#what does the t in tk stand for anyways?

[its-not-a-pen]

Rules: post the last line from your current wip and tag as many people as you want. tagged by @loveoaths

Read it here: What does the T in TK stand for anways? (This is the 1st line. I cannot post the last line due to MAJOR spoilers)

Something feels out of place when you wake up the next morning. The blue glow is gone, for one. When you check the roster, Dave’s number has been erased. It makes sense—of course it does—a dead man isn’t going to report to duty, but the change feels jarring all the same. There’s no pause, no time to think, the vast, well-oiled machine that is the Empire keeps rolling on.

You feel a queasy little jolt in your gut when you realize close to a quarter of the duty roster has been replaced, all of them are new recruits that have been bumped up into a senior position. The casualty numbers are much higher than what they’ve been reporting.   

You can barely stomach breakfast. When you return to the dorm Dave’s stuff is gone and his bunk has been stripped down to its bare, metal frame. 

You stand there for a long time, your arms and legs feel like they’ve been filled with lead. Dave use to have this weirdly shaped rock on his nightstand, you remember. A souvenir from some planet or another. Did they pack it up and ship it back to his family? Or did they just toss it out the airlock along with all the other junk?  

And then your alarm beeps, so you go and clock in.

[thisbuildinghasfeelings]

Fic anon again 📖: oh thank you so much, what a lovely reply, thank you for being so kind! And considerate ❤️ and thank you for being willing to read my first ever Tarlos writing attempt, it means a lot 🥹 I will send it anonymously but you are free to publish my ask on your blog, if that’s okay. I’d love to get some feedback actually ❤️

okay so here goes nothing I guess! It’s short and not edited (apart from me and my over thinking brain 👋) and English is not my first language, so all mistakes are mine and not on purpose 😅:

Carlos looks up from his book at the sound of TK barging into their apartment. “Hey babe”, he sounds out of breath. TK quickly closes the sliding door behind him and immediately starts taking off his shoes and jacket.

“Ugh, I need a shower. Like, right now. I feel gross“, TK smells his t-shirt with a disgusted look on his face and rummages around his gym bag he brought home from the station. „And these clothes desperately need a wash, too.“ TK starts throwing a scandalous amount of dirty clothes, socks, underwear and workout apparel on a pile behind him. Well, that explains a lot. Carlos has been wondering where half of TK´s stuff went. (Come to think of it, some of his as well. Interesting.)

And that´s when he is eying two of his favorite sweatshirts making its way onto the increasing mountain of clothes on their living room floor. Of course. Carlos feels a fond smile tugging at the corners of his lips. He puts the book aside, leans over the back of their sofa and watches TK with his head propped up in his hand. That fond smile is about to take over his whole face. “You are a chaotic man, Tyler Kennedy. And a shameless thief“, Carlos says amused. “And if you still think I will be on laundry duty tonight, please think again“, he raises his eyebrows playfully, giving TK´s bend over body a challenging look.

“Don’t worry, babe. I will take care of this mess. You won’t have to lift a finger, promise. I am going to make sure, my husband has the most relaxing evening”, even with his head buried in the depths of his huge NIKE sports bag, Carlos can hear him smile. TK loves to say the word „husband“. Ever since they got married two months ago he likes to casually (he thinks) drops it in conversations at any given moment, doesn’t matter if it’s with the 126, a patient (so he’s heard) or said husband himself (evidently).

“Thank you. Also, who is this husband you keep referring to lately? He sounds nice“, Carlos teases and makes his way over to TK, who is still busy unloading what looks like half of his possessions at this point. What on earth does he keep in there? Carlos shakes his head, coming to a hold behind TK and puts his hands on his shoulders. He squeezes lightly, feeling his fingers touch the soft fabric of TK´s shirt.

TK slowly turns around, big smile still in place. He looks up at Carlos, the sparkle in his eyes so bright, it’s almost blinding. Carlos can’t look away. Not that he wanted to anyways. “Oh, him? Yeah, he is very nice. And VERY handsome. I don’t know how I got so lucky, really“, TK stands up and gently places one hand on Carlos`s hip. The other one finds its way underneath his sweater onto his back, caressing his warm skin, just above the waistband of his jeans. “I definitely need to introduce you guys at some point. I am sure, you’d get along. You two are very similar“, TK winks and Carlos once again shakes his head, rolling his eyes affectionately. His husband is ridiculous. And Carlos loves all of it.

“Hi“, TK whispers, fingers still brushing over soft skin. Carlos leans down and greets him back with a quick peck on the lips. “Hi, yourself“, Carlos smiles, cupping TK´s face and placing a gentle kiss on the right corner of his mouth. “I missed you. How was your day?“, Carlos pulls back, now mustering him with a more serious expression, his eyes darting across TK´s features. “I was a little worried after last night…“

TK sighs, intertwining their hands and letting them lazily swing back and forth between them. “Today was so much better. I think work really helped.“, TK tries a smile and hesitantly shrugs. „But yeah, last night was…really bad. I haven’t felt this restless and anxious in a long time. I’m sorry for calling you in the middle of your shift, I didn’t want to worry you. Just needed to hear your voice, I guess…“, TK murmurs and avoids Carlos`gaze.

“TK, you know, you can always call me, right? I want you to call me“, Carlos lowers his head in concern, searching for TK´s eyes. „And there is absolutely no need to apologise. I am always here for you, you hear me?“, Carlos squeezes TK´s hands for emphasis. TK meets Carlos eyes again and feels this overwhelming wave of warmth washing over him. “I do. Thank you“, his face softening. “I love you, you know that?“, he presses a lingering kiss to Carlos lips. And another one. And one more. For emphasis.

After a while they both pull back, smiling at each other. They stay like this for a quick moment, neither of them ready to step out of their little bubble just yet.

„I hope you’re hungry, I made us dinner“, Carlos says quietly. TK still looks at him, then getting on his tiptoes to fix his reading glasses. He gently pushes them back in place. Carlos forgot he still has them on, but he knows how much TK likes them, so he doesn’t mind. „I heard…“, Carlos takes TK´s hand in his „…that’s what husbands do“, a playful grin is taking over his entire face as he leads them to the dining table, eyes full of mischief.

TK´s laugh echoes through their apartment, before they come to a halt in front of a beautifully set table. “Very grateful you’re taking notes, babe“, he sits down, taking in the fresh flowers, lit candles and freshly baked bread. “This is…so nice”, he looks absolutely in awe.

TK takes a sip of water and suddenly starts sniffling. “Wait, did you make lasagne?“, he excitedly gets up again and tries to catch a glimpse of the food still cooking in the kitchen behind them. “Yes, lasagne, now sit down, please“, Carlos chuckles. “I have never seen anyone being this excited about lasagne. It never gets old“, he says over his shoulder on his way to the kitchen. He starts filling up their plates and carrying them over to the dining room, where a beaming TK is already waiting for him. Carlos is way too endeared for his own good.

“I know it’s your favourite“, Carlos places the plate down in front of TK, then a quick kiss to his temple. TK fondly watches Carlos as he unfolds the napkin, places it over his lap and tentatively takes a first bite. Their plates are still steaming. “Thank you. You’re the best“, he says softly, then starts digging in as well.

They eat in comfortable silence for a few minutes. Until TK can hear a quiet sigh of defeat coming from across the table.

“TK…”,

Pause

“Are you wearing my shirt?“

Ummm...this is so good!!! I can assure you that you have nothing to feel insecure about!

It hit so many things that I absolutely love: sweet domestic husbands, adorable teasing, chaotic TK, Carlos being comforting and reassuring! Also, them referring to each other as "my husband" is something I currently can't get out of my head in anticipation for it happening in season 5, so TK loving to say it, casually dropping it into conversations with the 126--and even with patients 😂--I LOVE that! Also, TK admiring Carlos in his reading glasses and TK stealing/wearing Carlos' clothes are another two of my favorite things!

Aside from the excellent content, I loved both the dialogue and description. It flowed well, I could see it all playing out in my mind and I think you captured their voices well! Excellent job! If you ever want to send me any more, feel free! And if/when you do decide to post, you should tag me so I don't miss it!!

[doublel27]

Take What’s Lost and Broke (and make it right) - T - 13.8 K 

Read on AO3 He hasn’t left. Gwyn is barely certain he’s moved. You would have to, though, as a human being to stay alive. He was sitting outside the hospital room door when she arrived - when Owen arrived - a constant presence. No one had explained what happened when TK moved back into Owen’s. Had never betrayed each other’s confidence with what was certainly a shared and private heartbreak. And still, Carlos is here.

Nancy and Tommy had both confirmed that Carlos had been the first to arrive, not ten minutes after TK had been brought in. The nurses and staff couldn’t get him to budge. When visiting hours ended, he remained in that chair. Gwyn had even spotted his parents coming in to sit, hand over food and try and coax him home. He didn’t go and the food got passed amongst the other people waiting for TK to open his eyes. Gwyn hasn’t seen him eat and she cannot blame him. 

So, three days in, Gwyn can’t help but sit down next to this man who has kept constant vigil at her son’s door.

“Coffee?” She offers, holding out a cup.

“No. I—no,” he whispers, lips dipping into a frown. “Thank you.”

The waiting room has emptied and it’s just the two of them here now. Owen disappeared for a quick shower and to make sure Buttercup is okay. Something about hospitals at night have always left Gwyn spooked. She’s glad to not be alone, but she knows everyone who can should be getting a solid night’s sleep. 

“It’s late, Carlos. You should go home.”

His eyes slide toward the door, toward TK. “Can’t,” he chokes out.

“Carlos.”

“I know he wouldn’t—I shouldn’t be here…we’re not.” Carlos swallows over the stumbling words. His voice cracks as he says, “He left me as his emergency contact.”

Gwyn has been in the throes of her own fears and grief, and she can see the same feeling mirrored in Carlos’s eyes amongst the tears he hasn’t let fall. The unraveling of their relationship makes even less sense in light of everything Gwyn’s seen since she’s been here. 

“I don’t know what happened, you’ve both been silent about that, but clearly there’s still something here.

”Carlos lets out a short, mirthless laugh. “When someone can explain it to me, I’ll let you know. Anyway, I just…when, when he wakes up and is okay, I’ll go. I just…need him to be okay.”

“You should go sit with him.”

Carlos shakes his head stiffly. “No. I…”

“Go. I’ll stay out here.”

“I…” Something in his eyes looks suspiciously like hope. 

“Go.”

She watches him stand and walk with halting steps into TK’s hospital room. There’s a moment at the door where she thinks he won’t cross the threshold. He does, and Gwyn lays her head against the glass of the ICU wall, giving them a moment of privacy. 

Continue on AO3

[morganaspendragonss]

“Why are you wearing my sweater?” “Because it smells like you.” With Carlos’ the one wearing the sweater!

holly's august extravaganza day 19: whatever here that's left of me (is yours)

thank you!

34. “Why are you wearing my sweater?” “Because it smells like you.” (from the fluff section of this list)

ao3 | 1.4k | hurt/comfort, post 2.12, supportive tk, softness

The morning after the fire, it’s TK who wakes up first, and for once it makes perfect sense. Carlos had barely been able to sleep, and though it hadn’t exactly been a picnic for TK either, he’s not the one going through the grief of losing years of his life all at once. Not to the extent that Carlos is, anyway.

TK sighs and rolls his head to look at Carlos’s sleeping face. He runs his thumb softly over the crease on his brow, wishing the simple motion could smooth it away and make everything okay again. Make it so last night never happened, and this is just a normal morning in their own bed, in their own house.

He tries to pretend for a little while, but the illusion is shattered all too quickly by a soft knocking at the bedroom door. Carefully, TK removes Carlos’s arm from where it is loosely slung over his hips and gets out of bed, checking to make sure he hasn’t disturbed him before padding across the room.

He keeps the door only cracked open to prevent too much light from getting into the room. His dad is on the other side, smiling sadly, a large box in his hands and several bags at his feet. TK braces himself for a joke; his dad has always been the type to fall back on humour in difficult situations, but he finds himself pleasantly surprised.

“I meant to give these to you guys last night,” he says, lifting the box slightly, “but things were so crazy that… Anyway. You left some clothes here when you moved out, so I figured you might want them.”

“Thanks, Dad.” TK takes the box from him, glancing down into it. There’s not much—a couple of hoodies, some screwed up t-shirts and button ups, a pair of sweats—but it’s all he has, and more than Carlos does. He sighs softly, then turns back into the bedroom and places the box down by the wardrobe. Carlos is still asleep when he glances at him, and all TK wants to do is curl up beside him again.

But when he goes to close the door, he instead finds himself with an arm full of bags.

“Those are from the crew,” he dad explains. “Paul stopped by with them earlier; he said to tell you that if there was anything you two needed, they all want to help out.”

TK nods. He’d thought the crew might do something like this, though that doesn’t make him any less grateful.

His dad shuffles awkwardly, clearly finding the silence uncomfortable. “Mateo wanted to contribute too, but we told him not to. You know, because—”

“Because he’s only just replaced his own clothes, I know.”

“Yeah.”

Silence again, and TK loves his dad, but he can’t deal with this right now. Guilt lies thick in the air, somehow worse than last night, but TK is in no mood to address it now. Maybe later, when they’ve had time to think about it all, but right now he’s too tired. Besides, there’s no way he’s getting into what he’s sure will become an argument when Carlos is sleeping just feet away.

TK takes a step back. “Carlos is still asleep,” he says. “So I’m just gonna…” He tips his head back, gesturing into the bedroom, and his dad understands, also moving back.

“Right, of course. I, uh, I have my follow-up appointment at the hospital today, but I’ll see you guys later. Maybe then we can talk?”

“Sure.”

Without waiting for an answer, TK gently shuts the door and turns to place the bags on top of the box. Carlos stirs when he climbs back in bed, his eyelids cracking open.

“Did something happen?” he mumbles, trying to push himself upright.

TK shushes him. “It was just my dad dropping some clothes off for us,” he whispers. “Go back to sleep, baby.”

Carlos drops back off within seconds, TK watching the steady rhythm of his chest and listening to his soft breaths. He reaches out and lightly runs his fingers through Carlos’s hair, pushing back a few stray curls. It’s almost like any other morning, so TK closes his eyes and pretends for a little while longer.

*

TK would have been happy to stay in bed with Carlos all day, but eventually the grumbling of his stomach becomes too insistent to ignore. He heaves himself up once more and selects a shirt at random from the box of his old stuff, wrinkling his nose when he sees what it is. He’d left this one behind on purpose, the print too much for him to care what happened to the shirt. The same goes for most of the clothes in the box, but it’s not like he’s spoiled for choice, so it’ll have to do.

There’s a pair of jeans his size in one of the bags, so TK bundles everything up and trudges to the bathroom. He’s been running into fires his entire working life; he’s perfected the art of getting rid of unwanted smells, but this time is different. This time, no matter how many times he washes himself, the smoke and grime still feels like it’s sticking to his skin, a permanent cloud around him.

TK blames his dad’s shampoos, because it’s easier than admitting he’s imagining it.

Once he’s showered and dressed, he heads to the kitchen to make breakfast. Carlos joins him not ten minutes later, still looking exhausted, though he attempts a wan smile when their eyes meet. TK returns it and kisses him on the cheek, passing him a cup of coffee.

He studies his boyfriend as they stand in silence, his heart breaking at what he sees. Carlos is a big guy, but right now he’s never looked smaller, shoulders hunched and his eyes darting around the kitchen, as if taking it all in. They’ve hung out here together before, especially right after TK got shot, but it must feel different now, knowing there’s nowhere else for them to go.

Knowing that, technically, this is now their home.

Carlos sets his mug on the counter and scrubs his hands down his face, then puls at his sleeves like he’s trying to stretch them to fit. Which… Wait.

“Are you…” TK leans closer, peering at the hoodie Carlos is wearing, and—yep. “Why are you wearing my hoodie?”

Carlos flushes and tugs at the neckline—another demonstration of how uncomfortable it must be for him to wear it. The height difference between them is miniscule, but sizing is another matter entirely; TK’s hoodie is obviously pulled tight across Carlos’s chest and it doesn’t sit right on his body, too small for his build.

“Babe,” TK starts worriedly, “was there nothing in your size from the crew? You should have said something. We can fix this, you don’t need to be uncomfortable.”

There’s a beat, and then Carlos, studiously avoiding TK’s gaze, clears his throat. “It smells like you.”

TK blinks. “What?”

“I’m wearing it because it smells like you. I don’t— The only clothes I have left of mine smell of the fire, but this is yours and… I don’t know, I guess it makes me feel safe?” He laughs nervously, pulling at the hem as though he’s going to take the hoodie off. “Pretty stupid, right?”

TK puts a hand out and stops him. “No,” he says softly. He honestly has no idea how that hoodie smells even remotely like him after a month abandoned here, but if it makes Carlos feel safe, then who is TK to argue? “Not stupid at all. You should keep it.”

Carlos raises an eyebrow. “You don’t care that I’m probably stretching it?”

“Why would I?” TK asks. “I left it here for a reason, Carlos. Plus, I’d sacrifice a thousand hoodies if I knew it would make you feel safe; one is nothing.”

It’s far from the most romantic thing TK’s ever said, but the way Carlos hugs him makes it feel like it. He presses kiss after kiss to Carlos’s cheek and the shell of his ear, comforting him like he tried to do last night.

“Besides,” he whispers after a moment, “this just means it’ll be big enough for when I inevitably steal it back from you.”

And, for the first time since the fire, Carlos laughs—really, truly laughs. The sound is muffled against TK’s shoulder, but it’s so goddamn beautiful, and TK would do anything to hear it again.

Even if that involves giving up every hoodie he owns.

[maybe-theres-hope]

Tarlos ficlet - “You Like My Costume?”

For all y'all firefighter!Carlos babes :) 

@howtosingit @pragmaticoptimist34 and anyone else who likes this kind of thing <3

1.6k | ao3

TK is actually kind of bummed to be working on Halloween.

