The Livestock Tower Basement - A few minutes later
"So... You think she's dead?"
That was the first thing Loba the Wox asked as the trio of foxes stood over the unresponsive rabbit sprawled out on the floor.
"No, No, No!" Lùn couldn't believe she was this worried as she scooped up the lop and cradled her in her arms. "Wake up damn it!" This crazy bitch of a doe couldn't go out this pathetically, the mini vixen stressed, nearly falling to pieces. Seriously, she couldn't. Not when she was going to give her a chance! "Come on, get up!" She pleaded, continually slapping the fuzzy rabbit hard on the cheek. Still nothing.
"...Think we should eat her?"
"Loba?!" Both smaller vixens shouted, glaring incredulously at the big cream and pepper-furred canid.
"Are you serious?!" Fa asked in a hushed voice, feeling more sympathetic to her little sister's distress.
"What? I'm just saying." The brutish wox stated, salivating and licking her lips like a famished beast. "I'd share her with you guys." She honestly offered, moving in closer, unconsciously growling from hunger.
"Whoa whoa. That's not the point!" Fa quickly put herself between the hungry canine and the two smaller animals. "Back up." She ordered, throwing her authority around. She was the highest-ranked Inarigumi in the room as Priscilla's assistant.
"C'mon girls." The wox tried to beg. They rarely got to eat meat with their gang's diet of mostly tofu, and they knew that it took a toll on her the most. As a wolf hybrid, she needed more protein than the average Inari-sister. And here was a scrap of tender juicy meat laying before them. She couldn't help herself. "It'd be such a waste of a good rabbit is all." She said, her stomach rumbling with hunger pangs. "She definitely isn't scrawny looking, plenty of plump meat on her… Rex, she looks so… appetizing."
"No!" Fa vetoed, jumping up and clamping the taller wox's jaws shut and shoving her back.
"Faaa?" The wox managed to slip through her teeth, confused.
"Back. Up." The bat-eared fox ordered more methodically.
"We're not eating her, damn it!" Lùn barked, adding to her sister's refusal, furiously kicking at the wox.
The wolf hybrid jerked her head and muzzle free of Fa's grip. "Let's be practical here. Fa, Loony. If she's dead... "
"I'm practically about to punch you in the shin! She ain't dead! Lay off!" Lùn, ever the fiery little powderkeg spouted, shaking her fist at her teacher.
Just then they heard a set of rough coughs from the fox's arms. Immediately the Fennec placed her head on the rabbit's breast. Her strong hearing picked up a soft faint beating within the herbivore.
"She's alive, dammit!" The pint-size declared with some exhilaration. "I knew it!"
"Could just be dying…" Loba, quipped, letting her stomach talk for her. "We should put her out of her misery. It's the right thing to do."
"SHUT UP! YOU AREN'T EATING HER!" The Fennec mix screamed at her.
"Have some damn respect, Loba!" Fa chastised. "Besides... she had to have been on this filthy floor for who knows how long."
"As if! I don't just eat stuff off the floor, Fa, gross. I got standards. "The wox remarked half-seriously. "We'd wash her off first obviously."
Fa was just about make a very exasperated remark when a raspy and weak voice responded to the hungry wolf-fox.
"Oh, I got something you can eat right here..."
Kyuu weakly held up a middle finger for the big canid and made both Lùn and Fa gasp in surprise. Loba only showed mild annoyance.
"If you insist," The wox growled, taking the rabbit up on her offer, opening her saliva-filled jaws.
"Loba..." Fa said behind her.
"What?" The wox asked, looking over her shoulder at the bat-ear.
"GO STAND IN THE CORNER!" The bat-eared fox unleashed such a verbal hellfire that it made the larger canid flinch.
"Eh, forget I said anything. Jeez, Fa." The brooding wolf-fox grumbled, shrugging off the bat-eared fox and resigning herself to the entrance of the cell. "We better go to that meatery by the Boss's club after this…" She pouted.
Lùn hugged the herbivore tightly, much to Kyuu's surprise. "So glad you're alive," she confessed, eyes watering.
