Work Text:
Owen wakes up with a start. He's not sure what exactly roused him, but he's awake now. He rubs his eyes, taking a moment to stretch out on the bed. The flicker of the clock attracts his vision, and he reads the blue "1:23 AM" with a frown. Why did he wake up after midnight?!
He turns to a side, pulling his blanket up around his shoulder and trying to find a position that'll send him back to slumber when his phone pings. He decides to ignore it, the edges of sleep tickling his consciousness when it pings again, and again.
With a sigh, he reaches forward and grabs his phone, the glare of the screen blinding him for a moment until he turns on the bedside table. He looks back at the phone, finding five messages from Carlos.
A chill runs through Owen. For a moment he thinks something happened with TK. But then he remembers that they're both off for the next day, and he knows that TK is asleep in his room down the hall. He relaxes immediately, only to frown again when his phone pings with yet another message. He opens the thread.
Carlos Reyes: HIIIIIII TJ
Carlos Reyes: TL***
Carlos Reyes: TK********
Carlos Reyes: i drank sooo mucj
Carlos Reyes: i am frunk
Carlos Reyes: i lobe yoi sooo muvj
Owen stares at his phone, blinking in confusion. Carlos is… drunk, that much he's sure of. And he loves his son, which he's glad about. But he also seems to think that Owen is actually TK. Which is unfortunate. He's about to reply with a clarification when he gets four new messages in quick succession.
Carlos Reyes: i niss tou too
Carlos Reyes: van i see yiu when I het hone?
Carlos Reyes: i wamma cuffle
Carlos Reyes: cuddle
He can't help the smile that graces his face. Seeing how Carlos still thinks about his son, even in a drunk state, warms a deep corner of his soul. It's the kind of love he's always hoped for his son.
Carlos Reyes: amd kiss tou
Carlos Reyes: ans fuck yoi
And then it's no longer wholesome. He groans, dropping the phone and covering his face, as if that'll somehow erase the image that's been painted in his mind. He moves his phone away, putting it down on the table when it pings again, and again, and again.
He groans out loud again, reaching for the phone as he takes a deep breath. Two more pings come in during the time it takes him to do that. He turns the screen on, bringing the thread back up.
Carlos Reyes: uoire thw best thinj to eber hapoen to me
Carlos Reyes: i wanma lobe yoi forevr
Carlos Reyes: ill dhow yoi wiyh endless kissed
Owen glares at the phone, as if it can travel through the phone and reach Carlos. He sees the three dots bubbling about and he makes a decision, bringing up his own keyboard to type a reply.
Owen Strand: Carlos, this is Owen. You're texting the wrong Strand.
The bubbles pause for a moment, and Owen thinks he's going to get an apology text, or maybe even he'll get ignored and that will be tomorrow's problem. But they come back on the screen three seconds later and then he's getting a message.
Carlos Reyes: anf lobing sex
Carlos Reyes: yoi shoufl pivk me up do we cab habe s fucj
In a decision made over a split second, Owen is getting out of bed and marching down the hall to TK's room. He pauses at the door, straining to listen for movement. When he doesn't hear anything he softly knocks on the door. He gets a soft "hmm" almost immediately. So he swings the door open.
He finds TK in bed, blanket crowded at his feet and a book in his hands, eyes wide and awake. He pauses for a second, he was sure TK would be asleep. They did just return from a twenty-four-hour shift a few hours ago. He’s about to ask when TK beats him to it.
"You okay?" TK asks, looking at the clock on his bedside table. "It's almost one-thirty, dad. Why are you still awake?"
Owen sighs, remembering the reason he came in search of TK in the first place. There's a lot of things he would have seen himself telling his son, his own blood and flesh, at an hour after midnight. This is not one of them. And yet.
"Your boyfriend is drunk and wants to have sex with you," he says, going straight to the point.
TK stares at him, head turning to a side in pure confusion as his forehead creases into a frown. "My what? What?!"
"Your. Boyfriend. Is. Drunk. And. Wants. To. Have. Sex. With. You," he repeats.
"Wait, how do you know, what are you talking about?!" He asks, putting the book down and coming to a weird half-seated position where he has one leg half bent out in front of him and the other is tucked underneath him.
As if on cue, Owen's phone pings two more times. He brings the phone up, reading the messages quickly and then he's stepping into TK's room, scrolling up to the beginning of the messages and handing the phone over.
Carlos Reyes: r u oivking me uo?
Carlos Reyes: ill oay you eith sex
He watches as TK's eyes move from one side to the other on the screen, smiling at parts and then eyes widening at others, before he ends with a hand to his face, hiding away behind his palms.
