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

serenity

"Trav," Taylor squeals as she wriggles around in her boyfriend's arms, "come on! We've got to leave to meet Gracie and Paul in an hour. We can't do this right now." They've been snuggled up on the sofa all morning, enjoying tea and scones and watching TV. The rain is lightly pattering outside, and they've been watching it hit the windowpane, obstructing the view of the open field stretched ahead of them.

Their morning has been all about quiet, all about cozy. The love that the two of them share. Right now, he's tickling her ribs and covering her face, neck, and collarbone in kisses. Normally, she would love it. She still secretly does, but she's trying to get away from him so that she can go start on her makeup. They've got lunch plans and can't be late.

"What are you wearing out, hon?" he asks, taking his lips off of her skin for a moment to speak.

"I'm wearing that emerald green cropped sweater that you got me for Christmas with jeans. Probably my navy blue Adidas, I think, and my long black raincoat," Taylor says, moving Travis's hand as it sneaks down to try to find her bum. "And that is going to have to wait until after we're home."

He groans, but she knows he's just teasing. "How am I supposed to wait that long?"

Taylor only rolls her eyes and nuzzles her head against his chest, letting him rest his chin on her hair. A final stolen moment of cuddles. "I think you'll manage, big guy. Now..." After one more deep breath, inhaling the comfortable and familiar musk of his cologne, she pushes herself off of the sofa. "I'm going to go and get ready. You can join me if you want, but hands to yourself." She throws a cheeky wink at him before heading off, leaving Travis to his own devices.

After a quick wash of her face in the bathroom, Taylor pats her skin dry with a towel and sits down at her dressing table, tucking her legs up beneath her. She flicks on the lighted mirror and starts to prep her skin for makeup. Then, the door to the bedroom creaks open and Travis slinks into the room. He walks up and places his hands on her shoulders; she smiles at him through the mirror, a makeup brush resting between her fingertips. "Beautiful," he says quietly, placing a kiss to the top of her head. "I'm going to take a quick shower, alright?"

Taylor nods and he leaves the room, leaving her to finish up her makeup. She doesn't mind that, as he quite likes to smudge it around with his sloppy kisses. To fill the silence of the room aside from the trickling of the shower in the background, Taylor calls out to her smart speaker to turn on some music. She's finished up just as Travis opens up the door to the en suite and comes back in, only donning a towel around his waist.

"Hey," she smiles at him. She wants so badly to walk over and start running her hands up and down his bare chest, but she also knows that that'll escalate quickly and they'll just wind up late for lunch, so she just starts to rifle through her closet looking for her sweater. It isn't long before they're both all changed and ready to go- just in time. Taylor laces up her shoes and slips her hand into her boyfriend's. "Come on, we don't want to keep them waiting." With her free hand, she grabs the car keys off of the hook on the wall and heads for the door.

After the Super Bowl went the way that it did, Travis was left pretty down in the dumps. He'd always said that he'd play until the wheels fell off... but he didn't know that it would happen so quickly. In the course of a few hours, as the matter of fact, he felt everything that he'd worked for for so many years slipping away from him. And sure, everyone has off days. It could have just been that. But somehow, it felt bigger than just an off day. It was more discouraging, especially as he felt pain creaking through his bones within an hour of the game being over. It's like his body was finally allowing him to feel all of it, everything that he'd shoved away for the whole season.

So as of late, he's been trying to figure it all out... if it really was just an off day, or if he just doesn't have the physical or mental capacity to go back.