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Ch. 11- A Tale of Two Egos

Jayne popped open the hatch to his bunk and dropped down the ladder cradling the bag of snaps and the water bottle under the crook of his arm. As he turned around he was surprised by the sight of River. He jumped back, bumping his lower back on one of the ladder rungs and grunted. She looked up at him and smiled.

She was sitting on the edge of his bed with the small bedside table pulled over in front of her, her pistol dismantled and neatly laid out for cleaning. With a rag in one hand and the container of oil in the other, she jerked her head back in the direction of his gun rack.

"Who do you want to start with?" she asked.

"Now what do you think you're doin'?" blustered Jayne. "Aren't ya supposed to be in the common room figurin' out the math-e-matical secrets of the 'verse with yer little genius friend?" He knew he wasn't hallucinating. She had been in the common area not two minutes ago when he went around the long way to grab a snack.

"You went the long way around," she stated calmly. "I know we are in between jobs, but that is no excuse to not take care of our tools." She placed the gun oil down on the table and picked up the barrel to begin rubbing it down.

Jayne tried again. "You shouldn't be here. Ya wanna go clean yer weapon, go do it in the common area."

River was annoyingly calm. "We clean weapons together so you can relay the teaching stories. You were not in the common area. You are here. You have been here for two days. If I clean in the common area I am unable to hear you from here." She smiled at him, her logic infallible.

Jayne ran a hand through his hair, becoming more and more frustrated by the second. He took a deep breath and tried yet again.

"Look, ya shouldn't be here, in my bunk, it ain't appropriate," he spoke more softly, trying to get her see reason.

She put down the gun barrel and rag, carefully pushed back the table and stood up. She walked over to him slowly, never breaking eye contact. Placing her little hands flat on his chest, she rose up onto her toes and brushed her lips over the corner of his mouth.

"Thank you for the hair sticks," she whispered. Jayne swallowed loudly.

"Yer welcome," he mumbled. He shook his head. She had him acting like a teenager. "Look, aw, why are ya here? Shouldn't ya be downstairs keepin' whats-his-face company?"

River lowered back down onto the flats of her feet and scowled at him. "I thought you liked spending time with me. Now all of a sudden you're pushing me to spend time with some boy. Yes, I like talking about some things with him, but he's not he one I want to be with." She looked up at him through her eyelashes.

This was quickly turning into a losing battle for Jayne. One that he didn't particularly feel like fighting in the first place. He liked her. A lot. And it seemed to him that she liked him too. But something kept niggling him in the back of his head and wouldn't let go.

It was easy to ignore all the reasons they shouldn't be together when Serenity was in the black. There was no one else, just the two of them, and it was enough. But it wasn't just Simon's wishes that Jayne was catering to; it was the fact that when Jayne saw River with David he saw the possibility that she could have everything she'd thought she lost. Something resembling a normal life, with someone who was worthy of her, someone who could keep up with her. And Jayne was painfully aware that he was not that someone.

It was during this introspection that Jayne didn't realize that he had let his wall down. River had her head cocked to the side, listening to his entire diatribe. As Jayne came to the decision that he had to let her go and be with the better man, she snorted. Loudly.

"Who do you think you are?" she demanded. Jayne took a step back, surprised by this new onslaught. "You do not get to decide for me who or what is best for me. I may have to spend every day arguing the point with Simon, but I am not going to start arguing with you about it. I decide what's best for me, dong ma?" She poked him hard in the chest with her index finger.

But Jayne was not ready to back down yet. "A practically illiterate, violent laborer is not good enough for a smart, pretty, young lady from the Core. 'Nough said." He seemed to think the discussion was over.

Jayne may have had a lot of experience with women, but he did not have a lot of experience with relationships. If he had, he would have realized that there was no way he was getting the last word. Not in this woman's 'verse.

River leaned back on one long leg, placed her hands on her hips, and looked at him with raised eyebrows. "That's nice dear; get the nice, young, lady from the Core a nice, young man from the Core. Now what do you recommend for slightly crazy, government altered psychic assassin living in the black? Me, I think a large, muscled, sharp-shootin' mercenary type will do just fine." She kept one eyebrow raised as she continued to stare him down.

She had expected Jayne to start yelling and a full blown fight to ensue: it always did when they were together and she disagreed with him on any particular point. Sometimes she didn't exactly disagree with him, but annoyed him because it amused her. By now she knew all his pressure points and knew how to set him off with a single statement. The phrase 'crazy, government altered psychic assassin' usually got her snapped at, then lectured about how since her brother had rescued her and she was better, it was up to her to decide what she wanted to make of her life, and to not let others decide for her.

But maybe this time he was reading her mind, because he didn't yell. Instead, he started to laugh. Slow and low, then rolling into a big, deep belly laugh. He closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around her. She sighed and snuggled into him. Now this felt right.

"Girl, what am I gonna do with you?" Jayne laughed into her hair.

"I can think of a few things," she mumbled into his chest.

He leaned back so he could look into her eyes and smirked. "Your brother isn't going to like this," he said.

"Too bad. My decision, remember?"

Jayne nodded. "Okay, boss." She giggled as he grasped her chin with one hand and ran his fingers around to underneath the back of her hair with the other. She sighed happily as he leaned in.

A loud BOOM! reverberated throughout the ship, throwing Jayne forward, his lips completely missing River's. He groaned.

"Always with the interruptions!"