#paddy doesn’t want to have an awkward family talk
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inkribbon796 · 3 years ago
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Egotober 2021 Ch. 22: An HR Nightmare
Summary: The Lost Ones aren’t the only one who’s noticed the new enforcer in Dark’s circle.
A/N: For Paddy’s birthday.
Prompt: Dark
Characters: Paddy, Jims, and Yan
Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31
Paddy didn’t like the current shake up in the Network. He certainly didn’t miss the fact that almost overnight his father had basically become Dark’s left hand. Or that despite never taking a life while in the near month since he’d joined the Network as Clubs, Chase was almost always seen with the Entity. He took lunches with him, sat in on private meetings, and had even put a rubber bullet in Jackie’s arm.
Notably missing any vital organs, and Paddy had caught the proud smile on Chase’s face when he’d landed the shot. Anyone with a brain could tell he wasn’t even trying to hurt Jackie. Jackie was able to shake off the injury.
Jackie flipped him off with his good arm, Chase had laughed louder.
But Paddy was . . . uncomfortable was the closest he could call it, but confused was right in second place. So he was admittedly avoiding Chase, despite Chase’s many attempts to talk to his son.
He was on watch, taking his lunch in the security deck, and watching the Jims skulk around.
Paddy grabbed the receiver, “Hey, Green, yeh see this shite?”[1]
“Oh yeah, five bucks says they cut themselves on something sharp,” Green told him. “You want to check and make sure they’re not breaking something?”
The young sharpshooter rolled his eyes, wanting to ask why Green hadn’t already done that, but before he could the door opened and Chase walked in.
“Oh, there yeh are, yeh wanna get lunch?”[2] Chase asked, jabbing his thumb behind him.
“Yeah, Green, I got it, Clubs will be on watch,” Paddy said loudly.
Chase didn’t look impressed but took the receiver, “Clubs, present, the fook is goin’ on?”[3]
Paddy took his bag and ran off before Chase could be fully briefed, unfortunately he ran right into Yan and when she stepped out of a portal, Paddy just about jumped out of his skin.
“Fook!”[4] Paddy shouted.
“Hey,” Yan smiled at him, waving.
“Nope,” Paddy told her, and stepped around her.
“What you doing?” Yan followed after him.
“None ‘a yer business,”[5] Paddy told her as he headed out of the warehouse to find the Jims.
“No, everything in the Network is my business,” Yan told him.
Paddy just about exploded on her, that just because she was Dark’s kid, that didn’t make her his boss. But Paddy didn’t fancy getting killed so he just let it go and all too soon he saw two of the many, many Jims, just stalking around and looking like gremlins.
“Oi!”[6] Paddy called out. “What the shite are yeh fookers up ta?”[7]
The Jims stopped and the two of them turned.
“There he is, Jim!” RJ turned and pointed at Paddy and the two raced over to the young sharpshooter. CJ raced to catch up with his brother as the Jims were very quick to get the camera right up to Paddy’s face.
“It is the famed son of Chase Brody, how does it feel to know your father is now an international criminal?” RJ asked.
Paddy felt his left eye twitch in rage before he dropped his bag and winded back before slamming his fist into RJ’s face, jumping on him and starting to just wail on him.
“Ahhhkk!” RJ shouted as Paddy began just raining down hits on him. “Back to you, Jim.”
“Ahww, sweet!” Yan smiled and pulled her katana out of thin air. “Are we fighting?”
Suddenly two portals opened up and Dark used his aura to yank both Yan and Paddy through and spare RJ from too bad of a beating. Dark pulled them back into the security room where he was waiting with Chase and Green.
Yan frantically hid her katana behind her back and pointed to Paddy, “He started it.”
“Motherfooker!”[8] Paddy glared at her as Dark stared at the two of them, looking unimpressed and thoroughly unconvinced. Both of them would be promptly sent to their respective homes after that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Accessibility Translations:
1. Hey, Green, you see this shit?
2. Oh, there you are, you want to get lunch?
3. Clubs, present, what the fuck is going on?
4. Fuck!
5. None of your business
6. Hey!
7. What the shit are you fuckers up to?
8. Motherfucker!
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parkers-gal · 4 years ago
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Tom x reader where reader wants to move out & live with Tom only (not with boys). Tom doesn’t want to move out, maybe Nikki has a talk with him
the one T.H.
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➢ a / n | went a lil overboard, heh, but enjoy this ! sorry it took a lil while :,(
➢ wc | 2.5k <3
。☆✼★━━ requests are closed ━━★✼☆。
There’s too many dishes in the sink, you note. There’s so many, that they won’t all fit for one load in the dishwasher. It’s a pain, and you know nobody in this house has the patience to wait for two full loads to carry through, so you have to hand wash half of them and allow the whirring machine to do the other half.
If this were a romantic comedy, you’d have Tom standing next to you and you’d hold hands under the suds while you wash the dishes together and chat about your future. This isn’t a rom-com, though. In fact, you don’t even know where the boys are right now. You were certain they went into the den to play Call Of Duty — or whatever it is that they play — but then you thought they went into the backyard with Tessa, but now you’ve just given up on figuring their whereabouts.
Not that you’re angry at Tom for not helping, though. He did the laundry with you earlier, so you’re content with his keeping end of the deal. It’s the other four that you’re a bit fed up with. Sam had just recently joined the Holland-Osterfield-Barrett household of mates, and while you’re all the more happy to welcome him in, it also means more work. There’s a chore schedule, but sometimes someone has work in a town or a country away, and the gaps in the schedule are only ever left for you to fill.
It’s tough, considering you have your own job, but you’re content with the situation — for now. You have Tom, the love of your life, and you have the best people of your life - Harry, one of your closest confidants, and Harrison, one of your partners in crime.
There’s a lot of baggage that comes with being the only woman in a household of boys that practically grew up with each other. You love Tessa with all your heart, but it’s not like you can really gossip to her about your day.
You’re not too worried about everything, anyway. The second anniversary of your relationship with Tom is coming up; it’s only a few months away, and though you’ve been pondering the idea for awhile, you’re thinking of getting a place with Tom, on your own, without the nagging and intruding fellow in-laws (to-be, hopefully).
Six weeks, today marks, for how long you’ve been thinking about the idea, debating whether it’s valid enough to bring up to Tom, deciding when the best time to talk to him would be. He’s a hard man to navigate — getting a spot in his busy schedule is like fighting to the front of a One Direction mosh-pit. That makes it practically impossible.
But, you’re Y/N. You’re his sweetheart, his darling, his weakness. You’re the most important person in his life, and when you want to have a serious conversation with him, Tom’s all ears and eyes, attentive and caring, understanding and, hopefully, supportive.
You’re hoping it won’t take much convincing — he’s lived with these people all his life, and if it’s truly hard for him to decide, you’ll know what he really wants then.
Ringing out a few glass cups, you let them dry on a dish rack that sits on the countertop. The buzzing and whirring of the dishwasher alerts you that it’s still happily running, and you walk towards the glass sliding doors that lead to the patio and backyard. Peering out, you see all four housemates and Paddy, playing with a frisbee and wrestling with Tessa and messing around with a rugby ball on the trampoline. They look like kindergarteners on the playground, and you decide then to bring them some lemonade like a mother in summertime.
“Hope you’re all a bit thirsty,” you set the tray down with a warm smile. Sam shuts his book of poetry to smile up at you from his seat. He’s been reading for a good fifteen minutes, but you reckon he’ll hop on the trampoline when Harrison gets off. For now, he watches as the Irregulars star jumps happily with Tuwaine.
“Oh, sick,” Harry runs over with the frisbee still in his hands, reaching for a glass and taking a big gulp. Tessa’s at his feet, awaiting for the frisbee game to resume, and you pet her head for a moment before Tom runs over to you, hair matted to his forehead in sweat.
“You’re the best, love,” his hand finds the small of your back as he kisses your temple. You smile again, eyes shutting in bliss at the feeling of his lips, but his hand maneuvers you so he can reach for a glass without bumping into you.
One by one, they come over for refreshments, before picking up where they left off beforehand. Tom’s last to leave, wanting to talk to you before playing with his brothers again.
“Oh, I have to talk to you later,” you whisper, fingers tracing down his damp (sweaty) shirt with a giggle. Tom raises a brow, and you nod softly, “Just, when you have time. Now have fun,” you push him off, and though he’s still just as curious, he leaves you alone on the patio. Taking one last glance at the rowdy group of boys, you bring the tray of empty cups inside, sliding the door shut and sighing to yourself. More dishes to do.
——
Tom’s drying his hair with a purple bath towel when he comes out of the steamy bathroom. He sighs contentedly, before remembering your words from earlier. He brings it up, “What was it that you needed to talk to me about?”
He walks over to the dresser while you look up from your phone. You hum as Tom puts something away, and you shut the electronic device off, setting it on your nightstand and twisting to face his direction.
“I wanted to talk to you about… us, I guess.”
You see Tom’s movement slow, and he removes the towel from his damp curls, turning around hesitantly. You smile, waving him off, “Nothing bad, I promise.”
He lets out an inaudible “phew,” and nods. “Good.” You agree with a nod of your head, and he furthers on with the questions. “What is it, though? Is it something important?”
“I mean…” Tom places his towel on the rack before walking to the opposite side of the mattress “Sorta?” You offer, and you see the gears turn in his head. He sits down across from you, on the bed, and he smiles encouragingly, still a bit suspicious.
“Well, I’m all ears, darling.”
You smile at the familiar pet name, and with a final breath in, you admit what’s been in your head for the past few months. “I was thinking maybe we could… move out… without the boys.”
It’s dead quiet for a few beats while the words sink into his mind. You’re not sure how he’s going to react, but you watch to gauge his reaction.
His mouth opens, almost as if he’s about to say something, but then he closes it, as if he’d suddenly second guessed himself. For once, you truly can’t read him.
“I thought… I thought you liked living here?” he says softly, almost a bit saddened.
You sigh with your words, “I do! Really, I do, but…”
“But…?” He bites his lip.
“Well, I mean…” you exhale again, “We’ve been together for almost two years,” he’s still listening, “Don’t you think we should be a little more independent?”
“I mean, sure, if we were a normal couple.” He laughs at the joke, and while you do too, it’s not really genuine, but more forced for the awkward tension in the air. “I just thought you… y’know, enjoyed spending time with everyone.”
You nod understandingly. “I do, Tom. Really, I do. But… y’know, we’re not getting any younger. I just thought maybe it was time for us to get a place of our own.” It comes out as more of a suggestion, a question for him to respond to. You quietly bite your lip while Tom nods at the information he’s taking in.
He looks down at his fingers, before locking eyes with you. “Can I think about it?”
You shut your eyes softly while nodding. Tom blinks, before standing from the bed, giving you a kiss on the forehead and bidding farewell, heading downstairs for more quality time with his brothers.
——
It’s been a week since that conversation took place in your room. You didn’t think it’d go so… bad? You’re not sure if you should say that, because he didn’t exactly say “no,” he just didn’t seem enthusiastic about deciding at all.
It’s a quiet Saturday. You’re out bowling with a few of your friends, news of one of them getting engaged spreading like wildfire. She’s having a dinner party later, but for now, you’re keeping the meeting small, inviting your closest circle for the fun day at the bowling lanes.
Tom asked you if you wanted to reschedule the dinner with his family, but you insisted that arriving late would be fine. It’s only four o’clock — the Holland family likes to come for late lunch and spend the night playing games and drinking beer, until the clock strikes midnight and Paddy’s passing out in the backseat on the way back home.
At least now, only one Holland brother stays with the parents.
Somehow, someway, the conversation had shifted to you. Everyone’s gathered in the living room, scattered on sofas, couches, beanbags, armchairs, loveseats. Tom misses you at his side, but the conversation of how your work is going just reminds him of what you’d proposed a few days ago.
“How’re things with her in general, though?” Nikki, Tom’s mom, asks with a smile. The eyes shift towards Tom, and he can feel his face heating up.
“Yeah, how’re things with the lovebirds?” Harry teases.
Tom chuckles, anxiety bubbling in his stomach, twisting his. “Uh- they’re- they’re good, yeah,” he assures them, though shaky.
“You sure, there?” Harrison teases. “Did someone propose or something?”
“No, no,” Tom airily chuckles. “Nothing like that.” “Oh?” His dad picks up, “What, then?”
“She- uh…” he licks his lips out of habit. “She wants to move out. Find a place for us, she said.”
The tone in which Tom tells them lets them know that he’s a little less than enthusiastic about the whole ordeal. It’s something that raises a red flag for Nikki; it’s something that makes her brows furrow in confusion.
“Oh,” Sam breaks the silent. “I’m happy for you, bro,” he pats Tom’s shoulder.
Tom smiles, though it’s forced and a bit spaced out.
“What’re you gonna tell her?” Harry asks. “You want it too, right?”
Tom shrugs weakly. Nobody talks about his responses, his reactions. It’s all a bit unexpected, for Tom to not be on board with the next step of the relationship.
“I mean, I don’t know, really.” He confesses with a nervous laugh, running a hand through his curls. “I’d miss you all so much. I just… I don’t know, I guess I just thought she liked living here too, y’know.”
A collective number of “yeah’s” and “mhm’s” go around the room, and Tom nods nonchalantly before the conversation switches to something more exciting. For now, Nikki lets it go, just until she can get her eldest in a room by himself, and before you get home.
It’s when Tom’s getting snacks for the group that Nikki decides to offer her help in the kitchen. They’re just putting dinner in the oven and preparing appetizers, but still, any opportunity to talk to Tom.
“So,” Nikki smiles, and Tom giggles while she puts another slice of tomato on the dish they’re preparing. “Moving out, huh?”
Though her tone is teasing, Tom can’t help but get shivers. He nods, quieting down a bit. Nikki’s movements remain, but Tom stops working altogether. “I don’t want to move out.”
His mum turns to look at him, and she nods, almost as if anticipating the confession. “Why not?”
Tom clicks his tongue, looking down as if he’s ashamed of feeling this way. “I just like things the way they are right now. I know at some point, someone’s gonna move out and the clan’s gonna go our separate ways, but I don’t want to be the one to go first.”
At this, Nikki fully turns to talk to Tom, no longer making dinner. “Tom…” She wipes her hands on a kitchen towel, and Tom does the same. “You were the first to go, you know.”
His eyebrows pull together in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” she sighs, “Your career was first to take off. You ran out that door so fast, we couldn’t keep up.” Tom laughs, reminiscing to himself. “You’re going to keep growing,” she says softly. “You can’t stop that. You can’t stop everyone from growing apart. Sure, you might not grow apart, but you won’t always be this cute little boy band from your school days.”
“Not a boy band, mum,” Tom grumbles. The two of them share a knowing smile.
“You can’t blame yourself for growing, darling,” she steps closer, grabbing one of his hands just like he had grabbed hers the day he was first born. “You can’t expect to be the glue that holds this- this temporary situation together forever. You’re not a superhero,” the two of them laugh again, but then Tom nods knowingly, and Nikki can see a faint batch of tears spring in his eye sockets.
“No, I know, mum.” He sniffles. “I guess… I don’t know, i’ve just always been afraid of never being there when everything changes. I always come back and everyone’s a different person, just…” he searches for the words, “with the same faces.”
She nods, turning back to her dinner dish. Tom keeps his eyes trained on his hands, which are planted on the countertop.
“She loves you a lot, you know.” Nikki says after a few beats. “She just wants a bit of privacy, a bit of your relationship without your annoying brothers.”
“Annoying is right,” Tom teases. They laugh again. “Yeah, I guess I just never thought of that.” Nikki hums, and the kitchen grows silent for a few moments. “Thank you, mum.”
“For what?”
“Being there.” Tom replies. “You never gave up on me, and now… I don’t know. It means a lot to me that you’re helping me with something so important to me.”
Nikki’s eyes soften, and both of them tear up. She nods, this time breaking the silence again. “I know how much you love her,” She says quietly. “One day, she’ll be yours for forever. She’s the one — I can see it in both of your eyes.”
Tom sucks in a breath and wipes his eyes. “I know she’s the one, too.” He adds in another tomato to the dish. “She’s always been it for me.”
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arvinsescape · 4 years ago
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Meet mum.
A/N: I do not think Nikki would be like this. Written for entertainment purposes only. As always hope you enjoy! I only changed the setting of the request.
Based on this request:  Hey I was wondering if You could do a Tom imagine where he brings the reader home to meet his parents and brothers but his mum don’t like her and judges her but Tom gets angry and sticks up for her ect.
Warnings: Language.
W/C: 2.5K. Wow how’d this get so long?
To say you were nervous too meet Tom’s family was an understatement. The only member of his family that you had officially met was his brother Harry, who you got on with really well. You were going to a restaurant in town, completely Tom’s idea, he was adamant that it was time you met the rest of his family and you were excited but also nervous.
You finished up getting ready and made your way downstairs were Tom and Harry were waiting.
“Sorry, I just needed to finish my hair off. It wasn’t cooperating.” You said as Tom grabbed his keys, wallet and jacket. He moved towards, placing a swift kiss to your cheek.
“That’s alright darling, we’ve got loads of time. You look beautiful by the way.”
“You look so nervous Y/N! Lighten up, my family are amazing, I’d say you’ve met the worst of us when you met Tom.” Harry laughed as he took in your tense posture.
“Oi! Don’t start already, you only get worse when Sam is with you.” Tom laughed as he gave Harry a light slap to the back of the head. “He’s right though love, they’re lovely, they’ll love you.” Tom reassured you with a smile as he grabbed your hand and you all made your way to the car.
**
The drive to the restaurant was quite relaxed, making your nerves die down slightly and you mostly had Harry to thank for that. He was consistently making jokes in order to settle your nerves. As you pulled up you realised that you were the first ones to arrive, having not spotted anyone else’s car. You made your way in, taking your seats at the large table, looking at all the empty seats, reminded you just how big Tom’s family was, and the nerves came back quicker than they’d settled.
“Sorry I’m late! Didn’t finish work on time!” A voice pulled you from your thoughts. You looked at the male as he approached the table, this was Harry’s twin Sam, that much was obvious. “You must be Y/N! I’ve heard a ridiculous amount about you.” Sam teased as he pulled you into a hug. “Sam, the better twin and superior brother.” He joked as he punched Tom’s arm before hugging him too. Okay maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.
“This is going to be a long dinner then?” Tom groaned as he watched the twins greet each other. You engaged in small conversation as you waited for his parents and final brother to arrive. It wasn’t too long after that they did. Paddy making his way over first.
“Hey guys!” Paddy said as he approached the table, taking a seat next to Sam.
“You won’t get a hug from him Y/N. He’s a typical teenage boy, I’m sure stuff like this has inconvenienced his night somehow.” Harry laughed as he watched Paddy pull his phone from his pocket.
“Shut up Harry! You were a teenager once you know. Hi Y/N, it’s nice to finally meet you.” Paddy said as he offered you a small smile.
“Where’s mum and dad?” Tom asked as he furrowed his brows.
“Dad was parking the car and mum went straight to the loo, they won’t be long.” Paddy answered, more interested in his phone than the conversation. You laughed at his typical teenage response to social events, reminding you of how you were at that age. Just after he’d said it you watched another man arrive at the table, presumably Tom’s dad.
“Y/N, this is my dad Dom. Dad this is Y/N” Tom said as he got up to hug his dad. You stood up as well extending your hand for him to shake unsure of what he would have expected as a first response, a hug would be too much maybe?
“It’s nice too meet you.” You said shyly. Dom laughed as he pulled you into a hug, startling you at first.
“We’re huggers if you hadn’t already gathered. Well, everyone except Paddy, he needs a couple years.” Dom laughed as he let go of you and took his seat next to Paddy. Tom grabbed your hand under the table, giving it a small squeeze to reassure you that this was going well.
“Paddy how many times do I have to tell you, it’s rude to be on your phone at the table.” A woman’s voice suddenly interrupted the light conversation. You looked up at Tom’s mum, she was beautiful. Paddy groaned before shoving his phone back into his pocket. “Hi Tom.” His mum said as she hugged him, she eyed you up and down, before mumbling a quick ‘hi’ and sitting down in the final seat. Your nerves were back, had you done something to offend her?
Tom cleared his throat awkwardly before engaging in conversation with Sam. Harry leant over towards you. “Ignore her, she can be like that sometimes, she’ll snap out of it.” Harry whispered as he gave you a reassuring smile.
You all ordered after five minutes and light chatter, started out amongst the table. As the starters were served, Dom switched the attention to you, which in hindsight, you really wish he hadn’t.
“So, Y/N? What do you do for work? Tom’s told us a lot about you but at the same time not all that much.” He laughed.
“Yeah it’s cause he’s always talking about how pretty she is.” Paddy mumbled as he stuffed his fork into his mouth, Tom’s cheeks burned red as he mumbled a ‘fuck off’ in his brothers’ direction. Paddy laughed at him before adding. “Not that he’s wrong! I didn’t mean that in a bad way, it’s just all he usually talks about when you come up in conversation.” Paddy stumbled over his words as he thought he may have caused offence, you laughed, again being reminded of when you were an awkward teenager and thinking anything you said would be taken as offence.
“I’m a book editor. I’m hoping to move into script editing because I think that’d be more fun but for now, I’m with the books.” You answered confidently as you smiled at Dom. Your smile faltered as you heard a scoff come from Nikki’s direction. Tom eyed her carefully before he cleared his throat and spoke up.
“Yeah, it’s great. She gets to travel with me a lot because she doesn’t have to go into a workplace to do her job.” Tom said as he finished his starter. Shortly after they were cleared. Tom took your hand again under the table, interlocking your fingers.
“That’s great! How long have you been doing that?” Dom asked, taking a sip of his drink.
“About three years, I graduated at 21 and got straight into it.”
“Ah, so you’re the same age as Tom then?” Sam asked.
“Yeah, he’s a couple months older than me.”
“So how did you meet? Like I say Tom has told us a lot about you but at the same time nothing at all.”
“We met in a pub actually.” You laughed as you recalled the memory. “I wasn’t sure Tom would remember talking to me let alone remember he’d taken my number. He was really drunk.” You teased as Tom went red again. Everyone laughed except for Nikki, who eyed you in a way that made you feel quite small all of a sudden.
“So, did you know who he was then? When you gave him your number?” She asked in an accusatory tone.
“I mean yeah, I’ve seen all the marvel films, so I did know who he was, but that didn’t really matter to me. I liked Tom for Tom.” You answered carefully.
“I’m sure you did.” She said as she gave you a sarcastic smile before sipping her drink.
“Mum.” Tom groaned before squeezing your hand that was still in his.
“What? I’m just making small talk.” She answered as Sam and Harry rolled their eyes. Paddy shifted awkwardly in his seat as he watched the conversation unfold. Luckily the main course arrived to settle the tension.
