Of Wolves And Rabbits Ch. 3

Of Wolves And Rabbits
Chapter 3 - The Panda

"Moshi moshi," Tear-chan asked into the phone's speaker, answering to the call Japanese style.

Jeremy, Kibou and Kage suddenly fell quiet as they waited for her to hang up the phone, but such an act of respect could only be achieved for one purpose: to eavesdrop on the conversation. They had all been eating some desserts in the living room to follow Jeremy's 'tea time', seeing as it was already written down in his agenda, when the phone had rang, startling just about everyone.

"I see…Un! We understand…wait, YOU'RE DOING WHAT!?" Tear-chan suddenly exclaimed, startling her bizarre friends. They watched in confusion how her whole expression turned into one of complete horror. Widened eyes and sweat running down her forehead…yeah, those were the correct symptoms. "No, it's alright! Please, don't worry about us…Yeah, see you latter…I know, I love you too Oneechama…" Tear-chan's voice seemed to be getting lower as the conversation came to an end, until she finally hung up the phone with a sigh.

"What was that all about?" Kibou asked quickly, getting a rather disapproving glare from Jeremy. It was already considered rude to 'unintentionally' eavesdrop on a conversation, and this wolf cub was directly asking her about it!

"It's Angel-oneechama…she said she was going to be a little bit late," Tear-chan started, her shock making her to drift off again before finishing her sentence.

"Why? Did something wrong happen to her?" Kage asked worriedly, sitting up straight and staring intently at his creator.

"I-Ie…" Tear-chan mumbled while shaking her head 'no', still not being able to find the appropriate words.

"Then what is it goddamnit!?" The blond boy finally snapped, a tick mark appearing at the side of his head. This much suspense was making him mad, and his concern for Angel-chan was growing too large for comfort.

"She said she was bringing 'a Panda Bear'," Tear-chan finally mumbled, realizing how odd she sounded by just saying it. Well, it's not as if this whole world was normal, but bringing a panda was a bit exaggerated, wasn't it?

"A panda!?" Her friends repeated, not imagining how Angel was going to bring a panda to the house. Wasn't that illegal!? Maybe she even asked the zoo for permission…

"And you allowed her to," Kibou confirmed, rolling his eyes once he saw her creator nodding. It's not as if she was able to prevent it. That was not even her house! She and Angel had decided to give it to their beloved friends, so that they had their own space for their mischief. Her cub friend had all right to be mad at her.

"Well, it's not as if we can do anything about it," Jeremy sentenced, standing up and leaving his empty tea cup on the table in front of him with grace. Submerging his right hand into one of his many pockets, he suddenly took out a golden pocket watch and looked at it. "Angel-chan would be arriving in an hour; knowing her, maybe a bit longer. If you follow my schedule, we'll be able to fix the house for a panda to be comfortable," Jeremy said, almost as if daring the rest of them to go against his plan.

"R-Right! We need to be the best hosts ever!" Tear-chan cheered, standing up and contracting her right hand into a fist as a sign of determination…now that was a quick change of humor. Kage cheered and joined the two teens as well, excited about re-decorating the house. Noticing that Kibou's comment was still missing, they all turned to see the light blue cub sprawled over one of the couches.

"Mou…why do I have to get dragged into this?" he mumbled lazily, dropping his head on top of his front legs to show he gave up. His ears dropped as well, his tail swinging slowly from one side to the other, silently telling everyone he preferred to sleep.

~*~

"J-Just a b-bit m-more!" Tear-chan groaned as she pushed the last couch against the wall with her friends' help. "There!" She sighed in relief, tiredly letting herself lay on said couch.

"This is bad…we're slightly off schedule!" Jeremy panicked, holding his head in his hands as he took a seat beside Tear-chan. Looking down at him, she rolled on her side to make more space for him and sighed, not being able to help feeling guilty.

"I'm sorry. It was because I fell, right?" She mumbled, looking down at the small bandage tied around her right foot. While they were trying to make more space in the house so that Angel's panda bear would fit, she had apparently tripped on thin air and almost sprained her foot. They had all stopped their work in order to bandage her foot to protect it from further injuries. In other words, herself.

"Don't blame yourself for that," Kage said caringly, sitting in front of her on the floor and licking her cheek. She giggled, understanding that it was difficult to drag Jeremy out of his freaked out state.

"Shoot! I had forgotten! We don't have anything pandas can eat!" Tear-chan gasped, sitting up so quickly she startled the gloomy bunny. "You stay and finish cleaning up the house! I'll go for some bamboo treats!" she commanded, getting up and stumbling to the door.

"W-Wait! You need to take care of that foot!" Kibou called after her, ready to got out and help her walk. Honestly, did he have to take care of her instead of her of him!?

"I'm fine! It doesn't hurt that much!" A frustrated Tear-chan yelled over her shoulder, not liking the thought of being useless just because of her klutziness. "If we don't hurry up, Jeremy's agenda will be ruined too!" She reminded them, picking up her wallet and running out the door, unintentionally slamming it behind her.

