Chapter Text
“Toge? I don’t have any toothpaste left; can we share?” called the large Panda. His paws clutched a clearly too small toothbrush, never having asked Masamichi for one that fits his tooth size. That said, it was likely one of the principal's only lapses in judgement.
“Toge?” he called once more, gentler this time. Where could he be? He was usually watching some of those weird human videos again, the ones with the serious eating at fast food restaurants and such. That’s what Panda remembered at least. Humans were really gross with all that food they didn’t need. It… didn’t count if Panda ate all that since he’s… a Panda. Surely that’s ok reasoning.
Panda padded into Inumaki’s dorm, not knocking out of established habit. It’s not like Toge cared if he barged in while he was changing. They were both men… he thought? Sorta? Regardless, they were comfortable with it, so, what the hell? Except this dormitory situation was a little different. Typically, Toge was a really late napper, not shutting his eyes unless his phone died or he fell asleep watching it. Panda wasn’t so good at the all-nighter business, falling asleep in Toge’s dorm far too often, leading to several pranks from the cursed speech user, or awkward questions from Yaga about his sleeping habits outside his own dorm.
This was a bit different, the usual ‘wide awake til an hour before the alarm’ Inumaki was… sleeping. Peacefully, actually. He looked adorably snug, white tee peeking out from over the edge of the blanket, zip-up mouth cover still hiding his lips from view.
Panda really hated calling it adorable, but it was.
Then again, the soft snores were a smiiiiidge louder than usual. It wasn’t difficult to tell why. The sleepy second year fell unconscious without taking off his face mask.
Panda felt almost sympathetic seeing his buddy breathing heavier due to the faint pressure on his mouth.
“That can’t be healthy…” Panda murmured, now afraid he would wake the sprawled sleeper in front of him. As lightly as he possibly could, he lowered his paws a touch lower and lower, teetering toward the mask with fear his small buddy would awake at any sudden contact.
Wrapping two fingers around the zipper, the oversized cub gently slid the latch down, opening the mask wide. A final heavy breath left the student, typical breath control returning.
Toge was breathing a lot more smoothly now, gentle exhales leaving sliding past his teeth. A wave of relief washed over Panda, hearing aerodynamic balance return. The giant plush bear felt oddly triumphant, like he just saved his buddy from serious harm beyond a stressful sleep. Actually, Panda himself didn’t want to think about the hell that would be an uneasy slumber.
Backstepping with as much grace as a giant panda can have, the cursed corpse turns to the door, reasoning to himself,
I’ll just ask Maki! … Er… nah, Yuta is a safer pick.
But just as his feet reach the point where tatami mat meets wood flooring, a sleepy, murmuring voice speaks:
“Hug…”
Panda’s eyes widened. Toge was a sleep talker?
Before those thoughts could even finish coherently forming, Panda felt his legs meeting the demands of his subconscious mind, stepping against his will back to Inumaki’s futon.
He immediately collapses with the polar opposite amount of grace, as he hoped to hold when escaping from this room, warmly wrapping his arms over the lightly snoring second year. It was… oddly nice to hold him, and yet… so uncomfortable.
If Panda wanted to cuddle Inumaki, he’d do it on his own volition, damn it! Like when they watch movies and Toge wants a stuffed animal to snuggle with! Panda loved it when Inumaki let him curl up against his side during movies. Sure, the teasing from Yuta and Maki (and God forbid, Yaga) was obnoxious, but at least he could get a hug in and fall asleep until whatever they were watching ended.
… Unless it was Kung Fu Panda. He loved that one.
Panda realized how far his mind was wandering when he literally couldn’t move out of this position. Forward-spooning Toge wasn’t marked on his agenda for today, and if it was it wouldn’t have been alone in his dorm while he was trying to just get some toothpaste. How long did cursed speech even last? Against anyone they fought it only lasted mere moments, right?
Panda felt his pride begin to form wounds upon the thought that his abilities had the fortitude of that blue haired Kyoto-student. Toge had her knocked out for over an hour with his technique by just saying “Sleep.”
Struggling weakly but both seeing and feeling no muscle movement, Panda begins to lose hope. Of course, this wasn’t the worst position to spend the night in, but it was just kinda… embarrassing.
