All disclaimers apply

Ch.4- Appetizer

"Easy Pieces," the sign above the restaurant door read. Jayne had asked a passing rickshaw driver for a cheap, but decent, restaurant, and had been directed here.

"Sounds like a whorehouse," he muttered to himself, looking nervously sideways at River. They usually all met up after jobs at local watering holes, but Jayne decided that tonight they needed a change of pace. Either that or I'm gettin' old, he thought. Skippin' bars for a restaurant, wasn't that what old people did?

River looked at the sign skeptically- Jayne had said something about a real restaurant, but the name of this establishment evoked images of a whorehouse. Surely he wouldn't be bringing her to one? She glanced at him sideways, noting his nose was scrunched up like he was trying to figure out some math problem that didn't involve counting munitions.

Jayne reached to open the door, took a quick look inside, and relaxed. There were families and small groups of people at the tables. A waitress whipped by carrying a tray full of plates topped off with hamburgers, fried chicken fingers, and salads. Good. A cheap, decent restaurant. The kind he could afford to bring a woman to…wait a minute. They was here after a job, that was all. She was crew now, got paid same as the rest of 'em, she could carry her own weight. Well, she had been doing a good job lately, couldn't hurt to treat her once in a while.

He stepped back, still holding the door open, and looked to River.

"Looks okay," he said. She looked at him flattening himself against the door, then realized that he holding it open for her. She smiled shyly and slipped passed him into the restaurant. The hostess saw them and grabbed two menus.

"Smoking or non?" she inquired pleasantly. Jayne started to say 'smokin', then caught River crinkling her nose as she looked over at the adjoining haze-filled room.

"Non," he said. River smiled up at him. Dam, he thought. All these years of bein' on my own, and all of a sudden I'm doin' things I never would'a, like for other people and such. He grimaced and motioned for River to follow the hostess.

They were seated at the far end of a row of small tables in a quiet section.

"Lara has just started her shift, so ya two have the waitress to yerselves for a bit," the hostess explained. Jayne hesitated near River's chair, but she grabbed it and sat down before Jayne had to make a decision regarding just how far his manners were going to get exercised this evening. Jayne gratefully hopped over to his side of the table and sat down.

River picked up her menu and started reading, getting more excited by the second. Here were all the foods she and Simon had been forbidden to have when they were young. All fried and grilled and greasy. Her mother always told them they would get fat if they ate that sort of food even once; her father was just sure that people at their economic level wouldn't be caught dead in a cheap establishment. She giggled. Well, Mommy and Daddy, I think that after surviving a little torture that I'm due a few extra spicy chicken wings, maybe even a large order of fries.

Jayne looked up at her giggle. "What's so funny in the menu?" he asked.

"Oh, I was just thinking how my parents would hate it if they knew I was eating at a place like this. You know, compared to the gourmet food at the Academy."

Jayne knew she had been trying out sarcasm as a joking method, with Wash's special tutorage, but her comment hurt him. As their friendship and working relationship had been growing, so had his sense of responsibility grown. If he ever had the misfortune to meet River's parents, or actually, if they ever had the misfortune to meet him, he wasn't sure he would be able to restrain himself from giving them the beating of their lives. Parents were supposed to take care of their kids, not shove them aside in a never-ending quest for more status, money, and power.

River realized her misstep. Jayne would always listen when she wanted to talk about the past, but he always became tense and uncomfortable. At first she had thought it was because of his past mistake; but even after he had apologized and she had made clear that she forgave him, he still became tense whenever she mentioned the Academy or her parents. She tried not to do it often, but what he perhaps didn't realize was that he was the only one she ever talked about it to. Everyone else would just become too upset; Jayne was the only one who restrained himself enough to let her finish what she had to say. He knew it was about her exercising her demons, not someone else's reaction to her past.

Jayne saw her start to school her features into an apology, but he didn't want one. Girl had a right to get things off her chest, even if they put him in the killing mood. He had to fix things so they didn't go downhill. He just wanted a nice, quiet dinner with the girl. Gorramit, this was starting to sound like a date. Which of course it wasn't. You don't date your co-workers, causes complications.

