Brand New, Full Throttle ☆ Tayvis

and so maybe my home isn't what I had known

By mid-October, it was just starting to get cold in New York City.

Yesterday, Taylor had flown from LA (after attending the hugely supported premiere of The Eras Tour film) back home to support Travis at her third football game, against the New York Jets. As usual, the whole gang were having a pre-game party of sorts, but this time it was at Taylor's townhouse. Travis had helped her prepare some food for everyone, while telling her that yes, she looked perfect, and no, she didn't need to worry about his friends judging anything about her home. He had to head to the stadium before everyone arrived at Taylor's, but she was so excited for him to meet her backup singer and friend, Melanie, and Blake and Blake's sister Robin after the game. They eventually went to the stadium, and Taylor made quick work of introducing her friends to everyone who they hadn't already met at her house.

The Chiefs had beat the Jets by a narrow 23-20, and Taylor waited for Travis up in the suite, but he wasn't as quick to join them as usual. She figured he would just be taking longer to shower and get changed today. Eventually, he called, and Taylor excused herself from her conversation with Aric and Brittany.

"Hey babe, you okay?" She said quickly, once she'd found a quieter spot in the suite.

"Yeah baby, all good. I'm really sorry to keep you all waiting, I've showered and everything already but I just wanna talk to Coach about the game today. I... I kinda feel like I played like shit and I just wanna go over some tape with him for a little while. Is that okay?"

He sounded defeated and it broke Taylor's heart.

"Oh baby, of course that's okay. I'll take the girls back to my place and you can just meet us there when you're done, 'kay? Or will you be a couple of hours?"

"No I'll only be like twenty minutes behind you. I'm so sorry Tay, I know you were so excited for me to meet Blake, I just kind of feel responsible for the way the team was so... I don't know the word. Inharmonious? Is that a word? We just kinda didn't work together well today, so I wanna talk to Andy for a bit, but I'll be home soon, alright?"

Both of them smiled at the fact that he'd called Taylor's house his home. Not that they could see each other's blushes over a phone call.

"That's fine babe, I'll meet you there. But don't beat yourself up so much, okay? You guys have up days and down days, and you still won tonight! I'm sure Andy will tell you this too, but Trav, it's not your responsibility to run the entire team. If you guys aren't working in sync like you normally do, that's not on you." Taylor felt like she had more to say, but she didn't know how to say it, so she just paused. She just wanted to give Travis a big hug and make his worries disappear.

"Thanks beautiful. I, I do know that, rationally. I just kind of struggle to believe it sometimes. And honestly, if we had've versed any other team tonight we would've lost - the Jets just suck. Oh hey, Andy's about to walk in so I'd better go but I'll meet you at home soon, 'kay?"

"Alright nah," Taylor smirked. "Love you lots."

Trav laughed, his usual head-thrown-back belly laugh that had given her butterflies from the first time she saw him. She was happy to have made him laugh, even when he was feeling down.

"Love you too, you word thief. See you soon, babe."

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Blake, Melanie and Robin had been totally fine with meeting Travis a bit later, back at Taylor's place. Plus, none of them were too disappointed that it gave them a little more girl-time.

"It's shows so much about him that he cares about the team like that, though." Blake said, sitting on the floor with her neck resting against Taylor's couch. "In a good way, I mean."