Entry tags:

happiness is

Chapter Twelve - Taylor Wears Red Sexypants

Plaything

Title: Taylor Wears Red Sexypants (12/??)
Author: tumbling_down
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2000
Genre: Hancest



Zac

We ended up staying in bed until well passed sun down. By then I was mostly exhausted, especially after my restless sleep that morning, but I wanted to make sure Taylor got some food in him. It was eight when we finally made it into the kitchen. Taylor went to take care of Princess since we had neglected her for hours by that point, and I got to making us some pasta after I threw away the Arby's bag.

Taylor really wasn't one to eat pasta but I figured that he could use the carbohydrates after not eating all day. I made us pesto and we sat at on the floor in the living room to eat so that Taylor could use his new cat toy to tease Princess and we could finish the DVD from Nassau. Taylor leaned against me once we had finished eating, one of his hands still flicking the plastic rod for Princess while his other found its way into one of mine. "I love you," he sighed happily.

I grinned and kissed him on top of his head. "I love you, too."

"We're going to Isaac's tomorrow for dinner, right?" he asked.

"Mmhmm and he's expecting you to start working with Tabby on Silent Night," I reminded him and he groaned, nuzzling his face into my chest.

"She is not going to want to sit at a piano bench with me and practice," he whined.

I laughed and pinched his sides until he squealed. "Of course she will. You're her favorite uncle."

"Only because I buy her lots and lots of candy," he told me, smiling sheepishly. "I like to bribe children into loving me."

"That um..." I coughed. "That sounded really terrible."

"Oh shut up," he laughed, shoving me a little.

Everything was back to normal and it made me incredibly happy. It never really struck me as weird, how close Taylor and I were, because it had always been like that. But when we had our rare fights and we didn't speak for however long - minutes or hours - sometimes it scared me how upset I was over it. Sometimes I thought maybe we were a little too close. As soon as he was back in my arms, however, the last thing I wanted was to give that up, even if it meant that my happiness depended entirely on him. "I love you so much," I whispered, squeezing him against me tightly.

He dropped the cat toy and wrapped both his arms around me. "I love you too," he said. I didn't even really mind when Princess crawled onto our tangled legs and pawed at our arms until we laughed and broke apart to pay her some attention.

* * * * * * * * * *

I woke up the next morning to find Taylor practically lying on top of me with his mouth attached to my throat. I smiled and pulled him up to me so I could kiss him. "What are you doing up so early?" I asked, glancing at the clock and seeing that it was nine.

"I couldn't sleep," he admitted, snuggling his face against my neck. "Princess woke me up at four and I've just been up."

"Doing what?"

He shrugged the shoulder he wasn't lying on. "Watching you," he said quietly.

I laughed and rolled us over so I had him pinned to the bed and attacked his mouth with mine. "Mmphengoo," he mumbled around the kiss and then he giggled when I pulled away and looked down at him, confused.

"What?"

"Gabe called and I kind of told him we'd meet him for breakfast at nine thirty," he said with his dont-be-mad-at-me smile.

I groaned and completely covered him with my body, burying my face in his neck. "You suck at life," I informed him.

"Mmhmm."

"I was planning on molesting you," I informed him, slowly crawling out of bed. "And then I was going to-"

He grabbed my waist from behind and pulled me back down to the bed. "You're so mean," he muttered into my ear, wrapping his legs around my waist so that his feet gripped my knees.

"You're the one that scheduled a nine thirty breakfast," I reminded him, standing up even with him still attached to my back.

I carried him all the way to the bathroom before I deposited him onto the counter next to the sink so that I could brush my teeth. He left me alone after that and once I was semi-clean and dressed, I went into the living room to find him lying on the couch with the kitten on his stomach. "She's not coming with us," I warned him, sitting down to put my shoes on.

"I know that," he said. "She feels neglected after yesterday."

"I bet she does."

"I was mean to her while you were gone," he admitted quietly. "I'm trying to make sure she doesn't hate me."

"Why were you mean to her?" I asked.

He put the kitten onto the floor and stood up with me, taking my hand in his and pulling me towards the door. "I told her it was all her fault that you left."

"You realize cats have, like, a three minute memory, right?"

He turned around and glared at me. "That is so mean."

"What?" I laughed, dropping his hand as we left the apartment. "It's true."

"So the whole time that we're gone, she doesn't remember who we are or if we're coming back, or whatever?"

"What?" Sometimes the way Taylor's thought process worked seriously made me feel like I was running around in circles.

"How does she remember to use the litter box? Or where her food is? Or that I'll play with her if she wakes me up at four in the morning?"

