Chapter Text
A world of living life in grayscale. That’s what was guaranteed until you met the elusive ‘one’ for you; your soulmate. And, as a firefighter, TK often felt like he had a rather interesting experience living his chaos-filled life full of smoke and fires without having found his soulmate. Sure, finding your soulmate was never guaranteed; how could it be with seven billion people on earth? He, like many others had resigned himself to possibly never finding ‘the one’ in his lifetime, as much as he might silently long for the possibilities that finding your soulmate would bring. He could only imagine what the world would be like for him once it was full of color; what the sky, sun, grass, and even the fires he put out could truly look like. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple…. All of those colors existed, in theory, but to know what they truly looked like, TK could only imagine, his wild heart craving that which he didn’t have, and what he quite possibly might never have.
Of course, it could be worse. Even if someone did find their soulmate, it was never guaranteed to work out. TK’s own father was living proof of that. Owen and Gwyn had been soulmates, filling each other’s world with color for years, until they all lost part of Owen on 9/11, and the tension built between them until ultimately their bond rejected. Though they didn’t lose the colors gained by finding each other, once they truly rejected one another, their eyes were forever marked by a thin ring of silver around their irises, their own personal scarlet letter.
TK wanted to believe that he had truly been in love with Alex, and that Alex had felt the same way, despite them not being each other’s soulmate. It was always a risk, dating someone with the full awareness that you weren’t their fate-determined end-all be-all, but at the same time, TK wasn’t someone who wanted to spend his entire life alone hoping that by some miniscule chance he might find his soulmate. He was far too much of a people person to spend his life that way. He had truly believed that Alex felt the same, and was prepared to spend the rest of his life with him. That is, until Alex broke the news that he could now see in color the very same night that TK planned to ask him to marry him.
The blow had crushed TK to his core, sending him spiraling in a matter of minutes. Alex had found his soulmate. After three years of what he thought had been happiness between them, Alex had found his soulmate. When he would look back on it eventually, he couldn’t exactly blame his now-ex for wanting to pursue things with his soulmate, but that reality only added to the anguish that pulsed through TK with every breath he took in the aftermath. He liked to think he was a good person, with a good heart, who saved countless lives, but all of that clearly wasn’t enough to merit finding his own soulmate. He managed to stumble through saying good-bye to Alex for good, not even bothering with dinner, before leaving without a single glance back.
His father had, of course, been the one to find him after he tried to end it all, unable to escape from the downward spiral Alex had unintentionally sent him on, and in a matter of days, they were leaving New York, TK initially thinking that maybe his father was taking the part about separating him from what triggered him a little too literally. As it turned out, the distraction of rebuilding a firehouse in Austin was exactly what he needed to avoid dealing with the constant ache in his chest from his shattered heart.
He went with his father to countless interviews, helped him oversee the construction of the firehouse, even went house-hunting with him to find a place to call their own. Between all of that and daily meetings, he had just the right number of distractions during the day. In some part of TK’s mind, he knew that Owen was dragging him around everywhere to keep an eye on him, and at that point, he didn’t have it in him to argue with him. He just followed alongside his father through the scorching hot days of seemingly endless tasks. It was at night though, when he lay awake staring at the ceiling of the still-unfamiliar new home they were renting, that the ache in his chest threatened to overwhelm TK and break him all over again.
Before long, though, he was back on the field, right where he believed he belonged, as a firefighter of the newly-reopened 126 Firehouse. His world remained its usual boring monochrome shades as the new team they put together found their stride, learning how to work with each other day after day, the constant ache in his chest now just slightly easier to ignore as he now had a plethora of distractions to get him through.
That is, until Austin Police Officer Carlos Reyes quite literally exploded into his world. It had been a call like any other, a car accident involving several vehicles in the middle of a busy intersection where a light had gone out. TK had been helping extract one of the drivers, who had fallen unconscious after the impact, handing him off to the waiting paramedics, when a voice cut through the endless stream of noise he could hear over his radio.
“Do you need a hand, firefighter?”
TK turns towards the source of the voice, facing a taller man, clearly a police officer from the uniform, gun, and badge. He opens his mouth to respond, but the moment the two of them lock eyes, the surrounding chaos all seems to come screeching to a halt. Time freezes, air forced from his lungs as their eyes meet and suddenly color explodes all around him; the blue of the police officer’s uniform, the silver and gold of his badge, a smaller, silver pin with the name Reyes pinned over the right side of his chest, the reds and yellows of the fire coming from the engines of two of the cars nearby, the colored bricks of the buildings around them, all at once TK’s senses are overwhelmed and he can’t even remember how to breathe or hear anything going on around him.
