The Lost Princess (A Tom Hiddleston Fanfiction) Wattpad Featured

And Then

THE morning air was cool – not cold – central heating saw to that - but cool enough to make you want to snuggle up with your lover under the duvet and forget the January world.

Unless the person in bed next to you was your accidental lover and you needed to get away.

Her head hurt, parties were bad ideas, parties with your ex-boyfriend were even worse.

And now she was here with him with no way out.

Well, that wasn't true.

She always had a way out.

She slipped quietly out of bed and collected her clothes. They were spread around the flat but he was a heavy sleeper – she knew that of old.

Eventually all her clothes back on her body in the order they had been removed (she tried not to blush thinking about how and by whom} – this was a bad idea. She knew it. Hopefully he knew it too.

It couldn't happen again. It had happened twice already since their break up.

That was enough.

She stepped out of his flat quietly in the rumpled unsettled way of an alcoholic who had spent the night with a bottle of his favourite liquor and now woken up full of remorse.

He was a fine bottle of scotch and she'd slipped off the wagon – again!

And now she was off to her equivalent of AA as she padded down the hallway and knocked quietly on the door.

She hoped it was loud enough.

She couldn't cope with louder.

"Coming," came a soft voice from the other side.

The door opened and her best friend shook her head and handed her a fresh coffee. She didn't say anything. The smell of fresh apple muffins spread through the house – apple was Em's favourite variety. She shook her head in shame. Tory had been expecting her. Tory had guessed everything. Tory knew this would happen. Em wondered when she'd got so predictable.

"I wondered when you'd be turning up," Tory said quietly as if reading her thoughts. But there was no judgement or comment and if there was a disapproving look, and there should be, Em didn't see it.

Tory had more reason than most to find Hiddleston behaviour frustrating. Tom was mucking her around - again. And maybe Em was doing the same to Harry. Though Tory knew neither was deliberate. She saw both as a bi-product of being who she was, who Harry was.

Instead of admonishing her friend though, Tory was prepared. She'd known about the party. Been invited. She didn't go, preferring her own company, wallowing a little in self pity.

Tom was in Europe, filming of course, and Tory had been pulling big long shifts at the hospital – something she did at this time of year to allow doctors with families to take breaks. But now it was as much for herself – keeping busy, not thinking about her boyfriend not wanting to think about his lack of commitment.

One day someone would do it for her. Well that was her thought. But a family, a life away her job and her family commitments, currently felt tantalisingly close and yet totally out of reach thanks to the indecisive nature of her boyfriend and his fear of the monolith they could become in the press. His fear of the "firm" the marketing empire that was "the Royal Family" and being swallowed by it.

So even though she didn't really approve the circumstances, Tory welcomed the intrusion. Not that a visit from your best friend was really ever an intrusion.