River lay on her back on the the dining room table, her delicate feet hanging off the end, almost touching the chair at the head of the table where Mal sat during dinners. As she watched her brother and Kaylee dance around each other like courting cranes. She sighed, and picked up a chopstick, and started to nibble on the side that you pick up the food with.

Fumbled words, akward movements, flushed faces when the wrong things were said at the wrong time.

This crush thing, it needed a word to classify it.

McGuffin.

An old term for things in movies on earth that was.

Usually used in mystery movies.

Something that seemed so important, but in the end, is just like one drop of rain when millions more are falling from the sky, not as important as the first, or the last, almost meaningless, but still noticeable enough to catch your attention if it drops on your nose.

A crush seems important in it's peak.

But when the person is turned down or put out, it feels...listless.

All's you can think about is how love isn't real, until the next person you want to be with passes by.

She had a crush, before the gloves ripped it from her brain.

But brother's not allowed to know about that.

Too protective, hurt himself when she can take care of what needs to be done without him.

They've started the dance again.

Her brain goes through the motions with them.

Humans are just animals who think they aren't.

So if humans were animals, then love is a way to justify the need to make babies with a healthy person and to satisfy the need for companionship.

Isn't it?

She gets up and decides to go to the infirmary to switch around Simon's medicines in the cabinets, chopstick still dangling between her lips like a long heavy cigarette of earth that was.

The chopstick was white, painted with blue and silver cranes.