~ ❀ ✿ ~

𝐋𝐀𝐁𝐘𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐇 ― ☀ ☁ ― 𝖑𝖆𝖇𝖞𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖙𝖍

\\ 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 //

WITH THE ASSURANCE FROM POPS THAT THE OTHERS WOULD BE PERFECTLY FINE THIS DAY OF UNDERWATER EJECTION TRAINING, TAYLOR CRUISE HEADED HOME.

Home, in San Diego, was a small, cutesy beach house, that went by the name of 'Holiday House'. Before, when she'd fly combat, it was the 'Knights' Home.

The squadron would often find themselves sprawled out on the makeshift mattress in the living room, not wanting to leave each other's side mission after mission.

Taylor's been on the tarmac since five in the morning, taking a few laps through the sky with Laz and Cas before waking Len, JJ and Slick up by jumping on their beds.

The late morning and afternoon that followed, was full of light brunch, though not too much to make them puke as so, but good enough for them to feel fresh and ready for training.

Their flight suits came in at the beginning of the week, and they'd taken this opportunity to wear them, posing for pictures on their way to the base.

And then, came the intense underwater ejection training.

Was it necessary? Yes.

Did everyone like doing it? No.

Basically, they were strapped into a container as they're dunked in the water, keep their calm by figuring out how to get out of the water-filled dumping machine.

Greg was almost going to drown if it weren't for Taylor and Pops jumping in to pull him out.

Unfortunately, even after that incident, bravely, everyone decided to go on with flight training, while Taylor was told to take the evening off.

Jogging down the walking lane that was by the beach, Taylor's headphones were plugged in, hair pulled back in a pony and under a cap, sporting a sports bra and leggings.

The San Diego weather was spectacularly a perfect mix between warm and somewhat cold, chills running down her spine as she feels the wind brush past her.

Taylor liked doing this. Spending time by herself. Spending time for herself. She also held a strong tolerance for running, her father says it's in her genes.

It was a habit of hers', trying to scope out new places, in this case, old ones, for anything familiar or new she could find, a grocery shop, convenience store.

One thing she didn't like about running around town like this, was the people. Mostly not the fans, but the paparazzi, more.

Invasive, little, assholes.

Most of the times.

Being followed around, taken pictures of, no matter how many times they're specifically told not to. She'd always been kind, but she loved to tell them off whenever they crossed their limits.

Don't get her wrong, she was a people person. But she'd much rather spend her day one-on-one with someone or just by herself. Though lately, she's been preferring to be around her friends and co-workers. Their charm was just too beguiling.

Her alone evenings consisted of either going on runs and watching the sunset, or listening to songs and watching the sunset. Then going home, hopping in the shower, eating something and end up cuddling with Goose.

God, had she missed a Californian sun.

As Goose stopped beside her when she did, the two of them sat on a little bench, just the both, the pup curled into her side as she put an arm around him when he leant towards her.

The bench was far away from the beach, but the liveliness at Mae's seemed like ever before, loud chants and loud laughs and loud conversations audible from where they sat, sniffing at her feet.

Sniffing at her feet?

Taylor leans forward, looking down to a French Bulldog sniffing at her feet. Goose seems to be ecstatic from his seat on the bench, tail wagging immediately at the chance of making new friends.

"Bugsy? Is that you, sweetie?" Taylor leans forward too, letting the dog sniff at her hand, chuckling when the girl licks at her hand.

She smiles, getting off the bench to sit on the pavement, feeling Bugsy push her face towards her hand, taking the chance to give her some scratches.

"Bugsy! Bugs, sweetheart, you can't just run off like tha- Taylor? Oh, thank God!"

What the fuck?

She finds herself frozen.

All of a sudden she was aware of what she was wearing. Or what she wasn't.

All of a sudden, a rush moves down her spine and all across her body.

Looking up and away from Bugsy practically sitting in her lap and looking up at her with her stupidly cute face, Taylor sees a concerned Miles looking down at her.

What an awkward position to be in.

"Hey!" Taylor replies, gently picking Bugsy up and placing her at the side with a kiss on her forehead. She stands up, wiping her pavement hands on her leggings, crossing her hands over her chest.

"Did she run off?" Taylor asks, smiling as the two of them look towards Bugsy and Goose sniffing each other out.

"Yeah, yeah, she, uh," He scratches the back of his head, and the voice in her head goes, I want to do that.

"Scared the shit outta me, didn't you, sweetheart?" Bugsy looks up at Miles with a tilt of her head.

The two humans chuckle, and Miles shakes his head at Bugsy, before kneeling down in front of a happy Goose.

"Hey, buddy..." Goose seems happy to receive ear scratches from Miles, leaning into his touch.

It was surprising.

Goose wasn't necessarily the biggest fan of men.

"Wow..." Taylor chuckles in disbelief at the sight.

She catches Miles' questioning yet crinkled eyes, completely waving off the cold bumps across her body, jerking her head in Goose's direction, "Nothing, he's.. He's never been so close with someone so quickly, besides Glen. All the others got the growls."

