tinstar | Malcolm x Raylan: Cowboy Surprise

Malcolm x Raylan: Cowboy Surprise

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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"Wonder how long it took to take," he muttered to himself. He knew how rewarding working with your hands could be, he had to wonder if they felt the same way.

He looked back up at Malcolm with a curl of his smile. "Afraid she's going to make you sell your toys or that she's going to remodel the whole place to 'fix' it for ya?"

"I don't know; I just know I don't want to listen to it," he said.

Raylan had heard her chide him for plenty of nothing and Malcolm was pretty sure he didn't want to listen to it either.

Malcolm realized his gaze was lingering on Raylan and took a breath.

"Those shirts," he said, gesturing towards Raylan's undershirt with his axe. "You have a lot of them, huh?"

"I don't blame ya," he confessed, sympathetically, even though the smile on his face didn't lessen. He wasn't going to bring it up. For both their sakes. Raylan wouldn't have called it staring, but he didn't mind the attention, and glanced down at the mention of his undershirt.

"And you don't," he replied looking back up with a pinch in his face. "With all those suits you wear, I'd have thought an undershirt was demanded, by fashion if not function. Why is that?"

"No... not if you buy the right type of shirts," he noted. "You probably don't need them under flannel. You just use them for layering, right?" So he could take off the bulkier clothing if it got too warm. "You... live in hotter weather than I do."

"There's a wrong type of shirt?" Innocent man didn't quite understand.

"You know I have shirts that aren't flannel or plaid print, right?" His hand came out to gesture with the teasing question as he ambled a few steps closer. "But you're right on it being about the weather. Cold in the mornings, hot in the afternoon and stickily mild in the evenings. Nights get colder than you'd think and you can't run a heater on a stake-out."

He pointed. "Better than t-shirts too, lets the shoulders breath. Yours could do with a breath or two."

"They breathe, huh?" He smiled a little. "What's that feel like?"

Raylan's smile spread as he turned around and strode back towards the bedroom, tossing the axe onto the bed before turning to the dresser, bending down and pulling one of his spares out. When he turned back, he tossed it at Malcolm with a little lift of his chin.

"Why don't you tell me?"

Malcolm looked at the shirt suspiciously, but then set his axes down on the counter, then put the undershirt next to them while he pulled his t-shirt off over his head. Then he pulled the undershirt on. Smoothing it down with his hands, he considered it.

"It feels a lot like not wearing anything," he noted.

Making the stop to pick up the axe he abandoned, Raylan watched Malcolm change as he ambled back. His smile broke into a grin as Malcolm evaluated the fit.

"Doesn't feel too bad getting stripped off either," he promised. "Experience," he said, squinting one eye playfully. "You remember the heat out there and you didn't even come in summer. We try to avoid sunburns, heat stroke and the skin cancer that follows.

Try throwin' in it."

"More skin exposure is not more skin protection," Malcolm said, picking up his axe. "Though I can't argue with how it feels stripping it off," he teased back.

Throw in it.

Okay.

He stepped up to the point he last threw successfully and threw it hard, following through. He looked up to see it land in the centre. He turned and grinned at Raylan. "It's pretty freeing, though." He glanced down. "It's stretchy."

"The trade off is a lighter fabric that breathes more while still providing coverage. Important trade off when you're working with the sun." He'd waited to speak until after Malcolm threw, choosing to appreciate the view over conversation as he remembered exactly what it did feel like.

Very good in the Kentucky heat, as he recalled.

Raylan stepped up and gestured Malcolm aside. "You can keep that one. Maybe I'll get to see you in more of them.."

Focusing on the target, Raylan focused and hefted, landing his axe just above Malcolm's. He looked at Malcolm with a smile and walked over, stealing a kiss before patting his hip, silently gesturing for him to go on and step up.

He smiled widely as the kiss broke, the hip pat unexpected and wonderful, he happily went and retrieved the axes, swinging one of them in a circle as he walked back.

"The important question is whether I look less carpetbaggy now," Malcolm told him. "I..." He frowned and glanced at his watch. "Oh no. We have to get ready," he said in disappointment. He looked at Raylan. "Throw one more."

The flex of his shoulders when he threw was definitely worth a few extra minutes.

Raylan wasn't ready to wear a disappointed face yet and kept his smile at Malcolm's frown and glanced at the target before shrugging as he stepped back up, taking one of the two they had with them with him.

"Only if you throw yours too. I can put them away while you get dressed."

The axe was spun in with a twirl in his hand - it was like a baseball. A Danger baseball, but he turned the right way around, pulled back and threw again, body leaning beautifully into it. This had actually given him a little more definition on his back muscle, not that he'd strictly needed it.

The axe landed dead center and Raylan was grinning again. "I think I might be alright at this."

Malcolm certainly found himself noticing those back muscles as he followed through.

"I told you you'd be a natural," Malcolm said. He heaved the axe up and threw it hard and it landed in the target.

He turned and pressed a kiss to Raylan's lips. "That was a good idea," he murmured. "Thank you."

It had eased some tension out of him over the upcoming dinner. He headed to his dresser and closet to collect clothes and dress, putting on the bare bones of a suit: pants and jacket with a simple black long-sleeved t-shirt. He tucked the undershirt Raylan gave him into one of his drawers, then went into the bathroom to tame his hair.

Malcolm looked just as good as the first throw in the undershirt, but Raylan wasn't done enjoying it yet. It was a shame they had to leave, but the way Raylan saw it, the sooner the dinner and house tour were over, the sooner they could come back here.

