No One's Born Broken

[abrightboy]

For tinstar.



Gil came and went. Dani came and went. Ainsley came and then left with their mother, who refused to even hear him out about telling the truth. He stared through the window at the motionless man in the bed for some indeterminate amount of time, his hand clutching his phone in his pocket.

Finally he let his eyes leave the figure through the window and he took his phone out of his pocket. He stared at that for a long moment, then scrolled through his contacts until one name rolled onto the screen: Raylan Givens.

He looked through the window, then looked at the name. Then he pressed it.

Comments

[tinstar]

Raylan's lips tightened and his gaze fell to the ground before coming back up to glance at the chicken and met Malcolm's eyes as he stepped over.

He wanted to protest. They had plans. Yet more plans that had to be put off for one reason for another. There was no hiding the disappointment, even through his stoic masks.

"Guess I'm goin' to work tomorrow after all," was his only response before he started off loading the chicken onto the clean plate.

"Don't tell me when you gotta leave until later." Let him enjoy a few more hours of fantasy.

[abrightboy]

It was a good thing that Raylan didn't want him to go, right? But he felt a tightness in his chest that wasn't there before the phonecall as he watched Raylan retrieve the items from the grill with a sad nod at his request.

"Are... are you just going to say Winona picked her up early?" he asked, staying near his elbow as he worked and as he moved.

[tinstar]

Tearing and folding a clean piece of foil, Raylan pulled off Malcolm's lone nonsauced piece before turning it all off and leaving the hood open to vent as much heat as possible.

"She is." So it wasn't a lie. "They're used to her changin' her mind." Hell sometimes they knew things about his ex-wife before he did. "It'll be fine," he assured, pulling up his casual southern small talk charm. "I'm sure Art'll enjoy the extra time leacturin' me on how to not fuck up my daughter."

He headed inside.

"Dare I ask what your mama said about me?"

[abrightboy]

Malcolm picked up Willa from the playpen and followed him. No point making Raylan make two trips while he sat on his ass.

"She asked if I was with you. And when I said tomorrow was bad for me, she asked if I was really going to abandon my family in an hour of desperation to stay here with you. But she was saying something about me, not you, really." He bounced Willa slightly as he lingered just outside of Raylan's elbow room. "It was tempting to say 'yes'."

[tinstar]

Setting down the plates, Raylan hot fingered one piece of sauced chicken and a cob onto his plate without much reaction beyond a faint lift of his eyebrows.

"Might do 'em some good, if I'm honest," he replied darkly as he grabbed a napkin to wipe off his fingers before walking to the kitchen to grab a baby spoon and a couple of jars of food for Willa.

"But she's probably right about needing you up there, considering the situation. Much as I hate to say it."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm nodded, slipping Willa into the high chair.

"I do have to be there for this," he conceded. "I just... of course it has to be tomorrow," he said tightly. "It can't be the next day or... or next week."

He could feel his anxiety ramping. He didn't want to ruin the evening. He didn't know when they'd get the next one. He took a breath and closed his eyes a second, letting it out slowly.

"I should be used to Martin Whitly ruining my life," he sighed, sitting in his chair. "Can I cut one of these in half... or, like, a quarter?" he asked gesturing to the corn cobs. "They're huge."

[tinstar]

"We'll get the time," Ryalan assured, calmer about it, in all his frustrated disappointment than Malcolm's ramping stress.

"Yeah," he said with a pinch of his brow with his nod towards it. "Cut whatever you want. Whatever isn't eaten tonight, I'll eat over the next couple of days. Cold chicken after a long day ain't so bad, really." It was kind of a trashy delight.

"Will you call me and let me know how it goes afterwards? How you're doin'?"

[abrightboy]

"I will call you on the video chat so I can see your face and remember life isn't complete garbage," Malcolm promised him, cutting just the last third of the narrow end of a corn cob. He gestured to the sauceless piece of chicken. "I assume this is mine." It was also way too huge. He cut the last third of it off, too, and put it on his plate.

[tinstar]

"Oh yeah, the computer," he suddenly remembered with a glance towards the bedroom and the small desk area tucked to the side. "Good. That's better than a phone call. Help me sooth my wounded ego, you gettin' stolen away with such short notice.."

Raylan looked over at him. "They.. knew you were coming here, right?"

[abrightboy]

Malcolm cut a small piece of chicken and looked up from under his brow.

"I wouldn't say I announced my intentions, but I'm sure many of them assumed it," he offered, taking the bite. "The flavour is nicer on the barbeque," he noted. "Fuller somehow."

