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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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"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."
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"I think they'll be happy for you. Knowin' all that they do." He hoped, anyway.
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"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."
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"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?"
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"...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.
"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.
"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.
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"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.
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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.
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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.
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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?"
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"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?"
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"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."
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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."
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"Careful with what ya say there. Left me thinkin' some pretty fun thoughts when you left last time." Underneath all the sad.
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At Raylan's next comment, he raised an eyebrow and grinned. "Was I distracting you when I wasn't even here?"
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"Mm, darlin' you always distract me, no matter where you are."
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"Then let's go inside."