“Tea. I feel like tea. Waves and waves and waves….” River, suddenly excited, starts shaking so hard that she miscalibrates the vector. “…and waves of it.”

“Whoa now mei-mei, you need to focus. Once you set auto-pilot and walk away, we just keep going on in that direction. You type in six ‘stead of three, we could end up part of Boros moon rather than well, alive and hovering above it… Alive.”

It’s not so much the aptitude but the application that bothered Mal. And all the "crazy" stuff, that gets a might disconcerting. This is not the first time she’d gone all trancy on him during training. Not that she had ever let him down before- she knows her stuff- but not knowing what she’s going to do next scares him. He notices her type the coordinates and realign the vector perfectly without even looking at the screen. “Okay, that. What you just did? Disconcerting. If you want to cut years of my lifespan- that is how to do it. Could you not just pretend to pay attention when you’re piloting my boat? - Hey! Where are you going?”

“Away. To drink my tea and not drown-” She's giddy, rushing to the doorway where she nearly collides with Inara who is on her way to the bridge with two mugs in hand. Or rather one, now that River sweeps off with the other. A fleeting “thanks” followed by giggling down in the foredeck before the familiar awkward silence.

“She knew which cup was hers.’ Inara says with a shake of the head, handing Mal’s drink to him. ‘Bizarre child. Have you noticed that she cannot bear to be around the both of us for too long? She gets restless, fidgety. Says something cryptic, then…just has to leave?”

“River? I never noticed that.’ Sniffing his tea, ‘Is this meant to be so minty?”

Inara laughs at this. “You never notice anything.” She falls into Rivers chair, trying it on for size. Mal watches her quietly. She has both hands on the controls and is playing at steering as if she knew what she was doing. Incredibly, she starts making noises mimicking gun blasts, evasive maneuver