Rabbit Turned Carnivorous

"Is it ready yet?"

"The water is still boiling. Asking me for the fifth time won't make it boil faster."

The rabbit girl has her neck craned up from her seat at the table. Barely any steam is rising from the cheap metal pot on the stove, yet Mira insists on verifying its status every few seconds. At least she's doing as she's told and is still seated.

Meanwhile, I gather up the remains of my fallen companion.

"My poor notes, what will I do without you…"

"Is all of that paper even worth anything?"

Mira moves from the table and is now crouched on the floor in front of me with an obvious head tilt. I grip the torn pages tightly in my hands and show them to her.

"Worth anything!? These notes were how I was going to pass my classes this year! I went through the trouble of writing every last word on the board including all of the diagrams and definitions and random crap the teachers rambled about! My blood, sweat and tears are in these pages!"

"Your blood, sweat, and tears don't taste very good."

"Gahh!"

I feel a knife stabbing through my chest as she scrunches up her face at the flavour. Sure, my notes haven't historically led to me scoring well on tests. But to have a cute girl tell me that all of my effort was pointless still stings. I might as well go back to cramming the day before, the score won't be much different.

I try to stop myself from crying with a deep breath.

"Relax, she probably didn't mean it that way. Besides, she's a rabbit! A rabbit. Right, a rabbit."

"I am a rabbit. Why does that matter?"

"Because you've never been—wait, how did you hear that!"

I could have sworn that nothing more than my normal breathing left my mouth. I could barely hear the words I said under my breath, yet she makes it sound like I said it for the whole class to hear. Rabbits are crazy!

I tuck myself into a ball on the floor in defeat.

"Don't worry about it, you wouldn't understand…"

"I don't really get it, but whatever this Shake-spear thing is probably wasn't important anyways."

"Believe me, I would rather never hear about him…either?"

I uncurl my body and look at Mira. She's looking over the various notes on the pages like it's the most natural thing to do. Well, this scene is actually pretty normal to an outsider, but it shouldn't be possible.

"You can read?"

"Hm?"

She looks at me for a moment, looks back at the paper, then looks back at me.

"I guess I can?"

"Who taught you to read?"

"I don't know."

Figured as much.

I quickly roll to my feet. My sudden movements must have startled Mira as her whole body flinches.

"The water should be good by now. Mira, can you put the notebook pages on the desk for me?"

"Alright!"

It's barely a noteworthy task, but she responds with more energy than I've mustered in the past several months. Her bare feet scurry to and from the desk as she carries a small stack of pages each trip. Something about watching her like this puts a fluffy feeling in my chest. Maybe it's just because there is an extra body in the room, but it feels much warmer in here now.

The oven still has a bit of time on the meatballs, but the water is more than ready to start cooking the pasta. I reach into the upper cabinet and grab a half empty box of spaghetti as well as a jar of alfredo sauce. I hear Mira trotting over as I dump the remaining pasta into the pot.

"What is that?"

A soft hand rests against my back. I feel her silky hair against my left shoulder as her head pops up next to me. Mira's entire body is pressed against me as she peeks into the pot. My heart rate increases.

"S-Spaghetti."

"What does it taste like?"

"Ah…uhhh…"

My brain is distracted from our contact at what feels like a stupid question. Pasta is pasta, the flavour is pretty standard.

"What do you normally eat?"

"Me? Uhm…grass, plant roots, berries, grass…"

Mira counts on the fingers of her free hand, listing basic plants. None of that surprises me, but it doesn't help either.

"Think…uhh…grass, but…fancier? It's less chewy and more uhhh, sweet?"

Even I feel that the explanation was lacking. Pasta is made from the grains of this fancy grass, but I'm sure that process would make even less sense to her. I haven't tasted enough normal grass to make a good comparison, not that any of this matters once the sauce is on top.

"Woaaaah!"