Kyuu felt strange resting in her embrace, were they really closer now?
"You care? What happened to being all hush-hush, huh?" The drowsy bruised rabbit asked, before shutting her weary eyes once more. "Ugh… probably a dream..." Her voice trailed off as she faded out of consciousness.
"Of course I do!" Lùn arrogantly declared, nervously smiling. "No one bumps you off except me! You hear?! Not even yourself."
"Stupid fox… you'rethe one that beat me up..." The exhausted rabbit let out a long exhale in her ear, before going limp once more. Lùn quickly shook her some more and tried to rouse her back to consciousness.
"Not like you didn't ask for it," Lùn responded before realizing the rabbit had fainted again, she quickly shook her some more and tried to rouse her back to consciousness. "God damn it... Stay awake!" She shouted, slapping the rabbit, much to her dismay.
"I'm not dying you moron… just fucking tired. " The rabbit lethargically grumbled, annoyed.
The fox couldn't help but begrudgingly grin at the rabbit's flippancy.
"Certainly has moxie that one," Loba said under her breath, giving the rabbit a side-eyed glance. "Probably tastes spicy."
A good while later
As Kyuu came to, she heard… purring.
A pleasant smell, like perfume and a loud rhythmic purring. Hot breath blasting against the short fur on her face. She awoke to the sight of sharp green piercing eyes and a rustic furred muzzle bearing sharp teeth. Alarmed, she gasped and her heart nearly jumped out of her body as she recoiled in terror. Her soul almost left her body when her frantic gaze found two other sets of large bright eyes shining in the dark, staring right at her!
Carnivores! They'd come for her!
Her small heart pounded like a drum and almost instinctively, the rabbit reached for her knives but found her fleshy sheathes empty. Her breathing became shallow as panic set in. She was unarmed. She was helpless again, the overseers were coming to take her away.
"Looking for these?" A familiar shrill voice asked. She turned back to see the owner of the green eyes and snout was holding both of her missing tanto daggers in her hands.
She soon relaxed as it became clear, she recognized the diminutive carnivore; Lùn the Red Fox.
The other carnivores were the other Inarigumi, the big muscular cream-colored one and the medium-sized dark red vixen with black facial marks and large ears.
The fox looked worse now that she had a good look at her. Bandages, patches, marks, bruises, and dried blood covering the fox's face. Their fight had taken its toll, though despite that Lùn looked much better off than her, in fact, she still looked ready for Round 3.
"Give those back!" The rabbit demanded, lunging up at the fox, but finding she was too fatigued to move much further than a few inches. She just laid back, head sweaty and body exhausted as the fox just giggled at her.
"Daw...is the Psycho all tuckered out" The pygmy fox mocked as she reached in to rub a wet towel on the lop's forehead. Kyuu scooched back even further, a scowl on her dark face as the mini vixen invaded her space.
"What's the matter?" The fox asked. "Didn't have time to put on your tough bitch face yet or something?!"
"...Fuck you," Kyuu growled, furiously slapping the towel away and narrowing her eyes at the carnivore.
The fox's temper didn't flare. "Careful, that was the only clean towel we could find in this dump." The short fox joked, grinning at her with a warm smile. She picked it back up and began wiping her face down. Kyuu just stared at her confused.
"There." The fox said, finishing up. "Still look like you have mud on your face, but we can't fix that huh toots?" She joked.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" She asked, creeped out by her sudden friendliness. Like weren't they still hostile? "Why are you helping me?"
"What do you mean?" Lùn asked.
"You're way too soft right now. Like, am I still dreaming, or did I really brain you good or something during our fight?" The bruised and battered rabbit asked, much to the Fennec's chagrin. "Then again I always thought of you as a weirdo fox. Fighting me with your fists instead of your claws and teeth."
"You're the fucking weirdo!" Lùn growled, barely holding back the urge to snap at the lagomorph for being so rude. "Look, just shut up for a bit. I want to talk alright? You and me."
