The Games We Play

Title: The Games We Play
Author: Gwenfrewi72
Rating: AO
Fandom: Firefly
Spoilers: None
Summary: The crew plays hoopball. Mal and River play a different game together afterwards.
Length: 2,949 according to Word
Disclaimer: The great, almighty and powerful Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, etc. own the universe and characters. I'm just playing with them. Please don’t’ take away my shiny toys Captain.
Author's Note:

SPECIAL THANKS TO: srichard. This woman is an absolute goddess and helped me with all my grammar and other issues that came up with this fic. I am your humble slave.

Copyright (c) JUNE 2006 Patricia Flynn

As always, feedback is shiny!

Inara was perched on the edge of the catwalk, her legs dangling over the cargo bay. A cup of her favorite tea rested in her hands, the jasmine-scented steam drifting upwards towards the benign smile upon her face as she watched the game of hoop ball being played.

It was Mal, Simon and River versus Kaylee, Jayne and Zoe. Keeping score was unimportant as they were just burning off excess energy and having fun while doing it.

River was the only one who knew that the game was currently tied. Simon somehow always ended up covering Kaylee and they kept getting distracted whenever their bodies touched. It was really Mal and herself against Jayne and Zoe.

She waited patiently for the ball to be tossed to Jayne. Mal was covering Zoe too well for her to make a shot and River knew it was just a matter of time before her opportunity came.

Zoe did a stutter step move that allowed her to get free of Mal long enough to toss the ball to Jayne. Just as he leapt up to catch it, River body checked him. With arms and legs flailing, he went sprawling to the floor, flat on his ass. The ball rolled innocuously away.

Laughing, she ran past his stunned face to scoop up the ball and threw it up in the air to score.

She smiled smugly down at Jayne as she ran back. Mal rebounded the ball and scored another point for them as an alarm sounded.

"Proximity alert, must be coming up on something," Zoë said.

Wash ghostly voice echoed through their minds and Serenity. "Oh my god, what could it be? We’re all doomed. Who’s flying this thing?"

"Oh that would be me. Back to work." River's voice whispered, the words overlaid with the haunting echo of Wash's jolly voice.

Zoë’s eyes flashed painfully for a moment at River, and then a smirk graced her lips.

Mal warily watched the interplay between them, his body relaxing when he saw Zoë’s smile. Arching an eyebrow at River, he passed the silent message to go see what the alarm was about.

River grinned back and swiftly made her way to the bridge. Seating herself in pilot's chair, she was overcome with memories of their former pilot.

Focusing hard, she pulled up the scanners and saw that it had detected a stray asteroid in their flight path. Reaching over she flipped the automatic pilot off and quickly maneuvered Serenity from the collision course.

Mal was walking down the hall from the bridge when he felt the ship's artificial gravity give out momentarily and was tossed against the door to Kaylee's bunk.

"River, what the hell are you doing to my boat!" Mal yelled as he rose himself from the floor and moved swiftly to the bridge.

"Just a stray asteroid. Trajectory modified to avert collision. She's flying true again."

Mal mumbled and glared at her as he took the co-pilot's seat.

River had flipped the autopilot back on and was reviewing their course when the aroma of Mal's sweat drenched body drifted over to River; her nostrils flared as she savored the combination of pheromones and soap that was his scent. Her eyes widened with desire before returning to their normal state and she resumed her review of the coordinates.

"Game over? All the children back to being grownups again?" River queried.

"Don't know about Jayne. Right now he's pouting on his weight bench cause of that nasty trick you played on him."

"Not a nasty trick. Forgot about the laws of gravity and physics. Just reminded him of them is all." River's eyes twinkled merrily as she reminisced on the stunned expression on Jayne's face as he fell.

Mal chuckled. He loved that River took it upon herself to help keep Jayne in check for him.

He was constantly amazed that this beautiful deadly creature loved him, and he returned it a hundred fold.

Ever since Miranda, she had been subtly making him realize and understand that she was better and that he was the cause of it. She believed that he was the one that ultimately saved her from what those bastards had done to her.

Mind you, she still had her crazy moments, but they had become fewer and farther between after Miranda.

But as he’d taught her to fly and watched as she stretched her wings and flew free from the mental cage the Alliance had put her in and became a woman, he realized that his regard had somehow shifted for her.
Thankfully she was a genius and a reader, because she swiftly let him know how things stood and claimed him as her own. Simon had put up a fuss at first but River had set him straight right quick in that odd way of hers.

So now, here he sat. Admiring his woman with her devious, playful mind.

With a malevolent twinkle in his eye, he decided to remind her of a few rules himself.

Turning his eyes to stare vacantly out into the black, he let his mind drift aimlessly for a few moments to lull her. With his peripheral vision, he noted that she shifted to her favorite relaxed, thinking position. She’d curled her gorgeous legs up into her chair to gaze wonderingly at the stairs.

