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"Ed, you’re climbing too far!" Taylor yelled, one hand cupped over her mouth while the other shielded the sun from her eyes.
Ed challenged her to a tree climbing. When he was young he’d spend the majority of his time outdoors, usually scaling up trees and digging in the dirt, and even though Taylor told him she had climbed her share once or twice, Ed was too preoccupied with her nails painted red and her light makeup to fathom that she, Taylor Swift had ever climbed a tree in her life.
"Let’s go Swift!" Ed shouted back, clinging to the tree bark for dare life, his feet aching as he dug his shoes into two small protruding pieces of wood.
"Ed I swear to God I’m not calling the fire department and embarrassing myself today!"
He looked down at her, her blonde hair pulled back in a messy ponytail, bangs angled neatly across her forehead. He knew the only way to get her to join him was to be, what Taylor would call, a little shit.
"You’re just scared," he started, his arms starting to ache from holding on. He was already half way, probably fifteen feet or so in the air. He’d chosen a tree with plenty of thick branches, and although it scared the absolute shit out of him, he decided that he could do it. "Pretty girls shouldn’t climb trees anyway, you’ll mess up your nails!"
Taylor squinted her eyes at his comment, throwing her hands at her hips.
"You little shit," she sneered, the smallest smile pulling at her mouth and his when she said the words he knew were bound to slip from her mouth. "You’re really going to make me do this aren’t you?"
Ed sucked in a breath, using all of his strength to pull up on another branch, his feet finding the two he’d been holding onto before. A laugh caught in his throat when Taylor gasped and threw her hands up beside her face when he almost lost his footing.
"Ed seriously, if you fall you’re gonna kill yourself! We have a tour to finish!"
He knew his goal was the thickest branch above his head, just a few feet away, making his highest point a little over twenty feet. He looked down, feeling his stomach turn at the sight of the leaves covering the ground. He wondered for a brief second how he was going to get down.
They were in Ed’s backyard at his place just outside of Nashville. When he agreed to join Taylor’s tour as her special guest, he figured it would be best to find a temporary place there, and he fell in love with one practically in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees. It reminded him of his childhood home in the way it was so isolated and quiet.
"Don’t make me call Stuart!"
Ed looked down at her, winking at her threat before he hoisted himself up, sweat beading from his temples when he grabbed the higher branch, pulling with all his might.
Taylor was an outgoing girl, and ever since she’d been spending time with Ed she realized how alike they were in some aspects. He always encouraged her to not be afraid to show her childish side, the two of them usually driving the rest of the crew insane with their inside jokes and bouts of nerf gun wars. She was more worried for Ed’s safety than anything else, her heart pounding each time he moved up the tree.
“Just so you know, I’d rather be baking a pie right now!”
Ed laughed, cursing her the slightest bit for making him since it made climbing that much harder. He could feel his palms blistering from holding into the wood, his feet cramped and calves sore. Still he managed to sit comfortably on the branch he’d had his eye on before even climbing, swinging his legs while he clutched two branches above him to balance.
"You’re so jealous right now," he said, his breath short and heavy while he smiled down at Taylor.
She shook her head, her hands still resting at her hips. She wanted to laugh at the sight of him sat in the tree, his feet dangling over the branch and swinging.
“You look like an orangutan,” she laughed, pulling out her phone.
“Don’t. You. Dare,” Ed warned.
She had a mischievous grin spread over her mouth, blinking up at him while she angled her phone, zooming in just enough to make out that it was him in the tree.
“Ed Sheeran in his natural habitat,” Taylor smiled, snapping the photo, “I’m putting the monkey emoji too, don’t even think I’m not.”
Ed sighed, moving one hand from the top branch to the side of him, his heart jumping when he felt unsteady. Taylor was too busy uploading the photo to Instagram to see that he was struggling to hold on and when she finally looked up, he was wobbling.
“Ed!” She shouted, still with her phone in her hand, looking up at him. Before she could say another word or do anything else, he maneuvered himself so he was flat on his stomach, dangling over the branch with his back to Taylor.
“I fucked up,” he admitted, trying his hardest not to stare down at the ground, the view making his gut twist with nausea. He was never really that good with heights after all.
Taylor hated him then, her hand over her pounding chest while she stared up at him, dangling over the branch like a towel on a drying rack. Although she was terrified that he could fall, she couldn’t help but laugh at the view.
“I don’t know what’s funnier,” she said, watching him swing his feet around to try and feel for the lower branches, “that you’re stuck in a tree, or that I can see your entire ass.”
Ed felt his face flush with embarrassment, clutching the wood with his arms wrapped tight, and sure enough feeling the slightest breeze against the back of him.
“I swear to God if you put this on the internet I’m leaving the tour!”
