ME! ➵ t. holland || ✔️

043. LANDLINE

ｒｅａｌ ｌｉｆｅ :

When Nikki Holland entered the bedroom early in the morning, she was slightly stunned by the sight of the two. Of course she expected them to sleep close to one another, they were dating after all. No, the thing that stunned her was how the two boys were sat up in the bed, Elijah's head leaning onto Tom's shoulder, who in return leaned his head on the American's, Tom's earphone loosely hanging in his lap while Elijah's was still placed in his ear.

The auburn-haired woman stepped closer, taking in the sight of the two, now slowly making out the soft guitar sounds that grew audible.

She made her way to the other side of the bed, sitting on the side of it and slowly rubbed Tom's arm, trying to wake him up.

"Honey, it's time for you to wake up. You two have a plane to catch."

A soft sigh escaped the Brit's lips, interrupting his previously rhythmic breathing, before slowly lifting his head and turning to his mother.

"What time is it?"

"Seven."

Tom's eyes widened, sitting up straight, but doing it careful enough to not disturb Elijah's sleep, "What? We're gonna be late."

Nikki quickly shushed him, a reassuring smile spreading across her features, "I'll bring you two to the airport. I heard you two talking last night and figured you could use the extra hour of sleep."

The brunet sighed, "Thanks, mum."

"Is everything alright between you two?"

Tom let out another sigh, looking to his right to check on the boy in question, who was still soundly asleep, "I told you what happened to him, right?"

The auburn-haired woman nodded, a sympathetic look overtaking her previous smile.

"He's having a tough time with it, mum. Apparently us being together is bringing back memories, but he won't talk about it."

Nikki shot the sleeping boy an observing look, pursing her lip slightly, "Honey, when things like that happen to people, it changes them. He might not want to talk about it right now. But I promise you, he will tell you when he's ready."

A half-smile appeared on Tom's face at the soothing words, "Thanks, mum."

"Don't you worry about it. Now, it's time for you two to get up, we're riding in fifteen minutes."

The brunet nodded, watching Nikki walk out of the room after taking a full laundry basket that was placed in the corner of the room with her.

The moment she closed the door behind her, Tom averted his sight to his right, eyeing the sleeping brunet.

"Hey, El." He whispered softly, running his hand through his long curls lightly.

It took a moment before a deep, but slow exhale interrupted his slow breaths and he stirred awake, lifting his head from the Brit's shoulders.

"What's going on?" He asked sleepily, rubbing his eyes slowly.

"We have to get up, we're going to your family." Tom chuckled slowly at the unawareness of the brunet, "We have around ten minutes."

"Oh, okay."

The two slipped out of bed and threw on comfortable clothing, before putting their last items in their suitcases and walking downstairs.

Not a single word was spoken between the two while they packed. There wasn't really an underlying reason for that, even if Tom suspected so. Elijah simply didn't feel like talking, mostly because of how sleep deprived he was. Nightmares seemed to have become a normal thing during the past few months. The bags under his told most of the story, even Levi had noticed it.