Title: Dancing Lessons

Author: kirby crow

Email: kirbycrow@hotmail.com

Characters: Jayne, Simon

Pairing: Jayne/Simon

Crossover?: No

Rating: NC-17

Genre: *slash*

Status: Complete

Summary: Refuge is where you find it.

Archive Permission: Firefly's Glow. Everywhere else, please ask. :-)

Author Notes: This is actually a "prequel" to my J/S story "In the Before". I must be channeling Lucas. >:-)

Disclaimer: No sue I.

Dancing Lessons
by kirby crow
kirbycrow@hotmail.com


"What we need's a diversion. I say Zoe gets naked."

Wash was sitting with his knees drawn up to his chest. He didn't bother to look up. "Nope."

"I could get naked."

NO! seemed to come from everywhere at once. No accounting for taste, Jayne guessed. He figured he could have brought the crew around to his way of thinking, sooner or later. But much sooner than late, the Doc decided to go heels.

Jayne, Zoe, Simon and Kaylee huddled with their heads nearly pressed together around the small table in the cargo hold, trying to come up with a workable plan. Badger's crew guarded them with menacing looks and safety switches off. One of Badger's men - the ugly one- glanced at them suspiciously, and Kaylee whistled a little tune and tried to look innocent. Not all that hard. Wash
appeared to be sleeping.

"I can distract him." Simon glanced at Badger. "Really."

Jayne's gut clenched and his own startled "No!" popped out before he could grab it and shove back in. He set his jaw and said it (he hoped) more firmly: "No."

Simon looked again at Badger. "Why not, he's-- "

"I got eyes, boy. I know what he looks like." A shrimp. A runty, spurred rooster taught to claw and kill for the privilege of crowning his own little pile of shit. A scummy rat running the sewers. Yeah, he knew Badger's type.

Trouble is, rats are gorram single-minded, and Badger had been eyeing Simon ever since his two-bit crew scuttled in. Not that Jayne blamed him much for that. Simon looked ... well, he looked clean. Even when he was dirty and beaten and bleeding on a dusty Mudder path, something about him shined pristine and white, like clean linens drying in sunshine, a fresh and unsullied quality that no amount of dirt could blot out.

When you got foursquare about it, Simon looked downright... virginal. Jayne winced, knowing how much a man like Badger would enjoy taking the shine off of him, what an unholy rutting mess it would be to try and put him back together afterwards. "No," he repeated.

"Are you giving the orders now, Captain Jayne?" Narrow-eyed, like a feisty kitten contemplating taking the head off a lion.

"About this? You bet your ass." Yeah, nice choice of thoughts, there.

Simon mocked him with a dubious lift of silky eyebrows, and between the two men something at once sullen and vibrant snapped like a tiny charge of electricity. The charge possessed a magnetic quality, mystic and invisible as the ley lines crossing a ruined monument. It pulled at them until Simon abruptly looked away, breaking the connection.

"He doesn't look very dangerous."

Jayne's face was dour. He'd felt it, too, had been feeling it for weeks. "Compared to what? Maybe he don't appear too ferocious at that, but he's got a powerful grudge against wealth and plenty, and a fine example of breedin' such as yourself might set him off for something truly original."

Simon nodded like he was chewing over what Jayne said. "An astute observation. I didn't know you could do that. Tie your shoes and grunt, yes, but--"

Yap yap yap. All he ever did was talk. "Just stay clear and leave the planning to me."

"So ... you're the one coming up with the plan?"

"Yep."

"And when might we expect to hear this grand scheme?"

"I'm workin on it," he growled.

"Ah," Simon said, archly. "When?"

"Soon!"

Simon waited about ten seconds, hands folded meekly in front of him on the card table, before he began tapping his thumbs. "Tick tock," he said under his breath, holding Jayne's eyes steadily. "Tick tock tick."

