tinstar | Slingin' from the hip, never the heart.

God, she hates that she's getting teary over ordering fucking waffles.

"Yeah. Yes. Please."

"Alright darlin', it's okay," he assured, rubbing her shoulders. "C'mon. We'll set you in the car, you lock the doors. You can keep your eyes on me and I can keep mine on you," he continued, shifting to open the door and guide her back down into it. "Lock the doors," he instructed again as he closed the door.

Once he was sure she was secure, he headed inside with another glance at her over his shoulder, gut twisting in an instinctual 'Don't leave her alone, she'll get snatched' that he had to try and control as he ambled up to the counter.

Two waffles with chocolate chips on the side for later sprinkling with bacon on the side, along with a bacon cheeseburger, dressed and with fries. Raylan stayed where he was, eyes on the door and his car and the precious cargo inside until it was time to collect, where he added on one more thing. Bags and a large Styrofoam cup in his hand, Raylan came back to the car and slid in. The bag was set on her lap, cab instantly filling with delicious scents and Raylan tucked the cup into the cup holder before presenting her with a straw.

"The waffles will hold but chocolate milkshakes won't."

She almost goes in, a couple of times. When the wait gets long enough for her to get paranoid that he’s gotten hurt or disappeared. She doesn’t really exhale until he walks out again, and when he hands her the straw, she lights up.

“Holy fuck, milkshakes exist.”

Her enthusiasm was still infectious. Raylan grinned as he turned the engine over and started pulling them out of the parking lot.

"It's the least that I could get you for the ride you're about to suffer," he said with a laugh. "Takes two and a half hours to get out to Harlan county, if you obey the speed limit."

His smile curled a little further and once they were on the open road, she would know what he meant. Raylan's Crown Vic towncar was a newer version so there was some power under her hood, and he was no afraid to use it.

"Music is back too. One time offer for the radio," he said with a nod towards the dash unit.

For a wrenching moment, she realizes her phone and all the music on it is gone. Then she shakes it off, sucking down milkshake until she has to squint one eye shut against the brain freeze. “Hit me, cowboy. Though whatever you pick I guarantee I’m going to fuck with it.”

Edited (I can put orders in words) 2021-09-17 23:49 (UTC)

"All I'm gonna be puttin' on in this car is country and southern rock. Hope you like CCR and ZZ top."

He wasn't all country. Raylan kicked the radio on, gently blasting The Allman brothers.

He knew what he was getting into. He was sitting next to a Bard for fucks sake. You didn't just hand them music and expect them to not do anything with it.

“All you’re going to be putting on,” Athena says, highlighting that loophole. Still, when he picks a station, she listens for a little while as she sucks on the milkshake, relishing the sound of music from a real stereo, a song she doesn’t intimately know.

Eventually though, the milkshake is gone, and she can do more than hum. She doesn’t know every song, though she knows more than a few. Even so, she picks up the choruses quick and sings along with those if she doesn’t know the rest of the words, voice rising and falling in harmony with the radio. God, she can feel the Gift moving around her, the subtle sweep and pull of it, and she closes her eyes and sings and wants desperately to let loose. She also doesn’t want Raylan to crash.

Still, it’s starting to get dark, so she… compromises. The next song she knows, Athena twines her Gift through the words, lighting up the road ahead of them as bright as if Raylan had his high beams on. Only, yknow, without them, and the inconvenience of blinding other drivers.

"When you learn to drive, you can control the radio, how about that?" he retorted with a grin. He'd left it open for her to take control of the radio but she'd punted it back to him. That all being said, Athena was the only person in the world right now who could change it without reproach.

Raylan liked driving. He liked the open roads that took him wherever he was going and he'd driven this one enough times he could probably do it in his sleep. But there was a lot of empty road that let him zone out and relax a little, a crooked smile curling on his lips as Athena started to hum. He didn't know what the healing road for her would look like, but he knew it would involve her Gift.

When she starts singing, the effect of it all was unexpected and he swore softly as the road lit up, wide hazel eyes darting over to marvel at her without them crashing before he broke into a delighted deep laughter and shook his head.

"I'm gonna havta get used to seein' stuff like this, ain't I," he asked with a fond, endearing tone.

She grins in response and keeps singing rather than interrupt herself to answer. She holds last notes of the song a little longer than required, letting them—-and the light on the road—-fade out.

Then she says, “You bet your ass.”

The town lights were faint ahead of them, but they would be inside them in a few minutes, which Raylan always found a little magical and strange, like they were stepping into a whole other world.

