The way Carlos walks into the 126 firehouse: season 1 to season 5
unwilling to move past the threshold -> strutting in with donuts for everyone, just because
911 Lone Star: Austin, We Have a Problem (1x10) | Bad Call (2x08) | Spring Cleaning (3x17) | Trainwrecks (5x02)
I'm very pleased with how this one turned out, so I wanted to add on a little extra context/talk about my process a little bit. I don't know if anyone will be interested, but I like looking back at the process!
First, here's the reference screenshot I used when creating the pattern:
Here's what the pattern looked like when I completed it. I use a program called MacStitch to create patterns. This one took me about 3 1/2 hours to complete. This is the "framed view" option that the pattern-making software provides so it doesn't show the grid, but it still gives a good idea of what the pattern looks like:
I didn't include any of the backstitch outlining when making the pattern since including that would have taken FOREVER. The pattern was just for my own personal use and I knew exactly where I wanted the outlining without having to see it on the pattern.
When I started stitching, I started with the table and chairs and the floor.
Pretty early into the process (but not so early that I would have been able to start over...I had already put in HOURS of work) I stupidly decided that it would be a good idea to eat chocolate while cross stitching. I ended up getting a chocolate stain right in between where the two lines of dialogue were supposed to go at the bottom. I tried EVERYTHING to get it out and it wouldn't budge. I briefly considered putting the words at the top and cutting the stain off when I was done, but I really wanted the dialogue right under their respective places at the table. Ultimately, I had to shift the "You have all of me, Carlos." to cover the stain. The stain is right under the "o" in "of," which is why I have that single "o" there throughout the process--I had to make sure it would actually cover the stain, and also I got so mad every time I saw the stain that I really needed it to be covered up.😂This also explains why the words aren't quite as centered as I would have liked. I think it still looks ok, though.
Here's after a little more work had been done. After I got the table, chairs, and floor done, I did the rug zigzag pattern, the black strips along the sides, and then the light fixture:
Later I filled in the rest of the rug and did the window, window shade, and finally the bricks. Here are some close ups on those areas in progress:
I outlined a lot in black, including the rug, the table, the chairs, the window, and the entire stitched area. That part took SO LONG. Then I outlined each individual brick. You might think that would have taken forever too, but it actually went by pretty quickly! With the black outlining, I mostly did it one single tiny stitch at a time, which is very slow. But when outlining the bricks, I just did one big backstitch for each side of each brick...which still sounds like a lot, but it was so much quicker than everything else by comparison. I think it was my favorite part of the whole process because it was a simple thing that made such a huge difference in how the piece looked and, in my opinion, really brought the whole thing together. Here’s what it looked like before any outlining:
Then I added the outlining and the rest of the quote to really bring it all together:
It took 6 weeks and 17,655 stitches to get to this point, but I think it was worth it! I should probably honor the effort I put into this one and get a proper frame for it.
The first time TK and Carlos have sex (and what comes after).
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“Woah, woah, woah,” TK says, walking through the door Carlos opens for him. “I don’t know about that.”
Carlos follows him out on to the dimly lit porch of the bar, door swinging shut behind him, muffling the music and chatter of the inside. It’s strange to walk out of a bustling, loud place into peaceful quietness, in New York you’re always walking out of one loud place into another loud place, traffic, sirens, crowds. Here, it’s warm like it was all day, bugs buzz around the yellowish hanging light, in New York he’d probably still be wearing a jacket out.
“I don’t know if anyone told you, but down here in Texas, you’re actually supposed to hit the board, preferably the bullseye,” Carlos teases.
He waited a very cool two minutes and thirty seconds to reply when Carlos’ text came through the morning after he processed him at the police station. Carlos had asked how his head was feeling which was very sweet, and also if he was free the following night unless he was too busy starting another bar fight, which was a very brave way to go about asking him out again, luckily TK doesn’t mind Carlos busting his balls, in fact it turns him on a ridiculous amount, which is why it was two minutes thirty instead of the intended, even five.
TK is hooked on his voice, his tone, the way he chooses to say things. It seems as though everything Carlos says is meant for him and only him.
He’s also hooked on how maroon looks against Carlos’ skin and the unnecessary but also extremely necessary way this Henley wraps tightly around his chest and shoulders.
TK stops at a sturdy, wooden post which reaches up to hold the porch roof and leans back against it.
“Oh okay,” TK nods, bathing in how Carlos takes him in. He catches two fingers in Carlos’ belt loops and Carlos lets himself be pulled, hands going to TK’s waist. TK lowers his voice. “And I don’t know if anyone told you but where I’m from, when you take out a hot date, you’re supposed to let them win.”
He feels how large Carlos’ hands are on him, his thumb overlaps his last rib, and his little finger brushes his hip bone. He’s just so sexy TK can’t help himself, there’s an enticing confidence in his attraction. The way he told him he was packing a piece in the middle of the bar wiped TK’s brain clean, causing him to desperately scramble together words to make coherent sentences for the next half an hour. No guy has ever had him speechless before, he always knows what to say to get them interested, get them horny, get them gone. Carlos must know how much he wants him.
“Oh right, sorry about that,” Carlos says, scrunching his nose.
TK squints and pokes a finger at his chest. “That’s- that’s not me saying you won.”
“Of course,” Carlos indulges. “I was just going with the idea I was supposed to impress you.”
“With your dart skills?”
“I know it’s no window washer hanging off the Empire State building but-”
“It was the Chrysler b- Shut up.”
He wants them this close without clothes on. He wants Carlos inside of him. All this strength and charm and power, he wants to be the centre of its attention, to be at the white-hot core of its heat. He’s wanted it since the moment they laid eyes on each other, but he feels the presence closer now, like it’s inevitable.
TK rolls his eyes and shrugs him away.
Carlos smiles and steps back in the direction of the small gravel parking lot. TK doesn’t see anyone around but accepts although its Austin, it’s still Texas and maybe tonguing it out here and now isn’t such a great idea and follows.
When they reach Carlos’ car, Carlos opens the passenger side door. He pauses for a second, not remembering if a guy has ever opened a car door for him.
TK is already borderline creepily obsessed with the way Carlos smells and gets a rush of it when he rounds the car and slides into the driver’s seat, the aftershave is nice but there’s something underneath he finds himself gravitating towards.
“Thanks for tonight,” he says as the engine roars to life. “I had fun. Sorry for being a dick in the beginning.
“No problem,” Carlos says. “And you weren’t.” TK gets the sense he means it.
He wouldn’t blame Carlos for running a hundred miles in the other direction, he hasn’t exactly painted himself in the best light since they met, storming out of a date, admitting to being an addict, getting arrested for starting a bar fight and looking like he was going to start another one tonight with some guy he works with. He knows he was a lousy date for the first portion of the night. As soon as they walked into the bar and saw Judd, he immediately felt as much rage as he did back at the firehouse. But, thanks to Carlos and his incredible superpower of being able to snap him back to reality, not all was lost.
“And thanks for driving us in your sexy car.”
Carlos turns to him with a quirk of his eyebrow. “You think its sexy?”
It’s more excited and genuine than cocky and has TK fighting his cheeks to hold back the smile wanting to break free.
“Not as much as you do,” he teases.
Carlos flicks the blinker to the left as they pull towards an intersection.
“I can drop you back at yours…”
TK reaches over the console to place his hand lightly on Carlos’ jeaned thigh, tracing the inseam. “Or we could go back to your place.”
Their eyes meet, purpose and hope rush through him.
“Or we could go back to my place.”
Carlos flicks the blinker to the right and takes the corner hard.
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