An Oddity Among Beasts (BEASTARS)

Whispers

"Y'know, I had my doubts about that story I got, but the attention it got was staggering!"

Todd stood with the other PR team members as the head went on about the newspaper sales. He was honestly a little scared because of how quickly word seemed to spread about The Riser's story. It felt strange knowing he was in-part helping with the "anonymous writer", but it was also exciting. If he and Alan could keep up with the heat, maybe they could continue it for a long time.

"I'm surprised that story got so many sales.", Lisa said as she walked beside the goat. "Who knew everyone would be so interested in it."

"Well, it's probably because of the second performance.", he noted. "Since the story was about a wolf, it probably got people thinking about the one in the play."

"That's true. Speaking of the play, what's Alan like as a roommate?"

He hummed for a moment, "He's pretty cool. He's nice, cleans up after himself, and pretty helpful. But..."

The chihuahua glanced at him, "What is it?"

Todd rubbed the back of his neck, "Well, sometimes it feels like he's hiding something from me. We're pretty close, but I didn't think he had much of anything to hide."

"Well, maybe it's normal. He probably just has something he's afraid other people will make fun of him for."

"I don't know if it's as simple as that, though.", he lowered his head thoughtfully. "Just yesterday, he woke up screaming and sweaty. I asked him if he wanted to talk about it, but he just shook his head and went into the bathroom."

"Maybe he went through something when he was little. It probably scarred him enough to give him nightmares."

"Yeah, but he's so carefree and happy most of the time. I wouldn't expect him to have nightmares."

"To be fair, he did fight that tiger off in the play. Maybe he likes hiding those parts of himself.", Lisa suggested.

He sighed, "Yeah, but I'm still worried about him."

He wasn't exactly a stranger to the hidden parts of Alan's personality. Back when they found out about Tem's death, the human seemed distant and unsure. Not too long afterwards, he had a flash of anger when they talked about how predation incidents were common in the world. More of it was shown in the cafeteria when the fox and dog fought, and then there's the play.

Is he overreacting? If he were being honest, he didn't plan on confessing his fear of carnivores to Alan before he caught onto his worry about what lunch he'd get. Although, his fear was honestly lessening with Alan around. He felt deathly afraid when Alan stood up to confront that fox, but quickly relaxed once Louis came in and broke it up.

That uncanny ability to be so friendly while hiding other parts of himself—Todd envied that.

~~*~~

"Todd?"

He perked up at the human's voice, looking over to him as he sat on his bed.

"You alright?", he asked worriedly. "You've been staring at the draft for a few minutes now."

The goat perked up, twiddling the pencil in his hand, "Uh, well..."

"It's okay.", he smiled. "You can tell me."

Todd sighed, "Well, we're friends, right?"

"Of course we are! Why wouldn't we be?"

"It's not that, it's just...", he paused. "Are you...hiding something from me?"

"What? Where's this coming from?", Alan raised an eyebrow.

He shivered for a moment, "When you woke up yesterday. It seemed like something was really bothering you, but you didn't say anything about it. I'm worried about you."

The human didn't say anything, looking down for a moment. Todd's heart started pumping faster, anxiety working its way into him. Did he come off too strongly? Did he offend him? His thoughts were broken by a weight sinking beside him. He looked over, finding Alan looking at him thoughtfully.

"You're really worried about me, huh?"

"Y-yeah..."

He sighed, "I do have something to hide, but I can't tell you. In fact, nobody here really knows. It's...important to me, and I feel like it could change how they feel about me."

Todd immediately bowed his head, "Sorry, I didn't know—"

"Don't.", Alan pulled his chin up. "You were just worried about me. That's what friends do for each other. Still, I guess you do deserve an explanation about the nightmare..."

He fiddled with his fingers, "There was a voice. It was saying that...my secret would be let out, and things would change. That I'd embrace it, but I can't. I refuse to!"

He clenched his fists, "I could never...I have to hide it, no matter what."

Todd could hear multiple feelings in his voice: anger, sadness, fear. Whatever the secret is, whatever Alan felt was so bad that it would ruin him, he was desperate to keep it hidden. It was as if his entire life hinged upon it! The goat reached a hand out but faltered for a second. He took a breath and gently rubbed the human's back.

"Don't worry.", he said. "They won't find out. If your secret's that important to you, then I won't pry."

Alan looked at him with a small smile, "Thanks."

"Hey, it's what friends do for each other."

~~*~~

A.N: Some of you guys are getting close to figuring out Alan's secret, but I wonder if someone else might be curious about it...