A Marvellous Christmas | mcu actors

December 21ˢᵗ

The day before she took the plane again, Jo felt like a truck was going to run her over. Her entire body was sore; the results of her latest gym sessions with a friend now that they had promised themselves that they were going to live their lives way more healthily. She was tired by her week of finals and she had spent her evenings packing her suitcase and/or going back over her notes for the future exams that she still had to take. After the filming of Spider-Man: Homecoming, Jo had kept contact with Tom's castmates, particularly Zendaya and Jacob. When the young woman came for a few days in London, she spent some time with Jo and they went to tea dates between two classes for Jo. They talked about Tom, of course, because the actress had sensed that something unclear was going on between the two of her friends. Jo didn't last long denying what was going on, before Zendaya cocked her head and raised an eyebrow, silently calling her on her bullshit. Jo ended up by sheepishly confirming that indeed, she may have had feelings for Tom for a few years. After that, Zendaya had declared herself "captain of this ship" and was trying her best to be Jo's best wing-woman.

Jo had ten minutes to finish her essay and she couldn't focus on it any more. Her mind was thousands of miles away, in Los Angeles, where Tom was waiting for her and where he'd been promoting his movie for the past two weeks. They had barely seen each other since she came back from the shooting. Tom had been filming, promoting, auditioning and whenever he'd be in London, she'd be busy with her classes. Sometimes, he came to her college's buildings to pick her up after a class or for lunch. He'd generally wait in his car but some days, when it'd be a surprise, he'd ask several secretaries for her schedule and the number and location of her classroom so he'd be here waiting for her when she'd exit the room. Several times, she'd found him sitting in the halls waiting for her and several times, her heart stopped a little, seeing him nose deep into his phone patiently waiting. He was there for her, there was no other reason why he'd be here and every time, she felt a little bit smug to know that he cared enough to endure the waiting, for her. He'd generally take her to a pub to eat some fish'n'chips or they'd go to McDonald's and pretend they weren't eating fast food. Once, he took her to a real damn restaurant and she was so confused that she barely talked the whole lunch through. Tom decided that he wouldn't do that again, because it wasn't for them. They were used to eat on the couch and put food everywhere. They were used to laugh at each other because some crumb had been caught in Jo's hair or because Tom had ketchup on his face. They weren't meant for high gastronomy, apparently. After that, Tom would drive her back to college, kiss her forehead and repeat the same thing over and over: "Study well, be good" and Jo would answer "Only my best for you, Tom" to which they'd giggle over. It was their way of being sweet to each other but not really acknowledging it. And though those visits were happening a lot, like once a week, they barely lasted over an hour, leaving them with the worst feeling of not having had enough of each other. Tom hated that feeling. Like Jo would charge in him some kind of battery and their weekly encounters would only charge him to 30% before he'd be in critical condition again. Sometimes, he found himself looking for her, to his right, like she always used to be, except that she wasn't and every time, he felt that weird tug in his chest, like somebody or something was drawing onto a string that was linked to something inside of him. Tom was so lost that he didn't really acknowledge the fact that his movie was soon to be released, nor that Harrison was hinting so hard to his feelings towards Jo that he'd run out of ideas to make him talk about it.

When he took the plane back to L.A., Jo was in class and they hadn't seen each other for the past two or three weeks. They wouldn't see each other for another two weeks before she'd be able to finally join him in Hollywood and he wasn't sure he was ready for that. Five weeks might have been the longest they'd ever gone without seeing each other and with Jo passing exams after exams, she was too busy to even text him. The only times he'd actually get an answer was when she'd go to bed after cramming like an idiot and wouldn't have passed out already on her notes. She would only answer though and she wouldn't send the first text but that was fine with him. He knew how much work it took for her to study, he'd seen it with his own eyes and so it wasn't that much of a big deal to him.