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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[tinstar]

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."

[abrightboy]

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?"

[tinstar]

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.

[abrightboy]

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."

[tinstar]

"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."

[abrightboy]

"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.

[tinstar]

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.

[abrightboy]

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."

[tinstar]

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."

[abrightboy]

"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.

[tinstar]

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?"

[abrightboy]

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.

[tinstar]

"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.

[abrightboy]

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..."

[tinstar]

"Do I," he asked with a quirk of his smile and the soft lift of his eyebrows belaying everything that Malcolm was actually talking about. "Maybe it'll help keep trouble away from ya."

Who were they kidding - even his toughness wouldn't change the way the universe worked.

"Then I'm going to have an unpleasant wake up. Which I don't see as much different from now, some pain aside. Plus, we've got your reatrains," he said reassuringly with a half squint of his face and bob of his head towards Malcolm's bed. The power of Southern confidence and dismissal was strong. "Top of the line; we'll be fine."

[abrightboy]

The sheer confidence and brick wall of a presence Raylan had were enough to stop his concerns in their tracks. They took precautions. The restraints would stop him from doing anything as horrific as knifing him.

"Okay. But. Just. Don't let me fall asleep without them." And he'd get no more argument. Malcolm put his glass on the coffee table and pushed himself up to sitting so he could lean in and kiss Raylan. "And if my mother continues to give me a hard time about which nice girls I should date, you have my permission to be as brutally blunt as you feel the need."

[tinstar]

If they didn't stop him, then Raylan just had to depend on his wits.. and the fact that Malcolm would be fighting someone not moving in the same space or time as he was.

"If you do, I'll wake you directly and get you into a safe place where you can go back to it, hmm?" He leaned in with a forearm on the back of the couch to meet the kiss with another short pleased hum of happiness and linger in Malcolm's personal space. The permission given made Raylan grin and lean in to kiss him again.

"I'll try not to go to hard on her, I promise." He knew it was because she wanted what she thought was best for Malcolm, instead of letting Malcolm decide what was best for himself.

"Speaking of bed - you don't have to stay up and wait for me to come, if you want to go yourself." Just so he knew.

[abrightboy]

Go to bed? While Raylan was over here? He could go to bed alone when Raylan was in Kentucky.

He shook his head, folding his leg under him so he could scootch closer and rest his cheek on Raylan's shoulder, near hand coming to rest on his thigh.

"I think I'll stick with you right now," he murmured.

It had been an emotionally charged day and even more of an emotionally charged evening. But Raylan loved him. Him. Maybe some far distant night in Miami, he'd take him up on that, but not this time.

[tinstar]

Raylan shifted to sit back next to him, snagging his scotch on the way and sliding his arm over Malcolm's shoulders. They were snuggled into each other, snuggled into the couch with nothing expected of them beyond nothing blowing up and no one dying.

And he had topshelf scotch.

Could be doing much worse.

That's all Raylan wanted for the next few minutes; to just sit and be in silence what he was with Malcolm. He turned his head, pressing a long kiss into Malcolm's hair before pulling back to take a drink of his scotch.

[abrightboy]

It was cozy and it was warm and he couldn't remember ever feeling this safe since his father's arrest.

He shifted one hand to splay across Raylan's chest and he pressed a couple of soft kisses to his shoulder before setting his cheek there again.

"Do you deal with different types of criminals in Miami than Lexington?" he asked idly.

[tinstar]

"Oh, you know. More grease and guns in the city, more stupid country shitkicker out in the swamps. I'm more likely to get called in on someone springin' themselves from a prison transport or someone's daddy getting outta prison and feeding a local to some gators. Honestly, all the ugliness aside, they're a little fancier in the city but not much different from Kentucky, outside of the view.

Used to know this guy out there, running tours on his air boat, $35 a pop. Owned an airstrip that he used to move black market reptiles and coke out of. Turns out his partners wanted to take over the company and dropped him as slum over three counties. So same type of messed up. Just... Blissfully not My people." He talked about it like he was talking about the last hand of poker he played, like it was nothing. It wasn't nothing, it was a horrific way to die.

But that's what happened when you did that kinda shit, in Raylan's estimation.

[abrightboy]

It was definitely what happened when you did That Kind Of Shit.

"Did you catch them?" he asked curiously, tilting his head slightly so he could see the side of Raylan's face.

[tinstar]

"'Course. Bad idea to keep kill treasures. An ear, for some reason. Probably easiest to cut off the poor bastard," he said with a sympathetic wince. "Guys got 20 plus years, last I looked."

"Either way, same kinda crime, more or less. The Marshal's Service is pretty steady in the kinda crime and people we pursue. Ugly folks but they're not quite like what you do."

[abrightboy]

"Some of them also keep ears, though," Malcolm pointed out with a macabre lightness.

He lifted his head. "Come to bed with me," he urged.

[tinstar]

"A larger fraction of a Venn diagram than I'd like to admit, if I'm recalling the name correctly," he admitted.

The request had him looking down, brow pinching faintly before he nodded. "Alright. If you're ready. C'mon," he said, patting Malcolm's arm before he pushed to his feet. The scotch glass was drained on his way to the kitchen to be rinsed out in the sink.

"You want first dibs on the bathroom?"