Twice No
Series: Finding
Title: Twice No
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Firefly owns me, I own words
Spoiler: Post-BDM, Shortly after Once No
Notes: Continues the Jayne and River series of five times... has the second time Jayne said no to River, a prompt from bookaddict43
The rest of the story is linked here: Five No's Org Post
All Jayne/River stories are in the same storyline, even if seen out of order...
Twice:
Jayne laid back into the arms of the owner of House Lilac, Bonnie Tamar. She was a woman of stature, red haired and voluptuous as she had been for all the years they had known each other. She stroked his chest with long maroon painted finger nails, calm and soothing touches.
“Jayne, we have always been honest with each other. Been over twenty years since you came to be security at that old house I worked in. Fresh off that border moon as I recall. You were sweet on me right away and I liked you. I do believe I was the first working girl you ever had?” She smiled and looked down on his face. His expression was closed, he didn’t move, only grunted in assent.
“I been hearin’ from the girls that you haven’t been yourself lately. You’ve always been good to the girls; I heard from Penelope over on Beaumonde that you left last month without even seeing Chelsea- ain’t she one of your favorites?”
“I didn’t have time for more than a quick visit ta say hello is all.” He replied wearily.
“From what I hear, your ship was in dock until the next day, rest of the crew were seen around enjoying some free time off.” She pried gently.
“Yeah, well, I had work ta do…” He growled in response.
“Jayne, I have been a working girl my whole adult life, I am now the Madame of the best House on Persephone. I did not get to be here by not being able to read my clients, especially ones I actually care about. Who is she?”
“Wha…what are ya talkin’ about?” He sounded irritated and confused.
“Who’s the girl who has been on your mind?”
“Ain’t no girl on my mind, Bonnie, ya know me, I don’t get attached that way.” He tried to lighten his voice, hide his own uncertainty.
“You are a chûnrén, Jayne Cobb if you think I don’t know you’re lying!” Bonnie teased back lightly. “Six months, Jayne, six months since you lifted back into the Black. And the two months you were here fixing that old boat you fly with you didn’t visit… You have never been a man to turn down a tumble and I have solid truth behind this, you haven’t been with a girl since that there broadwave. I have known you too long to not notice that..”
“What, ya got spies on every world now Bonnie?”
“Near enough, we know where the people we care about are at any given time… there is a reason this is the oldest profession Jayne.”
“Nah, my job is the oldest- yours is the second!” He grinned for the first time since he had set foot into House Lilac. Inside he was seething with anxiety. He knew something had happened to him, he couldn’t even be himself with one of his oldest friends. Lying in bed, half naked with his favorite girl for over twenty years, a woman he near enough trusted and all he could feel was emptiness and anger.
~~~~~
He walked with the weariness of loss back to Serenity. His shoulders were bowed by weight beyond his comprehension. He had lost his way, lost his sense of self. A man who had lived with large appetites, food, drink, guns, trim, and now all he felt was hollow. There was nothing but acrid smoke in his body, down to the bone there was nothing he could hold to as his, familiar and simple. The tiredness that created nearly caused him to miss the approach of two local gang lords, men who worked for Badger. Men who made Mal and the crew’s life miserable when they tried to wrangle a fair deal. He heard the brush of fabric against fabric, the slide of metal on leather as a gun was being drawn. Without thought, he had iron in both hands, pointing muzzles at the faces of the two men before they had cleared their own holsters.
“Ya want ta be meetin’ yer maker?” He looked at the men with empty eyes. He didn’t care one way or the other what happened next. A tiny part of his mind rebelled at his apathy.
“Badger wants a word with your Captain, Cobb.” The smaller man hiccupped out past the muzzle directed at his forehead.
“Well, then he ought ta take that up with Mal himself.” Jayne growled back, cocking the weapon as he did so.
The men both took careful steps back, not certain what would happen next as the usual repartee had been changed without warning by Jayne. Neither man could figure where they had missed the big mercs change in personality. Generally they could count on snarl and bluster, but there was no life behind the man’s eyes, no sense of self. No one looked back at them, just a big, hollow man. This scared them far more than the years of bluff and barking by Jayne.
