How to act around an autistic kid?

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Tomorrow my mum's friend and her autistic son, who is ten, are coming to my house. I myself am autistic but this kid doesn't know I am. I want him to like me and to not make him uncomfortable but I don't know exactly how. I assume he won't have much interest in speaking to me so should I just leave him alone? I want him to know there are other autistic people out there but I don't know how not to be awkward about it

Maybe don't act any different from him than you usually would.

He may be a kid but people tend to gravitate towards those like them, and chances are he'll pick up there's "something different" about you, too.

I have a friend with an strongly autistic kid, but haven't met them yet. I'd like to believe that they'd find a natural affinity with me and we'd have a kind of connection that is nuanced and intuitively understood. I hope to believe that I'd learn more about myself by interacting with this little person. I don't have much of an idea of how we'd share that imagined alliance, but I find myself thinking there would be one.

However, it seems equally or more likely that they'd have none of that connection or nuance, and just scream or hide when they see me, a stranger. I don't know what will happen when I meet 'em, they're just another person, in the end. Would I find myself guilty of all the biases that others have about autistic kids? Maybe but I hope not.

Somehow I just need to move beyond the labels and belief in natural affinity, to just see them as a whole person who is basically unknown. I don't do well with neurotypical kids, so I have that going for me...

Talk about his interests, he would then become a real chatterbox.

Autism comes with many presentations. He might be extremely verbal, especially when it involves his special interests, or he can be mute and withdrawn and constantly spinning things, or somewhere in between.

Just treat him like any other person, as a default.

I had an autistic friend in middle school. I didn't treat him any differently than I would a "normal" person.