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Grian was sitting by the boatem hole, relishing in the late night breeze and the relative peace of the server at such a late time.
He knew the rest of boatem was probably asleep, or perhaps working on a farm but he couldn’t see anyone so he assumed the former. He would usually like being alone like this, knowing if he were in any true danger there were four hermits close by or his own base that he could seek refuge within but, tonight he felt a feeling of unease wash over him in waves.
The reason he was up tonight was not to look at the beautiful night sky or to savor the quiet that so rarely was seen on this server no, it was due to the all too familiar feeling of dread pooling deep in the bottom of his stomach and worming its way up into his chest making his heart and mind race.
He thought maybe sitting by the boatem hole and getting some fresh air would help calm him down but really it did nothing to stifle the feelings that were slowing growing into panic over what, Grian had no clue.
He wishes that he didn’t know this feeling so well but by now he is quite well acquainted with the quickening breath and speeding up heartbeat and the sweaty palms and the non stop trembling and the need to run run run far away from the hidden threat his mind insists is there somewhere.
He knows he has coping mechanisms to calm him down but his mind has seemed to forgotten all of them at the exact moment he needs them, and normally he’d follow his instincts and run, fly far away, let his mind and body calm down and then come back to his base and act as if nothing happened.
Something in him, very tiny, is telling him not to do that this time, to reach out. He has four friends who would be willing to sit with him and ground him, bring him down from this growing panic. He doesn’t have to keep running.
With a shaky and uneven breath he stands up on his trembling legs. He psychs himself up for just a second before heading in the direction of Scar’s giant wagon.
He doesn’t know why he chose Scar specifically but it really doesn’t matter who he ended up choosing to go to as he would feel equally guilty waking any of them up, but it’s too late to go back now as he’s already halfway to Scar’s bedroom.
The terraformer must have heard him climbing up the ladder into his base as he heard him grumbling as he woke up.
“Who’s there?” he sees scar look around still a little groggy before his eyes land on the winged hermit standing awkwardly next to the ladder he just climbed up, looking back at the sleepy man and his cat.
“Um, hey..” Grian shakily said, he was slowly growing into a more panicked state the longer he stood there as his mind was no longer focused on making his way to his friend.
Scar must’ve noticed his friends panicked and slightly out of it state because he quickly shook the rest of the sleep out of himself as he got out of his bed and went over to Grian.
Slowly guiding his friend to his bed Scar sat them both down and started rubbing his hand up and down the space between the smaller hermit’s wings.
“Hey G, focus on my voice alright?” Grian somehow managed a small nod through his quick and short breaths and his trembling body.
He could feel tears roll down his face and he isn’t quite sure when he even started crying.
“Alright, do you think you can breathe with me?” another nod, as he tries to follow Scar’s lead in breathing in and holding it then letting it back out and repeating until it doesn’t feel like he’s breathing after running a marathon.
“That’s great, you’re doing amazing, do you think you can talk yet?” Grian had to think about that for a second before deciding he would be fine to talk now.
“yea.. thanks scar,” he knew he was still crying and could feel himself shake under Scar’s hand that was still on his back, though he felt better being able to breath somewhat normal and being with someone.
“It was no problem, do you just wanna talk a bit or do you wanna try to sleep?”
Grian knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep right after a panic attack, as put out as he felt his mind was still swimming with thoughts and that little feeling of unease was still there, just ebbing away slowly.
“can we just chat for a bit, I don’t think I can sleep yet.”
Scar kept his hand on his back as he talked “Sure,”
So Grian and Scar chatted about random things for most of the night eventually settling down in a small cuddle pile, Grian with his head in Scar’s chest and Jellie in the middle of the two of them.
They were just enjoying each others presence as the sun rose outside and they heard the other residents of boatem start waking up and getting busy working on their builds.
It wasn’t until then that Grian finally felt okay enough to fall asleep as Scar kept a protective hold on him.
As soon as the older hermit was sure the smaller was asleep he let himself fully relax and fall asleep as well.
There would be time later for Grian to feel guilty about waking Scar up in the middle of the night and time for Scar to reassure him that he’d rather he wake him up then struggle alone but that time wasn’t right now. Right now it was time for these two hermits and a cat to get some rest.