Chapter Text
The night of the solar flare, Carlos drops TK home. Unfortunately, taking things slow means they can't jump into bed again so they both resign themselves to their half empty beds.
TK unlocks the front door of his dad's house and walks in, seeing the kitchen light still on, his dad probably left it like that so he wouldn't walk into any walls. He flips the switch and lightly goes up the stairs. The soft snores coming from his dads room indicate that he's been asleep for a while now and that nothing short of a fire alarm will wake him.
Once in his room, TK sheds his shoes and his clothes down to his boxers and slips into bed. Its been an emotional day and he's ready for sleep. He'll probably dream about Carlos like he usually does, but this time he won't need to settle for Dream-Carlos because the real one will be waiting for him tomorrow.
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The next day comes and TK treats Carlos to breakfast on the way to the precinct. TK is still on medical leave, and his dad has just extended it another 3 days after pulling his stitches so he's at loose ends about what to do.
On the drive back from the precinct, after wishing Carlos a safe and uneventful shift with a kiss more suitable as a welcome home than a send off, TK spots a Goodwill. Thinking that he should probably finish unpacking his boxes from New York and possibly go through his closet for things to donate, he's on his way home.
The day passes him right by as TK empties the last of the boxes with his stuff. TK didn't have a big apartment in New York which no one would ever believe considering how much stuff he seemed to accumulate. He'd also found a few shirts that no longer fit him comfortably that were is decent enough condition to be donated. Flattening the last box, TK spots a small box in the corner of the room, almost hidden by a garbage can. He thought he had squared away everything and couldn't remember what else he was missing.
Pulling the flaps open, and almost ripping them off by accident, he sucks in a breathe when he sees what in it. At the top of the box are shirts and a sweater that he had, once upon a time, nicked from Alex's closet. Further into the box, TK found mementos like polaroids, ticket stubs and even a stuffed animal Alex had bought him when TK had gotten the flu. Their entire two year relationship was summed up in that one box, and TK felt that it was symbolic of how much depth their relationship actually had. The were good together, superficially, but as soon as they needed to really care about each other, Alex couldn't be bothered and TK himself couldn't notice that he was attached to the idea of Alex and not the man himself.
Checking out the quality of the clothes in the box, TK divvies up the contents; photos and mementos into the trash, clothes and the lone stuffed animal into the bag of things to be donated. Tying off the bag, TK takes out the garbage, puts the Goodwill bag into the trunk of the car and hops in to pick up Carlos from his shift. He's lucky that Carlos only had an eight hour today, instead of the usual twelve hour. If TK really thinks about it, he been lucky about a few things this past three months. Despite the circumstances that brought him to Austin, TK is where he needs to be, wants to be.