A Lasting Impression by Canton Heroine 2/2
Next installment in my fluffy Jaylee series.
A LASTING IMPRESSION
Part Two - Things That Go Bang in the Night
It was late, and Kaylee’d nigh on entered the land o’ Nod when she heard Jayne Cobb bangin’ ‘round in the neighbouring bunk. He was making a god-awful racket, the like o’ which she’d not heard since Serenity’d popped her main rotary converter.
She got up and pounded on their shared bulkhead with the heel of her hand. “Hey, knock it off in there! Some folks’re tryin’ ta sleep!”
The banging just continued uninterrupted like it had every intention of goin’ on til doomsday. Kaylee climbed out of her bunk and up to the corridor, grumbling all the while. Right when she was about to start pounding on his door, it all came to an abrupt and silent halt. There was a dead calm. Made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.
She dithered a moment, plucking fretfully at the weave on her burned finger. Maybe it weren’t such a good idea, confrontin’ him like this. The Captain had pulled her aside after their earlier meeting and warned her off gettin’ involved. Said the big tracker was like to turn on her, that she couldn’t trust him. He’d been so adamant it almost made her wonder why he’d even bothered to hire Jayne in the first place.
“Ta ma de! Ruttin’ bu zhong yong piece of go se!”
A soft clatter underscored the viciousness in that low growlin’ voice, but it was like he was actually tryin’ to be quiet, like the din he’d been makin’ ain’t already woke everyone up.
Kaylee opened her mouth to yell again, but Mal beat her to it. He was suddenly alongside her on the gangway with his gun drawn, his hair stickin’ out every which way and his face red and angry. She blinked at him, never havin’ seen him so het up.
“Jayne!” he roared at the entryway. “You better not be blowin’ holes in my boat, nor fixin’ on any sabotage equal as dire, you hear me?”
“What?” Jayne’s muffled voice sounded defensive, and maybe just a smidge hurt. “I wouldn’t do that,” he said. “Not while I was still aboard it, leastways. Ain’t partial to havin’ my innards sucked out.”
Kaylee had to grin at that.
Mal shot her a look. It weren’t happy. “Well, you mind informin’ me what it was you were doin’?”
There came that dead calm again.
“Jayne?”
“Um… nothin’?” he ventured.
“’Nothin’’ don’t sound like the armies o’ darkness come to carry me home.” Mal booted Jayne’s door open and peered down into the breach.
“Hey!” Jayne looked up at them from the bottom of the stair, wide-eyed startled.
And shirtless.
Kaylee angled her head so she could see more of him ‘round Mal’s shoulder. Hmm, was that a tattoo? Might be a red dragon, she concluded, hard to tell in the dim light.
“Ya coulda knocked, gorramit.” Jayne was near to pouting. “Thought the idea was this’un was my bunk, my own private bunk.”
“True enough,” Mal said. “But that commotion you’re makin’ ain’t exactly conducive to said privacy, nor to my soundness of mind.”
“Hell.” Jayne scratched at the nape of his neck, an odd air of little boy guilt about him.
Kaylee frowned. She’d noticed it before, that curious dash of artlessness from what was for all intents a hired killer. It jarred some, didn’t fit with what she’d been told.
When he looked back up his face was devoid of any guile. “In earnest, I was just tryin’ to stow my gear, Mal. Didn’t mean ta be so loud.” He glanced away at where his bed lay just out of their view. “Might be I need ta borrow a welder, put some racks in.”
“That’s shiny,” Kaylee said. She bent forward so that her face replaced the Captain’s in Jayne’s line of sight. “I can give you a hand tomorrow if ya want.”
“Oh.” Jayne smiled. “Hey, thanks Kaylee.”
Mal grabbed the rear of her shirt and hauled her upright. He shook his head at her, kinda incredulous, and then propelled her back towards her own bunk. “Go.”
“Shumma?”
He urged her onward a few more paces. “Get back to bed.”
“Believe my Pa’s still quick ‘n full o’ beans, so who died ‘n made you him?” Kaylee turned, fisted hands on hips, and glared. She was so intent on Mal, she didn’t hardly notice when Jayne surfaced in the corridor behind him.
Mal, however, whirled ‘round so fast he near tripped, his gun-hand flyin’ up to protect himself. “BWAAH!”
