Something Mateo learned kind of early on with Eric was that he was prone to anxiety spirals. They weren't terrible, and they didn't happen too often, but sometimes they'd be talking, and Eric would overthink something, and suddenly he was on his way to having an anxiety attack.
When they first met and started dating, Eric was good at hiding them, and Mateo didn't even know it was a problem, but one night they were spending together, it must have been bad, or Eric trusted Mateo enough for him to see, and it spiraled enough that he noticed.
It wasn't horrible, and they were able to get through it fine. But after that, Mateo started noticing when it seemed one of those spirals was coming. They were usually triggered by an outside source, so if Mateo knew what made Eric anxious, he could help.
Recently, Eric had been returning a shower head with Mateo. He was unaware that Jonah's living situation wasn't known to everyone at the store, so he ended up revealing it to Garrett. He clearly felt bad and seemed to be thinking too hard about it, Mateo could see it in his body language, so he did what he knew would work.
He grabbed Eric's arm tight and pulled on it to grab his attention, and he was quick to reassure him it was okay. Jonah was already saying it was fine, but Eric didn't seem to be entirely focused until he was brought back to reality.
Sometimes it took outside help to keep him grounded, and usually if Eric could stay grounded, he would end up being okay.
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Superstore Drabbles
FanfictionThis has been cross-posted on AO3! The only difference is on AO3 it's been published in the order I wrote the chapters, however, on here, I'm publishing them in chronological order how I see fit. Ships included: Mateo/Eric, Amy/Jonah, Jonah/Kelly A...