"Oh, god," he groans. "He's so drunk."
Owen can't help the snort that rises through his throat, shaking in head in amusement. "Yes, that's an understatement."
The phone rings again in TK's hand. They share a look before TK turns the screen on and reads the messages. Owen doesn't want to know what the contents are when they're the cause of a bright red flush that takes over TK's face and neck. Still, he can't resist when the opportunity presents itself like this.
"What's he saying?"
TK stutters, looking up at Owen then down at the phone. "He's asking if I'm picking him up. The designated driver is drunk too."
Owen might have not been there for the large part of his kid's life, but he still knows when he's hiding something. And right now, TK is hiding something. But he understands; he knows his relationship with TK isn't usual, he knows that they are way too comfortable discussing their sex lives, but Carlos isn't. And Owen can't do much more than nod in acceptance when his son is trying to protect and respect his boyfriend's dignity.
"Okay, get dressed. Be at the door in ten minutes," he gets off the bed, heading to the door.
"Wait, wait, what?" TK calls. "Where are we going?"
Owen turns around slowly, facing TK, as if the answer wasn't obvious. "We're going to pick him up. You don't have a license yet, so I'm driving," he explains. "So let's go, your man is waiting."
It takes TK a moment, but then he’s getting on his feet and moving around the bed into his closet. Owen closes the door and walks to his own room, changing his pyjama pants to sweatpants and slipping into a pair of sneakers. He’s at the front door in minutes, keys and wallet in hand. TK comes barrelling through the house behind him in seconds.
They’re in the car, Owen turning the ignition on, when a quick succession of four or five messages ping through. TK glances at him out of the corner of his eye before he focuses back on his hands and turns the screen on. Owen catches the edge of a picture, and, from what he could tell, it’s just a selfie of Carlos and his partner, Jack. He decides to focus on the task in hand, asking TK for the location of the bar and swerving out of their driveway.
The drive isn’t that long, the bar a mere fifteen minutes away from their home. They spend the ride singing along to the music coming from the Bluetooth speakers, until a few messages ping through, at which point TK would stop singing, pull up the messages, type something in reply, and then get back to the singing.
They’re about half-way there when the ringing sounds around the entire car. Owen recognises the call notification and presses on the reply button a little too fast for his brain to remember that Carlos is texting him right now, and this is probably Carlos calling, and the phone is connected to the car’s Bluetooth system.
“HIIIIIIIIIII!” Carlos’ loud, clearly drunk and slurring voice fills the car a bare second after he’s pressed the button on his steering wheel, his tone so high-pitched Owen finds himself wincing.
“Hi! Hi, baby, hi,” TK is already screaming in reply, bringing the phone to his mouth only to pull it away when he realises it’s all around him, and then just saying it into the void. “Are you okay? Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, everything is perfecto,” Carlos answers with a sigh, his voice muffled and mixing with the bar around him now that he isn’t screaming. “I just miss you, so, so, so much. And I’m sad.”
Owen glances at TK, the look of worry on his face mirrored on TK’s.
“Why are you sad? Is everything okay?”
“Jack is hugging and kissing Alana, and I’m here, alone and lonely,” Carlos replies in a tone that makes Owen right about a hundred percent sure that he’s pouting. He shakes his head as TK chuckles.
“You’re not lonely baby, you’re there with your friends,” he reminds Carlos.
“But my friends are kissing each other and making out and I think Alana has her hand in Jack’s pants and I’m here without your hands in my pa-”
The rest of his sentence is cut by a short scream from TK as he fumbles with the phone, finally pressing the button that disconnects the Bluetooth. Owen manages to resist laughing out loud but he has no power against the grin that splits his face wide. He feigns ignorance as he listens to TK whispering his replies. Somehow, even through the phone and the distance, he still hears Carlos, loud, loveable and oh so drunk.
A few minutes later and they’re finally pulling up the bar, pulling into the parking lot. Owen finds the closest free spot, putting the car in park and turning to face TK, who has his head down, the phone still pressed to his ear. He seems to have not even realised that they’ve arrived at their destination.
“Hey,” he nudges TK, nodding towards the bar when TK looks up at him. “Go get him.”
TK smiles at Owen, opening the door and dropping his phone into the seat. “I’ll call you if I need anything?” he asks, closing the door and moving towards the bar when Owen nods.
He follows TK until he disappears into the threshold of the bar, then closes his eyes and rests his head on the backrest of his seat as he sighs. He isn’t sure how his night came to this end, but here he is. He’s also sure he would have never done the same for any of TK’s previous boyfriends. But Carlos isn’t any boyfriend. Carlos is… Carlos is good. Carlos is a different type of man than the ones TK has been with. Carlos is nice, and respectful, and sweet. Carlos loves his son.
