A Stroll in the Park (Tom Hiddleston X Fem Reader)

The Coffee Shop

You and Loki arrive back at your neighbourhood after slowly making your way from the park. The journey back was at a lot more of a relaxed pace than usual as you took in the views of London when it was more sleepy than you were used to that Tom had introduced you to.

Your wooden door came into view as you round the corner. Everyone on your road seemed to be in competition with who could have the shabbiest looking door, a competition that you were glad to say you were losing. You had taken it upon yourself to paint your door a matcha green with your number, 27, painted on in white with a black border to the writing. It was quite a cute look if you did say so yourself.

You unlock your door and let Loki off of his lead to bound in and onto his bed in the corner of the living room before he starts snoring lightly. Your initial plan was to take a quick nap after your early start but you had woken up by now. Your mind kept whirring and replaying the way it felt to have Tom pressed up against you, the way he moved your head, the emptiness you felt when he stepped back...

If you stayed up for the rest of the day you'd be knackered by the time the evening came around and possibly more able to wake up early again. While it would be amazing to see him again, it would also be great to go back when it was quiet anyway, he was right, it was far more beautiful then than you ever could've imagined. Before you could make a decision, your phone started buzzing in your pocket, as you rake through your jacket to find it you realise it's Iris calling.

"Hey, what's up?"

"We haven't met up in a while, we should get a coffee."

"Oh yeah, well um I could meet you in like an hour maybe?"

"Nooooo, you always take ages to get ready, let's just go now!"

You let out a sigh and reluctantly agree to go, even though your idea for a nap did sound really good. Iris squeals as you arrange which coffee shop to go to before you hang up and jog upstairs to get changed. Loki comes running in right behind you, narrowly missing your legs and jumps up on to your bed,  covering the sheets with fur. You shrug, knowing you would be changing your covers today anyway. 

You swap your blue jeans for a pair of black ones, shed the trench coat and hat, pulling on a khaki shirt over the top with the buttons left open. You take a look in the vanity mirror that sits on your desk surrounded by various makeup and skin care items and gasp at the state the hat has left your hair in. Fumbling through the drawers along the desk you find your hairbrush and rake it through your dark-brown locks, tugging out any knots in an attempt to look half-presentable. You convince yourself that it looks good but look over to Loki for a second opinion. He responds by burying his head into a crook in the covers which you take to mean "awful" or something along those lines. So to combat this, you pull your hair into two messy braids at each side of your head and pull a few fly-aways out so you don't look to dressed for getting coffee. Loki seems to prefer this as he lifts his head and doesn't put it away this time so, happy with the look you've pulled together, you make your way downstairs making sure to leave your bedroom door open so Loki can get out. You pull on a pair of tan boots and roll up the sleeves of your shirt just to your elbows and step out onto your road, locking the door behind you.

**********

Iris waves frantically at you as you open the door to your usual café: Les Filles. You smile sheepishly as you make your way over to her, aware of the fact that everyone is staring at her and therefore you too. You order yourself some Challah French toast and a peppermint tea before relaxing a bit in your chair, ready to get a proper catch-up with Iris.  

"God y/n, you look like shit"

"Ah, thanks man, I'll never get too full of myself with you around will I?"

"No, no, I don't mean like that, you just look really tired, like proper tired, did you sleep at all last night?"

You did sleep last night, not much though considering that you were up about three or four hours earlier than usual so to be fair, this wasn't too bad of a comment. 

"A little, I got up quite early for a walk with Loki" you admit

Iris makes a face like she's confused but doesn't bother to pry any more, she goes to carry on talking but the waitress returns with your food and tea and places a cinnamon roll in front of Iris.

"Oh, I didn't order any food I've just got my latte thanks"

"It's on the house" she replies with a smirk. Iris raises her eyebrows but the returns the smile and watches the waitress as she makes her way to the other side of the room to take another table's order. She stays watching her for a good few seconds before you ground her with an "Oi!" to which she snaps her head back round to face you. 

"Right, yes sorry about that" she mumbles awkwardly, quickly turning redder as each second passes. 

"Hey don't worry about it" you say as you try to fight back a grin "just remember, I'm your maid of honour" 

That tipped her over the edge as her face flushed fully and would've been hot enough to cook your food for a second time. "It's just a cinnamon roll" she protests

"Well that's how it always starts!" you begin, whisper-shouting at her to make sure the waitress doesn't over hear and get put off by her crush's crazy friend "first they give you a creamy bun, then net thing you know you're using cream for-"

"STOP!" she screeches at the top of her lungs. You were in here enough that you waved over at the people behind the counter and apologised through laughter as Iris tried to sink down into her chair. Once everyone has gone back to what they were doing she reaches over the table and swats at your arms as you clutch your stomach, still in fits of giggles. The bell to the door sounds behind you but you don't pay much attention to it as you make a start on your French toast before it cools down too much. Feeling quite proud of yourself you push the roll towards her. "Go on then" you egg.

"I think I might've gone off cream" she comments dejectedly as she picks and prods it as you fight back another round of giggles threatening to bubble up again. 

The pair of you stay for another hour or two as you laugh raucously and lose yourself in your conversation. You'd missed this feeling, being endlessly happy, swirling in laughter to the point that your cheeks hurt and sides ached but found that the pain somehow made everything funnier. Iris calls it to end though when her boss sends her a message asking her to come in to give them a hand with something, she didn't go into detail with it meaning it was probably something minor.  Before she leaves she scribbles something down on her napkin with a pen she had tucked down at the bottom of her handbag and folded it over.

"Give that to her would you?" and started to fish around in her purse

"Nope, no no no, if you pay for this, I won't give this to her" you state, wiggling the napkin in the air

"But I invited you-" she begins to protest

"And you got the last one, it's my turn!" you retaliate.

Iris opens her mouth to argue again but you hold the napkin between two hands like you're about to tear it. She holds her hands up in feign surrender and puts her purse back into her bag. She gives you a one-armed hug and kisses your head before stepping out onto the street and heads down the road with long strides. You spot the waitress from before and smile hoping she'll come over, thankfully she does and gets the bill for you. Before she can leave you slip the napkin in her hand and explain it's from  Iris as she looks quite confused. The ends of her ears turn pink as she tries to hide her grin from you and thanks you. She speeds back behind the counter and hastily unfolds to note scanning it with wide eyes still bright red. It was quite cute you has to admit, they both got really flustered about each other when they knew the other couldn't see them but acted as suave as they could when they could see them. Smiling to yourself, you step out into London and decide to take a light walk before heading back home for another early start.