"Oh?" Kyuu asked, raising a brow. "Talk? You come to rub it in?" She asked, pointing. "How you're better than me? How I'll never truly be as strong as you? Huh, carnivore?"
Lùn had to physically restrain herself even further from hopping into the bed and slugging the rabbit good but controlled herself. "Just fucking shut your carrot hole before I shove my fist down it!"
"You sure did pick a charmer, Loony," Fa remarked, coming fully into the light and giving the rabbit an unimpressed look.
"Least she isn't a softie," Loba, the larger female, commented. "I could probably work with her."
"Oh, now you want to train her? What happened to filling your gut?" Fa asked, one of her ears dropping off to the side as she gave the wox a look of skepticism.
"I mean, that might still be on the table if she pisses me off. " The wox nonchalantly threatened, baring her teeth and claws at the rabbit.
"The hell are you two talking about over there?!" The rabbit demanded.
"We're talking about you coming to work out with our little sister." The bat-eared fox replied.
"What?" The rabbit asked, looking lost.
"Dontcha remember? Our boss said you are going to get dropped off with us whenever your fluffy pal and her hook up. Boss lady wants you and Lùn to spar and work out. So get used to seeing our faces Long-ears."
Right… Of course, Kyuu had completely blocked out mentions of the arrangement when she had stormed off earlier. San really had come through for her, she thought. It soon felt like all of the gravity in the world weighed down on her as it sunk in that she had been really shitty to him. He was looking out for her. That "Ice princess" of his was right, she was a terrible friend.
"And I'm going to be in charge of both of you shrimps." The wox declared, walking out into the middle of the cell, dwarfing Kyuu even as the rabbit sat on her mattress. She certainly was an interesting specimen, much more muscle on her than any fox that Kyuu had ever seen. The canid cocked their head of her as the rabbit's mind seemed elsewhere. "Are you even paying attention?!"
" You're going to train me?!" Kyuu asked, coming back to the here and now.
"What's the matter, afraid to train with a carnivore?" Loba teased; her impressive muscles on display under her tight and dark qipao dress.
"No...you wouldn't be the first carnie I trained under. Just, surprised is all."
"Good to hear. I'll take it that I won't have to hold back then cuz I wasn't babysitting you anyhow, Snack. "
Kyuu glowered at the latest addition in an incessant stream of nicknames, though from the looks of things the big hungry wolf-fox wasn't so much being figurative as she was being literal.
"I ain't scared of you." The rabbit proclaimed, sitting up straight before the light-furred fox anomaly, no fear. "I've taken down creeps way bigger than you!"
"Oh, I know. And that's one thing you and I have in common, Snack. Just means I can kick off more unnecessary training wheels. I'm the one that taught Loony all she knows by the way. So that ass-whupping you got from her; my teachings." Loba proudly bragged.
"Oh really?" The bruised rabbit replied, blowing one of her ears off of her shoulder, trying not to seem impressed.
As Loba continued introducing herself and selling her abilities to the rabbit, Lùn found herself studying the rabbit's personal room.
The compact cell as a whole was nothing too different from the other cells in the musty basement a slight step down from the infirmary. Drab paint job eroding after lack of care, cracked up plaster chipping away, the rusty iron smell of the bars, the same musty recycled air quality. There wasn't much to look at, but what was there still fascinated the fox. It told her a lot about the rabbit.
Aside from the meager cot the rabbit slept on, she had an old punching bag, a bunch of chipped and cheap-looking weights probably lifted from somewhere and most interestingly she had a target dummy cobbled together using some sandbags. She definitely had a dedication to survival, Lùn thought. She wanted to stay strong and deadly despite her species shortcomings. A sentiment she could respect.
"Um, can you and Loba step out for a while?" The pygmy fox suddenly asked, interrupting the wox's boasting. "Give me and her a few minutes?"
Fa gave her sister a warm smile and nodded. "Sure, but please don't propose to her or anything just yet, Loony, you should at least set up a date first." The dark-streaked fox teased.