He supposes that’s what this all comes down to. The fact that he knows that Carlos loves his son, the way he always knew TK deserves to be loved. And he knows that TK loves Carlos, too. It’s the love that he’s only ever dreamt of TK having, a dream that seemed to get farther and farther away with every new man TK introduced him to. Until Carlos walked into TK’s life. He doesn’t want to undermine TK’s own work and tribulations to make himself better, but Carlos has no doubt been a large part of the support system he’s had during that time.
And so, if Owen has to wake up at one-thirty in the morning to drive his son to a bar so he can pick up said son’s drunk boyfriend, he’s willing to do that in a heartbeat.
A dull crash against the side of the car has Owen opening his eyes in alarm and looking at the side-mirrors of the car. He doesn’t see anything in the driver’s side of the car, but when he looks towards the passenger’s side, well, he sees TK, back pressed to the side of the car. And he sees Carlos, hovering over TK. And he sees two tongues fighting in the middle of the space between them before their mouths slam back together. And then, through the car, he hears the loud, unmistakable moan.
“Oh, no. No, no, no,” he groans, looking back in front of him. It’s one thing for him to read what Carlos wants to do to his son, it’s a completely different thing for him to see it starting to happen. He takes a few deep breaths, glancing at the mirror every few moments. When he sees that they’re still in the same position, he leans over the console, knocking on the window until TK breaks the kiss and turns around.
His eyes widen when he sees Owen, hands coming up from wherever they are to hold Carlos around the shoulders. TK might have seen Owen, but Carlos seems to still be in his own fairyland; he trails kisses down TK’s neck until he gets to a spot and then his head stops in there. Owen doesn’t need to guess what Carlos is doing right now, the way TK’s eyes flutter shut tell him all he needs to know.
But no, this is too much. He leans over, knocking on the window again until TK’s eyes open and takes a deep breath, hands tightening around Carlos’ shoulders as he slowly pulls him away. Owen did not need to see the line of saliva connecting Carlos’ lips to TK’s neck.
He hears them exchange a few sentences, voice low and sultry, if he has to guess. Carlos’ eyes are blown wide, a smile permanently glued on his face, even as he nods and shakes his head in reply to whatever TK is saying. He hears Carlos giggle one last time and then TK is moving them back enough to open the back door.
“Hello, Mister Strand,” Carlos greets him the moment the door is open, words slurred, smile wide and eyes bright. “How ya doin?”
“I’m all good, Carlos, how are you?” he asks, chuckling as TK helps Carlos settle in.
“I’m fantastic! Did you know that TK came to pick me up because I asked him to?!”
This time Owen really can’t help the laugh that booms out of his chest. He hears TK snicker as well, Carlos joining in at the end. “Did he now?”
“Yes, yes, he did,” he nods his head almost aggressively. “He’s the bestest ever. I love him so much.”
“I love you too, baby,” TK replies, kissing Carlos softly on the lips as he finally finishes securing the seatbelt. Owen turns around, focusing on turning on the car -as if it takes that much concentration- to give them a moment alone. He hears them exchange “I love you’s” a few times and then TK retreats, closing the back door and opening the front one to get his own self into the car.
TK is barely a foot into the car when Carlos calls from the backseat. “TK?”
“Yeah, what’s up?” he asks, turning around in his seat to look at Carlos.
“Why are you so far away? How am I supposed to hold you?” Carlos speaks in the same tone as earlier, the one Owen thought was coming from a pouting face. Looking at the rearview mirror, he sees that there is indeed a pout on Carlos.
“I’m right here, baby,” TK answers, extending an arm to rub at Carlos’ curls.
“But, you’re so far away. I’m all alone in this big seat! You should sit here! With me! You can even sit on m-”
“OKAY!!!!” TK interrupts yet again. “Let’s not do that, baby. We need to be safe.”
Owen hears a sigh and then Carlos is mumbling his approval. He waits until TK is twisted back in his seat and has put his seatbelt on before he starts the journey back.
It’s only then that he realises they haven’t discussed where they would be driving back to.
“Where are we going, TK?”
“TO SEX LAND!” Carlos screams, and a perfectly coordinated groan leaves both the Strand men.
“Carlos, no!” TK retorts.
“Carlos, YES!” Carlos says back.
Owen sees TK opening his mouth from the corner of his eye, but Carlos evidently isn’t finished speaking.
