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

[abrightboy]

Malcolm met the kiss with a faint hum of approval, grinning at Raylan's comment about popping his concert cherry.

"Well, if that's the case, I'll makes sure it's something more exciting than Mozart," he joked as Raylan headed in, sitting down on the couch with his glass, watching Willa explore the side of the playpen with her little fingers.

[tinstar]

Returning with the drained chicken, the pan and a roll of paper towels under his arm, Raylan set it all down to pull out the user manual and start flipping through it. Go figure that the man that wouldn't read case files unless he had to would sink into paper that wasn't work. Still, he didn't bother with anything beyond the proper way to light it, fiddling with the knobs as he muttered to himself before the manual was folded and tucked into his back pocket.

Two minutes later, the grill was flaming up and Raylan was grinning as he turned around to look at Malcolm before coming to fetch his beer.

"It works, imagine that."

[abrightboy]

"Mm. I'd be having words with someone at that store if it didn't," he mused with a grin.

The man who did read files voraciously hadn't touched the manual.

"So do you soak the chicken before any kind of cooking?" For some reason, he'd thought it was a frying thing.

[tinstar]

"I won't ask, so don't tell me." Raylan shuddered to think of the pricetag of fully furnishing an apartment, complete with grill, and he still hadn't come around to bother bothering himself with it.

"Any soak is better than none. Makes the chicken less dry. Better to soak it for a few hours at least but twenty or thirty minutes is good enough if that's what you gotta do. Seeps into the meat. I have to dry them off before they go on the grill. Dripping wet meat cooks unevenly. We keep this up, one day you can cook for your family and watch their jaws drop through the floor."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm laughed lightly.

"Right. Even if I cook a five star cordon bleu meal, my mother's jaw will be dropping in horror before she compares me to a line cook at a greasy spoon."

He took a sip of his drink.

"Do you have to stand over it all the time or will you be able to come sit with me?" he asked. Because if necessary, he would go stand over there with Raylan.

[tinstar]

"Mm, well there's no accounting for taste sometimes, is there," he replied with a smile and a drink of his own as he ambled back towards the grill.

"Nah. The great thing about grilling is that half of it is just sitting and making sure nothing catches on fire. Once I get it on."

It was it's own form of work, one that always promised to be rewarding, and it only took about ten minutes of work before the sound of meat hitting the grill filled the air. After that, Raylan closed the lid, glanced at his watch, and ambled back to sit next to Malcolm, one arm going around his shoulder.

"Think you could get used to this? One or two weekends a month?"

[abrightboy]

Malcolm smiled behind his whiskey glass and looked over at Raylan.

"Every weekend for the rest of my life?" he suggested. "I think about it all the time, really, actually living with you."

[tinstar]

"BBQ every weekend, you might get tired of it," he reasoned with a smile. "I think about it too. Probably more than I should. What are we gonna do when we run outta things to talk about?"

He had a feeling they wouldn't.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm laughed at himself.

"I kind of meant sitting on a patio of some sort watching sunsets," he clarified. He looked over at Raylan. More than he should? He still had some doubts that it could happen.

Well. It did seem too good to be true.

He smiled at the question. "Don't worry; I've never run out of things to talk about yet," he teased self-deprecatingly. "The problem will happen if you get tired of all the talking, I think."

[tinstar]

"I don't think we'll get tired of that, at least not any time soon," he assured with a faint lift of his eyebrows as he took a shallow pull from his beer bottle.

It did seem too good to be true. Hell, this seemed too good to be true. He didn't want to put all his eggs and hopes into one basket and have them kicked down the road by life.

Raylan couldn't help but chuckle at Malcolm's answer. "Nah. And if I need a little quiet, I'll tell ya. You talk a lot but you don't annoy the shit outta me like a lotta talkers do. You aren't just talkin' out your ass, I think it what it is. Normally, I put people who talk too much in the trunk of my car."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm smiled with a slight lift of his eyebrows and then a tilt of his head.

"I can't believe I didn't even have that experience the first time I was here," he said. "It usually takes some time for people to warm up to me."

[tinstar]

"I try to reserve it for assholes and criminals," he half defended with a shit eating grin.

"But you proved yourself useful. If nosy." The admission was given with a fond glance over. "Smart enough to not talk out of your ass too. You might hit buttons, but you're not lyin'." And that Meant Something.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm chuckled. "You know, the not lying is usually the part that doesn't go over well," he pointed out.

He leaned in and pressed a kiss to Raylan's mouth.

"And that still makes my knees as weak as the first time you did it," he admitted, resting his head on Raylan's shoulder to look out at the city. "So no shortages forthcoming in that department either."

[tinstar]

"Mm, I think a lot about that too," he said, bottle propped on his knee. "Part of me expected you to shove me off, slap me maybe, and tell me to go somewhere else." He curled a smile down at Malcolm.

