Note: This is a scene canon to my other major work, Zootopia: Partners
At the base of a tree by itself in the park, an unremarkable-looking gray squirrel sat. He sighed heavily, sitting at the base of the single tree and staring off into the distance of the afternoon. He shivered slightly, though the fall wind was at a pleasant temperature.
It had happened again. Even though he was in his senior year of high school, he still slipped once or twice a month or so. This time he was preparing to take a test and signed his name absentmindedly as "Larry Curlyque". A special, unique kind of pain filled him as he took his eraser to the surname and forced it to fade away, brushing aside the eraser dust. He then wrote in his current surname: Wilde-Hopps.
It wasn't that he didn't love his adopted parents, far from it. They both felt like genuine parents, both fun and snarky, full of life and affection. But sometimes Larry wondered what he would have been like if he had the opportunity to be raised by either of his birth parents, or why both of them had been taken from him under different circumstances.
He managed to stay calm through the day at school. Though darkness encroached on his mood during the day, he remained mostly stable and only appeared somewhat sullen, pushing the negative feelings aside. But he was supposed to meet up with his friends that day at the park after school, and the darkness regrouped and crashed over him like a wave. He just had to let it run its course. He was finding it harder to cry about it nowadays. He still felt like an emotional squirrel, but he wondered if he had just cried all the tears he had to give about his birth parents. It had been so long since they were in his life.
His jean pocket vibrated slightly; his phone. He ignored it. Two minutes later, it buzzed again. Larry sighed and took out his phone.
[Larry, are you OK?] Two texts from Kara, his girlfriend.
[You said you'd be here at the Trick Meet; I'm getting a little worried.]
Larry frowned, but started typing into his phone.
[I'm at the Alone Tree.] He replied.
[Ah, would you like it to stay that way?] Kara responded quickly. Larry waited a full minute before replying, considering how he felt about this.
[You can come if you want.]
Shortly, a honey and white colored ferret, a color scheme commonly called "champagne", appeared and made her way over to the gray squirrel. She wore pink rimmed glasses and a look of concern. She walked up to Larry, who still sat at the base of the tree.
"Hey, squirrely," she tried a small smile.
"Hi, ferrety," Larry returned with a mostly even voice. The ferret smiled slightly. She knew if he wasn't up to using affectionate nicknames with her, something was really wrong.
"So um... what's wrong? Did something happen?" She inquired.
"Nothing really, Kara," Larry sighed, looking away. "I just get this way sometimes. Thinking about my parents."
"Your parents?" Kara wrung her hands nervously. "I thought you said your parents were great."
"Oh, mom and dad," Larry shook his head. "No, they are great, yeah. I uh... meant my birth parents."
"Oh, you don't- you don't talk about them very much," Kara winced, poking her forefingers together.
"No, I don't," Larry confirmed in an absent voice.
"Would... would you like to?" Kara stepped a bit closer, feeling on edge.
"...Not particularly," Larry admitted.
"Okay, um-" Kara began.
"Kara, do you ever think about death?" Larry interrupted, suddenly looking at her with his blue eyes.
"Er!" Kara flinched, looking surprised. "N-no, I can't say I try to d-dwell on it. Especially given what my father's job entails. I mean, as a medical examiner, you know what he has to do, and so I uhm... I don't really, no... no I can't say that. I don't like to think on it." Kara blinked rapidly, trying to control her tongue. She tended to ramble when she was nervous.
"You don't think that... like..." Larry closed his eyes, breathing out slowly. "Do you think that there's some sort of force, like religious mammals go on about souls or spirits or something, that survives? Something that either reincarnates or goes off to some other realm?"
"I, uh..." Kara bit her lip. "Th-theology isn't my strong point. Death is... well, it's by definition the cessation of life functions. As- as far as our senses go, I d-don't think we can perceive anything past..." She trailed off and looked worriedly at Larry's blank expression.
"Mm," Larry grumbled.
"But! Um..." Kara tried to concentrate. "We- we really don't know everything about the universe, right? The only ways we can perceive it are through detecting devices and our senses. And um... some mammals have better senses than others, right? So you only know if something's there if that mammal tells you and it can be observed." Kara was fumbling looking for her purpose, feeling like she was aimlessly rambling.
"So you think that, if something like that exists, we wouldn't be able to know?" Larry wondered.
