ᴘᴀɪʀɪɴɢ: tyler owens x gn reader
ᴡᴏʀᴅ ᴄᴏᴜɴᴛ: 2.39k | part 2
ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢꜱ: not communicating and not talking about your feelings (not miscommunication since you don't even communicate)
☾⋆☆⋆☽
There's too many beds.
The one night where you guys don't manage to make it to a motel, there's too many damn beds.
The camper van can fit pretty much all of you at once, not that the seven of you will do that anyway. Dani and Dexter have claim on it, as the drivers, and will probably accept two more comfortably.
In Lilly's van there's the backseat and the floor, but if we're counting, for how many beds there are by technicality, the two front seats as well.
You always have tents and sleeping bags around too, just in case you guys can't drive everyone from any recently unfortunate communities to the nearest hotel (although you'd certainly try). To give a rough estimate, about a dozen tents?
Then there's Tyler's truck, the two front seats and the back seat, and the truck bed. It's a bit short, but it can fit plenty people curled up.
So what to choose?
You should probably stay in a car. Much more heat that way, but who's gonna take you in? The designated drivers obviously prefer their own cars, so... Dexter's campervan is pretty spacious? Then again, so's Lilly's, and to be honest she's more of a vibe than the other two, but also why would you need vibes if you're just sleeping?
Maybe you should start a fire, huddle around that? No, that's a hazard, nevermind the fact you only know how to start a fire in theory.
Let's stick to a car, then. Lilly or Dex & Dan for space... Lilly, sure, why not?
As you start heading over to Lilly's van, you hear a sharp whistle. You don't have time to wonder who it's from, as Tyler spins you around.
"You're coming with me." He proclaims, taking you by the shoulders, and you can only laugh.
"Why me?"
Tyler grins, walking you unceremoniously towards his truck bed. "Because you're you, dove." That alone sounds rather intimate, so he fixes his mistake quickly. You're just friends, after all. "And Boone kicks people in his sleep, Lilly's hair gets everywhere, Dani steals the blankets, Dexter snores, and Ben...it's pitiful how he squeezes himself into the corner whenever he's sleeping next to someone, so we always give him his own space."
Right, all good points you'd forgotten.
"So why exactly am I better?" You tease, stopping in your tracks so Tyler bumps into your back and stay close.
"You're warm." And at first it seems like that's the only thing he'll say, your only benefit, as he pauses; but then the rest comes spilling out like a toad strangler. "You're also soft, you don't steal the blanket, you don't complain when I suddenly start talking and you don't snore."
Tyler doesn't mention that the two of you cuddle when you bunk together, and that you bunk together often. He doesn't mention how tonight he'll let you cuddle up on his chest, or perhaps how he'll press his nose against yours and let you play with his hair, because simply mentioning it will mean you'll have to talk about it.
You don't want to talk about, you think; and neither does he. You don't want to talk about how there's something different with the way he slings his arm around your shoulder, or the way you knock your head against his, or how he always gives out your share of whatever (pizza, cookies, etc.) before anyone else, or how you always offer your help to him no matter what.
They're always easy things to ignore, his skinship is not conditional and neither is your kindness, but there's something about the way you look into his eyes when you say thank you, and something about the way his touch lingers.
You don't want to put your finger on it, at least not this season. You'll say it again the next season, and the next, but you ignore that.
"So then I'm your favorite person?" You turn around and bonk your fist against his chest.
He whistles again, drawn-out like he does in awkward moments, but you know it's only playful. "Don't push your luck, dove. You're like... top 5!"
"Top 5? Aww," You feign offense, plopping your hand over your own chest now, "I didn't make it to top 3?"
He splays out his hand and begins to count on his fingers. "There's my mom, then my dad, then the family dog, Liam from the rodeo, and then you."
"The family dog?" Your eyebrows furrow, and the acting seems a bit too real until the look on your face gives away to a memory of his dog giving you kisses. "Oh, yeah, okay. I get it."
