Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Are you almost ready to go, babe?” Carlos called from the doorway, having loaded his last bag into the trunk, and slamming it shut.

TK chewed anxiously at the end of his hoodie sleeve, which was pulled over the end of his left hand, and offered a distant nod.

Carlos gently set his hands on TK’s shoulders.
“TK?”

“I’m okay, I’m okay,” TK lied.

“I didn’t ask if you were okay. I asked if you were ready. But.. Are you? Okay? You seem a little out of it.”

“I’m sorry,” TK sighed. I guess I am a little out of it. Something happened at work today, and I’m just..”

Carlos gave TK’s shoulders a gentle squeeze. “Hey. Don’t force your feelings down. We have a two hour car ride to the cabin. I’ll drive. You can rest, talk about it. Or not talk about it, if you just need to.. process?”

TK smiled, but Carlos’s concern only made the lump in his throat thicken.

“Or..” Carlos quickly added, as he sensed TK’s deepening distress. “Or, we don’t have to go at all.”

“No! Of course we have to go! Tomorrow’s our anniversary. We’ve been planning this trip for months.”

Carlos sighed, and smiled. “And tomorrow will still be our anniversary. I don’t care where we are, as long as I’m with you.”

That put a small smile on TK’s face.

“A year later, and I’m still not sure what I did to deserve you.”

“You don’t have to earn love, TK.” Carlos kissed his forehead. “You are.. inherently worthy.”

TK forced a smile, but on the inside - his chest felt like it was caving in.

He wondered how worthy Carlos would find him once he found out that he had lost his wedding band on a call. He had forgotten to take it off before his shift. Tears threatened to well up in his eyes as he reflected on the myriad glove-changes he’d done that day, and which discarded nitrile glove sitting at the bottom of which biohazardous waste container was the final resting place for the physical manifestation of his most treasured bond.

The car ride was quiet.

Carlos did not press TK to talk more about what was going on inside his head. Instead, he put on a playlist that TK had put together of their favorite and most played songs from the past year.

It was easy for TK to close his eyes and lose himself temporarily in the memories. Songs they listened to when they had people over, songs they listened to while cooking or cleaning, songs for dancing in the living room and kitchen, songs for.. bedroom-dancing.

The sunset seemed to follow them as they drove. Beautiful ribbons of color that seemed to fade into each other as they approached the cabin.

TK tried not to think of the darkness that followed the sunset.

Carlos set his right hand, palm open, on the center console. TK’s chest tightened as he kept his left hand enveloped in his sleeve and set it on top of Carlos’s.

Carlos frowned.

“I can turn the heat up if you’re feeling chilly.”

TK sighed, “I’m okay.”

“Really?” Carlos forced a smile. “You know, I’m going to be more than a little disappointed if you spend our trip all covered up like this.”

TK couldn’t help his lips curling into a smile. He poked his fingertips out past the cuff of the sleeve of his hoodie and tickled the center of Carlos’s palm.

Carlos’s hand reflexively closed around TK’s fingers. He held onto TK’s semi-covered loose fist for the duration of their drive.

“It is so quiet out here,” TK said with awe as they stepped out of the car and began to unpack.

“And look at all the stars we can see.”

TK turned his gaze upward and smiled. “So beautiful.”

“I was thinking the same thing.” Carlos pulled at the front pocket of TK’s hoodie and tugged him in close for a kiss.

It was gentle, but insistent.

TK had to tell him.

But maybe not yet.

By the time they had their stuff settled, the sun had fully set. A string of outdoor lights wrapped the cabin in a soft golden glow.

TK had his knees pulled up to his chest as he sat back in the wooden rocking chair on the front porch.

The evening air had taken the humidity out. It was almost perfect.

Carlos stepped out to join him, carrying two mugs of hot chocolate.

“Thanks, baby,” TK said softly, accepting the steaming mug with his right hand.

“Of course,” Carlos said, voice fighting to not ooze concern. “Figured a hot drink might help. You seem.. pretty cold.”

