#studentreader

pairing/AU: university AU – student!tom holland x female student!reader

summary: there’s this girl in tom’s class that he can’t seem to get out of his head. she’s pretty, funny and kind, and every time she looks at him, he gets weak in his knees. but he can’t seem to find the courage to ask her out. not until a friday night uni party turns into the best night of his life

warnings:lovesick tom (like super lovesick), fluff, mentions and drinking ofalcohol, swearing

word count:6.1k

a/n: this story is heavily inspired by the two songs powders by alt-j and don’t delete the kisses by wolf alice so i’d recommend giving them a listen if you haven’t heard them before. both songs are super soft and i wanted to capture that in my fic. this is also my first attempt at writing from tom’s perspective, so we’ll see how that’s gonna go. english is not my first language so if you see any spelling/grammar mistakes, no you didn’t (also i’m not a writer)

Tom’s backpack felt heavy on his back as he stepped inside Professor Larsen’s auditorium. He really didn’t want to be here at 8am on a Monday morning for a three-hour lecture, and he especially didn’t want to be here this Monday morning. Everything that could go wrong had gone wrong today, and it was only 8am. He’d snoozed his alarm a few times too many this morning – leaving him short on time to get ready. He hadn’t had the chance to eat any breakfast either, since his roommate and best friend Harrison hadn’t done the food shop he’d promised to do during the weekend, leaving their shared kitchen snubbed of anything resembling breakfast food. They didn’t even have bread! To make matters worse, when Tom stepped foot outside his flat and into the rainy London air, his bus had driven passed, splashing and soaking him in puddle water, and making him late for class.

So here he was in Professor Larsen’s auditorium. Fifteen minutes late, stomach screaming out for food, and his clothes soaked through to the bone. He quietly made his way down the stairs, careful not to draw any attention to himself and interrupting the class. Half-way down the stairs he found the blond head of hair belonging to his best friend. He sat down with a huff at the end seat, giving Harrison an annoyed look.

“Whydid you leave without me? And why didn’t you do the food shop this weekend? It’s yourturn!”, Tom harshly whispered to his friend.

“Wow, someone clearly woke up on the wrong side of the bed today…”, Harrison’s whisper trailed off when he saw Tom’s soaked clothes. “Wait, what happened to you?”

“Whathappened to me!? A bus splashed puddle water all over me is what happened to me!”, Tom scream whispered back. Just as Harrison was about to answer Tom, a hush and a “Can you guys be quiet?” came from the row behind them.

Tom felt anger bubbling inside of him. It really wasn’t like him, what he was about to do, but this day was testing his patience. He quickly turned around, ready to curse this person out, but when he saw the girl sitting right behind him, all his anger simmered down.

He felt like he’d been punched in the gut. She was breathtakingly beautiful. Looking at this girl he felt like all air had left his lungs, like he’d run a marathon and now needed to catch his breath. When she locked eyes with him, one eyebrow raised waiting for an answer, Tom felt his cheeks warm up. “Yeah… ehm…sorry”, he softly whispered before he slowly turned around in his seat, ears burning. When did he get this shy?

The first hour of the lecture Tom had a hard time focusing on anything Professor Larsen said. His thoughts wandering to the girl behind him. Who was this girl? And why hadn’t he seen her before? He pondered.He was well over a month into the fall semester already, and he’d been an uncharacteristically good student these first four weeks, showing up for all his classes. He should have seen her in this class!

“Okay you guys! It’s 09.15 so I think it’s time to take a break. Be back here in 15 minutes!”, Professor Larsen’s voice brought Tom back to reality. He had been lost in his thoughts. Beside him Harrison stood to his feet. “I’m gonna go get a coffee in the canteen”, he said. “I’ll come with”, Tom mumbled as he quickly shut his laptop, where his blank word document had stared back at him for the past hour.

When Tom got up from his seat, he saw that you’d done the same. You had your back turned, chatting with another girl on the row behind you while you waited for your friend beside you to gather her things. When he passed you, while climbing the auditorium stairs, he quickly nodded his head in your direction asking Harrison: “Do you know who that girl is?”

Harrison turned his head following Tom’s eyes, “Who? Y/n?”

“Y/n?”, Tom questioned.

