A/N: Didya miss me guys? ;)

Rays' POV:

In the darkness that had surrounded me for at least half an hour, a light suddenly appeared, growing larger and larger. I could hear faint voices, they sounded like they were underwater. The pain was gone now, leaving me with a peaceful feeling, but I felt so tired... The light grew smaller again. No, no! Come back! It then got larger once more, spreading over all of my vision, larger and larger, brighter and brighter, till I woke up gasping, realising where I was. I panicked, lifting a hand to the side of my head to find nothing. Literally. No blood, no... Ears. What?? How could I hear with no ears?? I could distinctly hear Michael shouting at Gavin for killing him in some game. In fact, I thought I could hear him even better with no ears. What?? I sat up in confusion and felt the sides of my head again. Nope, nothing. It also felt like I was sitting on something uncomfortable, like a hard pillow or a tennis ball. I looked wearily around for my glasses, but I couldn't see them. I would ask Ryan to help me later. What the fuck happened to me?? I felt groggy so I got out of bed to wash my face in the bathroom. I sluggishly walked over to the sink and turned on the tap, cupping my hands under the running water and splashing it onto my face. I jumped at the sudden cold, but I felt much better. I lifted my head up and glanced in the mirror. What met my eyes was not me. I mean it was, I had the same hair, the same eyes, but protruding from the top of my head was a pair of long, black ears sticking up vertically, like... like a rabbit.

"AAAAAAAARRGGHH!" I turned around and yanked down the back of my trousers. There was a black fluffy ball at the point when my lower back joined my ass, and it was the same velvety black as the ears.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRGGHH!" I screamed even louder and ran around in a panic, screaming every curse word under the sun.

"FUCKSHITBALLSOHHHGODWHATTHEAAAAAAARRGGHHH!! RYAAAAAAN!"

I heard three sets of footsteps running up the stairs, and Gavin got to my door, followed by Michael and Ryan.

"RAY!"

"WHAT'S WRONG??!"

"RAY?!"

I ran back to the bathroom and locked the door.

"No! Don't look at me! I'm a freak!"

"Ray!" Ryan was knocking on the door. "Ray! What are you talking about? You're beautiful, and don't let anyone tell you differently,"

"No! No! You don't understand! Ryan, something's happened to me!" I rubbed my eyes and looked at my reflection in the mirror again, and sure enough, the ears were still there, and when I checked, so was the tail. I cried out again and felt desperate tears roll down my cheeks. I could hear Ryan beating down the door, and Michael's shouting, muffling Gavin's comforting tones.

"Please go away..." I snivelled.

"No, Ray, I won't go away. Something's wrong, and I want to help you," Ryan said.

"Open the dooooor!!"

He then lowered his voice and muttered to Michael and Gavin, whom I heard leaving the room shortly after.

"Ray, please, it's me, Ryan, no one else is here. I won't hurt you, I would never,"

"Ryan..."

"Please??"

I sighed shakily, unlocked the door and pushed it open slowly, letting light flood into the pitch darkness of the bathroom. Ryan was standing in the doorway, and he gasped when he saw me. I looked at the floor.

"I told you. Look at me, I'm a freak. What happened to me Rye??"

"Ray..."

He rushed forward and caught me as I collapsed to my knees, sobbing into his chest with him rubbing my back.

"Ryan, what happened to me?"

"I-I don't know, but... You're beautiful. Still beautiful. More beautiful," (A/N: You're welcome for the bonus R &R connection there)

I sniffed. "But what about my..." I pointed to my ears.

"Ray, they're brilliant! Can I, uh..?" He reached out.

"Go ahead,"

He stretched an arm out and stroked my ears gently, making me subconsciously close my eyes and smile, leaning in to the touch.

"Aww..."

"Shut up," I pretended to be annoyed and pulled away, crossing my arms after swatting his nose playfully.

"Hey, uh, Rye? Could you help me with something?"

"What?"

"I, uh, have a t-tail too... And uh..."

"Oh okay, I understand," Ryan walked over to the bedside table, opened the drawer and pulled out a pair of scissors. He then walked round to the back of me, and carefully cut a hole in my jeans and through to my boxers. He then gently pulled my tail out, and I saw his eyes widen at the sight of it.

"Please, don't laugh at me,"

"Why would I be laughing at you?? This is great! Albeit a bit strange... Do you know what happened??"

"No, of course not! Do you think I would be this freaked out if I did?!"

"Ray, is this a prank??"

"No! Of course not! I'm scared Ryan, what happened to me?!"

"I don't know..."

"HEY, RYE, EVERYTHING OKAY??"

"YOU BETTER NOT BE DOIN' THE DO UP THERE!"

Michael and Geoff were calling up the stairs.

"It's-uh, it's okay. YEAH, WE'RE FINE!" Ryan replied. "We'd better let them know you're okay. Come on," He strode over to the open door and looked at me to follow him. I raised my eyebrows in desperation.

"Ryan! I can't go down l-like this!!" I pointed to my ears to accentuate my point and he put his hands up in submission.

"Okay, okay, fine. Stay here, I'll be back,"

I sighed and sat down on the bed to wait for him, noting how I could still feel my tail uncomfortably squashed under me.

"I'm back," Ryan walked back in with one of his hoodies and threw it to me.

"Th-thanks," I tugged it on and pulled the hood up over my ears.

