Bigger Than The Whole Sky ☆ Jaylor

Chpt. 2 - Our London future

October 2nd, 2022.

The first thing I heard as my brain fought my eyelids to open was a heartbeat. A heartbeat that had become one of my favorite sounds. Joe. I batted my squinty eyelids as I woke up more, and smiled when I found his body directly below mine, with his arms wrapped around me and my arms wrapped around him. I heard another one of my favorite sounds, his amused little chuckle, and buried my face into his chest. His hands ran a soft pattern up and down my bare back, and I felt his core muscles tense as his head reached up to kiss my scalp. The overwhelming amount of love filled the room, and the air around us felt lighter than ever before. God, I would do anything for this man.

"Good morning, Lovey," He said, his voice croaking a little.

"Morning babe. I love you." I mumbled in reply, rolling off him onto my cooler side of the bed. "Was I on you the whole night?"

"Yeah, you slept like a baby. It was very cute." He smiled so purely and genuinely, showing his little dimples that he only allows me to see.

"Sorry," I laughed, "How did you sleep?"

"So well. I swear the smell of you is like some kind of drug that calms every dream I've ever had." He explained, making me giggle.

"Alright you poet. We'd better get started, what time is it?" He groaned and rolled over to his bedside-table, to check the time on his phone.

"8:42. We can lay in bed for another... day, or two." He mumbled before cuddling up to my chest again.

"Nope, we're moving in tonight, we've got to unpack 74 billion cardboard boxes." I insisted, slowly sitting up and stretching my back. I kissed his forehead before getting out of bed, on my side. "My legs really hurt" I said to him, smirking.

"Kind of sounds like you're blaming me for that" Joe teased, slowly climbing out of bed and wrapping his arms around my still-naked shoulders from behind me.

"Oh, I'm completely blaming you," I agreed, not even joking. "I don't really mind though, last night was incredible."

Joe kissed the back of my shoulder and mumbled into my skin. "I love you so much, Taylor. I just... I love you."

I twisted in his arms to face him, put my hands on his face and kissed him as lovingly as I could. After a minute or so, we both pulled away to breathe, and I rested my forehead on his. "I love you more than you could even know." I whispered, so quiet he could only just hear.

We both got dressed into sweatpants and hoodies, as it was a cold morning, and walked out to the kitchen hand-in-hand. Joe lead me over to the counter and told me to sit down. I knew he loved treating me like a princess, so I sat on a barstool, rested my chin my hands and lovingly watched my man make pancakes from the ready-made mix we'd found at Camden markets yesterday. I offered to help with the pancakes but he refused, like I knew he would, so I set the table and made our coffees instead.

"Lovey, we got strawberries right?" He asked, looking in the bag of unpacked groceries from yesterday.

"Ummmmm, I kinda already ate them, sorry," I said with a giggle.

"Aww, I was going to put strawberries inside yours for you!" He said, laughing with me.

"I can go get some if you want?" I asked, knowing that I absolutely could not. I could after putting on 20 minutes of makeup, actual clothes and sunglasses that cover my face, but not right now. I also knew Joe knew that I was just asking out of politeness.

Joe shook his head. "No, it's alright, we can have... raspberries?" He asked, holding them up when he found them, as if I didn't know what a raspberry was.

"Thanks babe."

The pancakes were really good. Like, really good. Usually the pre-made mixes aren't that great, but these ones were amazing. We ate at the cute table on the balcony again, because we couldn't see any paparazzi in the park. Honestly, I couldn't bring myself to care this morning. Joe fed me little pieces of his pancakes that he drenched in lemon juice and we had a swordfight with our knives. I established that raspberry and maple syrup do not taste good together, and Joe kissed the taste out of my mouth for me. He tasted a lot better.

We cleared the table and Joe stacked the dishwasher as I checked my emails: Questions about Midnights from my label and management, some requests from companies for brand deals, and a few trillion letters from fans, which I love receiving but there's like, a lot to go through. I reply standard "I'll get back to you" messages to the business emails and individual but generic responses to the fans, which I'll get my PR team to print and send with signed Midnights vinyl, CD's and merch. One part of releasing a new album is signing (what feels like) 400 trillion copies, so Joe helped me sign some, adding "WB" and adding little mustache drawings to my face. Manchild.

Pretty soon he's done with the dishes and I feel bad for not helping but he is quick, as always, to remind me that I am super busy right now and he's just helping however he can.

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After probably 50,000 cardboard boxes had been moved from one house to the other, we were officially moved in. We had unpacked everything we would need immediately and decided to unpack everything else over the next few days, but there wasn't much work left to do.

The house was gorgeous, bright and spacious. The kitchen was flooded with sunlight and ivy was growing up the cabinets. The whole area felt modern and contemporary, but also like a cozy cottage in some mystical forest. Plus, there were no other houses in sight so we felt all alone. In our own little paradise together.

My legs felt tired and heavy as I stumbled over to the red couch, the one from the Lover music video that I'd insisted we keep, and flopped down on my back. Joe chuckled as he sat beside me, lifted my right leg and started taking off my sneakers. I'm not really sure why I was actually wearing shoes, but my worn-out feet felt so much better once he started massaging them. After a few minutes, he ran his hand over my clothed stomach, then pulled the hem of my shirt up, just enough to run his hands across the bottom of my ribcage. I chuckled; he knows exactly how to get what he wants.

He must have read my mind and said: "I'm not trying to get into your pants, love, you're just beautiful." Ugh, how this man is so romantic?

"You know you have permanent residence in my pants, babe" I flirted back, as he gently kissed my hip bones in a way that drives me crazy. He definitely knows how to get what he wants.

Just as I'm about to suggest skipping dinner entirely and eating each other instead, Meredith starts obnoxiously meowing for her own dinner, and I groan "You're like ten years old, get it yourself!"

Joe stands before I can, and kisses my forehead, then starts asking Mer if she wants her dinner as they walk down the hall towards the laundry, where I keep the cat food for some reason.

"Awwww, you're such a good dad to our cat-kids" I joke, having to shout a little so he can hear me, still on the couch. He pokes his head out of the laundry door and says, with the most loving, pure smile, "Practicing for our human-kids."

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just a cute, fluffy filler chapter. Trust me... things are about to happen.

feedback and comments are sooo appreciated xoxo

- Phe -