"Um...maybe she...they...I don't fucking know, Tay," I laughed, following him out of the complex. "Do I look like a cat?"

"You are so not as cute as Princess," he informed me and I kind of had to agree with him there.

We were quiet for the first five minutes of the ride to Waffle House before Taylor turned to me and said, "You know I was kidding, right? I totally think you're a million times cuter than the cat, Zac."

"Okay," I said because there really wasn't much else for me to say. I hadn't really been thinking about it, just keeping my mind on the road and Taylor's grip on my knee and Janis Joplin on the radio.

"I'm serious," he said and I glanced at him and smiled at the pout on his face. "I think you're the cutest thing ever, okay?"

I laughed but nodded my head, squeezing the hand that he had on my leg. "Okay."

We got to Waffle House a little late and found Gabe already seated in a booth, menu propped up in front of him. We slid into the seats across the table and he put down the menu and smiled. "Long time no see," he said.

"Yeah." Taylor pressed his leg against mine and I looped my foot around his ankle. "We've just kind of been like...taking it easy since tour ended."

"Lots of sleep has been needed," I added, grabbing my own menu and looking through it. Taylor didn't bother picking one up, he'd just eat some of what I ordered if I fed it to him, which was fine with me.

"What, can you not have sex while you're on the road?" Gabe asked.

The way Taylor's ears turned pink made me smile stupidly at him while he glared at our friend. "Shut up," he muttered. "It's not about that."

"We don't really get to spend a lot of time just us when we're on the road," I said. "Since, like, only the people who work for us consistently even know..."

"You could still call your faithful friends once in a while," Gabe said with a smile. He wasn't mad, we had this conversation after every tour, but Taylor and I both knew that we really needed to work on our social skills sometimes. We were always so content to be just the two of us that sometimes we forgot that other people sometimes liked to be around us, too. And once we were around those people, we usually realized that we missed them as much as they missed us.

Once we were finished with breakfast, Taylor humored me and we went over to Gabe's house to play some Halo 3. By 'we' I mean me and Gabe. Taylor fell asleep mostly in my lap and didn't wake up until six hours later when I got a little too into the game and tried to stand up. He woke up sprawled out on the floor, glaring at me. "You broke me," he muttered while I hauled him back up onto the couch apologizing. Then he glanced at the clock. "Oh my god, Zac. It's almost five."

"Is it?" I asked, not really paying attention because Gabe had turned the game back on.

"We're -- Isaac's -- six?"

"Uh huh."

"Are -- me?" I was vaguely aware that there was a level of annoyance in his tone but I was really in game mode and I could not concentrate on what he was saying.

"Sure thing."

"Zac?"

"Huh?"

"PAY ATTENTION TO ME!" he screamed and I jumped, turning to look at him wide eyed.

"What?" I asked, putting the controller next to me. I flipped Gabe off when he snickered from his spot next to me on the couch.

"You have been playing video games for like six hours, Zac."

"Yes..."

He sighed and rolled his eyes, standing up from the couch. "We have to be at Isaac's at six and you still have to shower."

"Oh, right."

We said goodbye to Gabe and left and I couldn't help but laugh at the way Taylor's eyes kept narrowing and his hands went to his hips any time I wasn't moving fast enough for his liking. "It's not like it's that big of a deal if we're late," I said as we headed back to the apartment.

"We're always late," Taylor groaned. "And we haven't seen Tabby in, like, two weeks."

If I had to be totally honest, there was one thing that Taylor hated about our relationship and I don't think he'd deny it if asked. We'd never really talked about it because, really, what could we do? But Taylor loves kids as much as he loves music. Hell, he probably loves kids as much as he loves me. There's just absolutely no logical way for the two of us to go about first obtaining a child and then bringing it up together. Especially with the way our fans behaved, it would just be a mess. So, generally we tried to see Tabitha at least once or twice a week, but sometimes it just didn't work out.

"I know, I'll take a really fast shower, okay?" I promised, reaching across the seat so I could squeeze his fingers between mine.

"I wanted to take a shower with you," he pouted. "But you had to go all..."

"You looked like you needed the sleep anyway, Tay," I said, letting go of his hand and working my fingers through his hair, instead. "You can't tell me you slept well the other night and you were up at four this morning?"

"Still. I am not done with you after being apart from you yesterday."

I laughed as I pulled into our parking garage, giving his hair a little tug. He squirmed in his seat until we were both unbuckled and he could kiss me, nice and soft before we were out of the car and in view of the complexes security cameras. "We've got plenty of time after we have dinner at Ike's," I promised.

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