Emotional Support
an HSMTMTS fanfic
Summary: Today of all days, Natalie needs her emotional support hamster.
And the LAST person she needs to help her search is Carlos!!!
(a missing scene from s1, informed by s4...and surprisingly completely canon!)
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(read it on ao3 instead)
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Natalie was spiraling! The one time when she desperately NEEDED emotional support, and Elliot was nowhere to be found!
And it was almost time for rehearsal to start! Dammit!
But clearly Elliot wasn’t up here in the theatre anywhere, so she might as well move her search down to the bomb shelter.
Descending the spiral staircase to the rehearsal room, she heard a voice below her discussing dance.
And not just ANY voice!
HIS voice!
The boy responsible for her foul mood!
Though it wasn’t EXACTLY his fault! In fact, she wasn’t sure he was even aware that Seb was falling for him.
Seb certainly hadn’t been—that boy was TOTALLY clueless!—which was why she’d had to take matters into her own hands today.
But she wasn’t exactly happy about it!
In fact, she was quite upset...which was precisely why she needed Elliot!
Her mood must have been obvious because the moment Gina caught sight of her on the stairs, the dancer exclaimed, “Natalie! You okay?”
“No!” she immediately snapped, hurriedly wiping away the tear that had dared escape down her cheek.
However, she waited until she had reached the bottom of the staircase before declaring, “I...I just broke up with my boyfriend!”
The two dancers both gasped and hurried over.
“OMG, Natalie—I’m so sorry,” Gina said, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.
Carlos reached out to do the same, but Natalie ducked away from his touch, snapping, “Don’t!” The last thing she needed right now was to be comforted by the boy responsible for her break-up!
“Sorry!” Carlos pulled his hand back, clearly offended by her rejection, before declaring, “I didn’t even know you HAD a boyfriend.”
“Seriously?!” The boy was even more clueless than Seb!
And that was saying a lot!
Seb, at least, was a sweetie, the perfect Hufflepuff to her Slytherin. It was why they made such a great couple.
Or at least they had!
“I need to find Elliot!” Natalie practically shouted, giving a frustrated sigh.
“Elliot?” Gina inquired.
Apparently, she was clueless, too.
Dancers! The jocks of the theatre world!
“Elliot!” Natalie snapped, shaking the empty shoebox in their faces for emphasis. “My emotional support hamster?”
Carlos leaned away, making a face. “You have an emotional support hamster?”
“Hello, where have you BEEN, Carlos?! I’ve brought him to like every rehearsal!”
Carlos shrugged. “Where have YOU been?” he asked, raising a shady eyebrow. “You’re hardly ever AT rehearsal.”
“Hey, it’s not MY fault I have a weakened immune system!”
In fact, it was kind of Seb’s.
Because ever since she’d caught mono from him last December, she always seemed to be getting sick!
Why couldn’t he have just given her chocolates for Christmas?
Gina quickly took a mediating step between the two warring factions, suggesting, “Why don’t we just start looking for the hamster? Are you sure he’s in here?”
Natalie shrugged. She really had no clue where he could have gotten to, but the bomb shelter seemed as good a place as any to look.
Voices were suddenly heard out in the hallway, and Natalie and the others turned towards the open door.
There was Seb, walking towards the rehearsal room, cheerfully chatting with Ashlyn. It was weird—he fit in so well with the other drama kids, it was almost as if he’d done shows with them last year!
Gina, however, was already rushing across the rehearsal stage towards the door.
“Sorry, guys,” she told those approaching from the other side, “you can’t come in here right now. We need to help Natalie look for her emotional support hamster, and it’s probably best if we close this door so it doesn’t get out.”
“Do you need—?” Seb’s voice was heard briefly before the closing door shut him off.
Good. The last thing Natalie needed was her ex helping her search while absently giving moony glances towards Carlos...
who apparently was going to be NO help with the search himself because he was nervously staring at the floor and shuffling his feet, clearly afraid Elliot was going to sneak up and bite his toe.
Natalie kind of wished he would!
Luckily, Gina took control, calling across the room, “Natalie, you start searching there by the staircase, I’ll take the far corner, and Carlos, just...get out your phone flashlight and check under the stage.”
Natalie was used to giving the orders, not taking them, but Gina’s plan seemed reasonable. As she turned and started searching the area she’d been assigned, Natalie realized there weren’t many places a hamster could hide in this corner...unless he’d somehow crawled into the camel.
Why did they even HAVE that camel?!
After checking under the piano and bench where Seb would soon be sitting—no doubt sharing shy smiles with Carlos like he did at every rehearsal—Natalie joined Gina across the room, searching under the risers, through the stacks of chairs, and behind the assorted painted flats. It wasn’t until she had looked past the sink and noticed the ventilated storage lockers that she remembered: the last time she’d seen Elliot was at gym!
Of course! She always needed emotional support before P.E.!
So Elliot must be there! Phew!
She was about to open her mouth and announce her sudden epiphany when she noticed that Carlos had reached her end of the room and was now lying on the floor, mere inches away, shining his flashlight underneath the raised stage.
She knew it wasn’t really his fault.
But...
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!”
Ordinarily, the high-pitched scream would’ve given Natalie a migraine, but right now the sound was like music to her ears.
However, she did her best to hide her smile by frantically apologizing, “I’m so sorry, Carlos. I didn’t even see you there.”
That was one thing about Seb—he had never mastered the art of lying.
But she had.
In fact, she was damn good at it!
Because clearly neither Gina nor Carlos suspected a thing.
“Are you okay?” the other girl asked, rushing over to the heartbreaker himself and helping him sit up on the raised platform.
“I’ll be fine,” he whined before sarcastically commenting, “I didn’t need that toe for rehearsal today anyway.”
However, he didn’t even bother taking off his hightop to check it, so Natalie was certain she hadn’t done any real damage.
Too bad!
Gina then turned to the other girl, saying, “I’m sorry, Natalie, I just don’t see where else your hamster could be in here.”
Natalie nodded her head sadly—she may be a techie, but she knew how to act, too.
Which was why they totally bought it when, a moment later, she suddenly gasped, exclaiming, “I just remembered—he must be in my gym locker!”
Gina nodded, giving a relieved sigh. “Then you’d better go check.”
Carlos stood and headed for the door—sadly not even limping—as he informed Natalie, “I think we’ll just go ahead and start rehearsal without you.”
Natalie nodded. That would actually be good.
Because even though she’d been the one to break things off with Seb, she didn’t exactly want to spend the next two hours trapped in a room with him and the boy he liked.
Correction: the boy she’d just stepped on!
As Carlos opened the door for her, Natalie couldn’t help but glance at the others waiting in the hallway, her eyes naturally coming to rest momentarily on the angelic face of her ex. He gave her a hopeful smile and an inquiring look, but she put up her hand to stop him before he spoke, mumbling, “I need a moment,” before scurrying away, heading for the gym.
Her plan was to go straight there to pick up Elliot...and then take her own sweet time coming back to rehearsal.
After all, they could surely survive yet another partial rehearsal without her.
And she could surely survive seeing her ex again...as long as she had Elliot with her for emotional support!
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THE END
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