More Than Friends

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It seemed like everything was different now, as she opened her eyes and looked around her bunk. And it was – Kaylee laughed aloud and sat up at the thought that, although Mal and Inara had finished their dance, hers was just beginnin’…and with Jayne as a partner. Jayne. Could she really have been that blind not to see what he’d been offerin’ her? Why didn’t he speak up sooner? She wondered, and then shook her head. Kaylee knew exactly why he hadn’t said nothin’ – man like Jayne was bound to keep himself to himself if there was a chance he’d be shot down. “I’d treat you proper, Kaylee – you know I would.” His words to her on Persephone came back to her as well as the sorrow in his voice that she’d hadn’t never thought of him as aught but her ge ge.

Well, her eyes were wide open now, and she was ready to see if they’d suit each other. If’n the way he’d been treatin’ her of late was any indication of how he really was, she rather thought they’d fit together quite nicely. Fit together nicely? Wode Tian, get yer mind from the slums, Kaylee, she told herself sharply as she brushed her hair out - she was just gonna make sure they were compatible before any sexin’ came into it, was all. She didn’t much care to get burned like she had with Simon.

Kaylee dressed quickly and hurried up to the galley in the hopes that he’d be there, and was unreasonably disappointed to find only Wash and Zoë. “Oh, it’s just you two,” she said before she could help herself.

Zoë eyed her as she picked up her mug of tea. “Sorry to disappoint you,” she said dryly. “We got much the same reaction from Jayne earlier, didn’t we, honey?”

Wash smirked. “That we did, my darling. He’s been and gone – should be coming back since he forgot to take his…” the pilot broke off as Jayne ducked through the door “…tea.”

“You ain’t done nothin’ to it, have ya?” Jayne asked, peerin’ into the mug and givin’ her a smile. “Hey, Kaylee.”

“No, seems like you’ve already used up the last of the steroids so we didn’t have anything but hydraulic fluid to put in there,” Wash snickered.

Jayne sneered back and made a rude gesture. “Ain’t nothin’ wrong with my hydraulics,” he assured them before amblin’ over to see what was in his food locker, frownin’ at a packet he pulled out. She giggled when he’d heated it up and dumped it onto a plate, sniffin’ at it suspiciously. He looked over at her and frowned. “You want this? It don’t look like nothin’ I’d eat, never mind that it was in my locker,” he offered.

“Mighty generous of you.” Kaylee wrinkled her nose at the large, steaming lump on the plate he pushed across the counter to her. “What’s it meant to be?”

“Don’t rightly know – Moonbrain was in here switchin’ labels afore I got it stowed, so it could be anything,” he said absently, diggin’ through another locker to pull somethin’ out before he winked at her. “Shouldn’t matter much what it is – you look like you need somethin’ big an’ hot inside you.”

“You’re disgusting,” Simon announced as he came through the door.

Jayne just looked at him. “Bein’ polite never got nobody nowhere,” the merc returned cheerfully. “Here, made breakfast for your sister.” He slid the plate of whatever-it-was over to Simon and sat down beside Kaylee to eat while she avoided Zoë’s eyes and tried not to pay too much attention to the fact that he was wearin’ a sleeveless black shirt that clung to his chest in a mighty distractin’ manner. Ai ya, but he was built right. She let her mind drift back to what she’d seen in his eyes the previous night, when Mal walked in with ‘Nara and they got down to the business of dolin’ out the day’s tasks.

_ _ _ _ _ _


Mal frowned over at the Mule, where some mighty strange things were happening. Jayne was loading the cargo as he ought and Kaylee was, as usual, underneath the thing fiddlin’ with something didn’t need fiddlin’ with …they were doing their jobs as they had always done, but something wasn’t quite right. Perhaps it was that Jayne was going to great pains to step directly over the ship’s mechanic when he could have easily gone around. Even as he watched, the merc stopped to nudge her in the side with his foot and when she didn’t respond, he placed his boot directly onto her stomach so that she swung a wrench up at him. Perhaps it was how Kaylee scooted out from under there and watched Jayne load up, laughing when the big man started messin’ about by lifting two crates at once and then strutting past her again like he was a rooster in a hen house.

Somethin’ was definitely off.

The captain watched, eyes narrowed, as Kaylee made a production of feeling at Jayne’s biceps admiringly before slidin’ back underneath the Mule to fiddle some more. He asked Zoë about it when the mate came up beside him to look down at the cargo bay floor. “You see anything wrong with that picture?”

She looked as Jayne leaned down to say something to Kaylee, the sound of his laughter ringing out as he stood back up and went back to loading. “Looks like they’re sharin’ a joke, Sir. Could be dangerous.”

“No, I just – okay, see that? That right there.” he pointed excitedly down to Jayne, who had stepped over the tiny mechanic and set his feet to either side of her to tie a rope to secure the cargo. Kaylee playfully kicked a foot up between his legs and he promptly let go of the rope to sit on her shins while she giggled and tried to get him off. “I’m going down there,” he decided.

“Ain’t nothing wrong with a little flirting at times, Sir,” Zoë said seriously.

“I think you’re missing the point here. That over there is Kaylee” he pointed “and that is Jayne. Those two don’t mix.” At her amused snort, he narrowed his eyes at her. “You know somethin’ I don’t?” Mal went down to see for himself, not waiting for an answer. “Jayne! You done loading that yet?”

The merc turned towards him, an unreadable expression on his face. “Yeah, just needs to be tied down.”

“Best get to it, then.”

