The little white rabbit goes hop, hop, hop.

Hop. Hop. Hop.

Hop. Hop. "Ouch! Gosh darn it!"

A hole had evidently gotten in the way of all the carefree hopping, stopping our intrepid four-footed friend in her tracks.

Hop. Ow. Hop. Ow. Hop. Ow.

"This will never do," she huffed. "How am I ever getting back to my burrow in this condition?"

As she fretted about the situation and the approaching end of the day, she failed to notice the shadow flitting across the forest floor. Ever closer it came until it stopped only several feet from the injured little fluff of nothing.

"I have to get back soon. Mom's going to kill me if I don't get back before the sun sets. Oh, why did I have to step in that hole? Why did my little foot twist in the wrong direction? Why --"

"Hey!" A growly voice barked from behind. "You 'bout done with your 'woe is me' routine so's I can chow down now?"

The little rabbit's cute little pink rabbit nose twitched in equal parts fear and anger. Fear because she finally noticed the shadow not too far from her and anger because her pain was being belittled.

A fox, its furry coat glinting a healthy shade of red and its eyes hungry and devouring, stepped into the fading light. A string of saliva dripped from the corner of her mouth as she anticipated an early dinner.

"W-who are you? What do you want from me?" The little bunny shivered and backed away only to step in the same hole she'd injured herself on earlier. "Ouch!"

"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. There goes the other leg." The fox could hardly be understood with all the drool pooling in her mouth but the complete lack of sincerity was amazingly well communicated.

"P-please, you don't want to eat me."

"I don't? That's news to me."

"No, I'm nothing but fur and bones. Trust me, you'd get more meat knawing on a twig."

"Who are you kidding? I see that rump you're carrying around. I'm not blind y'know?"

"Rump?!" The lame but affronted bunny squawked in outrage. "Are you trying to tell me I'm fat?!"

The fox, easily three times larger than her prey and with much sharper teeth to boot, still found herself taken aback by the fiery look aimed her way.

"No, I mean … I just mean that you're not just fur and bones, that's all." At the still dubious stare, she tried elaborating. "Actually, I find it very appealing that my prey carry a little meat on their bones. And I never said your rump was fat. No way."

"Well, what would you call it?"

"What?"

"My rump. How would you describe it?"

"Oh … um … cute?"

The white rabbit beamed and the fox let out a sigh of relief that lasted all of two seconds before she remembered that this was her dinner she'd just given a compliment to. Oh, if the other foxes heard her now, she'd never live it down.

"Okay, enough of that," she said brusquely, stalking closer. "Time for me to eat."

"Wait! Wait!" The trembling bunny pleaded, placing both forepaws across her eyes as if not seeing the fox would necessarily make the big meanie disappear as well.

"No waiting. I'm hungry and you're dinner. So shut up and let me eat you." With that, the fox opened her jaws.

The frightened bunny whimpered pitiably as she felt the hot breath across her vulnerable, unprotected neck and the sharp teeth prickling against her skin. The only comfort she could take was that she'd lived a full life. Unfortunately, at this, her ultimate end, nothing flashed across her mind's eye except for the dinner from last night. Where were her precious golden memories that were supposed to play like a slideshow at this point? Why could she think of nothing but the infernal lettuce, which granted, as delicious as it was, wasn't something she thought would be the last thing she'd remember right before she died.

Frustrated, she nearly missed the soft exhalation above her soft, easily mauled body. She'd expected to be in that big fenceless vegetable garden in the sky by now and since she wasn't, curiosity finally forced her eyes open. The fox sat nearby, a dejected expression on her usually wily face as she stared at the ground in front of her.

Unsure of what to do and, in fact, unsure if she should do anything at all, our intrepid if unlucky bunny remained silent.

The fox sighed once again, the breath of air rushing out and blowing across the snow white fur of her would be prey.

"How am I supposed to eat you?" She asked plaintively, her large brown eyes almost soulful in their entreaty. "Look at you." The bunny did, looking herself over. "You're so fluffy and tiny and … goddamnit, I admit it. You're cute. Okay? You're freaking adorable."

"Um … thank you, I guess."

The fox seemed not to hear as she continued her monologue. "I'm not supposed to think you're cute. I'm a fox. You're a rabbit. I'm supposed to tear your throat out and eat you. That's how things work. That's what instincts are for. And I've done it plenty of times before y'know? It's not like I'm a virgin at this. So really. You should be nothing but a bit of fur and blood by now."

Being the big hearted little bunny she was, she felt sorry for the despondent fox. So she did something no animal in their right mind would even consider doing in her position and dragged her badly injured gimpy body over to her enemy, hoping to console her.

"I'm sorry for being so cute," she said, laying a delicate paw on the black foreleg closest to her.

"Yeah, well … s'not your fault," the fox muttered. "It's not like you can help the way you were born." She felt a powerful inclination to lick the compassionate paw and an equally strong temptation to bite it off. Torn between her baser instincts to kill and a strange feeling she wasn't all that familiar with, she got up as if to leave.

"Wait! Where are you going?"

"I'm getting out of here before someone sees me. I'll be the laughingstock of these whole hundred acre woods if they find out I couldn't eat you."

"You can't just leave me here," the quivering bunny nearly cried. "I'm too scrumptious and tempting a morsel of meat. I'd be a sitting bunny for any predator walking by to snatch up. I can't hop two paces like this. Please, you have to help me home."

As if things couldn't possibly get worse, the fox angrily thought. What does she think I am? I'm a predator too. I'm almost near the top of the food chain. Now she expects me to help her. Gag me. She's lucky she's still breathing.

Just when she opened her mouth to flat out refuse, one look at the imploring blue eyes staring up at her made her literally bite her own tongue.

"Ow!"

"Are you all right."

"Jussst pichy." She licked a drop of blood from the corner of her mouth and let out an aggrieved sigh. "Fine, if I take you home, will you swear you won't say a word about what happened here today?"

The very happy rabbit nodded her white fluffy head enthusiastically. "Yes, I swear. I won't say a word. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You're the nicest fox I've ever met."

"Hey! Don't spread that around."

The bunny grinned, showing off her front two teeth and the fox was hard pressed not to admit once again that she was simply adorable. Carefully so as not to pierce the skin, the fox carried the bunny in her jaws by the neck, only this time, she had no intention of biting down hard. It was a new experience for the both of them and both found it oddly comfortable.

The fox trotted through the dark forest as fast as she could with the burden in her mouth and soon arrived outside the little rabbit's home. Not wanting to meet mama rabbit, she carefully placed the little bunny on the ground a few feet from the burrow.

"Well, I guess this is it. I should go now," she said, feeling awkward all of a sudden.

The little bunny reached out with both of her still functioning paws and grasped the fox's snout in between the pink pads. Rubbing her quivering pink nose against the larger black one of her unlikely savior, they both sighed at the exact same time.

****

"Hey B. Wake up. We're gonna be late again cause of your lazy Slayer butt."

"Hmmm?" Buffy yawned, her jaw cracking wide as she attempted to wipe the sleep from her eyes. "Faith? Honey, I had the weirdest dream."

"Yeah? Tell me about it while you get dressed," the brunette said, dumping a pile of clothes on her still recumbent girlfriend.

"It was so weird." She got up slowly and padded over to the bathroom. "You were in it but not really. And I was in it … but not really."

"B, what are you talking about?"

"Well see … I was a cute little bunny and you were a big mean fox … "