“Yeah, y/n! She was in Professor Stanley’s class last semester, and in Professor Nguyen’s class our first semester. She’s always hanging out with Amira and Sophie”

“Sophie? As in…”,

“Max’s girlfriend”, Harrison finished Tom’s sentence.

This new information puzzled Tom. How has he never seen this girl before? You had a lot of mutual friends. He’d done a group project with Amira in Professor Nguyen’s class, and he hangs out with Max all the time.

15 minutes later, back in the auditorium, Tom quickly gave up on listening to Professor Larsen. He couldn’t get you out of his head, constantly fighting the urge to turn around in his seat to steal a glance at you. When the class was over, he’d decided that he’s was going to talk to you. But when he turned around after gathering his things, you had looked at him while giving him a warm smile making his mind go blank. He stood paralyzed watching you quickly put your stuff away in your tote bag as he searched the depth of his mind for something to say to you. But before he could find something to say, Harrison nudged his arm, urging Tom get a move on.

The rest of the week you plagued Tom’s mind. He’d memorized how you’d looked that day, and the smile you’d sent him had replayed in his mind a million times. How awkwardly he had stood watching you, struggling to find something to say, had also replayed in his mind a million times, making him cringe at himself wishing the ground could have swallowed him up where he stood. He really wanted to get to know you. He really wanted to ask you out. There was just something about you that drew him in. Something he’s never felt before. You made him nervous – something he never got around girls. Tom had always been well aware of how a lot of girls wanted him. And ever since he started university two years ago, he’d had no problem finding a girl for a one-night stand after a drunken night. But this, you. The thought of talking to you, made him feel like an insecure twelve-year-old boy again.

When Monday rolled around again Tom strutted confidently into the auditorium for Professor Larsen’s 8am class. He had a plan. He was going to talk to you today. When he saw you seated in the same spot where you’d sat last Monday, next to Sophie, he quickly snagged the seat behind you. When the first break rolled around it was go time! The plan was to be set in motion. He was going to say hi to Sophie, hoping she would introduce him to you, and then ask if they wanted to join him in buying a cup of coffee in the canteen. Sophie was his way in. It was a solid plan! What could go wrong?

He spoke too soon… he chickened out is what could go wrong! The kind smile you sent him as you stood from your seat turned his brain to mush and he couldn’t do anything other than send you a lovestruck smile back. He was sure that if someone asked him what his name was in that moment, he wouldn’t be able to tell them. So… his plan had failed – but next Monday, that’s when he’ll talk to you!

But…

Hedidn’t. He chickened out, again! After chickening out the fifth week in a row – Tom thought to himself that this was getting ridiculous. What was going on with him? He had never been this shy when it came to a girl. Harrison had caught on three weeks in when Tom had asked a little too many of what Tom had thought was subtle questions about you.

“Why don’t you just get her number from the class group chat and send her a text if you’re such a coward?”, he’d teasingly posed. “Ask her if she wants to study together or something? God knows you need it if you’re gonna pass Professor Larsen’s class. You’re too busy staring at her like a creep to hear a single thing of what Larsen’s talking about”

“I don’t stare at her!”, Tom said defensibly, “…and I’m not a creep!”

“No, you’re right! You’re not a creep, you’re a weirdo”, a teasing smile danced over Harrison’s lips.

“Fuck you!”, Tom shoved Harrison’s shoulder as he mumbled “and stop quoting Radiohead you pretentious fuck”. But maybe Harrison had a point? He could just text you, right? But what would he say?

“hi, this is tom. i sit behind you in professor larsen’s class. i got your number from the class group chat and i was wondering if you wanted to hang out sometime? xxx”

He reread the message he’d typed out in the notes app. Did he come off to strong? Maybe it’s the kisses at the end? He deleted them. Then he typed and retyped the massage a hundred times, but he knew in the end, he would never send it. Instead, he continued showing up to Professor Larsen’s class to sit behind the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen, hoping that this was the Monday he’d grow some balls and finally talk to you.

The strong scent of the perfumery hit him like a brick wall, making him feel a little light-headed as he stepped inside the store. It was late November, but the perfumery had already put up their Christmas decorations and signs advertising their holiday sales. Tom adjusted his beanie and unbuttoned his winter jacket before he fished out his phone from his pocket. He searched through his messages until he found the one from his mother telling him what to buy for his little brother Paddy’s birthday. He wanted a cologne apparently. Why his fourteen-year-old brother wished for cologne for his birthday he did not understand, but Tom trusted his mother’s intuition.