Sure, it’s not like he has to work Thanksgiving this year--he somehow finagled the day off and he has yet to tell Carlos that he will be making a surprise visit to the ranch for dinner and he absolutely can’t wait to see his fiancé’s face when he walks in--but he was kind of looking forward to doing the cutesy couple’s costume thing. He’s a sucker for that kind of thing, and he’s bummed, okay?

They’re out on a call that’s frankly more of a time waster than anything else since the fourteen year old in question wasn’t actually suffering from alcohol poisoning but rather he’d yarfed because his friends had dared him to drink a teaspoon of dish soap--honestly, kids these days--so things are looking pretty mellow so far for the evening. He half expected full-moon level type calls tonight but in all honesty he’s been kind of bored. Which really makes it doubly crappy to be working. There’s not even any excitement. 

“At least we’re off at 11, you’ll get to see the last of the trick-or-treaters,” Nancy says with a smirk. 

“Who trick-or-treats at 11 p.m.?” he asks. “By then it’ll just be the dumb teenagers TP-ing old people’s houses and that’s if anyone actually does that anymore.”

“What, you’re too old and married for those kinds of shenanigans?”

“Screw you, I’m not old, and I’m not married yet,” he quips back at her.

“Mmmhmm. Coulda fooled me.” She’s smiling her mischievous smile, the one she gets when she’s contemplating how to jump-scare him in the bunk room in the middle of the night because one time he yelped in such a high-pitch that she nearly peed herself laughing, and she’s been trying to recreate it ever since. 

“Hey, the thrill is not gone, I can promise you that.” Now it’s his turn to smirk back at her.

“Ugh ugh, okay, don’t wanna hear about it.” She waves her hands in front of her face like she’s shooing away fog. “And TK? I mean that. Whatever it is you’re going to be doing tonight, I never wanna hear about it, okay? Just...please. Keep it in the bedroom. Everyone’s going to be making enough assumptions as it is.”

He turns to look at her from the driver’s seat, puzzled. “What do you mean, tonight? What’s so special about tonight and why are people making assumptions? Carlos had to work until half an hour ago anyway, so we’re probably both going to just pass out when I get home. Also, what do you mean ‘assumptions’?”

She just smiles at him again. “Just drive, Strand.”

When he pulls the rig into the bay at ten minutes past eleven, TK just wants to shower and collapse. Boredom held out for only so long before giving into three separate calls where the patient coded on the backboard. He’s tired, he’s hungry, and he feels like he will never be clean of all the sweat. His fingers are aching and his shoulders are sore. He’s never been more ready to just slip into their sheets at home and pass into blissful oblivion. He can’t even make himself look up from the floor as he walks toward the locker room. 

“Hey TK! Why don’t you say hi to the new probie?” Mateo’s voice is nearly a giggle, and it actually causes TK to lift his head. With great effort. 

“Huh? We have a new probie? Whose first shift is on Halloween? Who did he piss off to manage that?” TK asks, following Mateo through the kitchen.

It’s Paul who answers from where he’s leaning against the archway leading back into the bay where the ladder truck is parked. “No one. You might be a little peeved that he took your old turnout gear, but I really, really doubt that.”

“What?” Now TK is just thoroughly confused. 

“Yeah,” Marjan says when he rounds the corner, “and it doesn’t fit him all that well, but I also highly doubt you’ll be upset about that either.” She’s practically glowing with mirth. 

“Okaaaay...what’s with everyone? Is this some kind of Halloween prank? Is someone going to jump out and scare me?”

“Trust me, it won’t scare you. Just...don’t scar the rest of us once you see it. Behave yourself until you get home,” is Nancy’s last line before she turns and practically runs up the stairs. 

TK darts his gaze around to the rest of them, brow furrowing. 

“Just go, man. We’ve been keeping this from you for like a week and we want to see the fruits of our labor,” Mateo says, shoving at TK’s shoulder so that he walks toward the ladder truck.

Still confused and slightly nervous, TK rounds the back of the truck and looks around to see what it is they’ve conjured up to prank him with. He scans the floor, wondering if someone in a scary mask will slide out from under the truck. He moves around to the other side while still in the team’s line of sight, looking back at them for some kind of indication that he’s on the right track. Marjan points subtly up and he follows with his gaze. 

His mouth goes instantly dry and his breath stops. He might gasp, but he can’t be sure.

“Hi babe. Happy Halloween,” Carlos croons in a low voice, though he’s blushing slightly which removes some of the effect. 

TK can only stare. His old turnout gear, indeed.

His fiancé his perched on top of the truck, casually leaned against the ladder and looking down on him. His hips, clad in baggy pants only held up by bright suspenders are slipped forward just so, inviting TK’s eyes to travel up the long line of his glorious body. The AFD t-shirt is straining at the seams, defining every muscle in his abs and pecs, the suspenders caressing against the hard planes of his chest, peeking out from the turnout coat hanging open. 

When Carlos notices where TK’s eyes have gone, he lifts himself out of his ridiculously sexy lean to stand and shrug out of the coat. How on earth anyone can make the removing of standard-issue PPE look so goddamned alluring, TK will never know. The movement causes Carlos’ shoulders to flex, and the cotton of the t-shirt nearly gives out. TK catches a peek of his own name in bright orange lettering across the back of the coat before it’s casually flipped over one massive shoulder, clinging to one finger. 

“I...holy shit,” is all he can say. He has been robbed of his entire vocabulary. He can hear his team snickering at him from the kitchen, but he pays them no mind. The view from here is much better. 

Carlos blushes a bit more, and tosses the coat down to TK, who catches it dazedly. Then, he watches as his absolutely gorgeous fiancé nimbly climbs down the footholds on the side of the truck like he’s done it a thousand times before, and between drooling and sucking in subtle breaths of air TK’s eyes are drawn directly to his ass. It’s a marvelous sight. 

Dropping down lightly onto the floor with a tiny bounce in his step, Carlos turns to face TK in all his glory. TK’s gaze once again runs the gambit from his shoulders down his torso, right down to his own spare pair of boots. 

Carlos saunters closer, knowing full well what he’s doing and loving every minute of it, the bastard. “So, babe,” he says in that same low voice, closer this time. “You like my costume?”

TK still can’t really form words. He might stutter a bit, but he’ll deny it later.

Carlos leans in close--presumably to deter their audience from hearing his next words, which are whispered directly into TK’s ear. 

“I chose to dress up as your secret fantasy,” he says, his lips caressing the shell of TK’s ear. He shivers, though from the words or the touch or the outfit or all of the above, TK can’t say. The next words he hears don’t help matters much.

“What do you say I rescue you from work? Take you home and give you some mouth-to-mouth?” 

TK can hear the desire behind the words, but he can also hear the tiniest giggle at the blatant dirty talk that Carlos actually doesn’t do that much of, and it makes his heart melt. This man is everything.

When he regains some coherency, TK decides to give back as much as he’s gotten. He runs his hands down Carlos’ torso, nearly dropping one suspender completely off his shoulder with his vigor in grabbing a handful of pectoral muscle. 

He leans back in and says into Carlos’ ear, “Well, have you still got your uniform in your car? It might be a bit big on me, but I think I’d look good in nothing but your utility belt. Should I handcuff you to the bed, firefighter Reyes?”

He leans back just enough to catch Carlos scrunching his eyes shut and biting his lip--desire written into every line of his face--and suddenly remembers their audience. This is not a free show, no matter how much help they provided Carlos in surprising TK with this. “Take me home, now.”

“You got it, babe.” With that, Carlos bends down, grabs TK by the waist, and lifts him like he weighs nothing. TK is thrown over his shoulder in a full fireman’s carry to the tune of his team, his friends, whistling and catcalling as he’s carried off to Carlos’ car. 

Yeah, this is a good Halloween. Maybe the best one yet. 

[thoughts-on-bangtan]

Hi, I know you’re a fan of namjoon so I wanted to ask your thoughts on this ring thing? I’m kinda new and assumed all these namjoon is married with kids stuff were a joke. But some people seem to totally believe that. I mean where he’d get the time to see a partner and kids is beyond me but who knows? Anyways I was looking at some of their recent pics and he doesn’t wear it all the time - which if it was a couples ring - wouldn’t he? I thought maybe he would only wear it if they were appearing on Run or Korean shows, but he didn’t have it on for either of the new shows they’ve been on recently, as they may not have been as widely watched. I mean I guess it’s none of our business - but I’m trying to rip of my delulu hat for making me think Seokjin gave it to him 🙈

Hi anon, I hope you don’t mind that I’ll combine my answer for you with my answer to another ask since I feel like they fall into the same kind of category, as in people taking things too far and/or blowing things out of proportion. And, coincidentally, both have something to do with rings.

I’ll start with your question though and give you another example that followed a very similar trajectory as the omg namjoon is married with kids because ring narrative/theory. Some months ago, Namjoon posted a few pictures on twitter and among them was a picture of him with another guy wearing a green sweater. His face though was covered. At first ARMY didn’t think much of it, but then, eventually, someone started a joke that “remember that sweater Joon wore for BV4? The guy is wearing the same one, what if that's his boyfriend?” and it went viral.

It started out completely harmless with hundreds of positive and funny tweets made in good humor, no one taking it that seriously knowing that we’d never find out even if it were true. But, as the jokes started to simmer down, everyone had their laugh, the next wave came in and this one decided that this isn’t a joke at all but serious matter. Quickly this harmless fun turned into a witch hunt of “ARMY” trying to figure out who the guy might be, if he is Namjoon’s mysterious friend that once sent him a coffee truck with custom drawn designs on it, perhaps the same one with whom Namjoon already once posted a picture sitting on this garden porch swing type thing, some even trying to prove that the guy is either Seokjin (in which case, what would be the need to cover his face?) or Florist Isaac whom they met during that one RUN episode.

So, very quickly a few idiots turned harmless fun into something almost malicious and got into fights with ARMY who were trying to tell them to stop.

The ring thing followed a similar story. It was once a harmless joke based on the fact that Namjoon wants to have kids one day, so some made jokes about what if he’s already married but we just didn’t know etc. But very quickly that got out of hand as well, going as far as people claiming the little girl in his pictures which he posted around his birthday or something is his daughter (even though it was said it’s probably the child actress from BTS WORLD) and that him making jokes (during a BangtanB while trying on glasses before their MOTS7 press con) about his child being able to read/write hangul at a very young age wasn’t jokes at all but solid proof of the fact that he is married with a child (despite the fact that he would’ve had to have gotten married and his wife pregnant not long after their debut for the timeline to even work out somehow which makes it seem even more ridiculous). This even went as far as people spamming the comments during this vlives with questions about it, flooded his selcas on twitter with questions and “jokes” and, again, attacked anyone who told them to stop.

In all of this, watching it happen from the sidelines as someone whose bias is Namjoon, I was confused why these particular rings (which I don’t even think were the same ones each time) caused such a reaction. The members have all worn so many different rings over the years, on all fingers, sometimes even like eight at the same time, and yet it wasn’t until 2020 and their KBS interview after their first BBH100 #1 that things went bonkers. All because Namjoon decided to take the ring off before they started filming or something.

In all of this I see two things that make me wonder:

When would he have the time to find a girl (since same sex marriage is not a thing in Korea) with whom he would have enough time to befriend her, trust her (considering who Namjoon is, that one is a major thing), fall in love, date and be together for a few years, and then get married? From Seokjin we know they have maybe two or three days off a month and work at least ten hours a day on their BH regulated schedules. Add to that the time they spend in the studio working on music outside of schedules, gym time, a few hours of sleep, and perhaps a few scarce hours of free time to (in Namjoon’s case) go to a museum or ride his bike, does that really leave enough time for romance (with an outsider) that leads to marriage (and a child)?

Is age 26 at the height of their career really the time for marriage? Even more so when you are someone like Namjoon, the leader of the world’s biggest group with more responsibilities than we can likely imagine as outsiders. Sure, he said he wants kids, but he can still have those in his thirties, he can also get married in his thirties, after all, life does not end once you hit thirty despite what some teens believe.

Lastly, I actually think that if it were true, Namjoon, or really anyone from the hyung line, would be the ones who wouldn’t have to hide it, at least not when compared to the maknaes. You could argue that “it would threaten their career” but would it really? Perhaps if the ring were from a man (some namjinists did make jokes that it’s like his promise ring from Seokjin or whatever, but it was all in good fun, nothing more than that), then yes, but connected to a woman? That one member from EXO also came out and said he’s getting married because his fiancé was pregnant and all it did was cause a few fansites to close and a handful of people to “protest” in front of the SM building. 

Little correction about my comments about that EXO member, though even with this my point still stands:

From anon: Re: your last post about namjoon’s rings! I agree with everything you said but just a small correction. I’m not an EXO stan but it wasn’t just a a few “protests” or fansites closing. From what I read online, he his fiancée and later wife, and his child were harassed, threatened and stalked to the point where he enlisted early just to give his family some relief. We all know there are people like this in every fandom and I know BTS would be aware of these things, so they’ll be extra careful.

Would there be delulus like this who’d go crazy if Namjoon were to say “ARMY, I’m (getting) married”? Of course. Would it ruin BTS’ career? I seriously doubt it. Do I think Namjoon would actually come out and say it if it were the case? No, but not because it’s bad idol etiquette or because BH wouldn’t allow him, but because people are insane and who knows what they would do.

It’s the same with times when people argue “I wish X ML members would just say he has a girlfriend so the ship wars would end” without taking into consideration the girl’s safety and the fact that a partner different than the one X member is shipped with has never been that big of an obstacle for some before. Just create a conspiracy theory about the company forcing this upon them and voila problem solved. We’ve seen that before when the tattoo scandal happened, and people thought JK might be dating that tattoo artist and therefore it would mean he isn’t in a relationship with Jimin or Tae.

Whatever happens in the members private lives, it is safer for all parties involved if it stays private, even more so if their romantic partners were non-idols, or non-celebrities, or another member.

Now onto the second ring question:

From anon: I am a young army and I am slowly losing my bearings. I've seen Vlive S, H and V. Many say it was a Tk*ok day (?) And all three emphasized it, and the V even wore the friendship ring for Jungkook. Is it true? I don't understand anything about it, I don't see it. After the last BTS interview on TV, I thought Vmin are best friends, not Tk*ok. I thought V said he didn't want Tk*ok and yet he was so happy during Vlive because it was Tk*ok day? Help!

Now this one, I was curious if we’d get an ask about this, even more since, if you’re a reader of our blog, you likely already know what I’m going to say.

Let’s start where you usually do—at the beginning. The day of the vlive coincided with what T*ek*okers have decided on is T*ek*ok Day, based on how supposedly some years ago this was the day Tae and JK named their subunit like this. I tried to find where exactly this happened, as in in which piece of official content, but I couldn’t find anything except for a screenshot. Anyone have a clue or a link?

Side note: T*ek*okers love using the “ship” naming as proof that not only are they real but also proudly showing it off by giving themselves a name but continently forget that they are not the only ones who gave themselves subunit names. After all Jimin and Namjoon named themselves MiniMoni, or Yoongi and Jimin who are MiniMini, Namjoon and Seokjin calling themselves RJRJ last year, or that one vlive with JK, Jimin and Seokjin where they also put together their names the way you build ship names. At the end of that vlive Tae, thanks to come prompting from the chat, named their trio vsope, so does that mean they are a romantic ship now too?

If you were watching that vlive as it was happening, and decided to look at the chat, then you know what was happening. For those who did not, basically the chat was flooded with comments about T*ek*ok Day, asking where JK is whom Tae loves, where his boyfriend JK is, congratulating Tae for T*ek*ok Day etc. Basically shippers took their shipping into a space where it doesn’t belong, into a space where the members can see it, and therefore purposefully broke one of the shipping rules (I even saw some tweet about how they were proud of themselves for literally spamming the chat with T*ek*ok comments which is so wrong, and I mean that regardless of which ship we talk about). In between those were the usual other comments like speak English or say hello to XYZ or say XYZ in whatever language, and very few comments that actually reacted to what the members were doing on screen. Like when Tae said he didn’t shave, instead of telling him that it’s fine, which it is, it’s his face after all, some decided to tell him he should shave more often, basically telling him what to do, which he saw and read out. Great job.

But all the madness came to a “climax” when Hobi was reading comments and among some other ones read out T*ek*ok, just the word not the T*ek*ok Day ones, and unfortunately we all knew he wasn’t reading out the Korean word for Thailand, which sounds the same though it is spelled a little differently. In that moment all hell broke loose. Focus cams of Tae’s facial expression in that moment went viral among shippers, most of course claiming he looked so happy, while other non-shippers claimed he didn’t look happy at all. It’s a micro moment so I won’t get into it, who knows what Tae thought in that moment and what his facial expression meant and if it even had any connection to the word and Hobi reading it out loud at all.

Because he read that comment, Hobi was basically crowned the new leader of the T*ek*ok shippers (I thought that role already went to Jimin?) and twitter basically had a meltdown.

As for the ring, I know this is something a lot of ships have, with romantic connotations according to their shippers, so I was curious how these rings supposedly look like in T*ek*ok’s case and if they even match the ring that Tae wore in the vlive. If it would, fine, if not, well…

If it’s not clear from the picture, the “supposed couple” or friendship rings are very delicate and thin, and sure enough I did find a lot of pictures in which both Tae and JK wore them, usually at different times, I will admit that. But the ring Tae wore during their vlive recently was much thicker and had some kind of design on it, therefore it’s a completely different one. Sorry. Why he wore it, if he bought it for himself or received it from someone, what emotional connotation to may or may not have, those are things we won’t know anything about unless he would tell us, so there's no point in speculating.

“Many say it was a Tk*ok day (?) And all three emphasized it” now this is curious to me since I watched the vlive as it was happening, and I didn’t see that at any point in the vlive. Sure, Hobi read that one comment, but if 95% of comments were about that, I wasn’t even surprised by it. Perhaps he thought that it would get people to stop? Perhaps he just read whatever comments his eyes landed on? Perhaps something else entirely? We have no way of knowing it so there is no point in trying to fixate on it. But besides that, they were talking about many other things and having fun making their smoothies, decorating them and just having a good time together with each other and with ARMY. 