"See? You get it." Tyler chuckles, spins you back around and keeps on walking.
The spot you guys picked today is drier than the last, which is something you're thankful for. It's quite far from any town, but the streetlights that adorn the far off road make you feel a bit safer that civilization is just around the corner. There's a light breeze, not too cold and not too fast, and the stars! Oh, the stars.
They're damn nice out here cause they're actually visible tonight, a little less light pollution, you think. It's certainly a lot brighter than, say, NYC or Washington.
"Ain't they pretty today?" Tyler comments, his hands on your shoulders squeezing.
"Yeah. Sparkly too. You know any constellations?"
"No," He hums, his voice holding a bit of lament. "I tried, once. I tried taking a class in college. Astrology."
"How'd that go?" You ask offhandedly, hopping onto the bed of the truck.
"Ended up being too stressed with my main curriculum and dropped the class before it got too far." He fixes a tarp over the top of the truck bed, over the exoskeleton, so not much light will shine over your eyes when you try to sleep.
"The smart Tyler Owens got too stressed?" You ask as you help him up.
"Being smart doesn't mean I have good time management." Tyler says as he sits next to you, and you shrug. Suppose he's right.
"Still pretty though." You hum, leaning your head against his shoulder as you look up.
"Yeah." He agrees. His arm comes to wrap around you naturally, running up and down your side. "Have you ever tried to come up with constellations with... I don't know, whoever you were looking at the sky with?"
"You know what? I don't think so." You raise a finger, tracing a path in the stars for a moment, trying to find something interesting.
He finds one before you, pointing at a group of stars in a weird glob shape. "There, a cloud!"
That alone gets you to let out an ugly, surprised laugh; despite how ugly you might've thought it to be, he thinks it's cute. "You trynna cloudgaze with stars, cowboy?"
"Shut up." He laughs, knocking his head against yours. "You try, genius."
After a couple seconds, you point out a distinct...cone shape in the sky. "Unicorn horn."
"Unicorn horn?"
"What am I supposed to say, cone?"
"You could've said ice cream cone, a little more age appropriate, you know?" He holds out his hand, holding out a small gap between his index and thumb fingers to accentuate little.
"Yeah, well it has no ice cream, dumbass."
"Woah," Tyler withdraws, raising his hands in surrender. "no need to get so defensive, dove."
You slap his hands only to draw them back around you. He has no complaints about that. "Clearly we both suck at this. Let's just admire the stars normally."
He huffs out a laugh but turns his gaze back to the night sky without complaint. It's rather peaceful, this moment, and so nice. Maybe it's not rare that you get comfortably quiet moments with him, nor is it ever rare for Tyler to hold you close like this, but it doesn't make it any less endearing.
"Look!" Tyler breaks the silence suddenly, finger tracing a path in the stars. "A heart."
"You're kidding." You huff out. He's just playing with you, he has to be, especially after your miserable attempts at finding shapes in the sky.
Despite yourself, your eyes will the stars above you into the shape of a heart. Goddamnit, you think, because it's definitely a sign.
"I'm going to sleep." You tear yourself away from his grip and he laughs and tries to steal you back to him, but you fight briefly and end up winning. It's a nice victory, especially because you won over him, but it's not on par with actually finding something in the sky (and you're avoiding the sign).
Tyler chases after you, flopping down beside you. The tarp above casts darkness over the back of the truck bed, but a soft glow still shines through.
You sigh and tuck a hair of Tyler's behind his ear, to which he only laughs. "Jealous, much?"
"Oh, totally." You'd roll your eyes, but they're stuck on his.
"I won." He's triumphant, but you can only focus on how pretty his smile looks.
"You did." You reply, not fighting him on it, and slowly his amusement fades away with the deflation of his body.
"You're not making this fun." Tyler steals your hand, presses the back of it to his lips and notably does not pucker up and kiss. It might be payback, or it might be avoiding the obvious intimacy that kissing you is.
