iris had woken up after an hour and, after checking they were still streaming, decided to write in her notebook for a while until they finished. the anxiety she'd felt at meeting ranboo and tubbo had faded mostly, and she found herself wanting to spend more time with both of them. but she'd used those feelings to push away others that she hadn't felt like dealing with. it had been almost six months since she and her boyfriend had broken up, and she had mostly processed her feelings, but of course there were bad days.

he had a new girlfriend, she'd been aware of that for months, but every so often she found herself overthinking the whole thing a lot. her ex seemed to be doing fine, he had a new girlfriend, he'd started uni, he was thriving. iris on the other hand was spiraling in an almost-stranger's bedroom.

she didn't like to talk about it with tommy, he didn't really understand. but there were constant thoughts in her head; that she wasn't good enough to be friends with tommy because he had literally millions of people who followed his every move. it had gotten worse when he'd offered for her to meet his friends. what if they hated her? iris wasn't a streamer, but all of his other friends were. even eryn and freddie, who iris had gone to high school with had started streaming. if his streamer friends didn't like her, then why would tommy stick around?

no one else ever had. every single boyfriend she'd ever had had been the one to break up with her, she'd never dumped anyone. even jack, who had all-but cheated on her, was the one to dump iris. she'd been worried for a while that he'd lost feelings for her, but she'd stayed with him in the hopes that things would get better. they didn't, and jack had stared dating his best friend less than a month after they broke up.

she'd written a few songs about jack, and she flipped through, trying to find the words for her feelings. she wasn't anyone's forever, she'd come to realise. she was a stop on someone's road to self-discovery, but no one looked at her and saw a future. the thought that not even tommy did terrified her. what if he was the same? she couldn't handle the idea of losing tommy.

she'd been writing steadily for nearly fifteen minutes when there was a gentle tap on the door. "iris? it's tubbo. can i come in?"

"yeah, you're alright," she closed her notebook and smiled at him from her position of sitting on his bed. "you guys done?"

"yeah, you can come out now, we're all finished," he said kindly. "did you sleep alright?"

she nodded. "yeah, thank you for letting me sleep here, i really appreciate it. and thanks for inviting me, i know it's kinda weird since i'm just tommy's friend."

tubbo waved her off. "nah, you're awesome. ranboo thinks so too. all tom does is talk about how cool you are. we've been wanting to meet you for a while, but he's said no. gatekeeper," he joked. iris felt warm inside. he hadn't ratted her out for being a coward and not wanting to meet them. her fears felt a little silly now, seeing how warmly his friends had treated her even though they'd just met. "we're gonna go to the shops soon for some snacks, then we were gonna watch a movie. you wanna come? or you can stay here if you'd like. my sisters are here, they'd love to meet you properly?"

she definitely wasn't ready to hang out with tubbo's sisters alone without tubbo, tommy or ranboo being there. she'd met them when she first got there, along with tubbo's dad. his mum was out, but iris had been informed that she'd be home in a few hours. "i'll come if that's alright?"

"yeah, of course. we'll leave in ten? just come out when you're ready, i'll call an uber." none of them could drive, at least not without one of their parents present, so trains, buses and ubers were how they made their way around most of the time. tubbo's dad had asked him for a hand with something, and so tommy and tubbo had decided to stay, leaving ranboo and iris to go retrieve the list of food they'd been given.

"i'm really glad you came to meet us," ranboo said earnestly, sitting in the backseat of the car beside her. "really. i didn't doubt tommy when he said you were great, but i didn't think we'd get along this well," she smiled at him, her heart calming every so slightly. "do you wanna exchange twitters or something? talk more?"

it was insane to her that ranboo seemed to be nervous while asking. she was sheepish when she replied. "i don't really have a twitter, like i technically have an account but it's not set up properly or anything," she could ask him for help with that, right? "i've been kinda wanting to set one up, though. think you can offer any assistance with that?"

"yeah, of course," ranboo nodded eagerly. "staying faceless i'm assuming?" at iris's nod, he agreed. "yeah, i can definitely help." once they reached the shops, ranboo kept asking her questions. "so whenever tommy features you on his stream he puts 'iriside' in the title? is that what your user's gonna be?"

"i think so," she admitted. "it was gonna be my big music artist stage name," she held her hand up as if framing the letters and then felt stupid. "it's silly,"

ranboo scoffed, and iris could tell that even beneath the mask they were giving her an extremely unimpressed look. "it's not silly, that's sick. i didn't know you wrote music? that's so cool! ever planning on sharing anything online?"

"i'm considering it," she said softly, having never told anyone before. "that's sorta why i want an online presence, y'know? start getting my stuff out there. or maybe it'll flop tremendously, who knows?"

he knocked his shoulder with hers, a sign of empathy. "i believe in you,"

hearing it from tommy was one thing, but having someone she'd just met assure her so emphatically filled her with hope. "can you help me set something up?" they bought their snacks, and by the time they were getting out of the uber ride home, iris had a fully set up twitter complete with her first follower.

— AUTHOR'S NOTE

i made these in like 2 minutes but roughly what iris's socials look like (they took social dummy off the app store okay i did my best)