Chương 20: Chapter 20 - different doesn't always mean bad

Faun kept his gaze fixed on the television, though he couldn't say what was going on in the show playing even if his life depended on it.

As soon as the delivery man showed up with their pizza, he shot up from his seat and hurried to the safety of his room.

Because even Declan being shirtless couldn't distract him from the fact that Declan had seen his ears and tail.

Declan slowly grew worried when Faun made no move to leave his room after a long while, heading to his room to pull a shirt on.

Had he taken it too far?

It made him wonder how Faun had lived his life, before joining a 'travelling group' that were headed straight to hell.

Declan was in a grumpy mood for the rest of the day, spending the entire time moving from room to room, in search of something to occupy himself.

What the fuck did he do when Faun wasn't living with him?

At this rate, he would be better off starting a new novel because the boredom was unbearable.

It was a relief to see Faun at dinner, even though the hybrid was quiet the entire time. It wasn't like he could cook though, so he would have been fucked.

'I should probably apologise.' Declan thought to himself when dinner was almost over because the last thing he wanted was Faun hiding in his room again.

"Sorry about earlier, I'll make sure to wear a shirt around the house now." He grumbled.

Faun whipped his head in Declan's direction, a look of utter confusion on his face. "What?"

Declan looked just as lost. "Why did you hide out in your room for the whole day?"

Faun's look of confusion only intensified. "Don't you want to ask me about… w-what happened?" He trailed off, his voice getting smaller as he curled into himself.

Realisation slammed into Declan, shit, he was doing very terribly for a human who didn't know about hybrids.

"I uh… I figured you'd tell me yourself when you were ready." He quickly made a save.

Faun looked up at him, his eyes widening with a foreign emotion. He had been beating himself up the entire day for that, getting paranoid when it felt like Declan was constantly watching him.

Only for him to realise that it wasn't because of what he thought but that Declan was worried that he was angry.

That he was angry?? When he should be kicking Faun out? It made him wonder if Declan was human sometimes.

He doubted he would ever meet another human like him again, it made him sad to leave.

"Oh." He mumbled in a small voice, straightening up.

He had planned to tell Declan everything after all, he had even spent the afternoon cleaning up his room. He had nothing to take with him after all, so all the clothes were neatly folded in the closet, his sheets too.

Declan just looked at him expectantly, he hadn't expected things to turn out this way.

Actually, his plans for Faun had fallen apart after the hybrid told him where he was headed and he had been winging it ever since then.

"I'm a Fox hybrid, not human." Faun forced past the big lump in his throat, unable to say more.

"Yeah, I know." Declan said casually.

Faun slowly looked at him, a look of shock and disbelief evidently written all over his face. "W-What?"

"You let your ears and tail out when you fall asleep in the living room. I did a little research and it didn't take much to figure it out." He said shortly, not wanting to say too much.

He figured that it would be better to admit to Faun that he already knew what he was, on his own grounds, of course. It would help the hybrid better adjust to Declan knowing about his poorly kept secret.

"Oh my fucking God." Faun cursed, horror lacing his voice.

Declan bit back a chuckle. "I don't think they say that in cartoons."

Faun was still trying to process Declan's words but they were refusing to sink in, he hid his face in his hands, feeling them burn up again.

How was he to face Declan after this?

"Wait, so you knew what I was this entire time?" He dropped his hands from his face to ask.

Declan shrugged. "Pretty much."

"Oh my God." He muttered again in a forlorn voice, covering half of his face with his hands. "D-Don't you… Aren't y-you going to kick me out?" He asked in an empty voice.

Declan looked concerned. "Why would I do that?"

"Because I'm different, aren't you scared that I'll hurt you or something?" Faun marched right on, too buried in his sadness to notice that Declan looked unfazed.

"You haven't done that yet and you're basically in charge of cooking at this point, why would that change?" He asked rhetorically. "Different doesn't always mean bad."