Chapter Text
TK had just got out of the shower. It had been a long shift of never-ending day of call outs, although fortunately no one had died. At least as far as he knew. A day of random but straightforward calls of bee stings, dehydrated elderly people and even a baby delivery. Wrapping himself in a towel he strolled through the loft and into the bedroom, towel drying himself, he put on a pair of grey sweatpants and a white t-shirt. He picked up his phone from where he had left it on the bed, noting the time was now 5pm, Carlos was going to be home from shift soon hopefully, and then they had the whole next day off together. A day to spend just the two of them, reconnecting. Hopefully in bed.
TK couldn't help but feel a little insecure, Carlos had been quite distracted recently. At work he had been so busy, there had seemed to be a crime spree going on that only seemed to hit when Carlos was on patrol. TK knew that it was good experience for Carlos, but it was hard not to worry when the love of your life comes home talking of armed robberies and child kidnapping cases. Of course, danger came with the job and falling in love with a cop led to a life of ongoing anxiety, it came with the territory, and he wasn’t complaining about it, even if a small part of him would love it if Carlos fancied taking a desk job instead. But he knew Carlos wasn’t built that way, he wasn’t either, and he loved that man more than he loved life itself, he would never want to change him.
There was another problem that was bothering TK, probably more than he was willing to admit to himself right now. And that problem came in the shape of Santiago.
Carlos had recently started Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and had found Santiago, or Santi as he now called him in his first class, and they had bonded over their love of this martial art. To start with it sounded great and TK was pleased for him, he was not much of a gym or class goer, preferring an outside solo run and his exercise bike at home, and Carlos came home totally pumped after each class. But then the talk of Santi started, to begin with it was fine. Santi sounded nice enough, and Carlos talked about how amazing Santi was and how well he was progressing through the belts. Carlos was totally in awe of him. But then it turned into something more, Santi was so fit, Santi had all the boys drooling over him - of course he did. And then it got worse. Santi started calling and texting Carlos all the time. It started with tips for his technique, and then the memes started, and the jokes and Carlos just seemed to think he was hilarious. Then it was good mornings to check if Carlos was aching from the last rounds, had he been stretching, did he make sure that he was hydrated enough? And on and on. TK felt like he was starting to lose his mind with the constant vibrations coming from Carlos’s phone as yet another evening was interrupted by this new ‘friend’.
Now dressed, TK wandered over the couch, phone in hand and sat down, putting his legs up and settling them in front of him. He looked at the time again, quarter past 5 now, it was definitely only a few minutes until his love would be home. TK connected his phone to the speakers and put on some relaxing music, snuggling into the side of the couch he pulled up social media and had a look through Marjan’s latest Firefox post. He loved reading the comments of support, and excitement that mostly were coming through. Laughing to himself about the number of requests for more and more elaborate content. He was just reading one about how someone would love her to scale up a building like spiderman when he heard the click of the lock and the loft door slid open, then smiling away at him stepped in Carlos.
“Hey babe” Carlos said, putting his bag down by the door, and closing the door behind him, clicking on the lock. He had changed at work and was now dressed in a soft blue button up and navy jeans. Carlos slipped off his sneakers by the door and then turned around to face the room, placing his keys in the pot on the table behind the couch as TK looked up. “Hey, how was your shift?”
“Actually, pretty quiet for once. Caught some daft punk trying to break into a car right in front of our patrol car when we were out, that was a rookie mistake, and then I had a mom freaking out when we stopped for lunch because she had lost her son, turns out he had just wandered off and accidentally sat with another family. It’s nice for once not to be shot at!” Carlos laughed as he wandered around to the couch, bending over to kiss TK softly on the lips. TK moved his legs to let Carlos sit down and then placed his feet in Carlos’s lap. Carlos started to gently massage the arch of his feet. “How was your shift?” Carlos asked looking at him.
“Busy! But nobody died, so today is a good day.” TK smiled at him. “And...” TK said, sitting up “we have a whole day off together tomorrow, just you and me.”
“Just you and me.” Carlos said, smiling at him. The tell tell buzz of Carlos’s phone hit TK’s ears as Carlos shifted to take his phone out of his pocket. Looking at the screen his face broke out into a grin. TK sat and watched him as he unlocked his phone typing into it. Another message came back quickly, with Carlos once again replying immediately. TK could feel his frustration building as Carlos started to chuckle, with messages quickly going back and forth, realising that TK didn’t exist in his orbit around that moment. Carlos suddenly turned back to him, shifting TK’s legs off his lap and standing up. “That was Santi, he’s gonna swing by and pick me up and then we’re gonna head to the gym for a bit, he’s got some stuff he’s gonna show me to help me in class next week.” he said still typing into his phone. “You don’t mind, do you?”
“Sure baby, have a good time.” TK said as Carlos walked to the bedroom to get changed. TK sighed, paused the music and put on the TV, scrolling to a random channel. He didn't really care what he was watching. Carlos quickly changed arriving back in the room still texting, he noticed that Carlos was wearing his most sheer, tight, workout top, and that there was no way about it, he looked hot, super-hot, totally hot, blindly hot, and TK felt a shudder of dread flow through him. TK shifted in his seat feeling his anger starting to rise, as Carlos continued texting. Carlos chuckled once more then the door buzzer rang. Was this guy really here, about to come into their home?
“Oh, great he’s here.” Carlos said, heading over to the door and sliding it open.
A gorgeous bronzed, man walked into the loft, he must have been at least 6 foot 5, with short black hair. He was dressed in a tight red tank top, black shorts and sneakers and his whole body was toned, with tight muscles in places that TK didn’t even know existed. “Los” he smiled at Carlos, his eyes crinkling, and twinkling as he looked at TK’s boyfriend.
