It's All Part of the Story

Darling, you're my, my, my, my

August 2018 - Nashville

Karlie wakes up to an empty bed which she finds unusual as she had fallen asleep tangled up in Taylor. She reaches out to pat the side of the bed that Taylor should be occupying but finds the sheets cold and she can't see any light coming from the bathroom either. She strains her ears for any sign of where Taylor might be but comes up empty so she decides to investigate. She knows that she won't be able to fall back to sleep without her so she pulls on some pajamas and heads downstairs in search of her girl.

Karlie has been around long enough to be familiar with how difficult Taylor sometimes finds it to get to sleep after a show, the adrenaline of performing in front of thousands of people hard to shake. She also knows that Taylor spends most of her downtime when she's on tour writing. That coupled with the fact that it's not the first time Karlie has woken up to an empty bed only to find Taylor tinkering with a guitar having been struck by some late-night inspiration leads Karlie to check the music room first.

She finds Taylor hunched over the piano, humming softly to herself and writing notes in one of her journals. She takes a moment to watch her as she plays random melodies on the piano, stopping every once in a while to correct a note or scribble something out.

"Hey," Karlie whispers from her spot at the doorway, wincing when she sees Taylor jump in surprise.

Taylor turns and shoots Karlie a glare but she softens when she sees Karlie bashfully duck her head and beckons her into the room with tilt of her head and a soft "Hey".

"What are you doing up?" Taylor asks smiling softly when Karlie settles on the piano bench next to her. Karlie doesn't respond, just wraps her arms around Taylor's waist and drops a kiss to her neck.

"I should be asking you the same thing," Karlie mumbles resting her chin on Taylor's shoulder, her voice still low and scratchy with sleep.

"I asked you first," Taylor whispers, her hand reaching up to tangle her fingers in Karlie's hair scratching lightly.

Karlie lets out a sleepy sigh, nuzzling into the soft skin of Taylor's neck, breathing deeply. "I woke up and you weren't there. Your turn."

"I had an idea for a song," Taylor explains, eyes fluttering closed when she feels Karlie drop shallow kisses to her neck.

"Anything good?" Karlie asks as she trails her lips around Taylor's jaw before dropping a kiss to her cheek.

"I think so," Taylor nods, fingers still pressing the keys lightly.

"Good," Karlie whispers as she reaches out to tilt Taylor's face towards her and kissing her softly.

They trade lazy kisses and Karlie slips a hand under Taylor's shirt to trail the pads of her fingers along Taylor's soft skin. "That's my shirt," she mumbles against Taylor's lips.

"Mine now," Taylor shoots back before kissing Karlie deeply effectively cutting off any further protests.

"Play me something?" Karlie murmurs in the space between them when Taylor pulls back.

"I just played an entire show for you," Taylor reminds her arching an eyebrow in challenge.

"Please?" Karlie asks with a tender smile.

Taylor rolls her eyes and shakes her head in exasperation. "You're lucky you're so cute."

"Any requests?" Taylor asks looking down at Karlie expectantly. Karlie just smiles and shakes her head, settling more comfortably against Taylor as she begins to play an instrumental medley of some of her favourite songs.

Karlie swears she could fall back to sleep where she is, curled into Taylor's side listening to her play. She doesn't think she will ever not be in awe of Taylor when she's playing whether it's to crowds of hundreds of thousands of people or just for her.

When Taylor lets the last notes ring out, she ducks her head suddenly shy but Karlie is looking at her with so much love in her eyes that it almost takes her breath away.

Karlie surges forward to kiss her deeply, her tongue swiping across her lower lip and licking into her mouth and Taylor would be embarrassed about the needy whimper that claws its way out of her throat if she weren't so focused on kissing her back.

"Come back to bed?" Karlie whispers when they finally pull apart, a little too breathless for her liking.

"You just want to get me out of my shirt," Taylor flirts.

Karlie barely has enough time to smile before Taylor is kissing her again. "Trust me, I wanna get you out of a lot more than just your shirt," she assures and she tugs Taylor up and out of the music room, back upstairs to their bedroom.

The next morning, Karlie groans as she is woken by her alarm and she feels like she fell asleep maybe thirty seconds ago so how the hell is time to get up. She briefly considers whether there is any chance that she could push her flight to New York back a couple of hours but then she remembers that she has a pretty packed day and she definitely needs to get up.

She showers and quickly packs up her things as quietly as she can, wanting to let Taylor sleep for as long as possible.

Eventually she knows she can't put off waking her up any longer because Taylor hates when she leaves without saying goodbye, always makes her promise that she'll wake her up before she goes.

She settles on the bed beside Taylor and presses a series of butterfly kisses up the blonde's neck until her lips trail over the shell of her ear. "Taylor, baby, wake up. I have to go," Karlie whispers.

She can feel Taylor waking up, can feel the way her fingers twitch where they rest between them and Karlie can't help but smile softly, shifting a little so she can see Taylor's face better.

She always looks so peaceful when she's asleep and Karlie knows she's staring but she can't bring herself to care.

Karlie presses kisses to Taylor's face and watches as her brow furrows and she lets out a low whine, trying to cling to sleep even though she turns into Karlie's arms, burying her face in her neck. "I hate it when you have to go," she mumbles petulantly and Karlie would laugh at how cranky she sounds if she she didn't agree with her words wholeheartedly.

"Trust me I don't enjoy it either," Karlie assures, rubbing soothingly up and down Taylor's back, content to hold her for a few minutes before she leaves whilst Taylor lets out a sleepy sigh, sleep tugging at her again.

Karlie groans when her phone dings, knowing that it's Taylor's driver letting her know that he's outside to take her to the airport.

Taylor whines again and tightens her arms around Karlie when she tries to disentangle them both. "Gimme a kiss?" she mumbles blearily cracking one eye open and Karlie is helpless to resist so she dips down to press her lips against Taylor's. When she pulls back, Taylor chases her lips and kisses her again, deeper this time licking her way into her mouth, fingers tangling in Karlie's hair to keep her pressed close.

"Call me when you land?" Taylor asks when she pulls away breathless smiling at the dazed look on Karlie's face.

"Promise."

"I love you," Taylor whispers pressing one last soft kiss to Karlie's lips, reaching up to wipe lipstick that they had managed to get smudged around Karlie's lips.

"Love you too," Karlie smiles before turning her head to drop a kiss to the palm that Taylor has cradling her face.

"Go back to sleep baby," Karlie whispers knowing that Taylor must be tired after the show and their late night.

"Mmmkay," Taylor mumbles and burrows herself deeper in the soft white sheets of their bed, eyes fluttering closed and she feels Karlie press one last kiss to her forehead.

Taylor wakes up a few hours later feeling pretty well rested and spends the rest of the day trying to get the lyrics for the song that she's becoming increasingly sure will be the song she will build her next record around, still wearing Karlie's shirt from the night before. 

Let me know what you think, comments make me smile :)