Because You're Mine (A Tom Hiddleston Fanfic) #Wattys2016 #pfcc2k16

Chapter Thirty: The Unexpected Passenger.

Now that I' ve lost everything to you, you say you wanna start something new....

*****

I must be getting extraordinarily good at goodbyes because this one didn't hurt as much as I would have guessed; it wasn't easy, that's for sure, but it was definitely less dramatic than I was expecting and preparing for.

It's been over an hour since the word departed popped up next to Joseph's flight number on the screen but we are still at the airport getting ready for yet another send off.

My father managed to secure himself a place on the next flight to LA, and we've decided to stay here and make a lunch date out of it while we wait. Ally came with us but she couldn't stay that long so she left some time ago and now it is just the two of us, eating some fish and chips at a restaurant inside Heathrow.

People come and go around us, carrying their bags or looking hilariously lost whilst eyeing those totally useless maps they give for free here. A few stop at a safe distance from where we are and I know that they are trying to figure out if my dad is who they think he is, but none of them seem to be sure enough to get closer or if they do, they simply decide to keep their distance anyway.

"When do they start boarding?" I ask as I stretch my hand over the small table, reaching for his boarding pass. "We have thirty more minutes... Want some coffee?" I say putting it back next to his passport.

"Not for me. I want to sleep in the plane as much as I can..." my dad declines and I nod silently, drifting my gaze around us. All I have to do is find some trivial topics to fill this half hour, and I will have achieved to keep Tom out of our conversation. "... Can I ask you something?" he says.

Oh, boy! Here we go.

It was good while it lasted and I want to slap myself for ever thinking that I could actually pull that off. My eyes lock on his immediately and I don't have to guess on what it is he wants to ask me, and I also know that there's really no way around it. I give him a mute permission to ask, and he does.

"What's the deal with you and Tom?"

His tone is rather chilled and I can tell that he is just trying not to come across too obtrusive, which I appreciate deeply. I lean against the back of my chair and rub my thigs with both hands as I try to find the right answer to his question.

"The deal is... complicated" I manage to let out. But that is the accurate word to describe us at this point. "The truth is that he hit me out of nowhere, you know? I never saw him coming and then, there he was!" My hands fly to my sides, almost imitating a bomb blast. "It all happened so fast that I'm afraid we just made a mess"

It feels amazingly liberating to finally say these things out loud. To express what has been on my mind since, to be perfectly honest, before the whole Charlotte thing even went down. The truth is that I've always had this fear deep in the back of my mind about how fast things were unraveling between Tom and I. But I kept putting it aside every time he'd kiss me or even lay a single finger on my skin.

My father is staring at me, listening to me intently and nodding at each word that I say. Almost as if he knew the feeling in first hand.

"I've got to say... I knew there was something going on there when he rode with us in the car that day" I choke on my water when he mentions that day and I feel a small panic attack coming over me at the thought that he may have heard our entire conversation while we thought he was dead asleep. "The way he looked at you when we dropped him off was just... Endearing"

"Endearing?" I chuckle and shift awkwardly in my spot. I know that he is trying to put it as nicely as he possibly can and I just struggle to keep the flush of my cheeks to a minimum. He'd always been quite open and comfortable when it came to talk about sexual stuff with me, but that was never that easy from my end.