A day in a Life of Breddy

9) Breakdown

"Love? What's wrong?" Eddy asks the person crouched on the ground in the corner of the living room. Only a dark tuft of hair is visible, resting on arms, which in turn rest on knees, which are drawn up as close to the chest as possible. Huge sobs emerge, breaths with labour taken between eruptions of coughs. Eddy throws his belongings to the side, a worry for later, and sits beside the crying figure of his friend.
When Eddy came home he was humming cheerfully. He's had a good day, out visiting a friend he hadn't seen in a while. But instead of the warm welcome home he normally gets, he found the place cast in the dark shades of the retreating afternoon sun. He half expected to be home alone, when he heard the sounds of someone crying.
"Brett? Love?" he asks again and puts a hand on Brett's back.
A huge gulp of air and Brett starts coughing again, not able to manage another sound.
Eddy strokes his warm hand through the dark hair, all the way down over his back, repeating the motion over and over again.
"Breathe with me?" He keeps his voice carefully in check, radiating calmness, trying not to sound as worried as he is. Something bad must have happened, because Brett seldom cries. "In: one, two, three, four. Out: one, two, three, four." After a few times repeating the cycle, it seems to help a bit, the breaths slowing down little by little as Brett manages to follow the pace. "That's much better. You're doing very well, love. Now next step. In: one, two, three, four. Hold it: one, two, three, four. And out: one, two, three, four. Very good. Again."

After a few minutes the crying has stopped, the breathing more normally and finally Brett lifts his head. Eddy registers immediately that he must have taken off his glasses and looks around him on the ground. Are they safe? On the right from Brett, at a safe distance from him, they lay on the top rim, the glasses themselves safe from the hard surface. Good.
Brett finally opens his eyes, his lashes shining with leftover tears like morning dewdrops on grass. Eddy loves it that he's the only one seeing Brett's naked eyes like this, but wishes they were without tears. Brett swallows hard as he blinks to regain some vision.
"What's going on, love?" Eddy ask empathically. "Something happened?"

Brett blinks rapidly, trying to keep himself from bawling again, but can't stop some of the emerging tears. They roll over the sides, down his cheek, into the already wet, black 'Practice' t-shirt. He scrapes his throat and barely avoids a new string of coughs. He nods and swallows again. "I'm really not having a good day today." he manages with a dangerous quaver in his voice.

Eddy scoots over and sits in front of him, his legs on Brett's sides, as to protect him from rest of the room and maybe the rest of the world. "Tell me about it?" he asks softly.

Brett looks away for a second and rubs his eyes with his sleeve.
"Everything went wrong today." he pulls a shaky breath. "It started with a few new copy-strikes on vids that really aren't supposed to get one. You know what a hassle that is to clear it again if. And then I got an e-mail of the venue I've been talking to for the last couple of weeks and-" He pauses and takes a few breaths in order to steady himself. "Well, long story short, we can't book it because they are arseholes. So now I have to start all over and go look for another one."

The last news confuses Eddy. "But Zhe said they would arrange it for us? No?" Because Brett shouldn't have to deal with these things. After him being really sick, they hired someone to do these particularly stressful parts of TwoSet.

Brett shakes his head sideways. "They didn't. It's one of the reasons it's falling through now." Brett sniffs, another tear rolling down his face. "They don't do anything until I ask them exactly what needs to be done. I can do it better myself and with less amount of stress."

"But then we need to hire someone else!" Eddy interrupts.

Brett closes his eyes in desperation and sighs. "Like it's so easy to find someone qualified! I'm so fed up having to get used to people, finding a way how to communicate best with them, work them in and then for them to disappear on me again!" His lower lip trembles. "I'm done with it all!"

Eddy wraps his arms around him for as far as goes in this position. He leans forward and presses their foreheads together. "I'm sorry you had to do this all on your own and that I didn't see. I'll help. With the copy-strike stuff as well. And all the rest too. Okay?"

Brett nods and takes another breath, deeper than before.
Suddenly he looks up, startling Eddy so much he almost falls over.
"And I broke the coffee pot." he says grumpily.
This makes Eddy laugh wholeheartedly, so relieved it's not something worse.
"Don't laugh! You can't believe the mess! It took me an hour to clean!" but Brett smiles as well, fuelled by the other's laughter.

"Bet it smelled nice, though." Eddy kisses his forehead, then lifts his chin with one finger and kisses his lips softly. "Come. I'll make you some tea." He stands up and puts a hand out for Brett to take. As he pulls him up, he envelopes him in a big, crushing hug. "I've brought cookies as well." he singsongs to lighten the mood further. It works because Brett smile grows wider.

"I could do with tea and cookies." Brett says gratefully.

Before Eddy lets him go, he squeezes him again and says softly: "And I'll have a look at everything that's been bothering you and that you haven't told me about because you were trying to protect me." He lets go and winks. "Am I right or am I right?"
Brett chuffs, but nods in acknowledgement. Eddy knows it. He should have known to watch out for Brett's tendencies to not want to bother him.
"Now sit. Tea and cookies coming up." He blows an air kiss at him and turns around to the kitchen. Yes. Of course they will do this together. No one is alone in this.