Looked at Me.
I found another prompt and really wanted to write it out. I have made this Tom and Sasha after getting so many lovely comments on my other Tom and Sasha story. This is only a one-shot.
'And he looked at me like there was something in me worth looking at.'
Ashley asks Sasha about how she fell in love with her dad. Set in the future.
Reviews are loved and appreciated, mistakes are my own, I hope you enjoy this!
Disclaimer – I own nothing.
"Homework not going so well?" Sasha asked after she knocked on Ashley's open bedroom door to see the teen sat at her desk staring into space.
"I just can't get my head around it," Ashley sighed, motioning for Sasha to enter her room, noticing the two mugs she was carrying. Sasha put one of the mugs down on the desk, before sitting on the edge of Ashley's bed.
Sasha only smiled, she remembered her days at school and then the military academy, some assignments she could do, but others she would stare at them for hours and even after getting extra help they still wouldn't make sense to her.
"Would a short break help?" The teen nodded, and Sasha was please, she loved both Ashely and Sam's dedication, but she hated how stressed they would become after hours of studying. She knew the new school system would be so much different from the one before the pandemic, she just didn't think it would be this different, or this hard.
"You brought hot cocoa?" Ashley asked with a smile, picking up the mug.
"Well, I felt it was time to break out the warm drinks. It's just past five and it's already dark." Ashley looked up out of her window, Sasha was right, the sun had gone down ages ago, and the only light she could see were the street lamps and the passing cars.
"But, don't you think fall is so pretty?" Sasha smiled in agreement.
"At high school, I loved fall, the jeans and jumpers and cool boots. The academy wasn't so fun, our short-sleeved shirts went to long sleeved shirts and we could wear thinker socks with our shoes, oh, and our coats got longer." Sasha watched as Ashley listened to all she was saying.
Sasha thought it would be Sam who would be more interested in hers and Tom's time at the military academy, but it was Ashley who asked all the questions.
"Didn't my dad bend the rules for you?" Ash asked moving from her desk to sit on the bed next to Sasha, grabbing one of her pillows to hold.
Sasha shook her head, trying to think if there was a time she could tell Ashley about, but the only rule Tom broke was the one that said under no circumstances could you date a student.
"Not even once?"
"Not even once, your dad followed all the rules, except one of course, but that's not really a secret anymore. I tried to follow all the rules, but some of them were made to be broken." Ashley laughed, before taking a sip of her drink.
Sasha was pleased that she got on with both of Tom's kids. After coming home, she and Tom worked so hard on finding their way back to each other, both mentally and emotionally. Tom's main priorities were the kids and finding a place to settle down, and Sasha had no issues with falling into the routine, an ongoing joke that seemed to follow them from their days at the academy.
She and Ashley would stay up late and talk about whatever the teen wanted to, and with Sam, they would go to the park and kick a football around or go hiking. A lot like Tom, she had her own special bond with each child.
"Was it love at first sight? With you and my dad, I mean? He told me all about his relationship with my mum and you've spoken about your relationship, this one, but never about the one at the academy."
Sasha pulled her legs up on the bed, so she could sit crossed legged, happy to spend all evening talking to Ashley. She had so many stories from the academy, of course, Ash only wanted to know the love story, but she could add in a few, some of her bending the rules that she thought Ash would enjoying hearing. Putting Tom aside, she genuinely enjoyed her years at the Military academy.
"Yes, but not in the way you think. Of course, I find your dad very handsome, but the first time I met him I was sat at the back of a lecture hall watching people give welcome speeches and then your dad came on and began to speak, and I got lost. He was smart and funny, and so passionate and dedicated, I think I fell for that side of him, everything else was a bonus." Sasha blushed a little as she remembered the first time she'd laid eyes on Tom.
"But you didn't speak?" Sasha shook her head.
"No, that came about a week later. I was in his class and just like you now, I was looking at my assignment and I just did not understand it, and instantly I thought they would kick me out. The first assignment ever and I just had no idea what I was supposed to do. So, your dad came over and sat next to me and we spoke for a few hours discussing the topic and before I knew it, I had done the assignment and fallen in love." Ashley laughed a little, her eyes fully engaged in what Sasha was telling her.
"So, just like that, you knew?"
"Yeah, I think it took your dad a little longer, at first it was strictly teacher and student, then we were friends for a while, and then after a few months we kissed, and it went on from there."
"What was it like, your first kiss? You don't have to tell me…" Ashley said, but Sasha could see she was dying to know.
"It was lovely, Ash. I know, it should be magical and there should be fireworks, but instead of all that, it was just lovely and special. We were walking home from a late-night lecture. Your dad lived twenty minutes in the other direction from the lecture hall, but he said he couldn't let me walk home alone…"
"Well, he loved you, even if he did know you're a badass who can protect herself," Ashley put in.
"Well, back then, I wasn't that badass, but he walked me home and we stood outside the apartment building and he said he was glad he'd met me, and it just happened. Your dad is one of the most gentle and caring men I have ever met, and that still stands today," Sasha told Ashley, wanting his daughter to know just how loving and caring her father was.
"Why did you fall in love, Sasha?" There was something in the was Ashley asked that told Sasha she wanted the honest answer. Not the one where Sasha went on about Tom's good looks or how it just happened, but the answer where Sasha was completely honest.
She had never really told Tom the real reason, although, she was sure he knew. It was so personal, and after the way things ended, she didn't think this time around she could bring it up, but she was about to tell Ashley, so she assumed that eventually, she would tell Tom.
"Because of the way your dad looked at me. He looked at me like there was something in me worth looking at."
"He made you feel special?"
"Yes. My parents didn't care much, and then your dad came into my life and made me feel like I was worth something. He made me feel loved and special and like everything was going to be okay." Sasha opened up.
Ashley was silent for a moment while she took another sip of her drink, putting the mug on the floor, looking at her bed before looking up at Sasha, almost as if she was scared of the answer to her next question.
"Does he still make you feel like that?"
"Yes, Ashley, he does."
There was a smile on Ashley's face, one Sasha hadn't seen before, but one that told Sasha that everything would be okay.
Later that night, Sasha got into bed beside Tom, ready to say goodnight.
"I heard what you said to Ashley tonight," Tom admitted quietly as the pair of them cuddled closer together.
Sasha gave Tom a smile, before nodding, understanding that now Tom knew something about their relationship that he hadn't before.
"I never knew I made you feel like that."
"You still do,"
"I love you, Sasha," Sasha gave him a smile, before leaning in closer.
"I love you too, Tom." She said against his lips, before kissing him.
Tom wrapped his arms around her, and Sasha pressed herself closer to his body. Tonight, was the first time she had been completely honest with someone about her relationship with Tom that began such a long time ago.
Back then, Tom looked at her as though was worth something, and now, after going through so much both together and apart, he still looked at her like she was worth something, worth everything.
Thank you for reading, please let me know what you think. Reviews mean everything. Bethany.