#I swear phones need to have instructions in plain English when you set them up for the first time

[racingliners]

I'm pretty sure all those "how to factory reset your phone" yourself articles are all bullshit

[dreamtom]

French Words (Tom Holland x Reader)

Requested: YES; where the reader is a French actress but does American movies, she meets Tom during the shooting of Homecoming, the reader teaches him to speak French and Tom improves the English of the reader, then one day, she accidentally says these feelings for Tom and he understands and the end has all fluff?

Word Count: 5.2k (I went a little bit too overboard this, I’m sorry)

Warnings: Just a few swear words, basically all fluff at the end.

A/N: I’m sorry I took so much to get this done, but I got a carried away and wanted to put a lot of things so it made sense, I hope you don’t get bored reading it.

I was born in France, my accent is thick and really present, working in America was a wreck.

At first I was skeptical on coming here on first place, my family extremely worried on all the things that they saw in TV, preoccupied that something in those dimensions would happen to me.

They knew how much I wanted to be an actress, to appear in big movies, with recognized actors, it had been a dream for some time.

America is completely different from here in France, there would be rejection, people talking about anything and everything you do, we talked about the pros and cons about doing what I was passionate about, there were a ton of cons, but the pros kept me going.

And here I stand, in America, I had appeared in some French series and done some cameos in other movies, but nothing as big as this.

I had auditioned for a foreign student in the new Spider-Man movie, she was in Peter’s circle along Ned and Michelle. I didn’t thought that my audition was good, I was sure I hadn’t gotten the roll, it had passed a few weeks and no calls from the directors, so my hopes went downhill.

Until my manager called me one night, around 10 o’clock, and my phone ringed, she usually calls to check on me and update my parents, so her call didn’t caught me off guard. But then, when I answered, the first thing I heard was a high-pitched scream coming from the other line, I thought I had gone deaf from my right ear, “What was that?! What’s going on?!” I was alarmed, growing worried, she then started laughing, I was confused, is something wrong with her?

“You got the role Y/N! You’re going to be on the new Spider-Man movie! They just rang me and told me the news,” she said, I couldn’t believe it, a hand went straight to my mouth covering the ear-to-ear grin I had plastered, I wanted to cry out of happiness.

“Oh God, are you serious?” This was a dream come true, I couldn’t wait to rang my parents and tell them the news.

“Yes! I’m serious, he said they wanted you on set Tuesday afternoon, at 2 o’clock, be ready Y/N, there’s a lot of things coming for you! I need to go, I rang to gave you the news, I’ll see you on Tuesday.” And she hanged up, it’s not that I didn’t wanted to say goodbye to her, it’s just that I was still in awe.

Then lots of things started to float into my head, what if they don’t like me? What if they can’t understand me and laugh at me? And if I screw this opportunity? I bet all of them know each other already, it will be just as in school, like being the new kid again.

I called my parents and told them the news, they were just as excited as I was, they wished me luck, that I bet I will need later on.

It was Sunday, and I couldn’t shut eye at all last night, a lot of things running into my mind that I was starting to get overwhelmed, until I finally could get a few hours of sleep.

Monday was full of studying with my English tutor, I didn’t wanted to embarrass myself in front of all of them, so I tried my best at studying and learning new things.

Tuesday came up and I woke up ungodly early, I had an adrenaline rush and wanted to do everything, so for it to stop I showered, dressed up, got ready, ate breakfast, called my mom and dad, see how they were doing, and then it came the hard part, drive to set.

I started getting anxious, my palms were sweating and I couldn’t concentrate, I started to feel self conscious about myself, but reminded me that today was going to be a good day repeatedly on my head until I kind of believed it.

I arrived at the parking lot were a lot of trailers were. I got out of the car and started flattening the invisible wrinkles of my shirt, “play it cool, Y/N,” I mentally told myself, nobody told me where or who I had to meet, so I simply started walking towards a group of people, probably looking like a lost calf.

