TBS Imagines

Aging (Thomas)💜

"Awwww," I cooed softly. My knees were pulled up to my chest and I was sitting in my chair, my arm resting on my knee, the hand attached to that arm on the mouse. My other arm was between my legs and my chest, wrapped away safely. I scrolled down and clicked on another one. "Woah!" I whispered. Then I giggled. Thomas had to see this. "Tommy! Babe! Come here!"

He came in with a careful look on his face. I was using my giddy voice, when I had something I was overly excited about - which usually included me ranting and screeching and other fan girly things that made him usually laugh at me while trying to hide doing so - or something to tease him about. In this situation, it was somewhere between... but he didn't know that. "Yes?"

"Come look at this!" I had on a pleasant smile that he deemed okay enough to see whatever was on the screen. I don't why he didn't trust me. I wasn't showing him smut, geez.

When he had pulled up a chair next to me, looking at what I was showing him, his trepidation was switched to confusion. Of all the things he was expecting, this seemed to be nowhere near any of them. "Why are you looking at that?" He asked, cocking an eyebrow.

I looked at him like he was an idiot, my arms stretching and my fingers extending as I motioned to the screen. "LOOK HOW CUTE YOU WERE!" I cooed, smiling widely.

He rolled his eyes and went to leave but I grabbed his arm and sat him back down in the chair next to me. "Y/n, I don't want to look at these." They were old photos of him when he was really little, with his messy hair and wide, childish grins. He really was adorable.

I rolled my eyes. So he would have to be persuaded. "There are some on me too. Just look! You look like thirteen there! YOU WERE NINETEEN!" I giggled. "And look! You were actually seventeen years old!" I paused. "Well okay there you actually look seventeen. I'd believe you." My nose scrunched in amusement. "How did you go from seventeen to thirteen?"

He was blushing, taking what I said as more of teasing than adoring. I will admit it was a mix of the two but mostly I was just enamores with how absolutely adorable he was and is and seems to always will be. "Let's look at the ones of you then!" He said defensively.

My excitement fell. "Uh."

He smiled triumphantly. "Yes! Show me!"

I typed in my name slowly and we looked through.b"I was so small!" I gasped. It was so strange to see my tiny, young face out there for so many people in the world to see and have an opinion on. It made me glad I wasn't much aware of other humans at that young age. I wonder how different I'd be if I was...

As I scrolled, it went from Red Carpet and candies and movie shoots to scene snippets- one in particular standing out from one of the first projects I ever did where I played any kind of major role. "You were great in that movie! I loved you there." Thomas' compliment and excitement mimicked my own from earlier and I felt myself blush as he had before. Now I understood why he'd been so defensive. It was one thing to get an opinion from strangers. From him it felt so much more personal and real. It made me feel self conscious, weirdly enough.

Another screen cap caught my eye and I was distracted as I busted up laughing. "Oh my gosh I remember filming that scene! It was horrendous because it was a million digress outside... in my eight year old mind." I was always known for being a tad... enthusiastic and insistent, we'll say. Remembering it all, I laughed hard.

Yet another scene snippet caught our attention as Thomas leaned forward, legs crossed Indian style in his chair. It was just older than the tiny ones from before. He was in it too. "That was-" Thomas stopped, looking at me with a soft smile as his hand dropped. He leaned over, looping his arm around my waist. "That was our first kiss."

Suddenly overly aware of him in every way, I blushed. "We were, what, twelve?"

"You thought I was seven," he mused

"You thought I was fifteen," I shot back.

He laughed fondly at the memory of our awkward batting around each other, me thinking he was far too young and him not sure if a girl three years older could be interested in him. Even then we had a crush on each other, even though it would take us many years to actually get together- and then a whole break up and a year and a half on top of that for it to stick. "Good thing it worked out," he mused softly. His smile suddenly wavered. "I don't know what I would have done if it hadn't."

A strange feeling hit me. The idea of it made my stomach turn in displeasure, but at his words, my heart warmed and so did my cheeks. I blushed. "Oh," I whispered.

He kissed my cheek. "What was that one?" He asked, moving on from the topic neither of us knew how to feel about.

"That one..." I crinkled my eyebrows, pain in my chest. "I forgot about that."

His smile vanished, worry taking its place. Maybe guilt too. "What's the matter, Love?"

I reached out, taking his hand. Maybe to remind myself of where and who I was now. Maybe to comfort him- not just from the guilt he felt but also for what I was about to say. "That one is my first love. Nick and I were together for a while after our movie together. We were kids. I was sixteen, he was seventeen. We met through a play. "The Sound of Music." We'd done that scene where he sang to me, because it was character's roles..." I started to sing softly, my eyebrows pulled together. "You are sixteen, going on seventeen, baby it's time to think." I stopped, shrugging. "Our characters didn't end up together either. It should have been a sign really." Thomas moves close, nudging my jaw with his nose to comfort me. It worked. I smiled a little, relaxing. "You need someone older and wiser, telling you what to do. I am 17 going on 18- I'll take car of you," I skipped to the end. I looked at my hands, my jaw working. "He was king of an asshole."

Thomas' voice was soft. Even more guilty. Comforting. Loving. Soothing. "I'm sorry, Love."

I shook my head. "No. This- this is stupid. I was 16," I said, laughing through my sudden but extreme discomfort. "I'm sorry."

He held me close. "No, don't be sorry. It's okay. I know that he betrayed you... I know what hurt is. People can be terrible and no matter how long it's been, some things leave deep marks on your memories." He scowled.

I laughed. He gave me the oddest look and I waved my hand through the air, trying to dismiss the bad feelings. Wipe them away as if they were insects buzzing around our heads. "It's not funny. Just... When did this go from 'we were adorable kids' to 'my love life sucks'," I asked, rolling my eyes.

Realizing my point, he chuckled. "Yeah. Well, it did, but then I met you.

He leaned closer and I hummed. "We're a mess," I joked.

He tilted his head, agreeing, still getting closer. Our noses touched. "A hot mess," Thomas added softly, smiling warmly.

I nodded. "A very hot mess." He kissed me and everything else wiped away. Maybe stumbling across Thomas' old photos had been a good thing. As much a good thing as stumbling across him the first time. It seemed everything with him turned out good in the end, despite the unpleasant middle bits. If that was the case, I could keep being here for those good parts. They were so worth it.