Big Damn Dog
Sep. 10th, 2011 06:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lit_gal
Big Damn DogTaming the Muse Prompt: Bequest
Pairing: Mal/Jayne
Rating: Adult
The world is starting to shift as little changes begin to pile up. This time, Jayne may get more than just servicing at Heart of Gold, a whorehouse run by Inara's friend, Nandi.
http://lit-gal.livejournal.com/287571.html - Chapter One
http://lit-gal.livejournal.com/296957.ht
http://lit-gal.livejournal.com/395768.hthttp://lit-gal.livejournal.com/395998.html - Chapter Four
Nandi fingered the edge of her teacup. These days she was more likely to indulge in whiskey, but it felt right to fall back on the old ceremonies with Inara here. “Is it just me or is Mr. Cobb’s pursuit of every woman in this house feeling rather desperate?” Nandi asked.
“If he’s taking advantage, you only have to tell Mal,” Inara offered with a studied carelessness that she had clearly practiced. Interesting. “He’ll control Jayne,” she finished.
“Oh?”
Inara put down her teacup and pursed her lips as she considered Nandi. “Do not get that expression,” she warned. At one time, Inara’s warnings would have carried a lot of weight with Nandi, but she’d learned to be a little more direct and a lot more self-sufficient running her own house. She was no longer the timid companion carefully trained to avoid ever offending anyone.
“What expression?” Nandi asked, but she knew that Inara could read her every expression. They’d lived together, trained together, served clients together, and slept together. There were no secrets, and Inara could read her as easily as she could read Inara.
“The one that says you are making plans. Those two have problems enough without having you interfering in an already problematic relationship.” Inara leaned back and projected a sort of determination that Nandi remembered well. She always had a core of steel that Nandi had admired.
“And here I thought you were still a companion, sworn to help those with problematic relationships.”
“They are not clients.” A touch of disgust leeched through the words, surprising Nandi. Inara wasn’t generally one for judgments, but then Mal clearly desired her, so perhaps there was more to the relationship than Nandi had yet seen.
“That never stopped you before. In fact, as I remember, the one dark spot on your perfect record was your habit of helping anyone in spiritual or sexual need, even if they couldn’t or wouldn’t pay.”
“Perhaps I’ve decided the rules are more important than my personal preference,” Inara lied.
“And that is why I left the companions,” Nandi said, changing the topic to one that was slightly less personal. “The hypocrisy is really too much for me. The rules say that clients don’t pay for sex. However, when we suggest that sex is the last thing that some client needs, we have a bureaucrat questioning our commitment to our craft and telling us to have sex. We are to help those who are emotionally troubled, but if they ain’t got money, we don’t help.” Nandi grinned at Inara’s slight cringe at her poor grammar. “The guild wants to own companions as sure as Rance Burgess wants to own Petaline.”
“They want to keep standards high.”
“They want to keep companions in line.”
Inara sighed. “Perhaps they want both.”
Nandi didn’t answer. It was enough that they both understood the truth; Nandi didn’t need to make Inara admit it. “Tell me about Jayne Cobb.”
“He is crude, disgusting, unwashed, and utterly disreputable.”
“And in love with his captain,” Nandi added since that did seem the most significant part given that Jayne was sleeping his way through every girl in the house. Mind, there had been a lack of complaints and more than a couple of complimentary remarks; however, a man trying to sublimate that much lust would burn out eventually.
Inara didn’t answer. Leaning back against the red pillows in her embroidered and jeweled outfit, Nandi could almost believe they were back in some companion house having a philosophical discussion. Of course, that false sense of security would end when Burgess showed up to burn them out of the Heart of Gold and give the whorehouse to some man who would get the girls strung out on drugs and abuse them. That would happen over her dead body, but Nandi had to admit that her death was a very real possibility. Perhaps that is why she was willing to risk her longest friendship over the matter of a confused sexual dynamic.
“Will you leave them suffering then?” Nandi asked curiously.
“They are not my business.”
“But you are torn. I can see how, as a companion, you would want to help two such idiots find some peace. I have to wonder if your sudden adherence to the rules has some other motivation. Could it be that you are attracted to Captain Malcolm Reynolds?”