The tone of Carlos’s voice made TK’s stomach sink. “I’m not being cold toward you.” TK couldn’t assure him fast enough.

Carlos shrugged. “You’re not telling me what’s going on. You won’t even hold my hand. I don’t know if I.. did something. Or if you did? I’m.. I’m sorry, TK. I know how it feels for you when I worry about you, but I don’t know what to say. I am worried.”

“Of course you are,” TK muttered matter-of-factly. “That’s how it will always be. It’s always, always just a matter of time before I mess up.”

“You’re a human being, TK. You’re allowed to ‘mess up’, and I think I’m allowed to worry about you. You’re my husband. It’s my job to worry about you. But I promise you, I don’t live in constant worry. I love you. I trust you.”

“Well, I did mess up.”

Carlos leaned forward in his rocker, sat at the edge of his seat, and set his mug on the wooden railing that bordered the porch. He took a long inhale, and held it for a few seconds before letting it out slowly.

“Tell me.”

Tears welled up in TK’s eyes as he rolled his sleeve back, held up his left hand, which had never felt so shamefully naked.

“I.. I lost my wedding band, Carlos.”

Carlos’s jaw dropped, and then twisted into a.. a smile?

TK’s explanation tumbled from his lips in a single breath, as tears spilled over. “I forgot to trade it out for the silicone one, and wore it out on a shift, and I must have.. Oh, god. It sounds so awful, but I bet I threw it out. I’m so, so sorry, baby. I-”

TK paused for air once he processed that Carlos was laughing.

“Jesus, TK! You are this upset over a damn ring?”

“It was my ring, Carlos. It was your ring. It meant so much to me. You mean so much to me. And I feel like, when I’m careless.. I mean, what are you supposed to think? That I.. I still don’t have my shit together. That I-”

“Tyler Kennedy.” Carlos stood up and pulled TK up and into his arms, hugging him tightly, and whispering into his ear. “You know, every day I realize more and more that you're the one that I want. And nothing will change my mind about that - not even this.”

Carlos loosened his hold on TK so he could raise his hands to smooth back TK’s tears with his thumbs.

“TK, I have breathed easier every day of my life this year with the knowledge that we’re married. That you’re my husband. Even when life hasn’t been.. the easiest. It’s still better, because I have you.”

TK chuckled. “When has it not been easy?”

Carlos snorted, and planted a kiss on TK’s forehead.

“You put entirely too much pressure on yourself.”

“It must be exhausting, having to.. reassure me all the time.”

Carlos shook his head. “I will always remind you. Of how worthy you are. Of how loved and just.. gut-wrenchingly adored you are, cariño.”

“I’m sorry I’m so messy, baby,” TK sighed. But no longer with any angst in his words, just relief. Like a pallet of bricks had been lifted from his chest.

“A ring..” Carlos repeated, rolling his eyes with disbelief. “I mean, I had no idea what we were dealing with here, but.. a ring?”

“My finger feels so naked without it. I felt like everyone at work must have been able to tell, but no one said anything. So either it’s only noticeable to me, or they think we’re having this big embarrassing fight and they don’t want to pry.”

“Don’t want to pry? That doesn’t sound like the 126..”

TK smiled, and took a deep breath. “You’re right.”

“God, marriage is so kinky.”

TK barked out a laugh, taken aback.

Carlos imitated a mock-commanding voice. “You are mine! Wear this tiny dog collar around your finger so that everybody knows it!”

TK snorted in amusement.

“Of course, I love being married to you,” Carlos was quick to clarify. “And I love seeing you wear my ring. We will get you a new one, babe. Or get it tattooed on your finger. Whatever you want. But, all of that being said-” Carlos’s voice dropped to a slightly lower register. “I think we both know you don’t need a ring to let people know you’re mine.”

TK’s grin spread wider, and his heart raced a little bit faster with each time Carlos referred to him as his.

“You’ve never needed a ring for that, have you?”

TK shook his head slowly.

“You just tell them who you belong to, isn’t that right?”

