Arms Wide Open (One Shots for Fanfiction "His English Heart")

Don't Let Me Breathe

You lie on the couch and run your hands through Tom's honey blond hair, he smiles softly, if he was a cat he would be purring. You two are just enjoying a night in, watching movies that don't have your lovely husband in him as he insisted upon. You ended up deciding upon watching classic Disney movies like Snow White and Mary Poppins. Tom loved any type of anything classic it seemed and Disney movies, of course were no exception.


"Chim chiminey
Chim chiminey
Chim chim cher-oo!
Good luck will rub off when
I shake hands with you
or blow me a kiss
and that's lucky too."


Tom huffed in mock frustration. "His accent is still bad."


You roll your eyes and sing along in your own horrid impersonation of your husband's speech patterns.


He sat up and flicks your arm "Impertinent."


You throw him a cheeky grin.


"Though I'm covered in soot


From me head to me toes


A sweep knows he's welcome


Wherever he goes"


You take a bit of pudding from the bowl in front of you and playfully smear it on his nose.


"Not soot. But close enough."


Tom rolls his eyes and wipes it off before licking it off of his fingers "No I believe the only thing I ever really swept was you off of your feet." He grins at you.


You sigh. He spoke the truth.


He blobs a bit of pudding on your nose "A waste of pudding but it's a fun waste." That smile was always so endearing.


"You know... I don't think all those tumblr fangirls have any idea how mischievous you really are! Always a gentleman, hah!" You poke fun at him, you know perfectly well that he's usually the sweetest man alive.... With just a bit too much prankster in him to let go of.






-Flashback-










"You humans crave subjugation." Tom's... no- Loki's voice boomed out over the set. All the extras were kneeling, soon one man would stand and Cap would save him. You knew the script backwards and forwards by this point. Tom had run over those lines so many times in the trailer that you were almost positive that you could play Loki!


He looked so evil up there and yet Tom would argue for hours with anyone who would listen that Loki was not in fact villainous. You knew much better than to bring up that conversation again, plus he had a whole tumblr fanbase coming up with reasons he wasn't evil too. There were some graves not even near worth digging yourself into. And yet you were so proud of your Tom up there, he played his role magnificently and without- wait. Your Tom? Since when did you think of him as "Your Tom"?


Your face turned a fire engine red and you were so consumed by your thoughts and burning cheeks that you didn't even notice him coming up.


"Watching bad boy up there huh?" Robert casts a wink at you and since you didn't even see him coming, you nearly leap out of your skin.


"Tony- ugh... I mean Robert. Don't do that." You say in exasperation.


He grins. "Your face was a marvelous shade of crimson there missy. And I know perfectly well your eye wasn't on Chris' marvelous defensive skills."


You blush more "Shut up Robert."


"Honestly everyone on set could see you like the guy. Why not just kiss him and get it over with instead of doing his mascara everyday like you're not completely besotted. Plus he calls you "Sigyn" for goodness sake Jo! What more do you need?" Robert must ship it as Cora would say.... And he shipped it hard.


"..... I'm not talking about this with you." You say as you try to nonchalantly plop a grape in your mouth. You desperately want to see what Tom was doing now but if you even cast a glance within 180° of the Englishman's semi-general direction than Robert would note and comment upon it instantly. So you refrain (with every ounce of willpower you can muster).


"Then I'll talk about it with you."


"Don't you have a scene to film?"


"Nope."


"But you're in this scene To- Robert."


"Yeah see the thing is that the scene finished and you were just too entranced to notice so I came to snap you out of it before someone thought you were a statue and hauled you off to props. Been nice chatting with you but I think my makeup needs a touch up. See ya later Sigyn." Robert winks at you again and walks off.


You sigh just as the object of your affections pops up in front of you; instinctively you jump at the random tall person in your way.


"Are you jumpy a bit today love? I apologize; I didn't mean to startle you." Tom's smooth voice fell like a rushing waterfall on your ears. You wondered how you could continue to work like this every day or how you'd even managed it to this point. He simply was too amazing for words. Robert was right, you were besotted and it was obvious to everyone... except maybe Tom.


You reach for your makeup supplies, you realize his foundation needs to be touched up and his mascara has smudged from the sweating, making his eyes look sleep deprived and dark.


"You look ghastly." You say as you smooth out the foundation.


"In a good way or a bad way?"


"You look feverish and sick almost."


"Hmmm... I can work with that. Keep it that way love. I think I should look sick. I am not a man in complete control of myself; I wouldn't be looking too well off."


"Ok well in that case I'll make sure your skin stays a bit on the shimmery side so you always look paler and sicklier." You say, of course Tom would come up with something like that. You go along with it and make sure the sickly look is perfected subtly before letting him go.


"Go out there and be evil you tall.... god... sickly... person." You trail off for lack of better adjectives and wait for the inevitable teasing to come.


He snickers a little at the comment "I shall oh Sigyn of mine. Ehehehehehe." And he bounced off.


"What even-?" You realized you were forgetting to breathe. You'd gotten lost in the voice and those beautiful eyes even behind the sad, tired look you yourself had just given them. He still took your breath away; and what was worse? He was oblivious of that entirely.






