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TK looks up from the website he’s been browsing as he hears the door to the loft open and watches Carlos walk through. His fiancé looks tired and he doesn’t even look up as he toes off his shoes and sets his duffle down next to the front door. Carlos leaving things even slightly out of place like this indicates his level of exhaustion and TK is thankful that they have the next 48 hours off together. He’s just hoping Carlos will be up for his plan for tomorrow.
Carlos sinks into the couch next to TK; head leaning heavily on his shoulder, eyes closed. TK kisses the top of his head and then goes back to reading the webpage he has open. He feels Carlos shift on his shoulder and he knows the moment that he looks at what TK’s doing, because Carlos lets out a disgruntled noise.
“How many tabs can you possibly have open?” Carlos mumbles in clear disdain.
TK just shrugs, “this isn’t even bad compared to earlier. I’ve narrowed the list down to these twenty or so.”
Carlos lifts himself off of TK and scoots so they’re sitting side-by-side, touching from shoulders to knees. “What are you making a list of?”
TK is instantly excited to share his idea with Carlos, and he pulls the calendar of their work schedules for June that he’s been using to chart their possible adventures into his lap.
“So remember that we keep mentioning how you want to explore some of the LGBTQ+ owned businesses in Austin.”
Carlos looks down at the paper and nods his head. “Well I thought June would be the perfect month to start. So I’m making a list of all the places to go on our days off. I’m even including some places that I think it’d be fun to go to with the 126.” As he talks TK points excitedly to the dates he’s already made plans for.
Despite how tired he knows Carlos is, TK can tell that he’s also excited about this idea, “What are you looking at here?” Carlos points to the currently open webpage.
“Oh this is the first place I think we should visit.” TK rubs his hands together, “You mentioned that you thought the loft needed some more green, and I found this greenery called ‘Garden Seventeen’. It looks awesome! I was thinking maybe we could go tomorrow on our day off.”
TK allows Carlos to take the mouse and scroll through the site, “Looks great babe, but if you want me to be functional for anything tomorrow I think we should get some sleep.”
“I know a great way to make sure you get some great sleep.” TK teases, running his hand down Carlos chest, making sure his nails catch on all the places he knows make Carlos squirm.
It gets the desired reaction as Carlos crowds into TK’s space, closing the lid on the laptop before pressing his lips firmly against TK’s. He’s pulling away way too quickly though, linking his fingers through TK’s and pulling him firmly towards the bedroom. When they get into the bedroom TK crowds back into Carlos' space pulling at the hem of his shirt, fingers brushing against the skin on his stomach.
“TK I’m too tired.” Carlos whines, trying to push TK away.
“Don’t worry babe, I’ll do all the work tonight.” TK teases, forcing Carlos’ shirt up and off, guiding liquid limbs through the sleeves. Carlos hums in agreement and TK goes to work, making sure that Carlos does indeed get a good night’s sleep that night.
TK wakes up the next morning with the sun. An unusual occurrence for him, but he takes the opportunity of waking up before Carlos to carefully slip out of bed and shower, before preparing some coffee for them both. He’s standing at the counter, browsing through the webpages he has open to plan their day when Carlos walks out of the bedroom. TK smiles at the sleepy way Carlos rubs at his eyes and the mess of curls on top of his head. He doesn’t think he’ll ever get used to being allowed to see his fiancé like this, all soft and open.
“Morning.” Carlos mumbles as he accepts the cup of coffee TK hands him. He takes a sip before wrapping himself around TK from behind, placing his head on TK’s shoulder to join in the browsing.
“Morning, babe.” TK leans back, enjoying the way Carlos warmth wraps around him like a favorite blanket. “How does breakfast at Mary’s Cafe followed by a trip to Garden Seventeen sound?”
“Mhhh.” Carlos takes another sip of his coffee, “I’ve been dying to try Mary’s, Nancy has been raving about their brunch since her date with Mateo there last month.”
TK chuckles, “I know, she won’t shut up about it and everyone thought we were insufferable.”
“She’s been raving about the Café, not Mateo TK.”
“Po-tay-to, Po-tah-toe.”
Carlos’ laugh is full and TK catches the way he has to stifle a cough at swallowing his coffee the wrong way.
“What?” TK answers, “it basically means they’re the same.”
Carlos rolls his eyes, “I know what it means TK. I’ve just never heard you say that. Where did you pick that up from?”
TK tilts his head to the side thinking, “Paul maybe? It’s probably a Midwest thing.”
Carlos just shakes his head as he laughs some more. TK shoves him playfully in the direction of their bedroom, “Go shower, I want to beat the rush at the Café so they don’t sell out of fresh avocado.”
