Matteo appeared... relatively normal.
The enormous coat he usually wore, which seemed to attract more attention than it was supposed to, was at the cleaner's. He can only get away with so many dirt-, mud-, and peanut butter-stains before the garment is unwearable. So, today, instead, he was wearing a fog-green (yes, fog-green) sweater, and (gasp!) pants - baggyish cotton ones, because they were the only kind that even came close to fitting right. That, and they covered his hooves.
Pants were one thing - but Matteo refused to wear shoes.
They're just not worth the trouble.

He was strolling along, hooves clattering quietly on the concrete, just enjoying the beautiful, windy day. Spring was that much closer,... though since he'd met the deity of the season that comes after spring, he wasn't anticipating it quite as much as he usually would be.

Well, that guy certainly didn't live around here.
Mort didn't ordinarily like talking to strangers much (he had to a tiny bit, though, or he wouldn't make any friends), but this one looked relatively harmless (anyone in this part of the city wearing a sweater had to be either harmless or more psychotic than anyone Mort had ever met) and Mort was...bored, intrigued, lonesome, curious, being rather mystified by the noise Matteo's feet made on the pavement--pick your poison.
"Um...hi."
Mort was disconcertingly quiet, sometimes. He hadn't meant to sneak up on Matteo from behind, but that was sort of what happened.
And aside from making sure his hair was sticking up enough to hide his antennae, and 'hi', he hadn't thought at all about how he was going to converse with this complete stranger.

Matteo jumped, turned to look, and nearly fell on his tail all in one awkward motion.
He stopped his fall by grabbing for a nearby metal signpost, then scrambled to a more upright position, staring at Mort with wide green eyes.

Still clinging to the post with one hand, he faltered lamely, "...You startled me."

Mort jumped back in turn, startled by Matteo's startlement. It took a lot of concentration to suppress the instinct that would have made his antennae stick straight up in the air.
He backed up a few steps, cautiously smiling. Maybe the guy was psychotic.
Or maybe he was just afraid of pickpockets.
Either way, best to be safe.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to. I just...didn't recognize you."

"Um,... I d-don't... recognize you either..." he said haltingly, under the impression that Mort had mistaken him for someone else. He slowly let go of the signpost, and folded his arms over his midriff as if for protection.

"I... don't think I know you,... do I?" Matteo ventured, relaxing a little as it got through to him that Mort seemed to be just a kid. Kids weren't frightening. Not most human ones, anyway, and the boy did look human...

"You don't." A faint smile. It was hard to be frightened of someone who seemed even more frightened of him.
"I just meant...I live around here. And I never saw you around before."

"Oh. Ohhh. Okay."
Matteo gave a small, rapid nod, and chanced a smile himself. It looked more like a twitch than a smile, but he tried.
"Well, that makes two of us. Except the part about living here. I'm... passing through. I live sort of on the fringe. Not quite here, not quite there. You know." He shrugged a shoulder, then after a moment's pause, offered a hand. "M'name's Matteo."

"You mean you're homeless?" he inquired, curiosity in his voice. 'Teo was awfully clean for a bum.
Very cautiously, he took Matteo's hand, shook it, and dropped it unceremoniously.

"Uhhh.... No."
He shook his head, the pucker between his eyebrows deepening as he frowned.
"No, I mean, I don't live here. I live on the edge of this end of town, is what I mean. In an apartment, actually. 'M not homeless."
He was a little bit offended that Mort had thought that, but didn't quite know why.

"Right, right." Mort nodded rapidly, trying to convey the impression that he had not been seriously considering the notion...that, in fact, he might have even been joking a little.
"You looked too clean. Is it nice there?"

"Nice? Well... it's not too much different from here, really..."
He took a cursory glance at their surroundings, continuing, "Except there's less garbage lying around,... less graffiti. It's not really better, just older. Quieter. It's too far from the center of the city for most people to want to live there."
Suddenly aware that he had just spoken more than three (nearly) complete sentences in a row, and afraid he was being a chatterbox, he clammed up.

"...You live around here, then?" he said cautiously, a few moments later.

"Sounds nice."
Especially the 'quieter' bit.
"Yeah, I live in that building right over there...I try not to spend too much time there, though."

"You don't? Why not?"
The faun turned to look at the building Mort had indicated, squinting at it.
"It doesn't look too bad from out here..."
Not 'It looks nice'. Because, simply put, it didn't.

"Oh, just...y'know..."
His crazy sister.
"Not a lot to do around here, and it's loud and ugly. So...yeah. I like to hang out other places when I can."

