A Fighting Chance (Tom Holland AU) [2]

Twelve

As the summer came to an end, I felt so bad for Beth. I knew that she flew to California to spend time with all of us, but with my busy rehearsal schedule, I often just came home and went to sleep. The only time we had really gotten together was the day I took her to set. So, on a day when rehearsal ended early, I told her that we could get whatever she wanted for dinner together. She was getting ready to fly back for school.

As I walked in, I saw Beth grinning on the couch. "I know what I wanna do for dinner tonight."

"That's awesome, babe. Let me get out of these sweaty clothes and hop in the shower quickly, and then we'll head out." She nodded with a smile as I blew her a kiss and made my way to the room Tom and I were using.

As I walked out of the room, I smiled when I saw her. "So, where are we going?"

"The backyard." I raised an eyebrow at that, and she smiled. "Come on!"

As we walked outside, I smiled widely. I could see everyone else at the patio table, which was wrapped in a thick brown paper. As soon as I saw the table, I knew exactly what we were doing. "Beth, you hate seafood." I chuckled, and she shrugged.

"Yeah, but you love it. Plus, if you completely douse it in melted butter it masks the taste." I chuckled, pulling her into a hug. She hugged me back tightly before letting go and walking with me to the table. "We all know how hard you've worked over the summer, and we wanted to give you something to show you that we love you, even on days where you're too tired to love yourself. Plus, we all know how much you miss Maryland."

"Thank you, guys. All of you." I grinned as we all sat down. Ali opened up a big paper bag and dumped a bushel of steamed crabs on the table.

"I still don't get why they're called blue crabs. They're red." I laughed at Tom's statement before smiling at Ali.

"How hard was it to find Maryland blue crabs in California, babe?"

"It's actually really easy when you order them online." I laughed at that. It actually meant a lot that she would get the supplies for one of my favorite summer events.

"Why are they called blue crabs?!" I smiled, kissing his cheek.

"Because they're naturally blue, baby. When you steam them, the chemicals in their shells react with the heat from the steam and they turn red as a result." His eyes widened with the new information, and I chuckled at that.

"Oh." Soon, everyone else began picking crabs (with Steph and Harrison getting help from everyone else), and Tom looked up at me. "Do you know how we eat these?"

"Tom, I could pick my own crab by my seventh birthday. Yes, I know how to eat them." I chuckled as I grabbed two of the crabs, giving him one. "Break off all the legs and claws."

"What?"

"Break them off. Like this." Tom was confused, but he did just as I showed him. "Now flip it so you're looking at the underside."

"Okay..." 

"Do you see the line down the middle?" He nodded, and I grinned. "It's called the apron. Lift it and break it off."

"Won't that hurt the crab?" That caused a laugh from Beth (who also grew up in Maryland and knew how to pick crabs, even if she didn't really eat them) Ali (who had this exact same lesson from me back in our freshman year), and everyone else. I looked at him for a minute, and he raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Tom, the crab is dead." His cheeks turned a bright red, and I smiled as I kissed his cheek. "You're not going to hurt a dead crab. I promise. Break it off just like this." I quickly and cleanly broke the apron off of my crab. He slowly repeated my action, and I smiled.

"Okay, now what?"

"Break the back shell off, just like this." We kept going like this, me using the crab I was picking as a demonstration for Tom. Once we finished our first one, he was all but eager to pick another one.

"So what do I do after--what the fuck Grace?" Tom looked at me. While he had just snapped the back shell off, I had already completely picked my second crab.

"I used to time myself when I did this. I think my record is like forty-five seconds." I smiled, and he chuckled.

"You really do have an interesting skill set." He chuckled, and I shrugged softly.

"If I ever need it for a role, they're going to be so happy they didn't have to teach me."

After we finished our crab feast and we cleaned everything up, it was way later at night. Tom and I went and laid down in the guest bed we were sharing, but we decided to switch the way we were cuddling so that he was laying on top of me. "This is nice. We should do this more often."

"Yeah, I really like this. Your boobs are nice and soft, like a pillow." I chuckled, rolling my eyes at that.

"You loser." I teased, and he chuckled.

"Oh, come on. You know you love me, baby."

"Do I?" He gave me a playfully shocked expression, and I chuckled.

"Oh, you think it's funny? Is this funny?" He turned around so our chests were touching, and he began tickling my sides. He knew tickling was one of my weaknesses.

"Tom, stop it!" I exclaimed between laughs, and soon we were both laughing as he tickled me. "Come on, stop!"

"Make me!" He chuckled, and I looked up at him. I did the only thing I could think of to get him to stop.

As I pressed my lips to his, his fingers stopped moving. He kissed me back as his hands rested on my waist. Our lips moved together in sync, and soon there was nothing separating our bare chests from each other.

Damn, the two of us had really gotten good at fucking, if I do say so myself.

;-) What do you guys think?