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

"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.

"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."

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.

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.

"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.

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."

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."

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."

"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.

"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.

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.

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."

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."

"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.

"Mm," came the hummed response, his lips curling before he lifted his head to take Malcolm's face in, in all its glory, with a hint of a serious air in his own. "Add on bright eyed and happy, and you'll be about there. Kiss bruised is optional," he continued before coming back down to further that goal with another kiss.

Malcolm hummed into the kiss, arching up against Raylan's body.

"I don't think it is optional," he said breathlessly, leaning up to get another kiss. "But that's you that makes my face look like that."

Ever an opportunist, Raylan used that arch to push Malcolm's t-shirt up and help pull it off before he was kissing Malcolm again. "It's not," he agreed when it broke. "Optional," he clarified with a passing quirk of his lips. "As for you.." Raylan kissed him with a breath, settling his weight down on top of him. "I feel like we got some catchin' up to do, to cover lost time."

Raylan's life hadn't been easy or fantastic or filled with opportunity, but he'd had a few happy moments. More than he thought he'd get when he was young, that was for sure. He wasn't sure that Malcolm could say the same.

As much as he worked to keep a positive attitude, he really hadn't experienced moments of pure happiness like he felt with Raylan. That was an accurate assessment. He wriggled a little as Raylan got him out of the shirt before sliding his hands down Raylan's ribs to grasp his undershirt and tug it up over his head with a grin into the next kiss, swallowing hard as it broke.

"When we live together... we can really do some catching up."

When they were married, they'd have the rest of their lives. But since Raylan hadn't admitted that yet and it sat heavy and warm and needy in his chest as he arched his shoulders to help pull his undershirt off before taking up Malcolm's lips again.

"Might have to take a vacation once we get settled, just to get it out of our systems," he breathed between kisses, off hand running down Malcolm's side to slide his fingers under his waistband and grip his hip.

"Where does a person..." He caught up Raylan's lips in a needy kiss. "...where does a person vacation when they live on a beach?" he asked, a hand slipping up into Raylan's hair as he leaned up into another kiss.

"Other, better beaches," he managed between the last kiss and the next as his hand slipped down further to enjoy the length of Malcolm's thigh. Suddenly irritated with Malcolm's sweatpants, with a little growl he pulled back and tugged them off to toss to the side before moving back into Malcolm's space. He liked touching him, sexual or otherwise - every sensation was so different and just as familiar as any touch he'd had over his life.

"We'll go to France," he continued, hastily kissing him instead of continuing. "Spain maybe."

Maybe not Costa Rica though.

The almost feral nature of Raylan's desire wasn't a way he'd ever been wanted before and it was exhilarating. In quiet moments, part of him wondered if Raylan might not be happy with just him forever. Maybe he'd miss women. He hadn't gone into this with considered forethought about wanting to be with a man now. It had just sort of snuck up and consumed them.

But then Raylan came for his body like that, like it was all he wanted in the world, and those concerns drifted away.

And Malcolm's body responded, twitching against him as his weight settled back into its place.

"South of France," Malcolm managed between kisses, pulling his knees up over Raylan's hips to wrap his legs around his waist. "Good choice." Another kiss and he took the moment to find the waistband of Raylan's boxers with his toes and push them down. "I can speak French, you know," he gasped at the next break for air.

He'd always been something of an impatient lover but Malcolm turned him up a notch. He knew what it was; the kindness, the understanding that Malcolm had shown him left him with less hesitations, less reservations and a whole bookcase of new experiences to catch up on enjoying. He didn't even think about the details of it all anymore, all that mattered was the feeling he cause, the feelings he had, and the connection that came with it all.

Raylan's hips lifted a little of their own accord, rubbing their lengths together as his weight bearing forearm moved up so he could wrap his hand around the back of Malcolm's shoulder.

"You can talk for both of us," Raylan assured, not giving Malcolm much time to catch his breath before he was kissing him. But when the next one broke, Raylan pushed back up onto his knees, moving up onto his feet smoothly and taking a half second to enjoy the view below him before speaking up to explain.

"Lube." He held up a finger and padded off towards their nightstand to get it.

Malcolm let his head fall back against the mat for a moment, breathing in and out a second before he turned his head to look for Raylan, to watch him come back with the prize, to smile warmly as he approached.

To reach for him, so he knew how much he wanted him pressed up against him again.

"We might just keep that factory in business all on our own."

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