Tom Holland Imagines: Volume 2

Stardust

A/N: This was requested by the lovely @SunedeJager4! I thought this was the sweetest idea in a really heartbreaking way. I hope I did it justice, hon!

"Let's say, Y/N has cancer. Like, she is on the end of dying. Then Tom visits the hospital in his Spiderman suit to cheer all the children up. Y/N is a big fan and now she can die in peace."

TW: mentions of death

Y/N'S POV: 

You know you're really at the end of the line when the hospital calls a Marvel Superhero in to see all the sick kids and tells you about it. I'd be lying if I said a little flicker of hope flared up in my exhausted chest when they told me, but then the realization hit me and I had to feign ignorance. Like I didn't know I was a dead girl walking. My eyes welled up with tears, but I blinked them away and pinched my pale lips together in an excuse for a smile so I didn't disappoint my nurse, Lottie. But I could see the pity she'd been hiding behind the excitement she'd plastered in her eyes.

Lottie had become the closest thing I had to a parent figure, actually. When the oldest girl in the orphanage gets cancer, you kind of send her off to the hospital without turning back. It's not like I had any friends there, anyway. 

But hey, don't pity me. I may basically be living in my bed in a room painted like a five-year-old's playhouse, but I've made the space mine. There are a few vinyl records decorating my wall and they let me personalize my curtains and rugs, but my favorite possession of all in my little world is the portrait of Tom Holland that sits on my bedside table. 

It's in a little metal frame...the nice kind you keep portraits of your family in.

Two days after Lottie broke the news to me, there was a knock at my door. Assuming it was just one of the techs to force some extra meds down my throat, I shouted "come in" nonchalantly, and didn't even bother to look up from my book. But suddenly, the door creaked open and...

"Hey, bud! Mind if I come in?" I set the book slowly down on my lap and looked up. 

"Uh..." I responded, sure I recognized the voice but not sure where from.

"It's Peter Parker! I'm just checking in on everyone, making sure they're okay you know?" And suddenly, Tom Holland, THE Tom Holland, walked through my door. The book dropped out of my hands and fell on the floor.

"H-hi Tom," I managed quietly. He stood there for a moment, clearly not knowing how to react. He looked at me quizzically and I realized he probably had been expecting to visit patients a lot younger than me.

"Hey," he replied, dropping the accent and the Peter Parker act immediately. "Y/N, right? That's...that's what it says on the door."

"Yeah, that's me," I chuckled shyly. I suddenly felt very exposed and wished I'd had some notice before meeting my one and only hero. I'm sure I looked a mess. I quickly nibbled on my lips in a last effort to get some color into them for once and realized I wasn't wearing a hat. I gingerly put my fingers up to the smooth curve of my head and swallowed hard. He must think I'm disgusting. "I...I'm sorry," I whispered.

"Hey, hey, hey no...don't be. You're beautiful. I was just...I wasn't expecting someone, you know, your age." Tom blushed. He clearly thought I'd taken him staring as offensive and I instantly felt awful, but his fumbling for words was adorable and it made me smile.

"Yeah, they haven't had the heart to move me to the adult's ward," I chuckled drily.

TOM'S POV:

I stared at Y/N, entirely mesmerized. I was, in fact, surprised she was as old as she was, but the real reason I couldn't take my eyes off her was that she was captivating. She was visibly exhausted, without the faintest trace of energy for anything besides simply existing, but fragments of her personality blossomed behind her colorless smile and dry laughter. 

She was a calm and placid person despite her condition, I could tell. And obviously quite lonely. But, more than anything, she was the most beautiful creature I'd ever laid eyes on. Despite her frail stature and sallow skin, she glowed like she was made of stardust. I smiled when she laughed. "They haven't had the heart to move me to the adult's ward."

"It looks like you've made yourself at home in here anyway," I told Y/N in response, noting the records on the walls and the beaded drapes that framed her window with a view to the parking lot.

"I've got you in a frame over there, you know," she stated quietly with a wan smile. "I'm a massive fan." And maybe it's the indifferent way she pointed it out, but it split my smile into a grin. Any other fangirl I'd met would've seemed guilty, almost frantically secretive about it. But no, here she was, directly telling me I meant something to her. Something enough to put me into a shiny silver frame on her bedside table.

"I'm glad I could spruce things up a bit," I laughed. I wanted to get the conversation away from the ominous white sterility of the hospital, away from what I knew she heard all day every day. She knew why I was here. I wanted to give her a bit of levity. "You like the Beatles?" I asked, nodding at the vinyl on the wall behind Y/N's bed. She turned to look at it with me and nodded.

"Yeah, they're my favorite band."

"I love the Beatles!" I told her.

"Really? I had no idea!" She laughed, and for the first time, there was some color in it. I loved it.

"Yeah! Favorite album?" I took a seat cross-legged at the end of her bed.

"Mmmm, that's like asking a mother to choose her favorite child!" Y/N sighed dramatically, rolling her head back onto her shoulders as she thought. "Probably 'Please Please Me' to be honest. I like their earlier stuff."

"I actually like their later things, personally," I told her. "White Album was my favorite."

"White album?! Wow, I just lost all respect for you," she laughed jokingly. I found myself grinning ear to ear. 

"Well, I have to go finish up with some other kids, but I can't wait to talk to you again," I told Y/N genuinely. 

"Yeah, me too," she responded. I turned around to leave through the door but then:

"Hey!" 

I turned around.

"Thank you," she smiled at me for real and I could tell she meant it.

"Yeah, any time."

TIME SKIP: Brought to you by my need of MORE SPONSORS PRETTY PLEASE ahem. continue.

Three days later, I still couldn't get Y/N off my mind. The image of her smile, of her gorgeous soul, was plastered in my brain. I was deep in thought about her when my phone rang from an unknown number.

"Hello?"

"Hi! Is this Mr. Holland?"

"Yeah, this is he. What can I do for you?" I asked warily.

"This is Dr. Charlotte Briggs from Ridgeview Hospital. I'm calling to let you know Y/N passed last night."

Suddenly the world blurred and I had to lean back on my counter to keep from falling over.

"Oh?" I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.

"Yes. And I'm sure you have far more important things to do than this, but she did tell me she wished to invite you to the service. She didn't have many friends, you know?"

"Y-yeah. I'll definitely come. Thank you for inviting me," I said blandly.

The day of the service was rainy and grey. Appropriate, I supposed. I met Nurse Lottie who was just as upset as I was. She'd thought of Y/N like the daughter she never had. After everyone had gone, I sat with the freshly-upturned dirt of the grave for a moment, talking to her.

"I wish I'd known you more, Y/N. You're an angel." I felt surprisingly numb for having only known her a day.

As I rose to leave, a warm gust of wind came from nowhere and blew the hat from my head. 

I could've sworn I heard a giggle.