Make This Go On Forever

Chapter Three

A/N: Christmas with Tom and Nina. I am beyond sorry, I don't even have an excuse. I hope you still want to read this, and I hope you're still with me even after all these months. Also: here, at least have some smut in the end.

•••••••••••••

With a groan Nina throws first her bag and then herself on the living-room couch.

“Why?” she moans into the pillow. “What were we thinking, Tom?” She only stops for a moment to slap Tom's thigh as he comes to stand next to her. “Stop laughing at me. You should have stopped me when I told you about the plan.”

It sounded so lovely when they talked about it. Hosting Christmas this year. Tom has a lovely new and bigger home in the country, with lots of space (which cost lots of money). Before he never used to invite his family over for Christmas, simply because it was a nightmare to even fit everyone at the table.

But this year, before 2019 will bring one of the busiest years for the couple, they’ve decided to go all out.

Which means that now, one day before Christmas eve, Tom and Nina got up at 4 a.m., drove south to Tom’s place, went out to go shopping for groceries – and one or two Christmas presents on Tom's part, because Christmas always comes around all of the sudden with no time to do the shopping – and now are back shortly before noon.

But as hosts your day doesn’t stop there. They’ll have to clean up and tidy all the guest rooms along with the bathrooms, and they’ll have to prepare some of the food for Christmas eve.

Their families will arrive the next day, then spend the evening and the entire Christmas day with Tom and Nina, before they’ll leave on boxing day. The hosts will stay until new year's day. If they're still amongst the living then.

Tom’s still chuckling at her, which only means he doesn’t get the situation and the stressful days ahead of them, or he’s finally gone mad. Both options aren’t the best for a good Christmas, but it might be funny for their families.

“It’ll all be fine,” he says from next to the couch and actually sounds like he means it. Well, Tom is an actor after all.

“It won’t be,” Nina mumbles into the pillow under her face. “We'll be stressed out, my mum will wonder if we have enough food for everyone, Dad is going to go for the vodka, your mum will join my mum with being ‘helpful’ in the kitchen, and the two children will hurt their heads.”

“Jesus.” He’s full on laughing now. “What’s going on at your house at Christmas?”

“Nothing like that, because my mum knows how to host a Christmas family feast.”

“We do too. We’re adults. How hard can it be?”

“Did you listen to anything I’ve just said?”

•••
It turns out, hosting Christmas isn’t as bad as Nina's made it seem. It’s not as easy as Tom’s hoped either.

Nina's parents, Irina and Alexander, arrived first, making their way over from Reading in the morning. James and Diana, Tom’s divorced parents, arrived with Tom's sister Emma, her husband Jack and their daughter Lilly, Nina's brother David together with his girlfriend Chloe shortly after that, and in the afternoon Tom’s older sister Sarah made it to the house with her husband Yakov and their daughter Sophie in tow.

As of now, it seems completely impossible for Nina to get them all fed and not on the verge of dehydration for the entire holidays. But they’re mostly adults. They can at least make themselves sandwiches if all goes south, right? Right.

At least they have enough rooms, with the two little cousins desperately wanting to share a bed. Nina’s just happy they won’t invade her and Tom’s bedroom. She doesn’t even have it in herself to feel bad about it. She can see the same relief on Tom’s face.

Currently, Nina's also extremely tired. She’s been up since 6 o'clock this morning – again – to continue preparing the house for the invasion and to go shopping for the fresh food they’ll need for the Christmas dinner they’re going to have tomorrow.

But she can’t go to bed. Not yet. Not when even the little girls are awake, too excited for Santa’s visit during the night.

“Ninaaaa?” Sophie gets up from Tom's lap to make the three steps it takes to come to stand before her aunt – not officially of course, but it already feels like it. “Nina, can we stay up all night and wait for Santa?”

She makes an effort to stop herself from cringing. She even ignores Tom’s snickering right next to her. Or the smirks on the other adults’ faces. Yeah, yeah, she knows. It’s funny because she’s tired and the children are not.

