Mal rolled his eyes in a very dramatic, annoying way, and felt a little like a bratty child when he did it, which didn't make the slightest bit of sense considering he was significantly older than River. "She don' want nothin' t'do with me," he muttered, shooting River a look as though daring her to deny it, which he suspected she would. He all but pointed out that there were plenty of other girls with dark hair - like Inara - but that had a likelihood of getting painful quickly so he was in favour of just... letting the subject drop.
The cards were going to fall how they were going to fall, there was no sense fighting with them, really.
"Kyle," he observed. "So the bug has a name," he frowned when she started hiking up her skirt, encouraging her to let the fabric drop again and... completely missing the point about lacking a naval in the process. "Do I gotta be worried about all this, you making friends and workin' on things with a boy?"
He often wondered why he tried to be Simon in the Doc's absence - he wasn't very good at it.