Chapter Text
Carlos can’t believe TK is doing this, without even being asked. He shouldn't be surprised – TK is always so kind to people he cares about and ready to help, even if he’s a little shit about it – but he didn’t expect it.
Tía Esmè has just spent the last ten minutes peppering him with rapid-fire questions about TK and telling Carlos how handsome he is, once he’d pointed TK out to her, and now TK is in the food truck, willingly helping her out when he could have asked Carlos to get back to their date night.
Not that it’s a real date night.
Tía Esmè is still talking about TK as she works – even though he’s right there – now saying that he’s so sweet to help, and isn’t TK so handsome with his pretty eyes and his smile. She’s not wrong, but Carlos hopes that TK’s Spanish is as non-existent as he assumes it is, otherwise TK’s going to be absolutely unbearable.
It strikes Carlos as he’s taking another batch of empanadas out of the deep fryer, that everything about this trip has been unexpectedly easy. From his family’s acceptance of TK as his boyfriend, to the way TK has fit right in with all of them (Ceci aside, but she was always going to be the tricky one), to the fact that all of the extra touches and kisses that Carlos had been so scared of haven’t been awkward at all.
None of it has been difficult. Well, maybe the extra physical affection has been a little bit hard to deal with, but only because Carlos knows it all has an expiry date and he’s been enjoying it so much.
TK has always been tactile, he will lean up against Carlos on the sofa if they’re watching a movie, or place his hand on Carlos’ knee or shoulder to emphasise a point. It’s the extra things though, the things they’ve been doing here, all to convince his family that they’re boyfriends. TK will put his hands on Carlos’ waist as he walks past him, or let his hand linger on Carlos’ thigh, or hold his hand, or press a little kiss to his cheek. It’s the way that Carlos can let his gaze drift to TK without worrying that it’s too much or that someone will notice, and the way that TK is looking at him now with something more than friendship shining from behind his eyes. Or at least, Carlos hopes it might be.
When the line of people in front of the truck has dissipated, Tía Esmè dismisses them with a container full of dessert empanadas for TK, and warm hugs of thanks for them both, murmuring to Carlos in Spanish that he chose well when he chose TK.
When they arrive home, TK is still complaining about how full he is, having eaten almost all of the empanadas before they left the park. He holds onto Carlos’ arm, protesting that he won’t be able to make it up the stairs as they walk inside.
“Did you have a good night?” Andrea asks, as they slip off their shoes.
TK brightens up. “Oh my god, Carlos introduced me to Tía Esmè’s empanadas and I’m so full I could burst!”
“That’s because you ate all of the dessert empanadas, including mine,” Carlos says, drily. “As if I don’t make you empanadas at home.”
“You don’t make me dessert empanadas, but now that I know they exist, I will be expecting those regularly,” TK says primly, but he’s smirking, so it ruins the effect.
“You make empanadas for TK, Carlitos?” Andrea asks, sounding surprised as she ushers them into the living room where Gabriel is watching television. He supposes that it might seem like a lot of effort to make them in their tiny apartment kitchen.
Carlos blushes. “He doesn’t eat when he gets busy with schoolwork. But no one can say no to empanadas.”
“I’m lucky to have him,” TK says, smiling softly at him. “And he’s right, I can’t say no to empanadas. Carlos is a great cook, Mrs Reyes, you taught him well.”
Andrea puffs up with pride and Gabriel gives her a fond smile. “You want to watch the rest of the game?” Gabriel asks them from his recliner, indicating the hockey game he’s watching.
“Sure,” TK replies, walking over to the couch. “Who’s playing?”
Carlos looks around. “Where’s Gabi? I thought I saw Letty’s shoes by the door.”
“Oh! Letty fell asleep after dinner and Gabi didn’t want to wake her when they’ll be back in the morning anyway. So, I said she could sleep over. Letty said she wanted to play with TK more anyway.” Andrea smiles at TK who’s engrossed in a conversation with Gabriel about the Dallas Stars vs Winnipeg Jets game that they’re watching.
