Webs of the Heart

chapter twelve

Tom POV

A few months later, when I had finished filming and Crystal was filming Thor Ragnarok, I was in a foreign country doing the press tour. Harry and Harrison had come along, and they were in my hotel room with me at the moment.

I was lying on my bed as Harrison and Harry discussed something and I was going through Instagram, when I saw a new picture Crystal had posted. It was a picture of her in her character, Maighstir's costume, standing face to face with Tom Hiddleston who was in his Loki costume, emphasizing their large height difference. Crystal was tilting her head back to look at him, her arms were crossed, and her caption read:

"I may be shorter by a lot, but I can also beat you in a fight by a lot."

I laughed at the caption and showed the boys, before texting Chris Hemsworth.

Me: hey, do you have any pictures or anything of you, tom and crystal? I want to see the height difference.

I didn't expect an answer very soon, but Chris replied within fifteen minutes.

Chris: for sure mate. She's a good one, you treat her right. Although she's already pinned me and Tom down embarrassingly fast already.

Me: how did that happen?! 😂

Chris: the director wanted to see if she could actually beat us in a fight, and she told him she could so we tried to beat her, but she is powerful!

Chris sent a picture.

I looked at the picture closely, and it was a picture of Crystal with one knee on Chris's back, holding his arms against his back, looking very small but her face surprisingly calm and concentrated, her hair on Chris's massive back. I laughed at it, then he sent me one of a similar situation with Tom, only this time Crystal was clearly laughing.

Me: that's amazing. 😂 I need to see that in person.

Chris: Tom said he'll send you the pictures one of the crew members took of us three together. Crystal is so tiny it's adorable.

Me: oh don't let her hear you say that mate.

Chris: I think she's gotten used to it from literally everyone saying it on set.

I looked at more pictures that Chris and Tom sent me, of Crystal messing around on set with the crew members, a video of her singing True Colors by Zedd on a hill while they were on location, and a few of her holding or playing with Chris's kids.

Chris told me that a few days where his kids had been on set, the three kids had hurt themselves on the props but Chris had been unable to help them, so Crystal had taken care of them and soon had them dancing with her. She had also been able to get the three asleep when neither Elsa or Chris had been able to, and they had begun to see her as an awesome older sister.

Me: it sounds like you and Tom are already becoming like older brothers to her.

Chris: yeah I guess so. I'm nervous about the press tour, she doesn't get exposed to that sort of thing with singing.

Me: you guys will make sure she's ok, won't you?

Chris: try and stop us.

**********

Crystal POV

Days went by very quickly on the set of Ragnarok, and I got very close to Tom Hiddleston and Chris, who were definitely the older brothers I never had.

One night I was working late, and Chris was going out with Tom Hiddleston to a play, so Tristan, India and Sasha were waiting off camera for me to finish. I finished soon, and the costume people had left early so I kept my costume on, India climbing on my back while Tristan and Sasha took my hands, going with me out the door, on the way to my hotel. But there were a lot of paparazzi outside, and they started taking tons of pictures with their bright flashes. Tristan and Sasha cowered back, but I knelt down, telling them something that made them happier.

"These guys are just loud picture takers, ok? All they want you to do is pose, don't listen to any questions though. Now, come on this'll be fun. Strike a pose!" I exclaimed cheerfully, taking the two boys' hands and putting on flair as I pretended to strut down the sidewalk. The boys started giggling and copied me, throwing their heads back haughtily. They started jumping forward and posing like their dad did when he was being Thor, and India on my back decided to start carefully pulling my hair up in the air and making me laugh.

The three kids turned the pap attack into a hilarious photoshoot, then we got to my hotel and we went up to my room.

In case you're wondering, I'll describe my costume. It was fitted leather pants going down to my ankles, a fitted tunic with a loose, slightly ripped up skirt going to my knees, over a white long sleeved cotton shirt, gauntlets covering my forearms and mesh gloves under my sleeves and gauntlets going over my knuckles. The leather pants were black, the tunic was dark green, the gauntlets were black with green details, the mesh gloves were green, and my hair had black and green strips of cloth woven into braids. My hair also had small dreadlocks in it, hidden by the curls somehow fighting against the heaviness of my extremely long hair. I had black leather boots that went up to my knee, which had green details and laces that went all the way up to the top of the boot. I had protested against using blue or red themes in the outfit, despite my character having control over all water and then later getting fire powers, because my character liked green and black and didn't go with the rules.  Maighstir also didn't wear any make up, and she had scars on her arm from where she had been operated to make her get fire powers.

I read a story to the kids then sang some lullabies to them to help them sleep, and when they fell asleep, I started writing in my song book. I had been writing for about an hour when I got a text from Tom:

Tom: go on the balcony for your room, the moon is out.

Me: ok

I put down my book and went outside onto the balcony, looking at the full moon in admiration.

"The galactic beauty of the skies can never compare to the beauty of the woman you love, and the beauty of a thousand words woven in rhythm and deepest meaning."

I turned quickly and saw Tom, leaning against the railing of the balcony.

"Tom!" I exclaimed, and he laughed, wrapping me in a tight hug. I buried my face in his shoulder, as was my habit, and he rested his chin on top of my head, making me feel completely safe and secure.

"How did you get here?" I asked, stepping back but keeping my hands entwined with his.

"We were coming here to film Lip Sync Battle, and I found out that you were here, so I came over." He explained.

"But how did you get up to the balcony?" I asked.

"I climbed up. There's a very