Author's Note: This is the first time I've ever posted anything like this, so please, please review, even if you hate it. Any information will be greatly appreciated.
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters or goodness that is Firefly.
Distribution: and firefly. under the name Laire.
River knows riddles. Nothing more than solving for the variable when the equation's in pieces. Add the words and subtract the meaning and get called clever. Just a trick. Pull it out when important people visit the house, watch them try to pull the words into themselves. Put it back when they're gone. Nothing more than that. But it's not like that for everyone. River knows that too. Not everyone solves and spits like a computer. Sometimes it's more interesting that way.
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Jayne's not asleep. Ain't his fault. Man can't help it when he sees two little girls touchin' like that in the middle of the cargo hold. Like seven other people ain't livin' onship with em, like they ain't gonna get seen. Seein' little Kaylee with her mouth open like that, all redfaced and beggin' River for a little more action... Well, it just ain't a wonder that Jayne's lyin' awake in his bunk, is all. Certainly ain't a wonder he's doin' what he's doin'.
So when he hears River laughin' out her moonbrain words in the middle of enjoyin' himself, he jumps a bit more than mighta been needed.
"Guess Jayne ain't a girl's name at all." River can hardly talk, she's laughin herself so near to death.
Jayne drags his hand from his half-done pants with a grunt. "S'pose you know what I was thinkin bout."
"S'pose I do." River's still half-bent with giggles.
Jayne can wait. At least for a bit, till the girl gets herself controlled again. Not like River walkin' in on the middle makes him feel like goin' on anyways. "You ain't gonna kill me with yer mind now?"
"Not tonight. Space makes you safe. No night." And then the moonbrain's dancin' through his room like there ain't no ground or sky, just barely touchin' the floor and the walls. Weird. Kinda nice to look at, though. She keeps movin' herself to music he can't hear for a few minutes, then she stops. "Maybe I'll kill you later."
Fair answer. Creepifyin', but fair. "No point askin' how in the ruttin' hell you broke into my room. Or why." He sits up a bit, trying to cover himself some. Some sights ain't for little girls. Not even sly genius ones.
"The Alliance made me do it." Her face weren't even hintin' on a smile. Just starin' back, blankeyed.
"Alliance made you do it for any partic'lar reason?"
"Always a reason." Light kick hits him square in the chest, hard enough to hurt, not enough for bruisin'. Hard enough to knock Jayne flat on his back, anyways. "Senseless little reasons everywhere."
"Ow! Gorram it, girl! Ain't it enough ya stabbed me there already?" Jayne's rubbin' his front a little, put off.
River steps back down, square-center on his chest . "Ain't it enough ya tried to sell me back to the gorram Alliance?" Her tone don't change at all. Just a flat, dreamy sorta voice.
Jayne falls back on his bunk, gives River a long figurin' look. "Well, you said you ain't gonna kill me tonight, girl, an' I believe ya. But I guess I do deserve a lil kickin'."
Damned if River don't look pleased when he says that. She takes her boot off his chest and grins like more of a loony than usual. "When do rivers fly?"
Huh? "Beg pardon?"
"When do rivers fly?" And the girl's hands lock round each other and flap like birds.
"I ain't no good at riddles. Go on and ask the shepherd, he likes that kinda go se." But Jayne's brain's already thinkin' on it. Rivers flyin'. All that water floatin' around. "Ain't never seen a river fly." His mind's still workin', still findin' how all that water could run through the air, and River ain't sayin' anythin' to help. "So when do they?"
River's feet (in combat boots, what with Jayne's luck still holdin' as-is) shove off his stomach, and she flies through the air. Shoulda smashed into the far wall, but as she flies she spins so she hits feetfirst. Those feet push off, and she flies right back, flippin' and spinnin' the whole way, till she lands, silent as death, on foot and knee, and walks to the ladder. "When they ain't on the ground." And then River's gone, without even touchin' the steps.
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Kaylee's sittin flustered in the middle of the engine room. For some reason or nother, Serenity's alternator is throwin sparks every chance it gets. Isn't often that anything on Serenity surprises Kaylee half so much as those showers of green and orange lights flying out of the ship's heart had, so she'd gone at fixin the problem. It's been a few hours now, and nothing seemed to've changed. It don't seem like Serenity's flyin wrong, but it's still hard to watch- Kaylee's ship is hurting and she can't do a gorram thing to make it better.
Kaylee's so caught up in all of Serenity's troubles, she don't even notice when River slides into the room.
River's feet don't make a sound as they fall on the metal, trained to give no warning and leave no mark. No evidence of human origins, no way to distinguish her from any other ghost. So she lets herself drift, occasionally passing along a wrench to the infinitely distracted mechanic, prodding her ship's alternator. River might not be able to hear Serenity like Kaylee, but her eyes are precise and her measurements exact, and she can pass along the right tool, at least. It's one thing River can do right for Kaylee.
Till River's hands trip over Kaylee's lightly, smudging the streaks of oil as she presses a ratchet into Kaylee's left hand. The mechanic jumps, unaware till just that second that someone else was sitting next to her, reading her mind and her movements and setting out the right tool at the right moment.
"River! Honey, you scared me somethin awful. Are you alright?" She gives River the mechanic's eye, searching out the parts of her that are about to stop working, looking for how they should be fixed. They're both lucky, though. Simon's been maintaining her well lately.
River smiles, and in one quick movement she's got Kaylee against the wall, eye to eye and nose to nose. "You're shorter than me."
