Title – Roses part one
Rating - PG (Some very mild cussing and references to sex)
Type - Fluffish

Pairing - Pre River and Jayne
Word count - 1734
Disclaimer - Not mine, not paid, please don't sue.
Warnings - None needed that I can see
Spoilers - None

Huge thanks to the magic beta lady Ceslas who not only sorts out my grammar and spelling but also inspires me with confidence.

Roses

Within an hour of their landing on Londinium there was a small pretty woman standing on the cargo bay ramp bearing a bouquet of twelve red roses.

They were for River. Somehow, word spread among the crew and every last one of them found a reason to be in Serenity's hold to see her take possession of them.

Except Jayne, he was in the cargo bay anyway, lifting weights.

River tried to maintain an impassive front as she accepted the flowers and tipped the delivery girl.

There was a card. She read it. She read it again. She tried not to show her disappointment because the idea of Jayne Cobb buying her roses was so ridiculous she was ashamed of the hope that flared through her as she stepped gracefully across the cargo bay.

"Who sent 'em River," squeaked Kaylee, unable to contain herself any longer.

River turned and stuck a woefully fake smile to her face.

"Badger, a gift to mark my birthday."

"If I'm remeberin' right you ain't eighteen 'till next week little 'Tross," commented Mal, frowning. "Man's a might early, an' how's he know your birthday, or where we're gonna be?" No one answered him and he didn't really care much. He was busy being several miles from happy about his sometime partner in crime sending flowers to his co-pilot come extra gun hand come he didn't know what. Red roses screamed romance and River, Badger and romance mixing in his brainpan was something he couldn't get comfortable with. He didn't know whether to get mad, laugh or throw up.

"The man's gone to some effort if he's arranged this delivery from Persephone," observed Zoë impassively.

"It's kinda nice," said Kaylee uncertainly.

River's eyes passed over Simon's rather green and Inara's non-committal expression.

Jayne Cobb sat on the end of the weight bench, looking at her flowers like something nasty he'd stepped in.

River watched him carefully as she dropped the next bombshell.

"He wishes me to accompany him to dinner when we are next on Persephone."

Jayne barked out a laugh, "Gorramn rat's cracked worse than ya are girl."

River tried to find the words to tell Jayne Cobb exactly what she thought of him at that moment, but her brain tangled into a slew of disconnected syllables and her voice failed her. She stalked out of the cargo bay clutching her flowers to her chest, so furious she could feel the tears pressing at her eyes.

Jayne found himself the focus of a number of dirty looks.

"That weren't nice," snapped Kaylee.

"What? Just sayin' that Crazy don't gotta waste her time on that huan dan is all, gotta be someone better than Badger ta date. Why's that got her all bent outta shape?"

Zoë considered smacking him on the ear, "I don't think River understood that Jayne, I think she thought you meant Badger was cracked to want to ask her to dinner."

"Well, I din't mean that," Jayne shrugged indifferently.

"I would go and apologise immediately." Inara said sternly.

Jayne gave her a cocky look, "Would 'ya now?"

"Jayne!" snapped Zoë.

Jayne shared a sneer with the whole room. "How come I gotta 'splain thing's to a mind reading genius?"

"Because my sister does her level best to keep out of our minds," Simon's eyes flicked contemptuously over the Mercenary, "of course it must be easier in your case, there is so little to avoid."

Jayne sprang up at that, buzzing near to joy at having an excuse to hit someone. He hadn't had the chance for weeks. He stepped deliberately towards the Doctor, an arrogant, I can take you with one finger, smirk decorating his face.

"No," squeaked Kaylee, stepping in front of Simon. Baffled, Jayne came to a halt, rocking on the balls of his feet. Simon moved Kaylee out of the way, showing greater guts and far greater stupidity than Jayne would have given him credit for. Jayne grinned and got ready to swing.

"Jayne!" barked Mal, the Mercenary's fist stalled and his head snapped round to glare irritably at him, gorramn Captain was always spoiling his fun. "Yer gonna apologise to my co-pilot and do it good. I ain't got time ta be coaxin' her out of Serenity's walls if she gets upset dong ma?"

