Title: Love At First Sight? Series Title: Love … Author: Humbug Rating: PG13 Fandom: Firefly Word Count: 943 Summary: River competes with OC Maggie for Jayne's afffection. Warning: Full of Jayne goodness. Beware if you don’t enjoy non-canon pairings. Disclaimer: Joss is Boss. I’m just borrowing his characters for fun!!

Authors Note: Thanks to bookaddict43 for betaing.

And troy_gal - Thanks for the plot bunny. This fanfics for you!

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hua li = gorgeous da fa lei ting = extremely angry hun dan = bastard mei li = beautiful fei hua = nonsense/ crap Run-tse duh fwo tzu = merciful Buddha

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Love At First Sight?

Jayne and Zoe were about to go into New Londinium on a reconnaissance mission when Tom and Maggie arrived.

Tom was an old Army Academy buddy of Mal’s and Maggie was his fiancée. They had come to visit Mal and stay on Serenity for a few days. The Captain had been fussing over where to put them, what food to get in for meals, and how to celebrate their upcoming nuptials.

When he caught sight of Maggie Jayne wolf whistled. “Yer army buddy’s a lucky man,” he grinned, “She’s hua li.”

Mal was irritated. “Time ta head out, Jayne, Zoe. No need ta upset our guests straight off by ya ogling Maggie.”

“Come on, Jayne, sooner we get goin’ the sooner we get back. An’ quit starin’,” Zoe slappped him on the arm. “Ya know River will be da fa lei ting with ya fer even lookin’ at another woman.”

Jayne glared. “It ain’t no laughin’ matter, havin’ an 18 year old crazy killer crushin’ on a man practically old enough ta be her father.”

“Practically?” said Zoe, trying not laugh.

They headed off as the old Army Academy buddies embraced. “Mal, good to see you again, old comrade,” Tom said as he clapped Mal on the back.

“Good ta see ya too, Tommy, ya old hun dan!”

“Hey, less of the old, as I recall you were born a few months before me, and no one’s called me Tommy in years!”

“So, Tom, ya gonna introduce me ta ya lovely fiancée?”

“Of course, Maggie this is Malcolm Reynolds, Mal to all who know him; Captain of this boat, Serenity, and my best friend from our Army Academy days.”

Maggie gracefully held out her hand to shake his, “Good to meet you Captain. I feel like I know you already, Tom’s told me so much about you.”

Mal held her hand in both of his, squeezing them gently. “Seems your fiancée has kept ya a secret till now, and I can see why. She’s mei li, Tom, yer a lucky man. You’ll hafta tell me all about yerself during ya stay on ma boat.”

Tom intervened when Maggie looked confused. “Mal, Maggie is New Londinium born and bred. She doesn’t know a word of Mandarin.”

“Ah, well I would have thought Tom would of taught ya that phrase. Mei li means beautiful, and ya certainly are.”

“Thank you for explaining, Captain, and for the pretty compliment,” she blushed.

“Oh, I’m gonna like this one, Tom,” Mal confided. “She’s real well brought up, polite, well mannered.”

“I’m afraid I’m a real Londinium native,” she confided. “I’ve never been off world before.”

“Well then,” Mal said as he took Maggie’s hand under his arm, “Let me give ya the guided tour. Welcome to Serenity. She’s a fine boat, get ya anywhere ya want ta go.”

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Walking towards the boat, Maggie grabbed Tom’s arm, her fear overtaking her.

“What wrong, Darling?” Tom asked his hesitant fiancée.

“I’m a little nervous. I know you brought me here to see what one of your oldest friends’ thinks of me. What if he doesn’t like me?”

“Nonsense,” Tom replied. “I just wanted two of my closest and dearest friends to meet, before we get married.”

“So we are still getting married?”

He stopped and turned so he could see into her face. “What do you mean?”

“I sometimes get the feeling that you don’t want to marry me anymore.”

“Maggie, that’s fei hua.”

“Oh, I’m never going to fit in. I don’t speak Mandarin, and your friends will be peppering their conversation with words I don’t know.”

“Darling, most of the Mandarin will be curses, so you won’t want to know what they mean,” He teased, “and the rest, well, you can ask what they mean. Fei hua simply means nonsense.”

Maggie sighed in fear and frustration.

“Come on, we’re nearly there,” he held her hand tight against his arm.

As they approached, Maggie could have sworn she heard someone wolf whistle. She noticed a tall muscular man following a commanding woman. He looked straight into Maggie’s eyes, his cool blue eyes boring into her warm brown ones. Blushing she tore her eyes away and moved to meet this friend of Tom’s she’d heard him talk about so many times.

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When Jayne and Zoe returned, Mal was waiting, tapping his watch and tutting.

“What time d’ya call this? We’re eatin’ with our new guests in fifteen minutes, so ya’d better get a move on.”

“We got here quick as we could,” complained Jayne.

“Think ya won’t be so grouchy when ya see what we got, and the price Jayne wrangled ‘em down to,” his second-in-command told him. “Got us a real bargain.”

“So long as it’s a bargain others will want ta buy… Run-tse duh fwo tzu!! Ya brought me back 600 credits. That means ya spent…”

“That’s right, Sir. Knew ya’d be pleased. Jayne intimidated ‘em somethin’ plenty whilst I haggled ‘em down to the point where they can hardly have made any profit.”

Mal patted Jayne and Zoe on the shoulders, “Good work, you two. Now go and jump in the shower. We’re all dressing for dinner, in honour of our guests.”

“What ‘bout puttin’ the cargo away?”

“I’d keep ma mouth shut if I was you, Jayne,” said Zoe. “With such important guests on board, Captain’s like as not ta send ya away if ya not dressed up nice and smellin’ pretty. And it’s still first come first served at meals on this boat.”

Jayne grunted and ran to get to the shower first.

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To be continued...