[tinstar]

"Mm," he hummed, glancing down to tear off and eat a piece before turning his attention to Willa, who'd grabbed the spoon and was lightly banging it against her tray.

"It's the fire, though I can't tell ya why. Everything tastes better on it. Smoked meat is better. The wood provides a different flavor, if it's done right."

No opinions or plans here, no sir.

[abrightboy]

"I've had smoked salmon. No other meat smoked, though." He gestured to the corn cob. "Is there a right way to go about that?"

[tinstar]

"With your teeth, like you might see people do with ribs if you don't mind a little work. Otherwise, you can cut it down the vertical and cut off the kernels." Raylan managed to get a few bites into Willa's mouth, though it took all of his focus.

"Chicken doesn't smoke too well, but larger birds do. Turkey. Delis love it. I prefer beefs and porks, myself, but if you ever tasted som'a the BBQ that gets served in the lower hollars, you might even agree with me."

[abrightboy]

He picked up the corn and took an experimental nibble like he'd seen on tv.

"It's nice, fresh off the cob. Sweet." He looked over. "I have trouble with pork and beef. I find them.... I don't know. Heavy. How does seafood smoke? I can handle some fish and seafood."

[tinstar]

"They can be," he granted, after smiling crookedly at Malcolm's approval of the corn. "Moderation bein' key and all. The 'meatsweats' are a thing for a reason. But aside from that, I don't know about seafood. I'm sure someone does. Fish definitely can get smoked. We'll look around, see what we can find. If not here, then in Miami. Might have better luck down there, to be honest."

[abrightboy]

"We'll have a backyard," Malcolm pointed out wistfully. "We can get a smoker and a barbeque," he said, trying another nibble of corn as his eyes lingered on Raylan feeding Willa. "You're going to have me eating solid food at least three times a week," he teased.

[tinstar]

"But then I gotta learn how to smoke," he said with an almost rolling lift of his eyebrows.

"If that's what it takes to lock in that three times a week in, I'm more than happy to figure it out. Maybe all you needed was to be around someone who enjoyed real food. Not the 5 course of tiny plates I saw at that gala."

He felt he made food less pretentious. It was a good thing.

[abrightboy]

"Maybe all I needed was to be around someone who didn't make me feel like they wanted me to eat because my abnormality is personally embarrassing to them," Malcolm countered.

It was low pressure with Raylan. He never tried to make him feel bad about what he ate. If he wanted soup or a cup of jello or even nothing, then it wasn't a big deal. But the offer was there to share in something he was passionate about if he wanted to and... he wanted to. He wanted to experience the things that made Raylan happy.

[tinstar]

"Your mother cares too much about her image and the family image. I don't give a shit about your family's image; no one is going to mess it up as much as Martin. And my family doesn't have a great image anyway. So I don't care at all how your 'abnormality' looks, to be honest. And that's somethin' that ain't gonna change."

That he could promise.

Malcolm was safe here.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm smiled.

"Have I told you today how much I love you?" he asked. "Because you need to understand how much I would rather stay here," he said with a shaky laugh.

[tinstar]

Raylan smiled over at him. "I don't know but I can always do with hearin' it again." If his hands weren't busy and fingers already sticky in baby food, he'd lay a hand over the table and take Malcolm's.

"You'll see me soon. The Video call and the next time you come down. I know we got robbed, but.. We've got time, right?" Silver linings, all around, to hold back the worst of the grey.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm nodded, cutting off a small piece of chicken and taking the bite.

"If Gil doesn't have anything for me, I'm coming straight back," he declared. "I know you can't just... take another day off, but I'll take the evenings or the mornings or the middles of the nights. I don't sleep anyway."

[tinstar]

"I suppose this is where I say somethin' about supporting your family but I'm greedy," he said with a grin as he pulled back to steal a napkin and wipe his fingers clean, eyes finding Malcolm across the corner of the table where he laid out a now less messy hand.

"I'll have a gym for us by the time you get back. Someplace regular. Quiet. It'll give you some place to go besides the tea shop." Raylan worried about Malcolm being bored out here in bum fuck nowhere.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm took his hand gladly, his expression softening with warmth as Raylan quite clearly tried to look after him.

"I also have our bookshelf and our terrace," he pointed out. "The nice thing about those, is eventually you show up there."

[tinstar]

"Text me the right address, I'll be anywhere you want, darlin'." He squeezed Malcolm's hand before gently retreating so that he could dig back into his meal. "I can't take any more days off, you're right about that, but I can wiggle my hours a little bit. Leave early a day, go in late another.."

They'd figure it out.