More Than Friends

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Zoë Washburne made it a common practice never to push her husband into something – it was unspoken between them that she was the stronger of the pair, and although she usually made most of the decisions regarding them, they always discussed it first. So when her beloved Mister had a secret that it seemed like he wanted to keep to himself (that was a rare thing in any case) she never hen-pecked him into revealing it. Oh, she could give him The Look and make him ‘fess up on his own…but she loved seeing him so pleased with himself over something; Wash looked just like a little boy trusted with something for the first time whenever he had a secret, and he always told her eventually.

So why did this time bother her so much? Because this time it ain’t about something silly like a plan to buy new bedsheets with hearts printed on them… it’s something to do with my crew. Zoë looked over at her husband, who was fooling with a stuffed dinosaur as they got ready for bed. What was he hidin’? Well, there was more than one way to find out. “Unlace me?” she asked, looking at him through her lashes. The toy dino was dropped hastily and Wash launched himself across the bed at her. This was going to be too easy…

Much later they lay in a sweaty tangle atop their bed and Zoë ran a finger across his chest lazily. “Husband?” she asked.

“Hmmmmmmmmmm?”

“Where did you learn how to do that?”

Wash opened an eye and looked at her lasciviously. “Which part of it?”

They laughed and teased each other for a few minutes more, and then she made her move. “I wonder if we’re not the only ones doing this right now,” she yawned.

“Well, I’m sure Mal and Inara might be…”

“I was thinking more along the lines of Jayne and Kaylee.”

“No, it’s too soon for that since they just-” Wash gasped and sat up, glaring at her. “Hey! How’d you know about Kaylee and Jayne?”

Zoë sat back against the pillows triumphantly. “I didn’t…but I do now.”


_ _ _ _ _ _ _


The next morning, Jayne pulled off his shirt and examined himself in the mirror, runnin’ a hand down his chest. He still couldn’t get used to bein’ bare as a young’un there, but supposed he should be grateful that River hadn’t gotten that gorram can of glue down his pants. Didn’t look half bad, though…and Kaylee had sure seemed to like it… he shivered just rememberin’ how she’d slid her hand up his shirt and over his skin before he’d pushed her off and come back here to take care of the ‘problem’ she’d created. Did women really like their men to look this? He hooked a thumb in the waistband of his pants and looked down, then up at his chest. No way. Uh-uh. He looked down again. Well… Jayne looked over at the small box of tools he kept near the sink, and to the small scissors he’d used when he still had that goatee – he’d shaved it long since, and used the scissors to trim his hair when it got too long…though that, too, was runnin’ a bit wild these days. He guessed a small trim never hurt nobody, and if anyone special saw it, they might appreciate the care he took. He grabbed the scissors and went to work, frowning at the results when he finished. Hell, I look even bigger now, he thought with a pleased smile as he reached for his clothes.

The first thing he saw when he climbed up his ladder and pulled his bunk door closed was River, smilin’ at him. He tried to remind himself that she was crew now and if he killed her, he’d be out the airlock when Mal got wind of it. And then there was the fact that Kaylee liked her for some reason, and she wouldn’t like it if he did somethin’ to the moonbrained freak. “Doing spring cleaning?” she asked him.

“I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about,” he said, turnin’ to go down to the cargo bay and find Kaylee. He ignored her laughter, though it set his teeth on edge – why’d everyone always have to laugh at him? He weren’t stupid. Well, he weren’t some ruttin’ genius or nothin’, but he was yards smarter than any of ‘em guessed. He just kept his learnin’ to himself, was all…his mother’d always said, Remember, Jayne: God hates a show-off. He wished he could talk to his Ma about Kaylee; she was always good with advice and the like.

Kaylee was workin’ on the mule, her back to him with her overalls rolled down around her hips. He moved silently up behind, and leaped forward suddenly, fillin’ his arms with her. She shrieked in surprise and kicked out, and he got a wrench upside the head as she flailed her arms wildly. “Gorramnit, it’s me,” he growled in her ear, shakin’ his head to clear the ringing from his ears.

