No One Gets Left Behind
E, 20k. Chapters 2 of 5 now on Ao3.
TK and Carlos take Jonah on a night out to a very special place when the honky-tonk hosts a family-friendly event, but even while surrounded by all their closet friends, not everyone is happy to see them. When disaster strikes, Jonah unexpectedly becomes the evening’s hero.
Chapter 1: Kisses for Breakfast I Chapter 2: Wanna Dance, Mijo?
“What’s happened, mijo?” Andrea asks. She’s wandered over, catching the tail of the conversation, and finds herself with a little nieto cuddling into her.
“There was a mean man,” Jonah says.
A squeeze to TK’s shoulder makes him jump, but it’s only his own dad here to find out what’s going on.
“A guy confronted you in front of Jonah?” Owen asks.
“Look. I don’t want to make a huge deal out of this,” TK says, and turns to Carlos. “I just think we have to watch our backs a little, babe. I’m sorry.”
“What do you have to be sorry for?” Carlos stares at TK with a face like stone, a living boulder about to crush its way down a hillside.
“I just–”
“No.” Carlos slides off his barstool cooly. His cowboy boots clink as his feet meet the floor.
“Babe?”
“This is our place, and our night, with our family. Just as much as anyone else’s.”
Read on Ao3
Happy belated birthday to jolly old @thisbuildinghasfeelings, who once said to me: “I’m emotional over the three of them going for a night out together.” And that lit a little spark that became this fic, on the theme of ‘returning to important places’. Lemon’s beautiful fic on the same theme is here: more than just an ordinary pain