Mcyt -autistic- oneshots

America: The airport

A/n Hey. As promised, to thank all of you wonderful people for 1000 reads! The 'Tommy goes to America' story starts now! Hope you enjoy!

Tommy's POV:

We were going out to America to see everyone, and by we, I mean a lot of us. Phil, Wilbur, Ranboo, Tubbo, Jack, Niki and a bunch of other British streamers we knew. We were all flying out to meet with the AmErIcAn streamers (and George who was living over there now), to spend loads of time hanging out and do cool things. And I was very excited. And very nervous.

You see, I had never been to America and I knew it was a lot different to Europe. And since Covid, I've found it difficult going anywhere that isn't my house. People recognise me, and it's cool, but it makes me really anxious all the time. I had been practicing by staying over in hotels and at Tubbo's, whilst filming all my vlogs. But even that had been difficult, I didn't sleep very well at either of those places. And in order to get the vlogs done, I had to be in 'content mode', which meant masking. I was masking a lot, I was even masking at home again. Mum and Dad were a little worried about it, because it was strange for them to see me do it at home, but I told them not to worry. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little worried about it too, but let's forget about that.

Being autistic made things difficult. It was part of the reason I was so good at Youtube sure, but it made some things nearly impossible. Things like travelling. It stresses me out, and makes me scared of everything. The only way I get through it is with lots of music, and a plan of exactly what we are doing and when and how we are doing it. But that's a little harder, when there are so many of us.

We weren't all sharing a house. Phil, Wilbur, Tubbo, Ranboo and I were. We had sorted out a few air bnb's, and Niki and Jack were staying with Minx, and some of their other streamer friends. To stop me being as stressed: Phil, Wilbur and my parents had some very long discord calls, explaining things, and working some things out. One of those things, was having the house we were staying in, to be a safe place for me. Meaning I didn't have to mask, and I had a space I could go and have meltdowns, sensory overloads, away from everything. I felt bad for having to have so many things put in place for me, but I just counted myself lucky that I had friends that would do it for me.

Mum went through all my things with me, which I did pack myself, but she checked it. And it's a good thing she did check it, because I had forgotten to pack the only set of clothes I'll wear in a sensory overload. It's only a pair of tracksuit bottoms that she had cut into shorts for me, and a hoodie, but they are important. More important than most people realise. She also helped me go through all my sensory toys, and work out which ones I could and couldn't take.

Then, the night before my flight, Dad drove us up to Heathrow and we stayed in a hotel for half a night, before waking up early to get there for my flight on time. I slept, but only in brief periods, and ended up, lying there, AirPods in, hoping it would stop me stressing out. (Note: it didn't.) Still, when my dad's alarm went off, I got up as if I had been sleeping, and got myself ready. We had breakfast in our room, because Dad had brought these weird breakfast bar things that I actually like for once. And whilst I pretended not to be stressed, we went down to meet everyone in the airport.

Wilbur jumped me, and I screamed, which made him and my dad both laugh. "Tom, I think you should have seen that coming."

"Tommy, come on. I'm just joking."

"Not a good morning for joking. Please don't do anymore joking. Please."

"I won't, I promise. Sorry, I forgot how stressed you were about all of this."

"It's fine." I stared at the floor, and fiddled with the suitcase handle I was holding.

"Right, we need to get going. The others will be here soon. Say bye to your dad mate."