Fic: Drabbles #7-9: (Firefly, River/Mal)
The week's drabbles for drabble365days; this week my mind spent all its time happily cavorting in the gutter, apparently.
Title: No Need to Wonder
Rating: PG
Words: 325
Summary: In which one choice changes everything.
No Need to Wonder
At fourteen, River Tam decides, at the last minute, against attending The Academy; she settles for her second choice, because it is closer to her brother, because it has a dance program, because she has the choice, and in time, she forgets to wonder what could have been.
At sixteen, she's accepted to the University at Londinium, the best in the 'verse; she and Simon go on an inter-planetary cruise to celebrate, though its regimented nature soon bores her, and she looks towards the dusty, battered ships at Persephone's docks with longing, a bright parasol twirling along the edge of her vision.
At twenty, she leaves the University with three degrees and wanderlust in her heart; Simon wants her to join him in medicine, set up a Tam Research Institute, but she laughs and tells him while she can be a doctor anytime, she can only dance when she's young, and becomes the principle in a traveling dance show instead.
At twenty-one, she spots a sandy-haired man in the audience, looking bored and out of place until she takes the stage; then his eyes are riveted on her, and when she seeks him out after the performance, he introduces himself as a ship's captain, here on business (he won't say what sort, though she can guess; she's very good at guessing); they drink, and talk, until she feels she's always known him (surely that's the drink talking, as he doesn't say much about himself); later she takes him back to her room, because he reminds her of freedom, and because she's grown into taking her pleasures where she can find them.
At twenty-five, she enters medical school, and spends her days with her brother as another Dr. Tam, two genius stars blazing across their field; her nights she spends as River, in dreams (which always turn insubstantial by morning) of a man wrapped in brown leather and a silver ship that burns across the skies.
***
Title: Heat Is a Heavy Head
Rating: PG
Words: 198
Summary: In which River makes sense of a confusing sensation.
Heat Is a Heavy Head
The burning had never gone unnoticed, starting warm across her cheeks, spreading in a flush down to her hands, tingling in her palms; a slow heating of all her blood until it felt weightless, turned to steam in his presence.
She failed to understand the whys of it, a reasoning and experience she had no basis in, until the day he bent over her shoulder to correct something up on the bridge, and her world contracted, the narrow brand of his arm against her all she could feel.
“Why?” she'd demanded, spinning her chair around. “Why does everything burn when you touch me? Makes no logical sense. Your blood isn't heated any more than mine.”
He hadn't answered her then in words, only choked out something about her maybe having a fever before he fled the room, but his thoughts had explained, all tangled up as they were between a piece of blistering heat that made itself known as desire and a plunge into icy sharp shock. She'd held her breath, and waited out the thaw, and now, now she understood.
Now, when he touches her, they burn together, heated and stripped, purified in each other.
***
Title: Not So Much Peculiar
Rating: PG-13
Words: 355
Summary: In which the galley proves a poor place for privacy.
Not So Much Peculiar
She's got awful pretty feet, and he's reminded of this fact when she glides on up to him and settles one delicately in his lap as he's sitting in the galley.
“You promised,” she says, sounding reproachful.
“You'll have to bring it to mind, albatross - just what did I promise that's got you all frisky?” he asks, folding his hands around ankle and calf, cause he might be a decent man most days, but that doesn't mean he's gotta ignore what's been freely offered.
“Said the temperature of my bed would be increased tonight, so I could sleep in comfort.”
“And that would be why there's an extra blanket sitting in your bunk, or didn't you notice 'fore you came looking for a living one?” he says, resting his chin on her knee as he looks up at her, standing on one foot, poised and unmoving, perfectly balanced.
“Can't fool me as to your intentions. Don't tease, Mal,” she says, her hands playing through his hair. “It isn't worthy of you.”
“Oh, I beg to differ on that point.” His hands have just started a nice long slide upwards when there's a new and very unwelcome voice from the doorway.
“Uh, am I interruptin' something here?” Jayne's standing frozen, mug halfway to his mouth, and if his timing weren't so damned awful Mal would've laughed at the look on his face.
“Yes,” River says, giving Jayne a chilling look over her shoulder.
“Well...can I keep interruptin'?”
“No.” Mal's hoping the look on his face will serve to remind Jayne who's in charge, though that's always been something of a losing battle, probably even more so when he's sitting there with a girl's foot between his legs and his hands halfway up her skirt.
“Two of you need to get a room that ain't got all the gorram food in it,” Jayne grumbles, walking away.
“The man-ape has a point, Mal.” Putting her foot back on the ground, she takes his hand, tugging him along. “I am still cold, after all.”
