One of a kind

Chapter 08

TK woke to noises from downstairs. Since he had come home from the hospital, he didn't have a set time to get up; the doctors had said to treat these weeks like a vacation, without stresses, without obligations, without timetables, and he was doing everything he could to follow those orders to the letter.

He got up and put on a huge hoodie Enzo had brought him from New York. "I know you don't like to wear a dressing gown because you think it's for old people. So I bought you this in extra-large, so you can be warm in the mornings."

It truly was massive, almost falling to his knees, and he had to roll up the sleeves multiple times so he didn't look like a hobbit from the Lord of the Rings. But TK loved it.

He felt dizzy when he put his feet on the floor, but by now it was normal. He stayed sitting there for a moment, staring at the empty wall where the shelves he'd taken to Carlos's house, which had been destroyed by the fire, had once stood.

The fire had destroyed so many things, and not only objects, furniture, and clothes. That day had burned his relationship with Carlos, though neither of them realised. It had threatened their entire world, and it almost seemed like a trick of fate that a fire would ruin the life of a firefighter.

He desperately wanted to go back in time and do things differently. The argument with Carlos...he'd treated Carlos so badly even when he wasn't to blame. All he'd done was break the news, and worst of all was that Carlos had done it so that it didn't have to be another cop who told TK that they'd arrested his father.

Carlos had wanted to make it easy for him, he'd wanted to be there to support him and hug him, and his response had been awful. He still shuddered to think that he'd pushed him, but that day, he made sure that Judd and the others saw Carlos as the bad guy, when in reality it had been completely the opposite.

TK lifted a had to his temple. These days, he joked with himself, saying that his head hurt because he was thinking too much. It was better than assuming that it was because of the damn hypothermia.

But it was true that turning things over in his head too much didn't help either, above all because they were things that couldn't be changed.

They'd never spoken about that day. Carlos had said that no-one had to apologise, but in reality they both knew that TK was the only one who had to apologise for his behaviour. Carlos just didn't want to make things difficult or make TK feel uncomfortable over what had happened.

He had let it go, in the same way that, not long after, they both started to let slide things that it would have been better to talk about and discuss. Little by little, this had started to erode their relationship, until the ground opened under them and there was no way of saving it.

He heard footsteps coming up the stairs, and a moment later, someone knocked the door.

"Your mom told me that you don't feel good in the morning." Carlos's voice surprised TK, but it made him smile, and even more when his head popped around the door. "I brought you some coffee and something to eat."

Carlos entered carrying a tray, and for a second TK saw the past. Back to the flu he'd caught just after moving in with Carlos. He'd spent three days in bed and during those three days, Carlos had taken an impromptu vacation to look after him. They'd eaten breakfast, lunch, and dinner in bed.

When TK was sleeping, Carlos had cleaned and disinfected the house every day, saying that, if they didn't get rid of the virus completely, they never would, and it would constantly be passing between them.

"What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?" Carlos asked, pulling TK from the memories of a lost fantasy. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine, don't worry. I was just...thinking." TK shook his head and moved to one side so Carlos could sit down. "What happened to you being here to rest?"