60) Don't Need Another Perfect Lie

He'd gone down to his bunk and turned from the ladder only to see River sitting on his bed. "Hey," He pushed his goggles up. Not that he wasn't glad to see her, she was pretty much his favorite person. "Didn't expect you."

"The minds of the merc and the rebel are very loud," She admitted. "Thought to sit with him and enjoy his company until he slept."

"That seem like a good idea to you?" Riddick wondered as he moved towards the bed. "How'd you know I won't just pin you in place and take what I want?"

"Hasn't even said what he wants," River smirked at him. True enough, he'd never actually spoken specifics, not that he'd needed to.

"Didn't think I needed to say, what with you hearing all that going on in my head," He took a seat beside her on the bed and grasped her waist, pulling her into his lap so she straddled his hips. "Finally," He muttered. It felt like it had been forever since she'd issued her little challenge. They always got interrupted by someone or other and he was starting to think it was deliberate. Sure, they'd gotten a couple of kisses and damn he loved dancing with her. But he hadn't gotten to have her like this, alone, no interruptions, her legs straddling his hips, bodies pressed together in a way that had nothing to do with dance.

River draped her arms around his neck and smiled still looking up at him. Even hip to hip he was a head taller than her. "Been very patient, both of us, and enjoyed kissing in other ways, but I very much like to feel him kiss her this way in reality and not simply our thoughts."

Now that he could do. Bending his head down to hers and taking her mouth with a low groan of satisfaction. The taste of cool water and the feel of her lips under his, hot blood starting to pound through his veins as she moaned into him and tried to press closer. Her mouth opening for him, letting him explore her with his tongue, and sliding her own against his, sweet on his lips. Heady thick scent of her arousal around them, their heart beats tripling as his hands slid from her waist, one down to her pì gu and the other up to her nape, holding her firmly against him.

The feel of her, panting against him as he devoured her mouth, so slender and strong and hot, between her thighs where his cock pushed and strained against his pants. Her hips moved in little undulations, rubbing against the hard ridge of his dick and he could feel her heat growing, smell her wetness. The last time he'd gotten to hold her, kiss her, even close to this, had been when they'd practiced the tango, but that had been in the middle of the cargo bay. Here, now, he didn't want to stop, wanted to feel her like this forever.

"Fuck," He pulled away, bent his forehead to hers, doing some heavy breathing of his own. "You gonna tell me to stop woman?"

"When I want you to stop, I will say so," River moaned. "How far do you want this to go?" Slender fingertips tracing over the cords of his neck and the line of his jaw.

"You saw what I want," Riddick reminded her. "Ain't changed. How long it takes to get there…that's another story." He took a deep breath and reminded himself that this wasn't some floozy in a bar or a whore. Not even a fuck buddy like Carolyn. Carolyn had used the word relationship when she talked about his flirting with River. "Never had one before you know?"

"Not even as a teenager?" She gave him the courtesy of not pretending ignorance of his thoughts. "No flirting, abbreviated courtship and sex at the end?"

"One…sort of… when I was sixteen…didn't last very long… after that… Guess I didn't think of those as relationships so much as two people scratching an itch," He shrugged, not sure how to explain or describe what he had at sixteen. "Not like I got much of a chance to date between Sigma Three, Strikeforce, Ursa Luna and Butcher Bay."

"And is that what you want with me?" River tilted her head as she looked up at him. "If sex is all you want, we can do that."

"You know that's not all I want," He retorted annoyed that she'd even suggest it. He wasn't exactly sure what he wanted. But he'd thrown 'just sex' out the airlock a long time ago, back when they'd started doing more than flirting; started sparring and talking, getting to know each other. Building layers onto this attraction between them and making it more than just screwing around.

Carolyn had kicked his conscience into gear (which he'd been doing just fine without; thanks so much for that) and suddenly he's big brother to an anti-social (possibly psychotic though apparently that didn't set her apart from other girls that age) teenage girl, working for a living and volunteering (potentially but looking more and more likely) to get turned into a slam so he could get someone else out.

Learned dancing and sparred with this gorgeously dangerous woman. He laughed with the crew, smirked and got into verbal sparring matches with Zoë, Mal and Simon, lost arguments with River, teased Jack and rolled his eyes at Carolyn. Happily, sat under the engines discussing ways to make the ship fly better with Kaylee. He'd even enjoyed learning manners and social norms (sort of) from Inara and continuing that with Simon and River. And he couldn't seem to stop watching the Reader straddling his hips.

