Work Text:
With Carlos at work, TK found himself in a bookstore in downtown Austin that he’d come to love. It was quiet and they had a cute senior dog in the store that TK liked to feed treats whenever he came in.
“Hey, TK! You’re back!”
The store owners were a pair of best friends that lived above the store with their dog. TK had made fast friends with both of them, mostly because he wanted to befriend the dog and the humans kept the treats. He was still friends with the humans, but mainly he came to the bookstore to check out the latest selection of books and pet the dog.
“Hi, Nat,” TK gave her a smile and wave and started browsing the shelves for a new book for Carlos. They had a nice little thing where they’d pick out books for each other and so far, they’ve liked every single book. “Got anything new this week?”
“Uh, I believe we do. I think we might have another science fiction novel if Carlos liked the one that you got him a few weeks ago?” Nat replied, ducking under the desk and searching for the new releases they haven’t put on the shelves yet.
She popped up a few seconds later with a novel TK had been looking for the past few weeks, if not months. He gasped and held out his hands to take the book from Nat when she offered it to him.
He thanked her and quickly moved to one of the comfy chairs they had at the heart of the store for people that came in to study or read. He sat down and opened to the first chapter and started reading.
The bell on the door rang and TK looked up even though he couldn’t see it. It was odd to hear it, this was usually the quietest time of day, no one came in during this time except for TK. He heard Nat greet whoever came in and ask if they were looking for anything in particular. He froze when the other person replied.
“Hi, I’m just looking, thanks,” the voice replied. TK’s heart dropped to his stomach, he recognised that voice and wished it wasn’t him.
He stood up quickly and started moving through the aisles to try and hide from the person until he could sneakily make his way to the front and pay for the books he wanted to get and then leave without being spotted.
Of course, it was never that easy.
“There you are, Mitchell thought he saw you come in here,” Alex snarled, pushing TK up against the wall, TK winced as his back connected with the switches on the wall. “You haven’t changed a bit, huh?”
“Just leave me alone, Alex, I’m happy here, you can’t ruin that,” TK said, attempting to step forward and gain his confidence back. Alex seemed to have other plans, though.
“You’ll never be happy, TK, don’t you get it? You’ll never be good enough for anyone. Your little pig boyfriend is going to abuse you, don’t you know the statistics of cops that abuse their significant others?”
“That’s not Carlos. You don’t know Carlos like I do. He’s wonderful and twice the man you ever were and ever will be,” TK snarked.
“Listen to me,” Alex growled, pushing TK against the wall again, crowding into his space and grabbing his chin and forcing them to make eye contact. “Carlos isn’t who you think he is. He’s going to cheat on you, hell, he probably already is cheating on you because you’re not enough for him.” TK pushed Alex away from him, sidestepping past his ex and walking off.
“Nat, I gotta go, can you hold onto these for me?” TK asked, setting the books he had been holding on the counter. Nat nodded wordlessly, not really wanting to get involved with whatever had just happened on the other side of the bookstore. “Thank you.”
TK left quickly, debating on going two blocks to the police station or just getting an Uber back to Carlos’ place and waiting until Carlos came home to talk about it. On the one hand, TK wanted Carlos to know that Alex was apparently in Texas, but on the other hand, TK wanted to deal with this on his own.