It Takes Five

6

Mitch was in the kitchen finishing off the mash potatoes they were having that day with the steak and vegetables.“We should start him off small, it’s not ideal for a man his size but when you’ve been malnourished for ten years what more can you do?” He told Scott, who was standing next to him just watching as he was helpless in the kitchen. “Grab the plates for me?” Mitch asked him, Scott went over to pick up five plates and hand them over to Mitch to plate the food.

“Wait, if he’s been malnourished for ten years, shouldn’t we start him off with light, simple food? This just seems very rich, I don’t know if he’ll stomach it too well. Especially if he’s been living off of things like scraps, lettuce and plain sandwiches. This seems like a huge jump for him.” Scott reasoned with Mitch, trying to get his point of concern across.

“A big step in the right direction. I want what’s best for him and he’ll only be eating good food from here on out so might as well start him off with some good old meat and potatoes.” Mitch clarified, plating the food for the group.

Scott had gotten a smaller plate for Avi and Mitch seemed to catch on, plating his food last as the others would eat a decent if not large amount of it there so they just served up whatever small cuts, pieces and portions that was left for Avi.

“That should be enough for him right?” Mitch questioned the blonde. Scott looked over at the plate and saw the child-sized portion served for their new housemate, nodding in approval.

“That should be good, yeah.” Scott confirmed, Mitch picked up two of the plates to take them to the table, turning back to Scott.

“Can you call the others while I set the table?” He asked him, Scott nodded running off to find the others while his friend set the table.

“Kirstie-Kat!” He sang opening the door to her room catching her in the middle of a one man show in a really powerful performance. He applauded her causing her to trip over the choreography she was doing and stumbling off the bed, straight onto the floor. Butt first.

“SCOTT!” She screamed, throwing her hair brush at him, though he dodged it by closing the door on it, heading to Avi and Kevin’s bedroom. He knocked first, of course but received no answer so he pushed the door open and smiled.

Avi was curled up under the duvet on his bed like a little cocoon having a peaceful slumber.

Or so he thought.

Next thing he knew, Avi was stirring up a storm while whimpering in fear and pain. “N-no...p-please...please...don’t no! Stop!” Scott was trying to shake him awake, drag him out of his nightmare.

“Avi… Avi please! Wake up! You’re having a bad dream! It’s not real, Get Up!” Scott screamed at him, the man below him jumping into his arms, sobbing his heart out into the blonde’s shirt letting Scott cradle him as he tried to calm down from his now arising panic attack.

Scott knew how to deal with these as Mitch had many of them but he had never experienced ones as bad as this. He almost didn’t know how to calm him down and he didn’t seem to be making any progress in calming down until Kevin came back into the room and took him out of Scott’s arms holding him close to his body.

It took Kevin not even half the time it took Scott to get Avi to calm down, he had helped Avi through so many of these his body knew the signs and though Kevin didn’t remember, his body and muscles did and reacted immediately. Kevin hadn’t even noticed he was holding him until he heard quiet sniffles from under him and his name being called.

“K-ke-...ke-vin…” His voice was so broken, it hurt Kevin to hear him so weak and broken down.

He was looking up at Kevin, his pupils were dilated and shaking side to side out of pure fear. Kevin pulled him closer, letting him bury his face in his chest to take in his scent. He always had some sort of pine-y thing going on and it was always such a big help in his panic attacks.