Sealed with a Kiss Chapter 27: Runaway, a firefly fanfic

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Thanks so much to everyone for their kind comments. Without your encouragement, this story would have ended around fifteen chapters ago.

I really appreciate it.

Runaway

Feds were like bad pennies.

'Fact they were worse - save enough pennies and you could buy a whore (as a fifteen-year-old Jayne hoarding coppers had proven), but Feds weren't good for nothin' beyond making trouble.

It had been more than a year since Miranda. But every time they figured enough time had gone by, ruttin' purple-bellies would show up and set them runnin' again.

Sometimes literally.

A flash of white is all it takes to change everything.

Figured that when they were trying to be legit, they ran foul of the law.

When Mal realised the clients' base was smack next to an Alliance outpost, he'd warmly smiled in the soldiers' direction and muttered to Jayne to get River back to Serenity.

They sloped away and were fifty paces gone when the yelling started.

Jayne glanced back to see Zoë and Mal racing in the opposite direction.

That outpost held more than twenty men, and he only had Lux with him. 'Course he also had River, but killing that many Feds would lead nowhere good.

So they ran.

A flash of white is enough to cross from best he's ever felt... to staring down a barrel.

Luckily, it was harvest time on Athens.

Corn stalks almost twice Jayne's height made for a good hiding place, and after twenty minutes of dodging through rows, Jayne's tracker skills and River's crazy mind-reading ones were in agreement that they'd left their pursuers behind.

They stopped for a moment to rest; Jayne supported his back with his hands as he drew in great gulps of air.

He'd only just managed to keep up with her, which was ruttin' embarrassing.

A strange sound to his left made him side-eye her, concerned and irritated that she might have chosen this moment to have a fēng le moment. Then he realised she was laughing.

Not creepy, unhinged "I can kill you with my brain" laughter. This was "glad-to-be-alive, we-just-avoided-a-steamin'-pile-of-gǒu shǐ" laughter. He found himself grinning in return.

Turned out laughing with the Moonbrain was like throwing back hooch. Near impossible to stop once you started.

They laughed so loud and long, they had to brace their hands on their knees to keep from falling.

He's always figured if anyone on Serenity went for his blood it'd be Mal. Or maybe Zoë.

It was the music that drew 'em back out from the corn. They'd been wending their way back to Serenity when the unmistakable sound of stomping and fiddles floated out on the air.

Proper throw-your-girl-around music. Like back home.

River was humming along; after a moment, Jayne realised his foot was tapping.

She raised an eyebrow at him. Coulda been a question. Coulda been a challenge.

Whatever she saw in his face (or Read in his mind) it led to her grabbing his hand and leading him towards the bar.

It isn't Mal screaming obscenities, and it isn't Zoe brandishing a Heckler.

River was light as a feather and precise as steel.

He couldn't remember a time he'd enjoyed dancin' more.

She whirled with perfect grace and twirled with purest joy.

Her eyes had never been clearer. Her smile had never been brighter.

He'd never seen her so shiny.

Who'd have thought the Doc had it in him?

Local liquor 'parently made everyone ornery.

When the bumbling drunk tried to cut in on them, Jayne hit him so hard he came up spittin' teeth.

The punch split Jayne's knuckle near to the bone. He barely felt it but turned back to a smiling River.

He'd never liked sharing - food, money or liquor.

Been a long time since a woman inspired that feeling.

Some things are wired into the skin... and running from that look in a relative's eye comes as naturally as breathing.

Music had turned slow. But by then he'd already pulled her close.

Later on he wouldn't be able to explain it. To pinpoint when it happened. But at some point the feel of her body against his wasn't enough.

At some point Jayne Cobb had started kissin' River Tam.

Jayne had been crocked more times than he could count. He knew there were different kinds of drunk, different levels to it.

But he'd never been drunk on someone's lips before.

He finds himself pausing, taking a precious few seconds to look her way.

The next morning brought a clarity of purpose in contrast to his foggy head.

Avoid the Moonbrain.

Avoid liquor round the Moonbrain.

Avoid liquor, dancin' and the Moonbrain!

Sensible wasn't a word Jayne'd normally apply to himself. Nor anyone else. But he understood self-preservation just fine.

That first kiss had to be the last one.

Armed with this plan of action, he set about skulking out of her - and anyone else's - way.

He tried so hard to avoid her he ran into her in the mess area.

What Inara would call an unfortunate coincidence.