“Jayne? Whyn’t you say it was you before you grabbed me?” Kaylee gasped, turnin’ in his arms to slap his chest.

He let go and rubbed a hand ruefully over his face where she’d clocked him with the wrench. “Wanted to see how you’d react to bein’ grabbed. I see we don’t have to work on that none.”

“Sorry.”

“Forget about it – you did good. Are you almost done? We should move over there,” he gestured to the somewhat clean rug he’d brought up from his bunk a few days back. “It shouldn’t bruise you up too bad if you’re on the carpet.” And it sure as hell wouldn’t bruise you if’n you were on my mattress. He shook that thought out of his mind before all the blood could rush from his head to his nethers, somethin’ that never took long in any case. He taught her to break from several holds and grips, tryin’ not to enjoy it too much when she wriggled against him, and keepin’ it in mind that the rest of the crew was movin’ about, so he’d best watch his step a little longer. When she’d gotten the hang of twistin’ away from him and makin’ him let her go, they started to speed it up a bit. “After all, you ain’t gonna be fightin’ off nobody’s Grandpa,” he told her. “You gotta be able to think fast and react even quicker – think you can do it?”

Kaylee squared her shoulders and nodded. “I’ll take you down an’ make you cry for your momma,” she promised. “Let’s get it on, big boy.”

He grinned at the thought of it, watchin’ her start to blush as she realized what she’d just said. “I’ll hold you to that,” he teased. “Think you can handle me?”

In response, she canted her head to one side and looked him up and down in a manner that was all kindsa promisin’. “I’m a bit busy, what with fixin’ Serenity and all, but I think I could fit ya in,” she shot back with a lick of her lips that made some of the circuits of his brain short out. Did she just say…? She took instant advantage of his shock by dartin’ forward to kick his legs out from under him. She caught him off his balance and he began to fall backwards, but reached both hands to the floor and curled his body to simply roll with the movement so that he regained his feet easily. Kaylee stayed where she was on the floor, starin’ at him. “How’d you do tha-aaaaaaaaaaa! ” She ended in a
scream as he lunged for her, and they fell to the deck together.

She had some rare fire in her, that much was sure – she shrieked and squirmed, even bitin’ him so he’d let her go as they rolled around the mat. “Looks like you’re gonna be the one bawlin’ for your Ma,” he grunted as she elbowed him in the stomach as hard as she could. “Give it up girl, else I’ll sit on ya.”

Kaylee gave him a head-butt to the chest. “Cap’n needs a mechanic, not a grease spot on the floor – you ain’t sittin’ on nothin’ but your own tail. Tian xiode, how much d’you weigh? ” she groaned when he collapsed on top of her. “Next time we’re goin’ down, I’m tellin’ Wash to dump your big pi gu out the airlock so we stay afloat. Let up, I need air!”

He lifted himself on his arms and fell down on her again. “Well, I need to get laid, but that ain’t happenin’ either.” When he began to raise up again, the shift in his weight gave her enough room to move her knee up sharply; he released Kaylee to knock her leg away and in a flash, she’d rolled him over and sat on him triumphantly with both knees on his chest.


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Kaylee pumped her fist in the air. “I said it before an’ I’m sayin’ it again: no power in the ‘verse can-” She yelped in surprise as Jayne bucked underneath her, nearly throwin’ her back onto the floor, and reached down to thump him. “No fair, I won! Give, dong ma? ” she threatened.

He heaved again, almost launchin’ her into the air this time. “Or you’ll do….what?”

“Or…or….I’ll, um, kiss you.” She grabbed at his shoulders as he nearly unseated her, trying to press his arms to the carpet and hold him there. Like she had a chance in hell of keepin’ him down, but she surely enjoyed the sight of him under her. “I’m serious, I’ll do it!” Their faces were just inches apart now, and she felt her heart do that stutterin’ thing it had started to do ‘round him lately. Kaylee’d been around enough men to know what part of that look in his eyes meant, but the rest of it…she’d never had that directed at her before.