Embarrassing was an emotion that, if you asked Panda as a first year, never believed he’d feel as a talking fur ball who can become a gorilla and triceratops. If his existence wasn’t embarrassing as a whole, there wasn’t much that could rattle him.
That was until Masamichi called him a “good boy” for sitting when asked in front of the other second years…
Or until Itadori started asking questions about how far his anatomy goes as a cursed corpse, and he didn’t want to answer…
Or until Toge himself made him sit down like a housepet using his technique after he…
Stole his toothpaste!
Realization hit like a freight train.
“Togeeeeee!” Panda whined loudly, met with the near silent giggles of the now clearly ‘awake the entire time’ second year he was still wrapped around.
Inumaki, ever the annoyance, took the opportunity to pet the now red-faced Panda’s head. Panda, now feeling his limbs again, quickly swatted his hand away, almost petulantly.
“Is this your half-assed attempt at revenge or something?! I thought we were past all that after toothpaste stuff when you made me sit and roll over like a house pet!” Panda grumbles, a bit louder than usual, voice a pitch higher than his usual range.
Inumaki was still laughing to himself. “Salmon,” he snickers in supposed agreement, evidently incredibly proud of himself.
“We were, right? So, what was all this for?!” Panda proceeds, pouting. Arms crossed and face still beet red at the cheeks. Who knew cursed corpses could blush off command?
Inumaki, having expected this question, reaches for his notebook, which should be housing notes on barriers and the history of various clans and inherited cursed techniques, but instead holds a doodle of a… Panda giving a piggy back ride, arms under the legs of someone who has a suspiciously close haircut to the current bob Inumaki dawned, who rode on the Panda’s back.
As if the first freight train wasn’t enough, realization two times over hits doubly as hard.
“Are you-!” Panda couldn’t control his own annoyance, turning around in a huff, refusing to face his classmate from his seated position on the floor. Panda was pissed. Surely Inumaki wasn’t serious, right? Making Panda cuddle him for a full minute, knowing it’d fluster him, just to get back at him?
“So, I didn’t give you a piggyback ONE time, come on! That doesn’t warrant… this! I was tired from Maki hitting me so hard with the training staff!” Panda argues, trying to excuse his instance of ignoring Inumaki.
Inumaki stares at him blankly, an unimpressed expression in his eye.
Panda understood it, growing sheepish quickly.
“Well… ok maybe I said I would do it-”
“Bonito Flakes.”
“Promised-” he corrects himself, awkwardly. “Promised I would…”
Panda was slowly coming to terms with the fact that he completely blew off Toge because he was kinda annoyed with Maki’s ceaseless hitting. Of course, it wasn’t unjustified irritation, but it was still kind of a dick move.
“Yeah… ok I see your point…” The plush bear admits. “But I’m not like… obligated to carry you places! That was-”
“Bonito flakes.” Toge interrupted, shutting it down quickly.
Panda knew what he wanted to convey. They had a deal originally. Panda could borrow his toothpaste, BUT, he owed him a piggyback ride back to the dorms after training. Now here he was asking for it again, while Inumaki hadn’t gotten his end of the deal due to Panda brushing him off when he asked.
Well, asked the best a cursed speech user could at least.
Panda grew more annoyed, more so at himself this time. He kinda deserved it, yes, but it was still…
He hated the word. Embarrassing. He hated admitting to feeling it more than anything else.
He wasn’t against snuggling Inumaki, quite the opposite really, he loves cuddling him, specifically during move nights. But... this was different. He couldn’t really put his finger on why, but it was.
It was hard to put a finger on what made him so pink in the face about this. He wasn’t usually flustered over his cuddling habits. He was always a cuddly panda, but this wasn’t the same.
Was he nervous about someone seeing them? No, of course not, if it's prevalent enough for Masamichi to comment on, then surely everyone else already knew.
Maybe it was the fear of Toge waking up and being confused about it? Being all balled up, head against Panda’s chest. Eh, still a no. He could explain to Inumaki that it was his damned cursed speech that made him get all snug and, beyond mild teasing, Toge wouldn’t bat an eye.
Maybe it was the lingering fear of a distracted Inumaki, especially in his sleep, making him do something far worse.
The wandering thoughts on what made Panda so awkward about this vanished far too quickly via the interruption of Toge, who now placed his hand back on Panda’s head, now standing to be slightly taller than Panda’s seated pouty form.