“That’s cute,” Carlos says, his chest feeling a little tight at the sight of his dad making an effort to spend time with his boyfriend, even if it is his fake boyfriend. “But Ma, is Letty asleep in Gabi’s room upstairs?” Andrea nods. “That’s where TK was sleeping. He can sleep in my room, I suppose, and I’ll sleep down here or bunk with Ceci.”
It’ll be uncomfortable on the couch, and the alternative is that Ceci will complain bitterly, but Carlos knows the rules. His sisters have long since argued unsuccessfully against them – no sharing a room without a ring – even Gabi and Felix, who’d been together since they were fifteen, weren’t allowed to share a bedroom when they were in college. Their parents were very firm on that.
His mom gives him an odd look. “I spoke to your father, and he agreed it would be okay if you and TK shared a room just for tonight.”
Carlos is quite certain his eyebrows are in his hairline, he’s so shocked. “Are you sure? I know the rules, and—”
“No one thought about it when we decided to leave Letty where she was, which was thoughtless of me…”
“It’s fine, Ma. I don’t want to cause trouble with the girls. Ceci can sleep with Letty or I can, or I can sleep in Ceci’s room.”
“Carlitos. Anyone would think you don’t want to share a room with your boyfriend,” Andrea chides him, amusement in her tone. “You live together. You think I don’t know that you likely do more than kiss each other?”
Carlos feels like his face is on fire. He wants to die. That would be preferable to his mother implying that she knows he has sex with TK. Who is very much not his boyfriend and who he has only shared a couple of very chaste kisses with. Very chaste fake kisses.
“Is there a problem?” Gabriel calls out. “Why does Carlos look like a tomato?”
“It’s nothing, amor. I’m just teasing him.”
Carlos risks a glance at TK who’s looking at him with concern written across his face. TK tilts his head in question and Carlos shakes his head slightly. The last thing he wants is for TK and his predisposition to over sharing, to join this conversation.
“I just don’t want— I know how the girls will be about this, and—”
Truth be told, he doesn’t like the implication that his parents are okay with him sharing a room with TK when his sisters have never been allowed to – probably because there’s no possibility of either of them getting pregnant – no matter what they might get up to, which will be nothing. But that’s an argument for another day, and probably something Dani would enjoy anyway.
“Your father and I will deal with them if it becomes an issue,” Andrea says firmly. “TK will have to get his things for tonight very quietly because if he wakes Letty up she will think it’s time for a party and no one will sleep.”
Carlos nods mutely. This will be fine. He and TK have fallen asleep in the same bed before while watching movies, and his bed here is bigger than their beds in their apartment.
“Come sit and watch the silly game,” his mom says, guiding him over to the couch.
“This game is not silly, vida,” his father insists, pretending to be insulted. “TK agrees with me. Did you know he played hockey when he was young?”
Carlos didn’t know that, and is surprised that his dad does, but the fact that TK told his dad that makes him smile as he sits next to TK on the couch.
“Everything okay?” TK murmurs to him quietly, with a quick kiss to the corner of Carlos’ mouth that does absolutely nothing to help the situation, because Carlos just wants to chase those lips for more.
“Yeah,” Carlos exhales. “Letty’s fallen asleep in your room, so you’ll have to sleep with me tonight.”
TK raises a brow, smirking.
“I mean– Not with me. Just in my room. I didn’t mean it like— oh god.” Really, death would be an improvement on the last ten minutes of Carlos’ life. It would provide a release from the mortification of hearing the words coming out of his own mouth.
“Carlos, it’s fine. I know what you meant. Besides, not in your mother’s house anyway, right?” TK says with a wink that absolutely does not set a stampede of butterflies off in Carlos stomach. He’s pretty sure he hears his mom stifle a laugh from her chair opposite them.
TK is teasing him and acting nonchalant about the whole thing, but Carlos doesn’t miss the way his entire body stills when he breaks the news, or the way that TK is suddenly emanating a nervous energy that is rolling off him in waves.
His mom goes to bed at the beginning of the third period, and after the game, they say goodnight to his father, who disappears upstairs. Carlos checks that there’s nothing in the kitchen that needs cleaning up, makes sure that the doors are locked and then checks the living room again to make sure there aren’t any glasses or anything that should go into the dishwasher. Maybe he’s stalling.
