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After a very long flight, and a confused walk down a few streets Alban has never seen before, he stands on the steps to Sonny’s apartment. He lives in a pretty nice-looking place actually, which Alban knew but he's trying his best to distract himself from the reality of meeting his online friend after so long.
He and Sonny had known each other so long it really felt like they were family sometimes, even though they both remembered how they met very fondly. Through a mutual love of some online Vtubers, they became twitter mutuals, discord friends, and somehow ended up calling as often as possible, despite time differences. Alban remembered many fond nights screaming at horror games or getting coached on his fps skills. Truly, they were best friends.
Which was why this meeting was nerve-wracking in the first place. Because for such close friends, who had known each other at least 3 years at this point, keeping anything from each other was unimaginable.
Except of course, when you’ve been ostracized for that very thing since your youth. Being a hybrid- and all the quirks that come with it- means living a life slightly different from the norm. Alban was teased for it since kindergarten, even with the girls that cooed over his cute calico cat ears, bullies and the older kids still found time to pull on his tail, call him ‘kitty’, swap his lunch out for cat food…
So yeah, Alban wasn't exactly hyped to reveal this secret of his. He only ever sent pictures while he was at work, wearing his stupid convenience store hat, or at home where he could more casually keep his ears out of frame. He’d managed to avoid the subject altogether in their conversations, always moving the topic away from whatever recent hybrid rights issue and towards his favorite video game, or that one karaoke stream, or did you see [???]’s new outfit??
-and, as much as he needed to know that his best friend wouldn't hate him for something he couldn't control, who he was, Alban was scared to even ask an opinion on those kinds of things, too used to the bullying and harsh treatment he had gotten all through school.
So, if Sonny turned out to be an asshole about the whole ears-and-tail, or more, the secret Alban’s kept from him for literal years, he’ll just.. turn around and get the next flight home. It’d be easy! -and totally not heartbreaking and friendship ending and not something that’d make Alban reconsider his entire life, a life which sonny had become a big, sunshine-y, part of.
Before he knows it he’s knocking, and tearing himself away from his distracting, awful thoughts. He’d almost cried once on the plane already, why start now?
Alban reaches up and thumbs his left ear, something that's always comforted him since his mother did it when he was a kid, usually after bandaging another bruise on his face. It’s become a habit, when he’s emotional or nervous, it should help but it only makes him that much more aware of their twitching, the swish of his tail.
Sonny opens the door. It’s with the biggest smile Alban’s ever seen in his life and open arms he’s been waiting, desperate to see. But he can’t run into them quite yet.
He holds back a sob, watching as Sonny’s eyes crinkle a little less and take in his.. well.. Alban.
“Alban? What's–?”
and then, he stops smiling, eyes going over his ears, his tail flicking uncontrollably behind him, and Alban wants to snatch it, hold it, make it stop.
He doesn’t. And Sonny doesn't smile anymore.
He seems to hold his breath, staring unashamed at Alban’s ears. His hand twitches. Alban’s lip quivers.
He breathes, “I’m sorry… I- I just–”
Alban wants to apologize, justify, excuse. He can’t come up with anything, nothing more than a few stammers and whimpers. He’s almost embarrassed for himself, that he thought he could keep this secret without any consequences.
But then Sonny steps forward, and just when all of Alban’s memory reminds him that this is where he gets hit, even years out of high school, where the kids pinned him against lockers and pulled his ears painfully, he gets met with something else.
Sonny’s arms wrap around him, soft hoodie-covered arms and a solid chest and warmth that Alban barely recognizes. But it’s the same warmth, in his chest, spreading out, the kind that reminds him of sunshine, that he felt when Sonny told him koala facts and funny stories on calls. The kind that makes him feel at home, just as he is.
Alban lets himself cry, on that doorstep, in his best friend’s arms.
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