(no subject)
Healthy In Paranoid Times
'They'd had a talk about this. He remembered it sure as his own name. It'd involved yelling and cursing and threatenin' her
with not bein' able to leave the ship no more if she was gonna go risking herself like that...'
Author's Note: My first experiment at writing Firefly 'verse fic, under the guise of the spacesanta exchange.
Written for jedibuttercup. I hope you like it!
<<<<
Mal had never considered himself much of a reflectin' man but sometimes things happened that made you think back on what'd come before.
This wasn't so much one of those times.
"Get down!"
Though now that he thought about he probably shoulda been expectin' Hondi to try and kill 'im. It wasn't that they had bad blood between them, even he wouldn't have risked that for a deal like this, but things had been off for the last couple of days. Even the call for meet up, faceless with Serenity's screen blitzing again -- he swore Kaylee spent more time in bed then she did workin' anymore an' pregnant or not she had a ship to keep runnin' -- like it was, had sounded a little strange.
The sort of strange that led to bullet holes in the wall half a foot to his side, that was.
As happened, as soon as he yelled the whole gorram group went down on his side, Zoe hitting ground before the 'd' was even out and Jayne shortly after that, except for the moonbrained girl of theirs. She was still standing, straight in the middle of a firefight, like there weren't plenty of bullets aiming for her pretty little head if they had a chance. Like as not she was lookin' to get herself killed like that and if she didn't then he was surely goin' to kill her himself when they got back to Serenity.
They'd had a talk about this. He remembered it sure as his own name. It'd involved yelling and cursing and threatenin' her with not bein' able to leave the ship no more if she was gonna go risking herself like that, and didn't she remembered how much she hated it back at the beginnin'?
But apparently it hadn't sunk into that thick skull a' hers or else she was fixin' not to believe him, 'cause there she was, kooked as ever, blinkin' at the bullets like they were pretty lights. Mal thought he much preferred back when she'd been afraid of guns after all.
"Get down!" Fang zong feng kuang.
With that Jayne peered over at him, raising both eyebrows and the side of his lip besides, and muttered, "She fixin' to get us all gorram killed? Knew we shoulda left her on the ship this time," lowly.
Well. That was perfect, was't it? Jayne and River had finally come about to a sort of let live agreement 'n' then this went and happened. He was gonna kill that lunatic girl sure as anything.
Mal scanned the area, sighting the two men that were shootin' at 'em now and the two others coming 'round for a better angle and cursed, once, under his breath before he made a decision. The girl had to be moved if they were gonna get a clean shot off, all concerns for her safety aside, and it didn't look like she was like to be doing that movin' herself.
So, just as lowly as Jayne's own words, he ordered the other man to go 'n' get River from the middle, seeing as he was closest, while Zoe and himself provided the coverin' fire. And, of course, when Jayne hesitated, as Jayne was wont to do where River was concerned, Mal solved the little argument by pushing him towards the way. "Go!"
"Mal!"
Every gorram time.
A moment later the room to the side of him exploded in gun firing as Zoe started layin' cover and if Jayne had any further protests as he edged out towards the center of the room to collect their little problem Mal couldn't hear them himself. Though he suspected there was cursin' involved from the way the other man's face was twistin' up. Didn't much matter 'cause he was still moving towards the girl, who was still standing in the center, somehow miraculously - as if every damn thing 'bout her wasn't somehow twisted up in the unnormal - avoidin' the gun fire.
As flints of light went off in the side of his vision and he tried sighting the one that was shooting at him in particular, Mal lost track of what was happenin' in the center of the room for a minute. So he was surprised, when he looked up, to see River and Jayne arguing, the latter crouched down on the floor and the former makin' downright emphatic an' annoyed gestures in a general downward direction.
What'd gotten into the girl now?
"Tzao-gao! You get down and over here right now, sagua girl, dong ma?"
And sure as anything he could make out her reply as she turned her head towards him and yelled back: "Who are you to be calling anyone an idiot?"
That was it. She was never leavin' the ship again.
