Title: It Hurts
author: jmaria
Rating:
PG
pairing: Spike, River, Jayne
joss100 Set, Prompt:
2, #074. Truth
Words: 241
Disclaimer: Joss owns
them, I do not pout
Summary: Spike gives some advice
A/N:
Set after Objects in Space, and in the same 'verse as I
Find You Irksome (a Simon, Illyria centric fic). Also, some Spike
dialogue is heavily lifted from season 3 episode "Lover's
Walk"
Set (because we all know the insanity that is me):
Little Girl with a Big Gun - 3/6.
It Hurts
Jayne stomped off the ship again at the next town, angrier than he'd be willing to admit. River watched from the catwalk, her fingers clenched tightly around the metal railing, her eyes watering a bit.
That was how Spike found her twenty minutes after Jayne had left. She still watched the space that he had occupied, her knuckles white as she tried to find her balance.
"The oaf go off for a bit of trim, then?" Spike asked quietly, laying a hand on hers.
"It is customary. His favorite place is here on Beaumonde, as is Sheena," River said in clipped tone.
"That make you angry, love?"
"No, we're associates. We've no external bonds," she snapped.
"Don't mean you don't want to have 'em," Spike grinned.
"We're not friends, he doesn't even like me."
"You're right, you're not friends. You'll never be friends. You'll be in love till it kills you both. You'll fight, and you'll shag, and you'll hate each other until it makes you quiver but you'll never be friends. Love isn't brains, children, it's blood - blood screaming inside you to work its will. I may be love's bitch but at least I'm man enough to admit it."
"It's not love, Spike," River said quietly. "Can't know love."
"No, Bird, but it's the truth." Spike wrapped his arm around his broken bird. He was gonna have to have a talk with that dumb oaf for hurtin' his bird.