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

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?"

He only hummed in response as he mounted her waffles with whipped cream and chocolate chip sprinkles on top before tending to his own food. He'd see about that. Raylan didn't really notice that Athena was waiting for him to dig in, but give it a few more meals and he would.

"You get to rest. Take the time to reset yourself and heal. It'll take a few days to run down Jeff and Lenore's names at least." If they were even here. He hadn't gotten to thinking about that far yet - What they would do if they proved to not be in the same world.

"And after Mathis.." he poked around with a fry for a second before looking up at her. "I had a pretty rough time when I came back. I don't want you to have to go through it alone."

Rest. She’s never been very good at that. Rest, in this quiet place, in the middle of nowhere, when she might be alone again.

Well. Mostly.

Not alone.

She gives Raylan a tentative little smile. “…Can I see it, where like. You went to school and shit like that?”

Lifting his eyebrows over his bite of food, shrugging as he cleared it, he nodded. "Sure, if you want. Not much to look at, compared to what you're used to. I can take you up in to some of the other hollers too, show you some of the mines, abandoned and otherwise."

She might not know it, but he had a story or three for nearly each Holler. But he'd also show her the slurry pits. For him, there was no escaping what the cost of coal was for Harlan.

Edited 2021-09-19 14:40 (UTC)

“Look, after Mathias, ‘what I’m used to’ isn’t what it used to be.”

She makes an amused little noise at her own accidental play on words. For another minute, she eats, wondering whether or not this is too fraught a question to ask.

“Um… Your guy, Boyd, he’s in Harlan somewhere too, right?”

He bobbed his head in concession. Mathis changed a lotta things.

"Yeah. Him and Ava and Winona.. Here's hopin' we don't have to see him," he sighed as he popped another fry into his mouth. "I don't plan on showin' you his bar, either. Before you ask."

She ducks her head, grinning a little. "Man, I bet I could even get away with buying myself a drink down here, too."

Raylan's eyebrows almost did a wave as he looked over at her, the arch starting at one side and, in a roll, ended with his other eyebrow raised.

"You want a drink, you can have a drink, here. Shame Mags Bennett isn't still alive; she had an Apple Pie Moonshine to die for. Worth a sip, even for the younger folk." Yeah, he bent a few rules.

The grin is no longer hidden, and it's aimed shamelessly his way. "It's not the drinking part, it's the getting it when I shouldn't be able to part."

He bobbed his head in confirmation as he speared a few more of his fries. "Outlaw rule number one: It don't count if you don't get caught." Raylan's eyes glittered as he tucked his fries into his mouth.

"'Sides, you deserve a little fun. A little.. Supervised rule breakin'. Won't hurt you, scientifically speakin'."

"Are you going to help? Is that the supervised part?" She puts a too-large bite of waffle in her mouth, chokes slightly, then manages to swallow.

Raylan snorted as she choked.

"Chew darlin', you got plenty of waffle to get through. And yes, that's the supervised part. There's some harmless fun to be had around and I'm not a Marshal all the time."

Only half a lie. He was a Marshal when he needed to be.

"But that'll be in a few days. We probably oughta get through one night at a time. Hope you don't mind old TV and popcorn."

“As long as it’s b-movie style garbage.”

Her smile goes a little quieter, watching his face. “Fuck, I’m sorry I took so long to show up.”

Edited 2021-10-01 00:00 (UTC)

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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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