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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[abrightboy]

Malcolm considered that. "You think?" He considered it some more. "I thought it would be nice to do it at our house in Miami. On the beach. By the pool. Keep it small and intimate."

[tinstar]

"That's where I was thinkin' too. Place we can go and look at that isn't just pictures in an album..." Malcolm had to be joking about the island.

"What kind of ring do you want? We haven't even talked about that yet."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm was not joking even a little bit about the island. But Raylan would find out eventually.

Malcolm's eyebrows shot up. "I haven't even thought about that yet. Is... that something with options?" he asked. When he said he hadn't thought about it, he really meant 'ever, in his whole life'. Were everyone's wedding rings not the same?

[tinstar]

Raylan couldn't help but laugh softly.

"You go from talkin' about renting an island, but you don't know about jewelry options?" What a delightful contradiction. "Yes," he continued. "Gold, White gold, Silver, with diamonds, without them. I'd like to go with something simple for myself; I'd hate to have to worry about losin' something out in the field."

Anything with stones worth more than his weekly pay deserved more respect than that.

[abrightboy]

He laughed at himself. "I saw the island thing on TV!" he protested. "I'm going to have to google this and get back to you." He snuggled back into Raylan's shoulder and took a sip of his drink, stretching his free hand out next to where Raylan's rested, so they were like a side by side comparison. "What if they complement each other somehow, but aren't exactly the same? That's more like us, don't you think?"

[tinstar]

"Uh-huh," Raylan said, one eye squinting in playful doubt as Malcolm continued and leaned back against him, lazily hooking Malcolm's last two fingers with his own.

"You know they don't have to be the same right? I like complementary. Maybe a darker metal with a thin band of somethin' pretty? I don't know how embellished you like your jewelry." He lifted his right hand, taking Malcolm's lightly with it as he looked at the horseshoe ring. "Though I think my normal tastes might be a little too simple."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm smiled. "I can work with that," he said happily, looking at Raylan's ring. "Where does that come from?" he asked. "What's the story?"

[tinstar]

"My mama, Frances, found it in a box when we moved onto the land we're on now. Apparently it was onna the few things she brought down from the hill when she came. If there was more to the story, I've forgotten it now but everytime I look at it, I think of her smilin' at me."

He glanced over. "She was no saint, but she got short end of every stick life seemed to hand her, and she still had the grace to meet it with some steel in her spine and an attitude in her chin."

Arlo was his rage and the example of what not to be, Frances was his manners and values.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm smiled warmly.

"I thought it might be your mother," he admitted. "You eschew a lot of outward sentiment and you eschew material excess but... you never take that off."

[tinstar]

Raylan smiled crookedly, not letting the bit of sadness he felt get anywhere past his eyes and the soft wrinkles around them.

"I never came home when she died. Or for her funeral. Knew I couldn't make it without snappin' one way or the other. It reminds me of that too. Shit we should do, no matter how hard it is."

Welcome to more of why your boyfriend is the way he is.

"Don't plan on ever takin' off the one you put on me either."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm listened to him somberly as he related the story, realizing that was a regret of his, but at his last addition his smile returned and he set his glass on the night stand so he could turn towards Raylan a bit more and press a kiss to his jaw just below his ear.

"Me either," he murmured.

[tinstar]

Raylan hummed a little note as he leaned his face into the kiss, looking over afterwards as he tightened the tangle of their fingers. He wasn't sentimental.. except when it came to his mother, and now Malcolm. Everything about him, about this was different and Raylan hadn't been sure in the beginning how it was going to all settle in him.

But there was no way to argue this.

"I kinda wanna finish my drink and steal you into the shower.." He slid his eyes over. "What d'ya think?"

[abrightboy]

Malcolm nuzzled his jaw with a grin.

"I am feeling very... stealable," he conceded happily. "I could probably be dragged there with minimal effort," he teased.

[tinstar]

"Mm," he hummed again, face curling in amusement as he swung his feet off the bed and toed off his boots before downing what was left in his glass so he could set it on the side table and stand up.