“Carlos,” TK says softly, putting his hand on his arm to stop him from moving. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, just surprised at how this has turned out, I guess.”
“This is good, though, right? I think they like me, and they’re obviously accepting of you having a boyfriend if they’re letting us sleep in the same room. You told me what the rule usually is.”
Carlos scrubs his hand over his face. “Yeah. I’m happy.”
“Good,” TK smiles. “Let’s go upstairs then.”
Carlos showers quickly to wash the grime from the deep fryer away while TK tries to get his things without waking Letty. He’ll probably need to shower again in the morning to tame his hair, unlike TK, who generally wakes up with perfect hair like some sort of Disney Princess. Maybe Letty is right after all, Carlos thinks, smiling to himself.
He slips into his pyjama pants in the bathroom, brushing his teeth and telling himself that sharing a bed with TK is no big deal. They’re adults and friends, and this doesn’t have to mean anything at all.
TK is sitting on the edge of Carlos’ bed and looks up when he enters the room. Carlos is fairly certain he doesn’t imagine the way TK’s gaze lingers a little on his bare torso, before he looks away, even though it’s nothing he hasn’t seen before.
“I’m, um, just gonna grab a quick shower too,” TK says, avoiding Carlos’ gaze, and leaves the room.
In TK’s absence, Carlos debates with himself about whether or not he should put a shirt on. On the one hand, TK knows he always sleeps without a shirt. But sleeping with no shirt on with his best friend, who’s pretending to be his boyfriend, who Carlos has very real feelings for in the bed feels… presumptuous. He slips an old t-shirt on.
He’s standing at the end of the bed, wondering if TK has a preferred side and whether he should just stop overthinking things, when TK comes back.
TK takes one look at him and says, “just sleep on whatever side you’re used to sleeping on.”
Of course TK knows what he’s stressing over. TK knows him. Carlos still doesn’t move.
TK sighs. “I’ll get into bed then.”
Carlos watches as TK leans over to pull the comforter back, admiring the shape of his ass before mentally kicking himself for doing so.
“I’m taking this side. You can have the side closest to the door and protect me from intruders,” he grins.
“The only intruder is likely to be Letty when she wakes up and comes looking for you.”
He turns the lights out and settles into bed, careful to leave space between them, though it’s a tight fit in his double bed, and their arms brush in the middle.
After a few minutes, he hears TK roll over beside him. He turns his head to find TK on his side, facing Carlos with his hands tucked underneath his pillow. He can just make out the outline of his face and the shadow of his lashes from the sliver of light that comes through the gap in the curtains. Carlos rolls over to mirror him.
“I’ve never done this before,” Carlos confesses.
“Shared a bed with someone?”
“No, I’ve shared a bed with people. I’ve just… never started the evening getting into bed with someone like this before. Just to sleep. It’s always been… after.”
“Oh.”
“Have you?”
“Um, yeah. You’ve met my dad, you know what he’s like about sex. Mom was the same, though less intrusive. They always said they’d rather have me safe at home with any partners rather than doing god knows what in some dingy alley in New York. Guess sex wasn’t what they had to worry about in terms of what I was doing in alleys though,” TK deflects.
“That must’ve been nice, the openness.”
“It had its benefits.” TK falls silent. “Carlos?”
“Mm?”
“Tell me something I don’t know about you.”
“There isn’t much,” Carlos quips, then thinks for a moment. “I was scared of the dark until I was eight years old.”
“What happened when you were eight?”
“Ceci started having nightmares and would come and creep into my bed. I had to protect her so I couldn’t be scared anymore.”
“That’s so you.” TK whispers. Carlos can hear that he’s smiling. “Always looking out for everyone else.”
“Your turn.”
“I’ve never gone home with someone else for the holidays. I’ve only ever spent it with my parents.”
They trade whispered secrets back and forth, some big and heartbreaking (‘I spent a really long time blaming myself for my parents’ divorce’; ‘I thought I’d have to hide myself forever’) and some small, like TK stealing a lollipop from a bodega when he was six, then crying about it until his mom took him back to pay for it, until they fall asleep.
When Carlos wakes up, he’s warm and pressed into the mattress by a weight he doesn’t understand. He snuggles into the warmth at first, because the air around him is cool, then opens his eyes suddenly when he realises that the source of the warmth and weight is TK.
