Chapter Text
TK feels like he hasn’t seen his boyfriend in ages…and he hadn’t, at least not in any meaningful way. He knows it is a hazard of their professions, but Carlos would sneak in the front door to their loft when TK was already dead to the world and TK had to leave for the firehouse at the ass-crack of dawn, way before Carlos would stir from his slumber, and quite frankly, TK was sick of it.
So, when TK stirs that morning- could you really call it ‘morning’ if it was still dark outside, he wonders to himself- and is met with Carlos’s toned back, he finally reaches his breaking point. TK goes through his morning rituals, getting infinitely more pissed off at his predicament as time moves forward, he missed his boyfriend damn it and he was right there! As TK gores to grab his keys, he heads to the shared desk and grabs the pad of neon pink post-it notes, furiously scribbles on it and heads back to the bedroom and carefully sticks it to Carlos’s forehead, right above the little wrinkle that had formed above his nose. Satisfied with his scheme, TK leaves the loft.
Hours later, Carlos is awoken by his phone alarm, but instead of being greeted by the illuminated image of TK that adornes his phone wallpaper, instead, Carlos’s vision is obscured by a haze of pink. Carlos’s eyes cross, trying to discern the obstruction, and reaches up and peels the post-it off his face. As he turns it over, he is met with what he immediately recognizes as TK’s scrawl, “Firehouse, lunch, meet me.”
At one that afternoon, Carlos, uniform-clad, a bag of takeout sandwiches in one hand and smoothies in he other, strolls into the 126, blocking out the hustle and bustle of the other crew members when his eyes find TK as he sits counting gauze in the back of the ambulance.
Carlos crawls in and sits opposite his boyfriend, “Hey…”
“Did you get my note,” TK asks, finish his count before looking up.
“Of course, I got it, you stuck it to my forehead while I was sleeping. You know, a text would have worked too.”
“Well, drastic times call for drastic measures,” TK marks his count on his clipboard, slapping his thighs with it to emphasize his point.
“Drastic times,” Carlos questions, the wrinkle above his nose making a return…
“We haven’t seen each other in weeks Carlos!
“We like together TK,” Carlos retorts, matching his boyfriend’s tone, “And this is not going to be forever, it’s just a busy time…”
“Well, we are going to have lunch together because I miss my boyfriend.”
“It’s a good thing I came prepared then…” Carlos thrusts the take-out bag towards TK, setting down the smoothies beside him, “You’re cute when you are frustrated.”
TK rolls his eyes, but smiles, nonetheless. The two sit in the back of the rig and enjoy their lunch and came to the mutual agreement that this would become a regular occurrence when their schedules didn’t align in a favorable way going forward, although Carlos did make TK promise that a text would be sufficient from now on.