Fighting The Hollows... Part 6: ~ MERMAIDS IN SPACE ~

It was on into evening now.

They'd buried some of the bodies... River had spoken at each of the graves after they'd been laid to rest, so it took longer than it would've otherwise. Not that Kaylee was about to object. Everyone deserved words said when it was their time, if it could be managed... She believed that too.

They'd taken turns at baths again after the work had been done, and washed the bed sheets best they could also. Eaten a meal together.

Their supplies were getting low. They'd need to be out looking for food more often now. Maybe start a garden too, Kaylee considered. First steps on the path to a farm could even be, she supposed.

But that was for later. Now, they had clean sheets and were washed clean of the sweat and grime of a long day's work in the sun, and somehow... Kaylee found, she wasn't really all that tired.

In fact, as River came over and got on the bed with her, the both of them lacking any clothes, Kaylee felt positively energized.

All their clothes were dirty and they were both too tired to clean them. There were some of Inara's things. Really nice things, still left unappropriated and clean, but somehow Kaylee didn't think that seeing River all done up in silk like that was really going to be much better. And... she'd liked sleeping without last night, so she hadn't suggested raiding anymore of Inara's possessions, and neither had River. So here they were, and Kaylee couldn't quite make her eyes move away.

She swallowed a little nervousness, but, then, nervousness wasn't exactly what was driving her most right at the moment. How she'd come to that place for herself just now, she wasn't quite sure, but she wasn't complaining. Not at all. She wanted... proximity, with River, and she was very, very sure of that at this point. When her eyes, having traveled up River's body without much hurry, finally met River's eyes, she knew that River knew what was going to happen just as sure as she did.

She felt a confidence in herself about this that she'd been missing at realizing that, and she got up out from under the covers and went over to River, touched her hair, her face, her arms. They moved closer to one another, their lips met, and they kissed.

"Tell me you want this too, wo de ai? I know you do, I just... I want the words." Kaylee asked when the kisses stopped and they were in each other's arms.

Before she really knew any different, Kaylee found herself on her back, River's eyes, clear and intense, looking down into hers. Kaylee couldn't help but feel like those eyes really... really saw her... All of her, every bit, in a way that shouldn't even be possible, but was anyway.

"Down deep, in parts of me that are timeless and have no names... I think... that I have always wanted this." River confessed with gentle, heartfelt honesty.

"...Oh..." Was all Kaylee could say. The way River had said that just now had lit a fire in her like nothing else ever had. Her heart was beating fast, her skin was hot underneath, and when River's lips came down to claim hers again, Kaylee moved up to meet them.

River's body against hers was like music in her blood, and, as they made love, Kaylee imagined, maybe their blood, their hearts, or whatever else, maybe they started singing together. In songs, in music, they had a word for that...

They called it harmony.

But it was more than that, it was life. And, especially after the last two days, that was something Kaylee was beyond grateful to be able to feel. Something, she imagined, that they had both needed to feel. Even and beyond the darkness that had come over their lives the last two days.

It was something everyone needed, even though few ever got it...

Sometime in the night, Kaylee stirred in her sleep. The feeling of weightlessness seemed to just fade away from her. She and River were space mermaids, right? Her mostly still asleep brain told her. But then, no she wasn't. They weren't. Someone was talking... someone familiar. She'd been dreaming, she realized. Dreaming her and River had found a magic golden wishing dolphin that had turned them into space mermaids so they could leave and go home to Serenity, because the dolphin was afraid River would burn down the forest when she made the bigger bathtub.

"Well, that obviously didn't happen." She said a little blurrily to herself under her breath as she opened her eyes.

She heard the familiar crackle of static, then something very much not static. "Repeat, is anyone there?" She heard that now vividly recognizable voice say.

"Inara?" She asked out loud, sitting up quick and getting up quicker, scrambling over to the comm station and clicking the reply button just as Inara started to say something else.

"Inara? Is that really you?" Kaylee asked.

Chinese translations for this chapter:

"wo de ai" = "my love"

(please note: I'm only getting my Chinese from Google Translate, so I can't guarantee it's accurate at all)

to be continued

and leave a comment for me if you want, I'd love to hear from you