thank you for your prompt!! 💗 this one turned out to be very fluffy so like...yeah!
feel free to send me a number from this list if you’d like. also available on ao3!
TK realizes that being in love — like, make-your-heart-sing love — makes his long shifts sometimes unbearable. He loves what he does, and for the most part he can keep focused on the tasks at hand without letting his mind drift to what he could be doing instead of finishing reports or scrubbing down the rig. But when these twenty-four hour blocks start to bleed together, feeling like one long stretch of time on the job, he finds that he’s often counting down the minutes until the next team takes over. Tonight’s one of those nights, and he’s exhausted enough to realize that having the next forty-eight hours off is just what he’ll need to recharge. It definitely helps that even though Carlos works tomorrow, he’ll at least get to spend the night with him.
He sees the tiredness hanging over the rest of the team, too — there have been some crazy calls over the last few hours, and all their muscles are aching and they’re desperate to sleep off all that they’ve witnessed. After he grabs his bag from his locker, TK takes the stairs two at a time to check in on his dad.
Rapping his knuckles on the doorframe, TK pokes his head into his dad’s office, where Owen's focused on the laptop screen in front of him. “Hey, I’m heading out.”
He pauses for a second, remembering the coughing fit his dad went into at the scene of the last kitchen fire they responded to.
Quietly, he adds: “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, of course,” Owen says, stretching his arms out over his head. It makes TK feel guilty — hell, he’s always got that small pit of guilt that sits heavy in his stomach whenever he opts to spend time with Carlos instead of going home right after a shift — and he considers just texting his boyfriend that they’ll catch up over the next couple of days, and that he’s going to wait until his dad’s wrapped up and grab a ride home with him. His dad is able to read him like a book, though, always has, and he points a finger at him. “Go and have a good night, son.”
“Are you sure?” TK’s positive that his hesitation is written all over his face, and Owen sighs at him.
“I’m fine, kid, I won’t be too far behind you anyway,” Owen says, leaning back in his chair.
TK mulls it over in his head before he adds: “I, uh, I probably won’t make it home tonight. I’ll text you.”
Owen doesn’t press; he just gives him a look. “Nothing stupid?”
TK huffs out a laugh. “No, I swear. It’s just Carlos.”
“Ah,” Owen says, smiling now, and TK rolls his eyes before lifting a hand in a wave before his dad can try and get more information out of him. It’s been five of the best months of TK’s life, and his dad seems to sense it on him because he has nothing but nice things to say about Carlos. He heads back downstairs, smiling down at the be there in five message on his phone as he steps out into the pleasantly cool evening. An all-too familiar car slows down in front of him after a few minutes of waiting, and TK’s already feeling more awake as he opens the passenger door and slips in.
“Hey,” Carlos’ voice is honey-sweet, and TK accepts the quick kiss as he deals with the seatbelt.
“Hey,” TK says, a little breathless, settling into the comfort of Carlos’ presence while the other man drives off. He’s out of uniform, dark-grey shirt hugging his arms, and TK doesn’t even try to hide his obvious staring.
“So, did you want to go grab some food or something?”
TK fiddles with his phone, tapping it against the heel of his palm. “I was just thinking we could head to your place?”
Carlos nods. “Oh, yeah. Sure.”
“I’m just tired,” TK quietly admits, not ready to add that he seems to get the best sleep whenever he’s curled up with his boyfriend. Instead of admitting that, he clears his throat. “It’s been a long shift.”
“I get it,” Carlos says, sparing a glance at him, moving one hand off the wheel to grab TK’s fidgeting hand to thread their fingers together.
They get to Carlos’ place, and he practically beelines for the bedroom, Carlos turning off lights behind them as they go. It’s almost midnight, and TK can feel his eyelids growing heavier with every passing minute. As he pulls off his shirt and pants and kicks off his shoes, he watches as Carlos does the same, and he ungracefully plops onto the bed. Carlos pulls the covers over him, and drops a kiss just above his eyebrow, and TK has never felt so deeply and effortlessly loved.
“I’m sorry,” TK whispers, eyes moving all over Carlos’ face. “I feel like you wanted to do something more fun than just...sleeping.”
