summary: TK’s dangerous sleeping habits strike again
notes: a follow up for this fic!
written for the “bundled up in blankets” square on my bthb card // @badthingshappenbingo
beta’d by max, @marjansmarwani @mtnofgrace and @trkstrnd (it was a group effort okay)
title from “heat waves” by glass animals
Carlos wakes up the tip of his nose brushing against the wall and subtle chill running through his body, which he soon realizes would be because there are no blankets on his side of the bed.
Peaking over his shoulder, he can see TK sprawled out on his side (well his and Carlos’ side) with nearly all the blankets twisted around his frame.
He shakes his head, returning to his position facing the wall of his bedroom. After he had fallen out of the bed a few nights ago due to TK’s restless sleeping habits, they decided the best course of action would be to push the bed over, so that Carlos’ side was pressed against the wall.
It did the trick, though TK did still occasionally give him a little shove that forced his body to bounce off the wall. But the small bruises that formed were much better than the sprained ankle he sustained as a result of falling out of the bed the first time.
His ankle was healing fine; though attempting to rearrange his bedroom furniture did not do him any favors, but he wasn’t about to let TK move the bed on his own. Unfortunately that activity did lead to another day of resting and icing. Additionally, TK ended up breaking out his old crutches that he had from the last time he was injured and encouraging Carlos to use them to keep some weight off the joint.
He closes his eyes to try and return back to his restful state before he feels a shift on the other side of the bed, followed by a soft thud and a muffled “ow.”
Suddenly alert, Carlos shoots up and peeks over the side of the bed, trying to stifle a laugh at the sight before him: TK tangled up in all the sheets curled up in a ball on the floor.
“TK?” he whispers, trying to get the other man’s attention. When he only gets a groan in response, his anxiety spikes a little. “Are you okay?”
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Summary: Carlos falls off the bed because TK has no spacial awareness when he sleeps
Note: inspired by a few anons that asked about my opinions on tarlos sleeping habits, and by @howtosingit ‘s own posts on the subject.
Beta’d by my faves - @marjansmarwani and @firefighterstrand
read on ao3
Blinking away the darkness only to find more darkness and the staticy mess of implied colour where his brain tried to process his abysmal visual intake, Carlos is confused at first. Taking in the dark shapes of his bedroom, he tries to piece together what woke him up when he feels TK softly breathing next to him, pressed up against his side.
He smiles looking at the other man. He learned quickly once they started spending the night together that TK enjoyed the close contact while he slept. While they would start the night on their respective sides of the bed, TK would inevitably end up curled up against Carlos, absorbing all of the heat radiating from his body. Not that Carlos minded, but when it got to the point that it pulled him out of his deep sleep he would be lying if he said he wasn’t slightly annoyed.
As he closes his eyes to try and return to his previous restful state, he feels a shove from his side as TK spreads out more. Carlos tries to shift to give him more room, but as he rolls over expecting to have more room, he suddenly finds himself in a freefall off the side of the bed.
Though his bed is not that high off the ground, the distance feels twice as long as his body falls through the air before meeting the floor, with most of his weight coming down on his right ankle.
“Shit,” he quietly curses under his breath. He shifts up to a seated position, and peaks over the bed to see TK completely sprawled out across the bed. He can’t decide whether to laugh or roll his eyes.
He tries to suppress the groan that escapes his mouth as he moves his ankle. He must not do a very good job because at the small noise, TK begins to stir.
“Carlos?” He opens his eyes sleepily. “Why are you on the floor?”
“Because you pushed me off,” Carlos replies, trying his best to mask the wince as he pushes the rest of his body off the floor and rolls back onto the bed.
TK furrows his brow and scoots closer to Carlos. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Carlos gives him a reassuring smile. “Go back to sleep, babe”
“Okay,” TK mumbles into Carlos, pressing a soft kiss into his neck before rolling back over onto his side of the bed.
Carlos’ smile eagerly drops as soon as TK has his back to him. The throbbing in his ankle has not let up, even after he moved onto the bed. He closes his eyes, hoping that with rest it will get better.
