Author’s Note: This came from a trip to a DIY store one May Day when I had a sudden urge to buy two tins of house paint. I walked out of the store with three large empty plant pots, three multipacks of bedding plants, a bag of compost, two fancy light bulbs and, yep, the paint. The fuschias died after a couple of months but everything else is going quite well.

This is... if I didn’t know myself better I’d say it was fluffy . It’s almost entirely in River’s POV and therefore it is fluff with long words, but... holiday fic. Fluffy . Like a Persian kitten, only not quite so much miaowing. Still, I am very unlikely to write anything so light-hearted again, so enjoy it while it lasts.

I am not entirely happy about the structure. Basically I think I may not have written enough – many implied scenes are left out (scene breaks marked by asterisks), as the focused-in-River’s-head part of me considered them unnecessary. As a result, though, the insanely-long-novel-author part of me is complaining. I would welcome feedback.

Translations should be in mouseovers in text.

Rating: PG. It has Jayne in it. Jayne swears. Sexual situations are also implied, though not shown.

Pairings: This is a River and Kaylee friendship fic within the context of a Simon/Kaylee relationship. Astute readers may enjoy the Mal/Inara undertones. According to my beta-reader, hallucinating readers may spot tiny hints of unrequited Jayne -> Kaylee and River -> Jayne, but these are unintentional.

Spoilers: for the BDM by certain... omissions, and by the fact that River is actually functioning most of the way normally. One tiny spoiler for Shindig/Safe, and reference made to not only Inara but the Tam family being Buddhist (site member and fanfic author MrsU spotted the Buddha images in their house while watching Safe; thank you, MrsU).

Disclaimer: the characters are Joss Whedon’s and the copyright belongs to Fox, Mutant Enemy, Universal etc. and not to me. This is a non-pr