As I was walking I could now recognize some people there, I knew Tom because of his appearance in Civil War and Zendaya too. “Well, they look nice, just introduce yourself,” I took a deep breath as I got even closer to the group.

When I was close enough and everyone could see my presence I said, “Um.. Hello, I’m Y/N,” they all looked at me and I could see their faces, there were three other guys next to Tom and another really tall girl next to Zendaya. They all introduced themselves to me, the other guys next to Tom were Harrison, which isn’t really on the movie but is Tom’s friend and assistant, Tony and Jacob, and the girls’ name is Laura.

They all seemed lovely and continued to chat, just like if they already knew each other and were all close friends, I felt a little left out until the girls came closer.

“Well Y/N, it’s nice to meet you, you are playing Y/C/N right? The foreign girl?” Zendaya asked me, I gulped and gave her a smile and thought of what I was going to say before embarrassing myself.

“Oh, um.. Yeah I am, who are you playing?” I started stuttering, probably making a fool of myself.

“I’m playing Michelle,” she wiggled her eyebrows at me, she really was nice, “and I’m playing Liz,” said Laura, they both were completely stunning and looked completely different from me.

“That’s wonderful- I mean, great! I-er hope we get along!” I said mostly excited because I could really need some friends right now.

“Of course Y/N, don’t be silly, where are you from again?” Asked Laura. “I’m from France, Dunkirk actually, if you couldn’t tell by the accent,” I laughed at myself.

“Oh we have another European mate here, don’t we Laura?” Said Zendaya, which I only did an awkward laugh, I didn’t really know if it was a joke.

“Tom and Harrison are from London too. C’mere guys!” Laura motioned them to come with her hand, and all of them joined us.

“We were saying that Y/N is from France, close to you two!” Zendaya seemed really excited talking to everyone, while I was feeling shy from everyone’s attention.

“Oh really Y/N? From what part?” Tom asked, I stared a little bit too much at him, it’s so different to see someone on the screen than in real life.

I acted quickly and answered, “From Dunkirk, north of France,” I said, trying not to look at him in the eye to not get flustered.

“Only divided by the English Channel,” said Harrison and I smiled at him because of the fact.

Everyone continued chatting and getting to know themselves, I every now and then talking too.

The director, Jon Watts, came in and gave us a quick introduction to everything, he gave us a quick tour on set and presented us to some of the production crew who would make the movie possible. I felt like if I were in a cloud, and no one could ever get me down from it, it was nothing like I had imagined it. He also showed us where our trailers were, each of them with our names written in printed, black lettering on white paper pasted in the middle of the door, they weren’t small, nor big, just the right size to fit a few things inside, with a couch, a vanity for when the stylist would have to get is ready on our trailers, clothes hanger, and you could put inside more things.

Next to my trailer were Tom’s and Laura’s trailers and all of us were checking the inside.

The Jon then proceeded to call us to get outside to hand us our scripts, they were lots of pages and it was slightly heavy with the words “Spider-Man: Homecoming” on the center of the first page. I started to get a look at it, flicking through the pages and only focusing on what my character’s lines were.

“You don’t need to memorize everything,” he then made a pause, “yet… You can take a look at it and memorize the first pages and as we continue you keep learning the lines.” Everyone nodded to what he said and he then gave us more instructions, “tomorrow at 9 a.m., you all have to be here to start the fitting, so we can get some of the clothing done for next week when you will start doing the scenes. And well, that’s basically all for today, just so you are kind of familiar with everything, so, see you tomorrow,” he instructed and everyone said their goodbyes and headed to their cars, I said goodbye to everyone and started driving to my flat.

Once I got to my apartment I started to review all the events that happened today, and I thought “Today wasn’t as bad as I thought it would have been.”

Changed into pijamas, washed my teeth and went to my bed to drift to sleep, even though it was barely 8 at night.

-

I woke up early, but not as early as the day before. I felt so much less tense knowing that they all are super down to earth people, with amazing personalities and insanely nice.

