I'm leaving for college in 2 days! :D Here's a chapter for you all. Quick thanks too XxX-Icey-XxX, Sweethalo90, and Jinney for reviewing! :) Enjoy this chapter.

I don't own anything 'cept Maggie.

Chapter 2

We went looking for some berries. Buck said there was a certain kind that, when mashed up for the juice, could cure just about anything. He led me to a berry patch and set to work making me his strange concoction while I sat hiccupping. I wondered what he would be like around the pineapple. How would he treat me? Questions, questions, questions. None of which I wanted to answer myself.

Buck walked over to the female weasel with half of an empty coconut in one paw. She hiccupped, but by all appearances, was deep in thought. Maggie hadn't noticed that he was standing there, watching her. Grinning crazily, he had an idea of how to scare the hiccups out of her rather than give her the berry juice. It certainly would be a lot more fun. Plucking a squishy, rotten berry from a branch, Buck said in a playful tone of voice, "Hey Maaags. Heads up!" He launched the berry at her head and laughed hysterically when it splattered all over her face.

"What was that for?" Maggie yelled, hiccups gone - replaced by anger.

"Got rid of ya hiccups didn it?" He chuckled, pouring the contents of the coconut cup out onto the ground. Shouldering his knife, Buck turned his back on her. "A'right! Let's move." He fell forward out of shock when something hit the back of his head. Sitting up quickly, he held his knife in a ready stance and turned around. His blue eye narrowed at the sight of Maggie tossing a berry up and catching it.

"A berry for a berry." Maggie smirked, twisting Buck's mantra for the occasion.

Standing while reaching for a berry, Buck chuckled darkly. "Oh, ya shouldn't a done that partner." Soon the two weasels were in a full out berry war. Maggie was better at taking cover, but Buck's aim was superior. In a last ditch effort to win, Maggie snuck through the bushes to take him unawares from behind. Buck was clearly enjoying the game, for he had hunkered down behind a log and stockpiled all the rotten berries he could find. His usual insane quirks had come to the fore, being demonstrated by how he had also collected some rocks and drawn faces on them. He was giving them silent orders of when to attack. Maggie chuckled as she crouched low for her ambush. She lunged forward, tumbling Buck over but only far enough so that his paws couldn't reach his berries but hers could.

"Surrender!" Maggie laughed as she held a very juicy berry over Buck's face. The sight of him pinned beneath her and his green patch splattered with purple juice was rather comical.

Buck grinned insanely as he shouted back, "Nevah!" He flipped her over and began pelting her with berries.

Trying her best to cover herself and squirm out of Buck's grip, Maggie realized her plan had failed and her freedom compromised. "Okay! I surrender." She giggled.

Leaning down and presenter her his ear, Buck asked, "Wha? I can't hear ya? More berries you say?" He winked, or that's what Maggie assumed he did. "My pleasah!"

"No!" The she-weasel squealed. "I surrender!" She shouted as loud as her lungs - being crushed by Buck's weight - would allow.

"Yes!" Buck shouted as he leapt off of her. "Victory goes to Buckminster!"

Sitting up with a chuckle, Maggie peeled off a flat berry from her head. "Just you wait. I'll get even."

He offered a paw to help her up. Maggie noted that it was his left paw expecting her right. He always did that. He always took held of her bandaged paw or arm whenever helping her up. Pushing that thought to the back of her mind, she took his paw and allowed him to help her up. Buck glanced her over. "Well you're a sorry sight."

"You should see yourself." Maggie quipped back. "I don't think I want to go meet your - mate - covered in berries."

"Why? I've gone 'ome covered in dino saliva. She won't care what ya look like." Buck shrugged.

Maggie answered with a wry smile. "I want to make a good first impression Buck. Now where can I clean up?"

He rolled his eye and motioned for her to follow. "The'ah's a rivah not to far from he'ah. I'll show ya where it is."