“So are you hoping to get into script editing through Tom’s career.” Nikki asked. Dom choked on his drink out of shock as you dropped your fork back onto your plate. The question completely taking you off guard. Tom’s hand found your thigh as you saw him tense next to you.
“You don’t have to answer that Y/N.” Sam said as he smiled at you.
“No, it’s okay. That’s not how I’m hoping to get into script editing. I’ve been applying for different companies for a while now, before I met Tom actually, I just haven’t had any luck.” You answered as your eyes met hers.
“But surely you would have hoped Tom’s career would help if you haven’t had luck.” She sneered.
“Nikki.” Dom hissed.
“No that’s not it at all.” You answered, slightly offended. You knew what she was implying but it wasn’t true. You could make your own way in the world.
“We’ll see.” Nikki said as she continued to eat. The atmosphere around the table had shifted dramatically it was incredibly awkward now.
After you had finished your mains, things hadn’t got much better. Everyone was engaging in small talk, but no one dared shift the attention back towards you. Well, for a while anyway.
“That’s a nice necklace.” Nikki suddenly said out of nowhere. You clutched the necklace that was around your neck, it suddenly felt very heavy around your neck.
“It’s from-“
“Tom? Yeah I’d have guessed. Is it real gold?”
“Yeah but-“
“Of course it is.” She sneered as she rolled her eyes at you. You suddenly felt like this wasn’t going anywhere and you felt the tears brewing in your eyes. You excused yourself from the table, finding your way into the bathroom.
**
“What the fuck was that?” Tom asked his mum as his nostrils flared.
“Don’t swear Tom.” Nikki replied. Paddy was eyeing the exit at this point. He knew it wasn’t going to end well.
“Okay, sorry for my language. My question still wants an answer. What. Was. That?” He asked through gritted teeth. He’d never in his entire life felt so angry with his mum. He looked at his dad who just offered him a small smile.
“I don’t know what you mean. I was just making conversation.”
“No, you weren’t. You were being rude. Why?”
“I’m just making sure she’s good enough for you.” Nikki answered her son, honestly.
“By making her look like a money grabbing, opportunity seeking bitch?” Tom fired back. Trying to keep his anger under control. He didn’t want to cause a scene in the middle of a restaurant. Nikki just shrugged and he felt some of his anger spill over.
“That’s not fair mum! I pursued her! She hasn’t once asked me to help her further her career, in fact she’s very careful to try and keep herself distant from what I do and what she wants to do. That necklace you felt the need to point out, came from her grandma, it was left to her after her grandma passed away. Something her granddad bought for her grandma. But of course, you’d have known that had you let her speak. I am so beyond angry with you right now, mum. You had no right to speak to her like that, you don’t know her, I do. I’m also a little offended that you take me for someone who can fooled. I get it you want to protect your kids, but you can’t treat people like that. You need to give her another chance, because I love her, and your little show tonight won’t change that.” Tom felt some of his anger dissipating. His brothers and dad looked at him, almost as if they were proud?
Nikki’s expression dropped at her son’s words. She suddenly felt immensely guilty. Tom was right, she’d taken it too far and judged the poor girl without giving her a chance.
“I’m sorry Tom.” Nikki said sincerely trying to meet her son’s eyes.
“Not me you should be apologising to.” Tom crossed his arms as he refused to meet his mum’s gaze.
“Your right.” Nikki swallowed as she got up from her seat.
“I swear if you’re on your way to upset her again, I’m going home.” Tom called after his mum as she made her way into the bathroom. He sighed as he looked at his dad.
“I know your angry son and I know she had no right. But forgive her yeah? She had your best interests at heart even if she went about that the wrong way.” Dom said as he offered his son a reassuring smile.
“I know. It just upset me that she treated her like that.”
**
You’d managed to stop the tears and you were splashing your face with cold water trying to get rid of the redness in your face. Would Tom believe you if you said you weren’t feeling well and let you go home? No, then you’d be taking him away from his family. You were pulled from your thoughts as another person joined you in the bathroom. You didn’t look at them, didn’t want to draw attention to your tear stained face.
“Y/N? I’m sorry.” You heard you were shocked as you turned around to see Nikki. You didn’t say anything, not wanting to upset her further.
“I mean it. I’m sorry. I just get so protective of him you know. He has had girlfriends like that in the past and I’m just scared someone will take advantage of him again. I know I shouldn’t treat him like he’s naive, but I can’t help it sometimes. I’m truly sorry for the way I have treated you tonight. It was unfair of me to judge you when I don’t know you.” She said as she smiled at you. You sighed as you took in her words.
“Look, I get it. I get that you want to protect him but I’m not like that I swear. I really do love Tom for Tom. I’d love him whatever he did for a living.” You said sincerely. Nikki smiled as she pulled you into a hug. You hugged back.
“Okay, let’s get you cleaned up. Let’s start again?” She asked you hopefully.
“I’d like that.” You mumbled as she helped you fix your appearance. You made your way back to the table Tom, instantly standing and pulling you into a hug.
“Are you okay? Did she upset you again?” Tom whispered protectively into your ear. “Tell me if she has, we’ll go if that’s what you want.”
“It’s okay Tom. She apologised. We’re going to start again. I get were she was coming from in a way.” You whispered back as he squeezed you tighter.
“Doesn’t make it right.” He mumbled and you hummed in agreement before whispering “let it go, okay,” kissing his cheek before you both sat back down. He didn’t let go of your hand all night. The rest of night went by without any more awkwardness, in fact when you left, you’d argue that you and Nikki had gotten quite close. Tom let his anger towards his mum disappear over the course of the night and when you all left to go home you made plans to do the same again next week and everyone left far happier and content than when they’d arrived.
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petersasteria · 4 years ago
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The Package - Harry Holland
Harry || Main || Taglist
Requested? Nah 1,583 words Heavily inspired by Key and Peele.
* * * *
Harry was in his office bored out of his mind. He was sipping around in his office chair while throwing his stress ball up in the air and catching it repeatedly. The young CEO hated his job despite the multiple and grand benefits that came along with the job. He hated that his brothers Tom and Sam were allowed to decline the offer when their father asked them if they could take over the family business. Tom declined it because he wanted to focus more on the carpentry side of the business. Sam declined because it wasn’t his passion; he wanted to be a chef. But Harry was never asked about what he wanted. His father told him that he’s the heir of the company. With that being said, Harry hated it and he resented his brothers and father for it.
He loved them dearly, though. He knew that no one else would take over and Paddy was far too young to be a CEO. Harry just unwillingly took his fate as his father retired. Now that he’s seated on ‘the throne’, as everyone in the office called it, he felt powerful but at the same time he felt judged by the people who work for him because they were all older than him and most of them saw him and his brothers grow up. It was awkward.
Harry stopped spinning around his chair and heavily sighed before grabbing his phone to play games on it. There was nothing better to do and it was a slow day. All the shipments were done yesterday, all the forms were signed before lunch, no meetings until next month, and no new applicants to take up the job of being his assistant. His last assistant, Margaret, was his dad’s assistant. Harry loved Margaret like a family member, but she was too old, so he allowed her to retire.
The game on his phone started to become boring and with a sigh, he exited the game and went on Facebook to see anything new about the people he went to school with. He loved, for lack of better term, tea. He loved spilling tea and he loved being told tea. He and Sam bonded over it.
Just as Harry was reading a post about his former schoolmate being involved in a scandal with one of his former teachers, his office telephone rang. Without an assistant, Harry was forced to answer calls without knowing who it was on lines 1, 2, and 3.
“Hello, this is Harry Holland of Holland Industries. Who am I speaking to?” Harry asked. At this point, it was engraved in his mind now. He knew what to say and what not to say.
“Hi, Harry! This is Y/N Y/L/N. I’m calling from Master Travel Incorporated to tell you about an exciting limited-time offer, exclusive getaway to the Philippines. Can I have a few moments of your time to tell you about this new package?” Your tone of voice matched the exciting offer you asked, but it wasn’t enough to entice Harry. He didn’t even know where that pine place was.
“You know, Y/N, I would love to, but I just don’t have the time-”
Upon hearing that, you immediately hung up the phone. Harry stopped talking and looked at the phone with furrowed eyebrows.
“Huh, rude.” Harry muttered under his breath as he put the phone in its place. He grabbed his phone and continued reading about his schoolmate, but he couldn’t shake off the rude thing you just did. He sighed to himself and grabbed the phone, somehow directing the call to you, and waited for you to pick up.
Your telephone rang and you answered on the first ring, “This is Y/N Y/L/N, Master Travel Incorporated. How may I be of service?”
“Hi, Y/N Y/L/N. My name is Harry. I think we just spoke not too long ago.” Harry said as he fiddled with a pen that was on his desk. “Did we just get disconnected?”
“Um, yeah. I hung up on you.” You said blatantly.
Harry raised his eyebrows upon hearing your answer and asked, “Why? Like, why would you do that? Are you allowed to do that? Because that was rude, Y/N. I’ll tell you that.”
You sat back in your chair and twirled the cord of your headset around your finger with a smug look on your face. “Were you going to buy the Philippines package?”
“What? No! Don’t be daft. That’s not the point I was trying to make. What I’m saying is-”
You hung up on him again and Harry’s jaw dropped. He has never encountered someone so rude such as yourself. “What the fuck.” Harry said before calling you again.
“This is Y/N-”
“Yeah, Y/L/N. Listen. I don’t know why you’re being rude to me, but you don’t get to hang up-” Harry gasped as soon as you hung up again. “Oh my fucking god!” Harry shouted in annoyance. He knew it wasn’t worth it, but he was never disrespected like that in his life. So, he called again.
You answered the call immediately, “What the fuck do you want?”
“What’s your deal, huh?” Harry asked as his eyebrows knit in confusion and slight anger.
“Um, you don’t want the Philippines package,” You started. “So I don’t want to talk. I did us a favor instead of wasting our time.” You were about to end the call and somehow, Harry sensed that.
“Stop, stop! Don’t you dare end this call!” Harry raised his voice, not noticing the attention he drew to himself. Everyone looked at his office and as if it wasn’t enough, Tom and Sam went to visit him just to see how he was doing.
“What’s going on?” Tom asked Edith, the accountant,
“Harry is throwing a fit.” Edith answered before returning to do her job. Edith was a 50 year old woman and she’s so over the stage of being the one to calm a kid down when throwing a fit. Those years were behind her and she didn’t want to calm Harry down. If Harry wanted to throw a fit, she doesn’t care. She just wanted to get paid and get through the day like everyone else.
“He’s… too old for that.” Sam chuckled as he and Tom walked closer to his twin’s office.
Harry never noticed them standing by the doorframe, though.
“Why shouldn’t I?” You asked him.
“Why shouldn’t you?!” Harry shrieked. “What if I wanted the Philippines package?! You know what? I want the Philippines package!”
Tom furrowed his eyebrows in confusion as he looked at Sam and Sam just shrugged. He didn’t know what was happening either.
There was silence between your line and Harry’s. After a few seconds, you broke the silence and said, “Sure, you do.” You hung up the phone once more before Harry could say anything else. This made Harry scream and throw the pen in frustration.
He stood up from his seat and yelled at the telephone, “You motherfucking bitch! I will give you a piece of my mind and you will feel my wrath!”
Neither Sam nor Tom wanted to stop. They wanted to see how it would go down.
Harry called again and this time, he put you on speaker. The phone rang and you answered on the first ring, “Come on, man. Let it go.”
“Fuck you! I WANT SIX FUCKING PACKAGES RIGHT NOW!! You know what- where’s my wallet?” Harry walked around the room to find his wallet as you sat back with a victorious smile on your face.
Harry found his wallet and pulled out his credit card. He quickly walked to where the telephone was and said, “I found my fucking credit card! Now put the details there, Y/L/N! My credit card number is 1185-6514-1109. The fucking expiration date is 12-22! And then the security number is 195! Run the fucking card right fucking now! Run it now, asshole!”
You held back your laughter as you punched in his details and when you were done, you simply said, “Thank you for your business.”
Harry took a deep breath and said, “I hope you learned your le-”
You hung up once more and that made Harry scream in anger. Sam walked further into the room and tapped Harry’s shoulder. Harry turned around and saw Sam, “Mate, stop it! Just stop calling or you’ll get even more pissed!”
Harry pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut. He took a few calming breaths before looking up at Sam and finally noticing Tom who gave Harry a small wave which Harry returned.
“What was that, H?” Tom asked softly as he walked further into the office.
Harry looked at his brothers and calmly said, “Pack your things. We’re going to the Philippines for a family vacation. I just bought six packages for it.”
Bonus +
Your boss, Colin, went to your desk with a huge grin on his face. “Y/N, I don’t know how you do it, but you’ve made a ton of sales recently! I’m really proud of you for coming this far! Because of that-”
Colin turned to everyone and shouted, “Y/N is employee of the month! Let’s all leave an hour early and celebrate! It’s on me!”
Everyone cheered and congratulated you. Colin went back to his office and you smirked before calling your new ‘victim’.
* * * *
𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐘 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓: @thatforgottenangel @turtoix @givebuckyhisplumsnow @just-here-to-escape-from-reality @yourstrulyamour @euphorichxlland @thevelvetseries @buckymylove @more-like-reyna
𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐋 𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓: @holland-styles @trustfundparker @calltothewild @felicityparkers @hufflepuffprincess24 @tommysparker @justasmisunderstoodasloki @quaksonhehe @call-me-baby-gir1 @itstaskeen @theonly1outof-a-billion @lost-in-the-stars03 @justafangirlduh @piscesparker @speedymaximoff @miraclesoflove @lexirv @blairscott @getbywithasmile @pqrkerr @lavender-writer @blackbat2020 @hoodpankow @bi-lmg
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angeli-marco-writes · 4 years ago
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⋆⋅☆⋅⋆  Tom Holland - Just Friends?  ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆
A/N - posting for the first time in forever, this time with a Tom Holland imagine that’s already been on my wattpad for a loooong time. Go check that out though, angeli.marco because I have whole ass collections on there rather than just the odd few one shots. 
Warnings - drinking, very light mentions of drugs, swearing. Also its like 5k words so it’s long as well.
Summary - you and tom have been best friends for a long time and inseparable for just as long. The boys welcome you as one of their own, and you’re basically a part of the family. That’s your main issue, because when you begin to harbour feelings for your best friend, you’re not sure if he feels the same.
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YOU AND TOM HAVE AN INTENSE FRIENDSHIP, there’s no denying it. In fact, the intensity worries his family, it all happened so fast.
The two of you met about a year and a half ago at your local supermarket. You were just going shopping for some food as you moved to London, and you saw Tom there. You recognised him, but you of course didn’t want to be a bother, so you began to hyperventilate in the bread aisle, thinking you were alone, just when Tom poked his head around the corner. 
“You okay, Miss? You sound like you’re dying.” Those were his very first words to you, and you couldn’t even look him in the eye when responding.
“I-I’m fine, tha-thanks Mr Holland.” Could you have been any more awkward? 
However, Tom, thankfully, found it endearing, and to this day he still does. A day hasn’t gone by for the last 18 months that the two of you haven’t spent together. Within a week of meeting, you were on first name terms with all of his family and friends, and every second of your lives are spent in each other’s company, simply platonic though - at least for him.
He spends his time with you on pranks, swiftly followed by an apology cupcake (never handmade, at least not by him), and in the evening, he hauls you up to the roof of your apartment building or a spot on his house to get drunk and look at the sky. It’s what you love about him, he incorporates everything the both of you enjoy into your daily lives and it creates this brilliant, inescapable routine of happiness and hangovers, and almost every morning that you wake up with him on the other side of his bed or yours, only to find him half hanging off it, you feel this intense happiness in your chest. That feeling is immediately shut down when you realise that to Tom, you’ll be nothing more than his friend. And in a few months, your whirlwind friendship will be over and he’ll be a stranger to you, a big star you stalk on Instagram, he’ll never be your Tom.
Today, you’d planned to go over to his house as soon as you woke up after spending one of your only ever nights apart, since his parents were out with Paddy, meaning it would only be you two and the boys, whom you also got on well with. He left his door unlocked when he knew you were coming over, something else that confused you, and why would he want you over whilst his parents were absent? Yes, he’s a 23 year old actor, but he’s still a mummy’s boy. You trusted that nothing would happen even though you secretly hoped it would.
On your walk to his house, you text him and get a reply almost immediately, though not what you expect.
YOU - Nearly there :)
TOM - I nicked his phone baby, see you at the door. Harry x
You smile in spite of yourself, shutting your phone off and shoving it in your back pocket with the elegance of a hippo, stumbling over his drive before you even reach his front door. You take a heavy sigh while gathering your dignity, looking up at the house. In the attic, Harrison’s sitting in the window seat, his head in his hands while holding his phone between his shoulder and his ear, another fight in paradise apparently, Sam is in the front room, Tom’s in his bedroom (more precisely in his wardrobe), and Harry is nowhere to be seen. That can only mean trouble.
You open the door and kick your shoes off in the porch, closing the front door as you cautiously open the second, only to be tackled and restrained. Your hands are held behind your back with a strong arm winding around your waist and hot breath fanning your ear.
“Surrender your sweets, baby, or I’ll text your mum from Tom’s phone.” Chirps a voice, cracking a little because you know he’s trying to keep a straight face. How does he always know?
“My back right pocket, be careful or Tom will kill you for laying a hand on me.” You say, and the smirk in your voice is obvious. Within seconds, you’re freed but pulled to the ground by a laughing Harry, laughing so hard his cheeks are a magnificent red and his breathing laboured. “Lovely to see you too Harry.” You say, passing him the packet of skittles that you always carry with you. He takes them gratuitously and stands up first, pulling you up off the floor much to the disappointment of a scowling onlooking Sam, and you race up the stairs to Tom's room. 
“Knock knock,” Upon entering, a childish grin is all over your face.
“Did you get my phone off Harry on my way up here?” Tom asks solemnly, not moving from his position virtually inside his man-sized wardrobe. You flop down on his bed which just happens to be far more comfortable than your own, and sigh.
“No, Harry threatened me with it but he loves me enough to hand it over if you want me to get it.” You grin, your eyes glued to him, but he just doesn’t move. “You okay?” You ask and he nods.
“Yeah course baby, why wouldn’t I be?”
There’s something up that you can’t place, so to snap him into action you mention something guaranteed to get Tom riled up. “Your brother trapped me on my way in, if I hadn't made him laugh he would’ve been grabbing my arse to get hold of my sweets.”
Tom spins on his heel, leaping onto the bed beside you. He starts to trace a calloused finger down your face and neck, only stopping at the neckline of your jumper. “He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
A lump forms in your throat. His touch electrifies your body, making your mind go lax, but you can’t be complacent. You’re just friends, right?
“Of course he didn’t. Now what are we doing today?” You roll off the side of the bed and away from Tom, folding your arms secretively across your chest. You look out the window at the houses across the street, watching cars go by and seeing the leaves flying in the gusts of wind that come every so often, London really can be pretty.
Tom stands up and follows you, his eyebrows knitted together in concern. He places a hand on your shoulder and tilts your chin up to meet his eyes. “Did Harry hurt you? Tell me, please.”
You smile sadly, shaking your head. “He didn’t, he never would, I promise, I just don’t feel great today,” This ends up being the wrong thing to say, because Tom proceeds to place his hand on your forehead and then the sides of your neck, followed by a chaste kiss to your head which makes your whole body feel weightless. His lips are so soft.
“You haven’t got a temperature, maybe Sam’s lunch will make you feel better.”
For the next two hours, the two of you sit a little too much of a respectable distance apart on the sofa while watching your favourite show, LOST. You don’t talk much, but you find his baby brown eyes looking at you and his mouth gaping like a fish every so often, making a fiery blush heat your face and neck. Harry decides to sit in the empty space between the two of you, shortly followed by Harrison who sits on the arm of the sofa with his arm around your shoulders, only leaving when called to help with the lunch by Sam.
“Harry, can you piss off please?” Tom says after a string of continually failing attempts to push his brother from the sofa space between the two of you.
“Why, so you can sit with your girlfriend?” Harry teases, once again making the wrong choice with an already aggravated Tom. The pair leap to their feet, neither wearing slippers, and start legging it around the house.
You can hear the painful thuds of the pair no doubt slamming into walls and leaving dents, the harsh skids of the tiled floor when their socks fall down their heels, the shrieks and yells of disdain between the brothers, and finally the crash, crack and groan sequence of them piled on the floor, with Harrison entangled in them - you can tell from his posh sounding squeak of despair.
Begrudgingly, you stand up and leave the comfort and warmth of your sofa crease and make your way to the kitchen where Sam is blatantly ignoring the existence of his brothers and their imbecility. 
“Smells good Sam, sorry about them, it’s my fault.” You say absently, crouching down to untangle the pile of tangled limbs.
“Yeah,” Sam responds with a snort, “it is your fault, they keep fighting because they’ve fallen so madly in love with you and can’t decide who should have you.”
His words make you stop dead in your movements and cause an eerie silence to settle over everyone. For a solid, lengthy minute that feels like an hour, no one moves or speaks or breathes, and you’ve never been so confused in your life. Slowly, you stop trying to help the boys and you stand up.
“I- um, he was joking baby.” Tom stammers, watching you stand up to leave. What is it with that nickname making you feel things? 
“Yeah, slip of the tongue love.” Sam adds, leaning over the stove to catch your hand on your way out. You turn to face him, only to have him shoot you an apologetic glance.
“Yeah, whatever. I’ll be upstairs, come find me when you’ve grown up.” You say finally, closing the kitchen door on your way out.
As soon as you’re securely in Tom’s room, you clasp your hands together and release a long held groan of desperation, sliding down the back of the door. Circumstance is killing you, why can’t life just be simple? You look around Tom’s room at all of the framed pictures of the two of you hung from his walls, propped up on his window sill, and a special one in a heart on his bedside locker. Since you met, he’s been your one and only. You haven’t even thought about another boy, well, man. What Sam said has to have been a coincidence, Harry can’t like you, or so you tell yourself. It’d be far easier to date Harry than Tom, but it'd ruin your friendship with them both. You let out another groan and sprawl yourself out on Tom's bed. It’s so familiar to you - the duvet, the mattress, the smell that can only be described as Tom, your makeup stains on the pillows, just everything, including a dress of yours in the wardrobe in case you need to get ready at his house. 
Your eyes flutter closed and your mind spirals back to the day you met. Even then you were surprised at how laid back he was, until it came to his brothers.
──⭒─⭑─⭒──
You look all around your new apartment for a snack, but there’s nothing. Literally nothing except for frozen rice. With a disgruntled moan, you grab your coat and walk down the five flights of stairs to get out of your new building, and walk in the cold London weather and wind to the nearest supermarket. You look inside before entering, and it thankfully seems to be relatively empty, so you shrug off your hood and go inside, only to be met with the sight of your favourite actor, the gorgeous new Spider-Man, Tom Holland. You suffer an internal debate of whether to talk to him or not, and decide against it when your lungs and mind decide to conspire against you.