TK is asleep facedown with his face pressed into Carlos’ shoulder and half of his chest draped over Carlos’ torso, trapping Carlos’ right arm between them. His arm is firm around Carlos’ waist and it feels so right.
Dangerously, Carlos allows himself to turn his head and press his face into TK’s soft hair for a moment, dropping a little kiss as he imagines what it would be like to have this for real. Waking up to TK wrapped around him, their limbs tangled together so that it’s impossible to tell where they each begin and end.
TK shifts and moves his right leg up so that it’s across Carlos’ thighs, almost pinning him to the bed. He tries not to move so that he doesn’t wake TK, but oh. This is fine. It doesn’t mean anything. It’s just the morning and Carlos knows his own body is in the same state and he absolutely cannot stay another second in this bed with TK pressed against his hip like this or he’s going to do something very, very stupid.
Carlos counts to five and then forces himself to slide out from underneath TK, and when TK buries his face in Carlos’ pillow and migrates to Carlos’ side of the bed like he’s searching for him, all he wants to do is jump back into bed. Instead, he walks out of the room and across the hall to the bathroom.
He twists the faucet in the shower so that the water can heat up, uses the toilet, then, standing at the basin as he washes his hands, he examines his face in the mirror, wondering if his feelings are written across it for everyone to see. He wonders if TK will take one look at him and just know the true extent of them, now that he’s admitted them to himself.
Carlos rucks his shirt over his head and pushes his pants down, stepping out of them and into the shower, letting the hot water run over his muscles, relaxing them.
Carlos has had a crush on TK since the moment he saw him that first day in their Queer Lit class, but he pushed those feelings down in favour of becoming TK’s friend. Carlos was lonely and he could see that TK was too. Simply put, TK was someone he wanted in his life and he wasn’t willing to risk it all crashing down around them when his friendship was more than enough.
And it really was.
Until now.
Until TK had suggested that they pretend to be in a relationship and they’d come here, to the ranch, and everything about pretending to be TK’s boyfriend – seeing him with his family, the casual touches, the kisses, waking up next to him – has brought all of those feelings back.
And god, waking up next to TK this morning with the weight of his body draped across him and TK half-hard pressed against his hip? It should have meant nothing – it’s not like it was intentional in any way – but it was everything and Carlos cannot get the feeling of TK’s body pressed against his out of his mind as he washes himself.
He tells himself that he’s not going to think about TK like that, because even though there’s been glimpses of something more behind TK’s gaze a few times these last few days, Carlos has nothing to indicate that TK is interested in him as anything more than a best friend. He tells himself that he can push these feelings back down, build that wall back up and go back to being TK’s friend when the holidays are over. That will be more than enough because he loves TK and can’t lose him.
Except that he loves TK. Carlos does want more from their relationship. He wants the casual touches that are amped up from incidental and unintentional to near constant. He wants the very intentional touches that say ‘I’m here’, ‘you’ve got me’ and ‘I’m not going anywhere’. He wants to wake up with TK curled around him like a shadow, with TK’s face pressed into his chest and his hair tickling his nose.
Carlos is more than a little hard now, and tells himself that he’s just going to take the edge off so that he can get through Christmas with TK by his side without doing something he’ll regret. He lathers some soap between his hands and between his legs, braces one hand against the shower tiles, and closes his eyes as he gives in to the pleasure of the slide of his hand and the twist of his wrist.
When he’s leaning against the tiles afterwards, breathing hard, his lower lip red from the effort of staying quiet, there are images of pretty green eyes, and plush pink lips seared into his mind. He decides that he can feel guilty about what just happened later.
Once he’s dry and his hair is presentable – which was really the reason for the shower in the first place – Carlos realises that in his haste to get away from TK earlier, he hadn’t brought any clothes into the bathroom. He secures his towel around his hips so that he can go back to his room.
As he opens the bathroom door, the door to his bedroom opens, and TK is standing there, looking soft and sleep-rumpled, lines from Carlos’ pillow on one cheek.
“Oh, hey,” TK mumbles.
