And with each mile
CHAPTER 17: ULTIMATUM
Rating: NC-17
Genre: Zaylor / Hancest
Pairing: Zac & Taylor
Credits & many Thanks to: Honor @beyondthethorns
About the story: Zac & Taylor's relationship broke up when they got caught kissing by the press and their career were over in a split of a second. To continue a normal life and to take a break from his brother, Taylor starts to study at a College in London but the long distance between them can't stop their feelings for each other.
I sat up as Zac dug into his jacket pocket and pulled out two envelopes. He handed them to me. For a moment I just stared at the blue envelopes before I carefully opened one and read the big letters- EURAIL PASS.
“This is…”
“A train ticket. It’s yours. It’ll give you 15 train rides anywhere you want in Europe. If you don’t want to go with me… I’ll go alone and you can save the ticket for some other time. It doesn’t expire for 365 days.”
Was he seriously asking me to…? Oh god. I couldn’t. I had classes and projects and a dorm room! I was in England for school! Not for running around Europe with my younger brother. My mother would never forgive me. The University of Tulsa would expel me.
“Zac…”
“I know it’s kind of sudden. I know it seems crazy… but you should think about it. Get back to me. Do what feels right.”
It was kind of sneaky of him to buy the ticket before asking me and he knew damn well he shouldn’t have, but he was Zachary and he was crazy and just did whatever popped in his mind. I didn’t doubt that he randomly saw a train station that morning and just walked in to buy passes without even pausing to think about it.
“How much did this cost you?”
I needed to know how much of my brother’s money I’d be throwing away if I didn’t accept.
Zachary shrugged. “Not too much.”
“Seriously, Zac.”
He sighed. “Each ticket was almost 900. The money is no object though. It’s whether you want to come with me… or not. But if you don’t want to, I’ll understand what that means.”
Oh no. Not an ultimatum. Zachary was notorious for his ultimatums. When we decided to break up two years earlier, he’d told me that if I didn’t agree to move into an apartment with him at age 15 and live outside of the discerning eyes of our parents, then it was all over. It felt like 2000 all over again. I hated his ultimatums.
“Zac… if I decide not to go, it will have nothing to do with you. If I turn this down, it’s because of school and obligations and things I’d agreed to before you even came along.”
“What do you mean before I came along? I’ve been here all along waiting for you to stop obsessing over what society thinks and what Mom and Dad think and to give me another chance. I’ve been here before all these so-called obligations, Taylor.”
He had a point. I fingered the edges of the ticket and began to make a list of pros and cons in my mind like I usually did. I needed a cigarette. I couldn’t. I couldn’t. I couldn’t. Well why the hell couldn’t I? I’d lose money on a semester at college.
I might lose my education at University of Tulsa. I’d infuriate my parents. I just…
“I just can’t,” I said, setting the ticket into his lap. “Zachary, I’m here to go to school. I’ve gotta focus on stuff like that right now, okay? I’ve gotta be thinking about my future and…”
“What? Take life seriously? I thought you were sick of being so anal, Taylor.”
“You’re not asking me to loosen up here, Zac. You’re asking me to completely drop all of my responsibilities for… what? For a tour of Europe that we’ve already done when we were young?”
Zachary looked over at me, locked eyes with me like he always did when he wanted to be taken really seriously, and said, “For me. I want you to drop everything for me. I’m dropping everything for you. Granted… I don’t have as many responsibilities as you, but I’m still putting you before everything else. I’m just asking you to do the same for me. For once, put me first.”
For once? I’d put him first a long time ago and it got me where? It got my picture all over tabloids. It ruined my career. It tore up my family. How could he ask me to put him first and risk that happening all over again? We’d only started talking again a month earlier. He’d only been in London for two days. Did he seriously expect me to drop everything for him all over again?
“Zac… I’m not sure I can put you first again. You saw what happened last time we did this. I don’t want to go through that all over again.”
He frowned and stood up, suddenly leaving me feeling very cold and lonely. He shoved the tickets into his jacket and stepped off the steps onto the sidewalk.
“Is that what being with me is like? Having to go through something? Is it really that painful?”
“Zachary…”
“Is it, Taylor? Is that all you remember from when we were together? Pain?”
Of course not. I remembered… I remembered the happiest times of my life. We were young and happy and completely in love. I was with my one true love every day of my life and things couldn’t have gotten better. Life was comforting and warm and well, sometimes, really ridiculously hot.
“I’m not willing to do this long distance thing. I don’t want to be with you and only get to talk to you over the phone while I’m stuck in lame ass Tulsa while you’re over here in London. If we’re going to try again, I want to do this right.
I want to see you everyday and I want to get to know you again like I used to. I’m not willing to half-ass this.”
Zachary doesn’t half-ass anything. It’s either all or nothing with him. It always has been. Even when it comes to his video games. It’s exhausting to keep up with, but it’s always worth it.
I opened my mouth to protest, to turn him down some more, but something in his face gave away desperation. He needed me badly. He’d needed me for all those years we pretended that we didn’t. And I? I needed him too… just as desperately.
