Chapter Text
It was an idyllic landscape. Farmland stretched as far as the eye could see painted in different tones dependent upon the produce, interrupted only by hedges, roads, or the odd copse of trees. The main road snaked along a river and small buildings or produce stands are dotted alongside it until it reaches a small country town in the distance.
Here and there the landscape was punctuated with what appeared to be oddly uniformly shaped hills surrounded by fences, but on closer inspection, each hill has several tiers of doors and windows, the tops covered in chimneys with narrow wisps of woodsmoke rising from them.
One of the larger hill houses seems to have a gathering going on, a large grass field behind it simply covered in rabbits of all ages, running and playing under the sun. On closer inspection, most of the smaller ones appear to be chasing a fox, laughing and giggling as they finally wash over the red canine and take him to the ground with a cry of defeat.
"Nooo! Save me! I'm being eaten by killer bunnies!"
There is more laughter at that, including barking laughter from the fox. A light grey rabbit walks over to watch, her amethyst eyes shining in amusement.
"You're the one who said the clusterfluffle couldn't take you down, Nick!" the rabbit laughed teasingly, before wandering off to leave him to his own devices.
It took quite some time for the fox to drag himself out of the pile of rabbit kits, but he eventually managed it, claiming a bad back because he was just so old he limped up the hill some to sit on a bench in the shade of a massive oak, content, for now, to doze in the spring warmth and watch the others play.
He found himself tracking the grey bunny as she ran around with her siblings, laughing and spinning around the field. It was good to see her so joyful when the realities of their job had been bringing her down over the last few months.
Policing was hard work, but he did his best to keep her spirits up, nothing broke his heart more than a droopy-eared bunny but watching those ears spring up and hearing her laughter at his silly jokes made up for it. No matter how bad the day had been, how little he felt he deserved to be on the force, her smile made it better.
He knew that the only reason he'd agreed to come to visit her family with her was that the very thought of not having her around made his heart hurt. It's been enough to overcome his fear of her huge family and the prejudice he expected against his species.
Despite her assurances, there had been a few comments aimed at him from her older siblings, and her father remained visibly uncomfortable. None of that surprised him, what did was the bundle of righteous bunny fury that had been Judy as she took them to task for it.
He'd seen Carrots take down a raging hippo, but watching her rip her closet family to shreds to defend him had taken his breath away as much as it terrified him.
He'd decided two things at that moment.
Firstly, that the feeling he'd had growing towards her could not be called mere love. The term didn't do it justice, she was his world. His soulmate.
Secondly, that she would never know. He was already skeptical that she would return those feelings, but that scene made him realize that if she did it she would abandon her family if they didn't approve, which nobody would.
He would never hurt her like that.
So here he sat, a careful smile on his face as he watched the love of his life frolic with her family and preparing for a life of watching from afar.