Inara opened her mouth, the denial obvious in her expression, but then she seemed to sag, emotionally and physically. “I am trying to recover from it,” she said with the same tone one might use to describe the plague. Clearly Mal had some flaw that Nandi hadn’t yet seen to inspire that sort of despair. On the other hand, if Inara had fallen for him, he must have considerable charm as well.
Nandi reached out and rested her hand against Inara’s knee. “How long has it been since you allowed someone to care for you.”
Inara gave her an amused look. “I don’t need a companion’s services.”
“Are you so sure?”
“You’re assuming I haven’t visited a fellow guild member lately.”
“I’m assuming that with members of that gorram guild you would have to play the part of the dutiful companion, never getting your own needs truly met,” Nandi countered.
Inara smiled at her, but the sadness in that expression made it clear that Inara didn’t plan to take Nandi up on her offer.
“I will take your offer into consideration, but I think I need to deal with my out of control feelings on my own.”
Nandi pursed her lips. No one liked to see a friend so emotionally contorted, but there was very little Nandi could do for Inara. That still left one question. Nandi firmly believed that sexual frustration in one’s environment could corrupt one’s own feelings, and Jayne and Mal were confused enough to corrupt the entire universe. “And where does that leave Mal and Jayne?”
Inara gave a breathy laugh. “Believe it or not, I’ve attempted to counsel Mal so that he would recognize Jayne’s desire to submit.”
“So you see it too.”
“I would have to be blind to miss it.” Shaking her head, Inara leaned forward and picked up her teacup. “However, if they are so puritanical that they refuse to seek sexual satisfaction in a homosexual relationship, I can’t do anything with them.” She wrinkled her nose. “Or I could, but trust me, I do not want to be that involved in their sex life.”
Nandi ran a finger along the edge of her cup. “I’m not so sure. Jayne certainly seemed to check out my boys before settling on the girls.”
“Did he?”
“He did. Perhaps you were distracted by Mal.”
“Perhaps I was.” Inara sighed.
“Would you take offense if I attempted to do a little counseling?”
“Would you be offended if I suggested that it would take an entire team of companions to do anything with those two morons?”
Nandi laughed. “Not at all. I am perfectly willing to admit they might be too much for me.”
“Oh, they really are.” Inara rolled her eyes. “So, if you are interested in sorting them out, I suggest that you start laying the groundwork now, while they are focused on the threat Burgess poses. Not that they recognize the sort of subtle attacks which we are capable of employing.”
“And that must drive you crazy,” Nandi guessed.
Inara looked at her with an honestly confused expression. “Inara, you are one of the most powerful women I know. It sounds like they don’t recognize that.”
“They think power is an ability to shoot a gun and spit at the same time.”
Nandi cringed as the dynamic finally became clear. Inara wanted Mal, and he wanted her too, but he wanted her for her beauty and sexuality. He didn’t respect her power. Inara had never been the sort of woman who accepted that sort of marginalization. When the house had tried to rein her in, she’d chosen to work outside the house. Her power was not easily contained. However, Nandi imagined that Mal would have to be a true fool to choose Jayne over Inara. If he was that much of a fool, he deserved to lose her.
“When this is over, I’ll still be here for you,” Nandi offered softly.
Inara smiled at her. “I have missed you.”
“I know,” Nandi teased. She would love to try and change Inara’s mind about spending some time together, but she knew that pushing would only make the situation worse. So, taking Inara’s advice, she offered her friend a nod and put her cup down so she could go in search of either Mal or Jayne. This would require some finesse.
Heading out into the house, Nandi started her search on the first floor. While her first thought to try and save Mal from his infatuation with Inara, now things appeared far more complicated. Actually, it was a conundrum worthy of a companion test question. She turned the corner with these thoughts on her mind, stopping when she spotted one-third of the problem. Jayne was leaning close to the small woman that had come with these mercenaries. River.
Jayne was inches from the girl, leaning far into her personal space, but River just gazed up at him. “If Burgess goes attacking, there’s lots of folk who are like to end up dead,” Jayne said, his low voice carrying even though he was clearly trying to be quiet. “Fact is that I like some of ‘em.”
The girl tipped her head to the side. It wasn’t often that Nandi failed to understand human beings, but this River broke every rule she’d ever learned. Her body language was inhuman.
