#lou ii

[paxdracona]

Soooo, I drew a cutesy fluffy pic for the @911reversebang and matched with @noxsoulmate! Our combined efforts detail Carlos' slow journey to becoming a full-fledged Lizard Papa ♥ (and gave me Longing for a beardie but alas)

Read the story HERE!!

(oh, the pics are at Ao3 as well, HERE ♥)

[thisbuildinghasfeelings]

Just googling bearded dragon information, as you do, and now I’m thinking about Lou II missing TK while he’s on a 24 hour shift 🥺

[vineofroses]

Lone Star prompt

TK buys Carlos new pajamas (or vice versa)

GO!

Carlos wishes he never came across it.

He wishes a lot of things were different.

Like, why was he such a good person?

Why was he such a good husband? A good friend? A good partner?

These questions only haunt him after he's made the purchase. He didn't even think twice about it. He saw them, thought, "well, how many times do you actually come across the greatest gift you've ever seen?" And then just submitted the order, like he didn't just sign his own death sentence.

And, the logistics. He forgot about the logistics.

And now he's faced with a logistical nightmare of his own making.

"Please, I'm begging you. Just, don't move. This will be painless, I promise." He holds up the little garment like it was going to illicit an actual response.

Instead, Lou II blinks at him and turns his head away like Carlos isn't even there. What a bastard.

"Okay ... okay," Carlos says, mostly to himself. Pep talk of the year.

"I'm just going to ... pick you up." Carlos gulps, then reaches into Lou II's tank and pulls him out. Fortunately, Lou II doesn't seem to mind. Carlos minds, for sure. But, he's made it this far, he can't back out now.

"Okay, buddy. I'm going to put this on you. And you can't get mad at me because this is for your father, okay? Please don't get mad at me."

Carlos slips the yellow piece of clothing over Lou II's head. He seems okay after that, so Carlos carefully maneuvers Lou II's little arms into the sleeves. This is the part he was really hesitant about; Lou II's arms are so tiny and Carlos fingers are so close to biting distance.

"What are you doing?"

Carlos jumps, almost losing Lou II from his grip. "Jesus, TK!"

"Are you holding Lou II?" TK asks, and Carlos really tries to not be offended by the incredulity he hears in his husband's voice.

"Um, yeah — "

"Is he okay?!"

Carlos thinks he himself is more at risk of not being okay, but whatever, it's fine.

"Yes, yeah, of course!"

"Okay ... so what's going on?" TK starts walking toward Carlos to presumably get a better look at Lou II but Carlos can't have that. He's so close to pulling this surprise off, it can't have been for nothing. "No, don't come over here!"

TK stops in his tracks, eyeing the way Carlos is halfway turned toward TK but keeping Lou II out of his sight. He raises an amused eyebrow.

Carlos sighs. "Just, open that first." He nods to a gift bag on the dining room table.

TK's eyes sparkle. "Oh, baby. You didn't have to get me anything."

"Trust me, I'm kinda wishing I hadn't," Carlos murmurs to himself.

"What was that?" TK asks, but he's already tearing into the gift bag so Carlos doesn't answer him.

TK pulls out a yellow silk pajama set that has white buttons up the front of the shirt.

"Wow, these are beautiful," TK says. "Thank you, Carlos. But —"

"Ok, now the next part," Carlos says.

"There's parts — ?" TK says but stops as soon as Carlos turns around with Lou II in his hand, wearing the exact same yellow silk pajama shirt that TK just pulled the larger version of out of his gift bag.

"Oh. My. God."

"Tada," Carlos says with as much cheer as he can muster. This was his idea but he's ready to be out of ideas and never follow through on them ever again.

TK reaches for Lou II and Carlos is happy to hand him over.

"Aw, who's a handsome little boy?" TK coos at Lou II.

And okay, Carlos has never seen anything cuter. TK, not Lou II. Does he wish that his husband was cuddling his face against a dog instead of a lizard? Yes. But he's adorable nonetheless.

