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 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.

[abrightboy]

"It's easier to be here than there, you know. Knowing you'll be home eventually, knowing my mother won't just walk in..."

He tried a little more corn.

"I want to bring Sunshine down, but we'll have to do that next time you drive up. So we can bring her in the car."

[tinstar]

"I like it better when you're here and I don't have to worry as much about you," he admitted as he tore off a bit of chicken with his fingers, eyes coming back over to Malcolm as he continued.

"Really? Does that mean you're going to be spendin' more time down here than up there?" Or was it a show of resolve to his mother? Both were acceptable, Raylan wasn't going to argue the semantics of getting more of Malcolm's time.

[abrightboy]

"I want to live with you. We have a place to live here. ...It's what makes sense," he said simply, his eyes studying the corn cob in his hand intently. He dared to look up. "Is that okay?"

[tinstar]

Malcolm found only a hesitant excitement in Raylan's features. "Why wouldn't it be? Ain't that the point of all this?"

If it wasn't, he needed to know. Like, yesterday.

"I just.. expected to get.. all of you at once. She keeps you company up there, what happens when you're at home?"

[abrightboy]

"I'm at home right now. When I stay in New York..." He shrugged a shoulder. "I have my family if I need company. You don't have company when I'm not home." He looked at Raylan. "She's good company."

[tinstar]

"I'm used to it and you hate seeing your family," he argued gently. It warmed his chest though, that Malcolm already considered this place home, instead of his New York apartment.

"I mean, if that's what you want, that's what we'll do but I don't know shit about takin' care of birds. And you love that bird." He'd hate to fuck up and lose her or worse and be the murderer of Malcolm's best friend.

[abrightboy]

"There's nothing to it," he assured Raylan. "I'll show you."

He smiled faintly. "I don't hate seeing them. It's more fun in small doses when I live somewhere else, honestly. And I can spend some time with Gil. Help him with a case. If Sunshine couldn't live if someone wasn't home all the time, she couldn't have survived living with me this long. We keep very similar hours when we're... immersed in a case."

[tinstar]

He could learn and he'd take care of Sunshine as well as he was able. "If you're sure," he conceded, to the lot of it. Ainsley seemed fun, but he couldn't imagine Jessica having it. Not without a strong opinion, anyway.

"Is she the only thing we're packin' down here?"

[abrightboy]

"I might bring some more of my clothes and some more of my books, but I've got plenty here for now," he admitted. And it was true if the amount of closet space he took up compared to Raylan was any indication. "She's the only thing I can't bring on a plane, though. I am going to bring my weapons collection when we move to Miami. We'll have more space. I don't want to dominate the whole apartment."

[tinstar]

Raylan nodded.

"Next time I drive up then. We can make it the next time I visit, whenever that is. The apartment is definitely smaller than a house; the weapons deserve a good showin' space. Lights and velvet inlays and all that."

Unfoiling a corn cob, Raylan dug in there too with no less gusto than he met any of his other food, quickly chewing off a good two by two inch square.

"You know you're going to be charge of decoration, right?"

[abrightboy]

Malcolm laughed lightly. "I'm going to take that to mean you like what I did with this place," he teased. "But I'm going to require your input to get it just right."

[tinstar]

"Told you I did," he returned with a curl of his smile. "Whatever you want, I'll input on."

There wasn't much left on Raylan's plate to be cleaned, but he cleaned it anyway before looking over at Willa thoughtfully.

"I don't know if she'll eat much more... Think I should try anyway?"

[abrightboy]

Malcolm grinned. "Why not? The worst that can happen is she smears it on her face instead. Her face is highly washable. But she's seemed to have a hearty appetite so far. She's clearly your child," Malcolm noted.

[tinstar]

"I should probably bathe her before I return her to her mother," he conceded with a grin before picking up the spoon and offering her another bite. She must have still had an appetite because she happily opened her mouth and skillessly wobbled towards her goal.

"Clearly. Now we just gotta get her on fried chicken and the circle will be complete. Her heritage," he said with a laugh.

[abrightboy]

"Well. Next time I'm here while you're at work, maybe I'll work on puree fried chicken," he teased. "Until it comes out just right. Get her started."

See, he could find productive ways to spend the time.....

[tinstar]

"Oh hey, that is an idea," he replied, though the tone and it's lift was all for and to Willa, who he was feeding another bite to. "So long as we keep up with the vegetable. Can't have you turning into a basketball on us, can I now."

He glanced over. "You'll still be havin' it whole though, right?"

[abrightboy]

"Only if you're making it," he countered, "but I love that that's a question, thank you," he added with a laugh. "Now. Vegetables with fried chicken. It's corn that's popular, right? Or.... Okay. The South. ....Collard greens?" A beat. "What are collard greens? A particular plant or a way of preparing green vegetables? Like... are you collaring spinach and kale and.... asparagus?"

[tinstar]

Raylan grinned over at him before working another bite into Willa's mouth. The question about collard greens was a fair one, but unexpected nonetheless and it made him chuckle.

"Collard greens are a particular kind of vegetable. Like broccoli or spinach. It's made a specific way, with a few variations, but the name itself refers to the plant itself. Find a recipe by an african american. The south might love it but the poor white folks stole it poorly outta necessity and I'm afraid we didn't quite get it right."

[abrightboy]

"Learn something new every day. So then I should be really secretive about puree-ing it," he surmised with a grin. "It seems to have a lot of cultural history around it."

[tinstar]

Raylan laughed again as he leaned back, judging Willa largely done with her first evening meal. In a few hours, she'd get a bottle before bed.

"As much as there is around anything in the poor south. Gotta make somethin' outta nothin'." There was respect and love in that statement, no sneering. It spoke to the hard will of the people that he grew up around.

"Don't go lookin' into the meat production though. You'll be horrifed. I won't tell ya about chitlin's."