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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Malcolm's smiled tentatively as Raylan responded, but it grew wider as he continued, if a little self-conscious. This was a new thing, this whole situation. One he'd never thought he could have.

And he believed him. About all of it. He could see the truth of it in Raylan's face.

He leaned up to steal another kiss, lingering in it for a moment.

"Can we start really planning the wedding once we find the house?" he asked. "Or should we wait for a bit?"

Good because Raylan meant it. He hadn't fucked anyone over a desk with a desperate furious need in literally years. He couldn't remember a time since his early 30s, actually. And maybe a decade between that and the time before it.

Malcolm had nothing to worry about.

Raylan trailed after the kiss a fraction, smiling as he did so and Malcolm's question made him chuckle. "Really that excited huh?" He was glad to see it. "We can start as soon as we move into the house. Otherwise, we'll be exhausted in the first week. I'm afraid that I can't be much help but I'll do my best. Whatever you need me to do."

He was that excited. And maybe a little bit he wanted to grab it before it dissipated into the ether like a dream.

Malcolm looked at him quizzically. "What do you mean 'can't be much help'? In what sense?" He had just been listing things they would have just before he proposed. He seemed pretty involved already.

"Catering or choosing plates or napkins or centerpieces, seatin' people," he said, shaking his head. "Makin' it look good." Making it look up to the standard that he knew Malcolm was used to. The standard they'd need to make his mother happy.

And if Malcolm thought that making his mother happy wouldn't be part of it, Raylan's experience told him that he was wrong.

"They got people to hire to do that, right? Wedding planners?"

"They do have such a thing," Malcolm confirmed. "But we don't need a wedding planner. It's going to be a small wedding and I won't have a job. I can do it." He met Raylan's eyes. "With your input. We'll choose everything and I'll put it together."

He really wasn't worried whether it was up to his mother's standard. He was worried whether it would be something Raylan would like. It wasn't her day. It was theirs.

"And we can make a lot of those choices before we even get there, so if settling into a new office keeps you extra busy, I can just work on it with what we have."

"If you say it, it must be true," he said, happy to let Malcolm dictate what he wanted to. "Far be it from me to tell you what to do with your time. But if you do need help," he cautioned with a look from under his eyebrows at him. "We can find some."

Raylan shifted a little so he could lay Malcolm's weight back into the cushions of the couch and follow it with some of his own after scooting his hips out of the way, using the whole thing as an excuse to kiss Malcolm all over again.

"I'll be settlin' into an old office. Only thing you gotta worry about is the same stuff you gotta about now. Me and long hours."

"You being at work late is different than you being in another state, you know," Malcolm told him. "It's not that big a deal. You still exist in the space; you'll come back to it eventually." He looked at Raylan as he traced a pattern on his shoulder with two fingers. "I like to think if a case leaves you restless or upset you'll come home instead of going out if this feels like a safe place where you can talk about it. Or yell about it. Or kick something, if that's what you need to do." With barely a breath between thoughts, he added "Do you think we should go with tuxedos or morning suits? A lot of people do morning suits for weddings. They have more options; we can add some colour."

"Only if you don't ignore the distances," he replied with a playful sense that didn't survive long in the face of Malcolm's expression and the idle touch. Then he got two more ideas to tangle with, in rapid succession and he couldn't help but feel like they were dancing around something important to Malcolm.

"I don't even know what a morning suit is." First things first. "You okay with me going to bat sometimes instead?"

"Of course, if that's what helps." A beat. "....If you want company, though, you can text me. If you don't, though... I get that. That's okay too," he said matter-of-factly.

Raylan narrowed one eye a little. "You didn't ask me about women because you're missin' it, right? You didn't exactly expect this, didn't make a.." What'd he say? "A conscious decision to not be with them anymore either."

Malcolm laughed in surprise.

"Oh my god, no. I never... had a preference either way, you know."

He held out his hand. "Give me your phone."

He wasn't sure how to take that sudden laugh. Leaning back a little, Raylan fished his phone out of his pocket and handed it over, opting to wait and see what Malcolm was going to show him like it might change something.

Malcolm's phone was turned off, and he wanted to show Raylan what a morning suit looked like.

He scrolled through images until he found one he thought was representative and held it out for Raylan.

"That's a morning suit. They have the tail coats, see?"

This is how it was going to be - them having two or three conversations at once.

Raylan looked at the picture, eyebrows curling up. "That is.. something." He glanced over at Malcolm. "Regular suits aren't an option, are they."

"Of course they are. We can get married in jeans, if we want to." He tilted the phone so Raylan could take it back. "Would you rather something like that?"

"I think getting married in jeans might actually kill your mother," he chuckled. "But a tuxedo feels.. like something you wear to a gala or something and 'morning suits' looks like somethin' we'd wear at.. Polo. Or meeting the Queen. I'd be more comfortable in a suit. I.. shouldn't tell you about what I wore at my last wedding, should I."

Surprise, it was a suit.

Malcolm considered him.

"...Flip flops?"

He was trying to think of something that Raylan would be embarrassed to mention.

Raylan laughed. "If we're gonna do that, we might as well go full shorts and hawaiian shirts too. But I will be buyin' another pair once we get down there. They're comfortable. We don't have to match, ya know. Complimentary colors and accents but.. Maybe we find something as uniquely suited to us as each other, hmm?"

"...I think I want to match you. Maybe with different accents," he said as he considered it. "What kind of suits did you have in mind?"

If he hadn't already been smiling, that would have done it. As it was, his smile broke into a softly surprised little quirked half grin. Malcolm's attention made him feel like he was part of conversations, instead just something to talk at about all his decisions like Winona often had.

"Something with a waistcoat maybe. Duster length suit jacket. I dunno if you'd call that a morning suit or not. The shape of that back end of the jacket changes everything. I don't want it to look like I came in off work to marry you on break or somethin'. Marryin' you isn't casual." He didn't want it to look like it was casual either.

Malcolm grinned. "Well, we can get them made to whatever specifications we want," he said. "We can make something that's unique to just us."

Raylan hummed and leaned in to steal another kiss before taking his phone back and dropping it beside them. "I'm glad we got time on it. It'll let me think."

He stole another kiss for the hell of it before pulling back. "I feel like maybe watchin' some TV and then goin' to bed, what'd'ya say?"

"Yeah, that sounds nice," he agreed, grabbing one more kiss before getting up from Raylan's lap, then offering him a hand up.

Once inside, he poured a glass of scotch, holding it up towards Raylan. "Do you want one of these or another beer?" he asked.

"One of those, please," he said with a long finger directed at the glass as he tossed his beer bottle in the trash. "Feels like we oughta celebrate a little, right?" Grinning, he came over to collect it. "You gonna join me or should we spike a cup of tea."

He wasn't teasing. Tea was something Malcolm did and a shot wasn't a glass. Couldn't hurt that much.

"I will have one," he said with a broad smile, pouring it. One glass wouldn't hurt much. He collected it up and followed Raylan to the couch to curl up with him.

"What's good?" he said of the TV. "Is there a baseball game on?"

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