Sensing she was unaware of his intentions, Mal began his fantasy. His eyes unfocused as sensuous images danced across his eyes. He felt a slight buzzing sensation that let him know that she was reading him.

River rises from her seat. Moving soundlessly, like some ethereal creature, she makes her way over next to Mal. Reaching down, she moves the armrests up out of her way and then climbs onto Mal’s lap. Her dress slides up her taut thighs as she straddles his legs.

Mal’s hands grab her waist as she glides her pussy against his groin with a firm, flowing motion. He can feel her moist heat radiating through his pants and realizes she has nothing on under her dress. His cock hardens in anticipation.

Mal heard River’s breath hitch and smirked before continuing his fantasy. He loved that he could tease her this way.

Reaching up, Mal grasps the back of her neck and pulls her forward for a searing kiss. Their lips meet and open in a libidinous mating. Their tongues mingle in ardent combat as they each seek to devour the other.

Winding his fingers into her hair, Mal tugs just enough to get her to pull back. Her hips continue their erotic gyrations and they are both being driven crazy by her ministrations. Moving swiftly, Mal grabs her by her waist and hoists her up onto the co-pilot’s console.

River’s eyes flash open at this, and she starts to open her mouth. He quickly presses a finger to her dewy, swollen lips as he shakes his head. Her eyes are curious before turning mischievous as she runs the tip of her tongue along the callused digits of his fingertip before sucking it into her mouth.

Mal’s face is contorted in passionate fascination as he watches River sucks feverishly on his finger. She’s never performed oral sex on him, but just based on the way her tongue is swirling and the way her mouth is sucking at this moment, he knows he has to figure out a way to get her to suck his cock and soon.

Pulling his finger from her mouth, Mal smiles before grasping her hands and placing them at the top of the console. In this position she is laid out like a buffet for Mal to enjoy.

“No moving.” He whispers.

“No moving.”

Mal gently kisses her lips. She opens her mouth in an attempt to deepen the kiss, but he moves quickly away to nibble at the line of her jaw. He continues kissing and nibbling his way down her neck, savoring the salty, sweet taste of her skin. Too soon, he is at the edge of her cotton dress.

Reaching up, Mal grabs both sides of the neckline and rips it straight down the front. She gasps slightly. Her eyes glitter with fervor. Her breathing is getting a little erratic.

Mal leans forward and flicks his tongue over the right nipple as his left hand reaches up and gentle strokes across the other like a whisper. They both pebble and harden immediately. Mal alternates between each breast with tongue and finger flicks as River whimpers.

She is arching her body in an attempt to get deeper and more satisfying contact but Mal anticipate these moves and keep my mouth and hands just out of reach.

Mal paused a moment in his musings and chanced a sidelong glace at River. Her face was flushed and she was panting heavily.

Mal pauses and sits back to enjoy the vision of River, legs spread wide, nipples rosy from his gentle attentions, eyes shut, head thrown back, body arched in expectation of his next caress. He is so pleased that this woman his to love and enjoy.

Mal springs forward and simultaneously engulfs her right breast in his teeth; his left hand pinches the other nipple, and he thrusts two fingers of his other hand into her hot, moist heat. She is gasping above him. Mal can tell she is close to orgasm as the muscles clench and release around his fingers.

Using his thumb, he grazes her clit. River moans and arches up further to obtain more pressure on that sensitive spot, and again Mal evades her movements, leaving her unfulfilled. Mal continues to stroke her lightly, never giving her enough pressure to bring her to orgasm.

Mal stood quickly, ending his fantasy and grimaced at the tightness of his pants. He just managed not to laugh out loud at the flummoxed look on River’s flushed face.

“Night ‘lil albatross.”

Mal was almost at the door before she spoke up.

“Mal?”

“Yeah?” Mal turned to look into her confused eyes.

“What,” she paused briefly, “was that?”

“Just remindin’ you of a rule you mighta forgotten.”

“What rule?”

“All’s fair in love and war, sweetheart.” Mal chuckled evilly as he walked out of the cockpit and down into his bunk. Normally he would have kissed her before leaving, but didn’t trust his self-control at this point to not take her right then and there, making his little fantasy a reality. I’m a bad, bad man.

River’s eyes narrowed dangerously as she watched his retreating form. If it’s games he wants, well, games he’ll get.

River resumed staring out into the black. It took her awhile to adequately dampen down the desire raging through her body before she could bring her focus internal rather then external. Mal had gotten her all riled up, and she had some revenge to plot.

Her mind ran with permutations of how to get him the way he’d gotten her. Usually she retaliated with physical teasing, but she really wanted tit for tat this time. She could enter his dreams and manipulate him there, but she disliked doing that. She only did it when she knew he was having bad dreams. Besides which, he usually got mad at her the next day if she did that.