"Guess I'm lucky you didn't." Considering he had a good idea of what his life would be like without this. He'd sort of scared himself with that leap, so it ran around in his head a lot more often than he would have bet on.

Then again, they hadn't exactly taken that leap slow. He still blames the whiskey, but with a tone of fond appreciation.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm shifted to look up at him, a little surprised.

"You thought I might not be interested? I thought I was being really unsubtle. Like, 'reign it in, Bright, you're going to make him run fast and far' unsubtle," he admitted.

[tinstar]

"How's that? By bravely touching my arm to keep me from yellin' at your mother? Which was brave, by the way. Most people would just sit there and wear worry on their face. You were always a perfect gentleman, I promise," he reassured with a widening of his smile. "Or is it the whole talkin' me into stay at your place while we were there? Though, if I'm honest, I mighta smudged the truth a little to do that.."

[abrightboy]

"I thought it was my facial expressions that would give me away, actually. I thought you might figure out that I... was attracted to you. Apart from wanting to be friends. And that it would make you uncomfortable. But... smudged the truth? Tell me more. You're hard to read, you know," Malcolm told him.

[tinstar]

"Mm any hints I mighta got were pushed under to just how you were," he admitted. "Bright." His smile spread a bit. "Maybe a little friendly, but that was.. already outside the New York norm."

There was a lotta 'HEY, IM WALKIN' HERE' going on. They couldn't all be Whitly's.

"The Marshal's Service already had a room for all of us. I didn't have to stay." He met Malcolm's eyes. "Seemed rude to say no, after having you in mine, for some reason."

[abrightboy]

"Well, I figured the others stayed somewhere," he admitted. He held Raylan's gaze. "Did it start as just a social obligation, then?" he asked.

[tinstar]

"The social obligation was just a good excuse to get you back into my space again. We didn't talk about happy things at Arlo's and somehow I still almost enjoyed the conversation. That ain't nothin'."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm set his glass on the table and turned to lean his forehead against Raylan's temple, pressing a gentle kiss to his cheekbone, sliding his hand up to thread fingers into his hair.

"How far into your space is ideal?" he murmured.

[tinstar]

Smiling, Raylan tilted his head into all of it before looking over sidelong while his hand settled down almost tightly around Malcolm's waist. "You're gettin' warmer," he husked as impulse took over to kiss Malcolm again with all the feeling he couldn't really articulate. When it broke, he continued.

"And it's real dangerous, bein' all in my space, especially for you.. And that chicken."

There'd never be a question of want here; Raylan's answer would always be an emphatic yes.

"I don't care how we got here. All I want is the rest of forever with you too." Not too much to ask, right?

[abrightboy]

God, that kiss. He was definitely learning the ways Raylan expressed feelings he had a hard time talking about.

He grinned, sitting back slightly, but staying close.

"I'm not going anywhere," he promised. "Except Miami, with you."

He pressed one more kiss to his mouth, then sat up a bit more. "No distracting the chef until after dinner. Got it," he said with a bright smile.

[tinstar]

As much as he would try, Raylan would always be a man who showed, rather than talking, and he was very confident in how clear he could make himself without words. Or with as few as possible.

Raylan let out a sighed soft growl as Malcolm pulled back the second time and he knew if he didn't get up and keep his hands busy, they were going to have take out and a promise to never tell Winona what Willa was in the room for. Maybe tomorrow, when Willa was back with her mother and they were blissfully alone.

"Dangerous dangerous man," he accused as he got to his feet and headed over to check on Willa with a hand she grabbed and threatened to gnaw on before he gently took it back.

"If you wanna help, I forgot tongs and the sauce on the counter?" It would give them both something to do.

In the meantime, he'd peak under the hood of the grill to check the meat and start the clean up he should have done as soon as everything was on the fire.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm grinned at the accusation and did not deny it at all, the expression softening to a happy warmth as Raylan checked on his daughter.

"I always want to help," Malcolm assured him, taking a drink from his glass before heading inside. He delivered the tongs and sauce to Raylan, then went back in and set two places at the table and adjusted Willa's high chair before joining Raylan outside again.

He drew beside him at the grill, quietly watching Raylan turn the meat, paying attention to how it looked and what he did. His phone vibrated in his pocket. He was transfixed on the lesson and he didn't look at the call display as he answered it pretty much on autopilot.

"This is Bright."

His expression became slightly grim as he looked at Raylan instead of the grill.

"Hello, Mother." A beat. "Yes, I am," he said plainly. He frowned faintly as he listened. "So tell them we'll be down there on..." He paused. "No, tomorrow isn't good for me." A frustrated huff of breath. "Don't bring him into this; of course I'll come." A beat. "I know." Another beat. "I know. Okay. See you then."

He disconnected and slid the phone back into his pocket, looking at Raylan miserably. "I have to go back to New York in the morning. I'll probably be gone before Willa is."

He turned and stepped back to the coffee table, picking up his glass and taking a large swallow.