Still grinning, Raylan pulled them into the little grocery he'd mentioned before. He could handle having to deal with that kinda show. "There's gonna be all of 4 people in there, but it might be a better idea if you stay here. As soon as people know you're about, they're gonna start askin' questions. Oh, and just in case - Know that the lie we told the hospital ain't gonna fly here. They know me, and my family, so you'll be just who you are. Though, we oughta think of a different last name for you to use, just in case."

Yes, he was very serious.

"It'll be another ten minutes before we're at the house."

Her stomach does an anxious little somersault as she remembers, oh yeah, this is where Raylan grew up. She's going to have to step carefully, and not just because they'll peg any lie she tells about who she is to Raylan. She doesn't want to go fucking up his life down here, even more than she doesn't want to fuck up things in Lexington.

She bites her lip. "It was Parker. Before my aunt went and officially adopted me. I was Athena Parker."

He didn't have a life down here, that was the difference. They could talk about that once they got to Arlo's.

Raylan nodded and looked out the window for a long second. "You don't have to wear it long and only in front'a them, okay? C'mon. Won't take us but a minute."

Athena takes a deep breath, nods, and climbs out of the car. This time she manages to resist taking Raylan's hand. Somehow she feels like that would only make things weirder down here in the long run.

Still, anyone with eyes would be able to see the caution she uses going inside, like a cat peeking its head into unfamiliar territory for the first time. This place reminds her of the Mathias general store, almost, and that thought makes her skin creep.

Raylan sauntered in without hesitation, letting Athena catch up to his long legs in a way he hadn't unless he had a purpose, lifting his chin at the cashier in a passing greeting as he picked up a basket and started towards the cold goods.

He'd been more than right; there were two other people in the store, including the cashier. Things were going quiet and fine, eggs and bacon, whipped cream and coffee but their trek towards the register was stopped short by the bell ringing in another customer.

"Raylan!"

Raylan looked over to the short, portly Constable that was already making his way over towards them, all excitement, and put on a smile.

"Heya Bob."

"Hey, you headin' back to Arlo's house? Ain't nothin' gone off in there that I know of, you know that motion sensor?"

Raylan was nodding hhis head. "Yeah Bob, I am. Thanks for lettin' me know. I'd hate to have to walk in on someone squattin'."

Bob adjusted his belt, chest puffed out proudly. "You know I'd never let that happen, Raylan." Finally, Bob's eyes fell on Athena. "And you got a friend with ya! Hi, pleasure to meet you, I'm Bob Sweeney, Harlan Constable," he started, sticking a hand out at her to shake. "Elected and everythin'. Well, no one else was runnin' so I got it by default but it still counts, I'm elected."

Raylan watched with amusement as the cashier ran up their things.

"Bob, this is Athena Parker. She's gonna be stayin' with me while we figure some stuff out."

Athena shakes his hand by virtue of not knowing whatthefuckelse to do, staring a little. Yeah, she's met some characters in her life--look at Jeff--but this guy is that turned up to eleven somehow.

"Uh, hi." A pause. "What does a constable do?"

Her hand was pumped just as enthusiastically, face delighted at the news and Bob was clearly pleased that Athena asked, dropping her hand so he could hook his thumb almost comically back into his belt.

"Kinda like the police, 'cept Harlan the town ain't large enough to call for a whole department, though the County's got police that tend to more intense things."

"Mainly cause they got more than one guy," Raylan said as he gathered their bags. "No offense Bob."

"Oh none taken, none taken," Bob assured too quickly. "Sides, they'd only cramp muh style." It came with an unnecessary and unhelpful lift and shuffle of the belt he'd been resting his thumbs on.

"'Course they would. Badass like yourself," Raylan replied with a faint, font squint of one eye. "But we gotta get goin' Bob. I'll see ya later," he said, guiding Athena towards the door with his off hand as he smiled at Bob.

"Yeah Raylan, Yeah, I'll see you later. Maybe I'll come by later tomorrow huh?" The question was tossed futily towards his shoulders as they headed out.

"I'll let you know Bob," he said, tipping his hat as they stepped out.

Edited 2021-09-18 22:57 (UTC)

Athena follows Raylan back to the car, feeling weirdly shellshocked by that exchange. Once the groceries are loaded and they're pulling back onto the road, she looks over at him.

"Is everyone here that... that?"

Raylan smirked and shook his head. "No. Nah, Bob is.. a unique character. He was a nerd in high school, and that.. enthusiasm fell over into law enforcement." He wasn't going to say that he was one of the few people who didn't mock or disparage Bob, but he was. Bob was a Lot but he was a good guy who was reliable.

"He's taken on watchin' Arlo's property when Arlo's gone and I'm in Lexington."

