Prompt: Mal +/ River, "I know you ain't quite right in the head, darlin', but I reckon you ain't much wronger'n the rest of us either."
Timeline: Established relationship
No Right Minds
"Does it bother you that they think I'm crazy?"
Mal sighs, wide awake now instead of drifting off to a pleasant sleep like he'd wanted to be. He admits River makes a mighty pretty picture, stretched out naked next to him in bed, but she could use a lesson or two on the proper things to say at a time like this.
"I know you ain't quite right in the head, darlin', but I reckon you ain't much wronger'n the rest of us either," he says, both trying to placate her and telling what he sees as the honest truth. Wouldn't be sleeping with her if he saw it any other way.
"True," she says, looking wide awake herself and full of mischief to boot. "You do knowingly accept jobs from people who have intentions of killing you."
"Hey now, I didn't mean me! Meant more like Jayne, way he went off the other day crying 'bout that broken gun of his."
"That was logical. It was a nice gun."
"That ain't the point," he grumbles, getting involved in this ridiculous discussion despite himself. "Or the way Kaylee 'n the doc keep messing 'round in the engine room? Exposin' parts that sensitive when there's burning hot metal bits spinning about not three feet away, how does that make any kind of good sense?"
"Some people enjoy an element of risk in sex."
"Yeah, well, not me. I got no issue with keepin' private and comfortable in here," he says, yawning and pulling her up against him.
"Your bed does make an optimal location," she says, her mouth curving as she looks up at him. "But you should take into account the fact that you're currently sharing it with a woman who could kill you with one hand. If I wanted to, I mean." Her voice lowers, thickens, takes on a teasing bit of honey-roughness along with his stolen accent. "You ain't quite right either, you know."
"Fair enough, darlin'. But aren't you glad of it?"
He doesn't need to be a reader himself to know that the way she kisses him means she's plenty glad, indeed.