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Firefly ficlet, rated G
Oct. 12th, 2003 10:57 pm(Improv written courtesy ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
phaelstya who offered "Jayne" and "duty".)
Duty
Jayne sits in his cabin -- room's bigger than his previous one, and it's his alone. He has to admit that in this respect, he's done better for himself.
But when he's sitting in his room, sometimes it's quiet enough that he starts thinking. He doesn't do it very often, but sometimes he can't help it.
He thinks about how he's got stuck on a ship where no one's like him. Where the crew are all civilised people, and cultured, and hell, some of them have got fancy educations and fancier manners. Nothing at all like the dirt-bred, head-starved lout he is.
He'd blame his daddy, but the ole man had tried to keep his middle boy in school. By the time Jayne was ten, he'd given up and let him stay on the ranch and help the hired hands. The chores were his price for staying free of the strap for playing hooky, and Jayne had considered it a fair trade. He'd always been better suited for hard work with his hands, than he'd been for hard work with his brains.
When his parents and brothers had ended up dead, Jayne had left the planet and gone to work, drifting around doing whatever he felt like. Whatever he could get paid to do. It meant shooting things, hitting things, and lifting heavy boxes most of the time.
It was how he'd ended up here. Cap'n had needed someone to shoot a man, and had hired him on the spot for doing it.
Jayne hadn't minded in the least, and had pretty much been satisfied when he'd seen his room, and seen his cut. Hadn't taken long for him to realise he was the only one of his kind on board. Hadn't taken any longer to realise it was gonna stay that way. Made it kinda lonely, but since the kind of people he was used to spending his free time with were as likely to steal from you as share a drink with you, he reckoned he was all right being with these other types. Even if he missed being with people like himself.
Jayne stayed on board for two reasons. The first being that the pay and room were still better than anything he'd ever found.
The second was that the Cap'n had never put a termination clause in his contract. Jayne couldn't go nowhere until Mal gave his OK.
The closest he'd come to that was getting himself killed. Since he hadn't, he was stuck here.
And sometimes, when he's sitting in his room and he can't escape thinking, he wonders if anyone really cares that he hates being here, and its only his sense of duty that holds him fast.
Duty. He can't leave until Mal breaks the contract. And if anyone ever tries saying it's because of the prissy boy, he'll carve his initials in their hide.
phaelstya who offered "Jayne" and "duty".)Duty
Jayne sits in his cabin -- room's bigger than his previous one, and it's his alone. He has to admit that in this respect, he's done better for himself.
But when he's sitting in his room, sometimes it's quiet enough that he starts thinking. He doesn't do it very often, but sometimes he can't help it.
He thinks about how he's got stuck on a ship where no one's like him. Where the crew are all civilised people, and cultured, and hell, some of them have got fancy educations and fancier manners. Nothing at all like the dirt-bred, head-starved lout he is.
He'd blame his daddy, but the ole man had tried to keep his middle boy in school. By the time Jayne was ten, he'd given up and let him stay on the ranch and help the hired hands. The chores were his price for staying free of the strap for playing hooky, and Jayne had considered it a fair trade. He'd always been better suited for hard work with his hands, than he'd been for hard work with his brains.
When his parents and brothers had ended up dead, Jayne had left the planet and gone to work, drifting around doing whatever he felt like. Whatever he could get paid to do. It meant shooting things, hitting things, and lifting heavy boxes most of the time.
It was how he'd ended up here. Cap'n had needed someone to shoot a man, and had hired him on the spot for doing it.
Jayne hadn't minded in the least, and had pretty much been satisfied when he'd seen his room, and seen his cut. Hadn't taken long for him to realise he was the only one of his kind on board. Hadn't taken any longer to realise it was gonna stay that way. Made it kinda lonely, but since the kind of people he was used to spending his free time with were as likely to steal from you as share a drink with you, he reckoned he was all right being with these other types. Even if he missed being with people like himself.
Jayne stayed on board for two reasons. The first being that the pay and room were still better than anything he'd ever found.
The second was that the Cap'n had never put a termination clause in his contract. Jayne couldn't go nowhere until Mal gave his OK.
The closest he'd come to that was getting himself killed. Since he hadn't, he was stuck here.
And sometimes, when he's sitting in his room and he can't escape thinking, he wonders if anyone really cares that he hates being here, and its only his sense of duty that holds him fast.
Duty. He can't leave until Mal breaks the contract. And if anyone ever tries saying it's because of the prissy boy, he'll carve his initials in their hide.