You quickly run into the bread aisle and think of anything possible to calm you down, but your lungs still don’t want to work, causing your every breath to come out as a laboured whistle. You begin to browse the loaves in an attempt at normality - wholemeal to white, rolls to wraps, but your overdriven brain won’t stop reminding you that your celebrity crush is literally feet away, scrap that, about one foot now since he’s come around the corner.
“You okay, Miss? You sound like you’re dying.” he says to you half jokingly, smiling crookedly at you.
“I-I’m fine, tha-thanks Mr Holland.” you stammer back, immediately face palming and turning away from him, but he’s just laughing at you. “I was hyperventilating because I saw you, even more suave and gorgeous in person.” You say as an attempt to recover, and he seems flattered.
“A fan then. Nice to meet you, now let's shop because this place closes early on Sundays. '' he laughs and swoops up your basket that you’d forgotten about and left strewn across the aisle. 
You follow wherever he walks, watching the way his calves tense when he leans up to the top shelves, the way his arse clenches when he’s deep in thought, the way he smiles at you like a newly rehomed puppy whenever you compliment him or try to be humorous.
Towards the end of your shop, you haul him to the alcohol aisle and pile spirits and mixers into your basket by the gallon. “Game recognises game. Wanna get pissed and watch the stars?” He asks, examining a strawberry vodka that you threw into your basket that just so happened to be mainly alcohol with only a couple of essential food items.
You’re more astounded and taken aback than you can ever remember being, but with one look at his beautiful face you agree with a little too much fervour, subsequently knocking your hair free from its bun and making Tom laugh again. You get the urge to elbow him but withhold in order to preserve this new friendship. While you pay, Tom texts his brother who parks outside and collects the shopping from Tom, but not without warning you that he can be a little tactile. You brush him off with a smile and lead Tom back to your apartment.
He insists on carrying all of your shopping bags into your building and convinces you to take the lift up to your flat, wherein you dump everything but three bottles of alcohol before he’s dragging you up the roof and unscrewing a bottle of echo before you even have the door open.
He collapses through the door and out into the fresh air, taking your hand in order for you to follow suit, though a little more gracefully. He passes you the wine and finds a dry piece of roof, upon which he places his jacket down and crashes onto it.
“How come you’re not treating me like a celebrity?” He asks, pulling you down to sit beside him. You think for a moment and eventually shrug, your eyes trailing back to the sky.
“Because you don’t act like a celebrity I suppose.” You respond, taking another swig from the dreadful bottle of wine. “You act like a normal guy, doing grocery shopping, helping me shop, bringing a minging fan such as myself back to my flat and insisting on drinking with me. You act like a nicer version of every other lad our age.”
He leans over you, engulfing you in a hug and grabbing for the vodka and coke. “I think we’re going to be very good friends.”
The next morning, you find the two of you hungover and fully dressed on top of your bed, glass liqueur and wine bottles decorating your floor. All you remember is going shopping, meeting Tom, and getting incredibly drunk while stargazing. Too drunk to viably do anything besides sleep and throw up, the latter of which you hope to god did not happen.
Tom stirs soon after and just hugs your stomach while groaning and rubbing his head, complaining that he’s never going to drink again - which you know will last approximately twelve hours.
You proceed to eat a make-do breakfast, followed by a heavy dose of paracetamol before Tom walks you to his house. He helps you up the step and just shouts, “this is my new best friend, we’ll be in my room!” 
You see his family's scepticism from down the hall, but Tom doesn’t seem bothered about them or calling you his new best friend, and that's how it all begins.
──⭒─⭑─⭒──
“Lunch!” Comes Sam’s voice from outside the door, snapping you out of your reverie, followed by a click and some footsteps. He sits down beside you on the bed, stroking your hair. He doesn’t need to ask if you’re okay or not, he’s just exceptional at reading people, and he really genuinely cares about everyone. He sits you up and hands you a plate with the kindest smile. You don’t need to tell him how you feel, he can tell that you’re confused and tired and in love with his brother - that happened fast.
“They’re locked in the dining room with Harrison. Honestly, forget about them, my brothers are complete dickheads.” He says, sliding you a plate.
“Trust me, I know. They’re worse than that, I think that's why I love you and your family so much.” You sigh deeply, a tear forming in your eye as you rest your head against Sam’s shoulder and he wraps his spare arm around you. He’s a friend to you, one that isn’t messing with your feelings.
A rap on the door breaks your and Sam's discussion, and Tom enters with his back hunched and frowning. “Hug?” Is all he says. Maybe it's best if you don’t discuss it and go back to normal with both your Tom and Harry, maybe the intensity will die down and you’ll be able to go five minutes without each other.
“Hug.” You say, clambering your way off Tom’s bed and subsequently melting into his grip. He hugs you tighter than ever before, borderline crushing your shoulders and temporarily preventing you from breathing, but hearing the steady thrum of his heartbeat inside his chest is enough, feeling his chest and arm muscles tense and release around you makes you forget what this was all about, it just makes you crave his smell to be all over you, makes you crave his kisses on every inch of your body and not just your cheeks; being this close to him makes you crave the parts of him that you’ve been denied, flaws included.
“I’m gonna leave before something worse starts, catch you downstairs baby.” Sam says, collecting your plates and leaving you chuckling into Tom's chest, still reluctant to let go of him, and he seemed to feel the same. You tilt your head up a little so you’re at the perfect angle to examine every feature of Tom’s face - everything from a tiny part of his face that he missed while shaving, the twinkles of his eyes, his decidedly haywire eyebrows. You lose track of the time that you remain in his grip, but it feels right, with this being quite probably the longest you’ve gone without speaking and your first form of disagreement.
“I love you baby.” He murmurs, squeezing you momentarily tighter before holding you at arm's length. Baby, the nickname that all the Hollands and Harrison insist on calling you, but it ignites a raging fire of longing in your veins whenever Tom says it, especially when it follows those three words.
“You too, T” You reply with a faint hint of sadness tugging at your heart, so you jump up when his back is turned and scruff his hair. “Piggyback please.”
Tom proceeds to give you a purposefully bumpy piggyback down the stairs and out to his garden, where the other three are huddled suspiciously close around a collection of golf clubs. You climb down from Tom’s back and glance up at the winter sunshine, making Tom look borderline ethereal with his smile illuminated by Sol, Norse Goddess of sunlight. He looks perfect, and that's what kills you, you wouldn’t deserve that level of perfection anyway.
You waste the afternoon away by playing back garden golf with a twist, if you miss three shots in a row then you take a shot, it does not end well. The boys swiftly get too competitive and have to drink, leaving you the only sober one between four tipsy lads in their early twenties, and their level of intoxication makes it easier for you to continually beat them.
Early evening comes by, and Harrison seems on edge, making him run upstairs to the attic to answer a phone call, no doubt from his girlfriend. The four of you watch him from the garden - his sighs turn to yells, and his yells soon turn to crying into a pillow.
“Who’s turn is it?” Tom asks, and you raise your hand. You turn to take one last look at the three brothers, all with the same sad smiles and fretful eyes, and you run up all the stairs to the attic where Harrison is now just standing blankly, staring at a wall. Instead of asking or making him talk, you do what Sam did for you, just hug him.
──⭒─⭑─⭒──
You wake up in Tom’s arms after a long nap on his sofa post-golf, the other three boys asleep on the sofa beside yours. You smile at the sight, gently nudging Tom awake despite your not wanting to stir him. He looks so peaceful when he sleeps despite his snores. His eyelashes always flutter and his nose twitches while his hair creates all sorts of patterns on the pillows he lies upon.
“Let’s go to the roof, you grab the wine.” you say, watching his perfect brown eyes open and a smile instantly grace his lips upon the sight of you. 
You grab some blankets and make your way to the second floor bathroom window where you leave the window propped open for Tom. Just outside is a patch of flat roof that permits the two of you to sit or lie there, stargazing and getting drunk, you’ve even fallen asleep there once or twice, not to mention the mildly illegal substances that you’ve smuggled in.
Tom arrives minutes after you just as night is properly settling in. The stars twinkle in the sky as far as the eye can see, certain stars shining brighter than others and those are the ones that you and Tom have studied over the past year.
“Nigel’s on fire tonight!” He exclaims, pointing towards a star just south-west of Sirius. You stifle a giggle, looking at Tom who passes you a bottle of nice red wine, a rarity for the two of you. 
“It's Rigel and you know it.” You return, laying your head on his broad shoulders. He lies his head atop yours, placing kisses to your hairline. You involuntarily let out the faintest hum of agreement, turning your focus away from the longing that’s filling every pore of your body and returning it to the stars which you worship so profusely. You take a swig of wine, handing your bottle back to Tom who just places it down and turns to you.
He looks solemn, business like, this is a Tom that you’re not a fan of at all. “What Sam said earlier…” He starts, but you turn away from his gaze to trace the whole Canis Major constellation with your eyes, focusing on Sirius to will yourself away from crying. Just the thought of what Sam said being true makes you simultaneously joyful and sullen, it makes you want to reach for the stars and cry, but most of all, it just makes you sick, and you know it's not the wine talking.
“Don’t say it, Tom.” You begin. “Don’t you dare start to talk to me about that when I’ve been so painfully in love with you since the moment we met, don’t act like you can brush off what he said as a joke, because if you don’t want me then maybe Harry does.” 
You know it’s wrong to be saying all of this, so wrong, but all of a sudden, your mouth stops doing what your brain tells it to, and your heart takes over. 
“God. And for a second there I had hope as well, maybe that's the worst part. Or maybe the worst part is that we haven't been able to spend a second apart, and the only time we did was when you were too embarrassed to follow me after Sam had a slip of the tongue. You can’t blame your brothers, Tom, the same way that I can't blame the alignment of stars and planets for us never being together when it’s my fault for not being enough. But none of that even scrapes the level of longing I have for you when you kiss my cheeks, when you hug me, when we play fight, when we sleep together, when you just do something as simple as calling me baby. I can’t talk about this anymore, so leave or tell me to go, or you can stay here and we really can act like this never happened.”
Unsurprisingly, he chooses the latter, but there’s a certain rigidity and tension in his movements, made worse by the dark cloud looming over the two of you after your unladylike outburst. You want to apologise, go back in time and take it all away, but you surrender in the only way you can, you cry. Just a single tear cascading your cheek before Tom wipes it away and lays his pinky finger just over yours on the roof, pressing down a little to let you know that it's okay and he doesn’t love you any less, at least that’s how you interpret it .
You remain on the roof, unmoving, side by side, staring at the stars for what feels like hours. You finish the wine in silence, barely brushing each other’s fingers with every touch and too full of scepticism and fear to meet each other's eyes despite how much you crave getting lost in Tom’s very own chocolate rivers.
It's getting late now, really late, and no doubt the boys are all awake inside and curious as to where the two of you are hidden, no doubt assuming that you’re up to something forbidden. You dare to turn your neck and look at tom, only to see him staring at you longingly, his lips slightly parted and his cheeks tinted rosy, and that’s not just from the cold night air
You smile in spite of yourself, but it's a shy smile, one full of uncertainty, but nonetheless you take one deep breath, your eyes fluttering shut, and you turn to face him again, only to find his eyes still trained on you.
In a sudden leap of faith, you reach your arm across his body to grasp the side of his stomach and you turn him full bodily facing you. The stars reflect in his eyes, dancing around and twinkling, almost as though they’re cheering you on, so you do it. You tilt your face slightly and lean towards Tom, capturing his lips in the most intense kiss of your life. His hands grip your waist and pull you closer to him, chest to chest so that you can feel the gradual synchronisation of your racing hearts. He only has to nudge your lower lip with his tongue for half a second before he’s granted an enthused access. His tongue sweeps your mouth, dancing with your own in a fight - not of dominance, but of passion. 
Your kiss extends and passes through so many emotions and the pressure and urgency of it changes so often that it's hard to keep track. Lust switches to desperation, then do admiration and candour before returning to a long denied flame of passion, and finally, love. The way his lips massage your own is magical, the way he tastes fills your senses with a satisfaction that gets swiftly replaced with a yearning for more, the way he loves you drives you crazy and relights the longing that you feel in his arms.
His lips slow down and apply less pressure to yours, allowing the two of you to gasp for air however subtly it may be, but only for a second before he kisses you one final time, filled with nothing but a deep and unrequited adoration, until you told him, and it became true.
You stay perfectly still while gathering your bearings and breath, your nose nudging Tom’s and your clammy foreheads pressed together. You daren’t open your eyes for a while, not until his mouth gently ghosts over yours in what can be described as nothing less than an exchange of breath. Now you know what he tastes like, you never want to stop tasting him.
Before you can even open your eyes though, you hear a round of applause and cheers from down below. You look at Tom with terror etched on your every feature until he squeezes your waist a little tighter, and just that gesture screams trust me. So you do. You look down to the garden to find Tom's parents, Sam, Harry, Paddy, and Harrison all applauding the two of you - even Tessa is there, barking and howling at you.
You let another tear escape while a burning blush prickles at your cheeks and ears. You move your hand from Tom's waist to his shirt and pull him closer, one final kiss before you settle your head in his chest.
“You really love me then?” He asks incredulously, though part of you can tell that he’s joking. You nod your head and hear his heartbeat increase in his chest.
“I’m in love with you too, since the day I first laid eyes on you.” he whispers, holding you as close to him as possible. You don’t even need to look around to know that the stars are twinkling in their own form of applause for the two of you, and your instincts tell you that both Harrison and Mrs Holland are both probably crying while the others pretend to be sickened by you, but they’re secretly happy you got together.
“Not just friends?” You ask tiredly. 
“Never just friends. I love you, I promise.” You smile at his words
“I love you, T.”
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Heart Shaped Bed
Mob Boss! Mikey x fem reader
Summery: It’s Halloween and you’re just looking for some fun of the dangerous variety. Enter: Michelangelo. A psychotic mob boss from hell who is in love with your best friend. Can you win him over and at what cost?
Warnings: NSFW, violence, alcohol mentions, car accident
((A/N: I have trouble writing crazy character despite being labelled as crazy myself, Mikey is tricky to write for in this AU so just bear with me))
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October 31st, the night where all the ghouls and ghosts come out to play and superstition is at it’s highest since it’s rumoured that the veil between our world and the next is at it’s thinnest. You pull your skirt down your leg a little and take another sip of your free beer, one of the only perks of having a best friend who works at a bar. Paddy’s is always packed at this time of year, everyone is in costumes and drunk out of their minds; you are no different. You’re dressed as a sexy school girl because originality was never your forte and you wanted to show off your boobs a little, so what? You have the outfit down, complete even with bows on the thigh high socks and you look damn good.
It’s too loud to have a decent conversation with “Monster mash” blaring over the small speakers on the bar so you sit and give Sophie (Peach, as you know her) a forlorn look as if to say “more beer, please” and she complies. Peach looks radiant as she pulls the tap to refill your glass. Her light peach hair trailing down over her shoulders and her uniform or black slacks and a white t shirt with dark green hem hugging all of her curves. She was difficult to compete with but she was still so modest and complimentary of you it was hard to hold it against her. You knew half the regulars only came her to watch her, it didn’t stop you going after them though.
Looking around the room you watch and drunk idiots spill their drinks and desperately try to find someone to take home despite looking a mess, covered in fake blood or with vampire fangs. It was really something to watch. A guy in a ladybug costume fawns over a women dressed as Moticia Adams only to get the cold shoulder. You chuckle to yourself. Sat in the far corner of the room, at their usual table, sat the Turtle boys, a notorious gang in upside New York. They weren’t in costume, too good for it you assumed, and they didn’t look happy. You were aware, through Peach, that they made unsavoury deals in the back office of the bar and maybe tonight something went awry.
“Hey, babes!” you call over to Peach who is passing the incredible hulk a bud light “What happened over there?” you say gesturing subtly to the four well suited turtles.
“Not sure, I heard some yelling from the back room and then they came out. Something to do with that serial killer I think” She replies.
So a serial killing is hurting business. Huh. That explains their looking like someone died, someone has... You couldn’t keep your eyes from flitting towards them, sitting there so stoic and commanding while nursing a few now almost gone whiskys.
“Hey” you call over again. Peach turns and gives you a smile to let you know she’s listening “Isn’t that one the guy who-”
“- who choked out Steve for grabbing my ass? Yeah, that’s the one” she finishes your sentence for you.
You smile to yourself, Steve definitely deserved it. Pervert. You knew the turtle’s name but, like all residents of the bar, were reluctant to use it lest they hear you. But, tonight was a night to be brave and take chances, and you’d always wanted to bed one of them. Think of the status that gives you, sleeping with one of the most violent, deplorable men in the state. You know Mikey has a thing for Peach, on other nights his eyes don’t leave her, not that she notices; a good girl like her doesn’t have time for those “downworlders” as she calls them.
“Barkeep! I’ll take 4 martinis if you don’t mind. It’s time to take my shot” you announce to Peach who gives you a weary smile as she makes your drinks and places them on a tray in front of you.
You adjust your green and navy blue pleated skirt, hiking it further up so that the bottom of your ass cheeks would be on view and head over to the turtles, tray in hand.
You set down the drinks in front of them and say, with a smile:
“We have a special offer on tonight, boys. Buy four drinks and get me for free”
They stare at you completely unamused, but their looks weren’t going to discourage you now.
“Oh come on” you begin “That line would have killed two tables over”
Michelangelo takes a finger and runs it around the rim of his glass a few times before tipping it over, the contents of the glass spilling all over the table and onto your skirt. You jump back.
“Hey, what the fuck!” you cry out
“Act like a slut, get treated like a slut” he states.
With your tail between your legs, you huff and walk away. They didn’t have to be such assholes about it, and it kind of stung that you basically offered up your pussy on a plate and they sneered at you.
Back at the bar Peach raises her eyebrows as you take a few napkins and try and dry off your skirt.
“So, how’d it go?” she inquires
“About as well as you can expect from four mutant, snobby, rich dickheads”you reply. Peach leans over the bar and gives you a small hug and kiss on the cheek as her condolences.
Suddenly you feel eyes on you and turn around to see Michelangelo staring at you, mouth slightly agape and a strange look in his eyes. You would have called it regret, if you thought he was capable of feeling that. You ignore it and turn back to your drink.
You sense a presence behind you and turn once more to find him standing next to you looking awfully sheepish.
“Look” he begins “I’m...I’m sorry about that. I didn’t know you were a friend of- is there some way I can make it up to you? Is what I’m trying to say”
“Do you have a fresh size 3 shirt in that booth with you?” your snarky side is coming out
He laughs it off 
“No, but can I buy you a drink or” He looks you up and down “Interest you in any extra curricular activities?” His smile is so bright and charming, you feel yourself almost forgiving him for what had just occurred. And he was devilishly good looking, which helped a lot.
You trace your fingers lightly up his arm until they reach his shoulder.
“You wanna get out of here?”
He smirks, looks down and then back up at you
“Sure”
_____
Outside of the bar is freezing, especially in the tiny outfit you’re wearing and you shiver in the cold October air. Mikey shrugs off his blazer and puts it over your shoulders but you get the impression he’s doing this out of obligation rather than affection. It’s something about his movements, they feel more...Awkward and unsteady than fluid and confident. You know this isn’t his first time taking a girl home from Paddy’s, so you don’t fully understand what his deal it.
You arrive at his car, and despite knowing nothing about vehicles you can recognise that he drives a black Bentley and it must have cost him a fortune, not that he didn’t have the money. He could buy it 100 times over and still have more cash than half the people in New York.
He opens the passenger side door for you and you get in.
“So, my place or yours?” you ask
“Motel” he says plainly.
Curiouser and curiouser... You try and make a list of everything you know about him. He won’t take you home, he’s hot then cold and he has a thing for Peach. It clicks in your head. He’s using you to get closer to her. You almost smile, this was such a typical thing to happen to you, of course he only wants you for your relationship to her. It doesn’t matter either way, you’ll warm him up for her.
He drives fast and it’s not long before your on a highway and definitely breaking the speed limit.
You had been making casual conversation, the drive was always the worst part of a hook up, now you have to actually talk to them instead of make out. 
“I feel like we should have taken an uber” you say
He doesn’t turn to look at you or speak
“Because that way I could be touching you right now” You place a hand on his thigh and he still gives you no response. “Anndd you’re not listening. Great.”
He takes his eyes off the road and turns to you
“You’re the oldest in your family, you work as a manager in a clothing store but can’t fucking stand it there and you feel like we should have gotten an uber so you could be touching me right now. Did I get that right?”
You stare back at him slightly aghast and he continues to watch you. Suddenly you realise he hasn’t looked at the road this entire time and the car in front of you is slowing down
“Watch out!” you scream and the car swerves before he gains control again and brakes, the car rocking side to side a little from the sudden movements. You’re breathless and you turn to look at Mikey who simply bursts out laughing while he continues to drive, his eyes wide as full moons. He’s sick you think to yourself. Lucky you like that in a man, and there’s nothing like a near death experience to get the blood pumping.
You continue the car ride for a while in silence apart from the odd laugh from him who still seems amused that you nearly crashed.
He pulls off the side of the road into some shitty looking motel. A huge florescent sign that reads “Blue Moon Motel” sparks a little which doesn’t offer you any comfort. This place was a dump, but if it had a bed it would do.
________
Inside the room you shake off the blazer he gave you onto the chair in the corner of the room, by the end of the bed. The interior was cute, all shades of blue and white and the bed sheets has little lace style trimmings.which was delicate and sweet.
You fling yourself onto the bed, kicking off your shoes and pull out your phone, you decide you need music for this momentous occasion. You settle on “Heart Shaped Bed” by Nicole Dollanganger and press play. It’s creepy enough to be fitting for Halloween but slow enough to be romantic. The opening notes of the piano begin to stream from your phone which you place on the nightstand.
*lay me down, on a heart shaped bed Pretend it’s out wedding, pretend we just met*
“So” you spread your legs a little and look at Mikey “How do you want me?”
He gives you a wicked smile and then he’s upon you, biting and sucking at the delicate flesh of your neck with vigour. Clearly he couldn’t wait any longer you thought to yourself.
*Pretend we're in one of those movies They rent in the back of every seedy place We pass on the interstate*
You angle your head to kiss his mouth but he pulls away, making it clear that this is not a romantic occasion, this is just fucking and he doesn’t want you in that way. It doesn’t bother you, it just heightens the whole “big bad mob boss” fantasy although you’d be lying if you said you weren’t at least a little disappointed by it.
he tears your blouse open revealing your chest and begins his work sucking and biting at your nipples and the tender skin of your breasts, you look down and can already see pinky purple bruises forming, a treasure map of where his mouth had been.
You moan a little at his touch but he continues his work down your stomach and towards your most sensitive area. Lifting up your skirt he places a kiss on you clothes mound before peeling off your underwear. You raise your hips slightly to help his get them off with ease and then he returns back down, licking between your folds until his tongue passes over your clit and causes you to moan hard.
