Smosh One Shots and Short Stories

Old Friends, New Challenges (Ianthony friendship)

It was Anthony's second day to actually be on set and record videos with the Smosh cast. He's been at the studio for about a week now, doing a lot of meetings and planning pretty much his whole next year. In between he had to take care of his own channel, his own small company, and just himself. Inevitably, he was stressed and of course he knew he couldn't pull this off for longer, but he was sure that it would get calmer when the first weeks back at Smosh were done. And he really wanted to do all these things.

Besides the stress, he felt like he was home again, even though he had never been to the not-so-new-anymore Smosh Headquarters. He couldn't be more excited and happy about working with Ian again. They might have had a bad couple of years, but since they reconnected a year ago they were friends again. It took some time to really get back to know each other, but by now it seemed like they had an even stronger bond than what appeared to be more than six years ago. And it was not just them. Shayne, Courtney, and the other "older" Smosh cast and crew members were happy about the new old Smosh as well. Anthony took his time to schedule short one-on-one meetings with every single person working at Smosh in between his other appointments. He wanted to get to know everybody and reconnect with his old friends.

Luckily, everyone appreciated Anthony's comeback and he and Ian were trying to give them as much space as they had on Smosh with Mythical. The main channel was going to be just Ian and Anthony with their sketches, but everyone could still pitch ideas and get some roles in them. On the other channels, everything should stay more or less the same. Anthony was scared that him coming back would take space from the others, so it was important to him to have them do their thing on these channels and not change too much just because he was back. Besides, he wouldn't have the time to appear on that many Smosh Pit or Games videos when he wanted to keep going with his own stuff too.

But right now he was on a speed ride around every format trying to get to know everyone and everything so that they could figure out the perfect spot for everyone in the future. It was only the second day of recording and he felt the concentration really fighting with him to leave as well as his stress rising. Of course, on camera wasn't time to care about these things, so he pulled himself together the best he could. By the end of the recording, he felt his fingers tingle a little and he knew what was going to happen soon. So he tried to not talk with everyone for too long after the cameras went off, but he also didn't want to just leave and make the others think he was just here for recording and wasn't interested in any social contact outside of that.

Ian picked up on the unease in his friend but didn't want to ask in front of the whole crew. When Anthony finally got out of the set, he almost jogged to the spot that Ian showed him a few days ago. A little corner at the back of the whole building with just an old couch. Almost no one came by here. "If you ever need a moment, this is the spot", he had said and right now Anthony definitely needed a moment. He sat down on the couch and closed his eyes. Head in his hands he tried to breathe more slowly. It wasn't just the fact that he was almost jogging on the way here. This was a rising panic attack and he knew that minutes ago.

"You know where Anthony is?", Ian asked Shayne who appeared to be the one standing next to him, still on set. Shayne couldn't resist a small laugh about this old joke but then remembered seeing him leave. "He left a few minutes ago. Looked like he was in a hurry", Shayne finally answered and Ian immediately thought about finding his friend. He didn't look too good when he last saw him and now he was just gone. "I don't think we have more on the schedule right now. Just the Reddit stories recording in about an hour", he thought out loud. "Maybe he had another get-to-know-meeting", Shayne considered. He saw the concern on Ian's face. "Maybe", Ian mumbled but still left the set to look for Anthony.

*Warning: panic attack
I will put another text in between, when it's over, so continue from there if you don't want to read this part*

It didn't take him long to find Anthony, because he was the one who showed him the "hiding spot" in the first place. But Ian was a little shocked when he found his friend breathing heavily, shaking with eyes wide open and sweat on his forehead. It wasn't the first time he saw someone with a panic attack, but it was the first time he saw his best friend like that. "Hey, Anthony", he made him look up at him while sitting down next to him. Ian took Anthony's shaking hands and held eye contact with him. "Can you try to breathe with me? Look at me, breathe with me", he said and took a deep and slightly slower breath while striking Anthony's hands up and down at the same speed. His friend tried to copy him, but it isn't too easy to breathe slowly when your heart is running like that. "I... I tried to stop it", he stuttered in between. "It's okay, we can make it go over. Just breathe with me", Ian reassured him and continued to make him concentrate on his breath.

*It's over now*

It took a while, but Anthony wasn't doing this for the first time, so he could calm down eventually. It was the first time Ian was around though. "You feeling better?", he asked, still the concern written on his face. "Yeah, thank you", Anthony tried to say with a smile. "You know, you could've said something", he said without judging him and just got a slow nod in response. "Sorry, I felt it coming, but... I mean I can't just run and hide mid-recording, so...", he explained. "Yes, you could. If you're not feeling well, of course, you can leave. You wouldn't even be the first one to do that. But it's okay now, just remember that", Ian told him again. He was really making him feel better by just recognizing what was going on and not judging.

"Do you have these often?", he then asked carefully. "Not anymore", Anthony answered with the truth. "I think it's the stress", he added honestly. "I bet. You're running through this company in less than a month. I guess we should reschedule a couple of things", Ian suggested. "No, it's fine. I can do it", he immediately said, but Ian just looked at him with his caring eyes and made him take it back. "Okay, I can't", Anthony whispered in defeat. "Hey, that's okay. We will figure it out. There is no need to put you through all this stress. We didn't want to go back to Defy times, so let's just replan a bit", Ian reminded him of what they said a few months ago. Anthony just nodded again and leaned into the hug Ian gave him afterward. It was good to have him back. His best friend still knew him so well that he just felt seen and had no reason to hide his emotions.

"Do you think we can get back now? Today is just the Reddit stories recording left. That should be pretty chill. Just you and me and Shayne", Ian said feeling bad about mentioning work. "Yeah, I think that's okay", Anthony sighed and got back up from the couch. "Do I look like I just ran a Marathon?", he asked. "No, you're good", Ian laughed a bit before they made their way back to work. In Ian's head, he already ran over the meetings for tomorrow and the rest of the week, thinking about what they could reschedule. They should've thought about the amount of stress they put on Anthony earlier. But Ian was glad, he knew now, so they could work on it. And he made a mental note to remind Anthony one more time, that he could talk to him and crash recordings whenever he felt bad. This was an unspoken rule among the crew and cast anyway.

So this is my first one shot in English. I hope you guys like it! Feel free to leave a comment!

I also take ideas from my comments, so if you have something in mind about any of the Smosh people, just let me know. I can't promise anything though.