“Hi welcome, do you want some help?”, a sweet voice asked. He was about to tell the voice that he’d be fine without any help, but when he looked up from his phone, he was met with your kind eyes.

“Oh… ehm… yes! I’m looking for this co-co-cologne?”, he stuttered out as he held up his phone showing a picture his mother had sent him of the cologne his brother wanted. He could feel a flush of warmth travel to his cheeks as you leaned in a little to get a better look at his phone.

“Oh, yes of course! We have that cologne over here”, you took off – walking deeper into the store. Tom followed you, taking big steps to keep up with your fast pace.

“Here it is!”, you smiled as you gestured to the cologne on the shelf. “We have it in two sizes: one that’s 50ml and the other that’s 100ml”, you pointed to the different sizes as you talked.

“Oh… ehm… I think I’ll buy the 100ml one?”, Tom questioned. His mum hadn’t said anything about if he should buy the 50ml or the 100ml one. But… the bigger the better, right? Tom thought.

“Excellent choice– ”, you chirped as you took the cologne of the shelf, “this fragrance should elevate your handsomeness”, you looked up from the packaging giving Tom your signature kind smile. That smile Tom had come to love over these past weeks.

“Then I’ll take a pallet”, Tom joked earning him a giggle from you. He could feel his chest fill with warmth at the sound. He made you laugh like that!

“Anything else you were looking for?”, you asked while looking around the store.

“Ehm no, nothing else”, he shook his head.

“Okay, then”, you said as you guided him to the register.

While you signed into the register you asked, “Would you like this gift wrapped?”

Tom fished out his wallet from his jacket. “No, no thank you”. Why did he say that?It’s a gift!

Tom watched your hand as you worked the register. “Okay, that’ll be £49.95”

£49.95!! This gift was going to be a lot more expensive than he’d anticipated. Does his mother think he’s made of money? He’s a broke uni student – he can’t spend this much money on something like this. But he couldn’t back out now with you waiting for him. With your eyes on him, he hesitated a little before he reluctantly swiped his card.

“Can I ask you something?”, you said as you handed him his bag and receipt. He could feel a jolt of electricity travel through his body as you accidently bumped into his hand.

A little startled he cleared his throat before he answered, “Yeah, sure”

“You’re Tom, right? Harrison’s roommate? You sit behind me in Professor Larsen’s class?”, your finger unsurely pointing at him as you asked your question. Your nose scrunched up like you were afraid you were mistaking him for someone else.

“Yeah, that’s me”, he confirmed with a nod, “and you’re y/n right? You’re friends with Amira and Sophie?”.

“Yeah, that’s me”, you parroted with a nod. A smile spread across his lips. He was actually talking to you! And you knew his name!

“What do you think of Professor Larson? Have you noticed how he always takes those weird breaths at the end of his sentences? You know like…”, you tried to mimic Professor Larsen’s annoying breaths, making Tom chuckle.

“I have noticed that! I actually find it hard to pay attention in his class”, Tom chuckled. But not because of Professor Larson’s weird breaths, he thought. “Yeah, me too! I get so caught up in his weird breathing- I’m always thinking he’s choking or something”, you laughed. You both talked for a little bit about the class and the last lecture until you asked him if he was going to Max’s party this Friday.

“Yeah! I’m gonna be there”, he nodded his head while he swung the bag with the cologne back and forth. “Me too!”, his heart skipped a beat at the smile you sent him. Then the bell by the door rang, announcing the arrival of a new customer. Your eyes left his for a moment as you greeted the old women that had arrived.

When you looked back at him he asked, “I’ll see you there then?”.

“Yes!”, your smile widened.

Tom was two beers deep when he saw you walking into Max’s flat with Amira and Sophie in tow. Harrison’s voice vanished into the background as a big smile blossomed on Tom’s face. He watched you from across the room, as you greeted some of your classmates. He couldn’t take his eyes off you. He thought you looked so beautiful in your emerald dress. Then you turned your head, locking eyes with him in between the crowd of partygoers. It was like the entire world reduced to just the two of you. Just the two of you in this room, while the rest of the world faded away.

