The Lengths That I Would Go To

[abrightboy]

The killer was moving around the country. Malcolm Bright could see the pattern, but he wasn't working for the FBI these days and they weren't exactly taking his calls. Short sighted of them, but they did fire him on suspicion of being crazy. The NYPD's jurisdiction was New York. With the killer beyond its borders, they handed it upwards and left it at that.

Let it go, Bright, had been Gil's sage advice. You can't catch every killer in America single-handedly.

Challenge accepted, some part of him retorted, though he'd only nodded mutely and forced a smile. Gil knew he hadn't simply let it go, but he wasn't going to have him followed to stop him doing anything stupid, either. He didn't have the will or the resources to keep tabs on Malcolm Bright 24/7 and Malcolm Bright knew it.

His mother, on the other hand, had extensive resources, so he simply didn't tell her he was leaving town. He did arrange for Ainsley to feed his bird, so the truth would come out eventually, but he'd be several states away by then.

He rode the bus. There was something oddly comforting about the anonymity of being in a crowd of strangers who had no interest in him whatsoever. He stared out the window and watched the country go by. When he stepped off the Greyhound in Lexington, Kentucky, he walked to a nearby hotel and checked in, then headed straight to the US Marshals office. There was no point in trying to talk to the FBI. If he was going to stop a killer from killing again, he needed someone in law enforcement to listen to him. The pattern suggested the next murder would happen in one of the rural communities around Lexington and it would be precipitated by a young woman's disappearance. He needed law enforcement with local knowledge, specifically.

He wandered into the Marshals' offices in a tidy three piece suit, charcoal grey with a burgundy tie perfectly knotted at his collar. He got a few suspicious sidelong glances but nobody asked if they could help him. He cleared his throat.

"Um, hello? I'm wondering if there's anyone here I can talk to about murder." He held up his hands. "Stopping murder, specifically, not... like... smalltalk."

Comments

[abrightboy]

Whatever some part of Malcolm may have wanted, that wasn't what he was expecting, but however slightly startling it was, it was also...amazing. Only the briefest beat passed before he leaned in, returning the kiss, one hand curling around Raylan's lapel while the other splayed on the door by his hip to steady him.

[tinstar]

In that brief moment, Raylan was almost sure that he'd made a stupid choice, that Malcolm would shove him off and send him to apologizing and gathering his things to find a hotel elsewhere. But instead, Malcolm was leaning into him and encouraging the impossible. His hand found Malcolm's jaw, keeping him close as Raylan enjoyed the taste of scotch and him in an indulgent moment.

He broke it a moment later with a roll of their foreheads, a little breathless for his own bravery, eyes closed for a moment.

"Sorry," he muttered, already feeling foolish for his lapse in judgement but not letting Malcolm go just yet. "I didn't mean-"

[abrightboy]

He frowned faintly. It hadn't felt like something someone ought to apologize for... oh.

He huffed a faint self-deprecating laugh, releasing his grip on Raylan's lapel and running a hand down his chest to smooth it out, but not making any other attempt to move away. He wouldn't describe himself as 'touch-starved', but he certainly was that and he wasn't rushing to get away from a moment that looked about to end anyway.

"Regret already," he said with forced lightness. "Might be a new record."

[tinstar]

It did to Raylan. What business did he have doing that? What world was he in where he had? He couldn't answer either of those questions and as stupid as it was, he didn't move beyond sliding his hands down Malcolm's arms.

"No," he replied with a bit of husky roughness in his voice. "Not regret. Just whiskey. And impolite assumptions," he tried to assure, mind still circling around how the kiss felt. "I've never kissed a guy before," he admitted between them. It felt better saying it there, like that, then some hardline stance that he was already wavering on in the street that would sound sharper and worse.

[abrightboy]

He did notice that, while that was something to unpack, Raylan hadn't stepped out of his space, either.

And he didn't know where to start.

"...Impolite?" A beat. "I'm... not sure what to make of that. I..." He gestured with his finger between them. "I wasn't protesting." He considered Raylan's face for a moment. The fact that this was the first time it had been this close was a little distracting. "You've just never done it or you've never wanted to? Are you worried about what that means?" He tilted his head slightly, his eyes still searching for something in his features. "It's normal. Wanting to, sometimes. And worrying about what it means. They're both normal."

[tinstar]

Raylan couldn't help but smile softly at Malcolm's confusion. "No you were not." Quite nicely, as a matter of fact. But he still shouldn't be going around kissing people he works with and as Malcolm comes around to another corner of the nook of that problem, Raylan's smile faded.

It might have been normal for everyone else, Raylan wasn't one to have an opinion on it - what people did behind their own doors is their own business - but when it came to himself, adapting the same kind of idea was more than difficult.

"Either. Both." All of it. Raylan let his eyes wander Malcolm's face a little before coming back to his eyes. "It's not normal for me." Or where he came from. "You're not normal for me." He swallowed thickly. "And I still don't regret it."

Whatever that meant in the end.

[abrightboy]

And I still don't regret it.

