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“What are you doing?” TK giggles as Carlos sweeps him up in his arms the moment he goes to step out of the elevator.
Carlos adjusts his hold on his husband until he’s supporting TK’s legs and back, his arms snaking automatically around Carlos’ neck. “Carrying you,” he replies simply. “I’m going to carry you over the threshold.”
TK lets out another delighted giggle as Carlos carries him through the corridors of their building along to their front door. He pauses when they reach it and huffs, biting down on his bottom lip when he meets TK’s eye.
“I can’t open the door like this,” he admits. “I’ll have to put you down.”
Before he can do that, TK moves one hand from around his neck to fumble in the inside pocket of Carlos’ jacket, momentarily glad he put it back on before they left the venue in Carlos’ car—on his insistence; he wasn’t a fan of the idea of someone else driving them home after their wedding—and pulls out his keys. Silently, Carlos moves them forward so TK can unlock the door, grinning when he slides it open.
“I can’t believe you’re carrying me over the threshold,” TK says with an amused huff.
“It’s our wedding night.” Carlos moves them inside, uncaring of the door. He edges toward the sofa, and TK drops the keys into the bowl on the way past. “It’s our wedding night,” he repeats, carefully setting TK down. He bounces slightly but quickly settles into position. “You’re my husband.”
“You’re mine,” TK quips back. As Carlos moves away, TK grabs his hand. “Hey. Where are you going?”
Carlos drops a kiss to his lips but pulls back anyway. He’s smiling as he pads over to the door, sliding it shut and flicking the lock across. Then, after turning the light on, he shrugs off his jacket, tossing that onto the table without a care, and stands with his hands on his hips, watching his new husband.
“Baby, come here,” TK protests, reaching out to the air aimlessly.
Carlos ignores him. “You want a water?”
“I want my husband.”
With an easy smile, he pulls open the refrigerator and grabs two bottles of water. He twists open the lid of one, gulping down half the bottle, and all TK can do is watch as he wipes his mouth. He moves across their home, disappearing into their bedroom with the bottle only to come back out without it a few seconds later. His eyes are fixed on TK, and finally, finally, he comes to a stop a couple of steps in front of him.
“I’m glad we decided to come home tonight,” Carlos says. He starts unbuttoning his shirt, then moves to unclipping his suspenders after three buttons. “I’m glad we’re spending our first night as husbands in our home.”
TK watches him. He stays still himself, but he hums his agreement. They’ve got a day before they’re due to leave for their honeymoon, a day they were originally going to spend in a hotel across town, but TK prefers this, too. He prefers being home with his husband; it’s where he feels like he belongs most in the world.
Once his suspenders are dropped to the coffee table, Carlos takes another step toward TK. He watches for a moment, eyes raking across TK’s form, watching as his chest rises and falls a little faster than usual.
“You look incredible,” he murmurs, and TK’s expecting him to crowd over him, to lay on top of him and kiss him senseless, to get to that part of their wedding night, but he doesn’t. He taps at TK’s legs, and without a word needed, TK bends them and shifts around until there’s enough space for Carlos to sit down right next to him. He does exactly that. “Hi.”
TK lets out something of a laugh as Carlos picks up his left hand. “Hi,” he echoes.
“I love this.” Carlos runs his finger over TK’s new gold band. “It suits you.”
“Being your husband? That’s good because it’s who I am for the rest of our life now.”
Carlos’ lips tilt into a smile. “Our life,” he quotes.
“Yeah.” TK searches for Carlos’ eye, pleased when he looks up from their hands just a second later. “Your life, my life, they’re tied together now. That okay?”
He laughs this time, and subconsciously or not, he continues massaging TK’s ring. “Better than. Today would’ve been a waste of money otherwise.”
Despite himself, TK lets out a barking laugh. “I hate you.”
“No, you don’t.”
Swallowing thickly, he notes the newfound seriousness in Carlos’ eyes. He moves his spare hand up to touch Carlos’ ring and smiles at him. “No, I don’t,” he confirms. “For I do love you as my soul.”
“That was beautiful,” Carlos murmurs. “Your vows were beautiful.”
“Yours, too.” He swallows down a lump in his throat. “Everything I said was true.”
“Me too.” He lifts their hands to his lips, placing a kiss just above TK’s ring. “I wanted you to know how far I’ve come because of you. I wanted everyone to know that I am only the person I am today because of you.”
TK blinks back unexpected tears. “You’re who you are because of you, Carlos.”
He shakes his head. “No. I wouldn’t have made it without you. I wouldn’t have made it through the past week with you, Tyler.”
“Oh, baby.” He doesn’t think it’s true, but he knows what it’s like to feel that way; he’s been through so much that he can’t imagine having been able to get through without Carlos, so all he can do is be grateful he’s been able to stay by Carlos’ side no matter what. “How are you doing?”
“I’m okay,” Carlos says quietly.
“We don’t have to do anything tonight, baby.” He hopes Carlos knows that already, but there’s no harm in telling him again. “I don’t care so long as we’re together, okay?”
“It’s our wedding night.”
