"Never," he promises behind a breath. For any difficulty they've already faced, for all that they were going to, Raylan was Sure about this relationship. He wanted what Vaughn had, the same thing that Istak had always wanted, the same thing Francis was searching so desperately for in Elsewhere.
Love, Security, Comfort, Support, companionship in all the deepest and best kinds of ways in life. They were going to get married. He didn't know when or how, but he was going to ask to spend the rest of his life with James, for hard times and good.
Raylan lifts his face the scant distance to kiss James again, firm and passionate, legs gripping tight around him again. When it breaks, he grinning lazily.
"Even if our stomachs are gonna demand us to let go for at least a little while," he mumbles happily, well tucked into cloud fucking nine.
"Mmn," He hums into the kiss happily, deliciously floating as their bodies still ebb and thrum together. Of course, Flint wanted this, wanted what Rory and Vaughn had now that he's tasted it for real. It seems more of a reality, more of a possibility for them to make it work. He had more hope than ever that they would last. He'd never had anything that had. He'd had the barest of hidden glimpses with Thomas and Miranda. He and Miranda had tried to make what life they could while he was a pirate but it wasn't the same. There wasn't security there.
"It's always so tempting to spend all day in bed with you." But his body was already softening so he'll move just enough to fall out of Raylan, but he'll settle to rest on top of him lazily, unbothered by the mess between them. He folds his hands on Raylan's chest and rests his head there.
"Do you want me to draw a bath or should we shower and see where the day leads?"
"Today's the one day where we can't, I think." He had to go check on Roman and there was no doubt that Jedao wanted to check in with James. He sighs softly as James moves, leaving him empty but warm under the steady weight. There was no stopping the stupid sweet smile that he casts down, one arm tucking up under his head.
"Why don't you let me use the bathroom first, and you catch a shower while I start a pot of coffee and some eggs. I can shower after breakfast while you go track down Jedao to get your daily check in done and over with hmm?"
He had an Idea. One that he would only be able to pull off if James showered and gave him 15 minutes to himself.
There's a soft pout when Raylan points out they shouldn't lay about all day and maybe should touch base with their people. He sighs, reluctantly pushing himself up and leaning in to drop a kiss on Raylan's mouth again, slow and sensual.
"Fine." He grumps, playfully, rolling off of the Marshal to let him get up and go tend to himself in the bathroom.
"But when you're done... I'll be here waiting for you." He is propped on his side, nude, stretched out, and taught. The bed sheet is barely draped over him, not hiding a thing.
He couldn't help the warm chuckle at the pout, one that melted into a hum at the kiss.
"And ain't you just the prettiest picture to come back to," he purrs, stealing one more kiss before he rolls out of bed and walks to the bathroom with clenched cheeks, comically swaggering.
Once that door was behind him, clean up only took a few minutes and a few more to piss and brush his teeth, but when he came back out, cock wagging, he wore a casual, warm smile on his face.
"Shame I can't eat you for breakfast," he drawls as he ambles over to the dresser to pull out a clean pair of shorts. "How many eggs you think you'll want?"
"There's always brunch." He notes as he slides out of bed.
"Three ought to do it," Leaning in to kiss Raylan again, "thanks Love."
He'll then drag himself into the bathroom to start up the shower and hop in for a nice, long soak and a scrub. He's certain Jedao will know he's fine but will find him if he doesn't just bite the bullet and go check in. He misses his eye, but having his leg back is certainly worth the trade.
Raylan grins at the comment as he steps into his shorts and leans into the kiss to kiss him back with a 'Mmhmm' of welcome, and a playful little slap of James's ass as he went along.
As soon as the bathroom closed, Raylan slid into his jeans and pulled out his phone, tapping away at it as he makes his way into the kitchen. Before coffee was started, Raylan had an important request to make of the Admiral. He was surprised at how quickly they materialized, in a dark mahogany box on the island, and ambles over to check, smiling as his running fingers feel a heartbeat through each one. It wasn't quite wedding rings, and there was no question that would be attached to them, but Raylan was hoping James would take it all well. Hoping that James missed feeling that steady weight around their necks as much as he did, never mind that they'd only been back here an hour or two.