“Oh Sophie,” she sighs dramatically and pulls the child onto her own lap. “Oh, little one. I don’t think Santa is going to come if you’re not asleep. Or if I’m not asleep.”

“Pf,” is Tom's rather unhelpful response. He’s also still snickering. Something that earns him a glare from Nina.

Sophie pouts. “Okay.” Her chin is resting on her little fist now. “Uncle Tom?”

“Ha!” It’s Nina's turn to laugh now. “Yes, that’s a great idea, little one. You can stay up with your lovely uncle.”

Which, to be quite honest, is not a good idea. He’s been into the wine. Not drunk, but a little too tipsy to take care of his niece and stay up with her all night. And hopefully not too tipsy to ignore the prep work the next morning. She needs him. If only for the potatoes.

“Oh. No, no, no. I’m sure Santa only comes when you’re tugged in bed. With Lilly. Right? Sarah? Emma?”

His sisters giggle, but nod. “Yeah,” Emma agrees, “we did try it, when we were your age.” She shakes her head, a dramatic display that tells Nina exactly what she needs to know about the acting talents running through the entire Hiddleston family. “We didn’t catch him. And he almost didn’t come.”

Gasps from the little girls make the adults hide various stages of laughter, Tom surprisingly being the worst. It’s the wine, Nina suspects.

“Sooooo.” Sophie turns on Nina's lap again, facing her. She takes the woman's face in her little hands, squishing her cheeks. “We need to go to bed now.” She turns to her smaller cousin who’s currently sitting on her father’s legs, looking like she doesn’t think staying up and waiting for Santa is a good idea anyway. She’s still awake, though. “Lilly, we need to sleep.”

It prompts another round of laughter with Tom’s giggles lasting the longest, his head dropping into his hands. Oi. Nina suspects he needs about ten more minutes, before he’s ready to go to bed himself.

“Okay, okay, little rascals,” Sarah calls, “get ready then, I’ll take you to your room.” The little girls beam and with kisses to each of the adults they leave with Sarah.

Nina looks at Tom, sitting in his chair with a grin on his face. He looks back at her. “What?” he whispers.

She shrugs. “I don’t know. Just thought you should maybe go to bed too. I need you up early and bright tomorrow to peel the potatoes.” She says it with a smirk, but she means it. She won’t have the dinner ruined by a boyfriend with a hangover.

“Come on, now,” Tom chuckles. The others don't, they do look mighty entertained, though. It’s not like they’ve never seen anyone a tad tipsy before. It’s not like they’ve never been tipsy themselves. “I’ll be fine.”

Nina raises her brow. “Tom.”

The next chuckle turns out to be a bit harsher. “Really?” He looks at the others. Their siblings, their parents. Nods all around, only Tom shaking his head in response. Then a huff. “Okay. Fine. Make sure to clean up your stuff in my house, yeah? Since you already know what’s best here.”

“Tom...”

But he interrupts Diana, before she can say anything further – or be backed up by any of the others. “No, it’s fine, Mum. I need to go to bed. Can’t have the potatoes peel themselves tomorrow.”

The dramatic leaving is disturbed by the tiniest sway of his in the doorway. Then he’s gone.

Nina looks at all of them. The sympathetic eyes of her parents, her brother and Emma looking down at the carpet, their partners looking at each other, Diana and James shaking their heads at their son.

“I’m sorry. He... I think he’s a bit stressed.” They stare. “No, not because you’re here. It’s... It’s Loki and Betrayal and shootings and rehearsals. And me going to be busy as well. He’s not used to that anymore. He... He should relax. But not like this. I... I’m sorry.”

“You’ve got nothing to be sorry for, dear,” Diana reassures her. “And we’ll have a wonderful, relaxing day tomorrow. Nothing needs to be perfect, and the two of you won't have to do everything by yourselves. We’re family. We’re going to have fun.”

•••
And fun they’ve had all of Christmas day, Nina reminisces in bed at night. Tom not so much in the morning, that was plain to see on his face and in the way he held himself. But he obviously knew better than to complain while they prepared everything. He even apologised, everyone reassuring him it was all fine.

