Prompt #25- Window.

When Jayne woke up he was confronted with the oddest sense of déjà vu. He was pretty sure that he'd seen that metal grilled floor before. He was sure he'd woken up with a king-sized hangover and a bump where his brain used to be. He was also sure that it was a hell of a lot colder than it was in his bunk and there was an odd breeze coming from behind him.

He opened one eye and patiently waited for the world to stop spinning before he opened the other.

He recognised the steel bulkheads as belonging to Serenity. Not belonging to his bunk, however.

His bunk doesn't have a smell of old goats and axle grease. His bunk doesn't feel chilly and musty and … gorram son of a bitch!

He was in the airlock, again.

Jayne tried to focus his eyes on the small round window and hauled his aching frame to his feet.

He lurched to his feet and stuck his face to the small round window, peering through to see Mal sitting, quite comfortably, on one of the larger packing crates that they were shipping halfway across the verse.

"Morning, Jayne!" Mal chirped quite happily and Jayne felt an odd sense of dread swell in his stomach.

"If this is about that last round of ammo, I can explain."

"No it ain't," Mal paused. "But we can get into that too."

"I ain't done nothin', Mal," Jayne whined, "leastways nothin' I should get flushed for."

Mal glared at him. "Are you sure, 100 percent sure, Jayne, that you ain't done nothing I might wanna flush your sorry ass out into the black for? Think real careful now, Jayne."

Jayne thought for a moment and it crept over him slowly, with a sick sense of alarm that he might, just might, have been found out.

Mal saw the precise second that it dawned on Jayne and a satisfied, if slightly scary, smile crossed his face. "Ah, I see ya'll have a slight recollection. Now what I'm wanting to know, is exactly what is that recollection pertaining to?"

Jayne folded his arms over his chest and glared back at Mal. "Ain't none of your gorram business."

"Wrong answer." Mal pressed a button and the airlock opened a fraction behind Jayne. The wind buffeted him slightly and a panicked feeling swamped him. Would Mal really pull him out the airlock for kissing on his girl?

Uh, yeah.

"I ain't done nothin' wrong."

"Wrong again, bizui."

The airlock opened wider.

"I didn't know she was your girl!" Jayne growled and was rewarded when Mal blinked.

"Say what?"

"I had no idea you had somethin' going on with Crazy," Jayne protested, hanging onto the door. The wind wasn't strong enough to suck him into the black just yet, but Mal had a handsome itchy trigger-finger on occasion "No one said anything to me."

"Me and River?" Mal wasn't sure whether to be amused or disgusted. River was a child. A beautiful girl, but still way too young for him. "You feng le?"

"I saw you," Jayne spat. "I ain't so dumb that I can't believe my own eyes, Mal."

"I ain't so sure on that. Don't sell yourself short, Jayne, you're a special kinda dumb," Mal said. "Now what exactly was so gorram bad that you had to exhibit your particular brand of dumb and make River cry?"

Jayne's heart sank. "I made her cry?"

"Yes, you hun dan."

Jayne felt bad, real bad. Worse than he ever remembered feeling and that included the time he'd run into his ma's vase and broke it into pieces. His ma'd cried and Jayne had wanted t sink into the deepest pits. That paled in comparison to hearing that he'd made sweet little River cry. "Aw hell, Mal, I didn't mean to make her go and do that."

"Then explain!" Mal growled.

Jayne kicked the cargo bay floor. "Saw you sleepin' with her, 's all."

Mal almost bit his tongue. "Jien tah-duh guay!"

"I did!" Jayne insisted. "Last night."

"We were sleepin'!"

"That's what I done said!"

Mal closed his mouth. "So, you saw me and River indulging in innocent sleep and decided to act like some hun dan and make her cry. After all that girl's been through? What rock did you crawl out from Jayne Cobb?"

But Jayne had heard one word. "Innocent?"

"Uh huh."

Jayne's face lit up. "You mean as to say there ain't nothin' between you and Crazy?"

"Yes." Mal looked at him like he'd grown another head. "There's nothing between me and River. Now," Mal settled back, cradling the control in his hand. "Care to tell me exactly what's going on between you and River?"

Jayne had an odd feeling he'd be in the airlock for some time.