"It wasn't a competition, anyway." You remind him, and he rolls his eyes.
His attitude eventually exudes out of him with a sigh, and he lets go of your hand to push closer. His head rests below your chin, his nose against your neck, and it's not new, but it's not old either.
"I'm sick n' tired of you." He huffs against your neck as you take the opportunity to tuck the both of you in.
You hold back a laugh. "Oh, yeah? Tell me why."
His voice is muffled against your neck, and maybe the vibrations tickle, but you don't dare move away. "I won! We should be celebrating that."
"Celebrate it in your dreams." Despite it being practically the same thing as in your dreams, it actually sounds quite genuine.
"Don't be like that," Tyler whines. "let me stay up for a little while."
You put your hand in his hair, then, twirling strands around your fingers and scratching his scalp, and Tyler hates you and also loves you, because it feels so good that it pulls a groan out of him, but it's lulling him to sleep.
"You're cheating." He whines again. He's being rather childish, huh?
"It's way past your bedtime." You say in a sing-songy way. Curiosity takes over, and you pull his head away from you gently to look into his eyes.
They open once you pull him off you, just barely. Half-lidded, not by lust, but by sleep. "I just wanna hold you for a little while longer." He says, and you don't know how he does it, but his eyes have turned pleading.
"That's on you to try, cowboy." You huddle close again, allowing him to take up the same position as before.
Despite himself, Tyler sighs contently, wrapping his arms around your midriff. One of your hands is on his back, rubbing slow circles, and the other is back on his hair.
He's definitely not going to last long now.
"When's the last time you've ridden a horse?" Tyler babbles on to try to keep awake, but you can hear the sleepy lilt in his voice. "I think my last time was when I last visited home, before the season started."
"One sheep over the fence, two sheep over the fence–"
"Shuddup."
You laugh, hands smoothing over his hair again. You're not sure how you're not very sleepy right now, tucked under the blankets, in his warm hold. Maybe it's the subconscious thought of not accidentally hitting your head on the spare wheel above you, or the faraway feel of the ridges of the truck bed below you.
Or maybe it's wanting to tease him.
"Kiss me."
"What?"
You've kissed before, little playful things: cheek kisses for the camera, neck kisses to either scare you or tickle you, forehead kisses after particularly dangerous scares, hand kisses when he's trying to act all gentlemanly, temple kisses after hugs. You've never kissed him on the lips before, and actually, neither of you have ever explicitly asked for a kiss. They've always been given without question.
"Please?" He asks again, pulling back so that his forehead is off your neck.
Oh, he only wanted a forehead kiss.
You oblige happily, press your lips against his forehead and let out and exaggerated muah!
"No, not there." He pulls away almost entirely, scooting up to be face to face.
You'd laugh, if what he was asking you for wasn't a kiss on the lips. You can't lie, you've thought about it before, when the sun shines a particular way over his face at sunset, or when he's considerably too hot to ignore.
...you're going to have to talk about this tomorrow.
Except tomorrow is not today yet, and so you cup his cheek. You debate it for a moment, a yes or a no, but there's one answer clear in your mind, a yes.
You press your lips against his, and it's more subtle than that forehead kiss, and it feels so much more tangible, in a way. His lips move against yours, a languid thing, a soft thing.
You wonder if he's going to remember this tomorrow, if being as sleepy as this is equivalent to being drunk.
"Thank you." Tyler says as you part, and he settles back where he was, head against your neck. He seems satisfied now, willing to nod off.
"Don't mention it." You say automatically.
Okay you're definitely going to have to talk about this tomorrow. For now, though, you'll just hold him. It's a strange thing to say, but he's always been rather nice to hold, a big man to fill your entire hug, even if he does make your heartbeat spike.
"Goodnight." He says.
"Sweet dreams." You reply.
There's nothing else to think about but the feeling of him in your arms and the warmth of his body as your eyes draw closed.