So . . . “Take me to your production line.” It didn’t change her plans. She wanted to help Big Bunny and she would.
* * *
Candy stared at the basket in front of her. Nothing seemed magical about it. Regular fruit was not going to seem magical. Candy grabbed one of the berries. She would not have the ability long, but if she got them on the right foot, they could figure out a solution next year.
She breathed and rolled until the berry had changed into what would taste like a delicious piece of candy. She placed it back into the basket. “Children are the secret? Children love candy.”
“Candy?” Big Bunny did not sound so sure. “Candy rots teeth.”
“Not my candy,” she reminded him. “You said we were from the same line. Maybe this is why we had the power.”
“I have never been fond of candy.”
“You’re a rabbit, you want veggies. But I do not know many children that would turn down candy.”
“Might be right.” His mother shook her head.
“It is not bad for them,” Candy reminded Big Bunny. “No more than the veggies are. Not with my magic.” She poked at the basket. “Are all of these brown? You could really use color, children love colors.”
“We don’t have a tie-dye basket machine.”
“Well you need color.” Candy continued to change the fruit into sweet fruit.
“Should we put a note that says children can eat as much as they want?” Big Bunny asked.
“Oh no, never. Children crave bad stuff. Tell them it is good for them, and they might not like it as much. Psychology.” Candy looked around again but Big Bunny’s mother was gone. Candy was alone with him. “Did I say something wrong?”
“You are changing everything, but we must trust you. I think mother is having a harder time with your new thoughts.” Big Bunny shrugged. “You have weird thoughts.”
They were only weird to a rabbit. “I am trying to help.”
“Legend foretold that Candy would make vast changes.” He rolled his eyes. “I thought it was just your name.”
“You know,” Candy said, “our world had a prophecy too. I wonder if they are the same? Scholars did their best to translate, but it’s so confusing if you see the original text.” She looked over at Big Bunny. “But I have to take care of you. Apocalypse or not, you are my Big Bunny.”
“I know.” He didn’t sound thrilled with her statement. “I am still just your pet bunny.”
* * *
The eggs. The fruit. How did they keep them? So many eggs. Fruit during the snow? They obviously couldn’t go to the store, they had no money. “Big Bunny?” He looked back at Candy. “You never explained about the eggs. None of them smelled.”
“Oh, didn’t you know? Vegan power. We keep fruit and vegetables fresh. The hens and ducks have the power to keep their eggs fresh forever. That way, if there is a chick, it stands the most likely chance of survival without sitting on it all day.”
“Hm.” Candy smiled at him with a bit of showoff sparkle. “I like my power better. Not that it helps you personally. Speaking of personal, I have my own problems at home.”
“I know, Darren. I did not forget. We are heading on our way out right now.” He looked back at her. “Will you come again?”
“Maybe, but I have to go back home for now.” It was easier said than done. The snow covered the hole. Big Bunny dug with his little paws and even Candy helped.
“The snow is too intense.”
“How can there be a blizzard in the middle of spring?”
“You already know the answer,” he reminded her. “You are stuck here until morning. After that, I will take you back.”
“Is there enough room?”
“Sure. As there has always been room for me in your bed, I can share mine.”
* * *
Candy had expected his room to be a small room big enough for a rabbit, but it was large. It wasn’t a bed like hers, but gigantic bedding made of multiple pillows and large blankets. “This is your room?”
“Yes. I thought the snow might make things hard to make it back home.” He raised his eyes toward her. “You accepted me when you found out I talked. Will you still accept me through all this?”
“Your pet status is in serious question.” Once again, he didn’t like the words though. “Changing things with Darren. Changing things with you.”
“I am still the one that makes you feel better. I’m the one you talk to when life gets rough,” he reminded her. “I’m the one who curled up next to the bed with you every night.” He made a strange sound from his throat. “Not that wolf.”
“Oh, do we have to go there?” She did not want to have that discussion. “I will work it out with Darren.”