"Can't know when he doesn't know," She shrugged at him. "Would like to experience sex with you Riddick. Inara thought about you often and speculated about what you would be like. Curious as to how accurate her speculations were."

That was just… weird. And more than a little hurtful strangely enough, like a slap in the face. Before he could get his guard up again River smiled a bit shyly a blush in her scent if not her cheeks, "Intellectual exercise, in order to maintain detachment should he decide sex is all this is. Despite indicators that he feels otherwise."

Okay, now that he got. He tended to play the same sort of game. Keep his emotional and mental distance so he couldn't be taken advantage of. Trust (or the complete lack of it, depending on your point of view) was what screwed him in the first place. Trust, youth and inexperience. "I don't think this is just sex," He finally managed to choose the right words. "I…can't seem to think of an end date with you. Every time I think something might be a deal breaker, turns out it don't bother me."

He had no idea how to say what he was feeling, new and weird and boiling through his blood. Twelve and wanting (no true understanding of what he actually wanted but he still wanted; like a dog chasing a mule, no clue what to do if he caught it) the girls that flocked together and giggled over the bad boys across the yard, euphoria when one of them smiled at him, and anger (defense against the sick unhappy twist of rejection) when she turned up her nose a week later. The hellish years, and six months of hope, before sixteen. This felt nothing like that. Nothing like any of that. If he had any sense at all he'd be scared to tā mā de death at the implications.

Her kiss, a light brush of her lips over his, set his blood on fire again and he groaned, "Seriously woman, you're going to kill me."

"Don't look dead to me," She laughed against his mouth and kissed him again.

"Gonna go crazy wanting you," He muttered as he took her mouth again. How she could taste hot and sweet, but crisp and cool at the same time he had no idea. Like the purest cold water, and the heated honey mead with cinnamon he'd tasted once as a boy.

"Makes her crazy," River whispered as he squeezed her ass. "Makes her want him so badly."

Riddick groaned again as she rubbed against the hard ridge of his dick greedily. He'd love to block out everything but her, ignore all the extraneous sounds outside his bunk, but he couldn't. Simon was looking for his sister, calling her name, Kaylee chattering at his side and calling for River as well. "Your brother's lookin' for you," He felt like snarling at the interruption.

"Jack searches for him," River added, trailing her mouth over his jaw.

"Kinda want to ignore all of 'em," He admitted.

"She feels the same," She groaned in annoyance. "But if we disregard them, they will go to Mal and aggravate him with their worries."

"Fuckin' figures," He kissed her one last time and lifted his hands away from her body. "We get Zoë back, we're gonna continue this." He knew this was likely the last respite they'd have from all the chaos outside his bunk. It wouldn't take much longer to narrow down where their missing crew member was being kept and then preparations for a jailbreak would kick into high gear.

"No argument from her," River sighed and with visible regret, lifted herself off his legs, a soft brush of her lips over his cheek that felt too good to be true. Something warm, spicy sweet in her scent, something new and tantalizing, beyond want. "Good night."

Riddick watched her go. He didn't dare move from his seat on the bed or he'd be too tempted to simply pull her back down with him. "Good night."

Sparring with River… he never failed to enjoy it. Fighting her was like fighting water, always moving, changing, deceptively soft looking until he took a hit. The two of them had decided they'd continue their practices/spars in the bay around midnight, after his shift or hers. The dance lessons had been seen more than once but the sparring, they'd managed to keep that under wraps. No one around to freak out about the two of them and plenty of quiet.

Easier on River's mind too from what she said. She could catch glimpses of dreams and apparently had pretty often when she'd been less controlled. But these days she blocked most of them out.

They'd had one bad moment when she'd come flying at him, only for her form to crumple as her face creased with pain. He'd caught her and rolled; they both had some bruises from that but at least no broken bones. "What's wrong?"

"Mal…" She whispered, rubbing her temples and taking deep breaths. "His dreams…nightmares…the Valley."

"Tiān shā de," Riddick muttered. He'd had no idea what to do, how he could help, but he could at least sit with her while she gathered her shaken equilibrium.

"Eases," She offered him a half smile. "Having too much fun, relaxed, forgot what perils lie in the dreams of the crew."

"Me or Carolyn's bother you at all?" He wasn't sure what he could do about it, but it'd still be good to know.

"Not as much," River shrugged. "Not as much of an emotional connection to Carolyn and…your nightmares…they are terrible, horrifying but different from mine. So much rage. Mal's resonate with my own because his are full of pain, despair and loss. They hit me harder."

"Harder on you when its someone you're close to," He summarized, hating that she was exposed to the hells in his dreams, and she nodded.

