(Untitled)

[mademighty]

It's been a belief he's held true his whole life - that the devil will find work for idle hands. He can't say he's ever been a pious man, not ever soft in a religious sort of way. He couldn't ever bear the sermons that Book would try to pass, on Haven or off it, but he also knows that he's seen the devil, from time to time, in human form and he

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[crazyspacegirl]

River knew that Zoe was as safe with Mal as she was anywhere, regardless of their actual location. In truth, however, she didn't much like having either of them out of her sight for very long. Neither did she want Mal to think she didn't trust him to look after his own daughter, so she didn't come straight up to them when she found them under the tree.

She kept herself quiet and still, behind a tree of her own, and watched, and found comfort in seeing the two of them peaceful even if she wasn't quite in the shade of it herself.

[mademighty]

The horse is nearly done. He turns it with practised hands, rubbing his thumb along the line of his back. It's not the best, but it's recogniseably what it is, and it'll serve. Like Serenity. Like everything he's ever held in his heart.

"I see you there, little bird," he says, without looking up from the task in hand.

[crazyspacegirl]

River still sometimes got to feeling like she was less real than she ought to be, like she wasn't quite occupying the same world as everyone else. Mal had always had a way of making her feel like he really saw her, and that reminded her that she really was anchored here. She'd missed that, and smiled as she emerged from the trees and into the open.

"My ninja skills must be getting rusty."

[mademighty]

"Must be," he says, glancing up at her with a smile, barely there, but warm all the same. "Everything's different in the verse these days. Guess somethin' else came instead."

[crazyspacegirl]

"I'm just out of practice," said River, clearly not much bothered by that particular loss. She crossed the space between them and sat down beside Zoe. "Got a surprise for you, baby. I found someone to fix your birdie." She held out the stuffed toy, now with both wings securely attached. "Good as new."

"Niao!" Delighted, Zoe climbed into her mother's lap and hugged her toy.

River smiled at Mal over her head. "I wish it was always so easy to make her happy."

[mademighty]

"If it was easy to make someone happy, what'd be the point?" asks Mal, finishing the horse, shaving the last curl of wood off the horse's back and then offering it to Zoe.

"And what shall I make for your Momma, little bit?"

[crazyspacegirl]

"The point is that she would be happy, and I wouldn't have to worry so much about whether she is or not. It would be a win for everyone."

Zoe took the horse, gave it a loud kiss, and settled both her toys in her arms as she settled herself in River's. "Make bird," she commanded.

[mademighty]

"A bird," says Mal, reaching for a new piece of wood and turning it over in his fingers as he considers it.

"And how are you today?" he asks, shooting River a look. "Happy?"

[crazyspacegirl]

"Can't complain," River answered after a moment's serious consideration of the question. The people she loved most seemed comfortable and content, and even though she knew that situation could change without warning, she could still appreciate it when she recognized it. "You?"

She watched him study the piece of wood, and felt compelled to add, "You don't have to make anything for me, you know. It's enough just that you're here."

[mademighty]

"Always felt better with something to do with my hands. Guess that's one of the reasons I fell for her so hard. She always kept my hands full. Kept me busy."

Which is not the same as honest.

"I'll make you something," he says, casting her a look. "Pass the time."

[crazyspacegirl]

Zoe chattered quietly in River's lap, introducing her battered old bird and her shiny new horse to each other.

"All right." She met his gaze. "If you need something to pass the time."

[mademighty]

He holds the glance for as long as he's able, but he's the one who looks away first. There's always been something about River with the pull to make him powerful uncomfortable and that's before this whole shared history that he never found the measure of.

"A bird," he says, turning the wood over in his hands, considering it.

[crazyspacegirl]

"I used to wish I was a bird, when I was... before I met you." Mal would know she meant the time she'd been in the Alliance's cage, but Zoe didn't need to know any of that yet. "I wished I could fly away, but then I was on Serenity and I didn't have to wish anymore."

River found that she couldn't quite look away from him, even when he stopped looking back. She didn't mean to let herself get caught by him like that, but long before she had loved the Captain of the ship she also loved, she had been drawn to him. It felt like to her again, like none of the years in between had meant anything and he was just someone she wanted to understand, how he tried to be so hard despite everything else she could see in him.

It wasn't until Zoe walked her horse up River's arm and demanded that she "Kiss horsie!" that River's gaze moved.

"Kiss him? I don't even know his name!" she exclaimed, pretending to be scandalized.

[mademighty]

"Serenity'll do all the flyin' you need," he says, quietly, finding his starting point with the wood in his hand and starting in the with the knife. He lances up at her and Zoe, smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"Know girls that wouldn't've stopped, River."

[crazyspacegirl]

"Well, not me. I am extremely particular." It crossed her mind to remind Mal how that reflected well on him, but thought better of it. "What do you want to call your horsie, Zoe?" she asked instead.

Zoe considered. "Horsie?" The naming of things was not a concept she had yet mastered.

"How about Woody? Because he's a wooden horsie," River suggested.

"Kiss Woody," was Zoe's answer. River obliged, seeing as now she knew his name and all.

[mademighty]

"Woody's a fine name for a horse," says Mal, following the line of the wood with his thumb, glancing up at them. "Reckon I might've had a horse named Woody myself once."