“Tom?”

The nudge he felt in his side, as Harrison called his name, brought him back to reality.

“Hm?”, he tore his eyes away from you, joining the conversation with his friends again.

“What do you think of that?”, Harrison asked, “Think of what?”, Tom questioned as his eyes trailed back to you, hoping to lock eyes with you again. He felt a wave of disappointment wash over him when he saw you’d turned your back, having a lively conversation with your friends.

Harrison followed Tom’s gaze and rolled his eyes, “Mate, are you seriously stillpining over y/n? It’s been like almost three months!”. Just as Tom was about to answer his best friend, he saw you excusing yourself from your friend group, making your way through the sweaty bodies, and into the kitchen.

“I’m gonna get another beer”, Tom didn’t answer his friend. “You still have half of your beer left?”, Harrison pointed out with a raised eyebrow. Giving Harrison a shrug, Tom chugged what was left of his beer, before shoving the empty bottle into the hands of a baffled Harrison, and slipping away towards the kitchen.

Your head cocked up from the concoction you were making, as you heard the creaking of the floorboard under Tom’s feet as he entered the kitchen.

“Fancy seeing you here”, Tom joked as he made his way over to where you stood by the kitchen island.

“Yeah, because I didn’t tell you I’d be here at all”, you quipped back flashing him a cheeky smile. His heart skip a beat again, like it always did when you smiled at him. It couldn’t be good for his health, but he’d take his chances at a heart attack any day over not seeing you smile again.

“Soo… whatcha making?”, he leaned in a little closer trying to get a better look at what you were pouring into your cup. You scrunched up your nose, oh my god Tom thought it was so cute, before you held up the bottle of tequila you had found in midst of the sea of bottles on the kitchen island.

“Tequila?”, you chuckled, “not sure what to mix it with though”, you said as you rummaged through the makeshift bar.

“Hmm…”, Tom hummed as he leaned over the island “what about… pineapple juice?”, he proposed picking up the carton of juice and presenting it like a waiter in a restaurant would present a fancy and expensive bottle of wine. The gesture earned him a small giggle – a giggle that made his already wide grin even wider.

“Pineapple juice? That’s what the chef’s recommending this evening?”, you asked as your fingers found your chin, stroking it like you were deep in thought, mulling this decision over in your head.

“Oh yes!”, he held the carton up to get a better look at the carton of juice. “This fine carton of Sainsbury’s 100% pure squeezed pineapple juice, not from concentrate, is the best of the best we have to offer this evening Miss y/n! You can’t make a better choice for your drink than this!”, he said confidently.

You nodded your head with a serious look on your face, fingers still stroking your chin. You were playing along to his silly bit. “Okay, you’ve sold me on the pineapple juice”, you decided, pushing your cup towards Tom.

“Excellent choice Miss! Say when”, he said as he started pouring your drink. “When”. You grabbed your cup, swirling the liquid around, before your brought it to your lips.

“So?”, he asked after you took your first sip.

“Honestly? Not bad at all”, you giggled.

“Oh thank god! Because suggesting pineapple juice was purely a shot in the dark”, Tom said as his right hand traveled to his forehead pretending to wipe the sweat of it, “no pun intended”. He earned himself another one of your cute giggles which prompted a proud feeling of accomplishment to settle in his stomach. He wanted to make you laugh like that for the rest of the night.

“What are you having then?”, you asked peeking over your cup at him.

“Would you find me boring if I told you I wanted to grab another beer?”, Tom asked.

“No, not at all!”, you answered back. “I just thought you weren’t like other girls”, you said with faked disappointment. “I thought maybe you were gonna make the weirdest drink I’d ever seen that would look super distrusting, but taste delicious or something”, you cheekily said.

“So sorry to disappoint”, Tom laughed as he grabbed a beer from the six pack on the kitchen counter. “I guess I’m just like other girls”, he shrugged as he took a sip of his beer. It was a little warm, but right now he couldn’t care less.

“Bummer…”, you sighed, “here I though you were more than just a pretty face”. Just as the words left your mouth you took a sip of your drink. As if the words you’d just uttered weren’t supposed to be said out loud and instead could be taken back and swallowed down, mixed with tequila and pineapple juice.

