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]

"We'd have to get dressed, but we could walk down to the sushi place and then come back here," Malcolm offered. "Or I can order in, if you want to do yoga in your underwear instead," he added, looking up with an obvious preference.

[tinstar]

"Mm," he hummed, smile curling unabashedly around the corners. "I like option two, but only if we might take a walk afterwards."

He was bad at staying inside all day, okay?

"Might even get me past one position this time."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm laughed, turning to vault over the back of the couch to get yoga mats from the closet.

"No complicated arm stands this time," Malcolm told him. He turned and grinned with two rolled up mats in his arm. "So no excuses!"

He rolled out the mats where he had them the last time and gestured for Raylan to join him.

"This is basic stuff. If you get all the way through it, we can discuss both a walk and... other... cardio activities."

[tinstar]

"After we eat," Raylan clarified with a finger as he padded over, grin broad from Malcolm's almost manic excitement to make him suffer through exercising.

Don't think he didn't see that hook there. He was already on it.

"I think your definition of 'basic stuff' and mine might vary a little," he said as he stripped off his shirt and knelt down with a grunt onto the mat. "It's easy for you because your built up for it. Which I like, by the way."

[abrightboy]

"I'm built up from it," Malcolm countered, getting down on his knees on his own mat.

"We're going to start the same way," he told Raylan. "Downward dog," he clarified, leaning forward to set his hands on the mat. "Ass in the air, I believe you called it."

[tinstar]

"Details, details," he replied as he shifted out onto his hands, body starting to stretch into posture. "I still see no reason to reevaluate the namin' scheme."

At least Malcolm had an ass worth looking at. Raylan found his own to be much more like Arlo's - a back with a crack and not much padding.

"Who named these things anyway? Why is this a 'dog' position."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm felt it had just enough padding to make a pair of jeans look great.

He looked over with a grin. "You're from the country. You've never seen a dog stretch? They're all pretty literal. Like..." He lowered himself down and forward. "Plank."

[tinstar]

Raylan breathed out as he followed suit onto his forearms, body straightening out.

"Figured they woulda gone with somethin' more graceful." Seemed.. a hilarious kind of crass somehow. "Definitely not changing my description."

[abrightboy]

"It's accurate," Malcolm agreed, letting his stomach drop to the floor before pushing up into cobra pose.

"Cobra pose. See? Literal."

[tinstar]

Raylan only grunted a sound as he shifted his hips down and pushed himself up. "My whole idea of it is shattered, ya know. Shattered. Keep explaining as we go."

Still, the strech of it all made him wince a little and he shifted his hands out a little to compensate.

"How many years have you been doin' this again?"

[abrightboy]

"Almost fifteen." He pulled his knees up and arched his back the other way. "Cat pose."

[tinstar]

"Jesus," he half swore as he followed suit, arching his back with a few audible pops that had his breath hitching before groaning softly with a note of satisfaction.

[abrightboy]

"Right?" Malcolm agreed with his groan. "You keep up this regimen and you'll find a noticeable improvement in joint mobility," he promised, letting his back shift to arch the other way. "Cow pose."

[tinstar]

Raylan let out a cynical breath. "Uh-huh, we'll see." He still doubted it's effectiveness, pop or no pop.

"I don't see how the Sun one has anything to do with the sun," he said as his back bowed, only half complaining for the sake of it. He'd ask how many positions there were but it seemed pointless to count them. They'd be done when they were done.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm grinned as he pushed back up into downward dog.

"The whole sequence is a Sun Salute because you do it in the morning, to greet the day." He looked over. "We're back at the beginning. Want to go through them again? We can do the breathing this time." Like the addition made it a tantalizing offer.

[tinstar]

"I breathed last time," he complained, still not understanding what that fundamentally meant. And since on his knees was not something that Raylan was used to, he rolled onto his ass, one leg tucking in while the other bend up to rest. "How many times do you go through them in a sitting?"