TK’s heart was officially pounding now. His knees were growing weak.

He nodded.

“Why don’t you remind me,” Carlos said, his voice having dropped to an even lower register.

TK brought his hands to hold Carlos’s face in them, and went in for another kiss.

Carlos cut the kiss short, and near-growled against TK’s lips.

“I meant, tell me.”

“I’m yours, baby.”

Carlos walked TK back into the cabin, bumping them against counters and tables as they stumbled toward the bedroom.

“Again,” Carlos husked, biting at TK’s lip, his jaw, his neck.

“Yours.”

Carlos laced their fingers together and pinned them over TK’s head against the bedroom wall.

He lowered TK’s left hand, isolating his ring finger.

“Is this the finger you’re so upset about?”

TK stared blankly, nodding as Carlos took the finger between his lips and slowly drew it into his mouth.

“Yours,” TK uttered in a breathy whine as chills erupted over his limbs, and tight warmth pooled in his gut.

“Always.” Carlos playfully bit at TK’s right arm, still pinned above his head. “Which means I get to take care of you.”

TK moaned, unintelligible, but enthusiastic.

“You want me to do that for you right here? Up against the wall like this?” Carlos lifted an eyebrow.

“Bed,” TK pleaded. “I can barely stand up.”

Carlos immediately scooped TK up into his arms, and hoisted him over to the bed.

The second TK’s back hit the mattress he was reaching for Carlos.

“Patience,” Carlos smiled. “We have all the time in the world. No visitors. No shifts. No calls. We can take as long as we want. And as often as we want. We don’t even have to get dressed in between.”

“Baby, please.. Don’t make me wait.”

“What? You’ve been torturing yourself all day, so now I don’t get to?”

Carlos pushed TK’s knees apart, leaned over him and dipped his head down to kiss TK’s pouting lips.

“Oh, and the other good thing about being in a cabin in the middle of nowhere - aside from no obligations: no neighbors. So you can be as loud as you want.”

TK smiled into their kisses. “I’m not that loud.”

Carlos’s eyes went wide. “You can’t be serious. Am I the only one experiencing the awkward morning exchanges with our neighbors after we-”

TK squirmed beneath Carlos, whose body was hovering just outside of reach - denying TK the friction he was so desperate for.

“Well, if I am loud - which.. I’m not that loud - BUT, if I am, it’s your fault!”

Carlos smiled, and kissed TK once more before sitting up and moving back down the bed ;peeling TK out of his jeans, then more slowly out of his underwear.

TK moaned as his cock was freed; swollen, leaking.

Carlos and TK took their shirts off, synchronized like mirror forms.

TK watched hungrily as Carlos shimmied out of his pants at the foot of the bed, and watched as his eyes roamed over TK’s body.

“Yours,” TK reminded him softly, his voice coming out slightly hoarse.

“I will never get over how lucky I am that you are mine.”

“Baby?”

“Hm?” Carlos put his hands on TK’s bent knees as his eyes continued to travel the expanse of TK.

“I just really, really need you right now.”

Carlos bit his lip, his gaze settling on TK’s cock - full, flush, resting against his belly.

“Need me how?” Carlos grinned, teasing.

TK gave him an affectionate eye roll. “You’re gonna make me beg?”

Carlos tilted his head. “After today, it seems like you do need to work on your communication. So. Maybe.”

TK’s chest heaved as he stared at his husband.

“Okay, fine,” he panted. TK reached for the lube on the end table and flinged it at Carlos’s chest.

Carlos caught it effortlessly by pinning it to his chest with one hand.

Making unrelenting eye contact, TK told him, “Fuck me.”

A small growl emanated from low in Carlos’s chest. “That’s.. that’s pretty clear communication.”

TK tried to spread his knees farther apart, and Carlos rested a gentle hand on one on them.

“Relax, mi amor. Don’t forget so soon: you are mine. And I’m going to take care of you.”

