A Voice Calling From The Dark... Part 2: ~ STARLIGHT ~

They'd slept in that morning, and River had woken her up with kisses, and, so it was, that an hour and a half later, Kaylee found herself staring down into River's eyes. River, who was smiling up at her with such serenity and bliss Kaylee felt like she could hardly breathe. Kaylee whined a little piteously and lay down beside her new lover and buried her face in her shoulder. River turned them over on their sides and somehow unerringly found her lips and kissed her. Soon, Kaylee was on her back again being kissed. She moaned and broke away with only halfhearted resolve. "You trying to do me in or something?" She asked with an only slightly shy but mostly just happy sort of smile.

"No... but you are hard to resist kissing... Is it too much?" River asked with a confused sort of innocent worry on her face.

Kaylee touched River's cheek and looked into her eyes. "Of course it's not. It's just... we've got things we have to do, yaknow? We keep going like this, I won't have near enough energy to do anything but sleep some more." She explained. The truth was, she wasn't really as close to getting tired as she mighta been giving the impression she was. Honestly, it was just getting a little too intense for her and she wanted to take a breath as much as anything else of a more practical importance.

River looked annoyed at that, but resignedly got off from on top of her and lay back beside her on her back in bed. "I hate logic." She said, or more like muttered disgruntledly.

Kaylee smiled and got up on top of her, kissing her neck a little and then snuggling in close. "I know what you mean."

"Can we just lay here a while then? I really want to, and it might be needed for... some reason." River asked, wrapping her arms around Kaylee's back.

"Yeah... We can do that." Kaylee agreed, contentedly closing her eyes and settling into cuddle with her girlfriend for a while. Somehow it felt like just what she needed in fact.

They were just silent like that for Kaylee wasn't sure how long, but it was amazing how good it felt. How... How just all of perfect. Even with everything else their situation had them needing to do and all, it really did just seem completely ideal in the right here and now.

Finally though, Kaylee got up on one elbow and brushed some strands of hair away from River's face, their eyes meeting and neither of them seeming to want to look away. "We have to make plans, you know..." She told her.

"A friend to dig up, and enemies to give proper funerals. I'm not very fond of irony either." River explained with a little of a smile.

"At least neither of us will be doing any of it alone." Kaylee reassured with a little frank adoration in her voice. Because really, it was a bit incredulous how deeply she felt like she was falling in love with this woman under her. She felt like maybe she should sing a song or write a poem or do something equally as silly and hopelessly romantic. But, in this case, they really did have miles to go before they slept again (or at least would have tomorrow), so she figured she'd have to put a lot of that sort of thing on hold for a while. Which was probably for the best, since she wasn't that great a singer and had never written much poetry before either.

River smiled. "You are poetry and song, Kaylee. The best kind of all... Didn't you know that?"

Kaylee was a little speechless. "...How'd you know to say that?" She asked as soft as a breath.

River shrugged a little. "Just knew." Was all she said.

"Can you... read my mind or something?" She asked.

"Don't think so." River replied.

"I'm thinking of a number between one and ten..." She started.

"Nine." River answered honestly, and correctly.

Kaylee's eye widened. "If that's not mind reading, what is?" Kaylee asked.

"I don't think it's mind reading if I just know you very well." River offered, a little confusion in her voice. "Well, maybe not as much as I want to know you, but still, the principle holds."

"And you can see the future sometimes." Kaylee provided.

"That too maybe, kind of." River conceded with a little a smile, the emotions behind which Kaylee couldn't quite put her finger on, so she moved down and kissed her. Just briefly.

"I guess it doesn't really matter. Whatever the truth of you is, it wouldn't make much difference. I'd still be hopeless in love with you, wouldn't I?" She told her.

"Even if I'd put you under a magic spell like a witch from mythology?" River asked playfully.

"Well, you didn't, did you?" Kaylee dared.

River laughed. "I deny all knowledge of witchcraft. The broom in my closet is only meant for sweeping."

Kaylee laughed too and kissed her and lay down at her shoulder with a sigh. "So, I guess what we have to do is bury the rest of the dead, get our things together, plan out the trip, and then head out... what, tomorrow morning, I'm thinking?" She put forward, thinking through it logically in her mind. She wasn't exactly expert at long hikes through unfamiliar territory, but she knew enough from her time growing up on Isis to know that you just didn't up and go on one, spur of the moment like. Not if you were fond of living. They'd want to see if they could chart their course at all. The shuttle should have nav records that might be able to help, if the records survived the crash and if she could coax them from the shuttle's databanks. Then they could get their bearings, plan what they'd take with them and all, then get a good night's rest and set off.