Property that Athena was about to get to see. Raylan pulled them off onto a small dirt road that ran about a half mile over and down a hill before the Givens house peeked itself out of the surrounding trees in the flash of his headlights. Raylan turned off the engine and stared at the house for a second before sucking his teeth and sweeping his eyes down and over to Athena.

"Try not to let it freak you out okay? I promise there ain't nothin' in there and if there is, this time I've got my gun."

He knew from personal experience how much like a Mathis house his was. More dark things to fit inside it's already groaning walls. But maybe that was just his perception of it.

It's so dark out here. So quiet. It is like Mathias, in a lot of ways. Puts her on edge a little. But when she listens, there's a breeze. There's the sound of crickets, and something she'd guess is probably an owl but she's too much of a city girl to be sure.

It's dark, and it's eerie, but it's alive.

"Is it okay if..." She hesitates, once again feeling stupid, feeling like she should be more grown up than this, more okay than this. "When I moved in with my aunt... she let me sleep on my mattress on the floor in her room. Would... Could I..."

"We'll pull one of the mattresses down to the living room. It'll be like a sleep over." Given with a smile, Raylan pulled himself out of the car and got the groceries from the back.

"Just follow me until we can get some lights on." It was better, less creepy with the lights on. He just hadn't been able to handle the silence and being alone, tormented and left with his memories and his heartache and had driven all the way back to Lexington a few nights, to sit in a booth of some diner to soak in the light and the life of other people. The lack of terror in the air.

Athena sticks close, taking one of the grocery bags to feel like some kind of useful. She's pretty sure, in her light-blind vision from the car, that she sees headstones to their left.

She's not positive they're there, but she shuts her eyes anyway, taking a handful of Raylan's shirt to guide her way until they're inside and the lights are on.

Somehow, it's not what she expected. She's not sure what she did expect. The place is a little battered, a lot worn, but it's just... a house. A regular, people-spent-lives here house. She loops one arm around Raylan's, leaning her head against his shoulder.

Raylan grew up here. It's weird to think about a tiny drawling cowboy, and she wonders for the first time what he was even like as a kid.

For a second she's not sure what to say, then: "I'll have you know that if there are any embarrassing photo albums anywhere in this building, I will find them."

Edited 2021-09-19 02:20 (UTC)

Athena had their food too; very important. Raylan wasn't sure if Athena had seen the headstones, but it was too macabre for him to warn her about now. He was more concerned with getting them in and getting those lights on.

That effort was stopped short once he'd kicked on the first few, finding himself with another Bard Barnacle that he embraced with a soft smile as Athena tucks herself against his shoulder. He wasn't sure how she was going to find the place. He wanted to see it through her eyes; eyes that hadn't seen Arlo screaming and ranting back and forth, eyes that hadn't seen the blood splatters that had long been covered up and painted over.

If walls could talk.. He'd burn this place down.

Instead, he squeezed her shoulders softly and huffed half a laugh. "If you wanna see me when I was about nine or ten, there's a picture on the nook between the kitchen and the dining room. Which is where we oughta head. Dunno about you but I'm hungry."

It was easier, somehow, to slip back into what he oughta be which was totally fine, with her here. She was someone to keep that face up for and despite them only having been here a few minutes, he already felt a little lighter in here. Squeezing her shoulders again, he stepped forwards and away from her, unloading onto the aforementioned dining room table.

She relaxes a little, perking up at the memory of promised waffles. She's also going to beeline for that picture. Athena picks it up almost reverently when she finds it, smiling at his tiny self. "You look like a noodle."

The picture was him in his little school baseball shirt, his mother, and Helen. Briefly, he wondered what Aunt Helen would make of the scrappy young woman who had barreled most unexpectedly into his life and her home. She'd like Athena, he thinks. Spine and spunk in the face of danger.

Stacking their boxes and the bags, Raylan headed into the kitchen proper with a passing smile at Athena as he passed by. Athena's waffles were popped into the microwave first, plated up on a older print plate that would speak to its age when she got to the bottom of it. While that warmed, Raylan put away the rest of the stuff.

""Hadn't grown into my shoulders yet. You're not gonna find much more than that though, I'm afraid. Aunt Helen fought with Arlo somethin' fierce to keep it up." Athena could guess as to why.

Athena smooths her thumb over the glass in the frame, smiling a little.

"I want a copy," she decides. Executive order. Athena gently sets the photo down and joins him in the kitchen, inhaling the scent of (re)hot waffles with a relish that most people save for things like cocaine. She waited until he'd sat himself down with his own food to attack hers--Lenore had managed to squish at least that much into her when it came to manners.

She pauses mid-waffle to look at him, a little uncertain. "So... what do we do? Now that we're here?"

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Bets on if she sees the mini graveyard tonight or in the morning.

six of one, half-dozen of the other??

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