Library of the Four Winds Challenge 06#16 -- Black

[xiao_meimei]

We spend more of our time out here in the black than any other single place. Makes a right bunch of sense if you think on it, what with the sort of work we do. Weren't exactly what I meant when I said I wanted to see the 'verse, but I'm finding that it's a sight better. Course it's nice to be in port and see all the shiny things in the stores, but it ain't like we're usually in much of a position to be buying shiny things.

Out here in the black, ain't no shiny distractions and reminders of all the differences between folks and what some folk might see as fei wu and what other people might see as real pretty. It's just us and Serenity. I got my engine room and my bunk, with my pretty dress in it if I feel like looking at shiny things. Ain't sure when I'll ever get to wear it again, but it's there.

Got all sorts of possibilities, too. Out here, ain't nothin' that might not happen. Can figure you're just a girl and you're on a boat with just a lot of other folk and nothing much matters but that you get the job done and that you're there for each other and take care of your crew. Other things, things that might matter on the ground don't matter so much here. Course some folk still try and make them matter and that's just fei hua. And more than fei hua, that's just their loss.

I like it out here. Ain't what I expected when the Captain walked in on me and Bester and offered me the job. Sure is different than back home. But Serenity's become home and she's made for being out here, doing what we're doing. Ain't nowhere else I'd want to be.

Comments

[firebugwarren.livejournal.com]

... I think so.

Say guy and girl get together at a party, fool around for a few hours, have a good time. Then you give it a week. Then suddenly girl wants to know "where we stand."

What the hell does that mean?

[xiaomeimei.livejournal.com]

Means she likes you and she wants to fool around again.

[firebugwarren.livejournal.com]

... she couldn't just say that?

[xiaomeimei.livejournal.com]

Well, no. That'd be too obvious. She wants you to say you're interested first.

[firebugwarren.livejournal.com]

... Why?

[xiaomeimei.livejournal.com]

'Cause girls want to be pursued.

[firebugwarren.livejournal.com]

*groan* Great.

*sigh* I don't... why pick on me? I don't get her.

[xiaomeimei.livejournal.com]

...Why not you?

A girl'd have to be blind not to notice you.

[firebugwarren.livejournal.com]

*blinkblinkstare*

*shakes his head* It's not... you don't get it. People don't look at me like that, not at school. Whatever all this.. *gesturing at his face, down his chest* Gets me, the fact that my Dad's one of the most notorious criminals... no one wants to hang around someone who might try to blow you up if you piss him off.

[xiaomeimei.livejournal.com]

*sighs*

If she didn't want to hang around you, she wouldn't care where you stood. She'd just go her own way an' not be askin' you questions.

Or she'd treat you like her kid brother.

[firebugwarren.livejournal.com]

*slight nod, thinking it over*

*half to himself* The day after, well, next time I saw her. I forgot about... *shrugs, hands splayed* I didn't think she'd be interested. She kept asking things like, well... and I had no idea what she was asking. *rueful* Got into a big fight over that. Which is why we weren't talking for a week or so.

[xiaomeimei.livejournal.com]

*sighs*

Yeah, that can happen when folks aren't used to talking the same way.

[firebugwarren.livejournal.com]

*shrugs*

What's this boy-ese you need translated?

[xiaomeimei.livejournal.com]

Well, it ain't so much one comment as a whole pattern of behavior.

Like, sometimes it seems like...well, like he's givin' off interested signals. An' then someone suggests we might've had sex an' he's all "What with Kaylee? No! I would never!" An' then says I'm pretty 'cause I'm the only girl there.

[firebugwarren.livejournal.com]

*facepalms*

Just off what you've told me it sounds as though he has no idea what to do with a girl.

Okay, maybe not absolutely no idea. But it sounds like he's never even paid attention to how flirting works.

[xiaomeimei.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I get that sense, too. An' I've been real blatant about stuff, even said that I liked him an' asked if he liked me an' he just...

Said that he had to be proper to show me respect or something.

[firebugwarren.livejournal.com]

*thoughtful* He was brought up a rich kid, status and politics and image and everything?

[xiaomeimei.livejournal.com]

Yeah. An' he's like the youngest surgeon ever.

[firebugwarren.livejournal.com]

He probably feels like he has a reputation to live up to. And old habits die hard, very hard.

*looks down, looks back up at her* Guys learn about the world from their dads, and if they don't have dads from the closest thing they have to a father. His father was probably very proper, told him about the right way and the wrong way to do things, and he still believes in that. And if it's special to him to do or be something, he'll try and do it, be it in the right way. Even if it's not the way you're used to.

[xiaomeimei.livejournal.com]

It's just frustratin' 'cause I don't know what it means. None of it.

[firebugwarren.livejournal.com]

It means he likes you. But he's only used to one way of doing things.

[xiaomeimei.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well in the meantime I'm having to request batteries be added to the supply list a bit too often.

[firebugwarren.livejournal.com]

*chokes, laughs*

Awww.

[xiaomeimei.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well it ain't quite so funny on this end. *smiling though*

[firebugwarren.livejournal.com]

And you don't find anyone in any of the ports you pull into?