I got ready for the day and showered, got dressed and switched through the apps on my phone to kill some time before leaving. The clock pointed 8:30 and I started to leave my house to meet up with everyone at set for the fitting. I drove carefully through the streets of Atlanta that were different from the ones in France, even driving felt kind of weird and took some time to get used to.

Once I arrived, I still was 10 minutes early and since I couldn’t see anybody out already I decided to stay in the car until someone came. Five minutes later I see a taxi stop a few meters in front of me and paid attention to who was coming out of the cab. I see Tom getting out on a plain navy blue t-shirt, black jeans and sneakers, it was something so basic and with no effort but he looked great with his messy hair lightly combed to the side.

He couldn’t see me admiring him, so I took my time taking his image in until I felt bad for leaving him there alone, so I got out of the car and walked towards his direction, his attention on his phone typing something, not noticing my presence until I got close enough to touch his shoulder with my index finger. He looked up and his eyes went wide open, he locked his phone and placed it in his front left pocket without breaking the eye contact.

“God Y/N, you scared me,” he took a hand to his chest dramatically, which I only laughed, “how long have you’ve been here?” He asked.

“Well, only a few minutes,” I didn’t know if that was a lie or not, “but I haven’t seen anyone other than you here.”

“Let’s wait a few minutes if someone else comes or something,” he said and laid his back on the metal grid behind us, I nodded and repeated his actions.

We stayed in an awkward silence for about five minutes, waiting for something to happen, or better, someone to arrive, “Why in the world were they so late? Is this a thing in America?” I thought to myself.

“Well, I don’t think they are arriving any time soon, it’s kind of weird, but Y/N, are you hungry?” He asked crossing his arms around his chest making him look just a little intimidating.

“Just a little, yeah,” I laughed, I didn’t had breakfast before coming so I didn’t saw a point in lying. “Well, I saw a little food shop at the end of this street on my way here, want to check it out?” One of his eyebrows cocked upwards in an interrogating matter. “Um.. yes, let’s go”

So we started walking in a silence again, the noise audible was cars passing by and our footsteps clicking the asphalt with every step. His hands were in his pockets with his eyes up front. We crossed a street and on the corner stood a cafeteria place that looked cozy. “Well, let’s hope they serve breakfast for us,” said Tom.

We entered the place that had fairy lights hanging on the ceiling and had a rustic facade. And we sat at the last booth on the corner, facing each other, while I was contemplating the place, a waiter came up with a menu, placing them in front of us on the wood table, “could I get you something to drink?” said the blonde girl that was attending us. “I want a cup of coffee, please,” I said, I needed some caffeine on my system to function correctly through the day, “make them two, please,” she wrote it down on a small yellow notebook and smiled at us, “right at it,” she said before leaving to get what we ordered. I flickered through the menu until I found something that caught my eye enough to eat it, so I placed the menu down.

Tom was already looking at me just like if he was waiting for me to lower the piece of paper. “So Y/N, you are not much of a talker are you?” said Tom, his comment caught me off guard and searched for words to come back at him.

“Well, I would, but it just, uhm… It’s not as easy for me, as it is to you,” I paused between each phrase, and it sounded more as a question rather than an affirmation.

The waiter came with our coffees and placed little milk shots and sugar sachets on the table. She asked us our orders and I ordered a chocolate chip waffle, while Tom ordered a sandwich with lots of stuff on it. She left again and I opened carefully a milk shot trying not to spill it and poured it on the white cup as well as two sachets of sugar.

“Really Y/N, and why is that?” He looked at me through his lashes while ripping a sachet open and pouring it on his mug. “Well, as you may’ve noticed, my English is not exactly the best,” I felt kind of ashamed of me, so I stirred the contents of the cup and took a sip. “They didn’t teach you English on France?” I shook my head as a no, he took a sip of his mug and hissed just after, probably burning his tongue, making me giggle, he noticed and rolled his eyes at me.

“So basically, what you know right now is only the basics?” He asked and waited for my answer, “you are right,” I said just before the waiter came with our food, and we did small comments on the food when we were eating to keep a conversation.

