Old War Horses

[lit_gal]

Malcolm Reynolds fought for the Browncoat rebels. They wanted their freedom. They lost. James Joseph Womak was a commander for the Alliance, determined to bring justice to the common people. His side won, but he still lost.

Old War Horses

Fandoms: Firefly x Sentinel.
Slash: Jim/Blair, Mal/Jayne
Rated ADULT
Prompt: Taming the Muse: From whence we came

Mal isn't quite sure when he lost control, but he's sure of one thing: he can't stop thinking on Jayne Cobb and that mouth of his.

( Part one ) ( Part two ) ( Part Three )  (Part Twelve)  ( Part Thirteen)

14

Mal paced his quarters. Three days. Inara was making him wait on purpose. To what end, he couldn’t even hope to guess because that woman’s mind twisted as often as a corkscrew. Every time Mal thought she’d go left, she darted gorram right. At one time, he’d actually given thought to courting the woman, but every time he’d try to go hinting at it, she’d talk up whoring like it was the greatest career in the ‘verse, so he supposed that was her answer. One man wasn’t enough for her.

She wasn’t anything like people like him and Zoe and Jayne. Soldiers thought something and they came right to the matter and said it. Aiya, even Captain Jimmy was easier to go understanding than Inara. And that was saying a good deal because thinking on Captain Jimmy was starting to give Mal a headache. He sure wasn’t the hard-nosed Alliance hero out there singing the praises of the government, that’s for sure. And he wasn’t even holding to the law much anymore. He hadn’t said two words against the idea of breaking into the Blue Sun office.

And he was sly.

That last-that had thrown Mal. Sure, men turned sly, but most of the time, it was because there weren’t women around. In war, that happened a lot. People fell into bed with each other because they were clinging to some slender thread of sanity. He and Zoe had fallen into bed once or twice, but as soon as other partners were available, neither of them had wanted more. Seeing as how she married Wash, Mal figured he wasn’t her type. She wanted a man who’d make her laugh, and that wasn’t one of Mal’s skills. Leastwise, the people who laughed at him generally weren’t doing it because Mal had made a joke.

Then again, he’d always assumed he wasn’t Jayne’s type either, and ever since that hairy little wang da bang had gone saying that gou shi about them being together, Mal couldn’t help but think back on a whole lot of things that hadn’t made one bit of sense at the time. Like Jayne being all forgiving about Mal damn near spacing him. The version of Jayne that Mal had once hired away from another captain, that man would have taken a swing, and then he would have quit. Hell, that man had turned on his last captain over a chance to get his own quarters, yet he’d followed Mal through Reaver space. He’d laid his life on the line to protect crew. It wasn’t making any kind of sense… or it did, but it was the sort of sense that Mal ever expected. And he didn’t like change.

Mal reached over and hit the internal communications. “Jayne?”

“Captain?” Jayne sounded about half-asleep.

“Get your ass to my quarters,” Mal ordered, and then he hit the disconnect before Jayne could go and do something like ask ‘why’. Mal didn’t have a why. He just knew he hated change, and he hated not understanding even more. And lately, there was too much of both on his ship. This was his ship, and he wasn’t standing for it. Or sitting for it.

With a sigh, Mal sat on the edge of his bunk, and the same fantasy that had chased him for the last two nights pressed close. Jayne… on his knees… that big mouth full of something that Mal was pretty sure Jayne would chew off before sucking enthusiastically. This was all Sandburg’s fault. Mal was even having a few odd thoughts of sympathy for Captain Jimmy, being stuck with a little sha gua like that one.

Mal shoved the thought of Jayne and his fantasy to one side so well that when the knock came at the hatch to his quarters, Mal about jumped out of his skin. “Captain?” Jayne yelled when Mal wasn’t quick enough to open the door.

“You don’t have to go yelling,” Mal snapped as he stepped up a couple of rungs on the ladder and threw the lock.