So, this way of presenting the vlive basically comes down to shipper perception, confirmation bias, and simply, almost, rewriting history.

Rings do not determine who your best friend is (according to a quick google search, wearing a ring on your index finger simply means friendship or self-esteem/authority), after all many of the members have rings either from each other or ones that match, like Namjoon buying Jimin a Cartier ring for his birthday a few years ago which Jimin proudly wore since it’s really pretty, or pink and blue rings (there are several different ones, actually) that Namjoon has worn with Seokjin in the past (which fits into the Namjinist pink and blue agenda), or the rings Jimin and JK have together according to their shippers, and many more. Jimin and Tae have a whole plethora of matching jewelry in form of necklaces, rings, bracelets, even contact lenses (as in wearing one of each pair to match each other), some which were chosen by their stylists and others they bought themselves for themselves (which are all conveniently “forgotten” by those who ship either big ML ship). Though we’ve seen that even with clothes given by their stylists they were still the ones to choose their own accessories, like Namjoon choosing a pair of glasses from a whole box of different ones, or the members choosing rings from two big boxes before going on stage.

Tae himself said, on multiple occasions across multiple years, that Jimin is his best friend, even his one and only best friend, and that he’s the one he likes most which he even proclaimed on national TV. As long as Tae doesn’t say that this has changed in the last, what, two weeks and suddenly JK is officially his new best friend, those who claim otherwise are basically nothing but shippers pushing a narrative that willfully ignores Tae’s own words. Just like they ignore and twist his Weverse comment about how T*ek*okers should get out of their imagination. What doesn’t fit is ignored or adjusted until it does fit.

Lastly, sure enough, Tae really was happy during that vlive but I’m fairly certain (though neither you, them or I will ever know for sure, we’re not in Tae’s head) it had absolutely no connection to T*ek*ok Day, something shippers created and not Tae and JK themselves, seeing as Tae has been in a very good and happy mood for a few months now. Whatever makes him so happy, I truly hope it’ll continue making him happy and I wish shippers (and solo stans) would stop trying to force a reason (which fits them) upon his emotions.

I know it’s easy to get confused by how loud shippers are online, especially as young ARMY (in this case both ARMY who are young age wise but also young in the sense of being new to the fandom), but shipper opinions, in many cases, are just noise, and also noise twisted and skewed a certain way to suit them. If you kept to OT7 spaces on the day of that vlive, no one really paid attention to the ring, most were annoyed by and furious at the shamelessness of the shippers in the comments, and tried to just focus on how fun the vlive was instead.

[its-not-a-pen]

SHAME BIN

a list of projects I'm going to publicly shame myself into finishing. feel free to come into my inbox to yell at me.

What does the T in TK stand for, anyways? () 4/5 chapters

Feral's Adventure ()2100/2600

Hungry Ghosts () 3/4 chapters

Weekend at Omelas () 2/? chapters

[reyesstrand]

let your heart be light

tarlos & firefam dynamics / teen+ / 2.6k

To be fair, TK wasn’t sure what to expect for his first holiday season in Austin. But he has his dad, he has his team, he has Carlos—and it’s enough.

@911giftexchange for @teaamfreewill — i hope you enjoy this AJ, and have a happy holiday season!!! 💗

ALSO AVAILABLE ON AO3!!

“It just doesn’t feel right without snow.”

Paul looks at him with that ever-present, all-knowing look in his eyes, before letting out a sigh and nodding. “You’re telling me, New York.”

“Like,” TK starts, fully aware that he’s gravitating into rambling status at this point, but he can never stop himself. He rests a foot on the bottom rung of the shopping cart, leaning his weight against the handle as Paul analyzes the nutritional facts on two different brands of steel-cut oats. “It doesn’t feel like the holidays without at least one storm that makes you question your existence.”

Humming in agreement, Paul puts one package back on the shelf and tosses the other in the cart, before hesitating and grabbing a few more of the pale-blue bags before they're good to move on to produce. When there's a comfortable lull in conversation, both of them crossing items off the list his dad's very carefully crafted for the bi-weekly shopping trips, TK lets his mind drift to holidays past.

His parents wanted him to grow up with both the tradition of celebrating Hanukkah and Christmas, but as he grew older, Decembers tended to blur into every other month. He'd always call his mom if he was working late, smiling down at photos she'd send him of her attempts to perfect her grandmother's recipe for sufganiyot, always making his stomach rumble. And, even if she was out of the city at the time, she'd always send him a box of homemade pastries and a card with a lengthy message inscribed inside that'd make him feel warmed from the inside out. And his dad would always make him at least come for a dinner on the twenty-fifth, even if dinner was just takeout eaten straight out of the cartons while they watched the Christmas parade he always recorded.

They were simple traditions, but they were theirs.

In Austin, TK's slowly getting used to calling it home. The snow thing had been the first to strike him, because while he's seen his fair share of strange Texan weather, not waking up to white covering every surface and bitter cold nipping at his skin has been throwing him for a loop. 

"Earth to TK," Paul says, tossing him a bell pepper. TK catches it, rolling his eyes playfully at his friend. "We should start figuring out a place and time for the Not-Christmas dinner."

"Carlos offered his place," TK says, without thinking. Paul just grins at him. 

"That seems to be going well, huh?" Paul asks, hip-checking TK as they walk side-by-side to the checkout. TK feels his face go warm, though he busies himself with adjusting the rolled sleeves of his black t-shirt, printed with the 126 crest over his heart. Paul just musses up his hair before ducking out of grasp for retaliation, sidling up to the cashier and offering his big smile at her while she begins to ring them up. "I'm happy for you, kid. We all are." 

TK does smile at that, because it's the one shining light in all of this. He hadn't been sure what a holiday season with a new boyfriend would be like, especially when every single one of his friends were also friends with said boyfriend, but they've all been relatively tame. No shoving them under the mistletoe yet, which TK guesses is only a matter of time. 

"Anyway," Paul says, and TK sticks his hands into his pockets, suddenly glad Marjan isn't here to poke at his pink cheeks. 

"Anyway," TK agrees. "Carlos did offer to let us use his place, though. He suggested the twenty-second, so that way people could still go see their families." 

"The twenty-second it is," Paul smiles, already typing the date into their group chat, followed by five question marks. Because Carlos thought ahead for these things, TK knows they're all already going to be on one of their twenty-four-hour off periods; Carlos works that morning but will be home by noon, and as long as TK has detailed instructions, he won't have a problem starting the food early. 

A small knot forms deep in TK's chest, even though he knows there's still two weeks before the proposed group dinner. He just thanks the cashier after paying with the credit card his dad gave him before they left the station an hour ago, and they head back out into the sunny, barely-cool, snowless, December afternoon. 

***

TK's just hanging up with his mom, absently kicking at a rock in the lot just outside the bay doors, when he feels someone creep up behind him. 

He doesn't even blink, though, because he smells sandalwood and tangy citrus and is smiling before he feels familiar arms settle around him. He tells his mom I love you, too, and stuffs his phone in his pocket and leans back into Carlos' touch, for half a moment, before turning in his arms and pressing their foreheads together. 

"Did you know you're impossible to shop for?" 

TK grins, and presses a quick kiss to the corner of Carlos' mouth before pulling back enough to look him in the eye. "What a welcoming statement after not seeing each other for twenty-seven hours." 

Carlos rolls his eyes affectionately, and tightens his hold around TK's middle. "I missed you, Ty." 

"I missed you too," TK grins, cupping Carlos' face between his palms and finally closing the distance between them properly. "But I do take offence to that. I'm perfect in every way." 

Carlos huffs a laugh against his mouth and presses in for one more kiss, before scraping his blunt nails against the fine hairs at TK's nape. "Believe me, I know, sweetheart." 

He feels a pleasant ripple shoot through him, and TK's struck again by the fact that he gets to have this. He's close enough to see the flecks of gold in Carlos' warm brown eyes, and he wonders how it's only been three months because he feels like he's known him forever. He thinks of decorating with Marjan today and the sudden pang of homesickness that he couldn't quite explain. 

"You okay?" Carlos asks, because he can read even the most microscopic of his expressions like the back of his own hand. TK covers it up with a smile. 

"Yeah, of course," TK brushes his thumb along Carlos' jaw, before standing back, dragging his hand down the length of Carlos' arm so he could grab his hand and tangle their fingers together. "Come on, I'll buy you dinner." 

"My prince," Carlos plays along, hand over his heart, but there's still a look in his eyes. He runs his thumb over the backs of TK's knuckles, and when TK squeezes his hand tighter, he gets a small smile in return. 

***

They'd realized sometime between Thanksgiving and the first of December that they'd have to celebrate as a team, this year. 

The non-denominational, coined-by-Mateo "Not-Christmas Dinner" idea was agreed upon pretty quickly, and TK is beyond excited to start creating new traditions with his family. But he's struggling, is the thing. He wouldn't ever mention it to anyone because he hates stressing them out, and though he has no urge to do anything stupid because for the first time in a while he's happy—like, really fucking happy—he can't help but to feel like everything has to be perfect. 

It boils down to this: he misses his mom like crazy, even though she stayed with him and his dad for a couple weeks back in September when he was still healing. He's finally getting back on track with his dad, after long nights of hashing things out about his childhood. And he and Alex never did much for the holidays save for giving each other a couple gifts because they could never work out how to spend an equal amount of time with both of their families—which, in hindsight, is yet another element of the two and a half years TK lost to the man he thought was his soulmate—but now with Carlos he just wants things to be special. They already have plans to visit Carlos' mom and sisters on Christmas Eve, and Owen had lovingly coerced Carlos into a Strand family dinner on Christmas Day. 

It just feels like a lot. 

"Hey, are you okay?" Marjan asks, bumping his shoulder with hers as she strolls into Carlos' kitchen. The twenty-second kind of crept up on TK, and now he's here, attempting to hold down the fort while Carlos makes a last-minute trip to the store. His kitchen's a homey space, and, like the rest of his boyfriend's place, it's tastefully decorated with garland and candles and little angel statues that have been passed down through his family. There's a photo of the two of them on Carlos' fridge, pressed together at a pumpkin patch they'd spent a date night at back in October, and TK gets a little lost in the memory. Marjan has to nudge him a little harder to get him to snap back into it. "TK?" 

"Oh, hey," TK smiles at her, and goes back to making sure that the green beans don't stick to the bottom of the pan. She claims a burner of her own to keep her tagine warm, leaning back against the counter with her arms folded over her chest. 

"You're spacing out a bit," Marjan says, and when TK keeps his eyes trained on the vegetables he swore he could handle, she just makes a small noise and places a hand on his shoulder. "You've been a little quiet lately."

There's a pause, where neither of them say anything, before Marjan drops her voice a little and adds:

"Hey, you know you can talk to me, right?" 

"I'm just—" TK shakes his head and bites at the inside of his cheek, turning down the heat to try and kill more time.

He doesn't know how to tell her—and the rest of them—that he's both so thankful for this family he's found and so, so terrified of messing it all up. Thankfully, he doesn't have to; there's a knock at the door and Marjan offers to get it, leaving TK alone with a soft smile. He sighs, and closes his eyes for a long moment. 

***

After food has been served, and gifts have been exchanged, they all sit around Carlos' living room. The conversations overlap like they always do, and TK sits comfortably under the glow of the light from the tree and the warmth of Carlos' arm thrown over his shoulder. He's slowly picking at a piece of Grace's pecan pie, and he knows he should just let himself get lost in the moment, but he can't. He taps his foot at a staccato beat against the floor, and even when Carlos throws him a questioning look and settles his hand on TK's knee, he doesn't stop. 

He finally excuses himself ten minutes later. 

Carlos' place has a nice little backyard area, where they've all gathered for parties and after-work hangouts countless times. It's a little chilly as the sun's gone down, and TK sighs out loud and sees his breath puff out in front of him. He smiles just a little, and kicks his foot against the porch, dropping down onto the steps. 

He's expecting Carlos to come after him; or maybe Marjan, or his dad. Instead it's Grace who settles down next to him, a hand splayed over her four-month pregnant belly. 

"Honey," she starts, and TK ducks his head. His eyes burn, and he roughly sniffs. "TK. You don't have to hide whatever you're thinking from us." 

He takes a deep breath, and scrubs a hand down his face. And then he says: "I don't want to bring down your mood." 

Grace gives him one of her warm smiles. "TK, every day I'm reminded why you and my husband get along so well." 

TK rolls his eyes and gently nudges her arm with his shoulder. 

"Now tell me what's wrong," Grace says, and TK rubs the back of his neck before he starts talking. 

He tells her everything. About how the holidays usually meant bickering with Alex. How it meant celebrating with both of his parents, sure, but also dealing with awkward dinners with their new significant others. About how he hasn't felt this good since he was a kid and he doesn't want to fuck it up. 

"You could never fuck it up," Grace tells him, squeezing his hand that she's been holding between both of hers. TK meets her eyes and finds nothing but sincerity, nothing but the warmth and reassurance that always seems to be there. "Never. And know that all of us in there don't care about perfect as long as we have you, as long as we're all together. Now, I'm going to send that beautiful man of yours out here so you can talk to him, because he's been worried." 

At that exact moment, they hear the telltale creak of the door opening; both of them glance over their shoulders and spot Carlos. 

He moves to leave, lifting a hand in apology. "Sorry to interrupt—" 

"I was just leaving," Grace says, getting to her feet and squeezing TK's shoulder for a brief moment. When she disappears back into the house, Carlos takes her spot, and wordlessly presses a lingering kiss to TK's temple. 

"Ty," Carlos starts, and TK stops him in his tracks with a kiss. 

"I'm sorry for being distant, lately," TK murmurs half against his lips, because even though he knows that Carlos has seen him pretty close to his worst he hates the thought of pulling him down; of making him unhappy. "I'm just—it's been so long since I've had this. And I've never had someone like you. I was so worried about not messing things up that I got in my head." 

"Hey," Carlos whispers, getting TK to look him in the eye. "Please don't apologize, okay? We're all healthy, and here together—that's what matters, right? That I get to have you by my side through it all?"

Could you blame TK for surging forward to kiss him again? 

When they part, TK whispers: "Thank you." 

"What for?" Carlos asks, eyes glinting with confusion. 

"For being you," TK says, knowing how it sounds. 

Carlos shakes his head, moving to lace their fingers together. 

They move in unison to press their foreheads together, and TK whispers, "I love you so much. I just needed you to know that." 

"Of course I do," Carlos says, smiling into it when he kisses TK before speaking again. "I love you too. And I don't want you to feel like you have to—to hide what you're feeling." 

TK just lets himself have what he wants, what he needs in the moment, and it's this: Carlos' mouth against his, again and again. 

***

They re-enter the party ten minutes later, and all eyes are on them when they slip into the living room. 

TK opens his mouth to make some big declaration, but Marjan catches his eye, and then Paul. Then it's his dad who dramatically clears his throat and points above the two of them. 

Because, of course, there's mistletoe fastened to the doorway above them. 

"I hate you all," TK mutters, to which Judd yells lies! and Paul yells something about getting on with it. So, TK does; he presses his palms to either side of Carlos' face and grins at him before closing the distance between them. There's a whoop from someone for effect, and then when they pull apart Marjan pulls him down next to her on the loveseat so he can be thrown into a conversation about fighting mall elves they'd had to deal with during a call yesterday. 

Looking around the room, he realizes he had nothing to worry about at all. And, to be fair, TK wasn't sure what to expect for his first holiday season in Austin. But he has his dad, he has his team, he has Carlos—and it's enough. 

[beeexx]

Set after 1x10 Carlos and TK have another moment. It’s basically a long extended scene. Can be read on ao3 as well. Enjoy When TK asks, a little hesitant, about going back to Carlos’ place Carlos has to stop and think about it. He wants to say yes, but a part of him knows it would be a really bad idea to jump back into bed with each other again. There is an overdue conversation and words to be exchanged between them and TK makes him stupid, resisting him out here on the hood of the car already turning into a bit of a struggle for him. He takes too long to answer because TK’s face falls, closing off and Carlos scolds himself. Before the hand can be retracted from his grip he squeezes it tightly making TK’s eyes snap to his.

“Yes, but only to sleep, nothing else.” He says kindly, he doesn’t want it to come off as rejection. TK searches his face before he smiles a little, making Carlos’ heart flutter.

“Okay.” He promises. 

The drive back is silent, but not uncomfortably so. Carlos can feel tiredness seeping into his bones, the cataclysmic day he’s had, along with probably everyone in the state, finally beginning to take its toll on him. TK doesn’t say much either, but he looks lighter and a little more settled than he has for a while, and that, that is something. When they get to his place he unlocks the door and switches the lightswitch on and TK stumbles into him, his face showing clear discomfort. Maybe he’s thinking of the last time he was here and how the night that was supposed to be nice and romantic ended up pretty terrible. Carlos coughs, pointedly and TK looks at him in embarrassment. Carlos just rolls his eyes and smiles because in this moment he can’t bring himself to bust his balls about what happened.

“Come on.” He says and TK follows him. He opens the door that leads to his bedroom, a room TK’s never made it to before because all the sex has literally only happened on the couch, against a wall or on the floor. It was honestly mind blowingly good sex according to Carlos, but it never felt very intimate to him. It always lacked a certain kind of softness or caring to it, that Carlos somehow knew they could have. But a wall was always up with TK, even when they were literally fucking against one, which is what he would describe what they were doing, definitely fucking, but not having sex. TK looks hesitant again, like he’s thinking along the same lines and his eyes keep flitting around the room in uncertainty. His eyes land on a photo that’s sitting on his nightstand where there’s a picture of him, his three sisters, and his parents. Carlos loves that picture. He walks over to his closet, and leaves TK standing in the middle of the room, eyeing the bed, and starts looking for something for TK to wear. It feels appropriate for some reason, even though Carlos’ seen everything underneath, a few times already. 