"She's right…" Kage whispered over to his older brother, his ears twitching the moment he heard Jeremy moving behind them.

"Angel-chan will be here in less than half an hour! I won't let my schedule be ruined by a pair of furry sacks of fleas, so move it!" The bunny-eared boy growled, turning into his 'Protect Punctuality' mode.

"H-Hai!" Both siblings cried out, lowering their ears in fear, before rushing out to search for some newspaper to cover the floor with. Who knows if Angel-chan's new pet was efficiently trained?

~*~

"I'm back!" Tear-chan panted, raising the plastic bag she was carrying in victory. However, she was frozen at the door once she saw the living room's wooden floor neatly covered with gray paper. "You know? That was a good idea…" she mumbled, blinking owlishly at their work.

"You got the food right?" Kibou asked her, clearly irritated. Apparently, Jeremy had not taken it easy with both wolves. Nodding excitedly, Tear-chan skipped towards the kitchen, feeling extremely relieved once she understood they were not going to have any problems in receiving a panda that evening. As if on cue, the merry doorbell rang through the whole house, indicating that the guests had arrived.

"Coming!" Tear-chan yelled, rushing over to the door and opening it.

"Kya~! Sorry for the tardiness!" Tear-chan yelped the moment a blond blur rushed to hug her while saying apologies. The strength of the hug had been so great that it had turned into a tackle, the loud 'thump' making the three animal friends to come out of the kitchen to see if everything was alright.

"It's ok Oneechama…" Tear-chan managed to gasp out, currently being crushed by the older girl.

"Oh right! Tear-chan, meet the Panda Bear!" Angel cried happily, finally letting go of her younger friend to let her see the other guest.

Tear-chan's jaw hanged open when her brown eyes landed on another girl standing by the doorway, waving at her. She was wearing simple dark blue jeans, red converse, and a dark and white sweatshirt. Her long black hair was currently covered by the sweatshirt's hood, which conveniently had two cute black ears and a panda face.

"Nice to meet you," the 'Panda' greeted respectfully, apparently not being affected by the fact that her host was being pinned down by her older friend, or that there were talking animals in the room, or that the whole house had been adapted to receive a real panda bear.

"I don't see why I had to be dragged here!" a tiny voice said angrily, making everyone to blink in surprise. Taking a closer look, Tear-chan saw what appeared to be a rice ball riding on Panda-chan's shoulder. No, wait, WHAT?

"Ack!! Did that rice ball just spoke!?" Tear-chan couldn't help but yell, squirming out of Angel's grip and backing up until her back collided against the wall.

"No shit Sherlock! You were able to figure that out on your own!?" The small rice ball yelled, flailing her thin arms around as a tick mark appeared on her head.

"Freckles! Be nice! They have been kind enough to invite us over!" Panda scolded her creation, picking up the pissed rice ball and holding her away from her body in case she decided to get violent.

"I…I was just insulted by food…" Tear-chan sobbed in her small corner of woe, not being able to believe she had fallen that low. Angel-chan was patting her shoulder while smiling sheepishly, desperately trying to calm her friend down. Kage was there too, apparently not minding the fact that he was taking Tear-chan's Death the Kid plush's place, therefore being chocked in a tight hug.

"D-Don't take it personal Tear-chan! Freckles is that way with everyone…" Angel-chan said nervously, smiling sympathetically to her 'sister'. After all, she had suffered of Freckles' wrath the first time she met her too.

"Honestly…not even I'm that honest with her…" Jeremy mumbled as he shook his head right and left, to believing Freckle's bluntness. However, Tear-chan broke into a serious crying fit after hearing him, making him to gain one of the biggest sweat drops ever. "I-I didn't mean it like that! Please don't cry!" He tried to excuse himself, waving his hands frantically in front of him as if to dismiss such an idea. He had never been good at dealing with crying girls, and now one of his best friends was crying because of him! And to make things worse, Angel-chan's glare was not helping him.

"You're a bunch of crybabies," Freckles commented nonchalantly after she finally managed to break free from Panda-chan's iron grip, crossing her arms behind her head once she was standing on the wooden floor.

"You know…I haven't eaten onigiri in a long time…" Kibou suddenly said menacingly, crouching in front of Freckles in a position that clearly showed he was ready to jump. He ran his tongue over his pointy fangs as a sign of being hungry, watching his pray carefully. No one insulted his friends and got away with it, never.

"What the heck do you think you're doing!?" the small rice ball shouted, amazingly managing to slap the light blue wolf cub on his snout.

"You're done for!" Kibou growled, finally charging full force against Freckles. The shocked rice ball yelped in surprise at the death machine coming to get her, turning around and sprinting into a mad dash as she kept on yelling insults to the already angered cub.

