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Heath hadn't always been an asthmatic but, within the past year, he'd developed a pretty rough case of it. This, of course, wasn't the end of the world, though. He was able to secure a prescription for an inhaler pretty early on and was generally fine, so long as he used it when necessary.
This day wasn't different from any other. He was in his dorm room, working on Mr. Komos' assignment. Deuce and his other roommate were both out, but that was fine. That should have been fine. There was nothing to worry about.
He wasn't quite sure what, if anything, had triggered it, but Heath suddenly found that he couldn't take full breaths in. His inhaler was in his bag, which he'd put in the bathroom earlier while he did some tidying up- Despite what one may assume based on how he acted and presented himself, he actually made quite a concerted effort to make sure that his space was clean- But it wasn't serious enough to pull himself away from what he was doing yet. After all, with his ADHD, who knew if he'd be able to properly get back in the groove of his work if he got up now?
In hindsight, he really should've just gotten his inhaler when he had the chance.
The increasing issue with his lungs evaded his focus just enough to get the better of him and, within the next couple of minutes, it had escalated to wheezing. He couldn't breathe, so his lungs were frantically doing whatever they even could, leading to the unpleasant sounds of wheezing and coughing from the elemental.
He set down his pen and clutched a hand to his chest. He tried just taking deep breaths, but this didn't do anything except make him light-headed. Shit, he thought. This was really bad, and he needed his inhaler.
He stood up from his bed, but this made him even more light-headed, and he nearly passed out. His knees buckled and he fell to the ground. From there, he lied down on his side, wheezing and panting like a dog. He didn't know what to do.
Panic began to grip him, making his already strained breathing even worse. He could legitimately die here. Now, that wouldn't necessarily be the end of the world- After all, he'd possibly just become a ghost or zombie or something- But, still, that would be completely life-altering (afterlife-altering?), and unbelievably scary. Also, he wasn't even sure if he was the type of monster that would have an afterlife. What if this was just it? A pathetic asthmatic, gone before his time because he couldn't get to his inhaler that was one room over.
Just as he was contemplating this, he heard the dorm room open, followed by the sound of someone cursing, and then footsteps coming toward him. He didn't, couldn't look up but, based on the legs and shoes that he saw kneel in front of him, he knew it was Deuce.
"Heath, where's your inhaler?" Deuce asked, panicked. He knew Heath had asthma, but he'd never seen it get this bad before, and it was a startling sight. Heath tried to speak, but it just came out as a wheeze, so he nodded his head toward the bathroom and hoped that Deuce would get the memo.
Deuce got up and hurried over to the bathroom. It took him very little time to locate Heath's backpack. He didn't remember exactly where Heath kept the inhaler, so he quickly opened a bunch of pockets. Thankfully, he was able to find it pretty quickly, so he grabbed it and ran back to Heath, who took the device with shaking hands, shook it, and sprayed it into his mouth. He took a moment and then took a second puff, then put it down on the ground next to him.
While his asthma was beginning to calm down, he was still hyperventilating and shaking from the panic over the whole situation. Deuce, thankfully, was able to pick up on this, so he gently helped Heath sit up and then, with a nod of permission, placed a firm hand against the elemental's chest, hardly even noting the heat that radiated through Heath's clothing. The boy ran a bit hot at the best of times due to the nature of his monsterhood, let alone after an asthma attack and while panicking.
"I'll count, you just breathe, okay?" Deuce asked. Heath frantically nodded, wheezes giving way to less painful-sounding hyperventilation. "Breathe in. One, two, three, four... And out. One, two, three, four..."
They went like this for a few minutes. Heath struggled at first, both because his asthma was still in the process of lightening up and because he was still so panicked from the whole almost-dying thing. Eventually, though, Heath's breathing leveled out and he looked at Deuce gratefully.
"Thanks, man" he breathed. "You saved my ass just now. I thought I was toast"
"You don't need to thank me, Heath" Deuce shrugged. "Are you okay? That looked rough"
"Yeah" Heath nodded. "I'm alright now, thanks to you" he thanked again. "I learned a valuable lesson from this as well"
"Oh yeah?" Deuce raised an eyebrow. "And what's that?"
"I need to always keep my inhaler on me"
"...Yeah, that's probably for the best"