Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/46727.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Underage
  Category:
      F/M
  Fandom:
      Firefly
  Relationship:
      Jayne_Cobb/River_Tam
  Character:
      Jayne_Cobb, Inara_Serra, River_Tam
  Additional Tags:
      Odd_world_view
  Stats:
      Published: 2010-01-07 Words: 2298
****** Silence, and Voice ******
by chaosmanor
People drifted in and out of her shuttle, it was something Inara accepted, and
on the whole she enjoyed the company enough that she always kept a second
beaker ready on her table.
Sometimes the guest wanted to talk, like Shepherd Book. The good Shepherd liked
to tell her about the inner planets, the cities there, and the people.
Sometimes her guest was quiet, like Simon, who would drink his tea in silence,
his face eaten up by worry.
And River, of course, would talk, and sometimes she'd make sense, like this
time.
"The black is big," River said, putting her half-full mug back on the table. It
was a statement that Inara could safely agree with, so she nodded.
"And Serenity is quiet," River added.
Serenity was at that moment grinding and shuddering as it settled in the new
main bearing that Kaylee had just installed, so Inara kept her face impassive
and sipped her tea.
River giggled, sounding like a little girl. "Not the ship, silly," she said,
poking Inara with her toe. "The people."
"Who's the quietest?" Inara asked. Simple question, no need to worry about a
River disaster there.
"Not Mal," River said, taking not just one of the sweetmeats Inara offered to
her, but the whole platter. "Mal's angry inside, and he thinks about sex a
lot."
Nothing Inara didn't already know there.
River wiped crumbs from her hands onto her dress, then pressed her hands
together and flexed them, and the movement puzzled Inara for a moment, until
she realized it symbolised two bodies moving together, and the imagery made her
smile. She would have to remember that gesture.
River looked expectantly at Inara and munched on one of the morsels, spreading
crumbs over the satin cloth that covered the divan, and Inara worked out she
was supposed to respond and said, "All people do, River."
River rolled her eyes, cheeks round with a second sweetmeat. "Mal does, Simon
does, Kaylee does. All the time." The ship ground and shuddered, and even
through the closed shuttle doors, the sound of Kaylee swearing echoed through
the back hallway.
"That's because people are supposed to," Inara said.
"You don't," River said indistinctly, stuffing another sweetmeat in her mouth.
"Zoe and Wash don't, 'cause they're rutting all the time."
Inara didn't try and suppress her smile, there was no point with River. Tea
with a reader made some of the polite nicities unnecessary. "Probably why I
don't either," Inara said. "I'm either working, or resting."
River chewed, and Inara poured another half-mug of tea for River. "What about
Jayne?" she asked, unable to resist her curiosity.
"He don't think 'bout nothin' at all," River said. "Not even..." There was the
hand movement again, so innocent and so expressive.
"Really?" Inara said, and River nodded as she pushed the last sweetmeat in her
mouth, wiped her hands on the satin cover this time, and stood up, single fluid
movement that sent a cascade of crumbs across the shuttle. "Come back again,"
Inara called out as River melted through the doorway, then she let herself lie
back on the divan and laugh, really laugh. May the good Shepherd bless that
girl, she said the darndest things.
 
* * *
 
Time ticked and trickled, and River sat on the top of the metal box in the
engine room, humming to herself, letting Kaylee's pleasure in her work wash
through her. Serenity was quiet again now, and Kaylee was a patting and a
stroking the the part of Serenity that was purring instead of clunkin'.
"Telling me," River said, and Kaylee jumped and squawked and dropped the--
thing--she was holding.
"River, honey," Kaylee said. "I didn't know you was up there."
"Telling me," River said again, and she slid down the side of the metal box,
and bent over and picked up Kaylee's thing, and held it out for her.
"Telling you what, sweetie?" Kaylee asked, and it made River smile. She was one
of the yummy things that Inara always had, that was a good thing to be.