Smartass little...True, belting him one would have settled the matter neat as you please. Jayne's right hand twitched to do just that, but then Zoe opened her mouth and they all started talking again and Simon came up with a plan, one that involved wriggling that prim, tight ass of his in Badger's face. Jayne set his jaw and was about to show him who was boss when the gorram crew suddenly went looney and sided with Simon.

Jayne grabbed Simon's wrist before he could get up. "Where do you think you're going?"

His eyes did that rollie-thing where he looks all around like he's wondering where Jayne's zoo handlers went to. "Um... to create the diversion?"

Jayne tightened his grip, feeling Simon's bones creak under the pressure. "I say you ain't."

"Let him go, Jayne." This from Zoe.

Jayne ignored her, his stare locked with Simon's. "You might not ken this, Mister Fine Example of Breeding, but Badger would be just as happy sticking a knife in you as his dick."

Simon paled a little. "Are you trying to scare me?"

"Yeah."

"Well, it's working. Now let me go."

Seconds passed. "Jayne!" Zoe hissed, and he had to let go.

Simon stood up casually and moved closer to the arch, near Badger. Too near, leaning his hand on the bulkhead and shifting his weight to one hip in the decidedly unstudied, feminine stance that made Jayne want to pound Badger into a walnut. Jayne's shoulders itched with the urge to grab Simon and move him back like a chess pawn (bad, sexy pawn!), but a plan was a plan. He'd thought about sticking Simon himself a few times, so he could sympathize with Badger on that point. Only trouble was, Doc was just so damn pricklish when it came to, well, to anything. He ran circles around Mal, kept Kaylee hopping like a summer bride, and every time Jayne strayed near, Simon suddenly recollected that he'd grown up rich. Kept reminding Jayne of it, too. Not too smart, considering that Jayne alternately contemplated crushing his head or bending him over the
nearest rail whenever he got all purse-proud and sniffy.

Zoe nodded at Jayne and Kaylee was half out of her chair to go into her part when Mal limped in and it was all over but the screaming.

Which was presently about to start.

Jayne waited until Mal and Badger had squared off, the vermin shooed out and the hatch locked tight before he set out. Zoe and Wash saw him barreling down the corridor with a look on his face that made them both step out of the way.

***

Simon hurried out of the hold to search for River, not looking back, though he could feel Jayne's eyes burning a hot brand between his shoulder blades. The blistering and ponderous Something that had been between them from the moment they met was getting harder to ignore. Actually, met was a bad term.Collided was more like it.

And Simon wanted to ignore it. He wanted to forget Jayne even existed, which made days like this -- days or even weeks on a smallish ship where there was nowhere to get away from a look, a presence -- even harder.

Forget about him. Forget about the Something. Keep your mind on business. He could look for River on the way back to medlab. If he didn't find her there, he could start searching quarters and below decks. Maybe he could get Shepherd Book to help. Even Zoe was occasionally sympathetic. Not like Mal and Jayne, who couldn't care less if his baby sister wandered out an airlock.

The Alliance may not like to admit it, but there was a hell of a lot more men like the captain and his henchman around than there were men like him. Mercenaries, smugglers. General, all-purpose criminals. Not evil men, just men needing to live, men with people depending on them to take of things.

Maybe, he thought with a shiver of self-loathing, that was the spark that drove Simon to observe Jayne from under his lashes when he thought he wouldn't notice, to watch the slide and pull of his muscles under whatever tight T-shirt he was wearing that day. Possibly it was the primal and unashamed drive to find strength and refuge in a world where maybe he was a lot more like Mal and Jayne than he wanted to admit. In his youth, all the refuge he had ever needed had come from books and knowledge. This was alien ground he was on, with secret steps he didn't know and rules he suspected were just slightly more evolved than hitting prey over the head with a stone club.

Not that he had never encountered their type before. Commerce was anything but a clean business and mercenaries were in the inner planets as well. Always before, he had been able to deal with such men as Simon Tam, the son of the illustrious Doctor Tam, a privileged citizen protected by just about everything his current shipmates hated. Even at medical college, Simon had run into his share of...

