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

[tinstar]

"I think I'd like that better," he said with a nod. "Winona and I did the standard run, without the 'obey' part, for obvious reasons. And ain't no words they can prep for us that'll be sufficient."

He brushed his thumb back and forth over Malcolm's shoulder again.

"You think your New York team will take you leavin' okay? Especially considerin' what you're leavin' for."

[abrightboy]

"No. We're... not standard," he said with a laugh.

He thought about the question that followed. "What I'm leaving for... Happiness? Love? If someone is your friend, how could they hold that against you?" he asked.

[tinstar]

"Holdin' it against you and takin' the surprise well are two different things. Not that they seem the type to be dramatic, but leavin' without any warnin's isn't the way to do it." Hurt feelings and all. Gives them a chance to deal with it and take their last few moments with him. "You're not plannin' on that, are you?"

I DID NOT GET THIS NOTIF AND I AM OFFENDED

[abrightboy]

Oh. Malcolm's expression softened.

"No. No. I was just going to wait until we had some idea of a date. I didn't want to just... hang it there indefinitely."

AHH. ME TOO. DW CANNOT KEEP THEM APART

[tinstar]

Raylan nodded and took another sip of his bourbon.

"We'll have to finalize the purchases of both house and land, that takes a few months. That might be a good time to figure out when to tell them." He wondered how Martin would take it but didn't want to bring the man back up and ruin the good mood they'd fostered.

"Gives everyone a little room to get used to the idea. Also keeps them off my back later, it doesn't look like I'm stealin' you away from town forever." Though that statement came with a little smug smirk of his own. There was no stealing Malcolm Bright, but sweeping might have been a better word. That he could agree with.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm smiled and looked up at him.

"I'll have you know that nobody drags me anywhere," he said lightly. "I was never going to ghost them. They're just...going to have questions and I want to have answers. But I can't imagine it'll come as a whole lot of a surprise with the amount of time I'm spending out of town these days." He pressed a kiss to Raylan's shoulder. "Plus my mother has probably told Gil what you let slip at dinner."

[tinstar]

Raylan's smile spread a little more. "Gil already knows about Miami, so I think anything else she might tell 'im ain't gonna be a surprise. He'll be expecting it. That'll help the rest of them too." He trusted Gil to manage his people the same way Art managed the Marshal's. It might look like work on the surface but Raylan knew how much Art knew about all of them.

"I think they'll be happy for you. Knowin' all that they do." He hoped, anyway.

[abrightboy]

He nodded and snuggled back into the crook of Raylan's shoulder.

"I hope that's how it'll go," he agreed. "When I was with the FBI, I didn't mean anything to anyone, except what I could do for them. ...I hope I'm not wrong thinking it's different in New York."

[tinstar]

"They like you," he assured softly. "It'll go good. Maybe JT will even cry," he teased.

"It'll be okay," he continued with another nod of his head. "We'll be okay." Raylan pressed a kiss into Malcolm's hair.

"I never asked - when's your birthday?"

[abrightboy]

He smiled at the idea of JT shedding a tear at his departure. Then the question caught him off guard.

"...My birthday? It's in March," he said. "March 16th." He tilted his head up. "When's yours?"

Man the show is so inconsistent about his actual age.

[tinstar]

"November 5th. 1976. I don't care for birthday parties, by the way. Much prefer to let it pass quietly." Maybe with a drink or two to celebrate him surviving another year, but he hadn't done anything for his birthday since he was married to Winona.

"But I feel like it's something I oughta know." Ya know, to fill out the rest of the file of medical history that he was slowly building over his time with Malcolm.

PSon is super specific for the year, tho not the date.

[abrightboy]

He pressed his lips together.

"March 16th 1988," he said with a bit of a wince. He knew their age difference, but numbers made it sound worse somehow. "Yours is sooner... so. No surprise parties, right?" he teased.

[tinstar]

Raylan winced a little with him. Yeah, hearing it in numbers made it worse.

