The Snake in the Apple Tree

by belasera

A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend: All recognizable characters, etc. belong not to me, but to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and Fox, and no money is being made here. The story, however, is mine.

A sequel to the Apples series, Kaylee knows…something. A post-coital story of tension told from the wrong point of view, with a dirty little twist near the end…

PG-13

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Kaylee saw. She didn’t know what she saw, but she saw it alright.

The strangeness started in the morning. Wasn’t nothin’ she’d ever thought of much, but Jayne was always in the dining room before anyone, makin’ a racket along with his breakfast.

“Man food,” he always said, lots of protein, lots of whatever he could get his hands on. Kaylee found him there before her, most every morn, bein’ an early riser her own self gave the two of them a chance to be affable, ‘out anyone else around tensin’ things up. She always figured he woke up real hungry, but the more she got to know more she thought he liked havin’ a little space to himself, first thing in the day. Jayne took up a lot of space, but he always made room for Kaylee. Always seemed to shrink a bit when the others showed up, sleepy eyed and hungry, bringin’ in noise and warmth, and everything that made Serenity home. The others would find Jayne and Kaylee half way to done, and coffee ready and not near all drunk. It was good to have Jayne there with her, stretching his legs under the table and eating off her plate when she’d let him, his company lettin’ her pretend she wasn’t waitin’ there for Simon.

So she tried not to take it personal when he stopped bein’ there. Or rather, when he started bein’ there earlier and earlier. There’d be nothin’ but a damp ring on the table left by his cup those days. Kaylee couldn’t help but think maybe it was her, maybe he got up earlier now to be by his lonesome. T’was a man’s right, of course, to eat breakfast alone if he wanted, but it made her mornings less cheery somehow,