Taylor cupped her hand over her mouth, already having snapped the photo. There Ed was, dangling over a branch, his already loose blue jeans sagging enough to expose the first few inches of his ass, looking like a plumber bending over to fix a broken pipe.
“I can hear you laughing!” he yelled, finally swinging his feet and catching the lower branch.
Taylor watched as he lowered a foot or so, still feeling her heart still each time his hands moved.
“Why don’t you just stop and I’ll go find a ladder?” she yelled up to him, and he shook his head, hiking up his pants with one hand the first chance he got.
“Have a little faith, Swift,” he smirked, looking over his shoulder at her squinting up at him.
“You’re so dead for putting me through this,” Taylor warned, Ed finally managing to lower himself another two feet.
He was at a safer distance then, he figured a little more than ten feet, maybe even fifteen, but he could judge just by looking that if he fell he wouldn’t be seriously hurt.
“Dare me to jump?” he called, his hands raised over his head while he clutched a single branch, feet wedged against the bark of the tree and angled so that he was balancing on the tips of his toes.
“If you jump and it doesn’t kill you, I will.”
Ed laughed, shrugging his shoulders before lowering himself another set of branches.
“I can’t believe you didn’t climb with me!” he said, out of breath and then only around seven feet up.
“I, unlike you, don’t have a death wish!”
“Nah, I still think you were just scared, just face it Swift,” Ed lowered his right foot, letting go of the upper branch too soon, feeling sudden weightlessness as his shoe missed its goal, sending him soaring backward toward the ground.
Taylor screamed, watching Ed scramble to grab whatever he could, his hands flailing and feet giving out. Although she knew she couldn’t catch him, she brought her hands out anyway, thankfully far enough away so Ed wouldn’t land directly on top of her.
Ed hit the ground before he realized he was falling, landing flat on his back. Taylor ran over to him when he slammed the ground with a thump, a loud groan spilling from throat when he stilled.
“Are you alright?” she asked, her breath rushed as she skidded to her knees beside him.
Ed coughed, pulling his knees up as he caught his breath, the air having been knocked from his chest. Taylor clutched his arm, pulling him up until he was sitting with his legs flat and stretched in front of him, his shoulders shaking. Taylor felt her heart drop to her feet at the sight of what she thought was him crying, her right hand splayed warmly across his back.
“You should’ve seen the look on your face,” he laughed, hardly able to get the words out.
Taylor swung her hand from his shoulders to the back of his hair, Ed bringing up his hands when she smacked him after she realized he wasn’t crying, but laughing. He went into hysterics at the replay of her shocked expression, one that reminded him of when she would win awards, her eyes wide and mouth hung open.
“Okay!” Ed shouted, still laughing when her hands slapped his back and head.
She shoved him, finally finding a smile spreading over her mouth. His hair was sticking up wildly from the combination of falling and her hand, the orange strands piercing the air like daggers.
“I hate you,” she said playfully, and he gently poked her ribs, making her clutch his hands to fend him off.
“You’re such a girl,” he teased when she snorted the slightest bit from laughter, quickly covering her mouth.
Ed pushed to his feet, reaching forward to help Taylor up. They both stood, Ed stretching out his back from the fall, feeling his chest still aching.
“I’ll be feeling this tomorrow,” he complained, rolling his shoulders.
Taylor brushed herself off, shaking her head.
“Don’t even,” she warned, “you did this to yourself.”
Ed ruffled his hair, Taylor noticing the leaves stuck in it, reaching forward to pluck them out, both of them laughing when she found a small twig wedged in his orange mop.
“Don’t think I’m not saving that picture of your ass for the rest of my life because I am.”
Ed suddenly realized that she’d taken the photo, Taylor laughing as she took off running, Ed beginning to chase her back toward his house when he told her to delete it. They ran through the trees, each of them feeling their faces burn from the chase, Taylor making it to his back door seconds before he did, slamming the sliding door closed before he could reach for the handle.
He rested his hands on his knees, bending forward to catch his breath, in the same instance glancing up at Taylor through the glass. She had one hand on the lock and the other on the handle, her blue eyes squinting through a smile with her lips tucked in.
“You can come in when you say the magic words,” she teased, winking.
Ed coughed into his fist, wincing when he pushed up. Although he knew she locked the door, he still tried the handle, shooting Taylor the most innocent of puppy dog eyes he could pull, a look that she decided reminded her of a cat; his mouth pouted and strawberry eyebrows pulled together, with his nostrils angled and flared. But she didn’t budge.
“Nice try Sheeran,” she smiled, tapping the glass with her finger before she pulled out her phone and showed the photo to Ed through the glass, taunting him with the sight of his own pale ass crack, waving the phone back and forth with a playful grin.