“Hey, Owen, you should take us to my house, that way we can make as much noise as we want,” he says, much to the dismay of everyone that isn’t Carlos. He doesn’t seem to realise what’s wrong with what he’s saying, he just keeps talking. “TK gets really loud at times, and I do too to be honest, and it’s so hard to stay quiet when we are in your house, so we should go to my house.”
As funny as this entire situation is, the conviction with which Carlos says it leaves Owen no choice but to respect him, even as TK tries to sink deeper into his seat in an attempt to blend with the upholstery.
“Okay, Carlos, I’ll take you guys to your house,” Owen says, shaking his head at both Carlos and TK’s shenanigans.
“Thank yooou, Owen,” Carlos says. Owen is about to focus back on the street when Carlos gasps, and the sound of skin hitting skin echoes around in the car.
Owen looks through the rearview mirror, finding Carlos with his hands covering his mouth, and eyes wide, as if he just saw something from his nightmares. The empty streets make it easy for Owen to cross two lanes and stop in the sideway, both Strands turning around to face a now teary-eyed Carlos.
Owen turns on the overhead lights as TK fumbles with his seatbelt, trying to get it undone, even as he keeps his eyes on Carlos, asking him what’s wrong. It’s only when he’s in the backseat with him that Carlos unclutches his face and wipes his tears.
“I was rude to your dad, TK. I was so rude to your dad, my mom is going to be so mad at me,” he whispers. “I didn’t say mister, TK.”
Owen feels the concern -so thick a moment ago- melt and dissolve into nothing. He sinks into his seat, turning to sit straight. TK stays back with Carlos, wiping his tears and whispering sweet nothings as he assures him that his mother would not be mad at him. Carlos tries to fight him on it, saying that she most definitely would be, but he stops pretty quick once TK asks if he trusts him.
He uses the distraction to grab his phone from the glove compartment, where TK disposed of it earlier. He brings up the camera, making sure that the flash is off, and presses on record.
He can’t see the screen and what he’s filming, but through the rearview mirror, he sees TK wiping Carlos’ tears, forehead leaning on him as he presses kisses to his temple in between whispers and smiles. He sees Carlos hold onto TK’s arm, looking up at him with a soft smile and wet tears. A few moments later Carlos giggles and TK smiles at him, pressing a final kiss to his forehead before he straightens up and buckles himself next to Carlos.
He’s about to turn off the camera when Carlos presses a kiss to TK’s shoulder and lays his head onto it. His hand runs along TK’s arm, intertwining their fingers. “I love you,” he whispers.
TK takes a breath, a soft smile gracing his face as he turns his face to another kiss atop Carlos’ curls.
Owen turns off the screen, putting the phone away and switching off the light. He turns on the car, focusing back on the journey.
By the time he’s pulling up into Carlos’ driveway, the back seat is quiet. He switches the car off, looking back to find Carlos -head still on TK’s shoulder- with his eyes closed and mouth open in soft, almost inaudible snores. TK has the fondest expression on his face as he looks down at Carlos, a hand wrapped around his, the other sweeping around Carlos’ head, playing with his curls.
He almost regrets bursting their bubble, but he doesn’t think the car is the most comfortable place for them all to be right now. So he lays a hand on TK’s knee, waiting until he looks up at him, looking almost dazed. “We’re here,” he whispers.
TK looks out of the window, recognition dawning on him. He nods in reply before he focuses down on Carlos, whispering to him softly as his eyes flutter open and he slowly rouses from his doze.
Carlos looks up at TK, a brief moment of a smile coming onto him before he stretches his limbs out as much as the car allows and then he curls back into his place, mumbling incoherence.
“Come on, baby, we’re here,” TK whispers. “Let’s go inside.”
Carlos opens his eyes at that, staring up at TK. “We gon’ cuddle?” he asks.
TK chuckles, shaking his head, the loving look never leaving his face. “Yeah, let’s go cuddle.”
Owen watches as TK helps himself and then Carlos out of the car, and then holds Carlos around the waist as they walk up the porch. TK takes a moment to slip his hand into Carlos’ front pocket, producing a set of keys that he inserts into the front door lock.
As they move into the house, TK turns and nods at Owen, and he returns it. When Carlos looks at him though and turns to do the same, with much more enthusiasm, waving at him, face scrunched with a wide grin, Owen can’t help but repeat it to him, waving back at the giant dork.
The lights inside the house turn on, and the door finally closes. Owen takes a few moments sitting in the car alone, in the dark. He supposes he should feel some loneliness, but he doesn’t. All he feels is happiness and giddiness for his son, amusement regarding the entire situation, and hope for the future that TK and Carlos will be sharing together.