Silk

The bass drum thumped out a heartbeat rhythm, fusing western guitar riffs and penta vocals in a blend of loud and nasty that suited the bar down to its dusty old floorboards.

Mal didn’t know why he’d even followed the mercenary. Boredom maybe? Intrigue? Who the gorram hell knew. Truth was, he was at a loose end while Inara was busy with clients and he weren’t in the mood for hanging around the ship for the two days they were planetside.

Kaylee had a lot to do with it. The girl had gotten some bee in her bonnet since they visited Hraken a couple of months back, when Jayne returned a day late looking grimy and hung-over and well and truly satisfied with life. Still, Mal had to admit that the little mechanic wasn’t the only one who was curious about what the mercenary did with his spare time.

So he’d ended up here; watching from the shadows and stalking the only member of his crew who he rated more gorram awkward than River Tam. The whiskey slipped down his gullet like fire and he winced when it hit his belly, all the while making sure he kept his eyes pinned on Jayne. Didn’t want the man slipping away now, not when he was so close to actually discovering.

Rutting hell. He should have known better than to come here. Mal cursed himself as he watched a skinny brunette approach Jayne from behind. She was dressed to impress in a flyaway strip of sky blue silk draped low over her hips and, as she sidled up to his barstool and slipped her arms around the big man’s waist, one white camisole strap slid provocatively off her narrow shoulders. Mal blinked, snuck a suspicious glance at his drink and looked again, then found himself hardening despite everything.

Truly there was no big mystery to search out; all Jayne ever cared about was the physical. What he could touch and taste. Where he could stick his ji ba to gain the greatest pleasure with the smallest amount of effort.

All of ‘em, ‘cept maybe Shepherd Book, teased the mercenary relentlessly about his shameless addiction to whorehouses, but Jayne didn’t care, just gave them this broad grin and looked directly at Mal when he answered back.

‘Not allowed to mess around with the gorram crew, am I?’

Mal always ended up looking away; couldn’t keep a hold of those laughing blue eyes when they turned on him. Jayne may well be a numb-brained gan ni niang but he always found the path of least resistance to get himself sexed up, whereas Mal was different, falling hook, line and sinker for the most unattainable piece of shiny in the ‘verse.

He and Inara had been dancing ‘round each other for years now. She wore her companion status like a gorram medal of honour, letting Mal close but never close enough to get more than a sniff of her ji bai, as if anything more than flirting would sully her. Seemed the craziest thing in the ‘verse to Mal. As far as he was concerned a whore was a whore. Inara was no different to that lithe little body that, right now, was twining itself ‘round Jayne like a creeper.

Or maybe he was very wrong in his estimation.

Jayne stood up, swaying some from the effects of the liquor, and slung an arm around the whore’s waist. Mal watched ‘em leave through the back exit of the bar and, with his face expressionless, he followed, careful to keep to the darkest parts. What the gorram hell was his merc playing at?

The door creaked up a storm when Mal went to open it and he cursed under his breath as he snuck out, holding on tight to his bottle of sour mash liquor like it was a comforter. What the hell excuse could he come up with for following Jayne out here? It was one thing to be caught in the same bar as a member of your crew, but a whole lot of other to be discovered creeping around outside after him.

Keeping Jayne safe was best reason he could come up with, and a back alley was the likeliest place his hired gun was ever gonna find to get jumped.

Happy enough with the wafer thin excuse, Mal slunk along the side of the fence, stopping just before he reached the dusty track that separated the settlement from the wilderness. He could hear Jayne and his little whore close by, almost smell the sex in the air, and he chewed at his lip and peered around the end post, holding on to the smoothed down wood for support. They were no more than eight feet away from him and Mal sucked in a quiet breath of fear as adrenaline coursed through him.

He watched Jayne press the slim body up against the wooden slats of the fence, stroking his index finger downwards from cheek to belly to assay his purchase, then sliding his open palm under the flimsy camisole and over the whore’s chest. Mal could feel those eyes as if they were focused on him and he slipped a hand down to his groin and squeezed as Jayne slowly lifted the white silk top, bending his neck and teasing each small flat nipple until the whore whimpered out for more.

Mal was confused; this was not what he expected for so many gorram reasons. First off he’d thought Jayne was being his usual slow self, too drunk to tell the difference between boys and girls. He’d fully intended on watching the freak show from beginning to end; have a laugh at the mercenary’s expense; maybe save the kid’s life when Jayne found out he was being duped. But it appeared that wasn’t gonna be necessary.

