wonderstruck - tayvis oneshots

sleepless nights

When Travis woke up in the middle of the night something felt wrong. Turning around to face the other side of the bed he stretched out his arms, looking for the girl who had fallen asleep in his arms a few hours ago. But she wasn't there, the bed was empty. Opening his eyes he slowly sat up, looking around. She wasn't in the bathroom, there was no light coming out from the little crack under the door like it would if she was in there.

He was used to this. Waking up in the middle of the night because Taylor was missing and then finding her either in her music room, her office or in the kitchen, trying to deal with her insomnia. Over the past year he had realized that although he was indeed able to fall asleep alone, it was so much easier when she was with him. When he had Taylor in his arms he always slept longer and deeper and ever since he had gotten her back after she had finished the European leg of the Eras Tour two weeks ago, they hadn't spent a single night not somehow touching each other. Whether he was holding her in his arms or they were just holding hands because it had gotten too warm, they were always touching. And now her touch was missing and he had somehow woken up from it.

He had learned that Taylor sometimes struggled with insomnia, which left her with entire sleepless nights from time to time. Usually he was able to get her to try to go back to sleep, most of the times successfully. But he had a feeling that tonight was different. After she had gotten back she had been so exhausted that she had slept for ten to twelve hours during the first few nights. But now that she was getting back some energy it seemed logical that she also had more time to think, to overthink and to worry. Leaving her sleepless.

Getting out of bed he put on his slippers and shuffled out of their bedroom. The hallway was dark and quiet as he went down the stairs. She wasn't in the kitchen. She wasn't in the living room. So it was either the music room or her office. He decided to check the music room first, maybe she had just woken up because of a melody that had been stuck in her head, needing to try it out or she had come up with a snippet of a lyric and was working on that.

Walking down the dark hallway he still couldn't hear anything. She wasn't playing or singing. But there was light coming out from under the door to her room. Very slowly and quietly he opened the door since she might have fallen asleep and he didn't want to wake her. But when he finally spotted her on the couch she wasn't asleep. She had her journal open on her lap and was chewing on the end of a pencil while staring off into space. "Tay?" he asked carefully, not wanting to startle her. But he didn't get any reaction. She seemed to be so deeply caught up in her thoughts that she didn't seem to notice him at all.

"Taylor?" he tried again, taking a few steps towards her before sitting down on the couch next to her. She still didn't seem to acknowledge his presence and that worried him. He didn't know if he should touch her, not wanting to just rip her out of whatever world she was in. He didn't want to scare her, knowing how easily she could be startled and how easily she could get nightmares because of it. That was also something he had learned over the past year. Whenever something would come up, an issue with security, a suspected stalker, an arrested stalker, everything that had happened in Europe, it caused her nightmares. He had experienced it himself. He had woken up to her crying in her sleep, he had calmed her down while she had panic attacks after waking up from horrifying dreams.

When they had first started dating and she had warned him about everything that came along with being part of her live and he had always reassured her that it was okay and that he didn't care about the security risk that came along with dating her as long as that would mean he could be with her. And even after experiencing it firsthand how dangerous and scary her life could get, he hadn't changed his mind. She was all worth it. But he had realized that it also came along with a lot of worrying about her. He didn't really mind having a bodyguard with him everywhere he went and although it was scary getting death threats the only thing that really, deeply upset him was when it concerned his girl. When Tree first called him, explaining to him that the Vienna shows had been cancelled because of a plotted terrorist attack his heart had legitimately stopped for a second. He loved Taylor, more than he had ever loved anyone else in his entire life and the thought of losing her was unbearable.