Author's Notes:
This fiction is dedicated to Sophie Ripley.
First of all, let me say thank you to Sophie Ripley for allowing me to use her character of Samantha Hopps to explore a full-length story. I consulted her on each chapter this story and made sure it didn't stray too far from her vision of the character.
Secondly, a content warning. This will quickly be delving into material some might find uncomfortable or triggering. I feel I'd be remiss if I didn't warn any readers who might find such content objectionable.
It was a warm, quiet evening in Bunnyburrow. A bit humid perhaps, and the breeze wasn't quite there, but it was pleasant enough, especially for an early summer evening. Samantha Hopps gathered her things and walked out to the parking lot. She smiled faintly as she left the campus of the Peaceful Sprouts Elementary School. All of her meetings and planning were done with and now she too could enjoy the summer break along with the kits. She hummed a little laugh to herself; definitely one of the perquisites of being a teacher.
Samantha was one of the eldest of the many, many Hopps children. Though she was still fairly young for a teacher, the amber-eyed doe tried not to betray her love for her job too much to her little students, lest they catch onto her youthful spirit and disrupt her classes with their own silly antics. Samantha had grown rather tall for a doe and her stature served her well in keeping the little ones in line. Her height served her much better than her cream-colored fur with white masking, which could hardly be called "intimidating". Samantha's school district had a disproportionately high number of prey in it, even for Bunnyburrow, and Samantha knew she'd have to work hard to keep her own little "fluffle" under her paw, as prey tended to grow fairly quickly at this stage of life.
Nine-year-old kits were often such handfuls. Samantha remembered the stories of how her younger sister Judy had been at that age. Unlike most does however, the rambunctious gray-and-white bunny never quite grew out of that stage, and was now perhaps within only a couple of years reach of her own goal to become a police officer. Samantha shook her head at the notion. There certainly were a few odd ducks in the Hopps family.
Not that Samantha was one to talk.
Samantha smiled and picked up her pace as she saw a familiar sleek, blue mid-size car. Shuffling over to the passenger side, she got in, and smiled at the driver, a similarly sleek red fox vixen. Samantha gingerly set her things on the floor of the car and shut the door, patting off her mid-length skirt before getting her seat belt on.
"Hey," Samantha said quietly, her voice warm.
"Kept me waiting, Sam," the vixen said with a playful air, teasing evident in her light-brown eyes.
"Sorry, Meredith," Samantha shrunk back just a bit with a bashful smile. "Just had to get everything settled before I'm out for the summer." The car backed out of its space in the parking lot, and began to drive off. Meredith turned her radio down.
"I wish I got summer off," Meredith chuckled.
"How is work going, anyway?" Samantha wondered.
"Fair enough," nodded Meredith, hitting the speed limit of the road in no time at all. The bunny hummed to herself as she breathed in the scent of the vixen. With the car closed up, it was impossible to ignore. A powerful, almost violet-like scent. It was heady and tended to repulse some mammals, but not Samantha. In fact, she liked it when Meredith didn't wear her scent blocker. The effect from her scent was almost too much for the bunny at some times, and it was quickly getting to be one of those times. Relenting, Samantha turned down her window and her ears waved in the breeze as some of the scent escaped. "There's really no shortage of work for an electrician to do in Bunnyburrow."
"Right, I know..." Samantha nodded in agreement. "There's so much to do, so many places that need so much wiring. Not to mention all the problems that can crop up if something's out of place."
"Yeah, it's actually kind of stressful," Meredith agreed. "That reminds me though, the company wants me to move to Zootopia."
"Oh yeah?" Samantha considered this. "The big city, huh? I guess that'd give you more varied kinds of work than just bunny compounds over and over."
"I like bunnies, though," Meredith offered a charming smile with her edged teeth, briefly meeting Samantha's eyes. Samantha returned a meek, happy smile at this, rubbing her arm with her paw.
"When do you have to go?" Samantha asked, her voice slightly trailing.
"Tomorrow," came the terse reply.
"Tuh-Tomorrow?" Samantha's eyes went wide. "So soon? But... I mean, I just got off for summer, and- uh..."
"Yeah, it's a fairly sudden thing," Meredith shook her head, "but it's what I gotta do." She grinned again. "You're welcome to come with me, Sam."
"Come with you?" Samantha repeated, shaking her head as the statement blindsided her. "That's uh- it's so sudden!"
"C'mon, you know we've got this thing going," Meredith took a hand off the steering wheel and rotated it at the wrist. "Give it some thought maybe? I mean, you don't have to head off right away with me, but I'd prefer it if you did."
"I mean, uh," Samantha looked at the floor of the car, "I... I dunno if I could just up and get a teaching position in Zootopia so easily. But I do have the summer off! So maybe I could at least follow you there then, see how it is? Worst case scenario, I'd have to come back when school got back in."
Meredith shrugged in that non-committal way Samantha liked. The fox was always such a free spirit. The bunny liked that about her. She never seemed tied down or like the details of anything bothered her; whereas Samantha just wanted structure in her life.
"Sounds good to me, we'll just see what we see, huh?" Meredith chirped.
Samantha grew a bright, toothy smile. "This is kind of exciting. I mean, Zootopia... wow. The gleaming city. I've never been there. I wonder what it's like? I should- I should probably take maybe a day or two to pack or something..."
"Whatever you need," Meredith laughed.
"I doubt most of the family will be on board. But... going with you somewhere like that..." Samantha looked off into the distance as the sun went down. "It'll be so exciting. As a couple..."
"A bunny and a fox," the fox noted.
"I've thought about that before," Samantha sighed. "Pred and prey... it almost feels... deviant, you know? But it's so thrilling..."
"It's only deviant because normal mammals are scared of the kind of relationship that a pred and prey can have," Meredith sighed. "There's nothing like the attraction between a pred and prey. Nothing."
"You think so...?" Samantha smiled, unsure of this conviction.
"I know so," Samantha nodded insistently. "Prey-prey, pred-pred... it's never going to be as intense."
"Mm..." Samantha's giggle was short and nervous. Her nose twitched a bit; she could smell a whiff of the vixen even with the windows down, and it excited her as well. She knew Meredith could pick up on that, and she squirmed in her seat. "I guess you've got a point..."
"Hey, we should do something before I leave tomorrow," Meredith said, scooting up in the driver's seat so she wasn't slouching.
"Oh yeah?" Samantha's head tilted a few degrees.
Meredith nodded with a mischievous glint in her eyes making a right-hand turn. "Yeah. I know you'll like it."
Samantha tried not to burst into a guilty, excited smile at this, but failed, laughing.
Meredith tossed the bunny a bright smile again.