TNT Short Fics

3 AM and I'm still awake - Part 4

4. In sickness

Taylor opens her eyes and sees Planes, Trains, and Automobiles playing upside down. Disoriented, she sits up. As the room spins, she realizes she fell asleep on the chaise part of the sofa with her head at the foot.

Now facing the sofa, she clocks the reason she is awake. Travis is dead to the world asleep with his head and shoulders on her feet. She feels pinpricks tingling all through her legs where they have gone numb.

She flops back once more. She feels too awful to move and feels too bad for Travis to wake him up to move seeing as he's just as sick as she is, maybe more.

She hears a raspy, ruined voice near her feet, "I'm never speaking to Wyatt ever again, Tay."

"I don't think that is true, babe," she replies, pulling her feet out from under him. They'd got home from Easter weekend and by that evening, Kylie had texted that Wyatt was sick and hoped she hadn't passed on anything. Unfortunately, she had.

He sits up and peers down over her. His cheeks are bright red.

"My throat feels like shards of glass, so yeah her and her preschool germs are on my list."

"You don't have a list, and she'll have you wrapped back around her finger by next week."

He sighs, knowing she's right. "I feel like shit."

"I know. I do too," she agrees. "I think the entire left side of my face is stuffed up."

"Oh, I know it is," he retorts, leaning back against the couch. "I sleep next to you. The snores that are happening."

"Excuse you!" she exclaims. "We said we'd never speak of that again! I'm not bringing up the snot incident from yesterday am I?"

He gives her a withering look at that. "That's ruthless, Taylor."

They lay quietly for a few minutes before he asks, "What time is it anyway?"

She fishes her phone off the floor and taps to see the screen. "2:11."

"Morning or night?" he questions, eyes closed.

It's bad that she has to squint over at the French doors to determine the answer.

"AM. We should go to bed."

"Nope, not moving," he replies, turning to drape his large frame across the length of the sofa once more. "Come up here with me."

"We'll regret it in the morning," she admonishes.

"I don't think I could feel worse than I do now so I'm not worried about tomorrow. If you come up here, I'll rub your back."

Taylor cannot say no to that and he knows it. She crawls up and rests in front of him. She's glad she went with a deep-seated sectional when she redid this room. Otherwise spooning up to her 6'5 football player boyfriend would be impossible.

He runs his hand down her back and up under her t-shirt, before pressing his thumb down on her shoulder blade. She feels the knot in her muscle release almost instantly under his hands.

"How do you feel?" he asks.

"Terrible," she answers. "Luckily, I still don't have a sore throat like you do."

"That's because the universe knows better than to mess with the music industry's voice before her massive world tour starts back up in a few weeks."

"Or," she counters, "The music industry has been drinking tea with honey, just like she told someone else to try."

"Tea is so gross, Tay," he whines.

"You're ridiculous," she responds, reaching behind her to run her hand back across his head, pressing hard to his neck once she's there.

"Absolute garbage water," he murmurs leaning into her touch. "That feels nice."

"Sleep, Travis," she says, trailing off as the repetitive sweep of his hand back and forth lulls her to sleep.

A/N: The final two chapters are in the works but not finished so there may be a lull in finishing this. But I do have another story to post later this week.