Tarlos one shots

34: It's complicated II

Farmers Market
Carlos's point of view
"Carlitos, Archer. Mi amor, come see me." I heard a women say from behind us, as I was holding one of Archer's hands and TK was holding the other. "MeMe!" I heard Arch call as he yanked his hand from me, before running off. I wasn't expecting him to do that, or I would've been holding on a little tighter. I turned around and there they were, my parents. The same people I've been keeping a very thick wall between them and my own personal life. I could see TK looked pretty excited, but I'm sure that's going to change soon. "Archer, come over here." I said as I kneeled down to his level, he knows better than to just run off.

"Archer, you never ever do that. Do you understand? I don't care if they know your name, if you have seen them before, or even if you know them. You never do that." I said, and clearly I seemed tense and probably annoyed. I'm not annoyed, I'm a worried parent. I see evil everyday, I don't care if I know the person he's running off to. Anything could happen, anything. "Carlitos, calm down I am his Meme. He's allowed to see me and your father." I just rolled my eyes as I was still holding Archer close to me, and completely ignored what my mother had said.

"Archer, there are bad people out there. People who want to hurt kids and that take kids from their families. Never do that again." I said the last part kind of harsh, and he started getting all teary eyed. I pulled him into a hug, because I didn't mean to scare him or make him cry. "Carlos, you had no right saying that to him. He's a child. He ran straight to us." My mom clearly didn't like what I had said. "Carlitos your mother has a point, you didn't need to treat him like that." My father added on, which only annoyed me more. "I'm his parent, I'm worried everyday about him. Anything could of happened, someone could of grabbed him. He needs to understand he can't just run off." I said, but they didn't seem to understand where I was coming from.

I felt TK rubbing Archer's back, as he stood pretty close to me, before I handed Archer over to TK. I'm not some monster, people are getting more bold and less cautious. "Dad, you know how people are. You know I'm not being too over protective, people are getting too confident." He just nodded when I pointed that out, I don't think he completely agrees. "He can't run over to me his own grandparent, but you can hand him over to some stranger? Someone I've never met before, so I'm sure he's not too close to Archer." My mom finally pointed out TK's presence as he was still comforting Arch. "Mom and dad, this TK. He's a paramedic, you probably know his dad Owen Strand." My mom didn't seem convinced, but my dad just nodded. "The fire captain from New York?" I just nodded my head.

"Nice to meet you TK, you mind if I take him?" My dad asked as he reached towards Archer. TK glanced at me, before he handed Arch over to my parents. TK definitely seemed awkward now, but my parents were now focused on Arch and less on us two. "We have some stuff to do today, but we were going to get some lunch. If you guys wanted to take Arch for an hour or so, you're more than welcomed to." That made my mom look up at us, which had a questionable look. "So how do you two know each other? Because I would know if my baby had someone special in his life, especially if they're special enough to introduce Archer to them." She said as she gave me a more pointed look, and TK just waited to see how I would answer. Either I make TK mad, or I possibly make my parents upset with me.

"TK is my partner, he's my boyfriend. He's known Archer for a while now." I answered, and my mother seemed annoyed by my answer. "Mom if you say anything rude about this in front of Archer, I will not allow you around him till you can be nice." She didn't even seem to register that additional bit of information. "How long? What else don't I know? What else are you keeping from me , Carlitos?" I sighed as she stood a little closer to me. My dad didn't even seem like he was bothered by that information, he smiled when I said TK was my boyfriend. "He moved in with us a month ago, we've been together for over a year. He only met Archer 6 months ago. I was very cautious when I started bringing him around Archer."