Work Text:
Aaron has a stutter, not that bad, but noticeable. But his four closet friends only recently found out. 'How did they just now notice if it's noticeable?' Well, Aaron tried to hide it, because he hated his stutter. And it worked, but he's been more anxious and overworked lately, causing the stutter to get worse and harder to control.
~•~
Today was an extra busy day, with an extra video (making 5 total) to film on a already packed day. In the beginning Aaron didn't stutter, but by the fourth video, it was getting harder not to. And Herm, being the observant guy he is, noticed. Giving Aaron sideway glances at every slip up that was happening every other sentence. And by the last video, the others noticed too.
Denny was the first to say anything when the two were in the hallway, "Yo, A-boogie. You good? You stuttering a whole bunch."
"Yeah, I-I'm fine." Aaron almost grimaced when he stuttered again, geez it wasn't even five words.
Denny raised an eyebrow, "Right, and I'm the tallest person here." He said, causing a nervous giggle from Aaron.
"N-No, really. I'm good." Herm appeared beside Denny.
"Man, you ain't fooling no one." He said bluntly.
Then, Kevin and Zane walked over. "Why's there a whole questioning group here?" Zane blurt out, glancing at all of them.
Why did everyone come over here? Now he'll have to tell them. It's already bad enough he had a stutter. Now he has to tell them, and possibly get humiliated by it. He shut his eyes tightly. "F-Fine. I have a stutter." Aaron said quickly, his words almost tumbling over each other before he caught himself.
Silence.
He knew it. He shouldn't have said anything. They're all holding back their laughs. He fucked up. They're gonna humiliate him for it, make it a new joke. Why'd he say anything at all? The last person he told back in highschool humiliated him for it, why would he make the same mistake again-
A voice broke his thoughts. "You do?" Denny. Aaron opened his eyes, expecting to see judgement. But instead he saw genuine confusion, shock.. No judgement at all.
"Yeah. I hide it."
"Why?" Kevin blurt out without thinking, causing Aaron to shrug.
"Dunno. N-never liked it. It was an-annoying." He said, holding back a groan when he got stuck on the word annoying.
He didn't fully realize it, but he wasn't holding it back anymore for the first time in a bit. It was kind of refreshing, he kind of had to talk extra slow when he got to certain words, but now he didn't.
"And you hid it from us because you found it annoying?" Zane raised an eyebrow.
Aaron hesitated, before sighing. "No. I hid it b-because I thought y-you'd make fun of me for it." He said quickly, looking at every thing but them.
Denny scoffed, "Wow, you think that low of us?" He said jokingly, but a hint of genuineness in his tone.
Aaron shook his head quickly. "No."
Denny's small smirk widened slightly, before pulling them all into a hug.
Aaron felt relieved and happy, he didn't have to hold back a stutter, and right now, he was right where he needed to be. With his family.
~•~
Over the next few weeks, Aaron stopped hiding his stutter. Occasionally getting pissed when he couldn't finish a word without stuttering a gazillion million times. And they never said anything about it. He definitely was where he needed to be.