Forget-Me-Not (A Tom Hiddleston Fanfiction)

(1) Bite My Tongue

Nina woke up to an empty bed. Nothing new there, then, she thought, pushing the duvet away from her burning body. Her boyfriend, Kyle, was hardly around before lunchtime and when he was around, he was in a bad mood a lot of the time, but he always called Nina his princess. He also called her a lot of other mean names but Nina loved him to bits- perhaps more than she should. The wooden tiled floor of the bedroom in their London apartment chilled Nina's feet as she sat up and rested her feet on the floor, curling her toes in discomfort.

She decided it was too quiet for her taste so she turned on the radio by her side of the bed. The radio was forever on some indie rock channel or a station that played a lot of older music. Nina only took a real interest in music in the early nineties - her birthday being in 1987 - but a fair few of her favourite songs were eighties, and her fashion sense was very grunge-nineties inspired.

"Load up on guns, bring your friends, it's fun to lose and to pretend..." Nina sang softly, her voice barely above a whisper. She padded almost silently over to the wardrobe and pulled out her favourite pair of dark grey jeans, with a tear on each knee, with a plain white t-shirt and a blue plaid shirt tied around her waist. She perched her black beanie on her head after brushing out her choppy shoulder-length brown hair, which faded down to a light blonde at the tips. It was half eight which meant she still had half an hour to get to the theatre for dress rehearsal.

Nina wasn't in the theatre's performances herself. She just couldn't see her name in lights and that was why she preferred working backstage, as head of costume and occasional make-up artist. But she didn't want to be stuck in the same old theatre forever- she knew that soon, she needed to do something different. Something that wasn't a part of her regular, and slightly boring schedule.

Nina's mother had worked in theatre, first as a make-up assistant but then as an impromptu actress- how that happened was a story for another time. Nina's parents lived quite far away from her, in Devon which had been where they'd retired to, but Nina was London born and raised and she didn't plan on moving anywhere soon.

Nina also had an older brother that she didn't like to talk about much as it was quite a touchy subject. James Ferguson was schizophrenic and lived with her parents. Nina loved him to pieces but she often felt uncomfortable around him and so did many others, leading people to disliking him and as a result of that, Nina was sometimes looked down at too- she was tarred with the same brush. Nina's youngest sibling, Molly, also lived in London and they occasionally met up, but Molly worked most days in an office and was usually really busy.

"Where are you going, princess?" A familiar deep voice rang out across the bedroom that could only belong to Kyle. Nina turned, her make-up free face forcing a smile. She really wasn't in the mood for an argument today, but then again, when was she in the mood?

"To work." She replied softly, staring across at a calendar behind Kyle on the wall- July 2010 was displayed in fancy writing underneath a picture of some motorbike Kyle liked to obsess over.

"You're wearing your favourite jeans and you're up early, sweetheart, is there somewhere else you need to be?" His voice was soft. "Somewhere else you're planning on going?"

"Kyle, I don't need you on my back about having an affair again. You're my one and only, okay?" She wandered over to him, the both of them barefoot, and wrapped her arms around his waist carefully.

Kyle was very attractive, so really it should have been Nina that was worrying about him. He had messy blonde hair, deep blue eyes and a nose ring, and all the girls positively fawned over him. He was in a local band who played gigs in all the pubs and clubs and got quite decent money out of it.

It's a shame his personality doesn't often match his looks, Nina thought to herself, pulling away from the hug and shuffling to the bathroom. She had a lot of doubting thoughts about Kyle sometimes but she never dared say anything to his face otherwise something would probably happen to hers. She scrubbed at her teeth and face, and went through her daily make-up routine; foundation, concealer, eyeliner, mascara and then red lipstick- because why the hell not?

She managed to gather her stuff together, and wedge what she needed into her backpack before escaping the apartment without any further words to Kyle. The theatre was quite nearby and Nina let herself in to the back of the old musty building, following twisting corridors until she came out into the main auditorium.

"Nina! Thank god you're here! Alex still hasn't showed up and we need someone to do makeup." The manager of the current production, John, came rushing up to Nina almost straight away. Alexandra was the head make-up artist who lived a little way away and was quite often late, leaving Nina with the roles of costume organisation and make-up, which apparently she was 'well better' than Alex at. Nina hurried backstage, getting hit in the face by puffy tutus, faux hair and a broomstick, before finding the main communal dressing room. Everyone looked pleased to see her apart from Marie, who was the darling of the show and many of the previous shows.

"Nina, so glad to see you..." Marie drawled in her American accent, a fake smile plastered on her face. "I need to you make me look extra fabulous for the first show tomorrow, sweets. Rumour has it that there's a film producer looking for..." She played with her bleach blonde hair. "...new talent."

"Oh, good luck with that then..." Nina muttered, throwing her bag into the corner. "But do you know what talent he's looking for...?" She regretted the words soon after they'd left her mouth.

"He wants star quality, darling..." Marie chewed on her gum in an almost painfully slow manner. "And I have it. Well, don't stand there gawping, honey, get to work on me!" She sat on her chair in front of the mirror. Nina just rolled her eyes and got to work right away, applying hair extensions, tons of makeup and sorting out everyone's costumes. As she was tying the last ribbon on the back of a corset, Alexandra came bursting in, her face red.

"I'm well sorry, guys, but the traffic round in my area was terrible!" Alex surveyed the faces of the girls that Nina had made up. "See, Nina, I told you that you were well good!"

"Yeah, thanks..." Nina mumbled, her voice drowned out as someone yelled that rehearsals were about to start. This would be a long morning.

[A/N] no hiddles yet but i promise i'll write him in soon...this was kinda just a starter chapter but things will get better...i hope...? the chapter name is indeed a song title, i'll probably make that a consistent thing. this has been published in honour of my birthday (2/3/14) hoorah! drop a vote if you liked it?
yours truly :) x