"Propose?" Kyuu asked, a mystified expression on her dark face before she turned to the embarrassed pygmy fox. "Rex, you knock me out, and all of a sudden you think we're married?! What kinda knuckle-dragging carnie cave beast shit is that?!"
"We're not gettin- I' FUCK! That's too far, Fa!" she said, running her hand over her face in a fit of panic and rage as her Bat-ear dragged the wox from the room giggling like a gossiping school girl. "Fucking God damn it," Lùn shouted.
"What happened to not breathing a word, huh?" Kyuu asked the pygmy, giving her a side-eyed glance with a smug sneer.
"Look you," She said, pointing at the lop. "Just turn off the bitch for like a good minute or two?" She asked.
The rabbit just stared silently at her before giving her a subtle gesture of compliance.
"I think...we should talk. Talk about us ." Lùn said after some hesitation.
Like coffee, the rabbit's brain percolated as she fathomed where they were going with this. Was the fox was still interested? Maybe this was their chance to finish what they started.
Calming down, the dark-faced rabbit played it cool, exhaling, closed her eyes, and made room on the lumpy mattress for the fox, inviting her with a few soft pats. "You can sit if you want. Though if it's too dirty for a fancy butt like yours, tough luck."
Lùn paused, recognizing that the rabbit's guard was lowered, and felt a nagging feeling in her subconscious, vectors with which she could use jump in the bed and murder the rabbit with a quick bite to the neck or lash into her body with her claws. It was her instincts, but the urge was fleeting and she promptly buried it.
Kyuu eventually opened her eyes and saw the fox still standing in front of her, seemingly gawking at the cell. Probably taking in the squalor. The ugly hole that Kyuu and San remembered from their dark time as kids and the same squalor they lived in now for the past few years. Of course, it wasn't good enough for her, she thought. What the hell was there to be proud of? The hell am I even doing? Why the fuck does she even want a poor rabbit like me?
Suddenly and to her surprise, she heard the bed creak and felt the fox climb up and plop down beside her in the bed. The pygmy wiggled around trying to get comfortable on the lumpy mattress but didn't complain, in fact, she even had decent remarks. "Not bad. I mean it feels and smells like something you got from the dump, but I've been on worse."
Kyuu was caught off guard by the compliment if you could call it that. The remark really made her mad. The hell was she talking about? She's pulling my leg, talking about sleeping on worse. She didn't grow up in a hell hole like this.
Lùn then tilted her head in Kyuu's direction, a smug grin started sliding across her muzzle. "What's the matter?" she asked, looking down. Kyuu begrudgingly did the same and got a great shock. There was now a sizeable gap between them. She had moved.
The rabbit freaked out as soon as she noticed. Kyuu, without even realizing it, had scooted over an extra inch from the vixen when she sat down. Lùn had a wide grin on her face as she leaned in towards the bunny.
"Are you scared of little ol' me?" She teased, chuckling much to the lop's flustered expression.
"No!" Kyuu quickly claimed, silently fuming as she mumbled any foul curse that came to mind as she forced herself to sit closer to the small carnivore. There was one thing she hated and it was looking weak, and looking weak in front of a carnivore no less. Lùn had practically just punked her out and it was her body's own damn fault.
Her damn rabbit instincts were firing within her skull like fireworks, screaming at her to get away from the pint-size predator. It wasn't on purpose, she kept repeating to herself. Body stop screwing this up! She shoved them away just like she normally did stepping into the arena.
"I guess I'll go first, okay?" The fox announced impatiently, taking initiative. She suddenly placed her surprisingly large hand with large digits on the rabbit's shoulder and looked her in the eye, Kyuu felt a tightness in her chest as she nearly fidgeted staring at the sharp cones the fox called fangs hovering so close to her face. Rex, this was a completely different animal from the fast-paced fighting the two did. She had more time to take in her features.
Lùn's body was so small for a carnivore yet so much more imposing than hers, reminding her of her former master and Chuan but on a much smaller scale. The fox got closer, and Kyuu could hear that purring coming from her larynx, like that of a cat. In fact, the fox seemed more like a feline than a canine.
"As I said, I want to talk about… us," Lùn said.
