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It really is massive. And TK has never lived in a house so big, but even though Carlos keeps telling him they’ll soon grow into it, TK can’t help but feel like they have nearly too much space.
He loves it, though. And today, whilst it’s still mainly empty except for a scattering of furniture and boxes of essentials, he practically skips around the place with a distinct giddiness that this is theirs. After too long trying to make a one-bed apartment work with a four-year-old, they now finally have enough space to do things like give Jonah his own bathroom and talk about getting a dog one day soon.
“Hey,” he says as he leans against the doorway to a bedroom upstairs, Jonah’s room, in fact, where his husband is currently painting the walls green, like Jonah wanted. Carlos is pleased with that; it somewhat fits the theme they’re aiming for, but TK knows he would’ve painted it any color Jonah wanted.
“Hey,” Carlos replies as he continues painting. “Have you finally come to help?”
TK smiles. “Thought I might just enjoy the view.”
Carlos scoffs. “To no one’s surprise.”
“Rude,” TK replies, and he steps into the room, padding up behind his husband. He wraps both arms around Carlos’ waist, then drops a kiss to the back of his neck. “Not my fault you’re so gorgeous.”
“TK, I’m painting.”
“Mm. Painting our home.”
Carlos is still holding the roller, dripping with paint, so TK knows what he’s doing probably isn’t the best idea. The thing is, though, he’s completely and utterly head over heels in love with the man currently painting their son’s bedroom, and it’s decidedly not his fault if he can’t keep it together for long enough to let Carlos finish.
And thankfully for him, Carlos must feel the same because he stretches across to drop the roller onto the paint tray a couple feet away, ignoring any paint splattered on the plastic sheeting he put down first thing, and turns around in TK’s arms, smiling.
Despite his actions, he murmurs, “We were meant to be painting our home, TK.”
TK smiles again. “And we have the whole day, baby.”
“We don’t. We have to collect Jonah from my mom’s soon.”
“About that.” TK trails a delicate touch along Carlos’ arm, jumping it across to his chest. His eyes follow his fingers as he pulls his bottom lip in between his teeth, but Carlos drags him out of that reverie when he gently tugs on his hair, so he looks up again, smiling. “I better not have paint in my hair now.”
“We can take a shower in our ensuite.”
“Is that the plan, hm?”
Carlos chuckles. “No. The plan is to get you to tell me what’s going on with Jonah so we can get back to painting.”
“Oh.” TK laughs, too. “Your mom called and said Luisa took the kids round, so now they’ve decided they want a sleepover at hers. She asked if that was okay.”
“And what did you say?”
“When my sexy husband is doing manual labor in our new house and I’m presented with the opportunity of a child-free night with him?” He scoffs like it’s the most ridiculous question he’s ever heard, because it is. “I said yes. Absolutely yes. Jonah will love it.”
“Painting is hardly manual labor, TK.”
He shrugs, swaying them a little. “You’re in a tank top and shorts, and your muscles are on show. I’m only human.”
Carlos leans in and presses a kiss to the corner of TK’s mouth. “I know you’ll miss him. I bet you made my mom go through his bedtime routine twice despite knowing it’ll go out the window with Luisa’s two there.”
“No comment, officer,” he drawls. “And like you’re any better.”
“I love him to pieces,” Carlos replies like it’s an explanation.
“We’ll FaceTime him later. And pick him up first thing.”
Carlos smiles at that. “Is that before or after I— What did you say? Manual labor? Before or after I’m done with so much manual labor?”
“If you’re counting sex as manual labor, I’m filing for divorce.”
“It’s too late for an annulment?”
“Fuck off,” TK murmurs affectionately. At the same time, he pinches Carlos’ bicep, and Carlos laughs as he presses his lips to TK’s. His laughter gets lost between them, but TK loves their push and pull. They’ve been married for over two years now, together for even longer, and he can’t ever see it disappearing.
They kiss until TK pulls back for a gasp of air, then Carlos laughs again, cupping his jaw.
“No divorce,” he murmurs.
“No divorce,” TK agrees. “We have a joint mortgage on this place.”
“And a child, babe.”
He smiles at the mere thought of everything they’ve built up together over the past few years. A life together, a home together, a family together. And this place, their new home with more bedrooms than either of them thought they’d ever need or want, its huge open-plan kitchen-diner-living area, its massive backyard with space to run around and play football with Jonah if that’s what he wants, softball if it isn’t, princess dress-up if that’s what he decides… It’s all just perfect. It’s so much TK thought he’d never have, but now he’s got it all, there’s nothing he wants more than to hold onto it with everything he’s got.
Truthfully, feeling like the luckiest man alive is an understatement that TK can’t quite put into words.
“Yeah,” he agrees with a smile. “We have everything.”
Carlos kisses him again, and TK feels the emotion in it. He’s probably going to have paint in his hair and on his clothes, but he can’t seem to remember why he’d care about things like that.
They can shower, like Carlos said, but currently, he’s more interested in losing those clothes before the shower.
Still, when he tugs at Carlos’ stupidly tight tank top, Carlos pulls back from his lips and murmurs, “Not here.”
“Babe.”
“Not here,” he repeats, and with that, he completely breaks their embrace, watching TK with a raised brow as he folds his arms against his chest.
“What?”
He smiles again. “Was my mom offering to have Jonah overnight really just well-timed?”
TK nods. “I mean, she knows we’ve been stressed with the move, so she probably thought giving us some time to get things done without our little monster here would help, but…”
“You’re using it for sex?”
“We would’ve had sex in every room of this house before.”
“That sounds like a challenge.”
TK takes another step toward his husband, but Carlos playfully pushes him toward the door. TK would argue, but Carlos has a point, so he takes his hand and pulls him down the corridor into their bedroom, immediately pulling TK’s shirt over his head.
“That desperate, huh?” TK teases, his hands going to Carlos’ pants.
“This goes in the hamper.” Carlos pushes his paint-covered shirt into TK’s hand. “All of your clothes go in the hamper or else we’ll get—”
“Green everywhere, yes, babe, I know.”
Carlos pauses then, a smile on his face as he watches TK toss the shirt to the hamper—one of the only non-furniture items in the room, and one of the first things he put in here. “Hey,” he says, reaching out for TK’s hand. “I love you.”
TK feels like a pile of mush. “I love you, too.”
“And I love our life together. Our new home.”
He swallows thickly with tears in his eyes, because he knows what Carlos is saying. No regrets. There never has been, not since they adopted Jonah, not since they decided to sell the loft. Their lives are as perfect as can be these days.
“Me too,” TK murmurs, then he coaxes Carlos into another kiss, walking them back toward the bed. When they fall on it, he straddles Carlos and licks into his mouth in the next kiss, but it takes a beat to realize Carlos isn’t kissing back like he should be. “Uh, baby?”
Carlos blinks up at him. “You got paint on our sheets.”
TK opens his mouth to argue, then presses his lips together until a laugh bubbles out. “Should’ve tried the kitchen instead,” he quips, and Carlos just laughs, too, rolling them over.