"Malcolm? Where are you going?"

"Stay back!"

"Why? What's wrong?"

"Don't bring it any closer, Travis!"

"This little thing? Why not?"

"Just keep that…creature away from me!"

"But it's so cute," Travis admonished. He held the fluffy white alien animal up to his own face. He could see it's pink nose working happily. The resemblance to an Earth rabbit was uncanny, other than the tips of it's ears and it's tail being adorned with silky tufts of incredibly thin, spindly fur. What could be so scary about this guy?

Travis could see Malcolm was truly distressed and fought back the impulse to tease Malcolm about his odd reaction…for about two seconds. Then he held the bunny out to Malcolm. "You really don't like him?"

Malcolm backpedaled quickly away, hitting up against a tree trunk. "Please, Travis, keep it away from me." His eyes were wide and never left the alien bunny.

"But he's just so cute, aren't you, Pookie?" Travis cuddled the bunny. He could see Malcolm quaking with fear. "What did a bunny ever do to you?"

"I…I'd rather not talk about it."

Travis stared at him. "You can't be serious, Malcolm. They're little, tiny, herbivorous animals. They wouldn't hurt anyone—"

"They're nothing but giant ugly rats," Malcolm interrupted.

Man, did Malcolm have issues. "Pookie is not a rat." He soothed the bunny for the awful slur to it's name and stepped toward Malcolm. "See? He's fluffy and nice and cuddly."

Malcolm looked about ready to claw his way up the tree pressed against his back. He stared in horror as Travis stepped closer yet to him, bunny in his arms. "Please, Travis, rabbits don't like me."

"Not like you? Don't be silly." Travis held the bunny up to Malcolm's face. "Pookie likes everyone."

"You've only known 'Pookie' for about five minutes," Malcolm growled out. He tensed as if the bunny would lunge from Travis' hands and attack him at any moment.

"We had a kind of rabbit once while I was growing up. Or, well, Walter was more like a lizard, but that's beside the point. Pookie is a nice bunny, I can tell. Oh so nice, aren't you cutie?" He kissed the bunny's head.

"We're never having children."

Travis blinked at this sudden order. "Why not?"

"You're disgustingly cute with this…bunny. I can't imagine how cute you'd be with kids."

Travis beamed a smile at Malcolm. "I think there's a compliment in there…somewhere." He waved the bunny in Malcolm's face. "He's not going to hurt you. He's sweet. Want to hold him?"

"Hell no," Malcolm snapped. He inched along the tree trunk and slipped around until he was free to back away once more. "Just put it down and let it go. We, um, should get back to the shuttlepod."

Travis shook his head. They had at least another hour until they were due back. "Fine, don't touch the cute, cuddly animal who just wants to be loved." He hugged the bunny and bounced it lightly in his arms. And that was when irony bit him in the ass, or, well, the hand. Travis shouted as he felt teeth sink in to his right palm just below his thumb. He instantly dropped the rabbit.

Malcolm was beside him in a second. "What happened? What's wrong?"

"Pookie, you little shit!" Travis cradled his right hand in his left as he stormed after the retreating bunny. The rabbit seemed to wave it's tail in a mocking manner as it hopped quickly away through the forest foliage and disappeared out of sight.

"Travis! Stop! Let me look at the bite." Malcolm caught up to him and pulled the hand out to inspect the wound.

"Damn little monster," Travis grumbled. He winced as Malcolm poked at his hand.

"Nothing serious, but Phlox will want to run a battery of tests for infection once we're back, I'm sure." Malcolm pulled out a small bit of cloth from his pocket and wrapped Travis' palm to stop the bleeding. "We should most definitely return to the shuttlepod now…unless you'd care to cuddle any more of the local wildlife?"

Travis glared. "No, thanks, I'm good now."

Malcolm smirked, annoyingly happy to be proved right about the bunny, and turned to lead the way back. "You should know well enough to stick to cuddling just me."

Travis rolled his eyes and mentally prepared himself for the barrage of snarky comments to come for the next week or so. How was he to know bunnies had such an evil streak in them? Damn you, Pookie!