Second thing that threw Mal was the way Jayne was sexing the whore up. It was all happening so painfully slow. The boy was quivering and looking at Jayne in such a way with them big painted eyes that Mal was stiff as a gorram poker inside his pants. He held on to himself as he watched Jayne trail his tongue over the boy’s pale chest then brush his bearded mouth over the sensitised skin until the whore squirmed insistently against him.

This was a bad dream, it had to be. The Jayne Cobb that Mal knew would never touch another man this way. And if it so happened there were no womenfolk around and he was forced to get his pleasure from a male, he’d surely face him up to the wall and pound into him like he was drilling for oil. Surely?

Mal found himself focusing on the scrap of blue silk tenting and sliding upwards as the boy’s erection made its presence known.

“Shiny,” murmured Jayne, crouching down low, keeping one big palm splayed on the boy’s stomach to hold him in place.

The soft moan of satisfaction from the mercenary almost made Mal come undone at the seams. He gulped down his own sounds of pleasure and stared as Jayne mouthed the boy’s prick through the wisp of silk that was calling itself a skirt, sucking the juices through the material then sliding the flat of his tongue up and down the solid shaft as the silk ruched up against his goatee.

“Laotian,” breathed the boy. “Please, please, more,” and Jayne willingly obliged, lifting the material away and sucking cock like he was the tricker instead of the trick.

The whore shuddered, trying to keep control of himself, then wriggled away, tugging Jayne up and fumbling with the fastenings on his fly, breathing in sharp excited pants of air as he sank to his knees and took the mercenary’s cock into his mouth sorta reverently. From the way the boy was acting, Mal’d wager top coin that he’d never been tended to this well before.

Jayne’s hands were busy, the way they always were, smoothing the young man’s long dark hair away from his eyes and stroking patterns onto un-weathered skin that was marred only by Chinese ink. Mal wondered what the lettering read. Once upon a time he’d learned to speak Teochew from one of his aunts and she’d even taught him how to paint the characters. Now, twenty years on, the only thing he remembered was cussing in slang Mandarin same as everyone else in the ‘verse.

Leaning back against the post, Mal watched intently as the boy stretched his pink painted lips wide enough to accommodate all of Jayne’s erection. The mercenary’s prick held Mal’s attention good and proper. He’d thought big men were supposed to look out of proportion cock wise. Seven inches on a guy Jayne’s size’d look kinda lost compared to how it would on Wash. Only Jayne had seven inches of thick ji ba and then a whole lot more on top.

“That’s good, baobei,” muttered the mercenary in this throaty growl that made the hairs on Mal’s neck stand up on end. That voice had always resonated deep but now it seemed to rumble like thunder.

The whore was apparently having way too much fun to be after quick coin. He took his time, swirling his tongue then gliding it up and down, cupping Jayne’s balls and then pulling at his cock from root to tip in these slow tight strokes that had Mal’s hips dancing in time.

“Wanna rut now,” said Jayne, more telling than asking, and the whore shimmied his way up that big body, unwrapping a rubber and sliding it over Jayne’s ji ba as he grazed his lips across Jayne’s mouth.

Jayne pulled away from the kiss at the last second. “I don’t never do that,” he said almost apologetically and that piqued Mal’s interest all over again. Gentleness wasn’t a quality he’d ever associated with this rough and ready soldier before.

Mal couldn’t see clear enough for his liking, but the way the muscles worked in Jayne’s arms and the open-mouthed sighs of pleasuring coming from the whore told Mal a tale of where Jayne’s hands were and what they were up to.

“Ready?” asked the big man pulling the boy closer and lifting him, brushing the bristles of his goatee over each nipple once more making him cry out, the sound high pitched and piercing, penetrating the still night air.

“Hush now, baobei, or you’ll be getting the law on us,” murmured Jayne, his voice muffled by silk and skin as he stripped off his tee-shirt and slung it over the fence post.

The whore wrapped his legs around Jayne’s waist and pushed up on those broad shoulders, positioning himself ready as Jayne spun a quarter circle, squeezing the boy into a corner so his back was supported against a cross strut. Safer now with Jayne half-turned away from him, Mal felt in a comfortable position to play voyeur. His hand gripped the hard length of his cock that was trapped inside his breeches and he wanted more than anything to slip his suspenders down and rut away at his fist, but he weren’t gonna do it. The back of his mind was still telling him this was about making sure Jayne was okay, because you never could tell what surprises these sluts had down their panties. Course the front of his mind knew it was all about the watching, but he weren’t listening to that part of his gorram brain.