“Here.” He says and tosses him a T-shirt and some pyjama pants he hasn’t used in ages. TK catches them easily enough and Carlos turns around to give him some privacy to change. He changes out of his jeans and steps into a pair of shorts. He doesn’t miss the look TK sends him when he takes the shirt off and he hides his smirk. Being appreciated is always nice. TK changes out of the tracksuit bottoms but when he tries taking his shirt of he grimaces in pain. Carlos knows he will push through and take the shirt off himself, but he steps up close anyway.

“Here, let me.” He says and sees TK gulp at the sudden closeness. He nods numbly though and drops his arm to the side. Carefully Carlos fits his hands underneath the jumper and slowly lifts it over his head. He makes sure to be careful when he gently pulls TK’s hand over his head, and not graze the wound. He puts the jumper down on the chair by the mirror.

“You want to keep your own T-shirt?” He aks and TK shakes his head.

“No I’ll take yours.” He says quietly. Carlos nods before he repeats the motion, even gentler than before. His fingers accidentally caresses TK’s side and he doesn’t miss how the skin jumps underneath the touch or how TK very audibly gulps. He tosses the shirt towards the chair, hopefully doesn’t miss it, and finds he can’t take his eyes off the very glaring plaster over TK’s heart. A part of him wants to reach out, feel his heart underneath his fingers to reassure himself it’s still beating. He sighs and the gently reaches forward, places his hand just underneath the plaster and rests his palm there instead. TK’s eyes flutter close and his breathing picks up, Carlos can feel it, faintly, but still feel it, even with his hand a little misplaced. He hears TK bite back a whine as he takes his palm away and he smiles cheekily at him when TK opens his eyes again.

“It’s been that long huh?” He’s being presumptuous but a part of him doesn’t care and kind of feels like he deserves to gloat a little bit about TK’s apparent lack of sex life.

“Shut up.” He grumbles, and the moment is broken by that as Carlos laughs and pulls his shirt over TK’s head. It’s a lot too big for him and while TK is in no means small, he’s definitely smaller than what he is. The look is doing things to Carlos and he has to force his eyes away, because seeing TK disappear in his clothes is making his heart jump in his chest, while it also kind of makes him a little horny. It’s a very odd combination.

“Bed time.” He says and turns over to the side he always sleeps on. He pulls the covers back and gets inside, settling against the headboard and waits for TK to do something other than just stand in his room, looking a little lost. When he finally comes back to it he moves to the other side of the bed and gets in. He pulls the cover up and lies on his side where the wound isn’t and then groans.

“I need to text my dad.” He says and slowly and awkwardly gets out of bed again. Carlos gives him a look.

“Yeah well how many 26 year olds do you know that are recovering addicts with bullet wounds in their hearts?” It’s meant to be a joke, but it falls a little flat, the reminder of how many bad things have happened recently to him, so Carlos’ eyes soften.

“Only one.” He says, heavily and TK looks at him for a long time, a little vulnerable, so Carlos smiles reassuringly at him.

“I’ve met your dad in passing, I’d say texting is a good idea.”

“You’ve met fire captain dad, overprotective dad of only son is a whole different story.” He chuckles and Carlos snorts. 

“Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.”

“He can be a little… much.” TK settles on. 

“Because he cares.”

“Yeah.” TK. says softly, and puts the phone down. He gets comfortable again and pulls the covers back over his arms as he settles on his side. Carlos looks at him for a while, how soft he looks with his hair unstyled and wearing Carlos’ clothes. He doesn’t look small but he looks like someone Carlos wants to care for, to pull close and hold against him and reassure that things will be okay. It’s an overwhelming ache, a need to do it that comes out of nowhere, that is almost so overpowering that he almost does it, almost. They’re not there yet so he clenches his hand and exhales through his mouth. Despite all the emotions TK brings out in him he’s happy he’s here in his bed with him at least. And with that the tiredness and exhaustion is creeping back in, and he allows himself to fully feel it, doesn’t think it will take long until he falls asleep after this. Slowly he reaches forward, TK’s eyes widening as he strokes his cheek, and wipes the corner of his mouth, smiling softly. TK exhales loudly and Carlos pulls back and turns off the light.

“Good night TK.”

“Good night Carlos.” He whispers. 

……….

When Carlos wakes the next morning it’s to an empty bed. It disappoints him more than it probably should because no promises were made between them. Honestly, not many words were spoken between them at all last night. Once the light was out he had fallen asleep rather quickly, the day finally taking its toll. He woke up around 4am though because he was overheating, and the answer to that was that in their sleep they had both seemed to move, with TK securely tucked into his side, his breathing heavy and fluttering against Carlos’ cheek. Carlos hadn’t wanted to move away from the position and had chosen to suffer through the warmth until he fell back asleep again. The clock says it’s 11am, which is very late for him. He’s always been an early riser but after a solar storm even he seemed to have some limits when it came to waking up. He sighs but gets out of bed, in search for some coffee. When he opens the door he is met by the fresh roast of just that wafting through the air and TK sitting on his kitchen island with his phone, still in Carlos’ clothes. He stops for a moment, taking in the view and his heart flutters against his ribs, unable to stop the feeling it brings when he sees TK in his kitchen.

“Spending the night and staying to drink coffee in the morning, that must be some sort of record, huh?” He jokes, making TK look up and blush a little.

“I made some coffee, there’s some for you too, I hope you don’t mind.” He says and points to the mug on the counter.

“No not at all.” He walks up to it and takes a sip, smiling around the mug. Honestly, nothing beats the first taste of coffee in the morning. TK’s back is still turned away and Carlos puts the mug down again, sensing that something’s not quite right.

“I’m surprised you stayed.” He can’t help but say and sees TK take a deep breath.

“I thought about leaving but it didn’t seem… right, after everything.”

“Okay.” Carlos steps around him and leans against the chair, opposite TK. He looks small on the counter, his legs dangling off the edge, and Carlos’ clothes hanging off him loosely. He bites at his lip before he glances at Carlos and then to the ground.

“What is it?” He prompts, unable to leave whatever it is hanging between them.

“I need a favour.” The words are rushed out and Carlos frowns. 

“Okay.” But he can’t take the insecure look that keeps on passing over TK’s face so he takes a step forward, and another, until TK’s eyes widen and his body seems to move on autopilot and his legs open up for Carlos to step in between. He rests his hands on either side of TK’s body and looks at him with what he hopes is an honest and open look. 

“What is it?” He says gently and TK’s eyes flit away from him again, but this time he follows them and finds an orange pill bottle beside TK’s cup of cooling coffee. He frowns and looks back at him. 

TK sighs.

“It’s pain medication from the hospital. I just… I don’t fully trust myself with those…”

“Oh.” Carlos say like and idiot and TK grimaces and looks at the bottle warily.

“Have you taken any before?”

He shakes his head.

“I asked specifically to only be given ibuprofen when I got discharged the first time. But after yesterday when I pulled the stitches and overstrained, well everything, I got given those to take and was too distracted to say otherwise. But…”

“Are you in pain?” Carlos frowns and TK grimaces, which is all the answer he needs.

“A little, it’s manageable, but not exactly comfortable.”

“Okay.”

“So can you keep those for me then?” He sounds ashamed and defeated and he’s shrunk in on himself and Carlos’ stomach twists itself into a knot.

“Of course.” He says and takes the bottle in his hand before he very gently lifts TK’s shin up to meet his eyes. 

“Hey.” He says gently and TK’s lip twist upwards, not really a smile, but something almost like that. 

“Do you want one now?”

TK doesn’t look away but he seems to think about his answer.

“Not the best question to ask an addict.” He says and Carlos rolls his eyes at the bad joke.

“Can you take them on an empty stomach?” He rephrases another question and TK shrugs.

“Yeah but it’s not advised.”

“Okay, well you’re definitely staying for breakfast then.”  

TK bites his smile down, his cheeks flushed and Carlos is fucking overwhelmed with the urge to kiss him. He tracks the movement with his lips, eyes dark and hungry and TK exhales meaningfully. 

“Breakfast first before any life altering decision are made.” Carlos decides and it makes TK chuckle, the moment once again broken. Carlos knows he keeps avoiding the elephant in the room that keeps growing between them, because he knows that if he were to overstep this made up boundary they would end up where they started months ago, which was eventually what broke them to begin with. TK’s words about a team hangs heavy in his mind, and while he agrees that they do, he’s not sure it’s enough. Or he needs something that is a little more of a reassurance of friendship, or something.

“Sure.”

“What do you want to eat?”

TK just shrugs as a response which is unhelpful and Carlos lifts an eyebrow. 

“Okay, well I’ll think of something.” He’s stepping away, but he doesn’t get far before he’s pulled back forcefully, maybe a little too much so because he stumbles and almost knocks TK off the counter. He steadies himself with a hand on his side.

“I’m not easy to love.” Carlos stops moving and frowns at TK who looks like he hadn’t mean to say that.

“I mean - “

“What makes you say that?” Carlos doesn’t move his hand away from TK’s waist, if anything he brushes his hand across his side, feeling the lean muscles underneath the thin shirt he’s wearing. TK opens and closes his mouth a few times.

“My track record kind of agrees with that.” Carlos just frowns, waiting for more of an explanation.

TK sighs and waves his hands around them expasterly, and grimaces as his shoulder hurts but Carlos waits him out, kind of demanding an explanation he knows is behind the outburst.

“Okay fine, I’m a mess half the time and honestly probably not only because of being an addict. But when I’m not a mess I am either too much or too little so I always give people a reason to leave.”

He’s sad and it makes Carlos ache for him, while at the same time feeling such anger on his behalf because of what he knows of TK, he’s pretty special, and none of what he’s just said is true.

“Or maybe you haven’t met the right person yet.”

TK scoffs, but it’s not cruel, it’s more in a self-deprecated kind of way.

“I just… everyone leaves Carlos, everyone. So that either makes it something wrong with me or with the whole word. And the statistics for something being wrong with every person I meet and want to date is much lower than something being wrong with me, so the conclusion is pretty obvious.”

“There is nothing wrong with you.” 

TK shakes his head.

“Right.” He mutters.

“It’s not.” He cups both his cheeks, forcing him to look at him. Reluctantly he meets his eyes. “I want to convince you that’s the truth but I’m not sure I can either. So I’ll say this, you think you are too much? Well okay, so I misread the signals completely and made you a romantic dinner when clearly you were only looking for a hookup.”

“Yeah, I’m still very sorry about that.” And Carlos believes him.

“I know but my point is I can be pushy and ‘too much’ as you put it, too. That is not a trait significant only to you. Hell we don’t know each other that well and I already care about you a lot, possibly more than you care about me. But just like you, I have a job that sometimes demands too much of me, to the point where I want to withdraw into myself for days and not speak to anyone. I once didn’t show up to my sister’s birthday party because of a really rough day and she didn’t speak to me for a month.” TK winces and grimaces and Carlos nods.

“Yep. So guess what pretty boy you really aren’t the only one here that’s made mistakes or are going to make mistakes either. Are these just not excuses?”

“What?” 

“You told me you’ve felt numb every since you came to Texas, but aren’t you just punishing yourself in some kind of way. Or are you thinking you’re not worthy of feeling anything that could be good because you’ve gotten hurt in the past so you force yourself to feel nothing at all instead.”

TK’s eyes widen and Carlos can literally see his defences falling apart, the wall breaking, he’s been seen. 

“W-what?” He chokes out and Carlos smiles kindly. 

“Did I hit it on the nail?”

“Maybe…” He confesses and Carlos squeezes his face gently between his hands. 

“It’s not living, if you’re hiding, if you’re not yourself even when you have made mistakes. You shouldn’t be alone with it at least.”

TK has unshed tears in his eyes and his breathing is a little shaky. Carlos removes his hand but not before stroking his cheeks gently. He puts his hands down on either side of TK and nudges his nose with his own. TK’s lips twitches and that’s something. 

“You should let yourself feel the good things too. You have people who care a lot, that much I know. I went to the hospital and your dad was there every day while you were in the coma, and he had to literally force the others to go back to work, otherwise they would have stayed right there with him. You have me, so if you want to be friends we can be, no hard feelings.”

TK shakes his head quickly.

“No, no, I don’t want to be just friends though.” Carlos bites down his smile, but he thinks it slips through anyway.

“Well that’s something, progress.” 

“But I did mean it when I said my last relationship ended badly. I-I proposed and he broke up with me because he found someone new so I relapsed and I almost died. My dad found me in my apartment and managed to bring me back. So this is the second time this year I’ve almost died.” He grimaces at the painful memory and Carlos sighs heavily, feeling, well… a lot and mostly just very badly for him.

“That’s rough, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, I go to meetings and it’s something, sometimes it doesn’t feel like it’s enough though, so I don’t know.”

“And therapy?”

“That too.”

“Normalise guys who go to therapy 2020.” And the joke makes TK snort, but it turns into a small smile in the end.

“Shut up dork.”

“Me? A dork? Don’t think that’s quite right.”

“Please you were totally into Star Wars growing up.”

“Maybe you’ll find out if you date me.” He smirks. TK laughs and it makes Carlos smile, something settling a little steadier into his chest when he hears it.

“So…” Carlos says, because he needs to hear some more words before this conversation is over. TK sighs but looks determined after a little bit of contemplation.

“So, I would like to date you, get to know you, take things slow and then we will see.”

“Ah, so dating huh?”

“Yes. Exclusively though, I like you so I’d hope we wouldn’t be seeing other people, is that too much to ask?” He asks, the uncertain tone back again. Carlos honestly think that’s going to be the least of his problems. He’s already hooked on TK and only him. 

“So, you like me huh?” He settles for, teasing, and hoping to make TK comfortable again. 

“Yes.” He scrunches up his face in an adorable little grimace and it makes Carlos laugh, happily and a little more freer. 

“Cool.”

“You’ve suddenly gotten tight lipped on me?” 

“What can I say I like watching you sweat a little bit.”

“Rude.” He pouts and oh no. Carlos grips the counter tighter because he’s looking extremely kissable at the moment, lashes long and a little redness to his cheeks.

“Well I like you too, dating sounds like a good idea to me.” 

“Cool.”

“Cool.”

They stare at each other none of them saying anything, the tension in the room suddenly back in full force. Carlos thinks TK knows exactly what he’s doing and that thought alone is making him even harder to resist. He coughs to break the tension.

“So, breakfast?”

TK groans.

“You’re really going to make me ask aren’t you?”

“Ask what?”

“To ki - no you know what…”

Carlos doesn’t have time to ask what before TK is pulling him down and slotting their lips together. His eyes falls shut and one hand settles on TK’s side the other finds his way onto his face, cradling his face close while TK’s hand settle in his hair. He hums happily against TK’s lips and feel him smile in return. When Carlos nibbles at his lip playfully TK opens it up and he has to stifle a groan when their tongues meet, TK’s tongue curling around Carlos which just makes him kiss hungrily back.

And that’s where he stops and pulls back. This time TK chases after him whining loudly before he pouts when he doesn’t get another kiss.

“Fucking tease.”

“Kissing without even a proper date, doesn’t seem right.”

“You and I definitely skipped a few steps when it comes to the dating rule book.”

“Yep, so breakfast?” He asks cheekily and TK rolls his eyes but nods.

“Yeah sure.

“Okay.” But he leans in and gently pecks TK’s lips before he steps back, slowly discarding himself from where he has gotten a little tangled into TK, who has swollen lips and messy hair and dark eyes, and who Carlos now gets to date.

Not a bad start to the day. He thinks it can only get better.

“So eggs?”

“Yeah, sounds good.” He hears TK jump off the counter and come join him in the kitchen.

Carlos has a feeling it’s the start of something good. And that’s enough for now.

[bellakitse]

I was born Thursday's Child

“It’s Carlos, sir,” Judd gets out quickly, and TK feels an ice-cold fear run up his spine at the urgency he hears in his friend’s voice. “He was a step behind me, the floor caved, and he went through into the basement.”

*

Carlos gets hurt on a call.

30 days of Tarlos - Day 18

Part Three of Firefighter Carlos! AU, Part One, Part Two

It’s eight pm on a Thursday, TK is rolling up the water hoses they used on their last call with Carlos’ help while the rest of the team details the truck as they try to guess what the letters of his name stand for. It’s become something of a game to the crew when they have downtime. His dad walked away as soon as the game started. He can never keep a straight face at all the ridiculous combinations his crew comes up with and instead headed to his office to do some paperwork.

“Thomas Kayden,” Paul shouts out from the top of the truck, rolling his eyes when he shakes his head.

“Tristan Kristopher,” Mateo points at him with a grin. “Christopher with a K, that feels very ‘city boy.’”

“Tanner,” Marjan starts, smirking at him when he makes a face. “Kingston.”

TK scowls at his friend, and then turns it on Carlos when he hears him snort quietly next to him. He tells his stomach to quit it with the butterflies it gets from Carlos’ beautiful unapologetic smile.

“No, Marjan,” he says dryly, rolling his eyes again. “My initials don’t stand for Tanner Kingston. Did you really have to pick the douchiest name ever?”

Marjan lifts a slim shoulder, shrugging as she sweeps the floor. “If you would just tell us, we’d stop.”

“Let me think about that,” he says, bringing a finger up to his face, tapping his cheek as he pretends to give the suggestion some serious thought. “Nope, I don’t think so. Request denied.”

TK grins as more than one of them scoffs or shakes their heads at him. Judd being the loudest.

“This is ridiculous,” the cowboy grumbles as he turns his sight on Carlos. “Reyes, what’s your boyfriend’s real name?”

Carlos looks up from the water hose, his eyes going wide as he finds them all staring at him. “What?” he asks, shaking his head. “He hasn’t told me.”

“Please,” Judd scoffs again.

“I’m serious,” Carlos says standing up straight, he throws him an accusing look, and this time it’s his turn to smile at him unapologetically. “I have been trying to get it out of him for months now; he won’t tell me, and trust me, I have tried everything.”

“He has,” TK pipes in with a shameless grin. “And I have enjoyed every attempt he’s made.”

TK laughs at the team’s collective groan as they go back to work, he turns towards Carlos, his laughter turning into a soft chuckle as he spots the sweet pink blush on his face.

