Work Text:
The Bestest of Friends
by Pirate Turner
Chapter One
Tigger looked up as Rabbit came hopping down the forest trail toward him. He smiled at the way his love moved, bouncing and shaking his bunny fur and tail. He didn't know how his love managed it, but even now, in the most dire of times, Rabbit seemed to be in a good mood. He was singing, though Tigger's ears could not yet make out enough of the words he sang to determine the song, and he had brought a picnic lunch with him.
Rabbit bounded to a stop before Tigger, and his pink nose wriggled. "Ready to go?" he asked, and when Tigger blinked in surprise, Rabbit's brow furrowed. "Don't tell me -- " he demanded, " -- you're not coming."
"But, buddy boy," Tigger cried, waving his paws in the air, "how can you even think about still going on a picnic now?"
"And why not?" Rabbit questioned, though already bristling at the answer he knew would meet his ears.
"Roo's missing!" Tigger wailed. "We can't just abandon him!"
"He's a joey," Rabbit pointed out. "So he ran off for a little while. He'll come back."
"He's been missing all day!" Tigger exclaimed with unshed tears of worry and fear sparkling in his big, black eyes. "We've looked everywhere!"
"Clearly not everywhere," Rabbit returned, his fluffy tail ruffling, "because if you had, you would have found him. He's a joey, Tigger, just a baby."
"That's purrcisely why I can't leave him!"
Rabbit rolled his eyes. "He's probably looking at us right now, laughing behind his paw at all of you worrying over him." He brought himself up to his full height and proudly jerked a thumb at his slender chest. "Well, I, for one, am not going to let a baby interrupt my adult plans. I am going to go on the picnic, Tigger. If you want to come, that would be great."
"I do want to come, but I can't just leave Roo when he needs me!"
Rabbit glared at his mate, one eyebrow curved dramatically upwards. "If, on the other paw, you decide to stay here," he forced himself to shrug his shoulders in a show of nonchalance, "then it will just have to be a picnic for one. I'll enjoy the carrot cake, carrot pie, and carrot souffle all by myself, as well as the cookies, honey, . . . " His voice began to trail off as Rabbit bounded away.
"Honey?" Pooh asked, looking up from the hunt for Roo for the first time. "Did somebody say honey?" His stomach grumbled. "Oh, bother," he pouted. "We've been looking for Roo all morning, and I'm really starting to get quite the rumbly in my tumly . . . "
"Oh, Pooh Bear," Piglet said, taking his lover's paw in his own small, pink paw. "It'll be okay. We'll find him soon, and then we'll go to your place and have all the honey we want."
"Do you really think we'll find him soon?" Pooh asked.
Piglet patted his paw. "I'm sure of it," he reassured. "After all, he's such a little fellow, barely bigger than I am. He's got to be somewhere close around here, and we'll find him soon."
Tigger's ears twitched back and forth as he listened to Pooh and Piglet's conversation. He wrung his striped tail, which hung limply with his sadness, as he watched Rabbit's fluffy, little tail bounding away into the far distance. That one white spot was all he could see of his lover now, and his tears filled his eyes even more. Why couldn't Rabbit stay with him as Piglet stayed with Pooh? Why couldn't he reassure him? Why'd he have to be so jealous of Roo?
His thoughts came to an abrupt stop as though some one could hear him as he felt movement behind him, but a sniffle nonetheless broke free. He wiped the falling tears from his furry face with the tip of his striped tail as a gentle hand laid reassuringly upon his shoulder. "It's okay, Tigger," Kanga assured him. "If you want to go with your boyfriend, I understand."
Tigger shook his head slowly and turned away from where Rabbit's tail was vanishing in the far distant trees. He turned to face Kanga, and though tears of sadness and loneliness still glistened in his eyes, he told her, "It's okay. I'm fine." He shrugged his shoulders and bounced on his tail though nowhere nearly as high as he normally did. "If he wants to have a picnic of one, let him. We don't need him. We'll find Roo all by ourselves."
He started bouncing higher and higher and called back down to the worried mother, "We'll find him, Kanga. I've got the best advantage spot in the whole One Hundred Acre Woods from way up here!" He bounced again. "We'll find him." He declared, "After all, finding lost friends is the second best thing that Tiggers do, right after bouncing!" He bounced still higher, his paw shielding his eyes as he looked out over the horizon for Roo. "Come on, little buddy, where could you be?"
end part 1
To Be Continued . . .