Once we were full, the waiter took away our plates to later come with the bill, but on that time Tom spoke up, “I have an offer for you Y/N…” he said leaning over the table with his forearms, “an offer for me?” I cocked one of my eyebrows up to show my confusion, “well, yeah, an offer,” he said making it looked obviously with his hand, “and what is this offer about?” I crossed my arms around my chest, “since you have trouble with English… I could give you a hand with it,” he said looking straight at me, “and…” I continued, “you could help me with French,” he said looking other than me now, “well, didn’t they taught you French on London?” I said defiantly, slightly smirking towards him, “oh, ok, great come back Y/N, but I’m serious, we can both help each other,” he tried to convince and the lady brought the bill, and I was just about to search through my purse for money, but he put his hand before me signaling me to leave it, so I saw him put a dollar bill inside the leather-looking carpet.

And he looked back at me questionably, so I put my hand on my chin as if considering something, “deal?” He said extending his hand at me. I looked at his hand and then at him, hesitated a little bit and said, “okay then, deal” and put my hand on his to shake it lightly.

We went out of the place and went again to set to see if someone had arrived, to our dismay everyone was there already, and when we were there they all looked at both of us weirdly, I looked at him terrified, what a good first impression I’m giving arriving late at the second day, but, technically, they were late.

“Well, well, some of us are early birds, right?” Said Jon, I was just about to stutter and give a really bad excuse but Tom spoke up and I thanked him internally.

“In fact we are, we were here before 9 a.m. like you told us, and stayed ten more minutes to see if someone had arrived, but that wasn’t the case, so we went to have breakfast,” he pointed at me and then at him twice, I could bet my face was a crimson color and looked funny because of it, making me even more embarrassed.

I saw Jon signal a boy to come over with his hand and the boy jogged to get to him, he then whispered, “didn’t I told you to tell everyone that the fitters would be an hour late?” He mumbled barely audible, but I heard it clearly, the boy looked through his papers and said, “yeah, I mean, I thought I had,” he looked nervous and started feeling bad for him, Jon sighed loudly and he then focused on me and Tom, that rarely hadn’t moved places, just like if we were grounded puppies, “I’m sorry, the fitters told me yesterday that they would be an hour late so I told him to ring you so you knew, and got here at 10 rather than 9 a.m., but that didn’t happen, so, I’m sorry, and the fitters are on the back, just wait in there,” he said, embarrassment on his features and after finishing his sentence he then took a hand to his forehead rubbing it in frustration.

I exhaled a breath that I didn’t know I was holding and walked my way to the back with Tom by my side. I looked at him and he looked back, we just bursted laughing, I don’t know why, maybe out of nervousness, but we just did, his eyes were barely visible and wrinkles showed up on his cheeks, he looked adorable, just like a baby.

“I almost shit my pants, not even kidding,” he said, still laughing, I stopped laughing and glanced at him and then said, “thank you,” now I looked at my feet, slightly awkward, “what for?” he replied, I didn’t answer, “oh, for what happened back there?” He elongated the ‘oh’, realizing something, then pointed backwards with his thumb, “It was nothing, I was going to do it anyway,” he shrugged kicking a lose rock from the cement, “maybe we should start practicing today, I mean, if you don’t have anything to do, or just don’t want to, that’s fine to me,” his voice changed pitch at the last words and adjusted his throat, “today is fine for me,” I gathered a loose strand of hair that was on my hair and put it behind my ear, flirtatiously.

He was going to say something back until a lady called his name and motioned him to come near with a rack of clothes by her side. Once he got near, she told him something I couldn’t figure out and then she started measuring him with her a yellow measuring tape, and then a guy came up to me and asked me for my name, and I told him, and he then proceeded to do the same thing the lady was doing with Tom, after measuring me, he separated the clothes that would fit me on a side of the rack and told me to try the clothes that would fit, so we moved to my trailer and with every item I would come out and showed him how it looked and he’d make faces when he liked it or not, just like my mom did when we went to the mall. When I finished trying all the clothes, he put all the clothes in a black carpet that would cover them and then hanged it on the rack inside the trailer. He told me we were done for today, but that he’d order the other clothes in a size that would fit, so I had to try them when we got to set again.