"To be close to you is worth the nightmares," She pressed a kiss to his jaw. "Would rather have you and the nightmares than not have you and sleep peacefully. At least with yours I can tell them apart from mine."

He felt something in his chest twist hard and pressed a kiss to her hair in gratitude. This woman was…he didn't have the words.

"Only truly gained control fairly recently," The diminutive woman explained quietly. "Shortly before you came aboard the boat. Jayne had gone and without his mind constantly battering at mine…it was easier." She lifted one shoulder in a somehow elegant half shrug, "I doubt I will ever be entirely normal. I don't think I can be. I'm better. The entire 'verse doesn't scream into my mind. With a little acclimation I can hold new or loud minds out. Couldn't do that before. But there's no cure for what was done to me."

"You mean you weren't born like this," He hadn't realized that. He'd heard (in a vague memory of science class he guessed) that any mutation in the human genome that didn't display at birth usually manifested at adolescence. The changes the human body went through triggering some sort of twist in DNA. He'd figured she'd started 'hearing' people as a teenager. It wouldn't have been that long ago; she wasn't even twenty.

"Born a genius," River shook her head and leaned against him. Well, he didn't mind that at all, tugging her into his lap and wrapping his arms around her. "Turned into a Reader." Her shiver wasn't born of his closeness, desire or any other positive emotion. Painful memories prompted that reaction, her scent twisted with agony and fear.

"That's…" He didn't have the words. Impossible, insane, stupid flashed across his mind but none of them seemed to fit. She didn't need his fury, rage, at what they'd done. "Yǔ sheng chù hùn zá de bēi wéi nú lì."

"Hubris," River murmured. "Belief in omnipotence, that they can make people better."

"Well, that's a wasted an' thankless task," Riddick snorted his derision at that. People didn't change. They could try. Some even managed some superficial adjustments to their behaviors. But they didn't change. And humans as a species were a mess. He frowned down at her thoughtfully, "What happened?"

"They took me to school and…surgeries, training," She whispered. "Then I saw Miranda… Made me crazy." He guessed there was more to it than that. And he didn't doubt that River knew exactly what they'd done to her. But if she didn't want to discuss specifics he wouldn't push. There were certainly plenty of things he didn't want to discuss even in private, much less the open cargo bay.

"Guess that's why you and Simon have old wanted posters," Riddick mused. "He took you away from that school?" Plain as the nose on his face that Simon adored his sister. He wouldn't have tolerated anyone hurting her. And if 'they' (whoever 'they' were) had turned River into a Reader he doubted they'd have just let her go on her merry way once 'they' accomplished the goal. He'd done a few searches on the cortex while he'd been on the bridge. The old warrants had popped up along with the newer ones on Mal and Zoë (and Richard B Riddick). Not like he'd cared about them; he was wanted himself. Hell, his reward was even bigger.

"Yes," River chuckled, no doubt hearing his thoughts and minding them amusing. He couldn't blame her. Hell, he did the same, finding amusement where he could. "Warrants were cleared. After the Miranda wave. Damage done. Jiāo bīng bìbài."

The Miranda wave. Even hiding out in the slums he'd seen the Miranda wave. Seen what the Alliance had done. He looked down at the slender woman he held and tilted his head. She was the one responsible for the Miranda wave. She and Mal. That was how Zoë's husband had died. Reavers. No wonder the New Resistance wanted Mal. Word had it the man had outsmarted and out fought a Parliament Operative. No wonder he liked this boat so much. They were all pretty much his kind of crazy. He chuckled and kissed her since he could, and she didn't seem to mind. "Figures Carolyn'd find us a boat with people crazier than I am."

"Not crazy anymore," River smirked up at him. "My brother had me tested."

"So…was the test pass/fail or on a curve," He teased and her lips on his were his reward for simply accepting and not asking questions. He could handle that.

Author's Note: So Mal talked with Carolyn, now River has talked with Riddick. And everyone is getting closer. How Jayne and Bea are going to fit themselves in, or if they will, is anyone's guess. Especially when you've got someone like Riddick, almost eternally suspicious of everyone unless he knows them, and sometimes even then. So I guess we'll see.

Chinese Translations:

pì gu (butt)

tā mā de (damn it! / fucking) (taboo curse)

Tiān shā de (Goddam! / goddamn / wretched)

Yǔ sheng chù hùn zá de bēi wéi nú lì (Filthy fornicators of livestock)

Jiāo bīng bìbài (lit. an arrogant army is bound to lose (idiom) / fig. pride goes before a fall)