A Journey Of Self Discovery

Unlocking the frontdoor Kazuki walked into the house, then closed the door behind him and locked it. He dropped the keys into a glass dish by the front door and yawned. The sunset painted the sky a dusty red and orange letting the inhabitants of Halcyon City know that is was dusk. 

Kazuki pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked his text messages. He had gotten one earlier from his uncle, but as he was busy he didn’t have a chance check it. You can’t really check your phone while your fighting crime after all. 

(I’ll be late getting home. We have a big ad campaign coming up and we’re a little behind. Left overs are in the fridge, love you <3)

Kazuki smiled and typed (Kay, good luck!) before he put his phone back into his pocket. He trudged back to his room and led his book bag drop to the floor before he left and headed to the kitchen. He was exhausted and it felt so good to be home. He had been back at school for almost a month at that point, but it wasn’t really fun anymore. He still had mostly no friends, people whispered about him behind his back, he was left out of everything, and people actively avoided him. It was terribly lonely. But he grit his teeth and bore it, he’d be damned if he let that affect his grades. If he could still keep A’s when his parents had died he could certainly keep them up now. Besides, if no one saw a human when they looked at him anymore, he’d prove them wrong by continuing to be one of the top model students in the school. He had been before and he planned to keep it that way. 

Kazuki winced in pain as he walked to the fridge, his hips popping loudly as he moved. They had been doing that a lot lately, though he had no idea why, but they were starting to ache something terrible. 

He had also noticed that the ache went away by the time he woke up in the morning, but if he had been standing or moving around too much the ache tended to worsen. He hadn’t noticed this as he was sitting in class, but perhaps that was because he was sitting? Kazuki wasn’t quite sure, but he didn’t like it. It made moving around painful and uncomfortable. 

“I don’t remember hurting this much before?” He questioned out loud as he pulled the leftover spaghetti out of the fridge. 

He rubbed where his right leg connected to his hip and went to sit down at the kitchen table. He was happy that sitting made the paid ebb somewhat, but it still hurt. 

“This stupid body’s such a pain.” He grumbled annoyed. He was having way more problems than he ever had before. Sure he got sprains and other aches and maladies when he was normal, but he knew exactly where most of those came from. Most of them were from swimming of course. 

After Kazuki had finished eating he took his plate to the sink, cleaned it, and placed it back into the cupboard. Kazuki turned to go back to his room to work on homework, he sure did have a lot that night. Maybe he could get away with doing half of it now and then wakeing up early the next morning to finish it. He suddenly hissed in pain as his hips popped rather loudly and he braced himself against the wall. 

“Ooowww, what the hell?” 

He rubbed them and started the walk again, but as he did his hips twinged rather painfully and he stumbled, falling forwards and landing on his hands and knees on the ground. He was starting to worry, sure his hips had ached a little the last few weeks but it was never this bad. 

“I should call Uncle Ryohei...” he said through clenched teeth. He didn’t know what was wrong with him and it was beginning freaking him out. He hoped Ryohei would know, and he knew if he called him Ryohei would drop what he was doing and hurry over. Though at the same time he didn’t want to bother Ryohei at work, he know how busy his uncle was. 

Of course he could always text Ricardo, Naomi, Wren or Aaron about this, but he didn’t know them that well yet. Besides he had just met them a week before, he wasn’t going to bother them with something like this. Unsure of what else to do Kazuki just stayed still for a moment staring at the tiled kitchen floor before he moved to stand up. He gasped in pain as soon as he began to move and stopped again, this really was worrisome. 

Kazuki mentally scolded himself. He couldn’t just sit there on the floor until Ryohei got back home. He braced himself for the pain as he began to push himself up again, he had his hand and feet firmly against the ground as he did. He was expecting his hips to scream at him when he moved, but the pain was now dulled.

“Wha? It hurts less now?” Kazuki asked himself confused. He then took notice that he was on all fours. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously and tried to stand up, only the yelp in pain and fall back onto all fours again and the pain hit him hard. 

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” He hissed is anger and disbelief. “Of course walking around like an animal feels better, of fucking course.” He padded back to his room in annoyance, but at least his hips felt much better and ached way less. Though the idea of walking around the house of all fours made him want to scream, but if this got rid of the ache he’d have to deal with it. 

He was a little uncomfortable with how natural it felt walking around like that, but he refused to put anymore thought into it. 

“It’s just a means to an end. If it helps the ache go away then I’ll do it. Otherwise I’m never doing this again.” He mumbled to himself as he paced around his room. He had ran on all fours before but he only did that to see if he could, but now that he thought back, he remembered it felt more comfortable too...

“No! No, no, no, I am NOT walking around on all fours out in public!” He hissed at himself angrily, and his tail lashed out behind him mirroring his emotions. He knew that people would never see him as human if he did that. It was one thing if he was doing it to help him do his superhero business, but just normally? Certainly not. As much as he hated it, if walking around the house in all fours helped ease the ache and he could walk on two legs again he was fine with it. He just didn’t want anyone to actually see him doing it. 

“At least Uncle Ryohei won’t be back for probably another two hours or so...”

And almost on cue his ears flicked back as he heard the garage door opening. 

Oh this was just getting better and better. 

Kazuki groaned in annoyance but really what else could he do? Force himself to stand up and ruin his hips? He wasn’t going to rush it, so he would just have to deal with the embarrassment. 

“Kazuki I’m home!” Ryohei called closing and locking the garage door behind him. It was quiet in the house, surprisingly so. Maybe Kazuki went to bed early? Ryohei has checked the news on his phone and saw that Kazuki and his new group of friends had taken down a villain that night. He must had been very tired. 

“I’m in my room.” Kazuki called, his voice clearly sounded agitated. 

Ryohei frowned and walked back toward Kazuki’s room and stopped when he was standing in the doorway. 

“Are you ok? Why are you sitting on the floor-” 

“Like an animal, right?” Kazuki hissed. 

“Kazu you know that’s not what I was going to say.” Ryohei replied pointedly. 

Kazuki sighed annoyed before saying, “My hips are really hurting today, and I can’t stand up normally. Walking on all fours is like, the only things that helps.” 

“I see,” Ryohei replied nodding. “I remember you mentioning that your hips start to ache if you stand straight too long. Their position has probably changed a little.” 

“What does that mean?” 

“It just means you’ll need to rest your hips more. Or slouch a little rather than standing up straight all the time.” Ryohei replied. “It’s only natural that there would be physical changes that you can’t exactly see, you know?” 

Kazuki nodded. “So I’m not gonna be stuck on all fours forever?” 

“No, I’m sure with a good nights sleep you’ll be back to normal and your hips won’t be sore anymore.” Ryohei assured him. “You shouldn’t worry about it.” 

Kazuki sighed relived. “Ah good. Because this is embarrassing and I wouldn’t want to have to do it forever. Especially out in public.” 

“Understandably. And if it persists I’ll call SHLD and have them look you over. Better safe than sorry, you know?” Ryohei responded. 

“Please don’t tell anyone? Especially not my new friends, they’d probably think I’m well...you know” Kazuki asked sheepishly. This whole situation was embarrassing, and he afraid his new friends would change their minds and cut him out. Like the swim team had. 

“Of course not! I won’t tell a soul, I promise.” Ryohei replied before adding. “And if you need to do this everyonce and a while, don’t be afraid to. I won’t say anything about it. And if you needed to do it with your friends I’m sure they wouldn’t mind either.” 

“Thanks uncle Ryohei.” Kazuki replied smiling. But honestly he was still worried, especially on the subject of this and what his friends would think.