What is Jayne exactly? he asked himself, hurrying down the access way. *Dead-sexy with a big... gun. That's it. Guns with names. I bet he even named his* --

And then he turned the corner to medlab and found Jayne hulking there.

Waiting for him.

***

Simon found it hard to speak shoved up against the wall with an iron forearm pressed across his throat.

"You ever scotch me like that again and -"

"And what?" His voice was constricted, getting tighter as Jayne pressed to remind him, but his eyes spit defiance. "You'll have me flogged and hung from the yardarm? You're not in charge here, Jayne. Only Captain Reynolds can reprimand me."

Jayne drew close. So close their bodies pressed together at the hip and Jayne could see the streaks of green in his hazel eyes. "Want to see how fast I can reprimand you?"

Not so sure now. Not so damned smart-mouthed and chesty. Jayne smiled as Simon's jaw dropped and he obviously thought better of whatever uppish thing he'd been about to say.

"That's not necessary. Let me go." When Jayne didn't move, he repeated it. A little louder, with just a tinge of outrage at being pinned to the bulkhead by the box-dropping, man-ape-gone-wrong-thing. "Let me go."

"You know," Jayne said thoughtfully, easing up on Simon's windpipe. "You been struttin around here mighty prideful lately."

"Go. As in release. As in turn loose."

"Oh, I'll let you go."

Simon waited. Tick tock tick. Finally, he broke. "When?" he shouted.

Jayne grinned in satisfaction. He liked Simon better when he lost it. It took the fussy edge off him and wiped that prim look off his face. He looked smoother, like someone had filed all his pointy edges away. Kissable. "Just as soon as you promise."

He struggled, gave up when it became plain that twisting and wriggling didn't move a brick wall of muscle. In fact, Jayne was sort of enjoying the wriggling. "What sort of promise?"

"The next time we get ourselves in a tight spot, you don't even think about going hero on me. No offense an' all, but you weren't born to it. You'd just get yourself killed."

"And that would grieve you terribly, I'm sure."

Jayne was silent for a moment, gazing at him intensely. He tilted his head. "It would."

Simon gave him a long, searching look, as if trying to making out an obscure shape in a twilit room. Pretty hazel eyes explored his and grew wide in astonishment.

Simon visibly recoiled. "Okay, I promise," he babbled hastily. "Come on, Jayne, let me go. I said-"

"I heard you." Bending near and smiling confidently down. "And now I'm thinkin that some kind of compensation is in order."

Like wiping your hand over a sand floor, the flat expression of boredom returned to Simon's face. "Compensation. That's four whole syllables, Jayne."

"I can count."

"If you think I'm going to apologize to you -"

Yap yap yap. All he ever did was talk.

***

Simon had time to think; Oh yeah, that's way too close, before Jayne sealed his mouth over his lips and kissed him hungrily. After that, he didn't think much of anything. His thought-processes seemed to be fusing together in a molten lump of incoherence. *Beeble, beeble, the man-ape is ravishing me*. Oh, and now he was arching against Jayne ... against Jayne! ... and allowing him to push layers of clothing aside to slip a rough and work-calloused hand up under his shirt, to pinch and roll a taut nipple under his fingers.

Simon gasped and Jayne used the opening to push his tongue inside, exploring every centimeter of the unknown territory, claiming it. Finally, he was allowed to breathe, even if it was because Jayne needed space between them to pull and tear at his clothes.

"Jayne-"

"Shh, not going to hurt ya."

"Jayne, stop being a deviant for --"

"Deviant?" Jayne smiled broadly and dropped the choke-hold against his throat. "Never been called that before."

"-- for five seconds and listen to what I'm telling you," Simon went on in a rush, grabbing at Jayne's busy hands. " I don't want you, okay? No offense, but please get the rutting hell off me."