From his shadowy vantage point Mal couldn’t see much more than the expression on the boy’s face, but, yet again, it told him exactly what the mercenary was doing with that cock of his. Jayne was big enough to cause a little pain to the most experienced yanse lang and this young ‘un sure as hell wasn’t old enough to have been working for long, but Jayne took his time and Mal could see the exact moment that the burn gave way to something so much better and, damn, if he didn’t feel his own ji ba twitch in response.

“There’s a boy,” crooned Jayne, supporting the whore with one arm as he slowfucked him against the fence, fingers and lips busy as they teased their way across the young man’s skin until he was mewling and arching his hips in frustration.

Mal understood how the whore was feeling and he edged his way along the boundary, his erection insisting that however much of a gorram stupid idea it was, he had to get a better view of the two men rutting. Finding himself a secluded position caught in the overhanging shadow from one of the roofs, Mal leaned back and watched the show, trying to make sense of his mixed up feelings.

He trusted Jayne, had done for a long while now, and it felt good to know the big mercenary was at his shoulder, ready at all times to jump in. But it was one thing to enjoy the security that came from having a damn fine soldier on his crew and another altogether to start finding the man attractive.

The boy cried out and just for a second Mal thought he’d come, but then he saw Jayne’s hand wrap around the whore’s erection, thumb twisting over the glossy head. Spitting into his palm, Jayne slid his clenched fist up and down in time with the thrusts from his cock and Mal could actually feel the tension building. The moans coming from the boy’s pretty mouth made him ache and he assuaged that pain, rubbing his back up against the rough walls of the building like he was trying to erase all his need from inside out. It wasn’t gonna work though; the sting of the splinters from the wooden panel only serving to arouse him more.

“Ye su, yes, yes, yes!” moaned the whore, pushing up on Jayne’s shoulders and rutting away on that big prick as Jayne wrapped the sky blue silk around the boy’s prick, teasing him with the soft material.

“That’s it, baobei, come for me, come for me now.”

That husky growl accompanied by a jerk of spunk from the whore had Mal staggering back, the bottle of whiskey falling to the ground and smashing on the compacted earth. His breath came hot and thick to his throat as he made his escape back to Serenity. Gorramit, he should have known better. Anything involving Jayne Cobb always spelled out trouble in capitals.

~~****~~

Home and safe, Mal sought immediate refuge in his cabin, stripping off his clothes and sliding into his bunk, rationalising as he jerked off that he was just worked up over the sex. It was a pheromone thing. A man thing.

Next morning, however, when he caught Jayne’s eye over breakfast and flushed red as a starlang viper, he reckoned he’d dug himself into a gorram deeper hole than he’d first thought. He found himself asking Wash and Zoë to be the ones to go with him to arrange some business, ‘stead of Jayne. Couldn’t imagine how he’d feel with the merc at his back. Well, he could imagine quite easy, but it was the imagining that was the cause of all his problems.

Once the deal was done and Wash and Zoë had slipped away to have a little quality alone time, Mal wandered aimlessly for a while, ending up in the town’s general store where he sorted through the racks of men’s shirts and fancy vests, the kind of thing that Simon Tam favoured wearing - all soft and smooth, sliding silky between his fingers.

“I’m sure your ladyfriend will love you mighty long for a gift such as that,” said a voice from behind the counter and Mal looked down at the sky blue scarf like it was reaverskin. He paid up and slipped the scrap of material inside the pocket of his coat, trying to forget it was there as he walked back through the bustling portside market, ignoring the calls of encouragement from the off world traders.

‘Inara’d like the present,’ he told himself in determined fashion when it became impossible to ignore his purchase.

~~****~~

Back in his bunk, Mal slid the cool silky material over his cock and gave in to his imaginings. He became that whore, rutting up and down on Jayne’s cock, and when he erupted in thick hot spurts of white, pulling the silk away at the last second so as it wouldn’t get soiled, it felt good and dirty. Afterwards it just felt plain old fashioned dirty.

Problem was, he couldn’t rid himself of his new fetish. He’d taken to carrying the scarf around with him stuffed deep in his pocket. Some days he even hid it inside his shorts, the material so flimsy that no one would ever know anything was amiss as long as he could manage to keep his erection hidden.