Totally wasn't too soon, right?
The box was closed again, a cup of coffee set by it for James as he starts making the eggs.
That slap to his ass had gotten a soft moan and a Foxy Look over his shoulder before he'd disappeared into the bathroom. He scrubs up and steps out, fluffing his hair with his towel and drying the rest of him slow. He hangs the towel and strides out in the nude, smelling the warm, enticing smell of coffee in the air. He digs out a pair of trousers and a clean pair of underwear and pulls them both on before walking out to see what Raylan was cooking up.
His eye spots the nice mahogany box sitting pointedly with his fresh cup of joe. He picks up the coffee as he settles in at the island and takes a sip before putting it aside.
"What's this?" He asks taking the box and opening it up curiously before Raylan can answer. There's a pause to take in the familiar pair of necklaces, touching each reverently as if seeing some long-lost treasure after years of it going missing.
"You found them... what-how?" Nah, not too soon. He had missed their weight around his neck and against his sternum. He picks up the one he knows is in tune with Raylan, the same one Rory had worn for Vaughn. He'll slip it around his neck so it can pick up his heartbeat and thrum gently into the matching one still in the box.
As James comes back in and sits down, Raylan can't help but watch over his shoulder, hands busy with moving eggs around as they cooked, smiling softly like the fool in love that he was.
He didn't bother answering; let James open it and find out on his own, and it was a well rewarded choice, judging by that look on James's face when he realizes what, exactly, it was. Eggs, scrapped onto a couple of plates, are set on the island so that Raylan can come around one corner and stand facing James, leaning one hand on the counter as he approvingly inspects the way the white stone looks on James's skin with a brush of his fingers under the guise of adjusting it oh so slightly.
"I reached out to the Admiral while you were in the shower. I know we just got back but.. Vaughn and Rory had the right idea about this. And as much as the Barge throws at us.." He looks down into the box and takes up the one in tuned to James, slipping it around his own neck.
"Feels better to have them there," he admits as he looks back at James, smile playing around his lips. "Connected the way we should be." The way Vaughn and Rory had been. The way Raylan and his everything wanted to be again.
But a proposal right now seemed.. hasty, desperate in a way that Raylan didn't like. In a way he didn't want slung back at him in the heat of the moment. Not that he thought James would do that but when it came to something as important as asking someone to spend the rest of their life with you, details were important.
"Really? Jaysus that was fast." He can't stop brushing a thumb over the smooth stone or fiddling with it.
"It does. A small reminder that you're okay, that you're still here. A relief." He reaches for his hand to take and squeeze gently, smiling warmly up at him. He does miss the weight and security of having a ring on his finger and calling each other husband, but this... this was close enough for now until they were ready. Until it was a good time. There was still so much work Flint had to do on himself, he didn't want to doom them from the outset by jumping the gun.
He pulls Raylan in against him and leans up to kiss him on his mouth despite the fact their eggs will get cold.
"You sure we have to go anywhere? Can't just... go back to bed for another round?"
"Jesus got nothin' to do with it," he replies with a broad smile. He feels like this was a success, especially with James taking his readily given hand. The smile breaks into a proper grin as he's tugged in, wrapping his free arm around James's shoulders and kissing him back with a pleased hum.
"I wish we could," he groans quietly before taking a deep breath. "But if you promise to be home tonight-" Where else would he go- "I can promise to rock your world before dinner. Or after, but that kinda fuckin' with a full stomach.."
Sometimes not the best feeling.
"Day'll pass quickly. I'll miss it, though. Workin' a bar with you."
"You really wanna come tend bar with us?" Raylan was a little surprised. It wasn't the most exciting or taxing work. Relatively mundane, actually. Until it's not, but that's every job here.
"Won't be any makin' out in the back room or nothin' but I wouldn't have anythin' against it. Might mean we're on different shifts though," he reckons with a wince. "It'd be useful as hell to have more hands loadin' in liquor, next time we're in port."
Flint shrugs, "It'd be a way for us to tend bar together, even if we're not allowed to work together on a shift for whatever reason. I could behave." He says that now of course. "And... I don't know, I think I did alright, it would give me more to focus on. Something we could share like what we had."
