THE SHARP SIDE OF THE APPLE

by belasera

A vague disclaimer is nobody’s friend: All recognizable characters, etc. belong not to me, but to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and Fox, and no money is being made here. The story, however, is mine.

R, kiddies

Written for Rebecca, who wanted to see boys kissing. If you don’t, please don’t read it.

xoxo

Companion piece to the other of the same name, Jayne’s inner workings (scary) ........................................... I see him watching me all the gorram time, like he’s got scrambled eggs for brains. Like he’s no better off than his crazy moonbrain sister. I think it won’t be long before he knows the truth, and I keep hoping he would hurry up and figure it out, or Mal would stop his glowering and just tell him already. Ain’t my fault he don’t got nothing better to do with his eyes than stick ‘em on me, but Mal seems to hold me responsible anyhow. Hwoon Dahn captain. I know I told him not to tell ‘em, but I was thinkin’ more on Kaylee at the time than anything else. Didn’t really even care what the doc thought of me. Now I think on it all the time. Sometimes I think to tell him myself, just to watch his face crumble a bit, maybe see him even get mad, maybe throw a punch. I’d let him, I owe him that at least. Let him get in a few before I shoved him back. Bet he wouldn’t do it though, he seems to be tied up too tight in his own skin to even touch another human being that ain’t his sister. Sometimes I think they’re a bit unnatural like that, and when I see how he ignores little Kaylee I can’t help but wonder on what his tastes are. Then when he starts in on me after Ariel I think I know. It’s more than just gratefulness in his looks, way he watches me move about when he thinks I don’t know. When I buy those apples to distract everyone, I see right away how he watches my mouth when I eat mine. But maybe it’s the knife he’s lookin’ at. Gotta laugh at a doctor so skittish about a knife, all the cuttin’ he does on people. Guess on those core worlds no one even uses a knife for anything sensible anymore. I think I know what he thinks when he sees me eating, that I’m a brute. I think too, that he maybe wants to be brutalized, just a bit. I done real bad by him, I know that even if the cap’n thinks I don’t. I reckon I owe him something, and I ain’t got much to give a man like that. ‘Cept maybe a bit of a taste of the sharp side of the apple.