TK Vs Tomatoes
ao3 (900+ words; chapter 1/2)
Coming home to the smell of cooking always brought an anxiety-filled warmth. With Carlos being the main chef in the relationship, TK making him dinner always came as a surprise that made even the simplest dish feel grand. It made Carlos feel even more loved. The anxiety came, of course, from the fact that TK was cooking unsupervised in their home – they did not need another fire, thank you very much. And no matter what the other man claimed, his reputation in the kitchen was not overexaggerated.
This day, the anxiety surpassed the warmth. The loft smelled like smoke. Carlos had barely shut the door behind him before he was running to the kitchen. There was no fire, thank god. Just a badly smoking frying pan. Not that Carlos was about to jinx it. So, without relaxing, he turned off the stove and looked around.
The kitchen was empty.
Prompt: "God, you're bleeding! How the hell did you do that?" "I was trying to cut the tomatoes!"
(Credit to my sister for the story title 😂)
Chapter 1: Spoiler: The Tomatoes Won
Coming home to the smell of cooking always brought an anxiety-filled warmth. With Carlos being the main chef in the relationship, TK making him dinner always came as a surprise that made even the simplest dish feel grand. It made Carlos feel even more loved. The anxiety came, of course, from the fact that TK was cooking unsupervised in their home – they did not need another fire, thank you very much. And no matter what the other man claimed, his reputation in the kitchen was not overexaggerated.
This day, the anxiety surpassed the warmth. The loft smelled like smoke. Carlos had barely shut the door behind him before he was running to the kitchen. There was no fire, thank god. Just a badly smoking frying pan. Not that Carlos was about to jinx it. So, without relaxing, he turned off the stove and looked around.
The kitchen was empty.
Carlos tried to keep the worst case scenarios out of his head – there were plenty harmless reasons the kitchen could be close to fire and TK nowhere to be seen – but really, this was TK. It wasn’t like the worst case scenarios were that unreasonably to consider. Getting shot, getting kidnapped, multiple comas, almost dying too many times? They had all happened under the few years Carlos had known the other man.
“TK, you here?” Carlos called out. Holding his breath as he waited for an answer – and prayed there would be one – he looked around the kitchen once more. His gaze froze on a bloody knife.
Fuck.
“In here!” came – finally – TK’s voice just as Carlos noticed the blood trail leading towards the bathroom. In his initial panic, Carlos hadn’t seen it before. Now, it almost screamed at him. Between the knife and the trail and the still thick smell of smoke, a most likely scenario was starting to form in Carlos’ mind. Slowly, he let his anxiety fall from a level of call-911-NOW to one of run-to-him as he hurried to the bathroom.
TK was sitting on the toilet lid, a thick towel wrapped around his hand. A thick bloody towel.
“Hey, babe, how was your shift?”
Honestly, Carlos could strangle him sometimes.
“Please, don’t pretend everything’s fine when you’re bleeding all over our apartment.”
TK dropped the smile, his eyes fell to his wrapped hand with an embarrassed grimace.
“It looks worse than it is.”
Carlos wasn’t as reassured by that as he knew TK wanted him to be. His track record outweighed whatever assurance he had for him right now.
“That’s barely comforting,” Carlos mumbled as he kneeled on the floor. He didn’t care if blood seeped into his pants or not. TK was his priority. He gently took TK’s hand in his own, careful as the other man winced at the action, and started unwrapping the towel.
“God, you’re bleeding!” Carlos knew this of course. He’d known it before he’d even know where TK was. The bloody towel should have prepared him, but still, he hadn’t expected this. He sure as hell hoped it looked worse that is was. It looked bad. TK had had a few close calls in the kitchen before, but this... “How the hell did you do that?”
“I was trying to cut the tomatoes!” TK defended himself, and, yeah, Carlos knew this too. He’d seen the cutting board. None of this was new information, but information he had to process. Carlos took a deep breath.
“Okay, okay, yeah, just... Let me look at this.”
TK looked like he wanted to roll his eyes, but let Carlos take his hand. He sat still and quiet as Carlos examined the wound. Screw how it looked, this was worse.
“Sorry,” Carlos mumbled as TK winced again when he cleaned off the fresh blood that kept coming. Finally content – but definitely not happy – with his examination, Carlos braced for the argument he knew would come.
“Babe,” Carlos said slowly, stroking TK’s wrist. “You need a hospital.”
“It’s fine.”
“It needs stitches!”
“You know, last time I checked I was the medic here,” TK protested, rolling his eyes this time.
“Well, maybe I want a second opinion,” Carlos countered. TK paled at the suggestion, just as Carlos knew he would, pulling his hand back from Carlos’ grasp.
“Please don’t call Tommy,” he pleaded, lip pouting out. If Carlos hadn’t been so focused with the looming blood loss, he would have teased him for it. Or fallen for the puppy look. Not today though.
“Actually, I meant Nancy.”
“Ah, god please no. She’d never let me live this down.”
“And what, you don’t think they’ll notice a huge bandage?” Carlos couldn’t help but quip, but then he softened. He gently stroked TK’s cheek. “Baby, we only care about you. You need a hospital.”
TK deflated and muttered something under his breath. Then he sighed dramatically.
“Fine. But only for you”.
“Good,” Carlos said, and he wasn’t sure what part he meant most. Good as in thank you for letting me get you the proper care. Good as in thank you to the women he knew always looked after his danger prone fiancé when he couldn’t. “Come on then. We can even stop for some takeout on the way back. I’m not letting you back into the kitchen tonight.”
“I blame the tomatoes.”
“Of course you do.”
“Hey,” TK mumbled as they settled into the car, taking Carlos’ hand with his good one – the other now wrapped in a fresh towel and pressed tightly to his chest. “I’m sorry I worried you.”
“I know,” Carlos sighed, squeezing his hand. “But I’ll always worry about you. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
---
Apparently there will be a part 2. My sister demands it!
Not sure when though...
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