river_meimei | (no subject)

(no subject)

There's a certain district on Beaumonde where nobody from Serenity much wants to go any more. There are a lot of bad memories there. There's also a lot of notoriety, if you happen to be River Tam, and potentially a lot of people with scars and grudges.

However, Beaumonde's a whole world. There's more to it than one dive bar.

Half a planet away, in a different city, there's a pedestrian market of the sort frequented by both tourists and locals. It's full of color, in paint and flowers and bright draping fabrics. It's also missing most of the neon, and most of the general air of seediness. No good for handovers of illegal goods -- but plenty good for a girls' day out.

River and Kaylee have a mission.

And the mission is: fun.

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Kaylee starts grinning. "You got it."

And the violets. To the lady behind the counter: "These two, please?"

They emerge into the sunlight. Kaylee, with the sprawling purple plant, is laughing. "Next stuff you have to carry."

River's laughing too, although it's probably mostly in response to Kaylee's. "It's a deal," she says decisively.

Kaylee may wish to make sure that whatever River gets to carry isn't terribly fragile, though.

"You pick," she announces to the market at large. "Alternation."

"River, we're doin' this for you. Whatever you want to pick, we're doin'. I mean it." She shifts the pot from hand to hand.

River casts Kaylee a quick glance; a little pleased, a little uncertain. "I know. It's a collaborative outing."

"Everything," she adds, more clearly cheerful.

River is a window-shopper. Focus is boring.

"Then as we got a lot to see -- "

Maybe there'll be a place where they can just... leave the pot for a while, until they can come back for it on the way back to Serenity.

" -- let's get to it. -- Hey, check that out -- " She points to a store about four down and across the way from the flower shop. "We could get you a real ridiculous hat."

"You're a bad influence," River informs her. "Captain'd say."

From the laughter in her voice, ill-stifled, it's safe to say River is okay with some kinds of bad influences.

Loftily: "I'm just tryin' to make sure you're well-equipped. And if he don't like it, he can take it up with me." Beat. "'Sides, if he says I'm a bad influence, that kind of makes him the biggest hypocrite of the 'verse, don't it."

Well, DUH, says River's face.

"We can get him one too. Share the uniform."

Mal would be thrilled, no doubt!

"But then you wouldn't have somethin' one of a kind," Kaylee says. Wisely.

"He can have glitter."

"Works." Kaylee nudges River with her elbow. "Come on. We got a lot of places to visit."

--Oh yeah, moving helps, says River's small jump.

Obediently, she starts forward into the crowd.

The hats are not quite what Kaylee hoped -- although she does eye a straw cowboy hat very wistfully -- but in the end nothing quite catches their eye.

They do have fun trying them on, though.

And, some time later:

They've discovered the food booths.

River has a paper cone full of doughnut holes, and some skewers that used to hold pineapple bits.

She seems to be building some sort of structure out of them, at the moment, rather than eating. But she's having fun!

Kaylee, meanwhile, is glad for the chance to put down the plant.

She's settled on top of the picnic table they've commandeered, and is perfectly content to rest her feet on the bench, lean back on her hands, and tilt her face toward the sun.

The doughnuts and skewers are currently forming something like a very complicated cube.

"The fifth dimension is recalcitrant," River informs Kaylee, without looking up.

Squelch, says a jelly-filled doughnut, mournfully.

Kaylee glances over, lazily.

"Well, beat it into shape already." Pause. "Or eat it."

(She seems entirely too amused by this.)

That gets River to lift her head.

Patiently, "Digestion ruins the proportional distance."

"Well, 'scuse me for livin'," she says, cheerful enough. "Four dimensions is enough for anybody anyhow, 'cause if you got the fifth, you don't got none left over to eat. Or hardly enough, anyhow."

"We'll have to eat them all. It's inextricable."

River is sage. And logical.

Amiable: "River, you want me to explode?"

River glances at her, quick and startled.

"No."

Somebody missed the 'metaphorically' memo.

"Skipped the nitroglycerin," she adds, in case Kaylee got confused about that.

"I don't know."

Kaylee shakes her head. "They might've slipped it into the fryer."

...

"Jayne can give them cooking lessons." Darkly.

"Oh, so it'll explode faster? That what you're after?"