"Us?" The rabbit asked, her tone was shaky and annoyed, though definitely more so at herself than the fox.
"Yeah, us," Lùn replied. "You want there to be an us, don't you?" She asked, her tone sounded strained as if she was just as nervous. "At least that's what I figure, giving the crazy shit you pulled in the past weeks. Given our history." She took a deep breath and asked: "Do...do you like me?"
The fox had finally mustered to ask, she heaved a big sigh of relief as if she had just passed some milestone. Her eyes darted towards the floor as she awaited the rabbit's response.
"Well I...," The bruised rabbit started off before exhaling a sharp sigh herself and found herself staring at the floor just as aimlessly as the vixen. She scratched behind one of her ears and just pondered what to do next.
This was so awkward, she had gotten here and she still didn't really know what she wanted to say. Should she just say "yes" or should she say something romantic? Did she know anything romantic? That sounded so lame. She never really thought of lovey-dovey stuff, not even when she lived with her master at the hospital lest she come off as creepy. In fact, it felt like ages since she'd been interested in anyone. Of course, you can't just say yes. She thought. What kinda moron just says yes?
She could hear herself now, that nagging copy of her just laughing her ass off, probably watching now in the back of her mind, entertained as she flubbed this challenge. She had no idea how to talk to another female in this fashion, hell she didn't even know she liked girls until… well, she barely knew how to talk to people in general. Maybe, Matty, the sheep would know, but she wasn't here. San wasn't here. Got to do this on my own, she fumed.
While the rabbit sat there stewing like a bump on a log, Lùn couldn't help but feel amused by the so-called tough rabbit's hard exterior vanishing at the thought of answering such a seemingly simple question.
"Oh don't tell me this was all I needed to distract you." The fox slyly snickered, her bushy tail wagging fast behind Kyuu, beating against her back. The rabbit found the breeze it blew slightly annoying, but the fluff felt nice against her own fur and clothes.
"I guess I should have done this sooner before I caught real feelings for you," Lùn said blushing.
Feelings? Kyuu thought as her heart started to beat faster. So she does have feelings for me! Someone had feelings for her of all beasts.
The rabbit opened her bruised mouth and tried to speak, but words were hard to form. She licked the inside of her dry mouth, took a big gulp, and just told her. "Yeah… I like you, I guess." She finally answered.
"You guess?!" The fox responded, sounding a bit offended, sending a bit of panic in Kyuu. "Can you be a little bit more clear than a guess?" The fox demanded brows arching. "This should be a big thing for the both of us."
Kyuu responded defensively to the fox's raised voice, totally unsure how to proceed. "What else am I supposed to say?" Kyuu asked, "I like you alright. I think you're hot and... Isn't that enough? I mean I like fighting with you too."
The fox gave her a side-eyed glance and pondered the ignorant herbivore. "Haven't you ever asked a girl out before?"
"...No." The rabbit admitted, feeling a bit vulnerable.
"Oh my God, no wonder you suck at this!" The fox exclaimed, falling over on the bed as she burst into a hysterical cackle, her tail whipping around on the bed wildly. "Of course!"
Kyuu's expression turned sour as she glared at the vixen rolling in her bed, confused and pissed. "What is so damn funny?!" She probed.
"You're a novice!" The fox yelled, almost losing her voice. "You're just as new to this as me! Hehehehe!" She cackled, rocking back and forth.
"Don't see what's so damn funny if you're a rookie too!" The lop growled at her.
Eventually, the pygmy calmed down and sat back up still sniggering. "What it means is, we're both a bunch of idiots who don't know what we're doing!"
Kyuu didn't particularly like that phrasing either, emitting a soft growl.
"Isn't it obvious?" Lùn explained, "I've never had a girlfriend, you've never had a girlfriend, we're just going in this blind. And I went into this thinking you would have some sort of romantic declaration for me. But shocker, you aren't the type. So it's funny."
The rabbit just shrugged and sighed, slouching and looking at the ground. "Funny to you." She said under her breath.