TK’s body immediately relaxed, sinking into the bed, becoming putty under Carlos’s hands. Maybe it was the promise of being taken care of, or the term of endearment, or.. the feeling of Carlos’s sure hand traveling its familiar path from TK’s knee and down his inner thigh.. But TK’s brain began to go fuzzy.

“Yours,” he moaned, crumbling into lightheaded babbles. “Yours, yours, yours..”

TK inhaled deep and sharply as he felt Carlos’s slick fingers press slowly inside; paired with the press of soft lips against his knee.

TK’s opposite leg stretched out long, and the remaining bent knee fell open like a butterfly’s wing. His eyes rolled back as Carlos’s lips followed lower, working their way up TK’s thigh, eliciting a high whine when he nipped and sucked at the pale thin skin.

Carlos’s fingers continued to move steadily, smoothly, stretching and teasing.

TK could tell that Carlos was teasing, because TK knew that Carlos knew the exact combination to pick his locks.. If he really decided to.

And he was getting very close.

“God, you’re beautiful, TK. Writhing and squirming for me. And these are just my fingers.”

“Carlos..”

“I know, babe. I can feel how close you are.”

TK could no longer form words, forget about sentences. He was all rolling hips, and hungry whines and whimpers.

“You’re still going to let me fuck you?”

TK nodded emphatically. Sweating, practically drooling for it.

“Even if I make you come like this first?”

“Carlos..” TK whimpered. “I need.. I need..”

Carlos crooked his fingers, and applied precise pressure - making TK’s back arch up off the bed as he moved to grab onto his erupting cock.

Carlos swatted TK’s hand away with his free hand.

“Mine,” he told him. His dark eyes managed to look even darker as he stroked TK through his orgasm.

TK saw the look in Carlos’s eyes and the heavy rise and fall of his shoulders. He grinned dumbly, lightheaded, catching his breath. “You’re getting needy, baby.”

“You’re always needy,” Carlos countered, kneeling and sitting on his knees between TK’s legs. “Even seconds after coming.”

“Mmhmm. And you love it.”

“Damn right, I do. You’re so fucking hot, TK.”

Carlos was generous with the lube as he slicked himself up.

“Throw me those pillows behind your head.”

TK literally threw them at Carlos - definitely more at him than to him.

“You’re such a brat.” Carlos smiled and shook his head.

“You love that too.”

“Hips up,” Carlos told him, and TK raised the lower half of his body up into a half-bridge while Carlos slid the pillows underneath him.

Carlos ran his hands over TK’s thighs, and TK could feel his body being absolutely devoured by Carlos’s eyes. TK could only imagine what he must look like right now. Simultaneously spent and hungry.

“Beautiful..” Carlos exhaled. “Just fucking gorgeous.”

TK felt Carlos press the head of his cock to his slicked, stretched, twitching entrance.

“All yours, baby,” TK told him, letting his eyes slide shut as he felt the burn and stretch of his husband's cock filling him.

TK’s mouth fell open, and he wrapped his legs around Carlos’s back.

Carlos used strong hands to further tilt TK’s hips as he sank all the way into him, hips flush against TK’s skin, as TK filled the air with grateful moans.

Carlos folded his body over TK’s and leaned down for a kiss, letting TK devour his face.

TK’s brain buzzed with pleasure as he writhed his hips to meet Carlos’s thrusts. Carlos rocked into him in just the right way to leave TK gasping for air, alternately clinging to the sheets, and to Carlos body - slippery with sweat.

Carlos grabbed TK’s arms and pinned them to the bed. Holding him still as he slowed his thrusts, slowly sliding in and out, leaving TK breathless and babbling. TK’s body trembled and he was achingly hard again.

“Ride me,” Carlos said.

“Yeah.” The word fell out of TK’s mouth like it was just waiting at the gate for whatever Carlos might ask of him.

Carlos supported TK’s trembling body with one arm as he removed the pillows, and rolled them both over so that Carlos was on his back.

