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

"I suppose," he said, otherwise interrupted by his cell phone ringing. He was clearly irritated by the noise, lips pinching into a thin line at the name that he saw on the screen. "Ava Crowder," he muttered, muting the call and slipping it back into his pocket with a lift of his eyebrows.

"If you ignore the graves in the front yard and just look at the sunrise... I'll grant they get some good ones here."

She glances at his phone, not asking who it is, but her relentless curiosity does wonder. When he mentions the graves, though, she looks that way. "I wasn't sure I saw them last night. I thought maybe I was just. Like. Freaked the fuck out. Who is it? That's there, I mean."

"My Granddaddy, Arlo's, my mother's, Helen's and my own. Not that I ever expect to use it," he said dryly behind another sip of his coffee. "There used to be- Goddamnit," he swore, head shaking again as he pulled his phone out.

"Gimme a sec," he said towards Athena with a lift of his eyebrows and hit answer. "Yes Ava?"

His lips tightened and he sighed out of his front nose. "Does it have to be now?"

Raylan glanced over at Athena. "Alright, gimme thirty to get there." The phone was disconnected and slid into his pocket with another sigh. "Turns out breakfast is gonna haveta wait. We're goin' for a ride."

Edited 2021-10-13 23:37 (UTC)

She can’t help relief when at the interruption. It’s unnerving, having those empty graves there, like dark promises or threats.

She slugs her coffee back, wincing slightly at the heat of it. “Where we going?”

"A hair salon."

Without further explanation, Raylan turned and headed back inside. After brushing his teeth, he slipped on the same shirt he'd worn the day before, slid into his boots.

"You need any time to get ready?"

She's sitting on the counter until he comes downstairs, but she hopes off and joins him near the door at the question. Athena spreads her arms wide and tilts her head back, as though showing off her faded, ill-fitting nineties clothes. "Bring on the paparazzi."

He snorted and pointed towards the front door, letting her lead the way towards the car and sliding into his seat.

Twenty minutes and some crazy dust later, they pull up in front of what looks like it ought to be oughta the poor version of Steel Magnolias. A dusky blue that was aged and starting to curl around the edges with a sign on the front that had seen better days.

Raylan peered out his windshield and then glanced over at Athena. "I'd tell you to stay here, but I got a feeling you'd ignore that. You gonna be okay? Ava's a little over the top, but she won't do any harm."

A little over the top code in itself to not show off to the woman. Raylan could only imagine the way it would be taken.

She gets it. She's not about to show off to anyone not Raylan, not unless some intimidation is required. But she's pretty sure Raylan can do the intimidating without her help.

She trails him into the building, taking everything in curiously. She's seen city-poor, what that means and what that looks like, and some of the same signs are here, but it's so different at the same time.

As Athena heads towards the stairs, Raylan lightly backhands her arm and jerks his head around to the side and led her along the weedy path, bits of plastic and trash half fastened down to the ground by the sprawling plant growth.

Raylan pulled out his phone. Confirming our appointment at 3pm. He glanced over at Athena. "Not all meetin's happen inside."

A few seconds later, a leggy cornsilk blonde stepped out of the battered screen door and Raylan lifted his chin at her.

"Raylan," she greeted, starting with a smile that fell into something a little more plastic and fragile as she spots Athena, though, to her credit, she warms it up as she recovers with a little laugh in her voice as she talks. "And friend, I see. I'm sorry, I wasn't expectin' to see anyone else." At least Ava was genuine, however fractionally closed she was.

Athena was an outsider in a way that maybe the girl had never experienced before. You didn't have to have magic to be eyeballed or isolated out of a community. No matter how polite and smiling that community might be while they're doing it.

Ava looked at Raylan in silent question. His eyebrows lifted faintly as he pulled her back onto point.

"You called me, Ava and I'm here. Why am I here?" His head and tone bobbed with the last bit, the sound of a tired, resigned man who wanted to know why he was working so early in the morning. And without breakfast no less.

Ava clucked in admonishment and continued off the steps, high heels clicking against the old wood. "Now what happened to your manners, Raylan?" She looked over at Athena. "He's never been very good at it," she said, nose wrinkling like she was sharing a bit of juicy, harmless gossip.

