the stars in your eyes | t.s. one shots

after the game

Taylor's already standing up when the time on the clock runs out. She's pushing across the row of her friends when finally, her mom notices. "Tay, where are you going?"

"Down to the locker room," she says. "I want to go see Trav and tell him I'm proud of him."

That's answer enough for Andrea, who turns back to the commotion unfolding in front of her, watching confetti swirl through the air. Of course she's upset that the Chiefs didn't win, but that's the nature of the game. Sometimes, the team you're rooting for wins, and sometimes, the team you're rooting for loses. Taylor and Travis will be taking it a lot harder than she is.

But as Taylor is climbing up the steps of the suite, she walks past Donna, who wraps her fingers around the young woman's wrist. "Tay, I need to talk to you. Come." She joins Taylor in climbing the final few stairs and pulls her into a corner of the suite, somewhere quiet where just the two of them can talk. Taylor's a bit confused- that's evident by the way her eyebrows are knitted together and she's playing with her fingers as she stands against the wall. "Travis... when he loses big games like this... he doesn't always want to see the people he loves. Sometimes, he just wants to take the time to cool off first. He takes it really hard, especially as a team leader. He has ever since he was a kid. I just... think that maybe, you should wait for him to come to you."

The Chiefs haven't had a big loss like this since Taylor entered into Travis's life. Sure, they've lost regular season games, ones that Travis wished he would have won. Their first Christmas as a couple comes right to Donna's mind when she thinks of those games. But as for playoffs, and of course last year's Super Bowl... those have all been victories. Taylor might be seeing a new side of Travis tonight, and it's probably not his best side. Not because he's a sore loser... no, exactly the opposite. He blames himself when things go badly, even when everyone can see that it wasn't his fault.

Taylor sighs, running her hand through her hair as a sad smile rests on her face, thinking about what Donna has said. She takes a moment, carefully selecting her words so as to not hurt the older woman's feelings. "I really appreciate that, Donna. Travis and I talked about what he wanted me to do if they didn't win and he said he wanted to see me in the locker room where we'd have a bit more privacy, instead of in front of the whole suite. I promised him I'd be there and I really want to uphold that promise."

Donna is surprised that they made that plan. Not only is she surprised that Travis wanted Taylor to come to him, but that they even had that discussion. Travis doesn't often like to think about the "what ifs" of a big game like this, about what it's going to feel like if he doesn't make it to the mountain top. And she tells Taylor this.

"I know," the singer nods. "Um, we had a big discussion about it in therapy last week. She asked Travis and I to make a plan for what was going to happen, win or lose. He was really feeling the pressure for a three peat and... well, I'm glad that we talked about it."

Donna's eyes widen as she looks at the woman standing in front of her. She's nervous, hearing that word. Therapy. The only times she's ever experienced it were when she was going through her divorce and when Travis had his incident in college. The counseling was to overcome pre-existing issues. She hopes Taylor and Travis don't have those. They seems so happy on the outside. "Are you guys alright? I didn't know you were going to therapy..."

"Oh my god, we're literally perfect," Taylor nods, answering quickly. She can see a wave of relief washing over the older woman at her words and continues on. "That's why we're going to therapy. I asked him to. It was probably a year ago now, when we were starting to get out of that happy, new couple, honeymoon phase and things started to feel a lot more serious. I told him I was worried about myself and my own habits after the way that my last relationship deteriorated and that I loved him too much to let that happen again. We originally just wanted to make sure we had a strong foundation but we both really liked it. It's really nice to just go in every other week and take that time to have a good heart to heart, make sure that we're caught up on what's happening inside of each other's brains." She pauses. "I'm sorry. I thought that you knew."