Work Text:
“What are you really like?” his friend asks one day.
Noriaki hums. An interesting question. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, you're a shapeshifter, right?” Naaji starts. “So what are you like when you're… unshifted? Are you actually, like, way taller than me and you only stay this height when I'm around?”
Nori huffs, indignant — “Oh, don't start thinking you're that important to me you can influence my entire appearance—”
“Cat ears. Right now.”
His powers oblige. Naaji smiles, a twinkle in their eye.
“You were saying?”
Nori rolls his eyes, panda ears morphing back into place. “No, I'm not secretly super tall. This is my normal height.”
“And your eyes?”
“Naturally brown, yes.”
“And your hair?”
“Well…” he runs a hand through his grown out bangs, “the roots are natural, at least?”
“Mhm. And your unnatural lavender wings?”
“Hey, that doesn't count! My mother is a bird, and a very lovely one at that. She says I look nice with them!”
Naaji laughs, “They do look nice… so this really is you, then.”
“Of course it is!” he frowns. “What, is there something you don't like?”
“No, no… I was just curious, is all,” Naaji says, and begins studying their nails. “I've never known a shapeshifter before...”
Or anyone else outside my kingdom, their expression adds.
“Only my father and I can fully shapeshift, so it's not like there's much else to worry about,” Nori says. “What, do you think I'm hiding something from you?”
Naaji shrugs, picking the leftover paint off a fingernail. “I dunno… it has 'shift' in the name, no? Maybe there's something shifty going on…”
“Yes, but it also has shape,” Nori points out, “and shapes are lovely. You're an artist, you like shapes! Colors, too.”
A small smile. “I do, I do like shapes. And colors—” they turn back to their nails, “—and you, too. So we're clear.”
He tilts his head, curious: “Just the way I am?”
“Just the way you are... weird purple wings and all.”