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

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.

Athena grins. "Fuck if I know."

The selection at the thrift store they go to is even more questionable than Athena expected, but she doesn't let that show. Just picks things that are practical, versatile, and on the low end of the cost spectrum. Socks and underwear have to come new, but a plastic package of Hanes isn't something she's going to complain about.

By the time all that is done, Athena feels weirdly tired. Maybe it's the newness of this place, maybe it's the existence of people in it, maybe it's the fact that she's had to practically swallow her tongue a few times to keep from casually swearing in front of a tiny old lady who could probably shoot her. No matter what it is, when she drops into the passenger side of Raylan's car after the errands are finished, she lets herself deflate there for a moment before trying to put her head on straight.

The thrift store wasn't painful; Raylan let Athena lead and wandered around behind her trying to not look as creepy as he felt walking through the Junior's sections. He knew he'd have to do this at some point with Willa, but he was forever hoping that Winona would see to that, considering her opinions. The local department store was worse and Raylan stands further off to the side and looked more like he was hoping the floor would crack open and eat him alive. But it was over and once he slides back into the car with a breath and an adjustment of his hat, he turns the car over and nods.

"Next time underclothes needs to happen, I'm handin' you a fifty and waitin' in the car." Giving her a fond crook of his smile, Raylan headed them back onto the road. They would only talk if she wanted to on the drive and he'd long given her the radio as long as she didn't put anything Pop on but no matter how they wile those few hours, when they pulled up to the Given's house, there was a beaten, rust bitten blue truck waiting.

Raylan frowns sharply at the car and glances over at Athena. "Stay here," he says, sliding out of his open door, gun already out of his holster and in his hand. Whether she obeys him or not, he keeps pace up to the front door which has been left wide open, giving them a clear view of the back of Boyd Crowder, all waistcoat and dark jeans. Raylan clucks a sigh and lowers his gun with a look back to wherever Athena was.

She teases him a little about the underwear awkwardness—she has to—but past that she goes a little quiet, listening to the music and trying not to think about anything.

He says stay and she gives him a withering look, popping out of her seatbelt and the car in his wake. The fact that he’s got his gun in hand makes her queasy with nerves and they much more determined to stay close, but she does at least stay a little behind and out of the way. She’s not getting between Raylan’s gun and whoever might deserve it.

Except Raylan sighs and lowers the weapon, which for some reason makes her even more irritated at whoeverthefuck decided to let themselves in to Raylan’s house.

“Hey fuckwad, you’re letting the bugs in. I mean the tiny ones, since you look like you’re making yourself comfortable.”

Raylan looks over with something of a soft bewilderment and shakes his head a little before holstering his weapon.

The 'bug', turned around and showed his face, all bright teeth and spikey hair, looking for all the world like he had been delivered the greatest gift God could provide.

"Well little lady, I'll admit I do find this house very comfortable. I'd give my regards to the good lady that decorated it-"

"Don't." Raylan's voice was heavy and sharp, thick with a promise that Boyd ceded to almost immediately with a broadening of his hands.

"But I was expected to show up now and then. Since your daddy is in lockup. He asked me to.. come by, check on the house every once and a while. I see you've got company though, and I must admit Raylan, I think she's a little young for good taste."

Athena’s glare promptly cranks up to eleven. “My dude, the fact that your brain went there first thing says more about you than I even wanted to know.”

She takes a step forward, even with Raylan now instead of behind. She’s desperately curious about the history behind what that guy said about Helen and Raylan’s response to it—but she realizes with an odd jolt that Helen isn’t there and Raylan hasn’t mentioned her living somewhere else.

That also says more than she likes.

“You’ve done your due diligence, sharkface. Fuck off.”

"Oohoo, Raylan you got yourself a feisty one."

Raylan just lifts his eyebrows a little. "Those hands of yours drift anywhere that ain't wide and empty and we won't have to get feisty."

Boyd just chuckles and ambles forward a few crooked steps that somehow saw him walking straight.

"No offense, but my tastes are, in fact, a little more refined? Then that-" Boyd continues, hands dropping to hook his thumbs in his pockets. It was the opposite of what Raylan had said but the men knew themselves well enough to know it was basically the same thing. The message was 'Don't reach for a gun'. "-And I would surely like to, as you so eloquently stated, 'fuck off' but since my friend here standin' beside you has somethin' he should probably hear, I'm gonna haveta politely decline. If you feel like callin' off your new attack pup, Raylan?"

Raylan, as evident by the shift of his weight, did not feel like doing any such thing.

Athena smirks, just a little. Then hums a low note quiet enough that only Raylan or someone standing as close as he is would be able to hear it.

The screen door swings forward and hits Boyd in the face.

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YELLS I THOUGHT I REPLIED TO THIS

OHNOOOOOO /hoards

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