Then I went out of the trailer, and everyone were in a circle, near the parking lot, only three people missing, that being Laura, Tony and me, I got closer and merged into the group, just listening without getting involved, but feeling okay with it.

“I feel like going to the hotel room, ask for room service, and watch a bomb show tonight,” stated Jacob, looking upwards, as if a speech bubble would pop out and magically showed the future. I laughed at him, he really looked like a great dude.

Tony then got in, just as Laura, and then he spoke, “I’m really craving a salad, but that’d interfere with my not-eating-healthy diet,” we all laughed at him, and noticed Tom moving next to me, then tapping on my shoulder.

“Should we leave?” he whispered on my ear and I felt shivers down my spine, he took me off guard. He said goodbye to everyone and a few moments later I did as well. Walking to my car I see him on his phone, with his back pressed to metallic door. He heard my footsteps and his attention was now on me. “Should we go to yours or mine?” He inquired.

I wonder a little and then stated, “Mines.” I unlocked the door and we got inside, I started driving and put music on the radio to ease the silence, few minutes later we got to my apartment.

We got out of the car and passed through the lobby and I saluted the doorman. We stepped into the elevator and I pressed the 4 signaling the floor, we were the only ones inside and I couldn’t bear the silence anymore. The elevator stopped and we turned right to get to the apartment with the number 5C on top.

I opened the door and left my shoes on the side, Tom followed. I turned the lights on and went to the kitchen to get some water, “do you want food, water, anything?” I asked Tom, with my head already on the fridge.

“Uh, just water, thanks.” He took a seat on the sofa and looked through the apartment, gazing at all the decoration.

“Here,” I got a water bottle for both of us and gave him his, bringing also chips on a plate, placing them on the coffee table, “so… With what do we, uhm, start?” I moved my hands awkwardly trying to find words.

“Let’s start easy, I’ll just ask you questions, you’ll try your best to answer them, I’ll help you to answer if you have trouble, capisci?” He explained, I just started laughing, he really thought that was French, he looked at me weirdly, “what’s the matter?”

“Tom, that’s not even French, that’s Italian.” I laughed so hard, clapping my hands occasionally, I took a glance at Tom and he was slightly red, laughing awkwardly, touching the back of his neck.

I started regaining my breath from laughing, small laughs escaping my mouth.

“Okay, should we start?” He inquired, I only nodded, a smile still lingering on my lips, I shifted on my seat waiting for his question.

“Oh, I got one, okay, what’s your favorite thing from America?” He took a sip of his water bottle, not breaking eye contact with me.

“The food here is really good, also the weather,” I replied, “what about you?”

“Well, the people are really nice, also food is just,” he stopped to look for the right word, “delicious.” He pointed his fingers to emphasize.

“And what’s the worst thing then?”

“I hate the freeways, how they turn on the right, how the pilot seat is on the left, not like in London, that confused me so much when I first got here.” He scrunched his nose in disgust, now being on a more comfortable position on the couch. “I have one for you,” he took a chip from the plate and started chewing, once he finished he continued, “why did you decided to come to America as an actress?”

I took a chip as well and put it on my mouth, and chewed to give me more time to think of my answer, “It was always a dream to me, I watched a lot of movies and wanted to try it, so then I started going to drama school, they said I was good, then I got cast on French shows, appearing occasionally, but I craved more, so that’s why I came here, I may sound ambitious, but that’s how it started.” I shifted on my seat, getting more comfortable with Tom’s presence

We keep asking each other questions and every once and then Tom would say: “That’s not how you pronounce it” or “You don’t have to slur your ‘r’s’ so much, because that makes another word”, we continued until late at night, he then noticed the time and called an uber to go to his hotel. I slept with a visible smile on my mouth, not being able to hide my happiness, this deal wasn’t really that bad.