With a shake of his head, shaking off the men in front of him, Jayne snapped both guns back into their holsters and shouldered through the still surprised locals, shoving them with bear like force away from him. Such was the whirling eddy he left in his wake that neither man moved for several minutes. Badger would have to find his own way to contact Captain Reynolds, neither of these men wanted to die today.
~~~~~
Jayne was nearly to Serenity’s ramp when a can flew past his head. He snapped to attention only to be hit square in the chest by a piece of twisted metal and then a boot skimmed his ear.
“What in the gorramn…OW!“ A wrench hit him in the shoulder with painful accuracy. He was looking with wide eyed amazement at the crazy girl in the cargo bay laying her hands on anything small enough to hurl at him. Cans, tools, another boot, all were being flung with irritatingly good aim at him as he tried to dodge and cover his head with his arms upraised.
“Girl…” the second boot hit his forearm in front of his face. He heard Mal yell in surprise from nearby.
“What are ya at about!” Mal snapped as he ducked a thrown tin.
“He returns without himself.” She replied calmly as she hurled another tin at Jayne, followed by a cargo tie down cable at Mal.
“Albatross!” Mal barked as the cable hit his chest.
Without pause, River flung something else at Jayne.
“Gorramnit…” a spanner bounced of his knee painfully.
“Holy sphincter a…” another can, this one full of food, hit him square on his cheek. He gave up control and roared in pain as he felt the crunch. Lunging forward he got his long arms wrapped around her slender body and grabbed her wrists. She writhed and struggled in his grasp.
“He went to the first/last prime! The flowers do not lie!” River said quickly, voice high and agitated.
Mal stepped over, glaring down on the struggling girl. “Ya going around to that place again? Ain’t been there for a bit. Miss it?” His own surprise added bite to his words, bite he had not truly intended.
She shook her head loosely, “No, no, not going back, not seeing more than one thing… only her own thoughts.”
“What are ya talkin’ about ya crazy person?” Jayne grunted out past her now weakly struggling form. As soon as he had gotten her back pulled to his chest, arms engulfing her she had seemed to go limp, all the anger in her body faded away. He quailed inside, feeling her go boneless. He flashed back to holding her tiny body covered in blood and bile from the Reavers. He thought he could still smell the death around himself sometimes. But now he smelled something new, apples, sweet, tart apples. His eyes widened as he looked down at the shining strands of brown waterfalling over his arms and hands. Felt her soft skin under his hands, her wrists turned just so, so she could not slip free unless he let her. The shift inside was almost painful in its suddenness, the red evaporated to reveal them, standing there in the cargo bay, a frozen conflict of emotions.
“He went to ‘visit’ his first girl…” River was nearly whispering.
Mal looked up to Jayne’s eyes at that.
“Well, yeah, ya did give us leave ta go ta town…” Jayne tried for his old tone of entitled whining, but it came out false even in his own ears.
“Did you decide to go and get some trim to cool off after this morning?” Mal asked low.
“And what of it? Ain’t like I ain’t never done that?” The men were glaring at each other, both beginning to draw themselves up to their full heights. Jayne nearly forgot he had River held in his arms, so intent was he on finally having it out with Mal.
“The truth was not as remembered. Flowers floated on the air, called him.” River said from under her curtain of hair.
“I saw Bonnie, yeah…’ Jayne wasn’t sure how he knew exactly what the girl had meant, but he didn’t stop to question it. He knew he had understood her, been able to understand her from the beginning if he would only listen. That realization played across his face, unseen to her, still looking away, towards the ground.
“The last in the series, the first, the prime, one.” River continued.
The men looked at each other, sized up the moment. With River there in Jayne’s arms, Mal stepped back first. “We are going to be having that talk real soon, no way about it.” His voice was flat, uninflected.
“Ain’t one ya gonna like Mal.” Jayne answered with a crooked smirk, humorless.
