In hindsight, Tang wasn't really proud of his reaction. After all, he had his own phone and grabbing Mei's out of her hand really wasn't necessary. But the second he heard what she said, he felt the need to grab the nearest reflective object and use it as a mirror.
He stared.
Then he stared a little longer, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him. When it became clear that they were not—that the little dots of freckles were now indeed on his face and not a trick of the light or dirt on Mei's phone—he reached up and gently wiped at his face.
Freckles.
Freckles that were not there not even five minutes prior.
Were this under any other circumstance, Tang would have thought they were cute. He'd never had freckles before and, honestly, he thought they looked nice. Even cute on him, actually! He was a very confident man when it came to his appearance. But having freckles... just showing up?
Maybe Mei was wrong. Maybe they were on his face and the... the... the shade hid them...
Just thinking that he knew that was a lie. Something was clearly wrong. His hair changes? That he could come up with reasons for, both together and alone, in his head. This? Combined with the hair?
Something was VERY wrong.
And once that ran through his head...
Tang was also not proud of his second reaction, and he would apologize to the both of them when he had the chance. Really, he would! But in the moment, all Tang could think to do was gently hand Mei's phone back to her, turn around with a "I'm going to go back to sleep", and book it down a shortcut where MK and Mei would not be able to follow in the tuk-tuk.
Their voices followed him down the alley, but if they made chase before going to pick up Pigsy he never knew. He just knew that only ten minutes after he locked his front door he heard their knocking and Pigsy asking if he was ok.
They finally left him alone after he sent a text to Pigsy saying, "Just let me get some more rest, I will be fine I promise!". Probably in just the right amount of time, too, because they would have incurred him a noise complaint from his neighbors if they continued.
Slumped against the door, Tang hears the sound of footsteps walking away. He sighs.
He wanted this to be a dream. Perhaps even an exhaustion-induced hallucination.
But after splashing water on his face for the hundredth time and pouring over texts for anything even remotely close to what was happening to him for the hundredth, Tang knew he had to be awake. Which meant everything was real.
Fortunately. Or unfortunately.
It depended on perspective, he supposed.
"It's fine, everything is fine!" he said as he wiped his face dry and made his way to his bedroom. "Sure, I look nothing like how I did when I got up! It's fine! I'll go back to sleep, I'll wake up, I'll be completely fine. Everything will be fine!"
He curled up under the blanket, pulling it over his head to drown out the light of the streetlights that had turned on and were just slightly shining through his curtain. Normally they would be a comforting bit of soft light, but now... there was something about them shining into his room that felt... wrong. He couldn't quite put his finger on why, but it made him uneasy. Twitchy almost.
As he attempted to clear his mind his thoughts, as they usually did, drifted to something else. Someone else...
Tang quickly shook his head.
No! No, nope, not thinking about him. No. I just need to sleep.
He only barely noticed the burn in his ears as he finally drifted off.
There were many ways to wake up.
Slowly. Slowly and then all at once. Jolted from a nightmare. Shaken by a loved one. The pain of rolling the wrong way, or even off your bed.
Tang woke up to a sharp tug on his ear as he rolled over and he immediately knew something was wrong.
Very, very wrong.
In addition to everything else that was wrong of course.
He should have been awarded a gold medal for the speed at which he ran to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. And then back to his bedroom to grab the glasses he had forgotten so he could actually see himself.
His neighbors should probably have invested in earplugs to dampen the scream he let out upon seeing his reflection in the mirror. Or, rather, the newest addition in his reflection. Two moderately long, fuzzy, attached to the sides of his head additions.
He reached up, not wanting to believe what he was seeing. But they were there. He could feel them, not only through his fingertips but he could feel his fingers through the hair.
No.
The fur.
He could feel his fingers as they touched the soft, almost velvety fur of the short lop rabbit ears that had, somehow, sprouted from his head where his normal human ears used to be.
He gripped them, gently at first and then tight to give them an experimental tug.
The scream of shock and pain at the action earned him a thump from his nearest neighbor and a "UNLESS YOU'RE DYING, SHUT UP!"
Rude.
Tang wasn't sure if he was dying, but at that exact moment he felt like he just might if he didn't talk to someone. Someone else. Someone he could trust.
He'd never gotten ready faster in his entire life, forgoing a shower for other means of washing off in the fears of what water would do to his ears. You weren't supposed to get them wet, right? He didn't know, he had never had a rabbit before let alone have rabbit ears! The scholar shoved on the nearest set of clean clothes, chugged some water and shoved a piece of fruit in his mouth. He was in such a hurry that he barely tasted the fruit; it could have been a peach or an orange for all he knew.
It was only when he got to the door that Tang finally paused.
No one would look at him oddly for his appearance if they didn't know him. He looked normal to outsiders, even with the rabbit ears. Humanoid demons with only a few nonhuman features were a normal thing.
But if they did know him...
Tang ran back to his closet for the one thing he had that could possibly help.
His ears were burning under his hat.
Tang wasn't the kind of man to wear a hat in normal circumstances, so to don something as heavy and weather-inappropriate as a heavy and thick trapper hat? It was miserable.