-

Days passed and our learning sessions continued, we would help each other out, I would go to Tom’s hotel room —or later, to the house he had— or he would come to my apartment. At first he used to help me with my lines, with pronunciation and how to fake an accent, which wasn’t that easy, but I then got the hang of it, he explained a lot of words meanings that I could get confused with, I wasn’t that bad.

Helping Tom with French wasn’t as fast as him teaching me, he had to learn from the basics, he had trouble with words that had r’s in them, since they just don’t sound like r’s in English, his pronunciation was bad, but I’d lie to him and tell him he was going great. I would teach him his lines in English and explain how the words have to be said, once he got the hang of it, he could do small talks.

I’d occasionally hear him curse in French and we’d laugh because non of our friends understood, it kind of was an inside joke of ours. Harrison then later caught us and asked, “wait, did you just cursed in French?” And we just shrugged and made fun of him.

Once we stopped with our sessions, we still hung out a lot, watching movies on my flat, going to a café or the movies. Everyone noticed just how close we had gotten and would pick on us every now and then, and every time they’d say something, we would just deny every suggestion of us being more than friends.

But I couldn’t hide it anymore, I caught feelings for Tom after a long time of meeting each other on our places. He didn’t know about this, I have planed to tell him how I feel a lot of times, but my hands grew clammy, I stuttered and the words just wouldn’t come out right. I’ve practiced on the mirror the words I’m going to say over, and over again, but when the time comes I cower, and just can’t say them to him.

Everyone has noticed my affection for him, even Harrison has told me that he feels the same way, but why hasn’t he said something? It would make the situation a whole lot more easier from me if he did.

And here we are again, in the comfort of his company. We are watching a movie, though I’m not really paying attention. I have a leg on his lap and his hand is over it, tracing delicate somethings with his fingers, making the skin shiver and tickle. He hasn’t noticed that I’m starring, and if he has, he hasn’t said anything about it. I’m admiring his left side, his curly hair thrown back, his messy eyebrow, structured jaw, small nose and rosy lips. He looked like an angel, and every day I felt more in awe by him, his jokes, his laugh, his accent, the way he calls me sweet names that make me feel like putty on the inside…

I let out a long sigh and thought, “Je t’aime bien.” I stared at the tv, not realizing that I had just blurted out that phrase until Tom spoke up.

“What did you said, Y/N?” He smirked at me, for once, I hoped that I wasn’t a good teacher, and that he didn’t understand what I just said.

“Uhm, I-I didn’t say anything,” I replied, fidgeting with my fingers in embarrassment. He shifted on his seat and came closer to me.

“Did you just said you liked me in French?” He whispered, his face now inches apart from me. I felt my cheeks go warm, and a red color was probably visible now.

I couldn’t look at him in the eye, too ashamed of what I just confessed. He grabbed me by my chin with his index finger and pulled my face closer to his.

“Hey, look at me,” he insisted, my eyes darted from my lap to his caramel eyes, that were already looking for mines, his smirked grew to a smile, he looked like a child that was just handed a candy, I couldn’t help but smile too, “Je vous aime aussi.” He beamed happily, not letting me react to his words because his lips met mine in a loving kiss, it took me by surprise but followed the kiss instantly, his hand darted to my cheek holding my face, while mine went to the back of his neck, deepening the kiss, lightly grazing the hairs on the end of his head..

Our faces moved slightly in sink, ending the kiss because of the lack of air, he rested his forehead on mine, his hand still on my cheek holding my face, I moved my hand from his neck to his arm, stroking it gently.

“Nice French, Holland,” I remarked with a grin, Tom giggled softly and left a teasing, chaste kiss on the corner of my mouth…

To the lovely anon that requested this imagine, I hope you like it, and I’m sorry if the French phrases are wrong, I don’t know anything about French. Feedback is always appreciated and feel free to request anything (:, thank you for reading, x.