"That sounds agreeable." River said agreeably. "...I'm going to miss the bed most though."

"It doesn't bother you what Inara must have gotten up to in here before us?" Kaylee teased.

"Why would it?" River asked, seemingly honestly not knowing.

"No real reason I guess." Kaylee told her. It didn't bother her either, she just wondered if maybe River could, um, see into the past or something, like she did into the future. If she really could see into the future. Was it possible that those people that did this to her just made her... well, really good at guessing things or something? ...If she ever saw them, she was pretty sure she'd just want to kill them all dead though, not ask any questions like that.

"You have funny ideas sometimes." River told her, pushing her over onto her back and kissing her intently for a while before sighing and stopping, sitting up and back on her knees.

Kaylee blinked, feeling a little dazed and wishing River had kept going, despite how impractical it would have been. "A body could get addicted to you." She said with a happy-go-lucky sort of smile as she got up to sitting and met River's eyes again, that same intensity that seemed to only get better between them coming through plain and clear, telling Kaylee again just how right she'd been to fall in love with this woman.

River smiled. "Likewise." She replied simply.

Kaylee closed her eyes and sighed. "Time to go be undertakers?" She put forward reluctantly.

"Are you sure we should? Inara needing us as she does?" River asked a little doubtfully.

"You don't think we should?" Kaylee asked. "It's just, it sounded like Inara and the people with her had plenty of supplies, and we already started. Seems a shame not to finish. And anyway, I thought you wanted us to bury them? Or, you have one of those feelings of yours? That we need to get going soon as possible?"

River shook her head. "No feeling. Just thought maybe it was too sad, that's all."

"...We don't have to, you know. It's not like we really owe them anything. They did try to kill us, you may recall." Kaylee put in, wanting to assuage River's uneasy feelings if she could.

"There are no debts anywhere but in the stories we tell." River replied. She smiled a little then. "It doesn't matter. It just seemed so stark, the difference, and I feel too much... sometimes."

"Yeah... I'm guessing maybe you do, don't you?" Kaylee replied softly. "Anyway, it's up to you."

River moved forward and kissed her briefly. "Sadness and sorrow don't stand a chance against you, do they... my love?"

Kaylee felt a shiver go right through her looking into River's eyes when she'd said my love. She honestly felt like she might swoon or something. Her heart sure felt like it was beating a bit faster anyways, and she definitely felt a desire to be close to her again, as close as could be. She swallowed and shook her head a little. "Xingguang..." She whispered. "Don't say things to me like that when we're meant to be getting out of bed." She told her. "It's mean."

River laughed at that, but didn't respond verbally and instead sort of tackled her playfully. They wrestled around a while until Kaylee finally managed to pin River to the bed by her wrists. Of course she knew that River had let her win, but still, looking down into River's eyes and seeing the complete look of trust, of surrender there, it nearly took her breath away.

And of course River chose that moment to turn the tables on her then promptly escape, moving so she was on the edge of the bed and then grabbing Kaylee by the arm and pulling her up and with her a little as she got out of bed. "Come on, we're going to be late." She told her, letting go of her hand and going to retrieve both of their clothes. Kaylee sat on the edge of the bed, bemused, as she watched River do that and bring her clothes back for her then start to put on her own clothing.

Kaylee watched River with undisguised interest while she started to get dressed, but then shook her head out of it and started to get dressed herself.

She had to wonder at it all though. When she'd first met River, she'd known right off what a beauty she was, said as much out loud in fact (even though maybe you could blame that a little on her being gunshot at the time), but this was something altogether else. Like looking up into the sky at night and calling what you saw space, and then finding your way up there, flying through it, looking out at it with nothing but a helmet between you and it, and realizing what you thought space was wasn't anywhere near the whole story... not even close... and then maybe still feeling like there was something else even beyond that to know about it. Something you could feel out there, something you wanted to know, but couldn't ever because you were born but human and just weren't built for it. With River though, there wasn't any helmet between them, they were built the same, and she felt like she could know somehow, like she would know, if she'd just spend the time and let herself. And she was going to spend the time.

Because, not all that unlike when she'd really seen space for the first time, looking at River lately, she felt like she had then.

Just plain happy, and pretty much amazed. Like she'd just been given the best gift ever.

And nothing would ever be the same again...

Chinese translations:

"Xingguang" = "Starlight"

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

to be continued

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