Malcolm x Raylan: Cowboy Surprise

[tinstar]

Art was suspicious right off the bat when Raylan took a week off with the express note that his phone would be Out Of Order til the next Monday, but the Chief Marshal wasn't going to look gift horses in the mouth. Not when it suggested he'd have a few days of peace, until Raylan caved to turning his phone back on again. Still, he watched the younger Marshal walk out of the office and promised himself to check into the state of Harlan within 3 days to make sure that the place wasn't on fire. The smoke would reach him before he called, he was sure.

But Art didn't have much to worry about - Raylan had no plans on staying in the state for his vacation, beyond one day spent closing up Arlo's and securing it the best way he could before getting on a plane to New York City. He wanted to surprise Malcolm - it'd been near two months since they'd last seen each other and frankly, Raylan was tired of missing him. They'd called and texted, stayed in a fairly consistent, if odd houred, touch but it wasn't the same.

Once he landed, Raylan rented a car and navigated his way towards Malcolm's apartment, stopping to grab a bouquet of flowers. It was.. Extra, but Raylan didn't want to show up empty handed, just in case. Thirty minutes later, Malcolm's door buzzer was being hit, like Raylan was here to deliver something. Well, he was, but that was half the fun.

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[abrightboy]

Malcolm took a breath and let it out miserably.

"You're not intruding. I don't want you to call first," he insisted almost desperately. "That..." he held a hand out towards the door, his voice trailing off for a moment. "You showing up there like that... " He let his hand drop back down to the counter beside his glass. "That was one of the best moments of my entire life," he admitted, looking at the countertop. "Nobody's ever done anything like that for me before," he said quietly. "So, of course, even though I almost never have visitors, there had to be one here just then to ruin it." He shrugged expansively, his tone a little rueful. "That's how it goes when you're me."

[tinstar]

If Malcolm thought his desperation was subtle, he was wrong and Raylan watched the half heartbreak play out over Malcolm's features as he talked. Despite his resolution, Raylan was starting to feel bad about his own insecurities and he didn't much like the way that settled in the back of his mouth.

"I'm still here, aren't I?" Raylan countered reasonably with a faint lift of his eyebrows. "Have we declared this a total disaster?"

He hadn't missed what Malcolm said, but as it was now 'ruined' somehow, Raylan wasn't sure how he was going to play this one.

[abrightboy]

The plainly stated reason put a halt to Malcolm's spiral, which, if he thought about it later, he would probably determine was brought on when Raylan suggested he maybe should go and the use of the word 'intrude'. Twice. Intruders were unwanted. Raylan was literally the farthest thing from that. Leaving Kentucky after his last trip was hard. Seeing Raylan's face, for real and not on a phone screen, he thought his heart might burst.

Malcolm shifted his weight restlessly, turning the crystal tumbler around on the counter top without even really noticing it.

He watched Raylan for a moment. Doors slammed shut hadn't exactly swung back open and the inviting warmth in his eyes as he'd come up the stairs wasn't there. But he hadn't gone.

Malcolm shook his head. Not a total disaster. He could think of worse outcomes. He'd experienced worse outcomes.

He looked at the glass under his hand and breathed out a shaky self-deprecating laugh. "I don't know why I took this; I don't even want it..." He pushed it towards Raylan. "Here," he offered softly. "I'm sorry. For..." He made a helpless gesture and then turned to a cupboard to look for a vase. It was another kind of busy work for his hands, but the flowers needed to be put in water. "Thank you for coming." He looked over, still a little fragile around the edges but no longer slipping over an emotional cliff. "I'm glad you're here."

[tinstar]

That was far too long and calculated a pause for Raylan's liking and as Malcolm flitted himself into another task, he moved around the island, intent on stopping that feverish, self busying movement. Touch was a great motivator and calmer for the profiler, that was more than evident to him, so he'd use it to his advantage.

"Stop," he said softly, pulling Malcolm's attention via softly clasped wrists, setting his hands on his chest before Raylan put his where they belonged, around Malcolm's waist. "I didn't come here to make you feel bad or apologize for nothing in particular." Surprises were not supposed to end like this, even if Raylan did choke on Ainsley seeing his affection. It wasn't a reflection on Malcolm and he wasn't sure how to articulate that.