But it was the only thing that kept his ears hidden.
All three inches of them.
Six if you combine them.
What in the world was happening? This was not simply a case of using a new shampoo, unless he was trapped in a children's horror book from the 1990s. People turning into demons out of nowhere was completely unprecedented. Though, as Tang thought about it, there were multiple cases of seemingly human individuals undergoing partial transformations due to previously unknown demonic heritages. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence in the modern day, but Tang was pretty sure it wasn't that. At least... he thought it wasn't... Maybe it was...
He wasn't sure of anything anymore.
The only thing he was sure of was that he needed to talk to someone much less excitable than Mei or MK. And literally anyone, ANYONE, who was not Pigsy. He just...
He did not want the chef to see him.
Not right now. Not until he figured out what was going on. Not until—
"Mr. Tang!"
Never before had those two words sent so much fear down Tang's spine. But he knew that voice, and he knew that he couldn't just brush off the greeting. That would be rude.
...Maybe he could be rude just this once? He was genuinely in a hurry. And panicking.
...
"Is that you, young man?"
Shit.
"Good..." Tang discreetly pulled out his phone, double checking the time. "Morning, Mr. Jiang! It's not every day I see you outside of your usual lunch break!"
On any other day, seeing a regular as nice as Mr. Jiang would have been welcome. The dock worker had been getting the same bowl of noodles—either in the shop or delivered by MK—every day for almost three years at that point. He had amazing stories of seafaring life, the other countries he had visited, and the days he spent out at sea before he retired. Tang genuinely enjoyed his presence every time they saw each other.
Too bad he caught Tang on this day, of all days.
"You're not usually at the docks at this hour," Mr. Jiang replied as he adjusted the boxes of supplies in his arms. If Tang were to hazard a guess, the spark plugs and the fuel on the man's boat meant he was going to do some basic maintenance that morning. "What brings you down here?"
"Oh, just going to see a friend," Tang chuckled nervously. "I, uh... I-I'm kind of in a rush, actually, so I'm sorry that I can't stick around."
"Oh, please don't stay if you're in a rush! It's just not every day that I see you out and about without your boyfriend," Mr. Jiang said with a smile. "Have a safe walk, Mr. Tang!"
"I will, thank you!" Tang said quickly as he turned and started back toward Sandy's boat. "And he's still not my boyfriend! Not that he would ever agree to that..."
As Tang muttered the last bit to himself, he felt his hat tighten around his head. His ears gave off that same soft and subtle burn as the night before.
"Ohyouhavegottobeshittingme—"
"Sorry about just showing up at your door like this," Tang said with a sigh. "Or, uh... your boat."
"You know I'm always happy to have you over, Tangy," Sandy replied with a chuckle as he made his way back into his living room. Or what counted as one on a houseboat. Did houseboats have living rooms? Tang's brain was trying to think of literally anything else but the heat of his now longer ears under his hat. "You look like you could use someone to talk to."
"You have no idea," Tang muttered as Sandy handed him a cup of tea before sitting across from him.
Tang sighed almost immediately as his hands wrapped around the cup. It wasn't too hot, nor had it cooled down too much. Sandy had narrowed tea making and calming people down to a science almost. No, more like an art. One he was good at.
The scholar was a little jealous of that, if he really got down to it. Pigsy was a great and accomplished chef. MK was the Monkie Kid and a great artist. Mei was a skilled racer. Sandy could practically run a therapeutic cat cafe if he wanted. And Tang?
He was... the smart one.
But he didn't feel smart sitting there with this stupid hat on his head.
"What's up?" Sandy asked in that soft but casual tone that only he could pull off. "Did something happen?"
"You could say thaAH!"
Tang's words were cut off when he felt some kind of pressure on his head. A jolt of fear and anxiety coursed through him for a second as he thought something else was changing. But it settled when he realized the pressure was coming from something outside of his hat. And that something was moving. Four somethings, Tang discovered after a moment. Sharp kitten claws poked through his hat.
One of Sandy's new foster cats had kittens not that long ago. This must have been one of them.
"Uuuh..."
"Sorry," Sandy said with a laugh. "She's a climber, I should have warned you. I can take your hat if you want? She's probably not gonna let go of it anytime soo—"
"NO!" Tang yelped, perhaps a bit too quickly judging by the look on Sandy's face. "No, it's okay. I find it... relaxing?"
Holy shit, that was the worst lie he'd ever told.
Sandy clearly seemed to agree, based on the raise of his eyebrow and his frown, but he chose not to say anything about it. At least he hadn't brought up—
"Is this about Pigsy?"
Oh, damn it all.
"No, I did not come to talk about Pigsy," Tang responded. And it was the truth! He did not come to talk about Pigsy. He did not want to talk about Pigsy. Right now he didn't even want to think about Pigsy. He wanted to talk and think about the other thing he didn't want to talk and think about which somehow was much better than Pigsy. "I came to ask you for some advice."
"Hmn..." Sandy rubbed his beard, looking at Tang for a moment. "It's just... It's kinda kind of obvious that you're stressed and if you—"
"Not about that, Sandy."
"Tang."
"Don't."
"Tang, come on."
