Pen-Pals
He was your first boyfriend. You were his first real connection with someone outside the Jujutsu world. And it's not that he intended to catfish you...he really didn't.
Note: THIS IS NOT A "FURRY" STORY. ITS A HEARTWARMING TALE ABOUT THE READER FINDING A PLACE IN JUJUTSU SOCIETY, THROUGH HER PENPAL, PANDA 🐼
SFW, fluff, a bit of angst.
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
You were fifteen, when you got your first boyfriend.
At least-- you saw him that way. He was your penpal, first. Your...oddity had left you lonely. Isolated. Friendships were hard, and functioning like you didn't see monsters on every street corner, every underpass, was even harder.
With numerous psychological assessments before the age of ten, seeing your mother and father in tears outside the Psychiatrist's office...no. It would not do. You told nobody else after that, simply living in your haunted little world, head down, desperate not to be noticed by them.
You soothed yourself to sleep every night, imagining lilac clouds and fields of wildflowers, instead of blackened fingers closing, bone-brittle, round the edges of your wardrobe.
He went by 'Panda'-- a cute pseudonym, and how he had signed off all of his letters, ever since you had matched with him on the Pen Pal Seeker website.
And how you loved him. Despite his dreadful handwriting, his thoughts were sincere, warm without being patronising, funny and abstract in the most oddly conversational way. He poured his heart out to you, and you to him. You yearned to know him better, but delighted in the mystery of a secret lover.
Panda had just a father, one older brother and one older sister. He went to a boarding school. He took hand-to-hand combat as a sport. His best friend was quiet, but tough and kind.
And he saw the monsters too. At first you were doubtful, your pen hesitating on the page. Do I tell him? He'll think I'm a freak. I probably won't even get a letter back...you told yourself all this, as you wrote yourself bare to him. As you posted the letter. As you waited, chewing your nails to stubs, certain you had royally screwed up.
The clatter of the letter box. Your frantic footsteps tumbling down the stairs, shoving your father aside-- "hey kiddo, where's the fire?"-- to reach the stack of post first, seeing your name in his hand--
...and his words. Oh, you loved him so.
You're not alone! I can see them too. Lots of us can at my school. Try not to let them notice you looking...
You kicked backwards onto your bed, the letter pressed to your chest, one arm over your eyes as you kicked your feet in glee, trying not to cry.
It was settled-- you had to know him. You had to meet him.
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Skipping school the next day, you felt like everyone around you on the street knew it. You felt like a criminal, hitching your bag over one shoulder, keeping your gaze downwards as you spent your savings on a train ticket to Tokyo.
The train journey was full of blushing imagination, running through how you would greet him, again and again and again, each time stupider and more embarrassing than the last.
Hey, Panda, it's me. Hi Panda...how've you been? Boo! Ahaha just kidding...unless--
As your footsteps carried you along your phone map, glancing up and down to see yourself wander into the tree-shade hush of outer-Tokyo...your coming here became a worse and worse idea.
What were you thinking? Panda was going to think you were absolutely mad! You didn't even know his real name. He might have been some sixty year old creep just pretending to be a kid like you. What if he wrote to loads of girls? What if he gave you one look and was embarrassed by what he had been writing to? What--
You stood at huge wooden gates, encircling a beautiful stack of traditional Japanese buildings, winding away up the rolling hills. Your finger hovered over a buzzer. You tasted copper as your teeth bit into your lip, bubbling over with internal conflict, before stabbing down on the buzzer, greeted by a shrill ringing.
A voice-- "Name, please?"
You stuttered, announcing your name. Silence on the other line. You elaborated.
"Panda, uhm-- I'm here to see Panda. About...about the monsters. I'm...I'm a friend."
Silence...clickcrrreeeeeeeak.
You stepped back, gripping your bag like a shield as the gates heaved slowly open. Hesitant footsteps crunched over gravel, carrying you in. You had not thought about the particulars of actually finding Panda, and you gazed around you, stumped.
You stood to attention, seeing two figures move down the twisting stepped path ahead of you. A girl, stern, bespectacled. A boy, tired-looking but friendly, with big dark eyes and a white funnel-neck collar. They saw you, and shared a glance, before stepping over. The gates swung closed behind you.
The girl didn't waste any time; "How do you know Panda?" she demanded, one hand on her hip, eyes narrow through her glasses. You gulped, feeling dizzy from the volume of strange power rolling off the boy beside her.
"I...we...he writes to me. To each other. We write to each other." The boy's eyebrows quirked up in surprise. He looked to the girl with a light smile. The girl scowled.