“And you’ll still be my husband tomorrow night, Monday night, for every night for the rest of our lives.”
Carlos nods. He’s watching TK, but in the low lighting of the room, TK can’t tell if he’s truly there or not. Then, his lips lift into a smile, a real smile, and he shakes his head. “I can’t believe it. We’re married. We’re husbands, TK.”
“Husbands,” TK confirms with a smile. “But we’re not just husbands, you know that, right?”
“What do you mean?”
He shifts around again so he can tug Carlos closer, even if it is just by a few millimeters. He keeps their hands together, four tangled in between them like it doesn’t matter whose belongs to whom, two matching rings shining. “You’re my husband, my soulmate, my best friend, my everything.”
“Best friend?”
Huffing out a quiet laugh, TK tilts his head to the side. “Out of all of them, you pick up on that one?”
“I’ve never heard you say that before.”
“Don’t tell Nancy,” he jokes, but he’s shaking his head before he gets the end of the sentence out. “You are… everything to me, Carlos Reyes. You’re the person I can laugh with at nothing, the person who makes me cry with his beautiful words, the person I love with my whole heart. You’re the only person who has ever made me feel whole just the way I am. You called me a miracle, baby, but you’re the real miracle here.”
Carlos’ eyes are wet by the end of his impromptu speech. He tries to blink them away, but one tear falls, then another, and TK takes a second to feel guilty for making his husband cry again, but Carlos is leaning in and pressing a wet kiss to his lips before he can get an apology out.
“You’re my everything, too,” he whispers. “My husband, my soulmate, my best friend, my favorite person. My… life, my heart, my miracle.”
TK cups his cheek, wiping away the next tear that falls. “Two lots of vows, hm?”
“Yeah. Two lots of opportunities to tell you how much I love you.”
“And I love you, too. More than you’ll ever know.”
He shakes his head. “Oh, I think I know, baby.”
Before TK can reply, Carlos kisses him again. He smiles into it, and TK grins enough that he has to pull back, both of them laughing softly against each other’s lips. Stroking his cheek, Carlos leans their foreheads together and whispers, “You know I’m happy, right?”
“You don’t have to be,” TK whispers back. “I don’t expect you to be.”
“I am.” He pulls back so their eyes meet, trailing his hand around to the back of TK’s neck as if he’s trying to hold him there. “You make me happy.”
“Carlos…”
“I know it doesn’t seem like it this past week, but believe me, TK, if it weren’t for you, I would be in a very different place. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you. And I don’t think I would’ve contemplated allowing myself to be happy today, or any other day, if you weren’t here.”
TK goes to protest, but Carlos shakes his head.
“You’re the love of my life, Tyler Kennedy Strand, and you can’t always make everything right, but you do always make me happy. In the most difficult time of my life, I’m happy because of you.”
He cups Carlos’ cheek in silent comfort, but words elude him, so he just lets Carlos do the talking and hopes that simply being here is enough.
“They say you don’t know true happiness until you’ve felt true pain, and I didn’t believe that, TK, I didn’t. But this past week has proven that to me.”
“Happiness shines brighter in the dark,” TK murmurs, and Carlos sends him a half smile. He runs his thumb across his cheekbone. “I hate that you feel so much pain and grief, baby.”
“I hate that you do, too.”
He softens. “I know.”
“Even today.”
TK nods. Even today on one of their happiest days. “It gets easier, but it’s not always like that. But I’ve always got you, so no matter how difficult it gets, I’m never alone, and neither are you, Carlos.”
“I know,” he whispers. He closes his eyes and rests their foreheads together again. Neither says another word, but Carlos twirls a finger around TK’s hair at the base of his head, and TK wipes away the last of his fallen tears. They breathe together, their hearts beating as if they are one, and there’s something peaceful surrounding them.
It’s their wedding night, and things aren’t perfect, but they’re together, they’re married, and in the end, that’s all that matters.
“Since you carried me over the threshold,” TK says after a few quiet moments, pulling back enough to look at his husband with a glint in his eye, “does that mean I get to carry you to our bed?”
Carlos laughs loudly and freely, his eyes crinkling at the edges. “You can try.”
TK takes that as a challenge. He untangles himself from Carlos, jumping up onto his feet. He pushes one arm under Carlos’ knees, the other under his back, and in one swift, if not a little jagged, motion, he hauls Carlos off of the sofa. Carlos clings onto his shoulders for dear life, but he chuckles as TK moves them from the sofa toward their bedroom.
“You underestimate me, husband,” he says with a smile as he drops Carlos to the bed.
“Never,” Carlos murmurs. He grabs onto TK’s hand before he can move away and tugs him onto the bed. Silently, TK understands, crawling onto the bed and over Carlos, Carlos’ hand snaking around to his neck again.
Still smiling, TK looks at him in question.
“It’s our wedding night,” he says.
“It is.”
“I want to.”
“We don’t have to.”
“Tyler.” He pulls him closer and rolls them onto their sides, the tips of their noses touching. “I want to. I want you.”
TK’s tongue darts out to lick his lips. “Okay.”
“I want my husband.”
TK beams as Carlos leans in to kiss him.