“That may be so, but you still work for me and that means we’re going to have it.” With that he returned his attention to River. The girl was focused only on the man holding her to his chest, her face was upturned towards his. The Captain saw an openness in her expression, a trust in the reality of what she felt. Mal’s throat constricted when he realized what her look meant. Oh, ai ya, wo bu xiang zhe, his little crazy girl and his merc.He was a qingwa cào de liúmáng for not seeing this earlier. Changed the landscape just a bit for that conversation he was going to be having with the big man.
“Yer crazy, ya know that?” Jayne had his head bent over her shoulder to look her in the eyes. He saw those huge, brown pools filled with tears unshed. Trust trying to form in them. Neither one of them spared attention for anything else. The world had disappeared, there was only the two of them
“He was finishing his series…” She mumbled.
“Ah Girlie, ya don’t know what yer talkin’ ‘bout. Bonnie ain’t nuthin’ but a friend is all…”
River looked up into the clearest blue eyes she thought she had ever seen. There was light behind them for the first time. Light she had never seen except in the eyes of her sleeptime bear when he snuffled around her dreams. A small smile touched her lips, the tear about to fall made her eyes shine nearly black.
Mal stepped back, silent, unnoticed. He knew he had no place in this part of the conversation. Knew that the world was about to change around him again, and he still had no power to change that. This was getting a mite irritating he decided as he retreated.
“You did not visit her to finish the series?” She asked shyly now.
He shook his head, loosening his grip on her wrists but keeping her pressed back against his chest. He could feel his heart beat against her back, the quickening thrum of it. Her face revealed to him her truth, her belief in her safety there with him.
“No xiâo que, I didn’t finish my series with Bonnie… I ain’t gonna be finishin’ it with any a’ them girls…”
bì zuî be quiet/shut up
chûnrén fool, jerk (familiar)
feng kuang crazy, insane
qingwa cào de liúmáng frog-humping sumbitch
wo bu xiang zhe I do not believe this
xiâo que little bird
Title: Twice No
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Firefly owns me, I own words
Spoiler: Post-BDM, Shortly after Once No
Notes: Continues the Jayne and River series of five times... has the second time Jayne said no to River, a prompt from bookaddict43
The rest of the story is linked here: Five No's Org Post
All Jayne/River stories are in the same storyline, even if seen out of order...
Twice:
Jayne laid back into the arms of the owner of House Lilac, Bonnie Tamar. She was a woman of stature, red haired and voluptuous as she had been for all the years they had known each other. She stroked his chest with long maroon painted finger nails, calm and soothing touches.
“Jayne, we have always been honest with each other. Been over twenty years since you came to be security at that old house I worked in. Fresh off that border moon as I recall. You were sweet on me right away and I liked you. I do believe I was the first working girl you ever had?” She smiled and looked down on his face. His expression was closed, he didn’t move, only grunted in assent.
“I been hearin’ from the girls that you haven’t been yourself lately. You’ve always been good to the girls; I heard from Penelope over on Beaumonde that you left last month without even seeing Chelsea- ain’t she one of your favorites?”
“I didn’t have time for more than a quick visit ta say hello is all.” He replied wearily.
“From what I hear, your ship was in dock until the next day, rest of the crew were seen around enjoying some free time off.” She pried gently.
“Yeah, well, I had work ta do…” He growled in response.
“Jayne, I have been a working girl my whole adult life, I am now the Madame of the best House on Persephone. I did not get to be here by not being able to read my clients, especially ones I actually care about. Who is she?”
“Wha…what are ya talkin’ about?” He sounded irritated and confused.
“Who’s the girl who has been on your mind?”
“Ain’t no girl on my mind, Bonnie, ya know me, I don’t get attached that way.” He tried to lighten his voice, hide his own uncertainty.
