a/n: Technically, this is a gen piece, done for livejournal's sf_women_daily community's comment-a-thon, but like most of my Firefly genfic, it's got plenty of River/Mal subtext since I can't seem to write them both in the same story without it.
Prompt: River, she was born to be a ballet dancer
Timeline: Pre-relationship
True Love Is to Dance
She could have been anything, anything at all, but she never loved anything more than ballet, the controlled battle of body and gravity, the forming of musculature and movement into beauty.
"Dance with me," she says, feet bare and the floor offering no spring, only the shock of hard metal on her heels, but it's too much to resist. And sometimes they will; usually Inara, with elegant grace and precision, or Kaylee, who has no technique at all but makes up for it with whirling enthusiasm.
Jayne just sneers, Book laughs and says he's too old, and Zoe smiles, but says she prefers to watch if it's all the same. She always watches when Wash dances with River – Wash dances like he flies, fast and free and unpredictable, but always with an edge of nervousness, always with his eyes on Zoe.
Simon dances only once, just to please her, because he has never been a dancer, too much in his head to truly inhabit his body in the proper way.
"Dance with me," she says to Mal, and he watches her carefully, considering, balancing what he thinks she needs with what he's able to give.
"Don't think I'm quite the right partner for you, darlin'," he says after a moment, "but think I might know who is."
He takes her up to the bridge, and he doesn't let her there alone, there's not that much trust in her – but he lets her take up what qualifies here as center stage, lets her join hands with Serenity and perform with her, a pas de deux with the stars as their backdrop, weaving and twisting, tumbling through the black.
She smiles, watching the stars leap around them, mind's eye showing her the ribbon-trail, golden bright, that the ship longs to leave waving behind them.
"Care to join us, Captain?" she asks, and he hesitates but takes the other seat, making them a trio together, flying across the sky.
River feels Serenity's vibrations through the helm under her hands, trembling like taut muscles straining free of gravity. She knows that feeling, and she hears the ship speak.
Dance with me.