"No parties," he clarified with one long finger out in gesture from around his glass. "Can't stand those 'Over the hill, half in the grave' jokes."

Clearly, he was not looking forward to them.

"You on the other hand... A big one, right? Maybe a big sheet cake?" Now he was teasing, but fighting the shit eating grin that threatened to take over his face.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm laughed. "Yeah, of course. We can invite all four of my friends. Biggest party ever. Good thing we have a lot of room."

He sat up a little to look at Raylan properly. "What's this 'over the hill' stuff, though? You're forty-three, not sixty-three."

God, he hoped Raylan wasn't actually paying any attention to Winona's 'late life crisis' crap. He knew he wasn't some kind of phase, but the 'late life' part taking any hold was just as damaging as the rest of it.

[tinstar]

Malcolm's laugh was what pushed his grin over the edge to it's full spread as he glanced down into his glass. No, no parties. He'd have to think of something uniquely specific for Malcolm and he wasn't daunted by that freer range.

He looked over as Malcolm shifted up and tried to play off the very real internal dialogue.

"You know how people are on birthdays. I hear it starts at forty-five."

Winona's 'late life crisis' crap was still in the back of his head but being with Malcolm wasn't a crisis of any kind. They'd decided. Raylan opted to ignore it, by and large.

[abrightboy]

"I haven't had a birthday in New York yet, which makes it some ten years since I spent one with anybody. So I guess I don't know how birthdays are, but I'm looking forward to making sure yours is nothing like what you just described. Considering you'll only be forty-four, maybe I'll be overprotective, but I'm okay with that."

He leaned in and gave him a tender kiss before snuggling back into his side.

"And when you do turn fifty, maybe we'll leave the country for that," he mused. "Do you think a couple of weeks in Brazil or Bermuda will give everyone time to get over it?"

[tinstar]

Whatever he was thinking was kept to himself for now as Malcolm kissed him and snuggled back in. This was nice. He didn't want to argue with it, he just wanted to enjoy it.

"Shit, I think a few weeks won't even be enough for me to get over it," he admitted before looking over. "You know that's what people are gonna focus on when they first know about us. Think you're gonna end up tired of defendin' my age after a few years?"

[abrightboy]

"I don't think we actually look that far apart in age," Malcolm told him. "But one thing I know with certainty is that I will never tire of defending you. Or us."

[tinstar]

"Outside of the grey," he admitted happily. He knew he was in good shape. He knew he didn't look like a 40 plus year old man. Malcolm was going to age flawlessly too, he'd put money on it. But hearing that he wouldn't tire of it made Raylan smile despite himself with a little nod as he emptied his glass.

"I say let 'em think what they want. To hell with 'em." The last came with another lift of the edges of his lips as he resettled his arm around Malcolm's shoulder.

"The sun's almost all the way down. Gonna start getting cooler out here."

[abrightboy]

"People in their twenties get grey sometimes. It doesn't mean anything."

He smiled as Raylan's arm settled around him again. "I'm feeling pretty warm, but we can go inside," he said. "Watch TV or read for a bit." He tilted his head to look up without dislodging that arm. "Unless there's something else you want to do."

[tinstar]

Except for when it did. "I started greying at 36 so.. Enjoy that comin' to ya." He had looked much sexier in his youth, in his opinion.

"Careful with what ya say there. Left me thinkin' some pretty fun thoughts when you left last time." Underneath all the sad.

[abrightboy]

"I've enjoyed everything that's come to me so far," he said smugly.

At Raylan's next comment, he raised an eyebrow and grinned. "Was I distracting you when I wasn't even here?"

[tinstar]

Well, that was fair. Malcolm was well matured and Raylan knew he wasn't biased. He couldn't be. Other people had eyes.

"Mm, darlin' you always distract me, no matter where you are."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm smiled brightly and got up, draining his glass of bourbon, then turning to offer Raylan his hand.

"Then let's go inside."