Jayne didn’t bat an eyelid; he just reached out and plucked the gun outta Mal’s grasp, easy as you please. He turned it over in his hands, checked the safety, and then sighted along the barrel, targetin’ the little fairy lights round Kaylee’s door one by one. “Nice piece o’ hardware,” he said, solemn as a judge. “Collect it in the war?”
Mal was all befuddled now, tryin’ to conjure how he’d come ta be unarmed. His hands twitched up t’ward surrender, then aborted midway. “Ah… yeah?”
“38 Bull’s dependable enough,” Jayne told him, offering it back. “Watch that autoloader, though. Got a inclination ta get hung up. Like ta shoot yerself in the foot ‘fore ya clear leather.”
“Huh.” The Captain stared down at the returned weapon like he couldn’t quite decipher its existence.
Kaylee was doin’ purt’ near the same to Jayne. The big man hadn’t bothered pullin’ on a shirt, and on account of his disruptive shenanigans in the bunk below his body was now radiant with sweat. His skin fair glowed like one of Inara’s fancy fits, like satin or plush velvet. She itched to touch him, see whether he was both as hard and as soft as he looked.
*
Jayne absently rubbed a trickling bead of sweat into the skin of his belly. He noticed the little mechanic’s eyes followin’ the motion and moved his fingers down further, slithering along the hairline to the waist of his pants. He toyed with the button there, watching her face for a reaction.
Kaylee swallowed hard and her moonshine bright eyes shot back up to lock on ta his.
He winked.
Mal cleared his throat. “So… Now this ruckus is done, we should all turn in.” He glanced at Kaylee, then back to Jayne, eyes narrow. “Separately,” he added.
No one moved.
“I mean it,” Mal warned.
“Yes sir, Captain Pushypants,” Kaylee chirruped. She returned Jayne’s wink, added a saucy wave and grin, and then retreated to the safety of her bunk, hips a’swingin’ all the way.
Jayne watched her go, a hungry gleam in his eye matched by the subtle play of his tongue against the edge of his teeth. “Ai ya, but that’s a wealth o’ pretty right there.”
“You don’t touch her.” Mal’s voice was as cold and hard as a tombstone. He poked Jayne in the stomach with the barrel of his gun. “She ain’t for you, Jayne, dong ma? I don’t hold with shipboard romances.”
Jayne peered at his poked belly then back up, brows arched. “Ain’t two’ve yours hitched?”
“Well, they ain’t the…” The Captain shrugged off explainin’. “You don’t touch her.”
“Don’t have to be any ro-mance involved, if’n that’s…”
“I gave you an order, Jayne. You want a place on my crew, you best get used to takin’ ‘em.”
Blue eyes got steely. The merc pulled himself tall so’s the few inches he had on the Captain seemed more, all made up of sneer and disdain. “You want to take me on? ‘Cause as I recollect that didn’t exactly work in your favour.” He slapped the barrel of Mal’s 38 aside like a bug, a stark reminder of how easily he’d taken it earlier. “I coulda seen you dead and took this boat for my ownself.”
“Right, and then Kaylee’d miraculously fall into your strong ‘n manful arms.” Mal snorted. “She’d’ve run from you screamin’.”
Jayne was crestfallen. “You sayin’ she don’t like guns?”
“I was goin’ for ‘she don’t like seein’ me shot’, but nope, them either.” Mal opted to embellish a tad, sensing that this may be a means to keep the man in line. “Harbours a path-o-logical fear.”
“Aw, heck. That ain’t right. Body’s got no place bein’ out in the black if they can’t take care theyselves.”
“That’s why she has me,” Mal said. “And Zoë, and Wash. The crew take care of her.”
Jayne stared at the painted sign on Kaylee’s door, all hearts ‘n flowers ‘n little girl frills, and felt torn inside. He didn’t want to squander a choice opportunity, but he also didn’t have much soft in his life and he was of a mind to keep some close, whether he actually got to touch it or not.
“Reckon I could look out for the girl,” he mused aloud, tryin’ to divine some way to work this roadblock to his advantage. “For certain do a better job of it ‘n the rest of you.”
“Great!” The Captain beamed like Jayne was his best friend in whole ‘Verse. He clapped a hand on the big man’s shoulder. “Glad to have you on board. Just don’t be gettin’ more than friendly with the mechanic or I’ll blow you out the airlock. We clear?”
Jayne grunted, his mind still workin’ the possibles.
