Prompt #24- Infidelity
One, two.
Breathe in, breathe out.
The weights went up and down in time to Jayne's breathing but his thoughts weren't anywhere near as ordered.
He circled between seeing River tucked into Mal's arms and feeling the ghostly sense of her breath against his lips.
One, two.
Breathe in, breathe out.
She had been so cosy in his arms, but then again she looked pretty cosy in Mal's too.
He'd thought Mal had something going on with Inara and he thought that he and River has started something. They'd never said what or how exclusive but it didn't take a gorram genius to know that you didn't play two people off against each other on the same ship.
Not unless you were some sort of space slut.
One, two.
Breathe in, breathe out.
Up until now he would have said that, psychosis aside, River was one of the most innocent and least disloyal people on the ship, himself included—hell, himself at the head of the bunch. Yet she was a Reader and she had to know how he felt about her.
Was she making some kind of fool outta him? Was she, even now, laughing and joking about dumb ol' Jayne with the Cap? Did Mal know, hell, were they all in on it?
One, two.
Breathe in, breathe out.
Maybe gorram prissy core-bred girls were different from decent folk. He knew Inara wasn't ever exclusive but that's because she was a whore. Kaylee was but she wasn't core-bred and right now he was all kinds of glad about that.
But gorrammit, he liked River. Really liked her. What right did she have to kiss on him and then go around and snuggle up to Mal?
It wasn't fair and it sure as hell wasn't right; the Cap was too old for her. Not that Jayne wasn't as old as the Cap, but that was neither here nor there.
One, two.
Breathe in, breathe out.
Surely if River knew he felt something for her and went and did whatever with the Cap, that meant that she wasn't interested. But then why did she make those cookies for him and why was she standing in front of him with her head cocked. He gave her a short glare and pointedly turned his back on her, not seeing the confusion that coloured her face.
One, two.
Breathe in, breathe out.
"Hello, Jayne. She … I noticed you did not partake in the morning food ritual. I bear porridge." River held up her hands and he sees a bowl of steaming porridge oats that he should have noticed immediately.
He takes a deep breath and ignores her.
Out of the corner of his eye, he can see a puzzled, hurt look on her face.
"Jayne?"
A quick glance and glare and then back to his task.
One, two.
Breathe in, breathe out.
She places the bowl next to him and twists her hands together in that nervous gesture than is so gorram cute.
"She's intruding. She should go away."
He hates it when she talks about herself in the third person, like she's someone else.
River bites her lip. "Sorry, Jayne."
He can see her walk away and his heart aches in his chest more than it did last night when she was wrapped in the arms of the Captain.
She should have said something.
River was in the wrong.
But if she was, then why does he feel so bad?