chapter twenty
that makes us a family, right?
Wednesday 7th March 2018

It had only been a week since Tom Hiddleston had taken Lyra and Asher to their school. However, it had already become his favourite thing to do.

The wind blew softly against the man's cheeks as he and Olivia walked hand in hand through the playground to stand outside Lyra's door. It was Asher's birthday, and the pair were both tingling with nerves as they thought of the gifts they had got the boy.

As Tom and Olivia hadn't wanted to push the "co-parenting" on each other, they'd got him separate presents. Neither of them had admitted their love, but they didn't feel it was necessary.

"You understand you're part of our family now, right?" Olivia blurted out as she watched Tom's thumb rub soothing caresses into her skin. She looked to him, a small smile on her lips. This was it. This was her moment. She had never felt so sure of anything in her life, as she gazed into his piercing blue eyes. This whole activity felt so right that she wanted to pounce on the man and shower him with kisses.

Not only was her partner in love with her children, but he enjoyed these moments more than even herself. Tom and Olivia were stood hand in hand in a school playground, waiting for Olivia's children. And she had never felt more like a family until this moment.

"The kids, they love you with all their hearts, and I can see you love them just as much." Olivia went on, but she hesitated, as she always will, when it comes to admitting her feelings. "And that makes us a family, right?"

"Olivia," Tom mumbled, as he pulled her to a quieter spot in the play ground. "You have absolutely no idea how happy that has made me feel."

"But what sort of family is one where we don't love each other?" Olivia asked, carefully and wearily.

Tom stared at her, and his eyes glasses over with a clouded and hurt emotion. "You don't love me?"

"I love you so much." She whispered. Tom's lips began to form into a smile as the creases in his face formed roads of possibilities and joy.

"I love you too." He replied loudly, he was proud, and incredibly joyous. Tom was about to pull Olivia into a kiss, until he was interrupted by heavy slapping feet and large excited breathes. "Mummy! Tommy!" Lyra exclaimed.

"Hello, honey. How was school?" Olivia smiled after Lyra gave her the signature sloppy kiss.

"Amazing!" Lyra heaved out, and she looked about she was burst with information of a long and exciting day. "Oh no! I left my lunchbox!"

"Don't worry, darling, I'll get it for you." Tom volunteered, but secretly, he was dying to chat to Andrew, Lyra's teacher again. The pair had hit it off quite easily over the last week, finding common ground in a love for Wimbledon and Shakespeare. Andrew had often commented on how great of a teacher Tom would make.

"Thank you, love." Olivia smiled softly at him, and the two girls waited patiently for him to return. Lyra just babbled on about her day, which included art class, maths, religion and golden time. She was ecstatic that her and her friends had played tag for 40 minutes because of their good behaviour.

"Mummy, mummy!" Lyra started to Bob up and down on her feet as she saw Asher's classroom door open up. "Is Asher opening his presents when we get home?"

It was Asher's 9th birthday, and they were having a family evening. His birthday party has in over a week's time, and he'd picked laser tag and was allowed 10 friends. Lyra was the sort of personality to get very excited on birthday's, so much so that Asher always lets her open one of his presents.

"Of course, we can't make him wait any longer! Can we?" Olivia picked up her daughter, and placed her on her hip. She struggled immensely, Lyra was getting too old for this sort of treatment. The mother signalled to Tom that she was going towards Asher's classroom. The actor nodded quickly, and began to finish up his conversation.

The pair waited patiently at Asher's door as the boy stood there and handed out his birthday chocolate. It was another one of those traditions that made children more excited to celebrate their birth; sharing it with other people. It wasn't long until Tom was by their side, and Lyra wriggled from her mother's grasp to hold his hand.

The young girl liked Tom more than she could ever imagine she would. His touch was comforting, and he was become a figure that Lyra had yearned for her whole life. She had only cried to her mother once over her jealousy of not having a Dad. She turned to Tom in that moment, and looked at him with nervous eyes.

"Tom?" She questioned, and the man looked down at her with a smile. "Are you going to be my dad?" At the question, Tom froze. He had no idea how to answer that question, and if being a Dad was something he 100% wanted in this very moment.

"Lyra, darling." Olivia sighed.

"I thought mummy talked to you about this?" Tom took the lead. He had to know how to answer questions like this, or being a father would be out of the image.

"She did, but I wanted to hear your answer." Lyra looked to the floor and fidgeted her feet.

"My answer is the same as Mum's." He squatted to her level, and sorted out one of her loose parts of hair. "When you are an adult, you will understand that adults need to be careful. Me and your mummy need to be sure we want to be with one another forever. And then, if we do, then we can talk about it then." Tom smiled softly at the girl. "Is that okay?"

"Yes," She mumbled, and Lyra allowed herself to fall into his arms, a comforting and hopeful barrier of warmth.

"Good. I love you, Lyra, okay?" She nodded against his chest, and Tom looked to Olivia with a soft look. The mother had tears in her eyes, but her boyfriend didn't need to ask why.

Asher then came bounding up to the family with empty bags of sweets. "Look mum! We had the exact amount for my class! Thank you." He was bouncing on his feet, and the energy flew through his body and created an electric grin on his lips.

"You're welcome, Ash. Now, shall we get you hone to open your presents?"

"I have presents!?" He squealed, and Tom almost mistook him for Lyra with his high pitched excitement. It made the mother nearly chuckle as Asher knew that he had some, but it was adorable that he had learnt to be polite and grateful.

By the time the family got home, Asher and Lyra seemed to be on the biggest sugar rush Tom had ever witnessed. However, neither had had any extra sugar that day, but their veins bursted with excitement and rush.