Not that keeping up with maintenance wasn't keeping him busy, and he had no intention of giving up his work, just adding a second job on his Barge resume.
"Think about it, talk to Nick, if you want more hands I can help. I'll still be on maintenance too, so could be a part-time thing to start, see how it goes?"
"You did great," he corrects gently with a lift of his eyebrows.
"I don't need to think about it and Cherries and Whiskey'll be fine, either way. Not exactly an 'ask permission' kinda guy, if you haven't figured that out yet." So much easier to ask for forgiveness.
"Sides, I think you'd like Nick. He's funny enough. Good to work with. So yeah. Put in for it. We'll steal a few hours of that life for ourselves, fill our proverbial pockets until you can come back home with me."
Flint's brow furrows, "I'm not asking your permission, I'm asking your thoughts and opinion, there's a difference. And what you think is important to me."
He tilts his head, "You sure? I mean it kinda sounded like you were trying to talk me out of it there for a second. If you want this bartending thing to just be yours, that's fine, I don't have to be in every part of your life at all times."
"Mm and if I go ask him how he feels about it, you think that won't look like I'm huntin' for his permission?" The question is asked with raised eyebrows.
"Darlin', I want you happy and fulfilled and if part of that is you comin' to work in the bar to in part fulfill what I just said about missin' it, then I got no problem with it. I was more worried about you givin' up maintenance and goin' solo on arguably softer work."
"I wouldn't be giving up Maintenance, I don't think there should be issues with me doing both." He knows a few people that have multiple jobs. It couldn't hurt to give him something else to occupy himself with other than fixing the ship, fighting, drinking and fucking.
He gives a soft huff of a sigh and leans in to kiss Raylan, a quick, but meaningful and warm peck on the lips. Once, twice, three times, quick little kisses before turning his attention to his eggs.
"I'll think about it. It was just a thought. I kind of miss it too." He points a fork at Raylan.
"For the record, you do make me happy and fulfilled every day."
Raylan hums softly into those kisses and lets his hand shift with James' running over and down his shoulder before stepping away to get his own portion of eggs, fork clattering a little as he digs in.
"Mm, you might wanna talk to Jedao too. Get his level on it, just so it's not a surprise."
He smiles warmly over his plate. "Good. That is my general aim. Would you tell me if I wasn't?"
"Mm," He nods, chewing and clearing his mouth to speak with a swallow. "I will."
As for the rest he quirks a brow, "Well, first off, I don't believe you'd have anything like that to worry about. I love you too much to deter me, you will always make me happy. But... yeah, I think so? I'd like to think we could talk about things that are bothering us so we can do better for each other?"
He shrugs, "We need to be able to communicate what we need from each other for this to work properly, right?"
He hums again in acknowledgement as he shovels another bite in. He'd woken up hungry to begin with and morning sex only made him more ravenous. What he wouldn't give for a few pieces of bacon. But his smile spread at the assertion that he doesn't have to worry, that James loves him and he's doing good enough already. It was nice to hear. Better to hear and be able to believe it so readily.
"Lotta people figure out how to make it work without such open roads, or so I've heard, but I don't wanna count myself among them again. I never swore off gettin' remarried or anythin' but if I'm going to do it again, I'd rather it be this way." This way and the way it had been with Vaughn and Rory.
God, he wanted to marry James so bad. Winona was gonna hate him too.
James can't seem to take his eyes off Raylan, lovestruck all over again as if they hadn't just shared 12 whole years together of marriage. He hadn't cooked the meal but it was still incredibly satifying watching the other eat with a ravenous exhuberance. And as he finally speaks those words into existence it gives him pause, a little surprised but quickly reeling himself in a little.
He has to restart his thought process a moment as he puts two and two together, to confirm, yes, the other was implying he wants to get remarried and that maybe they are making progress to getting to that point. That, perhaps Raylan was implying he wants to marry him some day. Maybe? He feels like he's missing something unspoken there, but he's afraid to let the words fall of his lips to ask. It's too soon to ask, isn't it?
