Burn, by Jane St. Clair (R)

[anenko.livejournal.com]

Fandom: FIREFLY
Pairing: Kaylee/River
Author on LJ: 3jane
Author’s Website: a girl needs a gun these days
Why this must be read:

Serenity’s crew gets a bit of downtime, and River and Kaylee have a little fun. Nice mood and imagery in this piece--I could practically feel the sun warming my own skin.

Outside the village, there are long stretches of rice fields and a shallow river, dammed every mile.  The day's hot and hazy-clear, enough to send her swimming and feeling small fish with her toes.

"Pretty grey frogs.  You've been sleeping too long."

River, Simon-less and shirtless, peers over the earth-dam at her.  She's freckled and rapidly burning in the sun.  Kaylee can't smell even a whiff of sunscreen; she wonders whether Simon knows River's gone.

She strokes over and peers back over the wall.  Her own sunscreen's a mess of colours, showing brighter where the sun hits it.  She can always tell where she's put it and where she hasn't.  "Hey, honey.  You're gonna peel."

"Like a grape."

"Um, okay.  C'mere."  Both of them in the messy grass at the edge, getting muddier than Kaylee really expected.  Pulls River in between her legs and rubs sunscreen over the burned shoulders.  Hot, dry skin in her palms.  Down to her waist, along her legs, up her neck to her hairline.  Along her cheekbones.  "Wanna come swimming with me?"

"Scorpions sink."

"Yeah, even I know that story, but you don't sting, and I'm pretty sure you don't have a gun on you."  Or anything except a skirt.  Bare feet, bare hips under that skirt.  Soft bare breasts in the sun, coiling their colours as the sun heats them.

Burn