jmtorres | daily writing (WK/FF)

daegaer asked for Nagi in space. I kind of introduced him to Firefly.

600 words. Also on AO3.

"Nagi!" A girl with long dark hair flew at him, grabbed his hand, and dragged him down the alley.

Nagi had not been expecting his quarry to find him first, but, he realized ruefully, he should have been. Schuldig had always had the stronger mind-sense, able to listen to thoughts, where Nagi could only pick up feelings.

Nagi put a little telekinesis in his heels. Schuldig had always had the ability to wear him out running, too.

The girl brought them to a sudden halt in a group of gaijin--two women and a man. The man said, "River! Where did you run off to?"

The girl said, "A puppy followed me home. Do you think Daddy will let me keep him?" She was clinging to Nagi's hand. Nagi sincerely hoped that Daddy was nothing like Takatori Masafumi.

The man said, "I--ah--who are you, exactly?"

Nagi squeezed the girl's hand reassuringly. "My name is Naoe Nagi," he said, bowing his head a moment. "I've been looking for her."

One of the women, the brown one with curly hair, said, "That's not the kind of talk we like to hear."

The other woman, shorter and paler, with lighter hair pulled back in a pony-tail, said, "Aw, but he looks too cute to be a bounty-hunter!"

Nagi glowered at her.

The first woman said, "That's not an assumption we can afford to make, not when I'm supposed to be fetching you all back to Serenity because Mal heard rumors someone's asking after the Tams. Would that be you, son?"

Shit. He thought he'd shaken his tails, but he might have just led them to her. Nagi shook his head vehemently. "I wouldn't ask anyone. I know better than that."

The girl said, "We can't leave him. He glitters more than I do."

The woman who'd thought he was cute said, "Well, he's certainly shiny to look at."

The man said, "River, honey, we have to go. You need to say good-bye to your new friend and--"

"No," the girl wailed, and suddenly she wasn't just holding his hand, she had her arms around his waist, and was stuck to his side like a limpet. Nagi shifted, unable to free himself without telekinesis. "I'm not leaving my puppy behind!"

"You sure he wants to come, sweetie?" asked the more threatening of the women. "We're going offworld," she said to Nagi shortly. "Our ship's leaving right quick."

"Do you take passengers?" Nagi asked. He had finally settled one arm around the girl's shoulders, though it kept threatening to slip off because of her long, smooth hair. He was pretty sure the girl's keepers didn't appreciate the position.

The woman's mouth set in a grim line. "That hasn't always brought us the best of luck in the past."

"If he's not going, I'm not," the girl announced. She looked at the man solemnly. "I'm sorry, Simon, but I've found a new knight. He'll kill all the monsters for me. Won't you?"

"I--uh--" Nagi swallowed. Why did he always pick the crazy ones?

The man looked about as horrified as Nagi felt. The woman sighed. "If you're coming, come on; we don't have time for idling. But be warned, if you mean her any harm, we'll space you."

Nagi could actually survive a short space-walk, by dint of using his telekinesis to keep the air from an airlock bubbled around him. But he got the message. "Yes, ma'am," he said politely.

As they set off for the spaceport, he heard the other woman giggle, "I think it's sweet she found herself a boyfriend."

---

I am considering writing more of this but I wanted to go ahead and post, because it had hit snippet length. In the bits I didn't get to, the explanation for why Nagi was looking for River (but didn't know her name) was that the Alliance took apart Schu's brain and stuck bits of it in other people. River got a few of the more significant chunks.

*cough*

daily writing (WK/FF)

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