Penny laughed a bit at the way Nobu had begun the phone call. “You aren’t broken, Nobu-San.”
That had led to more conversation and ultimately a meet up between the friends. She was curious about how the date went, Nobu seemed too excited to really go into much detail though the tanuki was an excitable creature by nature and so she understood.
She invited Nobu to her place since he was already in the area and waited for her friend to arrive.
Her circle of friends was small, a handful of people she could trust and rely on, and so being curious about this new date struck her as oddly interesting. Nobu was a friendly, personable person. She also didn’t know anything at all about his date prior, only what Nobu had shared as she got him ready.
When the knock at the door came, she moved quickly to it. It opened, she offered a wide grin and beckoned them tanuki inside.
“Okay, I want to hear everything,” Penny said, grinning.
You aren’t broken, Nobu-San. He wasn't so sure but if Penny said he wasn't then she had to be right. Right? The brisk walk in the night air helped cool him down and the odd sensations from the date's ending were past by the time he reached Penny's place. This left only the excitable and talkative tanuki everyone knew and loved (well, everyone knew at least).
“Everything? That is a lot of things,” he replied with a laugh, bee-lining to the couch and plopping himself down unceremoniously. Usually he would raid the kitchen first, but Nobu wasn't feeling food at the moment. Did the ice cream actually fill him, or was it the turning of his stomach from before that stifled his appetite? No time to think on that. “What do you want to hear first?”
Penny raised her eyebrows at her friend but only moved to sit down next to him with a smile. “Then tell me the best parts,” she replied, patient as always. Clearly the date went well, the usual excitement was tampered which means whomever this person was Nobu had gone out with had an impact on her friend.
“Tell me about him,” she offered, her smile growing a bit.
Dating could be challenging. You could go with the wrong person or have a terrible time, have a clash of personalities.
“Him?” Nobu thought a moment. What to tell Penny about Marsh? There was so much he wasn't sure where to start so he went with the first thing he could think of. “Well he is really tall. Like a tree. Big, tall tree. You could probably see a lot from up there. Maybe he will let me climb him sometime.” If it had been anyone else it would have been an obvious innuendo but not so much with Nobu. He honestly just wanted to climb up on Marsh's shoulders and see what he saw.
“And he is nice. Really nice.” The smallest hint of color appeared on his cheeks. “He bought me food. Really good food too. Cheesy. And he let me have some of his. Which was also cheesy. And we went to play mini-golf which omg Penny was so cool!” Nobu wiggled in his seat, crossing his legs and turning to face his friend as he began to ramble on with no rhyme or reason. “There were bright colors and these awesome shoes. They were huge! And then there was this big Gene Simmons statue and you hit the ball up his tongue. We got a lot of pictures. It was so much fun!” He flashed a huge smile. “I beat him,” he declared proudly, placing his hands on his hips and posing like a superhero. “I am the KISS golf champion!”
So the date was a success. Penny laughed a bit, her smile growing with each new development. “I think you had a great time,” she began, nodding, “and you should go with him again. I’ve never seen you this happy before!” She had seen Nobu ecstatic over food, a spa day, and letting her use him as an umbrella. But never over another person.
“Does he know about you?” She meant that Nobu was a tanuki wearing a cute human skin the way she wore hers. It didn’t matter, but if they hadn’t been open, they would have to be. And maybe then Nobu actually could climb Marsh’s shoulders.
“I think I’ve heard of that place - KISS mini golf, right? Black lights, rock music.” She couldn’t say she had ever been there. “And I want to see your pictures!”
“Really?” Nobu asked, surprised by the comment. Had she really never seen him like this before? He didn't think the excitement and happiness he was exhibiting was different than the other times they'd hung out together. His hand moved through his hair, considering. Was he happier than usual? Yes, probably. He wasn't sure how to handle that realization. Luckily, Penny moved the conversation along before he could dwell on it.
“Of course he knows about me,” he added, waving off the question. He wasn't quite getting the intent of the question, that Penny was asking if Marsh knew about his species. If someone knew if he was a tanuki or not didn't cross his mind. He was who he was, his appearance or origin didn't much matter.
“Yeah! There were these big props everywhere.” Nobu grabbed his phone from his back pocket and scooted up beside Penny so they could both look at the pictures. “See? Look at those shoes. Aren't they amazing??” Finally, he landed on the picture he had taken with Marsh next to the giant Gene Simmons head. It was obvious that Marsh had been the one to take the selfie considering the height difference. “That's him. Marsh,” he pointed out, smiling. Seeing the man's smiling face caused his chest to tighten. There was that strange feeling again. “Told you he was tall. Could you imagine him in one of those shoes?” He continued with a laugh, ignoring the feelings trying to resurface.
She was glad that Nobu had been upfront with Marsh about what he was. Penny was aware her friend didn’t really see the need to hide what he truly was and while that could be endearing, sometimes it could be dangerous for Nobu. But this time it seemed things went over well. Or, at least she was taking Nobu on his confident word it had been discussed.
Penny twisted a bit to look over Nobu’s shoulder at the photographs. “Oh wow!” That was a big shoe! And then when Marsh appeared, Penny nodded. “He’s cute. I like his mustache, and you’re right. He is very tall.”
The mental image of Marsh in a platform shoe had her giggling. “He would be so tall! You really would have to climb up!”
“Yeah, he is cute.” He concurred, surprisingly calm despite his spastic ramblings from before. His cheeks were growing warm again as he focused on the mustache Penny pointed out. The mustache that sat just above his lips which were really sof- “Right? I told you he was tall!” He exclaimed with a bit more volume than was really needed. The image of him scurrying up the man's body in his animal form and plopping himself down on his shoulders just made his blushing worse. Ahh what was wrong with him?!