"Got a dirty mouth for a highborn." Jayne rubbed the bulge in his groin against Simon's hip. "You kiss your ma with that pretty mouth?"

He was half-turned into the wall, writhing to avoid contact. Jayne slipped an arm around his waist, jerking him around to face him. Now they were pressed together and Jayne rubbed himself hotly against Simon's body.

"You like that? Huh?" Whispered darkly into his ear. A warm mouth explored his neck, biting and nibbling, stiff beard scratching his skin. "Yeah, you like it."

Jayne took Simon's rush of breath and the repressed moan for encouragement. Fingers wrestled with the buttons at his waist and a zipper sighed open. Jayne's hand slipped down the front of his trousers and he exhaled and kissed Simon demandingly when he found him aroused, already hard. Simon gave a muffled cry as strong fingers wrapped around his length and began to pull and stroke him.

"You want me, baby," muttered in satisfaction against his mouth.

Was that true? Did he? Simon didn't know. All he knew was that Jayne was a very skilled and persistent deviant, seeming to know exactly what kind of touch would excite him, what would make him moan and twist as he fought to move closer -- get away? - from him.

Jayne's arm curled tighter around Simon's shoulders, holding him immobile as he caressed his stiffened member. His teeth settled on the edge of Simon's collarbone and nipped sharply, then soothed the hurt with his tongue. Shudders wracked Simon's slender body, predicting a swift climax, and Jayne moaned happily as he quickened his pace, pumping Simon's cock.

Oh god, Jayne was going to make him come. "Stop," Simon gasped. "I ... we need to stop."

Jayne's response was to withdraw his hand and bring it to his mouth, where he spat on it thickly before returning it to its previous occupation. Then his hand stilled and the blunt fingers strayed lower. Simon's back stiffened as he sucked in a shocked breath, and Jayne probed and thrust as Simon shuddered in his grip.

"S'okay, hush."

"Stop this. Stop it now," he whispered tightly, restrained and shamed, and Jayne seemed to pause for a second, suddenly doubtful, but then Simon's trousers somehow got tangled around his knees and Jayne was stepping into the breech and parting his legs further, catching his flushed lips in a bruising kiss.

He hummed joyfully against the warm, full mouth he was taking, broke away to scatter kisses across the smooth ivory of his forehead, soft hair brushing his lips. "Simon...Want you so bad, Simon, so bad ..."

If he had called him baby again, it might not have jarred so much. Jayne's rough voice chanting his name pulled Simon out of the warm, syrupy cocoon of erotic sensations and slammed him back to present reality.

"Stop!"

Jayne froze, withdrew his hand and ceased pushing his erection into Simon's thigh. "Whoa, calm down."

"What part of stop didn't get through to that cannon ball you call a skull!"

"Hokay, lookit me." He raised his hands in a small gesture of surrender, but still keeping Simon pinned with his body. "This is me, stopping."

Simon was breathing in short gasps.

"Too much?" Jayne asked.

Simon stared at him incredulously. "Too much? You're trying to rape me, you gorram imbecile!"

Jayne gave him a droll look, his lips twisting into a barbed smile. "I took you for a lot of things, pretty baby. A liar ain't one 'em, so don't start disappointing me. Now, maybe this ain't the way you pictured our first dance, but that don't change the fact that you still want to get invited out onto the floor. Badly."

Simon glared and said nothing.

Jayne lowered his hands and settled them gently on Simon's shoulders. His touch burned through the fabric like two hot brands.

"Maybe we change the tune a little first." He bent his head and kissed Simon's cheek ever so softly. "Like this, all nice and non-threatening?"

When Simon did not reply, Jayne slid his hand around the back of Simon's neck and pulled him in for a gentle kiss. "Better? Hmm?" Another kiss, longer and more bold, and then Jayne was pulling away and looking down between them at the stiff length of Simon's cock. "How about I kiss that?"