“You are a chûnrén, Jayne Cobb if you think I don’t know you’re lying!” Bonnie teased back lightly. “Six months, Jayne, six months since you lifted back into the Black. And the two months you were here fixing that old boat you fly with you didn’t visit… You have never been a man to turn down a tumble and I have solid truth behind this, you haven’t been with a girl since that there broadwave. I have known you too long to not notice that..”
“What, ya got spies on every world now Bonnie?”
“Near enough, we know where the people we care about are at any given time… there is a reason this is the oldest profession Jayne.”
“Nah, my job is the oldest- yours is the second!” He grinned for the first time since he had set foot into House Lilac. Inside he was seething with anxiety. He knew something had happened to him, he couldn’t even be himself with one of his oldest friends. Lying in bed, half naked with his favorite girl for over twenty years, a woman he near enough trusted and all he could feel was emptiness and anger.
~~~~~
He walked with the weariness of loss back to Serenity. His shoulders were bowed by weight beyond his comprehension. He had lost his way, lost his sense of self. A man who had lived with large appetites, food, drink, guns, trim, and now all he felt was hollow. There was nothing but acrid smoke in his body, down to the bone there was nothing he could hold to as his, familiar and simple. The tiredness that created nearly caused him to miss the approach of two local gang lords, men who worked for Badger. Men who made Mal and the crew’s life miserable when they tried to wrangle a fair deal. He heard the brush of fabric against fabric, the slide of metal on leather as a gun was being drawn. Without thought, he had iron in both hands, pointing muzzles at the faces of the two men before they had cleared their own holsters.
“Ya want ta be meetin’ yer maker?” He looked at the men with empty eyes. He didn’t care one way or the other what happened next. A tiny part of his mind rebelled at his apathy.
“Badger wants a word with your Captain, Cobb.” The smaller man hiccupped out past the muzzle directed at his forehead.
“Well, then he ought ta take that up with Mal himself.” Jayne growled back, cocking the weapon as he did so.
The men both took careful steps back, not certain what would happen next as the usual repartee had been changed without warning by Jayne. Neither man could figure where they had missed the big mercs change in personality. Generally they could count on snarl and bluster, but there was no life behind the man’s eyes, no sense of self. No one looked back at them, just a big, hollow man. This scared them far more than the years of bluff and barking by Jayne.
With a shake of his head, shaking off the men in front of him, Jayne snapped both guns back into their holsters and shouldered through the still surprised locals, shoving them with bear like force away from him. Such was the whirling eddy he left in his wake that neither man moved for several minutes. Badger would have to find his own way to contact Captain Reynolds, neither of these men wanted to die today.
~~~~~
Jayne was nearly to Serenity’s ramp when a can flew past his head. He snapped to attention only to be hit square in the chest by a piece of twisted metal and then a boot skimmed his ear.
“What in the gorramn…OW!“ A wrench hit him in the shoulder with painful accuracy. He was looking with wide eyed amazement at the crazy girl in the cargo bay laying her hands on anything small enough to hurl at him. Cans, tools, another boot, all were being flung with irritatingly good aim at him as he tried to dodge and cover his head with his arms upraised.
“Girl…” the second boot hit his forearm in front of his face. He heard Mal yell in surprise from nearby.
“What are ya at about!” Mal snapped as he ducked a thrown tin.
“He returns without himself.” She replied calmly as she hurled another tin at Jayne, followed by a cargo tie down cable at Mal.
“Albatross!” Mal barked as the cable hit his chest.
Without pause, River flung something else at Jayne.
“Gorramnit…” a spanner bounced of his knee painfully.
“Holy sphincter a…” another can, this one full of food, hit him square on his cheek. He gave up control and roared in pain as he felt the crunch. Lunging forward he got his long arms wrapped around her slender body and grabbed her wrists. She writhed and struggled in his grasp.
“He went to the first/last prime! The flowers do not lie!” River said quickly, voice high and agitated.
Mal stepped over, glaring down on the struggling girl. “Ya going around to that place again? Ain’t been there for a bit. Miss it?” His own surprise added bite to his words, bite he had not truly intended.
She shook her head loosely, “No, no, not going back, not seeing more than one thing… only her own thoughts.”
