AN: Shorter chapters then the main story of Distilled Dreams to help fill in the AU around the OCs that will be reoccurring. Much like some side quests while they add to the main story they are not necessary to the main plot so feel free to skip them if you wish. I hope you enjoy.

Distilled Dreams: Side Stories

A Bandit to Steal a Bunny's Heart

Chapter Three

Aubrey had a small pile of clothes thrown haphazardly on her bed. Pulling a short red dress that would hug her figure like a second coat of fur she held it up to herself and looked in the full length mirror. "No! Nope! Too much!" she said flinging it aside to join the other discarded choices on the bed. She glanced over at the pile of clothes with a grimace. "I am trying too hard aren't I. But all he has ever seen me in is my waitress outfit...," she sighed to herself sitting on the corner of the bed as her ears drooped. The only thing she had decided on to wear was a matching set of dark blue panties and bra with just enough lace around the edges to be considered flirty if someone saw it. Glancing back into the mirror she smiled. She always liked this set. The blue was nearly a match for her eyes.

"He doesn't seem like he would pack something fancy if all he was planning on doing here was to complete a job. It's not like Bunnyburrow is known for its night life or fancy restaurants. But maybe he would have something nice to wear for a night on the town so he wasn't stuck in work clothes all the time..." Her ears perked up at a thought. "That's perfect!" she shouted diving into her dresser. Rummaging around creating a mess out of the carefully folded clothes before pulling out a simple dark navy blue button down sleeveless blouse and a pair of black jeans. Dressing quickly she looked herself over in the mirror. The jeans hugged her legs and hips showing them off without drawing extra attention to them. The blouse was loose and comfortable. Just the thing she would wear out to the town pub with her friends.

Finally happy with her choice she glanced over at her alarm clock. Enough time for her to clean up the mess she made of her closet and dressers before needing to start cooking dinner. She smiled as she refolded clothes tucking some away into moving boxes and some back into the dresser or back on their hangers. She had gotten lucky with dinner. Her father had just gotten in some fresh chicken from the Hood families chicken farm. After a somewhat awkward conversation on why she wanted some chicken her father had parted with a couple of breasts. He took the time to rub some spices on them before re-wrapping them and giving them to her. She had been curious about getting two when she had just asked for one but her father shrugged and mentioned Rocky had always been ordering extra meat with his meals.

"Alright oven to three-hundred and fifty," Aubrey spoke to herself trying to remember what her father had said, "Cook for...ummm...what did Dad say...twenty minutes? That sounds right...I think. I don't want to over cook it." She slid the pan into the oven and quickly went to chop some vegetables. A few handfuls of diced potatoes went into a pot of boiling water. She tucked a side salad for Rocky and a larger one for herself into the fridge to keep them cool. Thankfully he had ordered salad before and had the same taste in dressing as she did. She had made a small batch of the dressing earlier in the week and was glad she hadn't used much of it yet. She glanced at the clock while setting the small table she had. "He should be here soon," Aubrey said nervously folding, unfolding, and refolding a napkin. By the tenth cycle of folding the napkin a knock sounded at the door. She had to stop herself from immediately hopping to the door afraid it would look like she was waiting right at the door for him. Instead she drew a long breath, folding the napkin one last time before setting it down, and slowly walked to the door.

Rocky drove up the main Thumperson driveway in one of the companies vans. He drove slow and kept careful count of the smaller driveways branching off of the main one. Reaching the fifth he turned and soon found himself parking near a little cottage. Picking up the small bundle of wild flowers and a bottle of blackberry wine from the passenger seat he eyed the cottage like it was going to be his next project. Small little one bedroom or a larger studio he guessed by the overall size. A small flower garden to either side of the door and what looked like a vegetable garden around the side. Except for needing a touch up on the paint it looked to be in good repair. If she was set on getting something of similar size and in such good repair in the city she may be disappointed unless she had a bigger budget to work with then he was guessing.

He eyed the door and nervously brushed a handful of wrinkles out of his clothes. They where the one set of good looking clothes that weren't for work he had brought with him. A dark forest green button down shirt tucked into black slacks with a simple silver buckled black belt holding everything in place. He hoped it didn't look like he had tried too hard to dress to impress. He also hoped it looked like he hadn't just thrown something random together. Considering Aubrey had only ever seen him before going to a construction site in the morning half sleep deprived and coming back from it ready to crawl into bed after getting something to eat he thought it looked good by comparison. "Alright Rocky," he spoke aloud to himself, "It's just dinner to help someone out who wants to know about the city no need to be nervous. Worse case I can play off the flowers and wine as bringing a gift to the host and contributing to the meal." With a quick deep breath he walked to the door and gave it a quick knock.

It wasn't long before the door swung open. He had often scoffed into his beer when he and his coworkers went out for drinks after a project was done and a few ended up drunk enough to tell a sappy story about how they knew their mates where the one. 'Damn it...I own them all a round as an apology,' Rocky thought seeing Aubrey. It wasn't the jeans the hugged her or the shirt that nearly matched her eyes that caused his heart to beat a little faster. It was the look of happiness on her face as her eyes sparkled when they looked at each other. Her smile widened as he felt the corners of his mouth turn up into his own grin of joy.

"Rocky! Right on time though with you being in charge of the work schedule that shouldn't be a surprise," Aubrey said while gesturing at the flowers, "Are those for me? That is so cute for you to bring me some." 'Oh no! I called him cute! Maybe he doesn't know when bunnies use that word with each other,' Aubrey thought.