The day's been great, the presents were a hit with the children (and Nina), the kids played outside, the grown-ups drinking bucks fizz, eggnog and then wine all day. Paired with water and coffee, of course.

“You worried for nothin’.”

Nina looks at her boyfriend getting into bed next to her. He’s right. She worried and didn’t have to. The food’s been delicious, nobody got hurt.

Now, Nina's head is swimming a bit and she giggles as Tom plops down next to her, snuggling under the blanket to get closer.

“I know. I know. But you can’t blame me. Our families could come straight out of a bloody nightmare sometimes.”

“Hm-hm.” Tom’s right hand wanders, he turns his head, and Nina giggles again as he starts nibbling on her neck. “Now stop talkin’ about our fam'lies. ‘m trying to s'duce you.”

“That’s seducing me?” she whispers.

“Yup.”

“That’s not seducing. That’s lacking lots of finesse.”

“Pf.”

He moves closer still. Tom’s right hand on Nina's thigh moves higher as he leans onto his side, his left hand joining his right on Nina's body. She can’t suppress the moan leaving her as she feels Tom’s body pressing down on her. He moves above her, caging her in. His breath is heavy on her throat as he makes his way down, then it leaves her as he moves further and further down, pushing her sleep shirt away with his wandering mouth.

Nina holds on tight. Her hands find his shoulders, her hips move on their own accord. “You’re drunk. We can’t. Can you?” She doesn’t even want the answer. She'd possibly have to kill him if he decided to leave her high and dry – or not dry at all – now.

“Don't insult me.” But it’s said with no malice at all. Instead Tom smirks above her as he pushes his hips into hers and wiggles his brows. “I can.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Kiss me then.”

He does. And goodness, he does it so well. It’s a bit sloppy, but Tom makes up for it with his enthusiasm. They move against each other, and while Tom's hands roam Nina's body from waist to breasts and back down to her hips, Nina grinds her hips against his again and her hands find their place in Tom's hair. It’s long enough now to really tug on it, to make him moan into her mouth as she buries her hands in it.

Their tongues dance as well as their lips. Nina closes her eyes when Tom moves one hand down and into the boxer shorts she wears to bed.

He touches her, and it’s all she can do to not explode then and there. She wants this to last, wants to enjoy this as long as she can, enjoy the feel of Tom against her and eventually inside her.

Then Tom’s hand moves the boxer shorts away while his fingers are inside her panties and against her bud.

“You’re wet for me,” he whispers against her neck. The answer is lost in a moan caused by Tom's tongue licking the soft spot under her ear and him changing the pressure on the bud.

Nina grinds against Tom's hand. And then all bets are off when he pushes two fingers inside her. “Toooooom.”

“I have you.”

He’s too dressed is the strange thought Nina has. Too dressed, but at the same time the material of his shirt and boxers does delicious things to her already overheated body.

“Have me.”

“I do.”

The shake of her head is more thrashing than anything else. “No,” she whispers and tugs at his t-shirt, rubbing her thighs against his. “No. Undress and then have me.”

It’s like Tom’s only waited for her to say something. He lets go – making Nina whimper at the loss of him inside and against her – and gets rid of his shirt, pushes down his pants and then takes care of Nina's remaining clothes.

“I’ll have you,” he moans when he settles again, their bodies now deliciously naked against each other.

“Yes.”

And then Tom enters her, immediately setting a pace. They moan together, they kiss, they nibble, they bite. They move against each other as they hold hands and cry out.

Nina keeps her eyes shut and just feels. Feels Tom inside her, against her, feels him move and stutter. And then she sees lights and feels that warmth spreading through her entire body, starting in her core. She clenches around him, and then Tom fills her.

They lie together afterwards, panting into each other’s ears, Tom’s weight pressing down on Nina's body.

“Love you.”

She smiles. Moves a bit to get comfortable and to make Tom understand. He does and lifts himself off her, just to press against her side a moment later.

“Love you too,” she mumbles back as she drifts off.