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Jayne was walking down the halls, bored as anything, looking for someone to bother, when he heard something strange. Music.
And not Kaylee's old-time MP3, neither.
This was different. Sounded kinda sad-like. Not all bouncy and tinkly like that girly crap Kaylee's obsessed with.
He followed the noise and ended up outside Simon's bunk. The door was ajar and Jayne peeked through to see Simon strumming a glossy, wooden guitar. The last time he had heard one live was when they landed on Canton and the townsfolk sang his praises to a jaunty campfire song. Simon's song was much shinier.
Simon plucked the last few notes and paused. He tensed and looked up, locking eyes with Jayne.
Unashamed he got caught watching, he opened the door fully and lent on the door frame.
"What you up to, Doc?" he grinned at the faint blush on the other man's cheeks.
"Baking cookies," Simon deadpanned, "Did you want something?"
Jayne shrugged. Simon glared.
"Don't stop on my account. You're not all bad with that thing."
There was a second where Simon tried to figure out if Jayne was being sincere. Kinda insulting, if you ask Jayne. He seemingly decided he was and relaxed his shoulders a little. "Thank you."
"No problem. Not heard that tune before. Somethin' from your childhood?"
"You could say that. It's called Ballad of Serenity."
"Serenity, eh?"
"I thought it was fitting."
Jayne nodded, a grin spreading across his face at the thought of embarrassing Simon further. "You should play it for the rest of the crew. Cap'tn has a mighty fine singing voice."
Simon laughed, "As if, Jayne."
"What?" Jayne asked incredulously, then thought for a second. "Can you at least play it again for me? I only caught the last bit."
Simon's eyes narrowed and Jayne put his hands up in surrender. Put on his most innocent face, too, for good measure.
"Fine. But I'll probably mess up because you're watching." He adjusted the clippy thing on the guitar and mumbled, "I'm not used to having an audience."
"Didn't sing meimei sweet lullabies?" Jayne meant it as a tease but Simon smiled fondly.
"Only when she was small."
Simon blinked the nostalgia out of his eyes and straightened.
He started to play, all fancy and professional like. Of course, a surgeon's hands would be skilful at such an instrument.
What Jayne didn't expect was for Simon to start singing softly.
"Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand."
Jayne spied Mal down the end of the corridor. He caught his eye and motioned him over secretly.
"I don't care, I'm still free, you can't take the sky from me."
What he didn't realise was that Zoe and Wash were close behind him, their quiet footsteps following slowly, making quite the audience for Simon's song. Jayne didn't really want to upset the Doc, so was glad the others had the sense to keep their traps shut.
"Take me out, to the black, tell 'em I ain't coming back."
The rough dialect felt wrong coming out the prim and proper surgeon's mouth but Jayne kinda liked it. It was charming in an odd sorta way.
"Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me."
Simon's brow furrowed as he fingered the riff, not missing a beat. Probably. Jayne's not sure he'd notice if he did.
"There's no place I can be, since I found Serenity. But you can't take the sky from me."
And with a few more notes, he was done. Jayne looked out into the corridor and while he was transfixed, Inara, Kaylee and Book had joined the huddle. River was no doubt eavesdropping from somewhere close by, too.
They started to clap and Simon jumped, blushing crimson. Jayne smiled toothily and moved over so the others could peer in, each sharing their thoughts.
"Beautiful, Simon!"
"A man of many talents!"
"Wonderful."
"Go away, all of you." Simon groaned, hiding his face in his hands.
"Aw, did we embarrass him?" Mal asked the others with a grin that matched Jayne's, "What a sensitive soul. Almost brought me to tears, mind you."
"Mal!" Simon cried and the Captain laughed.
"We're going, we're going! Come on, folks, leave him be."
The unwelcome crowd made their way out, nattering and giggling, leaving Jayne and Simon alone again.
"What?" Jayne asked with a smile, "Ain't my fault they happened to be walkin' by."
"I am so going to kill you."
"You do that," Jayne smirked, turning his back, "As long as you promise to play somethin' soulful at my funeral."
Simon threw a pillow at his backside.