"Honestly, now that I think about it, it was fantasy from the start to think that you were. Hehehe." Lùn joked. "You're such a grouch."
"So…" Kyuu started off, rubbing the top fuzz on her scalp. "Why are you attracted to me? What changed your mind about me?"
"Well, I can't say I 100 percent like you, given how frustratingly bitchy you can be, but I do have to admit, I feel you and me, we kinda get along in terms of like… having stuff in common. You like fighting, I like fighting. You take me seriously… I think, and honestly, you're the first beast to actually come on to me. So that's a plus in your favor. Most other animals just think I'm some punk kid and others that aren't are just turned off by my impure genetics."
"I knew you were mixed blood," Kyuu stated, giving the vixen an inquisitive look-over. "Something was off from the start."
"Yeah… were the big ears what tipped you off?" The fox sarcastically quipped.
"No. It's cuz you're short... yet tall." Kyuu explained.
"That made no sense," Lùn raised a brow at her.
"The thing is, most Fennies that I've seen are tiny runts compared to you. I knew something was wrong with you when you first showed up in the alley, just couldn't put my finger on it."
"Well, you're on the money." Lùn smiled and snickered. "I am part Fennec fox. Red fox too, though I identify more with the latter, hence the name."
"Well, I don't know what I am exactly," Kyuu said, face sinking as she never really put much thought into finding out her species' true name. Not like her parents stuck around to tell her before throwing her on the livestock market. She just knew she was a lop-eared rabbit. "Must be so nice knowing what you are." She said very jadedly.
"No way, it sucks." Lùn readily admitted. "Especially for me, I'll never live up to one side's expectations and I'll never be able to truly relate with the other. The only time I felt like I belong is with my sisters in my clan."
"Huh...never really thought of it like that," Kyuu said. Well, whatever the hell you want to be, you kick ass. That's good enough for me. When I first saw you, I just pegged you as some pretty girl."
Lùn actually blushed. "Did you?"
"Yeah, I thought you were some stupid narc-nar narci-sis..fuck what's the word?"
"Narcissist?" Lùn answered, an unamused expression on her visage.
"I think so," Kyuu said. "Only half right on that, I suppose."
The fox's lips began to quiver as she tried to suppress her annoyance. "Yeah, well I thought you just were some dumb mud-faced rabbit bitch who got too big for her britches!" The fox fired back. "Actually... that's not a stone's throw from the truth, I suppose, " the vixen snarled, leaning into Kyuu's face.
"Enough with the fucking nicknames, my name is Kyuu!" The rabbit snapped. She had had enough of people not calling her by her name.
"What? Mudface? " Lùn smiled. "It wasn't a nickname, but it's the truth and fitting ain't it? You look like someone threw mud all over your face!"
Kyuu's eyes widened as she felt a bit of self-consciousness before completely blowing up. All bets were off. "Well, I guess I should just call you "Scars!" Poking her finger at the fox's many facial scars.
"YOU WANT SOME MORE?! The fox threatened, popping her claws out, as her temper rose.
"TRY ME, BITCH!" Kyuu furiously beckoned, clenching her fists despite her body still not being 100 percent. Just as the two stood up in the bed, ready to come to blows, a voice called out not far down the hallway.
"Lùn! We just fixed you up! Don't you dare start another fight in there!"
Kyuu looked around confused. It was the Bat-eared fox from before. Lùn groaned and backed off, hopping back down on the bed.
"Okay, Fa!" She answered. "We won't start anything again I swear!"
"So that's it then, huh?" The rabbit asked, guard still raised, but feeling less hostile.
"Yeah, they don't want us to fight... for now. We'll have plenty of time to do that when we spar." Lùn said, feeling a bit down that they weren't tearing each other apart. "Look, I shouldn't have lashed out like that. I don't think you're ugly or anything." She expressed. "You're... exotic looking… "
The rabbit had a perplexed look on her face. "Exotic?" She asked.
"Look, I didn't mean that in a negative way." The fox explained. "You're just different. I find it attractive."
"Still sounds like an awfully fancy way of saying I'm ugly," Kyuu replied, glancing at her bitterly.