Without waiting for an answer, Jayne slowly slid down Simon's body until he was on his knees, nudging his thighs apart and caressing the smooth skin of his stomach with his bristly chin.

Simon's breath hitched in a gasp as he watched Jayne rub his mouth against his exposed member, hot breath flowing over him. Jayne looked up as he planted kisses along his length, flicking his tongue out to taste him and Oh, he's got blue eyes, I never noticed he had such blue eyes...

Then those eyes closed as Jayne took him in, and Simon gave a shuddering moan and surrendered, his hands flowing down to cup and pull helplessly as Jayne bent his head and slid his lips over the flared head. Simon gave a short cry and thrust forward. No protest from Jayne, who reached around and kneaded and caressed his ass and drew him in deeper, ever deeper, sliding his mouth over the silken skin, opening wider and swallowing him to the base. Simon gasped loudly and Jayne made another sound, a muffled hum like longing and satisfaction, as he stroked Simon's thickness with his tongue, shivering as the heat crawled across his belly and centered in between his legs, making him grow tight and hard there.

Simon closed his eyes, feeling the skin of his face beginning to tingle with a burn that started in his toes and shot up through his calves as Jayne began to suck him. Hands on his ass, clutching him, ramming him inside the hot cavern, until he made a noise that was protest and half-warning and joy all mingled into one, shouted out into the chilly air of Serenity, and Jayne smiled with his eyes closed and his lips stretched around the pulsing skin as he felt the spurting heat slip down his throat.

For long moments there was only the hoarse rasp of Simon's breath as Jayne slowly caressed him with his mouth, waiting for him to soften, then sucking the last drop off of him. Simon looked down at the spectacle of Jayne kneeling in front of him with his kiss-swollen mouth glistening with...

Too much to assimilate at once. Any more and he'd short-circuit and fry his brain for good. Simon Tam, the amazing idiot doctor. Simon shook his head in amazement, out of breath, still dazed but coming back to himself. His legs were trembling and Jayne helpfully slid strong hands up his thighs, working his muscles.

"You know," he drawled from somewhere around Simon's navel "we could try this dance in a horizontal position."

He wasn't sure what was being offered. "This?"

Still smiling. "Maybe we could wing a few new steps. That is, assuming you'll be ready to go again soon. I ain't got all night, you know."

Simon huffed in amusement, feeling the knot in his chest loosen for the first time in months. People often see what they want to see. His father had envsioned him as the scion of his house, a natural extension of himself that had gone terribly wrong. The crew of Serenity saw him grafting clumsily into his new world, still caught between his old life and the present. No matter. Whether because what he had just done with Jayne was so unlike him, or because it was precisely like him, he felt better than he had in a very long time.

Their eyes met and locked and the line between Simon's brows creased. That indefinable thing again, a jolt like a charge of electricity. He thought it was only attraction, an understandable physical reaction to a very forceful, very male presence. But now that it was done, he realized the allure might not be as primal as that. That the shifting pattern they were weaving in and around each other was too complex for simple lust or basic survival. There were other polarities at work here.

"I know I'm going to regret this."

"You won't." Jayne began to lick and nuzzle his bare thigh.

Yes, I will.

***

There was River to get settled first. Simon half-suspected that Jayne would balk at being asked to assist in the search, but he simply helped Simon put his rumpled clothes to rights and grinned.

"Sister-tracking. Now that's something I ain't done in a while."

Simon looked appalled. "I don't even want to know."

"It's a hell of a story..."

It was, and it was over just before they found River tucked away in the other shuttle. Simon put her to bed without incident, sighing with relief when she went so docilely. When he dimmed the light and backed quietly out of her room, Jayne was still there.

Now Jayne rose over him in the sparse light, his bulky outline seeming to blend with the murky shadows in his cabin. Jayne's cabin, and he was naked in his bed. A bed with real sheets, no less. Simon admitted that in some corner of his mind he had always pictured Jayne sleeping on a bare mattress, maybe while clutching Vera.

