The Lion's Den

8 0 0
                                    

A/N: Firstly I just have to say this is the first time I've had an idea and actually wrote it myself rather than sending it anonymously to another writer in over a year. So I apologize if my grammar is absolute garbage or I misspelled something. Also this is my first time writing anything involving Tom, so if it sucks, sorry. Secondly, thank you to everyone on Tumblr who replied to my prior post about Disney ideas in general. If I didn't have the motivation and encouragement these ideas would fall to the waste side and never see the light of day. Especially @sweater-daddiesdumbdork for being the first and loudest reply. I will get something Beauty and the Beast out eventually, I promise you.

Warnings: None. Fluff? Possible typos. That's it.

YoungSimba!HalloweenCostume!Tom Holland x YoungNala!HalloweenCostume!Reader

Part 1/? MCU and Disney Series.

---------------------------------------------------

Halloween was always a favorite time of year for you. You loved dressing up as something you were not for a day. It just gave you the chance to be silly and let go of the worries, fears and stresses that came with adulthood that no one told you about growing up. Of course no one told you either while growing up and trick-or-treating and eating buckets upon buckets of candy that it would eventually rot your teeth so badly you needed two dental surgeries on top of two molar removal surgeries in your mid to late 20s. Yeah... to say you lost your taste for candy was an understatement. So the idea of trick-or-treating still was no longer appealing, at least for yourself. With kids someday with better guidelines than you had as a child, sure, okay, but you personally were over it. You liked dressing up though, that wasn't going to change anytime soon.

It was even more fun now that you had Tom to celebrate the holiday with too. Being an actor, he was always up for dressing up as it came naturally with his job. He was always down to watch movies when he was in town and had free time too. He was a wonderful boyfriend who agreed to almost all of your cutesy couple ideas. That's how you ended up in your current situation now.

Your apartment's tiny living room had been transformed the night before, with a blanket and pillow fort build out of the couch, over the armchairs on either side, and held up with a hook in the ceiling (that was for a chandelier's wire if you had a chandelier) that Tom had tied some clear fishing line to and carefully looped through strands of the blanket "roof". He had used his spidey powers on it, so he claimed. Which earned him an eye roll and light smile from you as you stood on a step stool and hung fairy lights around the ceiling of the room from all three sides. On the coffee table just outside the entrance to the fort, there was also candles placed. Some just random from other rooms of the house, other were cheap but festive Halloween candle holders with tall, medium and tea light candles scattered about. With all the lights off and just the candles and fairy lights lighting the space, it cast a nice, warm, comforting golden glow. With candles blown out but the fairy lights left on, you both slept there that night, tired from the assembly of your labor of love.

The next day was Halloween, and it went very similarly to how the prior night ended. After you both got up, freshened up and got something to eat, you then changed into your costumes. This year you both were dressed as the main characters of The Lion King, Young Simba and Young Nala, complete with painted on noses and whiskers for both of you, and dramatic eye makeup for you, Tom didn't go that far with his, though he did add cool contacts you opted out of. Afterwards, you stocked up on snacks and drinks galore from the kitchen pantry. Crisps/Chips, pretzels, cookies, sodas, teas, a little of everything before re-lighting the candles then crawling back into your "cave". Settling in for the rest of the afternoon and evening for a Halloween movie marathon.

The actual Halloween themed movies ended sooner than you both expected, since you started watching them around eleven in the morning rather than waiting till mid-afternoon like normal people would. So just before the sun started setting, you DoorDash'ed a pizza for dinner and when it arrived Tom crawled out of "the cave" to get it, while you threw away trash from earlier so there was room for the pizza box on the coffee table beside all the candles and their romantic dripping candle wax down the stems; you also traded in the sodas and teas for ciders and pulled out a thicker blanket too, lowering the air so you had an excuse to cuddle more. When you were both back inside, surrounded by warmth and softness in the dimly lit room, you opened up the Disney+ app on your laptop as Tom opened the pizza box and got a few slices on paper plates for the two of you. When he saw what you had selected, the live-action remake of The Lion King as the first movie, he enthusiastically cheered and clumsily almost knocked over the pizza box and his cider in the process.

"Yay, our movie!" he said, gesturing to your matching costumes, making you laugh and shake your head lightly.

"Shut up," you teased lightly, before clicking the extras tab and selecting the singalong version rather than the normal version. That was either a brilliant idea or a huge mistake depending on your point of view. It had barely begun loading, going from a slightly blurry internet connection quality, to a crystal clear picture when Circle of Life begun to play and Tom begun singing loudly along to it. Just cause you didn't indulge sweets, didn't mean he passed up on the candy. The man was clearly sugar high at this point in time.

"Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba!"
"Oh my God. Make it stop."
"What? I can sing."
"You can dance. You cannot sing."
"I can sing! Stop! Listen!"
"No, ugh!" you shook your head and groaned lightly, covering your ears as you watched him REALLY get into it, showboating a little. In fairness he wasn't ... terrible. You were sure there were people far worse at singing. It was just very loud and on purpose out of tune. You were surprised the neighbors weren't stomping on their floors yet to shut him up.

"Ingonyama nengw' enamabala
Ingonyama nengw' enamabala
Ingonyama nengw' enamabala
Ingonyama nengw' enamabala
Ingonyama nengw' enamabala
Ingonyama nengw' enamabala
Ingonyama nengw' enamabala
Ingonyama nengw' enamabala
Ingonyama nengw' enamabala."
"You're not going to stop are you?"
"From that day we arrived on the planet
And blinking, stepped into the sun...."
"Nope, okay. The whole movie?"
"There's more to see than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done...."
You sighed lightly and nodded, "The whole movie." You then removed your hands from your ears and accepted it was going to be a loud and most likely very dramatic evening, at least for the next two and a half hours.
"It's the circle of life
And it moves us all!"
"Oh God!"
As much as vocally protested though, you secretly loved it and how into it he got. By the time I Just Can't Wait To Be King came on, you were singing along with him, taking Nala's part as he took Simba's and both of you sang Zazu's bits.
"Oh, I just can't wait... to be king!"

Hakuna Matata, The Lion Sleeps Tonight and Can You Feel The Love Tonight ended up getting recorded and uploaded to Instagram and was quickly shared throughout the Fandom in no time at all.

By the end of the movie, and the end of the pizza, Tom had fallen asleep, curled up to your side, and with a small smirk you snapped a pic of him, planning to post it to Instagram. The shutter slightly stirred him, and he mumbled lightly as you closed the pizza box, the laptop, and posted the picture. "Babe? What're you doing?" "Just closing up. Go back to sleep." "Not till you...cuddle with me," he said mid-yawn. You smiled softly then blew out the candles and curled up beside him. He wrapped his arm around you and nuzzled into your hair, easily falling back asleep coming down from the sugar high and all. You slowly nodded off shortly after too, both oblivious to all the fans freaking out online, at how utterly adorable their friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and his girlfriend looked as lion cubs this Halloween.

"The Lion is asleep for the night. Good night everyone, and have a safe and Happy Halloween. 🎃 "

The Lion's DenWhere stories live. Discover now