Kaylee gasps quietly, slightly nervous like she always is when River does anything bordering on violent. "River, honey, I still ain't done with the alternator. If'n I don't get the bolts back on soon, it'll turn into one heckuva problem for us right quick." It's bordering on a lie- Kaylee knows that they'd be fine for hours without reattaching the alternator right- but River accepts the words without question and releases Kaylee silently.
Kaylee throws herself back down to the floor and starts reattaching the bits and pieces of Serenity's innards to one'nother, her motions sure now that she's on steadier ground. She feels River's eyes on her back, tracking every movement, calculating, figuring. It's right creepifyin, and Kaylee's soon feeling the full effects of River's attention. She tries to rein it in before the thoughts travel their way over to River, but she knows it's a lost battle before she even starts.
River looks down and steps back, a confused, slightly hurt look on her face. Kaylee sighs and stands, and waits till River meets her eye to eye. It ain't River's fault that the Alliance made her a weapon, and Kaylee don't want to make the reader pay for it. "River... I don't mean to get scared like that. It just happens sometimes, is all. You ain't always been... rational and all in the past, and you're a lot stronger than me. A lot a lot," Kaylee says softly, her eyes lighting up with that sweet, suggestive look they get sometimes.
"You're just trying to flatter me so I'm not upset anymore. It won't work." River's face is guarded, unreadable. Kaylee doesn't bother trying to figure it out, she just barrels on, game as ever.
"No, I'm tellin the truth, is all. You could snap me in half lengthwise in under a second, both o' us know it. Ain't nothin wrong with that, sweetie, long as you don't do it. You're just strong."
"Liar," says River, but she says it with a half-smile, and Kaylee knows she's won. She kisses River lightly, and pushes the taller girl against the opposite wall in the engine room.
River lets her.
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River flows through to the kitchen, feet moving in time with the way Serenity moans around her. Mal's standing by the table, like she knew he would be, thinking on whether or not to upgrade the kind of fuel running Serenity next time they fill up, and not much else. Just Mal-thoughts, the simplest kind he ever has. Not Captain-thoughts or War-thoughts, nothing heavy or wet or howling. "It's the right time."
Mal startles a bit, looks on River a mite suspicious. "Right time to change the fuel grade?"
"No. Talk." River points at both their heads in quick succession.
"Alright, little River. On what was your mind fixin' to talk?" Mal's looking at her like she's animalriver again.
"I'm not that crazy."
"Well, I'd take you at your word, but your record on an' off this ship tends to contradict with that."
"The past has no bearing. I'm not in the past, I'm right here, now. Not that crazy right now." River sharpens, glares. "Unless you'd prefer my crazymakin' moonbrain antics." She can throw words back like weapons, sometimes, when they all sit in their lines behind her lips.
Mal don't look too pleased at what she picks from his brain. "Stay out of there, girl. Ain't nothin' for you in my head."
"Would you prefer that I make believe? Act like I can't hear everything that runs through?"
"Well... yeah. I'd much rather know you can hear what I'm thinkin than know it and hear it comin' out your mouth, too. We all think things we ain't proud of."
"That's not so. Lots of people go through life with nice thoughts." She stares at him evenly, like she's waiting for something.
"You're shittin' me," he says tonelessly.
"Yes, I am"
This can't be what she wanted to talk about.
"No, sir, it ain't, sir." River's face is all lit up, almost sweet.
Almost.
"I thought you said you wanted to talk, girl. If that's a fact, I suggest you wait till the words have left my mouth before you go firin' off yours."
"You're not my captain." She looks so gorram happy about it he ain't even annoyed. Well, only a little.
"Care to explain that there remark before I start thinking you're tryin to hurt my feelings?"
"It's just closing your eyes," she says softly, whispering in the half-dark, half-golden room. "Just a little rest. Close your eyes for a few hundred seconds, and wake up less ugly, less hidden. Be pretty and shine." And just as suddenly her normal voice is back. "But you're relentless."
Mal cocks his head, accepts what passes for a River-compliment these days. "That I am."
River smiles, perfectly calm again, all balance and sanity and grace without limit."When do rivers fly?"
Mal blinks, taking his time. "Come again?"
"All not-captains should know. When do rivers fly?"
"I don't have a gorram clue, girl, and you know it."
"It's easy. You ask yourself." River doesn't sound like herself- more just playful than anything, but usually River gets that out when she's around Kaylee.
Mal's in a good mood, and he'll play along. River might be a little moonbrained, but as of late she's right more often than not. And that's something. "When do rivers fly?"
"You're doing it wrong. The meanings running in you are useless. That's not what the question wants."
"And what does it want?" Mal's getting a little annoyed- he might not always play by the rules, but he does like to know 'em.
"Your life." And all of a sudden she's grinning again. "Rivers are people too, you know"
"Yes, I've been made aware of that." He's feeling a mite more cautious now.
"Do you give up?"
"Give up what?"
"The riddle."
"I ain't got a clue, little girl."
"Rivers fly-" and she stops, and fists her hand and punches Serenity, hard enough that Mal can hear a crack. For a second, he can't say if it's his ship or his lunatic that's broken, till River pulls her hand away and there's blood running down. "-when they're wanted by the whole gorram Alliance," she finishes evenly. She looks at him like he's going to make something of what she just said.
Mal might be lost when it comes to crazy girls, but he's still Captain. "Infirmary, now."
"No, not, never," River says softly, and obeys.
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