A smirk shines on his face, his eyes meet hers, and he does not fail to set off the butterflies in her stomach, "I guess I'm someone special."

Taylor snorts, shaking her head as he too laughs, standing straight up as she replies, "I guess you are, Miles."

Ah.

Wow, wow, what is this feeling in her stomach?

She takes her time, smiling up at him, observing over his sharp features and the slowly growing, what could be a pornstache over his top lip.

She couldn't wait to see him in the Bradshaw getup.

Speaking of special someones...

"Miles! Did you find Bugs- Taylor! Oh, did you happen to find her?" Keleigh.

As beautiful as ever.

Cute sundress and sunglasses perched in the v of the neck, hair tied in a perfect messy bun. Beautiful smile, holy shit, the whole package.

What more could a man want?

She doesn't register when she's pulled into a hug, Keleigh rubbing her back as she whispers, "Thank God, you found her..."

Taylor pulls away, keeping her hands on the woman's forearm, "Hey, it's alright, she's right here."

Bugsy makes her way towards Taylor, who reaches down to scratch the top of her head before she turned to Keleigh.

"You out running?" Miles asks, picking Bugsy up in his arms and wrapping the other around Keleigh's waist.

Ouch, Taylor tries to ignore the pierce at her heart.

"Uh, yeah," Her eyes linger over his hands, before finding Goose's panting form, "I like to scope my neighbourhood out. A run's a good way to do that. Plus, don't have to get down twice for the pups." Taylor shrugs, patting Goose on the head when he runs his nose against her calf.

"Gotta try that out." Miles replies, looking over to a smiling Keleigh, who looked up at him admiringly.

Something about the way he looks at her makes her feel small.

Maybe, she needed to give love a chance sometime.

Goose barks, looking over at the Falling Leaf from where Laz was waving in their direction.

Taylor's mind drifts, away from him, noticing Lazarus walk, then turn that into a stride towards them, waving them over.

"Well, duty calls," Taylor says, giving the couple a two-fingered salute, covering her chest when she has to lean down to grab Goose's leash to unleash him and let him run in Ben's direction.

"Good night, guys," She gives the couple a two-fingered salute and quick wink in Keleigh's direction, who catches it, pressing her palm against her heart, making them all chuckle.

\\ 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦 //

𝘁𝗮𝘆𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗶𝘀𝗲 has posted

to their story !

𝘁𝗮𝘆𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗶𝘀𝗲 via 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴

2 minutes ago . . .

SHE TOOK A SHOWER AFTER GIVING GOOSE ONE.

Well, she didn't want to give Goose a bath, but the pup had rolled in sand a bit too much, and then decided to get in a quick swim. If he wasn't prone to sleeping on the bed with her, she wouldn't have given him a bath, but sand on the bed, and then that salty, weird, sweaty, smell would linger all around the house.

Glen and her had ended up laying on the floor after watching a few too many horror films in the evening with some chicken parm she'd prepared.

Goose was asleep between the two of them, soft snores escaping him and making it clear the pup had called in for the night, while his companions were wide awake.

"Haven't you thought about settling down?" Taylor asks, scooping a bite of the dark chocolate ice-cream they were sharing.

"Woah. Where's that coming from?" Glen turns to look in her direction, brows raised in acute surprise.

"I-" Where was it coming from?

"I don't know, it's, okay," Taylor takes the support of the floor to pick herself up and sit up, knees folded against her chest.

Glen follows, waiting to listen, like the ever so great friend he was. The thought makes Taylor smile, before he's patting her arm for her to continue.

"When I won that Oscar, so many people congratulated me. And then, I came home after, after a long evening, and-" She shakes her head as she tries finding the right words.

"My dream- That was-" Taylor's hand runs through her hair.

"That was it. Everything couldn't have been better. I got 'nother gig, met you guys, and I'm starting to think I really belong here." Glen nods, smiling at her as he pats her back.

"And then, I was, I was sitting and sending some emails, and then I thought, "Oh, my God, that was all you wanted." All I wanted. And now, I'm at the top of the mountain, and you look around, and all I can think is, "Oh, my God, what now?" Like, what next?" She shakes her head, feeling the contemplation and the spiral of it deepening, furthering.

She'd been send down the spiral the day she'd won, going over and over the list of contacts in her phone. All this luxury, all this privilege, all this opportunity, yet no one to share it with? Seemed like a lonely life, right?

"I didn't have someone to climbed it with, that I could, like, high-five. I have my dad, I have my friends.." Her hands shoot out to the side as she tries explaining what she feels, even though she remained in the unknown of what it was. Her friends could only love and support her so much, they could only stay with her for so long.

Why did it feel like she was sleeping in a twenty-year, long, black, dark, night?

She'd come so far, and after so much hard work, so much support from everyone she loves, so, so much love. So much pride at being through so much yet still being alive to accomplish her dreams even if sometimes she got unlucky, she was still here. Not many people have that chance. Not many people can hold onto that opportunity of staying at the top.

"I keep wondering..." He rubs her back when he finds her glistening green eyes, shuffling closer to her and wrapping an arm around her shoulder to press her towards his side, "Shouldn't I have someone to call right now?"