~
Full table is here.
Title: No Need to Wonder
Rating: PG
Words: 325
Summary: In which one choice changes everything.
No Need to Wonder
At fourteen, River Tam decides, at the last minute, against attending The Academy; she settles for her second choice, because it is closer to her brother, because it has a dance program, because she has the choice, and in time, she forgets to wonder what could have been.
At sixteen, she's accepted to the University at Londinium, the best in the 'verse; she and Simon go on an inter-planetary cruise to celebrate, though its regimented nature soon bores her, and she looks towards the dusty, battered ships at Persephone's docks with longing, a bright parasol twirling along the edge of her vision.
At twenty, she leaves the University with three degrees and wanderlust in her heart; Simon wants her to join him in medicine, set up a Tam Research Institute, but she laughs and tells him while she can be a doctor anytime, she can only dance when she's young, and becomes the principle in a traveling dance show instead.
At twenty-one, she spots a sandy-haired man in the audience, looking bored and out of place until she takes the stage; then his eyes are riveted on her, and when she seeks him out after the performance, he introduces himself as a ship's captain, here on business (he won't say what sort, though she can guess; she's very good at guessing); they drink, and talk, until she feels she's always known him (surely that's the drink talking, as he doesn't say much about himself); later she takes him back to her room, because he reminds her of freedom, and because she's grown into taking her pleasures where she can find them.
At twenty-five, she enters medical school, and spends her days with her brother as another Dr. Tam, two genius stars blazing across their field; her nights she spends as River, in dreams (which always turn insubstantial by morning) of a man wrapped in brown leather and a silver ship that burns across the skies.
***
Title: Heat Is a Heavy Head
Rating: PG
Words: 198
Summary: In which River makes sense of a confusing sensation.
Heat Is a Heavy Head
The burning had never gone unnoticed, starting warm across her cheeks, spreading in a flush down to her hands, tingling in her palms; a slow heating of all her blood until it felt weightless, turned to steam in his presence.
She failed to understand the whys of it, a reasoning and experience she had no basis in, until the day he bent over her shoulder to correct something up on the bridge, and her world contracted, the narrow brand of his arm against her all she could feel.
“Why?” she'd demanded, spinning her chair around. “Why does everything burn when you touch me? Makes no logical sense. Your blood isn't heated any more than mine.”
He hadn't answered her then in words, only choked out something about her maybe having a fever before he fled the room, but his thoughts had explained, all tangled up as they were between a piece of blistering heat that made itself known as desire and a plunge into icy sharp shock. She'd held her breath, and waited out the thaw, and now, now she understood.
Now, when he touches her, they burn together, heated and stripped, purified in each other.
***
Title: Not So Much Peculiar
Rating: PG-13
Words: 355
Summary: In which the galley proves a poor place for privacy.
Not So Much Peculiar
She's got awful pretty feet, and he's reminded of this fact when she glides on up to him and settles one delicately in his lap as he's sitting in the galley.
“You promised,” she says, sounding reproachful.
“You'll have to bring it to mind, albatross - just what did I promise that's got you all frisky?” he asks, folding his hands around ankle and calf, cause he might be a decent man most days, but that doesn't mean he's gotta ignore what's been freely offered.
“Said the temperature of my bed would be increased tonight, so I could sleep in comfort.”
“And that would be why there's an extra blanket sitting in your bunk, or didn't you notice 'fore you came looking for a living one?” he says, resting his chin on her knee as he looks up at her, standing on one foot, poised and unmoving, perfectly balanced.
“Can't fool me as to your intentions. Don't tease, Mal,” she says, her hands playing through his hair. “It isn't worthy of you.”
“Oh, I beg to differ on that point.” His hands have just started a nice long slide upwards when there's a new and very unwelcome voice from the doorway.
“Uh, am I interruptin' something here?” Jayne's standing frozen, mug halfway to his mouth, and if his timing weren't so damned awful Mal would've laughed at the look on his face.
“Yes,” River says, giving Jayne a chilling look over her shoulder.
“Well...can I keep interruptin'?”
“No.” Mal's hoping the look on his face will serve to remind Jayne who's in charge, though that's always been something of a losing battle, probably even more so when he's sitting there with a girl's foot between his legs and his hands halfway up her skirt.
“Two of you need to get a room that ain't got all the gorram food in it,” Jayne grumbles, walking away.
“The man-ape has a point, Mal.” Putting her foot back on the ground, she takes his hand, tugging him along. “I am still cold, after all.”
~
Full table is here.