Hi. So i should apologize for the delay in the final chapter of the lavender marine.

It seems that the AO3 author curse cought up to me and my country went into war. Lol.

So unfortunately i have neglected to write the last chapter, not fully anyways.

“Carlos gives TK a look that he hopes conveys exasperation rather than amusement. He’s feeling a weird mix of them right now, but it shouldn’t be surprising. TK somehow manages to occupy the very niche status of the love of Carlos’ life and also the bane of his existence, and he kind of wants to see how far TK will take this, but he also has self-respect.”

The niche status line is truly incredible. 😂 That’s the part that came to my mind when I saw you put the set on my dash. It’s the whole thesis statement of Carlos’ unique love language for TK.

These other two lines are also pure gold:

“TK is the light of his life, and sometimes that light blinds him a little, but it’s only a temporary thing.”

“…Carlos wonders for a brief second where the hell all of his self-control has gone, because it used to be watertight and now it’s full of holes.”

These are all so good and so fitting! I could keep going because you’ve peppered more just like them throughout all of your Tarlos fics, but I gotta go to bed so I’ll stop here lol. Grateful for the way you depict their love in your writing and the laughs you bring out of us with one exasperated Carlos Reyes. 😂💖 Have a great day!

Thank you so much, Sonia! You are truly such a gift and I am so honoured by all of the above!

Perhaps it's only because I've been in this fandom for a short while, or maybe it's just my writing style, but I feel like it's so much easier to express my thoughts and feelings about Carlos, TK and their relationship through fic, rather than in expressing a particular head canon/responding to an ask. Then, you came in with the above - all this other stuff that I honestly forgot I wrote, but it definitely reflects how I feel about Tarlos - and it conjured some feelings. So thank you, and also sorry in advance for the essay.

You know, they (vaguely waves hands) always say that you should never expect the person that you're in a relationship with to change for you, and I think in TK and Carlos' case, that rings very true. They're very different personalities and they remain very different personalities - one a little more reserved, perhaps more cautious. The other with a tendency to be a little more rash and impulsive.

I think my favourite thing about Tarlos is that although they're quite different, their personalities complement each other so well. Not only in the way that they soften out the rough edges of each other's less ideal qualities, but in that they bring out and enhance a lot of the really special ones. As the chaotic Lone Star timeline continues we see Carlos flourish - his fun, friendly, snack-king, i-am-the-loving-dad-of-this-group energy becomes more and more evident, alongside the sheer amount of character development in s 3, and I love that. I like to think that his relationship with TK has given him the safety and the encouragement to let his guard down a little more, be a bit sillier, express his love for everyone by running around and making sure they're all well fed.

Certainly, I don't think Carlos has ever been boring, or too uptight. I just think we didn't get to see as much of that energy from him in s 1 (although we did always get to see the exasperated energy - that has been right there from "if I was a less secure man, I might be bothered by the fact that i worked up the nerve to ask you out, and you spent the entire night talking about another guy" to "at three eighteen in the morning?").

Also, Carlos might slander TK for his habit of eating at 2am or trying to live off AA doughnuts, but don't tell me that Carlos-Do-You-Need-Me-To-Cook-You-A-Whole-Ass-Dinner-Reyes wouldn't eat his feelings on occasion. He definitely has a guilty pleasure of some kind and I need to know what it is.

Don't even get me started on TK. That's a story for another day, but this man really went from TK-I-Hate-Everyone-And-Everything-Strand to TK-Soft-And-Sweet-As-A-Marshmallow-Strand, and you can't tell me that Carlos giving him a stable and loving relationship - something TK has clearly always craved - doesn't play a huge part in that. TK needed someone who would let him be prickly sometimes, see all his flaws and fears, and love him just a fiercely anyway.

Ah. Sadly I would say no. We don't really exist other than a few whispers in the wind. 😅