[abrightboy]

Touch was definitely the secret weapon against Malcolm's anxiety fears and when Raylan's hands went around his waist, Malcolm's slid from his chest up around his neck and he buried his face in his shoulder, breathing him in as tension ebbed almost palpably out of him.

"I missed you."

[tinstar]

There was no ignoring the power of someone melting into your arms and Raylan slid his hands further around Malcolm, one coming up his back to settle in between his shoulders, hat unsettled further back on Raylan's head from the embrace. He didn't care.

"I missed you too." He pressed a kiss into Malcolm's hair before he continued. "I took a week off. Thought I'd come spend most of it with you.. That okay?" He had a feeling it would be. "Since I seem to have caught you between cases.."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm lifted his head to look at his face, hand settling on his collar, fidgeting with the fabric, his eyes widening slightly.

"A week? You can stay here for a week?"

[tinstar]

Raylan smiled crookedly at the snap to attention that it got. "A whole week, save a day at the end, all for you," he assured with a pull of his smile as he leaned down to kiss the rest of worry out of Malcolm's face. "I even told Art I'd turn my phone off for it," he murmured once the kiss broke. "And I can amuse myself if you get a case."

[abrightboy]

If he got a case. For once he didn't want one for a week. He didn't want to waste precious hours or days that could be spent with Raylan when they were so rare and he'd be gone again so soon.

But a week. It was the most time they'd had all at once.

Malcolm reached up and took Raylan's hat from his head, carefully setting it on the island next to the flowers, then leaned in and kissed him, clinging to him tightly.

"I'll keep you amused."

[tinstar]

His eyebrows lifted and lined with his soft amusement as the hat was set aside, lips curling as he leaned in to meet Malcolm's kiss with a hunger that he hoped would reassure him based on heat alone.

"What if Gil calls? You really going to turn down the ask for help?" He didn't think so but like with everything else, he wasn't going to assume. Affection did strange things to people and they were no exception.

[abrightboy]

He considered that, looking up at Raylan's face, a little playfulness returning to his expression in the comfort of Raylan's arms.

"Or you could come with me," he pointed out like it was a logical solution.

[tinstar]

"Or you could go and avoid having to explain why you're involving the US Marshal's service into some random case in New York. You know I'll still be here when you get back, right?" That's what Raylan assumed the core of this was - a fear that Malcolm would lose sight of Raylan and come back home to an empty apartment.

"Worried I'll riffle through your underwear drawer or something?"

[abrightboy]

He shook his head faintly. "No. You're welcome to my underwear," he teased back. He sobered a little. "We don't get a lot of time together. It seems like... I mean, there will be cases when you're gone, but if I take a case... I can't get back however many days with you."

[tinstar]

"Days with me aren't worth the lives that you save by catching bad guys. That's the way this job works, Malcolm. Feelings don't change that." This problem he'd well handled long ago. Their needs, their desires, their happiness, was less important than the work they did.

"Darlin'," he started, remembering how he'd reacted last time to that fond name, reaching up to capture the side of Malcolm's face and command his attention with the insistence of eye contact. "If I have my way about it, we're going to have every day once we're done. Life doesn't stop for us or anyone else. Pretending otherwise only invites guilt and problems."

[abrightboy]

It was somehow more real, that word, when he was completely awake. He hadn't dreamed it. And it definitely grounded him.

Raylan was right, of course. He probably would have talked himself into that, too, if Gil really called... but as a hypothetical situation? He was trying to make the math fit the answer he wanted. But they couldn't do that.

He leaned his face into Raylan's hand, then closed his eyes.

"I know," he admitted softly.

He opened his eyes, meeting Raylan's again. "I guess all we can do it make the best of it, right?"

[tinstar]

Daydreams had their place, so long as they took reality. It was the one thing they couldn't escape from, no matter how much they might want to.

"And every second we get together," he affirmed, sealing the promise with a soft kiss. "Can we start this over? I had to fight an old jewish man for these flowers; strangest interaction I've ever had this week."

A bit of an embellishment, but if there was a chance it would break the seriousness, he'd take it.