Whilst Asher face-timed his Grandparents, Aunt Lizzy and Uncle Eric (as they were still staying with Olivia's parents in the US), Lyra not-so-secretly decorated the Avengers birthday cake. She had edible marvel characters and different coloured icing in piping bags to write and decorate. Olivia and Tom looked through the Dominoes menu, as that was Asher's birthday dinner pick. The mother had always adored his love for pizza, and was grateful his favourite takeaway was dominoes, as it was the mother's comfort food.

"4 large should be enough if Ellie is joining, honey, you know the kids won't eat one each." Tom stated as they skimmed through the flimsy paper littered with pictures of mouth watering pizza.

"But what if it's not? They're not taking any of mine." Olivia joked. Tom chuckled at her and kissed her cheek quickly, she was grateful for the flood of warmth.

"Alright. Three large for us, and two small s for the kids, then we can get some sides. We have birthday cake, there's no need to overdo it and then have to chuck stuff in the bin." Tom was right, and the mother was grateful for it. You'd think with 9 years of experience, the mother would be able to handle a dominoes delivery.

"Okay," She smiled softly at his and moved her hand towards his hair to hook some of his loose curls behind his ear. "I really appreciate everything you do for us."

"Don't be silly, Via." He placed his hands on her hips and tugged her lightly towards him. Tom placed a long kiss on her lips, but they were unfortunately interrupted by the door bell. "I'll get it," Tom volunteer's. "You get the pizza."

As Tom was staying at Olivia's for the week, Bobby hopped by his feet and followed the man to the front door. He was incredibly excited, chewing on all of Asher's wrapping paper as he opened his presents. The actor flung open the door with a beam, shortly after picking the small dog up into his arms so he didn't escape the apartment.

"Hi, Ellie, it's so lovely to finally meet you." Tom beamed at the girl, who stood in shock and swallowed slowly as she took in the man.

"Tom, wow, hi. I'm so sorry, I would've prepared myself if I knew you'd be here." The young girl tried to relax, however her movements were still stiff as Tom gave her a welcoming hug and kiss on the cheek.

"I'm sure Olivia did that on purpose, she's beginning to pick up Asher's habits." Tom laughed as he welcomed the friend, slash babysitter, into the Jones' home. She laughed at this comment, and was grateful Tom was helping her calm down.

"I'm honestly such a huge fan, and if I were to text my friends right now, which I won't - don't worry - they would be super jealous and knocking on the door." Ellie explained with a blush.

"I appreciate that." Tom remarked on the secret to friends.

"I respect Liv's privacy, and the kids more than anything. I can't imagine how difficult this transition is going to be." For a young girl, Tom thought of her as smart. He liked the idea of Asher and Lyra's babysitter being Ellie, someone mature for her age.

"You're amazing, love." Tom smiled at her, not realising the charm in his words and how giddy it made the teenager. "Anyway, let's go let Ash know you're here." The pair walked into the living room, and Ellie walked towards the birthday boy, who was showing off his presents to his grandparents.

"Happy Birthday, Ash!" The older girl passed him a present wrapped in crisp brown paper.

"Wow thank you, Ellie!" He smiled and took the present, he went to open it in front of her and his grandparents, but Bobby came bounding up to him. The puppy began to jump up at the boy and try and get the paper.

"Bobby!" Tom shouted and ran over to Asher. He scooped the dog up and told him off. It was only until he looked back to Asher who was thanking him that he realised he was sat in front of Olivia's parents for the first time.

"And you must be Tom." The woman on the other end remarked. She had a small, polite smile, and Mr Jones just looked at Tom sternly.

"Indeed I am, it's lovely to finally, sort of," Tom chuckled and scratched his neck slowly. "meet you Mr and Mrs Jones." Olivia winced slightly as she scrolled through the dominoes app. She knew her parents wouldn't correct him, they were polite, however she knew it would take them more than one conversation to trust her boyfriend. It had taken them a month to accept and appreciate Eric, all because of Olivia's ex husband. They both wanted to protect their daughters, and she couldn't blame them.

"Wow!" Asher gasped as he finally ripped open his present, luckily interrupting the conversation. "A Lego Avengers set!" He flipped the box to look at the back with wide and excited eyes. "Ellie thank you, thank you!" He ran up to the girl and squeezed her tightly.

"You're more than welcome Ash." She smiled affectionately. Making Asher and Lyra happy was one of her main goals in life, as Olivia had done the same for her when she was young.

"Tom! Can you help me build it after school tomorrow?" Tom didn't need to try and impress Olivia's parents with his answer, as he knew that being himself would be enough.

"Of course I can, buddy." He smiled at him. "Let's have a look at what characters are in it." Tom let him collapse into his crossed legs in front of the iPad as the birthday boy looked at the Lego box.

"Look, Nana and Paps!" Asher put the box to the iPad, but Olivia had to stifle a laugh as they definitely wouldn't be able to see the blurry box. "It's got Loki in it! Did you know Tom is Loki!?"

"Indeed we did, sweet pea." Asher's Nana laughed lightly. Her American accent was always refreshing for Olivia to hear, seeming as Liz's was the only one she heard every day.

Thankfully, the young boy had opened up an easy conversation for Olivia's parents and Tom to talk about as Asher ran off to show Ellie all his new presents. The mother watched hopefully as the trio chatted about their same passion for film, and she hoped with all her heart, that they would fall in love with him quicker than she did.

word count: 2303
note: THANK YOU BESTIES FOR ALL THE LOVE AND SUPPORT AND EMOTIONAL INVESTMENT YOU ARE GIVING THIS BOOK AND CHARACTERS <3