Eri finally dragged herself away from the mirror sometime around……she had no idea. 3 AM? 4? Time had become a suggestion.

  She eventually curled into bed, wrapped in a mountain of her own tails, smiling like someone who’d just unlocked a cheat-code to happiness.

  She did not sleep.At all.

  Her body could not calm down. Tails wiggled. Ears twitched. Every time she closed her eyes she remembered her reflection and squeaked internally like a happy gremlin.

  When the first hint of sunrise touched the curtains, she sat up, bleary-eyed but still glowing inside.

  “…I regret nothing.”

  She stared at the neckce lying on her dresser.

  Heavy. Beautiful. Unavoidable.

  Her tails tightened around her one st time — like they were holding her back, begging her to stay here as Eri.

  She whispered, “I’ll be back tonight.”

  Then she put the neckce on.

  Light. A heartbeat-flutter sensation.And in an instant, Ethan sat on the bed again, hoodie half-tangled, hair a mess, dull human ears, zero tails.

  The silence afterward was deafening.

  He swallowed hard.

  Then flopped face-first into the pillow and screamed into it like a dying walrus.

  “I MISS MY TAILS.”

  He staggered to his feet, half-broken, grabbed the nearest oversized hoodie, and shuffled downstairs smelling vaguely like exhaustion and moonlight.

  Kitchen — 7:02 AMMom blinked at him.“Ethan. Honey. You look… awful.”

  “You look like you fought raccoons,” his little sister added cheerfully, eating cereal.

  His older sister didn’t even look up from her phone. “No, raccoons look better. This is ‘possessed ferret energy.’”

  Ethan opened his mouth—

  Then yawned so violently his soul left his body for two seconds.

  “I’m fine,” he said, voice cracking like a baby duck who failed puberty twice.

  Mom poured orange juice.

  Ethan grabbed the coffee pot.

  No mug.He just straight up drank from the pot.

  Mom froze, horrified.“…Ethan?”

  He stopped, very slowly lowered the pot, and stared at nothing.

  “I… need… survival juice.”

  His younger sister whispered, “He’s broken.”

  Older sister nodded solemnly. “He hath seen horrors.”

  Mom gently took the coffee pot away and handed him a mug like she was defusing a bomb.“Sweetheart. Drink normally.”

  He poured.It was 90% coffee, 10% whatever remained of his dignity.

  He drank.And drank.And drank.

  His dad entered the kitchen, looked at him once, and simply said:

  “…son.”

  Ethan raised his mug in greeting like a war veteran acknowledging another across the battlefield.

  “Dad.”

  They nodded in silent male tragedy understanding.

  School — First PeriodEthan sat at his desk vibrating.

  Like,full-body caffeine hummingbird frequency.

  The teacher was talking about history. Possibly the French Revolution. Or the mitochondria. Or ancient lizard civilization conspiracy theories. Ethan genuinely could not tell.

  His eyes stung.His heart sounded like a washing machine full of forks.

  don’t wag tails you don’t have don’t wag tails you don’t have don’t—

  His brain: NO FLUFF. NO COMFORT. PANIC.

  Someone behind him whispered, “Dude, are you okay?”

  Ethan blinked at them, pupils tiny.

  “I have never been okay,” he whispered back with haunted sincerity.

  The kid nodded slowly and faced forward again, probably reconsidering speaking to Ethan ever again.

  LunchEthan stared at his sandwich.

  He didn’t eat it.

  He just stared at it like it personally wronged him in a past life.

  His friend Liam sat down beside him.“You look like you transcended sleep and came out worse.”

  Ethan sipped an energy drink this time.

  “I experienced… beauty,” Ethan said ftly.

  Liam blinked. “Like… philosophically? Or like you found a really attractive anime character?”

  Ethan slowly turned to him, dead-serious.

  “Yes.”

  No follow-up.Just caffeine-shaking silence.

  After School — Colpsing HomeEthan colpsed face-first onto his bed the second he got home.

  He didn’t even kick his shoes off.

  He just whispered to the empty room:

  “…never drinking coffee again.”

  Then a beat.Then:

  “Okay that was a lie.”

  His eyes drifted to the neckce on his neck.

  Exhaustion tugged at him.Reality beat him down today.

  But inside?

  He felt warm. Centered. Real. Hopeful.

  He already knew what tonight would bring.

  A soft smile formed.

  “…Tails.”

  And with that hopeful whisper, he passed out in his clothes, face smushed into the pillow, dreaming peacefully of soft fur and silver eyes.