#Thomas Barrown x teen

[panic-in-the-multiverse]

The New Worker [part one]

Pairings: Thomas Barrow x platonic!teen!reader

Imagine: Thomas Barrow has a soft spot for the new worker

Warnings: angst, fluff, none else I believe

A/N Writing Thomas Barrow fics instead of actual request 🤝 Me

so I have no clue if it’s bad or not but I always liked Thomas from the beginning, my father think it’s only bc he’s gay, but it’s not, sure obviously I like that they have a gay character in Downton Abbey but it’s not the reason for why I like him

Oh and btw I have no clue how old you must be to be a maid/footman so I just go with that you can be a teenager for the fics sake. Anyway I hope you all will enjoy this as it’s my first time writing for Downton Abbey

NOT PROOFREAD yet I was just too excited to post it. Sorry :) And sorry if the characters are a bit wrong I’m trying to get the right way to write them the next ones will be better

[Next Part] [Masterlist)

Thomas had no clue who you were but as soon as he saw you he knew you’d be the death of him. The way you radiated kindness without doing anything but to stand still said something about you.

You had walked into the servants hall with a nervous and anxious smile stuck on your face. He had waited for you to say something. Anything really. But nothing came out of your mouth except for a small hello which your voice decided to crack in the middle of, so it came out in a way similar to a stutter. Thomas guessed you were a very shy and anxious person. So instead he decided to take some steps forward as he said hello and asked who you were. For some reason his mean demeanor had dropped and he made himself sound as nice as he could without making it like those baby voices you make to babies.

You had glanced up to actually look at his face and he had a smile plastered on it which was far more confident than yours. And as he was the first friendly face you saw — Carson having previously let you in while he dealt with something else (he had a rather angry look on his face) — you decided to speak up as good as you could. You weren’t much for talking, being a nervous and anxious wreck at the moment. But you tried to speak without any cracks or wavering to your voice.

“I’m Y/N L/N… the new maid/footman” Your voice might not have wavered or cracked but you did pause for a rather long second before you said the last part. Thomas noticed but didn’t comment. He had heard that there would be a new maid/footman but he didn’t know that you would be this young. You couldn’t be older than nineteen but you looked younger than that, maybe around sixteen to eighteen. He didn’t quite know how you managed to get a job that high in the ranking at such an age but it was an accomplishment that’s for sure. So he voiced his thoughts.

“You seem awfully young to have gotten such a job” his voice had reverted slightly to his usual one but you didn’t seem to notice at least you didn’t comment on it, the way that he didn’t comment on your shy stutters.

“Well I-“ you got cut of by the booming voice of Mr. Carson who was done with the matter he had previously had to deal with. Now it seemed like he could deal with you and let you in on all the information. He told you to follow him. And you did as he led you to his office. Leaving the kind man as you called Mr. Barrow behind.

Thomas being his usual self went to stand outside of Mr. Carson’s office. He didn’t have anything better to do anyway he was done with everything for the moment. So it wouldn’t hurt to listen in on their conversation.

He could hear most of the conversation but some words were muffled by the walls between Thomas and the two of you. Thomas could just barely make out your faint voice as words stuttered out from your mouth. It was all the usual boring information. About how he wanted you to learn as quickly as possible, that you were to make no mistakes, no scandals for the family, and blah blah blah. Well that’s until Mr. Carson told you to go find the man you had talked to before. “Mr. Barrow is to give you a tour around the house today and introduce you to everyone as he is the only one we can spare at the moment” with that Thomas heard a chair scrape the floor and realised that Mr.Carson was about to open the door. Thomas hurriedly walked a few meters away from the door to make it seem like he was walking toward the two of you. Luckily for Mr. Barrow, the door didn’t open for a few more minutes.

However when it did open Carson’s booming voice called out to Thomas and he quickly made his way to Carson and you. Carson told Thomas what he already knew. That he was to see you around the house and introduce you to everyone.

