"You're looking cheerful today," Bates commented the following morning.
Thomas quickly wiped the smile off his face as O'Brien's head turned sharply in his direction. Best not to appear happy around her, unless I want her to try and ruin my life again.
"Really? Well, I don't know why that would be – I don't feel any different from normal," he replied casually, his heart skipping a beat as Jimmy entered the servant's hall. He purposely avoided meeting the younger man's eyes and focused on Mr Bates, who was eyeing him doubtfully.
"I'll take your word for it," he said wryly.
"Why are you here, anyway?" said Thomas quickly, changing the subject before it reached dangerous territory. "You and Anna always have your breakfast at your little cottage, don't you?"
Bates accepted the change of subject. "Mr Carson asked us to arrive here earlier than normal today – we're going to be very busy today with all the guests arriving, after all."
Thomas groaned inwardly. He had forgotten all about the guests who had come to stay at Downton for a couple of weeks, despite the fact that Carson had spoken of little else for the last month or so. However, as he glanced across the table and met Jimmy's eyes, it was hard to stay miserable. He and Jimmy exchanged a small smile before they broke eye contact and focused on the conversations going on around them.
The day turned out to be even busier than Thomas had expected, and he hardly saw Jimmy. However, he didn't really mind. He spent the whole day with a small smile on his face, which he had to struggle to hide whenever he caught sight of O'Brien. Although she appeared to be too occupied with her duties to be interested in stirring up trouble, he knew better. O'Brien could never be so busy that she lost a chance of spreading rumours or plotting against someone. For that reason, he made sure to keep his expression neutral whenever he was around her or Carson, as the latter would most likely think he wasn't working hard enough if he was actually smiling.
As the day drew to a close, things gradually grew less hectic. Rejoicing at the opportunity of maybe getting the chance to exchange at least a couple of words with Jimmy, Thomas made his way over to where the footman was standing. He was slowly drawing nearer to Jimmy, who had spotted him and was wearing a cautious but genuine smile, when Charlie hurried up to him.
"Excuse me, Mr Barrow? Do you know where the polish is?"
"You already asked me that a few days ago," said Thomas distractedly, pointing over to the cupboard. "It's there, remember?"
Charlie shook his head. "Someone's moved it."
"Well then, I don't know," Thomas replied wearily. "Try asking Mr Carson."
Charlie looked utterly terrified at this prospect. "Thank you Mr Barrow," he replied quietly with a nod.
Thomas watched him scurry out of the room, and turned his attention back to Jimmy, who was looking surly. Thomas approached him with a feeling of apprehension, mixed with exasperation.
He's angry because a hall boy I hardly know asked me a question?
That had better not have put him in a bad mood…
"Jimmy, how about we meet outside after everyone has gone to bed?" said Thomas in a low voice as he reached the younger man. Jimmy nodded curtly.
"Fine," he replied shortly.
Thomas nodded briefly and turned away, colliding with Alfred in the process.
"Watch where you're-" Thomas began to snap, before he caught sight of Mrs Hughes out of the corner of his eye. "I mean, sorry about that, Alfred." He cringed inwardly as Alfred beamed.
"Quite alright, Mr Barrow," he assured him, straightening his uniform and drawing himself up in pride. "At least no one was hurt."
You will be if you don't stop acting like you're my superior, Thomas thought, although he was careful not to express this thought out loud. Shaking his head, he hurried out of the room, wondering exactly how and why Alfred was proud of himself because someone had apologised to him.
Sometimes I seriously wonder how his mind works…
Thomas stayed behind in the servant's hall that night as, one by one, the staff began to retire to bed. He had no idea where Jimmy was, but he guessed that Carson had probably given him extra duties. Typical.
It was slowly getting later and later and sitting with only the newspaper for company soon grew dull, mostly because Thomas had already read it cover to cover about three times. He was just beginning to wonder if he should go to bed – his heart sank at the prospect that maybe Jimmy didn't want to talk to him for some reason – but the arrival of the footman stopped Thomas in his tracks.