“You listening, girl?” Jayne asked, his voice rough with emotion. That one had a hard shell, but Nandi could see something below the surface. He certainly made the girls happy, and most times rough men didn’t care about the girls near as much as their own cocks. By all reports, though, Jayne took time to please the girls and even more oddly, he took time to explain weaponry to the girls rather than leave them helpless. Nandi had found men who were truly evil liked their women helpless. Mal was still a fool for ruining a chance at Inara, but she could see why someone might take a shine to Jayne.
River turned her head to look right at Nandi and Nandi faded back into the shadows of the hall.
“If you’re fixing to do something crazy, like shoot a whole heap of people, now would be a good time to start,” Jayne said.
Nandi frowned, not sure what game Jayne was playing. River was clearly mentally damaged. The idea of her handling a weapon was laughable.
“Thoughts and thoughts, colors bleeding into each other. I want to watch the new person stuck inside the woman,” River objected.
Nandi peeked around the corner, and Jayne had River by one arm, pulling her out toward the front. They stopped near the front door. “Then you get away from whatever thoughts are bleeding into you and yours. Burgess is going to get us all dead if he can, and the captain is so busy chasing skirts he doesn’t have two good thoughts in his head.”
“Skirts and pants.” River said that in a sing-song that made Nandi question her sanity even more.
“Ain’t much caring what they’re wearing. You and I both know the captain goes and gets real stupid with women. If’n I’m not supposed to go making plans and keeping my own judgments on folk, he shouldn’t be allowed near no women. Now Kaylee fessed up about you and your trick. So, if you’re planning on having another deadly moment, now would be the time.”
Nandi watched while Jayne pressed a gorram big gun into River’s hands. It looked about as long as River was tall. The girl stared blankly down at it.
“Dark thoughts crawling through, and without Jayne light to chase all the cracks, cracks and cracks and all the world divides into realities without substance,” River pronounced as seriously as another might offer a eulogy.
“I ain’t understanding even half of that.”
River sighed, and now Nandi could read the frustration. “Need Jayne to think reality into being, temporal lobe compensating for the lack of neural integrity.”
Jayne pulled back, a confused look on his face. While Nandi understood the general meaning of the words, she could admit to feeling equally bewildered by the statement.
River screwed up her face and reached out to grab Jayne’s arm. “See what you want.”
“I want dead men littering that yard,” Jayne said with brutal honesty. Nandi figured he wasn’t exactly the most complicated sort.
River gave a determined little nod and pulled the gun close to her chest before looking down at it. “Movement is optimized with alternative weaponry.”
“Huh?”
Nandi eased out from behind the wall. This was as good a time as any to begin building some trust. “She thinks she could move better with another weapon. Perhaps a smaller one?” Nandi offered.
Jayne frowned as he looked at that monster weapon. “That there is the most accurate gun I got.”
Once again, Nandi found herself surprised. This gunhand who appeared as crude and uncaring as they came offered a girl his best weapon, denying himself the ability to use it.
“It is also a very large weapon for someone with very small hands,” Nandi pointed out. “Do you really think she could be of help in this fight?” Nandi’s first thought was to snatch the weapon out of the hands of such a child, but if Jayne believed in River’s ability to find, Nandi had to wonder what she was not understanding.
Jayne ran the back of his hand over his nose to wipe it. “Don’t know. I do know that Kaylee finally confessed to the captain that River shot a peck of guards on another job, not even pausing to take aim as she killed them with one shot each. If’n she can do that again, I reckon our odds go up.”
“So, she’s a marksman?” Nandi looked uncertainly at the girl. She certainly didn’t look like a marksman.
“You saying I’d lie?” Jayne demanded, and she could almost see the defenses lock into place. Nandi focused on Jayne for a second, dismissing the problem of River for the time.
“I think you’d lie quite easily to protect your crew, to protect your captain. I suspect you are the sort of man who would do a lot to get a job done, and I am very grateful you’re on my side because I don’t doubt that if you were to join forces with Burgess, my chances of winning would go down right dramatically,” Nandi let a little of the rough frontier accent seep into her voice, and she could almost see Jayne relax under the praise. Interesting.
