[Firefly/Serenity] "Dances with Ships" (PG)
Author's Note: Written for comment_fic's "Firefly, River, Dances around Serenity"
The engines were humming a dance tune tonight, and Serenity was singing a traveling song, calling River to join in. And so she sang with her feet and kept time with her arms. She sang along the companionways, twirling and leaping, and she sang down the stairways, skipping lightly, her feet kissing the floor beneath them, and the ship kissing them back with its textures.
She pattered along catwalks and up and down staircases, with a feline nimbleness, pausing to pose, in arabesque, by a railing before continuing.
She passed the captain, who stared at her, his mind saying she must really be touched if she was dancing while they flew, but he could hear the ship's steady, reassuring song, even if he didn't understand what it said: that her feet would not falter, that the rhythm of the ship would provide a carpet for her feet.
She passed by the gruff girl-named man, who chuckled at her. "If yer goin' dancin', girl, yer gonna need you a partner," he said, sticking out one callused slab-hand to her.
She patted it with her fingertips, but twirled away a short distance before she replied. "I have a partner tonight," she said. "Next time."
She tripped her way down to the engine room, where the grease-grinning Kaylee lay in her hammock. "Hey there, River, you look like you've been to a shindig."
"Still am: Serenity invited me to dance," River replied.
"Yeah, she's right nimble tonight, like she's dancin' through the stars," Kaylee replied, speaking the same language.
River held out a hand to her. "Come dance with us."
"Sure," Kaylee said, putting her work-warm palm into River's soft one, letting her twirl her along to their ship-home's song....
The engines were humming a dance tune tonight, and Serenity was singing a traveling song, calling River to join in. And so she sang with her feet and kept time with her arms. She sang along the companionways, twirling and leaping, and she sang down the stairways, skipping lightly, her feet kissing the floor beneath them, and the ship kissing them back with its textures.
She pattered along catwalks and up and down staircases, with a feline nimbleness, pausing to pose, in arabesque, by a railing before continuing.
She passed the captain, who stared at her, his mind saying she must really be touched if she was dancing while they flew, but he could hear the ship's steady, reassuring song, even if he didn't understand what it said: that her feet would not falter, that the rhythm of the ship would provide a carpet for her feet.
She passed by the gruff girl-named man, who chuckled at her. "If yer goin' dancin', girl, yer gonna need you a partner," he said, sticking out one callused slab-hand to her.
She patted it with her fingertips, but twirled away a short distance before she replied. "I have a partner tonight," she said. "Next time."
She tripped her way down to the engine room, where the grease-grinning Kaylee lay in her hammock. "Hey there, River, you look like you've been to a shindig."
"Still am: Serenity invited me to dance," River replied.
"Yeah, she's right nimble tonight, like she's dancin' through the stars," Kaylee replied, speaking the same language.
River held out a hand to her. "Come dance with us."
"Sure," Kaylee said, putting her work-warm palm into River's soft one, letting her twirl her along to their ship-home's song....