“Brat,” Carlos scolds him when he sees his grin. “Stay where you are.”

TK shakes his head, dropping the hose to close the small distance between them. He smiles as he places his hands on Carlos’ hips, and he lets him.

They’ve been dating for four months now, they told his dad and the team after their first date, surprising absolutely no one.

The team has been nothing but supportive, but it still took a while for Carlos to be completely comfortable with displays of affection in the workplace, the old habit of keeping this part of himself on the DL at his old station lingering. Now when TK places his hands on his hips, Carlos wraps his around his neck.

“That’s a cute blush you got there, baby,” he whispers teasingly, loving how it makes Carlos turn pinker.

“You are a brat,” Carlos repeats but doesn’t pull away. “You’re lucky you’re also adorable.”

“And hot,” he adds, laughing when Carlos rolls his eyes at him.

“And humble,” he retorts sarcastically.

“Mmhmm,” TK nods, pressing his lips into a firm line to keep from smiling like an idiot. It doesn’t help; he can’t not smile when he’s in the presence of his boyfriend.

Carlos shakes his head softly at him; the look he gives him is tender and fond. “Are you ever going to tell me what the letters stand for?” he asks curiously.

“Does it bother you that I haven’t yet?” TK asks, his brow creasing in the middle with sudden worry. He’s never really considered that it might upset Carlos not to know what his initials stand for. He’s been called TK for as long as he can remember, that sometimes even he forgets the letters stand for something. It’s only when he has to fill out a form and sees his name in full that he remembers with a roll of his eyes. It’s not that he hates his name, it’s just that it’s so pretentious that he can’t help but groan when he hears it out loud.

“No,” Carlos says, shaking his head again. The hands on his shoulders now give the back of his neck a reassuring squeeze. “I mean, I’m curious as hell, obviously, and you keeping it a secret makes me think it’s something hilarious like Thacker Kale.”

“Thacker?” he questions incredulously. “Kale?”

“Hey, the Captain loves kale,” Carlos argues. “He totally could have named you after it.”

TK opens his mouth to answer only for the alarms of the firehouse to go off over their heads.

“To be continued,” Carlos says with a half-smile as he lets go of him.

TK gives him a nod, before turning to get ready. It takes them minutes to get into their gear and into the truck, his father in the front speaks to them through their headsets.

“Alright, we got a two-story house fire,” he starts. “Neighbors called it in, said they heard screams from inside, from what they told dispatch it’s a family of five. Two adults and three kids, it’s after nine, we have to assume they’re all home.”

TK looks around the truck; the crew is quiet and serious as they do last minute checks on their gear. Everyone's expression turns more severe as they turn into the street; the flames in the house are high; they seem to lick the sky.

They jump out of the truck before it completely rolls to a stop, right behind them is Captain Blake and her EMTs.

TK watches as his father assesses the situation quickly before giving them a sharp nod.

“Okay, I want Reyes, Ryder, and Strickland to start making their way inside the house,” his father says looking at the three men in question, they all nod back to him before going for their axes. “Strand, Marwani, Chavez, you’re on the hoses. We need to start controlling this now.”

TK looks at the house, the smoke is getting darker by the second, never a good sign and he feels a moment of trepidation. As Carlos starts to walk by him, he grabs at his turnout coat tightly.

“Be careful,” he says quickly, swallowing hard. It’s not the first time he’s told Carlos this. Usually, one of them says it if the other is going in, and it’s always met with a cocky grin. TK can see the beginnings of it on Carlos’ lips, but he must read the fear in his face because instead of a smile, Carlos gives him a serious look.

“Of course, baby,” he says softly, he gives the hand holding his coat a squeeze. “I’ll be right back.”

TK nods, reluctantly letting go of him, getting to work himself. He, Marjan, and Mateo handle the hoses with his dad; he focuses on the flames that are blessedly diminishing and not on the fact that the rest of his team is still inside.

Over the radio, he hears them as they go through the house and starts to breathe easier as they bring out members of the family. Once Paul has gotten the last civilian out – the father, Michelle and her team already treating the rest of the family – his dad calls out for everyone to evacuate.

“Reyes, Ryder, time to pull out, we got all of them,” he speaks into the radio, it takes a moment for the receiver to static back.

“Roger that, Cap,” Judd's voice rings out through all their sets. “We’re – shit!”

“Judd, report,” Owen says sharply as they hear a crash, the house, now fire-free, creeks ominously.

“It’s Carlos, sir,” Judd gets out quickly, and TK feels an ice-cold fear run up his spine at the urgency he hears in his friend’s voice. “He was a step behind me, the floor caved, and he went through into the basement.”

TK is moving towards the house before Judd is even done explaining the situation; he’s halfway across the lawn when a hand comes down hard on his shoulder, holding him in place. He swirls around, ready to curse whoever is daring to stop him, only to find his father giving him an unshakeable look that tells him before his father even speaks that he’s not going to let him go in.

“Dad – “ he tries anyway, pleading, letting out something between a scream and a sob when his father shakes his head at him remorsefully.

“I’m sorry,” he says quietly, still shaking his head. “You’re too close, TK; it can’t be you.”

TK wants to argue, but he sees that his father is already nodding towards Paul and Mateo.

“Get him out,” he tells them, his voice cracking as his eyes sting. “Please.”

Mateo and Paul look at him, worried but resolved. “You got it, brother,” Paul says softly as they head back inside.

“I’m climbing down, Cap,” Judd’s voice comes through again.

Judd keeps his radio on as he works, and TK can hear every grunt and huff as he moves, for a moment, that, and Paul and Mateo reporting in is all they hear. Carlos’ radio is silent even as his father keeps trying to call him.

“I can see him,” Judd shouts, it’s followed by more heavy breathing before he speaks again. “Carlos, bud, come on man, I need you to open your eyes for me now.”

TK covers his mouth; it’s the only thing that’s keeping him from screaming. He feels someone behind him, and then a small hand on his shoulder, he knows it belongs to Marjan without turning around. Her hand on him is the only thing that keeps him up when he hears a low groan come through the radio.

“That’s it, man, keep your eyes open,” Judd speaks, and then another pained filled groan follows it.

“T – “

TK grabs his radio quickly, bringing it to his mouth. “Carlos, sweetheart, can you hear me?” he asks, his heart races as he waits for an answer.

“TK,” Carlos gets out, his voice rough from the pain. “It hurts.”

“I know, babe,” he sniffs, not being able to stop the tears now. “Paul and Mateo are coming; they’re going to help Judd get you out, just hold on.”

Carlos doesn’t answer right away, when he does, what he says strikes TK with fear. “Tired.”

“No, Carlos,” he growls. “Don’t go to sleep; stay awake.”

“T-tell me,” Carlos starts, it’s obviously a struggle for him to stay alert. “S-something.”

TK lets out a choked sob at his words; they remind him of when they first got together, of Carlos being there for him when he needed comfort and a distraction from his own pain.

“Tyler Kennedy,” he says into the radio, not caring that everyone is listening. “That’s what TK stands for.”

 ֍֍֍

 Waiting at the hospital is a nightmare, waiting for the man you love to wake up while in a hospital bed is hell on earth.

Paul, Judd, and Mateo had carried out an unconscious Carlos straight to Michelle and her team. TK had watched frozen as they worked on Carlos enough to get him conscious before they were speeding away in the ambulance.

It took everything to keep from climbing in with him, but he knew they still had a job to finish.

Now at the hospital, everyone lingers around the waiting room while he sits with Carlos waiting for him to wake up.

“Your mom and sisters are here,” he says softly. “I finally met Lola, she’s intense, and has decided she and I are going to be best friends and annoy you together. Be ready for that.”

He reaches out, touching Carlos’ face softly, making sure not to touch the bandage on his head. The doctors had run down the list of injuries, concussion, cracked ribs, and a ruptured spleen. The fall Carlos had taken was a rough one; the debris falling on him didn’t make it any better.

“I’m here, baby,” he whispers, squeezing his hand. “We’re all here.”

TK closes his eyes when his words are met with silence. Carlos is the quieter one of the two, while TK is the one with restless energy. Usually, it’s a calming force for TK as Carlos will listen until he tires himself out, now the quietness was driving him crazy.

“I love you,” he continues. “I know you know that, but I don’t say it nearly enough. I love you so much. I’m grateful every day that Judd recommended you to us. You walked into the 126 and became my teammate, my best friend, and the love of my life.”

He runs his fingertips down Carlos’ cheek, over his neck, and then lets it rest lightly over his heart, letting out a breath as he feels the steady beat.

“Can you open your eyes now for me, baby?” he asks pleadingly. “I told you my name, it’s not Thacker Kale, but it’s still ridiculous. I’m sure you have thoughts. I’ll let you make all the fun you want if you open those pretty brown eyes of yours for me right now,” he continues hopefully.

He lets his head drop on the bed next to Carlos’ hip when his request is again met with silence. He’s taking deep breaths to keep from crying when he feels a hand move over his hair.

“I think Tyler Kennedy is beautiful.”

TK lifts his head quickly, taking hold of the hand that is touching him as he finds Carlos looking at him with tired eyes.

He opens his mouth to speak only for a choked sob to come out, pressing his mouth into a firm line, he breathes deeply again until he can talk without breaking down.

“It’s pretentious,” he says shakily, as Carlos gives him a loving look.

“It’s beautiful,” Carlos repeats softly. “Just like you.”

TK lets out a wet laugh; he can’t stop the tears now as he stands to hover over Carlos.

“Hi,” he whispers with a watery smile on his face. “You scared me.”

“Hi,” Carlos whispers back, looking up at him remorsefully. “I know, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

“I know,” he assures him, leaning down he touches the tip of his nose against Carlos’. “Please try not to do it again though. It turns out that I love you more than anything in this world and don’t handle you getting hurt very well.”

Carlos closes his eyes as he smiles, a tear running down his face. “Okay, Tyler,” he whispers.

TK pulls back to look at him, pouting when Carlos grins. “I’m going to regret that.”

[autoplaysdigimon]

Top Five Villains

HERE WE GO, THE FUN LIST.

#5 Gatomon

Controversial, maybe, to have her be on the Villains list as well, but she was a villainous character for a while.

I’m a real sucker for a good redemption storyline; failing that, at least a turncoat character. While Gatomon didn’t really commit any real atrocities onscreen to atone for later in the story, she still proved a fun villain while she was one. She was no nonsense, efficient, knew exactly what she was doing... if she’d stayed on Myotismon’s side, she could have been a real force to be reckoned with. One of the things that I’d have really liked to have seen explored more in this series was Gatomon’s time with Myotismon, and how much she’s changed since then.

Plus there’s something so weirdly entertaining about a group of creepy, ominous, obviously evil monsters and then a small white kitty cat who’s just as dangerous as them.

#4 Myotismon

This guy.

When this guy came onto the scene, the entire show changed. Devimon’s arc was fun, if a little generic; Etemon’s was very similar with a different villain, and then Demidevimon’s arc came along and we got a fun, goofy villain who can’t Evil properly. Even so, we knew he was following orders from a higher power, and Myotismon’s eventual appearance changed the dynamic from “Team Rocket Fools Children Repeatedly” to “oh shit an actual vampire is going to kill us”. And then the whole Eighth Digidestined thing happened... Plus, that #aesthetic, amirite? 

To tie into Gatomon’s thing up there, the Eighth Digidestined arc was one of the best of the season, if not the best. Taking the fight to the Real World made it more, well, real. It was fun as hell watching the parents interact with the Digimon, both good and bad, and finding out exactly what the kids had been up to lately. The kids watching their families getting dragged into the fight was TOP. NOTCH. Plus Myotismon actually knew what he was doing as a villain so.

He knew to go after the one kid without protection. He knew how to cut everything off effectively. He did take a shot at some of the kids when they were on their own, instead of thinking only of killing Kari. Death didn’t stop him the first time. Even when he pulled the classic villain “You Have Outlived Your Use” thing and killed his own minions, it was on Digimon who had already turned against him, like Wizardmon, Pumpkinmon, Gotsumon and (arguably) Darktyrannomon.

(No, wait, they’re still alive because he sent them to his Dungeon, isn’t that RIGHT DUB TEAM.)

(Even though pieces of them were left behind and dissolved on their own.)

(No, I’m still not over that.)

#3 Ogremon

Another redeemed villain! I just like them, okay

Maybe it’s just me, but just the act of Ogremon turning good at the end made me like him. He was a little bit generic in the Devimon arc, though at least he had the feud with Leomon to make him interesting. (Any logical reason to that, by the way? Was it just that we had these two Digimon who could fill in the character roles we’d set out for them? Nothing mythological about lions and ogres hating each other or anything? No? Okay then.)

All Ogremon really did in that first arc was serve as the henchman. He made some... interesting choices, and then he was absorbed into Devimon for power. And then he came out of the back of Devimon’s knee. Sure. When Devimon was defeated, he ran screaming off into the distance, shaking his fist and yelling “NEXT TIME, GADGET. NEXT TIIIIME.” The very act of bringing him back when he wasn’t employed by the Big Bad of the moment made him an interesting character, who had to atone for what he did. I’m a sucker for redemption, like I said, and the best part of it is watching them go soft.

Plus, how great is it to have multiple conflicting alliances within a group? When Leomon returned, even though Ogremon was firmly on the Digidestined side now, he had absolutely no problems with trying to immediately murder Leomon. There’s nothing wrong with that, right? They’re rivals, it’s just natural! He’s also kind of a shithead in general, even still.

Also, Ogremon is incredibly hard to draw. I’d just like to bring that up.

Okay, next!

#2 Etemon

HE’S A MONKEY WHO TALKS LIKE ELVIS, NEXT QUESTION.

But for real, Etemon is such a fucking great villain. Great character all around, I’d love a version where he was an ally or something, but how else would we get the trademark Elvis-laugh-turns-into-villainous-laugh thing that Etemon has going?! Come on, that’s great.

Devimon’s villainous style was one of corruption; he wasn’t all that powerful on his own, but by using the Black Gears he could build his own damn forces and control small areas. He only managed to control a handful of Digimon in the end. He was also taken out by a single Digimon in a single one-on-one, though you could argue that the others had weakened him by that point, they hadn’t really.

Etemon’s style was drastically different - he was far more comical, but far more dangerous. His introduction scene involved him panicking over the Digidestined already being in the area. He sang a lot, he cracked jokes, he threw childish tantrums, and again, he was a monkey who sounded like Elvis. There is nothing not awesome about this guy. And yes, he was deadlier - his main attack can undo Digivolutions and leave the Digimon vulnerable as hell. He ended up taking a couple of episodes to take out, only losing because another villain tried to sabotage him in the end.

And coming back partway through the Dark Masters arc as Metaletemon?! FUCK YEAH. Every pun he made, I laughed at and I don’t apologise for that. Even starting a series-wide tradition, he was stylish until the end.

Also he called Ikkakumon a goat that one time.

#1 Demidevimon

T H E  B A S T A R D  O R B

Nobody is surprised that he’s my #1, right? It was a close call between him and Etemon, but ultimately I just like Demidevimon’s arc more. We have Devimon and Etemon, as I discussed above. After that wave of villains who are dangerous because they’re powerful, we have one who is dangerous because he’s just a little bastard.

Demidevimon wasn’t strong. Most villains had their huge beatdown happen in the form of a Digimon Digivolving to Champion, Ultimate or Mega for the first time, Demidevimon had his when Patamon reached Rookie level again. In his debut episode. He was never a threat physically once the kids realised that he was not to be trusted. His arc came right after two arcs of the kids being stranded in this strange world together, only briefly separated - and then everyone was torn apart, and he could manipulate them individually. 

I’ve argued in the past that Demidevimon was a more effective manipulator than even Puppetmon, one of the Dark Masters, and I stand by it. Puppetmon managed to physically manipulate them with the dolls, sure, and he had Cherrymon convince Matt to attack Tai. But, uh, he didn’t exactly have to twist his arm very hard to get that to happen, and that was Cherrymon’s doing anyway. Plus you could argue that physically manipulating someone isn’t much of a social power as it is more a matter of strength. (also Puppetmon is more of a “play with them like toys” type, but still, being a literal puppetmaster, you’d think that manipulation was more of his domain than a BAT.) Demidevimon, however, managed to:

convince TK that Matt didn’t want him as a brother anymore and to ditch Tokomon

 nearly have TK, Tai and Agumon eat poisonous mind-wiping mushrooms

convince Digitamamon to keep Joe and Matt in the restaurant, simultaneously threatening Joe to help keep Matt there and sabotaged them constantly to manipulate them all further

trick Izzy and Tentomon into Vademon’s trap

tell the Gekomon and Otamamon about Mimi’s singing voice, somehow knowing that they’d end up hindering her progress somehow(???)

And, even after knowing that he’s an evil manipulating Digimon, he managed to convince Sora that she’d never manage to activate her crest, causing her to believe it in a self-fulfilling prophecy, even as she worked to sabotage his efforts otherwise.

I mean, apart from all that, I just like Demidevimon as a Digimon. He’s a tiny flying motherfucker and that’s great! He had some of my favourite lines, even his death was kind of tragically funny, and I have a clear bias when it comes to his voice acting, because I just like Derek Stephen Prince. He does it well! I don’t know how Demidevimon closes his eyes like that, though, those appear to be his pupils closing. I don’t even know.

Really, I just find great nostalgia in comical villains. They were all the rage back in the day, especially in children’s media. They’re still around sometimes - Doctor Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb, the Rubies from Steven Universe, the Ice King from Adventure Time, even Team Rocket from Pokemon are thriving still. Good, menacing villains are great and all, but where’s the fun?

Honourable Mentions

Scorpiomon, who probably benefited the most from the dub’s style - his constant cried of “hey, stop it, come baaaack” while chasing Joe and Mimi are more remnicient of a kid trying to get his toy back from the bully who just took it away from him than someone trying to murder children, and that’s just fucking hilarious.

