~~ 3982 words ~~

Tom's pov
Sitting at a seat in one of the many bookstores in London I was doing a comic book and poster signing to raise publicity for one of my favourite bookstores where I grew up near because the last thing I could ever imagine was this place closing down and with thor doing so well it was a automatic decision. Signing probably the 150th book today, I noticed a woman come in unaware to anyone's presence other than her own but not in an obnoxious way in the way that once she opened these doors the only things she cared about were the words on the page in front of her. She picked up her head to look for a new book when she noticed the significant increase of people compared to normal and her green eyes caught mine as I was the focus of the sudden increase of people. Looking slightly annoyed- however it was in such a way that one could consider endearing- she moved around the people trying to find her way to the books. Her beautiful brunette curls barely reaches but reached just above her mid back when she looked up on her tiptoes to reach a book on the top shelf. She picked it up, slowly stroked the spine and started to read the first page as she sat on a free sofa, raising her legs to strech across rest of the sofa. She immediately caught my attention and I was output from my initial task for the rest of the signing, she seemed so uninterested with the outside world as if it was a hassle, a burden to have to participate in in order to read the books within this store. Never once did her head raise and half an hour later the last of the people here for my signing left the store and apart from Brian the owner of the store, it was only me and this mysteriously beautiful woman who resided within it. Yet Brian was nowhere to be seen. I walked over to the sofa and purposefully coughed which brought her out of her trance like haze suddenly as if I had woken her from one of the best dreams anyone could ever experience. She gave a polite smile before it dawned on her who I was and I saw her cheeks grow a slight pink to them which I couldn't help but smile at as she moved her legs offering half the sofa to me. I accepted this as she ruffled through her bag and pulled out a phone before speaking for the first time.
"Are- are you tom hiddleston" she stuttered hesitantly
"Yes love I am"
"My best friend Lizzie is like your best fan, would it be to much trouble to ask for a selfie with you to send her"  she spoke sheepishly as if she expected me to say no, spit in her face and walk away. The outrageous thought almost caused me to emit a chuckle which I widely chose to suppress otherwise she may assume I was laughing at her

"Of course you can dear" 

she unlocked her phone and took a quick photo with my arm likely places around her shoulders and hers wrapped around my back, immediately after the photo had been taken a man walked in which caused both of our heads to turn and I didn't remove my arm. Why would I? The mans gaze reached the two of us and I heard the woman whisper 

"Oh God". 

She removed my arm before walking go to the man, leaving everything in place, raising her palms so if they were any closer to him, they would've rested on his chest

"I promise Arnie, baby, it wasn't what it looked like"
"Wasn't what it looked like my ass" 

he grabbed her arm roughly and dragged her into the back, I felt a need to follow after retrieving her stuff. Following them their voices became louder and clear and I couldn't help but eavesdrop before blatantly barging in
"Kat, you whore I thought you loved me" he snarled at her as he pushed her into an emergency exit door
"That was tom hiddleston, Lizzie's favourite actor I was just taking a picture to send her. I promise"
"Whatever, just come back to mine"
"I don't want to, not yet"
"What do you mean you don't want to"
"I wanna carry on reading here"
"I don't give a shit, do you not remember our deal"
"Yes but-"
"No buts, you are my slut unless you want a doctor to accidently mess up your grandmas medicine"
This was enough for me to intervene, I realised I had heard way too much and made myself aware to the others. The man, Arnie, looked incredibly displeased with my presence as he removed his hand from the woman's, Kat's, chin. I stared at the man aggressively letting him know right there and then that there was no way he was taking her home but in case it wasn't clear enough I decided to make a vocal clarification

