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TK Strand was exhausted, physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted, and all he wanted to do was go home and sleep.
Except, he wasn’t entirely sure that he even had a home to return to.
Not after the week.
Not after he and Carlos had spent the last nine days fighting over every little thing they could think of.
And sometimes, their fights didn’t even make any sense.
Take last night for instance, when they had fought over the microwave.
Or rather, the lack of a microwave.
It was so stupid and immmautre and TK felt like a child getting mad over what shoes he was being asked to wear.
He didn’t understand why having a microwave was such a big deal, everyone had a microwave.
Everyone except for Carlos Reyes that was.
So they had fought about it.
And they had fought about what to have for dinner and what movie to watch and what temperature to set the thermostat to that night.
They had gone to bed beyond angry with each other, their bodies refusing to touch as they slept with their backs facing the other.
TK had barely slept and he had woken up angry.
And he had worked an entire shift, angry.
And now, well now he was just tired.
But his dad had had plans for the night that apparently required TK to not be at the house, and Judd and Grace had finally convinced Harlow to sleep through the night, so he wasn’t going over there and bothering them either.
He had thought about asking Paul if he could crash on his couch, but he and Marjan were hosting their book club tonight and he knew that was the last place he wanted to be.
There was always Tommy’s house, but he knew that the girls would want to do makeovers and eat junk food all night and he wasn’t in the mood for that right now.
Nor was he in the mood for dealing with Mateo’s weird roommates.
So that meant he had to go home, and he had to face Carlos and he hated it.
Letting out a sigh he reached up and inserted his key into the lock, pushing the door open slowly as he listened out for any signs of movement inside the small house.
He was met with silence and while that would normally worry him, he wasn’t surprised.
Carlos had probably gone to stay with Michelle, or was working a later shift in order to avoid him.
It certainly wouldn’t be the first time and he knew it wouldn’t be the last.
TK kicked off his shoes as he stepped inside, his bag dropping to the floor beside the front door before he made his way into the kitchen.
Grabbing a bottle of water he sighed before taking a sip.
This was just weird and he didn’t like it.
“Ty, is that you?” He almost spit cold water all over the kitchen floor when he heard Carlos’ voice from upstairs.
“Uh, yeah.” He hadn’t expected the man to be home, especially given how quiet it had been up until this point.
“I’ll be right down.” TK shrugged as he leaned back against the counter.
It really didn’t matter to him if Carlos stayed up there all night and he new that was wrong, but he couldn’t help it.
He was angry and tired and he was just over it.
But sure enough, a few minutes later Carlos rounded the corner into their kitchen and offered him a smile before dropping a stack of papers on the counter.
“What, you’re filing for a divorce over a microwave?” TK knew he was being silly, but he was a little bitter and the words just kind of came tumbling out.
“No TK, I’m not filing for a divorce.” Carlos whispered softly as he moved to stand across from him. “And I bought a microwave, just so you know.”
TK found his eyes searching the kitchen for the new object but he was coming up empty.
“It’s on it’s way.” Well that explained it. “Amazon says it’ll be here tomorrow.”
“Okay.” He wasn’t sure how to respond to that so he just nodded his head with his one word answer and he watched as Carlos’ shoulders slumped.
“I’m sorry that we fought so much last night, Ty.” It wasn’t unlike Carlos to apologize first, but TK was fairly certain that he had wanted to kill him less than twenty four hours ago, so this was a big step. “It was all…”
“Stupid?” He could admit that he was being just as stupid as Carlos, he really could, and the whole thing felt so unneccesary now that it all had passed.
“Yeah.” At least he was in agreement with him. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry too.” And he was, because going to bed angry was not something he enjoyed at all. “And I’m sorry that I’ve been a little bratty lately.”
“It’s okay.” He didn’t tell him that he wasn’t a brat and TK couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “Paul said you were probably feeling a little insecure in our relationship and that that’s probably why you were freaking out a little.”
“First of all, Paul needs to stay out of it.” He loved the man like a brother and he really appreciated his friendship, but damn, he really needed him to get out of his head. “Second of all, he’s probably a little right.”
He was more than right and they both knew it, but TK didn’t want to admit that out loud right now.
“Look TK, you know I love you.” Of course he knew that, you didn’t typically marry someone that you didn’t at least love a little bit. “And that’s never going to change okay?”
“Okay.” He was still learning to accept these things and sometimes it was hard. “I just…”
“I know.” Carlos moved toward him and didn’t stop until their noses were touching and his hands were on TK’s hips, gripping tightly as he held him in place. “It’s okay to feel that way Tyler, but you gotta talk to me about it.”
“I will, I promise.” They had come so far in the past four years and it wasn’t fair to Carlos that he still acted like this sometimes.
“I love you.” His husband’s lips hovered over his and TK blinked back a few tears.
“I love you more.” He whispered back.
And then Carlos was kissing him softly and all was forgotten.
Things were back to normal just like that.