Mimi, when she was briefly an antagonist in that one episode. Just as I really like Heel-Face turns, I really like Face-Heel turns, even temporarily, and even as petty as this whole thing was. It was the perfect trap for her, who just craved the comfort of home, and who could be easily confinced to go for more. And it was the perfect trap because she was the jailor and the jailed at the same time, trapped as long as her own selfishness would allow. It was one of my favourite episodes.

Datamon, who had his own agenda and didn’t care that he was stepping on Etemon’s toes to get what he wanted. Just like Leomon and Ogremon had conflicting alliances on the protagonist’s side, Datamon and Etemon were opposing forces on the antagonist’s side, and multiple villains fighting each other are always fun to see.

Actually, Etemon later fought Puppetmon as Metaletemon, didn’t he? Wow, dude just doesn’t get along with other villains.

Gizamon. Give them more lines, you cowards.

The Dark Masters, as a whole. Just as Myotismon changed the entire tone of the show, these guys took the entire first half of the show and murdered every safe thing about it. They immediately started playing with the Digidestined, fully intending to off them all right then and there as a team. They were competent, for the most part - only failing when they were forced to split up, and their dirty tricks could be dismantled one by one. I’ve never seen a more co-operative group of antagonists, who never tried to dethrone each other and take everything for themselves.

And okay, sure, Kokatorimon. Purely for this.

Dishonourable Mention

Apocalymon.

Look, dude, I’m sorry, you’re cool and everything, but where the fuck did you come from? We killed Piedmon, it’s over, no, wait, here’s one last guy, no wait he’s dead, nevermind. What?

The fact that Apocalymon didn’t get any fanfare before being dropped on the Digidestined without warning made him seem like an afterthought, like the writers forgot their own endgame until they got there. Even if there had been a mention of the effect that caused his existence before he showed up - a “hey, did you know that not every Digimon survives Digivolution? Their data just gets deleted or something,” really would have helped, but even then. 

Apocalymon’s existence in the show really highlights how disjointed the series as a whole is - Devimon has no relation to Etemon, who has no relation to Myotismon, who has no relation to the Dark Masters, who have no relation to Apocalymon. The kids face a constant load of “okay, so we beat this guy and we can go home, right? ...no, maybe this guy??” where every new villain is dropped on the like a hot potato, making their first appearance in less time after their existence is revealed in less time than it takes to heat up said hot potato. Myotismon is the only one who gets any decent buildup before his first appearance before the children, and he’s often said to be the best villain of the show, so see how that works?

Digimon Adventure is the story of a bunch of kids who were brought to the Digital World to take care of one guy, and hey, while you’re here, we’ve also got some sort of demon on this island causing trouble, and there’s this monkey threatening us, and also a vampire, and then these four have joined together... It was a fun adventure, and I love that it could be part of my childhood and my life, but wow it really needed a more cohesive throughline for the story.

I hate to leave this post on a negative note, because it was full of mostly nice things, so here’s another picture of the bastard orb.

Hahahaha, oh you silly little man.

[morganaspendragonss]

fic request because i am d e s p e r a t e : tarlos carlos whump with supportive gabriel reyes ??? if you’re down to write him that is. i love ur work n ur whump n i think u would write a p good gabe. 🥰

holly’s august extravaganza day 1: against all odds (we're still here)

i'm always down to write gabriel! thanks for the prompt trick, i hope you like it!

ao3 | 2k | car accidents, whump, major character injury, angst with a happy ending

“I told you we should have brought the car.”

Carlos scowls over at TK, shifting one of the many bags he’s carrying higher on his arm. It cuts painfully into his skin, his good mood from earlier long since soured. The knowledge that TK is, of course, right isn’t exactly helping matters.

“In my defence,” he starts, for probably the fifth or sixth time, “when we texted your dad to see if he wanted us to pick up anything from the store, I wasn’t expecting a full list.”

“We could have told him no.”

“TK, he’s your dad and we are literally crashing his home right now. I’m not gonna tell him no.”

TK opens his mouth, presumably to retort with a comment about how his dad loves Carlos and loves having them around. Both of which are things Carlos knows perfectly well, thanks, but he’s still not interested in testing it by refusing to get Owen’s kale chips or that specific brand of shampoo which took half an hour—and two stores—to track down.

Whatever TK was about to say is abandoned when one of his own bags slips out of his grasp and falls to the ground with a depressing thud. It bursts open—because why wouldn’t it—and spills their purchases across the sidewalk. The only solace is that nothing breaks, but that’s where the good news begins and ends; Carlos’s eyes track a can as it rolls down the street and into the gutter, landing in a puddle of dirty water. TK looks forlornly between the dropped bag and those still balanced on his arms, then heaves a long-suffering sigh and crouches awkwardly, easing the other bags down as carefully as he can manage.

“Call an Uber,” he grumbles. “We are not walking home like this.”

On that point, they’re in agreement. Carlos spares himself a moment of idle amusement at TK’s predicament before beginning the arduous task of extracting his phone from his pocket without dropping any of his own shopping.

He’ll hate himself for it later, but he’s so focused that the screech of tires coming around the corner barely registers as a blip on his radar. He doesn’t notice anything until TK suddenly barrels into him, throwing Carlos to the side just before something else, something heavy, crashes into them with a blinding flash of pain, and then—

Nothing.

*

Oh my god!

Someone call 911!

Are they even alive?

Just hold on, son, you’re going to be just fine.

*

Beeping.

Carlos frowns, slowly blinking his heavy eyelids open. It takes a minute to register his surroundings for what they are—a hospital room—and a further minute to notice the presence at his side. It’s his father, looking exhausted, turning his cowboy hat in his hands as he stares at the floor.

“Dad?” he croaks, wincing at the soreness in his throat. “What happened?”

His father’s head jerks up, his eyes going wide as he sees Carlos awake. “Mijo. It’s good to see you awake.”

“Dad, why am I here? What happened?”

He sighs, reaching out to pat Carlos’s arm. “There was an accident,” he explains. “A drunk driver lost control of his car and mounted the curb right where you boys were standing. He was speeding, so he hit you pretty hard. Your foot was crushed under a wheel, you have a fractured wrist, and you bumped your head when you fell so you probably have a concussion. The doctors say you should heal just fine, though, gracias a Dios.”

Carlos lifts his head to look down at his body, only just registering the casts on his arm and foot. There’s a dull ache radiating through his entire body and his head is pounding in time with his heartbeat, but he’s alive and he’ll heal. He should be happy about that, but the only thing occupying his mind is his dad’s silence on TK.

“What about TK?” he asks, part of him dreading the answer. “I remember him pushing me; is he okay?”

“He’s…” His dad hesitates, sending a cold slither of fear down Carlos’s spine. “Alive.”

Carlos stares, the beginnings of panic stealing his breath. “What does that mean?”

His father blows out a long breath. “It means you were right,” he says, meeting Carlos’s eyes. “He did push you, so he took the brunt of the hit. He suffered a serious open pelvic fracture and broken ribs, which punctured his lung. Last I heard, they managed to fix him up and they’re not expecting any further complications, but we won’t know for sure until he wakes up.”

“He hasn’t woken up?”

“Not yet. He will, you’ll see.”

“I want to see him.”

And Carlos knows what the answer will be to that—a resounding no. He also knows that he won’t be able to argue; his father is incredibly stubborn, and when he digs his heels in, there’s no moving him. But he needs to at least try—he’s not going to stop worrying about TK until he sees him, and probably not for a long time after that.

His dad sighs and fixes him with a firm look. “Carlitos, you and I both know that’s out of the question,” he says. “You’ve only just woken up, you need to give yourself time to heal before exerting your body even more. Besides, he’s in good hands and Owen is with him, so we’ll know as soon as there’s any change.”

“Joder, Papá, I know all that,” Carlos cries, frustrated, barely able to refrain from throwing his head back on the pillow. “I just hate that he’s here, hurt, and I can’t even see him.”

“Lo sé,” His dad smiles gently, something that’s probably supposed to be comforting, but really only gets on Carlos’s nerves. “Escúchame, hijo. Descansa. Cúrate. Then you can focus on TK.”

It’s easier said than done and his father knows it, but Carlos has no choice. The conversation is effectively put to an end by his dad reaching over and pressing the call button next to the bed. A nurse comes in and quickly sets about checking his vitals and asking enough questions to make Carlos’s head spin. His probable concussion becomes definite, but otherwise he’s in good shape, all things considered.

He can’t help but wish he weren’t.

*

Two days later, Carlos is deemed fit to be discharged, providing he has someone to help him and providing he agrees to rest and not do anything even close to strenuous. TK is also awake now but, according to Owen, he’ll be kept in the hospital for at least another week. The break to his pelvis was bad, so he’ll need a wheelchair for a while even after discharge, and his refusal to take strong painkillers means his recovery is going to be long and painful.

Carlos is itching to see him. It’s been torture cooped up in his room without knowing how TK was doing—there’s only so much relief messages passed through their fathers can bring. It had only been his father’s stern and steady presence that had kept him in that bed when he felt like he was losing his mind with worry.

But now, finally, he’s being wheeled into TK’s room and helped onto the chair next to the bed. Owen stands off to the side, watching the two of them with a mixture of affection and sadness in his gaze, and his dad hovers behind him, but Carlos only has eyes for TK.

He looks incredibly tired, but he attempts a smile when he rolls his head to look at Carlos, extending his hand out across the distance between them.

“Hey, Ty,” Carlos says softly, taking TK’s hand in his good one. “How are you feeling?”

“Been better. Not sure if I’ve been worse. I think this might just beat getting shot to that title.”

“That’s not funny.”

TK just hums, his eyes drifting closed for a second. “Maybe not.”

“Why did you push me?”

TK’s eyes fly open at the question, confusion overtaking his expression as he stares at Carlos. He moves as if to sit upright before groaning in pain, his face screwing up. Carlos reaches out for him, but he’s beaten to it by his father, who places a reassuring hand on TK’s shoulder.

“Take it easy, son,” he says gently. ���Don’t move too much.”

“I hate this,” TK mutters, his body relaxing bit by bit. His gaze is still clouded when he looks back over at Carlos, but he manages a soft smile all the same. “I pushed you because I didn’t want you to get hurt. The car would have hit me either way; I’m just sorry I wasn’t able to get you out of the way in time.”

Carlos blinks at him, dumbfounded. “You’re sorry?” he asks, disbelief colouring his tone. “Ty, you’re in the hospital, seriously injured, because you chose to save me instead of yourself. Why would you do that?”

“You know why.”

Carlos does; of course he does, but it’s not enough to assuage the guilt still bubbling in his stomach at the sight of TK in the bed.

TK sighs, squeezing his hand. “You would have done the same for me,” he points out. “We both know you would have, so don’t you dare ask me to apologise for my choices.”

“I know. I won’t.” Carlos closes his eyes, deflating a little. “I just hate seeing you hurt.”

“And I hate seeing you hurt, so maybe you can do us both a favour and go home. I’ll be fine.”

Carlos must need his hearing tested, because there’s no way TK just said that. There’s no way his boyfriend told him to leave right after calling him out for hypocrisy. Except apparently he did, because he’s trying to disentangle their hands, and Carlos is not having that.

He grips onto TK even tighter and glares at him. “TK, if you think I’m leaving you here—”

“Carlos,” TK interrupts quietly. “I get it. But, babe, you need to rest and heal, and you can’t do either of those things sitting here.”

“Watch me.”

“No.” TK shifts his gaze over Carlos’s shoulder, a slight smirk playing at his lips. “Mr Reyes, can you make sure he rests?”

His dad laughs, leaning over to pat TK’s shoulder. “Of course. I’m sure once his mother sees him, she won’t let him out of her sight for a week anyway.”

TK grins. “Good to know.” He yawns and resettles himself slightly in the bed, his eyes fluttering shut. “Carlos, if you’re still here when I next open my eyes, I’m not kissing you for a month.”

“You shouldn’t make threats you know you can’t follow through with.”

“Don’t make me make it two.”

Despite himself, Carlos laughs. He leans over and presses a lingering kiss to TK’s temple, then stands as well as he’s able, leaning on his dad for support. “Alright, I’m going. I’ll see you soon. Love you.”

TK already sounds half-asleep when he mumbles, “Love you too,” back, and Carlos can’t even be embarrassed by how ridiculously smitten he must look, even though he’s in front of both their fathers.

He allows his dad to move him back to the wheelchair and says a quick goodbye to Owen, keeping his eyes on TK for as long as he can. Just as they reach the door, he catches TK’s eyes opening to slivers, obviously checking to see if Carlos is actually leaving. Carlos shakes his head at him, causing TK to flush at the knowledge he’s been caught. His eyes slam shut again, his tongue poking out childishly, and Carlos laughs, a lightness settling in his heart even as TK’s room disappears from view.

It’s going to be a long few months for the both of them, but they have family behind them to help them get through it.

And they have each other. Which, given everything, Carlos thinks is nothing short of a goddamn miracle.

[c0untb00z]

I would just like to clear, I don't hate the BBC Dracula 2020 Show. In fact, I actually like the idea of Dracula being set in modern times like in the show, but I would like it a lot better if it wasn't written like a fucking reader insert fanfiction.

Don't get me wrong, I love me some reader inserts every once in a while but they're meant to be on Wattpad. Sometimes, you can find really fucking good fanfictions that could genuinly be movies, but this really just feels like someone wrote an erotic fanfiction for Dracula. It almost reminds me of a worse version of 50 Shades of Grey with less kinky sex.

First and foremost Agatha Van Hesling. I actually kinda liked her personality, how driven she was and determined to never give up, but she was literally created for a love interest. In Dracula by Bram Stocker, Sister Agatha is a nun that nurses Jonathan back to health, claiming he was 'sick in the head' as he ranted of what he had seen and warning others of Dracula. She doesn't even have a last name.

However there is a Dr. Van Hesling in the book, hes dutch(???) Professor that mentors and taught(????) Jack Seward who was in love with Lucy, who was fed off of and eventually killed and eventually undead by the means of the one and only Dracula. Dr Van Hesling plays a large role in the plot of the book. He has an open mind and was able to draw connections between things that some others couldn't, as he had access to more sources and could speak to most off the charecters involved. He's the first person to present the idea of a vampire, and Lucy turning into one. Thanks to Jonathan he was able to identify the vampire feeding on Lucy as Dracula and finds out how to kill the vampires.

So basically Agatha was literally fabricataed for the sole perpose of being there, to fall in love with Dracula or something.

I know we all are horny for Dracula. I'm horny for Dracula. Vampires are fucking hot but the sexiest part of vampires is that they ya know. Kill you and are mercily and heartless. The show does show that in a lot of parts and even decapiates a nun and yeets it into a gaggle of nuns which i fucking died at. But it also, humanizes him way to much, hes literally a monster. The scene in the boat with lord whats his name really portrayed that. It was really,,,, weird cause me being a kinky fucker I don't find the particular phrases of "you're going to need to be quiet now," and " youre doing so well" that creepy and if anything a little hot but looking at the circumstance and the look on that kids face, it was like r e a l y fucked up. Which is why i liked that scene. It showed just how fucked up Dracula is.

To be fair i did like Cleas Bangs acting and casting as Dracula. He had a certain charm that was ever so s l i g h t l y off. I heard people say he just 'made up an accent' but fuck you guys its a fucking danish accent you incolent twats anyways. He could be really funny at times and i actually apprecited it.

However the casting AND acting of the modern parts is absolute shit. Ep.3 is where i kinda gave up on the show and finsihed it for the sake of torturing myself. FIRST OF FUCKING ALL LUCY i cannot fathom how P I S S E D i am about Lucy. Why did they have to make her a phone obsessed basic asshole with no regards to anyones emotions besides her own and the extent of her personality is 'getting likes on socail media is all i care about because it makes me feel validated so im gonna wallo in self pity because i was obiously written by white man in his 50s that would have made me white if he wasnt forved to throw in diversity points" like shut the fuck up steven king.

Also lucy and mina never meet??? Theyre in different fucking time lines??? Theyre friendship and love for eachother was fucking golden how dare you rob that form me and give me a garbage bag full of shit with a shiny little bow on top in its place jesus f u ck.

The cemetary scene was o k ay i gues?? I liked the little nod to the book with the bloofer lady and the concept of random sprits being undead because of unfinished buisness. But this really just felt like it was slapped in the show for the sake of going on a date with Dracula in cemetary. I actually kinda apperacted it but it just felt awkward.

Also who the f u ck is Lucy's friend? The gay one??? Like,,,, is that supposed to Arthur???? His chatecter was so fu king weird and offset he just didnt feel like he should be in there. Hes literally just there for a-50-year-old-man's-interpretation-of-young-women-now-a-days verson of Lucy to have a gay best ffriend.

Ok i not even sure if i want to talk about Quincy. It just hurts. It physically hurts me to think about how d i r t y they did my baby. His charecter is the defination of american chivalry, just as great as regular chivarly but with a little extra cowboy vibe. Quincy is jist the biggest,,,, sweet haert,, like he asked lucy to marry him in his cool american cowboy voice cause he knew lucy loved it and it always made her laugh. And even when she turned him down becayse her heart belonged to arthur, he stayed. All he wanted was for lucy to be happy and all he requested was that they stay frirnds. Hes also invovled with taking fkwn dracula although hes not a main charecter percice ly as he doesnt have any entires in the book he still has an amaizing precence and sometimes while reading the book ill be readying one of dr sewards passanges and think "huh i wonder what quncys doin. I hope hes dooin good. Cowboy vibes n stuffs" amd boy dles he do that. Everh dracula film adaptataion robs us. R O B S U S of quincy morris best scene. In the middle of dr van helsing ranting about vampires( thats basically what half of the book is. I could write a 4p minute mono louge of his rambling jesus how does sweard take note of all this) quincy litterally just walks out. And nobodg really pays any notice beside glancing ag his leave and shrugging at one anouther and going back tl listneing tl van helsing explaining his vampire fan theories quincy moris , the quincy morris from texathe untited states of the amerkca the land and the free and also cowboys.stands outside of the bouilding and pints his gun up at. Dracula whos in the shape of a fucking bat eves ddopping outside the window and just fucking,,shoots it. Now he doesnt hit it cause thatt wouldnt be as fun as brutally stabbing the fucker witja wooden stake. But S T I L L. And the fucking bullet hits the window that everybodys in anprobably causes arthur to shit himself the ppoor boy. Can you belive that theh didnt fucking flim thatfor any dracul? Now i i under stands why not put in this adaptation because quincy is only mentionsed like three god damned times. And when theh DK mention him jesusnshit they literally jsut made him some popular jock from amwrica just to conter jacks white twinky ass and then they had him propose to lucy in the middle of a fucking night club and she says yes???? Lile ok jut throw Arthur out a window then cause cause fu c k him i guess. And then after lucy dies he jjsy fucking moves ?? The only thing thta makes this version of qincy quinccy is the fu king name and fact hes from america

Ok now jack fucking seward. He reminds me of when ylu forget you had a pb&j in your back pack so in the bos after school you pull it out cause yoyr hungry and yoyr mom put WAY to much jelly on it so now its like. All obsorbed into the bread and joggy and squished. Just sad and really white. They even had some kid call him whate bread and they werent fucking wrong. His obly personality traits were ' omg i love lucy but shes a hoe ;,,,((' and being connected to Zoe.

