I'm so excited for tk's reaction for hurt carlos more than anything else tbh. I honestly feel like TK's character wasn't given the chance to show the depth of his feelings for carlos except for the proposal and I really hope with this carlos got hurt we will be able to see that. Can't wait for season 4
I want to take this ask in the spirit I would like it to have been intended and share in your excitement. I think it's about time that TK was the one stressing over possibly losing the man he loves.
But I am Fandom Old and a former English teacher and the statement made about TK not showing the depth of his feelings for Carlos gives me a chance to break out my meta skills, whether you wanted me to or not.
Season One
TK has what some deem an overreaction to the dinner but that's because he's scared. He's had a "nuclear bad" breakup, he isn't ready for anything serious, and there's this guy who is basically offering him everything that the TK from the beginning of 1x01 wanted. A guy who wants to spend time with him, make him dinner, is genuinely interested in him. If TK wasn't emotionally invested why would he be so mad? It would have been an "oops" kind of moment. Anger is a strong emotion and a lot of TK's strong emotions are expressed in anger in season one.
He tells Carlos about his addiction before he tells the 126. The guy he's hooking up with, who he walked out on because Carlos dared to do something nice for him. Lays out everything: the break up, the relapse, all of it. The men and woman that he works alongside every day, the people he trusts his life to? They know nothing until 1x10. But Carlos knew. TK didn't have to tell Carlos but he did. Why would he do that if Carlos wasn't important to TK, if he wasn't someone that TK could trust?
But slowly our feral cat is tamed, and he lets Carlos in. They have the date when they take Paul out and they have the conversation in the juice bar where TK is honest with Carlos about how he feels. He refers to Carlos as his boyfriend - kinda - before he's even discussed that label with Carlos. He takes those steps because he's very much caught the feels and he's letting himself feel them.
Season Two
So now we are in full on relationship territory, and he is spending a lot of time at Carlos' place. When Tim is killed and Owen says to "go home", he goes to Carlos. When he is stressing over upsetting Nancy he talks to Carlos. When he's worried about the honeymoon period for his parents, he talks to Carlos. He gets so upset when Carlos doesn't introduces him to his parents as his boyfriend but he realises what this means to Carlos and agrees to wait. They are talking, they are finding middle ground, we see TK turn to Carlos over and over for care and support and a needed kick up the backside when it comes to the divide between Fire and Medical. Love is being there for someone, and it's also telling them to get over themselves.
And then, he does something his dad mentioned right in the pilot, he moves in with his boyfriend. This is the logical next step, not an engagement ring. TK is with this man, they love each other, they're moving in together.
They fight, TK comes home, they make up, make out, and in the fire that threatens them he is calm and focused and helps save both their lives. He reads Carlos like a book and knows he's not OK, reassuring his boyfriend that they're OK. Throughout the whole season Carlos is included in the 126 hangs and we see a few beats where TK is bridging the gap between his work family and his boyfriend - most notably in 2x14 when they're relaying the story of what happened with Mateo's new captain and TK drops in the little beats and explanations he'd need as someone who wasn't there. (I love this moment so much: as viewers we don't recognise the gaps in the retelling as we saw the scene play out, but Carlos wasn't there and TK makes sure that he gets the full picture.)
Seasion Three
And then TK blows it all up. Because Carlos buys them a fucking home and TK has got everything he's always wanted and the future he's scared of messing up and he bolts. Because this is the kind of forever love that he never thought he would have, never get to keep. He's completely, terrifyingly, absolutely in love and it scares him because that kind of love is scary.
But when he comes home, he is home. He gets up and stays with Carlos while he's reviewing all the video files (even if he falls asleep). He celebrates his boyfriend solving a kidnapping and reassures him that he's not to blame for a man's death (while making him one of the many meals he apparently eats in a day).
He talks about his meetings, his sponsor, his progress with his sobriety and his feelings about it. He opens up about why he needs people in his life like Cooper and his meetings, while making it clear that Carlos has all of him, that there is nothing he is holding back. TK is all in, every last broken bit of him. But he makes it clear that Carlos can't help those parts of him. He will come home to Carlos.
He still talks to Carlos after the call in which the kid loses his mom and shares his raw and breaking grief with his boyfriend, knowing that he will be taken care of that evening. That he is safe with him.
He recognises that Carlos hates the lizard but loves him enough to deal with it, so he puts Carlos first and Lou is released into the wild.
Then he proposes.
If you think that the proposal is the only moment where TK shows Carlos how much he loves him then you've not being paying attention to all of the other ways that TK has shown Carlos, over and over and over and over, how much he loves him and how much he means to him. Every time TK let Carlos in, every time TK shared himself with Carlos? He was showing him - and us - how much he loves this man.
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Just watched the latest Starkid livestream - yes of course I was awake at 5 am on a Sunday - and I love this very specific throughline of Darren's life. It is especially clear after listening to his recent episodes of And That's What You Really Missed. Darren has always pissed off the people around him by being happy when everyone else was stressed.
Nick and Matt went on a mini rant about their experience making Starship and how the show was so derailed by Darren getting cast in Glee. He barely managed to write half of the intended songs for that show - all in his trailer on the Glee set. Matt specifically recounted the story of Darren popping over to Chicago to surprise his friends while they were rehearsing and it was hilarious. Darren being Darren he thought they would all be thrilled to see him and just thrilled to be doing a new musical, but instead he was met with dead silence, followed by a demand for the rest of the songs.
This man is forever happy to be making fun things with a big group of people. And the people around him have to deal with it.
The actual world inside Darren's head VS everyone around him:
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