This does center around a panic attack, so please be aware of that before reading. Also, cursing.
Word count: 2,121
Rain at Disney meant that everyone was running to hide inside, running to get on rides that we covered or had covered queues, running to buy ponchos, and running to keep their kids from rolling in puddles. Octavian was already indoors when the rain started. He had been looking for a souvenir on Main Street, USA when the people flooded in around him.
Anxiety hadn't been a problem for Octavian in years. But standing in the largest gift shop at The Magic Kingdom, with the crowd pushing around him on all sides while he stood still, Octavian felt his old problem creeping back into his chest and pounding in his skull. The noise from the hundreds of guests looking for the perfect keepsake bubbled and frothed about the emporium. Octavian stared straight at the basket full of Mickeys and Oswalds and Minnies, trying to focus on something other than the surging crowd.
It felt like drowning in an ocean of people. The people pushed and pulled around him. They chattered in a way that Octavian couldn't even begin to understand. He felt as though he was being pushed up while simultaneously being forced down. The ocean moved all around him, unrelenting as it drowned him in its childlike waves.
A hand fell on his forearm. It rattled Octavian, jarring him out of his thoughts. A girl, probably just younger than he, met his eyes. She looked concerned. Octavian suddenly became aware that a few dry tears had begun to make their way down his cheeks.
The girl knit her eyebrows and gently ushered him out of the shop, across the crowded street to the shop selling tradeable pins. Aside from the cashier and a couple others, the shop was nearly empty. Octavian worked to breathe normally and started to thank the girl.
He began to open his mouth, trying to find the best words to express his gratitude, when she shook her head and spoke first, "You had it bad in there. Don't talk just yet. Try to breathe normally for me, okay?"
He nodded. She coached his breathing for a bit, "In, out. There you go. And iiin and out." She sort of bobbed up and down as she talked, and her curly red hair bounced with her. She wore jeans splattered with paint and a simple t-shirt reading "Goode High Art Club." Octavian figured she must be an art hoe. He started to wonder if she owned one of those skirts with "Starry Night" on it. Or if her alarm clock was like the melting clocks from "La persistencia de la memoria."
"Feeling better?" she asked.
Octavian blinked himself out of his thoughts, "Ah, um, sí. Wait. Yes." He mentally cursed himself for getting distracted by Spanish names of paintings, but the girl only laughed.
"Me llamo Rachel," she jested, "¿Y tú?"
"I'm Octavian," he paused a second. "Do you speak Spanish?"
"Nah, I just picked some of the easy stuff off my friend Leo." She tilted her head, "Do you?"
He only shrugged. "Thank you for getting me out of there. That was very kind of you." The response was cookie-cutter and the topic shift was awkward, but Octavian wasn't having his best time orating that night.
This time, Rachel shrugged. "I noticed you, assumed I knew what was happening, and I did what anyone else would have had they realized." She leaned in a bit, "Are you going to be okay tonight? Who are you here with?"
Octavian shuffled backward, bumping into some hooks with pins on them. "I'm here with friends. I'll just call them up and find out where they all disappeared off to. I'll be fine."
Rachel eyed the older teen suspiciously as he spoke, then said, "Well, I'll wait here with you. Just to be sure."
"I'm perfectly alright on my own. Really." Rachel began to insist, but Octavian scrunched up his nose and backed further into the hooks, knocking off some of the pins. "Oh shit!" he muttered under his breath. Octavian leaned down to pick up what had fallen-packs for The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Little Mermaid had been scattered around his and Rachel's feet. If he was being frank with himself, Octavian was flustered. He still felt his anxiety, like pop rocks in his stomach just waiting to surge back up. He swallowed it back down before sinking to the floor to pick up the merchandise.
Rachel stayed quiet for a brief second before offering to help. Together, they returned all the pins to their hooks. Octavian pulled his phone out of his pocket. "I should call my friends," he stated.
They waited in awkward silence as the phone rang. Octavian closed his eyes and tried to breathe like a normal human being should, but he could hardly keep himself from drowning all over again. Dakota answered, his cheery voice bringing Octavian out of his head.
"Guess what I found!" Dakota was never one to open with society's silly pleasantries.
Octavian cracked the slightest smile, "What?"
Dakota huffed into the phone, "No, no. You are so bad at this. You have to guess."
"A blu-ray collection of the original Zorro show."
Rachel chuckled. Octavian swallowed his pop rocks again and turned about seventy degrees away from her. She noticed. Maybe that was rude. He couldn't very well turn back toward her now. What if she thought he was a dick? Well, to her credit, Octavian was a dick. He knew that well enough. But he didn't want to be rude to someone he just met, and-
"Your a fucking shitty guesser, Octavian." Dakota had a magical way of talking about nonsense when Octavian needed it most.
Breathe. Octavian spoke, "Just tell me already."
"Okay, so, Gwen's been talking about wanting a french press lately, for coffee, right? Well, because I'm a stellar guy and all, I found the only one in the whole park. It's single serve and, basically, the cutest thing you have ever seen so get over here so I can see it to you."
"Don't you mean…"
"Show it to you. Shut up, you ass." Dakota laughed warmly over the phone. "I'm at the back of the crowning jewel of long Disney Park lines here in the Emporium. Where are you?"
"Oh, I was just in there. I'm across the street."
"Well come ooooon. I'm bored. Jason and Reyna and Gwen all went off to Space Mountain-again, and without me-and Michael won't pick up his phone, so you should come entertain me."
