Disclaimer: Characters do not belong to me; they are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and Fox.

Feedback is always welcome.

This one is a River and Jayne AU. It is based around the idea of what would River be like if she had never gone to the Academy, and what if she met Jayne under different circumstances.

Thanks to Cassie E., Kryptonite and tori_deathangel for the inspiration. This was born out of some bizarre mating ritual between Cassie's innocent pondering's on what they did on Beaumonde for those two weeks, Kryptonite's River and Jayne are soul mates comments and Tori's evil plot bunnies...plus a few nights of sleep deprivation. And it was Cassie's wicked, wonderful wallpaper that got this first chapter so stuck in my head that I had to write it before I could finish the next chapter to Torrents. I am hoping the rest of the story will stay put until I finish Torrents. Also, I am all aware I am making River a bit older then she likely is in the series, but since we don't really know for sure how old she is, I claim poetic license.

Dates loosely based on the Firefly Timeline by Edgar Governo. http://www.mts.net/~arphaxad/firefly.html

Chinese translations: Swai: Handsome; Xie-xie: Thank you; Tchen wah: Slut; Hwoon dahn: Son of a bitch; Chunren: jerk; Diyu: hell

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City of New Dunsmuir, Beaumonde; October 28, 2517

River Tam stood looking out at the cold, grey skies of New Dunsmuir as she idly brushed her long, raven hair. It seemed apt that her birthday should be rainy. Certainly fit her mood. Eighteen; right now she felt more like eighty.

She leaned her forehead against the cool glass as she wondered why the events from last week were making her so melancholy today. At the time, they had hardly bothered her at all. She had been the one to end the affair, after all. And she had no regrets on it, it had been time to move on. Jacob Re