Now last and definately least the god forbaden ending. Just thinking about it gives me a fucking head ache. So , jesus, zoe, who is agathas great niece or someshit, a d looks exactly like her (its literally the same fucking actress) is a detective lile scitist reasearching dracula. So dracula is illedatly attracted to her becasue he thinks shes like agathas reincarnation or soenshit. So he tries tk drink her blood at one point and spits it all out and pukes and sjit cause her blood is poisonous bevaise she has fucking c an c e r. So later we find out that draculas weaknesses ( the sun crucifix) arnt actually real hes just afraid of dying so he has like irration fears or some shit so for some fucking reason. They deside. Its a good iea to end the show with this:

Dracula fucking drinks all of zoes blood killing her and himself because her blood poisonus. And ghe fucking emd scene is them like,,, in the sun???? Or soemt hi ng??? And theyre naked and like presumably fucked and dracula says some shit like " its doesnt have to hurt" and i almost tore my wrist open wiith my teeth because of how shitty this ending is.

Not lnly is it disrespectful to zoe but agatha, agathas whole thing was K I L I N G. dracula she wanted him fucking D E A D she woULDNT FUCK HKM

And like just after finding out that he can be in the sunlight with out fucking dying and that crosses just make him umcomfortable or some shit he just desides to kill himself??? DUDE YOU JUST FOUND OUT YOURE PROACTICALLY MORE INVINCABLE THAN YOU WERE BEFORE AND YOU JSUT FUCKING OFF YOUR SELF ??? HE COULD HAVE FUCKING RULED ENGLAD AND SPEAD VAMPIRISM OLL LVER THE FUCKING COUNTFY AND WORLD KF HE TRIED HARD ENOUGH AND HE KILLS HIMSELF BECAUSE THEY WANTED A STUPID SAPPY ENDING

anyway if anyone actually goes through the effort of reafing my god damn eS S A Y about Dracula that i finkshed typing (im not gonna bother editing tbh) at 4 fucking am. Then thank you and please get a life

[pucking-rare]

pucking rare masterlist 2019

below the cut are all the fics added to the pucking rare collection 2019, sorted by team/relationship. thanks everyone who wrote, beta’d, left prompts and in any way contributed to this year’s collection!

fyi: fics are sorted by who was on what team prior to 1 july because trying to keep track of who is on what team is beyond our capabilities right now.

BOSTON BRUINS

Anders Bjork/Matt Grzelcyk/Charlie McAvoy; Anders Bjork/Charlie McAvoy

something worth holding onto by cjmasim 

Anders turns over to face away from Charlie. It really doesn't matter how Charlie would react to him being aromantic. He's not going to come out to him just based on a random thought. There's no evidence whatsoever that Charlie likes him like that. If he did, he'd at least try to sleep in the same bed, Anders is sure.

It was a good hookup, and Charlie wants to do it again. Anders wants to do it again. So they'll do it again, and that's all they'll do. If it gets out of hand, well, he can deal with that when it happens.

Marcus Johansson & Brad Marchand

A 1000 Ways by onlypartly (foreverkneeld) 

Marcus Johansson finally gets an apology from Brad Marchand. Sort of.

BUFFALO SABRES

Rasmus Dahlin/Casey Mittelstadt; Rasmus Dahlin/Victor Olofsson

bloom by eichart

Ras doesn’t mean to keep buying plants for each and every one of his teammates, but he does, creating little explosions of green and orange and purple around the apartment. It’s his nature to look after them, to know when something’s wrong, so he will.

This team: he loves them.

This city: it’s special.

Jake McCabe/Rasmus Ristolainen

emptiness to melody by rawrimmapanda 

Jake knew that the random sore spots were something. He just didn't know what from exactly. After a trip to the doctor he sets off on a mission to find out who is soulmate is.

Bits of You on Me by eafay70 

Three times Jake's soulmate left him injured, and one time Jake was the one to blame.

CALGARY FLAMES

Johnny Gaudreau/Matthew Tkachuk

sealed with a kiss by iknewhim

“You want me,” Chucky drawls, “To kiss you for hockey.”

Elias Lindholm/David Rittich

We’ve Come Too Far, To Give Up Who We Are by Aer

David’s life has taken more than a few twists and turns over the years, but he’s always been able to see them coming, to some extent.

He never would have seen Elias coming in a million years.

COLORADO AVALANCHE

Tyson Barrie/Tyson Jost

soft shines through by somehowunbroken 

Defensemen have to marry forwards. It's a rule, and Tyson's been putting it off for longer than he should've, and now he needs to marry someone before the season starts or he won't be able to play.

Enter Tyson Jost.

J. T. Compher/Tyson Jost/Alexander Kerfoot; J. T. Compher/Tyson Jost

no regrets, just love by ancientdeceiver

The kiss, in the end, is just one friend helping out another friend.

Tyson Jost/Colin Wilson

bring your good times and your laughter too by somehowunbroken 

Sure, the stuffed pink rabbit and balloons had been funny, but it's Tyson's birthday. Colin's maybe in the mood to give him whatever he asks for.

DALLAS STARS

Miro Heiskanen/Roope Hintz

round one, round two by ghosthunter

“Are you nervous?” Miro asks, reaching out and tugging Roope’s thumb from between his lips.

“Are you not?” Roope asks him, his voice quiet. Miro grins at him.

(maybe it's the finnish summer) got me seeing stars when I'm with you by up_and_away 

After they get eliminated, Miro can't bring himself to go home and face his parents' sympathy. He goes home with Roope instead, and finds a way to exhale.

keep it subliminal by carissima

Miro smothers a yawn and opens his door. Roope’s standing there with two coffees and an expression that matches his own mood.

when it hits you by carissima 

And that’s the precise moment he realizes that he may, in fact, have a Miro-sized problem.

MINNESOTA WILD

Mikko Koivu/Zach Parise

You Know My Words (Look Up the Name) by sleeperservice

Zach's soulmark shows up during his rookie season after a game against the Wild. Nobody told him it would take years to find out who else had one show up that night.

NEW JERSEY DEVILS

Taylor Hall/Nico Hischier/Jack Hughes

I won't hesitate for you by theshipstorulethemallwrites 

To be 29 years old, made the playoffs once and be a virgin was not in plans for Taylor Hall. Neither was falling for his, much, younger teammates. Yes, there's a plural in that last word, stop judging.

NEW YORK ISLANDERS

Mikhail Grabovski/Nikolay Kulemin

Windows by blueorangecrush

Kolya's grandmother used to say that dreams were windows into other worlds.

Anders Lee/Devon Toews

I’m on your clock, you’re in control by Mooresomore 

"Breaking up is hard to do...especially when you're not out to the team and you can't let anyone know about it (or that it's over). It really sucks too when you still want the person, but they want nothing to do with you." Mat had never thought those words would apply to him, but here he was.

NEW YORK RANGERS

Brady Skjei/Jimmy Vesey

we’re never gonna win the world by skjei 

Jimmy doesn’t want to die.

(or, jimmy vesey signs with the new york rangers and his live changes more than it ever has).

PHILADELPHIA FLYERS

Carter Hart/Nolan Patrick/Travis Konecny

Hens and Chicks by Hock_hug 

Travis Konecny can’t make coffee

Carter Hart/Claude Giroux/Danny Briere

Shining bright to see what you could truly be by Mooresomore

Just a fluffy look into the life of Carter, Claude, Danny, and their family.

Travis Konecny/Nolan Patrick

dumbasses in love by andersens

“So, I talked to Lawson, and it turns out he does think we’re dating.”

“I told you,” Nolan says.

“Yeah and see the thing is, I was gonna tell him he’s wrong. But then he started going on and on about how proud of me he is and how happy. And he was looking at me with his stupid Lawson face with his stupid Lawson smile and I just...I couldn’t tell him he was wrong.”

say that you're into me, let me know how it'll be (if you don't know, just say so) by haruspexes 

Really, the wedding is the thing that sets it all off. Someone self-aware might say it started way before the wedding but Travis has always been a little suspicious about that whole know-thyself thing. So, it starts on an otherwise unremarkable Tuesday afternoon.

***

“Anyways, you know I’m the best wedding date you could get on such short notice,” Travis fires off. It’s a pretty weak chirp, but the chance to say something is just too good to pass up.

“Yeah.” Nolan nods where Travis was half expecting him to argue.

take down some summer time by manybumblebees

Summer is lake days and fishing and coolers full of beer, the boat kicking up spray in its wake, and Nolan coming to stand next to him on the deck in his too-short shorts, holding his forearm next to TK’s and complaining about his Irish skin, which burns and freckles but never tans.

Or: summer makes TK stupid.

trouble's gonna follow (where i go) by carissima 

The first thing Travis learns about Nolan is that he can’t tie a fucking tie.

Travis Konecny/Nolan Patrick; Carter Hart/Nolan Patrick; Carter Hart/Travis Konecny/Nolan Patrick; Lawson Crouse/Travis Konecny; Nico Hischier/Nolan Patrick

kiss me & take off your clothes by ghosthunter

“You’re so sexy in the morning, God,” TK says.

“I’m sexy all the time,” Nolan says. “That’s why I make the big bucks.”

SAN JOSE SHARKS

Tomas Hertl/Tommy Wingels

blame it, blame it by frausorge

Olive juice? That sounds disgusting.

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING

Anthony Cirelli/Mikhail Sergachev

Once Smitten by verbaeghe 

It isn’t that Tony’s expecting Misha to already be in their dorm room when he arrives per se, it’s just. Well, it’s junior year, classes start tomorrow, and Misha still hasn’t managed an on-time arrival yet. At least he’s consistent.

A Tale of Courtship by Sugarchev, verbaeghe

“Marriage,” King Anton repeats to a slack-jawed Tony. “The council agrees, it’s time we secure our alliances.”

The King’s cabinet falls silent. Stamkos purses his lips, while Victor pretends to notice something out the window. Cally and McDonagh glue their eyes to the tactical map sprawled across the table and Misha…he should sit down before his legs give out.

Anthony Cirelli/Mikhail Sergachev; Braydon Coburn/Slater Koekkoek

How to Train Your Partner 101 by darkone 

Tony’s previous partner retired a month ago and he’s been anxiously awaiting a new one. He’s tired of going on missions with other well established teams because it makes him feel like a third wheel.

Braydon Coburn/Slater Koekkoek

Yours by Lecavayay

He takes Slater’s wrist, holds it to his lips like the name there is his and not some other Braydon waiting for the man in his bed to find him.

Tyler Johnson/Ondrej Palat

The Playboy of Central New York by blueorangecrush 

Tyler just wanted to be a semi-anonymous graduate student, not the funder of a biotech startup with his old money inheritance.

He thought he'd meet a girl who didn't know or care about his money. He was wrong about the "girl" part.

Cedric Paquette/Louis Domingue; Alex Killorn/Andrej Sustr; Jake Dotchin/Yanni Gourde

I Could Stay Here Forever by TylerAndAlexAndCeddyOhMy 

Ceddy and Louis were fall in love while studying abroad

“We should go to Italy!” Yanni yelled. 

“You just want to sleep with Italian guys,” Louis groaned. “We should go to France. The museums! Imagine all the history!” 

“Yeah! Because there is ZERO fucking history in ITALY, you huge fucking moron,” Yanni yelled at Louis. 

“You aren’t even interested in history! You’re interested in dick!” Louis countered. 

“Yes,” Yanni screamed stomping toward his room. “Big Italian dick!” With that he slammed his door.

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS

Frederik Andersen/Auston Matthews/Morgan Rielly

Filled Up by eyeslikeonyx

When Auston pictured going on vacation with Freddie and Mo during the bye week, he was expecting to have fun in their hotel room, obviously. He knows Mitch is most likely getting railed on his own trip with Marty and Cees if the suggestive snaps from the night before are any indicator. Auston has been waiting for this trip for a while now, and he’s excited to finally relax and get some much needed sun. He doesn’t want to just have sex the entire time he’s on vacation.

He should have known his body would betray him the moment he, Mo, and Freddie actually made it to their resort suite.

Kyle Dubas/William Nylander

The Lace in Your Dress by elenajames 

There’s a garment box on their bed when Willy gets home.

You’re my golden hour by mozartspiano 

Kyle's condo is terrible. William helps him find a house.

This One’s For You by theshipstorulethemallwrites 

Since his father’s death in a classified military accident, William Nylander has always had a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that he could be more. And then he gets in trouble in a way that he can’t get out of.

Enter Kingsman

Enter Kyle Dubas

I Hope You Lie by dizzzylu 

"You think that we don't notice?" William asks. "How you take care of us, how you take the blame for us. We notice, Kyle. I notice."

Nazem Kadri/Mitch Marner; Nazem Kadri/Mitch Marner/John Tavares

Knights by eden22 

London Knights are always proprietary with each other.

Mitch Marner/John Tavares

A Monster Under the Bed by eyeslikeonyx 

On the morning of November 9, 1973, Good Hope Sheriff John Tavares is the third man to pull up to the banks of Lake Perry where a body has been found. Principal Patrick Marleau of Good Hope High School was the first, and Deputy Sheriff Morgan Reilly was the second.

Mitch Marner/William Nylander

You Brought Out The Best In Me by Bluejay141519 

Mitch is the sun and Willy's been in the shadows since the day Mitch was drafted. That doesn't mean he loves Mitch any less.

William Nylander/Andreas Johnsson

facts of life (it’s i and love and you) by florabee 

some things change and some things don't. the most set-in-stone fact in andreas's life is this: he loves willy and willy loves him

VANCOUVER CANUCKS

Brock Boeser/Elias Pettersson

boy with love by lilcrickee 

“Oh no,” Brock murmurs, the reality of the situation sinking in. It’s 11 o’clock in the middle of the offseason and he’s holding a baby. The baby is his. Brock is 22 and has a baby and the mother has run off to work on a cruise ship.

Elias Pettersson/Jacob Markstrom

Waiting Tied and Bound by Sister_Grimm 

Jacob knows exactly how to take Elias apart every time

WINNIPEG JETS

Nikolaj Ehlers/Patrik Laine

make my heart sparkle like champagne by softEldritch (assbutts) 

Hey, Niky,” he says slowly, enunciating it carefully so he doesn’t somehow mess up the words, “what if we do get married this summer?”

Turns out there’s a lot more to a wedding than just showing up, saying a few words and putting on some rings.

Adam Lowry/Brandon Tanev

while all his body trembled by onlypartly (foreverkneeld) 

(407): It's very finicky. Like baking. or BDSM.

mixer attachments by snailmailed

“It’s a KitchenAid. You have the same one. Are you feeling okay?” He added when Brandon continued to stare at his brand new mixer.

Brandon blinked. “Yeah dude, I know what it is.”

“Okay well it didn’t seem like -”

“I know what it is! Obviously.” Brandon huffed.

(Adam buys his own KitchenAid, Brandon doesn't take it well.)

FORMER/INTERNATIONAL TEAMMATES

Nazem Kadri/James Van Riemsdyk

hit me with that by landofpromise 

Nazem isn’t sure what to think when James’ name appears on his screen.

Mathew Barzal/Thomas Chabot

careless with my heart again by aimerai 

Mat looks at Chabby, actually looks at him, and wants to kiss him. This is not a new thought, nor is it particularly damning. Mat wants to make him fall apart, and that’s fine, too. But wanting to smooth out the faint wrinkle of his brow and uncoil the tension from his shoulders is a line he can’t cross. Wanting Chabby to go back to the person he was when he was asleep, carefree, is not something he is allowed. Staying the night was a detour; staying in bed was a mistake, and yet, Mat can’t bring himself to regret it. Some things are an inevitability; this may not be one of them, but Mat thinks he’d have chosen to land here anyway. Even if it’s going to hurt, even as he’s trying to pull himself out of one of the biggest hurts he’s ever had.

Anthony Cirelli/Taylor Raddysh

It Started Out With a Kiss (Or: How It Ended Up Like This) by love_stella 

“Who was that?” Misha asks, cutting him off.

“It was no one, don’t worry about it,” Tony tries to say, knowing damn well it’s going to be impossible to get them to stop now that they’ve started.

“No no no, that wasn’t no one,” Misha says, “You don’t just walk up and kiss no one.”

Anthony Cirelli/Taylor Raddysh/Mitchell Stephens

Magnolia by love_stella 

What catches his eye is a hint of blue floating around the water, but before he can reach his hand in to check he’s hit with another coughing fit, only this time he’s able to catch most of the petals in his palms so he can inspect them to make sure his eyes aren’t tricking him. Surely enough, Taylor didn’t even cough up any of Tony’s flower this time, the petals he’s holding are shorter and a pale blue that Taylor might find beautiful if they didn’t just come out of his lungs.

Eric Comrie/Chase De Leo

Trying To Get That Feeling Again by Mooresomore 

Chase and Eric had been together and things were perfect. What happened when Chase got traded to the Ducks changed all that. Can they find what was missing?

