abrightboy | Happily Ever After AU

abrightboy

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From:

abrightboy

Malcolm looks up at him, still a little dazed, then looks down at his belt.

"Um yeah. Maybe... yeah."

From:

conning

Neal helps him up again, unfastening the belt, going through the motions without comment or complaint. "Tell me about it?"

On the one hand, it's meant as a distraction. On the other, Neal is genuinely, wildly curious.

From:

abrightboy

"About... the dream?" Malcolm verifies. He frowns faintly. "I should have known it was wrong but you never know when you're in a dream that it's messed up."

From:

conning

That makes him even more curious. He guides Malcolm into the shower, turning the water on to a warm and gentle setting. "How did you figure it out? Who the Bowery Ripper was? Did you see him when he pushed you?"

From:

abrightboy

“No. I just saw his boot prints. It was just… a bunch of clues my brain put together.” He watches Neal for a moment while he adjusts the water.

“We were married.”

From:

conning

Neal looks at him, wide-eyed. "We were? I can't imagine your NYPD associates were very happy about that."

A tiny smile from Neal, though. An almost shy half-joke. "Maybe you should tell them about it. Give them a little exposure therapy, or whatever it's called."

From:

abrightboy

“They were fine with it. It was normal. For my family, too. My dad wasn’t a killer. You were friends with him,” Malcolm says.

From:

conning

He's wetting a washcloth to start cleaning some of the grime from Malcolm's shoulders and arms when Malcolm says that. Neal makes a strangled noise. "We were friends?"

But if his dad wasn't a killer...

Neal's mind flicks to James, his own fragile hopes and doubts. He shakes his head, wringing out the cloth and adding a little soap to start wiping Malcolm down. Gently. He's got scrapes everywhere, and where there aren't scrapes, there are bruises. "I think we won't be doing anything that married people do for a while. Not until you've had plenty of opportunity to recover."

From:

abrightboy

Malcolm, with a head injury, is a little bit stupider than normal. He looks at Neal with some confusion and, when he hits a particularly tender spot, a bit of a wince.

"You mean like adopting?"

From:

conning

Neal fumbles the soap in his surprise, managing to catch it, lather up the cloth a little, and place it back in its dish without letting more than brief surprise show.

"Did... in your dream, we had...?"

From:

abrightboy

“We just had the interview,” Malcolm tells him, then pauses. “…That’s not what you were talking about,” he surmises.

From:

conning

"I was thinking about the more immediate and physical," Neal says ironically. He takes extra care as he finishes cleaning the spot that made Malcolm wince. It's hard to tell, a little bit, what's dirt and what's bruise. "...I wouldn't... object to that, though. Adoption. At some point. I think you know that."

From:

abrightboy

“Some part of my brain knows that,” Malcolm agrees. “I must have met you earlier in my ideal reality. For us to be married already.”

From:

conning

"Yeah." Neal half-smiles, sponging a bit of grease away from Malcolm's neck gently. "How do you think it happened? You were at a gallery opening, maybe, and I was casing the place."

From:

abrightboy

“Why are you assuming you were a thief?” Malcolm asks him. “You had your own exhibit opening in the dream.”

From:

conning

That catches him by surprise. "I had an exhibit? Not a gallery? I could see having a gallery."

From:

abrightboy

"No, it was definitely an exhibit of your own work," Malcolm tells him. Neal brushes another tender spot and he winces again.

From:

conning

Neal grimaces in sympathy, going over the spot again more softly. "What did I paint? Or was it a different medium?"

From:

abrightboy

"I don't know," Malcolm admits. "I didn't get to see it. You didn't even go to your own opening because I fell down the elevator shift."

From:

conning

"Well, I'm glad that version of me has his priorities straight at least."

It's teasing, but there's a slight bite to the words as he thinks of Dani and JT.

From:

abrightboy

"You were the only safe place," Malcolm tells him. "At least once I figured it out, except..." He stops short and looks at the floor of the shower.

From:

conning

"Except what?" He brushes Malcolm's cheek with his fingertips, wiping away a little streak of warm water that's instantly replaced.

From:

abrightboy

"When I told you it wasn't real, you didn't believe me. That's how I knew it wasn't real," Malcolm explains, only lifting his eyes up to Neal's face at the end.

From:

conning

Something about that ties a knot in Neal's throat. He can't make words happen around it.

He kisses Malcolm instead, unintentionally soaking himself, not that it really matters. He's only got jeans on at the moment.

From:

abrightboy

“If I didn’t make myself wake up, the elevator would have crushed me like the man whose skull I found down there.” He looks up to find Neal’s face. “Are you mad at me for going there?”