Fic: Strangely Comfortable (4/5)

[jedibuttercup]

Title: Strangely Comfortable (4/5)
Author: Jedi Buttercup
Rating: PG-13
Joss100 Prompt: Malcolm Reynolds, #2.98 - Nurture
Summary: Firefly, Boondock Saints fusion. The crew of Serenity rescue a shipload of students from River's Academy. Connor and Murphy McManus are among them. 5x500 words total.

Previously: Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three

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Mal looks up from his gun cleaning at the sound of booted feet reentering Serenity. Shopping trip must be over; Kaylee'd took the boys with her today.

Must be about the sixth time they've been off ship in the last five weeks. The way they'd reacted to being herded off at Haven that first time, he'd thought they might maybe bolt someplace else once they saw a chance, and he'd conjured escort duty for a painless way to give 'em the opportunity. They ain't done it yet, though.

He keeps on feeding 'em, Zoe assigns 'em chores, and they do the odd bit of guarding by way of earning their keep. It all balances out, to everybody's satisfaction but Mal's; even Jayne's all right with it, which made Mal a mite suspicious at first. Until he discovered the mercenary cleaning and testing his hardware with them.

Where River was made a weapon, it's plain these boys were taught to use them. They ain't as quick as her, but there's a level of conscious thought behind their skill River just don't have, and there's two of them. They move like there's only one brain between 'em sometimes, which might even be the truth after what all they been through; Mal's fair sure if they took up against River, his little albatross wouldn't survive it. Might take one or the both of them with her, but she wouldn't walk away from it.

Good thing, then, they all seem to get along so well. She runs and plays with them like she ain't done with no one else but Kaylee; sometimes they all three get down on the floor and wrestle like a pile of puppies 'til they ain't got no breath left in their bodies, filling Serenity with their laughter. Mal don't think he's ever heard a more heartening sound.

Round about their third week aboard they'd finally given up their names; the dark-haired one is Murphy, and the lighter one, the leader of them, is Connor. They speak English after all, and Mandarin enough to curse in; from their accent, though, it's plain that neither one's their native lingo. Mal figures them for old dirt, Rim settlers forgot on some bare world generations ago, left to develop-- or redevelop-- their own culture.

They burst into the dining room then, grinning and jostling each other. Strings of beads dangle around their necks, each one suspending a cross: Mal recognizes them for rosaries. Kaylee's been shopping for 'em again, he thinks, abruptly missing his own necklace as he hasn't in years. They're sporting new tattoos, too, words written on their gun hands and knotwork crosses on their forearms.

"Etching into their skin all the things the Alliance tried to take from them," River murmurs suddenly, somewhere behind him.

Mal jumps a little, then settles, thinking of his own tattoo of Serenity. "Can't take the sky from me," he murmurs, and begins to ponder seriously on offering the boys a place on his crew.

-(4/5)-

(x-posted to joss100)

Comments

[lisaroquin.livejournal.com]

*incoherent* This works amazingly well. I love Mal's observations on the boys. *sits on fingers so not to be one of those annoying people begging for expansions or more sequels*

Absolutely love this. :)

[jedibuttercup]

I'm glad you're enjoying the fic; I thought of you when I started writing it, as you're just about the only other person on my f-list who also writes in BS fandom.

Hope you like the last chapter, too; and I do plan on writing more in this 'verse, later. The "later" ideas are, in fact, what prompted me to write this one; I had to figure out how they got aboard *Serenity* and became integrated with the crew in the first place. =)