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.

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[tinstar]

He didn't blame her on that worry; he had it himself sometimes, but Malcolm dealt with it very swiftly when he caught wind of it. Jessica's sudden cut off had him looking towards the bathroom door, smiling softly back at Malcolm and letting his free off hand slide over Malcolm's forearm as he went by.

"We won't wander from the general area for the most part, just in case," he assured before going back to hiding behind his coffee cup to listen to the back and forth.

[abrightboy]

"I need to go see Gil," Malcolm said conversationally.

Jessica held up a finger at him. "No. Don't even think about telling him anything other than what we've already told him. Don't you dare put him in that position."

Malcolm just stared at her for a second. "I want to tell him I'm okay to work while... this is going on. If I phone him, he won't believe me."

Jessica shifted her weight. "Oh. Well. I suppose that would be okay."

[tinstar]

Raylan noticed that pitch in Jessica's voice, that same protective pitch she used when talking about Malcolm and it left a seed of idea in the back of his head that he kept to himself.

"You think he'll let you work?" Well, who was he kidding. Who was going to stop Malcolm from working. It was a silly question, but out there now.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm grinned at him.

"It'll get me out of his office," he pointed out.

[tinstar]

Raylan scoffed a chuckle, bobbing his head in concession. "Can't say I haven't done the same to Art. Just let me catch a shower first before we go; this hair ain't gonna tame itself."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm looked like he wanted to say something about that, but was suddenly acutely aware of his mother's presence.

She decided she needed to see Gil before Malcolm did, however, and set her cup down.

"I'm glad to see you're feeling all right, darling," she told him, sweeping around the counter to pick up her coat and slip it on. "I have to go. Legal things. You understand."

She didn't wait for a response before disappearing out the door. Malcolm just looked at the door for a moment, then walked over to it and slipped the chain on. He looked at Raylan.

"Did you say 'shower'? Because I feel like I still smell like hospital."

[tinstar]

Raylan watched her leave, only slightly worried that he was the cause of it, but that worry left with Jessica and he found an easy smile on his face as Malcolm slid the chain home.

"I did.. And you do," he teased, grinning. "Wanna come join me?"

[abrightboy]

"Yes, please!" he said, already peeling off his t-shirt and throwing it towards the bedroom as he padded towards the bathroom. He looked over at Raylan with a grin. "I would like to attempt taming that hair," he teased back.

[tinstar]

There was that morning perk he was used to seeing and Raylan pushed off the counter, abandoning his coffee cup on the island to pull off his own shirt and toss it on the couch, following Malcolm into the bathroom.

"Might need a whip or somethin'." His belt led to his jeans and his boxers off in one go, leaving him just as quickly naked as Malcolm would be aside from his watch that was pulled off and set on the counter before he stepped into the shower.

"Really though, are you doin' okay?"

[abrightboy]

Malcolm smiled softly at him, reaching up to push his fingers through Raylan's hair to help wet it through.

"Well. I stabbed my father in the heart and, if I screwed it up and he dies, my mother could go to prison, so no." He looked up at Raylan's face with naked adoration. "But you're here, so yes."

[tinstar]

He tilted his head back a little to help with that, keeping Malcolm in his vision under slitted lids as his hands slipped around his waist. "You know I'm just a call away after I leave.. Don't hesitate to reach out. I wish I could stay here but I've gotta keep a short leash on Ava. She's helpin' us get Boyd."

[abrightboy]

"I definitely want you where you can get Boyd," Malcolm told him. "The sooner you're done with him, the sooner you're all mine," he declared.

[tinstar]

"Just another month or two. Can't imagine that Boyd Crowder resists the hillbilly call of blowin' something up longer than that. Art already knows I want a transfer back to Miami and they've got a spot open, kept for me." He was serious about what he'd promised. He wanted that life.

"So no getting thrown in prison for murder in the meantime."

[abrightboy]

His brief laugh was also almost half a sob as he squeezed shampoo into his hand and started pushing it through Raylan's hair.

He loved doing that.

And Miami had a spot saved for Raylan already. This could be real all the time. All he had to do was not fuck it up...

He looked at Raylan. "At this rate we might find a place in Miami before we find a place in Lexington," he noted.

Not that he was going to count on Boyd going smoothly to prison; he'd carry on with the plan until the plan changed.

[tinstar]

The first time Malcolm had washed his hair, Raylan let it happen because it was cute but now he genuinely enjoyed the care and tenderness, not to mention the fingers, that Malcolm put into it, into him, every time.

"I wouldn't complain about that, but I don't want to go two or more months without seeing you and you don't want me stayin' at that bar." They were on the same page about carrying on with the plan. "You probably don't want me accidently drawin' down on your mother again either."