“So do it,” he dared her, so quiet she thought she had just imagined him speakin’.

“If’n I do, will you give up?” Kaylee slowly let herself unfold and moved her legs to either side of his body, slidin’ the rest of her body so it was flush against his. She felt all dizzy, like she’d pass out. She wished he’d stop lookin’ at her like that; plain xing yu she could handle…but not all that. Not all that.

Jayne just gazed up at her, that look in his eyes makin’ her tremble. “I ain’t never givin’ up,” was all he said, not talkin’ about their play fight at all and both of ‘em knowin’ it. “Your move.” And it was, so she did what she’d been wantin’ for a while now. He stayed quiet as she shifted on him, her hair fallin’ around his face as she lowered her lips to his with her heart poundin’ fit to burst from her chest.

Part of her expected him to just roll her and take over but he stayed still as she kissed him hesitantly, brushing her mouth over his before flicking her tongue at the corner of his mouth and deepening the kiss. She drew back slightly when she realized that he still hadn’t moved – had she been that horrible? – and saw that his eyes were closed. They opened slowly and Jayne just looked at her before he smiled and moved a hand to urge her back down to him again. Oh…she guessed she hadn’t been so bad, after all. This time he joined in and sweet Buddha, could the man kiss. He pushed off of the floor to a sitting position and resettled her so that she was in his lap, wrappin’ his arms around her as he slanted his mouth over hers; Kaylee pushed one hand under his shirt and the other through his hair as he pulled her so close she thought he’d crush her against him.

She felt like her entire body was in flames, the feeling of him floodin’ through her like a ragin’ fire. Why’d it taken so long for them to do this, anyway? Kaylee protested as he drew back, and he laughed. “Let me up, I need air,” he teased her by repeatin’ her words, his arms still tight around her

“But…”

“But nothin’ – c’mon, we gotta clean up the mess you made, thrashin’ around like a gorram fish out of water.” He moved her off of him, laughin’ again as she held on to him. “I’m serious, girl. Or do you wanna be the one explains to Mal why the cargo ain’t stacked for pick up? ‘Sides, Moonbrain was watchin’ and that’s just plain creepy.”


Kaylee reluctantly released him. “If’n you say so – but I ain’t the one weighs a million pounds and can knock over the crates with one finger, so you can restack ‘em your own self, Jayne Cobb.” She straightened her clothing and looked down at her boots, not knowin’ what she should say to him. What did you say to someone you’d only thought of as your ge ge for years and suddenly find yourself neckin’ with him, anyhow? ‘Excuse me, but if you don’t mind, I wanna sex you senseless’? Tee wuh duh pi gu, I wanna kiss him again, she thought. And again, and again, and…

“Hey, you listenin’ to me?” he asked suddenly, his eyes narrowin’ at her.

“Ummmmm…..no?” She laughed at the smug look on his face. “Was River really watchin’ us?”

Jayne pointed up to the catwalk where River was laying with the side of her face pressed to the metal, one eye lookin’ down at them. “Girl’s just odd.” He looked down at Kaylee again and reached out a hand to touch the side of her face. “Listen, about what I…what we…let’s just see how it goes, dong ma? ” he asked, all hesitant now.

Kaylee shivered again at the memory of the look that’d been in his eyes before they’d kissed. She wouldn’t mind seein’ that again, even if it were kinda scary and new to her. “Hao.” Forgetting her previous decision, she began to help him restack the crates that had somehow gotten knocked over during their tussle and laughed when he started to tease her about watchin’ where her hands were when she brushed past him. The tension between them eased enough for them to laugh and teased each other all the way back up to the galley and past their audience of one, Kaylee not mindin’ it a bit when Jayne’s arm slipped around her shoulders as they walked.


tbc…
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