Seeking Comfort A short Mal/River fic. This is my first time writing romance so please tell me what you think.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the firefly characters, Joss Whedon does.
She couldn't sleep. Her dreams were too disruptive. Flashes of colour, blue
mainly blue. This wasn't the first time. Not the first time she had woken up
screaming. Images flashing in her mind. Images of needles and blood. Sometimes
she half expected to wake up in Ariel. The dreams of the alliance always haunted
her and never would cease to.
Normally Simon would be woken up and comfort her, but tonight he wasn't there.
Shaking with fear river got out of bed and walked out of her room. She needed
comfort.
Mal couldn't sleep either. Never had been much of a sleeper. Anyway he had too
much on his mind. River. That girl had been causing trouble ever since she
arrived on Serenity. But as time had gone by he had somehow and in some way
warmed to her. Even though she freaked him out at times, he noticed that
underneath she was just a normal girl.
Mal was brought out of his thoughts by a noise behind him. He turned around. It
was River. It seemed strange that he had just been thinking about her.
She just stood there and looked at him as if she was reading his thoughts. Mal
felt uncomfortable and shifted in his chair. He cleared his throat to bring her
out of her trance.
"What are you doing up?" he asked.
"Couldn't sleep." Was the simple reply.
"Oh. Where's Simon?"
"With Kaylee or so I guessed."
She sat down opposite him and stared mournfully at the floor. It was evident
that she had been crying.
Mal didn't know what to say, normally he was good at talking to people but when
it came to River, he was at a loss for words.
At last he said: "What's wrong?"
"Nightmare. Dark with flashes of colour, blue on white. Silver. Needles. Pain."
She began to cry.
He looked at her, she seemed so small and he wanted to pick her up and comfort
her.
"Shhhh. It's ok please don't cry River. Was the dream about the alliance?" he
asked already knowing the answer.
"Yes. It's almost the same dream every night. I just want it to stop. I just
want the pain to go away. And now Simon has Kaylee, I feel as though I have
nobody, everyone has gone and left me, like the desert misses the rain." She
said in a sad tone. She began to sob quietly.
Mal got up and knelt beside her. "That's not true." He suddenly felt so angry at
the alliance. More angry than he had ever been. How could they torture this poor
girl who had never done anything wrong? He thought for a moment.
"I was thinking about maybe stopping of at Bellerophon to do an odd job there
but you might like it there it's very beautiful." He closed his eyes for a
moment trying not to think about how stupid he sounded.
"I would like that" she said. She took his hand and smiled at him.
He smiled back and stood up to go. "Wait." River grabbed his arm. "Don't go.
Stay."
Mal sighed. But when he looked at her, he saw something he hadn't seen before.
It was a look of admiration and….. love?
But this was wrong mal knew it was. River stood up.
"Um listen I need to go and get some sleep I think you do to." He said trying to
break free of River's grasp. But she held on tightly.
"Don't try to pretend Mal. It's hopeless, I can read you like a book. I know
your feelings for me. Why do you feel you have to hide it all away under that
tough exterior?" He nearly laughed in surprise. Even though he and River had
hardly exchanged words, she seemed to know him better than anybody on the ship.
"Your brother will kill me if he finds out." He said. Why was he coming up with
excuses he asked himself.
"So? Black, white doesn't make a difference nor does yellow and green." She
looked into his eyes and that made his mind up.
She reached up and kissed him on the lips, soft, her lips caressed his face. Mal
smiled at her stroking her face. Kissing her, out of the corner of his eye Mal
thought he saw a single tear fall down her cheek.
The End