Jayne gave Mal a real suspicious before he followed Mal down into his quarters. For his part, Mal retreated to the far wall as he sorted through more thoughts than he was used to having… at least, he wasn’t used to having this many thoughts about Jayne. It was downright disconcerting to look at a man’s mouth and wonder how much of your cock would fit in it. It was even worse when you couldn’t figure out how he’d react if you tried to put it there.

After the silence had dragged on some time, Jayne started looking around. “What? Is the place bugged or something?”

“Why would my quarters be bugged?” Some days, Mal really couldn’t figure Jayne out. More and more here recently.

“Why would you call me here and then not talk to me?” Jayne countered. That was all Mal could take. No way was he having crew challenge him in his own quarters, making him feel this out of sorts.

“Wuh de tyen, ah,” he cursed, “what in the name of every motherless goat in creation would make you go mooning over me?”

Jayne reared back. “I never said I was.”

“So, are you denying it?”

Jayne’s mouth fell open and for a time, they just stood and stared at each other. It seemed to take him some time to gather a few thoughts together. “I ain’t saying nothing, one way or the other,” he finally insisted.

Sinking down into a chair, Mal tried to figure out when he’d started losing all control. It seemed like he couldn’t even remember back to when he’d had this crew following orders and acting like a crew. “Aiya. When did you turn sly, Jayne Cobb?”

With a really pained expression on his face, Jayne started studying the floor. “I don’t know. It ain’t like I thought on it much.”

“You ain’t thought on it much? Seems like that’s something a man should go thinking about once it crosses his mind.” God knows, it was about all Mal could think about. They were about to go into battle with Blue Sun, and Mal was practically obsessed with Jayne’s mouth.

“I’m more about trying to avoid the gou shi. Ain’t you?”

“Since that little wang ba dan went and told me you were sly for me, I seem to be obsessing on it a bit.” Mal stopped, realizing about five seconds too late that he’d just called himself sly. In all the years he’d wandered the ‘verse, he’d never seen himself as sly, but now, the word slipped right out of his mouth easy. And the way Jayne’s mouth hung open in shock was giving Mal even more sly thoughts. “I can’t really think on much else, and seeing as how we have people trying to kill us, again, that might be a touch dangerous. I can’t think with you looking at me with those eyes of yours,” Mal complained, trying hard to avoid pointing out that it was Jayne’s mouth that was most distracting.

Jayne’s mouth closed so fast his teeth clicked. “You want I shouldn’t look at you?”

Clearly being sly hadn’t improved the IQ. “That wasn’t exactly my point,” Mal said.

“I ain’t catching what your point is, then.”

“Are you thinking on bedding me?”

Jayne took a second to scratch his crotch, and Mal’s gaze slipped down to where Jayne’s cock made a bulge. Was his cock always that large? Maybe Mal was imagining things. Jayne’s scratch turned into a quick readjustment of the junk. “Not exactly,” Jayne said in a hesitant tone.

The idea that Jayne was getting hard gave Mal a pause. His fantasies had a whole lot more to do with Jayne’s mouth than any other part. And the idea of Jayne’s cock anywhere near his ass was unequivocally terrifying. “I can’t say I like the thought of rolling over for a man. You try to roll me over, and you’re going to be lucky if you make it off the ship without having parts detached, and I’ll start with the parts you’re most fond of,” Mal warned.

From the shocked expression on Jayne’s face, that hadn’t been expected. Mal had no idea why he felt so guilty about setting Jayne straight, but he could feel the guilt clinging to him. “Why?” Jayne asked, clearly confused as hell. Of course, it didn’t take much to confuse Jayne. Mal felt another stab of guilt as he thought that. Jayne crossed his arms and glared like he could hear Mal’s less than charitable thoughts. “Womak rolls over, and he’s plenty man enough,” he said in his most mulish tone.

Mal felt a stab of something that wasn’t guilt. “He’s… are you pining over Womak? Because I’ve got to say you’ve done some morally questionable things in your life, but if you even consider laying down for Captain Jimmy, that’s going down as about the singularly most disturbing thing you’ve ever done.”