"Mm, I see." A pause. "Me too. I'm not much of a city person,... and a change of scenery is always good. I get lost a lot because everything here looks the same."

He buried his hands in his pockets, oblivious to the fact that he'd started nervously pawing the sidewalk and making an unusual tapping-scraping sound.

"You can hang out at my place sometime."
It wasn't quite an invitation, and not quite a statement either. Never mind that he doesn't know the boy's name, or think that his intentions might be misconstrued. Matteo's not known for his social I.Q.

He looked at Matteo a little strangely, but grinned. "That would be cool."
He'd seen enough crazy to know it when it looked him in the face, and Matteo wasn't it (at least, he thought so).
"What kind of shoes are you wearing?" he asked curiously. "Do they have steel or something? They scrape."

"I'm not wearing shoes," Matteo replied, too quickly. What he meant to do was lie and say 'yes', but he just said the first thing that came to mind, which happened to be the truth. Then he started to ramble. "I mean, not - the kind with steel, just, they're just... I'm not..."

He sighed.

"...Never mind."

"Why do your feet scrape?" Mort asked, quite wide-eyed and innocent.
And then, he did the thing most likely to terrify 'Teo further: he dropped to the ground to look at his feet.

And he hasn't even introduced himself yet.

The faun's eyes opened wide. Uh-oh.
"Hey - don't! What are you - why-"
Matteo hurriedly shuffled backwards, managing to bump into the metal signpost as he did so. In trying to detour around it, he stepped on the hem of his pants... and then he was in a heap on the ground.

Like no one saw that coming.

"Those aren't feet!" Mort exclaimed, his voice slightly squeaky, sitting back on the ground and staring at Matteo.
"What are you?"
His voice was full of wonder, shock, curiosity...no malice or horror, though.

"Uh...I..." he managed to utter faintly, his mouth hanging slightly open. He drew his legs back, slowly, as if afraid he'd startle himself if he moved too quickly.

"Me?"

He gulped, nervously trying to arrange the cuffs of his pants back over his hooves, but never taking his eyes off the boy.

"I'm j-just... me."

"Okay," Mort replied, not deterred in the slightest. "But what sort of...of...you know...I mean...did those just grow on you one day, or did you always have them? Were you born with them? Did your mom have them too?"

"I w-was, um, born this way..." 'Teo quavered, inching away. "...My mother didn't. Dad did."
If Mort had shown any sign of fear, Matteo would have bolted by now.
"He was, um, l-like me, you see,... A f-f,... a faun."
He gave a ghost of a smile and reached up to nudge his hat (which had up to now been pulled very well down) half-off. His horns were momentarily visible before he jammed the hat back on again.

"A faun. Wow." he blinked, giggling slightly. "Like in stories. You have horns, too. Me too."
He was babbling, sort of. He didn't seem to notice.
"I mean, not horns, but..."
He flicked his antennae momentarily upwards, giggling again.

"Uhhh... Oh. Those are... feelers?" How peculiar.
And here was Matteo thinking he was human.
"So, you... pardon my asking, but what are you..?"

He didn't stop creeping backwards, by the way. The giggling was making him wonder if the boy was unhinged.

The boy was maybe a little unhinged. But harmless, I swear.
"Uhhh..."
The giggling stopped abruptly.
"I don't know. I'm either something with feelers, or a freak of nature. I didn't even know they were there for a really long time. Hey..."
He leaned forward. Because 'Teo's shoulder was too far away, Mort rested a hand on his hoof instead.
"I didn't mean to scare you."

Matteo offered a faint smile, but it slid off his face almost instantly.

"Th-that's okay," he said, in a falsely lighthearted tone, twitching the hoof backwards and away from Mort's hand, "You didn't scare me."
Right. He is in fact so not scared that he's still edging away, because it hasn't yet occurred to him to stop and, I don't know, stand up?

"Um."
Mort bit his lip.
"Don't run off, please. I really didn't mean to."

"I'm not running off," 'Teo said in the same fake lighthearted tone, shaking his head.
To make the statement agree with his actions, he stopped backing away and sat perfectly still. He made another attempt at a smile, this time managing to keep it in place for a good ten seconds, after which it slowly faded. "See?"

Mort, thinking rather confused thoughts about forest animals, backed up a little, and then proceeded to sit very, very still.

Maybe if he didn't make sudden movements, Matteo wouldn't be so frightened of him.

Well, it couldn't hurt to try...

"Um." Matteo gave a small cough. Oh, look, he's going to try to make conversation. "Ssso... um. W-when did you find out you had, um, those? The feelers?"