For a brief moment his mind trips over everything and a sorta worry works itself into his throat. What if he's wrong? What if Raylan means he wants to keep his options open to remarry someone else? Remarry a woman. The older part of him that still believed two men couldn't be married. But that wasn't the case here, in the Barge or... in Miami. Is it? Now he can't seem to recall if Raylan had said gay marriage was accepted there.
"Is it possible for two men to get married in Miami?"
He loved watching the expression on James's face, the way it moves and shifts as the man sorts through whatever his thoughts might be about it. Raylan was sure that James would want to marry him back. After all that, after making love in their bed with young, wild abandon, after melting into each other as securely as they did, sex or no - James would say yes if he asked him, right?
"Yes," he answers, clearing his plate and setting it aside so he could clear his mouth as he came forward to lean on his elbows, on the counter top and watch James's face some more. "And most people, including the government, don't care."
They could get married if they wanted. Legally, binding, in all the ways that it meant something on paper. The words sat on the end of his tongue, tempered only by the same question James had. It was too soon to ask, wasn't it? Could they be sure this was them and not the spacefaring husbands? Had they separated themselves enough from the people they'd been for twenty some odd years together?
It was all he wanted to say right now, to the point where it hurt.
"Just a little paperwork, a stop down at the local courthouse for forms.. Marriage Licenses are still a thing." It felt odd, admitting that little bit of Government Function that sounds like it's coming out of the dark ages itself. The Government okaying marriages for all the common folk.
It was still an adjustment for him to know that places like that existed, options like that existed for him. People didn't care, the government even supported it. He knows it's not a perfect world but it's leaps and bounds better than his own. They could have that life again. Coming fresh out of a world where he got to taste what it could be like, a preview, and knowing it was fully something they could have again was absolutely intoxicating. Hell, if they were to jump the gun he knew they could make it possible here...
"We should do it then." Spoken confidently, words rolling off his tongue faster than he can realize what it sounds like he's implying.
They should wait. They should give it some time before tying the knot. What if this was just the residual of Vaughn and Rory's life?
"In Miami, I mean, if we make it off this Barge together... we should get married." Of course, he's not opposed to changing those plans if that feeling doesn't fade and someone pops the question.
A smile creeps across Raylan's face, breaking into a grin.
"Darlin' that's the best thing I've heard all year," he purrs, stepping over to slide a palm across James's face to draw him up into a firm, chaste kiss. When it breaks a few moments later, he murmurs.
"I want that. I want forever or as much time as we can steal together James McGraw. I wanna call you husband."
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Love, Security, Comfort, Support, companionship in all the deepest and best kinds of ways in life. They were going to get married. He didn't know when or how, but he was going to ask to spend the rest of his life with James, for hard times and good.
Raylan lifts his face the scant distance to kiss James again, firm and passionate, legs gripping tight around him again. When it breaks, he grinning lazily.
"Even if our stomachs are gonna demand us to let go for at least a little while," he mumbles happily, well tucked into cloud fucking nine.
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"It's always so tempting to spend all day in bed with you." But his body was already softening so he'll move just enough to fall out of Raylan, but he'll settle to rest on top of him lazily, unbothered by the mess between them. He folds his hands on Raylan's chest and rests his head there.
"Do you want me to draw a bath or should we shower and see where the day leads?"
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"Why don't you let me use the bathroom first, and you catch a shower while I start a pot of coffee and some eggs. I can shower after breakfast while you go track down Jedao to get your daily check in done and over with hmm?"
He had an Idea. One that he would only be able to pull off if James showered and gave him 15 minutes to himself.
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"Fine." He grumps, playfully, rolling off of the Marshal to let him get up and go tend to himself in the bathroom.
"But when you're done... I'll be here waiting for you." He is propped on his side, nude, stretched out, and taught. The bed sheet is barely draped over him, not hiding a thing.
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"And ain't you just the prettiest picture to come back to," he purrs, stealing one more kiss before he rolls out of bed and walks to the bathroom with clenched cheeks, comically swaggering.
Once that door was behind him, clean up only took a few minutes and a few more to piss and brush his teeth, but when he came back out, cock wagging, he wore a casual, warm smile on his face.
"Shame I can't eat you for breakfast," he drawls as he ambles over to the dresser to pull out a clean pair of shorts. "How many eggs you think you'll want?"
