Work Text:
Carlos was having a shift from hell.
He was drowning in paperwork after his boss put him on desk duty for the rest of his shift to rest his eye after a drunk woman had too many mimosas at brunch and punched him when they arrived at the scene.
With his now pounding headache, he was ready for his shift to be over and to go home to TK, but when he looked at his watch he still had about 4 more hours to go.
“Great,” he mumbled to himself.
Mitchell had just strolled in with her temporary partner for the day after Carlos’ incident and heard him.
“That’s the spirit.” she said while smirking and leaning on the side of her desk which was right next to Carlos’.
After his bad call which turned out to be right, Carlos and Mitchell had new respect for each other and formed more of a younger brother/older sister relationship. She was always grateful to him since his call ended up saving their lives and Carlos had made sure not to let Mitchell get in any trouble for it.
“I’m just ready to go home. How’d that call go?” he was just exhausted.
“Went alright, nothing major. Here’s some more ice for that eye.” she said while handing him a new ice pack wrapped with a paper towel so the cold wasn’t to intense. “Did you tell your boy yet?”
“Thank you and no, not yet.” Carlos was dreading telling TK. It wasn’t cause he was scared or anything but more that he knew TK would get all worried and go into paramedic mode. He just didn’t wanna distract his boyfriend.
Mitchell gave him her look. As in the you’re being stupid, do the right thing look. He hated it.
“Fine,” he said while throwing his hands in the air as a surrender.
Just as he did that Mitchell’s radio came alive requesting assistance at a minor collision.
They exchanged goodbyes and Carlos looked at his phone getting ready to call TK and preparing the best way to tell him while making him the least worried possible.
Right before he pressed the call button his phone stared buzzing. It was TK. “Did he read my mind?” Carlos thought to himself.
“Hey babe!” TK said as Carlos answered. TK was actually having a pretty good and slow day.
“Hi.” Carlos said blunty. He didn’t know why it came out that way. He was just exhausted.
There was silence for a few seconds. Before he was met with a:
“What’s wrong?” TK said politely as if he already knew something was up.
“...How could you possibly know somethings wrong?” He said while smiling. Of course TK would know.
“Well first, you usually call me a lot earlier, then you answered with just ‘Hi’ not ‘Hey mi amor/Ty/babe’ or whatever cute little nickname you come up with that day. Oh and a few minutes ago I heard that you got punched this morning so... there’s that. I think I’m spending to much time with Paul.”
Carlos just stood there for a bit before finally speaking. “I’m sorry mi amor, it’s just been a long day.”
“I know babe. How are you feeling? Do you need anything?” TK wasn’t upset. Just concerned. As always.
“Better now that I’m talking to you. It’s really not big deal. Just a rough shift.” And Carlos was telling the truth. TK believed him.
That’s when the lightbulb in TKs head turned on. And this was the good lightbulb. Not the usual about to do something stupid and/or reckless lightbulb.
“Okay... hey is your lunch break still in 30 minutes?” TK said trying not to sound suspicious.
“Yeah... why?” Carlos was in fact suspicious.
“No reason, just curious. Call me if you need anything. Love you, bye” TK said quickly and hung up before Carlos could respond.
Carlos didn’t think too much of it and just moved back to his paperwork.
•
Once TK hung up he immediately hopped into his car. He knew Carlos didn’t have lunch for this shift since they had no time to go grocery shopping that week, so he went to Carlos’ favorite lunch spot which was a small place owned by Andreas best friend, Elena.
Elena already knew TK after the times TK and Carlos had come into the restaurant and talking to him at Tia Lucy’s. She also knew their orders and loved to secretly throw a free dessert in the bag and always insisted it was on the house if TK or Carlos ever tried to pay her for it.
TK got to the restaurant and talked with her a bit while the chef made their food and without getting too specific to make her worry or worse have her tell Andrea, he just told her Carlos was having a bit of a rough shift.
Once their food was done Elena had slipped two small chocolate cupcakes in the bag and luckily TK hadn’t noticed so he wouldn’t have to go back and forth with her to pay for them which was a battle both him and Carlos always lost.
•
TK practically sped to the police station.
He chatted for a bit with one of their friends, Joy who worked at the front desk before asking her if she knew where Carlos was.
TK found Carlos sitting outside scrolling on his phone with no food in front of him. He felt a bit of relief since Carlos’ lunch break had just started so he had no time to leave the station to get food.
“Hi,” TK said while grinning and putting the bag of food on the table Carlos was sitting at. Carlos looked up and just about melted when he saw his boyfriend.
“Hey cariño, what’s this?” Carlos was holding back tears considering no one has ever done this for him before and it reminded Carlos of how much he loves TK.
“Just a little lunch for you from Tia Elenas” TK said while smiling and giving Carlos a quick kiss before turning serious when he realized Carlos’ eye. “Babe, you said it wasn’t that bad!”
“It’s fine, I swear it looks worse than it is.” Carlos said calmly so TK wouldn’t worry.
“Okay...” TK hesitated before sitting down in the chair across from Carlos and pulling out the food he got.
He finally realized the cupcakes Elena had put and smiled knowing it was the perfect way to lift Carlos’ spirits.
“This is really sweet mi amor, thank you.” Carlos said while leaning across the table to kiss TKs forehead.
“You’re welcome,” TK said giving his usual heart eyes. “So... I need to know the story.” He said while grinning and pointing to Carlos’ eye.
Carlos glared at him before telling him the story while they ate.
•
Lunch was just what Carlos needed to feel better and TK had stayed as long as he could before needing to go back to the station to finish his shift.
Once TK left, Carlos went right back to what he was doing on his phone before TK came. Looking at engagement rings.
💜