*Just hold me through these lonely nights We'll have a blue wedding tonight*
“You want this?” he says from between your thighs, you can feel his hot breath against your skin, a sensation that is more than pleasant. 
“Yes, god yes” you squirm
“No.You wanna act like a slut, you get fucked like a slut” he returns.
Before you have time to respond her grabs you by the ankle and flips you over onto your stomach before pulling your hips up so that you’re on your knees with your shoulders and face still down on the bed. You hear him undo his flies and think for a moment as he lines up with your entrance
“wait, don’t we need protectio-” before you can finish he’s inside you and thrusting hard and deep, he gives you no time to adjust to his size and he is very sizeable... You cry out in the mixture of pain and pleasure that he’s giving you. As well as the music, the room fills with the obscene sounds of his flesh pounding against yours and the wet noises your pussy makes as he pushes in and out of you.
“you think sluts use protection?” he mocks
He feels to good for you to want him to pull out now, so you go with it, but raise yourself onto your elbows. His hands are on your hips but he trails one down your back to grab at your ponytail and pull your head back.
*So get the room with the heart shaped bed Make something gross feel romantic*
Your walls tighten around him and that elicits a grunt from him as he begins to pound harder into you, smacking your ass hard as he does. He pulls out and flips you over back onto your back and holds your legs up to your chin, his strong arm keeps them in place as he realigns himself with your entrance and pushes back in. This new position allows him to get deeper which you think is what he was hoping for.
*Make me so no one will ever want me again*
Now he has a full view of your face, eyes squeezed closed and face contorted in pleasure
“Open your eyes” he demands “Look at me when I’m fucking you”
He’s still fully clothed which you’re a little unhappy about, so you open your eyes and begin to undo his shirt. Your fingers tremble slightly partially from the force at which he’s fucking you, partially do to the alcohol you had that night.
*'Cause when I sleep with faith, I only Find a corpse in my arms on awakening*
You slide his shirt over his shoulders and throw it across the room, raising your head a little you bite into his now exposed shoulder to stifle your moans. You don’t understand how he can bring you so close to the brink this soon, but his pace is unyielding and unwavering. He fucks you like he’s punishing you.
He grabs you by the chin and squeezes 
“Open your mouth!”
you do as you’re told and he purses his lips, pauses and then spits down your throat, pushing at your chin to close your mouth and encouraging you to swallow. He’s disgusting but being treated this way only turns you on more, much to your shame, you can feel your cheeks flush with blood as he smiles down at you one he hears that familiar *gulp* sound.
*Just hold me through these lonely nights We'll have a blue wedding tonight*
He pulls out once more and gets of the bed which confuses you for a second, until he pulls you up by the hair and leads you to the wall. He spins you around and so you’re facing it and pushes your shoulders forwards and pulls your hips back so he has easier access to your pussy. He plunges his cock back inside of you and you rest your face against the wall as you take him in all the way. You think you might start seeing stars if he continues like this. Never mind him being a probable killer, they should lock him up for murdering your pussy.
One of his hands rakes through your hair and pulls back your head while the other reaches around to your face and pinches your nose shut while covering your mouth. You can’t breath at all and begin to panic slightly but also whine into his hand because of how good he feels inside you.
you feel that tightness in the pit of your stomach and know that you’re close, you try and moan into his hand, shaking your head a little from side to side to try and get him off your face but it’t to no avail. So you use your hands but he simply lets go of your hair and pins your arms behind your back. You still can’t breath and now you’re so close to cumming and black dots and filtering in and out of your vision, you think you might be close to passing out.
Finally that knot in your stomach releases and your orgasm washing over you, you practically scream into his hand before he lets go and you fall to the floor, gasping for air.
*Just hold me through these lonely nights We'll have a blue wedding tonight*
He hasn’t cum yet so he stands over you, stroking his dick, smirking at what he did to you. If it weren’t for the afterglow of your orgasm, you’d be furious and give him a peace of your mind but you were still desperately trying to catch your breath.
Mikey throws his head back before cumming on you, some of the milky fluid getting in your hair and you lift your hand up to shield your face from it. Was this to insult you? Or was it still part of the whole ‘you’re a slut’ role play thing because you couldn’t tell anymore.
He tucks himself back into his finely tailored trousers and walks across the room to put on his shirt and gather his blazer from the chair you threw it on earlier. He pulls a small rectangular card out of his pocket and throws it on the nightstand next to your phone which started playing the next song a while ago.
“You can spend the night here, if you want. Anything you get from the minibar will be charged to my card so don’t worry about it” He looks down at you, still on the floor, bright red in the face and still breathing rather heavily “G’night, sweetheart” he winks at you before heading to the door and closing it behind him.
You pull yourself up to your feet and head over to your phone, opening it and typing out a message to Peach.
[Hey girly, you won’t believe the night I just fucking had] the text reads.
You flop down on the bed and await her response. A shower could wait for 5 minutes while she replies.
Fin
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pixie88 · 4 years ago
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Meeting the Parents pt1
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Chapter 11 - Always the Bridesmaid.
A/N: I’ve had this chapter in my draft for a few days now after the last chapter everything seemed to flow so well now I have 4 other chapters in my drafts eeekkk! But I will slowly release them because, some of the story lines in a couple of the chapters I’m not sure I’m going to stick with just yet. I hope you like it.
If you would like to be ADDED or REMOVED just let me know!
Read previous chapters HERE!
Warnings: Fluff & Light NSFW
Word Count: 2052
Pairings: Laila x Harry
Enjoy!
Ever since they saw Gemma he had been quiet, Laila wondered if maybe he wasn't over her? Or was it because he felt awkward he had called her his girlfriend? He had even turned her down to take a shower with him. He wanders into the kitchen where she's cooking, she too lost in thought to notice him come in.
"Laila?" He made her jump, "Sorry I was away with the fairies" she weakly smiles at him "Nice shower?" She tries to sound neutral "Yeah, thanks. Do you need any help in here?" Talking to him feels awkward it has never felt awkward not even when they were first dating she has to ask.
"Harry, what's wrong?" He's shocked she had pick up on his mood "Nothing," he shook his head, "You've been off since we saw Gem? So many things are going around in my head right now"
"Like what?" He asks "Like are you being off because you still have feelings for her?" He's shocked, he grasps her shoulder "No! No, I don't those feelings are dead and buried a long time ago! I love you!"
"Then why are you being so weird?" He sighs "Laila, I want to tell you I do.." she rolls her eyes "But you can't...Harry if you can't tell me what's wrong or why you're being so off I don't think we should meet each others parents...I'm sorry I can't sit there and pretend everything is OK when it's clearly not!"
He knows this is a big step in their relationship "I'm worried if I do I'll lose you," she let out a soft laugh "If what I told you about Josh didn't scare you away, then nothing will scare me away. I'm like chewing gum in your hair annoying and you can't get it out!" He chuckles "The thing is I'm not even a hundred percent myself"
"Is it because you called me your girlfriend? Do you wishing you could take it back?" He had forgotten about that, she's smirking at him "I don't want to take it back" he smiles at her "But you haven't asked me!" She laughs.
"Maybe I should tell you what's been bothering me before I ask you....Gemma and I split a little over a year and a half, after I found out she had been cheating on me with one of my clients. Today was the first time I saw her since we split up, when I asked her about the kid I did the calculations. Laila, I could have a son"
Laila is a bit thrown, but then she remembers what her brother Nate went through. He turns away from her "Harry?" She reaches for his arm, turning him towards her. This is the part where she ends things...or so he thought!
"Harry, will you be my boyfriend?" This was the last thing he thought she'd ask considering what he had just told her. He looks at her confused expect her to laugh, saying she was joking, but she doesn't "What?" He asks not quite believing he heard her.
"Harry Taylor, will you be my boyfriend?" She asks again "But..I just...Laila.." she cuts him off "Harry stop! Answer the question!" He can't believe he can be this lucky "I would love nothing more! This isn't a joke is it?"
She laughs, "Of course not! You told me what was bothering and whether you have a son or not I love you and having a child isn't going to change those feelings. Plus, how can I get angry over something you clearly knew nothing about! I understand my brother Nathan went through the same kinda thing he had a baby at 16 with his then girlfriend, she moved away and never told him. She was a bit of a psycho he didn't find out until she was 2 years old. We will do this together!"
His arms wrap around her as his lips capture hers, he pulls away just a little "You know you are amazing right!" She laughs "You're only just realising this! Why did I get myself a boyfriend that is so slow on the uptake" she jokes. He laughs, "Harry all I know you can't change the past, but you can improve the future. All we can do now is find out the truth and go from there"
He really can't believe this girl..Others would have run a mile or thrown a paddy, but she didn't? He guessed that's the difference between dating a woman rather than a girl. He picks her up, throwing her over his shoulder "Harry!! The dinner!!" She squealed, he turned back to the hob turning off the heated ring before making his way to her bedroom, slapping her cheek as she playfully protests.
Buzzzzz, buzzzzzzzz, buzzzzzzzzzzzz!
"HARRY!" Laila giggles as he tries to pull her back to bed while she is redressing and making a run for the door. Her parents are early they always were no matter where they went. "Hello?" She picks up the intercom "I'll buzz you up," she says as she's pulling on her underwear. Her skirt gets tucked into her lacy underwear revealing her ass cheek which has an teeth mark impression.
He smirks as he untucks her skirt he gently taps her cheek, She smirks at him as she opens the front door of the flat while smoothing over her hair. Liz walks through the door and Terry is close behind her "Mum, Dad! Hi!" Liz pulls her in for a hug before letting go "Harry, nice to see you again!" he shook her hand "Thanks, nice to see you again and you Terry"
"Like wise!" Terry nods at him, Laila secretly laughs inside, Terry was exactly the same with Josh. "Come in, would you like a drink?" Both her parents nod, Harry helps her. They take a seat at the table, "Harry, you're a personal trainer right?" Terry asks.
"Yeah, I am" Terry smiles "So, any tips on how to get rid of this beer gut?"
"I get book you in for some sessions with me...only if you want to?" Under the table, he grips Laila's hand he's nervous, his hands are sweaty. She runs her thumb over his knuckles which instantly calms him down.
"How much are these sessions?" Terry seems interested. "Erm..normally £65 a session, but I'm sure I can sort out a discount"
"Don't you think I can afford the going rate?" Terry hisses making Harry stumble on his words. When Harry isn't looking Terry winks at his daughter letting her know he's joking.
"Erm...no...I didn't mean to insult you..sorry I...think"
Terry chuckles "I'm just messing with ya! Look I'm not one of those dad's who's hard on their kids partners. I can see you make her happy and with what she's gone through in the past I'm glad she's found someone to make her sparkle again! But I will say one thing....I'm nice until you mess her about that's when you need to run!"
A bell rings from the kitchen telling Laila the dinner is ready, Harry automatically gets up to help her. "He's trained" Liz laughs, Laila tuts at her mum.
In the kitchen, Harry lets out a breath "Your dad had me then!" She laughs, "He's like that with everyone. He's friends with anyone until they cross him!"
"What will he think if he knew the truth about Gemma?" He looks worried.
"He'll be fine, if anything he'll feel sorry for you! Like I said my brother Nate didn't know he had a kid until Zeppy was nearly 2 years old! Now stop fretting until we know for sure and help me take these out"
She hands him a couple of plates.
After dinner Liz helps Harry take out the plates, leaving Laila and Terry at the table, "He seems like a nice guy, sweetie!" She's relieved he approves "He is!" Terry can see right through his daughter even when she's trying to hide it "I sense a but?"
She can't lie to her dad, he will know she's lying straight away. She looks round to the kitchen door where she can hear them loading the dishwasher.
"Laila, what is it?"
"You can't tell mum! He thinks he might be a dad"
Terry immediately looks to his daughters tummy "Not with me! We bumped into his ex today. She had a little boy with her and Harry did the sums he could be his son. I'm fine with it, but am I ready to be step mum to a kid who's if he is the dad I've been dating for only 2 months?"
Terry sighs, "Laila, if I was having this, talk with your brothers, I would tell them to run a mile, but that's only because they aren't mature enough to bring up another person's child. But you, well you have a good head on your shoulders, you love him, right?" She nods "Well, I think you will surprise yourself how well you take to it. Plus nothing set in stone yet. So, don't throw away something good for something that might be!"
"Who's ready for dessert?" Harry calls out as he comes into the dining room with his homemade cheesecake.
Terry winks at his daughter, she knows he's right...he always is.
"So how long have you two been dating?" Liz asks the pair.
"Well, he stalked me at work, then stole a business card after the stag weekend"
"Determination! That's what I like to see!" Terry jokes.
"See told you it wasn't stalking!" Harry bumps his shoulder with hers, she rolled her eyes at him.
"Terry stalked me! I had bumped into him at the local corner shop where we lived, I was in my school uniform 16 at the time, he was 18. We got talking then the following day he was outside my school ready to walk me home. Unbeknown to him I only lived 2 streets!" Liz laughs.
"Hey, they say chivalry is dead now a days. So, count yourself lucky" Terry jokes.
"Not completely dead" Laila winks at Harry, who blushes "This one wouldn't let me get the tube alone...twice!"
Liz coos from across the table "I've told you about that too! So, thanks Harry!" Terry tuts at his daughter.
Harry smirks at her "We'll have to have everyone round for dinner so you can officially meet the rest of the family!" Liz saying excited.
"Yes, her 3 older brothers" Harry smiles awkwardly.
"I'll have a word with them, so they lay off you," Terry winks, Harry had his full approval "Do you any siblings?"
Harry nods "3 older brothers and a younger sister. Laila has already met one brother and my sister"
She laughs remembering Arthur had came to the stag weekend and that night had met Izzy "Ah yes! Izzy! I thought you were on another date!" She hadn't told him this.
He seemed shocked "Sorry to break it to you darling, I'm a one woman man. Even when we aren't official" She rolls her eyes at him.
"Are you two official yet?" Liz asks, Laila nods "This afternoon actually mum!" Liz claps over excited.
"Yes, your daughter is a 21st century woman she asked me!"
"She always did know what she wants and how to get it!" Terry laughs.
"Well, I did say I love you first! Bit of a theme there" she winks.
Terry chuckles "She knows her own mind!"
Later they are in bed "Do you think your parents liked me?"
"I think you won them over straight away, they can see how happy you make me and how much I love you so they approve"
He pulls her on top of him "I hope they saw how much I love you too" he smiles.
"I think they did! Harry, are you going to speak to Gemma?"
"I was thinking about speaking to her tomorrow, the sooner I know the truth the better"He pulls her lips to his.
~*~*~*~
The next morning
He rang the door bell, his heart was in his throat, he's 50/50.
One side he kinda hopes he is his son, but on the other he hopes he's not.
The door opens, she's surprised "Harry, what...." he cuts her off "Is he mine?!"
Continue reading this story here - Chapter 12
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words-for-holland · 5 years ago
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The Songs in Our Life: It’s Not a Date
Pairing: Tom Holland x Reader
Summary: Y/N & Tom learn more about each other on their night out together...but remember it’s not a date.
Inspired by: I Wanna Know You - Hannah Montana & David Archuleta
Album Description | Track 1 | Track 2 |
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Waiting. It’s the action of staying where you are to delaying something until a certain time has come or something happens. 
For instance, Y/N and Tom were due for a date at 5:40pm, and the wait was almost unbearable for them. Not that it was ever an official date....but the idea of seeing each other again the very same day brought a feeling of excitement. Something that neither had felt in a very long time. Seconds, minutes, and the remaining hours passed. Y/N had clocked out of work, shoved her laptop in her bag, and made her way down to lobby to meet Tom. As she approached the area, her steps slowed and ultimately stopping in her tracks. Seeing Tom, casually waiting brought a new found feeling. She smiled at him, already thinking about the possibilities of the if’s and’s & wants in her future, but immediately shook out the thought. 
“C’mon Y/N it’s way too early to be thinking like this. You haven't even gone on a date with him yet and you're already thinking about a future. Jesus.” Y/N muttered to herself, verbally smacking some common sense into her brain. 
As she continued to walk towards Tom, he looked up to meet her eyes and started walking to her direction. “Fancy seeing you here, darling.” he greeted with that boyish smile. He offered his hands, gesturing to allow him to carry her bag, but Y/N simply shook her head and declined the offer. “It’s okay. I got it.” 
“Are you sure?” he asked. 
“Of course, but would it be okay if we stopped by my apartment to drop this off?” Y/N replied to him. “I really don't want to be carrying this around while I blow your mind with the best food in the city.” 
Tom hadn’t replied to Y/N’s question, he was too busy thinking about..well...her. In his mind, he would have been more bold and responded to her question like ‘Aw, here I was hoping you were just going to invite me in to stay there and I can show you a really good time’. Or ‘Nothing blows my mind more than you’.
Instead what came out was “Yeah, sure that’s fine.” he smiled back, mentally slapping himself for not being able to pull off something smoother.
“Okay, let’s go. It’s not that far.” Y/N lead the way, with Tom following behind. There it was. That awkward-but-not-so-awkward tension coming up as the two walked in silence to Y/N’s apartment. Both knew it wasn’t an official date, so why was it hard to just strike a conversation? Y//N and Tom fought with their inner conscious as they tried to figure out how to make the first move. It was then when both Tom and Y/N, took a deep breath and said out loud their questions the same time.
They laughed at their failed attempts to strike a proper conversation, and tried to make it better by saying “You first.” in unison and then “No you.” 
Tom gestured to Y/N to speak first. “So how was your press interview? Did you get in trouble for being late?” Y/N asked as they continued to walk the streets of 34th Avenue.
Tom looked at Y/N’s way, recollecting their first meet up. Indeed Tom was extremely late, but if he hadn’t been he wouldn’t be in this position right now with her. “Yeah it went well. I just got in a little bit of trouble, but it’s okay. Sometimes you’ve got to live a little dangerously.” he winked, which made Y/N’s cheeks display the most delicate shade of pink. “What about you? How was work?”
Y/N shrugged at his question. “Can’t complain. Im still new to the company, but the projects are fun and everyone’s welcoming and a pleasure to work with. Just hoping I dont mess it up.”
“Im sure you won’t. You dont seem to be that type.” Tom responds truthfully.
Y/N looks at him and smiles. “Oh? And what type do I seem to be?” She challenges him, but before he could speak, they make it to Y/N’s apartment.
She jiggles the key in and opens the door for Tom, allowing him to enter first. The first thing that catches his eyes are the cream colored walls and soft blue furniture accents. Papers are piled up on a table, and pictures of Y/N with her friends and family placed decoratively on the walls. Candles were lit and the T.V. was softly playing in the background. “Wow...this is really cozy.” Tom reacts, intaking the surrounding. “Though I must say I usually get invited inside the house on the second date.” He laughs at his sorry joke.
Thankfully Y/N’s sense of humor was extremely easy tonplease, and she laughed along with him, playfully hitting his shoulder. “Oh stop, I told you I need to set my stuff down. I —”
“Hey Y/N I was wondering what—” Y/N’s roomate and best friend comes in to the living room seeing a rare sighting of Y/N with a man. “Oh...I didnt know we had company.” She smiles, trying her best to contain her excitement for her best friend.
“Oh right.” Y/N closes her eyes briefly in hopes that her best friend doesnt embarrass her. “Um Tom this is Kaitlyn, she’s my best friend and roomate. Kaitlyn this is Tom H—”
“Believe me. I know who you are.” Kaitlyn smiles widely. “It’s...wow..a surprise really. Nice to meet you.”
“And it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Tom greets back shaking her hand.
“So are you two like...” Kaitlyn gestures as she squiches her hands together. “On a date?”
Both Y/N’s and Tom’s eyes widen, both of their cheeks turning a deep shade of pink. They knew it wasnt such a bad thing to consider, them being on a date and getting romantic. But they just met, neither wanted to risk the chance of screwing it up. “Of course not. I was just planning to show Tom around the city, since he’s not from here.”
Tom would be lying if he said his heart didnt drop just a little, but he wasnt going to let that show. Even though he wanted it to be so much more than a hang out. “Yeah, I figured why not....since we’re friends.” There it goes again..that awkward silence.
“Uh huh. Im sure you both will enjoy your friendly hangout. Y/N knows all the best places to eat.”
“I wouldnt doubt it.” Tom smiles.
“And we should get going...uhh Kaitlyn you’re welcome to join us if you want?” Y/N interjects as she and Tom get ready to go out.
“Oh. It’s fine! You two go out. Im good here.” Kaitlyn rejects and winks at Y/N.
Y/N rolls her eyes as she leads Tom out. Not far from her home, the two make it to Chelea’s Market, where they indulge in all things Italian. From the flavorful pasta, to the fresh steamy focaccia bread that comes right out of the stone oven. It was Y/N’s go-to place to impress anyone visiting. The food was great and the scenery outside was beautiful.
While the food was incredible, Tom’s prescence was where the real magic came to play. She could only imagine what hanging out with a celebrity would be like, but Tom was another story.
She took in how engaged he was with her stories about growing up in a small town in New Jersey with her family, how Kaitlyn and two other friends had stayed together since they were 6, and how her life had felt so barred until she moved here in the city, feeling free for the first time ever.
He was interested in all of it. Tom’s eyes looked at her with endearment, and his smile grew the more he heard about her most heart touching memories, his laugh becoming more robust and joyus when she told him a funny memory. He was falling for her, even though he didnt want to admit it just yet. While he got a good chunk of her life, he wanted to know more.
Y/N on the other hand, wanted to turn the tables. “So what about you?” She asked, as they both made their way to the High Line, warm latte in hand.
“What do you mean?” He questions back, displaying a coy smile.
“C’mon you know what I mean. What’s your story? And when I mean story I dont mean how you got famous.” Y/N explains as they continue walking.
Tom looked down at the ground, thinking. He couldnt remember the last time a stranger wiuld ask about his life, and not just the story about his career. “Well, I have 3 younger brothers. A set of twins named Sam and Harry and a younger brother name Paddy but we like to call him Padster. I lived with my best mate Harrison for 4 years. Love sports but golfing all time has to be my favorite. Ironically, Im terrified of spiders and I hate cheese.”
Y/N took in his 5 minute biography, and thought about how genuine he was. Just like she did, Tom gave stories about his brothers and best friend, and the more he talked the real he felt to Y/N. Their friendship was blossoming and in this moment nothing felt out of place. “Wow, you hate cheese?! Cheese is single-handely the best creation on this planet. I feel sorry for the girl that had to deal with that.” Y/N stopped her tracks, realizing what she just slipped in. She didnt mean to mention about a potential girlfriend he did or didnt have, it just...happened.
“Haha Im sure she doesn’t mind. She doesnt particulary like cheese either.” He plays along, but Y/N’s spirit started to lower. So there was a girl after all. She should have known.
