you?" she asked, cocking her head to the side and looking at Carver.
Instead of answering, he scampered off. A matching glare on the face of all three Cobb boys had the rest of the crowd quickly heading their own ways. Casey and Mattie drifted off around the time Annie turned and buried her face in Jayne's chest.
"Wǒ de yīngxióng." she said, somewhat muffled by his shirt.
"You could've taken care 'a yerself." he said, squeezing her shoulder.
"Not without bloodshed."
"They would've deserved it." he chuckled.
Ry took a deep breath, inhaling Jayne's scent and letting it calm her down. He smelled like gun oil and warm metal and his ma's lemon soap. She could handle backwater hillbillies just fine, but they seemed to have mastered the art of ganging up on a girl on this planet. If Casey hadn't showed up when he did, that Joe character would have been a bloody mess on the ground. She doubted the town folk would've taken kindly to that, even if the cretin deserved it. Ry took one more deep breath before stepping back and out of Jayne's arms. Losing the contact was almost physically painful, but she steeled herself against it. He was saving her from the hoard. And that's all he was doing.
She smiled up at him as genuinely as she could manage, "Xièxie."
Jayne looked a little confused and just shrugged, "Ain't gonna have no one talkin' ta my girl like that."
"Your-" Ry began then cut off, realization slowly dawning. Could she dare to hope he'd finally figured it out? "Your girl?"
"Well… yeah," Jayne answered nervously, looking at his feet, "If ya still think ya want me."
Ry decided she couldn't let him off quite that easy, "You tellin' me the big bad yōng bīng is finally pulling his head out of his ass and realizing a Core girl is perfect for him?"
Jayne's head snapped up and he noticed the teasing glint in her green eyes, "Damn straight."
"Well, damn!" Ry stepped back toward him and wrapped her arms loosely around his waist, "Took you long enough."
Jayne wrapped his arms around her shoulders, "Duìbùqǐ."
Ry shrugged, looking up at him, "I'll get over it. How'd it finally get through your head?"
"Preacher talkin' 'bout… well, no. I didn't really listen ta the preacher. You recappin' the preacher's message." Jayne admitted.
Ry craned her neck toward the church doors, "Where'd the Shepherd go? I think I could kiss him right about now!"
"Hey!" Jayne protested, "Whadya wanna do that fer when you could just kiss me?"
Ry laughed as she turned her face back toward Jayne, "I suppose I could." And she stood on tip-toe as he leaned down and their lips met.
Translations:
Shénme – what
Wǒ de yīngxióng – my hero
Xièxie – thank you
yōng bīng – mercenary
Duìbùqi – I'm sorry