Maybe if he sleeps well enough, it will be completely fine when he wakes up.
At least he can hope.
The next time he blinks his eyes open, he finds his bedroom now flooded with sunlight.
It doesn’t take long after that for him to notice the soreness radiating throughout his body, but the worst by far is the ache in his ankle. It isn’t until he feels TK shifting against him, once again finding his place pressed up against Carlos’ side that the memories from just a few hours earlier come flooding back.
He tries to shift slightly without disturbing TK too much but it doesn’t work. He feels TK’s long lashes fluttering against his side, signaling that the other man is now waking up.
“Good morning,” Carlos greets him, running his fingers through TK’s bed head to further wake him.
TK moans into Carlos' side before bringing his head up and resting it on Carlos’ chest. “Hi,” he replies with a sleepy smile. He moves his head to press some soft kisses to Carlos’ stomach, fully taking advantage of the fact that Carlos always sleeps shirtless. Even if he was cold enough to wear a shirt, Carlos would never do it now just because it would prevent TK from getting as close to him as physically possible.
Working his way up to the top of Carlos’ chest, he stops short of the other man’s neck and pouts. “I have to shower since I wasn’t able to grab one when I got off shift yesterday,” his pout morphs into a coy smile. “Though, you could always join me?”
Carlos wants to say yes. He loves the thought of standing under the hot shower with TK, letting the warm water soothe his aching body. But he also is unsure of how bad his ankle really is, having only used it to move from the floor to the bed. Additionally, he knows that TK would be able to tell something was wrong right away and his overprotective boyfriend would likely freak out and insist on him seeing a doctor. Something that Carlos would prefer to avoid for something as minor as what’s probably only a sprained ankle.
“As tempting as that sounds, I think I’m just going to put a pot of coffee on,” he says, ignoring TK’s playful pout at his response. “Make it a quick shower and maybe I’ll have a hot breakfast ready for you when you get out.”
“You drive a hard bargain Carlos Reyes, but I’m sold,” TK smiles, pressing one last kiss to Carlos’ lips before pushing himself off the bed and disappearing out of the room and into the bathroom.
With TK out of sight, Carlos takes a deep breath and squeezes his eyes shut. He can only hope that the pain he’s been suppressing while in TK’s presence isn’t as bad as he thinks it is. If he’s still in bed when TK gets out of the shower, the other man is sure to figure out something’s up.
Mustering up all his strength, Carlos forces his body out of his comfortable bed and swings his legs over the side. He stands up carefully, testing exactly how much weight he can put on his ankle before the pain is too unbearable.
Not much weight, he soon realizes when he sees stars upon taking the first step.
But he can do this. He tells himself it’s just a minor sprain.
Or not so minor; if the throbbing pain in each step is any indication.
He contemplates slipping on the sweatpants draped over the chair, but he realizes that would require more steps walking across the room. So he settles for staying in his boxers for the time being and limps his way out of the bedroom.
He makes it to the top of the stairs before sighing and shifting some of his weight to the top of the railing. He mentally curses at himself for picking the condo that had stairs. Though he loves the loft aesthetic of his home, the feature was soon proving to do more harm than good.
Sucking in a deep breath, he takes the first step down and confirms his worst fears. Yes, the stairs are not doing his ankle any favors. Grimacing, he slowly makes his way down the staircase, doing his best to only put minimal weight on his ankle and relying heavily on the railing he is now thankful he put in.
He reaches the bottom of the stairs and limps across the living room and into the kitchen. With each step, he finds the pain in his ankle to only get worse. But he powers through, turning on the coffee brewer before moving over to the fridge and grabbing two eggs to crack over the pan on the stove. He would normally come up with something fancier for breakfast, but he figures scrambled eggs are the easiest choice and require the least amount of movement around the space.
A few minutes later, he’s setting two spots at the table with a plate full of scrambled eggs and toast. Just in time to spot TK coming down the stairs, shaking the water droplets out of his wet hair and dressed in Carlos’ favorite blue hoodie that’s faded from one-too many washes, and a pair of tight black jeans.