Carlos can feel the flush rise on his cheeks and wonders whether TK can tell just by looking at him what he was doing in the bathroom.
“Forgot my clothes,” Carlos explains.
“Tío Carlos!” a little voice exclaims in the hallway. “You’re naked! TK! Hi! Tío Carlos is naked!” Letty’s voice gets louder with each pronouncement.
TK gives him a wry grin as Carlos protests. “I’m not naked, Letty!”
Down the hall, Dani calls out, teasingly, “Dios mio, Carlos! Whatever you want to do with TK is your own business, but in the hallway in front of our niece? Really?”
The amusement on TK’s face is apparent as he sucks his cheek in to keep from laughing, Carlos knows that expression well and it’s only making him more frustrated. “It’s nothing! I’m not naked!”
“Don’t worry, it’s nothing I haven’t seen before,” TK adds as Carlos shoots him an exasperated look.
“I can see your nipples, Tío,” Letty points out, loudly. “TK can you see them? Look!” She points at Carlos’ bare chest and Carlos folds his arms.
He can hear Ceci laughing and spots her at the end of the hall, watching them all and looking far too gleeful at Carlos’ discomfort.
“Letty, stop it!” Carlos says, moving away from her and pushing her arms away, while trying to make sure he doesn’t lose his towel, as Letty tries to pull at his arms to show TK what she can see.
Then he hears his father’s voice calling from downstairs. “Why is there so much shouting happening so early on Christmas Eve?”
Everyone falls quiet, and Ceci snorts trying to stifle her laughter.
Letty runs to the top of the stairs and calls down, “Tío Carlos is naked, Abuelo.”
Carlos groans.
“Carlos?” his father asks.
Carlos is ready to jump in the car and drive back to New York. In his towel. Maybe he’ll catch hypothermia. He wishes the ground would open up and swallow him whole and contemplates walking back into the shower holding Dani’s hair dryer. Death would be preferable to the current situation.
“I’m not naked!” he insists, again.
“There’s no need to shout, mijo,” Gabriel calls back, sounding amused. “Get dressed and come down for breakfast.”
TK smirks at him and takes a step closer. Carlos freezes thinking that TK might touch him and he doesn’t think he could cope with the reaction from Letty if TK touches his bare skin. Or with TK touching his bare skin at all.
“I’m just gonna,” TK indicates the bathroom door with his head, laughing quietly, then moves past Carlos and closes the door behind him.
The house is chaos. There are people everywhere, every burner on the stove top is being used and both ovens are full. There’s music playing and a constant hum of chatter in every corner of the house.
Carlos loves it. This is Christmas.
He’s in the kitchen helping with the food for their Christmas Eve lunch with the extended family when, above the din, he can hear the sounds of more people arriving and greeting each other and then Tía Esmè saying, “Now, where is Carlitos’ handsome new boyfriend? There you are, TK. Come here, now, how were the dessert empanadas?”
Carlos quickly finishes chopping the peppers and washes his hands, before rushing into the living room. He’d last seen TK playing with Letty and some of his cousins’ children, and the last thing he wants is for TK to be overwhelmed by his relatives asking questions. Even if it’s Tía Esmè, who was halfway in love with TK last night.
What he finds, when he makes it to the living room, is TK standing next to Tia Esmè, who’s taken hold of his elbow as they walk over to the sofa together.
“Tía Esmè, you know TK already?” Gabi is asking, putting her hand out to stop Letty from running past without even looking to see where she is. Carlos always wonders how she does that, it’s like she has an innate sense of where Letty is at all times.
“We’re old friends,” Tia Esmè says, squeezing TK’s bicep. “He came to my rescue last night.”
TK shakes his head. “I wouldn’t say that.”
“Oh nonsense, what else would you call it when you go on a date with your boyfriend, only for me to steal Carlitos from you because my staff called in sick? And then he jumped in to help serve customers without even being asked!”
TK is blushing now and he looks beautiful. “It was nothing, really. I had fun. And your empanadas are way better than the ones Carlos makes for me.”
Tía Esmè is beaming at him from the sofa and even Tia Lucy, who’s wandered into the room still holding the wooden spoon she was using to stir the sauce she was cooking, looks impressed.
