Warnings: Angst
Word Count: 1982
Author's Note: I hope you enjoy this one! :)
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You woke up before Tyler the next morning. He had flipped onto his stomach sometime during the middle of the night so his face was now pressed up into the pillow, smushing his cheek up. One of his arms was outstretched, so that his fingers were just barely brushing against your forearm. You took a moment to admire him resting until a pang of sadness shot through your chest. Although you two had slept in the same bed the night before, you knew that the issues between you two were far from resolved.
You quietly got out of bed and crept towards the door, not wanting to wake Tyler. Your plan was to make a nice breakfast for the two of you as a sort of peace offering and then the two of you could talk things out while you ate. After spending some time thinking about the entire situation yesterday, you finally felt like your head was clearer and you could say the things you needed to say, as well as apologize for the expectations you had placed on him.
You turned the radio on to a low volume before you started to gather ingredients to make some french toast for you and Tyler. The familiar feeling of loneliness was beginning to creep in, but you reminded yourself that Tyler was only upstairs asleep, not out at meetings for the millionth time that week. He had gone to bed at a reasonable time last night, so it wouldn't be long before he joined you downstairs. If you were lucky, he might even be up before you finished cooking.
Tyler did eventually wake up and come downstairs, right as you were cooking the last few pieces of french toast. His hair was still a ruffled mess from sleeping, but he had taken the time to throw on a t-shirt over his sweatpants. It was loose enough that you could just see his chest tattoo peeking out above the collar. He rubbed at his eyes as he shuffled over and took a seat in one of the stools.
"Good morning."
"Morning," he mumbled. His voice was still hoarse from sleep.
"How did you sleep?"
"No nightmares."
"That's good."
Tyler nodded slowly.
"Um, so I was thinking that we could talk through everything that happened yesterday while we eat breakfast," you said, nervously pushing the piece of french toast around the pan. "There's a lot of things that I need to say."
"Me too."
A chill ran down your spine, nearly making you shiver. Your mind was already preparing you for the worst.
"You can start serving yourself. I'll join you at the table in a second."
Tyler stood up and grabbed two plates from the cabinet, leaving one to the side for you. He piled his plate up with french toast and fruit, grabbed a Red Bull from the fridge, and walked off to the dining room. You cooked the rest of the french toast as quickly as you could, eager to have a conversation with him so that you could soothe some of your anxieties. Or at least, that's what you hoped would happen.
The only thing Tyler had done by the time you joined him at the table was popped open his Red Bull and taken a couple sips. You had tried on multiple occasions to get him to stop drinking energy drinks with breakfast, but he was insistent that it was no different than having coffee. It was a losing battle.
"Where do you want to start?" Tyler asked. You barely even had time to pick up your fork.
"Um, well, I guess I want to start by apologizing for the things that I said yesterday. You were right, I was being selfish and I shouldn't have implied that you don't care about me, because I know that you do. It had just been a long day and I was frustrated and I said a lot of things that I didn't mean."
You sat frozen in place, waiting for whatever Tyler was going to say. This was the moment that you had been dreading.
"I'm sorry too. I got defensive instead of listening to what you had to say and that wasn't fair to do. It's not my place to tell you that what you're feeling is wrong just because it's hard for me to hear."
You almost started crying because you were so relieved to hear that Tyler was sorry too. The night before, you had managed to convince yourself that this was finally the end of your relationship. It was by far one of the hardest nights of your life, especially since you didn't have Tyler there to comfort you.
"I just hope you know that I do recognize how hard you are trying to make time for me and I need to be more appreciative of that. You're dealing with a lot right now and while I try to be as supportive as I can, I know I fall short sometimes."
Tyler nodded, "I do think that's something that you could work on, but I also think that I need to work on spending time with you and not talking about the band the entire time, either. And I could definitely be better about multitasking when I am working. I have a bad habit of getting too focused on what I'm doing."
"I agree."
Tyler smiled and reached an arm out across the table. You placed your hand in his and squeezed.
"Also, I want to apologize for saying I wish things were like when we were 21 again. Yes, I do miss those days when we were kids sometimes, but we aren't kids anymore. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in that and I forget to appreciate all the things that we get to do together now as adults. I'm so proud of you and everything you've done, Ty, and I'm incredibly happy with the place that we're at now, not where we were five years ago."
"Me too."
"So are we ok?"
