Forget-Me-Not (A Tom Hiddleston Fanfiction)

(34) Bitter, Broken Me

Tom followed the path he'd taken when he came jogging with Nina in what seemed like a lifetime ago. He came to the field where they'd been cloud spotting and slowed to a walk, admiring the nature around him. The trees. The flowers dotted around. And the young woman sitting in the middle of the field, who was unmistakably crying.

"Nina?" Tom jogged over to where she sat, her knees tucked up to her chest, her chin resting atop them. "Nina, darling, what's the matter?" He crouched beside her, and then dropped down into a sitting position with a soft 'oof', crossing his legs.

"I just hurt so much, Tom." She whispered through shaky breaths; the aftermath of her tears. They were the first words that she had spoken to Tom in a whole week and they were certainly not the words that he wanted to hear.

"Let me help you then." Tom put a gentle arm around her shoulders. His simple but caring action was almost too much for Nina, and she felt herself on the verge of tears once more.

"You can't help me this time, Tom." Nina gulped loudly and looked away. She eventually stretched her legs out, looking down at her feet. She had been too careless, and now she was paying for her actions. Hers and Kyle's.

"Why not, darling?" Tom trained his eyes on Nina's forlorn expression. He just wanted to pull her in for a hug but he knew now was not the time.

"I'm pregnant, Tommy boy." Nina looked back at Tom, her eyes glistening with tears. "It's Kyle's, and I don't know what to do."

Tom had never seen anyone look so hopeless in his entire life. Sure, he had sisters, but he'd never really been in this situation before. So all he could do was as he did before; be her shoulder to cry on, and her listening ear. Nina collapsed against him then, pressing her face into his shoulder.

"Shh..." He said soothingly, rubbing her arm. "You'll be fine, love."

"What if I'm not?" Nina looked down at her stomach in disgust.

"You mustn't think like that, Nina. It won't make things any better."

"Well it's not like you can make things any better." Nina sniffed quietly. Tom knew how she felt, and what she must have gone through in the moment where she discovered that she was pregnant, but her words still hit him like a shot to the stomach.

Perhaps there was nothing he could do in the physical sense. He couldn't click his fingers and make the embryo disappear. But if there was anything else he could do, hell, she didn't even need to tell him once, let alone twice. "Are you sure, love?"

"Five weeks." Nina replied. "I haven't even told my own parents yet." She let out a choked sob at the sudden looming pressure of breaking the news to them. "Oh my god, what are they going to think?"

"They're going to think that you're a wonderful daughter and that you'll be a wonderful mother." Tom reassured her, kissing the side of her head lightly, and he felt her flinch slightly at the touch of his lips.

Tom felt somewhat protective over Nina. He had befriended this young, seemingly broken and fragile woman at the right time, and now seeing her in this state only made the pull towards her stronger for him. Was this love? Or was she just like another sister to him?

"You do have a way with words." Nina said, her breaths still irregular as she tried to calm herself down a little more. "But how do I tell...how do I tell Kyle?"

"Perhaps you shouldn't yet, darling. Get to grips with it yourself before burdening it on him too."

Nina tensed up beneath Tom's arm, still slung across her shoulders. "So that's all that pregnancy is to you? A burden?"

"No, no. That's not what I meant." Tom panicked for a moment. What if he said something else that was too much, and wound up not speaking to her for another week? "Think about it. Kyle is in a band. He tours. He... he gets drunk. You're a makeup artist and a hair stylist- and a marvellous one at that. You have a steady job. You're quite respectable. If you are struggling to come to terms with it, darling, then how do you think he's going to react?"

Nina stayed completely still for a moment, pondering Tom's reasoning. It certainly made sense. "I guess you're right." Nina replied quietly. Tom sighed in relief, relaxing a little more and fiddling with his hair with his other hand, just staring off into the distance. "What's up with you?"

"You were upset, alone in a field, and you want to know how I am?" Tom looked at her in a mixture of disbelief and intrigue.

"You're not the only one who's noticed your new habit..." Nina looked up at him, her round eyes unblinking as she studied his face much as he'd studied hers. Tom felt the tips of his ears burn a little red, and he slowly put his hand down, removing it from his hair.

"You've been watching me enough to notice my habits?" Tom raised his eyebrows, amused. Nina turned bright red, and the faintest flicker of a smile appeared on her face

"It's not hard to read people, Tom..."

"So you're Sherlock now? I thought that was Ben when he's drunk?"

"I'm drunk on misery, Tommy boy."

"Well, have some chocolate. Something sweet'll make you feel better. It always works for me." He gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze and stood up, offering his hand. "Promise not to fall on you, darling..."

"I hope you can keep promises." Nina sniffed, using his hand to pull herself up as she was put on the verge of tears once more. Usually when people made promises to her, they always turned out to be useless- the promises, and the people who made them.

Tom pulled Nina in for one more hug, kissing the top of her brown hair gently; the blonde tips were almost gone completely from regulat trims. Nina intrigued him, from her fluctuating emotions, her talent at what she did, her gorgeous eyes...

And the lanky Englishman began to contemplate the fact that he could be falling for the very woman he held in his arms.

[A/N] agh! i'm giving myself feels! drop a vote for tom's sheer adorableness? because who wouldn't want to hug tom in a nice field when they're feeling emotional?
yours truly :) x