"Now step step step turn lift hold hold hold toss catch twirl leap twirl step spin catch release! FASTER!" Madam Krau shouted in her awful accent.
River rolled her eyes. She could be such an old prune!
"Tam! Don't roll your eyes at me!"
"Sorry Madam Krau."
"Say it like you mean it girl! Eliza would gladly take your spot!"
"I'm sorry, Madam Krau."
"Better. Now again this time faster and with more emotion!"
River turned to Brandon with a sigh. He nodded in acknowledgement and they started their dance over again.
They walked out of practice together like they did every day. River stopped to look up at the sign on the building. The Osiris Dance Company. What a dumb name. No imagination. A million different possibilities ran through her head for other names that better suit the dance troop.
"Calculating again?" Brandon asked.
"How do you always know?" she asked with a smile.
"You get this look in your eyes. It's very becoming, I assure you."
"Flattery will get you nowhere, McNeil!" she teased.
"Ugh, I hate it when older ostentatious people call you by your surname!" he said with a disgusted look on his face.
"Elderly pompous people," she corrected.
"You wouldn't happen to be talking about Madam Krau would you?" he asked.
She elbowed him playfully. He laughed and wrapped his arm around her smaller frame. He was at least seven inches taller than she was. Honestly it was amazing that they let him be a dancer with his unusual height. But he was a damn good one.
"Are you feeling Hunan's or Joe's Place today?" he asked as they crossed the busy street.
"Joe's. I want an ice planet."
"Then we'll get an ice planet."
"No, I'll get an ice planet. If you want one, you have to get your own."
"Ouch. I feel unloved."
"That isn't a true statement. I believe that you have calculated the numbers incorrectly and reached an inaccurate conclusion."
"I love it when you talk math," he smiled.
"I love you, Brandon McNeil."
"Does that mean that I get some of your ice planet?"
"Dream on."
****
Somewhere across the 'verse at that exact same time…
"How'd it go, Cap'in?" Kaylee inquired as they entered the cargo bay.
"We ain't bleedin'," he replied with a sigh.
"Wash is ready to take off soon as ya give the word," Kaylee added as he brushed past her. He waved to let her know that he heard her.
Zoe and Jayne moved by and Glenn followed. He smiled at Kaylee who embraced him happily. He had arrived on the boat two years back after the Reavers attacked Lilac. Mal let him into the mule and they made their escape. He had tried to stop the job, but Zoe knocked some sense into him. Ever since he had been on the boat and with Kaylee. Mal didn't approve at first, but Zoe talked to him and everything was okay.
"How'd it go?" she asked him.
"Good."
"Well that's shiny."
They walked off to the engine room hand in hand while Mal sat in the kitchen with a sigh.
"Sir," Zoe said as she entered the room. "Got a husband that needs a course."
"Persephone. Badger says he's got work for us."
Zoe nodded and left for the bridge. Mal hoped that Badger had something good.
****
Back on Osiris…
-Bang-
Simon looked up from his book to see River entering the apartment they shared.
"Hi," Simon called.
"Hi. I thought you would be at the hospital."
"I swapped days with Mike. Katherine and I are going out today."
"Oh Katherine," she smirked. He felt himself blushing. He hated when she did that.
"Where's Brandon?"
"He had to go to teach at the college again."
"Did he kiss you goodbye?"
"SIMON!"
"Payback," he laughed.
She sat her bag down and collapsed on their sofa with a sigh.
"How was rehearsal?"
"Madam Krau is an evil old woman that should decompose at an alarming rate at the bottom of a very deep and unsanitary ocean never to be discovered by any life form ever again."
"That great huh?"
"She calls everyone by their surname. Tam, do you want Eliza to take your spot? Tam, apologize this instant! Tam, move your feet faster! Tam, more emotion!" she mocked in a very accurate accent resembling Madam Krau's.
"Wow."
"I know! At least we'll be ready for the grand tour. You're coming to a few shows, right?"
"Of course, mei mei. If I could I'd be at every one."
"Do you think that Mom and Dad will come?"
"Only if it doesn't interfere with work or a dinner party…"
"I can't remember the last time they came to see me dance."
"You were twelve I think."
"That sounds like an accurate estimate."
Simon sat beside her. "I'm sorry about them."
"Don't be. They are who they are."
"Very well put. Do you have to go into work today?"
"Yes. I'm going in tonight."
"Do you really think that it's wise to work like you do? You dance every day from eight until two, you get three hours off, and then by five you're back in the lab!"
