Chapter Text
Neptune loves the playground, he loves the slide and the swings, but he hates the monkey bars, because of how high they are. But he’s 6 years old so it’s entirely understandable, he doesn’t have to strong and brave for a few more years. Right?
His mother sends him off to play while she pulls out her scroll and does whatever adults do with those things. Neptune immediately runs to the swings. He hops on one of the swings and starts gaining momentum. Neptune’s not entirely sure if leaning back and closing your eyes speeds you up, but he feels like it does.
Naturally closing his eyes makes him feel queasy so Neptune opens them, screams and falls on his back in the sand. He stares up in surprise at the upside down smiling face of a blond boy. The boy has shining grey eyes, and most noticeably is holding onto the swing frame by a blond tail.
“Hi!” The boy has noticeably sharp canines.
Neptune doesn’t know how to respond, he’s never made a friend by himself before. His parents always set up play dates with their friend’s kids, and most of those kids go to his school anyway. Also this kid has a tail and it’s kind of freaking him out.
“U-uh...hi?”
The boy does a little flip and lands perfectly on his feet. Now that he’s standing over Neptune, he realise the boy also isn’t wearing a shirt.
“Where’s your shirt?”
The boy looks down at his bare chest. “Well my sisters need shirts more than I do right now, because they’re so little and get cold easy.”
Neptune nods with his mouth hanging open. He doesn’t have any brothers or sisters, so maybe its normal for older siblings to not have shirts?
“Your hair is cool.” The boy grins looking at the tuft of bright blue sticking up out of Neptune’s head.
“Umm thanks, your tail is pretty cool.” Neptune says, he can’t help but stare at it.
The boy grins. “Thanks,” he looks back at it and swishes it about, “my name’s Sun.”
“Neptune.”
Sun holds out his hand, and Neptune hesitantly shakes it. But before they can talk anymore, a lady with long messy blonde hair and a long tail comes along.
“Time to go buddy.” She notices Neptune and her eyes widen. “Who’s your friend Sun?”
Sun grins, and gestures to Neptune like he’s proud of him. “This is Neptune, isn’t his hair cool?”
The lady, who must be Sun’s mother, smiles sweetly at him. “It is very cool. Sun we’ve got to go now, say goodbye to Neptune.”
Sun rushes forward and hugs him, taking Neptune completely by surprise. “See ya later friend.” His mother gently drags him away by the hand, and Sun waves enthusiastically with the other.
Neptune’s mother appears next to him. “Who was that?”
Neptune rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. “That was Sun. I-I think he’s my friend now.”
“No.”
Neptune freezes, he stares up at his mother in confusion. “What?”
She takes a deep breath and stares down at Neptune with her ‘I am deadly serious, and will not hesitate to punish you’ face. “You are not friends with that thing.”
Neptune frowns. “He is not a thing. He’s a person.”
Neptune’s mother doesn’t look at Neptune as she speaks. “You saw that tail?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you have a tail?”
“Well no but-“
“No you don’t.”
Neptune’s mind is reeling and he’s failing to understand what he’s being told. “Why does that matter?”
His mother just glares off into the distance. “It’s not normal.”
Neptune doesn’t believe what he’s hearing. Even if a tail isn’t normal, what does it matter? Sun’s tail isn’t hurting anyone, it’s just swishing around and stuff. And why can’t they be friends? Do they both need tails to be friends? Or does Sun need to not have a tail for them to be friends? It just makes no sense.
Neptune’s gonna be his friend anyway. No one has ever smiled at him like that before. It makes him feel happy.