#andrea reyes

[henrygrass]

My newest Andrea fic is up! I just miss her, and wanted to share something from her POV (again). Love Woven Through Time

More than three years after Gabriel's death, Andrea still grapples with her new reality of a quiet home, finding solace in a day spent with TK, Carlos, and Jonah—a day filled with gardening, cooking, and love. If you are interested, you can read it on Ao3!

[emsprovisions]

❄️ Day 19 - The Perfect Gift ❄️

🎁 Today's fic is dedicated to @henrygrass!

Summary: Carlos goes Christmas shopping with his mom.

Word count: 980

24 Days of Tarlos Masterpost

Carlos really doesn’t want to be here. But when his mother caught wind that it’s his day off, she showed up at the loft ten minutes faster than he knows it should’ve taken her to get there. 

“Do I need to write you a speeding ticket, mamá?” Carlos jokes, kissing his mom on the cheek before rolling the loft door closed behind her. 

Andrea clucks her tongue and rolls her eyes. 

“Between my husband and my son, you think I don’t know my way around traffic cops?” She winks at him. “I was already in the area. Where’s TK?”

That twists the knife still plunged in Carlos’s heart, just when he almost forgot for two whole seconds that there’s a gaping chasm in his chest that’s TK-shaped. 

“At work,” Carlos supplies lamely. 

He’s never been good at lying, but he’s not great with the truth either. And anyways he has good enough reason to assume TK probably is at work. It’s a safe bet. Safer than to assume he’s at the gym, or on a date, or somewhere else where other men could look at him and try and get with him and TK could let them because he’s single. 

Carlos pushes the thought from his mind and shakes himself out of it as he realizes his mom just asked him something. 

“I’m sorry, what was that?”

“I asked if you’ve bought him anything for Christmas yet?” Andrea repeats herself. 

More pain and guilt just roil together in Carlos’s stomach. 

It’s not that he doesn’t want to tell her he and TK are no longer an item, it’s just that saying it aloud will make it real, and also, he really doesn’t want to tell her. His parents finally were so accepting and supportive of who Carlos is, and who Carlos wants to date. They love TK. He worries it might break their hearts irreparably to find out how big of a failure their son really is. He already couldn’t keep a wife. Now he can’t keep the most perfect man either.

“No,” he says, trying to keep his voice level despite the turbulent emotions inside of him right now. “I just haven’t had the time.”

“Ah, well you’ve both been busy with work and furnishing the loft I’m sure,” Andrea waves her hands in the air. “We’ll just have to do it while we’re out today!”

This is how Carlos has found himself shopping at the Domain outdoor mall in Austin with his mother, feeling not unlike he’s fifteen again as he follows her around and is tasked with carrying her shopping. 

They go into store after store, Andrea prattling off what she wants to get for Carlos’s sisters, and Carlos’s father, and her friends from church and the other various clubs she’s a part of. 

“What do you think of this for TK?” She asks. 

Carlos realizes they’re in the men’s section at Dillard’s and Andrea is showing Carlos a really nice cashmere sweater. Carlos blinks at the sweater. It really is something TK would love, it’s a nice blue color with a cable knit pattern. He glances at the price tag, and shakes his head. 

“He’s already got some like that,” Carlos explains. 

Also not entirely a lie. Carlos bought TK some very nice sweaters when they had to replace their wardrobes after the fire. He remembers the way TK’s face lit up when Carlos surprised him with a few cashmere sweaters.

“Carlos!” He’d said with a big grin on his face. “We’re here to replace hoodies, baby. Not so you can buy me fancy sweaters.”

“You deserve it,” Carlos told him, with a soft kiss to the cheek. And he did deserve it. TK always deserved to feel special.

Carlos thinks he misses being TK’s baby most of all.

Carlos keeps finding excuses for everything Andrea shows him that could be for TK. It just isn’t right, or they’re out of his size, or he already has something similar.

“Enough, mijo!” Andrea finally huffs. “What is all this? You want to buy your boyfriend the perfect gift?”

Carlos just shrugs, a tiny, “Something like that,” slipping out.

Andrea smiles and shakes her head in exasperation at her son. “Perfect doesn’t exist, Carlitos. Heaven knows how much I tried finding the perfect gift for the first few years your father and I were together. What did you get him last year?”

“It was still the pandemic last year, and we were new, I got him a hoodie and some things for him to keep at my place,” Carlos explains. “This year just feels different, you know?”

Andrea nods. “You’re more serious now, living together, owning a place together. You want the gift to be more grownup, too.”

Carlos shrugs again with a vague, “Yeah.”

“I have just the thing,” Andrea grabs Carlos by the wrist and hauls him to the jewelry and accessories department of the store. “You get him a nice watch, and a nice cologne, and pair it with one of those cashmere sweaters we passed earlier. I know you wanted it for him, if the money’s an issue, I can buy it.”

Carlos frowns, “No, mamá, the money isn’t an issue…wait, he really wanted this one.”

Carlos spots a nice, silver watch that had been too expensive for TK to treat himself to when they’d been shopping to replace their things. But now it’s on sale and Carlos doesn’t know why he grabs it to buy for his ex-boyfriend other than to say he’s bought something that will appease his mother. 