“I can’t think of anything better than this, Ty, seriously,” Carlos says, already opening his arms. “Come here.”
TK goes, immediately feeling more calm wash over him as Carlos curls his arms around him, his chest pressed to TK’s back, feeling comforted by the feeling of the steady rhythm of Carlos’ heartbeat between his shoulder blades. He settles into the embrace, ducking his chin forward to press a kiss to Carlos’ hand.
“Besides,” Carlos starts talking, picking up the dropped conversation, his words mostly whispered into TK’s ear. “This is how I get the best sleep. Just being able to hold you makes me feel right. And you’re the only one I wanna wake up to, preferably for as long as you’ll let me. Never apologize for wanting this, okay?”
“Yeah, okay,” TK mutters, running his fingers absently up and down Carlos’ forearm, already feeling sleep pull at him as he slurs, “I feel the same, by the way. I feel like I don’t tell you enough how much I care about you.”
Carlos takes a few long seconds to respond, to let the words hang in the air between them. The last thing TK hears before he’s gone to the world is, "don't worry, TK, I know."
* * *
TK doesn’t know how long he’s out for, but the early morning sunlight’s streaming into the room when he eventually blinks open his eyes. He stretches out his limbs and he feels Carlos press a kiss just under his jaw.
He remembers all too quickly that Carlos is stuck with a day shift, and if he hasn’t left yet it probably means that he’s going to have to go sooner than he’d prefer; he wishes he could stay in bed and cherish these moments as long as possible but Carlos eventually heaves a sigh and starts moving to get out of bed.
“Can’t you stay a little longer?” TK asks, even though he knows there’s no chance of Carlos risking being late; TK's the same, always hating it but leaving his boyfriend nonetheless when he has to get to work.
Carlos hums against his shoulder, squeezing him tight once more. “I wish I could, but McCoy’s out this week so I’ve got a rookie with me. Can’t be setting a bad example.”
TK lets out a garbled, muttered noise in agreement, though he still sits up when Carlos moves off the bed, beginning his morning routine. TK watches him for a few moments, but he still feels exhausted, and Carlos seems to pick up on it because he crosses the room to stand on his side of the bed — which seems like a big thing, for TK to have a determined side of Carlos’ bed — and runs a hand through TK’s hair, eventually bringing his palm down to drag his thumb along TK’s jaw.
TK sighs, and leans into the touch, this act of allowing himself to feel vulnerable still a new thing. He only opens his eyes when Carlos starts talking to him.
“Get some more sleep, Ty,” Carlos says, and TK starts to protest, saying something about going back to his own place so he’s not imposing, only for Carlos to interject. “You can stay here without me, you know. But if you do leave, let me know what you’re up to later and maybe we can do something when I’m off shift.”
“Sounds like a plan, baby,” TK replies weakly, his mind a little too muddled with sleep, but he definitely picks up on the warmth spreading through his chest at Carlos’ insistence that he belongs here; that his home is open to his presence.
With a quick kiss pressed to his temple, Carlos pulls away to go shower, not without murmuring, “I’ll see you later, cariño,” into his hair first. TK slumps back down, face turned into Carlos’ pillow, as he contentedly lets sleep take over once more.
1 and 2 for the Tarlos prompts!!! I need new content to get me through this quarantine haha please
thank you for the prompts!! i hope you enjoy! 💗
all prompts taken from this list. read on AO3 here!!
TK is surprised over how much has changed in the span of three months.
For starters, he’s starting to feel completely open and ready to forge a permanent place for himself in Austin; TK hadn’t realized how constrained by the pressures and expectations of New York he’d felt until he experienced life with a crew like the 126. It also helped that he was able to accept and recognize the pain he was running from, and even though he still goes to therapy and meetings, he’s actively choosing things that makes him happy: like welcoming the love from Carlos and all too quickly confronting the part of his brain that told him to hide from the feelings he was very quickly developing in return. And things have been going well, now that his secrets are mostly out there in the eyes of the team and his dad’s health is starting to stabilize, slowly but surely, even though he’ll be facing down treatment for an undetermined amount of months to come.