Octavian almost held back a chuckle, "I can't do that. We're in public."
"Fuck off! And get your ass over here!" Dakota was laughing when the call ended.
Octavian smiled for at least three whole seconds before he really realized what going over to Dakota meant. It meant hurling himself right back into the sea. He shook off the thought, then turned to inform Rachel that he had found a friend who was not on a ride and would be A-okay by himself.
She knew exactly what he was going to say, apparently, because she nodded. "Well, guess that's my cue. I'll head back to my people. Stay safe, and remember to breathe."
Octavian nodded. "I will."
He watched her leave. She turned to go down Main Street into the main park area, her red curls bouncing.
Octavian forgot to thank her again before she left. Shit, he was going to seem like a grade-A dick. She would remember him like that forever. She might tell her friends, her parents, some random-ass cashier who was selling her a Mickey Mouse french press. Octavian turned on his heels, hoping to catch her before she left. But Dakota. He had to meet Dakota. Dakota might have prior experience with Octavian being a total prick, but it would just be excessive to make him wait after Octavian had agreed to go to Dakota. Either way, Octavian was leaving one of the two thinking of him as a rude, impolite, selfish dick. Maybe he was. Octavian should just head back to the Emporium-
The Emporium. That was right. He remembered the swirling masses of people, weighing him down and suffocating him. Octavian forgot to blink. The rain outside poured, smashing against pavement and umbrellas. He heard the kids, but their cries and laughter sounded distance. Somewhere, thunder cracked. It was far off. But so were the kids. Maybe the thunder was actually right on top of him, waiting to strike. The rain kept coming down just a few feet in front of Octavian. There were so many fucking people outside, pushing and swaying back and forth-
Octavian registered a warm hand behind his head. He registered orange taking up most of his vision. He registered people shouting, but not what it was they were all shouting about. Maybe it had to do with Mickey Mouse. Probably. It was so shrill, insistent, panicked. Shit, why couldn't they just shut up?
Upon waking up, Octavian found himself in a place that was not a Magic Kingdom Gift Shop. This was surprising. He blinked himself awake, finding himself in a white room surrounded by white things, such as the walls, blankets, and Dakota. The dark haired teen beamed down at the still sleepy blonde haired teen.
"You're awake!"
"Yes…?" Octavian sat up groggily. His head pounded, therefore Octavian opted to lie back against the hospital bed. "This is a hospital, right?" Octavian asked.
"Sort of, I guess," said Dakota. "It's an emergency facility near the park. You passed out and hit your head."
"Just how I wanted to spend my Disney trip."
Dakota shrugged. "I'm just glad you're okay. Well, you're solidly concussed, but you didn't, like, crack your skull and bleed from the face in front of tons of toddlers."
"I appreciate the optimism."
"No problem," said Dakota. The conversation paused while Octavian rubbed his head. A nurse entered the room to check up on him. She was perfectly helpful and pleasant. She had mousy brown hair and a small face. Dakota was checking her out the whole time, but he was also better at using polite phrases like "ma'am" when communicating with the nurse. Octavian just mumbled and nodded, occasionally moving whenever the nurse asked. Eventually, she left to go tell the doctor that Octavian was awake.
"Hey," Dakota began, "were you okay back there?"
Octavian turned and met Dakota's eyes. "Yes."
"Alright, 'cause, there was this girl there who said you were panicking. And if we need to talk about it, then we can. I know it's hard for you sometimes, but-"
"I'm fine."
Dakota's soft, worried eyes met Octavian's tired, stubborn ones. Dakota sighed and said, "Well, just know that I'm here. By the way, she left her number for you."
"Pardon?" Octavian straightened how he sat.
"The girl. She said she had been about to come give you her number when she saw you go down. She totally yelled at the cashier to call 911. The poor cashier girl was already calling EMTs, just not fast enough for your girl." Dakota chuckled under his breath.
"She's not 'my girl'. She's just a girl." Octavian corrected.
"Well, people were freaking the fuck out. So in a few moments word got into the Emporium and so I heard a guy had passed out and I was like 'shit, I bet that's mine.' And I ran out of there so fast you have no idea. And that girl was, like, cradling your head trying to get you to wake up and cast members were-actually rather calmly-calling the EMTs. Dude, you were fucking soaked from the rain. And security freaked the fuck out 'cause I'd just blasted off with that french press. So I went in and paid while the girl stayed with you. She was pretty adorable, ya know? Well, I paid for the shit, came out, told the medical guys that I was with you, and the girl asked me to give you this piece of paper, which has her number on it. She wrote in purple pen. Totally adorable."
Octavian kept his eyes closed while Dakota talked. He wished he could keep himself from blushing, but Rachel had been very kind to stay. And her number… Octavian felt himself blushing even more at that thought. But he had been a dick. He didn't deserve her kindness. Unless... maybe she thought something else of his behavior.
"Looks like the color has returned to your face, that's good." The doctor smiled as he took a seat on a stool and rolled over to Octavian's bedside. Octavian's cheeks flared even redder as he tried to defend himself.
Dakota cracked up, "Here man, keep her number. You can call her later."
My dad bought my mom a french press at MK and it was cute.
I'm working on a oneshot that'll have both octachel and solangelo, as well as a twoshot with octachel, and a multi chapter with both ships. Two of those are fantasy and one is a modern setting.
As always, feedback is most welcome. Thank you all so much for reading.