“You should get that for him then,” Andrea smiles encouragingly, her eyes bright and happy, as if she’s imagining TK’s surprise when Carlos presents him with the gift he wanted.

“I think I will,” Carlos stares at the watch before looking up at his mom and offering her a tiny smile. “Thanks, ma.”

[reasonandfaithinharmony]

911 Lone Star: Best of Men (4x17) | In Sickness and in Health deleted scene (4x18)

inspired by @goldenskykaysani's tags on this post

[911lsbts]

These are from eBay and you can bid on them.

[lutavero]

TK STRAND + terms of endearment I 9-1-1 : LONE STAR

#he’s so baby shaped to every single woman#they’ve all taken him under their wings 🥺🥺

[guardian-angle22]

911: Lone Star | Carlos "I Don't Avoid" Reyes

[stevenrogered]

No, no, no, no, no. That man needs to be stopped now.

[never-blooms]

destellas el cielo y ahoro te celebro

fantasmas - humbe

[gigigazelleloves]

As a person of colour with an immigrant mom and grandparents, Carlos's coming out story is one of the most realistic I've seen.

I love how they make it clear that his parents aren't ashamed or full on homophobic, they just feel uncomfortable cause there dealing with something they never thought they would have to deal with before.

It's kind of like how before coming to Canada, my Grandmama knew what snow was, she just never thought she would have to deal with it hands on and tried avoiding doing so.

Unfortunately by showing that they were uncomfortable, it made Carlos uncomfortable in his own sexuality. Not just his sexuality but things like interacting with people of the opposite gender and showing PDA to TK. It's a huge part of Latin American culture to be aware of such things (coming from someone from the Caribbean) and since a lot of immigrant communities that parents or grandparents may currently be a part of still thinks this way it is easy to have those thoughts transpired to you, even if you're "westernized".

The thing I love though is that his parents (specifically his mom) recognize and apologize for pushing their discomfort onto him and change their viewpoints. They apologize with a way of realizing their son, even though they raised him, is still a separate human being from them (to a certain extent; Mrs. Reyes still has her Carlitos) and that Carlos has feelings too. They talk directly to him like he is a human being. They also make it clear that they were in the wrong in the situation and don't put the blame on him for how they reacted, which is something that unfortunately happens a lot when children are finally given the apology they need from their parents.

Bottom line: Andrea and Gabriel (RIP my dude) are some of the best, of not the best parents in Lone Star and that I wish we could see more storylines like this in the mainstream media. It would help address a lot of the issues faced by people in similar situations like Carlos.

[henrygrass]

Seven Sentence Sunday

I don't have anything new to share, so here's something from Love Woven Through Time that you can read on Ao3! thank you for the tags @carlos-in-glasses @nisbanisba @strandnreyes @carlossreaders @everlastingday @lemonlyman-dotcom

The bell rings, and she opens the door, revealing Carlos with his hands resting on Jonah’s shoulders, TK with a bag over his shoulder, and Jonah beaming up at her, his big brown eyes sparkling with excitement.

“Abuela!” he squeals, almost leaping into her arms, wrapping his small arms tightly around her waist.

“Hi, Jojo!” she responds, her heart swelling as she hugs him back, threading her fingers through his soft, tousled hair, feeling the warmth of his little body against hers.

“Hi, mijos,” she adds, glancing up at her boys who stand before her in well-worn, breathable cotton t-shirts and knee-length shorts, with TK wearing a baseball cap turned backward, clearly ready for the gardening mission no one had asked them to undertake. 

“I hope it’s not too early,” TK says, a smile playing on his lips. “We just wanted to make sure we had time to tackle the backyard before the sun shines down on us with its full concentrated power.”

Jonah bounces on his feet. “I need to pee!” he shouts, dashing past Andrea and galloping down the hallway toward the bathroom.

“Go, mi amor,” she urges, stepping aside and watching him sprint away, chuckling at the whirlwind that has invaded her home.

Open Tag & @emsprovisions @alrightbuckaroo @welcometololaland

@thisbuildinghasfeelings @decafdino @reyesstrand

@bonheur-cafe @theghostofashton @tellmegoodbye @eclectic-sassycoweyes

@herefortarlos @carlos-tk @lightningboltreader @sapphic--kiwi

@ladytessa74 @paperstorm @chicgeekgirl89 @ironheartwriter

@pimento-playing-hopscotch @goodways @liminalmemories21

[thestarwarslesbian]

(At a Reyes family dinner) Andrea: I do not have a favourite child. Carlos: That’s only because TK is my husband not your biological child. Andrea: He’s your dad’s favourite too. Gabriel: I’m not even going to deny it.

[reasonandfaithinharmony]

We almost forgot. Your boutonnière.

911 Lone Star:  In Sickness and in Health deleted scene + promo footage (4x18)

[911lsbts]

Deleted Scene: 9-1-1: Lone Star | TK & Carlos Cut Their Wedding Cakeeyed

[tailoredshirt]

That makes me so happy to hear, mijo.

[guardian-angle22]

911: Lone Star | Tarlos + their in-laws

[maxbegone]

the day you asked your father to be your best man, it was the happiest i had ever seen him. so yes. you're damn right we're doing the right thing. (x)