Panda-chan and the bunny-eared boy stared at all the chaos with a huge sweat drop, one right next to the other, without any clue as to what to say or do. Tear-chan kept on weeping on the floor while Angel-chan and Kage tried to calm her down and Kibou and Freckles appeared to be a giant tornado going through the whole house. In great synchrony, both Jeremy and Panda slowly closed their eyes, their eyebrows twitching as an anime anger mark popped on their heads.

"STOP THIS MADNESS!" They both shouted at the same time, instantly managing to freeze the whole scene. Even Kibou and Freckles, who were rushing in front of them, stopped abruptly at the shouting voices.

"I-It can't be! There are two Jeremys now!" Kibou screamed in horror, quickly trying to turn around and flee out of there. It was a difficult task because the momentum of his race was making his hind legs slip slightly on the polished floor. Kage smiled nervously and silently slipped out of Tear-chan's arms, rushing over to his brother's side to join the escapade. It seems as if Jeremy had really traumatized them while he tried to keep up with his agenda.

Sighing in relief, Jeremy went to Tear-chan's side while Panda-chan picked up the evil rice ball. Once she started to scold her, Panda-chan and her rice ball soon engaged in a word fight, making Tear-chan to release a low giggle. Stopping their quarrel at the sound of her laugh, both females turned to their host, watching on in amazement as she tried her best to hide her laughter. However, everyone soon started to laugh with her, the whole house being filled with laughter. Even the cubs returned to enjoy a bit of the congregated happiness.

"Well, we better go for the snacks or we'll end up eating dinner instead," Jeremy finally said, reminding them he had a schedule to keep.

"But…we only have some fresh strawberries to offer. You see, when Angel-oneechama called, I really thought she was going to bring a real panda bear, so we only bought bamboo snacks…" Tear-chan mumbled shyly in front of Panda-chan, blushing madly at her silliness. "We're sorry, we fail at being the best hosts ever," she apologized, bowing deeply in front of her guest.

"Aw, you don't have to worry about that! You're so cute for doing all this just for me!" Panda-chan cried, pulling the puzzled Tear-chan into a bone-crushing hug. "I love strawberries anyways!" She giggled, still not letting go of her host.

"At least your hair smells nice, I'll give you that," Freckles humped in irritation, making Tear-chan to blush even harder in embarrassment.

"T-Thanks," she mumbled, looking down so that her hair could cover her red face. She needed to find a white Fila cap to use in this kind of situations, just like Echizen Ryoma would.

"Alright, alright! Now move it!" Jeremy hollered, not being able to stand around and watch how precious minutes were lost.

"Yeah, yeah! Let's go and cook something delicious with those strawberries!" Angel-chan cheered, pushing her beloved bunny over to the kitchen. Kage was quick to follow them as he chuckled happily, feeling excited at the thought that he was going to have new friends to play with.

"You seem to be a good person," Kibou admitted as he looked up to Panda-chan, receiving a cheerful smile in respond. "I'll keep my eyes on you though," he said threateningly to the rice ball sitting comfortably on the Panda's shoulder, glaring daggers at it.

"Oh yeah!? Well I--!" Freckles was quieted down by Panda-chan's fingers covering her mouth, preventing her from saying anything extremely rude again.

"You've caused many problems today already. Be grateful they haven't thrown us out yet," Panda-chan pouted as she watched her 'failed' experiment carefully.

"And we'd never would!" Tear-chan chirped happily, bending down and picking up her wolf cub to hold him close to her. "Come! We can't leave those three alone with sugar much time," she giggled, heading towards the kitchen with Panda-chan by her side.

"I'll have a cup of dark coffee," Freckles ordered once she was set on the kitchen table, gaining murderous glares from her fellow animal-like acquaintances.

"OF COURSE NOT!" They shouted with tick marks on their heads, starting to get rather annoyed by the evil rice ball. According to them, she had been the one to start it all and as long as she was 10 kilometers away from them, everything would be alright.

"So, why are you called Panda?" Tear-chan turned to Panda-chan, shaking the sweat drop she had acquired when watching her friends ranting.

"Angel-onee-chan was the one who started it," she informed me, motioning to the nodding blonde beside her.

"Yep! She's cute that way~!" Angel-chan squealed as she jumped on Panda-chan's back, making the last one to laugh.

"You know…I think it was better that you were human rather than a bear," Kage confessed cutely as he jumped to the nearest chair, watching Panda-chan curiously.

"Yeah! Who knows who would have ended up eating who!?" Kibou added in his two cents as he too jumped to a chair near Panda-chan, wagging his tail happily from side to side.

"Those are the kind of things someone never says in their first meeting," Jeremy intervened, suddenly grabbing both wolves by the skin of their necks and lifting them up to be at eye level with them. The brothers pouted and sighed in defeat once they caught Jeremy's indirect of staying quiet, not being hurt at all by the way Jeremy was holding them. The three girls burst out laughing by just seeing the funny scene, making Jeremy to roll his eyes at them. He had been right; they were going to end up eating dinner after having ruined his whole agenda.

But what else could he expect? After all, that was the bizarre way of meeting 'the Panda' of wolves and rabbits.