When he spots Carlos standing in the kitchen in nothing but his underwear, TK smiles. “I see we decided not to get dressed today.”
“It is our day off after all,” Carlos smirks. “And I personally think you are wearing too much clothing for my liking.”
“I guess we’ll have to see what we can do about that,” TK says with a raise of his eyebrows.
Carlos laughs and shakes his head, before moving to grab the two cups of coffee off the counter and place them on the table with their breakfast. When he looks up at TK again, he finds that the other man has moved closer and the smile has fallen from his face.
“You’re limping,” he notes with concern evident in his voice.
“Am I?”
“Yeah, what happened?”
Carlos bites his lip, shifting uncomfortably. He doesn’t necessarily want to admit that he sustained the injury as a result of TK’s sleeping habits, knowing that his boyfriend would be overcome with guilt if he knew the truth. Unfortunately his poker face isn’t as great as he wishes it was, and he waits too long to answer, noticing how TK’s face contorts as he puts the pieces together.
“Did this happen when you fell off the bed last night?”
“You mean when you pushed me off the bed?” Carlos jokes in an attempt to lighten the mood, but the concerned look doesn’t leave TK’s face.
“I hurt you,” TK says quietly.
“Hey,” he reaches over and grabs TK’s hand to reassure him. “I’m fine, I promise.”
“Can I take a look at it?”
Carlos nods and TK slides up next to him, draping his arm around Carlos’ broad shoulders and helping him over to the couch.
“Our breakfast is going to get cold,” Carlos says as TK pulls his ankle up to take a closer look at the joint.
“We can heat it up later. You should not have been walking on this. It looks really swollen, Carlos.”
“I didn’t notice.”
TK gives him a look that screams I don’t buy your bullshit. “Really? You didn’t notice that your right ankle is purple and nearly twice the size as your left?”
“Yeah?” Carlos gives him a small smile.
TK shakes his head. “Get dressed, I’m taking you to get checked out at the hospital.”
“Okay, now that’s an overreaction, TK. It’s just a bad sprain.”
“I don’t know,” TK hesitates, pressing his lips together and studying Carlos carefully.
Carlos gives him a pleading look. “You just checked it out and I’m sure it’s fine. I have an ice pack in the freezer that will help with the swelling and some compression bandages in the bathroom cabinet.”
“Fine,” TK sighs in defeat before getting up and heading to the bathroom to grab the bandages and stopping in the kitchen on the way back to grab the ice pack. He hands the cold blue pack to Carlos and places the bandages on the coffee table. “We’ll ice it for a little and then when the swelling goes down, I can wrap it for you.”
Carlos nods, hissing at the cold contact on his swollen joint. Instead of TK sitting down next to him, Carlos watches as the other man moves back into the kitchen. He stares at him confused, before realizing what he’s up to when he grabs the plates off the table, bringing them into the living room and does the same with their coffee mugs.
“Thank you,” Carlos graciously accepts his cup.
They eat their now luke-warm breakfast in silence for the most part, with only the sounds of the forks scratching the plate and the occasional clink of one of their mugs sitting back on the table after a sip filling the space.
As they finish up, TK leans over and removes the ice pack to take a look at Carlos’ ankle. “I think the swelling has gone down a little. Want me to wrap it now?”
“Okay,” Carlos agrees and watches as TK moves to grab the badges and slowly begins to softly wrap his ankle. “You don’t have to feel bad about this, you know. It’s not your fault.”
“It kinda is.”
“You were asleep.”
“Still,” TK shrugs as he finishes winding up the bandage. “I had no idea how much I moved in my sleep. I literally pushed you out of your own bed, Carlos.”
“Yeah, but if you’re asleep then there’s no way for you to be aware of it.”
“Well, I’m still sorry,” he says leaning into Carlos’ larger frame.
“You shouldn’t have to apologize, but I do forgive you,” Carlos says, wrapping his arm around TK. “But maybe I’ll rethink how my room is set up and rearrange it so my side of the bed is pressed against the wall.”
“Might not be a bad idea,” TK chuckles, snuggling closer to Carlos.