But now, he’s starting to have regrets about developing these friendships. All because of Grace Ryder, of all people.
Well, not really. TK loves the woman, often joking that he prefers her company over Judd’s, but when she brings childhood stories into the mix of conversation over drinks at their usual hangout after a long shift, he feels betrayed. It isn’t solely her fault — he totally blames his dad, and it starts when he gives him a look as he stirs the wedge of lemon into his water. Mateo jumps in, talking about touring firehouses with his school as a kid, propelling his lifelong desire to be a firefighter, and TK smiles at the way he always talks so passionately about what they do. But when his dad gives him a wink, a feeling of dread starts swirling in his stomach, and TK opens his mouth to stop Owen from doing what he's about to do. But it’s too late.
“Did I ever tell you guys about how TK told me he wanted to be a firefighter?” Owen asks, and Marjan immediately throws a devilish grin his way and nudges TK’s side, before she and the others start egging his father on.
TK runs a hand down his face. “They don’t need to—”
“Hey, guys,” a familiar voice says from behind him, and TK exhales in relief because Carlos has come at the perfect time. A few of the others offer him greetings, and he turns and smiles softly at his boyfriend, heart beating a little faster as Carlos meets his gaze. The other day, Paul told him that they just exude being in the honeymoon phase, but TK doesn’t care, gladly shuffling over to make room for Carlos. His boyfriend immediately touches him, arm thrown over his shoulders, thumb dragging along the bare skin of his bicep just under the cuff of his sleeve, and TK almost forgets where the conversation was heading.
Almost.
“What’s going on?” Carlos asks, and TK locks eyes with his father as he starts smiling.
“I was just about to tell everyone about a little six-year-old TK,” Owen starts, and TK buries his face in his hands as the story starts. And his dad doesn’t shy away from any of the details: a tiny TK following his dad around the apartment, or the firehouse when he got to go after school, copying everything and anything his dad did. And it got to a point where TK refused to speak unless it was as if he was responding to a call from “dispatch” — always calling out random phrases he’d picked up out of context when Owen was working.
“Aw, baby,” Carlos murmurs, mostly into his ear as the others voice their well-meaning, teasing jests.
Ignoring his boyfriend, TK groans, “Dad—”
“It’s my job to embarrass you, kid,” Owen interrupts. “It’s out of love.”
He accepts that this is where the night is going when the others start lovingly sharing their own stories of TK from the months they’ve shared together; it isn’t until Carlos joins in that TK starts making a show of leaving the table, much to the dismay of the team as they start calling him to return. Before he can even get out of his chair, still smiling because this shit doesn’t really mess with him too much, despite the embarrassment caused by his own father, of all people, Carlos all but exclaims as he huffs out a laugh, “Hey, I love you, please don’t go.”
Those first three words hit TK and he doesn’t hear anything else. He holds Carlos’ gaze and his boyfriend doesn’t falter, he just gives him a sincere look and TK’s heart starts racing. He wants to say it back but he doesn’t want to have this conversation in front of literally everyone he knows.
“I’m staying, I’m staying,” TK jokes, trying to keep it light even though Carlos is still holding him close to him. “Alright, my turn to tell you guys about my lovely father attending his first pride parade.”
The look Owen gives him, immediately remembering the day and where the story is going, makes everything totally worth it.
* * *
“Hey, is everything okay?” Carlos asks, once they’ve gotten back to his place and are pointedly not talking about Carlos’ I-love-you slip earlier.
“Yeah. I mean, it’s not everyday that your dad embarrasses you in front of everyone you know in the entire state,” TK still doesn’t know how to feel about the situation. The stories from the team were harmless and actually exposed his admittedly less then brilliant moments, but his dad’s seems to be affecting him more because he doesn't know how his boyfriend will take to learning about his childhood. Even if he got to tell the whole team about the time he was brought onto a float and serenaded by a drag queen in front of thousands of people, and a sixteen-year-old TK, who filmed the entire thing.
Carlos frowns at him a little, bringing him back into the moment. “If it changes anything, I thought it was cute.”