"Then come on," he said, holding his hand out towards Malcolm. They only had one more night together and while Raylan assumed that Malcolm would wake him up before he went, he wasn't done. He still had a million days to cram into what felt like passing seconds.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm practically jumped off the bed to take that hand, clutching it tightly.

The more he contemplated going back to New York, the more he was certain that this life with Raylan and their future in Miami was what he wanted for himself. He felt like he was remembering what 'happy' felt like as more than a rumour.

And they were losing their first night alone in their apartment to the life that brought him largely pain and suffering.

When they reached the bathroom, Malcolm stopped him before he got to the shower, tugging him close to give him a lingering kiss of appreciation.

"You could ask me to come into a pit of lava with you and I'd go, you know," he murmured.

[tinstar]

Raylan couldn't stop or help the grin that split his face as Malcolm bounded up to be at his side. No one had ever been this happy to be with him before and everytime Malcolm shined a little brighter for it, it blew him away.

Instead of starting the shower, he was derailed by Malcolm's gentle tugs and lingering kiss that he happily wrapped himself around and into.

"Good thing I'm not," he murmured back. "All I'm asking is for you to move to Florida and marry me and possibly love me forever if you can find it in ya to deal with me for that long." Before Malcolm could reply, Raylan was kissing him again. He could answer after the full power of that.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm hummed softly as the kiss built intensity, clutching at the collar of Raylan's shirt with one hand.

"Forever," he murmured as it broke. "Not sure that's long enough. How do we get more time than that?"

[tinstar]

"We start by focusin' on the now," he replied softly, hands tugging and pulling Malcolm's shirt up and off. "We shower and have another drink and enjoy each other like we don't have tomorrow." Because they didn't.

As he continued, he pushed Malcolm's sweats down off his hips.

[abrightboy]

"I like this idea," Malcolm said, pushing Raylan's undershirt up and off, tossing it aside before working on his jeans, fumbling at it a little as he leaned up for another kiss. "Except I like the idea of doing it every day."

[tinstar]

"Soon," Raylan managed between kisses as he ungracefully took his socks down with his jeans, pulling Malcolm against him now that they were finally, blissfully naked. "And every day we can steal in between."

He couldn't help but kiss him again, cock already well on the rise with the rising heat of their touches before stepping back and dragging Malcolm with him to reach into the shower and fiddle on the water, adjusting it hastily.

As he came back around, he stole another kiss before he begrudgingly let go. "Age before beauty," he teased as he stepped in, using his shoulders to direct the showerhead water away so Malcolm could get in with him.

"In our Miami house, let's make sure we invest heavily in a good shower area. Bench, maybe a rail to hold onto," he elaborated suggestivly as he slid wet hands around Malcolm again, now that they were back in the same space.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm grinned up at him, hands sliding up his chest and over his shoulders and back down his chest to his waist.

"We'll get one of those jetted showers," he said. "Where the water comes from all sides with a rain shower head from above. Benches all the way around."

[tinstar]

"Mm, fancy, just like you," he said, grinning as his hands wandered down Malcolm's hips and ass, keeping him close. "That I could handle," he continued as he leaned in for a deeper kiss. He didn't care about their water bill; it'd be fine.

He was going to take all the time they wanted.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm laughed, easily letting himself be tugged against Raylan and into that kiss. When it broke, he was glad Raylan was holding on to him. He had a way of turning Malcolm's knees to jelly a little bit.

"I think you'll find that, by my family's standards, I'm a simple man," he joked softly. But there was a truth to it.

[tinstar]

"Maybe, but let's keep them outta this," Raylan replied huskily as he turned Malcolm to press him against the tiled shower wall so he could run his hands down the firm contours of Malcolm's side and thighs. "Showers' only big enough for me and you right now."

He planned on doing dirty things to Malcolm and he didn't want to think about anyone else.

[abrightboy]

Dirty things in the shower was a delightful study in contrasts and the cold tiles against his back was a jolt that only aroused him more. His slid a hand up into Raylan's hair; he was pretty sure Raylan enjoyed that as much as he did. The other slid down his side and around his hip.

"Just you and me is my favourite place," he murmured before using the leverage of the wall at his back to lean up into a heated kiss.