That registered and a hint of a smile returned to his face, his hand still resting on Raylan's chest. Then he leaned in to press a new kiss to Raylan's mouth, tentatively, in case not regretting it did not commute to wanting it to happen again.

[tinstar]

This was probably a better pace than the hurried faux bravery Raylan had chosen in the moment and he met it with a little less fever than before, hands slipping around Malcolm, one finding its way under his jacket to get a palm closer to the skin hidden underneath. Raylan felt like he was a teenager again, making out in a dark corner of some high school stairwell, but this wasn't high school and Malcolm wasn't some cheerleader looking for a good time.

After a few seconds, Raylan deepened the kiss with a little rumble from the back of his throat, losing himself to his own impulses a little bit. He couldn't help it; there was no arguing how good it or Malcolm felt, or how good it felt, in the moment, to not be holding the impulse back under a firm country bootheel.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm opened up to the kiss, his hand sliding from Raylan's chest up into his hair. God, he'd wanted to touch it for a while now.

He'd have been pleased if he knew Raylan felt safe enough, in Malcolm's apartment, to feel what he felt.

And to act on it.

When the kiss broke for a breath, Malcolm didn't pull away, but he lifted his head slightly to find Raylan's eyes.

"Is this okay?" he murmured.

[tinstar]

Raylan felt a little uneven and lightheaded when the kiss broke, and he was glad for the door that was helping hold them up.

"Yeah," he replied softly, meeting Malcolm's gaze with a little pull of his smile. "This is okay." And it was, though he was glad that Malcolm didn't share this stairwell with anyone else. "We should probably make it through this door at some point.."

Not that he was moving to do anything other than close the fraction of space between their faces to kiss Malcolm again, just as happy to linger in the embrace and gently explore this jump he'd taken.

[abrightboy]

Right, his apartment door had another side with... furniture and things... Raylan was very distracting and the kiss was stirring butterflies in his stomach and it had been quite a while since anything had been quite this exciting in his personal life. Apart from the one night with Eve before Christmas - which was a disaster he tried not to think about - he would have to do math to figure out the last time he'd been with anyone and he didn't have the mental faculties for that at the moment.

He brought his free hand up around Raylan's shoulder, still holding his keys, which jingled against his palm before being muted by Raylan's jacket. Raylan's hand under his jacket urged him to arch his back a little, pressing against Raylan a little bit more as the kiss got more eager.

[tinstar]

Taking Malcolm's weight a little, Raylan's left hand found its way under Malcolm's jacket so one could spread up towards his shoulders as the other spread down towards his ass, encouraging the press of him as Raylan's tongue flicked across and between Malcolm's lips. Raylan wasn't sure what exactly he wanted beyond more but the growing length in his too fine pants certainly wasn't his gun.

Before Raylan really registered it, his hands were tugging and pulling Malcolm's shirt free, hungry to feel more of the younger man's skin and there was a little sound of throaty victory as his fingers got their first taste.

[abrightboy]

Oh. That was great, his fingers on Malcolm's skin. Were... were they going to do this right here in the stairwell?

Well. They could.

God, Raylan was a good kisser. His mouth was distracting. His grip was so firm and commanding.

Open the door, Bright, he told himself, but his tone was somewhat less firm and commanding than Raylan's hands and he began pushing the expensive tux jacket off Raylan's shoulders instead.

[tinstar]

Somehow, the assurance that this was normal to someone, somewhere, namely the man in his arms, had allowed Raylan to go on something of an autopilot. One arm was traded for the other as he let Malcolm push the jacket off, their kiss broken only for a half breath of air before one or the other leaned back forward like they were in some competition to see who could out kiss who. Between the motions, Raylan pulled the rest of Malcolm's shirt free, letting him run his hands up the fit angles of Malcolm's back.

"Door," he managed, just as roughly as before, just as futilely for a half second as he kept Malcolm against him until he pushed him away at the hips, eyes dark and promising that this wasn't going to be their last touch. "Before you make me do something terrible in this stairwell."

No, he didn't know what. Seemed to be the theme of the night but Raylan had just enough scotch and need and protective fury under his belt that it didn't matter. He could look at it all in the light of the morning. Later.

[abrightboy]

Breathless, it took Malcolm the space of several panted breaths to gather enough functioning braincells to understand that.

"Door," he repeated with a very vague hand gesture, turning around and fumbling the key into the lock, pushing the door open and letting them inside the apartment. He threw his keys in the bootrack on the floor just inside and kicked his shoes there, too, turning around once Raylan made it in to put the chain on.

He did not need his mother walking in tonight. No, thank you.

Once that was taken care of, he turned to look at Raylan, not completely sure whether he would want to just... carry on now that a little bit of space had made its way between them.

Maybe he wanted Malcolm, still. Maybe he wanted that glass of scotch. Or maybe he wanted a combination of those things in one order or another.

[tinstar]

Malcolm looked far too good like that, lips hinting towards kiss bruised, eyes wide and wild and a little high on their contact. He looked the way Raylan felt. Tugging his bowtie loose, pausing to scoop up his jacket, unbuttoning the top two buttons as he did so, Raylan followed Malcolm in, eyes coming back to the man as he locked the chain behind them.