Dante Fabbro/Tyson Jost

all these songs of love by somehowunbroken 

Dante's an aspiring musician, so he'll take whatever help he can get, including a boy in 

his dreams who helps him write his music. Everything's going fine until he looks up during a show and sees that boy in the crowd.

Alexandre Fortin/Jeremy Lauzon/Philippe Myers

this doesn’t look that much different from home by aimerai 

Alex is born somewhere between a hope and a dream, made more of magic than of DNA. He’s not quite a changeling child, but the first time he watches Pinocchio, he cries and cries and can’t stop, until he feels like he’s going to throw up with each hitching breath. It feels too similar, and he’s always known what he is.

Or, the moments that make a homecoming.

Marcus Johansson/Evgeny Kuznetsov

putting broken pieces back in place by ghosthunter 

“Evgeny Evgenyvich,” the stranger says.

“Huh?” Zhenya asks, confused. He stops to look up into the black space where a face should be.

“What would you give,” the stranger asks.

“For what?” Zhenya asks. He considers continuing walking, but he can’t. He considers running, but he can’t do that either. He thinks these things, but his body won’t do them.

“For what you want,” the stranger says to him.

Auston Matthews/Patrick Kane

Half in the shadows, half burned in flames by Caivallon 

Between night and day. In this strange endless twilight between yesterday and tomorrow when everything is possible.

They have played a game. A tempting and thrilling game.

Nathan MacKinnon/Mitch Marner

Pine your way to China by Aderam

In which our hero is surprisingly good at talking about it, but not to the right person.

AKA hockey boys are dumb, but we like them anyway.

William Nylander/David Pastrnak

Love and Marriage by blindbatalex 

“Yeah I got married and didn’t tell any of you,” David deadpans before it’s too late, finally able to form words, and there is a moment when it goes so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

Taylor Crosby/Amanda Kessel

run it, run it (like a girl) by ghosthunter 

Hockey analysts will make a rivalry out of anything. And if it’s not the analysts, then it’s the media. All they really had in common was they went to the same school and play the same sport.

OTHERS

Leon Draisaitl/Connor McDavid/Dylan Strome

ain't nothing like them summer nights by liroa15 

Connor's got one boyfriend for home and one boyfriend for away, and somehow they're all making it work. Together. Away from it all.

Alexander Ovechkin/Tyler Seguin; Nicklas Backstrom/Tyler Seguin

Icebreaker by myrthrilmercury

Throughout the league, Alexander Ovechkin is known as "Icebreaker" for his prowess at training the brattiest and most stubborn subs. His latest assignment is to transform the rude, rebellious Tyler Seguin into an obedient submissive willing to do anything commanded.

Sidney Crosby/Travis Konecny; Sidney Crosby & Marc-Andre Fleury

Forever in a Minute by elenajames

Sid lets the league send an alpha match for his heat, and he's not prepared for who they pick.

[tanyatakaishi]

So as a great apology for my severe writer’s block and crashing nearly every night at 9pm after the kid is in bed and I have no energy because of the school year starting, I give you a sneak peak of a memory in the next chapter of Remember, the sequel to my digimon fanfic, Innocent Games.

Yolei wants to to have sex. Davis solicits advice. Humor, sexy times, and fluff. Daiyako. (a little steamy, nothing explicit)

Full story links: AO3 & FFN

“Yolei wants to have sex.”

“Oh.”

Ken is looking at me like I’ve grown an extra head and I groan, falling back on my bed. “I mean I want to, too. But… what if I’m bad at it?” “I don’t think I’m the best person to talk to about this.” I sit up and my eyebrows sort of have a mind of their own, creasing together in the middle of my forehead. “Why not?” “Lack of experience?” “But you’re smart.” Ken frowns. “You guys are ready for that?” “She’s a college girl now and I’m…” My mouth turns down to match his. He already knows how insecure I am being the younger one in the relationship, still stuck in high school while Yolei goes on adulting, so I bypass that issue and go straight for the next. “I kinda thought it’d happen by now, but you know, stuff always gets in the way. Parents, digimon, roommates, maybe if you remembered condoms, we're not doing it in a car!” I finish the last few lines in my best imitation of Yolei’s voice, scolding me. “Maybe you should talk to Tai,” Ken says and I immediately feel relief flood over me. “That’s perfect! His first time was with Mimi. If he can tap that…” “Davis.”

*

“It was awful,” Tai says, looking at me over a laptop and a pile of textbooks. I’m pretty sure I’m interrupting him writing his term paper, but he doesn’t let on that he’s bothered. “I mean, she wasn't, but I was. She didn’t complain per se, but I could tell.”

“Um, any pointers on what not to do then?” “Don’t do it drunk.” “Perfect,” I say. “So what about with that other chick? Second time a charm?” “That’s not,” Tai starts and then he closes his laptop to smile at me. “You guys are gonna be fine. You love each other, right?” I try not to go red, but it's happening anyway. I give an enthusiastic nod and realize I look way too eager. Thank God Tai’s so cool. “Just take it slow. Use protection.” “Thanks, Mom.” “Look, if you’re wanting details, all my good advice is going to be from my most recent relationship.” Going pale, I jump to my feet and grab Veemon by the tail, yanking him off Tai’s bed. “But Agumon was getting cookies,” he cries. “Abort!” I yell, giving Tai a horrified look. “Abort!” *

Matt stares at me. “Google it.” Why didn’t I think of that? * “Google has traumatized me.” “I warned you not to click on the ads. Do you want me to install a proper antivirus software? Yours is outdated.” “That is not the problem, Izzy.” “Why don’t you try the library?” * Cody starts to type my request into the library database and does a double take. “Please don’t involve me in this,” he says. "I'm running out of options. The guys on the team were the worst. They all started heckling me for being with the same chick for three years without getting some.” (“You’re counting the breaks?”) “So what if we didn’t do it yet? They just don’t get Yolei. She's gonna want it to be perfect and she's got all these ideas on how things should go. I can’t keep track of ‘em. Like, get this, she told me about how gross this guy dating her sister was just ‘cause he spent the entire time slobbering all over her t—" “Why don’t you talk to TK?” “He’s dating Kari.” “Point taken.” * “I need medical advice.” I open a book in front of Joe’s nose the moment I enter his apartment. “How accurate is this?” He lowers his glasses to look at the pages and suddenly turns pink. “I’m not sure if my opinion on Kama Sutra would be considered medical advice.” “Why doesn’t anyone know how to have sex?” “That’s not, oh God.” “Oh, honey,” Mimi pipes in, emerging from the bathroom. I didn’t even know she was there. She slings an arm around my shoulders and grabs the book from my hands. “You’re looking for advice from the wrong gender.” “Do you live here?” I ask her. “Sometimes,” she says. I stare at her in awe. “I have so many questions for you.” Joe immediately bolts out the door. * There are literally so many feelings tumbling over and through me that I’m not sure what I say first: “wow” or “sorry.” I think it ended up coming out as a combination of the two, because Yolei is looking at me with a sort of a weird expression. Her eyes are so much easier to see without an inch of glass in the way. The brown is nearly gold, something I never really paid attention to until we started kissing each other (she always takes the glasses off so I don’t smudge them with my “face grease”). I don’t think she’s ever looked prettier than now, hair all a mess and her face soft, with those eyes and her flushed cheeks. Some of the makeup around her lashes smeared and I rub it with my thumb which makes her bat my hand away. “Don’t be sorry,” she says, combing her hair back before she turns on her pillow. We barely fit there together and my eyes take in the clock behind her head, making sure we finished well before her roommate is done with class. “That was totally normal.” My eyes shoot back to her. “That’s it?” I ask, trying not to feel offended. “You just said sorry.” “Okay, true.” I groan. “Ugh, I’m sorry.” “Seriously, stop.” She’s smiling and she slips her hand over my chest, nuzzling her face in my neck. “It’ll be better next time.” I smile so wide my cheeks hurt. “You’re not gonna dump me?” “For finishing without me? I don't think I was going to get there anyway." She flicks my nose when I pout and I snatch her hand. "It was our first time. Jeez, Davis.” I put her palm on my mouth and her fingers cover my eyes. “It didn’t hurt too much, did it?” “Only a little, same as the dozen other times you asked.” “Sorry,” I say again and she wiggles her hand out of mine and tickles my ribs. I nearly knock her in the gut with my knee, so she ends it with a firm squeeze and I feel every part of her again, pressing on every part of me. I squirm, super uncomfortable. “Okay, I gotta do something about this. I’m gross. How do you cuddle after that?” She laughs when I stand up and she has the nerve to watch me deal with things. “The movies are full of lies.” When I come back to her tiny twin bed a little less disgusting she welcomes me into her arms. My thighs trap her left calf and her stomach rises and falls under my chest.  I feel sleepy and rest my cheek on her, closing my eyes. Her fingers rake under my hair and down my neck. “I heard you borrowed Kama Sutra from the library to prepare,” she says. I slip my arms between the mattress and her back, pulling her in tight. “That was intimidating.” “Mimi said you scared Joe right out of his own apartment.” “He was totally unhelpful,” I mumble into her skin. “Mimi was amazing though.” Yolei pinches me right on my bare ass and I let out a really undignified squeak. “You should’ve just talked to me,” she says and I lift my face out of her boobs to see her squinting at me. Damn her terrible eyesight. “I've had a lot of unsolicited advice from my sisters," she says and then as an afterthought, she adds, "and Mantarou." Her tongue hangs out like she's gagging and I'm tempted to grab it with my fingers,  but I know that pisses her off and I'm gonna be smart when all my most vulnerable parts are still exposed. “Aren’t you the expert?” I grumble. “The point is, I had an idea of what to expect. You should’ve told me you were nervous.” I scoff even though it's true so she looks at me with her serious face and says, "This was supposed to be between us.” Oh no, she set me up. "You know what else is between us?" I can’t even keep a straight face. I let out a ridiculous sounding snort and her groan vibrates in her chest. I kiss her jaw before she starts to get mad and her hands relax on my back. “I’m sorry,” I tell her again, moving to the spot behind her ear. “You should be,” she says and her voice is all air. I used to have this list: a bunch of boxes I needed to check off in order to think of myself as a man. If you had told the past me I’d be checking any of them off with Yolei Inoue, I would’ve died laughing. But now that we’re here, I can’t imagine being with anyone else. If you don’t count the argument about who should put the condom on that delayed the whole thing awhile, she made it easy. All the awkward moments we spent fumbling were filled with mutual giggles and a few snide jokes neither of us took too seriously. I don’t even care about those stupid boxes anymore. “I love you,” I tell her, kissing her ear, her cheeks, her lips. She rolls me underneath, all laughter and smiles, and says it back.

[lindyhunt]

Everything That Upset the Internet This Week

What is the web-o-sphere angry about this week? A pop star who claimed her lyrics will solve racism, the meaning behind the MAGA hat and a Latina actress who’s being called “anti-black.” Here’s everything you need to know.

Ariana Grande Responds to “7 Rings” Backlash With a Fan Comment

THE STORY: Everyone from 2 Chainz to Soulja Boy to Princess Nokia has taken issue with the lyrics, beat and video for “7 Rings,” Ariana Grande’s recently released single about popping Champagne, splurging at Tiffany’s and being unapologetically rich.

“Does that sound familiar to you? ‘Cause that sound really familiar to me. Oh my god!” Princess Nokia said in a since-deleted video. “Ain’t that the lil’ song I made about brown women and their hair? Hmm… sounds about white.”

Grande then (seemingly in response) reposted a fan’s Instagram Story about why the “7 Rings” hair lyric—’You like my hair? Gee, thanks, just bought it…’—was justified: “White women talking about their weaves is how we’re gonna solve racism,” wrote the Instagram user. Grande added that she had “so much love” for the fan, finishing the sentiment with a signature Ari black heart emoji.

  View this post on Instagram

  This #PostAndDelete by #ArianaGrande has fans upset because they feel she’s missing the point of the backlash. Meanwhile, #ScooterBraun says #7Rings has hit a record on #Spotify (See previous posts)

A post shared by The Shade Room (@theshaderoom) on Jan 19, 2019 at 11:32am PST

Grande’s story was quickly taken down—but not before it was screen capped and shared across the web.

THE REACTION:

When black women wear weave it’s ghetto and trash and we’re bald but now miss Ariana says that corny ass line everyone and their mom is hype ab it. I love Ariana but bitch NO. @arianagrande

— oh k . (@xchancelorswife) January 19, 2019

Soo i show up to twitter seeing that Ariana grande said white women talking about weaves will end racism….. pic.twitter.com/5emt6Inrdz

— Amen & Gin (@_HeavensAngel_) January 20, 2019

@ArianaGrande please delete ur story and apologise. it was really insensitive. if it was meant seriously or sarcastically, it doesn’t matter, it was wrong of u to post something like that.

— lola (@styIesdrew) January 19, 2019

RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE RAGE: Grande slid into the comments section of The Shade Room’s post, leaving a heartfelt apology. “Hi hi,” she wrote. “I think her intention was to be like… yay a white person disassociating the negative stariotype [sic] that is paired with the word ‘weave’… however I’m so sorry my response was out of pocket or if it came across the wrong way. Thanks for opening the conversation and like… to everyone for talking to me about it. It’s never my intention to offend anybody.”

A quick delete, apology and statement of appreciation for the communal conversation when she missteps—she has this whole backlash response thing down to a formula, doesn’t she? Besides, was there really ever any doubt that Ariana Grande’s hair is real…

Fox News Compares Judging MAGA Hat to Blaming Rape Victims’ Outfits

THE STORY: So you know those MAGA hat-wearing Kentucky teens who taunted an indigenous elder at a Washington protest? Of course you do. They’ve been the centre of the news cycle for the past week: the clip went viral, different narratives were spun on each side of the political spectrum and Nicholas Sandmann, “The MAGA Hat Boy,” was invited to share his non-apology on the Today Show. And then, Fox News’ The Five hopped in on the conversation to state that judging these young boys based on their Trump-affiliated merch is comparable to judging a victim of sexual assault based on their outfit at the time of the crime.

“What kills me is the idea [that], if you’re wearing something, you had it coming. We’ve learned that that’s not what you say to people,” said host Greg Gutfeld.

THE REACTION:

Aren't the Fox viewers and pundits usually the people that would do that anyways?

— Area Man | UTE (@veggiescott) January 24, 2019

#FOXNews used rape victims to defend RACIST #MAGA teens

The MAGA hat is an open embrace of #Trumpism and everything he stands for — which is BIGOTRY, XENOPHOBIA, ETHNIC CLEANSING, CORRUPTION, and HATRED.

LIKE DONNING a SWASTIKA#MOG https://t.co/3Sx79N2cf2

— Michael O'Grady (@mog7546) January 24, 2019

What does a MAGA hat signify? Does a pair of “provocative clothes” scream racism, misogyny, and other bullshit? Just say you’re a rape victim-blamer and go.

— 권치용 | 秋 (@californiaaki) January 24, 2019

RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE RAGE: The commentators are right on one thing: you should never judge a woman’s choice of clothing when a violent crime is committed against her. What they’ve done here, however, is set up a false equivalence. The MAGA hat is not a meaningless piece of apparel—and as far as I’ve heard, a mini skirt or tube top isn’t widely perceived to express hateful views towards marginalized people. (A Zara jacket with the words “I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?” scrawled on the back, however, shares its message loud and clear.)

When people put on that red cap, they know the message they’re sending. It’s really no different than any other baseball hat: when you’re wearing a blue Maple Leaf on your forehead, you’re signalling to those around you that, for whatever reason, you’re a fan of Toronto’s hockey team. Wearing a MAGA hat aligns you with the president’s exclusionist policies and hateful rhetoric, and if you’re putting one on, you should know that—even if you’re a 17-year-old high school student.

Gina Rodriguez Addresses Accusations of Being Anti-Black With Tears

THE STORY: Back in November, Porter‘s “Women in Television” roundtable with actresses Gina Rodriguez, Gabrielle Union, Ellen Pompeo, and Emma Roberts went viral online. Pompeo was praised for calling out the lack of diversity in the room, while Rodriguez caught heat for commenting on the intersectional aspect of the gender pay gap in America.

“White women get paid more than black women, black women get paid more than Asian women, Asian women get paid more than Latina women,” Rodriguez said. “It’s like a very scary space to step into.”

Her statement sparked backlash, with many accusing the Golden Globe-winning Jane the Virgin star of being “anti-black” and pitting POC women against one another. Months later, during an appearance on Sway in the Morning, she broke down into tears as addressed the controversy.

“The backlash was devastating, to say the least,” said Rodriguez. “The black community was the only community I looked towards growing up. We didn’t have many Latino shows and the black community made me feel like I was seen. So to get anti-black is to say I’m anti-family.”

THE REACTION:

Listen @HereIsGina I really wanted to empathize I did but you’re just deflecting instead of being accountable. Instead of rationalizing what you said (re: white & asian community didn’t get offended) look at the moments that the black community DID. pic.twitter.com/nyjXMziuiu

— 🍯 COME GET YOUR HONEY 🍯 (@SUGGADADDY) January 23, 2019

Gina Rodriguez on Black Panther vs Crazy Rich Asians….she really is terrible pic.twitter.com/BYDIJS1bhh

— tk (@foswina) January 23, 2019

gina rodriguez: *is anti black, constantly puts black women down to favor “all women”, probably doesn’t know the difference between race and ethnicity*

gina rodriguez when she gets called out on it: pic.twitter.com/7RhSPp46Gu

— skinty (@KIMPOSSIHOE) January 23, 2019

RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE RAGE: Cancel culture is toxic, and it pushes people to become defensive. But regardless of intention, Rodriguez’s words hurt, and she should have done was listened to that and taken accountability for her comments—rather than making excuses.

“Gina Rodriguez is really really really really ignorant, socially unaware, dismissive with black issues, and entitled,” writes Twitter user @culieatumami, “BUT I don’t think she’s necessarily hateful. I think she needs to talk less and listen more.”