I don't- [He doesn't know, that's the problem, because there's no where to go, there's nothing to do, and his response when he's like this is to just collapse in on himself and ignore everyone else. Erik's isn't.

He wants to reach out, wants to do something, but while he knows Erik doesn't want to hurt him, he can still remember getting punched and being held down by the throat because his friend was just too focused to care more than abstractly that he was hurting him, and so he stays back, scrambling for something to say that could fix this.]

I don't know. They don't understand what they're talking about, Erik, but losing control isn't going to change anything. [His voice wobbles and breaks a little on the last word, because suddenly all he can think about is Zero and what it would mean for him to wind up back down there, how much this has set them both back, and his control starts to waver too, because he's just exhausted and miserable and angry with so many people, and that's just not like him, and it's scary.

I'm scared, I'm scared and I need you.

He doesn't know what to do, and any amount of resolve he had is crumbling faster than he can try to build it back up again, and again it feels like it's hard to breathe.] Erik, please.