wipe the blood off your face (it may stain)

Mercy, Are You Still With Me?

So, maybe Tommy had been making more mistakes than he realized.

Not that it was at all intentional, of course. He was just busy all the time and that led to him abandoning old friendships while simultaneously ruining newer ones, which wasn't great.

But in the past two weeks that they have stayed at Quackity's place, he had made much more of an effort, not only for the SBI, but for Tubbo and Ranboo.

Sure, while thinking it over, he was a little upset that Tubbo wasn't so understanding with his point of view. Especially considering that they could've mentioned their feelings beforehand, but it was too late to do anything now.

And, hey, the hard work of trying to mend just about every friendship he has with everyone in the small space they were in was somewhat making an impact.

Techno wasn't so distant towards him, there was certainly some border between them, that... may never be repaired, but in such a short amount of time, it was doing something.

Phil wasn't as pissed as he was the first few days. It has molded into tired frustration, which still wasn't what Tommy wanted, but the man had begun to be a little nicer, though pretty much anything was considered better than the man's rage, so there wasn't a huge difference there. They have at least shared a few words to each other that wasn't Phil giving snide remarks and Tommy profusely apologizing, so that was good enough.

Wilbur was a little harder. He was angry at Tommy, yes, but he was more hesitant, clearly because of the fear, however mild it had become.

Wilbur was avoiding him. Not that Tommy blamed him, but he had to interact with the brunette in order to heal their friendship, so he pushed, even if he felt a little bad for doing so.

It wasn't like Tommy was doing anything too bad. He just tried to get at least one conversation in with each person within the hotel rooms, short or not. That included Wilbur.

And yeah, Wilbur didn't like it, obviously, though Tommy was determined to save their friendship, so he would continue to have conversations with the man. Sometimes, they were actually fun, just like old times, if not a little stilted. Most often, they were awkward and unnatural. But it was as if Tommy was practicing an old hobby. At first, you would probably suck, and you wouldn't be good at it like you used to be, but eventually, you would improve, it would feel more natural, and eventually you could be just as good as you were before.

Tommy hoped that this would be like practicing an old hobby, but it felt much more challenging than relearning your rhythm on the drums or being able to dribble a ball.

He was relieved he managed to get the tough conversations out of the way. Tommy had explained most of the things he had experienced when being their intern and also their enemy, as well as answering all questions. Like how he faked falling asleep, which was a little embarrassing.

Tommy was sure that more questions would come up, but for now, they seemed satisfied enough.

When he asked for a run down of what happened with the whole murdering a criminal because Wilbur thought it was Tommy, and then how Phil murdered Dream, they all kind of looked at each other and didn't answer the question.

Okay, fine, it was still a sensitive matter. Tommy was already on thin ice. He wouldn't push them too much yet. Though he did make them agree that they would have to eventually tell them after he told them all his trauma as if he was speaking to a fucking therapist. When he put it like that, it was a little hard to disagree.

After that though, he had decided to keep his distance from the SBI, not including the few conversations he has with them each day. He planned to start attempting to spend more time around them soon. An extra week or two would do the trick, and then he could really try to talk to them.