Later, after they'd dragged the girl outta the fight (and she'd come only after a kick to Jayne's jaw that Mal was pretty sure'd banged something up real fine), they'd straggled home to 'Serenity' an' found one angry, overprotective brother on the other side a things. It was the sort of angry that left Simon stomping with all his mighty outrage 'round the infirmary as he checked out each one of them in kind until the girl had calmed him down and Kaylee had put the finishin' touches on it.
Mal was like to believe that no man in the 'verse could resist the two of them girls together when they got a mind to things and he'd said as much to Inara as she fretted over River an' the story of what happened in that calm way of hers. She'd laughed, politely as she could manage at him after all this time of the two of 'em fighting over damn near everything. But it was polite, which was an improvement from the month earlier when he'd made a crack after her prices havin' to go down now that she was gettin' older and every woman on the ship - Zoe included - had stopped speakin' to him for a week. Then she'd went back to ignorin' him, still a might peeved about what'd been an innocent comment.
Only after all that was said and done had he'd yelled at the girl 'til he ran outta insults that applied to the situation, and only after that had River explained what the hell she'd been doin' during the job.
The answer to that one, one he didn't doubt 'cause River might be a little not right in the head but she wasn't prone to lying, left his blood chilled and before he had much thought about it he was tuggin' her nice and close to him as if he could keep things at bay. Not that he could, when the things were in her head 'n' he couldn't go shooting at or dealing with or threatenin' that, but it made him feel better as much as not as she curled her bare feet against his thigh and rested her head against his shoulder as she told him 'bout what she'd been hearing and seein' when all he saw was gun fire and her almost gettin' killed.
For two years the Alliance had laid low, livin' and lettin' live as far as that went, as they licked their wounds from the Miranda transmission and tried to salvage their stronghold on the universe. Mal had been content to let it be at that, with business better than ever as they lost piece by piece out in the rim an' then closer to the cores, and it'd been a good agreement. For two years the crew a Serenity had been at peace but if what the girl had seen in the heads of the men shootin' at 'em, that was about to change. That was -
"Shh. Stop thinking so loud," River complained down near his chin, tappin' her fingertips against the line a' his jaw as she looked up. "There's nothing to worry about."
"Hell there isn't!" he replied. She flinched away a little, one hand coming up to press her palm against the flat of her ear. He got the message an' quieted, but not by much. "If the Alliance is makin' bid to get you again then we got a hell of a problem, sweetheart."
But she just smiled, sure as she was that the bullets earlier weren't meant for her, and leveled herself up from his lap to kiss him. Mal had to admit it was a fair bit distractin', the way her soft lips were pressing against his mouth insistently and her hand danced right up to play with his hair, but he wasn't gonna let himself be turned from this.
After a minute of enjoyin' it he even managed to tug her away.
"They want me alive. Alive and well and happy with them. No more tests like before, I'm not broken now," River rushed to tell him, clamping her hand over his mouth when he was sure he looked to protest. He meant to protest. "I'm not going with them because they did bad things, worse things than are done here, and this is my home now, but that's all they want."
If her fingers weren't pushed against his mouth so hard, pinching his lips together, he was sure he woulda said something about how wanting 'only' that was bad enough and look what'd happened the last time they'd wanted that, but he could tell from the way her eyes fluttered that he heard her right as if he'd said it aloud. That'd taken some getting used to, the way she could just do that, have whole conversations with him one sided but havin' both sides of the argument represented.
"If you're worried we can tell them to stop," she offered and he shook his head, breaking free a' her grip.
"It ain't ever been that simple before."
River laughed and rolled her eyes, that exasperated look she usually got with that annoyin', mechanic-stealin' brother of hers comin' over her face. "Yes, but this time we have leverage. We have me and you're just going to have to trust that."
Well, that ain't ever been that simple either, he thought, but when she raised her eyebrows right at him, twisting up her lips into a downright annoyed look, he knew he was gonna give it a try. Least he was gettin' better at this whole trust thing, what with havin' a mind reader around.
>>>>
Thoughts? Questions? Critiques? I welcome all comments.
