Lone Star prompt
TK buys Carlos new pajamas (or vice versa)
GO!
Carlos wishes he never came across it.
He wishes a lot of things were different.
Like, why was he such a good person?
Why was he such a good husband? A good friend? A good partner?
These questions only haunt him after he's made the purchase. He didn't even think twice about it. He saw them, thought, "well, how many times do you actually come across the greatest gift you've ever seen?" And then just submitted the order, like he didn't just sign his own death sentence.
And, the logistics. He forgot about the logistics.
And now he's faced with a logistical nightmare of his own making.
"Please, I'm begging you. Just, don't move. This will be painless, I promise." He holds up the little garment like it was going to illicit an actual response.
Instead, Lou II blinks at him and turns his head away like Carlos isn't even there. What a bastard.
"Okay ... okay," Carlos says, mostly to himself. Pep talk of the year.
"I'm just going to ... pick you up." Carlos gulps, then reaches into Lou II's tank and pulls him out. Fortunately, Lou II doesn't seem to mind. Carlos minds, for sure. But, he's made it this far, he can't back out now.
"Okay, buddy. I'm going to put this on you. And you can't get mad at me because this is for your father, okay? Please don't get mad at me."
Carlos slips the yellow piece of clothing over Lou II's head. He seems okay after that, so Carlos carefully maneuvers Lou II's little arms into the sleeves. This is the part he was really hesitant about; Lou II's arms are so tiny and Carlos fingers are so close to biting distance.
"What are you doing?"
Carlos jumps, almost losing Lou II from his grip. "Jesus, TK!"
"Are you holding Lou II?" TK asks, and Carlos really tries to not be offended by the incredulity he hears in his husband's voice.
"Um, yeah โ "
"Is he okay?!"
Carlos thinks he himself is more at risk of not being okay, but whatever, it's fine.
"Yes, yeah, of course!"
"Okay ... so what's going on?" TK starts walking toward Carlos to presumably get a better look at Lou II but Carlos can't have that. He's so close to pulling this surprise off, it can't have been for nothing. "No, don't come over here!"
TK stops in his tracks, eyeing the way Carlos is halfway turned toward TK but keeping Lou II out of his sight. He raises an amused eyebrow.
Carlos sighs. "Just, open that first." He nods to a gift bag on the dining room table.
TK's eyes sparkle. "Oh, baby. You didn't have to get me anything."
"Trust me, I'm kinda wishing I hadn't," Carlos murmurs to himself.
"What was that?" TK asks, but he's already tearing into the gift bag so Carlos doesn't answer him.
TK pulls out a yellow silk pajama set that has white buttons up the front of the shirt.
"Wow, these are beautiful," TK says. "Thank you, Carlos. But โ"
"Ok, now the next part," Carlos says.
"There's parts โ ?" TK says but stops as soon as Carlos turns around with Lou II in his hand, wearing the exact same yellow silk pajama shirt that TK just pulled the larger version of out of his gift bag.
"Oh. My. God."
"Tada," Carlos says with as much cheer as he can muster. This was his idea but he's ready to be out of ideas and never follow through on them ever again.
TK reaches for Lou II and Carlos is happy to hand him over.
"Aw, who's a handsome little boy?" TK coos at Lou II.
And okay, Carlos has never seen anything cuter. TK, not Lou II. Does he wish that his husband was cuddling his face against a dog instead of a lizard? Yes. But he's adorable nonetheless.
When TK looks up again, there's tears in his eyes.
"Marry me."
Carlos rolls his eyes. "TK, we're already married." Chuckling, he wanders back into the kitchen for the next surprise.
"I know, I know. I just can't believe you did this. You hate Lou II."
"I don't hate Lou II. I bought him pajamas."
"Yeah, you did," TK sighs happily. "Why did you do that again?"
"Oh, you know ... just wanted to do something nice for you, is all."
"Oh?"
Carlos hums an affirmative. He used the last of the tissue paper for the first gift bag, so he grabs the remnants of it from the floor where TK had tossed it in his haste to open the gift.
"Carlos."
"Alright, fine. I ... sawanadonfacebook," he mumbles, stuffing the next bag with the already crumpled tissue paper.
"What was that?" TK asks, but he knows what Carlos said because TK knows him, which is very unfortunate. He's never living this down.
"I saw the add on the Facebook, okay? It got me."
TK chuckles, still cradling Lou II like he's a baby. The pajamas don't help shatter the illusion.
"Here ya go." Carlos hands TK the second gift bag.
"Another one? Carlos, you should really ignore the ads, they're just there to collect your data." But TK's doesn't really seem to care about that because he immediately opens this second bag.
What he pulls out shuts him up entirely.
It's another matching set.
"This is a โ"
"Yeah, it is," Carlos finishes for him when TK seems to lose the words.
There's a beat of silence.
Then,
"This is the single best thing you've ever done." TK sounds so serious.
"I've literally solved so many cases, saved a lot of lives," Carlos counters.
"Sure, yeah," TK says.
"And, I married you."
"Mmhmm."
"I hunted down that obscure vintage painting for you."
"You did."
"And, this is the best thing I've ever done?"
"100 percent."
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you, me, and the lizard makes three
1/1 | No Archive Warnings Apply | 6k | For @birdclowns for Tarlos Secret Santa (@tarlos-santa) | Written for the prompt, "tarlos + their lizard boy son" | All the thanks in the world to @heartstringsduet for being my second set of eyes on this one <3
Summary: While TK is away in New York City for a short trip, Carlos is left to care for Lou II, feeding him mealworms and all, until TK gets back. What starts as something that feels akin to pulling teeth ends up becoming an exploration into just how much love Carlos realizes he has to give. Even if he didn't realize it, at first.
โYou sure you can handle watching Lou II while Iโm gone?โ TK asks and Carlos answers with a beat of silence. He glances over at Lou II, whoโs casually basking in the lamp light shining over his tank. The faint whine of the line sounds especially loud.ย
โOf course,โ Carlos finally replies, his voice sounding hesitant and unsure.
Obviously he should have just assumed that heโd be in charge of Lou II just like heโs in charge of everything else while TKโs away; but somehow, the thought didnโt truly exist to him until it was said out loud.ย
TK smiles and Carlos swears he can hear it through the line. โYou know that means youโre going to have to feed him those crickets and mealworms he loves so much.โย
โTK please,โ Carlosโ voice sounds stressed and dismayed all at once. โDonโt say it out loud, it just makes it that much worse to think about.
Enjoy a story in which Carlos goes down the "pet he didn't want" to the "pet he can't live without" pipeline, only on AO3 :)
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๐๐ช๐ผ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป๐ต๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฝ
๐๐ธ๐ฐ๐ช๐ท ๐ข๐ช๐ป๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ช๐ท๐ฝ
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๐๐ธ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐๐ฎ๐ฝ
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๐ข๐๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฝ ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ต
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๐๐ธ๐ผ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ซ๐ต๐ ๐ผ๐ธ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐ฒ๐ท ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐๐ธ๐ป๐ด๐ผ?
๐๐ธ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐๐ฎ๐ฝ
๐๐ ๐ป๐ฎ๐บ๐พ๐ฎ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ผ ๐ช๐ป๐ฎ ๐ธ๐น๐ฎ๐ท
๐ผ๐ฎ๐ท๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ถ ๐ฒ๐ท
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