>A tap on his shoulder sets Anon's teeth on edge, despising the near full-body flinch brought on by the unexpected contact.
>"Oh, sorry if I startled you!" Sunset Shimmer said, taking a step back and raising her hands in a placating gesture "I just wanted to know if you'd like to hang out with me and my friends for lunch today?" she asks kindly.
>Anon looks at her for a long time, nervously pulling on the black gloves that he never takes off of his hands, unsure how he should respond.
>"If you don't want to that's fine" Sunset says in a reaffirming tone "I just thought I'd-"
"A-alright I guess" Anon stutters out in a voice that seems weak from disuse, though there's a rough edge to it that Sunset can't identify.
>And from there things seem to be going great, Anon joins in on some of their conversations and even answers a few questions they ask.
>Rainbow takes a long sip from her soda and asks "So Anon, do you live with your family?"
>And for some reason at the word family Anon just withdraws completely, and before they know it he's practically running away from their table.
>"What'd I say?" Rainbow asks in confusion only to receive various confused and slightly worried glances in return
>It takes weeks to get Anon to not run away at the sight of them, and even longer to get him talking to them again
>Sunset notices more and more things about Anon that make her worried, like how sad he looks when he sees Applebloom hugging AJ or how when a dish in home ec bursts into flame he looks like he's having a heart attack.
>But is all comes to a head when Pinkie grasps one of Anon's eternally gloved hands while regaling him with a story and he recoils so hard he literally falls out of his seat.
>While he's picking himself up of the floor and apologizing to Pinkie for surprising her Sunset notices that the glove on the hand Pinkie touched was pulled off slightly, and that his hand is horribly burned.