kisses and freckles (eddie redmayne oneshots)

Thirteen: I Thought You'd Never Ask

Home was such a nice constant to fall back on after a semester away at university. There was a weird childhood nostalgia that came too, though. The countless chalk drawings that once decorated the driveway out front, the tire swing we had attached to the tree in the backyard until it fell (along with me on it), the time I scraped my knee on that street corner chasing my neighbours around. It was all so familiar and riddled with memories.

My backyard was always my favourite part of my house. We had a small, quaint house with a large stretch of backyard. My mom took good care of the garden, making it lush and green and not unlike a jungle. There were two small paths, one made up of stone leading to a clearing where we had our outdoor patio, and the other a dirt path overgrown from years without use. It lead to an old garage and my grandfather's run down car. I had an old easel set up there.

Now, as I pushed aside branches and tall grass, I realized my secret path had been exposed to the likes of common folk. After a brief period of outrage, I realized that maybe the car-wide path wasn't as inconspicuous as I had once thought. My mother had found it, along with her photography crew, and had set up a photoshoot. I crept quietly, barefoot in the grass, towards the series of people behind a camera which sat on a tripod, surrounded by lighting additions and people with small monitors. The camera faced my grandfather's car, where the model sat perched on the hood. He was the first to notice me. The handsome pout gave way to a small smile as I finally broke eye contact, focusing on my feet and how my toes wriggled in the dirt, swinging my flip flops in my hand.

"Oh! Noelle, I didn't see you come over. What are you doing here?" My mother cut through the gentle hum of the workers and came over to me, signalling for the photographer to stop for the time being.

"I, uh, came to paint." I said quietly, gesturing to the easel that sat behind the car against the shed.

My mother blinked and looked, before turning back to me. "Oh, sorry hun. We're about to take a lunch break, if you want to paint then." She said. I opened my mouth to reply, just as the model came up and grinned politely at my mom.

"Sorry to interrupt- did I hear lunch break?" He asked, his voice a charming British accent. He blinked quickly against the sunlight behind my mother, who smiled at him.

"That's right. Feel free to take the jacket off and hand it to Jeff over there, I know it's getting hot out." She said politely. The model nodded, giving me a glance before making his way to leave. "Oh! Wait, let me introduce you to my daughter." My mom said suddenly, pulling him back over. I mentally face palmed as he grinned at me, lines forming around his big lips. "Eddie, this is my daughter Noelle. She wants to be an actress like you." She grinned. I sighed, running a hand through my brown curls and giving Eddie a polite smile.

"Eddie Redmayne, right?" I asked. He smiled and nodded.

"That would be me." He replied.

"I almost didn't recognize you in men's clothing." I laughed. My mom was called over by one of the other workers, and left Eddie and I to chat. Eddie laughed along with me, and I found his laugh endearing, the way his eyes crinkled with it.

"Well, I've still got a lot of make up on with the photo shoot and all." He said, gesturing to the cameras. I laughed.

"What is it that you're modelling for?" I asked. Eddie did a little twirl, laughing and flaring out his coat.

"Burberry, can't you tell?" he asked, striking a cheesy pose and leaving me in a fit of out of character giggles as I shook my head no. Eddie let out a tsk and shook his head in disbelief, "I can't believe you don't know your designer brands, Noelle. And here I am, talking to a lovely girl with lovely blue eyes and pretty brown hair, thinking maybe she could be a model herself. Evidently not, with that minimal designer knowledge you have." He joked, looking at me earnestly and only cracking a smile once I had a wide one myself. He was flirting with me, the bugger.

"What, can you not tell these flip flops are Prada?" I joked, holding up my worn out Target sandals. Eddie laughed.

"They really are quite lovely." he said. "Would you like to come raid the lunch table with me?" He asked after a pause, jerking his head towards the table with an array of food and holding an arm out for me. I put a hand over my heart and batted my eyelashes jokingly.

"I thought you'd never ask." I said, taking his arm in mine and heading over to the table. He was considerably taller than my small 5′3 stature, and I was oddly comforted by his presence next to me.

"Now, Miss Noelle, would you like an egg salad sandwich, or might I interest you in um, what is this? Ham and cheese?" he started out fancy, before getting stuck on the sandwich with the mystery meat.

"As tempting as that sounds, I've got some pizza in the house. Care to join me?" I asked with a grin. Eddie sighed in relief.

"I thought you'd never ask."

This was requested by a girl on tumblr, hence the inclusion of a name. I reread my old stuff and the author's notes are all like hey I'm actually going to update now!! and then the next update is in like 5 months. lol. Also I got like 1000+ reads within the last 3 days. Life's crazy.