toxic_corn | Firefly fic: River Tam: 1, Sleeping Beauty: 0 (River/Jayne) PG-13

Title: River Tam: 1, Sleeping Beauty: 0
Author: Toxic Corn
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: All is Joss's, I'm just a wannabe!
Spoilers: Post BDM maybe. I'm honestly not sure.
Notes: I don't know where this came from. I was trying to sleep last night and this popped into my head, so I got up and wrote it. *shrug*

River Tam: 1, Sleeping Beauty: 0

Jayne was tired. The kind of tired that went all the way deep down into his bones. All he wanted was to sack out in his bunk and snore so loud Kaylee would have to pound on his door to shut him up.

He climbed down the ladder and set the lock, shedding articles of clothing on the way to his bed. Boots, jacket, socks, belt, t-shirt. His hands stilled just over the button to his trousers.

There, laying on his bed as if she had every right to be there, was the doctor’s sis. Fast asleep.

“The hell are you doin’ in here, girl?” Jayne growled.

She didn’t so much as stir.

“You got your own damn room, so get out!”

Her chest continued to rise and fall peacefully with every deep breath she took.

Growling, Jayne grasped her arm and gave it a violent shake. “Get up!”

The damn girl kept sleeping.

Frustrated, Jayne ran a hand through his hair and looked around his bunk as if expecting a solution to his problem to leap out, waving its arms at him. His attention fell to a book on his desk. He wasn’t a book person so it sure as hell wasn’t his.

Once he had the book in his hands, he recognized it. It was a stupid book of fairy tales the doc had picked up for her planet side. Lately she’d taken to carrying the damn thing everywhere. Whenever he saw her she had her nose buried in it.

He grinned wickedly. She’d sure wake up in a big gorramn hurry if he started ripping pages out of her precious book. He opened it to the page the red ribbon marked and got set to tear. But he paused once he saw what story she’d stopped on.

Sleeping Beauty.

For a moment, he stared disbelievingly at the page then at the girl snoozing on his bunk.

Son of a bitch.

He set the book back on his desk and approached the bed warily. The girl looked peaceful there on her back, hands clasped over her belly.

“This sure as hell better work,” Jayne muttered. He dropped down next to the bed, his knees popping audibly in the quiet room. He stared at her a moment and licked his lips.

Okay. He was gonna do it.

He slowly leaned forward and paused just a heartbeat away from her mouth. She sure smelled nice, like the roses his mama grew next to the kitchen steps.

Just a bit closer…

His lips touched hers gently. He had every intention of pulling back but he hadn’t counted on her lips being so soft. He ended up kissing her a little more firmly and opening his mouth a little to suck at her full lower lip. Damn, but he could get used to this.

Below him, she stirred and he jerked away guiltily. He wiped at his mouth hastily.

Her eyes fluttered open and her gaze locked on him. He felt frozen in place, not daring to move.

“Hello,” she said. Then she licked her lips with a thoughtful look on her face. “Probably mintier than Briar Rose’s kiss, but not displeasing.”

Jayne realized he was gawking at her and slammed his mouth shut. He tried to muster up his earlier irritation. “Well, I done it. Now git so’s I can go ta sleep.”

She tilted her head to the side, eyes warm. “That’s not how the story goes.”

“Well, I ain’t Prince Charming.” Jayne scowled at her, hoping it would scare her into fleeing. It wasn’t a very strong hope but stranger things had happened. Like in the past five minutes for instance.

“I wouldn’t be here if you were.”

Her response confounded him. “Huh?”

She sat up with a sigh and looped her arms around his neck. He was too surprised to shrug her off and he wasn’t going to admit it anytime soon, but it felt nice to be held.

“You’re much more interesting than some pansy-ass Prince Charming.”

He laughed, still surprised but feeling pleased now as well. “Damn straight I am. More good lookin’, too.”

The girl smiled and the curve of her lips was seductive and promising. “So, do I still get a happy ending?”

Just like that, he was hard enough to hammer nails into a steel rail with no trouble. But she didn’t know what she was saying did she? What she meant?

“I know what I’m saying,” she said dryly.

Well, that answered that question.

Gently, he eased River back onto the mattress and hovered over her, careful to keep his weight off of her. He reached out a hand and tucked the strands of hair that always seemed to hang in her face behind her ear.

Her forehead furrowed and her eyes studied his, confused by his actions.

“Happy ending it is,” he rumbled and swooped down for another kiss. “Let’s get writin’ this fairy tale.”

THE END