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“And breathe out.”
Nico’s eyes were closed as he breathed out slowly, holding the pose as he did so. His shoulders automatically relaxed as he did, feeling the stress slowly flow from his head and neck, down his shoulders, through his chest and down his legs to his feet—
ACHOO!
His eyes snapped open at the sound of the sneeze, his gaze immediately flicking over to his boyfriend.
His boyfriend who had sneezed and fallen over, distracting everyone else in the class. Nico rolled his eyes as he heard their yoga teacher sigh and raise an eyebrow at Will.
Will smiled awkwardly as he slowly pushed himself back to his feet. “Sorry, allergies.”
“You don’t have allergies,” Nico stated simply as he turned back to face forward, closing his eyes and waiting for the class to restart. Will falling over was a simple distraction. The class would be fine. He could finish unwinding and get back to his homework, and continue with their days.
He didn’t open his eyes to look at Will again, but he heard him sigh as the class started up again, the insturctor starting the exercise up again.
“Did you have to lose your balance at exactly that moment?” Nico threw his keys into the bowl on the table by his apartment front door, heading further in. “It ruined the flow of the whole session—”
“I said I was sorry,” Will whined, following Nico in and shutting the door behind him. And he had — he had been apologising since the end of the yoga session, he had been apologising when they went to the smoothie place afterwards, he had apologised for the whole way back to the apartment. And he was going to keep apologising. He knew how important the yoga class was to Nico, how he depended on them to help him unwind, to help him relax from a stressed week. And this week had been pretty stressful. Him falling and distracting him before he’d made it through the whole session broke his cycle.
Nico didn’t like it when you broke his cycle.
“I know,” Nico mumbled, throwing his coat onto the couch and heading straight into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes. Will watched him carefully as he did so, concern rising in his chest. He could sense that Nico was still a bit stressed, but not a lingering stress from earlier in the week. This felt like a newer stress. Like it was linked to the fact that the yoga session was disrupted.
Will approached Nico as he reached the fridge, gently placing his hands on his shoulders and guiding him away from the appliance. There was a confused grumble from Nico, but Will guided him over to the couch in the living area, before turning him around and sitting him down. He sat beside him, taking his hands.
“You’re still stressed.”
“I’m fine—”
“You’re stressed.” The look in Will’s eyes told him he didn’t believe Nico one bit. “You’re stressed and you’re only going to get worse, and you’re just going to end up annoyed because the yoga session didn’t relieve your stress like you’d wanted it to.”
Nico pursed his lips at that, and Will knew he got it spot on.
“Okay, look at me.” He squeezed Nico’s hands a little. “You remember that breathing exercise thing I showed you? The one with the box? Let’s try that.”
Nico was quiet for a few more moments, before nodding, relenting.
“Okay, close your eyes.”
Nico did exactly that.
“Imagine a square… and in for four.”
Nico took a deep breath. In… two… three… four…
“Hold.”
One… two… three… four…
“And out slowly.”
Out… two… three… four…
“Hold.”
One… two… three… four…
They continued until Will could see the stress visibly bleed from Nico’s shoulders, see his body completely relax on every slow breath out, see the stress lines fade from Nico’s face. On the last round, Will squeezed Nico’s hands again, signalling for him to open his eyes. He smiled softly at his boyfriend.
“Better?”
Nico nodded.
“Good.” Will leaned over and kissed him on the forehead. “You don’t have to do yoga to destress, you know. Your class is only once a week. You can’t carry around your stress from the whole week to that yoga class.”
Nico looked off to the side. “Will, I don’t have time to—”
“It takes five minutes, and it’s for your health.” Will pouted at him. “Please?”
Nico looked back aat his boyfriend to see him giving him the biggest, most pitiful puppy eyes he’d ever seen, and he relented on the spot. How could he say no to that? “Okay… okay, fine.” He tried for a small smile. “I’ll do it.” When Will raised an eyebrow at him, he elaborated, “For my own health and not just to please you.”
“Thank you.”
Nico was about to reply with something snarky, but then Will leaned in and kissed him softly, and whatever he was about to say melted on his lips, and he smiled.
(Honestly, a small part of him had always believed that all he needed to relieve his stress was affection from his boyfriend, and Will just kept proving him right.)