Darkness covered them, folding Simon in a tenebrous blanket that was close enough to anonymity to allow him to feel Jayne eagerly exploring his body. He wasn't proud Simon Tam, he was this wonderfully tactile creature that arched and moaned and urged Jayne to go faster, harder...

Jayne was lying beside him, kissing him wetly. His hand pumped Simon's cock, stroking him close to completion, then stopping. Simon panted as his hand deserted him for a moment and returned with something oily coating his fingers, touching him deeply.

Getting me ready for him, Simon thought muzzily, his heart thumping in mingled anticipation and dread.

As if he heard, Jayne shifted and kissed his cheek, drawing his tongue along the delicate curve of his ear. "You ready for me?"

Simon's chest seemed to squeeze in on itself, constricting around a question he didn't want to face; how much of this was needing Jayne - powerful and resourceful Jayne - in his corner and how much of it was desiring the man for himself?

How much of it was wanting to erase Doctor Tam?

His dark hair rustled against the sheets as he felt himself nodding. "Ye-- "

He didn't get the word out. Their teeth bumped with a sharp click as Jayne's mouth devoured him, tongue stabbing deep as he moved to cover Simon's body with his own, strong hands gripping his hips, moving him into position.

The thumping of his heart turned to a painful slamming against his ribs. Adrenalin surged and he had to remind himself not to pull away, not to suddenly fight against the wave of panic coming towards him.

Again, Jayne seemed to sense what was happening. His hands moved in reassuring circles on his hips, slipped up under him to feel the tension in his back as he pulled him up to the cradle of his lap.

"Can't do this unless you relax," he muttered into Simon's neck, his back bent in a curve as he poised over him, but not doing anything, not pushing.

"Why not?"

He felt those lips crook into a smile. "And you're supposed to be the doctor?"

Oh. "I thought that was to be expected."

Jayne kissed a line down his windpipe. "Not the way I do it."

His heart was slowing from its frantic metronome, tapping out a more measured rhythm. Unaccountably, Simon was annoyed. The blanket of forgetfulness was slipping away from him. Soon, he'd be Simon again, about to be fucked by a bloody-minded mercenary.

"Just get on with it."

Jayne froze. After a moment, he gave a resigned sigh and rolled clumsily off him, withdrawing to the other side of the bed. He sat up and a match flared as he lit a cigar. Simon stared up into darkness. Jayne's back and shoulders were limned in crimson as he puffed on the cigar, the cherry-red tip chasing back the shadows.

"If you're looking for somebody to punish you, I ain't the man."

Simon wondered where Jayne had learned to see so clearly. "No."

Jayne went on: "I ain't like Badger. You get it? I got nothin to prove."

He expected an answer. Simon had none. He was grateful again for the dark, for the way it chained expression and nuances of body language.

Jayne grunted. "You can leave now."

Moments passed. Then; "What if I don't want to?"

He exhaled and stubbed out the cigar on something. Maybe the table. The mattress dipped as he shifted to lay beside Simon, hands locked behind his head, joining him in his blind perusal of the ceiling.

"Then you best get to convincing me why I shouldn't just toss you out on your tight little ass."

Tick tock tick.

"My ass is not little."

The mattress moved again. Maybe it was a shrug. "It ain't Zoe's."

Why did he have a sudden urge to say; them's fightin' words? The mattress wiggled in a way that told him Jayne was chuckling soundlessly. Simon got up on one elbow and breathed into the dark, wondering if he had any conception of what he was about to do, if despite all his culture and learning and intelligence, he really understood nothing at all, not even himself.

Leave yourself behind.

It made sense. If he couldn't live here as who he was, he would have to learn to be someone else. He watched his hand move with dreamlike slowness over Jayne's chest, drifting upward to cup the square jaw.

"Would you be so kind," he said faintly "as to teach me this dance?"

Jayne's arms went around him. "It'd be my pleasure."


### The End ###