River moved forward and kissed her briefly. ”Sadness and sorrow don’t stand a chance against you, do they… my love?”

Kaylee felt a shiver go right through her looking into River’s eyes when she’d said ’my love’; she honestly felt like she might swoon or something. Her heart sure felt like it was beating a bit faster anyways, and she definitely felt a desire to be close to her again, as close as could be. She swallowed and shook her head a little. ”Xīngguāng…” She whispered. ”Don’t say things to me like that when we’re meant to be gettin’ out a’bed.” She told her. ”It’s mean.”

River laughed at that, but didn’t respond verbally and instead sort of tackled her playfully. They wrestled around a while until Kaylee finally managed to pin River to the bed by her wrists. Of course she knew that River had let her win, but still, looking down into River’s eyes and seeing the complete look of trust, of surrender there, it nearly took her breath away.

And of course River chose that moment to turn the tables on her then promptly escape, moving so she was on the edge of the bed and then grabbing Kaylee by the arm and pulling her up and with her a little as she got out of bed. ”Come on, we’re going to be late.” She told her, letting go of her hand and going to retrieve both of their clothes. Kaylee sat on the edge of the bed, bemused, as she watched River do that and bring her clothes back for her then start to put on her own clothing.

Kaylee watched River with undisguised interest while she started to get dressed, but then shook her head out of it and started to get dressed herself.

She had to wonder at it all though. When she’d first met River, she’d known right off what a beauty she was, said as much out loud in fact (even though maybe you could blame that a little on her being gunshot at the time), but this was something altogether else. Like looking up into the sky at night and calling what you saw ’space’, and then finding your way up there, flyin’ though it, looking out at it with nothing but a helmet between you and it, and realizin’ what you thought space was wasn’t anywhere near the whole story – not even close… and then maybe still feeling like there was something else even beyond that to know about it. Something you could feel out there, something you wanted to know, but couldn’t ever because you were born but human and just weren’t built for it. With River though, there wasn’t any helmet between them, they were built the same, and she felt like she could know somehow, like she would know, if she’d just spend the time and let herself. And she was going to spend the time.