Tom Hardy's characters imagines

"The first time" - Tommy Conlon x reader (Part 1) [Requested]

Anon asked on Tumblr about the first encounter between Tommy and a shy reader and then something about how he deals with her loving him after what he went through. This is the first part.

When anyone referred to the "American Dream" no one's mind imagined them in Pittsburgh. That's a fact.
But what point is there to dream about the "Big Apple" or the sunny L.A. when you couldn't afford it? Pittsburgh was the only option given that a part of your family lived here and deeply you were grateful for the opportunity of leaving "il bel paese" for a while.

Although it was hard to start fresh in a place where you didn't know anyone, you actually found out soon enough that the total anonymity that came with moving to a new place suited you quite well. After the first few months spent on enrolling into looking for a job that matched your qualifications and eventually settling for a job that paid the bills when you didn't find any, you had mastered a beautiful routine.

You would get up bright and early no matter how much you wanted to sleep 'till the end of times, after a quick breakfast you would head to the local library. When you didn't have a shift you would still go just to set in a secluded corner of the library and read for a few hours.

Then around lunchtime, you would bring food for you and your cousin that worked in a gym near the library. James, your cousin, is a personal trainer. Sometimes he would also coach some guys for MMA fights and work as a secretary in the spare time. Since I've moved here though, he offered to speak with his boss for the secretary place and thanks to James now I have also a job as a secretary.

To be honest, working in a gym attended only by guys, wasn't as bad as you thought. They didn't pay you much attention, other than a few words when they came in or left and some brave ones that tried to hit on you. Maybe it was because you were James' little cousin, you weren't sure. In any case, you were fine just being invisible.

Afternoons there were actually quite boring and uneventful, so you would usually look for jobs or read whatever book you had picked up at the library. The last one you were reading was actually so interesting and captivating that you couldn't keep your eyes off the pages even when you were walking.

You knew the road from the library to the gym by heart by now and it was all walking area, so no risk of being put under a car, fortunately.
So that's exactly what you were doing when you met him the first time: nose buried in the pages of the book not really paying attention to your surroundings. If your calculations were correct you were almost outside of the gym. It turned out that you were almost correct and a door in your face told you that you were in fact right outside the gym.

Needless to say, the impact made your book violently hit your face making you lose your balance and almost hit the floor. Yes, almost, because Tommy's hands prevented you from making a fool of yourself. Well at that time you didn't know his name was Tommy, to be honest.

"You should be more about where you're going." His voice was almost rude like you had made him do something that he would rather avoid. Of course, at that moment your shyness only allowed you to mutter an apology and blush from the embarrassment. And that's what you did before quickly making your way into the gym where your cousin was waiting for you.

It wasn't that Tommy was rude, he was just really introverted and didn't like talking to people. A trait you had in common, you would soon find out. He was actually very well-mannered and he probably had realized that the way he had spoken to you could have made him come across as someone that he wasn't. While he usually didn't care about other people's perception of him, he still thought he was in the wrong.

Mind you, he didn't apologize. Not openly at least. The next time you saw him walking into the gym, he acknowledged your presence with a tilt of his head. It wasn't much, for some people it could actually be seen as rude but it was the first time he "reached out to you" and you appreciated it. Besides, it was just the way he was.