Raylan met the kiss and smiled again. "You're the one that suggested it." He just followed through with the suggestion. Once Malcolm had walked away, Raylan gathered and put the axes away where he'd seen them pulled. He followed by tidying up their (his) food and beer and putting the dishes in the sink for him to get when they got back. Grabbing his overshirt from the counter, Raylan traded it for the one 'good' shirt he'd brought and tucked it in.

"Is this a tie required thing? Or should I just leave the top button open?"

"No tie needed," he said, just finishing up smoothing back his hair. "I'm not wearing a tie and I've worn a tie just about everywhere. Including on a beach once, but I was working."

He kissed Raylan. "You look good," he informed him.

Raylan was pulling on his jacket as Malcolm came out, making sure his collar was straight as he looked that way, greeting the kiss with a smile.

"I'd say the same but you always look good." And he knew Malcolm knew. If not, Raylan had more work to do. But he trusted his new lover's advice and went to collect his hat and gun before nodding.

"You ready to do this?"

"As ready as possible," he said. "Do you want to drive or should I call a taxi?" he asked.

He didn't want to assume whether Raylan would want to take advantage of his mother's liquor cabinet; he had no idea how the night would go.

"Taxi might be best, considering how I came out last time," Raylan reasoned. "I'd hate to give us a reason to go back over unless we have to."

He drank, and while that wasn't a problem out in Harlan or Miami where he could drive and walk, respectively, he didn't want to invite any trouble in the big city. That and they had really good liquor.

"Besides, parking here sucks."

Malcolm called the taxi and slipped his phone back into his pocket before stepping over to Raylan and giving him a lingering kiss.

One more for the road, before they were in the realm of Not Touching again. And so he remembered why he was doing this.

The taxi ride uptown wasn't long and soon they were in front of a posh townhouse on the Upper East Side. Malcolm led the way up the steps and let them in with his key. It put them in a grand entrance hall with black and white tile on the floor.

"Do you want the tour before or after dinner?" he asked.

The kiss was more than welcome and Raylan drank it and Malcolm in like he was taking the last free breath of air before being forced to hold it til they were alone again. He could only hope that they'd come back home in a similarly okay mood.

He'd expected the ride to be a little longer but said nothing about it, only frowning with his brow a little as Malcolm welcomed them in. There was a deep seated rule in the back of his head, still heard in his Mother's voice. 'You don't step into people's house uninvited.' Of course, the men she'd been telling it too didn't care and did as they pleased, but it stuck with the ten year old Raylan.

"I suppose that would depend on what time dinner is but I'm guessing that's fluid enough. Let's do the tour first." He wanted to see what else he could glean about the house that Built Malcolm, much like Malcolm did at Arlo's. "Do you still have a room here?"

"Yeah," he said nodding. "And it's pretty untouched since I left it. We'll go up there first, once we say hi to my mother."

It was the polite thing to do, he supposed.

He led Raylan into the lush livingroom beyond the entrance hall, with its antiques and its oil portraits. Jessica was sitting on the couch in a navy blue silk dress, flipping through the newspaper's society pages, glancing up as Malcolm walked in with Raylan.

"Good evening, mother."

She smiled brightly. "Ah, you made it. Good." She stood, stepping forward to offer Raylan her hand. "Nice to see you again, Raylan."

Edited 2020-05-20 13:08 (UTC)

Oh good, they were going to follow some semblance of manners that Raylan recognized. That made him feel better, somehow, like not having done would result in Jessica chiding the both of them.

His eyes wandered as they moved around, not having enough time to soak everything in, but taking a general gauge of the place and it's accents and decor. There was a lot. Once they were in.. Raylan wasn't even sure what to call the room, he was polite enough to focus on Jessica as they came up, taking off his hat long enough to shake her hand before setting it back onto his head.

"Nice to see you as well, ma'am. Thank you for the dinner invite." He wasn't going to say it was unexpected. No, considering the family, of course it was expected. This was how they got nosey. "You've got a lovely home."

And she did, but Raylan was only remarking on it because of where he was raised.

"Call me 'Jessica', please," she said with a girlish laugh, though her eyes were taking him in front top to bottom, assessing. "And really, it's my pleasure. I can't remember the last time Malcolm brought someone home." A beat. "Oh, because it's been never," she noted, looking at him pointedly, but still with the politest of smiles.

Malcolm gave her a look and she patted his cheek.

"Oh, don't look like that, darling," she told him, her mood still light and pleased. "Have a drink. Both of you, of course."

"I'm going to give him a tour first," Malcolm told her. "When's Ainsley arriving?"

"Any minute now," she told him. "But take your time. Unless you're intending to go down into that dour basement. In which case, dinner is imminent," she said emphatically.

He didn't respond to that, tilting his head for Raylan to join him as he headed back towards the stairs up.

He nodded his head slightly, giving her a warm, friendly smile. He'd have stuck with ma'am if she hadn't given him other direction, and as she hadn't at the Gala, he was erring on the safe side.

Jessica's barb only got a faint lift of his eyebrows, the most quiet of social surprise. "First time for everything, I suppose," Raylan offered conversationally, letting Malcolm manage his mother and the situation.

He tipped his hat at Jessica before turning around and following Malcolm, very aware of her eyes on his back as he went.

"Dour, huh?" He didn't directly know the word but he could well grab it's concept. "Can't say I blame her for the opinion.. Should I even ask how many rooms this place has?"

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BAT. BASEBALL BAT. Shit, myself. :|

i knew what u meant <3

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