Old War Horses
Jun. 14th, 2011 06:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lit_gal
Title: Old War HorsesFirefly x Sentinel
Mal/Jayne, Blair/Jim
Rated: ADULT
Taming the Muse prompt: urchin
Malcolm Reynolds fought for the Browncoat rebels. They wanted their freedom. They lost. James Joseph Womak was a commander for the Alliance, determined to bring justice to the common people. His side won, but he still lost.
This time on Old War Horses:
Jayne's theory of "if it feels good, do it" and Mal's theory that both men should be doing the same things or it violates some rule of fairness, don't really fit into the same relationship. It's time for some talking.
If you want to read the early chapters, go to Twisting the Hellmouth.
If you want to read the most recent chapters, use tags.
20
Mal’s stomach churned. Despite that, he really had been planning on staying quiet and letting Jayne have his say. It wasn’t like Mal owned him. Besides, Sandburg seemed to be getting through Jayne’s thick skull, which was a feat Mal never had been able to master. However, when Jayne went so far as to invite himself into a purple-belly bed… Captain Jimmy’s bed… the murderer of…. Mal locked down his thoughts because if he kept thinking on that too much, he was tossing Womak out the gorram airlock, and that’d leave him dealing with Sandburg. Mal already had enough trouble on his ship without inheriting Dr. Sandburg.
“Mal.” Jayne stood up, a frown on his face, but it seemed like Captain Jimmy was more distressed about Mal’s mood than anyone else. He was backing up toward the ladder, practically dragging his sly little trick with him. Doctor. Mal wondered why he never did get any useful doctors on the ship, just meddling, core-bred, annoying ones.
“We’re leaving,” Jim said firmly, and Mal pinned him with a hard enough glare to make Jim drop his gaze first.
“But,” Blair started saying.
“Not now, Naomi,” Jim said in a sharp tone.
“Hey, there is nothing wrong with being my mother,” Blair protested. If it were Mal, he’d be more protesting getting called a woman, but there really wasn’t a good way of explaining Sandburg-logic.
“Another time and another place, and I might agree. Here and now, we’re leaving,” Jim said firmly.
“Good,” Mal snapped as Jim got Blair onto the stairs and starting physically shoving him up. “And keep him outta my sight,” Mal yelled after, not even sure if he was telling Sandburg to keep Captain Jimmy away or the other way around. As long as he didn’t have to look at either one of them, he would be a happy man.
After watching them disappear up the stairs, Mal turned to find Jayne watching, his mouth nearly hanging open. “What you do that for?” Jayne demanded.
For a second, Mal stared at him. “What? You want I should bring them back so you can go bedding Captain Jimmy?”
“I wasn’t interested in him as much the little one. He seems to have taught Jim how to do things right.” Jayne crossed his arms, and Mal just did not have the words to answer that. He turned and started walking back toward the bridge.
“Does that mean I should go and see him?” Jayne called after him.
Mal whirled around. “If that’s what you really want, see away.”
“What I really want is to figure out how I done you so wrong that you’re cranky as a gut-shot bear this morning.”
“Wrong?” All Mal’s anger slid into guilt. Jayne had done plenty of wrong in his life, but last night… the only wrong had been Mal. All the starch seemed to go right out of his spine, and he leaned against a crate someone had shoved up against the wall.
Maybe Jayne was more observant than Mal thought because he took a step forward. “Mal, you okay?” he asked with more sympathy that Mal ever expected.
Turning around, Mal punched the wall next to the stairs up to the next level. “Cao,” he swore, cradling the injured fist in his good hand.
“Damn, Mal. If’n you’re looking to take a swing at me, I figure I have a right to know why.” That sounded more like Jayne—angry and confused.
Still holding his bruised knuckles Mal whirled around. “I ain’t looking to take a swing at you!”
“So, the wall managed to piss you off?”
Mal had to take some time to rein in his temper before he said something truly unforgivable.
“Cao. Just say whatever you got to say.” Jayne stepped so close that Mal could feel the heat of him, smell the salt and see the beads of sweat gathering at his hairline. Jayne crossed his arms over his chest, and the muscles bulged.