"Fine, you want me to tell you that you're ugly? Okay, you're ugly!" The fox admitted, barking at her. "But you know what? I like that you're ugly. That's fine with me!"
Kyuu just stared at her, perplexed, unsure how to really respond to that. The fox sighed out of frustration and shook her head. She truly didn't seem like she meant it to hurt.
"Well, I guess I feel the same way about you then, fox," Kyuu remarked as she dropped down next to her, blushing a bit. "I actually kinda like your scars."
Suddenly the fox's hand fell onto her shoulder and their eyes met. "Yours don't look too bad on you," Lùn said, her nails running along the pink lines she had made under Kyuu's eyes a few weeks prior.
"Big…" The lop found herself stammering, as she stared wide-eyed at the fox's claws. "Hands are so... big ." Carnivores had such larger digits than most herbivores, least of all her size. Foxes were no different, the rabbit's hand easily fit within them.
"What?! Are they too masculine for you or something?" The vixen snarled and her tail shot up.
The rabbit just clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes. "Pipe down I didn't mean it like that! I mean like they're bigger than mine. They're impressive y'know? They easily outclass mine."
"So? So what, you're jealous?" The fox teased, giving her a cheesy grin.
"I mean... sorta. I know from experience that you pack a wallop with them," Kyuu said, reaching up and feeling the digits in her hands, giving them reverence. They reminded her of the panda's hands.
She felt warm and her heart quake in her chest, thinking about where they could go, remembering the feel of their touch on her breasts.
"Well you're legs ain't nothing to scoff at either," The fox said, pulling her hands free and patting the rabbit softly on her thighs. "Got a lot of power in these. You probably work out a lot, I bet to stay in good form."
"Yeah." The rabbit divulged, she hesitated before elaborating further, but so far she felt safe talking to the vixen. Perhaps that was how he felt, thinking of the llama. "Me and San usually exercise and spar with one another, well… we used to. Before he started seeing your boss, that is."
"That's why you were in here passed out?" Lùn asked. "Working out? Working yourself to death?"
"Yeah…" She said, head depressing toward the floor.
"See? That's what I figured with your hands wrapped like this and all this… equipment ." The fox pointed out, gesturing at Kyuu's weights and punching bag. "That's also what I like about you. You're not some weak-willed bunny and you have the spirit to push on despite your disadvantages."
"A lot of this stuff is old stuff we found here and there, San and I made that attack dummy over there mostly from the garbage."
"Cool!" Lùn exclaimed, sounding like a child in awe of another's toy. "Loba made me one from some old junk too."
The two continued to talk shop until Fa walked in on them, whistling for Lùn to come on.
"Boss lady took off with Lover-boy in the car so we're walking back before it gets dark. It's time to go." She explained.
Lùn groaned and pouted, wanting to continue talking with the lop.
"Heard you two in here getting on. Did you ask her out yet?" The bat-ear inquired with a smile.
"Oh, damn it. I forgot." Lùn looked at Kyuu rather embarrassed. "Uh… you do want there to be an ' us' right?" She asked.
Kyuu just looked at her funny. "You already asked that." She stated. "I told you yes."
"Yeah, but that time you hesitated and my expectations were too high at the time. I really want to do it proper like, you know?" The fox explained.
Kyuu just sighed and shook her head before gifting the fox with an honest smile.
"Yeah, I do." She answered rather warmly. "Make no mistake, I still want payback for that loss you handed me earlier and we still have unfinished business," She flexed her knuckles at the vixen. "But I think I can say I like you enough to say yes."
The pygmy fox cackled at the lagomorph. "Fine, you're on!" She happily growled accepting the rabbit's challenge. "But, until then...you wanna come with us to our place at the Scoundrel's Den? I can show you all my workout stuff and if you're up to it, maybe we could spar for a bit? I'll be gentler this time." She eagerly offered.
Kyuu weighed the options but didn't take long to mull it over. She cracked her neck and rotated her tense shoulders and grinned at the fox. "Sure."