Title: Truth or Dare

Author: Ana Sedai

Rating: PG

Character(s): Mal, River

Prompt: 074 - Truth

Word Count: 640

Author’s Note: Okay, I’m trying the Joss100 thing with a Mal/River pairing. I don’t want to tread on any toes with this. I just want to give it a shot. Feedback will be very much appreciated.

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“Truth or dare?”

“Wha-?!” Mal jumped a bit in the pilot’s seat where he’d been dozing. He spun around to face River, leaning against the back of the co-pilot’s chair that had become her domain these past few months. She was looking at him, her face intent. “Almost gave me a heart attack there, Albatross. Shouldn’t be sneakin’ up on a man like that.” He shook his head a bit to clear it. “What was you askin’?”

“Truth or dare? Actions speak louder than words, but words harder to speak. Hearts speak truth. Heads too confusing, too many variables for one paradigm. Why doesn’t everyone speak from their heart?” She sounded a little lost when she asked that last question.

Mal sighed and leaned back. He wondered when everything she said had begun to make sense to him. “Well, darlin’, that there is a mighty big question. Most people are prob’ly afraid they’ll look foolish or be disappointed, so they say somethin’ different than what they really think.”

River shook her head. “Don’t mean other people. People don’t speak to themselves. Run around and around but they don’t listen. Refuse to speak the truth, refuse to hear it, even when they know it.”

Mal thought the conversation was getting just a mite too close to home for his liking. His thoughts hadn’t exactly been tranquil of late, an’ even less so when she was around. That knowledge, of course, brought its own set of problems, ones he wasn’t prepared to deal with right now, if ever. He wondered if a distraction might help her focus shift. “You want to fly for awhile, Little One? Let a tired old man get some sleep?”

“Not old. Untruth. Wants the girl to be quiet. Doesn’t lik