Animals + Promises - A Z.Tao x Reader

Introduction

I've always had a talent for reading people. I can tell what everyone's personality is... even before I get to know them. If I focus on a person, there's the spirit of an animal in them. They develop as the human does, and sometimes they will change when a personality does.

By the time I was 5, my mom was finally done with me telling her about the Polar Bear walking around in her head and took me to the doctor. They couldn't find anything wrong with me. And I don't think anything is wrong ー I just see everything a little differently. 

When I first went to school, I told the teacher all about her Coyote until she snapped at me. Laughing, I went over to tell more kids about their cool animals. That night, I had followed my dad's Monkey into the kitchen asking if anyone else could see what I could. He told me that they couldn't but that wasn't a bad thing, it just made me special.

Seeing the animals made me have a unique view of people and their way of life. Once I saw their animals, I could know how they might act in certain situations. For example, that annoying popular girl at your school with the Crow and her friend with the Poodle were definitely going to fly around in your head and stick up their nose at your clumsiness. And that new sub that walks into the room with a Sloth was definitely going to bore you to death for the next hour of class in a monotone voice.

With my parents and friends, I could see how their animals reflected them more and more. My little brother, the Bunny, was childish until he got into high school, his Bunny matured into more of an adult in stature as he grew older and so did he. He went from playful to a caring yet fierce Rabbit.

The only problem with my power was that I couldn't see myself. 

I mean, I could look in the mirror and see my body, face, and motions but I couldn't see my own animal. Mirrors blocked the view of animals from me. It is like how everything is backward from how it actually is. For me, it blocked my ability and the animals went away. I wouldn't know my own animal unless someone else had the same ability as I did.

This story starts in my Sophomore year of high school during which, my brother was a Freshman. My skills of reading spirit animals had grown much since my younger days and I knew to keep my power a secret, as to not scare anyone away. 

Since I had this, I could tell who I wanted to be friends with and who to avoid. It worked well for me and I led a decently good life. I had extreme animal knowledge but there was one discovery that led me into a new journey. It was one spirit animal that I had never seen before. Up until this point, I thought I had seen everything. I'd seen everything from Anteaters to Vultures to Mice to Spiders, but from my home in the US, I'd really only saw animals native to the country or ones in a few surrounding countries. 

When a transfer student from China came to our school, he changed my life. And when I say he changed my life, I mean that. With every centimeter of my being.