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After receiving a diagnosis for Tourette's Syndrome, Hunter slowly started to try and unmask around his friends, at least when it came to his tics.
With Belos being... Well, Belos, he'd always suppressed them ever since he was little because the punishment for not doing so was always a million times worse than the pain of keeping them in.
He'd adopted a cycle of suppressing throughout the day and having tic attacks when it was late and he was sure everyone was asleep. He knew it wasn't healthy and the rational part of his brain knew it was unnecessary once he was living with people who actually cared about him, but that didn't stop him from continuing to shove it down for fear of rejection.
But, he had a diagnosis now, and everyone close to him knew about it. He didn't have to mask.
He started out slow at first, letting out small motor tics and minor vocal tics like grunts, his heart pounding as he studied people's reactions. Admittedly everyone seemed a bit caught off guard when he first started to let them see the light, but he was ultimately only met with kindness.
From there, he began to let out more noticeable ones, even the occasional shout here or there. Still, only kindness.
This is weird.
One evening, his tics were especially persistent.
He was watching a movie with Gus and, every few seconds, blurted out random nonsense. Gus didn't comment on it, knowing that Hunter would only get embarrassed and maybe even try to start suppressing again if he did, but it was getting more and more persistent to the point where he could barely focus on the film and surely Hunter wasn't catching a single thing happening in it either.
Gus paused the movie and turned to the other boy. "Hey" he said gently. Hunter's neck jerked painfully, accompanied by a grunt, and then he looked at the boy with wide eyes.
"Sor- Wow!- Sorry, I- Haha!"
"Hunter, woah" Gus said, trying to calm the other boy. "You don't have to apologize, okay? You're not in trouble, I'm just concerned cause it looks like you're having a bit of a hard time. Is there anything I can do?"
"I just- Haha! Hey! Wow! Haha!"
"Can I hold you?" Gus helped, seeing that Hunter probably wouldn't be able to get out a coherent response anytime soon. Hunter managed a hum of affirmation and didn't pull away as Gus wrapped his arms around him. "There we go"
"I- Haha!- Sorry, I didn't mean to- Wow! Haha! Hello!- To interrupt the- Feathers!- The movie"
"It's okay" Gus reassured the boy. "You can't help it"
"I should be- Haha! Wow!"
"Don't start with that nonsense" Gus told him. "There's nothing wrong with you or with this" he continued. "You just have a disorder, and that's okay. You don't get mad at me for my anxiety, or at Luz for her ADHD" he reminded. "This is no different"
Hunter didn't respond, but the reassurance did help him calm down a little bit, and his tics lessened.
How did he get so lucky as to have such caring and understanding friends?