“Oh, so there is a girl. Isnt there?” She speaks in a monotone.
“Of course! Tessa shes been with me for awile. Cheeky little dog, but I love her so much.” Tom laughs as he takes a sip of his coffee.
Y/N shook her head as she caught on his words. Dog? Upon realization, she shook her head looking down at the ground hiding her embarrassment.
“Sorry. I had to.” He continued to laugh, “but your face and attitude was priceless. Its almost as if you we’re jealous or soemthing.”
“What?! Me jealous?! Please.” Y/N tried miserably to play off.
“C’mon I saw those lips purse and that cute nose scrunch. You looked wee bit jealous.” Tom stated as he lifted her chin to meet his eyes. The moment was tense and silent but not akward. They took in each others features, lips getting closer, eyes slowly closing until... “It’s getting late.”Y/N whispered. Both let down by the moment being ruined.
Tom pulled away with a look of disappointment. “Yeah...you’re right. I’ll walk you back? My hotel is not far from your place.” He offered.
“Of course it’s not. It’s the tri-state area. Everything here is 30 minutes or less.” She jokes, trying to lighten the mood. “I would like that a lot.”
They continued to walk back home, side by side with light conversations. Almost forgetting their almost-kiss on their unofficial date. As they reached the steps of Y/N’s apartment. The two bid their farewell.
“Well I had a lot of fun tonight. Thank you Y/N.” Tom said smiling at her as he held her hand.
“Likewise. I cant remember the last time I had this much fun.” Y/N admits, hoping that this wouldnt be the first and last time she’d see him. “Maybe we can do this again?” She bravely suggests.
“I’d love that. See you soon, darling.” With that he kissed her goodbye on the cheek as he made his way to the hotel, but not until he made sure, Y/N got inside safely.
Proceed to Track 3.
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hazinhoodies · 5 years ago
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If You Love Something… (H.H)
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A/N: This is from a request i got super long ago. like over a year ago long ago.  I will say that it is much better than it would’ve been a year ago so to that anon that requested this, if you still follow me, here you go. also this is my first Harry fic i’ve posted.
Warnings: So much fluff bro. all fluff. so soft dude.
Word Count: 3.4k
Request: Fluff Harry request you were best friends, and ended up falling for each other but never told one another. Your friendship faded as time went on and then one day you saw each other and a spark flew between you two and you accepted the feelings you both denied since you were younger
Summary: If you love something, let it go. if it comes back...
Harry flips through the photo album. One of the ones that his mum kept on the top of the bookshelf in the living room. The albums filled with years of photos that only collected dust until one of three things happened. One: Someone comes home with a new girlfriend and mum wanted to embarrass them. Two: Family comes over and they want to reminisce. Three: Blackmail. Which happens to be exactly why Harry has the album sat in his lap, flipping through the pages. He’s looking for a very specific photo. One of him and Sam when they-
The thought completely slips his mind, no longer important once he glances past one photo. He double takes back to it and is filled with a sense of nostalgia and comfort. A comfort that almost immediately dislodges itself in his stomach, flipping around to a feeling that he can’t quite place. One he hasn’t felt in a while but leaves him yearning for some sort of resolution to rid him of the pit that’s formed in his stomach.
Harry couldn’t have been older than nine in the photo, if that. He’s wearing a superman costume and giving a smile to the camera, holding his pillowcase in front of his legs. You stand in a similar position next to him. Dressed as Violet from the Incredibles and giving the camera a big and bright smile even though you’re missing a tooth. He knew this photo existed, he remembers taking it. His mum has stopped the two of you on the porch before you left with his dad to go trick or treating. He didn’t know about the one after it.
Your arms are wrapped around shoulders in a hug and Harry can see in the photo that he’s trying to turn to hug you back, the photo had only been taken too soon to see the full hug. The third photo is still on the porch, but now he’s holding onto your hand, pulling you down the stairs as you wave bye to his Nikki. The last one in the set was later that night, in the living room, the two of you sat right next to each other with all of your candy dumped on the floor in two separate piles in front of you. Harry leans over you to grab something from your pile while you notice the camera and show yet another toothless smile.
Harry continues to flip through the book. Hoping for more photos of you. He hasn’t seen you in so long and these photos are bringing back so much, almost too much. He passes more photos, noticing how the two of you get older as they go on. More ones that he had no idea they were ever taken. Plain old boring ones, one of you studying and him with a textbook open on his knees. One of you laughing, your eyes squinted and hand covering his mouth. One where you’re both sitting on a couch, your head in his lap. A similar one but this time his head is on your thigh and your hands are in his hair. You must have been fifteen. The two of you, on the couch, asleep. Textbooks discarded. His arms around you, your head resting his shoulder, your hand on the other and his head resting on top of yours. Wonder of why his mum saved these photos pass his mind but they’re gone as fast as they came when his eyes catch three more photos.
You’re sixteen. Harry would’ve been seventeen in a week. Nine days to be exact. This day is so vivid in his mind still. The photo shows the two of you hugging, his face buried in your hair, fingertips turning white from pulling you into him so much. He didn’t want you to go. That was more than obvious. On the same front porch from the Halloween photos but this time Harry was in socked feet and his pyjamas, meanwhile you were fully dressed. The second photo is from the same hug, arms still wrapped around each other but the two of you lean back to look at each other. Harry breaks at the photo. He remembers the tears that slipped down your cheeks and how you shook in his arms, partially from the cold February air and partially from trying to control your own breathing. You’d nearly forced your parents to take you to their house before you moved away for who knows how long. It was only nine thirty in the morning when you showed up, knocking on the door until Tom had opened it. You didn’t even have to say anything before Tom told you he’d go get him. Harry has started down the stairs calmly but when he saw you nearly crying he had sprinted down the rest of the way, almost tripping over his own feet before wrapping you in a tight hug. It lasted for six minutes and thirty nine seconds. Still wasn’t long enough. After the six minutes and thirty nine seconds were up, that was the last he’d seen you.
The third photo was you realizing that there’s a camera nearby, wiping a tear away and sending a smile towards it. A sad smile, but a smile nonetheless. Harry was still hugging you. The photos had come full circle. Back to you and Harry. On the porch, in a hug.
Harry is pressing his hand against his mouth, sliding it across his face and wiping away a tear that hadn’t yet fallen. He was never a crier but you were his best friend. He doesn’t really know when the two of you had stopped texting but it had happened. It hurt to let you go. You never knew, or maybe you did but he never told you, that he loved you. But he did. You were his first best friend, other than Sam of course but he doesn’t count in the same way. It had never really gone away. The feeling of comfort that settled in his stomach whenever you were around. Or the way his heart would go just a little bit faster any time that you put your head on his shoulder or how he got inexplicably angry whenever you were upset.
Harry shuts the book, giving up on the photo he had originally been looking for. He replaces the book and starts to head back to his room, passing Sam on the way.
“You alright, mate?” Sam stops Harry, placing a hand on his shoulder as he passes by. Harry turns around.
“Yeah, ‘M fine” Harry lies through his teeth. Sam doesn’t buy it though. First of all, he’s his twin. He knows when he’s lying. Second of all, Harry’s a ginger, and he can’t hide the blotchiness in his face even though he had hardly teared up, his complexion has betrayed him.
“What happened?” Sam questions him further, not accepting the answer he’d gotten before. Harry looks at him, trying to convey that he doesn’t want to answer. His message gets through to Sam but it’s only returned with a ‘tell me what’s going on’.
“I just found some old photos is all. Ones of me and Y/N” Harry admits, feeling his heart sink when he says your name. The full feeling of missing you, wanting to hug you again, feel your hair tickle his nose, and hear your laugh when he says something stupid, hits him full force now.
“When was the last time you talked to her?” Sam asks. Sure Harry had had small conversations with you, mostly just catching up but they weren’t really conversations. They were awkward and uncomfortable messages. Wanting to know how the other is doing. Every ‘that’s good’ crying out, begging for more entertaining answers. Every ‘i miss you’ screaming for anything more than small talk. Every dry message towards the end of the conversation from both of you not wanting to say goodbye to the other for who knows how long. But it happens anyway. The two of you don’t talk for a while until one is reminded of the other, not that either of you had ever forgotten. The cycle repeats.
“A couple months, maybe. But we haven’t really talked since a few weeks after she left” Harry replies, clearly upset. His throat feels tight and his voice comes out frail. Sam gets it, nodding along. “It’s not that big of a deal though” Another lie, but this time Sam accepts it, not pestering his brother any longer.
A few days later Harry sits at the kitchen table stirring the last few pieces of cereal that he hasn’t eaten around in the milk in the bowl. Sams at Elysia’s, Toms filming, Paddy and his dad haven’t woken up yet. He thought that his mum hadn’t either until she walks in and a cheery “Good morning!” shakes Harry out of his thoughts.
“Good morning, mum” The room is silent for a while, nothing but the sounds from outside and Nikki making her tea until Harry speaks up again as his mum sits at the table next to him. “Hey, mum?”
“Yes?” She responds, taking a sip of her tea.
“I found some old photos the other day,” He starts, his mother listens closely, curious as to what’s got her normally boisterous son so quiet. “Photos of me and Y/N. Why’d you keep them?” He continues, looking up at her with glassy eyes before they dart back to the cereal bowl.
Nikki knew this day would come. A day when he’d see the old photos that she had saved. There was a whole album of just photos of the two of them. It was an important relationship and one day he’d see the album. Today was not that day, and that album was certainly not the one he’d seen. She knew it’d hurt him a lot to see the photos. The wound of you leaving unexpectedly was still not fully healed even though it’s been years. It may not ever be healed but time can only tell.
“Harry,” She places her hand on the table to pull his attention back to her. “It was an important relationship. You both impacted each other so much. The memories deserved to be kept” She goes back to her tea, sipping it quietly. Harry only nodded. He’s not going to tell her how in love with you he was. She wasn’t going to tell him she already knew.
The photos didn’t leave Harry’s mind. They were constantly there, at the forefront of his thoughts nearly all the time. Along with any memory that he could pull from deep within, of the two of you.
A lot of the memories were of others' speculation. The number of times that Harry had been asked by friends if they were dating, how much Tom and Sam had made fun of him for how close you were and yet you weren’t dating. Everyone’s shock when you started dating that one guy during high school. God Harry hated him. You had started spending more time with him and than Harry and it hurt. So much so that his chest would burn when he saw you two together. It felt like it was about to cave in or explode when you laughed at his jokes. Harry remembers how he had come up to him one May afternoon. Harry had been civil with the boy throughout your whole relationship. Never saying anything rude to him, despite how much he wanted to say, but also never actively trying to become better friends with him. He’d come up to Harry after class and said something about you and Harry and hoping he’s happy. But he’d spoken so fast that that’s all Harry could grasp onto before he’d walked away.
An hour later you’d called Harry in tears saying that you’d been broken up with. Harry was there for you, he’d come over with a box of Oreos, it was all he could get on the way to your house from school, but he’d be lying if he said that the heat and stretch in his chest hadn’t dissipated at the news. The longer he sat there watching the office with you, the more at ease he’d felt.
Tom had teased that Harry was in love with you. But he always said he wasn’t. You guys were just friends. Nothing more. You both just cared about each other. Harry wasn’t in love with you. Was he?
Harry hurries home to go back through the photos, analyzing them.
Halloween. The first one both of you were looking at the camera. The second one you were looking at the camera and he was looking at you. The third he was looking at you and you were looking at Nikki. The fourth you were looking at the camera again and Harry was looking at the candy. Typical, but not the point. Studying photos. You looking at a textbook, him looking at you. Your head in his lap, watching the telly, he’s looking at you again. His head in your lap and this time you’re looking at him. A soft smile on your face as your hands pull through his curls, he can almost feel it from just looking at the picture. It occurs to him why these photos are saved. Anyone who paid the slightest bit of attention could see that he loved you, or at least cared very deeply for you. Even just from the photos, he imagines it was more obvious seeing you in person or overhearing conversations. His mum knew. And she saved the memories.
Fuck Harry thinks. He misses you. A lot. So much. Maybe he’d text you. See how things were going. But then again if he has to go through another dry conversation like you’ve had since you moved then he thinks he might combust. He’d rather not talk that have to deal with those. Who knows how much you’ve moved on with your life since then. It’s been a long time. Harry’s changed a lot, he can only assume that you have as well.
The next few days were strange for Harry. He was never one to get hung up on small things but he couldn’t stop thinking about your relationship. Were you just friends? Were you more? What exactly did he feel for you? Did you feel the same? Did you feel more?
He’d spent so much time with you that he could recite facts about you like it was nothing. He knew your favourite colour, your favourite subject and how many tests you’d ever failed. That was hardly the beginning. He knew your favourite family member, why you hated your year eight English teacher, why you and Cindy stopped being friends in year six and why you refuse to eat twisty shaped pasta with anything other than tomato sauce. And yet he didn’t know if what he knew about your friendship was entirely true, or if there was more hidden under the covers that both of you felt but neither dared to touch.
He walked into the house, shutting the door behind him as he went through the photos on his camera, deleting the ones that were absolute no’s from this shoot. He’d go through the other ones later on his computer to edit them and see which turn out better. He wandered his way up to his room, not bother to take his eyes off of his camera screen. He’d barely made it halfway through the kitchen before a laugh caught his attention over the sound of Great British Bake Off coming from the living room.
At first, he thought it was Elysia and that maybe Sam had brought her over for an afternoon but he remembers Sam telling him that Elysia was spending time with her family further north for the weekend.
Harry stops in the archway between the living room and the kitchen. Harry doesn’t believe his eyes for a moment, causing him to nearly drop his camera and for another familiar and airy laugh to float into his ears from the couch.
You.
You’re there.
You’re actually there.
Sure you look a little different. Your hair has changed and you have spots on your cheeks and chin that weren’t there when you left. But it’s you. You sitting cross-legged on his couch for the first time in years. Sam taps your knee and says something to you. You nod and then Sam stands up, walking past Harry who still hasn’t moved from his spot in the archway. Sam nods his head in your direction as he passes Harry, urging him to go talk to you.
Harry slowly walks towards the couch, taking smaller steps than any normal person would have. You laugh again, a wide smile gracing your face until he sits down across from you, your knees barely touching. Harry’s silent for a while. A million thoughts running through his mind.
Is this real? Am i dreaming? I love you. Are you actually here? There’s no way you’re actually here. I love you. Just say something Harry. God, you’re an idiot. I love you. I love you. I’ve always loved you
Maybe he did know how he felt. It just took a little longer than he would’ve liked it too. Many years too long.
“Are you real?” Harry sputters out after much too long of silence. It makes you laugh causing your eyes to crinkle and for you to lean forward.
“Yes, Harry. I’m real. I’m here. This isn’t a dream” It’s like you could read his mind. He hopes that you didn’t catch the I love you part. Or maybe he did. He wasn’t sure.
“I’m sorry it’s just been a while” Harry stares down at where your knees touch. The small amount is driving him insane, even through both of your jeans. His knee was pressed against yours. You were there. He could touch you. He is touching you.
“I know, Harry. I’m sorry” You day with a sad smile. You place your hand on his thigh and Harry felt his heart speed up. He placed his hand on top of yours, curling his fingers around to hold it and you return it.
“It’s not your fault. You didn’t really have a choice” Silence settles over the two of you, for the first time in your life neither of you knows what to say but at least your together. Hand on hand on thigh and then lips on lips.
Harry wasn’t even aware that he was leaning in until your lips touched his. He pulled away almost instantly, about to spew apologies but your hand found his cheek and pulled him back towards you, lips moving against each other with years of closeted love and passion for the other. There was no turning back now. Soft lips against chapped ones, Harry let himself stop thinking for once, letting himself follow whatever felt right at the time until he was nearly out of breath and then a moment longer.
I love you.
Harry pulls away, lips red and swollen, cheeks matching in colour. You look about the same, your eyes slowly flutter open.
“Harry, I’ve loved you for a while. Since we were-”
“I love you too. I always have. I think. I’m not a hundred percent but I’m fairly certain” Harry blubbers his way through the words, making you laugh. God, he missed the sound of that. He missed the smile that went with it. Harry continues; “Certain enough to say that I did. Do. I do love you”
You don’t know how to reply. So you send him a smile before leaning in to peck his lips one more time which he returns.
“Are you staying in Kingston?” Harry asks when you pull back, your faces still only a couple inches apart. You nod and Harry lets go of your hand, instead, he wraps both arms around your torso and pulls you into him as he lies back on the couch with you on top of him. You laugh again, Harry was never tired of your laugh. He could hear it on repeat for the rest of his life and he’d never get bored of it. He presses his lips against your forehead as the two of you continue watching the telly, neither of you fully interested in the episode of Great British Bake Off that’s playing.
And when Nikki comes home and sees the two of you asleep, she finally decides to dig out that one album full of photos of the two of you.
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rambling-at-midnight · 5 years ago
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A Handmaiden’s Lies: Part 3
Pairing: Tom Holland x Reader
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Tom’s honestly shocked when you show up at the camp the next day. It’s quite impressive you were able to find your way back through the thick trees and brush. The girl with the white hair scowls as she trails after you, but you’re back to being a statue as you stride past bigger, bulkier men without batting an eye. They all watch you go with barely concealed resentment bubbling in their eyes. Tom made it clear that you were not to be touched, and nobody’s going to go against Tom, no matter how much a few of them might want to.
Tom won his position as leader fair and square, no matter how bloody. Nobody wants to be the next stain of red on his hands.
The sun is high in the sky and shade hard to find. Scarce a wind blows to challenge the heat. Tom pauses in sharpening his sword and lifts his sweaty curls off his forehead, relishing the feel of fresh air on the overheated skin.
Midday patrol was just sent out, though Tom doubts they’ll find anything. Only other rogues and bandits ever occupy the forests, and most parties know not to mess with Holland’s gang. The rest of his crew mills around the camp. He knows they’re murmuring, resentful he’d called off their crusade of destruction. He tries to keep the majority happy, but they also need to remember that he is leader and that what he says goes.
If they want to challenge him on it, they can.
You don’t gloat or anything when he catches your eye. Without a change of expression, you step over a pile of horse droppings smoothly. Tom appreciates the good grace of that while simultaneously cursing the poop boys for not staying on top of their work. Behind you, the blonde has less grace; her nose wrinkles at the sight of the mess.
You stride right up to Tom. At his side, Paddy tenses. Last night Tom’s inner circle was informed of the situation, and Paddy took it as well as could be expected.
“What do you do for fun?” you ask without preamble. Behind you, the girl rolls her eyes.
Tom blinks. “Pardon?”
“Fun,” you repeat slowly like he’s not right in the head. “What do you enjoy, apart from robbing civilians and destroying property?”
As if he can’t help himself, Paddy has to open his mouth: “Better question is what you do for fun. Watch paint dry?”
Your lip curls as you look at the younger boy. “I’m sure you meant for that to be a much more cutting insult.”
Paddy flushes.
“What I don’t do for fun is insult my friends and family,” Tom says pointedly. Your eyes slide to the ground before snapping up. “And to answer your question, I enjoy riding and dueling.”
Your eyes light up at the mention of dueling and it dawns on Tom that this is your olive branch. He’d nearly rejected it by telling you off but thankfully he’d saved himself.
“Duelling looks like a useful skill,” you say.
Tom nods.
“I was never allowed to learn. It’s considered improper.”
“Everyone should be taught how to defend themselves,” Tom says. “What if you have to protect the queen?”
The girl with the white-blonde hair clears her throat and you kick her. It’s such a moment of warm familiarity that Tom has to smile. “Sorry about Henrietta,” you smile. “She considers it improper as well.”
The girl, who must be Henrietta, casts her eyes to the sky. Tom can recognize the look of someone praying for patience; he’s seen Haz wear that expression often enough to have it memorized.
“Well, you should learn,” Tom informs you.
Henrietta laughs after a brief moment of awkward silence. Your eyes widen a little as you stare at Tom, obviously waiting for him to say something, but his mind is blank. What’s neutral territory here? If he changes the subject it’ll be obvious but not as awkward as the silence. Do you want to continue talking about duelling? Is there a coded message in your abrupt question and trailing sentences? Why are you making Tom’s head spin? He’s never been this nervous around girls before.
Paddy mumbles something under his breath that sounds suspiciously like, “Dear Gods.” Then, louder, he says, “Y/N, would you like Tom to teach you how to duel?”
Tom’s eyes widen as you smile and nod—almost shyly? He hadn’t considered you would ever be bashful about anything. “Yes!” he exclaims. “Uh, Pads, take Henrietta to, uh… Zendaya. I’m sure they’ll get along great. And, Y/N, we can go… duel. Together. With swords,” he finishes stupidly, internally cringing but unable to stop himself.
“Mmm-hmm.” You clasp your hands in front of your body and follow Tom to the makeshift armory. Most camp members just carry their own weapons, so the armory doesn’t have a wide selection to choose from. They’re all spare weapons.
Tom picks up a thick sword about the length of his arm and tests it. It’s heavy—probably too heavy for someone that’s never wielded such a weapon in her life. Life in the castle tends to have such perks.
Tom stashes that sword and pulls out a slightly shorter and thinner sword. You should be able to wield it.
Tom unsheathes his own sword from his belt and demonstrates how to hold the weapon. You take his instructions easily and sometimes anticipate them. Your eyes may be untrained in duelling stances, but they’re still sharp, keen to focus on every little difference between Tom’s stance and yours.
You’re not good at duelling. Not at first. Tom can tell you don’t want to admit you’re struggling but the sword trembles when you hold it up. Your muscles obviously aren’t used to such exertion, which makes you slow. Tom suggests a break after a while and you seize the opportunity for a rest. You’re obviously not the type of person to admit to weakness.
After the break you return to practice with renewed vigor. You practice a basic parry in slow motion until you’ve got it and only then do you instruct Tom to speed up.
It takes hours (and a few more breaks) by the time you’re able to parry at a speed remotely close to the speed of duelling, but you look so pleased with yourself Tom can only applaud you.
He can see you applying that unholy determination to any skill in your life. Tom can’t imagine you’re incapable of doing whatever you set your mind on.
“Can all of your men duel like you?” you ask just as the sun begins to set. The trees are already casting long shadows on the ground.
Tom shakes his head. “The skill variety is wide. What swordsmen do reside in the camp are impressive as well, though none have trained as long as I have.”
“Do you not tire of not having a home?” you ask again, reminding Tom of those leading questions about duelling before. He narrows his eyes slightly, wondering where you’re going with this, but replies easily enough.
“I do have a home.” He looks to his tent.
“But a permanent one,” you press. “Your skills—all your men’s skills—are impressive. Surely there are positions for men such as you in the kingdom?”
“What, so eager for me to stay now, is that it?” Tom teases. There was no home for Tom when he was a child here. Why should now be any different?
“Become a soldier for the queen,” you urge.
Tom just stares at you.
