animal crossing: new horizons oneshots

airplane anxiety - wilbur

You let out a shaky breath as you walked through the doors of dodo airlines, the cool air from inside washing over your body, warm from the hot island sun.

Orville smiled at you as you walked up to his desk. "Hey hey hey! Welcome to your one and only gateway to the skies! How can I help you out today?" you smiled at the faniliar dialogue.

"I wanna fly!" you told him, trying to seem as enthusiastic as possible to please him. "Roger!" he said, matching your enthusiasm. "By the way, it looks like you've got a nook miles ticket on you, in case you feel like using that. So... just to get the paperwork all official, where didja wanna go?"

you pulled out your nook miles ticket and handed it to him. He took the ticket from you and started typing away on his dated computer. He turned back to you with a smile. "Ok- have a good flight, friend! And when you need to travel, just think, "What would dodos do?" You smiled politely at the familiar phrase and looked down the hallway to see Wilbur approaching. He smiled and waved.

Now comes the worst part. The actual flight. As you follow Wilbur down the hallway, it seemed to be a whole lot smaller than you remembered. It almost felt as if the walls were shrinking in on you, trying to trap Wilbur and you between them.

Haven't you been walking for a while? isn't the hallway usually a lot shorter? Doesn't matter. You're probably going to die as soon as you step on that seaplane. You finally reached the end of the hallway. Now you stood right outside the double doors that lead to the plane with Wilbur. You took one look at the plane and a the feeling of icy hot dread filled your body.

You feel your chest start to tighten. It feels as if you're choking. Your hands go numb and your head starts to spin. You hear the sound of the door swinging open.

"Kid? You comin?" you hear Wilbur's voice but it sounds far away. Distorted, even. The slam of the door closing again startles you, causing you to jump. You hear the sound of work boots approach you.

"Hm? Ki-" You cut him off with a gasp for air "Woah, woah, hey! What's wrong? kid?" All you can do is shake your head and wheeze for air in response

"Woah, hey. Look at me. C'mon, up here." You look up at Wilbur's face. He's slightly intimidating. He's roughly a foot taller than you and wearing dark sunglasses. He tske his shades off and places one hand on your shoulder and the other on your back. You look into his concerned eyes.

"Focus on me kid, ok? You're gonna get over this." He begins to rub circles on your back "Breathe with me, ok? In" He slowly inhaled "Out." followed by a deep exhale. You tried to mimic him but all you could do is take a few sharp, raspy breaths. "Stay with me. In. Out." You continued to breathe along with him until you were breathing at a fairly normal rate.

"Any better, kid?" You nodded. "Alright, we should get you back home." "But, I used my nook miles ticket. I think I'm ok." He frowned "No, you need to rest after that, It can take a lot out of you. And besides, my brother Orville can still return the ticket." You looked up at him, contemplating "Are you sure?" He smiled. "Positive. C'mon, let's get you up to the front."

Wilbur took your hand and started walking you back to the front desk. His large hand felt warm and rough in your small one, in a comforting way. You let Wilbur lead you through the now normal hallway and to the front desk, where Orville sat, typing on his computer.

"Hey, change your mind?" Orville said, cheery as always. "Yep, we ran into a little trouble." Wilbur gave Orville a knowing look and he seemed to understand "well," Orville turned to you "it happens to the best of us sometimes, nothing to worry about!" He smiled, enthusiastic as always. You returned the smile and began to walk to the doors, turning to wave to the brothers before walking back out into the hot island sun.