River blinked, then said, "Nothing. You didn't even know I was there. How could
you be telling me anything?"
Kaylee looked confused, and River could feel the ripples of puzzlement
spreading through her, and she walked off, smiling to herself contentedly. It
was a good daynightday.
 
There was a clunk and crinkle, smells from the engine, and from the kitchen,
and River slipped through the ship unseen, swinging from the pipes and standing
on the railings in the cargo bay. One day she'd fly, swing through air, but
until then it would be enough to make Simon shout by standing on the railings.
 
Serenity was a good place, so many places to tuck herself away, and there was
quiet and invisibleness, and folks would say things, good things to hear.
Hearing was good, and River crouched down outside Zoe and Wash's cabin and
pressed her ear against the metal. They was a humpin', making little noises,
and Zoe felt so happy, more happy than River could imagine having space inside
herself for. There were too many voices for happy.
"Watcha doin'?" Jayne asked, squatting down beside her.
"Listening," she said, because she always had to explain things to Jayne. It
was possible she'd be squashing her ear up against the door to someone's cabin
for another reason, but she couldn't think what it was.
Maybe Zoe and Wash were flying in there?
"Oh," Jayne said, and he pushed his head beside hers, against the metal too.
"Well, I'll be a qingwa cao de liumang, they'd be a cao de."
Jayne smelt, and not like anyone else she'd met. This was a sharp and wet
smell, like vinegar, and while Jayne's eyes were closed as he concentrated,
River leant forward and sniffed his arm experimentally.
Zoe was singing now, and River smiled to herself at the happy song, and Mal's
voice called out, "Wo de tian a, you folks had better have a gorramn reason for
being there."
"Captain," Jayne said, standing up fast. "We're, um, lookin' for River's,
um..."
"Piano," River said under her breath. "Banana. Parasol."
"... necklace," Jayne said.
"Well move," Mal said, and River could hear how exasperated he was.
"Wait," she said, holding up her hand. "Zoe's getting to the good bit."
"MOVE!" Mal bellowed, and River leapt to her feet and ducked behind Jayne. If
the Captain was angry, Jayne was good shelter.
Jayne moved fast, but not so fast that River couldn't keep up with him, and she
slipped down the ladder to his cabin, feet barely touching the metal, landing
carefully on her toes just as the metal thudded shut above her.
"Well, I'll be..." Jayne said, and he shook his head. "Gittout."
River sat on his bunk, amongst the rumpled and soiled sheets. His smell was
strong there, and she wondered if it was little insects perhaps, nesting and
breeding amongst the material. She couldn't find any though, when she looked.
"Gittout!" Jayne snarled, and his hands clamped around her arms, not hard
enough to hurt her, which was good, because she didn't want to have to hurt him
back.
She let him lift her up, off his bunk, so she was pressed against his chest.
"No," she said, and there was that sideways moment, when she thought she might
have slipped out of her body again, but Jayne's eyes were warm, like he had
figured out she actually had said 'yes'.
"Make me sing," she said. "Make me fly."
"Feng le," Jayne said, and his voice was against her cheek when she wrapped her
arms around his neck and took her own weight.
It was comfortable like that, and her toes just reached the decking, when she
stretched, but Jayne didn't know how strong she was, and he lowered her back
onto the insected sheets.
He wasn't heavy, not when he held his weight off her, just brushing forward to
press his lips against hers. There was something so tentative about the touch,
so gentle, and she could feel his worry that he'd hurt her mix up with the
other feelings that were all about his...
He moaned, just like Wash, when his penis pushed against her, and it felt so
big and hard it took her a moment to work out what it was. "Turgid," she said.
"Wha?" Jayne whispered, his mouth against her ear, and the sound of his mouth
made prickles run all over her, and made her feel like she needed to piss, only
she didn't.
