tinstar | Malcolm x Raylan: Cowboy Surprise

"The whole team? Dare I ask how he took them? How they took him? I take it they know where you come from by now, Gil aside."

As much as he hated giving Martin any limelight, the man was regrettably an important player in Malcolm's life and far too many of his cases. Raylan couldn't discount him or his effect.

"You coulda gotten it fixed for him for slammin' into it," he offered with a smirk.

"They took it okay. He was delighted. He likes to have his fingers in as many of my pies as possible at all times. He suggested more than once after that that I was either dating Dani or I should be."

About the car, he pressed his lips together.

"Once, when I was a kid, Gil took me to Coney Island. I ate a hotdog because that's what people do at Coney Island. Big mistake. Threw up all over the backseat of the car he had at the time. My mother offered to have it cleaned or reupholstered or replaced... Gil was very offended. He said that wasn't why he was doing this and left." He looked sidelong at Raylan. "I wouldn't ever suggest replacing something I broke of his by accident if he didn't suggest that he expected it first."

That had been an evening where he thought maybe Gil wouldn't come back again. Until the next afternoon, when he picked Malcolm up from school like nothing had happened, faint aroma of hotdog puke lingering in the car. Malcolm didn't mention it.

"Of course he was," Raylan quipped darkly with a long glance off in the distance as he pulled a draft from his beer. He did so hate anytime that Martin was pleased with himself. He took the story in with a studious gaze, watching the shifts in Malcolm's feature, smiling crookedly as he finished.

"He didn't tell me that over lunch. Probably for good reason," he said, squeezing Malcolm's thigh gently.

"He's a good guy that one, I'll tell you what. I think he likes me." He hoped he did, anyway. "He told me to make sure you had somethin' to do. To keep you busy."

"He does like you," Malcolm said happily. "He asks how you're doing. I can tell by his face when he asks." He looked up. "He said to keep me busy? Well. He knows," Malcolm admitted. "He knows how I get."

"Mm," he hummed with a nod as he took another drink. "I told him I'd call if I had any questions I might need answers to. I haven't yet. I hope the next time I talk to him, I'm inviting him down to our wedding or sayin' hi to him there."

"Oh my god," he said with a broad smile. "Gil's going to come to our wedding," he exclaimed. "This is all getting very real and I like it," he admitted. He looked over at Raylan. "What kind of questions did he think you might have?" he asked curiously.

"Honestly? With you? I have no idea," he said with a laugh. "Darlin', you're so different in so many different ways that I can't even imgine what situations we're going to get into. And I can't wait to find out."

He took a deep breath, exhaling with a smile. "We probably shouldn't talk about it now, get to set into an idea but.. I like weddings. They're fun. Ours is gonna be fun. We're gonna have music and drinks and great food."

Excuse him while he and his face enthused about their wedding.

"We got vows and suits.. shouldn't get ahead of ourselves," he cautioned again, but it was clearly mostly for him. "You might say no when I ask."

Malcolm turned towards him, pulling one knee up under him so he could face Raylan.

"Sorry," he said cheekily. "Am I supposed to play it coy so it's a mystery?" he teased. "I don't know how long I can maintain that."

Raylan smirked and then extended his chin a little as he cleared his throat, bending forwards to set his bottle on the coffee table and shift enough to face Malcolm a little more properly. He took one of his free hands up with a glance at him from under his brows before he started properly.

"Then I guess maybe I should get it over with. Malcolm Bright, I never expected someone like you to be in my future but you swept in and stole me without my knowin'. And I wanna spend the rest of our days sweepin' each other to stupid ridiculous heights. Will you do me the honor of becoming my husband?"

Partner felt wrong, a little too progressive for the country boy outside his realm; he was fine with having a husband. He'd had practice being one so having one wasn't a far stretch somehow. Malcolm probably deserved a better ask than them on their terrace but there was no point in dancin' around it, however well meant Raylan's plans had been.

Malcolm's eyes widened as he realized what was happening, staring at him with barely contained delight. When he finished, Malcolm leaned in and cupped Raylan's face with his free hand, pressing a warm, gentle kiss to his mouth.

"Of course I will," he said softly. He kissed him again. "Nothing in the world could make me happier than that."

All the fears that he had that Malcolm would say no slipped away with the face that greeted the question. How could he doubt the sincerity of that? Raylan was smiling when the first kiss met and leaned a little harder into the second, right most hand slipping around Malcolm's waist as he leaned in.

"I love you, I'm always gonna. And now we don't have to be coy with anyone about that fact."

And he didn't want to be, especially among themselves.

Raylan kissed him again before softly breaking away and grabbing his beer to lean back, stupid smile affixed on his face.