“If’n you say so,” Jayne said agreeably – maybe he’d just been imagining things, Mal thought. Kaylee scooted out from under once more to grab a wrench and said something about checking the fuel line, walking around the other side while Jayne reached over to tie the rope securely to the rail and asked him to keep it tight. The big man circled around the craft, looping it around the opposite side of the railing and tossing it back over so Mal could do the same. He repeated Jayne’s actions and threw the coil of rope back. It missed the merc’s outstretched hands and fell to the floor, and Jayne stooped to pick it up. Suddenly the other man yelped and shot upright with a surprised expression on his face, the rope dropping back to the floor.

“Jayne, what the hell are you playin’…” Mal trailed off as he saw Kaylee gliding behind the big merc. “Kaylee? ”

His mechanic blinked at him, all dewy-eyed and innocent as a newborn calf. “Yes, Cap’n?”

This was entirely too strange. “You go check on the engines and leave the Mule to us men-folk for a while.” He turned to Jayne as Kaylee rolled her eyes and left. “You want to tell me what’s goin’ on?”

Jayne glanced up at him and snorted, then turned his attention back down to the rope he was tying in a knot. “I really got no idea, Mal.”

_ _ _ _ _ _ _


The next few days after the pick-up were filled with flirtin’ as they continued the self-defense lessons with Jayne stealin’ kisses right and left, and in the evenings they’d usually just be hangin’ together wherever, getting’ more comfortable with each other and swappin’ stories about their folks. Kaylee told him about her upbringin’ and he told her some ‘bout his; he weren’t used to getting’ so personal, she could tell. She had a new respect for the big man after he’d told her all about how he’d been raised by his Ma and had helped raise his younger brothers and sister after their Pa had left ‘em on their own. She could hear the love for his kin in his voice whenever she got him to talk about ‘em, and that heartened her – you couldn’t never trust a man who didn’t even respect his Momma, after all.

“I thought you never kissed on the mouth,” she protested one night they were talkin’ in the engine room and the urge to invite him down to her bunk was near to overwhelmin’.

Jayne slid a hand under his shirt to scratch at his chest. “Naw, you know that ain’t true. I meant it for whores and the like is all, and you ain’t no whore…could never be if you tried,” he said.

She smiled at him, “I dunno, I get some awful dirty thoughts in my head sometimes” And they’re all ‘bout you, she thought. Maybe she should just invite him on down.

“You’ll hafta tell me ‘bout those sometime, maybe I’d like to hear what goes on in that pretty head a’yours,” he teased, keepin’ his eyes locked onto hers as he moved closer to her. That look was back in his eyes – well, it never really went away that she noticed, but now she knew what it meant and was startin’ to feel the same way. It was still good to be cautious, though.

Kaylee whimpered as his lips touched hers and she was pulled into his arms for one of the most intense kisses they’d had yet. His tongue tangled with hers as his big hands began to roam over her body, and she slid her hands under his shirt to renew the exploration River’s spyin’ eyes had put an end to the previous week. His skin felt warm and smooth under her fingers and the urge she felt now was strong enough to break away from the kiss she was near to drownin’ in, and yank up his shirt to run her tongue over the solid muscles beneath it. Well, she tried, anyway – Kaylee only got one good lick in before he dragged her back up to his mouth and kissed her hungrily. The hell with takin’ it slow – she wanted him, wanted this. “We shouldn’t,” he gasped out as she ran her nails over the muscles of his back.

“We really shouldn’t,” she agreed. He slid a hand down her back to squeeze her rear. “Would be a bad idea.” Jayne nibbled his way down her neck, swipin’ his tongue over the bite marks. She was seconds away from offerin’ up her bed – either that or seein’ how much weight her hammock could support – when Mal’s voice on the intercom broke ‘em apart guiltily.

“Kaylee, you got the engine in shape yet?”

She groaned and leaned her head against the wall as she pushed on the ‘com button. “She’s runnin’ a mite hot at the moment, Cap’n, but she’ll survive.” She looked over at Jayne who was still tryin’ to get his breathin’ – as well as somethin’ else – under control, and sighed. “We gotta work somethin’ out, Jayne. Ain’t much more I can take of you feelin’ on me and not gettin’ no satisfaction,” she complained.

Jayne leaned back against the engine housing and looked at her. “So you want me?” he asked. Why’d he look so down about it?

“Hell yes, I do, but whenever-”

He looked down at his boots. “Is it just, y’know, sexin’ you’re wantin’ or a mite else besides? I ain’t no casual rut,” he said, comin’ on out with it.

Well, she shoulda known that was what was stoppin’ him. Truth was, it still scared her a bit to think on the feelings he had for her – oh, he’d yet to say ‘em out loud, but she didn’t know if she was ready. Gettin’ burned with Simon had made her a bit skittish, and she told him so. “Jayne, I just wanna be careful, is all… I got some feelings ‘bout you for true, I ain’t gonna lie.” She went to him and placed her hands on his chest, lookin’ up into those beautiful blue eyes. “I just don’t want nothin’ to go wrong this time…but yes, I want a mite else besides.” Jayne’s arms came around her then, and she pressed in close to inhale the warm scent of his neck and enjoyed the feel of his fingers combin’ through her hair.

_ _ _ _ _


They stood there in silence, holding each other with their eyes closed and not paying the slightest bit of attention to anything else – as it was, neither of them ever knew it when Mal poked his head in the door to harass Kaylee about the engine repairs and saw them. His mouth, already open to scold the mechanic for not giving him specifics earlier, closed with an audible click that the two still didn’t seem to hear. He was contemplating going in to drag Kaylee away from the other man - he’d go for Jayne first, but didn’t think he was strong enough to move him by himself – when a touch on his arm startled him. Mal turned to see Inara behind him, and she put her finger to his lips as she peered past him into the engine room, a tender smile curving her lips. He made to speak, but his lover simply smiled again, shook her head, and steered him to her shuttle.


tbc…
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