FIC: Diamonds and Glass
Title: Diamonds and Glass
Author: CC62827
Rating: PG
Summary: Just a one-shot. River helps Mal solve a puzzle that’s keeping him awake.
Author's Notes: Just trying to work on my Crazyish-River writing skills. Feedback is shiny!
Length: 1,200ish
“You’re thinking very loudly this morning.”
I jumped a little, startled by the unexpected intrusion of a voice in the still of Serenity’s night. I thought for a second about reminding her that sneaking up on folks in the dead of darkness was a might creepifying, but I decided not to bother.
“And you’re walking very quietly,” I settled for saying. “Don’t expect that brother of yours’ll be too happy, he wakes up and finds you not there.”
River shrugged her slim shoulders. “He won’t. It was Kaylee’s turn for the top, and she-”
“Whoa, there, Albatross,” I interrupted with a wave of my hands. I was happy as an Andelusian air bug in mud that Kaylee seemed content with the doctor, but I didn’t feel any great need to hear the details of it.
She rolled her eyes a little, but didn’t finish whatever her sentence would have been. Without waiting for an invitation, she sat herself beside me on the catwalk and stared into the empty darkness of the cargo bay, mimicking my posture. When she was settled, she let out a heavy sigh.
All at once, I wanted to laugh. She hadn’t done anything particularly funny, but something about the sound of the air whooshing out of her lungs, like she’s been carrying three worlds on her back for a week and finally got to set them down, tickled me.
“Feel better?” I asked.
“Not yet, but I will.”
That hadn’t been the answer I’d expected. Not that River usually did things anyone could expect, but still. “You will? You got a timeframe on that expectation.”
“There are some variables I couldn’t account for, but my best guess is approximately 23 minutes.”
This time, I couldn’t keep back a strangled chuckle. “Well, good luck with that.” I paused and thought for a minute, trying to decide if I wanted to know. “Any particular thing happening in 23 minutes I should know about?”
“Hopefully, I’ll be sleeping.”
“Hopefully?”
“Depends on how long it takes me to work out your problem.”
“My-wait just a second, here-”
She interrupted me with a wave of her hand. “No. No waiting. The longer we spend waiting the longer it takes me to start doing. And the longer until I can go back to sleep.”
I felt a bubble of frustration but tried to tamp it down. In the weeks since we left Mr. Universe’s moon, she’d gotten exponentially less crazy, but she was still a few cows short of a heard. Ordering her back to her bunk and out of my business was tempting, but I figured I could do it polite like at least. “Appreciate the offer, but why don’t you take yourself back to your room? I’m not in the mood for talking, and I don’t have any problems need working out just now.”
“Yes, you do.”
The bubble got bigger, and I gritted my teeth. “Maybe I should be more clear. River-”
“Inara invited you into her shuttle, and you aren’t sure you want to go anymore, but you don’t know why.”
The bubble popped from frustration to straight anger, and I swung my legs away from the girl beside me, getting to my feet. “That isn’t any of your business. Best you take yourself off now.”
“Don’t mean to make you angry. You’re a person, actual and whole, and people can’t un-know something once its known.”
I knew I was going to regret it, but I stopped mid-step. “What in kind of shi yao xhai are you taking, Albatross? Un-know? That don’t make no kind of sense.”
Instead of answering, River pulled something small and sparkly out of her pocket. It took me a second, but I recognized it as a square, diamond doohickey Inara wore to hold the shoulder of one of her dresses. It looked simple, elegant, and dammed expensive. The way it sat on her shoulder made it look like it was the only thing keeping the wispy material from hitting the floor, and how was a man supposed to not notice that.
“Diamonds are rare and lovely. Beautiful on the surface, and strong underneath.”
“Where did you get that? You hadn’t ought to be-”
Without so much as a breath of warning, River hurled the clasp at Serenity’s hull. It was an explosion of such unexpected violence, I found myself reaching instinctively for the gun I wasn’t wearing at my hip. Instead of the metallic bang I expected when the rock hit the hull, though, I heard the sound of glass shattering and the musical tinkle of pieces falling to the floor.
“Woa di ma! Gorram it, River-”
River wasn’t listening. Her voice lilted, sing-songing in such a way as to make me want to grab her by the shoulders and give her a good shake.
“Looked like a diamond, but inside it was only glass. Pretty, but no substance. Not your quo di chin. Not like Serenity. She’s strong enough to carry us through whatever the Black can throw her way. Shattering glass can’t hold your weight.”
“You are going to go pick that up right now! And you’re going to stop with the crazy talk. And in the morning, you’re going to tell Inara you took it and apologize. And you’re going to pay to replace it from your share of our next-”
I might have said more, but before I could River was on her feet. She took a couple of steps toward me and stunned me into silence when she reached up and patted my cheek with a yawn.
“Good night, Captain.”
I shook my head. “Wait just a minute. You didn’t pick up-”
“Too tired. I’ll get it in the morning. Almost 23 minutes, anyway.”
“Twenty-three-but you threw-what in the-”
“Think about it,” she paused and looked over her shoulder at me, shrewd eyes running up and down once. “Quietly.”
And she was gone, leaving me starring after her, shaking my head.
Still baffled, I wandered down the catwalk and into the cargo bay, picking up the gold wire setting that once held Inara’s shattered diamond-glass-clasp and turning it over in my hand. I thought about what River said.
It didn’t make much sense, not that she usually did.
I looked at the gold wire setting in my hand again. I could take it back to Inara tonight. I wouldn’t even have to knock. I could just open the door to her shuttle, and-a yawn interrupted my thoughts.
And I realized I was all kinds of tired.
I’d give it back to her tomorrow.
Tonight, I had other things to think on-I glanced down the hallway that led to the passenger quarters-quietly.