When TK looks up again, there's tears in his eyes.

"Marry me."

Carlos rolls his eyes. "TK, we're already married." Chuckling, he wanders back into the kitchen for the next surprise.

"I know, I know. I just can't believe you did this. You hate Lou II."

"I don't hate Lou II. I bought him pajamas."

"Yeah, you did," TK sighs happily. "Why did you do that again?"

"Oh, you know ... just wanted to do something nice for you, is all."

"Oh?"

Carlos hums an affirmative. He used the last of the tissue paper for the first gift bag, so he grabs the remnants of it from the floor where TK had tossed it in his haste to open the gift.

"Carlos."

"Alright, fine. I ... sawanadonfacebook," he mumbles, stuffing the next bag with the already crumpled tissue paper.

"What was that?" TK asks, but he knows what Carlos said because TK knows him, which is very unfortunate. He's never living this down.

"I saw the add on the Facebook, okay? It got me."

TK chuckles, still cradling Lou II like he's a baby. The pajamas don't help shatter the illusion.

"Here ya go." Carlos hands TK the second gift bag.

"Another one? Carlos, you should really ignore the ads, they're just there to collect your data." But TK's doesn't really seem to care about that because he immediately opens this second bag.

What he pulls out shuts him up entirely.

It's another matching set.

"This is a —"

"Yeah, it is," Carlos finishes for him when TK seems to lose the words.

There's a beat of silence.

Then,

"This is the single best thing you've ever done." TK sounds so serious.

"I've literally solved so many cases, saved a lot of lives," Carlos counters.

"Sure, yeah," TK says.

"And, I married you."

"Mmhmm."

"I hunted down that obscure vintage painting for you."

"You did."

"And, this is the best thing I've ever done?"

"100 percent."

[fitzherbertssmolder]

Cosy Creations

Day 3 - Trick (or the one where Carlos gets replaced by a lizard)

(Requested by @heartstringsduet)

Please do not repost

[carlos-in-glasses]

It's not just that Carlos bought TK a lizard but that he bought him a significantly larger lizard than original Lou.

And this was his face about it:

[alrightbuckaroo]

you, me, and the lizard makes three

1/1 | No Archive Warnings Apply | 6k | For @birdclowns for Tarlos Secret Santa (@tarlos-santa) | Written for the prompt, "tarlos + their lizard boy son" | All the thanks in the world to @heartstringsduet for being my second set of eyes on this one <3

Summary: While TK is away in New York City for a short trip, Carlos is left to care for Lou II, feeding him mealworms and all, until TK gets back. What starts as something that feels akin to pulling teeth ends up becoming an exploration into just how much love Carlos realizes he has to give. Even if he didn't realize it, at first.

“You sure you can handle watching Lou II while I’m gone?” TK asks and Carlos answers with a beat of silence. He glances over at Lou II, who’s casually basking in the lamp light shining over his tank. The faint whine of the line sounds especially loud.  “Of course,” Carlos finally replies, his voice sounding hesitant and unsure. Obviously he should have just assumed that he’d be in charge of Lou II just like he’s in charge of everything else while TK’s away; but somehow, the thought didn’t truly exist to him until it was said out loud.  TK smiles and Carlos swears he can hear it through the line. “You know that means you’re going to have to feed him those crickets and mealworms he loves so much.”  “TK please,” Carlos’ voice sounds stressed and dismayed all at once. “Don’t say it out loud, it just makes it that much worse to think about.

Enjoy a story in which Carlos goes down the "pet he didn't want" to the "pet he can't live without" pipeline, only on AO3 :)

[rosedavid]

9-1-1: Lone Star + pets

[chicgeekgirl89]

Okay but...imagine Tarlos watching this episode.

TK: 😱 BABE.

Carlos: No.

TK: Baby come on!

Carlos: I already bought you one lizard. That is plenty.