As the butler turned and walked away Thomas heard a breathy sigh escape your lips before he turned to you. He guessed you thought the butler was scary. He couldn’t blame you though as the first thing you had seen of Carson was him angry at a footman who did something wrong.

Instead of commenting on it like he usually did with everyone else he decided to ask another time. “Well come on then” Your head turned to him at those words. Innocent anxious eyes staring up at him. He thought you looked more like a child than a teenager at this moment (which would turn out to be a lot of moments in the future). He couldn’t help but to smile your way before he stalked forward towards the kitchen. While he did so he pointed out everything and every person that walked by. So far you knew who Mr. Carson and Mrs. Hughes were, plus a few maids and who the footmen were.

Eventually you were both in the kitchen where Thomas pointed out who everyone was. The cook, Mrs. Patmore was a short, round older woman with ginger hair. The young kitchen maid was Daisy who seemed to get yelled out a lot for things she did wrong. She had smiled saying a “Hello” to you before she went back to work. While Mrs. Patmore said a hello before going back to work, yelling for Daisy to take out whatever was in the oven.

Next thing William who was the footman as well as Mr. Barrow beside you walked into the kitchen. As the observer that you were, you noticed that William literally had heart eyes Daisy’s way. William was a blonde young man who seemed rather nice, a bit clumsy but nice. Not like Mr. Carson who seemed rather scary and angry all the time. Mrs. Hughes seemed nice enough, stern but nice. Then there was Sarah O’Brien. She was a friend of Thomas but you didn’t like her that much, she didn’t seem that friendly and looked like a person who stuck their noses where they didn’t belong (being completely oblivious about Thomas). Anna however was a blonde woman who was way too nice. She was the second one to show you any kindness after Thomas. Mr. Bates was the one person you couldn’t quite make out an opinion on yet, he was pretty nice but he glared daggers at Thomas who did the same back to Bates.

But in the end it didn’t matter if you only liked Thomas or if you liked everyone. They all seemed to adore you, even Lord Grantham and his family seemed to adore you.

･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*

As time passed by you were still as shy as when you got there. It seemed like you didn’t want to talk to anyone and you mostly stayed in your room. But people still adored you. Because whenever you did speak or was out of your room you spoke nothing but kindness. It was in your nature. No one had ever seen you as anything but kind at Downton Abbey. They adored how you could naturally be that way. How even though you didn’t like someone you still showed nothing but kindness towards them. That’s why it was so strange to everyone that you weren’t drawn to the second most kindest soul at Downton. You weren’t drawn to Anna. Rather you were drawn to one of the troublemakers, to one of the mean ones as they called Mr. Barrow.

You didn’t know why they called Thomas mean and a bully. He had done nothing wrong to you. Mr. Barrow had done nothing wrong whenever you were near him. He was like a saint in your eyes. He was the first to show you kindness at Downton, even though everyone did. Thomas was still the first. For some reason you trusted Thomas more than the others. Maybe because he was the first one you talked to at Downton. You didn’t quite know.

Thomas however was no saint. No he only acted kind whenever you were around. Everyone noticed it. Though they thought it nice of Thomas to actually be nice for a change it was still only when you were around. Why he was so kind to you they didn’t know but no one could resist but to adore you, not even Thomas Barrow. He could act as mean as he liked whenever you weren’t around but as soon as you came into the room he was kind, well kinder at least.

Maybe he thought that as you were here he could actually get a friend. That’s why he was nice to you. He needed a friend. And not just O’Brien who he plotted schemes with, no he wanted a real actual friend. That spot was open for you. And you were so overly oblivious to the real Thomas (well the real Thomas if you asked everyone else).

He saw it a bit strange however when you saw him for who he truly was for the first time. It was the time he had tried to get Bates sacked for the second time, which didn’t work. You had caught him in the process of it. Then a few days later you had seen him ask Daisy out when it was clear that William was about to do just that. Then a few days later he slipped up again when you were around. He started to slip up a lot and acted a lot meaner, just because he thought you would leave him when you knew who he truly was. But you didn’t. How wrong Thomas had been.