"Alright," he said, "then let's order stuff that would really get their goat." He gave her his mischievous smile. "Me, I'm gonna get the extra large burger with cheese and fried mushrooms. And somma them big-ass steak fries."

River grinned back. "I think I'll have the spicy, boneless chicken fingers, and…" she pretended to peruse the menu seriously, then looked up at Jayne. "And the 'big-ass' steak fries." Her smile grew, proud of the lack of nutrition she was about to blow money on.

"Good girl," Jayne grinned back. The waitress was approaching them: however, she seemed to have a large contingent of people following her. She took ahold of the edge of the small table closest to them and began to pull it over.

"Your friends here wanted to join you," she smiled, waving her hand towards the rest of the crew who had just shown up. Jayne grimaced.

"Well, howdy there Jayne, River," Mal greeted them theatrically, as if they hadn't all parted ways in an alley near here a half hour ago.

River beamed. "I'm ordering grease, Simon!"

Simon stuttered. "Uh, okay. If you really want to," he got a glimpse of the menu. "Oh, mei-mei, there are some nice salads here…ow!" A large spit ball, formerly a paper napkin dipped in a water glass, hit him dead center in the forehead. Jayne snickered.

"I think someone who earns her own salary can order whatever she wants, Doc," Zoe gently reminded him, as everyone seemed to do on a regular basis, that River was growing up and was capable of making daily decisions for herself. Simon was aware that he was having a hard time letting go, but he was trying. River herself didn't fight or reprimand him- everyone else was doing it for her, so she decided to give him a break. Well, except for the occasional spitball. Or salt in his coffee. Or ketchup in his soup. Actions that let him know that even though she was growing up, she would always be his little sister.

"Of course," Simon backed down ruefully. Jayne, making it a point lately to stay out of the siblings business, couldn't help flicking a sign of approval to River. Nice shot, his crooked index finger spoke. River giggled.

Zoe raised an eyebrow, but didn't call anyone's attention to their private conversation. A few weeks ago she had been keeping an eye on them when she first noticed them becoming closer, but when it became apparent that Jayne wasn't interested in taking advantage of her and that they actually seemed to be becoming friends, she backed off. She squeezed Wash's knee under the table. It was lonely out in the black; if two people decided to make it a little less lonely for each other, well, nothin' wrong with that.

Jayne wasn't thrilled that everyone else had shown up, but he wasn't about to raise a fuss when it would only cause questions. Like why, exactly, would he have preferred to have dinner alone with River? He glanced across the table at her; she was engaged in a cross-table discussion with Kaylee, but was aware of his scrutiny. We can talk later, she flashed to him. Jayne turned to listen to Wash's hi-larious description of the look on Mal's face when they had realized during the job that there was a second lock and Kaylee had already been sent back to the ship. Jayne snorted, something always went screwy no matter how legit the job, or how well-planned. Never easy on the crew of Serenity, never easy.

The rest of the crew ordered their favorite versions of what River called 'formerly forbidden pleasure foodstuffs' and their dinners arrived shortly after. Conversation came to a stuttering halt, as one by one, plates were delivered and faces began to be stuffed. Only the occasional comment was heard, such as, "that good?" and "oh, try this!"

Jayne looked over at River. She was concentrating on trying to eat her chicken without losing any of the sauce dripping off. His attention wavered when a tall, blonde waitress walked past their table smiling at Jayne. Just then, River stuck her tongue out and proceeded to lick up the entire length of the chicken finger she was currently holding.

Jayne almost dropped his sandwich. What the hell? No, she couldn't have done that on purpose, she was too innocent for it to have been anything else besides her trying to save the sauce. Course that was when she stuck her little pink tongue out again to lick the sauce off her top lip. From one side to the other. While looking him straight in the eye. Jayne swallowed.

The blonde waitress walked by again in the other direction, slowing down to wink at Jayne, but he didn't see her. He was too busy watching a small brown haired girl eat greasy, spicy, chicken fingers for the first time. But not her last time, not if he had anything to say about it.