Tamed Rabbit

The students were on a field trip to the zoo for Biology. It was lunch time, and Rukia was at the petting zoo, visiting her favorite animal—rabbits.

After finishing her lunch, she pulled out some carrots from her lunch bag, which she had supposedly borrowed from Yuzu.

When she watched the box-like screen called a "television," she deduced from the commercials that rabbits loved eating carrots. Rukia had almost never encountered a real rabbit back at Soul Society. Perhaps she did see one before in her childhood, forty or so years ago, but that was such a long time ago, she could barely remember.

Now was her chance to be near a substantial one! As she crept closer and closer to the lying form of a rabbit, she squatted down and handed it a carrot.

The rabbit just lied there, completely ignoring the piece of food resting in front of its face. Not only did it not move, it didn't acknowledge the girl's existence either.

Noticing this, Rukia picked up the carrot, wondering what she did wrong. Were those commercials incorrect, or was the rabbit just simply not hungry? While thinking this, she realized there were several voices not far away.

"Eh! Really Tatsuki-chan? The rabbits over here are all like that?" a high voice exclaimed in surprise.

Rukia recognized this voice as Orihime's, the energetic, friendly red-head. She decided to keep listening since they seemed to be talking about the rabbits in this zoo. Perhaps they could offer a solution to the feeding-rabbit problem she was experiencing.

"Yes, Orihime," replied Tatsuki, "it's because they were away from the wild so long that they changed like that. At first the wild rabbits were really fast and feral, but now, after years and years of reproducing and not being raised in the wild, they're slow and tame."

The long-haired girl nodded in fake comprehension.

"Didn't you get it when the teacher explained, Orihime?"

"Well, not really. I was busy doing this," she said, pointing to a drawing of a disfigured animal.

"You're not supposed to draw them in their environments yet, Orihime!" Tatsuki scolded.

Rukia stopped listening; they were now wandering away from the subject of rabbits. Still, what Tatsuki said about those rabbits kind of reminded herself of the current situation she was in. She had been away from Soul Society for so long that she might've started to feel those unnecessary human emotions and as a result, soften up. Softening up was definitely not a good sign.

Turning her attention to the rabbit, she shoved the carrot closer to it, hoping the bunny would at least sniff it. "You're not going to eat this after all, I guess," she sighed.

"Of course not, stupid," a familiar voice mused.

She looked up to see an annoyed red-haired teenager. "What're you doing here?" she asked, her tone cantankerous.

"That's my line! Why are you here!" Ichigo retorted.

"I just wanted to see the rabbits, okay!" the girl shouted back as she stood up to face him.

"Rabbits again? You can't be serious," he replied sardonically. It always seemed odd to him that this violent Death God who was always into duty could actually enjoy cute, little rabbits.

"Well, I am!" She vociferated, stomping his foot.

His face red with fury, he grasped his foot, and then turned to face his attacker.

The girl had squatted down again, this time, trying to hand the rabbit a piece of grass.

Again, the bunny made no reaction and ignored her, which made the girl sigh in defeat. Exactly why wasn't this rabbit eating anything she gave it?

Noticing this, he wondered if she actually saw a real rabbit before, but probably not since she was always absorbed into her Death God duties. That would explain why she was feeding it the wrong things. Squatting down, he said, "Rukia, rabbits don't actually love eating carrots, you know."

"But that's what the television said."

"The television's not always correct." He pulled out a container with watermelon from his lunchbox and started to eat a piece. "Rabbits like eating sweets more than that."

"And how do you know this?" she asked, as if challenging his knowledge of rabbits.

"Because…" he said quietly, his eyes carrying a dazed look as if he was in a reverie. He could still remember the time when he first tried feeding a rabbit.

"Mommy, the rabbit's not eating my carrot!" a small boy with bright hair complained as he jumped up and down energetically.

"Well, of course not honey. They like sweets more, just like you," his mother replied as she bent down to see the rabbit. Pulling out a watermelon piece from her lunchbox, she handed a piece to the animal. Upon seeing the fruit, the bunny immediately began to eat it.

"I see now, Mommy! Thank you!" The boy hugged his mother, who smiled in reply.

"Because what?" she asked, snapping him out of his memories.

"…because my mother told me when she brought me here."

"Oh." Her reply was soft and sympathetic, two emotions she rarely showed. She knew he loved his mother and recalling memories of her might've been painful for him. It would not be a good idea to arouse him for now.

After feeling a nudge on her shoulder, she turned around to see Ichigo holding the remains of a watermelon piece in his open hand. "What?"

"Here," he said impatiently, his face not facing her.

"Throw it away yourself."

Eyebrow furrowing, he yelled out annoyingly. "Feed this to the rabbit, moron!"

Tentatively she took the watermelon. "Does the rabbit actually eat this?" she asked, eying the watermelon piece quizzically. It was just leftovers, after all.

"Well, of course! If you don't want to feed it, then give the watermelon back to me!" He made an attempt to snatch the fruit back, but was stopped by her foot.

"It's mine now," she replied haughtily. Then she bent down and handed the watermelon to the rabbit.

Grumbling, Ichigo also squatted down, muttering something under his breath.

Eyes lighting up, the rabbit greedily seized the watermelon by the mouth and dragged it to a corner. Hungrily chewing, eyes radiant and large, it was truly an adorable sight.

Rukia gazed in amazement. It was cute when it practically snatched the watermelon from her hand, and watching it eat leftovers—eagerly, was amusing as well.

Accepting help from a friend wasn't something a Death God should do so freely. Friendship was a human emotion, not something a Death God should have. But for some reason, she liked it. Maybe being "tamed" wasn't as bad as she thought.

"We have to go now Rukia," said the red-haired teenager as he rose up.

"Okay."

The two walked away from the petting zoo, oblivious to the "no feeding" sign clearly shown at the entrance, and met with their other classmates, who exchanged glances as they saw the two together, again.

Author's Notes: All of my rabbits prefer eating watermelon over carrots. One of them does actually snatch the food from your hand. Hopefully the symbolism was easy to understand Rukia (tamed rabbit) has been in a gigai (not in the wild) ... I'll add more drabbles to this fanfiction instead of making a new one each time. Suggestions/criticism are greatly appreciated!