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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He submitted completely to that busying, leaning up into that kiss, his hand finding its way back up into his hair.

"Snoring isn't a problem," he murmured when it broke. "I don't sleep much." He kissed him again. "Can't be woken when I do." And kissed him again.

"Seems like we're in luck then, huh," Raylan rumbled with a pleased tone, having met each kiss and leaving another one on Malcolm's lips before shifting down to lay his head on Malcolm's chest, sighing deeply once he'd settled.

He liked the steady drum of sound under his ear and the way breath sounded underneath him.

"Its not weird that we're talkin' like this after only two months, right?" He'd tried, goddamnit, he had.

God, how was Raylan settling in there on him like that even better than making out? One of his hands rested on Raylan's upper arm and the other nestled in his hair.

"Well, it's not really two months. I was in Kentucky two months ago. But a couple months before that, you were in New York. And we met a few months before that and I stayed at your house... so really it's been over six months."

"Since we've been knowin' each other," Raylan pointed out. "Only two months since we.. came to any kinda formalization about it.." He turned his head up, one hand coming to prop flat under his chin. "Or are we counting from my first time in New York, first kiss kinda thing?"

"Um. We did a lot more than kiss when you first came to New York," Malcolm pointed out with a grin. "I know you weren't... sure about this back then, but... you also initiated it."

"Well," Raylan chuckled with a side glance of his eyes and a bashful grin. "That still ain't dating official. It was just a good start. Unless you're saying you already made a decision, even then?" He arched his eyebrows questioningly, face curled in amusement.

He bit his bottom lip a moment, watching Raylan's face.

"I'm not sure I want to say..." he admitted. Of course he immediately relented. How could he not tell that face anything it asked? "I had... interest. Before that. So when it happened... I hoped it meant something."

Raylan was about to give him the most pliable of 'C'mon's with a cute bob of his head, but there was no need with the forthcoming answer and he kept his eyebrows arched in amused curiosity. The more Malcolm said, the broader his grin was.

"An interest," he echoed. "That wouldn't happen to be the first time I was on top of you, was it? Out of.. Simple curiosity." It was not simple curiosity.

He laughed gently. "I think I wasn't really conscious through most of that. But later that night you drove me back to Lexington to get my medication." He watched his face for a second. "It was quiet in the car and it seemed like... not a good time to talk, so I did a lot of thinking instead. And some of that thinking was about you and how you didn't have to do that for me. It wasn't convenient. And it was going to put us behind the next morning."

It was only the end part he'd been talking about but he didn't need to say it. His head tilted a little, eyes crinkling in curiosity as he listened, lips simmered back down to an easy, pleased pull.

"Worth it to know the guy I was working with on the level. We still solved the case, saved the victim. Didn't cost us anything, got you what you need." His brow pinched a little in a flex. "That really the start of it? That's kinda sweet."

"You made the least convenient choice to look out for someone you barely knew. And that was after you found out all the things about me that usually make people back away slowly. How could I not feel anything?" Malcolm countered. A beat. "Plus you're great looking. I mean. That didn't hurt."

Raylan lifted himself back up into his elbows with a hum and a cock of his eyebrows so he could kiss Malcolm again. How could he not kiss him after hearing all that? Not the good looking part; Raylan had been informed enough times that he knew he wasn't particularly an ugly man.

When it broke, he stayed hung over him, face close, eyes warm and half-lidded. "Sometimes I make good choices, despite my record."

Malcolm smiled at that. 'Good choices'; he meant him. He was pretty sure he'd never been anyone's good choice before.

"So... the tackling," he noted, going back a bit. "It started something, huh?"

Good, no arguments about his record or how good a choice Malcolm was - he liked that. The question had him giving Malcolm a playfully coy look and kissing him again before pulling back. "I don't know what you're talkin' about. I've tackled plenty of guys before without noticing how they looked and felt under me, ain't nothin' to it."

He flashed a grin, him and his thoroughly mussed hair before he lifted a finger and his eyebrows at Malcolm. "You stay there. I need something to drink and I bet you do too."

Walking around to prop his ass on the arm of the couch, Raylan pulled off his boots and socks before padding into the kitchen to wash his hands. "You're not going to hire someone to clean in Miami, are you?"

He hoped not.

Malcolm grinned at Raylan's protests, then propped himself up on his elbows as the taller man departed so he could watch him move around. He toed off his own shoes and kicked them over the side of the couch, but otherwise did as he was told, remaining rumpled and undone where he was.

