Current music:	The Taylor Hanson Band - Hey (From Underneath Acoustic)
Entry tags:	happiness is

Chapter Thirty-Six - Exchanging Gifts

Plaything

Title: Exchanging Gifts (36/??)
Author: so_jayded
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2100
Genre: Hancest



Taylor

We managed to keep our hands off of each other for the whole cab ride and even the elevator ride up to the apartment. We were never really sure if there was a camera in the elevator, but we made a point not to do anything couple-like in there, anyway. It was tough, though, that night. I sorta just wanted to get him naked. It was a pity we had plans.

When Zac finally closed and locked the door to the apartment, I pushed him against it and pressed our lips together in a pretty sloppy kiss. It didn't matter. "I love you," I told him. "Like. A lot. More than I love music. Or everybody else in the world put together."

He chuckled and pushed me away gently. "I love you, too. Should we go get our presents?"

I nodded and made my way down the hall to our bedroom, using the wall to hold me up straight because I kept tripping over the rug. Zac had a hand on my back, like he was trying to steady me without being obvious about it and I think I was a little drunker than I thought I was. I'd hidden Zac's present in the closet, underneath a pile of scarves in an old shoe box. I'd stuffed the box with a bunch of junk - old necklaces, a hat, and apparently a pair of Valentine's Day boxers that had to be eight years old. I tossed them all into the back of the closet and then pulled the tiny present out from the bottom. Then I threw the shoe box and somehow managed to get back on my feet and out of the closet.

Zac was already sitting on the bed, with his present wrapped up neatly in shiny wrapping paper in his hands. He looked so cute just sitting there, staring down at the shiny paper and sometimes looking up at me, waiting for me to wander over and join him on the bed. I really hoped that he liked my present. I liked the little goofy smile he got on his face whenever he liked the things I bought him or made him.

"Get over here," he said and I made my way across the room. He pulled me into his arms as soon as my butt landed on the bed and I leaned up, giving him a little kiss on the chin.

"You wanna go first?" I asked, offering him my little box.

He shook his head. "We should open Ethan's first."

I nodded and watched as Zac pulled Ethan's gift out of my bag and carefully peeled back the paper. Zac pulled the top off of the box and peeked inside, laughed, and handed it to me. I looked down into the box and both my eyebrows shot up. "I have never seen this much lube in my life." I poked through the box and pulled out what I figured was the normal gift - it was in another, smaller box and when I opened it I found a set of wine glasses, engraved with our initials and our anniversary date - July 26th, 1998 - on the base and they were just beautiful. From the base up were swirls of frosted glass and the stems - which were my favourite part - were filled with tiny red glass beads. "Oh. These are. These are just gorgeous." I set it back down in the box carefully, not wanting to break them.

"Not quite as, uh, delicate as his other present," Zac said, snickering at something still hiding in the box. "Tay, he got us handcuffs. And anal beads."

My cheeks heated up and I shook my head. "Way too fascinated with our sex life."

Zac nodded and set the box down on the ground next to the bed before pulling me close again and then kissing the top of my head. "Who's going first?"

I handed him my little box. "Beauty before age," I said with a giggle, and he tickled me.

"How many times do I have to tell you that you're beautiful?"

I shook my head and kissed him. "You're better-looking, and that's just fact."

"No, you think I'm better looking."

"We can take a poll."

"What?"

I shook my head. "Nevermind. Just open it, I'm getting all antsy to see if you like it."

Zac nodded and pulled the box open - I'd wrapped it in such a way that he didn't have to rip the paper off, and it looked so neat that way I was proud of myself for it. He pulled out the cross, a silver pendant on a chain. Hanging behind it, on the same chain, was a little dog-tag looking silver plate that I'd had engraved. He flipped it over and I smiled against his chest, watching his eyes as he read the engraving. Yours in this life and in the next, forever.

"Thank you," he whispered. "I love it." He reached down and tipped my chin up, kissing me softly. I took the necklace from him when we broke apart and clasped it around his neck.

"It looks good on you," I said, kissing his jaw before I settled back down with my head against his chest. "It's my turn?"

He nodded and wordlessly handed me the box. I tore the wrapping paper off and opened it, staring for a second at the bracelet nestled carefully on top of black velvet and then I pulled it out into my hands. It looked platinum, and the front was engraved with little swirls. "This is beautiful, Zac," I whispered and he turned it over in my hands. I read the inscription and smiled at him. "Thank you."

He took it from me and clipped it on my wrist then kissed my palm. "Happy anniversary," he whispered.

"Ten years..." I shook my head and smiled, pulling his face back up to mine and kissing him. "Can you believe it's been this long?"

Zac shook his head and dropped back against the pillows, taking me with him. "Not really. It feels like just yesterday that I was trying to figure out why you were crying every night."

"It was hard to deal with. Even with Ethan to talk to... It still felt like it was hopeless."

He nodded and kissed me again. "It wasn't, though, because it's been a decade and we're both still here, together, and nothing's gonna change that."

