Pursuit of Happiness | Taz Skylar [1]

044. a taz date

It took eight days of Taz falling asleep and waking up with Zoe in his arms before he broached the topic of taking her out on a date. She had just woken up when he said it, her head resting against his chest and his arms curled around her body, but he knew that she heard him when he heard her yawn and rub her hand up and down his side.

"I thought you wanted to sneak around for a bit," Zoe mumbled, her head still resting against Taz's chest. "Kind of defeats the purpose of me being your dirty little secret if you're taking me out on dates."

Taz laughed, cupping his hand behind her knee to guide her leg to hook over his hip, keeping her against him. Zoe lifted her head from Taz's chest to look at him and he took her chin between his thumb and forefinger for a moment before he slid his hand across her jaw, leaning into press his lips to hers. Zoe hummed into his kiss, allowing her eyes to slide closed as she leaned further into Taz's body.

"You're so much more than that," Taz breathed against Zoe's lips, opening his eyes to look at her. The kiss appeared to have pulled Zoe the rest of the way into the waking world, her eyes alert and filled with tenderness as she looked at him.

"I know, I'm just messing with you," Zoe said, leaning close so that she could press a kiss against Taz's jaw. Then, drawing back so that she could look up at him, she asked, "So, about this date. Is it going to be a normal date or a you date?"

Taz frowned at her. "I don't know what that means."

Zoe was smiling as she shook her head, reaching up with both hands so that she could cradle Taz's face between her palms. "You took me skydiving for our first date. Most people just do dinner."

"I thought you'd like it," Taz said, but he was grinning at her. Taz grinned at her. "To answer your question, though, I guess you would say that it's a me date, then."

Zoe shook her head, drawing away so that she could sit up. Zoe stretched her arms above her head, sighing with relief when her shoulders cracked under the pressure. Then, dropping her hands back into her lap, Zoe asked, "Can I at least know what we're doing?"

"Nope, it's a surprise," Taz answered, leaning up to press a kiss against her mouth before climbing out of the bed. Zoe made an annoyed noise in the back of her throat and rolled her eyes, but she left the warmth of the bed.

"Just promise me you won't make me jump out of a plane again," Zoe said, pausing to scratch behind Palkia's ears on her way to the wardrobe.

"I won't make you jump out of a plane again," Taz said, but there was something dancing in his eyes that gave Zoe pause, although she said nothing about it. Perhaps she should have, given the fact that several hours later, she found herself staring down a chasm as a man she didn't know leapt off the platform she and Taz were standing on, the only thing keeping him from plummeting to his death being the bungee cord tethered to the harness he was wearing.

"I need you to explain to me what your thought process was," Zoe said, her grip tight as she curled her hands around the harness that had been clipped around her hips, her knuckles white. "Why is it that I told you that I didn't want to jump out of a plane, and you heard 'I would love to jump off a cliff'?"

"It's not jumping off a cliff," Taz replied, his forehead creasing as he looked down at her. "We don't have to do this, if you don't want to. We can go do something else – "

"No, I'm doing it," Zoe interrupted, determination flashing across her face and when she looked back up at Taz, he was grinning down at her. She was clearly terrified, her restless shifting of her feet making it obvious, but Zoe had never been one to let fear stop her and she certainly wasn't about to start.

Nevertheless, Zoe allowed Taz to go before her so that she could watch what she was supposed to do. Her arms were wrapped around herself, but she laughed as Taz launched himself off the platform, spinning at the last second so that he could grin at her before he disappeared from sight.

When Taz reappeared, Zoe immediately recognized the wild look of adrenaline in his eyes as one of the workers unclipped his harness from the bungee cord.. Once he was free, Taz approached Zoe, grinning at her. "You ready?"

Zoe didn't even hesitate to nod. She was still terrified, a lump in her throat as she remembered just how high up they were, but the look in Taz's eyes was enough to give her pause. The adrenaline that she was sure had be thrumming through his veins made him look almost high, and she wanted to feel it as well.

Zoe was patient as the bungee cord was connected to her harness, listening to the instructions given to her carefully. She didn't even look outwardly nervous anymore to anyone who wasn't Taz, who knew her well enough to pick up on the little subtleties in her demeanor. He didn't intervene, however, and was soon watching Zoe disappear over the edge of the platform, her scream echoing back up to his ears.

For a moment Taz wondered if he'd made a mistake, if this was a repeat of their first date, but then Zoe was back on the platform and all doubts of bringing her here flew from his mind. It couldn't be a mistake, not when she was looking at him with that same look that he had fixed on her after his own jump, as if there was nothing in her veins but pure adrenaline.

Taz was grinning as he watched Zoe come bounding towards him, her footfalls so light that it was if she were only walking on the balls of her feet. She stumbled a little as she reached him and Taz grasped her elbow to steady her, enjoying the sound of her laughter echoing in his ears.

Several hours later, when Zoe's body was beginning to buckle under the weight of the adrenaline coursing through her, Zoe and Taz walked out to the car. Zoe looked exhausted, but her footfalls heavy against the asphalt of the parking lot, but she looked happy as Taz reached out and took her hand, his fingers sliding into the gaps between hers.

"So I did good this time?" Taz asked, squeezing Zoe's fingers affectionately.

Zoe nodded, smiling up at him. "It's not that you did bad the first time. It's not your fault that I didn't like skydiving. To be honest, I didn't expect to like this either."

"Neither was I," Taz admitted as they reached the car. He untangled their fingers so that he could fish out the car keys and Zoe leaned against the side of the car, her eyes on him as he continued, "I'm glad you did, though."

"So am I," Zoe said, pressing a hand over her mouth to stifle her yawn. Taz smiled over at her as he unlocked the car, watching her blink a couple of times, before asking, "Are you staying again tonight?"

"Is that okay?"

Zoe nodded, watching as Taz pulled the door open, peering at her over the top of it. "You know, you don't have to keep going back and forth between my place and your hotel, if you don't want to."

Taz's smile told Zoe that he had guessed what she was proposing, but he wanted to hear her say it. "What do you mean?"

Zoe lifted one shoulder and dropped it again in a half shrug. It was an attempt to seem nonchalant, even as her heart hammered against her ribcage with enough force that it almost hurt. "It just seems pointless to keep paying for a hotel room when you're just storing all your shit there. I have room at my place for it. If you want. And – "

"You don't have to give me a million reasons," Taz said, closing the car door again and stepping closer so that he could rest his hands on her shoulders, dropping a kiss to the top of her head. "We'll go get my stuff tomorrow."

"Yeah?" Zoe asked, smiling even as she was blinking up at him tiredly.

"Yeah," Taz replied, chuckling a little when Zoe turned her face away, yawning. "Come on. We better get you home before you fall asleep while you're standing up."

For once, Zoe had no arguments to offer and instead simply climbed into the passenger seat, buckling her seatbelt across her body. It took a little while of Zoe shifting around in her seat to find a position that she found comfortable, but eventually she settled with her legs curled under her body and her head resting against the edge of the car seat. She closed her eyes and before long the sound of her soft snores filled the car as she slept.