“If this worked, you could just stay here.” Big Bunny touched her head and patted it. “No messing with the wolf anymore.”
“What do you mean if it worked?”
“If the baskets work, you could work here using your magic every year.”
“But my magic is limited.” Did he not get that at all? “I don’t know how it happens with you, but I know how it happens with my kind. I have to get that kiss out of me.”
“I have bunny smooched you several times,” he reminded her. “I am Vegan. You’ve never had problems with your magic before.”
“I never had a problem with my taste before either. You are different, great for you. I am not and things are different.” Candy just wanted to go to sleep. Curl up and just go to sleep.
“How?”
“It’s so elementary for my kind.” Candy crawled into bed. “I have to give myself to the wolf to undo the damage.” There, that was one way to put it. Unfortunately, Big Bunny didn’t let that stand. He lifted the sheets off of her.
“Excuse me? What do you mean you have to give yourself to the wolf?” His eyes. He had those real red rabbit eyes for just a few seconds before they moved to emerald green. “Candy, you had better talk to me. You didn’t talk to me last night either and you always do.”
Candy tried to pull the covers back up, but he stopped her again. He wasn’t going to give in. “I’m not like you. My magic is different. Two heavy Sweets and Vegans mix wrong, and I could die. Vegan and Sweet only mix in one way.” She slowly met her eyes. “I can’t ask it of that strange guy, so the wolf will have to work. I’ll figure out how to make him marry me later.”
“What?!”
Candy felt him get under the blankets. He petted her head much like she did him and gave her a smooch on the top of her forehead.
“That is wrong. No way are you going to be with a wolf.”
“Damn it, what do you want from me?” She tried to make him stop petting her head, but she couldn’t. She had to admit, she enjoyed it. Still. “The wolf is how I’m going to have to make it.”
“You were going to leverage everything for marriage. Without it, he’ll make you a concubine to Posh. No way. You haven’t worked this long to go out like that. I don’t care if you hate my home and want Sweet Meats. Fine, but you won’t end up that way. I swear it, Candy Sweet.”
* * *
Cotton adjusted his bowtie before he knocked on the door. He should not be happy about the situation but there was a lighter skip to his step. Candy did not know that her bunny was Cotton. If she did, she would probably freak out. So far, Candy had kept herself in control well, but this might be too much for his little magic user. She needed to see another side of him. Something besides the ‘pet’ she confided and held. If she had feelings for him as Cotton, then maybe she would not go after the wolf. She would stay with him. Not as an owner, but as something more.
He’d had feelings for Candy almost since the moment his nose twitched in her direction. All she had was a need to help his adorable butt out. Even with the magic baskets, she was helping him because he was her pet. There was a good chance she didn’t even believe in the apocalypse, she was just doing her duty as a good owner. Making sure he was taken care of after everything fell
for her.
Well, it didn’t matter how underhanded it may feel, the ends justified the means. Cotton was now an option. There was more than Darren.
And there was no way that wolf was laying a paw on Candy.
Cotton held white lilies in his arms presentably as he knocked on the door.
Candy answered with her hair a mess. It made no difference to him, but as soon as she saw who it had been, she closed the door and shouted she’d be a minute. It was closer to five minutes before she answered it. “Cotton.”
“Candy.” He giggled. “Hey, Cotton Candy. There’s a strange coincidence.” He held the flowers out to her. “You are right, I needed a good night’s sleep to think about it.” He couldn’t outwardly propose, that would never be right. “My mom used to say that sometimes love found itself in strange ways. I don’t know you, but that doesn’t mean I should take you and then leave you. It also doesn’t mean that I should just leave you.”
Candy took the flowers. “What do you mean?”
“I have no one special in my life, Candy. Each night I will come over and we will get to know each other. If I feel like there is a connection, I will marry you.” Cotton wished he could frame that look on her face. “Divorce, if it didn’t work, is possible. Second chances though, that’s not.”