Panda quickly grunts, voice still tinged with annoyance, swatting the arms away from his face.
“Would you quit that?!” He half pleads, half demands, standing up to continue his petulance where Inumaki can’t pet him like an actual animal.
That’s the moment it dawned on him.
What he hated wasn’t the warm hugging or teasing, rather, it was the commands. Being trained like a house pet.
He wasn’t some cub to domesticate!
Panda grumbles something under his breath, feeling Inumaki’s hand gently reach up to scratch behind his ear. He freezes completely, feeling the spaced-out scratches, as if Toge was struggling to reach but kept trying anyway. He leans down just a bit subconsciously, almost suspecting that the smaller second year had used the technique once more based on his involuntary response.
A soft purr begins to rumble in his chest, escaping his snout in a low hum.
Panda’s eyes snap from their fluttering position, now wide open in awareness.
He swats away the hand one more time and stands perfectly straight up, at attention. He feels his cheeks grow even hotter, now able to perfectly distinguish embarrassment and irritation.
This was embarrassment. Plain and simple.
The oversized cub whose cheeks were now red hot in both feeling color, whipped his head around, expression now as annoyed and flustered as he could morph it.
He mumbled more incoherent nonsense, scratching at his own scalp rapidly in some kind of mock redemption, as if trying to peel away the fingerprints of the smaller sorcerer who was very easily controlling his actions, with or without cursed speech.
After another moment of feeling completely ridiculous, Panda pauses, now looking down at the clearly snickering Inumaki with a sharp blush still engraved onto his face.
“You done?” he asked, trying to appear unamused and over it.
“Salmon.” Inumaki replied, clear confirmation. He still had that playful glint in his eye, obviously he got his laugh in.
Panda grumbles something neither of them really hear under his breath.
“I hope next time you can have your fun without humiliating me…” He pouts once again, seemingly the final time, as he begins his exit towards the sliding door.
“Salmon roe.”
Panda turns around at Inumaki’s usual call for attention. Maybe this was an apology, or sympathy? It wouldn’t really help, but it’d definitely be nice!
Panda wasn’t so lucky.
“Sit.”
Panda let out a low yelp, sitting flat on his ass against his will, landing with a gruff “oomph!”
Seated at chest level with Inumaki, Panda could feel the heat rushing back to his head, right when it started cooling down.
“Togeeeeeeeee!” He whined a final time.
Inumaki just approached, placed a hand on Panda’s head, and scratched his head like the pet panda refused to accept he (kinda) was in this context.
Panda wanted to swat it away, but the command was shortly followed by,
“Arms down.”
‘How has Inumaki’s throat not given out yet?’ Panda thought. “Am I really that week?!” He angrily asked himself.
When the hand reached behind his ear, Panda began to be ensnared in a state of pure bliss. It was like taking a bite of Itadori’s takoyaki recipe… it just felt so nice…
Before he knew it, involuntarily, yet at no consequence of cursed speech, Panda felt his paw-padded foot begin rapidly tapping against the tatami mat he sat on. He couldn’t deny it. This felt amazing.
Amazing in the worst possible way…
When the effects of cursed speech wore off a few seconds later, Panda grumbled lowly once more. But this time… he didn’t move away or swat at the comforting. Instead, he rolled over, flat on his stomach, letting Inumaki continue petting him. He was aware of how much of a tonal whiplash he just had… but he suddenly just didn’t care, it felt too nice to care. The purrs slowly followed as Inumaki continued scratching behind his ears and gently rubbing his forehead.
When he would eventually stop, Panda would complain, they both knew that. He’d whine that it was embarrassing and annoying and how he wasn’t a pet, and he’s not. They both knew that too. But the warmth was so easy to give into, the warm pets were just the perfect way to relax, to the point where Panda had half a mind to make Inumaki lie back down to cuddle once again. But that time could come later. So could the toothpaste.
“I’ll give you a piggyback tomorrow…” he paused.
“But only if you don’t tell anyone… and- uh…” he pondered a secondary condition.
He eventually reasoned on the last thing he wanted.
“If you leave me a blanket for the next time since you supposedly ‘sleep’ so early…”
The quiet response of Inumaki simply sitting down again was all the response he needed.