“A pretty face huh? Are you flirting with me y/n?”, Tom teasingly bumped his shoulder against yours.

“Oh, that’s classified information I’m afraid. So, I can neither confirm nor deny those claims”, you giggled.

“Ah man… classified information huh?”, Tom sighed, “that’s a bummer because if you were flirting with me y/n, then I would tell you how beautiful I think you look right now in your dress, and how I haven’t been able to take my eyes off you ever since you walked in here”. Your eyes widened at Tom’s words while a shy smile appeared on your face. “That is, if you were flirting with me of course”, Tom added. Your smile grew wider as you answered him back, “Of course”.

The rest of the party you two never left the kitchen – staying there talking the whole time. Tom didn’t see his friends for the rest of the night, and neither did you. You were so easy to talk to. You laughed at all his stupid jokes, and you played along to his silly bits. When he was talking to you it was like time stood still – it was just the two of you in this world. The two of you illuminated by the dim yellow kitchen light. A light that maybe would be harsh and unflattering under normal circumstances, but right now cast a soft glow over your face – making you look so pretty that Tom was thinking that his knees surely would buck under from his weight any minute now.

“Oh my god! Is that really the time?”, you suddenly said cutting yourself off mid-sentence. You were in the middle of telling him about the plot to your favourite film just as your eyes had flickered to the oven behind him showing the time. Your sudden new interest in the oven behind him made Tom turn his head too. How could it be past 2am already?It felt like you’ve only been talking for an hour at most!

“Maybe I should start to head home?”, you said. “I could walk you home if you want?”, Tom posed – not ready to say goodbye to you just yet.

You nodded your head as a shy smile ghosted over your lips, “I would really like that”.

With your hand in his you dragged Tom towards the hall and the door. Trainers, boots, and high heels haphazardly covered the floor of the hall – flooding it with shoes. You giggled as you carefully tried to step over the shoes, making your way towards the door while looking for your own shoes. Tom followed your steps, treading carefully in the gaps you’d made. Suddenly, you tripped over a pair of docs. Tom reacted quickly, clutching your hand tighter as he pulled you towards his body, catching your fall. Being so close to you, he caught a whiff of your perfume and floral notes filled the air with sweetness.

“Thanks”, you looked up at him as you let out a shy giggle. Your hand came to rest on his chest – steadying yourself. Inside Tom beamed at the touch, while he hoped you couldn’t feel how quick his heart was beating through his chest from being this close to you.

“No problem, darling”, his tongue grazed the front of his teeth as he teasingly added, “I just didn’t think you would fall for me this quickly”. You rolled your eyes at his words as you let out another one of your cute giggles.

“That’s a smooth one–“, you said with a hint of teasing sarcasm in your voice, “almost sounds like you rehearsed it”, you raised a questioning eyebrow as you patted his chest.

“Maybe I did?”, Tom nonchalantly shrugged, “Or maybe I’m serving you the best of the best pick-up lines this drunk nogging can produce at 2am?”, he pointed a finger at his head while a cheeky grin was spread on his face.

“The best of the best, huh?”, you played along. Tom nodded his head, the grin never leaving his face, “It doesn’t get any better than this, darling!”. You giggled again as you shook your head at his attempt at flirting with you. Then you stepped away from him, your eyes searching for your shoes. You both put your shoes and coats on in silence, only the voices from the other partygoers speaking over the music filled the space between you.

“Ready?”, Tom asked after he’d watched you twist your scarf twice around your head. You looked at him with soft eyes as you nodded your head, “Yes”. Then you two were swiftly out the door, walking together into the December night. A French exit. An Irish goodbye.

When Tom woke up the morning after a grin was permanently glued to his lips. Like a supercut, images of the night before, of you, flooded his mind. How his heart had skipped a beat the first time he laid his eyes on you. How pretty he thought you’d looked in your emerald dress. How your eyes would shine as you giggled at his stupid jokes. And how your eyes would glimmer when you talked about the things you loved. Oh, how he wanted to be something you loved.

