Zoe/Jayne pairing post BDM (spoilers). This is my first fanfic ever, a little nervous, but here goes.

The whole ‘verse belongs to Joss, nothing belongs to me. I just borrow…

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She found him in his bunk doing weapons inventory. On any other ship weapons inventory would be done in a weapons locker or in the cargo hold. But not on Serenity, Jayne’s personal arsenal was more impressive than most combat class ships, and he protected it like a fussy mother.

Jayne looked surprised when Zoe unceremoniously dropped to the foot of the ladder in his bunk.

“What in gorram! What ya doin’ in here Zo?” He growled, a little startled, and definitely annoyed at the interruption.

Zoe quietly surveyed the room, Vera was mounted solidly against the wall. She had never been in Jayne’s bunk, never had any cause to be. It looked neater than she expected, everything in its place. His bed was made, tucked military style. That raised an eyebrow. Jayne confounded her sometimes, but she knew that for the greater part of things what you see is what you get with Jayne Cobb. Nothing complicated, or at least that’s what she was counting on.

Maybe it was the way she purposefully avoided looking at him that made Jayne stay quiet. It was weird enough that she was in his bunk, but acting peculiar too? He decided to ignore her and instead focused on checking the reserve clips of ammo.

For months after Wash died Zoe had seemed lost to all of them. She ate, slept, survived. They saw her everyday, but she was somewhere else, not able or willin’ to come back to reality, to Serenity. It was only lately that she started acting like her old self again. Even cracked a smile days ago when Mal came back from a job covered head to toe in go se mud and surly as hell.

Jayne knew that Inara and Kaylee, even River, tried to draw her out; sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. She even seem to shut out Mal, that was until they had it out in the cargo bay a few jobs after Miranda. Mal had taken it in his head that Zoe wasn’t go