That was it. Two doors behind them and a night full of choices ahead of him. The heat in the stairwell still felt like a raw wildfire between them and he hadn't quite caught his breath. There wasn't much of any place to throw his jacket, so Raylan opted for the stairs without looking.

"I'm almost ten years older than you." He didn't move but he was spring coiled again, much like he'd gotten at dinner, but with a whole different intent as he worked over the obstacles that his brain was throwing in his path. His statement, while posed as such, wasn't one. It was another ask for permission, to be allowed to still want Malcolm.

[abrightboy]

"But I've kissed a man before." He paused and leaned forward slightly. "Is this a game or a contest?" he clarified, then turned to grab a couple of crystal tumblers out of the cupboard.

He put them on the island and took a breath, running a hand through his hair. What was he doing? Oh yeah. Scotch. He turned again to grab the bottle off the counter and poured about two fingers in each glass. Instead of sliding it across the counter to Raylan, he walked around the counter and set it in his hands.

From possibly slightly closer than he would have set it there earlier that day.

[tinstar]

"Neither." Raylan followed him into the kitchen, unhooking his gun from his belt and setting it on the counter to amble a few steps towards Malcolm before leaning his hip on the island as he let his fingers brush over Malcolm's as he took the glass.

"I.." Raylan took a deep breath, jaw flexing slightly. "Am not good at this. Even with women. And the last thing I want is your mother or sister thinking that I've treated you like some.. one night stand. Disposable." Raylan's eyes stayed on Malcolm. "Or anything else.."

"On account of me leaving in the morning. Maybe you can still have some high society wife or something." He didn't want to fuck that up. He didn't want this to end up being some kind of mistake that shamed him for years to come - that one time he gave into primal impulse and took another man, younger than he dated, to whatever kind of bed they might make together.

[abrightboy]

He was going to say something in all seriousness, but then 'maybe you can still have some high society wife' made him laugh. He took a swallow of scotch, then put the glass down and looked up at Raylan.

"I know what I'm getting into. And also... I don't tell them everything I get into. Whatever they were apparently already thinking." He waved that away. "I know you have to leave tomorrow," he said, starting there, instead. "That was always the deal. Treating someone like they're disposable is an attitude which, frankly, I haven't seen you have towards anyone. Not even the murderer you had to shoot this afternoon." He glanced down and took a breath and looked up at him again. "But I'd think whether I felt... disposed of would be the important factor in this decision more than who might think I'd been... disposed of. People make a lot of assumptions about me and if I fought against all of them I'd never get anything else done."

[tinstar]

"It does," Raylan assured, not wanting to have made Malcolm think differently. "And I don't want to leave you feeling that way either." He'd never planned on kissing Malcolm in the first place; they weren't even supposed to be here. But here they were, anyway.

"You deserve better than that." Better than Raylan, really. Trusting himself to impulse, Raylan reached out for Malcolm, a hand at his waist tugging him closer. "Better than some foolish idiot who doesn't know what he's doing or how to do it." Not the technical ins and outs, though Raylan had some questions, but how to be okay with doing it at all.

"Tell me tonight will be okay, whatever happens. Tell me it's okay to kiss you and want more."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm smiled faintly, letting himself be drawn closer by the hand at his waist.

"Lots of people have told me all the nice things I 'deserve' when they were leaving," he remarked mildly. "Let's just... have nice things and let them be what they are," he suggested as an alternative. "That will always be okay." He took Raylan's face in both hands and leaned in with a lingering, more tender than heated kiss to start with.

[tinstar]

"I'm not leavin' yet," he pointed out. "But I like the sound of that," he muttered as he was drawn back down into the tender exploratory press of their lips. With a breath, Raylan turned them so that the island was behind him and Malcolm against him, freeing his off hand to come around Malcolm's waist.

He could do with some easy.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm deepened the kiss this time, his hands sliding down Raylan's jaw and neck, his thumbs sliding around the inside of his collar to start undoing his shirt buttons from the top. He was not unaware of the firm contours his hands moved slowly over as he found each button by feel, one at a time.

[tinstar]

Raylan took a deeper breath in as Malcolm's hands started to wander, opening his mouth to Malcolm as his hands found their way onto Malcolm's skin again to enjoy the solid, silken heat rolling off him. A half second was taken to unbutton his cuffs behind Malcolm's back before he went back to lazy enjoyment, hands roaming aimlessly before finding the bottom of Malcolm's shirt and unbuttoning it as well, one by one.

Malcolm would finish before Raylan would, leaving the taller man more bare but happy enough to peel off his shirt with a brief break of their lips. As he came back in, Raylan tugged Malcolm's bowtie free an popped the top button, the only one that he'd missed in his attempt.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm eagerly shrugged out of his own shirt, tossing it aside before reaching for Raylan again, pressing against him, one hand sliding up his chest and around his neck as their lips met again, the other sliding down around his ribs to his waist.