Maggie sighed with relief at being clean. After some insistence, she had sent Buck further down the river to a bend where he would not see her. A couple of months ago she wouldn't have cared whether Buck was washing his fur a couple of inches from her. Of course then she didn't have her arm bandaged up to her elbow. Sitting on a rock while she waited for her fur to dry, she stared down at her paw and arm that had scabbed over during her first adventure with Buck. It didn't hurt as much - only when a lot of pressure was put on it. Maggie frowned sadly. There would be scarring once it had healed completely and she wasn't sure if the fur would ever grow back.

Ears twitching back at the sound of someone - or thing - approaching, Maggie snatched the slender leaf she had grabbed and began binding her arm up again. Just as she was tying off the knot at her elbow, she heard Buck calling her name. "I'm done." She answered back as she stood from the rock she sat on to give herself one final shake to dislodge any more wetness.

He popped his head out from underneath a leaf and smiled. Maggie was surprised to see that he was clean, dry, and had replaced his patch. "I was wonderin what was taken ya so long." Buck commented. "Come on, Mags! Time ta get a move on."

"How much farther?" Maggie asked as she jogged to catch up with him.

"Not much really. This river is where I get water for me and my mate." Buck answered. "Just up ahead." She strained to see something, not sure what. When the male weasel sped up his pace, Maggie clued in that they were getting closer. He rushed up a log that had fallen on an incline and pushed aside some big leaves. He shouted at something to get off his lawn and Maggie gasped as she watched a large - bug - fly away. She heard him call for her to hurry up and she hastened to comply. Maggie brushed the leaves back and gasped in awe at the sight before her. A large tree stood in a clearing, twisting up towards the sun that filtered through the ice roof of the Dino World. Buck was already climbing up the trunk to where the branches poked out of the trunk like four pillars. The leaves hung down from branches and twigs, acting like walls and ceiling. As Maggie followed the male up the trunk, her ears caught the sounds of him speaking to - she assumed - his pineapple.

"Honey! I'm 'ome! Didja miss me?" Buck sounded excited. "Sweet'eart I brought a friend along that I'd like ya to meet." Maggie poked her head over the 'threshold' of the large 'one room' home. She spotted Buck talking to a pineapple that sat perched on a stone like a shrine. Turning to look at her, Buck grinned and motioned for her to come. She climbed the rest of the way up and walked along the surprisingly smooth floor. "This is Mags! Mags, this is my pineapple wife."

Maggie smiled, playing along with Buck's insanity. "How do you do? My name's actually Margaret, but I go by Maggie. Or Mags."

Buck's grin widened. "So! While I go to get us some fish, why don't you two have a talk? Get ta know each othah and start fixin up a fire or somethin. I'll be right back!" Before Maggie could protest, he was gone.

Turning back to look at the pineapple, she sighed. Might as well talk to it - her. Not like there was anyone else around that would tease her for it. "Well, you probably want to know how Buck happened to meet me." Silence answered her question. Maggie shrugged. "I don't mind telling you while we work." She looked around curiously. How did one start a fire in a tree without setting the tree on fire? "I know I'm the guest," She said, "but I never did like sitting around doing nothing. Now how do you start a fire in here?" Maggie's eyes fell on a hollowed out area in the middle of the room and walked towards it. Buck had used something to coat the hole and apparently that was his fire pit. "I guess Buck came up with that. He is pretty smart - for being a little odd."

Turning to look back at the pineapple, Maggie hastily added, "Not that I think he's crazy. Buck's just Buck." Smiling in satisfaction that she had not offended her hostess, Maggie walked over to a branch and began breaking off the dead pieces that would be best for kindling. "Now, as to how I met your mate, that's a funny story." So while she busied herself by starting a fire and rooting around for some fruits that Buck had stored away, Maggie told the story of how she had met Buck and how he had helped her return Kid to his family. "And then he asked me to be his partner and brought me back here to meet you." She ended the story as she settled back against a pillar branch next to the pineapple. "Partner, friend. Whatever." Silence descended over the two. Trying to break the silence, Maggie stated, "Buck did a good job with that fire pit. Wonder what he used to seal it from burning the wood of the tree."

