5 Times River Ended up in Mal's Clothes

Word Count: 821

Pairing: Mal/River

Rating: MA

Author’s Note: For fireworkfiasco over on livejournal. Special Thanks to srichard on livejournal for her amazing beta.

Summary: Well you read the title, you get the idea. This goes from innocent to naughty. What can I say, I’m a smut hound!

1st – To save herself.

River had hidden in a trough until the unit of purple bellies had past them by. Now she stood shivering before him, her cotton dress plastered to her skin. Her nipples were erect and drawing all manner of unseemly looks from everyone, himself included.

Shrugging out of his coat, he wrapped it around her, grateful to finally have the vision of River’s long, lithe body blocked.

“Keep this on, darlin’. Jayne, keep your eyes out for more purple bellies and off the girl.” Mal snarled as he adjusted the collar of his coat carefully around her.

River’s big brown eyes gazed up at him inquisitively as she snuggled deeper into the warmth and smell of Mal.

2nd - The job

Mal and Jayne were busy loading the mule. They turned their heads when they heard the soft patter of combat boots on the catwalk.

Mal's eyes widened in surprise and his mouth gaped open at what he saw. River dressed in his red shirt over an old pair of her brother's pants, her hair hidden up in the ratty old cowboy hat that he had worn as a young boy back on Shadow.

"River, why in the sphincter of hell are you dressed like that?" He asked incredulously after he'd gained back his faculties.

"Disguise. Can't see the girl for the clothes. Contacts know about the weapon and set a trap. False face creates sense of a better hand, but all the aces are the yours?."

Mal smiled at her words.

"Good to know."

3rd – A drunken mistake.

Mal was shirtless, walking briskly back to Serenity with a half naked albatross next to him.

He still itched to put a bullet through that drunk’s head. That hundan had ripped River’s dress clean off her body, advertising to everyone nearby, what she did and didn’t wear underneath her dress which apparently was no more than those shorts that clung to her like a second skin.

His mind still reeled with the image of her pert breasts and her nipples that seemed to tighten under his gaze.

He wished he’d worn his coat, but he swore that every time he put it on it smelled like her and that led to images that guaranteed him a place in the Shepherd’s Special Hell.

Now with the image of a topless River burned into his brain, he was sure the Shepherd was making up a special wing just for him.

4th – Laundry day

Mal stepped into the kitchen and stopped in his tracks. There stood River in what appeared to be nothing but his tan shirt doing her laundry.

"River?" Mal was surprised by the squeak in his voice.

"Borrowed your clothes. Mine are all dirty. Had to do laundry." River said as she turned around to face him.

"You can't go just stealing people's clothes."

River bowed her head.

"Give it back then." River grabbed the hem of the shirt and started to raise it. She'd gotten it to her waist when it registered in Mal's mind that she didn't have stitch on under that shirt.

"AI YA, keep that shirt on! Just give it back when you're done with your laundry and can put on your own clothes."

Mal had turned his back, but he'd already gotten an eyeful of the soft mound of curls at the apex of her legs.

"I got captainy things to do on the bridge." Mal squawked as he ran from the room to the sound of River's laughter.

5th - It's what they want

Mal made the final step down into his bunk when he noticed a red and white paisley dress in a pile on the floor. His eyes flickered up to his bed to discovered River dressed in his red shirt again, the buttons undone, the sides parted to show her alabaster skin from neck to pussy.

He really wanted to look away and tried, but every time he shifted away his eyes found a way back to her as his mind searched frantically for the right words.

"Saw the girl as a woman, liked me dressed in your clothes. Mark me as yours every time you look at me." River whispered, her eyes filled with an emotion that Mal was afraid to name.

"River it ain't proper to, uh, show up in a man's bunk naked." Mal tried again to avert his eyes, but that expanse of silky skin was a beacon in the shadows of his bunk.

"Not naked."

"Damn near. What would the Doc say about this?" Mal gave up the fight of avoiding looking at her and stared into her eyes, but his peripheral vision was focused on the four-inch strip of exposed skin.

River stood up and Mal goggled at the sight of the shirt falling further open to expose her rosy-tipped breasts to his view. Swallowing hard, he forced his eyes back up to her face.

"Not Simon's decision. I want you." River smiled beguilingly at him as she glided up and placed her hands on his shoulders.