“I ain’t doing this. I really ain’t doing this,” Mal said, and he might have gone through with that, only Jayne turned around to leave, and Mal’s imagination gave him a flash of what it might mean if Jayne went to Blair. He could imagine Jayne on his knees in front of Sandburg, Jim watching from the side, that tight expression of his never changing as Jayne followed Blair’s orders. “It wasn’t you that didn’t know how to do sly last night,” he admitted, turning so he could stare down Serenity’s long corridor. He sure as hell couldn’t say this to Jayne’s face. “I wasn’t the most charitable of lovers, and it’s been a lot of years since I left a bed partner that….” Mal stopped and sighed. The fact was he’d been a lousy partner, and the fact that he still wanted to lie up with Jayne without wanting to ameliorate those flaws was making him question himself. Mal never was at his best when he went questioning himself, and he knew it.
“I ain’t following even half of that,” Jayne said, he put out a hand to catch Mal by the arm, and Mal whirled around. Jayne always had been the obdurate one, not accepting anything without having it shoved in his face first.
“I’d cut out my tongue before I’d suck your cock, and I’d cut your cock off before I let it inside my hole. Is that plain enough for you?”
Jayne pulled his hand back like he’d been burned, but instead of getting angry, he stared at Mal with that expression he sometimes got when people went using words he couldn’t keep up with. The problem was that Mal was fairly certain Jayne knew every word he’d just used.
“That’s what’s eating you?” Jayne finally asked with an expression like he’d just smelled something particularly noxious.
“It was one of the things,” Mal said, suddenly unwilling to admit that was pretty much the whole shape of the matter. It seemed like a man should get plenty upset about that, but Jayne didn’t look upset as much as mightily annoyed.
“If’n I wanted someone to go sucking on my cock, I’d hire a whore for it,” he said with a shrug.
“Don’t think to compare me with one of your whores,” Mal warned.
“I ain’t.” Jayne threw his hands up. “If you ain’t interested in giving me orders in the bedroom, I ain’t going to go saying anything about it, but you’re about the most aggravating man I ever have met. I hope all sly men aren’t aggravating the way you are. Hell, you weren’t even aggravating until you went and tried being sly. I mean, you’re a real wang ba dan sometimes, but you ain’t never been this hard to understand.”
Mal’s mouth nearly fell open as shock grabbed him and gave him a good hard shock. Jayne should be mad as hell about Mal’s behavior in the bedroom. He sure as hell shouldn’t be offering to still take orders in the bedroom. That wasn’t the way it worked. If Mal had tried that with anyone he wasn’t paying in good coin, they’d come after him with a knife looking to gut him.
“You should be offended at my lack of interest in your cock,” Mal pointed out, feeling somewhat foolish for even having to explain the matter. It was like trying to explain why people called “the black” black. It was so obvious that it wasn’t something to go talking about.
Jayne shrugged. “It ain’t like I don’t have experience with taking care of my own dick. I don’t need someone else to go messing with it to get myself off.”
Mal felt reality slipping around him. This wasn’t Jayne Cobb. The Jayne Cobb he knew was more likely to…. Mal’s brain brought up the image of those whores they’d fought for at Petaline’s place, the way they all giggled around Jayne, following him like puppies. And Jayne hadn’t given them coin. They just wanted Jayne, and Mal always had wondered why those women were all so willing to not only provide free services but do it so enthusiastically. None of Mal’s whores were ever that devoted to the job at hand. And Jayne had followed them out onto Higgins’ Moon when it was pretty clear he would rather cut off his own arm. Then he’d followed them out into Reaver space. What had Sandburg been saying… that Jayne were more loyal than most. The thought had pricked him at the time, but now Mal felt like the prick had gotten infected. He grabbed a nearby handrail and just about fell on his ass, but at least he managed to do it so that he ended up sitting on the step which was a lot less embarrassing that falling down when you weren’t even drunk. Come to think of it, getting drunk wasn’t a bad idea.
“Mal, you fixing on retching on the decking?” Jayne asked. Mal didn’t know whether Jayne was concerned about him or the chances that Jayne would end up cleaning the deck, but he couldn’t ignore the fact that Jayne was concerned.
“Wasn’t really thinking on it, no,” Mal assured him even as he struggled to get his mind around a reality that just kept shifting under his feet.
“New ruts under the grass,” a voice announced from above. Mal looked up to see River standing on the catwalk and looking down at him, her head tilted to the side.
“Don’t go messing in matters that aren’t your business,” Jayne snapped. Most times, Mal was quick enough to bring Jayne to heel around River. He didn’t want those two starting something that Jayne couldn’t finish, and he sure as all guay couldn’t control River. But looking back, he’d been bringing Jayne to heel for all that time, and Jayne hadn’t even bothered snapping at the hand controlled him. Oh, Jayne was quick to tell him when he thought one of Mal’s plans was addlepated, but he was there in the middle of the insanity with the rest of them.