“Marriage. Really?” She didn’t even bother asking what he did for a living. “Cotton, I-I don’t know what to say. Do you want to come in?”
Tempting but Cotton knew his place. “Tonight I’ll come over around seven. I have to go to work right now. Just keep me in mind.”
“Oh, wait.” Candy reached out her hand to touch his arm. “I never got around to asking your last name.”
“Tai-uh . . .” He went with a human name of Cotton Tail, but that would be too close. “Lor. Taiuhlor. It’s foreign, so everyone just calls me Cotton.” Close call.
“Okay. I-I’ll see you tonight, Cotton.”
* * *
“Big Bunny, here, let me see you.” Candy adjusted the big orange bow she put on him. “Please be good. He could be a potential second chance.”
He was Big Bunny for six months and she never flinched an eye. He was in his human form one day and he already had her if he wanted. He tried not to sound jealous of himself, but getting gussied up in an orange bow all for Cotton? “How do you know he’s better than Darren? You don’t know anything about him. He could be a serial killer.”
Candy let go of the orange bow. “If he wanted to kill me he wouldn’t propose marriage, he’d just take out Darren so I couldn’t save myself. Besides, he seemed sweet, and I did go on a ‘sort of’ date. It’s not like I have much choice, Big Bunny.”
“I have a way out too.”
“Becoming a rabbit and making magic baskets to stop the almighty apocalypse?” Candy laughed it off. “Being a rabbit would really take some getting used to.”
It wasn’t even a possibility to her. There were actually many places underground where he could be human. He wasn’t the only half rabbit half human down there, but he couldn’t risk taking her while she didn’t know he was Cotton. “Of course, who could ever live like a rabbit?”
“Oh, I didn’t mean it like that. I could,” Candy said meeting her eyes to his. “I could learn if it was necessary. I just don’t think I really belong down there though.”
Big Bunny felt her adjust his bow again. As soon as she turned, he snuck out the back window. Being prepared, he got Cotton’s clothes on and headed to her front door.
As Cotton, he knocked. He rewarded Candy with a large smile and a box of chocolates. She was supposed to be having trouble with tasting sweet now, so it was a special box made terribly rancid tasting. In his human form, that kiss should only have affected Candy by two or three days so a little extra insurance was needed. If she wanted to taste test something, this would be it. A brand new box of what appeared to be her favorite chocolates. She already thought after that date he was a little light in the head, so forgetting she couldn’t have candy would be expected.
She took the chocolates and invited him in. “My tastebuds can’t have these yet.” She set them on the counter. “I made spaghetti. Oh, with vegan stuff. I made it out of cucumbers and things.” She moved around the counter and brought it toward him. “I hope you like it.”
“I bet I will.” Cotton took the plate. He’d already got into it more than once when Candy wasn’t looking in his rabbit form. She truly kept it completely vegan, he had been impressed. She ate much less than him as he gave her his made up story of his home and family life.
She in turn told him about her mother, her relationship with her father, yadda yadda. It was nothing he had not heard as her number one confidante before. Surprisingly though, her bunny was talked about more than anything.
Was he really the only positive thing going on in her life? She talked about how most days all she wanted to do was come home to her pet rabbit and lie beside him. She skipped the talking aspect of her rabbit though. Let Cotton into her life and maybe marriage? Okay, but let him know her bunny could talk? It was a no-no.
As they spoke, Cotton began to rethink things. Maybe . . .
Was Candy’s ancestral blood still running through her thick enough that she could love him, even as Big Bunny? “You talk a lot about that bunny of yours.”
“I don’t have much else going for me right now,” Candy insisted. “I just . . .” She shrugged.
“Normal people don’t like their pets that much.” Cotton had to test himself. “If you come to live with me, would this bunny follow along?”
One phrase. Just that one simple phrase was all it really took to see the truth. In his other form, he didn’t see it. She used the word pet. She called him a pet name. He got a collar. But here she was with someone she believed could take her away from the bad world coming, and . . .