The sudden bursts of color and loss of all his other senses results in TK not hearing the warning being yelled over his radio to get as far away as possible from the wreckage behind him, no longer fully aware of anything other than the police officer standing opposite him, until it’s too late and the gas tank blows, knocking the wind out of TK for the second time in a matter of moments as the force of the blast sends him flying, his world fading to black once again.
Seconds, minutes, hours, days could have passed before TK finally finds consciousness once again. Pain crackles through his body as he tries to force his eyes open, his vision blurry the first few times he blinks, wincing at the brightness of the sun as he once again realizes that he can now clearly see the vibrant colors of the world around him.
“TK, are you okay?” Owen’s face swims into view above his own as one of the paramedics on scene takes his vitals. “Didn’t you hear me yelling over the radio about the leaking gas line?”
Leaking gas line? That was his father’s biggest concern right then? His father’s eyes, it turned out, were a similar shade of blue to the patch of sky that TK could now clearly see above him, though clearly with an almost eerie ring of silver around them. It was one thing to hear that was a thing, but it was another to actually be able to discern it clearly like this. Blue eyes, brown hair with hints of gray… it was like he was truly seeing his father for the first time.
TK shakes his head slowly and almost instantly regrets it, his head pounding, “No,” He answers with a sigh. He knew that his father was probably going to lose his shit once he learned the truth. “Sorry, dad. I didn’t hear it. I—”
“His vitals are stable, but I think we should take him to West Park just to get his head looked at,” EMS Captain Tommy Vega spoke, cutting off TK’s train of thought. “Make sure he doesn’t have a concussion or anything.”
“Wait,” TK attempts to sit up, pushing himself up on his elbows to look at their surroundings. It was overwhelming, seeing the world around him suddenly full of color. The fire trucks gleamed red under the sun, cars of various colors scattered around them. The fire was finally out, and various tow trucks stood by to clear the wreckage. Countless people milled around, talking, taking pictures of the scene, just generally loitering, the police officer, however, was nowhere to be found. Had all of that truly just happened? Had that officer, Officer Reyes, truly been his soulmate? If that was the case, TK didn’t blame him for taking off for a multitude of reasons, least of all being, he was hardly and kind of catch.
A coldness that has nothing to do with his head or his vitals instantly seeps into TK’s blood as the realization that Officer Reyes is, in fact, gone sets in. He forces a slow, deep breath before turning his attention back to Tommy, “Never mind. Let’s just get this over with.”
The rest of the world seemed to fade away again as he was loaded into the back of an ambulance with Owen and transported to the hospital. The people surrounding him spoke, and he answered on cue when needed, but TK’s mind was a million miles away, and not at all concerned whether he was actually injured or not. He’d had a concussion before, and he was fairly certain that he had nothing to worry about, even as they began running tests in the ER just to make sure.
It felt like hours later when Owen finally stepped away for a few minutes to check in with things at the 126 and TK found himself alone with his thoughts once again. He kept turning the scene over and over in his mind. One minute everything had been the usual endless sea of black, white, and gray, and the next…. He forces his eyes shut again as he remembers the exact moment that everything changed and burst into color upon locking eyes with that damn police officer, the heart monitor he was currently attached to registering the change in his heart rate, the beeping suddenly more rapid as he tried to make sense of it all.
“Are you okay?”
TK’s world freezes again as he opens his eyes at the sound of the soft voice. Surely, he has to be imagining the police officer currently standing in front of him, or maybe he had fallen asleep while waiting for Owen to return and was dreaming. Whatever the case was, where the hell had Officer Reyes just come from?
“I, um….” TK finds his voice after a long moment, his brow furrowing slightly as the officer stepped further into the room, observing him through dark eyes that, if he wasn’t mistaken, were currently filled with concern. As he came closer, TK could see that he had grime on his face, along with some cuts on his arms. Had he been hurt in the blast too? He draws a slow, deep breath before pinching the bridge of his nose for a moment, “I think so,” He says at last. “I’m still waiting for some test results, but personally I think everyone’s just overreacting a bit.”
The corners of Officer Reyes’s lips twitch just slightly, and TK hates the way that his heart jumps in response, “And you’re basing that judgment off of your plethora of medical knowledge, firefighter?”
TK scowls for a moment, his eyes narrowing, not missing the amusement that dances in the officer’s eyes, which only adds to his own sense of irritation, “I have a dual-certification as a firefighter and a paramedic from the New York Fire Department, if you must know,” His answer terse. “And I’ve had a concussion before. It didn’t feel anything like this. I think I just got knocked the wrong way from the force of that blast.”
“You’re a long way from New York,” Officer Reyes comments as he steps further into the curtained off area around TK’s bed, arms corded with muscle crossing over a broad chest.
