Chapter Text
Carlos Reyes was bord, really bord. He was wedged in a booth in a bar in New York surrounded by his colleagues. They were all in the city for a policing conference; the conference itself was fine, fascinating even, the part of these conferences he hated was the socialising. This usually meant sitting in a bar somewhere talking to people you only meet that day, usually about each other’s sex life’s and strangers trying to set you up for the night. It was always awkward to explain to practical strangers that the tall guy with dark hair was more his type than the perky blond stood by the bar that had all the other guys in the place were tripping over themselves to talk to just to be turned down. It’s not that Carlos wasn’t out to at work or that he didn’t want people to know; he didn’t see why it needed to be broadcasted to everyone he met.
So here he was, stood at the bar waiting to be noticed by the bartender so he could order another drink, which was defiantly going to be needed if he was to get through the night, watching as his colleagues tried to chat up different women. None of them took them up on their offers to go back to their hotel rooms. He had finally ordered his beer when a guy who just walked in and straight up to the bar caught his eye. At first glance, Carlos noticed he was good looking, but the more he looked, the more he realised just how gorgeous this guy was. He was a couple of inches short than himself, had beautiful green eyes, and his brown hair looked like it had just enough product in that it held its shape, but if he were to run his fingers through it, they wouldn’t feel greasy. Carlos shook his head; he knew he shouldn’t be thinking like this; he didn’t even know the guy let alone if he was into guys.
*********
TK was having the worst day ever. He had been on a 24-hr shift; on their last call, they responded to an apartment fire that left them with two severe casualties (dad and daughter) and two fatalities (mum and son). Call where people died was always hard, but it was even more complicated to lose a kid. All TK wanted to do was go to his boyfriends and cuddle up with Alex, eat take out and watch shitty rom coms in bed; it turns out that Alex had other plans that didn’t include him but included his spin instructor in their bed instead. TK had shouted a few choice words at the pair before storming out of the flat.
TK ran as fast as he could away from Alex’s apartment; he ran till he got to a bar, a bar where no one knew him; that way, no one would report back to his dad that he had been there. He was currently fighting the urge to use, the desire to find a dealer and not give a shit what anyone thought. TK knew from previous experience that the drugs would make all the hurt and pain go away, but he couldn’t throw away all the progress he had made; he just celebrated being four years sober two weeks ago. He couldn’t make this decision sober; that’s why he went to the bar, to get drunk enough that he would forget about his dad’s disappointment when it all gets out because it always gets back to his father.
He entered the building and went straight up to the bar to drink. As he’s waiting for his drink, when a guy stands next to him, TK turns his head to look at him. When he does, he sees the most gorges man he’s ever seen. To TK, he’s the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome. He’s always liked guys that are taller than he is. The dark brown curls made him look hot and adorable at the same time, not even to mention his arms and shoulders looked like they were so big and strong they could lift TK without any problem. God, he loved a guy with big strong arms; that was an area Alex lacked.
*********
Once Carlos had gotten over himself, he bit the bullet and turned around to talk to the handsome man next to him.
“Hi,” Carlos says weakly.
“Hey,” the man said back, the situation was beginning to get a bit awkward.
“Can I buy you a drink?” Carlos asked
“Yeah, I’ll have sparkling water”, he replied. Carlos ordered the two drinks and passed the water to the man next to him.
“So do I get a name, or do I have to keep calling you handsome in my head” Carlos cringed at how he sounded.
“Smooth and the name TK, what’s yours, beautiful” The man, TK, laughed.
“Carlos”, he replied, ducking his head as a blush rose his cheeks, making him look even more adorable than before.
“I’m guessing from the accent you’re not from around here,” TK asked.
“No, I’m not; I’m from Austin, in Texas,” Carlos replied.
“a cowboy, nice. Do you have the hat to match the accent,” TK asked cheekily.
“I can be persuaded for the right guy”, he laughed “are you local or from out of state.”
“Manhattan-born and raised”, TK replied, “so what brought you into the city, cowboy” he winked.
“Police convention, I’m a patrol officer with the APD.”
“A man in uniform, I like that”, TK Stated flirty “What the conference about”
“It’s something they do every year for officers across the country who might be becoming detectives in the next few years”, Carlos starts excitedly. He loved his job and loved talking about it, which meant he could often get carried away. Many past dates had been put off with how much he could talk about his job, which wasn’t great with the limited number of gay men in Austin. “Sorry, I tend to ramble a bit when I start talking about my job”, he apologised nervously.
“It’s fine, and I understand I can get the same way when I get talking about my job. I’m a firefighter,” TK stated.
*********
Three hours later, the pair were now sitting in a booth, still talking and laughing, about different things that they had seen on calls and about their childhoods. They were still talking when the barman came to tell them that it was closing time.
“What happens now,” Carlos asked nervously; he wasn’t used to meeting men in bars and wasn’t too sure what happened next.
“Well, we can either swap numbers and go our separate ways and probably never see each other again, or we can still swap numbers, but you can come back to mine and have some coffee and maybe something else”, TK replied, hoping that Carlos was going to choose the second option cause what he thought was going to be a quick one night stand to get over Alex and stop him going for drugs, had quickly turned into him wanting to get to know Carlos more. He was excited to see where this might go. At the moment, he wasn’t bothered about the fact that Carlos was going back to Texas in two days; he just wanted to live in the moment for once and not think about the consequences of his actions.
“Well, we wouldn’t want the first option to happen, would we now, so I think I should come back to yours, and we can see where this is going”, Carlos replied sexily, backing TK into the wall behind them, leaning in for a kiss and TK was more than happy let him. Once they had both pulled away breathlessly, TK dragged Carlos for a couple of blocks back to his apartment, occasionally stopping to make out. Eventually, they made it back to TKs apartment; they fell Into bed together and stayed till the following day.