"Umm...oh...errr...yeah they are...I...ummm...picked them from a patch we were removing at the Wilde's Den," Rocky said cursing himself over getting tongue tied as he held them out for her. "My Ma always said you should bring a gift when coming over to someones home...it seemed a shame to waste the flowers and with you moving soon and not knowing what you already had I couldn't think of anything else that didn't risk being just more clutter to move with." Another curse flew though his mind at his over explaining the flowers. 'She called me cute...that is a good sign isn't it?'

"Looks like you thought of something else too," Aubrey said noticing the bottle in Rocky's paws after taking the flowers.

"I can put it back in the van if you don't drink," Rocky said turning the bottle in his paws glancing down at it. "I wasn't sure what was going to be for dinner so besides this I didn't know what to bring to add to the meal."

"May I?" Aubrey asked holding out her paw for the bottle. Rocky handed it over and glanced between it and Aubrey trying to gauge her reaction. "Not a brand I've had before..or have seen in the store. Where did you get it?" She glanced back up to see Rocky still standing on her welcome mat. "Oh! I am sorry! Please come in. Sorry I got a little distracted and forgot my manners." Her ears flared red as she stepped to the side to let Rocky in.

He glanced around quickly in the same professional way he had looked over the outside of the house in. One bedroom and a great room for everything else with a small neatly set table separating the kitchen from the living room he notice. Rocky took a deep breath smelling the cooking food. "I brought the bottle from Zootopia. A bit of a tradition of mine after finishing a project on time is to have a celebratory drink with the crew. Wasn't sure how good the local pubs where so I brought it just in case. Is that chicken I am smelling? You shouldn't have I know how pricey that is out here. The benefits of being an omnivore is I am good with whatever."

"We got a bit extra in shipment to the restaurant today so it was not trouble," Aubrey lied about it being a bit extra in the shipment. "So will be bad luck if we drink your celebratory bottle tonight?" she asked waggling it slightly before setting it down on the table. Quickly she pulled a vase from a cupboard and filled it with water for the flowers.

"Eh...no..." Rocky said looking down in embarrassment, "The other part of that tradition is if the project runs too far over everyone tends to get a little drink and complain about what went wrong."

"Well looks like you have no choice but to finish on time if we are drinking one of the extra bottles," Aubrey said with a smirk glancing at the clock. "Well everything should just about be ready."

"Anything I can help with?" Rocky asked trying to be helpful.

"I put a couple of salads in the fridge. Could you grab them? Oh and the salad dressing in there. Its the same recipe we use at diner so I am pretty sure you will like it." Aubrey said as she stained the potatoes and quickly mashed them into a bowl she had ready. The pan came out of the oven next. She looked at the chicken. It didn't look quite right. "Uh Rocky? Can you look at this?" She stiffened in surprise when she felt his paw on her back as he leaned around her to look at the pan.

"What was the oven at and for how long?" Rocky asked frowning slightly at the chicken oblivious to Aubrey's intensifying blush while using a claw to poke at the chicken. Pinkish fluid welled from the small hole his claw left.

"Um...three-fifty for twenty minutes," Aubrey said turning her head to see Rocky more clearly.

"Its a bit under cooked right now. If it was at four-hundred twenty minutes should have just about done it," Rocky said turning to look at Aubrey. Their eyes locked together when they realized their muzzles where only inches apart from each other seemingly of their own accord. Neither one of them moved away but neither did they move closer for a kiss.

"So...ummm..." Aubrey said, "How...how much longer do you think it will take? For the chicken..." She did not know why she felt she had to clarify she was taking about the chicken and not about...something else.

"Uhh..." Rocky lost his train of thought watching her lips move wanting nothing more at the moment then to still them with his own. "Another ten minutes probably. Maybe fifteen to be safe."

"Okay," Aubrey said making no motion to return the pan to the oven for a long moment. Slowly the moment passed without either one working up the courage to act on their feelings and she slid the pan back into the oven. She backed away leaving Rocky's paw to hang in the air for a moment before it dropped back down to his side before he went to wash his paws in the sink. "I don't know about you but I could use some of that wine,"she said reaching into a cupboard to pull out two red wine glasses and into a drawer for the corkscrew, "Long day and all."

"Please let me," Rocky said placing his paw over hers holding the corkscrew. He absentmindedly rubbed the back of her paw with his, "You made dinner the least I can do is open the wine."

"S...sure," she said gulping as she handed him the corkscrew. His back was turned when she quickly started fanning herself hoping her dark fur hid the deep red blush she was sure covered her body from to to ear tip. She watched him pour a generous amount into each glass before setting the bottle down. Picking them up he handed one to her. She stares at the deep near black color of the wine before giving it a light swirl watching the color lighten along the upper edges of the swirling liquid. "What should we toast to?" She asked shyly looking up at Rocky to find him watching her with a genital smile on his face. His eyes held something she had only caught brief glances of in the eyes of mates eating together at the diner but never had directed at her. She had seen plenty of lustful looks in buck's eyes directed at her but not the love she felt coming from the eyes of this raccoon.

"How about to..." Rocky trailed off thinking. He felt his smile grow as he raised his glass, "To meeting someone you never expected to."

Aubrey smile turned from shy to joy as they clinked glasses together and took a sip from the wine.