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.

Comments

[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?"

[abrightboy]

Malcolm was still watching him the whole way to the kitchen after that pinch of his brow.

"You're not ready," he surmised. "It's okay."

[tinstar]

"You're right," Raylan said, looking over from the sink with a slightly amused lift of his features. "It is. Do you want the bathroom first or not?" It was matter of fact and to the point. It didn't matter. He would lay with Malcolm til he was asleep and if he didn't fall asleep then, he'd stay up and stay quiet til Malcolm inevitably came up screaming.

[abrightboy]

He hesitated, because they didn't have to go if he wasn't ready... but the question was so direct.

"Okay," he finally conceded and headed in there.

He cleaned up put himself back together a little bit, but not all the way; he was only getting changed when he emerged back into the other room. In truth, he didn't feel like he was in danger of dropping to sleep as soon as his head his the pillow. He wanted to go so he could enjoy being wrapped up in Raylan for a little bit before he fell asleep.

As he stepped back into the main room, he looked around for Raylan, watching his face, in particular.

[tinstar]

While Malcolm was in the bathroom, Raylan changed into his new 'sleep' pants and stripped off his undershirt, tossing it in his travel bag as a makeshift laundry basket for now. Raylan headed for Malcolm as soon as he came out of the bathroom, catching him by his waist to kiss him before turning and walking in himself.

After a brush of his teeth and washing his face, Raylan came back out, assuming that Malcolm had already gotten in bed, headed that way, turning off lights as he went.

"I've got all the time between," he explained on his way, assuming that Malcolm would have questions. "- to stay up and to sleep. I've only got a week, right now, to tuck up against you and watch you go to sleep," he ended with a lift of his eyebrows as he came around to 'his' side of the bed. Was he allowed to claim one? He didn't know, but he was.

Left side man, if you were standing at the foot.

[abrightboy]

The kiss when he came out of the bathroom did a lot to calm his overthinking and he wasn't in danger of slipping into a self-recriminating spiral as he changed into his pyjamas and climbed into bed. By the time Raylan came out of the bathroom, Malcolm was sliding his hands into his restraints. He looked up when Raylan started talking, his expression softening into something dangerously lovestruck. When Raylan approached the bed Malcolm reached for him, scooting up against him as soon as he was settled in.

[tinstar]

Things were okay; they were okay. Raylan didn't have a problem repeating that, in action or word, til Malcolm believed him. He crawled into his way into bed, pulling the covers up over them both and scooting against Malcolm in the bedtime habit they'd established somewhere. As strange as the restraints might have been, Raylan still found its perfect and reviled in that.

"Just in case it helps to hear it again: I love you. I know you won't but I hope you have better dreams tonight." Raylan lifted and turned himself over to steal a minty fresh kiss from Malcolm. "And we've still got plenty of days."

Point being that if he didn't keep his eyes on the end date, he could better enjoy what Raylan was; having a warm, caring soul against him.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm couldn't help a broad - if watery - smile at that. Love. Love. He had to remember couldn't ruin that by getting sleepy at the wrong time or getting too excited about something or being too intense or too morbid or too... Malcolm.

He leaned up into the kiss, reaching up with a soft jingle of his restraints to touch Raylan's face with his fingertips, lingering there in his breath for a moment.

Plenty of days. Yes. He curled up against Raylan, restraints clinking softly until he got comfortable and fell still, letting his eyes close so everything was just warmth of Raylan's body and the scent of Raylan's skin.

I say we start the next morning (once it's morning proper) in a new thread under the header

[tinstar]

He wasn't going to ruin anything, but since Raylan didn't know, he couldn't help battle those thoughts. Instead, he shifted and snuggled down, one arm securely over Malcolm's waist, and watched Malcolm drift off.

Raylan wasn't ready to go to bed, but this was a good compromise. He got some silence, some time to run things over in his head, try and figure out how to tell Winona and not lose Willa and her in the same breath.

Eventually, he started to doze, a light barely sleeping sleep of the overly aware.