“What are ya talkin’ about ya crazy person?” Jayne grunted out past her now weakly struggling form. As soon as he had gotten her back pulled to his chest, arms engulfing her she had seemed to go limp, all the anger in her body faded away. He quailed inside, feeling her go boneless. He flashed back to holding her tiny body covered in blood and bile from the Reavers. He thought he could still smell the death around himself sometimes. But now he smelled something new, apples, sweet, tart apples. His eyes widened as he looked down at the shining strands of brown waterfalling over his arms and hands. Felt her soft skin under his hands, her wrists turned just so, so she could not slip free unless he let her. The shift inside was almost painful in its suddenness, the red evaporated to reveal them, standing there in the cargo bay, a frozen conflict of emotions.
“He went to ‘visit’ his first girl…” River was nearly whispering.
Mal looked up to Jayne’s eyes at that.
“Well, yeah, ya did give us leave ta go ta town…” Jayne tried for his old tone of entitled whining, but it came out false even in his own ears.
“Did you decide to go and get some trim to cool off after this morning?” Mal asked low.
“And what of it? Ain’t like I ain’t never done that?” The men were glaring at each other, both beginning to draw themselves up to their full heights. Jayne nearly forgot he had River held in his arms, so intent was he on finally having it out with Mal.
“The truth was not as remembered. Flowers floated on the air, called him.” River said from under her curtain of hair.
“I saw Bonnie, yeah…’ Jayne wasn’t sure how he knew exactly what the girl had meant, but he didn’t stop to question it. He knew he had understood her, been able to understand her from the beginning if he would only listen. That realization played across his face, unseen to her, still looking away, towards the ground.
“The last in the series, the first, the prime, one.” River continued.
The men looked at each other, sized up the moment. With River there in Jayne’s arms, Mal stepped back first. “We are going to be having that talk real soon, no way about it.” His voice was flat, uninflected.
“Ain’t one ya gonna like Mal.” Jayne answered with a crooked smirk, humorless.
“That may be so, but you still work for me and that means we’re going to have it.” With that he returned his attention to River. The girl was focused only on the man holding her to his chest, her face was upturned towards his. The Captain saw an openness in her expression, a trust in the reality of what she felt. Mal’s throat constricted when he realized what her look meant. Oh, ai ya, wo bu xiang zhe, his little crazy girl and his merc.He was a qingwa cào de liúmáng for not seeing this earlier. Changed the landscape just a bit for that conversation he was going to be having with the big man.
“Yer crazy, ya know that?” Jayne had his head bent over her shoulder to look her in the eyes. He saw those huge, brown pools filled with tears unshed. Trust trying to form in them. Neither one of them spared attention for anything else. The world had disappeared, there was only the two of them
“He was finishing his series…” She mumbled.
“Ah Girlie, ya don’t know what yer talkin’ ‘bout. Bonnie ain’t nuthin’ but a friend is all…”
River looked up into the clearest blue eyes she thought she had ever seen. There was light behind them for the first time. Light she had never seen except in the eyes of her sleeptime bear when he snuffled around her dreams. A small smile touched her lips, the tear about to fall made her eyes shine nearly black.
Mal stepped back, silent, unnoticed. He knew he had no place in this part of the conversation. Knew that the world was about to change around him again, and he still had no power to change that. This was getting a mite irritating he decided as he retreated.
“You did not visit her to finish the series?” She asked shyly now.
He shook his head, loosening his grip on her wrists but keeping her pressed back against his chest. He could feel his heart beat against her back, the quickening thrum of it. Her face revealed to him her truth, her belief in her safety there with him.
“No xiâo que, I didn’t finish my series with Bonnie… I ain’t gonna be finishin’ it with any a’ them girls…”
bì zuî be quiet/shut up
chûnrén fool, jerk (familiar)
feng kuang crazy, insane
qingwa cào de liúmáng frog-humping sumbitch
wo bu xiang zhe I do not believe this
xiâo que little bird