It couldn't be helped.

But kissing her again could have been.

Her eyes meet his.

Same as bein' sensible, rules weren't something Jayne had ever been too friendly with. But self-preservation was teaching him all kinds of new things.

When he was alone with her, the need to kiss River became damn near unbearable. But the need not to be shot out the airlock was just as strong.

So he formulated The Rules.

Rule Number 1: Never kiss River on Serenity.

Rule Number 2: Never be alone with River on Serenity.

Rule Number 3: Get planet-side as much as possible to avoid breaking Rules 1 and 2.

Number three was particularly important.

Without number three he might not get to kiss her at all.

'Course it would have been simpler not to kiss her. Would have helped much more with the whole staying alive thing.

But not kissing River felt like the opposite of livin'.

So he followed The Rules. Managed to follow 'em for a couple of months, even.

What he hadn't counted on was how she might feel about it.

Her lips curve like a promise.

It was River who kissed him in the cargo bay.

River who escalated the kiss till he didn't know up from down.

And it was River who pulled off her shirts.

He clutched her to him as much from wonder as fear, torn between holding her close and thrusting her away.

Then her lips moved on his, and he was lost.

Seemed she was, too, since she didn't Read that someone was coming.

It was Jayne's hearing that provided the few seconds' warning.

Enough time for River to pull her loose red shirt back on.

Enough time for them to separate to decent distance.

Enough time to get away with it.

Or so he'd thought.

He races down the ramp into the cool night air.

The Doc paused, words of greeting drying on his lips, gaze catching on the crumpled white tank-top hanging from a crate. Hanging from where it had been flung.

Jayne had never really rated the Doc's intelligence. Figured he was more priss than brains. But it appeared when it came to certain things, he was just as fast as his sister.

The gaze moved to her pretty pink cheeks and Jayne's widening eyes.

Up to that moment, Jayne would've sworn Doc weren't the killin' kind.

Up to the moment he dived for the weapons unit with a howl of fury.

There's no time to think.

But Jayne's always done things more by instinct than by thought.

He turns to run.

She runs alongside him, her hand wrapped in his.

He's not leaving without her.

Glossary:

fēng le - crazy, loopy-in-the-head

gǒu shǐ - s***

mǐng - drunk

purple-bellies - derogatory term used to refer to members of the Alliance

A/N This chapter came from a request from Semblance of Sanity. She asked for a fic based on the song "What Was I Thinkin'?" by Dierks Bentley since she felt it fit the characters so well. After listening to it, I agree! There's something so Firefly-ish about the honky-tonk tune!

Full lyrics can be seen below.

Tay, I'm not at all sure if this is what you had in mind (I've worked and re-worked it so many times), but I hope you got some enjoyment out of it!

And I hope the rest of you did, too ;)

What Was I Thinkin'

Becky was a beauty from south Alabama
Her Daddy had a heart like a nine-pound hammer
Think he even did a little time in the slammer
What was I thinkin'
She snuck out one night
And met me by the front gate
Her Daddy came out wavin' that twelve gauge
We tore out the drive he peppered my tailgate
What was I thinkin'
Oh, I knew there'd be hell to pay
But that crossed my mind a little too late
'Cause I was

Thinkin 'bout a little white tank top
Sittin' right there in the middle by me
I was thinkin' bout a long kiss
Man just gotta get goin'
Where the night might lead
I know what I was feelin'
But what was I thinkin'
What was I thinkin'

By the county line
The cops were nippn' on our heels
Pulled off the road and kicked it in four-wheel
Shut off the lights and tore through a corn field
What was I thinkin'
Out the other side she was hollerin' faster
Took a dirt road had the radio blastin'
Hit the honky-tonk for a little close dancin'
What was I thinkin'
Oh I knew there'd be hell to pay
But that crossed my mind a little too late
'Cause I was

When a mountain of a man
With a "born to kill" tattoo
Tried to cut in I knocked out his front tooth
We ran outside hood-slidin' like Bo Duke
What was I thinkin'
I finally got her home at a half past too late
Her Daddy's in a lawn chair
Sittin' on the driveway
Put it in park as he started my way
What was I thinkin'
Oh what was I thinkin'
Oh what was I thinkin'
Then she gave a come-and-get-me grin
And like a bullet we were gone again
'Cause I was

I know what I was feelin'
But what was I thinkin'
Guess I was thinking about that tank top