Mira's blue eyes are sparkling and her mouth is open in awe. I can easily imagine drool dribbling out with how excited she looks. Her body suddenly presses even closer to mine and she is now holding onto my left arm. I feel my body jostled as she hops slightly up and down.

"Hurry, Noa! Hurry! I want to taste the fancy grass!"

"Shaking me isn't going to make it boil faster!"

For obvious reasons, I have trouble stirring the pasta. I can't just push the rabbit girl off, and it's not because I'm actually enjoying the contact a little.

Beeeep. Beeeep.

"Waah!"

At the loud ring of the oven, Mira squeaks and retreats to the other side of my body. Her body presses even closer as she carefully watches the oven.

"Looks like the meat is done. Can't have a good spaghetti meal without meat."

With an oven mitt on one hand and Mira closely behind me, I release waves of warm air to reveal the meatballs. Mira watches closely as I place the tray on the table.

"Don't touch the tray. You'll burn your fingers."

"What are those round things and why do they smell so good?"

"Ah, they're por—"

The realisation finally dawns on me as I look at the salivating rabbit. We're eating spaghetti, so it felt natural to also cook meatballs. But here we have a girl that is basically vegetarian, and she's looking ready to pounce and sink her teeth into pork flesh.

"D-Don't worry about it! They're not for you!"

"Huh!? Why does Noa get all of the tasty stuff!"

"You won't like them! I promise!"

"Grrr!"

I take a step back as she pulls her face up to mine. She's barely tall enough for her head to reach my shoulders normally, but she again has no problem filling my view exclusively with her pouting face.

"That's not faaaaair!"

No matter how I try to look away, I can't get away from those large, bright eyes.

"Haaaah…fine, you can have some…"

I'm sorry mother nature, but I can't seem to say no to this girl.

After pulling out the alfredo sauce from a bowl in the microwave, I finally prepare the plate for my hungry visitor. I purposefully place less on her plate considering Mira is both a girl and a rabbit.

"Alright, it's done. Go to the table and I'll bring them over."

"Got it!"

She makes it to her seat so quickly that I didn't have a chance to even see her move when I turned around with the plates. When I place a plate in front of her, Mira excitedly stares in awe at the spaghetti topped with alfredo sauce and a group of sliced meatballs.

"Can I really eat this!?"

"After all of that, you'd better eat it."

I'm also pretty hungry by the time I sit down. As I prepare to dig my fork into my meal, I catch sight of Mira attempting to dig her face into the pasta, literally.

"Hold on! Use the fork!"

"Hm?"

Her nose was almost in the sauce when I caught her. After a lengthy explanation on the usage of a fork, we do a second take at eating lunch. I watch Mira gingerly rotate the fork to get a clump of pasta.

"Noa, eating is hard…"

"Maybe I should have broken the pasta to make it easier…"

Eventually, she manages to get a manageable bite's worth of pasta and she places it in her mouth. All of the pain leading up to this bite must have been worth it as she lets out a small squeak with her mouth full. I can feel the table shake slightly as she swings her legs around wildly.

"Isshoo goood!"

"Tell me about it after you swallow."

I already know it's good, I eat pasta every couple of weeks. But something about her vigorous consumption of such a simple dish makes it feel gourmet.

"The fancy grass with this creamy sap on top is the best thing I've ever tasted! I haven't even tried the 'meat'"

"Ahh—!"

All of the fuzzy feelings made me forget about the taboo right in front of me. Mira stabs her fork into one of the slices I had cut for her and brings it to her mouth.

"Wait—!"

"Hm?"

Mira looks at me confused. She still doesn't see anything wrong here. If I want to preserve the natural circle of life, this is my last chance.

"What's wrong?"

"N-Nothing…"

I failed once again.

The chunk of meat disappears behind Mira's lips, her face showing enjoyment as she chews. She continues back for more, eating with absolute joy.

"At least she enjoys it…"

I can only sigh and eat my own pasta.