With thanks to lusmeitli for the beta. All idiocies and weirdness are mine, but the characters are not, and I make no profit from them. 432 words.

Summary: Simply put, it is the apparent shift of an object against a background due to a change in observer position. (Wikipedia)

Parallax: shallowness

"You ain't right," Jayne tells her straight. Only way he can describe this girl, standing outside the door to Kaylee's room, bending in curiosity to glance over the fancy lights. Got a look of River about her, if River's hair had turned yellow. Her tatty dress is longer, hiding her legs, and she looks like she ain't got people round her to make sure she keeps tidy.

"I'm dreaming," she replies, her voice cool, the accent Badger's, kinda. Jayne don't like it, anyhow, and reaches for his gun, but his holster is empty, and that's not right either. His eyes dart around the passageway. Way past time to get wary.

"Or maybe you are," the girl continues, reading the suspicion of it on his face, Jayne tries not to twitch. Girl's got a will-of-the-wisp face, big, big eyes. "But I think it's my dream. This is the future. We're on a space ship."

"Don't buy no-one dreaming this future." Jayne works on being bulky and menacing, trying to pin her down, explain her away. "How did you get on board? Get boxed in with the cargo, somehow? Get 'broiled with one of the crew? Badger send you?"

"Badger? No, I'm a Ravenclaw." Her eyes are direct and truthful - he thinks - but Jayne ain't never heard of Ravenclaw. Could be a gang and it don't sound like the friendly and accepting type.

"Didn't answer my question. How did you get-"

"Does it matter? Getting away's the thing," she says.

"If we're dreaming, we could pinch ourselves." As he says it, the suggestion seems workable. Yeah, maybe he could just pinch her away. So he marches towards her, tired of the stand-off, his frustration needing to be worked off.

And she points a stick at him. Only the way she's holding it makes it all weapon-like, and that Jayne understands. So he freezes.

"You pinch yourself. I think that'd be best, Mr-"

"Reynolds," Jayne mumbles. "Mal Reynolds."

"You pinch yourself." She gives the order like Zoe behind a gun, or River or Patience. Or, hell, even Inara.

Jayne's no fool. If it's dreamtime, it's time for the dreaming to be done. He pinches himself.

And he's still there, up on the passageway, above all their cabins, facing a girl in a tatty dress, bending over the shiny lights round Kaylee's door. She straightens up, pointing a stick at him like it's a weapon.

"You pinch yourself, Jayne Cobb," River says. "You pinch yourself."

Jayne ain't no fool. He complies, but it's River who wakes, shaking in her bed with empty, sweating hands.

END

A/N: Inspired by Air's song, 'Kelly Watch The Stars'.

Feedback is always welcome.