FIC: Rose (A Dust Motes story) (FF/BtVS)

[mhalachai]

Rose
Dust Motes Part IV

Crossover fandom: Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Characters: Dawn, River, Jayne, Kaylee, Mal.
Word Count: 947
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns all things Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and all things Firefly. Only the story is my own.
Note: Follows Dance, Screams and Rapture. Fourth in the Dust Motes series.

~*~

Don't like it.

Jayne ran an oiled cloth over the barrel of the dismantled gun, keeping a close eye on their new passenger, who had been hunched over that cooling mug of tea for about half an hour.

She's too clean. Too calm. Girl who'd gone after men with an axe and got cut up like she did should be less steady. Ain't right.

As if on cue, River glided into the kitchen on silent feet. Jayne wanted to shake his head. It was all that crazy girl's fault, them taking on the new passenger. Doc had just let her out of the infirmary an hour ago.

Jayne wasn't sure what she'd said to Mal so as not to drop her off at the nearest planet. He sure hoped there was some coin involved.

Elsewise, going all the goram way to Athens is going to hurt. Her.

River climbed into the chair next to the woman, staring at her as if she was the most important thing in the 'verse. She'd been doing that for over a day now. It was starting to get on Jayne's nerves.

"Hi Jayne!" Kaylee's cheerful voice came loud and clear as the mechanic skipped down the stairs. "Is-- Oh!" She stopped when the woman looked up. "Captain said we was taking you to Athens, right? I'm Kaylee." She scrubbed her greasy hand on her coveralls and held it out.

Jayne could have told her it was no use; woman that clean wasn't shaking no mechanic's hand. But the woman surprised Jayne by sitting up straight and shaking Kaylee's hand with no hesitation. "I'm Dawn," she said clearly.

"Hi," Kaylee said again, sitting down across the table. "Good to see you about." The smile on her face faded slightly. "I hear 'bout your friend. I'm sorry for all that."

The woman, Dawn, tilted her head in some kind of prissy Core way that made Jayne curl his lip. "Thank you," she said as River reached her hand out toward Dawn's long, trailing hair.

A moment later, River jerked her hand back and sprang out of her chair, screaming. Before she even hit the floor, Jayne was on his feet, another gun out of his holster, cocked and pointed at Dawn's head.

"What did you do?" Jayne demanded, arm straight, shot sighted. Dawn looked at him calmly for a long moment, then turned her head to where River was huddled on the floor, Kaylee at her side.

"It's not polite to be poking in other people's heads," Dawn told River.

River struggled to sit up, hands over her face. "What did you do?" Jayne demanded again, taking a step closer.

Dawn didn't flinch. "She was looking in my head, so I showed her what I was thinking about."

"Buffy all screaming and angry and almost falling into the centre of the world!" River shouted, pushing Kaylee's hands off her shoulders. "Dead girls and dead demons and all dead, dead, DEAD!"

"Yes, they are dead," Dawn said. "That's what I was thinking about."

"So stop thinking it!" Jayne barked.

"Jayne." Mal's voice stopped Jayne from whatever he was about to do. "What's happening?"

It was Kaylee who responded. "River started screaming and Jayne gone thinking it was Dawn," she said as she helped River stand.

"Shouldn't have gone looking," River said, tapping her fingers hard against her temple. "Shouldn't look but eyelids cut off, can't help but see!"

Dawn sighed. "Captain Reynolds, is your man going to shoot me?"

"No, he ain't," Mal said, in such a way that made Jayne lower his gun.

"Good." She looked back to River. "Anyone who can see other people's thoughts can learn to block them."

"Not your kind of witch," River pointed out shakily.

"You took out a whole cadre of vampires without so much as a drop of your own blood spilled," Dawn said, turning in her chair and crossing her legs. "You picked out a coherent thought in that mess in my head. You can learn."

"Now wait just a minute," Mal started to say, but the woman cut him off.

"If I speak to River or not on the trip to Athens will not make the trip go any faster, Captain Reynolds, nor will it change the amount of money I am paying you."

So they was being paid after all. One less thing for Jayne to hate about the woman.

"How do you hide thoughts in a thimble?" River asked, going back to right her overturned seat. "Inside a grain of sand?"

"It's not quite like that," Dawn said, tuning out Mal and Jayne. "Have you ever seen a rose?"

River nodded solemnly, sitting and pulling her feet up onto the chair. "Had them on Osiris, big ones. Simon would look for me and I'd hide there and jump out to surprise him."

Dawn smiled tiredly. "Then I want you to imagine a rose, a big one." Obediently, River closed her eyes. "Now put your thought in the middle of that rose."

Jayne picked up all of his gun cleaning gear and dumped it on the counter, away from River and that crazy woman. Mal gave him a look, one he understood well, before going back to the bridge.

Kaylee wandered around the edge of the room until she was beside Jayne. "That wasn't the kind of thing I'd expect to have happen," she said. Jayne grunted. "You know, you did pull that gun awful fast when River started hollering."