"Yes, and I think we both have some things that we plan to work on," Tyler said.
"Definitely," you nodded. "I still feel really bad about how I acted."
"You don't need to, Y/N. We were both tired and frustrated and acted out of emotion, but we've talked through it and figured out what to do from here on out."
"I just..." It was hard to talk around the lump forming in your throat. "I'm terrified of losing you."
Your breaths started to get shaky and uneven as you fought back tears. Tyler took notice of this and immediately stood up so that he could join you on the other side of the table. He pulled over a chair so that he could sit and pull you into his chest. The contact helped your body relax a little.
"You're not going to lose me," he said. "Especially not just because of one argument. You mean the world to me, Y/N, and I'm not going to give you up that easily. We get in fights sometimes, that's just how life goes, but it never changes how I feel about you."
"Promise?" you mumbled into his shoulder.
Tyler gently pushed you away. You were hurt at first, until you realized he was holding his pinky out towards you. A smile slowly spread across your face as you linked your pinky with his.
"I promise."
He leaned forward and gently kissed you. The worry quickly began to melt away as you realized that nothing between you and Tyler had changed.
"A double promise," you smiled.
"Exactly," he said, matching your smile. "I love you, Y/N. I mean it."
"I love you too."
Tyler gently wiped away a tear that had slipped down your cheek with his thumb.
"Are you feeling ok?"
You nodded, "I'm ok now."
"Good."
Tyler gave you another quick kiss before getting up and sitting back down in his original spot at the table. Most of his food had still yet to be eaten because of the discussion you two had. Maybe having a serious conversation during a meal hadn't been your best idea.
"This is really yummy," Tyler said as he cut off another bite-sized piece of food. "Thank you for making breakfast."
"Your welcome," you smiled. "It's my grandma's recipe, my mom used to make it for Carter and I all the time when we were kids. I would make it more often, but we're usually so busy that it's not worth the time and effort to make."
"Maybe that's something we should make more time for too: having a proper breakfast," he laughed.
"That's probably not such a bad idea. It's better than you having Red Bull and cereal every morning, at least."
"Hey, Red Bull and cereal is a delicious tour breakfast."
"Maybe when you were 23! I swear your diet hasn't changed since we were in high school."
"Why should it? It worked for me then and it works for me now."
You shook your head, knowing this was a losing battle. "Ok, Ty."
"Oh, hey, speaking of tour."
"Yeah?"
"I just wanted to give you the rundown for this next week before we leave."
"Ok."
In the midst of everything that had been happening over the last week, you had almost forgotten that there was only a week left until it would be starting again. Thankfully, this time you would be able to join him now that Carter and Marenna's wedding was over and your schedule was cleared up. You were looking forward to it.
"I have a few things that I need to finish up either tonight or tomorrow, then there's a meeting on Monday. It's supposed to be the last one, but I have a feeling they'll end up scheduling one final one on Tuesday. They gave us Wednesday off, which will probably end up being our packing day. Poor Josh has to fly home Tuesday night and then come back the next day so that he can pack up his stuff. Then, of course, Thursday and Friday are rehearsals in the morning and Saturday is our last free day," Tyler smiled before popping another piece of french toast into his mouth. "Oh, and I managed to get all of our siblings, and their spouses, together for a last dinner together on Friday before we leave."
"You did?" you asked. Leaving your family behind had always been one of the hardest parts of tour for you and Tyler.
"Yep. We have a reservation at that one restaurant we really like."
"That's amazing. Thank you, Ty."
"Of course."
He dramatically blew you a kiss from across the table, making you laugh.
"Also, do you think you would be able to give me a haircut on Monday after my meeting?" he smiled sweetly.
"Yeah, we can do that. It's getting pretty long."
"I know, look at it curling on the ends." He picked up a small section of his hair and then let it fall back down.
"You're not going to shave it all off, are you?"
"Not yet. Probably later in the tour."
You sighed, but decided not to fight him on it. It was another battle that you could just never seem to win.
"Let's try and make the most of this last week before tour, what do you say?" he asked.
"I say I'm in."
The two of you fist bumped and then sat back in your chairs. You couldn't help the smile on your face as you thought about the adorable idiot that you had grown to love. It was a huge relief to know that nothing had changed between the two of you, despite your argument. At this point, it didn't seem like there was anything that could come between the two of you.
You hoped that never changed.