"I think it would he best for you to leave this woman alone" he looked at me but realised I held a good three inches above his height and was visibly more muscular to the point where it was clear who would win if it came down to a brawl. He scolded viscously at her before leaving not saying a word. I kept my  eyes on him until he was fully out of sight, this became the time that I heard a large, shaky breath release, that wasn't my own. Turning around I saw the woman, who initially appeared utterly careless, crumpled defeatedly on the floor with her head in her hands as a muffled cry escapes her lips. Reaching down to join her height, I placed a hand gently against her back which I felt her edge away from scarcely as of she was afraid of me before she realised that I was not of danger so she accepted my touch. I stroked her back silently until her crying silenced and she apologised profusely for wasting my time until I immediately reassured her that she did nothing of the sort and if she wanted to talk about it.
"Not here, I don't want to be somewhere, he can catch me"
She spoke in a desperate, pleading voice which only made me sympathise for her even more.
The first place I could think of where she would be safe if this awful man was my own home however I was very sure she wouldn't want to come to my home seen as I was practically a stranger. To my surprise, she assumed that despite my offer, she would still be a burden however she would love to get out of the public and her own house wasn't safe. I guided her to my car and we drove in silence, but it was for no more than 10 minutes before we arrived at my house. Asking her if she fancied a glass of water she agreed as I prepared two glasses of water and gave her one as her shaking had almost fully ceased despite a slight tremor in her left hand, this caused her to single handedly hold the glass with her right. We created small talk where discovered slight basics about each other. She was a 34 year old woman called Katrina, who had been in a relationship with 35 year old Arnie, short for Arnold, for 4 years. He wasn't great but she felt complied to be with him as he would always find ways to make her listen to his beck and call. The most recent being he would threaten to get one of his corrupt friends in the doctors surgery to tamper with her grandmother's heart medicine. I told her simple things about my life, despite her already knowing my name she didn't know anything else so I told her I was 37 which she said I looked good for, that I was an actor, known primarily for playing a villain loki, in marvel films. I felt a bit bad but my curiosity for the better of me when I asked what he made her do in return for his blackmail

"Mainly he makes me sleep with him. But he also makes me do illegal stuff that I never want to do but he always forces me" she hung her head before continuing
"It's a ploy where he robs the houses of rich famous people, primarily actors and singers because they have a lot of information about them already published online. There always male as well because they can't stand the damsel in distress in need of saving from her evil boyfriend" her voice changed from one that was shaky to more of a slight chuckle. That's when I realised. I had been played. She propped her head up in her hands, finished her water and looked at me straight in the eyes. No fear. No relief. Just smug happiness

"While I distract said victim, Arnie, by now you've guessed that's not his real name, steals valuables such as watches, suits, maybe some jewelry that belonged to past girlfriends right from the famous persons bedroom. In this case, that's you!"

She raised her voice for the last word emphasising I had been played. Instinctively I rushed up to my room to find draws had been opened, all but one of my watches had been stolen. How kind I thought sarcastically. Until I realised it was the broken watch I had been meaning to get fixed. Three suits had gone along with my wallet apart from a pile of neatly stacked credit cards and the pictures I had inside them so all that was taken was my cash and the wallet itself. And an engagement ring box had been opened and sat facing away from me. My grandma's engagement ring. She had given it to me instead of my two sisters in her will which undoubtedly caused a slight chuckle because her reasoning was that I needed the most luck and this ring had brought her luck with my grandad. Despite the humour it caused it became one of my most prized possessions. Grabbing the box I found the ring placed nicely in its place, exactly where it should have been. This confused me greatly, this ring was far from cheap, a robbers dream especially to a 34 year old common thief. I was ripped from my thoughts by the sound of a racing engine drive into the distance that's when I realised, I left her downstairs alone. I ran back downstairs feeling like I couldn't be in enough places of my own house at once. I looked around to see a washed glass placed upside down on my draining board. On my island in the kitchen lay an opened wrapped of chocolate yet the contents had disappeared and next to it lay a little business card which read a small but simple paragraph.

\\\

And then when you run up to see what you have lost I will leave through the front door after cleaning the glass that you have me with most likely water in it.
None of the information I gave you was real and both me and my best friend were wearing gloves, not that you noticed.
Call the police if you want, they've not caught me yet and they never will.
Sincerely, the smartest woman on this earth x
P.s if you had chocolate I would've taken it, sorry

\\\

I couldn't help but chuckle that she had been so cocky and arrogant up to the last sentence where she apologised for taking a £1.50 bar of dairy milk chocolate. Even with the slight smile of irony from the situation I was still enraged. This bitch must have nicked over 20 grand worth of stuff with her 'best friend' but she was right, there was no point in calling the police, the typed out business card proved my theory. She did this routine a lot and every single time by doing the exact same thing which made it obvious that the police would never catch her. 