I closed my eyes. I took a breath of air. And I jumped.
I jumped because standing still wasn’t getting me anywhere. The one thing I needed in life was Zachary and putting responsibilities before him no longer seemed logical. Why not pursue the one thing that makes you happier than anything else in the world?
“If you’re willing to go to Rome,” I spoke quietly of a city that happened to be both of our favorites. “Then okay. I’ll go. But only if we can go there.”
Zac was frozen for a moment as he stared at me and tried to believe that I was actually going to go with him and accept his stupid ultimatum.
“If we can’t go to Rome, then I’m staying here and attending school. Deal or no deal?”
Zac suddenly grinned and then ran over and gave me what was probably the tightest hug of my life. “Fine. If you have to have it your way,” he laughed.
I hugged him back and sighed against his shoulder. He was perfect. And he was mine… all mine for the next… how long we were going for anyway?
“How long are we going for anyway, Zac?”
“However long we feel like it. How does that sound?”
Oh, just great. We were going to be traveling crazy Zac Hanson style. I figured we wouldn’t even have a hotel to stay in half of the time and we’d be stuck on the streets… sleeping close together to keep warm. Hm. Who was I to protest?
“It sounds crazy,” I admitted. “But I know better than to argue with you.”
He let go of me and stepped back a bit so he could look at me. He looked over my face and as he did his smile grew into a wide grin. Before I could brace myself, he pressed his lips to mine and gave me a solid but simple kiss. Then he pulled away and hugged me again.
“Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
“For what?” I asked, because really, I wanted to thank him for coming to me and for being the one to actually have the balls to rekindle our relationship. If it hadn’t been for him, we’d both still be miserable.
“For loving me enough to do this,” he said and then pulled away from me again. “C’mon,” he said and began walking towards my dorms. “You need to start getting packed.”
“When are we leaving?”
“What do you mean when are we leaving? As soon as we get you packed.”
Right. Zac Hanson style.
“Zac,” I said, running to keep up with him. He was walking with renewed vigor and bounce.
“What?”
“You’re such a brat, you know that right? For doing this? You are such a manipulative brat.”
He dropped his head back against his neck and laughed loudly at the sky because he knew damn well that it was true. He turned and waited for me to catch up. When I reached him, he put an arm around my shoulder and walked along next to me, lazily leaning against me.
“It’s not my fault I knew you were madly enough in love with me to be so easily manipulated in the first place.”
I gently punched him for the second time in the last few minutes and rolled my eyes. He was an arrogant prick… but at least he was my arrogant prick.
“And by the way, you owe me 20 dollars.”
Rating: NC-17
Genre: Zaylor / Hancest
Pairing: Zac & Taylor
Credits & many Thanks to: Honor @beyondthethorns
About the story: Zac & Taylor's relationship broke up when they got caught kissing by the press and their career were over in a split of a second. To continue a normal life and to take a break from his brother, Taylor starts to study at a College in London but the long distance between them can't stop their feelings for each other.
I sat up as Zac dug into his jacket pocket and pulled out two envelopes. He handed them to me. For a moment I just stared at the blue envelopes before I carefully opened one and read the big letters- EURAIL PASS.
“This is…”
“A train ticket. It’s yours. It’ll give you 15 train rides anywhere you want in Europe. If you don’t want to go with me… I’ll go alone and you can save the ticket for some other time. It doesn’t expire for 365 days.”
Was he seriously asking me to…? Oh god. I couldn’t. I had classes and projects and a dorm room! I was in England for school! Not for running around Europe with my younger brother. My mother would never forgive me. The University of Tulsa would expel me.
“Zac…”
“I know it’s kind of sudden. I know it seems crazy… but you should think about it. Get back to me. Do what feels right.”
It was kind of sneaky of him to buy the ticket before asking me and he knew damn well he shouldn’t have, but he was Zachary and he was crazy and just did whatever popped in his mind. I didn’t doubt that he randomly saw a train station that morning and just walked in to buy passes without even pausing to think about it.
“How much did this cost you?”
I needed to know how much of my brother’s money I’d be throwing away if I didn’t accept.
Zachary shrugged. “Not too much.”
“Seriously, Zac.”
He sighed. “Each ticket was almost 900. The money is no object though. It’s whether you want to come with me… or not. But if you don’t want to, I’ll understand what that means.”
Oh no. Not an ultimatum. Zachary was notorious for his ultimatums. When we decided to break up two years earlier, he’d told me that if I didn’t agree to move into an apartment with him at age 15 and live outside of the discerning eyes of our parents, then it was all over. It felt like 2000 all over again. I hated his ultimatums.
“Zac… if I decide not to go, it will have nothing to do with you. If I turn this down, it’s because of school and obligations and things I’d agreed to before you even came along.”
“What do you mean before I came along? I’ve been here all along waiting for you to stop obsessing over what society thinks and what Mom and Dad think and to give me another chance. I’ve been here before all these so-called obligations, Taylor.”
He had a point. I fingered the edges of the ticket and began to make a list of pros and cons in my mind like I usually did. I needed a cigarette. I couldn’t. I couldn’t. I couldn’t. Well why the hell couldn’t I? I’d lose money on a semester at college.