“Gorram right,” Jayne said, looking like a very satisfied cat who had just finished a bowl of milk. His kinks were rather front and center, even if his relationships with the crew would challenge the most experienced of companions. “So if the girl can keep herself focused and do some killing, I’d be grateful.”
“If I ain’t mistaken,” Nandi started, thickening her accent more, “the girl is saying that she has something wrong with her brain.”
Jayne snorted. “That ain’t the half of it.”
“And she needs you to focus on what you want so she can…” Nandi frowned, not wanting to say the next bit out loud. While she had come to a logical conclusion if she assumed River had any logic to her strange words, this wasn’t the sort of conclusion she cared to share. She hated looking a fool.
Jayne watched her, his head tilted to the side with body language that begged for clear direction. The man’s psyche was an open book that Nandi could read as easily as a menu.
“She needs you to focus so she can read your mind and see what she’s supposed to do.” Nandi braced for the derision, prepared to defend herself by pointing out that she was only translating the words of a clearly confused young woman.
“Oh. Okay,” Jayne said as he reached out and plucked the large gun out of River’s hands. Instead, he untied his gunbelt’s leg brace. After he unbuckled it, he thrust it at River, sidearm, ammo and all.
“Bequest of clarity,” River said as she took it, her body language suddenly turning deadly as she took the gunbelt and slung it around her slender hips. It looked odd, to say the least. “Lots of dead littering that yard.” She echoed Jayne’s earlier words. “But not until morning. Two men to the Serenity, stop the skies from turning enemy. One Chari making whispers with Burgess, and sixteen men with runs riding across the dusty ground.” After saying that, she turned her back and headed out the front door. Nandi stared at her back. How dare the girl accuse Chari of betrayal. She had no idea what all these girls had sacrificed and risked to make the Heart of Gold a safe house for all of them.
However, Jayne’s body language made it all too clear that he believed every word. He grabbed for his radio. “Mal, we got trouble,” Jayne said loudly. “Chari’s turned traitor and that hwun dan has put two gunhands on the Serenity.” Ignoring Nandi altogether, Jayne turned toward the stairs, breaking into a trot even as Nandi could hear Mal’s vivid swearing over the radio. Mad. They were all mad.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-09-11 01:32 am (UTC)Gabrielle
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Date: 2011-09-18 02:51 pm (UTC)YES!!
Date: 2011-09-11 02:19 am (UTC)Really liking this one--always have liked your Jayne, no matter whom you pair him with.
Re: YES!!
Date: 2011-09-18 02:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-11 03:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-18 02:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-11 03:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-18 02:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-11 07:48 am (UTC)“He is crude, disgusting, unwashed, and utterly disreputable.”
“And in love with his captain,” Nandi added since that did seem the most significant part given that Jayne was sleeping his way through every girl in the house. Mind, there had been a lack of complaints and more than a couple of complimentary remarks; however, a man trying to sublimate that much lust would burn out eventually.
*snerk*
Poor Inara! I wonder if Nandi can help her out.
However, Jayne’s body language made it all too clear that he believed every word. He grabbed for his radio. “Mal, we got trouble,” Jayne said loudly. “Chari’s turned traitor and that hwun dan has put two gunhands on the Serenity.” Ignoring Nandi altogether, Jayne turned toward the stairs, breaking into a trot even as Nandi could hear Mal’s vivid swearing over the radio. Mad. They were all mad.
LOL! She doesn't know the half of it.
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Date: 2011-09-18 02:57 pm (UTC)And yeah, Nandi does not understand just how crazy they all are.
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Date: 2011-09-11 02:48 pm (UTC)The analysis of Jayne being more than he seems is always nice. Just because he's rough and not too bright doesn't mean he doesn't care about people.
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Date: 2011-09-18 03:01 pm (UTC)And I do think Jayne cares more than he lets people see.
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Date: 2011-09-11 06:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-18 03:02 pm (UTC)Yay!
Date: 2011-09-11 07:27 pm (UTC)Re: Yay!
Date: 2011-09-18 03:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-13 06:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-18 03:07 pm (UTC)Finding something new
Date: 2011-09-13 03:21 pm (UTC)Thanks very much for all your efforts.
Dusty
Re: Finding something new
Date: 2011-09-18 03:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-13 08:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-18 03:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-17 03:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-18 03:08 pm (UTC)