“A war is coming,” you add. “The only thing more dangerous than being a group of rogues scant forty men with no allegiances travelling between kingdoms is being the leader of said group whose soulmate is influential in a castle. Your group cannot fight off Thanatoia alone. You’ll be slaughtered. Or worse—you’ll be tortured with the hope that I’ll give up valuable state secrets for you.”
“Yes, because you wouldn’t, would you?” Tom asks bitterly, sheathing his sword.
“I’m trying to protect you,” you snap back, eyes slits of anger. All traces of comradery brought on by sparring are gone.
Tom ponders the treeline until you sigh and dash the sword to the ground, perhaps petulantly. Without even a good-bye, you take your leave.
Tom doesn’t watch as you do.
~~~
He doesn’t sleep.
Is Tom really prepared to serve a kingdom that threw him away as a child? Is he prepared to take a final side in the budding conflict?
Is he prepared to be away from you for a whole year again—maybe longer, if war is declared; barricades can be constructed, hostages taken, innocents murdered.
Is he prepared to leave his men behind?
No, Tom decides in the morning, he’s not. He won’t leave his men. He also won’t leave you without the guarantee that he’ll see you again. If his men truly decide that they would rather wander than enlist, he’ll go with them, but not without you. He’ll kidnap you if he has to. Sure, you’re stubborn and loyal to the queen and you’ll probably hate him at first. But you’ll get over it, and even if you don’t, at least Tom will know that you’re safe.
~~~
“We’ve lived for years like this!” Anthony argues. “Thantoian troops won’t dare to find us in the woods in our own territory.”
“Deesee is neutral in this budding war!” a short, squat boy with a hundred pounds on Tom chimes in. Beady little eyes peer at his leader with resentment from underneath thick eyebrows and a protruding forehead. “Worst comes to worst and we could stay there. They’re not about to drive us out.”
“And hide from the fight like cowards?” Sam argues back.
“It’s not our fight to begin with!”
Tomas swears and spits on the ground, drawing his sword. The familiar shink of metal on metal has everyone backing away. Everyone except Tom. He clenches his jaw, hand resting on his own sword.
“What are you doing, Tomas?” Harrison asks cautiously, one hand held out as if it’ll help diffuse the situation.
“I’ve had enough of Holland’s pansy ass leading,” Tomas declares, leveling the point of his sword at Tom’s chest despite being a good ten feet away. “Fight me like a man, unless you’re too much of a bitch.”
Someone in the crowd laughs nervously.
“Are you sure about this, Tomas?” Tom asks slowly, drawing his own sword.
“‘Course I’m ready,” the other boy scoffs. “Ready to skewer you.”
“I really don’t want to hurt you.”
“Trust me,” Tomas laughs, “I won’t be the one getting hurt. And after this, I’ll take the bitch that suggested this stupid idea to my tent.” He leers.
Iron meets iron in a clang that makes a few people flinch. Tom’s eyes narrow at the other boy’s strength as he pushes against Tom’s sword. Tom takes a step back, testing the waters. As expected, Tomas follows him.
“You know what I’m going to do to your bitch, Tommy?” he taunts.
Criminals. Tom keeps the best of them in line, but a few dishonourable rogues find their way into every camp. He grits his teeth and smashes the hilt of his sword to Tomas’ hand, relishing the other boy’s grunt of pain. “I don’t imagine you’re going to do anything to anyone after this, Tomas.”
Tomas lunges, his sword missing Tom’s chest by a hair. Tom barely jumps to the side in time. Before Tomas can rebalance, his arm is gone from his shoulder.
The crowd sucks in a gasp. Tomas screams.
Tom doesn’t like to leave loose ends, so he runs him through with his sword.
“Would anyone else like to complain?” he asks, eyes blazing. Tomas is dead now, but his words—what he’d said about you—they run around his brain, echoing and echoing and he wishes he could kill Tomas all over again for even thinking them.
No one says a word.
~~~
You arrive at the camp a little past high noon. You march in with a scowl on your face, obviously ready to fight even if you don’t know how, but what you see stops you in your tracks. For a brief moment, pure shock flits over your face as you stumble and your fists unclench.
The whole camp is silent. Those who had quarreled during the discussion don’t dare to do more than glare after Tom had officially shut down the debate. Little more than ten tents remain erect. All the boys and girls with rolled-up tents sit on their packs, eyes glued to your form.
The winter had been harsh and they’d lost a few men to the cold, not to mention the worry about the upcoming war that had plagued the camp, but Tom hadn’t expected quite this many people to agree to work in the castle. Not a single camp girl refused the invitation. Only the bitter men, content to suffer only to spite the kingdom that threw them out, refused. Anthony, one of them, spit on the ground by Tom’s feet and called him a traitor. It stings.
In the middle of it all is a boy lying face down on the ground. It doesn’t take a genius to tell that he’s dead. You don’t balk at the sight or even doubletake. Your eyes seek out Tom’s and he almost wants to drop the gaze, expecting shame or disappointment, but you’re inscrutable as always.
He almost feels dirty when he remembers what Tomas had said about you. Those words will always be etched into his memory, much as he doesn’t want them to be. What would you say if you knew what one of his followers said about you? What would you do if you knew that some of the men you’re taking in might have been Tomas’ friend?
If you had been expecting more or fewer men, you don’t let it show. You don’t even hesitate before calling out, “In exchange for the queen’s protection, land, food, medicine, and all other services, will you agree to be a worker in her castle? Will you clean, cook, and fight without complaint?”
“Yes,” Tom says after that anticlimactic ending. He’d expected a few more words and you’d even hesitated at the end like you’d been searching for more to say.
Harrison takes his lead: “Yes.” Soon enough, everyone that has packed has agreed and you nod, satisfied.
“The queen will go hungry before you will,” you add. “All she requires is your loyalty.” And with that, you turn to go. Tom scrambles to catch up.
“The queen won’t really…” He trails off awkwardly. That’s simply not how royalty works.
You shoot him a glare out of the corner of your eye. “The queen is connected to her kingdom, Holland. You’ve just become a part of it. She protects her own.”
“But she wouldn’t starve to death to let a soldier eat,” Tom presses. “Not without leaving behind an heir. And she’s younger than me. There’ll be no heir for a long time.”
“She has a younger brother. He’s prepared to take the throne as well,” you point out.
Tom shakes his head. He thinks you’re exaggerating your queen’s greatness a little bit, but he has to trust you. Right?
“You forget the queen’s curse.”
Tom scoffs. “That magic myth? She’s connected to her kingdom or something?”
“Not a myth,” you say softly. “You also forget that nobles are representatives of the areas they govern. Whatever the majority of that area decides on, they must support or be replaced. Marvel is not as Deesee or Thanatoia.”
Tom has to admit he doesn’t know much about how Marvel is governed. He didn’t live in the kingdom long enough to learn. He’d just always assumed it was similar to its neighboring kingdoms. Of course, resentment had kept him from studying Marvel whenever he came to ransack and destroy.
Properly chastised, he closes his mouth.
You sigh dramatically at his side and reach into the pocket of your skirt. Out comes a delicate handkerchief.
Tom’s stunned when you take his face in your hands and wipe it gently. The handkerchief dips down to his neck before you retract, showing off the red smears on the once-white surface before shoving the ruined object back into your skirt.
You say nothing about the blood or the body, but Tom knows that you know what he did. He just doesn’t know how you feel about inviting a killer into your palace. He doesn’t know how you feel about your soulmate being a murderer.
You are frustratingly unreadable.
A Handmaiden’s Lies Taglist:
@andreasworlsboring101 @juliebean247​ @lisannehus​
Forever Taglist:
@lemirabitur @annymcervantes @queenmissfit @quiet-because-it-is-a-secret @iksey @thehyperactiveteen @luxmoonlight@andreasworlsboring101​
Let me know what you all thought or if you’d like me to put you on a taglist!
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petersasteria · 4 years ago
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Oof - Harry Holland (2)
Pairing: Harry Holland x Model!Reader
Based on my Harry Holland one shot of the same title.
Harry Holland Masterlist || Ultimate Masterlist || Oof Materlist
DISCLAIMER:  *This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.*
𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: He liked her for a long time, but she didn’t know he existed.
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Year 7
“It’s kind of weird without Katie here.” Lawrence sighs as he, Harry and Sam walk alongside each other at school’s hallway. Katie moved to a different city during summer and it made the boys sad. However, Katie promised that she’d visit and call so that made it all somehow better.
“I agree.” Harry nods. Sam adds, “She’s like a sister I never had.”
“We’ll see her soon, won’t we?” Lawrence asks. The twins reassures him that Katie will come back and see them, even though they, themselves, aren’t sure.
Just then, Y/N walks by. She’s on her own. Everything suddenly went in slow motion.
She glances at them and gives them and gives them a tight-lipped smile. Sam smiles back, Lawrence gives a little wave, and Harry... Harry thought he could’ve died. Harry smiles back too. Or at least tried to. He looked constipated.
In a span of a few seconds, Y/N unknowingly made Harry tongue-tied. She looks away and walks ahead. She didn’t know them, after all. It’d be weird.
Sam and Lawrence continue the conversation, making them walk a few steps ahead of Harry. Harry snaps out of it and accidentally steps on his shoelaces and trips on the floor. Luckily, no one saw.
“Whoa, are you okay?!” Lawrence asks as he and Sam help him stand. Harry just nods. The fall made him get out of cloud nine. While Lawrence is helping and brushing off the dirt on Harry’s clothes, Sam just looks at his twin with a sudden realization.
‘He likes Y/N.’ Sam thinks to himself. ‘Maybe.’ Sam shakes off the thought and focuses on his twin. He’ll keep it to himself first and just wait until Harry says something.
‘Yeah, that’s good.’ Sam mutters to himself.
“Did you say anything, Sam?” Harry asks.
“I’m hungry. Let’s go to the cafeteria!” Sam exclaims as he walks to the cafeteria with Harry and Lawrence trailing behind.
Year 8
Harry walks by Y/N’s table at the cafeteria and he quickly walks to go to his table with Lawrence and Sam. Their table is near Y/N’s table so, he can kind of hear what Y/N and her friends are talking about. Harry sits down and asks, “What’s up?”
“James is having a birthday party this weekend.” Sam says, eating a healthy sandwich Nikki packed for them this morning. “We’re invited.”
“That’s cool!” Harry grins. “How old is he anyway?”
“He’s turning 13 this Saturday.” Lawrence says with his mouth full. Something he’s never done before, but he thought nothing of it. After all, he’s a growing boy and he’s not at home. “That makes him older than us.”
“That’s cool. He’s like an older brother.” Sam chuckles. “Like Tom.”
“I wish I have an older brother. I’m the eldest.” Lawrence rolls his eyes.
“Yikes.” Harry shakes his head. “We have a younger brother named Paddy. He’s fun to be with.”
“My little sister is spoiled rotten!” Lawrence cries out. “She’s annoying!”
Lawrence starts his rant and Sam pipes in some comments here and there. Harry wishes he could pay attention to his friend, but he hears Y/N’s voice from a table away.
“My family and I went to Maldives during summer break. It was fun! Your sister will enjoy it, Hanna.” Y/N says softly.
‘Maldives?? Where is that??’ Harry thinks. ‘Never heard of that before.’
“You have to show me pictures tomorrow!” Hanna exclaims.
“Sure!” Y/N shrugs. “I enjoyed Maldives, but I really loved our vacation at Los Angeles.”
“What? She’s been there? How lucky.” Harry says softly. Unfortunately, Lawrence and Sam hears him.
“Who’s lucky?” Sam asks.
“Yeah, and where’s she been?” Lawrence questions.
“Y/N is lucky, because she’s been to Los Angeles.” Harry says.
“Oh, well yeah.” Lawrence shrugs. “She’s really rich.”
“I heard from Elouise that her parents come from rich families. So, she was literally born into a rich family.” Sam shrugs. “Elouise and I share a lot of classes and she likes to gossip. It’s quite interesting, if I’m being honest.”
Year 9 
“My mum owns a clothing shop in town. You can drop by sometimes. I’m always there during the weekends after polo practice. I don’t go there after school, because I have private ballet lessons at home.” Harry hears from Y/N as he listens to her conversation with her friends. He knew it was wrong to eavesdrop, but it was really interesting.
It’s their last class of the day and they’re all just waiting for the teacher to come in. Thankfully, they didn’t have to wait long, because the teacher quickly comes in and apologizes for being a few minutes late.
After school, Sam and Harry decided to walk home, because it was still early and they have to do their projects. It was a quiet walk and it wasn’t awkward at all. It was peaceful.
“I have something to tell you.” Harry opens up and clears his throat. Sam looks at him and nods, “What is it? Did you flunk in-”
“I have a crush on Y/N.” Harry quickly blurts out. The twins stop walking and they look at each other.
“I freaking knew it! I was right all along.” Sam chuckles as he walks again. Not wanting to be left behind, Harry catches up, “What? You knew I liked her?!”
“Yeah since year 7.” Sam shrugs. “Ask her out or something.”
“Nah.” Harry shakes his head. “I’m not sure if I want to.”
“Well, you should at least let her know you exist.” Sam chuckles.
Year 10
“Hey, what’s going on here?” Sam asks as he and Harry arrive at school. There were cameras and a lot of people. It’s like the whole school decided to go out and stay out. The twins couldn’t find Lawrence and they couldn’t find any familiar face. They look at each other and nod. They push through the crowd together until they reach the front.
Harry looks around and sees Y/N sitting down on the bench while getting her make up done. He smiles at the sight. ‘She doesn’t even need the make up.’ he thinks.
“Isn’t she pretty?” a voice asks next to him on his right. Harry snaps out of his trance and looks at the person next to him.
“Hey Angelica!” he greets. “Yeah, she’s really pretty.”
Angelica chuckles, “You didn’t have any idea what’s going on, do you?”
Harry shakes his head, “Nope.” Angelica playfully rolls her eyes and says, “Y/N was asked to model for the school’s website and stuff. They’ll do a photo shoot and film a video for the whole day.”
“What about her classes?” Harry asks. Angelica shrugs, “She’s excused for the whole day. The only same schedule she has with all of us is lunch.”
Harry just nods and thanks her. He turns to Sam and fills him in on the information he found out. Sam’s eyes widen, “I didn’t know our school had a website.”
“I mean... same here, but that’s not the point. Y/N will be the face of the school.” Harry grins. “I think I might visit the school’s website often.”
“Well, that sounds gross and creepy.” Sam says, trying not to laugh. “It’s also pretty sad.”
Later that day when the twins came home, Harry told Tom about Y/N, his big crush on her, and her modeling thing that morning... and visiting the school’s website often.
“That’s gross, creepy, and sad.” Tom says with his arms crossed as he looks at Harry from the couch. “Not to mention, weird. It’s fucking weird, mate.”
“Sam said the same thing.” Harry groans. “Except the weird part.”
“Well, Sam and I are right.” Tom laughs. Sam joins them in the living room, “What’s funny?”
Tom smirks and looks at Sam, “Lover boy over here is being weird, sad, creepy, and gross at the same time. I’m laughing, because we’re right and he doesn’t like it one bit.”
“That is pretty funny.” Sam laughs. Harry frowns and rolls his eyes, “I hate you all.”
Year 11
“My mum is finally allowing me to model her clothes!” Y/N squeals as she tells her friends the big news. Her friends squeal with her and is excited for her. “The shoot is tomorrow which means I won’t be going to school.”
“That’s okay!” Sophie beams. “You’ve always wanted to become a model and now’s your chance!”
“I still don’t get why you won’t ask your dad for help. He’s a big shot, isn’t he?” Phia wonders. Y/N chuvkles, “Yeah, he’s a big shot in the medical field. He’s an anesthesiologist and his parents are also big shots.”
“I really want to be like my mum. She was a model and she was a contestant for Miss Universe back in the day.” Y/N smiles proudly. She’s really close with her mum.
Harry looks at her, clearly giving all of his attention to Y/N and not the people on his table. Sam sees this and sighs, “He’s being creepy again.”
“Relax, he’s just having a big crush on her. It’s a phase and it’ll pass.” Lawrence shrugs.
“What will pass?”
Harry snaps out of his trance and looks up to see the owner of the voice. Lawrence and Sam do the same thing and as if on cue, they exclaim, “Katie!!!”
Katie smiles and sits down with them, “I moved back here and I live with my grandparents. I really missed you all! What’s new?”
They tell her what happened throughout the years and they told her about Harry’s crush on Y/N. Katie smirks, “We once went to summer camp together and it was great. She was really nice and surprisingly smart!”
“Harry ‘whipped for Y/N’ Holland over here thinks she could do no wrong.” Lawrence laughs.
“A lot of guys here seem to be lining up to date her.” Katie mentions. Harry groans, “Ew, don’t mention it here.”
“You’re just jealous, because they’re brave enough to do something you couldn’t.” Sam wisely says. Lawrence and Katie just nod in agreement. Harry frowns, “Yeah, you’re right.”
Sam sighs, “Hey, if it makes you feel better, she’s rejecting them.”
“Really?”
“Yup.”
“Do you think I have a chance?” Harry quietly asks.
“You need to find out for yourself, mate.” Sam chuckles. “You’ll never know if you don’t try.”
Harry just nods. Maybe he’ll try it. Maybe he won’t.
“Don’t worry.” Katie comforts. “Everything will work out in the end.”
Katie isn’t a fortune teller, but she’s right. Harry and the rest just didn’t know it yet.
* * * *
𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓: @marvelousell​
𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐬𝐤 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐟𝐟
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certified-kingofnewyork · 5 years ago
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Chapter 2
It’s here! I did it! I’m sorry it took so long! But I’ve got it out now so heck yeah :))
Prologue Chapter 1
Warning(s): None Word Count: 3.6K
A man sits alone at a table, tucked away in the back corner of the not-quite-a-town’s local hangout, the Moose Paddy. Anthony Higgins, more commonly known as Racetrack, is hunched over a drink, staring into it as if it held all of the worlds secrets. He looked to be dealing with a mixture of emotions that not even he could begin to explain, though he looked presentable as well, wearing earthy green and blue flannel, sleeves tugged down to his wrists, and a clean white shirt underneath. The cap he normally wore was sat across from him on the table, his dark blonde curls normally hidden by this accessory, but now they were out in an unruly form. His looks wildly contradicted the dark swirl of emotion that could be tensely felt around him.
On the opposite side of the building, a boy is joyously celebrating with his close friends. He excuses himself to go to the bathroom, swiftly walking past Race, who thankfully hadn’t noticed him just yet. Though the tall boy’s luck ran out on his return to his friends. Race saw his shoes, and he could have recognized them anywhere, his head shot up and a bright smile replaced his moody expression.
“Davey!” He called, sitting forward in his chair. The boy in question, Davey, more formally known as David Jacobs, stopped. He cringed inwardly and slowly spun on his heels to face Race, forcing a warm smile.
“Anthony!” He tried to replicate the excitement that Race felt, but his heart wasn’t in it. Race doesn’t notice this, he’s far too happy to see Davey to care. It had been ages, and that was entirely on purpose.
“Hey!” Race appeared to be a little too excited to see Davey, who could not reciprocate these feelings at all. In fact, he felt rather awkward, awfully awkward.
“Hey.” He didn’t know how else to respond, he just wanted to get back to his friends. But he supposed he’d have to tough this one out. Race lurched up from his chair and wrapped Davey in a tight bear hug. Davey make no attempts to return this hug, in fact, he tries to stumble away from it. It felt like far too long before Race finally pulled away from the hug, looking ecstatic.
“How you doin’?” It was clear at that moment that Davey was not getting himself out of this situation very easily at all. Race looked at him expectantly, waiting for an answer. Davey sighed and got ready for whatever was about to happen.
“Doing pretty good! How are you doing?” There was a strain in his voice as he continued to try and reciprocate the excitement. He’d hate to break Race’s heart with a mere monotone answer, even if it would get him out of there faster.
“I’m doing good, doin’ good! How are you doing?” Oh jeezum, this would drag on for a while.
“I’m doing good! Doing good. How are you doing?” Davey was trying so hard to just get Race talking so he wouldn’t have to participate in this conversation that much, or not at all if he was lucky. With the way the conversation continued to unfold, he was not.
“Great, great! How are ya?” Race didn’t know how to continue this conversation, and he was flailing to keep it alive.
“Great...great!” Davey glanced back over to his friends, then back at Race, internally conflicted. Though that showed clear on his face, Race was oblivious.
 “Oh that’s great!”
“Yeah!”
“That’s great!”
“Yeah.” “That’s just great!” “Yeah..”
“You look great!” Race couldn’t help nor stop himself from saying that, it was true. Though it was sort of break up 101 to not ever say that to an ex, but since when did Race ever follow the rules?
“Oh..no…”
“You look great.” He restated, meaning it entirely.
“Thanks.” Davey frowned, feeling horrible. Race was oblivious to practically everything, including the ring.
“You do. You look so great.” “Thanks, Anthony.” That was the thing with Davey, he never called him Race or Racetrack, always used his actual name. Not even nicknames like Tony.
“So pretty. So pretty.” Davey shifted awkwardly, looking away again. Once more, Race didn’t notice.
“Thanks.” Jeezum. How would he break the news to him?
“Here! Have a seat.” Race pushed out the chair across from him and then he sat down. He looked at Davey expectantly yet again. “Oh, Anthony I can’t-” Davey started, but Race wouldn’t let him get too many words in, his plan had entirely backfired on him.
“Aw, come on! I haven’t seen you in well… months.”
“Yeah-” Reluctantly, Davey sat.
“And months and months and months and months and months and months and months. How does that happen? Live in the same town as someone and never see ‘em?” This, of course, was entirely intentional and planned on Davey’s part. He was trying to avoid Race the best he could. He could only hide for so long.
“I don’t know.” He lied.
“I mean, I haven’t seen you since that night before that morning when I woke up and you were just gone…” Race looked almost sad again for a moment, but it quickly wiped away, leaving another bright smile on his face.
“Yeah I uh-” Davey started, but he couldn’t finish again, this time because a waiter, with fiery red hair and a cheery smile, had appeared out of seemingly nowhere. 
“Look at you two! Tucked away in the corner over here! Lucky I found ya!” He smiled a Race, and then glanced over to Davey with the same smile.
“Ready for another round?” He asked. Before Davey could protest, Race began to speak.
“Sure, we’ll-”
“No!” Davey quickly cut in, “We’re not together.”
“Well-” we used to be.
“We’re all set. Thanks.” Davey shot Race a look, and for once, he wasn’t oblivious to it. His mood seemed to lower almost instantly.
“Well-” don’t you want a drink?
“All set!” Davey reiterated, making his point clear. It was the waiter’s turn to be oblivious, he didn’t notice the growing tension between the two.
“Okay-” Race relented, looking down. “Yeah we’re good.”
“Well, holler if you need anything.” His smile faltered as he noticed the way Race reacted, but it soon returned again, full force. 