TK: But he only has a tank. He deserves to have a space that's entirely his own. What are we going to do when he gets to his teenage years and wants some privacy?

Carlos: 😑 *quietly* I married a lizard man. I made this choice. I did this to myself.

[birdclowns]

petition for lou ii best man

[heartstringsduet]

Ring Bearer

A/N: Just a funny drabble about a scaly ring bearer to channel it for the wedding.

-

“We will not have a lizard be our ring bearer.”

TK pulls out a blue leash from the hanger, one with multiple straps, and holds it up closer to Carlos’ face as if him not seeing it close enough was the problem. “But just imagine how cute it would be to have little Lou II waddle down the aisle, someone holding him on this leash?

"Only you'd call him cute."

Tk frowns. "Not true. The 126 adores him. Nancy called him most handsomest baby in Austin. And I’m sure there’s a way to cutify him further with a tiny flower crown. Not that he'd need it.”

Carlos takes the leash from his fiancés hands and puts it back with a pointed look. “We have a million cute kids in our friend and family circle and you want a lizard to be the ring bearer?” 

Mirroring Carlos' look, TK grabs the leash once again and puts it into the basket Carlos is carrying. “I mean, can we at least think about it?”

With a sigh, Carlos leaves it in but starts walking out of this aisle just in case TK has even more ideas of this kind. “How about Buttercup? Wouldn’t that be cute?”

“Not as adorable as our lizard son.”

"TK, please. We will not have Lou II at our wedding. At all. Sorry, but I'm putting my foot down."

Three weeks later, the little white case with a ring strapped to his back bobs side to side as Lou II walks down the aisle toward them. He's not alone. They have a whole cohort of ring bearers at the ceremony. Jonah is carried on Evie’s hip, and Carlos’ nieces Xenia and Antonina are carried on Izzy’s. One of them holds the leash with Lou II and Buttercup just trots without leash.

It predictably doesn't end well. Lou II walks in the wrong direction right away, Buttercup curiously following him and Nancy has to scoop the lizard up and deposit him on the altar. Paul does his best not to shriek when the bearded dragon is put right in front of him.

TK holds it in for the first few seconds, then laughs until his eyes water. Carlos wipes a tear of his fiancés face. He wipes another one off his husbands face after he slides on the ring he retrieves from Lou II's ring backpack.

He just married a man who talked him into a lizard for a ring bearer. That's love, the kind that needs no leash because it chooses to stay, day after day.

[taralaurel]

TK comes home to find Carlos sleeping on the job. The babysitting job, that is. The Vega twins and Lou II were just trying to be helpful...

Carlos is dead.

Okay, probably not.

But it's the only explanation that makes any logical sense.

The only reason his husband would ever be lying prone on their couch, with Lou II stretched out over his chest.

Read on AO3

@tarlosweeklyprompts (Pride 2023): "Why is Lou II not in his cage?"

[lou-the-lizard]

BROTHER

Well well look who's here!

[thisbuildinghasfeelings]

The mug TK gets for Carlos:

The mug TK gets for himself:

The mug TK hopes Carlos never sees:

[thebumblecee]

The poll isn’t finished yet but birthday girl B wanted Lou II so that’s what she got

Lou II For @wtfuckevenknows

[inkweedandlizards]

Woke up this morning drooling on my tablet, I uh, drew Lou apparently? Gonna have to put my tablet in another room after I take my sleepytime painkillers, lmao.

[reasonandfaithinharmony]

Inspiration Saturday

Thank you for tagging me, @lemonlyman-dotcom and @cold-blooded-jelly-doughnut!

My ability to focus and make progress on any of the items in this scary list of gif sets in progress? Basically zero.

But I will say that discussion of one of them has inspired other apps to keep reminding me to work on it. So please enjoy these items that instagram has regularly been recommending to me in recent days:

As is becoming tradition, I am very late to this game and assume most people have already been tagged. So please consider this an open tag for anyone who happens to see it and wants to play!