Work Text:
Kevin sat at his desk, the voices of his friends blaring in his ears. He was in a VC with Dan, Daithi, and Brian. Daithi and Brian had been jokingly arguing about something stupid again and Dan occasionally commented and laughed at them.
Kevin rarely said anything and whenever he did his voice held barely any emotion and he struggled to get his words out. He had been holding back a slip for over an hour and it only got harder as time went on. He couldn’t let himself slip while talking to his friends (who he had never told of his secret) and he couldn’t leave without looking suspicious.
The cause of his current struggle being everything that had gone wrong that day. A bunch of small stresses filling up his ‘stress meter’. He woke up late, burnt his toast, was late to an appointment and almost missed it, had issues uploading his video for the day, had a small stupid argument with his parents, and was now struggling under the racket his friends were causing. He held his head in his hands.
“Kevin?” he heard Dan’s voice. He hadn’t noticed the VC getting quieter when he sat in silence.
“Hey s-sorry got distracted” Kevin managed to stutter out. Brian and Daithi seemed convinced enough, returning to their silly arguing. Dan didn’t say anything. Kevin sat half-listening until another noise interrupted his thoughts. A Discord message.
RTGame: are you okay? youve never been this quiet
CallMeKevin: im just
i dont kbow
fewl weird
Kevin cursed at himself for the spelling mistakes, he couldn’t stop it.
RTGame: talk to me man
how do you feel weird?
He didn’t reply for a moment, thinking of whether to reply honestly or not.
CallMeKevin: small
RTGame: small?
CallMeKevin: mhm
chilkd
RTGame: ohh
wanna hop into a separate call?
Kevin didn’t even bother to reply, instead just reacting with a thumbs up to the message. He could hear Dan explaining to the other two that they were leaving the call. Next thing Kevin knew was everything went silent.
“Hi Kev” Dan’s voice. Kevin smiled, calming down a bit as he slipped slightly. “Hi” he replied with a small giggle. He hugged his knees and lightly rocked. “I’m not sure what you use to help yourself but if you can, can you go grab that?” Dan asked, confusion slightly in his tone. Kevin hummed, setting his headphones down and getting up. He had always kept one bundle beside his bed and one beside his desk. For easy access of course. Juice, a blanket, a plushy, and colours attached to a colouring book.
Sitting back down and putting his headphones on he didn’t even need to say anything for Dan to reply. Knowing Kevin was back by the sound of his chair and the huff Kevin let out as he sat down bundled up in the cozy and fluffy pink blanket. “Good job bud.” Kevin could hear the smile in his voice. “What else do you do when you’re small?” he asked.
“Cartoons.” Kevin replied, his favourite part of the process. Zoning out to cartoons and feeling the childhood nostalgia. “Tom and Jerry” he added, a bit quieter. Kevin did feel a bit dumb talking about this with his best friend but he couldn’t stop now.
“I can put it on and share my screen so we can watch it together?” Dan suggested, starting to type already. “Yes please” Kevin spoke after letting out a happy gasp. Smiling away as they sat in silence for a bit before Dan’s screen popped up on his.
“Thank you”