let me live. a tommyinnit angst.

eighteen.

thank you all so much for 45k reads i cannot express in words how much I love all of you<3 i know tommy just turned 17 but im keeping him 16 for plot convenience. anyway here's a soft one because you all deserve a break from the angst.

//TW//swearing//very slight ed mention//

~~~Karl POV~~~

I awoke excessively early the next morning to an empty space next to me on the uncomfortable couch. It took me a minute to register that I had definitely fallen asleep with Tommy resting on my shoulder, but he was nowhere in sight. I slowly sat up while stretching, and was met with a sleeping Sapnap on the floor by my feet. I grabbed my phone, waiting a few seconds to let my tired eyes adjust to the light. 3:49 am. I was confused for a moment, wondering what could've possibly woken me up this early in the morning, before hearing a loud rumble of thunder.

I groaned, contemplating whether or not I should just fall back asleep and find where Tommy went in the morning, until I heard the click of the front door shutting. I scrambled off the couch, being sure not to awake Sapnap in the process. I put on my shoes as fast as I could before opening the front door, and sure enough, there was Tommy. He was staring out into the depths of the night, hair and clothes soaked. Without a second thought I plopped myself next to him, almost entirely unbothered by the water pouring onto my body through the seams.

We kind of just sat there for a few minutes in the comfortable silence, apart from the rain painting every inch of the earth. "Hey Karl?" I was a bit startled by the sudden sound of him talking, but got over it soon enough. "What's up Toms?" He took a second before answering, but to my knowledge I had just assumed he was thinking of what to say. "Did I really just lose my best friend over something that I did to myself?" I didn't know that one sentence spoken out of a 16 year old's mouth had the power to make a grown man tear up, but I guess anything's possible at this point. "Tommy- I- listen to me okay?" He turned to look at me, and I did the same. "You didn't lose him. He's still your best friend and always will be. What he said was honestly just a shitty thing to tell anyone, but he just didn't know how to express his own emotions. Dream is dealing with him, but you didn't lose him okay? He loves you more than you'll ever realize. We all do."

He had tears in his eyes as he gently pulled me in for a hug, whispering "thank you." After a few seconds he pulled away, resuming his staring into the darkness. "Wanna go for a drive?" I asked him. He whipped his head towards me once again with a look of utter confusion. "Isn't it like four in the morning though?" He asked. "Yeah, but the time of day isn't stopping us from a bit of fun now is it?" His confusion didn't really cease much after that. "Well we're also soaking wet so uhhh..." He trailed off. "Oh, right, forgot about that. We can get changed super fast, meet me by the front door in 5." He nodded while standing up, but before he could get inside the house I spoke up once more. "Oh and if you wake anyone up so help me god." He laughed a bit before opening the door, and we both crept off into our rooms to find some dry clothes.

~~~time skip~~~

"Ready?" I whispered just before stepping back outside into the downpour. He gave me a nod and a soft, genuine smile before pulling down the door handle. We sprinted down the front steps and out to the driveway, careful not to get our new clothes wet before having to sit in the car for god knows how long. "Can we listen to music?" He quietly asked me, almost with a scared undertone in his voice. "I'm already two steps ahead of you." I replied with a giggle while connecting my phone to the car, opening Spotify. I handed it to Tommy, signaling for him to play whatever he wanted. Wilbur's calming voice blasted throughout both of our ears as I began to drive further and further away from the house. "There's a reason! That London puts barriers on the tube line!" We sang at the top of our lungs, rain still loudly pattering against the car.

I wasn't paying too much attention to what directions I was going in, but neither of us really cared, the moment is what mattered. "You know, I never would've expected you to be the type to listen to stuff like this." Tommy spoke after Jubilee Line ended. "Really? I could say the same to you Mr. 'Big Man'." He laughed loudly as Losing Face began to ring out through the car. I softly smiled to myself at the fact that this was the first time I've seen Tommy genuinely happy since we've arrived in Florida. "Can he smoke more? Can he fuck more?" He sang while laughing to himself.

We kept driving around, singing, laughing, talking about everything and nothing, until it was nearing 6 am. The sun began to creep up over the horizon as the rain died down, and I figured we could find a spot to watch it rise. I had a blanket in the back of the car, so we could just put it on the ground wherever we decide to settle. I pulled up to a random parking lot that happened to be around a block away from a small hill. I let Tommy finish singing his heart out to Saline Solution before even mentioning what we were doing here. His gaze of confusion was dead set on me as I turned off the car. "Where are we?" He asked. "In all honesty I'm not exactly sure, but c'mon." He didn't question it any further as we stepped out of the car and onto the wet pavement. I grabbed the blanket out of the trunk and began walking towards the hill, my other arm around Tommy.

After getting to the top, you could see around half of the sun peeking up over the ground. The sky began to turn all shades of red, orange, and yellow. "Tommy look..." I whispered as he turned around to face what I was seeing. He basically fell back onto the blanket as soon as I had finished smoothing out the corners, eyes still fixed to the ombre of warm colors. I laughed a bit before flopping down next to him, taking in the sight on my own. We sat like that for what felt like 20 minutes, breathing in the warm summer air, listening to the chirping of morning birds. "Karl?" "Hmm?" "Thank you." He softly said, almost like a whisper, but not quite. "Of course Tommy, sometimes we all need a break. It's nice."

"No, not just this. For... everything I guess. Everything you've done for me, I don't deserve it. I don't deserve any of it." His voice was genuine, which honestly kind of hurt to hear. "Tommy of course you deserve it. I'd go through hell and back just if it meant you were happy." He didn't respond after that, instead he just laid back onto the blanket, staring at the sky that kept brightening with every second.

~~~3rd person POV~~~

After a few more hours of driving around, blasting music, and just simply talking, the inseparable pair eventually found their way home, but they'd be lying if they said it was easy. Karl had taken a few wrong turns here and there, and couldn't remember the way back. After walking through the door of Dream's 'mansion,' they were met with a few concerned faces, and others of just confusion. "Where were you two? You've been gone all morning!" Sapnap said as soon as they walked into the living room. It was around 11am by now, so anyone would understand his concern. "We went for a drive and watched the sunrise, nothing major." Karl said while putting his keys on the hook. No one really said much as Karl went and got a banana, and even managed to get Tommy to eat one as well. Tubbo had been in his room, careful to avoid any awkward interactions with Tommy.

Tommy, Karl, Wilbur, Sapnap, and Techno all sat down watching some random tv show, while the others were scattered amongst the house doing whatever they may please.

For the first time in a while, things seemed to be pretty content with Tommy. He was happy.

Too bad his life has a tendency for turning to shit.

~~~~~~~~

Word count - 1494

I wrote this all in one sitting, kinda proud of myself lol