As her mind whirled, a new possibility entered her equations. She’d never really thought about him that way, but the more she looked at his behavior and such, the percentage of odds that she was correct about this hypothesis was ninety percent.

Mal was a reader. Nowhere near her caliber of ability, but it explained so many things about him. How he’d always understood her mad ramblings, his need to meet people to size them up, so many things he did that indicated that he had this ability but wasn’t aware of it. Also explained why he knew what she was before anyone else.

So if she was correct in her hypothesis, was it possible for her to open up the connection from him to her enough that he could read her more consciously? Closing her eyes, she brought herself into a deep meditative state. It was something she’d mastered in the months since Miranda that had helped her achieve something resembling normal behavior.

Focusing on Mal, she wandered into his mind and realized he had taken his own frustration at his little fantasy into his own hands. Using a subtle touch, she nudged his fantasy off center into thoughts of Jayne, which wilted things rather quickly.

Satisfied that she’d impeded his orgasm long enough to implement her revenge, she continued to the pineal gland in the frontal lobe of his brain where psychic abilities were said to reside. Finding the potential that was already there, she proceeded to connect herself to him. She felt a slight buzzing sensation enter her head and wondered if that was what he felt when she read him.

Bringing herself back to normal awareness, River felt the tingle continue and grinned with satisfaction as she sat back to begin her fantasy.

Mal lay naked on their bed. His arms were crossed under his head and his eyes closed. He was wondering where the image of naked Jayne had come from, when in his mind's eye he saw River standing next to him in the bunk.

River stands for a few moments admiring the masculine beauty that is Mal. His firm lips, the strong jaw line, his nicely defined torso and then his well endowed cock that brought her so much joy. Just looking at him set her body humming with desire.

River took a moment to read Mal and knew that he was aroused.

Moving silently and swiftly, River removes her dress and climbs onto the bed. Mal knows that she's there and is playing possum, expecting her to climb up his body to kiss him. His body jerks and then tightens as he feels her hand wrap around his cock.

She grins mischievously as she slowly strokes him back to hardness. His mouth opens as he gives several moans at the hand job she is giving him. The moans turn to gasps as her tongue flicks across the slit on the head of his cock.

Mal’s eyes pop open and he looks down at her, she smiles briefly before wrapping her lips around the head of his cock. His head falls back with a groan, eyes shutting as pleasure courses through his body.

She swirls her tongue around as her hand continues to pump. Then she slides her mouth down the entire length of him, swallowing him whole, as her tongue investigates all the groves, ridges and crevices along his cock. She begins sucking gently as she runs her mouth up and down his shaft, her hand in perfect rhythm with mouth.

Mal wraps his hands through the long expanse of her hair to cradle her head as his hips begin to thrust aggressively into her mouth. By the sound of the groans rumbling from his chest and the tensing of his body, she knows he is close.

River abruptly ended her little fantasy, surprised at how aroused she was by what she had imagined.

She focused in on Mal and could tell by the cursing coming from his mouth that he was not pleased. He’d realized that she’d somehow connected herself to him and that the little fantasy was her revenge.

River withdrew contact and rose lithely from her seat. She had some apologizing to do. Moving swiftly she opened the hatch to their bunk and had reached the third rung from the bottom when hands encircled her waist and lifted her to the floor.

She was turned, and then Mal’s hot, naked body was pressing her against the wall as the hatch slid shut overhead.

Mal’s hands slid up under her dress to her underwear. Grabbing the waistband, he ripped them from her body.

River gasped. He then grabbed her ass to raise her hips level with his own. Her legs wrapped around his waist to hold herself into place. His left hand wrapped itself into her hair while his right worked its way between their bodies to find her sex dripping wet.

Pulling her head back by the hair, Mal growled, “What the hell did you do to me?”

His right hand grasped her hip as his mouth plundered hers, his tongue seeking dominance as he thrust himself into her.

River moaned and began moving her hips in conjunction with his thrusts. She screamed his name and pulled at his hair as she orgasmed. The pulsing walls of her pussy thrust Mal over the edge into his own climax.

Exhausted, they slid down the wall to crumple into a heap on the floor.

After several minutes, Mal had caught his breath enough to ask, “What the hell did you do to me?”

River flinched before raising her eyes to his. This was the part she’d dreaded before being side tracked.

“You understood because you know. Similar but to a lesser degree. Just opened the doors and connected them.”

Mal’s face was contorted with confusion as he listened. After she finished he replayed the words over in his head and then realized what she meant.

“I’m no gorram reader.”

“Are, but not like me.” River insisted.

Mal sat in stunned silence as he absorbed this new realization about himself.

“Darlin’, can you open it up again?”

It was River’s turn to be confused.

“Yes, but why?”

“Because I want to find out how making love to you feels when I can feel what you’re feeling.”

River laughed delightedly as Mal carried her to their bed.