Athena feels it acutely, that social wall between them. She gets it, and it’s not even the first time she’s felt something like that from people, but her subconscious reflex has always been to throw up walls of her own. She nods politely to Ava when the woman greets her, and gives an equally polite smile when she says that about Raylan’s manners.

Before Lenore, Athena would have been a lot more up front about knowing she’s on the outside of a community she has no chance to join. A lot more.

It’s a close thing now, but this is one of Raylan’s people.

If she’s sticking a little closer to Raylan than she was a moment ago, it’s not because he’s firmly designated her people or something.

"Quiet thing, ain't she," Ava said with an awkward little chuckle as she looked back to Raylan.

The Marshal sighed and leveled an even gaze at her, hands propping on his crookedly tilted hips, subconsciously giving Athena something to put herself behind. "Ava Crowder, Athena Parker. Now why am I here?"

"Can I talk to you... alone?" Ava asked, gesturing to the side, half stepping that way, one leg crossing over the other.

Raylan didn't move. "Ava," he repeated patiently. "You said you were worried about somethin'. Now either it's worth my rushin' up here, or I start chargin' you for gas and time."

Ava sighed and pursed her lips a little bit, obviously a little uncomfortable but unwilling to let the opportunity go.

"It's Boyd. I think he's plannin' somethin'. I don't know what but he's been keepin' odd hours and none of his boys are tellin' me anything."

"What do you want me to do about it?"

"I want you to find out what he's doing!" Wasn't that obvious?

"You gotta give me more than that Ava, you know how this works."

"He's collectin' guys at the bar, keep talkin' about how they're gonna come into a lotta cash. I think it's got somethin' to do with Lexington."

Raylan sighed deeply. He understood why this couldn't be a call but god he did not want to be in the middle of this if it was a domestic. Lexington suggested it wasn't. Lexington suggested this was about drugs. "Alright. Are you safe?"

“Not usually,” Athena says, honest and blunt, when Ava calls her quiet. She can only keep her sass to herself for so long.

Then she says Boyd, and Athena perks up like a dog who just heard the word “walk.”

“Boyd!” She looks up at Raylan from where she stands half-behind him. “That’s your guy. This is a good thing, right? I mean, like, in a… marshaly way.”

That’s about when she remembers Raylan asked the very important question of are you safe. Right.

Raylan couldn't help the faint quirk of his lip at Athena's reply - Get 'er.

Boyd. Raylan's quirked lips turned to a half pursed pull of them. Athena was far too excited about it all - he wasn't supposed to be working, he was supposed to be making sure she was able to get her shit together after Mathis's games.

But that was a pipe dream from the start, here in Harlan.

"Yeah. He doesn't .. suspect I might tell you." Ava's eyes dropped back to Athena for a moment, sympathetically. God had they all ever been that young, really? But any country wisdom that Ava might have had to offer, she kept to herself. It was clear she had about a million questions about why Raylan had a young girl with him, but everyone knew Raylan was, generally speaking, the safest person to be with.

"Keep it that way." Raylan wasn't interested in answering any of the questions he saw waiting for him. "This gonna happen soon?"

"In a week or so, I think."

"Find out, if you can."

"You.. need me to come by the house?" Her eyes darted to Athena again.

Athena bridled a little at Ava's look, but she managed to keep herself in check long enough for Raylan to distract her with another question. A week or so. Another forever away, but at least her ankle would supposedly be half-better by then.

At Ava's last question though, Athena outright scowled. "Are you afraid he's going to kill me with undercooked baked beans or do you think I'm too helpless to fend for myself? I'm guessing it's one or the other."

Raylan opened his mouth, half to stop Athena, half to stop Ava, but Ava beat him to the punch with a shake of her head.

"No darlin'," she said warmly with a lift of her eyebrows. "I think Raylan doesn't know the first goddamned thing about girls." The look she gave back to Raylan was 'trust me, I know.'

"I better get back in," she continued, wiping her hands on her dress. "I'll call you when I got somethin' more." She looked back at Athena. "Pleasure to meet you."