“My dad moved us out here to rebuild a firehouse a few weeks ago,” TK explains, more than a little confused by the general direction their conversation had taken. Were they really going to have such a casual conversation and ignore the brightly colored elephant in the room? Maybe he had hit his head a little too hard when he’d fallen.
“The 126.”
“The very same,” TK nods once, his eyes still trained on the other’s, watching every slight movement the other made. The tension between them had him more than a little on edge, his right index finger starting to tap lightly on the bed, drawing the officer’s attention, the other’s brow furrowing as he watches the movement, “So, do you make a habit of visiting every firefighter in the hospital, Officer, or…?”
Ah, there it was. The slightest hint of a blush colored the police officer’s cheek as TK’s question apparently catches him off guard, the only sign of emotion that TK had seen cross the other’s face other than the slight twitch of his lips a few minutes earlier. Wordlessly, the officer approaches the bed before he shakes his head slowly, “Honestly, no,” Officer Reyes admits, every muscle in TK’s body tensing as the officer leaned over him. He can smell the lingering scent of smoke from the accident, mixing with some sort of cologne or body spray or something that instantly drew him in, “I honestly just wanted to see if you were actually real, and if those green eyes of yours were as beautiful up close as they were out there in the field.”
Before TK can even begin to consider processing what was just said to him, the curtains shift again and Owen’s voice fills the room, “Sorry about that, TK. Your mother called and it turned into a whole thing with her talking about how moving out here was possibly the worst idea I ever had and—”
Owen’s voice trails off as he realizes that TK was not alone as he had been when he’d left him a few minutes earlier, “Oh, I’m sorry,” Owen’s spine seems to straighten as he takes in the sight of the officer standing beside TK’s bed. To his credit, Officer Reyes had at least managed to step back before Owen noticed how close he had previously been standing to TK, “Is there a problem, Officer?”
“Not at all,” Officer Reyes answers easily before offering Owen his hand, “I apologize, I’m Officer Carlos Reyes,” Oh, so Officer Reyes did have a first name after all, TK realizes with a scowl as Owen shook his hand. “I was at the traffic accident before the blast occurred. I had just offered your son my assistance a few moments before it happened. They brought me here to just patch up a few scrapes and I wanted to make sure he was okay too.”
“Nice to meet you, Officer Reyes,” Owen responds, an easy smile appearing on his face. “Captain Owen Strand of the 126. And I guess you’ve met TK.”
Carlos turns just slightly to glance at TK, the corners of his lips doing that horrible twitch once again, causing a swarm of butterflies to flutter through TK’s stomach all at once, “Indeed I have,” Carlos nods once as Owen releases his hand. “It’s nice to meet you both, but I should probably get going; I’m technically still on shift. I’m sure we’ll see each other again, though.”
“I’m sure we will,” Owen nods, clapping Carlos on the shoulder, earning them both an eye roll from TK. “It was nice to meet you as well, Officer Reyes, but might I suggest not distracting my son next time the two of you are standing in the middle of a fire next time?”
An easy chuckle escapes Carlos and TK is instantly terrified by the sudden desire he has to follow that sound back down Carlos’s throat. What the actual fuck was happening to him? Had the situation been any different, had he and Carlos met anywhere else in the world and not suddenly triggered the explosion of color that had clearly occurred between them, he probably would have been all over the officer in record breaking time. But to be feeling this level of desire and lust towards someone he barely even knew, and who was apparently his soulmate…. The urge to run had only been stronger when Alex had stomped all over him. And, well, TK knew just how well that had ended.
“I’ll definitely keep that in mind, Sir,” Carlos nodded once, his entire being lit up by the most wonderful smile that TK had ever seen. He turns back to face TK, and it is a genuine struggle for him to stay focused on anything other than that damn smile, “I hope you’re back on your feet soon, TK.”
“Thanks,” TK answers somewhat robotically, unable to do much more than watch as Carlos takes his leave. Once he finds himself alone with Owen again, TK sighs deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was fucked. Oh, so very fucked. And precisely in the way that he did not like to be fucked.
“Everything okay, son?” Owen’s voice manages to break through the chaos in TK’s mind, if only for a moment. He forces himself to look back up at his father, raising a brow in question. “Your heart rate is a little high.”
“I’m fine, dad,” TK insists, finally flopping back against the pillows behind him. He couldn’t tell whether Owen believed him or not, but thankfully Owen didn’t press the issue further. Truly, the last thing he felt right then was fine, but he absolutely did not want to get into what was happening with his father right then. He could only imagine the chaos that would ensue. “I just really want to get the hell out of here.”
Whether he meant out of the hospital or out of Austin completely, TK wasn’t entirely certain, if he was being truly honest with himself. Though the latter option was sounding more and more enticing the longer he turned it over in his mind.