Bless the Broken Road - T - 3K
TK/Carlos; The Strand Family; The Reyes family - non-linear narrative, multiple points of view, family dynamics Read on AO3
This is a story about the ways our families deal with trouble and how that bleeds into our lives beyond them. Its how well-intentioned choices can hurt everyone in a situation, even if those choices are made with love. This is a look at some of the moments that shaped TK and Carlos into who they are, and how those inform how a loft could send everything into disarray, and a story of coming beyond that to the kind of life you can build together when you let those bad patterns go.
Alternatively, three times the Strand family chose to run from something perfect. Three times the Reyes family chose not to say anything because it wouldn't change anything. And one time the Reyes-Strand family did the opposite.
~*~ ”It’s both of ours. I put your name on the deed, TK. You’re not just a guest here.” It’s perfect.TK has been despondent about the way things went down with the mortgage for months. The loss of the loft he had already started building a fantasy life in. The fact that he was the stone weighing down their dreams wore away at him. No other place compared and it was his fault.
And here is Carlos, handing him this dream and TK hasn’t had to do a thing to earn it. Even when he ruined it—Carlos put the pieces back together.
Everything changes. Nothing stays the same.
TK has managed to keep the darkest parts of himself from tainting his life with Carlos for so long. Now that those parts are creeping in, that they’re touching their dreams, Carlos is loving and magnanimous and nothing TK deserves.
The worst part is Carlos will see everything, one day. And he will regret this gift and everything they build off of it.
Dreams don’t really last.
The dream of having his parents back together, of them having a baby together and the Strand family starting anew in Texas died a sad and painful death in a room full of boxes.
His name is on a property that experts deemed him unfit for and it’s only a matter of time until Carlos realizes it, too. Perhaps the dream of building a home with Carlos died in the fire, and TK didn’t even notice.
TK loves Carlos so much it feels like his heart is too big in his chest. The last thing he wants to see is the slow shift in Carlos’s eyes that comes whenever TK becomes too much of a burden on the people he loves.
“Why? Why would you do this?” TK asks, knowing he’s asking it of himself as much as Carlos. ~*~ “I’m ready to do everything we’ve talked about. Delete the email. Just delete it.”
It was perfect.
But the perfection was a lie.
Gwyn has been waiting for the thing that would crack the bubble of the fantasy world she’s been living in. This house with a TK who smiles and jokes. This house with a new and improved Owen. Texas looks good on him and on TK. Gwyn wanted it to look good on her too.
Enzo’s name listed as the most likely father of the child inside her is the thing. Fifteen years and no children, even when she wanted another baby, and now a one night fling…
She wanted to keep this Owen: the one who complained she worked too much. The one who tried harder now than he ever had in the previous thirty years of their relationship, the one who said things like it didn’t matter whose baby this was, he wanted to raise it with her.
She has known from the start, though. Gwyn knew it was too good to be true. They’ve already built TK’s hopes so far up, and Gwyn understands. Her hopes had gotten too high.
She needs to be the clear-headed one. The one who knows Owen and TK better than they know themselves. Nothing stays the same. Knows that Owen means it today, but his promises don’t always hold. Knows that Enzo has been a thorn in Owen’s side since she first started dating him. Owen won’t be able to raise his child without it fracturing their relationship.
And TK…the longer they try, the harder it will hit him when they fall apart. She breaks the illusion and her own heart when she says, ”You know what, I’m just going to go grab a couple of things. ~*~ Continue Reading on AO3