Time spent out in the black wasn’t so bad. Mal avoided Jayne’s eyes and never attempted to make conversation with the man, but then that wasn’t much out of the ordinary. Nothing was much out of the ordinary except for the layers of tension that blanketed the interior of Serenity like a cloud of thick smoke.

~~****~~

Muttering to himself abut the stupidity of ferrying around live cargo, Mal checked the crates of valerian monkrats to make sure all the little critters were alive. It was when he clicked the transparency switch on the final box that he noticed Book spotting Jayne as he bench pressed over in the far corner of the hold. Watching for a moment, Mal ran his fingers over the crumpled piece of the silk in his pocket and was about to make a swift exit when the preacher caught sight of him.

“Captain, you wouldn’t mind taking over from me while Jayne here finishes up would you? I’ve just remembered Simon needs to talk to me about River. He’s concerned about the girl.”

Before Mal could object the Shepherd had high-tailed it out of the cargo bay and Jayne was left holding a bar with what must have been five hundred pounds of weight on it. Mal may have had issues, but he wasn’t about to see the man come to harm over this. It weren’t as if any of it were Jayne’s fault.

“Thanks,” said Jayne gruffly as he finished his series of reps and Mal helped him ease the bar back onto its support, taking the opportunity to steal a surreptitious glance at the mercenary. He couldn’t help notice that Jayne was intent on looking anywhere but at him. Seemed as if he wasn’t the only one who was having problems with eye contact.

After wiping the sweat away, Jayne slung the towel around his neck and shifted from foot to foot. “When we get to Boros I’ll be leaving the boat. You’ll have no problem finding another gun for hire there.”

Mal watched the mercenary make his way to the steps that lead up to the gantry.

“I knew you was there… I oughtn’ta… You shouldn’t’ve found out… ‘bout the way I was,” muttered Jayne turning and looking at Mal through hurting blue eyes before escaping to higher ground.

~~****~~

“Way I see it the problem is all of my making and none of yours,” said Mal, as if their conversation was still fresh and those three days of silence hadn’t passed them by.

Jayne’s bunk was a mess, the floor covered in an array of weapons that was bordering on obscene.

“I’ll be leaving some behind,” said the mercenary looking ruefully at the pile of guns choosing which ones to sacrifice. “Cain’t carry ‘em all.”

“I said this is my problem not yours,” explained Mal carefully, “So you’ll not be needing to go no more.”

“Still a problem, whoever it belongs to,” said Jayne looking downwards. “I know a lot of folk don’t take too easily to a feller being sly.”

Gorram thing was that hadn’t even crossed Mal’s mind. He’d been too worked up over his own thoughts to even consider how it looked from the other side.

“That ain’t it at all,” he said, leaning in towards Jayne to find out just how much he was trusted back.

The kiss was tight lipped and full of nervous tension until Jayne opened up and let things progress.

Twice, maybe three times Mal’d heard the man declare that he didn’t do this and yet here Jayne was, tongue sliding against his own as they stood awkwardly amongst the sea of weaponry, bodies held apart some while they kissed with this urgency that made Mal’s belly squirm.

Control hung in the balance and the kissing grew deeper and more greedy as every second passed by. Mal knew what he wanted. He’d seen what he wanted that night out back of a bar on a mid-rim planetoid that he couldn’t for the life of him remember the name of.

He knew the moment Jayne had made his decision from the feel of those big muscles twitching in an anticipatory way beneath the man’s clothes. He could almost hear the low rumble of a growl coming from deep inside. Pulling his mouth away, Jayne pressed up closer, forcing Mal back against the cabin wall, snapping at each suspender then tugging them down off Mal’s shoulders.

Made! it was slow just like he’d wanted. Jayne flicked open the shirt buttons feeling his way over Mal’s skin, pinching his nipples and licking wet trails across his chest until Mal’s heart was hammering so loud he was sure Jayne’d be able to hear it. Most likely the rest of the crew an’all. It was gorram good, better than ever he’d imagined, and this was before the proper sexing had even started.

“Like that do you, baobei?”

Struggling out of his britches and boots Mal nodded, pushing up against Jayne and wanting more of them kisses, wanting to feel the rough sensation of that goateed mouth taking his. Climbing Jayne’s body like it was a ladder, Mal was eternally grateful that Jayne worked out as much as he did. He wasn’t a small man by any means and it was good to feel secure in Jayne’s arms. He wanted to be fucked all ways, but first off it had to be like this.