A few weeks later you found him outside while he was smoking. He had avoided you for the last couple of weeks and it had pained you so much that you had to eventually seek him out for yourself. You didn’t want to force yourself and Thomas into a friendship but it was what you wanted. A friendship with Thomas Barrow.

He was standing against a wall as he blew out smoke. It was how you usually found him outside. Smoking.

“Thomas” he turned around. Watching as you stepped towards him. Thomas stopped what he was doing as you stood in front of him. A kind smile plastered on your lips. He hadn’t ever seen you this confident before. It was a change from your usual shy expression.

Thomas let his grip on the cigarette go. When it fell to the ground he stepped on it twisting his foot so that the glow would go out. He readied himself to go inside when your hand stopped him. “Thomas please, I just want to speak” he stopped and looked down on the hand in his forearm. Then he turned around to you and waited for you to speak. He didn’t like ignoring you but he thought it better than to hear your voice tell him that you didn’t want to be his friend anymore. He was so wrong about that. If he had let you talk a lot sooner he would have known that you were still friends. “I just- I” you were back to your shyness again as Thomas stared you down. “I hope we could still be friends, I- I know you probably don’t as- as you have been ignoring me, but I do want to be your friend- it seems like you don’t have a lot of those and- and I’d like to be one of them”

Thomas genuinely smiled. He hadn’t smiled in the last couple of weeks not since he started to avoid you.

･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*

A couple days later after your talk with Thomas you went to Thomas once more. Mr. Carson had told you to fix a clock. No one else could be spared so he against his wishes had left it to you. But as you had no idea on how to do it you needed to ask for help. And as Thomas was the only person you really trusted you went to him. Hoping for your life that he knew how to fix a clock.

Luckily he did. He told you that his father used to be a clockmaker and he used to work as a child for his father. So he obviously helped you. But had it been anyone else he would have told them to ask someone else, as he had a lot of tasks to do that day that didn’t involve fixing clocks.

It was how Anna had found you two. Fixing a clock while Thomas was supposed to clean all the silver with William. Anna had previously been looking for Thomas for William who was now halfway done with the silver. But Anna didn’t want to destroy one of the happy moments Thomas had. Because for once he actually smiled. Not the polite servant's smile. No an actual smile that went to his eyes.

You had messed something up and Thomas and you were now laughing as he had to help you fix it. The two of you talked a lot. Your voice might still be quiet but you did talk without stuttering. Which Anna thought was good as it meant you had someone who could help you boost your confidence even if it was the troublemaker Thomas Barrow.

Eventually Thomas saw Anna and his demeanor changed instantly. His once smile turned into his normal servant expression. He glared a bit at Anna as he realised she had been standing there for a while observing how he was with you. How he was so soft on you as he had talked with a kind voice and as he listened patiently to every word you said.

He patted you on the back and told you the last step before he went up and went away to do his duties.

After that time it seemed like you were less afraid to talk. You started to talk with people more and be out of your room a bit more. But still you only ever really talked to Thomas. You might have a bit of small talk with others. But nothing compared to your talks with Thomas. He always knew what to say to you. He always boosted your confidence. And he might have been a bit jealous the first time he saw you have a conversation with someone that wasn’t him. But what you only ever did with Thomas was ask him questions. Every question you had was asked to Thomas. And Thomas happily answered all of them.

It was still so strange for everyone to see you and Thomas together. Thomas was like a whole new person. But he wasn’t. No, you just brought out Thomas without all the walls. Thomas who didn’t have walls to protect him from everything. He didn’t need to be scared that he wasn’t accepted by you that he didn’t fit in. Because no matter what you’d still be there with him. And Thomas knew that so he let the real him show for you, the hurt, the kind, everything. Thomas protected and comforted you as you have protection and comfort to him. He might not want to admit it but he did have a soft spot for you and if anything happened to you he didn’t know what he would do.