Jayne stopped what he was doing and glared at her.

"I'm just sayin'," Kaylee said, wandering away, leaving Jayne to watch over River and that woman and her talk of hiding thoughts inside flowers and other junk.

Still don't like it.

end part

Comments

[deathinapinkboa.livejournal.com]

As always, very well done.

[deepfishy.livejournal.com]

Oh, Jayne. So petulant, so protective, so in denial. Hee!

Rayne is my crack!pairing (at least until Joss finally reveals it as canon ^-^). As is Sal or Mimon or whatever they're calling it, but that is far more crackalicious, and better as a UST.

I'm loving this crossover. Dawn's done a lot of growing up over the centuries.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I'm torn. I like Rayne and I like ... uh, Ral? Miver? Actually, I secretly ship Serenity/Vera.

Mal and Simon do have a certain... dynamic, yes/no?

The next one's going to be Dawn and Simon... and him realizing that Dawn's been watching River for a very long time. Some violence may ensue because no one messes with that man's sister.

[deepfishy.livejournal.com]

Serenity/Vera (Verenity?). Because Vera saved Serenity's butt back in Our Mrs Reynolds, and their relationship just exploded took off from there.

I watched the entire season of Firefly without a single slashy thought. Then I had a Big Damn Marathon with my friends, and right at the beginning one of them pointed out the Mal/Simon dynamic, and suddenly *every* *single* *scene* they're in is full of Mimon. Or Sal. Gah!

Violence may ensue? Shiny :D.

[catherinecookmn.livejournal.com]

Geez, River. Lotsa dead girls and demons. Ain't nothing you ain't seen before. ;-) Makes a nice conversation-starter, doesn't it, though?

Poor Jayne. The day he gets a clue is the day he starts quoting at length from William Faulkner.

Faulknerisms

[thymidinekinase.livejournal.com]

And MalCaslin You cannot repudiate what is a legacy for you and your crew. And he As the Nazarene repudiated so will I. And MalCaslin Repudiate and you forsake the literature students. And he Yeah, imagine the term papers about Vera and my betrayal of the Tams on Ariel and my redemption of a tainted legacy. And MalCaslin Not a lot of bears out in the black.

Something like that (I had to write about "The Bear" in high school), you mean? ;-) Or more Sound and Fury? 'Cause I think he's already sound-y and fury-ey.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Jayne's, well, not into that crazy girl. She's crazy. and she knifed him. then grabbed him in the balls and knocked him out. he's not into girls like that.

uh huh

really.

[thekams.livejournal.com]

Man, I appreciate these so much better now after seeing the series and the movie. Very well done, I love the Dawn and River interaction, and Jayne being all protective-like.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

When *Jayne* thinks River's a part of the crew, then you know that things are interesting. Esp. after that whole "tried to sell them to the Alliance" bit in Ariel.

[houses7177.livejournal.com]

Do I detect hints of Rayne? Most excellent.

Very interesting reaction to Dawn's thoughts, but true to River's character. She's a young one, for all that we think of her as an adult, and doesn't necessarily understand the niceties of human interactions. Like keeping your head out of someone elses.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Just a spot of Rayne. Not much, and even Jayne doesn't know it yet.

River's young and no one's ever really told her not to read thoughts. Truely, she doens't know how to block them. Dawn's lesson will be really useful to the little bit.

Dust Motes 4 character question

[thymidinekinase.livejournal.com]

I like this crossover concept and the dreamy feel. In this installment, River seems much less nonsensical than I imagine the character. Is it deliberate that having Dawn around lends River focus?

Re: Dust Motes 4 character question

[thymidinekinase.livejournal.com]

Actually, "nonsensical" isn't the word I want. More like ...she refers to things symbolically or obliquely. Here, she's more direct than I have come to expect. I wish I could give you a more concrete example of what I mean. Sorry.

Re: Dust Motes 4 character question

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I think I know what you mean. I was going at River from the angle that after Miranda, she was beginning to get a bit better. She seemed a little calmer on the bridge at the end of the movie. That is the angle I read from the movie.

(Also, it's very hard to write credible incoherent River)

Re: Dust Motes 4 character question

[(Anonymous)]

She seemed a little calmer on the bridge at the end of the movie.

Ah, yes, you're right. That clears it up. Thanks.

(Also, it's very hard to write credible incoherent River)
I'll bet.

[oportunemoments.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm, this series is yummy. ::takes a minute to cry over Wash:: ... ok, i'm done. <.< ... for now.

The Dawn being immortal bit is very interesting, I think. I like it.


... damnit and now I'm addicted to another of your stories. :P

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

fic additiction is nothing to be ashamed over. It's free, if you're doing it right.

Thanks :)

[zephyrrs.livejournal.com]

I always love how you can capture an older Dawn and make it work as well as a teen angst-ridden Dawn.