Friendly and protector-like, huh? He could cope with that.
For a while...
A LASTING IMPRESSION
Part Two - Things That Go Bang in the Night
It was late, and Kaylee’d nigh on entered the land o’ Nod when she heard Jayne Cobb bangin’ ‘round in the neighbouring bunk. He was making a god-awful racket, the like o’ which she’d not heard since Serenity’d popped her main rotary converter.
She got up and pounded on their shared bulkhead with the heel of her hand. “Hey, knock it off in there! Some folks’re tryin’ ta sleep!”
The banging just continued uninterrupted like it had every intention of goin’ on til doomsday. Kaylee climbed out of her bunk and up to the corridor, grumbling all the while. Right when she was about to start pounding on his door, it all came to an abrupt and silent halt. There was a dead calm. Made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.
She dithered a moment, plucking fretfully at the weave on her burned finger. Maybe it weren’t such a good idea, confrontin’ him like this. The Captain had pulled her aside after their earlier meeting and warned her off gettin’ involved. Said the big tracker was like to turn on her, that she couldn’t trust him. He’d been so adamant it almost made her wonder why he’d even bothered to hire Jayne in the first place.
“Ta ma de! Ruttin’ bu zhong yong piece of go se!”
A soft clatter underscored the viciousness in that low growlin’ voice, but it was like he was actually tryin’ to be quiet, like the din he’d been makin’ ain’t already woke everyone up.
Kaylee opened her mouth to yell again, but Mal beat her to it. He was suddenly alongside her on the gangway with his gun drawn, his hair stickin’ out every which way and his face red and angry. She blinked at him, never havin’ seen him so het up.
“Jayne!” he roared at the entryway. “You better not be blowin’ holes in my boat, nor fixin’ on any sabotage equal as dire, you hear me?”
“What?” Jayne’s muffled voice sounded defensive, and maybe just a smidge hurt. “I wouldn’t do that,” he said. “Not while I was still aboard it, leastways. Ain’t partial to havin’ my innards sucked out.”
Kaylee had to grin at that.
Mal shot her a look. It weren’t happy. “Well, you mind informin’ me what it was you were doin’?”
There came that dead calm again.
“Jayne?”
“Um… nothin’?” he ventured.
“’Nothin’’ don’t sound like the armies o’ darkness come to carry me home.” Mal booted Jayne’s door open and peered down into the breach.
“Hey!” Jayne looked up at them from the bottom of the stair, wide-eyed startled.
And shirtless.
Kaylee angled her head so she could see more of him ‘round Mal’s shoulder. Hmm, was that a tattoo? Might be a red dragon, she concluded, hard to tell in the dim light.
“Ya coulda knocked, gorramit.” Jayne was near to pouting. “Thought the idea was this’un was my bunk, my own private bunk.”
“True enough,” Mal said. “But that commotion you’re makin’ ain’t exactly conducive to said privacy, nor to my soundness of mind.”
“Hell.” Jayne scratched at the nape of his neck, an odd air of little boy guilt about him.
Kaylee frowned. She’d noticed it before, that curious dash of artlessness from what was for all intents a hired killer. It jarred some, didn’t fit with what she’d been told.
When he looked back up his face was devoid of any guile. “In earnest, I was just tryin’ to stow my gear, Mal. Didn’t mean ta be so loud.” He glanced away at where his bed lay just out of their view. “Might be I need ta borrow a welder, put some racks in.”
“That’s shiny,” Kaylee said. She bent forward so that her face replaced the Captain’s in Jayne’s line of sight. “I can give you a hand tomorrow if ya want.”
“Oh.” Jayne smiled. “Hey, thanks Kaylee.”
Mal grabbed the rear of her shirt and hauled her upright. He shook his head at her, kinda incredulous, and then propelled her back towards her own bunk. “Go.”
“Shumma?”
He urged her onward a few more paces. “Get back to bed.”
“Believe my Pa’s still quick ‘n full o’ beans, so who died ‘n made you him?” Kaylee turned, fisted hands on hips, and glared. She was so intent on Mal, she didn’t hardly notice when Jayne surfaced in the corridor behind him.
Mal, however, whirled ‘round so fast he near tripped, his gun-hand flyin’ up to protect himself. “BWAAH!”
