”I’ll miss it too… but… I’ll always be yours. Everything I am is yours… I promise.” River told her with simple honesty and vulnerability.

Kaylee smiled and hugged her. ”I love you so much…” Kaylee said, feeling a little overwhelmed with emotion right then. Like she might cry from being so happy, from all the feelings this woman gave her that she didn’t even rightly have a name for.

”I love you too.” River said in a soft heartfelt voice. ”You saved me.” Her voice faint when she said that last thing.

Kaylee thought about that a second then backed up out of the hug, holding both River’s hands with both of hers and meeting River’s eyes, asking. ”I saved you? …How’d I do that? I thought it was you who was saving me all the time.” She said with a little of a smile, a little embarrassed about that actually. She’d wished before that she could do more in fact, pull her wait more.

River just smiled, a little enigmatically. ”You just did, that’s all.” Was all she said, letting go of Kaylee’s hands and turning to walk away over to where Kaylee had set up the picnic.

Kaylee watched after her curiously a moment. ”Wǒ dì měilì zhī mí…” She spoke to herself with a very fond smile, then hurried to catch up with her girlfriend. She figured River would probably find a way tell her what’s she’d meant in her own time, like she usually did, and that, she found, was just fine with her.

Kaylee went over to her and they held hands going over to the picnic blanket. Kaylee let go of River’s hand and sat down, watching with fascination as she dried off her hair a little and got dressed again. They’d put together a little of a feast today, with all of the berries and such they could gather from the woods, figuring it wouldn’t matter because they were leaving the next day anyway. ”It might be a big problem, you know. Finding food along the way.” Kaylee spoke as River sat down. ”I’m not sure, but I think we’re at least a week’s walk away from the colony town where Inara’s at, maybe more.” She said, eating a few berries. ”We might have to try hunting for birds or rabbits or the like…” She concluded. She didn’t like to think about maybe having to do that. She’d never liked eating animals if she could avoid it – ever since she was small she never had, but, well, sometimes a body just didn’t have that many options, you know?