CIRCLES

It was night-cycle and Mal couldn't sleep. Whenever that happened, he took a long, repetitive walk around the interior of "Serenity". He was on his first circuit of the ship when he bumped into River. She was sitting on the catwalk stairs in the cargo hold.

River was naked - the light dress she normally wore draped over the handrail of the stairs - and she had gotten hold of a black marker from somewhere. She was using it to draw circles all over her body.

River smiled brightly and stood up. The view was... spectacular.

Mal swallowed and forced himself to look the girl right in the eye. And nowhere else. Nope. Nowhere else. River could be a might forward sometimes. After all, she wasn't quite right in the head and she didn't always seem to understand that there were things that were wrong. Or just plain strange.

"Darlin', maybe you shouldn't be doing that," Mal said quietly, suddenly sure that he didn't want to wake anyone. There might be questions, and some folks might not believe his answers. He didn't need that kind of trouble. "Serenity" didn't need that kind of trouble.

River looked down at herself critically. Then she carefully drew a perfect circle, about 5 centimeters in diameter, just above her wispy thatch of pubic hair.

Looking back up at Mal, she said, "I'm done now."

Mal nodded his head slowly. "Okay. Good. Uhm... tell you what, it's late, why don't we both go back to bed?"

River grinned very wide as Mal closed his eyes and mentally pictured himself slamming his head over and over again into the nearest bulkhead.

"That sounds fun," River answered impishly.

Mal licked his lips and opened his eyes, "What I meant to say was, 'Why don't we both go back to our separate beds?' You know... beds in different rooms? The alone - each of us by ourselves - kind of beds?"

River seemed to think that over. Then she pouted. That distorted the circle she'd drawn on her left cheek into an oval.

"That's not as fun as what you first said."

Mal let out a long breath, "Yeah. You're right, darling. But that's the way it has to be."

River nodded agreeably, "Fine." Then she brandished her pen, "But I get to draw on you."

Mal hesitated, then said, "I don't think..."

"I'll scream if you don't let me," River interrupted. The devil was definitely dancing in her eyes.

Mal considered both the possible and probable consequences of that. They weren't good.

"What do you got in mind?" he asked warily.

"Take off your shirt," was River's only reply.

Mal slowly peeled off his shirt.

River didn't hesitate. As soon as Mal's shirt was off, she leaned around him and drew a neat circle on the lower-right side of his back.

Mal took a deep breath and tried to ignore the feel of River's hands and of her bare body leaning against his.

"There!" River said with a mysterious smile, "that'll be important someday!"

River dropped the marker to the floor. Then she grabbed her dress from the stair's handrail and pulled it on.

"Night," River said nonchalantly over her shoulder as she walked away. She hadn't buttoned her dress and it fluttered around her body like a long, cotton cape.

Mal watched River fade away into the darkness. Then he put his hand on the spot that she had circled.

Strange.

That was the location of one of his war wounds. The docs had pulled some shrapnel out of him right there. They'd said something about that being the location of a nerve cluster. He'd never got back all of the feeling in that side of his body - even after he recovered from the surgery.

Why had River circled that spot?

Shaking his head, Mal headed back to his quarters.