He was a stubborn man and he did not want to enjoy all this.. That didn't mean that some part of him didn't enjoy it anyway. That had been a very satisfying and relieving pop.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm, still in downward dog, shifted onto his knees, sitting back on his feet to look at Raylan. "Well, it depends on how I feel. That sun salute is a very simple one and sometimes I just go through it a few times to focus. Sometimes I go through it once and then go into a different sequence. Sometimes I skip it and go straight to something else. Depends what I need. But look."

He got up into downward dog again. "The way the breathing works for focus, you breathe in as you move, and then exhale once you're in the next pose. Watch."

As he shifted into plank, he inhaled through his nose. Once he reached the position, he exhaled through his mouth. "The trick is to breathe deeply," he said. "You inhale through the movement and exhale mindfully." He breathed in through his nose as he shifted into cobra and exhaled as he held it. Then he shifted onto his elbow and looked over at Raylan. "See?" He let himself settle onto his hip so he could look at Raylan while he talked to him. "I mean, we've been talking but when you're doing it for focus and meditation, the breathing is important."

[tinstar]

It was clearly going to take years for Raylan to learn and remember all these different positions but somehow, he didn't think he'd mind getting wrangled into this once and awhile. Normally, Raylan didn't care for people who talked too much but there was something about the quality of words and the way he said them that Raylan liked.

So he listened silently, eyes following the changing lines of Malcolm's form as he moved through the positions.

"Exhale mindfully," he echoed. "So turning an involuntary action into a voluntary one." To a point, anyway. "I don't get the point of it, but if you say so," he conceded with a gesture of the hand rested over his knee. "Still looks like fancy stretching. Which I mighta coulda used in highschool sports, really."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm pushed himself up to sit back on his knees again.

"It is definitely fancy stretching," he confirmed. "But adding breathing exercises gives it a meditative quality and, if you suffer from a racing mind, that helps slow things down so they can be organized."

[tinstar]

"Meditaiton never made sense in my head. I'm not gonna call it hippy shit but it doesn't get the best press down South. But that's okay. I don't have to understand everything.."

His lips curled. "But I am still hungry." He could probably be talked into one more round of positions too before it arrived.

[abrightboy]

"Psychology gets a bad rap down there too. Surprising in a place where they teach everyone not to examine their own feelings too closely," he noted with a cheeky look as he got to his hands and knees to crawl over to Raylan for a kiss. If they had a few minutes until lunch, he was going to take a few minutes of... how did Raylan put it? Making out like teenagers.

[tinstar]

Somehow, it felt healthier that way, even though he knew that Malcolm would argue, likely at length, if he mentioned it. Not examining his own feelings too much had somehow allowed Raylan to be here comfortably, so he wasn't wholly sure how to feel about it. The sentiment didn't last long, with Malcolm crawling forward to steal his attention in a kiss. 

It was a dangerous thing, to be kissing Raylan that way, to be kissing Raylan at all being all the way that Malcolm was at him. He leaned back a little as his right hand slid around Malcolm's side, urging him up against him as he deepened the kiss. He even lingered there a second before turning them on Malcolm's hip and helping guide his weight down.

Oh, he took makeouts very seriously.

[abrightboy]

Much to Malcolm's delight; he opened up to the kiss as easily as he was guided onto his back. As the comfort and warmth of Raylan's weight settled on him, he clutched the shoulder strap of his undershirt with one hand and the nape of his neck with the other.

"This is, um..." He let himself get distracted for a prolonged moment by another kiss, "...a perfectly valid way to reduce.... " He kissed him again. "Reduce anxiety too."

[tinstar]

One hot palm snuck up Malcolm's side under the shirt as they kissed, and he smiled lazily at the words Malcolm barely seemed to manage. "We should book daily sessions," he replied just as lazily as he kissed him again.

Lunch might have to wait.

His kiss turned, lips enjoying the faint scruff of Malcolm's jaw on their way down to his neck. "For your anxiety.." He nipped softly at the soft skin he found. "So I can see you look the way you do after I kiss you."

[abrightboy]

"Giddy and a little dazed?" Malcolm guessed as he tilted his head to give Raylan easy access, his hand releasing the strap of Raylan's shirt to smooth over his shoulder.