TODAY IS MY BOY BUCKY'S BIRTHDAY SO HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HIM, YOU OLD GRANDPA
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Steve's shining motions slowly came to a stop mas he stared up at the other man.
The other man gave him a small smile as Steve looked up at him. "I don't know, you don't seem like an old fashioned kind of guy," he commented. "You seem.... I don't know, actually."
"Then I don't know if you can really say I'm not old fashioned," the blond haired man replied. His gaze was still trained on the other man. He only faintly heard the train take off from the station in the background.
"I suppose you're right." The other man let out an amused chuckle. After another moment of Steve not shining his shoes (and instead gazing up at the gorgeous man in front of him), he began to pull out his wallet.
"Oh, I'm not done," Steve said after a few moments, his trance breaking. He felt his face heat up a bit as he glanced back down at the man's shoes, seeing that he had only applied the polish to one of the man's shoes. "Sorry, I know this is taking a little longer than it should be. I'm sorry if you missed your train," Steve murmured as he quickly began to apply the polish to the other shoe, trying to make sure that the man would quickly have his shoes polished so that he wouldn't have to wait any longer.
The other man shook his head even though Steve wasn't able to see it. "It's alright, I can always catch the next one."
The man's words didn't seem to comfort Steve. In fact, he felt even more guilty, due to causing him to miss his train. "I'm so sorry I caused you to miss the train, I just got really distracted and now I feel really terrible about it. You don't have to pay for this shine, it'll be free since I caused you to miss your train and probably be late for work; and oh, God, I hope you don't get fired because of me--" Steve began to ramble, feeling his throat suddenly restrict, his chest beginning to rise and fall to compensate for the lack of air being brought to his lungs. This was a terrible time for a panic attack to happen, but the panic attack didn't seem to care about the timing.
Steve closed his eyes, trying to think of happy and relaxing thoughts to calm himself down. Candy, ice cream, drawing, swimming, suffocating, drowning--okay, this wasn't doing anything to help.
He suddenly felt a weight being placed on his shoulder, and his eyes snapped open at the foreign feeling. The other man had reached down and placed a hand on Steve's shoulder, momentarily distracting him from his panic attack. "Hey, are you alright?"
Steve's mouth opened and closed for a moment as he tried to form words, but eventually settled for just shutting his mouth and shaking his head no.
The man nodded. "Here, take a seat on the bench." He helped Steve move to sit on the bench, making sure to keep an arm on his shoulder the entire time, since it seemed to ground the blond haired man a bit.
Once Steve was seated, the other man gave him an encouraging smile. "Can you take a few deep breaths? In and out. In and out."
Steve gave a feeble nod, beginning to inhale and exhale deep breaths. Slowly, the restricting feeling in his throat began to ease up a bit, all thanks to this kind stranger helping him. He continued to take deep breaths for a few more minutes before he had managed to calm down enough to speak again. "Thank- thank you," he murmured in a quiet voice, the bustling noise of the station almost drowning out his words.
The other man gave a small nod. "You're welcome. I couldn't just let you have a panic attack, you know."
"How do you know all of that stuff about stopping a panic attack?" Steve asked curiously, glancing over at him.
The stranger gave a small shrug. "Sometimes I get them too. I served in Iraq and used to get quite a few panic attacks. Not so much anymore, but they still happen occasionally. My therapist taught me tips on how to stop one."
Steve gave a small nod, his mind still not fully there. He was sitting on his hands, looking down at the man's shoes, who still hadn't been shined yet. "I'm a complete mess today. I'm really sorry for making you later than you already were."
The other man shook his head. "It's okay. I don't really like my job anyway," He gave a small shrug. After a moment of silence, he glanced over at Steve. "You should probably go home for the rest of the day and relax," he suggested.
He gave another faint nod, sighing lightly. "Maybe you're right. Let me finish your shoe shine, though." Steve moved to kneel back on the ground in front of the other man so he could finish the shoe shine.
"No, it's okay." The man shook his head at Steve's words. "Really, it's fine. I'd rather see you go home so you can take care of yourself."
He nodded faintly at the man's suggestion, beginning to pack up his stuff for shining shoes. "Are you sure you don't mind me not finishing your shoe shine?"
The stranger gave a nod. "Seriously, it's fine," he assured him. "I'm more worried about you getting home safely. Will you be okay? I can walk you home, if you want."
Steve looked up when he heard his offer, blinking a few times in slight surprise. "I can... I can...." he struggled to form words again. Maybe it was a good idea for him to be walked home, so that he made it back safely. He nodded feebly after a moment, not trusting his mouth to form words at the moment.
The stranger stood up, holding out a hand. Steve gladly took it as he helped himself up, letting go of it after he had steadied himself. He grabbed his box that contained all of his shoe shine supplies, beginning to exit the station with the man.
And all of this for making a man miss his damn train.