"He knows me," Athena countered stubbornly. She almost, almost didn't return the pleasantry, but as Ava started to leave she blurted out, "Good to meet you too. Um. Be careful."

She's not sure what Ava's relationship with Boyd is, but if she's informing on him to Raylan, it can't be great.

He knows me. In the moment, its so strange to think back on what they'd suffered, where they'd been for so many months. No friendly faces. No purpose beyond drawing another breath and protecting each other. Yeah, he knew her. But he wasn't going to correct Ava on it.

Let her think what she would. It tended to work out better for him in the long run.

Ava glanced back in acknowledgement before shutting the door behind the screen door and leaving them alone in the alleyway.

"She killed her first husband ya know. For beatin' her. Shot him right at the dinner table.." Raylan took a deep breath in. "Shit I'm hungry. C'mon songbird, let's get something in our stomachs."

Athena raised her eyebrows, looking back at the now-closed door to the salon with an impressed little huh.

"Good for her." No sarcasm whatsoever. But then she grins up at Raylan. "That was a weird transition. But yeah me too."

"It isn't any fried chicken, but it's about the next best thing you'll find here," he said, gesturing them back towards the street and eventually back into his car. She wouldn't get the joke, that he was hungry for fried chicken, but he amused himself anyway.

Twenty minutes later, they were sat at a table and having hot food set in front of them.

"Told you there's no taking this stuff away in styrofoam. It'd be an offense." The man was serious about his biscuits and gravy.

Athena didn't think she was all that hungry until they got into the little diner-style-restaurant. Then the smells hit, and... yeah, she's hungry.

"Man, I'm fine having it now." She is a biscuits and gravy virgin, but as the food gets set out she can very easily see herself becoming an adherent. "I never got to have it. Your fried chicken. You have to make some for me."

Raylan smiled softly over another bite of his biscuits. Good, that was a good sign. Appetite was always healthy. After his months in Mathis, he was only just starting to get back to the weight he'd come in at.

He lifted his eyebrows as he cleared his mouth, pinching them down as he thought about it. "Shit. You didn't, did you. Well," he continued, clearing his mouth with a cup of coffee. "We're gonna have to fix that. Just lemme know the day before you want it. Chicken's gotta wet brine."

He cut another bite. "I'm glad to see you eatin'. It took me a few days to find any appetite myself. Everything tasted too.. Unreal. Luxurious." Like a trap, if he were honest.

The Trust of his environment was something that was still a Work in Progress, but those first few days had been Raw.

"I want it," Athena declares helpfully. She pauses when he goes on, a bite half-way to her mouth. She almost puts it down at that, but finishes it instead. He's glad to see her eating. She's not handling this... wrong. It's okay to want to taste everything, taste how different it is. Even if now she feels a little strange that she didn't think twice about enjoying the food.

Raylan couldn't help the scoff of a smile behind his faint nod. "We'll pick up some on our way outta town for tomorrow nights dinner."

It was touching that she still wanted to try his food. It was the most basic thing he could provide beyond physical security and her enthusiasm made him feel down right domestic about it. It was a nice thought to think that things might be this way between him and Willa. Or him and Loretta, really.

"Corbin doesn't have a lot in the way of clothing department stores so it's just the second hand shop, but always seemed like they kept decent stuff. No holes or anything." Yes, Fashion icon, Raylan Givens has shared his opinion. He knew it was a little ridiculous, but he didn't know what a Teenage girl would be interested or okay with. No holes seemed to be a decent enough bar to him.

"I've had a helluvalot worse, trust me." She makes herself go back to eating, the instinct to have it while it's available kicking in again. Loftily, she adds, "It's about the attitude you imbue the clothes with, not the trendiness of the pop culture references on them."

"Mm, I will leave that opinion to the youth until denim and flannel with boots are widely accepted again. But I don't even know what pop culture is lookin' like these days. Nothin' more painful than an old man asking 'What's cool now days'."

He didn't mind a little light fun poking at himself.

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Giving

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YELLS I THOUGHT I REPLIED TO THIS

OHNOOOOOO /hoards

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