Work Text:
"Do you want a star...."
The world faded out, from black to a bright white, to a light brown.
Ranboo's head sprung up quickly darting from one thing in the room to another. Where was he? A cabin of some sorts? This made no sense. Who were they? What was their name? Why was their breathing heavy? Why was everything so loud?
It made no sense. They couldn't breath, they started panicking? Is that was it was? They couldn't even remember.
The room was to bright even though their eyes closed half a minute ago; everything was hurting their ears, loud and obnoxious.
The vents were the main noise he could hear, it fighting the deafening silence and replacing it with the hum of air being brought in.
Yet somehow that air wasn't getting into his lungs. And yet somehow the hum was getting increasingly louder every second.
Their thoughts were repeating over and over never ending. Why was this happening?
No worry's, he's got this. All they have to do is breath. In 6? Out 8? That's all he had to do!
So they why wasn't it working? Never the less, he can just do the 12345 method! What was around him?
A chair, another chair, a table, a couch, and a...
Oh. His eyes were still closed.
They opened them slowly, adjusting to the increasing bright light that seemed oddly similar to stage lighting.
After the light sets it, which it does alarming fast; he starts the counting again, but differently.
instead of going and looking around, he stared at the floor, tears in their eyes; counting. 1,2,3,4,6- wait, they forgot five. 1,2,3,4,5,6, the tears that already meant the fate of falling were in their mask or gliding down the front now.
And though the tears were silent, their crying isn't. It speeds up, getting worse and worse, and oh god can they breath?
"Ran-"
Are the tears that fell in the mask going in their lungs?
"Ranboo!"
Are they even alive right now?-
"RANBOO!"
Ranboo was shaken out of his thoughts my his Charlie, his best friend, their brother.
The setting wasn't the cabin anymore, it was now his and Charlie's shared apartment. Their safe place, so how did they get so wrapped up in their own thoughts? Oh no, was it happening again?
"Ranboo! Are you okay? Your crying, like, a lot. What happened...?"
"I-I dont know I was in t-the cabin and-"
"Ranboo. You need to breath okay? Follow my breaths."
Charlie raised his hand with five fingers up, then breathed in for around four seconds, and out for another four. He then motioned for Ranboo to follow.
"In four, out four, your doing great."
They continued this for a while until Ranboo's tears dried up and turned into light sniffles.
"Okay, great job. Now can you tell me what happened?"
"I was in the cabin and everything was so so loud. I-it was like everything was magnified, and there was bright lights, and- that's all I got."
"That's alright. Are you okay now?"
"Yeah, I-I think so."
"Okay, can you answer the question I asked before?"
"What do you mean?"
"Before, uh- that happened; I was asking if you wanted a starburst?"
Charlie looked around before bringing out a bag of starbursts from behind his back.
"Oh! Uh sure. Are there any pink left?"
"Yeah totally! You know my favorites yellow."
"And I still don't understand why."
"And I don't think you ever will."