“Ain’t got no rubbers on me,” said Jayne looking hopefully at Mal, “Don’t s’pose you have?”

Mal shook his head slowly. “I don’t care if you don’t.”

Please, Christ let Jayne not mind. Mal felt the mercenary reach out and looked to the side watching him rummage around in a drawer. When he pulled out a tube of slick it was like Mal’s heart had started up beating again.

“Almost threw this into the trash when I was cleaning stuff out an hour ago,” Jayne said as he slicked his fingers and slid one inside Mal. “Glad I kept a hold of it.”

Mal couldn’t answer being too busy riding Jayne’s finger and panting as another pushed its way in.

“Hell, that’s good,” he moaned, arching back as Jayne bit into his neck and licked a path up to his mouth. For all his negative words, the mercenary seemed to be taking a definite liking to the kissing.

“Ready for my cock, baobei?” asked Jayne removing his fingers and lubing himself up.

Mal wriggled around to get in position and then dropped suddenly, taking Jayne inside him in one go, feeling the pain and the stretch and the burn all at once just the way he liked it. The shocked expression on Jayne’s face made Mal smile a little but not for long. Soon he was too busy rutting away on that thick column of prick to have room for anything else but pleasure inside his head.

“Fuck,” he cried as the fingers of Jayne’s right hand teased their way downwards, tweaking and scratching and exploring until Mal was as strung out as he’d ever been and near ready to beg as his cock pulsed dribbles of pre-come onto his belly. The mercenary was one gorram rutting torture chamber of delights.

As Jayne finally gave in and gripped his erection, Mal closed his eyes and imagined himself being screwed up against that fence outside in the darkness. It didn’t make any difference. Seems it wasn’t a replay of the situation that he’d been craving this past week. Locking his arms around Jayne’s neck he pulled him closer, exploring his mouth with kisses that were as hard as the body he was wrapped tight around.

Gorramit. Why Jayne of all people, Mal wondered as that cock slid up inside him, pounding away against his sweet spot and making him see the world in flurries of light. Ten years he’d gone without ji ba and he had to end up falling for the biggest dumbest sumbitch he could find.

Threading his fingers together, he leaned back like a good little whore and relaxed into the fuck, enjoying every fraction of that prick as it opened him up. Jesus, he was almost there, body trembling as Jayne pushed him closer and closer to the edge. Then, inexplicably, the man took his hand away from Mal’s cock leaving him hanging in a state of panic.

“Tamade, Jayne,” he whined, trying to use his own fist to get a little relief but Jayne swatted the fingers away with a grin and fucked him faster, pinning Mal up against the wall by his wrists.,

“Plenty time,” said Jayne his voice all husky with sex as he leaned in closer, kissing and rutting into him so fiercely, the captain wondered how much respect he’d have left when he appeared in front of everyone with a face red raw from Jayne’s beard and unable to sit down for the next week or so. Didn’t mean this weren’t good though, ‘cause it sure as hell was.

Jayne was tensing now, throwing everything into this fuck and Mal was so gorram close he could almost taste his own orgasm bitter on his tongue. Even without a hand to help him get off, he reckoned if Jayne could just last another couple of minutes, he’d climax from being fucked alone. But Jayne well and truly humped up that plan, collapsing forward against Mal as he shuddered like he had a fever and pulled out his cock, jerking himself off hard and coming in hot wet splashes over Mal’s skin

Wiping the sweat away from his face with an exhausted groan, the merc kicked a pathway through the weapons and unceremoniously dumped Mal into his bunk. Sliding upwards and settling onto the bed Jayne cupped Mal’s balls and throated his cock with that quiet sigh of satisfaction that Mal had been remembering over and over again in his masturbatory day dreams.

When Jayne sucked cock it was apparent that he loved it. Mal raised himself up on his elbows and watched as Jayne stroked the flat of his tongue over every inch of his prick, teasing out a seep of pre-come from the slit and then diving down and taking all of Mal inside his mouth and sucking him with a passion. It seemed right somehow for Mal to reach down and run his fingers through Jayne’s hair--just to make sure this was real--and when he arched like a bow and filled Jayne’s mouth with a flood of come, he caught sight of a flash of sky blue poking out the pocket of his britches and thought, just maybe, it wasn’t the silk he’d developed a fetish for.

DONE