“Carlitos, you chose well,” Tía Esmè says to him when she notices him in the room. “Your boyfriend is so handsome and kind.”
Carlos smiles bashfully and nods, then catches TK’s eye. “You okay?” he mouths at him and TK shrugs then looks down where Letty is pulling on the edge of his sweater.
“TK?”
He crouches down so that he’s face-to-face with her. “What’s up, buddy?”
“Can you braid my hair again?” she asks quietly, her thick waves falling into her face.
Gabi rolls her eyes at Carlos. Letty’s hair was most definitely in a perfect ponytail, complete with red ribbon to match her dress only two minutes ago.
“I sure can,” TK answers, looking up at Carlos and smiling.
Carlos’ heart feels like it’s expanding about five sizes and about to burst out of his ribcage as he watches Letty take TK by the hand and lead him over to the dining room so that she can sit on a chair while he does her hair. She sits sideways on it, her little legs swinging as she chatters away to TK and he starts braiding. A quick glance around the room tells him that everyone else watching is just as charmed by TK as Tía Esmè is.
If only it were real.
Lunch is, as always, a raucous affair with no official end to it. People drift away from the table after dessert is served, only to come back and pick at the food again as the afternoon wears on.
Carlos knows from experience that any empty dishes will be replenished as afternoon turns to evening, until the family departs for the early Christmas Eve mass.
TK sits with Carlos while they eat, knees pressed together, listening eagerly as Carlos explains the various dishes to him and helps him choose foods which aren’t going to set his mouth on fire. He endures the good-natured teasing from Carlos’ sisters and cousins when they realise that TK absolutely cannot handle anything spicier than a single jalapeño – and even then only if there is plenty of rice or something else to dilute the heat.
It’s cold, but TK and Carlos rug up and stretch out on the porch swing after they eat, both of them full and content. Carlos has his arm stretched along the back of the seat as TK tucks himself into Carlos’ side. He lets his head rest against TK’s, pretending for a minute that this is real.
When TK slips back inside to use the bathroom, Carlos reminds himself that this isn’t real and that he either has to be brave and tell TK how he really feels, or let things go back to how they were.
“So serious at Christmas, Carlitos.”
He looks up to see his mom standing in front of him.
“May I sit with you? I saw TK go inside.”
“Of course, Ma.”
Andrea sits next to Carlos and presses her thumb between his brows, smoothing the crease there. “What’s got you so worried, mijo?”
“Why do you say that?” Carlos asks, surprised at the question.
“The crease between your brows. Your father gets it too, when he thinks too hard or worries too much about things. You’ve always had it. It’s how I knew you were about to cry when you were a baby, the crease would appear first, then you’d open your mouth and cry.”
“Lunch was good, Ma” Carlos says to her, ignoring her question and kissing her on the cheek. “TK liked it.”
She smiles at him, brushing a stray curl off his forehead. “I like him.”
That makes Carlos smile. “Me too.”
“He’s very charming, even Tía Lucy was saying earlier that he’s welcome back for any Reyes family events. I think that’s faster than any other boyfriend has gotten her approval. Your cousin Camila was complaining that it’s not fair, because Tía Lucy didn’t like her boyfriend when she brought him for lunch at Easter.”
Carlos frowns, considering what his mom just said. “Didn’t they break up over summer?”
Andrea winks. “Exactly.”
Carlos laughs softly.
“You’re so happy with him,” Andrea observes. “It’s so nice to see you so loved. It makes me happy. I worried, when you moved so far away, about who would love you when your family is back here. But now I know I don’t have to.”
Her words hit Carlos hard. What he has with TK isn’t real – they care deeply about each other, yes. They’re close friends after all. But TK doesn’t love him like that. Except that his mom apparently sees something there that gives Carlos a kernel of hope. If, after only two days, his mom sees something that tells her TK loves him, then maybe, just maybe, it might be true.
“He makes me happy,” Carlos says simply, because it’s true. Whether or not TK is his boyfriend, he does make Carlos happy. Having TK around makes everything more fun, lighter, easier in a way that Carlos never imagined he’d have.
They sit quietly for a couple of minutes, and then there’s the sound of a door closing and Carlos looks over to see TK walking towards them.