3 weeks later

I had rebought everything that had been stolen from me without breaking the bank too much and even though I didn't go to the police I told some of my friends which included: Chris Hemsworth, Robert Downey Jr and Benedict Cumberbatch. It turns out that this has happened to all three of them as well. Each received the same card but only Ben and Chris went to the police whilst RDJ had the same mind set as me and decided against it as it would be hopeless. Neither of them had any luck when it came to the police however and all it did was waste a week of answering questions. Each of us had different descriptions of the woman, different names but it was always the same story and the same note. I kept the note, I don't know why but I put it into my new, more expensive wallet that I bought the day after the ploy. Whilst I sat in a cafe twiddling the note round, my mind was elsewhere until it was brought to the door by the ringing of the bell, alerting everyone of a new person's presence in the cafe

"Mummy can nanna have chocolate muffins yet. I want to get her a chocolate muffin"

"Not yet sweetie but me and uncle Kai have worked really hard and got nanna some special doctors so she can have chocolate muffins real soon, you take one though and we can sit it and see nanna after" that voice, nothing else was the same. Her hair no longer resembled the short brown curls they did before but had transformed into long blonde ones that fell all the way down her hips yet her fringe had been swooped over to one side to increase the volume on her head and her eyes were a deep sea blue surrounded by the rims of red glasses which were not there before. Even her style of clothing had changed from an innocent summers dress and sandals to leggings, mid shin army boots and a guns 'n' roses t-shirt.

Cassidy's (main characters) pov

Robin ran to Lizzie, the woman who ran the local cafe and ordered what we usually had, a tea for me and nanna, a chocolate milkshake for him and sometimes a chocolate muffin. This was one of those times. Me, Lizzie, Kai and Robin's biological father all grew up in the same foster home and we were inseparable. The four of us until the end of the road, well or so we all thought. I fell for Robins dad and Lizzie fell for Kai, we all had each other until I became pregnant. I was on the pill but apparently it was my fault that it didn't work even though he never wore a condom. Anyway when he found out he blamed me and told me he needed some time to sort himself out, taking his request to heart I spent the night at Kai and Lizzie what I didn't realise at the time is that he needed to sort himself out god knows where for god knows how long. 8 years later and here we are. Me and Kai are like Robin Hoods we like to call ourselves stealing from the rich to give to Lizzies cafe, charities and Carols (my foster mum) organ transplant money. It should be free thanks to the NHS but no because She was born in Tenerife 3 months early while her parents were on holiday do in order to get back she had to have a Spanish birth certificate making her officially a Spanish citizen so can't get her NHS grant. Ordering everything but nannas tea, I'll just order me and her an extra one on my way out, it's the type of morning where I need to cups of tea. I tell Robin to choose a table whole I pay and I do giving the biggest tip known to mankind for a small cafe, even in London. I turn around with my tray to see where Robin in sitting. On an empty table, that's not the problem, it's the table exactly opposite. Taking the only available seat on the 2 seater table leaves me looking straight at Tom Hiddleston. The actor I stole from less than a month ago. I don't know if he went to the police, frankly I don't care they never catch me anyway however I can tell from the way he's looking at me that he's recognised me. Without my disguise. He knows who I am now. Shit. He raises his cup of tea to make me aware that he knows I'm staring, honestly at that point I didn't realise I was staring. Tom wasn't the only one who noticed this and Robin turned around

"Mum, it's the man who plays Loki can I go say hi" he whisper shouts at her and before she even gets an answer out, he has turned around to talk to the man on the other table.

"Hello, I'm robin are you the man who plays Loki in the Thor movies"

"Why yes I am robin thank you for noticing. It's nice to meet you"

"It's nice to meet you to, were going to see my nanna in a minute, she needs some new body part because hers have stopped working and that's why you never do drugs" Robin stated his recited paragraph proudly and momentarily Toms face fell to one of a look of sympathy, only before you stepped in

"Come on robin you can eat this on the way in sure you've wasted enough of the nice man's time"

"honestly its fine I have no problem with him, he seems like a wonderful boy, Katrina" he smiles innocently but you can see the smugness in his eyes but you keep a stoic face not wanting to give anything away.