“Thanks.” Davey smiled sweetly, though there was nothing genuine behind it.
“No really you gotta holler It’s busy up front!” And with that, the waiter left. Davey wished he could disappear from this table as easy as the waiter had. Race turned back to look at Davey.
“So um, ya here with anybody or-?” Race looked around, trying to find a familiar face. Alas, the entire building was full of them. It truly was a small town.
“Yeah um- with the boys.”
“Oh.” Race looked disheartened at this news.
“Yeah we’re uh-” He looked desperately for a cover story, “Having a boys night! We’re in the front.” Davey stood, starting to head out. “Actually, I just had to use the bathroom, so I should get back to them-” Race appeared frantic as he sat forward, not wanting Davey to leave.
“Aw! But I haven’t seen ya! They’ll survive without ya for a minute or two! So what’s been- what’s been going on? Whatcha been up to?” Davey looked back towards his friend for a moment before relenting and sitting down again.
“Well-” He started, not sure what to say or how to begin. He didn’t even want to tell Race what he had been up to since the night he disappeared. Guilt ate away at him.
“Did you know that I took over my dad’s business?” Race was trying to prove a point, he had matured. He was different now. Davey had to see that, right?
“Yeah! Yeah that’s great!” 
“I run it now!” He looked so proud of himself, and he was.
“I heard that.”
“I’m runnin’ it!”
“Heard that.” How many times must he say it?
“Runnin’ the buisness!”
“Congrat-”
“Runnin’ the whole show.”
“-ulations! Good for you! Good for you.” 
“The whole shebang- thanks- yeah. We still do heating and cooling.” Race seemed to be done with the main point he was trying to prove, or maybe not with the next few words he said.
“Yeah?” Davey supposed that the business would be a safe topic to talk about.
“And we’ve expanded, too: We do rugs now. We shampoo ‘em!” He smiled brightly and proudly.
“It’s a lotta work. A lotta work. I’m on call a lot: weekends, holidays, you name it, cause you know, your heat goes out, people die, it’s serious.” Davey just had to see how much he had matured, how responsible he was now! He wasn’t a kid anymore. He learned to be better.
“Yeah.”
“Yeah. Like I do Thanksgivin’, Christmas, cause I let the guys who work for me, like Crutchie helps with repairs, I let ‘em have the day off so they can be with their families since I’m all alone this year.” That hit Davey hard, he didn’t know how to react though.
“Oh.” Was all he trusted himself to say.
“Yeah.” There was a new point Race was trying to make, “I really don’t have anybody anymore really, my brother and sister got canned, so they left town-”
“Right…”
“And Mom and Dad retired, headed south.”
“Yeah, I heard that.” Not only was it a small town and word got around fast, but Race wasn’t one to keep his business quiet. This wasn’t news to Davey at all.
“Oh.”
“Yeah, winters there are a lot easier. And then- I don’t know if you heard, but then… Spot went and died on me.” He looked to the floor sadly, letting out a quiet yet obviously sad sigh, Race wasn’t trying to reel a reaction out of Davey, he was genuinely upset. He rubbed at his eyes, sniffling.
“Oh Anthony… I didn’t know that!” That was genuine, Race really must have kept that one a secret.
“Yeah. He was old, it was his time. He was a good fish though.” Race was clearly emotionally attached to this fish, Davey didn’t even need to look at him to know that.
“But, so, like I said, I really don’t have anybody anymore, really… but um, I was wondering… would you like to come over? It’d be fun! Catch up, hang out?” Race was clearly not over Davey, and Davey was not oblivious to this fact.
“Oh Anthony-” I really can’t.
At that moment, the waiter appeared again, like a gust of wind. Where had he even come from?
“And I forgot to tell ya- don’t forget: Friday night special at the Moose Paddy: Drink free if you’re sad. So if you’re sad, or if you two little lovebirds are ready for another coupla drinks or somethin’, you just let me know, all right?”
“No we’re-” not together.
“Okay!” Race responded with enthusiasm, the words the waiter had said only fueled his hope further.
“Okay!” And with that, he was gone again.
“Okay…” Davey agreed, sounding rather helpless. He had to get back to the others.
“So whatta you say? Wanna come on over, for fun?” He looked at Davey with a brightly hopeful expression, leaning forward in his seat once more as he waited for a response.
“No Anthony. I can’t. I can’t.” Davey got up once more. “I really gotta get back to my friends.” “Naw-”
“Yeah, Anthony, yeah I gotta. Cause see… Oh gosh, I’ve been meaning to tell you this for a while: There’s a guy, Anthony, I’ve got a guy.” Davey was being forceful but kind, he really had to go back.
“Oh.” Race tried his absolute best to not let it show just how much that hurt him.
“Yeah…”
“Well… good for you. Gettin’ yourself out there again.” Race was trying to make the best of this news, he wanted to be happy for Davey, he really did.
“Yeah.”
“Movin’ on.” He smiled sadly yet sweetly.
“Yeah, well, actually, Anthony, it’s more than me just getting myself out there and moving on. Um… this is my bachelor party.” Davey paused, sending Race an apologetic smile. “I’m getting married.”
Oh.Oh. Race looked devastated now, he couldn’t stop the hurt look on his face. He tried forcing a smile but it didn’t quite work.
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah-”
“Wow.”
“...Yeah”
“Wow that’s-” He wanted to say something like amazing! Or awesome! But he couldn’t bring himself to do so, he just stared blankly at the table, heart sinking further down. He frowned, lines creasing deep in his face.
“I thought you said you weren’t gonna do that. Get married. Thought it wasn’t for you, you told me.” He paused, coming to a heartbreaking realization. “Guess it was just wasn’t for you… with me.” Another pause, Race sulked for another moment before plastering a smile on. “So… who’s the lucky guy?”
“Martin Laferriere. You know him? The-”
“Yeah, the ranger guy, over in Ashland!”
“Yeah!”
“Wow!” He truly was a great guy, that was good, Davey deserved a great guy.
“Yeah!”
“He’s a legend! Legendary. I mean, if you’re lost on a mountain in Maine, he’s the guy you want lookin’ for ya!” It hurt more than he liked to admit that he knew just who this guy was, everyone knew who this guy was. 
“Yeah.”
“I mean, if you’re lost out there in this big bad northern world, Martin Laferriere’s the guy you want to have go out there and find ya!”
“Yeah.”
“And he… found you.” Race went back to looking disheartened, devastated and broken.
“Yeah. I’m sorry I never told you- I actually thought you woulda known, I thought you woulda heard?”
“How would I have heard?” Davey wasn’t like Race in the slightest, he kept his private life locked up tight, only told who it concerned. There was no way this news would have gotten to Race. They both knew this.
“Well, you know… people talk.” “Not about things they know you don’t wanna hear, they don’t. And I gotta be honest with you: That’s not somethin’ I woulda wanted to hear.” He paused, realizing he had yet again brought down the mood. “So… When’s the big event?” He had to stop asking questions that would end up hurting him even further.
“Um… Tomorrow!”
“Really.”
“Yup!”
“Well then…” Race downed the rest of his drink, then glanced over to the front. Holler if you need anything. He sat up, waving his arm forward towards where the waiter supposedly was.
“HEY!” Race called out, or rather, he hollered.
“What are you doin?” Davey hissed, hiding his face, he didn’t want to be seen with Race. That would take some explaining.
“Gettin’ our waiter, he said holler! HEY!” Race turned to Davey. “What’s his name?” “I don’t know, he’s new here-”
“HEY!” He waved his hand again, almost standing trying to get his attention. Davey looked away again, cringing.
“What are you doing?” He asked again, this time quieter and more urgent. Race needed to stop drawing so much attention to them.
“We gotta celebrate! You got found! And you deserve it! He’s quite a guy.”
“Aw, Anthony…” For the first time that night, Davey smiled genuinely. It was small, but it meant something and that clearly showed. Race could see it too.
“And so are you. I mean, you’re quite a boy- man- person!”
“Anthony…” There was another pause, Race looks at Davey, and Davey looks at Race, really looks at him. He takes in what’s changed about it, and what’s stayed. Guilt gnawed at his core, he so horribly dumped Race all those ages ago, he regretted the way he had done so. Race faces what he’s lost, the boy he chased away. There's a few more moments of silence, then Race raises his hand again and yells out once more. The sleeves of his flannel slipping down, revealing dark black ink etched into his right arm.
“HEY!”
“Anthony!” Davey hushed, then he noticed it. What was that? “Anthony! Whoa hey! What’s that?” Race glanced over to him, confused.
“What?” His head tilted to the side, confusion continuing to sink in. Davey pointed to his arm, to the dark marking.
“That!” He stared at it, eyes squinting as he tried to figure it out. Had Race gotten a tattoo? Race noticed his sleeve had slipped, he quickly tugged it back down.
“Oh, nothin’- tattoo-” He brushed it off before yelling again. “HEY!”
“What?” Since when was Anthony ‘Racetrack’ Higgins the type to get a tattoo?
“Tattoo.” Race just wanted Davey to drop it, it wasn’t important. “HEY!”
“What?” Davey wanted to know. “What? When did you get it?”
“Um, after you left.” He said, hinting that it was obvious. When else had he gotten it? Davey had been gone for so long, so much had changed in Race’s life. “HEY!!”
“Anthony!” Davey reached for Race’s arm, which he was still waving around wildly, he wanted to know what it was, what it said. ”Well- what’s it of? What’s it say?” Race shrugged it off, trying to act nonchalant about it.
“Nothin’, nothin’,” He looked over to the waiter again. “HEY!!” Davey sighed and reached across the table, grabbing on tightly to Race’s arm and tugging down his sleeve.
“N-No!” Race put his head down, his entire demeanor and mood changing, his smile was gone and it was replaced with an anxious look. To add insult to injury, Davey read it outloud.
“Villian…”
“Villain.” Race corrected in a mumble.
“Who’s Villian?
“Villain. It’s supposed to say, ‘villain’.” He looked up at Davey, the light dying in his blue eyes, it was replaced with a sorrowful and anxious gaze.
“What?”
“It’s supposed to say, ‘villain’.” He stated again, voice flat and monotone.
“Well it doesn’t say villain. It says, ‘Villian’.” Davey pointed out, gaze flicking between Race and his arm. He was racking his brain, trying to figure out why Race would get a tattoo like this.
“I know, I spelled it wrong-”
“What?!”
“-they spelled it wrong. It says Villian, but it’s supposed to say villain.”
“Well, why is it supposed to say villain? Why would you want a tattoo that says villain?”
“Cause!” Race didn’t want to explain, he put his head down again and stared at the table, Davey still holding his arm up. 
“Cause why?”
“Just cause!” He was sounding defensive now, why couldn’t Davey just drop it.
“Just cause why?” This was so far out of character for Race, he couldn’t understand.
“Just cause… When a guy’s got a guy like you… well I just think that losin’ a guy like you, driving a guy like you away-”
“Anthony, you didn’t drive me away-”
“-is just plain criminal! It’s criminal. It’s villainy! And it should be punished. So I punished myself, I marked myself a villain so boys would stay away so I’d never have to go through what I went through with you, again.” He twisted his arm out of Davey’s grip forcefully, folding his hand anxiously in his lap. Race looked at everything except Davey.
“You can get that undone...you know.” Davey suggested softly, his voice and smile genuinely kind.
“Yeah.” “I gotta head.” He gets up to go, for real this time. Race doesn’t try to top him.
“Yeah.” He paused. “Hey I’m- I’m glad you got found.” He was being sincere. Davey deserved it, Race had to remember that.
“Thanks, Anthony.” And with that, he was officially gone, walking back to his party with a little bounce in his step. At the same moment, the waiter appeared again, smiling apologetically. 
“Hey! Sorry! You were wavin’ me down. I saw you, but it’s so busy in the front! There’s this bachelor party: those boys! Good thing it’s not, “Drink free if you’re glad!” cause those boys are wicked glad. Gsh I had to fight my way through to find you, but I did it! I found ya! So: What’d you need, what can I do ya for? Another drink?” Race didn’t want anything anymore, he just frowned.
“Um, I’m ok, I’m good, thanks.” He looked towards where Davey had good, a sad look crossing his face and hiding deep within his eyes. The waiter saw the now empty chair, still pushed out. Oh. He felt bad about that. The boy had seemed so excited to be with this guy.
“Oh, pal...Um...Um...Well, remember, like I said, Moose Paddy special: Drinks are free if you’re sad. Okay? Just tell me you’re sad, and you’ll drink free.” A pause. “Just say the word. Let me know. Cause I know what sad looks like, and you’re lookin’ pretty sad.” There was no response for Race, he just continued to look very sad.
“Okay. Well, my name’s Albert, if you need anything.” He started taking a few steps away, backwards, still looking at Race.
“Albert?” He finally looked up at him, a light smile dusting across his face.
“Yeah?”
“Hi.” Race said rather weakly, but the light was slowly coming back to his eyes, he was brightening.
“Hi!”
“I’m not sad. I just would like another drink.” He looked down at his two already empty bottles and then back up to him, “Please.”
“All right!” He turns and goes, scribbling something onto his notepad.
“Albert?” Race called out again. He stopped abruptly and turned back to him.
“Yeah?” “I’m glad you found me.” He admitted genuinely, smiling wider now. He almost looked smitten.
“Aw…” Albert took a few steps forward, ripping a paper off his notepad and placing it in front of Race before heading off again to get his order. On the paper was his number.
“I’m glad you found me.” Albert echoed to himself. “That’s adorable…”
--
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cultho · 5 years ago
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Dororo Epilogue/Post-ending Standalone episode
*WARNING: SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD!!*
So I watched the ending and I had a lot of feelings about it, and I came up with a few ideas for a standalone post-episode to explore some concepts I would like to see from the show. Fyi, the pronouns I use for Dororo vary by situation, with a preference for he/him (my headcanon is Dororo is pretty genderfluid!).
About a year after Hyakkimaru went to find himself, aka end of the series (but before the timeskip where Dororo’s hair is long), the episode opens with opens with Hyakkimaru, feeling more at peace with himself, returning to the village Dororo was developing via dad's Harry Potter level of inheritance.
Dororo, who now basically rules this village despite being a literal 9 year old, hears word from his fellow villagers that a wandering stranger with a sword was spotted helping one of the rice farmers because their horse got caught in a ditch (or anything else of that nature). Of course, Dororo immediately comes running, and barrels straight into Hyakkimaru for the sibling reunion hug we deserve.
Then Dororo punches Hyakki on the arm and gives him a hard time for leaving for a whole year without even a ‘goodbye,’ asks 'So what made you decide to come back after a whole year, huh, punk?’
In response, Hyakki pulls out a small, worn, pouch and Dororo says 'woah - Mio’s rice seeds? I thought you would’ve planted them by now already.’
With a little smile, Hyakki goes 'I thought about doing that, but then I remembered you were close with her too, so you have as much of a right to these seeds… so I decided to wait until we could plant them together.’ 
The rest follows as one expects it to -  Dororo teases him for becoming an even bigger softie, and they set off back to the village to grab some farm tools who Hyakki the place, as the camera pans up until the brilliant blue sky fills the frame. That chapter of their lives ends the same way it began, with Hyakkimaru and Dororo - the latter chatting up a storm while the former quietly appreciates - side by side, wandering where they must. 
Then the camera pans back down, and where before there was bare paddy, the field is now golden and thriving (same as it was in the show's ending). After a half decade timeskip, Dororo is 15-16 to Hyakki’s 21-22, and the rest of the episode follows them dealing with a demon terrorizing their village, who turns out to be Daigo’s butthurt evil spirit. I don’t have a specific plot, but here are concepts that I’d love to see explored.
First, Grown up badass Dororo running her town, being like her own Alexander Hamilton, except not only does this Alexander Hamilton know finances, how to run a sovereign state, how to outsmart any opponent, rouse even the most downtrodden souls to action with just a few words, she also kicks major butt from training with her big bro. Shoutout to that one post that inspired the idea that her dad's Big Boy genes kicked in during puberty so she’s actually like... as tall as Hyakki. Maybe even an inch taller. She says to anyone who asks that her bro can 'die mad about it’ but they both know that he’s just happy she grew up big and strong. 
She totally runs the town and everyone adores/massively respects her; her city takes in the refugees, the poor, the women and children, the diseased, etc, because, in her words, screw samurai and screw their wars. They absorbed Daigo’a old land after offering food, shelter, and jobs to the survivors, thus their town became a pretty respectably sized settlement.
Now, the key to all this - since they don't want to rely on samurai for their power - is the money, right? So Dororo’s power is her knowledge of the treasures secret location (and all the other badass things about her, but I digress). Imagine at some point a small gang of newer villaghers got the bright idea to try and stalk her during one of her mysterious night trips out (she calls them a way to satisfy her wanderlust, but they’re a cover for her sailing to the treasure's location to grab some cash), and they only get as far as spying her enter the docks before their plan goes to heck when they get accosted by Dororo's more loyal villagers who saw them sneaking. ‘Oh sh*t,’ they’re thinking, Dororo sauntering over to them, ‘Oh sh*t, shes got a big sword, oh man oh sh*t this is the end for me - '
But Dororo’s been there before, at the end of her rope and desperate for any edge to survive, she understands how these guys think, and if there’s one thing she’s stubborn to death about it’s that she does NOT run her town like the samurai. Instead, she talks them out of their misdoing and helps them find an honest living, Tales of Ba Sing Se Uncle Iroh style, (except with more volume and verbal threats).
Another concept with Dororo is when Dororo dresses to look like a guy when he and Hyakki take a couple horses and venture into a nearby city (for whatever plot reason), similar to how he did when he was a lot younger.
It’s not fully a secret, but only the older residents of her city know about Dororo’s 'crossdressing' habit, and are accepting of it.
Dororo mentions that while he’s in no way ashamed of presenting female, it often feels more freeing to present male, especially when they're out adventuring - less questions and stares from strangers, etc. Dororo also just likes presenting as male! This way, he identifies with both genders at different times. (It goes without saying Hyakki does his best to use the right pronouns, he never had a strict concept of gender - re: Jukai is the best mom, so it never struck him as odd.)
As for the actual villain of the episode, when she first hears of the Jerk Dad Demon attacking the farms on the outskirts of the village, she only thinks ‘it's just another demon, time to gather the crew and kill this thing-’
It doesn’t go so easily, as the demon’s exceptional strength proves to draw out the confrontation, and it even ends up escaping the first time.
The first to figure it out was Hyakki - he’s most familiar with Daigo’s wrath and the foul creature reeks of the old man. However, everything happened so fast and he sort of… neglected to inform Dororo. When she does find out, they have a short confrontation about it in classic Bickering Siblings Style. It’s understandable that she’s slightly miffed the demonic incarnation of his own awful dad, yes that one, is who they’re fighting and he didn’t bother letting her know.
Hyakki, who, even after a decade of having his voice back, isn't that great at communication/vocalizing his more complex thoughts and working through conflicts with words and thus often comes off as awkward or silently stoic: 'You were busy... and I thought you figured by yourself already?’
Things escalate when the other villagers overhear, and they almost start a riot; angry shouts accusing him of being the reason the demon attacks their settlement from the all the tired men and women, haggard from fending off attacks of not only the demon but also rival bandits and clans who want to take advantage of the city’s time of hardship. Of course, Dororo gets everyone back in lineright before the crowd got to deciding to sacrifice Hyakkimaru, reminding them to focus on the real enemy instead of turning on eachother - but the situation was incredibly bleak. With everyone on edge partially, it was easy to use Hyakki as a scapegoat due to his pacifist tendencies and his stoic nature coming across as almost cowardice.
He taught Dororo how to fight and that's pretty much all the fighting he's done since he came back to plant Mio’s rice, he’s reluctant to pick up the blade again. But the moment a demon shows up he runs off on his own, risking life and limb to confront it head on. Combined with his character’s less than stellar communication skills, it frustrates Dororo in the 'he leaves for a year and doesnt even text me when he's going’ kinda way’ - she's frustrated when he continually refuses to understand that they're family, and at the end of they day theyre kind of all the other has left. So he needs to get it together better and tell her when he’s about to go off and do reckless nonsense. His behavior also presents an interesting dichotomy as Hyakki also struggles with trying to be emotionally detached (lose worldly desires, etc.) and pacifist in the face of attacks from both demon and humans, so he needs to reconcile fighting with the others against attacking clans and risking a redescent into the demon like madness of his teenage years or standing by non violent means of supporting his comrades while facing expectations that he should do more. He wants to atone for his past sins badly and help those who are still living best he can - but how? 
(And also make friends other than literally just Dororo.)
Dororo's arc is about her struggles to do the right thing as a leader - it is a lot, to run a whole city. Recent events have caused more deaths amidst her city than ever before, and moral questions about what to do with captured enemy survivors feed doubt into her mind if one day she’ll turn out as bad as the samurai, and how to continue on after having led people in battles that resulted in their deaths.
P.s. I also entertained the idea of Hyakki’s journey to find himself taking much longer, and so the first time Dororo sees him again ever since he got his eyes back is when she's 20, there's rain pouring from the dark sky as her men are carrying lamps around, accounting for the dead and defeated in a latest skirmish with a small rival band that was trying to access her city the non-peaceful way.
At first her men bring her hyakkimaru, thinking he was with the enemy (he happened to be in the wrong place, wrong time. He simply heard of a group heading to a big place that sounded an awful lot like somewhere he would find Dororo - and followed them).
And from the business end of her sword he's on his knees looking up when she goes 'nah. I know him. This bastard's got hell to answer for, but he's not our enemy.’
Events are more or less the same from there, but filled with way more tension and drama here since Hyakki basically dropped off the face of the earth for 10 ish years and Do’s mad about that because, again, he didn't even say 'bye'. So much has changed, but what hasn't changed is Dororo’s anikki's inability to grasp that if one day he went off without telling her and then died, she would have literally no idea where/when/how that was, she would never know if he was alive or dead, and the idea of living in that limbo would terrify anyone. The story being about them learning to come together again, only at the end do they plant Mio’s rice field together.
I ended up trying to flesh the first idea out more because Do & Hyakki’s relationship is all about the things that don't need to be said; that these two will always be there for the other without needing to be asked. The backbone of their relationship was built up as one that didn’t need explicit affirmation because it was already so ingrained to their characters it would be a disservice to them and a waste of time to contrive an entire plot trying to create unnecessary drama between them.
But then again... drama = satisfying character growth, so perhaps it could go either way! Let me know what you think! 
Thank you for reading all this way :) I also posted second part to this of other thoughts I had while pondering why I felt the need to write a standalone epilogue.