His mom pats his knee and stands.
“Oh, you don’t have to go, Mrs Reyes. You can sit with us,” TK says.
“Thank you, TK. It’s alright. I need to go check on the food anyway.” She bends and presses a kiss to Carlos’ curls, pats TK on the cheek and then walks inside.
“Everything okay? I saw you guys talking through the window. Looked kinda serious,” TK asks as he sits down sideways, one leg tucked up underneath him so he’s facing Carlos.
“Yeah, we were just chatting.”
They sit in silence for a minute, then TK says, “thank you, for bringing me here.”
“What? You’re doing me the favour by coming here with me, you know that,” Carlos insists.
“It’s been so great,” TK reflects. “The holidays have never been like this for me – a houseful of family and an endless feast. I like your family.” He’s smiling, almost shyly, at the admission.
“They all love you,” Carlos says. His face is probably doing something stupidly fond, he can feel it. TK looks at him in surprise. “They do, and not just Letty.”
“She’s so sweet.”
“You just like her because she thinks you’re a princess,” Carlos teases.
TK pokes him in the side. “Shut up.”
Carlos makes a decision. He decides to be brave.
“Mom said I look happy,” he says after a minute, bracing himself internally. “With you.”
TK looks at him thoughtfully. “Are you?”
His expression is soft, and open and it seems to Carlos like he genuinely wants to know the answer.
Taking a deep breath, Carlos says, “Yes, I am. TK… you make me happy.” There’s surprise written across TK’s face, and something like hope there too. “Look, I know this is all just for show, that we’ve been pretending, and it’s fake, but—”
He exhales noisily, willing himself to find the words.
“It’s not fake for me, TK. This. Us.” He rakes his lower lip through his teeth.
“What, what do you—”
“I mean that I don’t want us to just be for show. All weekend, I’ve been wishing that this was real, and there wasn’t an expiration date to what we’re doing, and—”
“Carlos,” TK interrupts.
“—I don’t mean to put pressure on you, and I don’t want things between us to be weird so—”
“Carlos, shut up.”
TK leans forward, and Carlos swears his eyes flick down to Carlos’ lips as he licks his own. TK’s hand is warm on his jaw.
“TK,” Carlos breathes.
He leans in and pauses, giving TK a chance to pull away, but he doesn’t. He bites his lower lip and Carlos reaches out, gently tugging it free with his thumb before he presses their lips together.
It’s soft, and sweet, and Carlos feels like everything slows down as he brings his other hand to the back of TK’s neck pulling him closer and deepening the kiss. He traces the seam of TK’s lips with the tip of his tongue and TK opens to him, like flower petals unfurling and reaching for the sun. TK’s tongue brushes against his own as he licks into TK’s mouth and there’s a little moan at the touch. Carlos isn’t sure whether it was TK or him that made the noise, but all he knows is that he wants more.
TK pulls back and breaks the kiss, but he’s smiling.
“Don’t wanna give your family a show,” he says, inclining his head towards the windows.
“Probably not a great idea,” Carlos agrees.
“Don’t want Letty telling the world you’re naked again,” TK smirks.
“I’m never gonna live that down, am I?”
“Nope,” TK says, popping the p and grinning.
“Speak of the devil,” Carlos says as he hears the distinctive sound of Letty running down the porch. How such a tiny child can make so much noise when she moves is beyond him.
“Tío Carlos, is TK coming back for Christmas next year?” Letty asks, squeezing herself between them.
Carlos looks at TK and raises a brow in question. TK shrugs but nods his head.
“Why don’t you ask him yourself, sweetheart?”
Letty turns to face TK. “TK, will you come back for Christmas? And maybe my birthday too? Please?”
“I’d love to come back here for Christmas. This might be the best Christmas I’ve ever had,” TK says, looking right at Carlos as he does.
TK’s green eyes are sparkling and crinkled at the corners from the way he’s smiling at Carlos. TK’s expression is bright and beautiful, and it makes Carlos feel like there’s something fizzing in his veins, like he might burst, because he’s so happy and there’s nowhere else for it to go.
Carlos reaches around Letty to squeeze TK’s knee. “I think it might be my best Christmas ever too.”