Whump & Comfort | Scomavi Oneshots

4. Anxiety |4|

"Avi? Avi, we're home."

Avi didn't know how, but he had managed to fall asleep on the way back home and was surprised when his sister woke him up. "Mmhm," he hummed and slowly opened his eyes.

"Come on, you'll be more comfortable on the sofa with a nice cup of tea," Esther said. 

Avi nodded. He needed a moment to be fully awake, but Esther knew this and waited patiently until he was ready to get up.

Once inside the house, Esther made sure that her brother was comfortable on the sofa with a blanket before she made a whole can of tea. 

"Thank you," Avi said when she handed him a mug. 

Esther just smiled and took a sip from her tea. "How are you?" 

Avi furrowed his brows as if he needed to think hard about the question. "Drained" he finally said. "A little cold, but the blanket is helping."

"Good." She fell silent and let Avi focus on himself.

The bearded man slowly but steadily drank his tea, feeling himself warm up. 

"Better?" Esther asked when Avi put his mug down.

Avi nodded. "Yeah, a bit," he said. "Still feeling a little out of it, but that will pass."

"Good," Esther said. "Do you..." she then began but hesitated. 

"Yeah?" Avi looked at her. 

"Do you know where this attack came from?" Esther asked.

Avi shrugged his shoulders. "Not really. I... think that it's just been a lot. Preparing the wedding between touring and working on my album..." He shrugged his shoulders. "But I'll know more once I've been with the therapist." He didn't want to talk about it, he just wanted to forget. So he decided to change the topic. "Are you hungry? We could order something? I'm sorry that we didn't make it to the sushi place, but I can definitely babysit Rose, soon so you and Darien can have a night out.

Esther smiled slightly, even though she knew that Avi was trying to avoid the conversation. "Okay," she said. "And yes, some food would be lovely. What are you in the mood for?"

"Pasta? Comfort food?" Avi asked. "We had some from a new place the other night, called something with Nonna, it was really good."

Esther took her phone and searched. "Got it. Nonna's Kitchen. What do you want?"

"Carbonara, please."

After finishing the pasta, Avi was almost back to his senses. Esther had stayed with him for a while but then had to go home to her little family. 

And when Scott finally came home, Avi took a deep breath and put a bright smile onto his face. "Hi, Love" he called out. "Tea?"

Scott joined him in the kitchen. "Tea would be lovely," he said before leaning down for a tender kiss. "Did you have a nice day?" 

Avi nodded. "Yeah. It was so nice to spend some one on one time with Esther."

"Good. And your tailor's appointment? Mitch was literally squealing when he got the picture, but of course, he didn't show it to me." 

Avi chuckled. "He would never. And yes, everything is done. I think I have my outfit together now. I still needed to decide on a few things, but with the lovely tailor and Esther it was easy."

"Yeah... you had Esther with you and I am stuck with Mr Fashion himself. I'm looking forward to the appointment, but Mitch will be quite a handful."

Avi just shrugged his shoulders. "Well, he's your best man. You decided to have him in this position, so it's your own fault." 

Scott chuckled and Avi was glad that he didn't notice anything. "True," he said. "The things I do to get married to you..." 

It was meant as a joke so Avi laughed it off. Still he felt his anxiety bubbling up a little bit and he had to take a few deep breaths to calm himself down.

"I'll get changed and then we could watch a movie? Or listen to music?" Scott said behind him.

"Movie would be lovely" Avi replied while he was focusing on filling two mugs with hot water. He hoped that it would be an easy evening and that he would feel better in the morning and that maybe the panic attack was just because he had had an off day.

~

And it got better for the time being. Avi finished and published his album and went on a months long tour. During all this time, wedding planning wasn't his top priority and it was only a few days after he had come home that they had to met up with Esther and Mitch to for both a cake and wine tasting session. They had the cake in the afternoon, with some tea and coffee and were planning on having the different wines with dinner. 

Trying the cakes was fun. There was a discussion about flavours and creams before they decided on the four varieties for the wedding cake and an additional vegan and gluten free varieties. 

To burn some of the calories, they took a dip in their pool and enjoyed the afternoon sun before Avi announced that he would be starting on dinner.

"Do you need help?" Esther asked immediately. 

"Nope, you have fun outside, I'll do the cooking. It's not much work anyway I prepared most of it this morning." He winked at his sister and then went inside. 

He heated the oven and arranged the veggies he had prepared in the morning on two baking sheets, then took the two different sauces he had made for the baked vegetables out of the fridge. Once the oven was got and the veggies were baking, he set the table quickly with enough wine glasses. 

He checked the veggies and then tasted the two dips. One of them definitely needed more herbs and garlic. Since he had them growing freshly in the garden, he went outside with some scissors.

Mitch was still lounging on one of the deck chairs and Scott and Esther were in the pool talking. 

"You need help?" Scott called over. 

Avi shook his head. "No. But it's going to be ready in 15" he called back, before he went back inside with the herbs. 

He checked on the veggies once more and then took a knife to cut the herbs. He had just started when he suddenly felt off. There was a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach and he felt that his hands started to shake.

The rational side of him knew that it was a panic attack, but still, Avi tried to shake it off and continued the work on the food. He shook his hands and put some of the already chopped herbs into the dip to make space to cut the garlic. 

He tried to concentrate on the task at hand, hoping that the panic would seize. But it didn't. It got worse to the point where he got dizzy and his vision was blurred. Suddenly there was a sharp pain in his finger and when he was able to focus on the cutting board in front of him, he saw blood. 

"Help. Help me!" He meant to yell these words, but there was merely a whisper coming out of his mouth before he blacked out. 

~~~~