"Mr Loki, do you want a bit of happiness?" Unsure but intrigued, Tom nods accepting the happiness he is about to receive however glancing up at the woman sat at the opposite table he notices a smile form slightly across her face as the little boy rummages around his bag before retrieving some food. Not just any food however, a £1.50 bar of Cadburys Dairy Milk chocolate. He snaps a row of the bar off and hands it to Tom which he takes whilst thanking he boy politely and chomping away on the chocolate, he says his goodbye watching the two of them walk away after ordering two more cups of tea, the pair couldn't have piqued his interest more. This woman must make enough money from stealing, maybe even on top of another job, to get her boy anything his heart so desired yet he gives away happiness in the form of a tiny bit of chocolate. He knew then and there that no matter what this would not be the last time he would encounter this woman. Looking out onto the dreary grey scene that would also be known as a rainy day in London, Tom realised he actually had no real plans today so what better day to find out more about this woman than today. One may consider this weird as he planned on just following her around the whole day but if it was mere coincidence that they just happened on going to the exact same places all day, how was that his fault?

Toms pov

I stayed at a far enough distance away that if she glanced around she probably wouldn't recognise me yet if she crossed the road and I got held up, it wouldn't be too hard to catch up to her. What am I doing? This is absolutely crazy and maybe even illegal. Wait- why should I care about her, she stole so much of my stuff and I should follow her even if it's just to get some of my stuff back. i don't need to justify myself, she's the criminal here.

Yep. Just keep telling yourself that.

I told myself sarcastically, barely noticing that she had made a stop into the bookstore where I was last time I saw her, I rushed forward and stopped the door before it fully closed so I could sneak in without ringing the golden bell as the wooden door brushed pashed it, alerting her of someone else's presence. She was talking to Brian and although I couldn't hear exactly what they were saying, I noticed that the little boy was running round the store, picking a book out of his bag and replacing it to its correct place on the shelves and putting a different book in his bag. All this was after giving Brian a bit of happiness, another row of chocolate. I kept an eye on the two of them and through the rows of books and it was a surprise neither of them were aware of my intrusion but then again, they had no reason to suspect. I then saw something utterly outrageous, she had a wad of money in an envelope which I knew was from my stuff , she had flogged it and made cash from it. Don't get me wrong, if I wanted to give anyone to have the money from my stuff it probably would've been Brian but the fact that he was involved in this little scheme only brought more fury to my eye.

"this is from Tom's isn't it." I heard the gruff voice of Brian more clearer than any others he can't be mistaken for anyone else purely by the deep tone that he beholds, which would come across as one of aggression to one that didn't know him.

"no its yours now"

"He's a good lad Cass. You should give it back, you're gonna get caught one day"

"One day far from now and how the hell am I going to give it back, just pop round for a friendly chat and give him the money from the flogged goods I nicked" she states sassily walking over to a computer, clicking a couple of things with the mouse before making her way over to a printer and shaking around a Polaroid picture before pinning it up on a notice board which was covered in selfies and I recognised one as the picture that I had taken with her the day before. She had it pinned up as if it was a trophy, a momentum to remember the special occasion by. The other pictures I noticed were her, in different costumes, with other celebrities. I had noticed the pictures when I arrived but ever really thought anything of them. With the amount of pictures up on the notice board it's a surprise she didn't just pack it all in and move away to Australia or somewhere for the rest of her life, she definitely would have enough money from the stolen goods. Sitting on the front of the desk she started talking about how she would always be fine and he shouldn't worry about her because that watch could pay the rent here for another year at least and she wasn't wrong. That's when it all sunk in, she didn't care about the crimes she committed because in her mind they weren't crimes. She was helping out a woman at a café or her mother in hospital or her friend who ran a bookstore all at the cost of some rich sod losing a few things that he could easily replace. It also explains while they took the time to empty my wallet of its pictures, something seemingly worthless but it couldn't be replaced. Maybe she wasn't such a common thief after all.