I nodded and rubbed my nose against his. "Do you still want to watch the movie?"

"No," Zac whispered. "It's not a priorit... priority."

I giggled against his lips when I kissed him. "Drunky."

"A little," he admitted, before pushing me onto my back and sliding on top of me. "Wanna try out Ethan's presents?" he asked, and if I were sober I would've hidden my face behind my hands but instead I grabbed his shirt collar, pulled him down, and mumbled 'yes' against his skin as I bit down on his neck.

***

Zac woke me up with a tray of pancakes and a glass of orange juice with my coffee. I smiled sleepily and sat up. "What time is it?"

"Almost nine," he said, taking out a fork and digging into his own plate, next to mine on the tray. "Isaac called. He's bringing Tabs by at five, so we're free until then. Anything you want to do?"

I shrugged and took another bite. "We could go shopping again."

Zac groaned and shook his head. "No way, Taylor. Not today. I'm not going to get worn out running after you and then have to run after Tabs later."

Pouting, I took another bite of pancake. "I want to go get knitting supplies," I mumbled around my food and he patted my knee.

"You'll live. You can go on Sunday, or we can go with Tabs when she gets here. C'mon, this is the last little bit of us-time for the rest of the weekend."

I frowned and tapped my finger on my chin. "Maybe we can go over to the studio and record something."

"Are you working on anything?"

I shrugged. I sort of was, but it wasn't something for the album or anything. I wrote songs all the time - some of them were really stupid and some of them were sappy love songs and this one was probably a stupid, sappy love song, but I was in a good mood and I'd woken up thinking about music. "Not really. I just woke up with an idea."

"I'm so not in the mood to go work. And if we don't invite Ike he'll accuse us of, like, having sex on the couch or something." He chuckled and I smiled, because we'd probably had more sex on that couch than in our own bed - the studio was soundproof, and back when we were sneaking around it was the best place to go hide because the door locked from the inside and only Isaac had a key.

"We could make out?"

Zac laughed again. "For, like eight hours?!"

"I don't know! You shot down everything else." It was frustrating because I was basically on the verge of saying fuck it and going to play computer games all day with Princess. We normally didn't have trouble thinking of stuff to do, but we usually weren't trying to do things specifically together. Usually I'd be on the ground or on the couch knitting or scrap booking and Zac would drag his laptop into the living room to do whatever he does, or he'd turn on the XBox or something. Sure, we'd be in the same room, and we'd talk or take breaks to cuddle, but we weren't really interested in the same things.

He sighed. "Do you want to just go see what's On Demand and we'll watch a movie? You can knit, if you want."

I ate the last bite of pancake and nodded, draining my juice after I'd swallowed. "Movies it is. And knitting."

Zac kissed me and picked up the tray to bring it back into the kitchen. I struggled out of the bedsheets and put on a pair of pajama pants, still yawning a little despite my coffee. When I finally made it out to the hallway, Zac was standing in the doorway to the living room with the phone pressed to his ear, making a face.

"For you," he said, handing it to me.

"Hello?"

"Taylor, what the hell were you thinking?!"

I blinked. "Good morning to you, too, Dad. What are you talking about?"

"The website, Taylor."

I bit down on my lip in confusion and then it hit me. Kristy. "She's psychotic, Dad. I can't handle her anymore."

"You basically caused a melt down yesterday, Taylor. Leigh called me at nine and I tried to call your cells, but neither of you answered. What the hell happened?"

I sighed and sat down on the couch with my legs over Zac's knees and he automatically started rubbing my feet. I sighed again - content, this time. "She stalked Zac into the men's room! And me into the fitting room, and then she followed us to the Gap and practically blinded me with her stupid flash and she was inserting herself into our conversation and I really just wanted to buy new pants."

I could almost picture Dad on the other side of the phone, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration and probably wanting to come over and kill me, or something. "What are we going to do about this?"

"Nothing," I replied. "And Zac and I had a wonderful anniversary celebration, thanks for asking. We went to that French place downtown that I love. And he bought me a bracelet and-"

"You are absolutely terrible at changing the subject."

I sighed again and Zac pinched my toe, so I squeaked a little. Dad made a noise on the other end. "Did, uhm, I call at a bad time?"

"No, Zac's just rubbing my feet."

"Look. We can't do nothing about this, Tay. Half the fans are freaking out on her and the other half are wondering if you forgot your medication."

"Would it scare them all away if I replied and said I did forget my medication? I mean, if they think I'm insane they'd be less likely to stalk me."

He was silent for a little while and I was happily stretched out across the couch with Zac's hands still working their magic on my feet when he spoke again. "Look, I'll have Isaac post something to try and clean this up, but next time something like that happens, don't take it to the forums, OK? We'll send her an official e-mail or something."

"Sure," I said. "Can I go back to my movie and my knitting and Zac yet?"

"Go. I'll deal with you on Monday."

I hung up the phone and tossed it on the floor before I sat up and attacked Zac with kisses.

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