I might lose my education at University of Tulsa. I’d infuriate my parents. I just…
“I just can’t,” I said, setting the ticket into his lap. “Zachary, I’m here to go to school. I’ve gotta focus on stuff like that right now, okay? I’ve gotta be thinking about my future and…”
“What? Take life seriously? I thought you were sick of being so anal, Taylor.”
“You’re not asking me to loosen up here, Zac. You’re asking me to completely drop all of my responsibilities for… what? For a tour of Europe that we’ve already done when we were young?”
Zachary looked over at me, locked eyes with me like he always did when he wanted to be taken really seriously, and said, “For me. I want you to drop everything for me. I’m dropping everything for you. Granted… I don’t have as many responsibilities as you, but I’m still putting you before everything else. I’m just asking you to do the same for me. For once, put me first.”
For once? I’d put him first a long time ago and it got me where? It got my picture all over tabloids. It ruined my career. It tore up my family. How could he ask me to put him first and risk that happening all over again? We’d only started talking again a month earlier. He’d only been in London for two days. Did he seriously expect me to drop everything for him all over again?
“Zac… I’m not sure I can put you first again. You saw what happened last time we did this. I don’t want to go through that all over again.”
He frowned and stood up, suddenly leaving me feeling very cold and lonely. He shoved the tickets into his jacket and stepped off the steps onto the sidewalk.
“Is that what being with me is like? Having to go through something? Is it really that painful?”
“Zachary…”
“Is it, Taylor? Is that all you remember from when we were together? Pain?”
Of course not. I remembered… I remembered the happiest times of my life. We were young and happy and completely in love. I was with my one true love every day of my life and things couldn’t have gotten better. Life was comforting and warm and well, sometimes, really ridiculously hot.
“I’m not willing to do this long distance thing. I don’t want to be with you and only get to talk to you over the phone while I’m stuck in lame ass Tulsa while you’re over here in London. If we’re going to try again, I want to do this right.
I want to see you everyday and I want to get to know you again like I used to. I’m not willing to half-ass this.”
Zachary doesn’t half-ass anything. It’s either all or nothing with him. It always has been. Even when it comes to his video games. It’s exhausting to keep up with, but it’s always worth it.
I opened my mouth to protest, to turn him down some more, but something in his face gave away desperation. He needed me badly. He’d needed me for all those years we pretended that we didn’t. And I? I needed him too… just as desperately.
I closed my eyes. I took a breath of air. And I jumped.
I jumped because standing still wasn’t getting me anywhere. The one thing I needed in life was Zachary and putting responsibilities before him no longer seemed logical. Why not pursue the one thing that makes you happier than anything else in the world?
“If you’re willing to go to Rome,” I spoke quietly of a city that happened to be both of our favorites. “Then okay. I’ll go. But only if we can go there.”
Zac was frozen for a moment as he stared at me and tried to believe that I was actually going to go with him and accept his stupid ultimatum.
“If we can’t go to Rome, then I’m staying here and attending school. Deal or no deal?”
Zac suddenly grinned and then ran over and gave me what was probably the tightest hug of my life. “Fine. If you have to have it your way,” he laughed.
I hugged him back and sighed against his shoulder. He was perfect. And he was mine… all mine for the next… how long we were going for anyway?
“How long are we going for anyway, Zac?”
“However long we feel like it. How does that sound?”
Oh, just great. We were going to be traveling crazy Zac Hanson style. I figured we wouldn’t even have a hotel to stay in half of the time and we’d be stuck on the streets… sleeping close together to keep warm. Hm. Who was I to protest?
“It sounds crazy,” I admitted. “But I know better than to argue with you.”
He let go of me and stepped back a bit so he could look at me. He looked over my face and as he did his smile grew into a wide grin. Before I could brace myself, he pressed his lips to mine and gave me a solid but simple kiss. Then he pulled away and hugged me again.
“Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
“For what?” I asked, because really, I wanted to thank him for coming to me and for being the one to actually have the balls to rekindle our relationship. If it hadn’t been for him, we’d both still be miserable.
“For loving me enough to do this,” he said and then pulled away from me again. “C’mon,” he said and began walking towards my dorms. “You need to start getting packed.”
“When are we leaving?”
“What do you mean when are we leaving? As soon as we get you packed.”
Right. Zac Hanson style.
“Zac,” I said, running to keep up with him. He was walking with renewed vigor and bounce.
“What?”
“You’re such a brat, you know that right? For doing this? You are such a manipulative brat.”
He dropped his head back against his neck and laughed loudly at the sky because he knew damn well that it was true. He turned and waited for me to catch up. When I reached him, he put an arm around my shoulder and walked along next to me, lazily leaning against me.
“It’s not my fault I knew you were madly enough in love with me to be so easily manipulated in the first place.”
I gently punched him for the second time in the last few minutes and rolled my eyes. He was an arrogant prick… but at least he was my arrogant prick.
“And by the way, you owe me 20 dollars.”