When he walked home to his and Harrison’s flat, after walking you home, he’d felt like he was walking on pink clouds. You had been everything he wished you’d be and more. Was it too soon to think that he loved you? Of course it is! What’s going on with him? Who are you turning him into? He didn’t even know you – but he felt like he did. He felt like you’d known each other for years, you were so easy to talk to. Maybe he did love you. What he did know for sure though, was that he was falling for you fast. He was falling for you embarrassinglyfast!

“What happened to you yesterday man? I didn’t see you at all at the party”, Harrison’s voice brought Tom out of his daydream and back to reality. Standing from their sofa, where he’d spent the majority of his Saturday morning, he followed Harrison into their kitchen, pondering over what to tell his best friend.

Harrison was in the middle of making himself a cup of tea as Tom blurted out: “Ehm… I kind of ended up talking to y/n the whole night”, a hand came up to rub the back of his neck, “and then I walked her home”, Tom had a hard time fighting the smile tugging on his lips.

Stopping mid tea making, Harrison turned around with a cheeky grin on his face. “Walked her home you say? Spill!”, he said – one eyebrow raised.

“Mate, it wasn’t like that… I didn’t hook up with her. We talked, we flirted, and then I walked her home and came back here”

Harrison was confused now. His eyebrows were knotted together, and his thoughts spinning around in his head. “Wait? You didn’thook up with her? I though you liked her? You literally haven’t shut up about her for months!”

“Ido really like her! And that’s why I didn’t hook up with her– I didn’t want it to be just a one night stand… I want there to be more– and especially after talking to her last night”, and then Tom launched into one of his many speeches Harrison’s had already heard about you.

“Oh god… please make it stop!”, Harrison groaned. “You’re so whipped for this girl! You’re like a teenage girl, you know that mate? Do you write about how she rocks your world in your diary too now?”, he teases.

“Fuck off, you div!”, Tom flips him off, “I thought you’d be happy for me man!”

Tom’s reaction and grumpy face earned him a full belly laugh from Harrison. After calming down a little, Harrison says, “Of course I’m happy for you mate! But mostly I’m happy for myself, because I really can’t listen to any more of your speeches about how much you like her, or I’ll jump off the roof!”

He hated to admit that Harrison was right – he did sound like a teenage girl. You had taken over his mind, turned his life upside down, made him lose his self-control. He wanted to tell the world about you. He wanted to tell everyone that’ll listen how breathtakingly amazing you really are.

He couldn’t wait to see you again in class come Monday.

Tom felt light as a feather as he stepped inside Professor Larsen’s auditorium 15 minutes early. He’d woken up to a clear blue sky with the promise of a rare sunny day in December. His body was buzzing with energy – never having been this excited for Professor Larsen’s three-hour lecture. Slowly making his way down the auditorium stairs he was searching for only one head of hair – yours. But to his disappointment he couldn’t find you. As he sat down in his regular seat behind where you used to sit, he tried to tell himself that you would be here. He was just early. Fishing out his phone from his winter jacket he started mindlessly scrolling – trying to take his mind of his nerves and the butterflies fluttering in his tummy.

“This seat taken?”, a voice said pulling him from his phone. He knew it was you, even before he teared his eyes from his phone, and meeting your kind gaze.

“No, not at all!”, Tom beamed, removing his jacket from the seat beside him.

“Thanks”, you mumbled as you sat down. He watched you in silence as you took of your winter coat and fished your laptop out of your tote bag. When you were settled you turned towards him. God, you looked so pretty.

“Hi”, you smiled.

“Hi”, Tom parroted.

“How are you?”, you asked him as you leaned back in your seat.

“Great, now that you’re here”, Tom answered. Playfully you rolled your eyes at his response.

“What?”, he teased.

“You’re such a flirt– do you know that?”, you giggled.

“Only to pretty ladies who helps me buy cologne and sits beside me in class”, Tom said as he placed his hand on the back of your auditorium chair. You rolled your eyes again while Tom tried to keep his cool as he watched you shift a little closer to him in your chair.

“So… how was your weekend?”, you asked – a hint of a mischievous glint in your eye.

“Oh, you know… I went to this party on Friday where I met this beautiful girl. She was wearing this emerald coloured dress and I couldn’t take my eyes off her the entire night. What about you? How was your weekend?”, he winked. Just as you opened your mouth to give him an answer, Professor Larson’s voice boomed throughout the auditorium: “Good Monday morning– let’s get started on our second to last lecture”.