"Gorramn it," Jayne muttered, eyes measuring Mal, jaw working as he chewed the situation over. Zoë watched the thinking going on inside Jayne's head through his eyes. She hated these moments, even as they got less and less frequent. One day she still half, no, she had to be fair, the man had changed, so less than a quarter expected Jayne to find more in favour of trying to take the Captain down than backing down. If that day came Zoë wasn't over sure of the outcome

Invisibly the tension in her muscles eased as finally Jayne spun and stalked down the corridor towards the passenger dorms. His sour muttering drifted back to them as he went.

"Feng li girl thinkin' bad of me every time I open my gorramn mouth, gorramn Captain, ain't like I was gonna kill the fancified little prick…" He slowed his pace; something had just come home to him. Over the last couple of weeks there'd been a lot of girly activity, Inara and Kaylee with their heads together, making plans for the girl's birthday. Jayne had generally made sure he was wherever the pair weren't because female cooing and giggling wasn't high on his list of likes, unless it was in bed and not too much of it even then.

He knew that Crazy was young, because, well that was obvious. He'd a hit an age where young was just that, he couldn't tell the difference between a seventeen year old and a twenty year old just by looking.

He tried to remember if anyone had ever told him her age, or mentioned it in his presence. A niggling, uncomfortable feeling stole over him. He had a nasty feeling they had, in fact he was sure of it but it hadn't registered or meant anything to him because he hadn't been paying attention.

He hadn't cared.

It had only just really hit him, one month ago he'd been groping and hoping to sex a seventeen year old.

He was, he paused to calculate his own age, too gorramn old most people would say for a, he was certain, virtuous seventeen year old who had to be expecting more than a fistful of coin at the end of the tussle.

However much they'd looked like they wanted it.

However good they smelt.

However much their skin had sent his blood buzzing and his nethers aching.

However good the dreams were and they were real, real goo…he slammed the door shut on that train of thought.

It wasn't so much that he saw a problem with her age, if a girl was willing that was pretty much all Jayne Cobb needed to know. It was just his ma, never-mind Mal and Simon would kill him. Not that he intended to tell his ma, because that would end up with the look, the angry, disappointed but not surprised look that only his ma could give him. She was the only person who could give him that look and actually make it tell.

If he'd bothered to analyse it he would have realised it was the lack of surprise that always stung the most.

Some of his ma's letters made him feel ten feet tall. The one's when she thanked him for the coin that was helping to keep the family's head above water, the one's that contained socks, or hats that somehow had the tasty smells of his ma's kitchen stuck in the wool.

The woman could knit him a sweater in baby pink wool with a bunny rabbit on it and he'd wear it.

Admittedly in the privacy of his bunk, in the deep, dark, dead of the night.

But occasionally she'd give him the 'look' in writing, a couple of her letters had made his skin feel two sizes too small. The woman had made it her life mission to make up for what she saw as the failings in his conscience

Jayne Cobb had some pretty basic priorities in life; the primary ones were breathing, eating, drinking, sleeping, sexing and avoiding any circumstance that might lead to the 'look'.

It had a lot to do with him shipping off planet at seventeen.

His brain gave a lurch, he'd done a whole pile of stuff since he'd left home that his ma would have given him more than the 'look' for, why the hell was he thinking on it now?

He came back to the here and now with a start and found himself staring at River's closed door, not sure how long he'd been there. He set his jaw and banged on it.

"Go away!"

Jayne went from being mad at himself to being mad at her, because that was a whole lot more fun. If he wasn't going to be allowed to hit someone a little yelling might relieve his feelings. "Ain't gonna."

The door slid back with a bang, Jayne opened his mouth, possibly to apologise. A bunch of twelve red roses smacked him violently in the face and cut him off. He stood in a shower of rose petals, stems stuck by their thorns in his shirt and lying at his feet.

He spat out a petal or two and glared at the closed panel door. His inclination was too storm in there and… and… his mind failed him. What he wanted to do was spank her but even if she let him live afterwards Jayne was fairly sure Mal wouldn't.

Plus if his ma found out there would be that 'look' all over again.

He stomped through the cargo bay past the amused glances of the rest of the crew, shedding petals, leaves and stems as he passed. He stomped up the cargo bay stairs, muttering horribly as he went.

"Gorramn, you jing shen bing gui nu throwin' flowers at a man. Hell even I know better than ta waste coin on sumthin' that's gonna be dead in a couple a' days, man oughta get her sumthin' that she needs, sumthin' she ain't gonna throw at a fella..."

you jing shen bing gui nu – crazy woman (roughly)