Kodama forests's Curse

Chapter four - Awkward game session

Once again, waking up was the worst. A bird kept rapping the window with its beak, which took place of his alarm. It was due to go off in another few minutes anyways. The previous night was a relief and a stress, Dauirmuid's heart was racing since the second he woke up. Today he didn't awake without the thought of all the things happening to him, like the fear followed him into his dreams. But he did forget what he would look like in the mirror. He now had small brown raccoon ears peering out of his hair, his nose was black, there was fur starting from his hair going down his neck and stopping at the midpoint of his chest. He was definitely shorter, the tail now nearly touching the floor. His arm and leg hair was much thicker and starting to resemble fur, and his hands and feet looked almost exactly like paws now. The glowing pupils where his grey eyes once were narrowed at the sight of himself. He then tried to turn into a human again, this time it was almost easy. That couldn't be good. Only the dark eyes remained after he finished changing back, he rubbed his eyes until he saw static and they disappeared. He stared at his normal self for a few minutes before he turned away, in case he changed back again. After he got dressed, Dauirmuid made his way downstairs. Kaitlyn almost looked shocked to see him awake this early. She was in an armchair holding a cup of coffee.
"Morning. What encouraged you to start the day so early?"
"Mm" was his reply. He didn't want to say anything too expressive in case his tone gave something away.
"...Alright then." She replied, reluctantly. And Dauirmuid walked into the kitchen to get something to eat, but realised he wasn't hungry. He decided to just sit in the chair next to Kaitlyn.
"You don't look very good." She said, examining Dauirmuid.
"I'm not supposed to 'look good' to you, you're my sister." He said, smirking at his own joke.
"That's not what I meant, you're rather pale."
"It's nothing, don't worry." Kaitlyn simply looked away, yet she couldn't help but notice the small shivers coming from her bother.
"So.. want to do anything today?"
"No thanks, bit tired today. Might go on a walk later though."
"Sounds cool." Then there was more silence. Dauirmuid was on edge. Eventually he entered the shifter's web through his phone to see if humans turned yokai can tell those close to them. According to an article that said: 'People turned yokai are enforced by Imrie's law to conceal their identity at all costs, and will be executed if discovered by humans.' He could not. But nonetheless he knew at some point his sister was bound to discover him.
"Oh, by the way, there was a huge squirrel in the back garden yesterday." Dauirmuid jerked up in his seat slightly, then sat back down and tried to look calm.
"Here, some kids followed it in." She pulled out her phone and showed the photos to Dauirmuid. He was on the fence in one photo, staring at the children. In the next the kids were in the garden trying to follow him up, and then one with the two trying to jump over the fence.
"Oh, haha." He said, with an almost shaky voice. His heart was racing and he quickly turned back to face the ground. But Kaitlyn paid no mind to this.
"Try to fix your posture, you could hurt yourself."
"I'm fine." And he laid back on the chair. But it strangely enough still felt like he had the tail, so he had to keep shifting around in an attempt not to sit on the phantom limb.
"So.. want to play a game? Unravel? It Takes Two?"
"Sure, how about apex?" Kaitlyn threw him a controller and turned on the console.
Mid way through a game, the two began to get super competitive against the other, and Kaitlyn being the tryhard older sibling she was, would not stop. After she caused him several deaths, Dauirmuid sat up straight in his seat and started to take the game seriously, then started mashing buttons to get Kaitlyn down. Kaitlyn kept glancing over at his hands to see what he was going to do next as he chased her down. But after a few glances she noticed one of Dauirmuid's pupils were starting to change colour, getting gradually more white. She decided she was probably just seeing things and got back to the game. After a while Dauirmuid had barely any health left, and one hit would end him. Suddenly everything around him seemed to become grey and barren, then the game, his sister and the room froze completely. He glanced back at the screen and noticed a bullet coming from Kaitlyn was heading for his character. He turned his character around, ducked and shot back at her. Everything returned to a normal speed and Kaitlyn missed Dauirmuid and died.
"Lucky shot Je-" she turned to face him and her eyes widened. His ears had changed shape, his eyes now glowed like small LED lights and there was a fuzzy thing hanging off the chair beside his legs. He turned back to face her and smirked for a few seconds before he noticed her expression, then realised what had happened. The silence was loud. Dauirmuid opened his mouth to speak, but a strange animalistic squeak replaced the first syllable, then he closed his mouth and covered it with his hands. Kaitlyn smiled.
"Okay, when did you get fursuit gear my guy? Is this some kind of werewolf phase?" She said, mockingly staring at him. He just stayed silent for a few seconds, before getting up and running to his room.
"Don't be embarrassed! Furries are fine with me!" Kaitlyn called up the stairs. Though she knew if he was so flustered about it she could use this as a threat; she could tell people he was a member of the fandom if he did her wrong.
Meanwhile Dauirmuid slammed his door and leaned against it.
So. Kaitlyn thinks I'm some kind of furry now? She seems like the kind of person to assume I'm a goddamn skinwalker before even considering the fact I'm 'having a werewolf phase'.. at least she doesn't kno-
"Also, when did you get the time to put in contacts, fake ears and a tail? You had me thinking you were actually some kind of werewolf for a second!" She called up. He ignored her and quickly tried to turn back to normal. It wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as every other time he had to do this, then he took a second to think about how that could've happened anyways.
Must've just gotten too excited and it triggered something? ..there was also the weird thing where everything slowed down. What on earth was that? He then pushed the thoughts away, took a deep breath, and prepared for humiliation as he walked downstairs. Kaitlyn said nothing, but Dauirmuid turned to face her and said in a voice as serious as he could manage; "Let's not talk about that." And then sat back down with his controller.
"Not the first time you've said that. Is this your new 'thing' or something?"
"I don't have a 'thing'."
"Right." And she followed him to the armchair. They played a few more rounds, but Dauirmuid was partially zoned out throughout the game, and tried to keep it that way in order to not overreact again.
He had to tell her, he had no choice and he knew it.
I'll tell her before I leave, and I'll come back home normal, then we can forget about this.