"I'm sorry I'm late!" said Jimmy hastily, as Thomas paused, having just risen from his seat. "Carson made me polish some of the silver for tomorrow, it took me bloody ages."
"I did wonder if he'd given you extra work," said Thomas, already heading towards the door. "Come on, let's talk outside. I'm dying for a cigarette."
"Couldn't you have had one inside?" said Jimmy in surprise.
Thomas shrugged. "I could have, but I always prefer to smoke outside. The room can sometimes get stuffy if I smoke indoors."
Jimmy nodded in understanding. He followed Thomas outside, and shut the door gently behind them.
As soon as the door was safely shut, Thomas turned to look at Jimmy properly, a wide smile gracing his face. "I've wanted to talk to you all day," he said softly, stepping forward and kissing the other man gently. It felt strange to actually be kissing Jimmy like he had always used to fantasise doing (although he decided not to tell Jimmy that, unsure how comfortable he'd feel with that information.)
Jimmy kissed him back with slightly more confidence than the night before. As Thomas pulled away, Jimmy looked away from him, choosing to stare up at the grey sky instead.
"I hope you're not in a mood because I spoke to Charlie for about half a minute," said Thomas with mock sternness. "Because there is no need to be jealous of him Jimmy-"
"I'm not jealous!" said Jimmy quickly, tearing his gaze away from the sky and focusing back on Thomas.
"I hope not!" said Thomas, shaking his head in disapproval. "As if I would ever choose a hall boy over you!"
Jimmy suddenly snorted with laughter. "Even I have to admit that it does sound funny when you put it like that."
"Why were you ever jealous of him anyway?" Thomas asked, genuinely curious. "We barely spoke to one another – I think we've only ever had about three conversations, all of which lasted for about a minute."
Jimmy shrugged. "I was never really jealous as such. I wasn't!" he protested as Thomas raised his eyebrows sceptically. "I suppose it made me think that you could easily find someone else if I didn't talk to you soon – I wasn't ever jealous of Charlie himself."
"I see," said Thomas slowly. "But you were still annoyed that I exchanged a couple of words with him today."
"I wasn't really, I was just…" Jimmy broke off and shook his head in confusion. "I don't actually know exactly what I was annoyed about. I suppose I just forgot for a minute that we're, well, together, and I'm so used to feeling envious whenever I see you talking to any men…" He shrugged uncomfortably. "But I'm not going to be all possessive and forbid you from talking to any other man!" he added hastily.
Thomas's face broke out into a smile. "I'm glad to hear that." He pulled Jimmy in for another kiss, a feeling of great contentment settling over him.
The rest of the evening passed even better than Thomas could have hoped. He and Jimmy seemed to talk about everything that came to their minds; family, ambitions, childhood, the people they knew. They spent a happy time abusing O'Brien and Alfred, although they admitted that Alfred wasn't really that bad, just annoying.
"He's better than his aunt by far!" said Thomas, raising a hand to his mouth to stifle a yawn.
"That doesn't mean much – it isn't hard to be better than her!" said Jimmy scornfully. "Although I do feel quite sorry for him, imagine being stuck with O'Brien as an aunt!"
Thomas laughed. "I don't even want to imagine being part of her family!" He sighed and stubbed out his cigarette. "We'd better get to bed, we're going to be exhausted tomorrow."
Jimmy nodded and kissed him once more. "Night," he whispered.
"Night," said Thomas softly. His heart felt warm with a glow of happiness.
A/N: Apologies to anyone who is hoping for M-rated content, I'm AWFUL at writing anything M rated. Sorry!
There will be an epilogue after this, and then that will be the end of this fic. As usual, thank you to the people who have followed, reviewed or favourited this fic, I'm really overwhelmed that some people actually like this story as I honestly didn't think anyone would even read it – thank you! :)
