Chat (Prinxiety)

20. the one where kids are good with anxiety

A/N Alternatively titled "the one where anxiety is good with kids", but I figured this was more suiting.

TRIGGER WARNING: panic attack. I will put a notice in bold where it starts and finishes.

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Missy knocked on Anxiety's door with blankets bundled up in his arms. Pranks was behind him holding the rest of the gifts - a platter of brownies and movie discs.

"Do you think he'll let us in?" Pranks whispered to his friend.

Missy shrugged. "Let's see."

They waited nervously. They heard footsteps that seemed to struggle forward come to a stop at the door. It creaked open to Anxiety slouching against the frame, hunched over but still somehow blocking the two children's view of his room.

He raised an eyebrow and gestured to what they were holding.

Missy took this as a sign to explain themselves. "Uh, we wanted to see how you were doing," he muttered, cheeks red, "so we brought gifts!" At that, both he and Pranks held up their armfuls of things, as if Anxiety couldn't already see them. The elder looked them over once more and they held their breaths.

Anxiety opened the door wider and stood aside.

"Thank you!" Missy exclaimed, beaming at him before running inside with Pranks. Once they were settled on Anxiety's bed, they started talking a mile a minute.

"Okay, so we know you like Disney movies," Pranks started, spreading out his selection.

"So we brought some with us and also," Missy chimed in.

"We thought that we could build a blanket fort-"

"Like you used to do for us-"

"But this time we have brownies-"

"Logan helped Thomas make these-"

"Oh and Prince gave us the movies-"

"And Morality gave us all these blankets!" Missy finished.

It was quite clear by now that Anxiety was trying to hide his smile (he had always enjoyed their double act) but both Misleading Compliments and Pranks saw through it anyway. They grinned to each other – so far, so good.

"So which one do you want to watch?" Pranks asked, bouncing on the bed slightly.

Anxiety tensed and shrugged. The children saw this and were confused for the smallest of seconds – then they realised.

"Oh," Missy whispered to himself. All of a sudden, he brightened up. "Well, it's okay if you don't feel like talking right now – we get it! How about you just point to one?" He suggested.

It was true what he said about "getting it". Back when they were younger and it was just himself, Pranks and Anxiety, when they only had each other and sometimes Morality, Anxiety would tire easily. He wouldn't have the energy to be bothered to speak. Originally, it had made the two chatty kids annoyed, but they understood better now. They knew that on days like these, when his thoughts got the better of him, it sapped all of Anxiety's energy away just to get out of bed, so they got why he wasn't talking. Besides, with all the crazy schemes they had back then, Anxiety was entitled to feel worn out!

The person in question scanned the names of the movies before him. There were quite a few that he liked, but he wanted something they could all enjoy – meaning Old Yeller and Bambi were definitely out. He quickly decided on a classic he knew the children loved.