We Bare Us
Prologue
CRASH
"Ow…" Panda half heartedly cried as a dull throb of pain coursed through his body. His senses were still half asleep from the much needed nap he had been hastily woken up from. A loud series of beeps had sent him careening out of dreamland with a start, causing him to clumsily fall out of bed and onto the ground where he still currently lay. He groggily tried to pull himself back up with the bed as his support while the noise that had caused this mess still echoed around his room. He moaned as he finally stood fully upright and proceeded to fumble around on his bedside table for his contacts. When he had finally located and inserted them, he quickly began scouring his room for the source of the beeping. He was at a loss for what it could be as he had never heard anything sound like that before. He stuck his head outside of his door and peered into the kitchen, wondering if the noise was coming from a smoke detector that had been set off by one of Grizz's numerous failed attempts at trying to become a better cook than Ice Bear, but, surprisingly, no one was around. Panda wondered if his brothers had gone outside so as to not bother him while he tried to nap. From time to time they were considerate like that.
Stepping out into the living room, he noticed that the noises sounded like they were getting farther away from behind him. Turning back to his room, he finally noticed what the source of his anguish was, his phone. He stared at it quizzingly and approached it. Panda had heard all sorts of different ringtones and alerts coming from his phone to inform him of new notifications from his various apps, but it had never done anything like this. He quickly started to panic as thoughts of it being broken flooded his head.
He tapped its home button and let the screen flood with light as a quiet gasp escaped his lips. Emblazoned across the device was the image of a large heart with a smaller white envelope nestled in the forefront. At the bottom of the screen, in large letters, was flashy message reading "1 NEW MATCH FOR YOU." Panda could hardly believe his eyes and wondered if just for a moment that he may actually still be dreaming. He had been signed up to this really popular dating app for months and had had absolutely no luck with it. Sure he had tried to initiate communication multiple times before, almost always ending with him being shut down for coming off as too "needy" as they put it, but he had never been the one approached before. He was nearly ecstatic with delight.
Sliding across the touch screen and putting in his password, the main menu of his phone popped open before him. He speedily scrolled through to the location of the app and clicked in. The app's menu intro played while he tapped his foot, giving a silent cheer when his account finally pulled up and he saw there was an actual notification for a match. He tapped the message icon with all the glee of a child opening gifts on Christmas. Little did he know that from his viewpoint, he was about to receive a stocking full of coal.
"What… what the hell is this?" Panda asked aloud, the aggravation in his tone fully evident. Staring back at him wasn't the face of a gorgeous, fun-loving dame, but that of a clean cut, seemingly college aged male. Panda's account clearly stated he had an interest in females only, so why was this guy trying to put something out there? He had heard stories from online forums about straight guys finding it hilarious to pretend to be gay and mess with other straight guys on the multitude of match-making sites that found their home on the internet, and Panda was fine with chalking this all up to that explanation, especially since he was irritated at having gotten his hopes up anyway. However, there was just something about this guy that made him hesitate to press the delete button. He didn't know if it was the rare feeling of possibly having been genuinely considered attractive by someone, girl or boy, that at least made him feel a little good inside, or if it was something else about the guy that had caused his finger to pause over the screen. In the end he at least decided to leave a quick reply stating that he just wasn't interested in guys like that, at least be nice about turning him down since no one else had ever been nice to him. It was just a quick couple of sentences anyway, he thought to himself. What could possibly go wrong?