Far From Home // t.h.

21 - Tom

5 minutes earlier.

Tom felt like he was the most punctual one out of his whole family. Or at least, he'd like to think he was. He liked being on time, which annoyed him greatly whenever someone else was late. Of course, there were circumstances, and sometimes a person would arrive a minute or five later than planned, that was fine. It happened.

What he could not excuse, however, was his own alarm not waking him up but his brother half an hour later. Suddenly his whole morning schedule felt upside down. That's why he needed an assistant. So he stumbled around the house, not even sure what to do.

"What's gotten into you?" Harry asked, watching as his brother ran around in his boxers, toothbrush in hand, "you're usually never this stupid in the morning?"

Tom ignored the insult, trying to figure out the answer to Harry's question. What had gotten into him? He genuinely felt stressed over the day, but it couldn't have been because of the work that stood ahead of him. Sure, it was the first day of filming, but he had done that plenty of times. It wouldn't have been nerves but mere adrenaline and excitement to get started on the new movie.

Could it be y/n? She would be arriving any time soon, probably. He dared to look at the clock above the kitchen counter. It was 20 minutes to 7. That was good. He had made up a little time. He would probably be ready to go-

"Shit!"

"What is it?" Harry asked, looking more relaxed than ever, annoying Tom even more.

"I completely forgot to shower."

Harry looked at the same clock, "you still got time."

Tom contemplated this for a moment and, looking back, that had been his mistake probably. If he had immediately decided to take a shower, he would have gotten in, out, in no time and had gotten dressed and be perfect on time for y/n's arrival. Instead, he stood in the middle of the kitchen, thinking about if he had enough time or not, and only then decided to go for it.

Well, he had managed to take a shower and dry off a bit too. Then, as he was walking out of the bathroom, one step away from his bedroom door. The doorbell rang. He froze, cursing under his breath. How long would it take him to get dressed? He didn't even have his clothes picked out yet, that would take way too long, and he couldn't let y/n wait outside for that long.

The doorbell rang again.

"Harry!" He shouted from upstairs, "can you get the door!"

"Not really!" Harry shouted back. Tom didn't know if his brother had been genuine or was purposefully unhelpful, but he didn't have a choice anymore.

Clutching onto his towel, he made his way downstairs, hoping it was y/n and not some collector.

No. y/n standing at his front door while he opened it with just a towel around him would be so much worse. But there was nothing he could do about it now. He would have to make do with a million apologies and make sure she knew this was not intentional– just him being a complete idiot who had no time-management skills. The last thing he wanted was to make her uncomfortable and possibly accuse him of some kind of harassment. He did not want to traumatise her.

"Just a second!" He shouted at the corridor, "I'm coming- shit" Just as he was about to open the door, he slipped on the doormat, falling down. With the reckless movement, his towel loosened its grip around his middle, and he felt the soft material slipping down his hips. He had actually not noticed he had opened the door a bit when he leaned on the door handle while trying to get up, but oh well... Clutching onto the towel for dear life, he simultaneously held up the remains of his dignity.

"Hi, I hope I'm not too early–" y/n looked at him with wide eyes, frozen in place.

"Before you say anything, I'm so sorry about this." He took this moment to quickly fix his towel, wrapping it around him and tying it tightly together, making sure it was correctly fastened with no room to budge. "I overslept and had completely lost track of time. I just got out of the shower when you rang the doorbell. Harry wasn't being very helpful, but come in, please." Tom stepped aside and let y/n inside the house.