"What about my tail?" I asked him.

"Just don't let them see it. It's only little, no one would notice if they weren't looking deliberately at your ass,"

I blushed and laughed. "Well then, it's gonna be hard getting past Gavin," out of all the Achievement Hunters, Gavin was the one most likely to be looking at my ass. He'd even comment on it every now and then.

"Guys, lunch is ready," Jack poked his head round the doorway.

"We were just coming,"

"Okay... That's too much information," he laughed.

"You know what I meant," I chuckled too and went back downstairs with the others.

"Are you alright X-Ray??" Gavin spotted me and came over, checking me for injury. Oh god.

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine now, thanks," I walked briskly away from him so as to not get found out.

"Hey, uh, Ray??"

"Yeah?" I turned back around.

"What's that?"

"What's what,"

"Um, never mind,"

I let out a breath of air that I wasn't even aware of holding and went to the living room, sitting down on the couch. I had a million questions I wanted to ask, but I didn't think there was anyone to answer them. What the fuck was I gonna do?? What was going on? Is this all just a prank? I rested my head in my hands and rubbed my face. I felt a comforting hand rest suddenly on my shoulder.

"Hey, Ray? You okay now bud?" It was Geoff.

"Um," I was debating telling him about my strange deformities. Tell him. Don't tell him. Tell him. Leave it. I decided to tell him.

"No, not really,"

"Why, what's wrong?" I looked around the room, seeing that everyone else was still eating lunch. I sighed and lowered my head, pulling down my hood slowly to reveal the long, black appendages sticking out of the top of my head. Geoff gasped.

"What are those?"

"Uh, ears?"

"Are they real??"

"Yeah, I think so," I gave one a tug to prove my point and then spoke again. "I've got a tail, too," I turned round and showed Geoff my tail, him reaching out to touch it, and making me uncomfortable.

"So fluffy!" He whispered excitedly like a six year old. I huffed at him.

"How? What happened?"

"I don't know. Neither does Ryan, he knows about it too. No one else do-"

"What the FUCK is going on here??" Michael was standing in the doorway.

"I-Uh, nothing?"

"You've got a tail. And fucking bunny ears. And from what I saw they are real. Explain." He pointed at me and Geoff, who had stood up again. My heart started to beat faster. Michael looked scary. I don't know why, I was fine with him before.

"Uh... Ask Ryan!!" I ran as fast as I could out of the room, away from Michael, away from Geoff. I bounded up the stairs and into my room, then into the en-suite and I locked the door behind me.

"Ray! I saw what happened to you! There's no point hiding!" Michael called up the stairs. "I'm telling Jack and Gavin!!"

"No!"

"Yes," I heard him walk down the hall and into the kitchen. I unlocked the door and threw it open, before running down the stairs to be met by a concerned looking Gavin, whom I crashed into. I flew backwards and knocked my head on the wall, and he stumbled back and hit the stair rail.

"Ow, my knob!" Gavin exclaimed, and crumpled to the floor on his knees, holding his crotch where he had whacked it on the banister.

"Sorry! Sorry!" I went to see if he was okay, but when I ran a hand through my hair I discovered that the hood must have fallen down when I got knocked over. Gavin got up and stared at me, his eyes flicking to my ears, then my face, and then back to my ears again.

"Before you say anything, I don't know what happened to me," I sighed, helping Gavin up.

"Um, okay, this is weird. But cool!" Jack piped up.

"We interrupt this program for an important news flash!"

A voice said, making us all jump at the sudden change from a quiet program on in the background in the living room to an important alert. We all filed into the living room from the hallway and settled on various pieces of furniture. Ryan and Jack took up the couch, Geoff sat on the floor, grumbling about how "If Ryan didn't have such a fat ass, he would fit on there too,". Michael took the armchair and Gavin sat in his lap, and I perched on the table.

"Following the events of last night's combined meteor shower and full moon, we have discovered that many people have been severely affected by it. These such people have grown animalistic physical and instinctual attributes, such as ears and tails, and are acting more like animals. Also, everyone who turns out to have cat or rabbit attributes, will, unfortunately, go into a heat of sorts, possibly even before they transform. You are advised to be wary around any cat or rabbit hybrids that you see, as they may be entering heat. Here are some examples of hybrids spotted today in Austin.

A picture came up on screen of a man with spotted Dalmatian ears and tail, then a woman with brown tabby appendages.

"Scientists are currently trying to find a cure for this, but until then, seemingly every human on Earth will transform into a human-animal hybrid of some kind. Also, the animal that you take attributes from seems to be the animal that reflects your personality the best. We apologise for this sudden change, and promise to try and put things back the way they were. In the meantime, many things are being altered so that hybrids can use them. Headphones, hats, helmets etc are being altered, and leg wear items are now being made with holes for tails. Thank you very much, and goodnight,"

The news flash shut off and everyone just sat there in silence. After about ten seconds, Geoff cleared his throat and looked at me and Michael meaningfully.

"Well, that explains a lot,"

A/N: Oooooh... I'm so original... Ah, fuck it, I like the hybrid idea for this story. Anyway, sorry I haven't updated in forever, but I had a lot of things for school going on. I had end of year exams, combined with two school trips, sooo... Balls!

Stats:

Word count (excluding A/N):1975
Word count (including A/N): 2041