Flesh of My Flesh

Disclaimer: Woes. Not mine, all Joss.

Flesh of My Flesh

It wasn’t his gorram fault. ‘Less you were going to say it was due to his being a fine figure of a man. Then o’ course it was his fault, ‘cause the poor girl couldn’t be blamed for finding him damn near irresistible.

‘Sides, Jayne thought, a girl crawls into a man’s bunk in the middle of the night, she’s gotta know what’s gonna happen. ‘Specially when I ain’t had a woman for months.

Truth was, though, he was feeling a mite guilty, which was why he was staring up at the ceiling, unable to relax, while she was drooling on his shoulder, sleeping the sleep of the well and truly fucked.

No, I’m the one who’s well and truly fucked, he thought with a snort. If she tells her brother what happened, or, even worse, if Mal finds out… He shuddered. Probably won’t ever bed a woman again, and that’s if he lets me live.

There wasn’t a one of them who’d believe it was the girl who’d wanted to bed him, who’d snuck in and… and molested him while he’d been sleeping the sleep of the… well, couldn’t really say he was innocent, but he was damn sure innocent of seducing girls who were sister to the doctor. Sleeping the sleep of the dead tired, anyway.

And now he was probably going to get castrated by Mal, and if Mal didn’t do it, the doc likely would, and the Shepherd would give him that fierce you black sinner look, and ta ma de, it wasn’t even his fault.

No one’d be the wiser if she just went on back to her own bunk right now and didn’t say nothin’. As soon as he had the thought, he started shaking her. “Wake up, girl,” he hissed, “you gotta go. If you don’t, we’ll both get in trouble.” He rose up on one elbow to give her another shake.

“Simon sleeps until the cock crows,” River replied sleepily, almost as if she hadn’t been sleeping at all, eyes still closed. “Won’t miss me until breakfast.”

“You sure? ‘Cause I ain’t aimin’ to start singin’ the high notes in some choir…”

Opening her eyes, she smirked at him. Then she knocked his elbow out from under him and straddled him when he fell back down. “Secondary sexual characteristics are already present,” she said in that tone that always gave him the creepy shivers. “Body hair,” and her hand swirled through the hair on his chest, “deep voice,” small fingers danced over his throat, brushing his Adam’s apple when he swallowed. Then she reached behind herself, brushing against his prick and making it twitch with interest, before taking his rocks in hand. “Gelding you would only render you incapable of fathering children. You couldn’t sing soprano anymore.”

Jayne’s eyes rolled back in his head. His brain was squirming in horror at her words, trying to tell his body no, we’re not interested, but his body was reminding his brain, ain’t had a woman in months, remember? And she kept fondling his balls, her touch gentle and knowing, while her other hand tweaked at his nipples, so it wasn’t any wonder that his body won.

This time, she rode him into the mattress, and collapsed into a sweaty heap beside him when she was done. His last thought before following her into unconsciousness was Hope no one heard that…

When he woke up again, she was gone, so he rolled over and went back to sleep. Next time he woke up, he remembered and hoped like all hells that she’d keep her mouth shut.

She did, somehow, and Jayne just thanked god that she did, though she gave him such a look across the table that it was a wonder someone didn’t take note of it. To make sure no one did, he slunk away as soon as he could.

And of course, that didn’t help when she snuck back into his bunk that night. Or the next.

It took a while, but when they kept not getting caught, he started to kind of expect it, and eventually even enjoy it for more than just the body’s pleasure. It felt nice – in a big, manly, protective way – to have the girl’s small womanly body draped over him at night.

One time he tried to work that out in his head – why the girl had a womanly body and was still just the girl – and distracted himself so that she bit him. He left that kind of thinking until afterwards from then on.

It was still some time before he thought to ask an important question. “Why’re we doin’ this?”

River didn’t answer, just pulled away, and for a second, Jayne thought that maybe he’d screwed up enough that she wouldn’t come back, and he didn’t want the answer to that if it meant no more sex.

Then her hand was wrapped around his cock, pulling, stroking, and all right, it took a little more doing to get him interested, but he was getting trim a little more often nowadays. While she worked him, and he strained against her grip, she leant down. “Because,” she whispered in his ear, wearing the wickedest grin he could imagine, “my flesh likes your bone.”

Later, breathless and panting, laid out flat on the bed beneath her, he decided a body couldn’t argue with that.

And it still wasn’t his gorram fault, even though he nearly spilt everything the day he bought the grapes, because she’d made that very same face – and sound, too! – when she’d sucked him off not twelve hours before, and his body was well trained, thank you very much, to respond to the girl sharing his bed when she did things like that.

Not that anyone knew she was, but still. Best to keep it that way, he decided, staring at the empty bowl.

So they didn’t get caught, but she did. Predictably enough, when his sister’s belly started to swell, the doc vowed castration and eternal torment on the diseased son of a whore who’d touched her, and for some time, everyone stepped real lightly.

Strangest thing, though, was that even though Mal gave him the eye, like he was considering that Jayne might have had a hand – or more – in River’s condition, he never asked. The girl never told, either, just practiced a mysterious smile at them, and eventually they decided it was some piece of Alliance go se who’d been impressed by her fighting skills.

Or so Jayne surmised, because there was no way in any hell he was going to ask.

“How come they never thought it was me?” he asked her one night. She still crept into his bunk at night, though more carefully now, and he was entranced by the roundness of her.

“It’s a spell,” she said, watching him cup and caress the new curves of her body.

He paused and shot her a look. “You put a spell on ‘em so they wouldn’t think…”

River just laughed and sat up, pushing his hands away only to invite them back. “No, you boob. People – especially over-protective brothers and captains – never see what they don’t want to see. You’re hiding in plain sight.”

“Huh,” he grunted, watching his hands again. “Ain’t that somethin’.”

One of her hands did some wandering of its own, and Jayne groaned as she circled his prick with her fingers. “Gorram it, girl, don’t you ever get enough?”

She gave him that smile she’d perfected on Mal and her brother. “My flesh, your bone, remember?”

Yes, he could surely say he did.