“My bunny is part of me.”
Cotton pushed harder. “It’s a pet. I can stand a cat, maybe a dog. Bunnies are kind of pushing it though, don’t you think?”
“No, I don’t. Are you allergic to them?”
“No.”
“Then if you marry me, it’s settled.”
Cotton tried hard, really hard not to smile as he clinked glasses with her. “Okay. For you, you could bring him. Where is he though?”
“He didn’t seem fond of getting to meet you. He’s quite protective of me.”
“He’s a freaking bunny.”
“Doesn’t matter.” She moved away a moment to find him, but Cotton already knew it was a lost cause. Not wanting her to believe that Big Bunny left, he pretended that he saw something with an orange bow pass by him.
The rest of the night, Candy stirred conversations more toward Cotton. He changed the names of a lot of things, but told her some things about himself. His dad dying when he was younger. How it made the family business even harder. He told her about his friend Matt and how they met. He even told her why they went to Sweet Meats in the first place.
That caused a strange reaction. “Poured has been madly in love with Stephen since she was fourteen. They are engaged to be married. There is no way she’d flirt with anyone, ever.”
Huh. That was strange. Then why did Matt think he had a chance? Cotton placed it in the back of his mind for now. Before he left, he shook Candy’s hand and said goodbye.
* * *
After he left, Candy headed to the fridge. Now that Cotton was taken care of, and work, was done, she needed to focus on the next thing. She took out some eggs and set them aside as she boiled water. She had just placed the eggs into the boiling water as she saw familiar paws come around the corner. “There you are. You didn’t come out to see Cotton at all.”
“He looked like a jerk.”
He would say that. Candy smiled, strolled over to him and picked him up. “Eggs?”
“You hate me.”
“How about a special spaghetti made with carrots?”
“You love me.”
Candy sat him next to the count
er to a second dish she had been preparing in secret. Even better than the computer, a spaghetti dish made with finally cut strips of carrots. His absolute favorite. She watched him almost shove his nose into it as she got him a plate and dished it up. “Here you go.” She moved back toward the eggs and took them out one at a time. With Big Bunny consumed with his meal, she set to work getting out some tools she brought from Sweet Meats.
It hit her today while she was working how she could make those little gift baskets stand out. She wasn’t surprised when Big Bunny asked what she was doing. “It’s called killing two birds with one stone. The eggs take up so much room because they stay fresh. You have thousands of them down there. Meanwhile, I decorate a special egg for every table that comes to Sweet Meats. It’s sort of our way to say thanks for stopping by.” She took a brush, dipped it in pink ink and set the egg in an egg stand. Carefully she started to draw lines across it. “It’s unique decoration. Multitudes of these in a basket, and you have something special.”
“Boiled eggs?” Big Bunny didn’t sound half as enthused as he sucked up his carrot spaghetti.
“The older eggs I would assume are the furthest away from the hens. They’ll never hatch. They are perfect.” She watched his eyes of uncertainty again. “You need to trust me. Candy is a good start, but kids need something special too. Boiled eggs are tough, but oh so yummy.”
“Candy and decorated boiled eggs.” He tried to hide his groan, but Candy heard it regardless. “Even boiled, they’ll bump all around. You’ll need some kind of stuffing.”
“A good point. Nothing too heavy though.” Candy looked around herself. “Cotton?”
“What about him?”
“No, I mean cotton as a filling.” Candy headed to her room where she had a little fake basket. She dumped it. It mostly had some sewing needles and minor things she could easily replace. She brought it out and looked around. “I don’t know if I have cotton.”
Big Bunny munched happily on his large plate of carrot spaghetti, but placed his paws on it. “Here you go.” He pushed down on it. “Even better. Everyone should get carrot spaghetti or cucumber spaghetti. Great if the kid doesn’t like sweets, they can eat the carrot grass. Er, spaghetti.”
For Love of Mister Cotton Tail: An Apocalyptic Fairytale (Single) Page 4
