killing time 𖥻 TOMMYINNIT

XXX. wound after wound

iris practically bounded up the stairs to tommy's room after being let in by his dad, knocking on his door excitedly. she had a beaming smile on her face and when tommy opened the door she practically tackled him in a hug. "woah," he stumbled back a bit, hugging her back instinctively. "what's this for?"

she pulled away. "guess who submitted her album today!" tommy's smile matched her own as he pulled her back in.

"that's awesome! oh, i'm so proud of you." they stood there for a second, sharing the excitement. she wasn't under a label, the music being produced independently with james and jago's help, but it was being distributed through umg, a fact that had iris practically bursting with excitement.

her debut single was set to release the following night at midnight and she had a little release party planned, just with james, her family, tommy's family, tubbo's family, ranboo, her friends from poetry and a couple of other people. "this feels like it's really actually happening now," she said, face buried in tommy's shoulder. "it hasn't really felt real until now."

"if anyone deserves it, it's you, darling." pet names weren't actually a super common occurrence from tommy, and it caught her off guard. "i mean it. i love you and i am so proud of you, as your best friend in the entire world."

"no, i won't leak it to you."

tommy groaned dramatically, flopping face first into his bed. his room felt a lot bigger now his streaming setup had been moved to his office. he still had a considerable pc setup, complete with 2 mid-range cameras and a useable amount of lights, but all of his big equipment had been moved when he'd set up his office space. iris sat at his desk chair, grinning at him. "i can tell you that my next single officially has a release date, though."

tommy perked up at that.

"october 25th," she smiled giddily. "can you believe that i'm going to be an official musician in two days," she said dreamily, moving to lay down beside tommy. he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, placing a kiss to her hairline. "that one's gonna come out and then that day i get to announce the album."

"can't believe you won't even tell me the name," tommy said. "what kind of best friend are you?"

"one that wants you to be surprised," she groaned. "we've been over this."

tommy just laughed, pinching her arm. she swatted his hand away, the two of them staring at the ceiling. "i've been meaning to talk to you about something, i just kinda forgot about it 'till now," tommy said after a while. "so, now that i'm all done with school, i've been really considering what i wanna do now. and i've been talking to niki a lot and talking to my parents a lot and i've decided that my plan is to move to brighton. it'll be early next year, at the earliest. but i wanted to ask..." tommy sat up, playing with his fingers nervously. "i wanted to ask if you would come with? you can finish school online- or, or transfer to brighton and finish the year or whatever you wanted to do. i know we always kinda discussing moving in together after college, and i know we've got this..." he gestured between the two of them as iris sat up as well. "thing between us. but that hasn't changed that you are my best friend, and this is something that i want to do with you, if you want to do it with me."

iris sighed, nodding slowly. "i think that's a bad idea, tom." tommy's face fell. "not the move, i think that's a great idea. brighton seems like the place to be, really. and i do think i want to move up there eventually. i've even been talking to student services about adding on some extra classes this semester to see if i can graduate a few months early, and they've been amending my schedule. but you and me in the same apartment seems like a recipe for disaster."

tommy brightened a little at that, and nodded. "so youll move up there with me, but you won't move up there with me?"

iris nodded as well. "yeah, i think that's for the best, really. you need your own space that you're able to make the most out of, and i need my own space that can just be mine."

"i know a girl who is in the market for a new roommate," tommy shrugged. "name's rue, but i asked her to wait until i spoke to you about moving in together."

"i think you should go for it." she nudged him encouragingly. "seriously! this'll be great for you."

"not as good as having you right there," tommy sighed dramatically. "but it'll do." he sagged so his head was resting on the side of her arm. "it's just wound after wound with you, isn't it?"

"see, you couldn't handle 24/7 iris," she giggled.

he looked up at her with twinkling eyes. "i'm pretty sure i could."

— AUTHOR'S NOTE
i'm back at college this week!! i actually wrote this a little early because i wanted the entire first week of college as a bit of a break from writing and posting, so i actually don't go back until next week at the time of writing this. (by the time you're reading this, though, i'll have started back a few days earlier). i do just really quickly wanna mention just how much i really do appreciate every single comment you guys leave, i know i don't always respond but that's usually because i have no idea what to say. i do read them all though and i seriously appreciate them, so thank you so so much <3