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"Three ought to do it," Leaning in to kiss Raylan again, "thanks Love."
He'll then drag himself into the bathroom to start up the shower and hop in for a nice, long soak and a scrub. He's certain Jedao will know he's fine but will find him if he doesn't just bite the bullet and go check in. He misses his eye, but having his leg back is certainly worth the trade.
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As soon as the bathroom closed, Raylan slid into his jeans and pulled out his phone, tapping away at it as he makes his way into the kitchen. Before coffee was started, Raylan had an important request to make of the Admiral. He was surprised at how quickly they materialized, in a dark mahogany box on the island, and ambles over to check, smiling as his running fingers feel a heartbeat through each one. It wasn't quite wedding rings, and there was no question that would be attached to them, but Raylan was hoping James would take it all well. Hoping that James missed feeling that steady weight around their necks as much as he did, never mind that they'd only been back here an hour or two.
Totally wasn't too soon, right?
The box was closed again, a cup of coffee set by it for James as he starts making the eggs.
If he'd timed it all right...
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His eye spots the nice mahogany box sitting pointedly with his fresh cup of joe. He picks up the coffee as he settles in at the island and takes a sip before putting it aside.
"What's this?" He asks taking the box and opening it up curiously before Raylan can answer. There's a pause to take in the familiar pair of necklaces, touching each reverently as if seeing some long-lost treasure after years of it going missing.
"You found them... what-how?" Nah, not too soon. He had missed their weight around his neck and against his sternum. He picks up the one he knows is in tune with Raylan, the same one Rory had worn for Vaughn. He'll slip it around his neck so it can pick up his heartbeat and thrum gently into the matching one still in the box.
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He didn't bother answering; let James open it and find out on his own, and it was a well rewarded choice, judging by that look on James's face when he realizes what, exactly, it was. Eggs, scrapped onto a couple of plates, are set on the island so that Raylan can come around one corner and stand facing James, leaning one hand on the counter as he approvingly inspects the way the white stone looks on James's skin with a brush of his fingers under the guise of adjusting it oh so slightly.
"I reached out to the Admiral while you were in the shower. I know we just got back but.. Vaughn and Rory had the right idea about this. And as much as the Barge throws at us.." He looks down into the box and takes up the one in tuned to James, slipping it around his own neck.
"Feels better to have them there," he admits as he looks back at James, smile playing around his lips. "Connected the way we should be." The way Vaughn and Rory had been. The way Raylan and his everything wanted to be again.
But a proposal right now seemed.. hasty, desperate in a way that Raylan didn't like. In a way he didn't want slung back at him in the heat of the moment. Not that he thought James would do that but when it came to something as important as asking someone to spend the rest of their life with you, details were important.
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"It does. A small reminder that you're okay, that you're still here. A relief." He reaches for his hand to take and squeeze gently, smiling warmly up at him. He does miss the weight and security of having a ring on his finger and calling each other husband, but this... this was close enough for now until they were ready. Until it was a good time. There was still so much work Flint had to do on himself, he didn't want to doom them from the outset by jumping the gun.
He pulls Raylan in against him and leans up to kiss him on his mouth despite the fact their eggs will get cold.
"You sure we have to go anywhere? Can't just... go back to bed for another round?"
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"I wish we could," he groans quietly before taking a deep breath. "But if you promise to be home tonight-" Where else would he go- "I can promise to rock your world before dinner. Or after, but that kinda fuckin' with a full stomach.."
Sometimes not the best feeling.
"Day'll pass quickly. I'll miss it, though. Workin' a bar with you."
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"I could always join you at the Lounge, if you and Nick'll have me."
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"Won't be any makin' out in the back room or nothin' but I wouldn't have anythin' against it. Might mean we're on different shifts though," he reckons with a wince. "It'd be useful as hell to have more hands loadin' in liquor, next time we're in port."
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Not that keeping up with maintenance wasn't keeping him busy, and he had no intention of giving up his work, just adding a second job on his Barge resume.
"Think about it, talk to Nick, if you want more hands I can help. I'll still be on maintenance too, so could be a part-time thing to start, see how it goes?"