"It hadn't occurred to me," he replied to the question. "Not if you don't want it. I don't need it. I just can't get my mother to stop."

"With a house as big as she's got and her being by herself, I can see why she needs the help." To say nothing of the sheer class level that went into it - that was a lot of House. "Never been quite comfortable with the idea of housekeepers for myself though."

As he spoke, he grabbed a glass and poured Malcolm some mineral water before snagging his abandoned tumbler of scotch to pad back towards the couch.

"If you can do without, I'd rather not. Nothing in a house I can't clean and hadn't before."

"Nothing in a house we can't clean," he amended, taking the glass when it was handed to him, reaching for Raylan with his free hand as soon as he was close enough.

Raylan bobbed his eyebrows with a pleased curl of his smile as he handed over the glass and sat down on the edge of the couch next to Malcolm, bending down to kiss him again.

"Good. I make a terrible maid." He took a long sip of his scotch and set it down on the coffee table nearby so he could focus his attention back on Malcolm with a soft tilt of his features. "I like this teamwork thing."

He had plenty on his plate already, with Winona and Willa, both of which he promise he'd help in whatever way - this felt like he could still have his own kinda life and not get spread too thin.

Maybe he'd make a terrible maid, but he'd probably look hilarious in the outfit.

Malcolm ran his fingers along the seam of Raylan's jeans at his thigh, while he took a sip of water.

"In it together," he reminded him. "Even... dirty toilets."

He looked up at Raylan's face. "If it wasn't profoundly dangerous for me to fall asleep like that," he said, gesturing to where Raylan had been laying on top of him, "I could have stayed there all night."

He'd eat worms before he put that outfit on, keep dreaming Malcolm.

Raylan rested on hand over Malcolm's arm, not stopping him in the slightest, just wanting the contact to match, smile pulling to half a grin at the mention of dirty toilets. He was sure they'd stay tidy. As Malcolm continued, Raylan huffed a break, a full grin breaking out as he glances between his feet before looking back over.

"I coulda gotten comfortable enough to sleep. Too bad you would have catapulted me off in a few hours. Next time, we'll actually lay in bed. I'd say you could try napping, but somehow I don't think that's really different from sleep."

"I'm scared to death of hurting you when I'm restrained," Malcolm pointed out, still tracing a pattern along Raylan's denim. "Any time I fall asleep, I risk it. Which... I mean, I've fallen asleep on the couch before or while doing work after hours. But only when I was only going to hurt myself. And I have. Once, in DC, I was sitting up reading case files at the dining room table and I tripped over a chair bolting out of my seat and almost broke my wrist. I've gone down stairs. I fell on a glass coffee table once and just missed my femoral artery." He looked up at him. "And that's just a failure to avoid obstacles. If I'm actively fighting something for my life, it could be much, much worse." He paused. "The date I almost stabbed before Christmas was Eve, the woman my mother was talking about at dinner," he admitted.

Raylan listened, hazel eyes attentive locked on Malcolm's face as he spoke. There wasn't any pity there, though Raylan did feel bad that Malcolm had to suffer this - Pity wasn't helpful to anyone in something like this, himself as the giver included.

"As hard as she was pushing you to keep calling her, that's what I assumed." But it was nice to have the confirmation.

"You think your mother is gonna keep up with that, now?"

He made a face. "God, I hope not. I barely know her. I think she made her position on what happened pretty clear. A lot has happened since then. I'm..." He trailed off, unsure if he would be rocking the boat by putting it in such blunt terms. His eyes wandered Raylan's face for a moment. "I'm in a relationship now," he finally said plainly.

"Yes," Raylan replied, nonplussed. "Seems to be that way, huh." Only then did his face crack back into a smile as he leaned down to steal a kiss from Malcolm. "And if need be, I can.. impress that upon her."

He'll take on Jessica if he had to, if it made her understand the way things were. If it got her to let up on Malcolm about something that wasn't going to change.

"And I know it won't do much for your fears but if you give me beyond a black eye, I might need to reevaluate my fitness for the job. You know how many fights I've gotten into over the years?"

Answer: a lot.

"I can handle it, Malcolm. Tougher than I look." He ended with a smile, warm and full and unerringly confident.

Malcolm huffed a laugh. "That's a little terrifying," he admitted, "because you look tough as hell." He propped himself up a little further on his elbows to get closer, his brow creased in concern. "But if I do something violent when you're asleep..."

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