Title: He's a Peach
Rating: PG
Words: 471
Pairing: Kaylee/Jayne
Summary: At first, he'd reminded Kaylee of the boys from back home; an abundance of muscle and an utter lack of brains.
Since she was old enough to fiddle with either one, Kaylee had two great loves in her life: engines and men.
They both responded beautifully under her hands, laying themselves open to her insatiable curiosity. And there was nothing she loved more than teasing out their secrets.
Well, 'cept maybe fruit.
When she first came on board Serenity, there was no fruit, few men, and a whole mess of purring engine, with layers of mystery begging to be penetrated, one by one.
It wasn't more'n a few months before she'd sussed them all out, knew that engine like the back of her hand. After that she'd started on the wiring, and then the mule, the filtration systems, and anything else the Captain was willing to let her poke around in.
That didn't include his pants, which was a crying shame, him being such a fine looking figure of a man. And it didn't take a genius to see the way of things between Wash and Zoe.
So Kaylee let Serenity keep her company at night, set up a hammock in the engine room and told the ship all her dreams, lulled to sleep by the smooth hum of her.
Until the day Mal bribed a great big hunk of man named Jayne on board.
At first, he'd reminded Kaylee of the boys from back home; an abundance of muscle and an utter lack of brains. Not that brains mattered overmuch, if a man had a sweet side and knew how to use his equipment, but she liked a man to have at least a tiny bit of curiosity about things beyond the physical.
Jayne proved he had more brains than it seemed quick enough, had a knack for asking the pointed questions nobody else had a mind to. But he also proved he had no kind of tact and a surly streak a mile wide, and this took the bloom off Kaylee's crush before it had time to do more'n test the waters.
Still, he was her only prospect, and the black got to be mighty lonely after a while. So she kept her eyes on him, rained her sunny smiles down on him, and let her overalls hang just a little lower when he was about.
This got his eyes to following her, but nothing more. Till one day, after they'd finished up a job on a planet more full of green than she'd ever set eyes on.
She'd walked back to the engine room, visions of orchards and jewels of fruit dangling in front of her.
And there, in her hammock, was Jayne, a gorgeous ripe peach stuck on the end of his knife, juice running over his fingers.
“Hey there, cutie,” he said, patting the hammock next to him. “Wanna share?”
Oh boy, did she ever.