TNT Short Fics

The life we've made

It happens slowly, then all at once. He is standing in the yard and you are at the kitchen window looking out. You haven't known each other long but it feels like you've known him for a lifetime. His friends are spread out around the firepit laughing as they do most nights after games and you see nights just like this stretched out before you. Throughout the fall, across the year, and into the rest of your life. The sound of his laughter breaks through the din and you look up from where you are gathering the cookies you'd made and lock eyes with him through the open window. He smiles that smile that takes up his whole face and crinkles the corners of his eyes.

And you realize, "Here is the rest of my life. It's finally arrived."

The music changes at that moment to something slower. Something more meaningful. And it's there that you know. This is where you're meant to be. You are meant to know this man. The future plays out before you. Midnight kisses and french toast on Sundays and playing the guitar as he rubs your feet, and his hand in yours. Always, his hand in yours. And it's so light years beyond anything you've ever felt that you know you can never return. But more importantly, as you look into his eyes and you see the determination there, you see the contentment. You know you won't have to.

You're in for the most beautiful life you can imagine.

A year later, life does not disappoint. Not like it has in the past. You two have weathered trials. The lowest of lows. He's sat with you on the bathroom floor as you've cried over the heart another man broke. He's stayed up with you all night on the phone as you sobbed over the loss of life of a fan. You've steadied your hand on his back when the backfire of a car in Sydney hit a little too close to home after the Super Bowl parade. You've gathered him up in your arms when he was disappointed in a tough loss at Christmas. And you held each other when something you both didn't know you wanted so badly until the test said negative didn't come to pass.

And you've lived the highest highs. Basked in the chant of his name as you both walked across the field after a tough victory in Baltimore. Danced together into the night in a Las Vegas nightclub. He's cheered you on after every take, every shot of the Fortnight video and you've snuck into a livestream in the middle of the night just to get a glimpse of the joy of his team celebrating their feat. You've laughed your way across the stage together in a city you thought was lost to you forever. And you've giggled as you snuck out of the house with both your families sleeping after a home game to float together in the pool on an unseasonably warm October night. You've looked out into the sea of faces night after night and found his beaming back at you—from a balmy November night in Argentina to a chilly fall day in the Midwest, there he's been, shining just for you.

You sometimes marvel at how much life you've lived this past year. How for years the world seemed grey and one-dimensional and then you stepped into this life with him and suddenly, all the colors burst forth. Stars exploded around you as you both found exactly where you were supposed to be. Your life together is a supernova. An explosion of color and light and life. God so much life. You can see it stretching before you in ways you never could have imagined on that first summer night.

The night after his last show, you retreat to the hotel. Indianapolis is just one more city you've been to in the past 20 months, but every one he's been in with you is special. You look out of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the suite, across a town that some might dismiss but you see the beauty in the sparkling sprawling skyline, in the winding canal through the landscape. You think of catching his expression as you sang of always choosing him, the one you never thought you meet in this chaos after so much heartache. The one who changed everything. That alone makes this city special.

He comes up behind you and drops a kiss to your shoulder. You really should change. The edges of the costume are starting to rub red marks under your arms and your feet hurt in ways you know will haunt you tomorrow when you get back up on that stage. But something keeps you here, not ready to move because he's here once more with you in this life. In this fishbowl in ways no one else ever has been.

But then you turn and meet his eyes and you know this won't be the last time. He'll be here for all the nights just like this in the future. Past this tour. Past this season. He'll be the one to do exactly what he does now. Carefully reach behind you to unzip the sweat-soaked costume. Drop it down your sides before kneeling to unzip your boots and discard them one by one. He looks up at you with a soft smile as he pulls the tights down your leg and smoothes his thumb across the mark at your hip where the fabric sometimes digs in. He turns you and unzips the last layer of fabric and kisses the middle of your back, then a shoulder, then your neck as he stands. He wraps his arms around you and grounds you back here with him and you look out once more.

The stars are out. Way up here above the other buildings you can see the stars bright around you and you wonder just exactly what ones aligned to put you both right here in this moment together. You want to know so badly but also you know it doesn't matter. All that matters is you and him here.

You turn back again and take his hand, pulling him towards the bathroom with you. You'll let him wash your hair and run soap across your tired body before he wraps you in towels and leads you to bed to tangle your bodies together, just like you always do the nights you are together.

And tomorrow you'll wake up to soft kisses across your cheeks and whispers of love as he dresses quietly to head back to work. And you'll stay here to finish out your shows but soon follow him home.

Home, where there is laughter and there is music. And there is the most beautiful life you can imagine.

AN: Hello, I have not disappeared. But it turns out terrible election results will kill any motivation to write. But here I am!

This is just a little something to get the words flowing again. I have some things in progress so hopefully we'll get more on track.

I wrote this inspired by a random Pinterest pin. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/115686284173518212/ I have no idea where this quote came from (google didn't help). But I loved it and it reminded me so much of Travis and Taylor:

He is standing in the yard. I am in the kitchen window. There is laughter and there is music. -The most beautiful life I can imagine.