Fancy-Pants Stairs

The first time Jayne entered the kitchen area of the Firefly-class spaceship Serenity, he fell over. “Gorrammit, what in the—” he swore, surging to his feet and spinning to glare at whoever had had the gall to trip him up. And stopped. “What the hell kinda stairs are these?” “You all right there, Jayne?” the Captain, newly introduced as one Mal Reynolds, stood a few feet away with an altogether too gorram smug look on his face. “Careful now, these steps are tricky.” “You wanna explain to me why your gorram stairs look like they was made by a blind space rat?” Jayne growled, contemplating drawing his knife to illustrate the point. He didn’t, because the woman – Zoe – pointedly shifted into place behind the Captain. Who was grinning at him. Smugly. “Surprise,” Mal said. “Keeps visitors on their toes. As it were.” Jayne eyed him warily. “You sure it’s not just ’cuz you like this fancy-pants shit?” “I’m more of a hat person, myself. Your bunk’s this way, you coming?” Jayne grunted and picked up his bag. Gorram fancy-pants Captain and his fancy-pants stairs. His bunk had damned well better be worth it.

Back to Pharmakon