The ship was shaking slightly, but not to the point where it bothered Jayne. He was too absorbed in his thoughts. He kept flashing back to that moment when the doors had slid open, revealing a goddess instead of River. But the more he thought on it, the more he realized: River was a goddess, in her own sense. She felt what others couldn’t, and ever since that bank heist right before Miranda, he was afraid she would sense the innermost feelings that he had to struggle to cover up whenever he saw her tilting, inquisitive, but most of all, beautiful face.

He was also the tiniest bit afraid about what the Cap’n might say about forementioned feelings.

But most of all, he was afraid of River. He wasn’t afraid of what she might do to him, although he had no doubt she could hurt him, but he was mostly afraid of how she might feel.

Why did everything have to be so gorramn complicated?

River felt his thoughts from across the ship and for the first time she felt lost. How could she go about this? How could anyone go about this? What could she say, “I know how you feel about me?”

Great way to start a relationship, barging into people’s minds.

“It is so, Inara, an’ you just won’t admit it,” Kaylee laughed gaily, swinging her legs far above the dull grey crates that had been loaded into the ship only two days ago. “Me an’ Simon heard you sneakin’ into his room last night, an’ you’d already been together twice that night.” At Inara’s look, she laughed again. “River senses a bit too much at times. Anyways, I figured you just wanted to be able to lie beside while you slept. It made you feel safe.”

“Alright, fine, I’ll admit it. But how do you did know?”

“’Cuz I feel the same way about Simon. An’ I know Simon feels the same, so I know the Cap’n feels the same, too,” Kaylee grinned. “Anyways, I think I oughta be getting back to my good doctor now. He winds up a mite lonely without me.”

Inara watched Kaylee bounce off and wondered briefly if Mal got lonely without her. But that was why she had stay