"Didn't think I'd end the day properly engaged."

Malcolm pulled his other leg up beside him, curling up against Raylan's side.

"I never thought I'd end any day properly engaged," he mused, splaying his hand on Raylan's chest. He pressed a kiss to his shoulder.

Raylan moved his hand to cover both Malcolm's leg, draping his arm over the smaller man's knees as he settled in and smiled over at him before looking out over the terrace. Now that he'd asked; now that Malcolm had said yes, Raylan was more sure than he was before that this was all going to happen and that he might get the little beach wedding they'd been talking about.

After a few long moments of silence, Raylan looked back over again. "Gonna start the garden tomorrow or should I expect deliveries at some point?"

Malcolm grinned and leaned up to kiss his cheek.

"I'm going to start the garden tomorrow," he declared. "There will be deliveries, but you will be at work."

He shifted his hand from Raylan's chest to run his fingers along the Marshal's arm.

"I'm going to try to build it myself. I found a DIY design online."

The kiss made Raylan grin again, eyes dancing as he listened to Malcolm, only glancing down to smile a little more at his moving hand.

"I hope that doesn't mean you've rented a table saw. Precut wood is a godsend. Hammers and nails, or even a nailgun though.." His smile spread. "Those kind of projects are fun. Yeah you could buy everything premade but now when you look at it, you get to be proud that you built it. You'll call me with any questions or if somethin' happens, right?"

Malcolm gave him a wry smile. "By 'something happens' you mean if I cut my hand off or something, right?" he teased. "I did not rent a table saw. ...I purchased a circular saw. That's what the guy used in the video," he explained reasonably. "It's very step by step. It'll be fine." He looked up. "But I could reasonably have questions that will require me to interrupt your work day. Like 'do you miss me yet?' or 'what do you feel like having for dinner?' or 'do you have any interesting fugitives today?'..." He settled back against Raylan's shoulder with a very smug smirk. "I'll text you."

"Oh," Raylan said with a little laugh. "So instead of a table to keep it steady, you're going freehand. Maybe I oughta worry about you cutting off your hand," he said with a playful sidelong look.

"Well I always miss you so that's not even a question," he said with a little shake of his head as he took another drink of his beer. "I'm lookin' forward to seein' what you build darlin'. I'm sure it's gonna look great."

Malcolm smiled into Raylan's shoulder and lifted his head. "In all honesty, it will probably look like it was built by a seventh grader in shop class, but... I have to start somewhere." He grinned. "I will try really hard not to cut off my hand. I attend gruesome crime scenes; I have no interest in becoming the gruesome crime scene."

He felt like there was a height joke in here but opted to not dig it out.

"Danger never takes a day off, just remember that," he said with a curl of his smile towards Malcolm. "I don't think anything you put your mind to that comes with these kinda instructions is gonna look that bad. You're too capable for that. And most injuries that happen in this kinda stuff happens when you get casual and cocky with what you're doin'."

Malcolm laughed. "Me? Get cocky about something? That's unheard of," he teased. He pressed a kiss to Raylan's jaw. "I'll be careful. Honest. I'm still half stuck to New York. I won't risk our time together by carelessness with power tools."

He hummed a short note as he leaned into the kiss, smile turning into a smirk.

"Healthcare is better; if you were going to be careless, up there is the better option. Not that carelessness is an option at all," he amended, thumb stroking up and down Malcolm's thigh in whatever range it could get. "When you're done, that we'll take a picture of. So we can compare it to your next project."

He liked this idea of keeping Malcolm's hands busy in what he would consider a more grounding kind of way.

He huffed a laugh. "Carelessness is off the table in New York, too. I can't build something up there. Nobody would appreciate it. Except maybe Gil."

At the idea of taking a picture of his project to start a sort of photo journey of many projects, he smiled broadly. "We can track my progress," he said. "All the way to Miami."

"You're building for yourself, not for any of them. Well, and maybe possibly me, but you already know I appreciate everything you do so there's not much change there. I can see this starting with a garden box and ending with you trying to build and install your own inset bookshelf. One that they're never going to be allowed to use."

"We'll have to see if I can develop the carpenter skills to build a bookshelf I'd be happy with." His face lit as he had another thought. "Oh! A case for my weapons!" he pointed out as a potential project.

Raylan nodded with a tilt of his beer bottle on its way to his lips. "That's a good one. We can always call in contractors to put on the glass doors and that weird velvet backing you've got. The lighting too, you don't wanna mess with electricity unless you know what you're doin'."

For all the cheerleading Raylan did for doing your own work, sometimes it was just less expensive and stressful to cop out for a professional.

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