Chapter Text
As you stepped onboard the plane and found your seat it finally hit you how tired you actually were. You hadn’t been able to get much sleep the last couple of nights partially because of an audition you had in LA the following day and because of the flight you had to take to get there.
You had never really been a fan of flying and the nerves just made it worse. The part your agent, Andrew, had been able to get you an audition for was the lead of a new romantic comedy. The title was still undecided and so were who the leading roles would be played by. You had been given the script last night and had totally fallen in love with the story. You really hadn’t done anything yet except for a couple of plays and were still waiting for your big break. That was why you had stayed up all of last night to really get into the script and the character.
But after you had placed your bag under the seat in front of you and you were going through your lines in your head (again) sleep was quickly winning you over. The last thought going through your head before you went to sleep was that maybe you got the entire row to yourself.
------
A small turbulence woke you from your sleep and you were reminded of your whereabouts before even opening your eyes. Your neck and back ached from the weird angel your head was in. It wasn’t resting against the back of your seat but on a shoulder. You were suddenly embarresed. You were sleeping up against a complete stranger. What do you do? Open your eyes and apologize? Should you pretend to still be asleep and just turn over against the window instead? No you couldn’t do that. No matter how sleepy you had been before the flight your fear of flying now kept you wide awake. You had to just face the embarrassing situation.
As you opened up your eyes and slowly got up from the stranger another turbulence started and it felt like the plane dropped at least nine feet. You sat up quickly, eyes wide open and with your hands in a tight grip on each of your chair handles. You heard a low chuckle come from your human pillow right next to you.
“Are you alright, darling?” a low voice with a British accent asked. That voice. Hadn’t you heard that voice before? You turned your head slowly and were now staring right into a pair of clear, blue eyes. You suddenly got a huge lump in your throat and all remaining color now completely disappeared from your cheeks. The person you had been drooling on for the last couple of hours was none other than Tom Hiddleston.
“Y-Yeah.” You answered before the silence became too awkward. “Just not a huge fan of flying.” You said giving him a smile. What was going on? Were you still dreaming? This just wasn’t possible.
“I know what you mean.” He said returning the smile. “Although, you seemed to make the last three hours seem pretty comfortable,” he continued nodding towards his shoulder.
You felt your cheeks heat up, while you gave him a nervous laugh. “I’m so, so sorry about that.” You said, not quite sure what else to say.
“Oh, it’s fine! Miss… I’m sorry what is your name?”
“(L/N). But please just call me (Y/N).” you stretched your hand out for him to shake. Suddenly feeling self-conscious about how sweaty your hand must be.
“Hi (Y/N). I’m Tom by the way.” Tom smiled reaching out and taking your hand.
“Tom the human pillow. Nice to meet you.” You blurted out without even thinking and your cheeks turned an even darker shade of red. Tom just laughed which made you feel a little more at ease.
Even more turbulence caused the smile on your face to disappear quickly. Tom could see that he had to keep you occupied for the flight to be just a little more bearable.
“So LA. What are your plans? Holiday?” he asked trying to get you to think of something else.
“No, I actually have an audition for this movie tomorrow. I’m an actress – or I hope to be.” You said smiling at him. He replied with a nod “Oh, that’s exciting.”
You spent the rest of the plane ride talking about acting, pursuing your dreams and just everything really. He didn’t mention at any point in the conversation that he was an actor himself and you didn’t let him know that you knew. It had to be nice not having someone recognize him for once. What he did mention though when you brought up acting was his love for Shakespeare. You were amazed by how much he actually had memorized. It just wasn't normal. The rest of the time went by so fast and when the plane landed in LAX, you said your goodbyes.
"Well it was nice meeting you." you said with a smile even though you were kind of sad that this was goodbye.
"You too." he smiled. He looked quite nervous for some reason. He kept looking from the phone in your hand and back up at you as if he was debating something. In the end he just sighed, smiled and said goodbye. He was just about to turn around when he said:
“Oh and good luck on your audition tomorrow. I’m sure you’re going to be amazing.” He said. Then he bend down, kissed you on the cheek and walked away. You let your hand rest on your cheek while you sighed, knowing you would probably never see him again. You took your phone out to call Andrew to let him know you had arrived in one piece. As you got into the taxi line you could still feel the heat on your cheek where Tom's lips had touched you.