TK sat up, trembling thighs spread and straddling Carlos. He planted his hands on Carlos’s pecs to hold himself upright, kneading his muscles as he oriented himself toward being more than a blissed out puddle on the bed. He took deep breaths as he found a familiar rhythm. Rolling his hips and working his quads.

“Fuck, you’re good at that..” Carlos murmured.

“I love it. I love you.” TK ran his hands over Carlos’s chest with reverence.

“Mmm I love you too,” Carlos hummed, thrusting his hips up, lifting them both briefly off the bed, meeting the roll of TK’s hips in a way that was driving them both wilder and wilder.

TK sat up straighter, moving his arms back so that his hands rested on the top of Carlos’s thighs. TK arched back. Losing himself in the feeling of their bodies moving so effortlessly and flawlessly together. As they were meant to do.

TK’s chest opened wide as he felt Carlos’s hand wrap around his cock.

“Fuck, baby..” TK groaned.

“Can you come again?”

TK nodded, mouth slack, tears of ecstasy pricking at the corner of his eyes.

“So pretty like this TK.”

TK let out a shuddering moan. TK knew that Carlos knew his words could easily knock him over, if he was close enough to the edge.

“So fucking hot riding my cock.”

Carlos reached one hand to grab TK’s hip, hard enough to leave a bruise there, and his other hand stroked TK’s dick. Giving him that last bit of stimulation needed to send him over with a loud and inarticulate cry.

TK’s body went limp as he collapsed forward onto Carlos’s body. Carlos wrapped his arms tightly around TK’s trembling body, and held him tightly as he fucked into him until he himself came undone.

They lie together, breaths heaving in a sweaty, sticky pile.

“How are you feeling, cariño?” Carlos asked softly, one arm holding TK close to him, the other softly petting TK’s hair.

“I’m feeling so lucky to be yours, baby.”

“We will never agree on who is luckier.”

TK smiled against Carlos’s chest. “I don’t need you to agree with me. I just plain need you.”

“You’ve got me, TK. I’m every bit yours, as much as you are mine. Then, now, forever..”

They were nearly back home when Carlos announced that he wanted to swing by Nancy’s place to pick up their mail.

“Seriously, Carlos? Who cares about our mail? I’ll just tell her to bring it to work tomorrow. It’s not a big deal. It’s all junk anyway.”

“It’s also not a big deal to pick it up now. She didn’t a favor picking it up for us, we don’t need to inconvenience her further.”

“I just wanna be home, baby.”

“Aww,” Carlos teased. “Did I wear you out?”

A small smile peeked through TK’s sulk.

“Don’t worry, she knows we’re not staying to hang out or anything. You don’t even have to go in.”

“Really? That wouldn’t seem rude?”

“You can wait in the car, I will be right back.”

True to his word, Carlos was in and out and back in the car in no time. He handed TK a small stack of envelopes.

When they got home, TK slumped onto the couch.

“I know you’re gonna wanna unpack and get everything settled, but can we please do that tomorrow?” TK pleaded sweetly. “I just want to relax tonight. And I wanna cuddle with you. Not watch you run around trying to get everything back in its place.”

“You sound like you need a vacation from your vacation,” Carlos said with a smile. “But, yes, we can rest. We don’t even have to cook, I’ll order Chinese.”

“That sounds perfect! Have I mentioned how much I love you, babe?”

“Hopefully, enough to last a lifetime.” Carlos dropped to one knee in front of the couch, opened a small padded envelope and produced a wedding band.

And not just any wedding band.

TK sat up and leaned forward, literally on the edge of his seat. “That looks exactly the same as..”

“It is.”

“But, how? I..”

“You owe Nancy big time. She went through a lot of biohazardous waste, and turned out a lot of used gloves to find it.”

“Oh my god. Tommy can never know about that. She’d flip!”

“So,” Carlos prompted, taking TK’s left hand in his. “Still mine?”

Tears freely slipped down TK’s smiling cheeks. Overcome with emotion, he could barely speak in his hurry to get his ring back on his finger. But he was able to get one word out clearly.

“Yours.”