“Who sells out of fresh avocado?” Carlos shouts back as he disappears around the corner in their room.
“See I told you they sell out of fresh avocado.” TK remarks when the cashier tells them they are lucky to have gotten there when they did because they are almost out of avocados.
The cashier chuckles and then informs them, “We try to source locally in Texas and avocados aren’t commonly grown here. We do outsource from California sometimes also.”
“Supporting locally grown produce is so important.” Carlos agrees as he takes the receipt with a smile. The girl working the register swoons and nods her head.
TK and Carlos find a table outside on the small patio. The area is shaded from the early morning sun and it’s not too hot yet to be enjoyable. Although if the weather forecast TK looked up this morning is to be believed today is going to get blisteringly hot.
The girl brings their food out to them with a smile and they thank her before digging in. TK watches with joy as Carlos enjoys his breakfast and they make small talk about the latest gossip at the precinct and fire station; simply enjoying the opportunity to be out together.
They linger at the table, until the sun has shifted into their little space and TK feels a little too hot to be comfortable. Carlos, ever the attentive partner, pulls TK into the car and turns the air conditioning up higher than Carlos normally likes it. TK chuckles at the memory of last summer’s AC battles between the two of them. Now though, TK smiles at Carlos and reaches over to turn it down before he can start to shiver. TK still isn’t a big fan of the Texas heat, but after January, he’ll take the heat over the cold any day.
Goosebumps have erupted on TK’s arms and he rubs his hands down them to ward off the feeling seeping into him and bringing back memories that he’s been trying to forget. Carlos glances over at him, eyes flashing to TK’s hands, before reaching to turn down the AC further.
“I’m okay.” TK says as he intercepts Carlos’ hand, giving it a light squeeze.
Despite TK’s words of assurance, at the next stoplight Carlos reaches in the back of the Camaro to hand TK an older zip up sweatshirt with APD on the sleeve. The fact that Carlos keeps this sweatshirt in his car just for TK makes his heart soar and TK smiles gratefully as he slips his arms into the sleeves to ward off the goosebumps and chill that is brought on by the cold air still blowing lightly around the car.
“I know I said I wanted more green in the loft, but this might be too much green.”
TK continues to arrange the various plants and flowers carefully in the Camaro, making sure nothing will tip and spill. He really doesn’t want to spend the rest of his day off cleaning out Carlos’ car.
“No such thing as too much green,” TK argues, “besides these aren’t all for us.”
Carlos’ laugh is happy, “oh I know, I never knew you had such a penchant for gifting greenery to everyone.”
Without thinking TK offers Carlos an explanation for his seemingly random new interests in plants. “My therapist mentioned once that plants and greenery can help make a space feel more lively, happy you know. I guess it stuck.”
Realizing the implication of the words and when he developed this particular habit, TK looks away from Carlos. There’s a beat, but when Carlos places his hand gently on his arm, TK looks up at his boyfriend. Carlos’ eyes are soft, but serious and TK can tell he’s searching for something. “Is that why your Dad’s place was exploding with green when I moved your things out?”
TK hates that months later their disastrous break-up is still something that exists. Luckily it doesn’t live between them anymore, instead they’ve both chosen to learn from it, and TK spent a lot of their time apart learning to communicate in ways that’s only strengthened their current relationship, but it’s still painful to remember the desperate way he filled his dad’s house during those lonely months in an effort to keep the color in his life.
“Green is a nice color,” he provides, but he doesn’t miss the recognition that flashes in Carlos’ gaze. His boyfriend’s not stupid and he has the uncanny ability to read between the lines of what TK’s actually saying to get to the heart of the truth.
“Did it work?”
“Nothing really worked,” TK sighs, “but it didn’t hurt. Gave me something to focus on. Taking care of all those plants.” Then TK laughs as he remembers the way Mateo tried to help only to cause half the plants to die during one of TK’s marathon shifts.
“Mateo is horrible at it.” TK shares with a laugh, “he managed to kill half of my first batch of plants during one of my 72 hour shifts, and he tried to replace them so I wouldn’t notice because he didn’t want to make me sad. Hopefully Nancy is better at keeping them alive.”
“Don’t think I missed the fact that you said 72 hour shift.” Carlos warns him in his ‘we’re going to talk about this later’ voice. “But it’s getting late, we should get going if we want to get these all delivered and get home for dinner.”
“You know as soon as we show up on the ranch this late, your mother isn’t going to let us leave without feeding us.”
Carlos laughs and the genuine happiness in the sound chases away most of the melancholy left from their conversation. “True.”
The surprise and joy on their friends and family’s faces as they deliver their greenery and the delight Andrea expresses at having her boys surprise her for dinner chases away the rest.