Title: Out Of The Black, Into The Sun

Author: Merrov (Gypsy Lupin-Black on Fanfiction.net)

Disclaimer: River and all the other wonderful characters belong to the god Joss Whedon. I am making no money off this. Just trying to spread the Firefly goodness around!

This is dedicated to the strongest, most wonderful little spirit I ever knew, taken at only 4 months of age, but with me always.

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Funny, why was everything so funny for this crowd of people? This crew, brought together for different reasons, on a ship one could never really leave, and yet they all sat around the table, sharing rations and laughing. Stories with ribcages in them… What was funny about that?

River cocked her head to the side, watching them from behind the counter. Wash was beside Zoe, on her left, as usual. He was always on her left. Why? And Inara and Mal, recently seen together much more often. After the whole attack on Mr. Universe, Inara had decided to stay, and that made Mal very happy. Simon and Kaylee were noticeably absent, but that wasn’t a new occurrence lately. There was always music coming from their quarters lately.

Zoe stopped laughing first. She sighed and picked at her food, before catching herself and taking a bite. Mal hadn’t noticed. Just River. But she couldn’t understand why Zoe was sad. Jayne said it was because Wash got impaled, but River didn’t believe that. He was sitting right there. On Zoe’s left. Laughing with Mal, Inara, Book, and Jayne.

River felt the left side of her mouth quirk up. Book’s hair was put away, which was good. But no one else but Wash seemed to hear him when he talked. Maybe if he released his hair they’d notice him. Or they’d all run screaming from the room. That would be the sane option, in River’s opinion.

It was all so confusing. Places were so crowded, voices everywhere, laughing, music, heat, sweat, sadness, joy, sickness, spinning- spinning--spin!

Silence. Warm darkness, then the caress of fur. A rumbling purr filled the air, and that was it. River felt