"Don't say it, I know that tone of voice. Don't you dare."
"I just think if you told Pigsy your f—"
"I don't need to tell him anythiIING WHAT THE HELL!?" Tang jumped up, pain shooting up his spine as he tried to turn in his seat. "Do you have KNIVES in your couch or something!?"
Sandy MUST have had knives in his couch, he MUST have. Or a cat was hiding in there. It made absolutely no sense, but what else would explain the pain? Tang hadn't fallen on his back the other day so it couldn't have been an injury. So—
"Tang?"
"WHAT!?" Tang snapped, immediately feeling bad. "Sorry... Sorry I..."
"...There's something moving under your clothes," Sandy gaped in shock. At least Tang assumed it was shock.
The fact that Tang felt something behind move instantly after Sandy said that horrified him.
He spun around, grabbing the loose fabric behind him to move it aside.
But at the same time, well...
The hat slid off surprisingly fast.
Really, it seemed almost too fast for the weight it was.
Maybe his ears growing made the hat now fit poorly.
Maybe the weight of the kitten was just a bit too much.
Maybe Tang was just an unlucky man.
Ironic.
Especially now that he was standing there with a full six inches of ear on either side, fur for hair, and a brown and white poof of tail jutting out from the hole it had ripped in his pants.
And he thought rabbits were supposed to be lucky.
He thought he had no idea what was happening.
It didn't take a college professor to put the pieces together, he felt so stupid at that moment for not recognizing the pattern before. It was the only explanation, the only thing that connected everything! The hair, the freckles, the ears, the ears again, the tail! Every time he had been thinking about Pigsy before he changed!
Sandy was yelling something at him when Tang snatched his hat up and rushed out of the boat. But the scholar couldn't understand it through the rushing thoughts in his head. The blood rushing in his ears made the thumping of his heart that much more powerful.
This was a mistake, this was a bad idea, he should have stayed home until he figured out what this was, he should have never come here.
Distantly, he heard the gasp and yell of concern from Mr. Jiang as he ran past.
It was only then Tang remembered to shove his hat back on.
He made it home faster than he thought he would. He was never this fast before, so...
No, don't think about that, just need to climb the stairs and get to the front door and then when you're safe inside your apartment you can worry about thinking. Worry about what was happening, worry about what WOULD happen. Worry about making sure no one talked to him, he couldn't risk them talking to him about THAT again, not when he knew that was the connecting factor.
Tang finally reached his door, breathing heavy as he went to twist the knob.
As long as he didn't think about it or have someone bring it up he could figure out what was happening on his own, he was sure of it, he—
"Tang?"
...That was Pigsy's voice. Coming from the stairs on the other side of him.
Oh... Oh, no. But how?
"Mr. Tang?" MK's voice joined in. "Sandy called us, said you were, uh..."
"Freaking the heck out," Mei offered. Great. Just great. A trio of people to question him, just what he needed right now. "We came to check on you."
He turned the knob, hoping to open the door before they could find him.
It jiggled.
Because of course it would.
"Tang?" Pigsy's voice again, closer, and when Tang whipped his head to the side he saw all three of them had made it to the top of the stairs and were staring at him. "Are you ok?"
"No!" Tang found himself answering honestly despite himself. "No, I'm not, but if you leave me alone I will be."
"That doesn't make any sense," Mei muttered as she looked at MK with concern on her face. "Tangy—Mr. Tang, Sandy sounded really worried."
"He also said he thought only Pigsy was there and we shouldn't have heard what he said for some reason," MK offered. Ah. Of course.
Lucky Rabbit his ass.
"Well, you should have listened to him!" Tang said with a laugh as he turned toward them to hide his back. His tail was moving behind him—why was it moving, please stop—and it took everything he had not to scream. "Because I'll be fine! You really didn't need to worry about me or come all this way. Everything is A-OK! Or will be. OnceIgetthisdooropen."
"Okay, Tang, you gotta tell us what's up," Pigsy said softly as he stepped forward. "We're worried about you."
"I am fine," Tang argued, jiggling his door knob again. Locked.
Of course it was locked.
Why wouldn't it be locked?
HE LOCKED IT.
"Hey," Mei said softly, stepping closer and putting a hand on his arm. Tang absolutely did not jump at this and Mei did not pull back in surprise. At least that's what he told himself. "What happened at Sandy's?"
"Nothing!"
"Kids, maybe we should give him some air," Pigsy said as he stopped MK from moving forward. He nodded as Mei stepped back and Tang had never felt more awkward and afraid of having three people staring at him. Why was he so afraid? "Is it something I did?"
"Wh-no!" Tang rebuffed instantly. "Why would you think that?"
"Sandy mentioned you panicked when you brought me up," Pigsy said, and the tone of his voice made him sound heartbroken. "And Mei and MK mentioned what happened yesterday, and you seemed antsy at the shop with me."
"You didn't do anything wrong," Tang assured, and somehow he felt... better. Better than he
had in the last two days. "I just—"
"Oh, please tell me he's finally going to confess," he heard MK mutter.
And before Tang could voice his rebuttal, his entire body suddenly felt like it was on fire.