“I never said I’d be sly for him. He ain’t my type. He’s… he just ain’t,” Jayne finished weakly. “I’m just saying that you’re talking on being sly like it’s something a man shouldn’t be, but Womak’s sly and you’re still hating him just as much, so you ain’t treating him like woman.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Means you get stupid around womenfolk. But Womak being the sly one doesn’t make you start thinking with your pecker like when you’re around a woman.” Jayne added an emphatic nod with that last bit.

“You’re the one who keeps getting that part confused. Just because a man’s sly doesn’t mean he can’t be a powerful annoyance or downright bastard. Womak’s just lucky enough to be both.”

With a smug expression, Jayne nodded. “Exactly. Seems like most people think that being sly makes a man less of a bastard.”

Mal stood up and struggled to find something to look at other than Jayne’s mouth or his crotch or pretty much anything on him. “Actually, only you think that.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. There were plenty of sly soldiers in the war. They killed as well as those who were off chasing women.”

“Oh.” Jayne sounded confused again. “It’s just where I come from most men don’t really think much of those who are sly.”

Mal sighed. This was an unprecedented mess, and given how many messes they ended up in on Serenity, he did think they’d run out of new disasters. Even the gou shi with Blue Sun was just a new version of Miranda. But Jayne… he was all kinds of unprecedented.

“Where I come from, men don’t care much as long as the ones who are sly don’t go trying to put their cocks somewhere they shouldn’t.”

Silence fell on them again, and Jayne shifted from foot to foot as Mal tried to figure out exactly where they were going. He was feeling more tangled up than he had at any time since Inara had left the ship.

“Captain,” Jayne asked, his voice softer than usual.

“What?”

“Is this leading up to me getting put off the ship?”

Mal looked up, shocked. “What? No! Ai-yah. Tyen-ah, what would even make you think that?”

“With you being about as confusing as River, it ain’t like you’re giving me a whole lot to work with. I’m only understanding about every third thing you’re even saying,” Jayne complained. “If you got something to say about me or me being sly, just gorram say it.”

Shock robbed Mal of his words for a moment. Usually he was the one not following much at this point in a relationship. Only he wasn’t really in a relationship, not as yet, anyway. Moving to the bed, Mal sat on the edge and thought on how he always hated when women didn’t just explain things outright. Some days, his favorite fantasy was a woman who could just come out and tell him what she was thinking on.

“I got lots to say,” Mal started slowly. This might be the stupidest plan he’d ever come up with, and he was man enough to admit he did come up with some God-almighty stupid plans. Leastwise, he could admit that in the privacy of his own thoughts.

“Then say it,” Jayne said. He frowned and crossed his arms, but he was still standing in Mal’s room, making it clear he was waiting on Mal’s word. Of course, if Mal was wrong, the doc was going to be picking broken teeth out of Mal’s spleen.

“I like the thought of you on your knees, sucking on my cock. I can’t say the thoughts have gotten much past that point, but I reckon if we get that far, my imagination might be able to come up with one or two more suggestions.” Mal tensed, waiting to see if Jayne would take offense. God knows that Mal wouldn’t be much interested in returning the favor, despite the fact that seemed mighty unequal.

Jayne seemed to freeze. His mouth was open again, which was giving Mal’s imagination some room to work, but he wasn’t actually reacting much.

“Of course, if that’s not the kind of sly you are, I won’t take no offense,” Mal added when the silence got too awkward. That seemed to make Jayne shake free of whatever shock had hold of him.

“You wouldn’t mind?” Jayne narrowed his eyes like he was searching for a trap.

“I wouldn’t mind what?”

“Me trying out being sly on you.”

Mal’s cock gave an almighty twitch, and Kaylee’s comment that his pants were too tight never had seemed so true. “Jayne, when is the last time you gave up a chance to get sexed?” Mal didn’t wait for an answer because they both knew that Jayne never had. “I ain’t about to turn down a chance for some sexing.”

Jayne’s slow smile was about the most surprising and most oddly attractive thing Mal ever had seen in his life. “That I understand,” Jayne said as he started to unbuckle his gun belt.