"I can handle it, Simon. Stop worrying. I'm close to finishing this set of calculations. I have to get them done before the tour."
"How long will you be gone?"
"Three weeks on Ariel, two on Hapi, one on Cautha, and one on Ru-Shou."
"That's a long time."
"It is."
"A lot of traveling…"
"It is."
"With Brandon…"
River shoved him just as there was a knock at the door. "Katherine is probably here," she made a kissing motion with her mouth.
"Brat."
She laughed as he walked to the door.
****
Persephone, four hours later.
"No," Mal said flatly.
"Aw come on Reynolds! The money is good…" Badger said with an ugly little grin.
"We are not goin' to Ariel!"
"You 'aven't even 'eard the job!"
"Mal, money…" Jayne chimed from the back of the room.
"Fine. Speak your piece," Mal sighed. They were a bit strapped for cash.
"There's a very expensive piece of jewelry that the Osiris Dance Company is borrowin' for their shows on Ariel. It's an amber necklace with gold 'n diamonds. All you 'ave to do is sneak backstage and swipe it. You get fifty percent of the money I sell it for. Already got me ten perspective buyers."
"Sixty."
"You drive a 'ard bargain, but alright. You'll do it?"
"We will…" Mal said quietly. He hated the core, he hated Badger, but they needed the money.
"Excellent. Their shows start in a week. They're there for three every other night. If you got a chance, you should sit in and watch the show. Ballet is somethin' else."
"We'll be in touch," Mal said as he got up and walked out with his crew.
"Are you sure about this, Sir?"
"No."
"At least we get to see a ballet. I've never seen it before!" Glenn said happily.
"Kaylee is rubbin' off on you," Mal growled while they made the trek back to the ship.
****
Osiris lab, the same time.
98562411/72=1.368922375xE6. P=(p1, p2, …,pn) and Q=(q1,q2,…,qn) distance computed as (p1-q1)^2+(p2-q2)^2+…+(pn-qn)^2, square root…
"River," Wanda the receptionist said, jolting River out of her mind and back to the world around her.
"Yes?" she asked as she quickly jotted down the equation.
"You have a wave from Mr. McNeil."
"Please tell him that I'll contact him later. I'm right in the middle of something."
"Yes ma'am."
Wanda hurried away while River continued writing down the equation for the new ships the company planned on making.
"What does it take to get my girlfriend to talk to me?" she turned around and Brandon was standing there with Wanda behind him looking like "Sorry, I tried."
"You know that I have to finish this before our tour."
"You know that we have dinner plans and this work can wait. You'll still be a genius tomorrow, but our reservation won't be."
"I can dispute such sound logic."
"Shall we, Tam?" he asked with a smirk.
"Watch it," she warned playfully as she shed her lab coat.
They went out to dinner at their favorite little restaurant.
"I can't wait to travel the 'verse. This place is getting old," River sighed.
"So will our show. We have to perform it for two months every other night."
"Ugh, Madam Krau. At least it isn't like she can get much older without dying."
He laughed. "You really hate her don't you?"
"Tam, do you want me to send you back to coryphée? Tam, watch your balance. Tam, Tam, Tam…I don't think that she believes that I deserve to dance with everyone in our troop."
"I think she does. She respects you enough to let you wear the amber necklace."
"Tam, don't let it break or I will break both of your legs and give you cement shoes like in the old country!"
He laughed harder. "That sounds like her."
"Just because I'm a bit younger doesn't mean that I don't deserve to be there. I graduated college before my seventeenth birthday with three degrees and designed my first ship by age eighteen. I think that I can handle dancing with you guys…"
"Oh yeah? Prove it," he smiled as a particularly upbeat song pumped through the speakers. He took her hand and pulled her over to the dance floor.
They started to dance. "Keep up, Brandon…" she warned while picking up tempo.
"Don't run me too ragged! I'm an old man!"
"Hardly," she snorted.
"What? Twenty-four isn't old to you?"
"You don't seem too old. You always have energy."
"Are you insinuating something?"
"That's for me to know and you to find out."
"My my Miss! I do declare that you are a rutting tease."
"Less talking, darling. More dancing."
"Yes dear."
They dominated the tiny dance floor for another few songs.
"I could watch you dance all night," he smiled as she twirled around.
"What do you say that we go back to your place for a different kind of dancing?"
"I say yes please."
She smiled and they walked out after leaving enough money to cover the bill.