Title: Why
Author: Steplianna
Fandoms: Chuck/Firefly x-over
Pairing: Casey/Jayne, Chuck POV
Rating: PG-13
Word Count:: 400
Prompt: Protection

Okay, seriously.  Chuck could deal with him and Casey somehow traveling like 500 years into the future and ending up on a spaceship in another galaxy, surrounded by people who used to be from earth (that was).

 

He was a sci-fi geek; he got it.  It could happen.  He’d seen it many times on tv.

 

He could even deal with the fact that on said spaceship, there were some really hot women who were each so in a variety of ways; there was a “Companion” (read high-class call girl *snicker*).  The pilot was a super genius dancer with a really great pair of legs (wow) and her best friend was a curvy and extremely friendly mechanic (oh, to see her bent over and working on the Nerd Herd mobile).  And finally, there was the über-scary Amazon who even made Casey wary (hee!).

 

As for the men, there was, of course, the Captain who seemed to have the worst luck ever.  Their doctor, Simon, who was, regrettably, dating Kaylee the mechanic—and also very prissy.  Chuck felt really quite manly next to him.  Lastly, there was Jayne (*snerk*), the biggest, crudest, most ornery—aside from Casey—guy Chuck had ever met. 

 

Casey had taken to him immediately.  He also apparently understood the insane reasoning that made an orange monstrosity like that hat wearable just because Jayne’s mother made it. 

 

After telling their story, Casey offered to pay their way in trade; Casey as another gunhand/job planner and Chuck was to assist Kaylee with any ‘mechanicy things Kaylee needs help with’ as Mal had put it. 

 

As such, Casey was still Chuck’s primary protection and Mal had made Jayne his other protection whenever they were planetside; just to lower the risk that there would be trouble if anyone was still after Chuck.  Apparently, there had been some trouble when Simon and his sister, River the pilot, came onboard.

 

But, Chuck considered one night as he once again found sleep eluding him as he shifted around on his bunk in the passenger dorms, there was one thing that, for the life of him, he just still couldn’t understand: Why?

 

Why the name of all the Gods on Battlestar Galactica—why?!—did his protection have to be so enthusiastically hooking up with his other, scruffier protection when they both knew Chuck was next door?

 

And why did the walls have to be so thin?!