Jayne didn’t bat an eyelid; he just reached out and plucked the gun outta Mal’s grasp, easy as you please. He turned it over in his hands, checked the safety, and then sighted along the barrel, targetin’ the little fairy lights round Kaylee’s door one by one. “Nice piece o’ hardware,” he said, solemn as a judge. “Collect it in the war?”
Mal was all befuddled now, tryin’ to conjure how he’d come ta be unarmed. His hands twitched up t’ward surrender, then aborted midway. “Ah… yeah?”
“38 Bull’s dependable enough,” Jayne told him, offering it back. “Watch that autoloader, though. Got a inclination ta get hung up. Like ta shoot yerself in the foot ‘fore ya clear leather.”
“Huh.” The Captain stared down at the returned weapon like he couldn’t quite decipher its existence.
Kaylee was doin’ purt’ near the same to Jayne. The big man hadn’t bothered pullin’ on a shirt, and on account of his disruptive shenanigans in the bunk below his body was now radiant with sweat. His skin fair glowed like one of Inara’s fancy fits, like satin or plush velvet. She itched to touch him, see whether he was both as hard and as soft as he looked.
*
Jayne absently rubbed a trickling bead of sweat into the skin of his belly. He noticed the little mechanic’s eyes followin’ the motion and moved his fingers down further, slithering along the hairline to the waist of his pants. He toyed with the button there, watching her face for a reaction.
Kaylee swallowed hard and her moonshine bright eyes shot back up to lock on ta his.
He winked.
Mal cleared his throat. “So… Now this ruckus is done, we should all turn in.” He glanced at Kaylee, then back to Jayne, eyes narrow. “Separately,” he added.
No one moved.
“I mean it,” Mal warned.
“Yes sir, Captain Pushypants,” Kaylee chirruped. She returned Jayne’s wink, added a saucy wave and grin, and then retreated to the safety of her bunk, hips a’swingin’ all the way.
Jayne watched her go, a hungry gleam in his eye matched by the subtle play of his tongue against the edge of his teeth. “Ai ya, but that’s a wealth o’ pretty right there.”
“You don’t touch her.” Mal’s voice was as cold and hard as a tombstone. He poked Jayne in the stomach with the barrel of his gun. “She ain’t for you, Jayne, dong ma? I don’t hold with shipboard romances.”
Jayne peered at his poked belly then back up, brows arched. “Ain’t two’ve yours hitched?”
“Well, they ain’t the…” The Captain shrugged off explainin’. “You don’t touch her.”
“Don’t have to be any ro-mance involved, if’n that’s…”
“I gave you an order, Jayne. You want a place on my crew, you best get used to takin’ ‘em.”
Blue eyes got steely. The merc pulled himself tall so’s the few inches he had on the Captain seemed more, all made up of sneer and disdain. “You want to take me on? ‘Cause as I recollect that didn’t exactly work in your favour.” He slapped the barrel of Mal’s 38 aside like a bug, a stark reminder of how easily he’d taken it earlier. “I coulda seen you dead and took this boat for my ownself.”
“Right, and then Kaylee’d miraculously fall into your strong ‘n manful arms.” Mal snorted. “She’d’ve run from you screamin’.”
Jayne was crestfallen. “You sayin’ she don’t like guns?”
“I was goin’ for ‘she don’t like seein’ me shot’, but nope, them either.” Mal opted to embellish a tad, sensing that this may be a means to keep the man in line. “Harbours a path-o-logical fear.”
“Aw, heck. That ain’t right. Body’s got no place bein’ out in the black if they can’t take care theyselves.”
“That’s why she has me,” Mal said. “And Zoë, and Wash. The crew take care of her.”
Jayne stared at the painted sign on Kaylee’s door, all hearts ‘n flowers ‘n little girl frills, and felt torn inside. He didn’t want to squander a choice opportunity, but he also didn’t have much soft in his life and he was of a mind to keep some close, whether he actually got to touch it or not.
“Reckon I could look out for the girl,” he mused aloud, tryin’ to divine some way to work this roadblock to his advantage. “For certain do a better job of it ‘n the rest of you.”
“Great!” The Captain beamed like Jayne was his best friend in whole ‘Verse. He clapped a hand on the big man’s shoulder. “Glad to have you on board. Just don’t be gettin’ more than friendly with the mechanic or I’ll blow you out the airlock. We clear?”
Jayne grunted, his mind still workin’ the possibles.
Friendly and protector-like, huh? He could cope with that.
For a while...