"Oh!" River gasped, and Jayne chuckled, and he moved a little, pressing his
thing, his penis, against her groin, where her dress had ridden up. She felt
out of control, more out of control, big and warm and wet, and he kissed her
properly, not like Simon did, doing things with his mouth against hers, and
when she opened her mouth to gasp, he pressed the tip of his tongue in.
This was kissing like Inara did, like Zoe and Wash too, when they thought she
wasn't watching, and now River thought she understood why they did it. It felt
good, like eating something, only not, but the best bit was how, with Jayne's
face right against hers, she could feel the way he wanted her.
Just her. Not something she could do, not for her to be quiet--go away--be a
good girl--he just wanted her.
Her bits were hurting now, only not, and then Jayne rolled off her, so he
rested on the bunk beside her, and when she looked down, his penis was so big
it had escaped from his clothes.
"You don't need to look, love," Jayne said gruffly, tipping her chin up so her
eyes were on his face. "No need to be gettin' youself all worried 'bout that."
His hand pushed her dress aside, at the top, and she could feel how much he
liked looking at her tiny breasts. They weren't big and squishy like Inara's,
or Kaylee's, or big and hard like his own, but he was mighty interested in
looking at them; then he touched one gently.
"You be a tellin' me to stop," he said. "If you..."
"Want to fly," River said, and his fingers found her nipple, just gently
pressing on it, then moving to the other one, and she felt like she was gonna
burst or something. Breathing was hard, as was thinking, then Jayne slid his
hand up her thigh slowly, his callusses scratching her a little, and it was the
best feeling she'd ever had.
"Shh," Jayne whispered, and River realised she was making noises, animal
noises, because she was animal, and this was what animals did. Then his fingers
found her, where she had made herself wet, and the groan Jayne gave was
guttural and long.
He was touching her, just gently, pushing the fabric of her underwear up a
little, rubbing his fingers in circles, and River was mewling like a kitten.
She'd had no idea...
That's it, the sudden flash of realisation. That was why Jayne's mind was
quiet; he felt like this all the time.
"I'm gonna have me a some of that hunny," Jayne whispered, and he crawled down
the bunk, lifting her dress up, then easing her underwear down, his face
pressed against her belly, making little kisses, whispering to her, little kiss
sounds against her burning skin.
She thought she might be about to explode, fly into tiny pieces, all over
Jayne's cabin, and when she looked down at him, he was gazing at her with such
reverence that it made her eyes wet.
Then--in all the 'verse, who would have known?--he put his mouth against her,
gentle, like he had kissed her, and slithered his tongue out and lapped at her,
like a cat, just slow and soft, slippery and slick, and she tasted so good, she
could feel that.
He did things, little things, with his lips and tongue and teeth and fingers,
played her like his guitar, made her sing like a bird, fly like a bird.
When it was over, when the burning was gone, and she was in the little wet
pieces, along with the insects in Jayne's bunk, he lifted himself over her, and
put the tip of his penis against her. She was so wet, and so happy, and it slid
in just a little, making Jayne groan deeply.
He kept doing it, pushing himself inside her slowly and carefully, and there
was someone else inside her then, and she wasn't all alone. The feelings came
back, the piss feelings, and the hot ones, and she clung to him, and he began
to rock into her, slow and steady, pushing her up the bunk a little with each
stroke.
She was keening, with each stroke, and this time Jayne didn't try and shush
her, because he was making noises too, the best noises, that went all the way
through River, made her rush through the black like Serenity did, out where the
quiet was.
He was over her, eyes closed, mouth gasping, and she could feel him, feel the
burning in him, how it uncoiled from the base of his spine, unwound through his
body, through hers, and she shattered again, proving a person could break more
than once in their life.
He did too, and there was wet stuff inside her, and she could smell it was
Jayne, just like his bunk, his sheet-insects, inside her, and outside her,
spreading everywhere.
Sweat ran down Jayne's face now, when he slid off her and slumped on his bunk,
and he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, so his heart banged in
her ear.
It was good to be held.
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