"I um, have you ever heard of a neutrino?" Kara offered. Larry shook his head. "It's this neutral particle that almost never interacts with anything. Untold numbers of them are passing through us right this second. But mammals built special detection devices to try to find them, and there they were. There's a lot of stuff we can detect, but don't understand, either. We give them fancy names like 'dark matter' or 'dark energy', but... well, if we could describe them, what would they be? And what is out there that we can't detect? I don't know if we'll figure it out..." Kara felt almost winded, rambling on about science to Larry. He seemed to be paying attention, though his face looked somewhat despondent.
"...What do you believe, Kara?" Larry asked in an inquisitive, but still low voice.
Kara felt a jolt of panic as the question pierced her. "I...? Uh..." Kara squeezed her eyes shut then opened them, swallowing hard. "Larry, I... I was taught to only believe in what science could determine through experimentation and proof. Anything beyond that is... I mean, it's unknown. And if we can't-" Kara cringed and stopped talking again; she had the distinct feeling that her presence was causing her boyfriend more harm than good.
"That makes sense, I guess," Larry said evenly.
Kara stood there, feeling her emotions drain out from her gut. She squinted her eyes shut and looked off from the side. "I'm sorry, Larry. I don't- I don't know what I can say to make you feel better... you know I'm no good with words..."
Larry's shoulders shrugged. "It's okay, Kara. The bad feelings will pass eventually; they always do."
Kara stood there, looking helpless and worried. Suddenly, her face turned indignant and she frowned. She thrust her hands downward and stamped her foot on the ground. This nearly dislodged her glasses and she corrected with almost a pout in her face. Larry became baffled at the sudden change in her demeanor.
"Larry, get up," Kara thrust out her paw for him. Confused, Larry blinked, but took her offered paw and joined her in standing.
"Okay, Kara- uh!?" Larry sputtered. Kara yanked his wrist and drew him into a tight embrace, tucking his head under hers. After a moment of bafflement, Larry quickly returned the hug, holding just as firmly to her. They remained like this for quite some time. Finally, Larry broke away from Kara and looked at her. Kara sighed in relief as it looked as though Larry's mood had lightened, if only just a little. It was in his eyes, mostly. "Thank you, Kara. I love you."
Kara's mouth broke out into a toothy smile. "I do too..." She blinked and her eyes widened. "Oh, I mean I love you too, Larry. I- uh! Not to say that I don't love myself. Wait, that sounds weird- but loving yourself is a foundation of healthy self-esteem, so I mean, I do, I guess, love myself as w-" Larry's smile was getting wider. "I'm... uh, I'm babbling again."
"Yup," Larry smiled.
"Wanna, uh, wanna get back to the trick meet with our friends?" Kara moved her thumb backwards to where she had come from. "I told them you were okay, but they might wonder what we're doing out here alone."
"You and me alone together in a secluded corner of the park? I think I'd wonder too," Larry smirked a bit.
"Uh!" Kara's ears got a bit warmer.
"Sorry, I think I listen to my parents too much," Larry chuckled. "I think they would go nuts or something if they didn't flirt at least once a week."
Kara smiled. "That's sweet."
Larry reached out, offering his hand, and Kara took it and they walked together towards their friends.
"I kind of like your babbling though," Larry admitted. "It's charming."
"I'm glad you feel that way," Kara giggled. "I don't think I'll be able to fix that anytime soon."
"What's it the techie people say?" Larry exhaled in a puff. "It's not a bug, it's a feature?"
"That's computer people, Larry," Kara corrected and shook her head. "I'm going to be a chemist."
"Ah, right," Larry nodded, chuckling a few times.
Kara looked a bit worried. "Oh, it was a good joke, though!"
"Kara..." Larry smiled, shaking his head and sighing. "Maybe I should leave the nerdy jokes to you."
"Okay," Kara nodded, holding up two fingers. "Two atoms are walking down the street, and one says 'I think I lost an electron somewhere'. His friend asks 'are you sure?' and he replies 'I'm positive!'"
Larry blinked, not understanding the joke.
"You see, it's funny because..." Kara started, but sighed. "Eh, never mind." She bat her free paw through the air.
"Sorry you have a dumb boyfriend," Larry chuckled.
"More like you have a nerdy girlfriend," Kara grumbled; the ferret rolled her eyes.
Larry shrugged his shoulders. "I may not know science, but I know what I like."