“New ruts hurts,” River announced grandly before she padded off, her bare feet slapping at the metal flooring.
“Gorram moonbrain. If the hairy little doc is one of those that rewired her, I’d suggest keeping him away from any wiring. It don’t make sense to make someone that crazy.”
“She’s not crazy,” Mal said, his voice faint even to his own ears. The fact was, getting new ruts set down in the brain did hurt a bit. “So, if I told you that I wanted you on your knees right now, you wouldn’t take no offense to that?” Mal asked, studying Jayne and hoping he could get clear if the man took offense enough to throw a fist.
“Not as long as you didn’t go getting all riled if one of the women saw us,” Jayne answered, he uncrossed his arms and promptly crossed them again as he eyed Mal up and down like he was a snake ready to bite. Mal figured he’d done enough to put any man on edge, and Jayne wasn’t exactly the calm or forgiving sort. It did make a man wonder why he stayed around.
“And if I said that I wouldn’t ever be returning the favor?”
Jayne frowned. “I ain’t no urchin looking for leavings to avoid starving to death. If you’re planning on being sly only behind a door and then chasing your skirts and getting stupider than usual, I ain’t interested,” Jayne said firmly.
Mal breathed out, relieved that the man was willing to put up some rules here. It seemed like this relationship was starting off one-sided, and if Jayne had conditions, that was doing something to even that out some.
“I’ll agree to that. No hiding that you’re in my bed, and no chasing skirts, but that means you’re willing to….” Mal cleared his throat. He wasn’t some colt-legged boy, but telling a grown man like Jayne to suck his cock was making him feel right uncomfortable.
“I’ll follow orders same as always, I’ll just extend that into the bedroom,” Jayne agreed. “When you aren’t over-thinking, you’re easier to please than a woman. I ain’t never thought on it much, but with a cock, you don’t have to go worrying that someone’s faking the lust just to get you moved out and bring another customer in. I ain’t fond of it when women go doing that.” Jayne scratched his crotch, and Mal noticed that he was a good-sized bulge in his pants. Jayne wiped the sweat off his face, his hand lingering around his mouth, and Mal watched. Jayne’s mouth was a wonderful thing. Now that Mal didn’t have to feel guilty about his own inability to reciprocate, it might be a downright glorious thing.
Mal groaned as his cock hardened.
Stopping, Jayne looked over with that calculating expression that usually meant he was coming up with angles for shooting someone dead. “You want to go back to your bunk?” Jayne asked. Mal had spent decades trying to come up with ways to sweet talk a woman into his bunk, and now his cock seemed more interested in Jayne Cobb, who didn’t need any sweet talking at all.
“You interested in sucking my cock?” Mal asked, just to make sure he was understanding Jayne.
“Yep,” Jayne said without any self-consciousness at all, and then he turned and started heading back up toward the crew quarters. Yeah, Mal had rightly wasted a whole lot of time trying to learn to learn sweet-talking, not that it mattered now. Now, he wanted to see Jayne on his knees, that beautiful mouth around Mal’s cock. Mal groaned and nearly grabbed his crotch as his desire got a little ahead of the rest of him. He was not going to come in his pants like a gorram teenager. Pushing himself up to his feet, Mal realized that if he wanted to avoid doing exactly that, he needed to get to his bunk before he could do too much thinking about how Jayne looked on his knees.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-06-15 01:56 am (UTC)And LMAO at Jayne being the voice of reason here. At least he knows what he wants and is cool with it.
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Date: 2011-06-16 06:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-15 02:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-15 03:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-15 03:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-16 06:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-16 06:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-16 06:21 pm (UTC)Mmmm. Good stuff.
Date: 2011-06-15 02:48 am (UTC)Thank you for giving this muse a chance to grow. I'm really enjoying this.
Re: Mmmm. Good stuff.
Date: 2011-06-16 06:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-15 03:13 am (UTC)I did like Mal's thought processes in the beginning of the story -- can't space Captain Jimmy because Mal might inherit Blair. Why are all the Firefly doctors annoying central core people? Why can't he get a nice easy going country doctor?
no subject
Date: 2011-06-16 06:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-16 01:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-16 06:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-16 03:31 am (UTC)Ok, going to buy your book now :)
Raenae
no subject
Date: 2011-06-16 06:25 pm (UTC)And I hope you enjoy the book. THose two... Carl and Pete... are both rough men, so if you like this, hopefully you'll enjoy their story.