15 January 2006

BtVS/Firefly
Ethan Rayne/River Tam
Not so much dirty as.  Sticky.

It all belongs to Joss.

For cesario, who wanted something with Ethan Rayne, or Firefly.




She flickers at the edge of his attention for hours before he lays eyes on her.  And she is lovely, waifish.  A fantasy from one of his other lives.  Little girl with blown pupils and this huge, dark aura that drags behind her like a cape she made out of an old sheet.  On the floor, picking up dust and stray body parts.  Utterly entrancing.

She has protectors, obviously, but they have business of their own to do, and whatever they might fear, their fears take the form of large, serious men in suits.  The authorities.

Whatever Ethan may be, he's not yet that.

So he follows her.  Between stalls in this poor excuse for a bazaar, around hawkers and traders.  Little sweet things find their way into his pockets.  Not that he would ever sink to gutter-thievery, exactly, but he likes to keep his hand in.  And his attention belongs to her, not the sticky-fingered men who sell lollies to children.

He wonders whether any of her protectors have noticed that their little girl has thrown her shoes away.

Pretty dancer's feet.

And

she spins on one perfect pointe-toe and looks at him, straight through him, and all the chaos under his skin swirls up to her.  This perfect bright instant in which he falls in love with her.  He thinks she could take him apart.

Blood-trail flicker on his retinas as she imagines doing just that.  As she shows him.

He sends it back to her.  Creates variations in the damage carved on his body, corrects his naked form for her.

Offers her a sweet in his open palm.  Faint power-flicker all over his hand.

The crowd beyond them moves slowly, clear enough for Ethan to see every mathematical swirl of their passings, see chaos in their footsteps.  Hurricane insects in every pattern in the universe.  Slow, slow.  And she moves at human speed and no one else has flicked an eye to either of them.

She kisses him.

This instant in which her power nearly strips away his skin.

And walks away, her pockets full of his stolen gifts for her, leaving just the faintest trace of what she is in his mouth.

This long, bright string running between them.






jane
btvs
elsewhere