Il libro di Jaylos

fear

taken from: Skypan on Ao3
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It's common knowledge that Carlos has a lot of fears and anxieties. Since moving to Auradon his fear of dogs has decreased, but it's still definitely there. He's also constantly afraid of other people and has horrible flashbacks of his mother. He can be triggered by several sounds, words, and situations at any time.
Jay on the other hand appears to be fearless to most people. He's big, strong, and often protects Carlos. Protectors don't have irrational fears, right? Wrong! Jay is absolutely terrified of...
"SPIDER!" Carlos hears his boyfriend shriek from their shared dorm. He hurries in from the hall and shuts the door behind him, finding the larger boy on top of his desk, staring at a small black spider.
Calmly Carlos grabs a spare cup he keeps for just this reason and a piece of paper. Carefully placing the cup on top of the spider, he slides the piece of paper under it and crumples the paper up around the cup, creating a little prison for the eight legged visitor. He scoops it up and walks over to an open window (probably the spider's point of entry anyway) and moves the paper so the spider falls out of the window.
"Alright Jay, it's gone, you can come down now," Carlos says soothingly as he throws away the paper and sets down the cup. He walks over and holds up a hand to help him down. Jay takes the hand with his own shaking one and gets down hesitatingly. "What if there are more? What if it comes back? Oh my god, did you see it?! It's eight creepy eyes were staring at me, I swear!" He shudders and begins to spin around, checking his arms and legs. "I can feel something crawling on me! Carlos!"
Most people would laugh at the spectacle the former villain is making of himself, but Carlos has plenty of experience with fears and knows just what to do. "There's nothing on you, I promise," he starts rubbing Jay's back gently and guides him to sit on his bed. He spends the next fifteen minutes comforting Jay and checking the room at Jay's request for more bugs. Besides spiders, Jay is petrified of wasps after a nasty incident when he was seven. Finally Jay calms down and gives Carlos a sheepish smile. "Thanks C. Looks like you're my knight in shining armor again."
Carlos waves off the praise with a grin of his own. "Don't even mention it babe."
......
No one besides Carlos is aware of Jay's bug problem, not even Mal or Evie. Somehow it's never come up around anyone before, or if it does he quickly excuses himself and spends the next half an hour hiding. They managed to continue this arrangement of Carlos protecting Jay from the Isle to Auradon, but once they reached Auradon it became a little harder to conceal, until one day Jay was walking in the garden with Ben, Mal, and Evie, on their way to meet Carlos and Lonnie for lunch.
Everyone was talking and laughing when suddenly Jay froze, a look of complete terror on his face.
"Jay? What's wrong???" A very concerned Evie asked.
"W-w-wasp..." Jay replied quietly, his eyes never leaving the offending bug that was buzzing around a flower near his calf. It landed on his brightly colored shirt a second later and he flinched as though he was just kicked in the stomach. He didn't move or make a sound, but tears from panic came to his eyes.
"Jay, it's okay, it's just a bug," Ben said, not comprehending how serious this is.
Mal quietly shushed Ben before turning back to the frightened boy before her. "Jay? What can we do to help?"
"Need C-Carlos..." Jay managed to get out in a trembling voice. A second wasp had noticed the first one and started buzzing around his legs. Jay started shaking violently even as he tried to stay still. His mind was flashing back to having hundreds of these tiny creatures buzzing around him in a swarm and stinging him over and over and over-
"Carlos! Carlos, come quick, over here!" Evie called out as she spotted the dual-toned hair from across the quad. She waved her arms and jumped slightly so there was no chance of him missing her.
Carlos looked up in confusion as he heard his name being called from where he was sitting with Lonnie. At first all he sees is Evie looking kind of distressed, but as he nears the group he notices Jay with the bugs on him. His eyes widen and he shoots over like a rocket. Using his bare hand he scooped the wasp off of Jay's shirt and squished it, ignoring the painful sting. Next he shooed the other one away from his legs and stood between them, shielding Jay, until it flew away.
With the threat gone Jay collapsed into Carlos's arms, too scared to even thank him yet.
"Hey, it's okay. I've got you. Nothing is going to get you while I'm here, I promise. I'll protect you, no matter what," He quietly soothed while holding Jay tightly.
"Th-thank you... I'm sorry you got hurt for me..." Jay whispers against the younger boy's shoulder.
The other boy shrugs and smiles before putting on a British accent. "'Tis merely a flesh wound!" Carlos sighed in relief as he saw a smile return to Jay's face. He was still a little shaky, but he was obviously doing a lot better than he had been a few minutes ago.
The two boyfriends heard someone clear their throat from behind them and turned to look at their worried group of friends. "What just happened?" Mal asked, trying to keep the concern in her voice to a minimum.
Carlos looked up at Jay with a supportive smile. "Do you want me to tell them, or do you?"
"I think I probably should," Jay sighed and then looked up in embarrassment at the purplette. "Ever since I was a kid, I've had a huge fear of..." He swallowed thickly. "Spiders and wasps. Let's just say I had some bad experiences with both of them. I didn't want to tell any of you because, well... It's humiliating. I mean, I know they're just tiny little bugs and I shouldn't be afraid of them, but I can't help it after dad would put me in the cupboard with all those spiders crawling on me and-" He cut himself off and started to breathe raggedly again. Carlos placed a hand on his back and rubbed it comfortingly. Jay looked over at him and calmed down a little. "A-anyway, I'd really appreciate it if we could just pretend this didn't happen and go eat lunch."
"Of course Jay, anything you want," Evie said, still looking and sounding like a mother who's baby had just stepped on a piece of glass. As the group started making their way over to the table Lonnie was saving again (this time with three out of five keeping a sharp lookout for wasps while the other two stuck close together) Jay leaned over to whisper to Carlos. "I really am sorry about freaking out."
"Like I said, it's perfectly okay. How about this, I'll make sure to panic over something really stupid tomorrow and you can save me, deal?" He grinned impishly.
Jay chuckled and gently pecked Carlos's lips. "It's a date."