TK lifts an eyebrow at him, crossing his arms tighter across his chest. In a deadpan voice, he retorts: “Really?”
“Yeah,” Carlos sounds earnest, like always, and TK immediately knows he isn’t lying. He cups his face in his hands and rubs his thumbs gently along his cheekbones, quickly pressing a kiss to his lips. “I mean, we all have embarrassing stories, Ty. It was kind of nice to learn more about you. I want to keep learning more about you, if you’ll let me.”
His hands settle on TK’s shoulders, before dragging them down over his arms, gently uncrossing them so he can hold his hands.
“I was admittedly a fucking adorable kid,” TK mutters, drawing a grin out of Carlos. “I hope you know that in retaliation I’m pulling all the stories out of your mom when I meet her.”
“You want to meet my mom?” Carlos asks, still smiling at him. TK bites at the inside of his cheek and slowly nods, the corner of his mouth quirking up. “Well, I’m sure she’ll be more than happy to pull out all of the scrapbooks. I hated it, but she loved to document my awkward high school phase.”
“Somehow you and awkward just doesn’t make sense,” TK teases, but he softens his gaze as he squeezes Carlos’ fingers back. “I can’t wait to learn more about you, too.”
Carlos pulls him close and kisses him deeply. TK grins into it because kissing Carlos never fails to make him feel like he’s floating. Gently knocking their foreheads together, Carlos pulls back to breathe, quietly asking: “Stay here tonight?”
TK nods, chasing his boyfriend’s mouth. Their lips still mostly pressed together, TK tries for nonchalance as he says, “You know, you told me you loved me earlier.”
“I do,” Carlos cradles the back of his head, and TK’s breath catches. “You don’t have to say it ba—”
“I love you, too,” TK says quickly, grinning as Carlos’ eyes light up at the declaration. He doesn’t question it as the words tumble out because it’s true, and it’s worth it as Carlos hugs him tight before practically devouring him in another kiss, nothing but happiness lighting TK up from the inside out.
Hello!! Where do you watch snl?? I'm from Bazil and I can't find it anywhere :(
Hey!! I watch SNL on 123movies, they seem to have all the SNL episodes there. here’s an example link: https://www.123movies.gdn/episode/saturday-night-live-season-32-episode-4/
just replace the season number and episode number with the one you want (i.e. https://www.123movies.gdn/episode/saturday-night-live-season-[x]-episode-[x]/)
hopefully that works!! the only thing is that i recommend you install an adblocker because 123movies is RIDICULOUS for pop-up ads
That shirt is so weird... Robert should stop hiring hot hitmen with his money and spend it on better outfits instead lol I dunno, maybe Aaron should take him shopping or something like that haha
Helloooo!
Oh my gosh, I am so with you on this! Boyfriend shopping trip <3 And yeah, he’s got all that money I’d really expect him to have better outfits tbh. Chrissie has great dress sense, how does she let him leave in that, haha!
I’m gonna be honest though, I kinda like the shirt by itself.....? I love Robert’s weird printed shirts, I think they actually suit him, its the weird vest jacket I have more issues with. Not the best outfit together love ;)
Thank you for the message, and very much enjoying all these boyfriend shopping scenarios in my head now!
I'm freaking out... Ryan is so adorable omg that video is cute :D
Hellooooo Ellen!!
Oh my gosh, I KNOWWW! I am still freaking out with you!!
He is such an adorable precious little angel I can’t even deal with how darn cute he is!! His lil hands in his pockets, and his adorable smile, and his haaiirrrr, I want to touch it so bad!!
This might sound dumb, but why do people on Emmerdale call women "cow"?? Like, is that normal? Is it a bad thing? Where I live, if you say that to a woman you'll probably get punched... haha sorry if this sounds dumb haha
HELLOOOOOOO MY LOVE!!!
Urmmm … it’s … to be honest, it does sound like an insult doesn’t it?
But it’s something we, well, I dunno down south, but up north, we don’t mean to say it in an ill intent way.
It just … it’s not meant to sound rude.
It’s just an expression we use, like, “Awww, poor cow.”, it’s not meant to be malicious or anything. It’s like, being sympathetic towards someone.
