Falling - Tom Holland imagine

Chapter 9

Time passed and I began to feel less reticent about imposing myself on the Holland family, as they never once indicated that my presence was a burden and I had a standing invitation to pop round whenever I wanted to; we even had a group chat, with everyone on it, even if it was mostly used by the younger brothers, like before, with Paddy mostly using it to tell me about his relationship, such as it as, with Sophie and asking for advice, including about when to kiss her and how to do it, which had made me laugh. I had started to feel that I was part of the family that made my heart sing and a warmth and sense of belonging grew inside me, helping even more to push back the years of darkness inside me.

I visited often, several times a week in fact to catch up, drink tea, have dinner, help stuff envelopes for the charity they'd set up and even help organise the twins birthday tea, for which, on request I'd baked not just my cheese scones which always went down a treat but also a two flavour birthday cake, half being red velvet for Harry and the other being cookies and cream for Sam, neatly iced to hide the joins. It was nice to be so welcome, no matter who was home, almost always either Nikki or Dom and the younger boys rotating in or out, and of course Tom who was the most elusive, but being conscious that his work took him to places I could only dream of, and the fact he had his own house a few streets away. But still everytime I walked through the door I had a small lift in my heart at the hope that he'd be there. It was just a silly little crush I'd tell myself, trying to get through the disappointment that shot through me everytime he was absent. I thought back often to our previous few encounters and came to the conclusion that he must just see me as another sibling, one to joke around with and tease so I carefully put away my feelings and tried to swallow down the hope of more, recalling the damage that love had done to me and acknowledging that I'd had my chances and blown it, Love was for other people, and I should be grateful for the friendship I had instead.

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Tom tried to come round more often to his parents, but the filming schedule hadn't been kind for the start of the year, but soon he would be luckier as the final month was set  to use the stages at Elstree not too far outside London, meaning he could live in his own home and travel in most days. He tended to lurk in the group chat, just to keep an eye on things he told himself, a way of being connected but even he couldn't ignore the tiny surge of joy everytime Y/N posted something - even just the terrible jokes she'd found in an attempt to out dadjoke Dom, and he was looking forward to having a chance to try and unravel the mystery that was Y/N, as he knew only the barest amount about her and he was intrigued.

So he found himself popping round his parents more often whenever he could, to the point where Dom starting joking about charging him rent with cheeky grin which was almost always met with a dirty look in return. It was on one of these many occasions that he was round, in early February, filming having paused for a set rebuild, slumped on the sofa with an ever present half drunk mug of tea in his hand discussing the next events for The Brothers Trust and what he could offer as a potential prize for the winners of a raffle. Whilst chatting he kept on checking the time to see how much longer it would be till Y/N arrived, and as it crept past her expected arrival time he grew more and more antsy about it, fidgeting and losing his place in the random conversations that flowed through the Holland house. It finally got to almost 75 minutes late and he wondered if it would be silly  to pop up to the local shops and see if he could see her anywhere, when she piled in through the door, having been let in by Dom which had gone unnoticed by Tom deep in his own head. He looked up, smiling in relief when he noticed her eyes were slightly swollen and red rimmed which immediately led to a burst of concern and a twinge of protectiveness.

Where had that come from he thought to himself. Dismissing as the same sort of reaction he'd have for other friends when they were having a hard time. He shuffled himself upright making space for Y/N to sit down next to him, but she'd just come in to apologise for the delay and grabbing a mug of tea before heading upstairs, where she went into Paddy's room? Tom knew each and every creak of the house he'd grown up in and he was certain that's where she was. After about 20 minutes, she'd not come back down so he decided to satisfy his curiosity and wandered upstairs, ostensibly to see if one of his shirts had been left there from a few weeks ago.