Title: Z is for Zit
Prompt by: basched
Rating: PG
Setting: post-BDM
Word Count: 512
"Will you just come outta there, Moony?" Jayne urged her, as he sat outside the hatch in the cargo bag with his back against the wall.
"She's not here" River called back, a childish lie that the merc didn't know whether to laugh at or yell about, truth be known.
Little woman could take on purple bellies, Reavers, the nothingness of space, hell, she'd even gone willingly to face her brother and Mal's wrath when it come time to tell 'em she and Jayne was wanting to be making a pair. Seemed right now she was scared of the gorram light of day and for the life of him Jayne couldn't figure on why.
"C'mon, girly. What's the matter with you anyhow?" he asked her in earnest, "I do somethin' wrong?" he checked, sure he hadn't, but then womenfolk could get all riled over the darndest thing a fella said or did.
"No" she answered honestly, "but she is gone for today, cannot be seen" she insisted, "He will not love her today"
"Hell, River, that's just dumb!" he said then, angry at the accusation and pissed with the whole gorram thing by now, "I had enough o' this and you're coming outta there now, even if I gotta drag you out" he said, with a new determination, as he tore the cover off her hiding place and got to hauling her ass outta there.
She sure kicked and complained plenty but that never bothered Jayne none. Clear of her hidey hold, River stood before her man with a look of shock and indignation ... and her hand covering her nose.
"He cannot love her today" she repeated, all sadness and worry.
Jayne just loved to prove the genius wrong once in a good long while, and did so again by gathering her up in his strong arms and kissing her long and hard on the mouth.
By the time they parted, her arms had crept up around his neck and he finally saw what she'd been hiding from him this whole time - the biggest zit ever seen by man, right on the tip of her nose.
"He sees, and he is repulsed" she assumed, and stated as such just as soon as her breath returned to her.
"You're dumb for a genius sometimes, ya know that?" Jayne rolled his eyes as he grabbed her by the hand and started to drag her way,
"They shall copulate?" she checked, a little bemused by the turn of events, but happy enough.
"No" said Jayne before stopping a second to reconsider, "Well, yeah, but after I show you somethin' else first. See, zits like this gotta be dealt with right and I bet my right arm, we got squeamish folks on this here boat..."
River's mind read Jayne's as easily as ever and she made a face. The joke he would pull was unpleasant but that was okay. It might indeed be amusing. What was important was that her Jayne-man still loved her, zit and all. That made River happier than anything else.