Bonus: these gems I had in the rough draft that unfortunately had to get cut:
“But it’s harder to kill bc jerk dad demon is a jerk”
“Dororo's like 'u mean to tell me ur punk bitch biological male progenitor's demonized soul is attacking our fields??? “
“they take down the big bad dad dude daigo”
“Dororo: - pshffyeahh, ur pissy pissfaced pissbaby dad”
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scrapyardboyfriends · 6 years ago
Text
Jenny’s Belated Live Blogging - 11th April 2019
- I love Maxine episodes so much. No one is surprised by that at this point but they always work so well and have such nice flow and fit in a lot of the things that I like. When does she get to write every episode?!
- even from the start just getting Eric and David standing outside the B&B while all the ornathologists were running around. That was fun and felt like the old days with random ridiculous things going on in the village. And I loved Bob and Dan running around in their camo trying to take a picture of the bird and getting the wrong one and all the other villagers just being amused. That’s a plot that we would not have gotten this time last year and I’m really happy that kind of stuff is making a comeback because it’s just good lighthearted fun and it’s something that works great with those characters too.
- the Kim/vets stuff was great too. I am so thrilled to see a return to the work related stories. I feel like part of the reason there were so many dumb cheating plots and so many heavy stories in the past couple years, is because a lot of the work drama just got cut out and they had to fill time in other ways. But aside from just the general, I just really like this vets story now that Kim is involved and that’s not something I thought would happen. But her and Rhona together is so good. It brings her down to earth even if she is still scheming. And there’s minimal Graham, which is excellent. I also love that they’re going to continue to build on this relationship by having her get Rhona to help with Jamie, which is a great idea. I’m so happy they’ve managed to turn Kim around now that the Joe Plot is...over?!?
- And Paddy and Vanessa who we can sometimes get annoyed with when they’re in their respective relationships, work so well together in this type of story. I’m so happy Vanessa was finally allowed to go back to work so we could have this content again. That suspension was the worst decision ever. I even loved them both not wanting to tell Chas and Charity about the deal. This kind of content is what will make those relationships work better too because they have each other to bounce this kind of stuff off of. A couple months ago, Paddy and Vanessa sharing a scene was so weird because it had been so long and now it finally feels like it’s supposed to and I’m so glad.
- the Vic/Ellis, Tracy/Billy stuff was also a lot of fun today. I love that Tracy and Billy figured out what Vic was up to straight away and then locked them in but also spent the whole day together anyway so maybe they’ll work on things between them too. Things were thawing anyway. She got a drink with him. And Vic and Ellis singing Cher and drinking champagne together was perfect. They got together so weirdly and we didn’t even realize they’d become anything more so I’m sort of glad they broke up and now we get to see a little of them getting back on the same page. Those early stages are really important for me to enjoy a couple so I’m glad we’re getting that. I just fear for the Big Night Out stuff but for now it’s all lovely and sweet.
- I thought the Liv/Jacob/Maya stuff tonight was great. I’m soooo glad that Jacob said no and broke up with her just so she didn’t have to have sex with him and do something she didn’t want to do even if I was still heartbroken for her.
- I’m so happy Gabby was back with her this week too. I love their friendship and it was so nice seeing her be so supportive with Liv. That hug she gave her was so important too. I adore them when they’re getting along.
- with regards to the ace stuff. I do think it’s kind of time for her to use the word. They really did miss their opportunity when she said she was doing internet research. It’s a bit frustrating because, we all get it and it’s very clear that they did their research because she is saying all the right things. Like the part about ‘sometimes people like me just do it anyway for their partners’ or some variation of that. I just wish they’d stop having her talk around it even if everything she says does ring very true. I still hope she gets to say the word one day.
- that said, my heart broke when she said that she didn’t know how someone was ever going to want someone like her because I feel that so much. And again, I loved that Gabby was there to give her a hug. She needed that and the encouraging words and I’m glad she got them.
- I was also very happy to get to see both Robert and Aaron be there for her tonight. Thank you Maxine. I liked that, you know, we got typical Aaron wanting to kill Jacob and Liv having to talk him down. I loved Robert putting a hand on his shoulder to keep him in his chair. I of course adored the entire conversation with Robert on the bench. Definitely long overdue. I also can imagine them finding the condoms and deciding Robert may be the best one to go have that chat just because Aaron a) doesn’t always do well with that and b) he might get too worked up. In any case, I love Robert and Liv’s relationship and I’m so glad that Maxine loves it too so we get this kind of content. He was so sweet with her and understanding and calm but also so encouraging, telling her she’s brilliant as she is. Plus, I love the added bits of humor in there with the ‘boys are rubbish’ line and the ‘you’re telling me not to get revenge?’ line. Perfection.
- and I liked that that wasn’t it either. I loved that we got Aaron checking in with Robert after the chat and Robert telling him not to worry. I loved that Liv came downstairs and reiterated that nothing happened and that she was okay. They were such good family scenes, the kind we rarely get and the three of them do work well together when given the chance.
- and of course, the surrogacy stuff. There were definitely a few things that could have used more on screen discussion but I was relatively satisfied by what Maxine did manage to get in there within allotted screen time.
- I was happy Aaron questioned Robert’s sudden decision to give him a chance to explain. They were always going to have to do it in the UK for logistics purposes anyway, so I don’t mind his change of heart. I also liked that when he said he didn’t want to make Aaron wait, that Aaron challenged him on that too so he could explain. I don’t know that every writer would do that. I mean, I still wish they would address Aaron’s Seb related issues/motivation. It will forever drive me crazy if they never go back to it and I don’t think they will now but I guess I’ll have to get over it. I at least like that they addressed some of the Robert concerns.
- I also just liked seeing them so excited to be on the same page again and to feel positive after the meeting. Plus, Aaron’s cute little clothing crisis before hand was amazing and I loved Robert telling him he looked great. Also I liked that they managed to get both of their color codes in today. Red and blue earlier and then they changed into their blue and black. Well done.
- even though they’re talking about money still, I like that they’ve moved forward a bit in the process now. We’re no longer stuck completely at square one and that is very needed. Even if this surrogate doesn’t work out, at least they’re at a new stage now.
- I also loved having Liv involved and interested in what was going on and especially that she did it in that sarcastic way. They really felt like a family tonight and it made me very happy.
- with regards to the ‘swimmers’, haha, I do wish they’d had that conversation on screen but I’m glad that they at least said that they’d had a conversation and didn’t just announce that they were going to use Aaron sperm or something. And I know there’s a portion of the fandom that has a massive problem with all of this but like...I don’t think that the characters at least did it in a particularly offensive sort of way. Especially since Maxine consciously had Aaron correct himself and say ‘well it’ll be both of ours obviously’. Plus, I always love Aaron not being able to talk about that sort of thing and his ever popular awkward hand gestures. I love that that’s just his consistent thing. Haha
- and of course the sofa cuddling and giggling at the movie. I’ve waiting ages for them to lay on the sofa like that and I’m so glad it finally happened. Plus the dialogue, talking about their future kid. Again, I loved the family banter with Liv saying Seb was going to be an evil genius and Robert correcting her and saying ‘handsome genius’ was perfect. And of course the comment about Aaron’s eyes. We all use Robert loving Aaron’s eyes so much in fan fic so it was great to get that little moment. And Aaron craning his neck to look up at Robert was lovely. Good content. I am pleased.
- as for the blackmailing. It makes a lot of sense that it was Liv that caught them and that it’s her that’s blackmailing Maya. With anyone else, I feel like it wouldn’t make sense that they would tell but since Liv has been involved this whole time, Maya is able to use that and her alcohol problems to manipulate David to preemptively discredit her and then threaten her with. But I also really liked that Liv brought up Gordon. Yay relevant character history! It’s good that she can take that knowledge and apply it to this situation and see through Maya. But it’s also such a messy situation since Liv was with Jacob and there’s so many hurt feelings on top of everything else. It makes a tough situation even tougher so it all does still feel relatively believable. At least within the context of a soap. And as much as I wouldn’t want robron using pedophile blackmail money to fund their surrogacy, I sort of like that Liv even went there because well...she’s learned from the best living with her brothers. Haha. But yeah...it’s all a mess and I can’t wait for it all to come out so all these kids can start getting help.
- all in all, these were great episodes and again I shall profess my love for Maxine Alderton. She is perfect.
- I hope these thoughts met your expectations @memorieswarm haha
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sprydecreates · 6 years ago
Text
“HOMEmade”
requested by: n/a
warnings: language
pairings: tom holland x reader
type: hc/list
summary: the holland family invite you over for christmas! because you came up a few days prior to christmas (so you could spend christmas with family back home), everyone exchanged gifts before you left. a little gift intended for you is 'misplaced', until harry finds it on his 'bathroom break' while sam plays the piano, and the holland's + you dance.
a/n: this is a story that doesn't use any type of pronouns so it could read as any gender!! hope you all enjoy! p.s. the summary is vague for a reason ;)
also, if this seems familiar, it’s cause it was posted before on my old blog dusktillholland. wanted to repost it for the holiday!!
you and tom had been together for roughly three years (how fuckin cute)
this year, for christmas, tom had invited you up to his house to spend it with his family!!!
with this being the first time you and tom would spend a huge holiday together, it had to be perfect
it was like walking into disneyland during the winter season
listen there would be mistletoe hanging in every doorway
and the mixed smell of cinnamon and vanilla bean would fill the house from all the candles tom safely lit
a little stocking hanging beside tom's with your name on it that he totally made by hand
and lets not forget about the huge christmas meal tom helped dom and nikki prepare in hopes of impressing you even more
plus how he'd run out last minute before you arrived to grab hot chocolate packets along with apple cider packets
christmas songs being sung by everyone, even if you had to beg tom to sing
DEFINITELY singing run run rudolph with dom into the karaoke mic
but when it started to get late, that's when the presents started to roll in
you had packed a luggage bag JUST for presents for the holland's
and BOY did they do the same for you
you were like "look at all these presents i- YOU GOT ME??? OH MY GOD"
let me tell you, everyone would spoil you so much
like
you were tom's long term lover, everyone knew you well, and you didn't feel awkward about any gifts being given to you at all because they were all what you wanted!!!
even harrison left you a gift
but after every present from the family was given to you, and all of your presents were given to them, you and the family had just kinda sat around drinking the last minute packets tom picked up
until, nikki suggested sam play some music on the piano
when he agreed, everyone migrated to the den with the piano sitting tucked against the wall
sam began to play soft, sweet christmas love songs
nikki and dom eventually started dancing, and that prompted tom to ask for a dance
which was obviously cut short when paddy asked to cut in
and that left tom really pouty
probably to the point where he acted as though he was dancing with an imaginary you
but everything was interrupted when harry said he was going to the bathroom
so everyone just kind of stopped dancing, and sam stopped playing, but gathered around the piano and just chatted a bit about the day
you thanked everyone for all of the gifts once again, and said you loved everyone
they said it back without hesitation
a few minutes went by, and you noticed everyone was trying to hide a smile, including tom
when you asked what was going on, dom just said it was the christmas spirit tickling everyone
that was passed off, until harry came back in with a tiny, neatly decorated present
"hey, i think we missed one for you, y/n"
you were now facing the family, except for tom, who was in your blind spot
harry handed you the present and took a step back"you guys didn't have to get me so much, oh my god. i feel so loved"
a "you are loved" coming softly from tom
and a "it's HOMEmade" coming from dom
you carefully lifted the top of the small box that had a "to y/n, from the holland's" tag on the top
you revealed a small key with a cursive 'H' engraved at the top, and a key chain of tessa that everyone else in the family had on their key ring
you narrowed your eyes in confusion and were like "is this a key? to this house?"
and nikki was like "yeah! everyone in the family has one. it's about time you had one too!"
you'd be like "you consider me family? i know i've been around for awhile but still!!
“and then dom puts his arm around nikki and says "well, you do carry the holland name."
and you're like "??????????????????????????? i'm a(n) y/l/n"
then tom would speak out in a volume that sounded like he was at a much lower height than you, and say "that's if you say snow."
and your eyes would widen, and you'd turn around to see tom on one knee with a snowflake shaped engagement ring (because he's extra as fuck)
he'd say something something REALLY cheesy, like "marry christmas me?"
and you'd be crying and laughing along with everyone else, and just lay your head down onto the piano while you cried
he'd get up and talk to you like "listen, if i knew that pun would make you this emotional, i wouldn't have used it"
and you'd just laugh a little more and finally raise up and hug and kiss him, all while he's holding the ring
then the family would look at each other, and paddy would blurt out "well, are you my in law or not?"
and you'd finally verbally say yes through coughs and tears
everyone would be screaming and clapping out of pure joy
harry would rush out of the room, only to come back with a camera he had set in a place where you couldn't see so he could record it all
"Y/N SAID YES!!" would be screamed by everyone while looking at the camera
the rest of the night was filled with you and your new in laws singing along to and with sam, who would be playing songs like 'joy to the world', and 'i'll be home for christmas' on the piano
also, not to mention drinking a little celebratory champagne
later the next day, the video would be edited and uploaded to tom's instragram, which would captioned as "Well, y/n didn't say s(no)w.
"nikki and harry would also post cute pictures they took of you both after the proposal happened!!!
so, all in all, it was a beautiful surprise that no one will ever forget.
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harryshollands · 6 years ago
Text
MERRY CHRISTMAS, BABY!  HARRISON OSTERFIELD  (3/?)
Warnings: fluff
Paring: Harrison Osterfield x Holland!Reader
Summary: You meet up with your friend group to exchange gifts and you get to talking with Haz about the impending importance of telling his parents.
A/N: Part three is here! Sorry for the last update, my loves, I was caught up in moving. I hope you enjoy the new installment! Feedback is always welcome and requests never close! The whole series is going to be unedited until I finish it  :)
PART ONE       PART TWO        PART THREE
Masterlist! Send a Request!
Word Count: 1,919
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“Be safe, you lot. Home before the sun rises, you hear me?” Your mother instructed you and your siblings (other than Paddy, who was sleeping after crashing from his sugar rush). 
Tom and the twins unanimously snorted but nodded their heads in confirmation all the same. 
“Of course, mom” You laugh, hugging her quickly before shoving your hands in your pockets and making your way to Tom’s car.
 You and your siblings had the annual tradition of meeting up with your friends at 11pm on Christmas to exchange gifts. 
Why eleven? Because your families were always done with the festivities of the day and you could have a mini celebration with each other before the day was officially over. Over the years you’d had new additions to your friend group, but the plan was always the same. 
This year the group had gained Elysia. 
Altogether the group consisted of you, your siblings, Haz, Tuwaine, your best friend Indiana and Imogen. 
You made your way to The Rose Pub in Fulham just twenty minutes or so outside of Kingston Upon Thames. You’d all be there at 11 on the dot and leave at 11:30 on the dot. 
It always played out the same, although this year you wouldn't be drinking, nor would you be giving just one present to everyone. 
Everyone was getting two, one present being the main one and the second one a pregnancy reveal of some sort. 
You buckled your seatbelt as your siblings filed into the car one by one, not bothering to complain about you sitting in the passenger seat without calling shotgun. 
"Wait!" You shriek, eyes wide causing your siblings to jump.
 "Did we put the present bag in the car earlier?" You enquire causing your brothers to groan. 
"Just because you're having a baby doesn't mean that you have to act like mom" Harry grumbled under his breath as Sam assured you that he'd done it. 
"Bugger off, Harold" You grunt back as Tom backs out of the driveway, your first destination being picking up Elysia. 
"Both of you can shut it, yeah? I want to listen to Christmas music" Tom scolded, rolling his eyes and jamming his finger against the button on the console for the radio, humming in satisfaction as  Last Christmas started playing through the car speakers.
 "Merry Christmas!" Imogen cheered as you made your way into the pub, rushing over to you and hugging you. 
"You too, Mo!" Harry responded with a smile before you all trailed over to your group of friends. Harrison's face lit up as he saw you, jumping up from the table and giving you a hug. 
You laughed quietly and pressed your face against his chest. 
"Merry Christmas, Haz" You mutter before pulling away to hug everyone else. Your friends noticed the way their other friend was clinging to you and shared grins. 
"Not to be that bitch, but can we start the present giving?" Indiana piped up from beside Tuwaine with a big grin as you wiggled her fingers, waiting for someone to pass her a gift whilst your siblings emptied your present bag onto the table. 
"You are that bitch, Indie." Elysia giggled as Haz wrapped his arm around the back of your seat, allowing you to lean against him as everyone started exchanging presents. 
You'd received a leather-bound journal from Tuwaine, a scented candle from Indiana, taco print socks from Elysia and a pack of oil pastel crayons from Imogen. 
Haz was passing you his present for you when he hesitated. 
"Did you get her a tarantula? Is that why you're having second thoughts?" Indiana joked as everyone observed the situation. 
Harrison flipped her off jokingly before looking back at you with a smile. 
"You have to accept this no matter what," He said simply before passing you the box, leaving you with your eyebrows furrowed and your friends speculating what it could possibly be. 
"If you've given her a Porsche I'll be unfollowing you, you know I've wanted one for years" Elysia piped up, trying to distract your other friends so that you could have your moment of opening it. 
Your fingers slid over the wrapping paper, a smile tugging at your lips as you ripped it open, glancing at Haz before opening the lid and letting your jaw drop.
 "You didn't" You shriek, looking at Harison with wide eyes. Imogen raised her eyebrows and rushed around the table to look into the box. 
"Holy shit" Imogen breathes before sitting back down. 
"What is it?" Indiana grills, her eyes narrowing. 
All questions cease as you pull the Cartier box away from the paper. Tuwaine shoots Harrison a 'what the fuck' look whilst Sam does a double take. 
"You got her something from fucking Cartier?" Tom gawked, watching as you pull open the box. It's the Love necklace with two interlocking rings. 
You don't feel wealthy enough to touch it, let alone be holding the box. 
"Merry Christmas?" Haz jokes as your friends hover behind the two of you and shriek about the necklace. 
You glance at him with wide eyes. You noticed how small the chain was. It was the one for babies. Luckily your friends hadn't seemed to notice, so you snap the box shut and let out a sniffle. 
"You're too much, Harrison Osterfield." You smile, pulling him into a hug and holding him tightly. 
"It's one for-" 
"I know" You whisper back, pressing a kiss to his cheek and pulling back, dabbing at your eyes in case you'd let a tear slip. 
"No one can top that" Tuwaine grumbles as Tom slides you your pile of presents to hand out. 
"Okay, so I got you all two things" You announce causing everyone to cheer. Haz glanced at you and you simply tap the Cartier box in front of you and his eyes light up, understanding immediately. 
"Let me finish!" You cut off your friends, laughing as Tuwaine tells you to fuck off. 
"The smaller present has to be opened at the same time. It's the same for all of you and I want to have it on video" You tell them before sliding each friend their two presents and standing up, grabbing your phone and starting to record. 
"Suck my dick, Harrison. You're the only one without to presents" Indiana cackled before you instructed them all to open their gifts. 
Haz was trying to keep his face neutral but you could see him biting his lip to stop himself from grinning. 
You watched giddily as they all ripped the paper to shreds. 
They all looked genuinely confused as they unfolded the fabric, unfolding it and reading the writing. Indiana realized what was going on first. 
"Wait! Really?" She asked, beaming up at you with the little onsie in her hands. 
"Mmhmm" You laugh as she jumps up and wraps you in a hug. 
"Oh my god! Holy shit!" Tuwaine shouts, looking at you with wide eyes. 
"Is that why you aren't drinking tonight? Son of a bitch!". 
Putting two and two together, Imogen covered her mouth in shock. The onsies had #1 Uncle and #1 Aunt printed on them respectively.
 "Congratulations!" Imogen let out a sob, wiping at her face and pulling you into a hug, soon followed by Tuwaine as Harrison took over filming, watching as you brothers grumbled about being better uncles due to being related by blood. 
Once everyone was sitting down and the video was stopped your friends set their gazes on Harrison with narrowed eyes. 
"Why the hell did you know before us? Is this favoritism?" Tuwaine enquired, his eyes glancing between the two of you and them trailing to Tom who was trying not to laugh. He glanced back at Harrison and then it hit him, causing you to burst out laughing. 
"You're the dad! You slept with my baby!" He declared causing the girls to look on in shock. 
"Surprise?" Harrison joked whilst dodging Indiana's hands as she tried to slap him. 
"No fucking way" Imogen laughed, looking between her friends in awe. 
"Are you guys together, too? Because I've been waiting for this since we met back in 2012" Tuwaine asked causing you to blush, shaking your head. 
"We're not dating" You reply, watching as Indiana got ready to kick up a storm. 
"And why the hell not? We thought that was going to be the announcement tonight, not a baby. Not that I'm complaining, but why the hell aren't you dating yet? We've all been expecting it" She grills, watching as you shrink into your seat and Haz huffs out an awkward laugh, scratching his neck as his face turned red. 
"We've been expecting it? I haven't expected shit" Harry pitched in, his eyebrows raised as he watched you shift awkwardly. 
"They've been eyeing each other for years, Harry. Ae you blind? They're perfect for each other!" Imogen scolded, sitting back in her seat and clutching the onsie tightly in her arms. 
"You're making them feel awkward, stop!" Elysia giggled, sending you a smile and leaning her head on Sam's shoulder. 
It was 11:25 by now and you were all cleaning up the wrapping paper and shoveling it into your respective bags so that you'd be ready for 11:30. Your topics of conversation varied as you all joked around, happy to be together for another year in a row. 
"I hope you know that I'm going to be a super annoying and protective bitch for the next nine months" Indiana informed you as you got ready to leave, Imogen humming in agreement as Haz let out a laugh, holding you closer to him. 
"Wouldn't want it any other way" You reply softly, hugging everyone before you made your way out of The Rose Pub, walking in synch with Harrison and your brothers. 
"Come to dinner at my house tomorrow, yeah?" Haz suggested, looking down at you as you came to a stop at Tom's car, letting your brothers get in ahead of you while you parted with Harrison. 
"Telling your parents?" You inquire with a small smile and he nods, an anxious smile spreading across his own face. 
"Charlotte has kept it quiet for now, but lord knows when it'll slip" He adds, watching as you mull it over in your head.
 "Either way, I want to see you tomorrow" You look at him, your expression softening as you nod. 
"I'll be there" You confirm, pulling him into a hug, squeezing his shoulders tightly as he presses a kiss to your forehead. 
"Can I take you to lunch?" Harrison asks as you pull back and blush. 
"Like a date?" 
"Exactly like a date" He confirms, biting his lip before bursting out into yet another grin as you nod. 
"I'd like that," You tell him, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek as your brothers started the car, letting the heat have a chance to kick in. 
"I'll see you tomorrow then, Y/N/N" He leans down and taps your stomach jokingly, muttering a quick and dorky 'you too' to the baby in your stomach and pressing a kiss to it through your coat with a dorky grin. 
"We definitely did this the wrong way around, huh?" You joke as he opens the passenger side door for you, waving at Tom as he does so. 
"It's definitely not the typical situation, but it's perfect for us" Harrison confirms, quickly saying goodnight to you all and watching as you pull your door shut, Tom starting the drive back to your house.
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