'They'd had a talk about this. He remembered it sure as his own name. It'd involved yelling and cursing and threatenin' her
with not bein' able to leave the ship no more if she was gonna go risking herself like that...'
Author's Note: My first experiment at writing Firefly 'verse fic, under the guise of the spacesanta exchange.
Written for jedibuttercup. I hope you like it!
<<<<
Mal had never considered himself much of a reflectin' man but sometimes things happened that made you think back on what'd come before.
This wasn't so much one of those times.
"Get down!"
Though now that he thought about he probably shoulda been expectin' Hondi to try and kill 'im. It wasn't that they had bad blood between them, even he wouldn't have risked that for a deal like this, but things had been off for the last couple of days. Even the call for meet up, faceless with Serenity's screen blitzing again -- he swore Kaylee spent more time in bed then she did workin' anymore an' pregnant or not she had a ship to keep runnin' -- like it was, had sounded a little strange.
The sort of strange that led to bullet holes in the wall half a foot to his side, that was.
As happened, as soon as he yelled the whole gorram group went down on his side, Zoe hitting ground before the 'd' was even out and Jayne shortly after that, except for the moonbrained girl of theirs. She was still standing, straight in the middle of a firefight, like there weren't plenty of bullets aiming for her pretty little head if they had a chance. Like as not she was lookin' to get herself killed like that and if she didn't then he was surely goin' to kill her himself when they got back to Serenity.
They'd had a talk about this. He remembered it sure as his own name. It'd involved yelling and cursing and threatenin' her with not bein' able to leave the ship no more if she was gonna go risking herself like that, and didn't she remembered how much she hated it back at the beginnin'?
But apparently it hadn't sunk into that thick skull a' hers or else she was fixin' not to believe him, 'cause there she was, kooked as ever, blinkin' at the bullets like they were pretty lights. Mal thought he much preferred back when she'd been afraid of guns after all.
"Get down!" Fang zong feng kuang.
With that Jayne peered over at him, raising both eyebrows and the side of his lip besides, and muttered, "She fixin' to get us all gorram killed? Knew we shoulda left her on the ship this time," lowly.
Well. That was perfect, was't it? Jayne and River had finally come about to a sort of let live agreement 'n' then this went and happened. He was gonna kill that lunatic girl sure as anything.
Mal scanned the area, sighting the two men that were shootin' at 'em now and the two others coming 'round for a better angle and cursed, once, under his breath before he made a decision. The girl had to be moved if they were gonna get a clean shot off, all concerns for her safety aside, and it didn't look like she was like to be doing that movin' herself.
So, just as lowly as Jayne's own words, he ordered the other man to go 'n' get River from the middle, seeing as he was closest, while Zoe and himself provided the coverin' fire. And, of course, when Jayne hesitated, as Jayne was wont to do where River was concerned, Mal solved the little argument by pushing him towards the way. "Go!"
"Mal!"
Every gorram time.
A moment later the room to the side of him exploded in gun firing as Zoe started layin' cover and if Jayne had any further protests as he edged out towards the center of the room to collect their little problem Mal couldn't hear them himself. Though he suspected there was cursin' involved from the way the other man's face was twistin' up. Didn't much matter 'cause he was still moving towards the girl, who was still standing in the center, somehow miraculously - as if every damn thing 'bout her wasn't somehow twisted up in the unnormal - avoidin' the gun fire.
As flints of light went off in the side of his vision and he tried sighting the one that was shooting at him in particular, Mal lost track of what was happenin' in the center of the room for a minute. So he was surprised, when he looked up, to see River and Jayne arguing, the latter crouched down on the floor and the former makin' downright emphatic an' annoyed gestures in a general downward direction.
What'd gotten into the girl now?
"Tzao-gao! You get down and over here right now, sagua girl, dong ma?"
And sure as anything he could make out her reply as she turned her head towards him and yelled back: "Who are you to be calling anyone an idiot?"
That was it. She was never leavin' the ship again.