[abrightboy]

It worked; it made him laugh into Raylan's shoulder.

"Then we definitely can't leave them to die on the counter."

He hugged Raylan tightly one more time, then let go of him to resume his hunt for a vase.

"Can you put the chain on the door?" he asked over his shoulder, his tone absent of any tightness or uncertainty it had previously acquired. He took down a simple cylindrical glass vase. "Let's keep out any actual intruders."

He filled the vase with water, then unwrapped the flowers and set them in it.

[tinstar]

Raylan smiled at the laugh and hugged Malcolm back before glancing back at the door and ambling over to as asked, with only a look back at Malcolm at the inflection of 'actual'. Point taken.

"How long have you been off case? Long enough for Ainsley to come check on you or did I come in on an interesting conversation?" Once he got back to the counter, he picked up his glass, off hand propped on the island behind him as he watched Malcolm move around.

[abrightboy]

"I wrapped my last case the day before yesterday," he said, straightening the flowers a little. He looked over. "She interviewed this ex-con yesterday and she wanted my opinion on a couple of things he said. If I thought they were lies."

Satisfied with how the flowers sat, he put the kettle on the stove.

"I couldn't see his face; it would have helped if she brought the footage but..." he shrugged. Then paused. Then looked at Raylan. "Maybe she was checking on me," he realized.

[tinstar]

It was good to be back in Malcolm's space, especially after so long. Raylan wasn't going to let two months go between visits again, even if it meant bending a little around work. His hands had been itching since Malcolm had left Kentucky; an effect that eased the moment he got his hands on Malcolm again.

"You do need checking on, now and then," he reasoned. "But now she's got more to think about and less reason to worry.. Though I wonder how quickly it's going to get to your mother, and then what," he asked teasingly. "Did she.. already know?" Ainsley that was, not Jessica.

[abrightboy]

"She knows what she saw last time you were here..." He took a mug down from the cabinet. "She knows I went to Kentucky a couple of months ago for no professional reason." He held up a finger. "And was a little put out I didn't bring her, because, and I quote, 'he invited me too'. I have neither confirmed nor denied her suspicions. So yeah. She knew. She isn't stupid." He sighed, dropping a herbal teabag into the mug. "I'm sure she's talked to my mother about it before now. She would hint at knowing something, my mother would grill her... and that would be breakfast." He glanced over. "My mother hasn't said anything to me about it. She's more concerned about me seeing my father and investigating murders."

[tinstar]

Raylan's eyebrows lifted a little at that. He maintained that there had been nothing to see; the Whitly women just happened to be right about it all, in the end. But he could imagine her stomping her foot at her brother with a pout and Raylan smirked.

"You tell her that she really doesn't, considering the people?" Yes, 'Train Hobos' was still kicking around in the back of his head.

"How's that going, you and Martin? Probably better if he doesn't know shit." Because Raylan might have to punch him again.

[abrightboy]

"I cannot warn her about the people. She'll want to go even more."

Interviewing unsavoury types was sort of her Thing. Though he was confident that, unlike Malcolm, she'd have had them eating out of her hand and offering their life stories to television.

"But I've only seen Dr Whitly twice since then. The first time, he asked me if I'd investigated the 'assault' on him. I told him I was looking into why he didn't get punched more often and concluded that it could only be because he gets so few visitors in person." Malcolm poured hot water into his cup. "He didn't bring it up again."

[tinstar]

Raylan scoffed an understanding sound and bobbed his head. His mistake. He avoided Journalistic types and the cameras they tended to bring with them, generally speaking and put too much weight in people doing as he told them. Most of the time.

The curl of Raylan's satisfied smile over the edge of his glass was all he needed to say about Martin and Malcolm's response to it. Perfect.

"You look good," he said softly after a moment.

[abrightboy]

He glanced down, then smiled self-consciously, smoothing a hand down the front of his shirt.

"This is not what I would be wearing if I knew you were coming," he admitted.

Raylan looked... well. As rugged and sexy as he always looked, except even moreso, somehow.

"You look good, too."

Understatement of the year.

He picked up Raylan's hat and settled it on his own head.

"And you clearly impressed my sister with your hat."