As usual Tom had a hard time paying attention during Professor Larson’s lecturers – and especially today with how close you were sitting to him. He did try to pay attention – he really did. But every time he tried; his eyes would have a mind of their own wandering to you. He studied you from his seat. How you’d scrunch up your nose as you tried to keep up with what Professor Larson’s was saying, while writing out your notes in your spiral notebook. How you’d nod along every now and then to something your he said. And how you would press the end of your pen to your lips as you were deep in thought. Oh, howhe wished he was that pen–… okay, maybe Harrison was right. He waswhipped.

“Okay, that’s it for today everyone! I’ll see you all back here next Monday for our last class before the exam”, Professor Larson’s voice brought Tom back to reality.

“Do you want to go get a coffee?”, your soft voice asked him as you both packed away your stuff.

“I would love to go get a coffee!”, Tom beamed, standing from his seat throwing his backpack over his shoulder.

It was crazy how time flew when Tom was together with you. You had both agreed that the coffee they served in your uni’s canteen was, although cheap, painfully bad. And instead opted for a cute café a few minutes walk from campus. Tom had never been there before, but you insisted on it having the best coffee you’ve ever had, and how you thought it was the best place to study because of how quiet it was. And he had to admit: it was the best coffee he’s ever had, and if he ever needed a quiet place to study – he would probably want to go here.

One coffee turned to two coffees, and then two coffees turned to cups of tea while the short and sunny December day turned to evening. Sitting at a table by the window your conversation had died down a little, and a comfortable silence had wrapped itself around you like a warm blanket, as you watched stressed Londoner’s hurrying past the café window, carrying bags of Christmas shopping.

“Want to go for a walk?”, you asked when you’d both finished your cups of tea. You’d occupied the same table by the window for hours now.

Out on the street, outside the café, you had a bounce in your step. Above both your heads the street was illuminated by Christmas lights. They glowed like stars on a clear night sky, and the warm and soft light transformed Tom’s world into a glowing vignette, with you in the centre. Reaching out your hand and intertwining them with Tom’s, you dragged him through the streets of London. Together you walked around aimlessly for hours hand in hand – talking and messing around. But eventually all good things must come to an end.

Standing outside the door to your flat Tom thinks back to the last time he had stood right where he was standing right now. Back to Friday night when he’d walked you home. You’d been leaning your side against the door just like you were doing now. And your hands had been interlocked just like they were now. And Tom, he really hadn’t wanted to leave you – just like he didn’t want to leave you now.

“I had a really good time with you today y/n!”, Tom said shyly – breaking the silence. Your eyes were following his thumb rubbing softly over the back of your hand, as a smile tugged at your lips at his words. You looked up at him under fluttering eyelashes.

“I had a really good time with you today too Tom!”, you voice barely a whisper as you moved a little closer. The closer you got the louder and faster Tom felt his heart beating.

“Maybe we could do this again then?”, Tom asked as his eyes fell to your lips. He wanted to kiss you so bad. To feel your soft lips against his. To make you his, and for you to make him yours. He wanted to be yourman.

“I would really like that!”, you breathed out – your eyes flicking from his eyes to his mouth. Tom leaned in a little closer to your face, his lips hovering over yours. When you made no sign of moving away, he looked into your kind eyes and boldly asked, “can I kiss you?”.

Your signature wide smile blossomed on your face at his words and when you nodded your head your nose, cold from the December air, softly bumped into his. With your consent, Tom closed the space between you, and his lips touched yours. You leaned into his kiss and kissed him back, making his stomach burst with fluttering butterflies. Your lips tasted like green tea and Tom found himself craving more of your touch. His hand travelled to your waist, while his other cupped your cheek bringing you even closer to his body.

Running out of air, you both reluctantly broke the kiss. Your hands had found their way to his face, cupping it, while your forehead rested against his. “That was– “, Tom started before you cut him off.

“Kiss me again”, you whispered as you leaned in closer. There was nothing in this world he wanted to do more than to kiss you again. So, he did. He closed the space between you and captured your soft lips in another breathtaking kiss.

tagging:@mayal0pez​,@userholland​,@kissholland,@justapurrcat​​ (tagging you guys since you interacted with my other post about this)