Later, after they'd dragged the girl outta the fight (and she'd come only after a kick to Jayne's jaw that Mal was pretty sure'd banged something up real fine), they'd straggled home to 'Serenity' an' found one angry, overprotective brother on the other side a things. It was the sort of angry that left Simon stomping with all his mighty outrage 'round the infirmary as he checked out each one of them in kind until the girl had calmed him down and Kaylee had put the finishin' touches on it.
Mal was like to believe that no man in the 'verse could resist the two of them girls together when they got a mind to things and he'd said as much to Inara as she fretted over River an' the story of what happened in that calm way of hers. She'd laughed, politely as she could manage at him after all this time of the two of 'em fighting over damn near everything. But it was polite, which was an improvement from the month earlier when he'd made a crack after her prices havin' to go down now that she was gettin' older and every woman on the ship - Zoe included - had stopped speakin' to him for a week. Then she'd went back to ignorin' him, still a might peeved about what'd been an innocent comment.
Only after all that was said and done had he'd yelled at the girl 'til he ran outta insults that applied to the situation, and only after that had River explained what the hell she'd been doin' during the job.
The answer to that one, one he didn't doubt 'cause River might be a little not right in the head but she wasn't prone to lying, left his blood chilled and before he had much thought about it he was tuggin' her nice and close to him as if he could keep things at bay. Not that he could, when the things were in her head 'n' he couldn't go shooting at or dealing with or threatenin' that, but it made him feel better as much as not as she curled her bare feet against his thigh and rested her head against his shoulder as she told him 'bout what she'd been hearing and seein' when all he saw was gun fire and her almost gettin' killed.
For two years the Alliance had laid low, livin' and lettin' live as far as that went, as they licked their wounds from the Miranda transmission and tried to salvage their stronghold on the universe. Mal had been content to let it be at that, with business better than ever as they lost piece by piece out in the rim an' then closer to the cores, and it'd been a good agreement. For two years the crew a Serenity had been at peace but if what the girl had seen in the heads of the men shootin' at 'em, that was about to change. That was -
"Shh. Stop thinking so loud," River complained down near his chin, tappin' her fingertips against the line a' his jaw as she looked up. "There's nothing to worry about."
"Hell there isn't!" he replied. She flinched away a little, one hand coming up to press her palm against the flat of her ear. He got the message an' quieted, but not by much. "If the Alliance is makin' bid to get you again then we got a hell of a problem, sweetheart."
But she just smiled, sure as she was that the bullets earlier weren't meant for her, and leveled herself up from his lap to kiss him. Mal had to admit it was a fair bit distractin', the way her soft lips were pressing against his mouth insistently and her hand danced right up to play with his hair, but he wasn't gonna let himself be turned from this.
After a minute of enjoyin' it he even managed to tug her away.
"They want me alive. Alive and well and happy with them. No more tests like before, I'm not broken now," River rushed to tell him, clamping her hand over his mouth when he was sure he looked to protest. He meant to protest. "I'm not going with them because they did bad things, worse things than are done here, and this is my home now, but that's all they want."
If her fingers weren't pushed against his mouth so hard, pinching his lips together, he was sure he woulda said something about how wanting 'only' that was bad enough and look what'd happened the last time they'd wanted that, but he could tell from the way her eyes fluttered that he heard her right as if he'd said it aloud. That'd taken some getting used to, the way she could just do that, have whole conversations with him one sided but havin' both sides of the argument represented.
"If you're worried we can tell them to stop," she offered and he shook his head, breaking free a' her grip.
"It ain't ever been that simple before."
River laughed and rolled her eyes, that exasperated look she usually got with that annoyin', mechanic-stealin' brother of hers comin' over her face. "Yes, but this time we have leverage. We have me and you're just going to have to trust that."
Well, that ain't ever been that simple either, he thought, but when she raised her eyebrows right at him, twisting up her lips into a downright annoyed look, he knew he was gonna give it a try. Least he was gettin' better at this whole trust thing, what with havin' a mind reader around.
>>>>
Thoughts? Questions? Critiques? I welcome all comments.