Far From Home // t.h.

29 - Tom

Tom heard y/n before he saw her. He had just been talking to one of the stunt choreographers about one of the fights he would have to rehearse later on. Then the initial photography for his makeup needed to be done... and the costumes needed the third refitting since the last measurements had been lost... and the actual shooting of the scenes will have to start eventually, too.

Nothing had barely started, and he was already lost.

The sound of the gold buggy echoed through the room, grabbing everyone's attention. By the time Zendaya managed to get the thing to stop driving (nearly driving over Tom's foot), everyone was looking at the two ladies occupying the buggy's front seats, laughing loudly and charismatically. Tom just kept finding y/n laughing with the people he was closest to. A coincidence that he very much enjoyed taking place. If only he could for once be a part of it. He also wanted to bring that kind of humour to her.

"Hey," he said, and the two women replied identically, mirroring him through their restoring breaths. When y/n stepped out of the buggy, Tom noticed the large pile of papers in her arms.

"Legal?"

"Yup, she said, to which Zendaya added, "who would have thought there went so much into getting to hang out with you, Holland. That is some serious dedication."

"Dedication... Desperation... tomayto/tomahto." y/n quipped.

"That is truly hurtful, y/n." Tom pouted. "I am... so... hurt."

"Would your schedule maybe help you mend that broken heart?"

"Oh," now, he did actually really need his schedule. Someone had mailed it to him ages ago, but his mail was also filled with about three thousand different things, so messages tended to get lost, and the printer at his house never worked. "Yes, please."

y/n tried to pull a sheet of paper out of the pile, but the pages lost their balance in that action, causing some to fall to the ground. y/n immediately fell down on her knees to pick them up and Tom, on instinct, did so too.

"What are you doing?" she asked him while picking up the papers nearest to her.

"Helping you? What does it seem like I'm doing?"

"You really don't need to. It's my job to help you." y/n pointed out, Tom understood that point, but he still felt like it was the decent thing to do to help someone pick up their things if they dropped them. And there was a lot to pick up in this case. So, he grabbed the pages he could reach before y/n, stacked them, most likely out of order, and put them on the remaining pile of legal paper. y/n put the rest on top, and thus only a few remained, now slightly crumpled. That was his schedule which she handed over.

"That can be my copy, I'll get you a new one... and I can colour code it for you if you'd like." She suggested while he looked over at it. Today was already exhausting, with ten different things planned in from the next hour on. Few of them were even double-booked somehow.

"No, this copy is fine, tho colour coding would be great. Thanks."

"Of course." She nodded in agreement. "Anything else?" This king of seriousness was another side that Tom had not yet seen of y/n but was glad that it existed. Professionalism is very much appreciated in the professional sector.

"Uhm, a tea maybe? There's a table over there," he pointed over into the corner of the vast room. The queue had not yet formed to be very long, so y/n wouldn't even have to wait.

"Z? Would you like anything?"

"I'm good," Zendaya said. The two actors watched y/n nod and walk away to the catering table. When she was a few steps away, Zendaya chuckled. "You so got a crush on her."

"I wish there was a single response I could have to that wouldn't make me sound like a child or a twat, but I do not."

"You can just admit it, bro. I mean, I see it, ok. She is great, that's why I suggested her for the job– which I'm kind of starting to regret having done cause I wish someone would colour code my schedule for me, but that's besinds the point right now."

"It doesn't have to be. I'm sure there is someone else around here with highlighters." Tom looked around as if someone with a giant neon pen would pop up in front of him.

"There's nothing to be ashamed of, man, you got taste and a crush is a crush, nothing wrong with that either." Of course, there wouldn't be if it wasn't for the fact that 1) they had only just met and 2) she worked for him. So, even though Zendaya's comforting words tried to tell him the opposite, it did not make him feel any better.

"Why are you even so taken up by this, Z? Isn't playground gossip a bit below your level?"

"I consider that an insult towards playground gossip. That shit is gold. And besides, I gotta know if one of my best friends is catching feelings. And since its you... I might even make some money out of it."

"Well, at least if anything ever gets leaked out to the press, I'll know who to block," Tom smiled fakely.

"Oh, please, I meant in the bets I got running with Jacob and Angie and the rest."

"Wh-what bets?" were his friends and fellow cast members placing wagers on his love life? But taking one look at Zendaya's face, he could tell she was, in fact, once again, just joking.

"I don't have a crush." He stamped that fact into the ground for assurance. He needed Zendaya and anyone else who may or may not have been listening in on them to know this.

y/n was making her way back now, the cup of tea in her paper-free hand, leading Tom and Zendaya's conversation to a close. Possibly coincidentally, someone just called the actress over to the other side of the room.

"Ok, so since you don't have a crush, you'll probably not care that when she worked for me, y/n once told me that she thought you were really cute."

Tom's head whipped in Zendaya's direction subtly. "What?" he cleared his throat? "Really?" But Zendya just shrugged and turned around on her heels. She missed y/n, but just a few inches and the two of them gave each other a smile as a goodbye.

"Here you go," y/n handed him his tea. Tom didn't reply; he just started sipping his drink, ignoring the scorching on his tongue. Zendaya's words echoed through his mind, but one point circled around. A crush is just a crush. There is nothing wrong with that either. So what if he did have a crush? Not saying he did, but what if? It didn't mean he would actually react to it. He wouldn't have to do anything about it. And as long as he didn't do anything, everything was completely and utterly fine.

That didn't matter because he absolutely didn't have a crush on y/n. How could he have a crush on his new assistant? The idea was absurd. Completely insane, all of them, though Tom off his friends, and yet, he couldn't help stealing glances y/n's way while she sat in a free chair, reading through those countless documents as the day went on.

Sometimes, to Tom's embarrassment, their eyes would meet, and they'd share a quick grin before they both would go back to doing their own separate work, but just because he enjoyed y/n's presence and felt a certain comfort at the fact she was there did not mean that he had a crush.

Did it?