"I didn't know Panda could write," she grumbled. You blinked, once, confused and beginning to feel nauseous, the boy's presence alone crushing in on you--
"Hey..." the boy started gently, stepping closer to you, "...maybe-- maybe you should go? Panda's not really good to see anyone right now-- oh hey-- Maki--"
You had lurched sideways, retching on the gravel as the boy held you gently round the waist. Maki looked unaffected, continuing to frown down at you as you sniffled, hiccuping, mortified, of course he didn't want to see you--
"I'm sorry you're right, I should just-- I'll go I just--" you babbled, standing and stepping back, the boy letting go of you hesitantly, warm brown eyes cut with genuine concern, "--he just-- he said he could see the monsters like me and I--"
The boy and the girl both paused, mouths dropping open in...realisation? The girl, Maki, slapped the boy on the shoulder with the back of her hand, and he crumpled like wet tissue; "Dull it down Yuuta...you're making her sick."
"I think...you should come with us, and uhm....meet Panda," Yuuta offered, rubbing his shoulder and smiling softly at you. You sniffled, glancing between them both.
"...really?" Your heart clenched, hopeful, excited.
Walking between them, up the twisting path, you did not yet realise you had found your new home.
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
"How much do you...know about Panda?" Maki asked, seated opposite you in a dusty wood-panelled classroom.
"Oh, uhm...he goes to this school. He has an older brother, an older sister, he practices martial arts..." you continued to reel off your relationship with him, enclyclopedic. At each point, Maki seemed to be waiting for something that never came. Her face was set in a grim line.
"Panda's not like the rest of us," she stated, blunt, "And I don't know if you'll--"
The door slid open. Yuuta poked his head in, catching your eye with an uncertain smile.
"Panda's here. He can't wait to meet you." You stood up, smoothing your skirt, twisting your hands together, straightening your hair. Maki and Yuuta glanced apprehensively to each other.
"Just, uh...just don't scream, yeah?" You frowned at Yuuta, laughing;
"Why would I scre--"
As a full-grown Panda walked into the classroom, shrieks rang out of the windows across Jujutsu High.
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Sat by the little brook, you sobbed your heart out, your face being gently dried by an enormous black and white paw, the other round your shoulder, holding you against--
"-- a literal Panda! You're a fucking Panda!"
Maki shook her head disapprovingly behind you both, glaring at Panda; "I can't believe you pretended to be human--"
Panda gaped, appalled, "I never told her I was human!" Yuuta laughed into his hand, struck by the bizarreness of the situation.
"Of course she'd assume you're human--"
"-- I don't like to assume what you humans think, but anyway, she's smart and kind and I knew she wouldn't judge-- stop laughing, Okkotsu-- can you guys just leave us alone? For a minute?"
You laughed despite yourself, patting Panda's enormous paw, engulfed in his behemoth furry embrace. Yuuta stood, gently dragging a still protesting Maki away. Silence fell. The river whispered down the stones. The sunlight softened in the rustling leaves.
"...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to mislead you. I just...liked talking to you. I've never had someone who-- who didn't know what I-- ...I'm sorry," Panda finished, weakly. You blinked back tears, wiping your nose.
"...it's okay. I'm the same. And you're the best person I-- my favourite person-- you've helped me with so much and I love you--" Panda's ears perked, and he looked down at you with joy.
He continued, gruff with emotion; "It's the right thing that you're here, though. You need to learn more about these monsters. Maybe you can even stay."
It was your turn to look at Panda with joy.
You sat in companionable silence, delighting in the company of a new friend. You hesitated again, your cheeks scattered with pink.
"Can you uhm...can I still say you were my first boyfriend, though?"
Oh. If pandas could blush.
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Many years later, tied to a chair in the dank Curse users' hideout you had infiltrated, you smirked to see the men around you step backwards from the door in horror.
Beyond the door, an incoherent din of bestial roars, men screaming, furniture smashing. One of the men beside you squeaked in terror, clapping a hand over his mouth before grabbing you roughly by the face.
"What is-- what is that thing? Out there?" He demanded, shaking with terror. You laughed, your face squished in his hand.
"That's my ex-boyfriend. He's called Panda, he's 6 foot 7, and he's here to fuck you up."
The door flew off its hinges with a metallic bang, and the men around you scrabbled to run for their lives. A hulking mass of black and white filled the doorway.
"What are you guys doin' to my girl, huh?"
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
I don't know where this came from, but I love Panda 🐼