"I dunno what it's called but since it worked so well I never bothered findin out." Buck's voice declared as he climbed into the tree. "Have a nice chat?"

Maggie smiled. "Oh yes. Your pineapple is a great listener."

He chuckled as he stuck the fish through with a stick and settled them in the fire. "She's a wonder like that." Buck settled down on the opposite side of the pineapple and watched the fish with his good eye. "You retellin our latest adventure?"

"Yup." The she-weasel replied, handing him a mango slice. "What did you do with you knife? I couldn't find it."

"Not that I'd let you use it to cut fruit." Buck stated, "But I hung it up whe'ah it wouldn't get in the way." He got up to check on the fish then brought them over to her. "Hope ya don't mind your fish cooked. I forgot to ask."

Maggie accepted the stick and blew on the hot skin. "I can eat it cooked or raw. Doesn't matter much." Glancing up at the pineapple she asked, "Aren't you going to eat anything?"

Buck shrugged. "She's nevah hungry. I think she eats while I'm out." Maggie nodded as she bit tentatively into her fish.

They ate in silence but Maggie couldn't stand silence. "Where's a safe place that I can sleep?"

"What do ya mean?" He peered around the rock at her, his eyebrow quirking up.

"I mean where do you suggest I set up home? I don't want to be a burden to you. This is your home." Maggie explained.

"I thought it was understood that ya would stay he'ah." Buck frowned, not understanding why she wanted to live someplace else.

She motioned to the pineapple. "You haven't even talked that plan over with her!"

He looked over at his pineapple mate and cocked his head to the side. A grin broke out over his face before Buck returned his gaze to the she-weasel. "She's a'right with ya stayin he'ah. 'Sides, she could use the company. Another female an' all."

Maggie sighed in relief. "Well, where do I sleep?"

"Anywhe'ah ya like." Buck shrugged as he settled back against the tree's branch. "I sleep down he'ah most of the time. But the'ah are some sturdy branches higher up that could support a hammock if ya wanted ta make one. Just be sure ya don't fall out in the middle of the night."

"I think you'll need to show me how to make one." Maggie smiled as she gazed up at the towering branches. It would be nice to sleep so high up. After all, she wasn't scared of heights.

Buck chuckled. "I thought ya were scared of heights."

"Only falling from them. And after falling from a pterodactyl's back, I don't think I'm scared of that anymore." Maggie smiled at him.

Tossing the inedible parts of his fish into the fire, Buck jerked his head for Maggie to follow. "Come on then! Let's find the perfect vines, leaves, and branches for this nest in the air for ya!"

Maggie settle down in the hammock Buck had helped her make and sighed. It was perfect. Buck had even made sure that she chose a spot that had a branch beneath her to catch her should she fall. She pushed the leaves aside that acted as curtains and gazed out over the Dino Plaza in the darkness of the night. That was why she had chosen this particular spot, so she could look out over paradise. Settling down on her side, Maggie looked her fill of the dinosaur paradise before letting her eyes slide shut.

Below her, Buck had spread out leaves for his own bed beside the dying fire. He double - triple checked to be sure that the fire was indeed out before going over to the rock where his pineapple sat waiting. Buck lifted the fruit from its perch and returned to the bed. Settling down on it with the pineapple in his arms, he pulled another large leaf over him. "So, what do ya think of her?" Buck yawned as he snuggled the pineapple to his side. He smiled, having heard a reply in his mind. "She is a sweet lass. Not as sweet as you." He assured, lest his mate get jealous. But she wasn't that sort. Buck smiled to himself. "I hope ya get along." His eye closed as he sighed. "G'night mate." Buck waited a long while until the pineapple was asleep. He didn't want his mate to take this the wrong way. Even if she weren't the jealous sort of fruit. "G'night Mags." he whispered before rolling over with his arm draped over the ugly fruit.

This is one of my favorite chapters. :) Hope you enjoy it! Please review.