“Hey!” Carlos said warmly. “Come in quick and meet TK.”
Santi’s eyes moved slowly from Carlos as he took in TK, as TK walked over to him and held out his hand.
“Good to meet you” Santi said, smiling falsely at TK, shaking his hand and dropping it quickly.
“Good to meet you too.” TK said.
“I’ll just grab my bag and then we can go” Carlos said and tapped Santi lightly on the arm. Santi immediately flushed, making TK’s stomach lurch, whilst Carlos walked back towards the bedroom.
“So, you are a paramedic, right?” Santi said, looking at TK with disinterest.
“That’s right, and you are?”
“Oh, I work in corporate business, it might not be saving lives, but I make a good living, a really good living.” Santi said, puffing out his chest slightly.
“Right” TK said warily.
“I don’t want for much.” Santi carried on, walking further into the loft, forcing TK to back up a bit. “And you guys have only been together for a short time, right?”
“No, we’ve been together for 3 years.”
“Really? I didn’t think that you were really a thing for all that long.”
“Well, you are wrong.”
“Hmm yeah, I was telling Los all about this guy I used to fuck. Turns out I wanted more than he did, and it was funny ‘cos Los was telling me about how that’s what it was like when you guys got together, right? He was all into you and stuff and you didn't care that much.”
“Sorry, what?” TK said.
“You know” Santi said, nudging TK with his elbow, “when you weren’t really that bothered about Los.”
“I was ALWAYS bothered about Carlos.”
“Yeah, but you broke it off, didn't you? When you went for, what Bobba?”
“But that was like for a minute.”
“Hmm” Santi said, clearly pleased. “It’s hard for those on the other side, and maybe it’s a Latino thing, but when we love, we love hard. We don’t waste time when we really feel it, you know?” Santi looked at TK inviting him in for the challenge. TK took a deep breath, holding in the loathing for this guy. If he wanted a fight he was going to get one, no one was going to take his man away from him, as Santi continued. “I’m all in, from day one” Santi’s eyes flashed at TK, who was trying his very best not to glare back at him. “And, didn't you guys break up for a bit, Los said that it was something to do with this place. I mean, I cannot see how you could possibly give up the most perfect guy and the most perfect place. Just seems a bit bizarre to me.
“Well, we’re all in now aren’t we babe?” TK said to Carlos who had wandered back into the room.”
“Sure are” Carlos said leaning over to TK he gave him a kiss on the cheek. TK forced a smile, as Carlos smiled at him “see you later” and then turned to Santi “shall we go?”
Santi nodded and followed Carlos as they strolled out of the loft.
As the door closed behind them, TK felt sick. His boyfriend, love of his life, was off to spend time, precious time that they had when they weren't working in their crazy busy jobs with another guy, a guy that was clearly in love with him, who clearly wanted him and he couldn't help but feel jealous, terrified and a little devastated.
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“He wants Carlos, dad.” TK said, his lip starting to quiver. “He really wants him. You should have heard him digging into our past together and then he went on to the breakup...”
“TK...” Owen sighed, sitting on the couch. he had only popped by to bring TK his phone charger that he left at the firehouse by mistake, as TK continued. “And he called Carlos the perfect man, and they have all this in common, and he is hot, like super-hot.”
“Sounds like a bit of an ass to me son.” Owen counselled. “Who talks about things he has no knowledge or business to be discussing.”
“I guess, maybe.” TK said, biting the corner of his mouth.
“No really. He hardly sounds like a good guy to me. Who comes into someone else’s home and then makes their partner uncomfortable.”
“The guy who wants to move in there.”
“Maybe he wants to.” Owen said, reaching over and gently touching TK’s arm, “but that doesn’t mean that he gets to. You are forgetting the most important factor here, which is Carlos. You aren’t just some guy he’s just casually seeing, you are the love of that man’s life, and he just isn’t going to leave you for some random guy. He isn’t going to leave you, period. There is no love like the love that he has for you.”
TK smiled, blushing slightly. “You might have a point there.”
“Might have?” Owen laughed. “Have you taken a look at how he looks at you recently? He is like the walking embodiment of adoration.”
“Oh, come on dad, he’s not that bad.” TK grinned at him.
“You know that he adores you. Yes, when you first got together you were wary and scared, and then you panicked when he bought this place, but you had your reasons for that. And when you got hurt and Nancy called him, he came straight away, and he sat by your bedside praying that you would wake up and be ok. And since then, everything has been great with you guys, hasn’t it?”
“Yeah. Really great, kinda perfect actually. Well, except for Santi” TK scowled.
“Son, you really need to stop letting this guy get to you. You just said that your relationship is kinda perfect, so why don’t you stop worrying about this guy, who after all is just jealous of you, and enjoy what you have. Why don’t you talk to Carlos and tell him how this Santi is making him feel?”
“Oh, er” TK stuttered.
“TK.” Owen leaned over and put a hand on TK’s shoulder. “We just agreed that you have a wonderful relationship, with a man who loves and adores you. How would you feel if Carlos was feeling the way you are and he didn’t tell you?”
“I would hate him to feel like this.”
“And he will be devastated when he finds out that you are. Remember how he was with Cooper?”
TK chuckled, “yeah, but that was different.”
“Maybe to you, but he was threatened by him, and it made him sad and upset.”
“Hmm”
“So, he is going to understand how you are feeling. Talk to him son.”
“Ok, ok” TK sighed. “I’ll think about it.”