You had looked everywhere in the trailer for your flat iron and you couldn't find it. It had to be somewhere. Tom would be here any moment and you didn't have your blasted flat iron. Plus you had to re-dye his hair today on top of that. You groan and sit down on the cushioned chair in frustration. You jump when you feel something hard underneath you and you yelp a bit. You look under the cushion to find your flat iron with a sticky note attached:


"I'm almost completely certain that you sat on this instead of finding it by more conventional means. Be thankful I didn't turn it on."


You groaned. Of course he'd hidden it simply for the mischief of it all. That was so Tom. You looked down at your green converse with "Loki'd" scrawled across the white toes. Would he never stop? But of course you didn't really want him to stop. You loved his mischief and teasing, you loved his grin and smile. His chortle endeared you every time and the way his bright eyes would sparkle captured the deepest seeds of your imagination and sent them out among stars and endless galaxies to be lost forever. He took your breath away with no problem whatsoever, with ease and grace, as with most things. Even the pranks he played were always smooth and calculated.


"He even knew which of the chairs I'd collapse in." You muse silently.


There's a knock on the door.


"Come on in Tom." You say (you easily recognize his knock by now)


He walks in happily and spots your flat iron immediately; a smug smile spreads across his handsome face... that smile.... The way it melts you-


You snap yourself out of it and set Tom down so you can get to work.


"Morning love." He said in a chipper tone.


"Good morning Tom." You say back in a rather non-concentrated tone of voice.


"Something on your mind?"


"No." You lie and hope he doesn't notice. But of course he does, after all this is the human lie detector as Scarlett had nicknamed him.


"Of course not, after all Miss Joanna, you cannot tell a lie." He smirked at me.


"Oh hold still would you? I've got to dye your hair again and I don't need your fidgeting."


"Did you like my prank?"


"........"


"You did sit on it right? Did I guess correct?"


"Be quiet Tom."


"I did! Ehehehehe." He grinned and giggled like a 10 year old schoolboy.


You sigh.


"Come now, surely it wasn't that horrid of a prank to play. Why do you seem so distraught about it?" His eyebrows furrowed in curiosity and confusion.


There was a knock on the door.


"Come in?" You say curiously.


Kelsie pops her head in, "Sorry to bother you Jo, but they're going to need you with the extras ASAP. 2 people called in sick and we need you to help get the extras makeup done too... are you almost done with Tom?"


"No, she's not. I'd rather like to keep her a while longer." Tom piped up.


You resisted the urge to blush at that.


Kelsie rubbed her temples. "Look as soon as you're done with our resident god of mischief would you mind pitching in?"


"No, not at all Kels. Don't sweat it; just give me a bit more time." You respond quickly as you continue to dye Tom's hair completely black again.


"Great. Thank you Joanna!" Kelsie shut the trailer door and ran off.


You tried to work quickly while still maintaining quality- which seemed to be a recurring theme with you nowadays.


"Joanna, if you were any harsher in applying the foundation I believe that you would run the risk of rubbing the skin off of my face." Tom said with raised eyebrows.


"Sorry Tom. I promise I'm not trying to hurt you." You say absentmindedly.


"Mhmm," was the only response.


When you'd finally finished it was all you could do to try and grab everything you thought necessary for the extras' makeup. You had a whole large bag. Tom blinked.


"Let me carry that for you before I go over to costumes."


"You just want an excuse not to get into costume."


"Can you blame me Joanna? Truly? It is hot, sweaty, and vastly uncomfortable. I can barely breathe in that contraption," he grumbled a bit.


"No I guess I can't blame you. Ok take the bag and follow me please," He was always walking the line between gentleman and prankster and you never knew which one would take precedence. The way he'd just said your name had made your heart leap, of course any time he mentions you by name causes your heart to go all wild kangaroo on you. Tom took the makeup bag and followed you to where the extras were being prepared.


He handed you the bag and his hand brushed yours. Your breath caught in your throat and your chest decided to tighten because of the jolt of electricity you were pretty sure you'd just felt course through your body. But of course as all such moments, they were gone within a split second and were only meaningful on one side. How did this man come to wield such a power over you that even the touch of his hand sent your mind off into Neverland?


You had never felt such things before.


Surely it would pass... or so you thought.






-Present-






Needless to say your feelings for Tom had not only never faded but intensified tenfold. And you loved every ounce of him from his beautiful curls to his caring heart. And to think that at one point your cousin Cora had been the excited one that you got to work for Tom Hiddleston, so much had changed since that time.


"Darling I believe you've quite zoned out on me. I just asked you if you'd like to eat raw alpaca with hot sauce while we fly off to Antarctica and you nodded yes.... And I happen to be aware that you cannot stand hot sauce a good majority of the time." He raises an eyebrow at you in curiosity.


You shrug "I was just remembering the days when you used to prank me on one hand and on the other feed my soul sucking crush with no knowledge of the fact."


"Ah I remember that time as well. I was just starting to notice you as a bit more than my lovely friend Joanna who just so happened to do my makeup and more as 'I can't look at her without starting to stare or freak out.'" He wrapped an arm around your shoulder casually and gave you an adorable little grin.


"Yeah. The awkward stage right?"


"I don't know love. Personally I thought it was all rather fun."


"Please define fun."


He tilts his head to the side a bit and after barely a second's thought he kisses you.


"Was that an answer or a nice way to say 'shut up'?" You ask with a grin starting to spread across your features.


He chuckles deep in his throat and caresses your cheeks with his thumbs. "Both, I believe." And he proceeds to kiss you again. Obviously you make no objections to that and lovingly kiss him back.