He let the phone drop onto the couch next to him, screen down as not to see the picture that was still open, and placed his hands over his burning face. “I think I broke,” he finally said, calling back to the first thing he said to Penny when she picked up the phone.
As Nobu’s cheeks reddened, Penny’s lips twisted into a knowing smile. “You did tell me he was tall.” Her friend was crushing on Marsh, she could see it plain as the day was bright. Her heart leapt a bit for Nobu. “I need to meet him.”
Penny laughed. She patted her friend on the arm and shook her head. “You aren’t broken, Nobu. You have feelings that I’m not sure you’ve ever felt for anyone before, and that’s okay. I think you have a crush on Marsh.”
His voice was muffled by his hands. “A crush?” Nobu knew that word. He had heard it enough times to know that it meant a person liked someone but not just regular like. A different sort of like. Movies and shows made it seem like someone with the affliction tended to be awkward when around the person they liked. Nobu wasn't awkward around Marsh. “Really? No, no. It is something else.” Or was it? He was starting to remember some of the other signs the characters exhibited: blushing, stammering. These were especially noticeable after a kiss.
Ahhhh it was a crush!
Nobu used his hands to fan at his reddened face, suddenly feeling overwhelmed. “I don’t like this,” he whined. “Thinking about him, about the kisses.” Oh why did he mention the kisses? All the sensations he had managed to rid of on the way over returned. “My face is burning and my stomach hurts and my chest is all tight. Penny-chan, I don’t like this at all. How do you make it stop?”
At the mention of kisses, her eyebrows lifted. She smiled, “So you got kisses too? No wonder you’re so giddy.” Penny set her hand on Nobu’s knee, patting him. “You take a deep breath, exhale, and ask him on another date. This isn’t something you want to stop, Nobu. It’s a good thing.” She kept her tone calm and patient to combat the excitable.
“And you’re feeling those things because you really like him, you both connected.” She had felt those things for Derek, too. But not since.
“This is a good thing?” He squeaked, looking at her as if she was mad. What was so good about his body acting all wonky at the mere thought of a guy? It didn’t seem right at all. He had thought about plenty of people before and he never felt like this. What made him so special? Well, he could come up with a lot of things if he wasn’t so focused on his body’s reactions to these new feelings.
Nobu did as Penny suggested, taking a deep breath and exhaling. He didn’t know if it helped at all. He did it again in a desperate attempt to settle himself. That time seemed to do the trick, or at least enough that he wasn’t going to leap from his seat and start flailing. “Connected. I guess we did,” he conceded, rubbing the back of his neck. More so than he had with others apparently. He let out a heavy sigh. “Ugh, how do you even deal with this? Is this going to happen all the time? I don’t think I can handle that.”
Penny nodded. “That means you like him, more than just a friend, and it’s okay to feel this way. It’ll be odd and intense at first but you’ll get used to it. What you’re feeling is good, it’s normal, and it’s natural in this circumstance. You’ll have more feelings just like this one as you and Marsh keep going on this path.”
Nobu would be fine, she was sure of it.
Her smile widened, “When you both get more settled and established, maybe we can all go out for some fun. I can ask Ro if she wants to tag along so there’s more opportunity to communicate and get to know each other.” The relationship was still so new though, she didn’t want to impede on that progress with more people.
“More of these feelings? Oh man...” The thought of just running away crossed his mind. If he wasn’t around, if he could find other things to keep his mind off of all this, he wouldn’t have to deal with these new feelings. He could just go about his business without these silly things like crushes and kisses. Everything could go back to normal.
But Penny said the feelings were good and natural. That this was absolutely, positively normal. It was new; he was supposed to like new. He just had to trust that it was good even if it didn’t feel like it now. And besides, he didn’t want to leave just yet. He had so much yet to explore and he had Penny and his other friends and, yes, Marsh.
“Yeah, that would be fun.” He gave her a smile though it was obvious he was still trying to sort things out internally. “I am going to his place next Sunday,” he added. “Eat and listen to music and stuff.” He was uncertain how that would go considering all that was currently happening.
Penny nodded. “Oh good! Sometimes humans can have expectations,” she began, tilting her head a bit. She tried to think of how to phrase what she was getting at. “I’m sure Marsh isn’t like most men, and he’s very sweet, but if you don’t feel comfortable there for any reason it’s okay to leave.” She doubted Nobu would even pick up on advances but then she had been in a few situations that had gone south fast.
She was going to give Marsh the benefit of the doubt, though, and assume he wasn’t the type to be hasty.
Nobu wasn’t exactly sure what she was getting at but he filed the advice away for safekeeping. “A tanuki never sticks around if there is trouble,” he replied with an index finger up, looking as if he was offering some kind of sage advice. “So no worries there.” He wasn’t the kind to feel pressured to stick around if he didn’t feel comfortable doing so. You didn’t survive long as an animal yokai in this world if you didn’t know when to high tail it out of a bad situation. Hesitation could result in your body stuffed and on display.
“Thanks, Penny-chan,” he said after a moment, lips lifting into a genuinely grateful smile. “For being around. I think I would have gone crazy from all this without you.”
Her hand rested gently upon one of Nobu’s arms, “You’re welcome, Nobu-San. It’s my pleasure to help, that’s what friends do.” He had been there for her during the split with Derek, so it was only fair to return the favor.
“Now, I have stuff in the fridge if you’re hungry and there’s a lot of new stuff on Netflix. You pick.” Or he was welcome to go, his choice.
Nobu closed the distance between them, wrapping his arms around her in a big hug. “It means a lot.” He pulled back moments later, perking up at the mention of food. Now that he seemed to have somewhat of a handle on his emotions he was feeling quite peckish. “Food and Netflix? Don’t mind if I do!”