[abrightboy]

That got a bark of actual full on laughter.

"You drew on her?" He smirked, stepping Raylan back into the spray to rinse. "Well, maybe she'll learn to knock."

It wasn't like he was going to actually shoot her. It could be good for her.

He stepped him back out of the spray to work conditioner into his hair.

[tinstar]

"She handled it surprisingly well," he praised, not bothering to hide his surprise as he tilted his head back and helped with one hand to rinse the suds out. He didn't think Jessica would take to knocking but he was sure she'd pay more attention to who was in Malcolm's bed the next time she walked in.

"But we got to talk a little while you slept. I think I did okay. Passable, anyway," he continued as he let Malcolm work the conditioner in, grabbing the soap himself so he could wet it in the shower and start soaping up whatever part of Malcolm was facing him. "What's your plan for the day, visit to Gil aside."

Would they end up back at the hospital to watch over Martin again? Raylan was here for Malcolm and would let him dictate what he needed.

[abrightboy]

He took a breath and addressed the question first.

"I don't know," he admitted. "I feel... untethered." He shifted his gaze from his fingers working conditioner through Raylan's hair to Raylan's face. "I'm glad you're here. Thank you for coming," he said wholeheartedly.

He took a breath, his eyes wandering back to his work.

"What did you and my mother talk about?" he asked curiously.

[tinstar]

"I couldn't leave you up here to deal with it alone. We'll take it easy. If Gil doesn't give you work and you don't want to go back to the hospital, we can come back here and watch TV or do something useless and distracting til I have to go."

He hated that he couldn't stay longer, but even taking just this day was something he was going to get shit over. Shit he planned on keeping away from Malcolm - he didn't need him taking on guilt for Raylan's decisions.

"Oh you know, the weather, politics, and you." He smiled softly. Only two of those answers were a joke. "I think she wanted to take the opportunity to make sure I'm with you and interrupting her grand plans for you for a respectable reason. She also fussed at me for waking you up from your nightmares but its out of concern. Even if she has to yell at me through a door to get her point across."

But the way his smile pulled, breaking into a half grin at that suggested he found it endearing that she'd abandon her manners to chase after making a protective point about her son.

[abrightboy]

He frowned faintly at 'a respectable reason'. Did 'love' count? But the next part made him nod concession.

"Nobody's ever done it before. I know what the... science says. I'm a psychologist. Of course I studied my own conditions. Outside interference can manifest as further... obstacles or attackers in the dream. But." He took a breath. "As someone who's suffered them for over half my life.... dealing with four monsters and waking up alone is not better than dealing with five monsters and waking up in your arms."

[tinstar]

"As long as that remains the case, I'd rather wake you up then listen to you scream and be helpless about it." That was worse, by far. "And I think your mother would too, if she wasn't so scared of making things worse on accident."

He'd harped on her lack of immediate affection enough; she did try and that was better than some parents, Arlo, specifically.

"I also think she'll leave you alone about Eve now." He didn't like using so many 'I thinks', he'd rather know, but he couldn't know on this one. He didn't know how committed Jessica might be to that end, despite her son's happiness.

[abrightboy]

He was still relieved to hear it and smiled a little, looking up at him. "Oh good. Was she perhaps given the impression that the space beside me wasn't going to be vacated any time soon?"

[tinstar]

"I hope so because it's not," he promised with a spread of his smile as he drew Malcolm in against him so he could both hiss him softly and, following that, sliding the soap up his back and into circles.

"I plan on stayin' there til you kick me out." Raylan already knew that at some point, he was going to ask Malcolm to marry him, but that was something he was keeping in his back pocket for when they managed to fulfill their first promise to each other. One thing at a time.

"Apparently, I'm hard to get rid of," he ended, grinning impishly.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm grinned up at him as the kiss broke.

"Thank god," he murmured happily, sliding is fingers down the sides of Raylan's face and flattening his palms down over his shoulders and chest. "Let it set," he instructed, leaning in to steal another kiss. He turned his head to survey the bottles on the shelf without moving away from Raylan at all, considering them before choosing one and plucking it from the group.

"I want this one," he said, holding it for Raylan to put in his hair once he was done with the soap, his other hand still splayed on his chest.

[tinstar]

Raylan hummed at the slide of Malcolm's hands, finishing what soaping he could with his reach and setting the bar aside, just in time to take the offered shampoo bottle. He pulled back enough to squirt some into his hand, huffing a breath at the sputter of air that came with it.

"Shampooing and getting shampooed is easily the most intimate thing I've ever done." He loved it. The shampoo was rubbed between his hands and quickly carded through Malcolm's hair before it could go anywhere, hazel gaze more focused on Malcolm's face than the task that he did easily.

"Ruined me for showers by myself," he teased with a wink.