All Roses Must Wilt (a Tom Hiddleston fanfic)

Chapter 2- A Cuppa Tea

I prepare a cup of tea for Tom in his kitchen, deciding to not have any myself. I open the cupboard and there's a whole box of Earl Grey tea bags. Not surprised. That's pretty much all he drinks nowadays. I pour the hot water into a tea cup and dip the bag in, adding some milk and sugar to it as well. Then I carry it back to his room.

When I reach his room, he is no longer sleeping under the sheets, but sitting on the edge, stretching. He smiles when I hand him his tea. "Ah, thank you, love," he takes a sip of the liquid. "Just how I like it, too."

I roll my eyes lightly. "Well it's not the first time I've had to make your tea for you."

He chuckles. "Yes, sorry about that."

"Oh, it's fine. Making tea is one of the few things I'm actually good at," I say, letting out a laugh. Tom opens his mouth to object, but I continue talking instead. "So I'm meeting with Kate today." I knew that if I didn't change the subject, Tom would go on about how I'm "great at many things," and how I'm "special and unique in my own way." But I didn't really see how I was great in any way.

Tom decides to ignore the fact that I changed the subject. "Tell her I said hi, for me? I haven't seen her in a while."

"Well since you're not going to the states after all, maybe you can get together with us," I suggest.

"Rose, I-"

"I know, I know," I mutter. "You're a busy person."

"Well I was going to say it more nicely than that, but precisely." He sips at his tea.

I smile lightly. "Yeah. I figured. So just keep in touch, alright? Maybe we can see each other before Summer."

"Why, what happens in Summer?" He asks.

I sigh. "Really, Tom?"

He looks down. "I honestly don't remember anything about Summer, sorry."

"Oh. Well maybe I never told you. It's quite possible." In fact, the more I thought about it, I soon realized that I hadn't told Tom. I hadn't told him I was moving back to the states for a bit to visit my old friend from school who lived there. She moved there two years ago, and we haven't visited since. I was planning on staying with her for almost six months. I hadn't told Tom because I thought he'd be a little upset that I was leaving. So I just kept putting it off. And now, since it's February, there were only four months until Summer came.

"Well you may as well tell me now," Tom suggests.

I glance at him, and soon realize I don't want to tell him yet. Tom may seem like almost nothing can bother him, but I think he'd get rather upset about this. And I don't want to ruin his good mood. "Ah, I'll have to tell you later, I have to meet up with Kate soon." I pick up his now-empty tea cup and turn to go down to the kitchen to wash it and put it away. I swear, sometimes I act like this boy's maid.

"Rose, why not now? It won't take you long to tell me, will it? And I'll even give you a ride to Kate's so you won't be late."

"Can't, sorry," I apologize before leaving his room.

"I'll text you!" He shouts.

I gently wash his cup and saucer before putting them on the drainer to dry. Then I pick up my purse I left at the door and leave.

Well that was nice. It's the first time we've hung out in quite a while. And I only stayed for five minutes. But that's been the average time I've been able to spend with him recently. He's always so busy, which, I guess this is kind of rude of me to say, but I miss the times when I could just call him up one day and we could meet up. When we could go out in public and not worry about disguises, fangirls, or reporters. The days when Tom was just a small actor. So, mostly just before Thor. Tom's fanbase really rocketed after he was the Asgardian Prince, Loki, in Thor. And so after that, Emma and I drifted further and further away from him.

But I shouldn't blame him. He's doing what he loves. Acting. And that's what I'll let him do. I'll just drop the hint every once in a while that it's okay for him to take a break.

I decide to get another taxi to Kate's house, which is maybe a five minute drive to a station, which would bring me to another station only a few minutes away from her house.

My phone buzzes just as I step into a cab, and I pull out my phone.

Be safe on the streets, and tell me when you get there:) -T

I roll my eyes and shove my phone back into my pocket, telling the driver where I'd like to go.

It's actually quite a typical thing of Tom to do. He always seems to text at the most odd times. Which, Is all the time. I guess you would think that someone as busy as him could text as often as he does, but he somehow manages to do it.

I glance at the window at Tom's apartment one more time before we're out of sight.