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"I don't need to think about it and Cherries and Whiskey'll be fine, either way. Not exactly an 'ask permission' kinda guy, if you haven't figured that out yet." So much easier to ask for forgiveness.
"Sides, I think you'd like Nick. He's funny enough. Good to work with. So yeah. Put in for it. We'll steal a few hours of that life for ourselves, fill our proverbial pockets until you can come back home with me."
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He tilts his head, "You sure? I mean it kinda sounded like you were trying to talk me out of it there for a second. If you want this bartending thing to just be yours, that's fine, I don't have to be in every part of your life at all times."
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"Darlin', I want you happy and fulfilled and if part of that is you comin' to work in the bar to in part fulfill what I just said about missin' it, then I got no problem with it. I was more worried about you givin' up maintenance and goin' solo on arguably softer work."
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He gives a soft huff of a sigh and leans in to kiss Raylan, a quick, but meaningful and warm peck on the lips. Once, twice, three times, quick little kisses before turning his attention to his eggs.
"I'll think about it. It was just a thought. I kind of miss it too." He points a fork at Raylan.
"For the record, you do make me happy and fulfilled every day."
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"Mm, you might wanna talk to Jedao too. Get his level on it, just so it's not a surprise."
He smiles warmly over his plate. "Good. That is my general aim. Would you tell me if I wasn't?"
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As for the rest he quirks a brow, "Well, first off, I don't believe you'd have anything like that to worry about. I love you too much to deter me, you will always make me happy. But... yeah, I think so? I'd like to think we could talk about things that are bothering us so we can do better for each other?"
He shrugs, "We need to be able to communicate what we need from each other for this to work properly, right?"
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"Lotta people figure out how to make it work without such open roads, or so I've heard, but I don't wanna count myself among them again. I never swore off gettin' remarried or anythin' but if I'm going to do it again, I'd rather it be this way." This way and the way it had been with Vaughn and Rory.
God, he wanted to marry James so bad. Winona was gonna hate him too.
"And I think sayin' so between us is important."
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He has to restart his thought process a moment as he puts two and two together, to confirm, yes, the other was implying he wants to get remarried and that maybe they are making progress to getting to that point. That, perhaps Raylan was implying he wants to marry him some day. Maybe? He feels like he's missing something unspoken there, but he's afraid to let the words fall of his lips to ask. It's too soon to ask, isn't it?
For a brief moment his mind trips over everything and a sorta worry works itself into his throat. What if he's wrong? What if Raylan means he wants to keep his options open to remarry someone else? Remarry a woman. The older part of him that still believed two men couldn't be married. But that wasn't the case here, in the Barge or... in Miami. Is it? Now he can't seem to recall if Raylan had said gay marriage was accepted there.
"Is it possible for two men to get married in Miami?"
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"Yes," he answers, clearing his plate and setting it aside so he could clear his mouth as he came forward to lean on his elbows, on the counter top and watch James's face some more. "And most people, including the government, don't care."
They could get married if they wanted. Legally, binding, in all the ways that it meant something on paper. The words sat on the end of his tongue, tempered only by the same question James had. It was too soon to ask, wasn't it? Could they be sure this was them and not the spacefaring husbands? Had they separated themselves enough from the people they'd been for twenty some odd years together?
It was all he wanted to say right now, to the point where it hurt.
"Just a little paperwork, a stop down at the local courthouse for forms.. Marriage Licenses are still a thing." It felt odd, admitting that little bit of Government Function that sounds like it's coming out of the dark ages itself. The Government okaying marriages for all the common folk.
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"We should do it then." Spoken confidently, words rolling off his tongue faster than he can realize what it sounds like he's implying.
They should wait. They should give it some time before tying the knot. What if this was just the residual of Vaughn and Rory's life?
"In Miami, I mean, if we make it off this Barge together... we should get married." Of course, he's not opposed to changing those plans if that feeling doesn't fade and someone pops the question.
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"Darlin' that's the best thing I've heard all year," he purrs, stepping over to slide a palm across James's face to draw him up into a firm, chaste kiss. When it breaks a few moments later, he murmurs.
"I want that. I want forever or as much time as we can steal together James McGraw. I wanna call you husband."
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