Title: Sand

Author: Ana Sedai

Rating: PG

Character(s): Mal, River

Prompt: 083 - Eternal

Word Count: 974

A/N: 16/100 for Mal/River Joss100. Quotes taken from William Blake’s poem, “Auguries of Innocence”.

Summary: Sometimes the most insignificant things are the ones that can elicit the most wonder.

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While Mal would’ve been the first one to expound on the joys of a busy-noisy ship, he did enjoy getting some alone time with his girl. Being dirt side meant everyone else would’ve gone off to stretch their legs or do some shopping or, in Jayne’s case…nah, best not go there. In any event, it was just him and Serenity for the moment.

They were due to pick up their cargo that afternoon, but in the meantime he had best check out how her exterior hull looked. Wouldn’t do for Kaylee to have the engine purring like a kitten, only to have all their air sucked out of a breach if a plate crumpled.

Whistling, he ambled down the gangplank and turned, and nearly trampled River where she sat in the ship’s shade.

“Hey, whoa!”

She was gazing rather intently at something in her hand, apparently oblivious to his near-collision.

“Sorry, little one. Thought you’d gone off with Simon and Kaylee.”

She still didn’t look up, and Mal got real curious as to what could hold her undivided attention for so long a time.

“Whatcha got there?”

Finally, she turned and looked up to him, her dark eyes faintly luminous in the shadows. “Everything.”

He peered over her shoulder. “Funny, looks like dirt to me.”

It was true. The thing she’d been staring at as if it held the secrets of the ‘verse was a few bits of soil. She looked down and murmured something softly. Mal could still hear her, though.

“To see a world in a grain of sand,

And a heaven in a wildflower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour.”

They were both silent for a moment, and then Mal crouched down on th