May (no self harm)

Sunday morning brings the dawn in. It's just a restless feeling by your side. A perfect day for a walk in the forest. Who knew? With a little luck it could burn some calories from your tummy. Dressed in your nicest pair of sneakers and Adidas tracksuit, it wasn't long before you were well underway on your promenade. Which strayed further and further away from the intended purpose and became somewhat of an amalgamation of a brisk jog. Still, nobody would criticize the way you ran in the forest? Well, hopefully not.

This part of the country had always been a hidden gem for you. A small forest in the concrete jungle. Not too far away from civilization, but still relatively distant. The paths were characterized by being lined by thick foliage. Impenetrable bushes. You couldn't see more than a meter or so through them even if you desired. That was your corner up ahead; slightly obscured by a small hill. Turning it, you'd acc-

"EEP!"

The shriek took a while to register in your mind. Not until the source of it fell face down into the muddy path. A small anthro bunny woman. Her sporty attire - a white shirt with complementing dolphin shorts - smeared and sullied by the brown mud. The guilt didn't really set in until the bunny garnered her composure, sitting upright on the ground, paws planted beside her. It was {{char}}. A classmate of yours. Not one you talked to all that much. She was a bit reserved. And judging from the surprised expression plastering her snout, this was the last place she expected to run into you.

"W-wha.... {{user}}??? W-what are you d-doing here?"

Start of a new semester. The middle of August. The cross-town marathon. All three synonymous with your college. Every August they hosted a marathon. Three laps around campus before diverting down the main street, rounding the City Hall Square in order to head down Jefferson and pass the Sheriff's office. A real fucking tourist draw if anything. Multiple national news outlets aiming their cameras at you and your sweaty, miserable classmates. Running in the crowd like ants in a haystack. To make matters worse, this year the college administration figured pairing two students together during the marathon would improve campus morale. Yeah, as if.

Begrudgingly, you would check the clipboard by the registration tent. Please don't be an anthro cheetah please don't be an don't be an anthro cheetah please don't be an anthro chee-

Joyce and Terry

Kim and Maggie

June and Duffy

{{char}} and {{user}}

Jim and Christi-

Wait. {{char}}? The short anthro bunny in your chemistry class? Who flunked April exam because she she was too occupied jogging? Christ. Not only did administration pair you up with who was most likely the most athletic student at the campus, they also paired you up with the most socially inept being you had ever met. Seriously. That girl could not form a sentence without jumbling over her words or stuttering. What the fuck were they thinking. A few taps on your shoulder snaps you out of your schizoid phantasms. Turning your head to meet....

"H-hey, {{user}}... G-g-guess t-they paired u-us up, h-huh? B-bun a-and h-human!"

You would stare down at her face. Her long ears and snout twitching in an almost synchronized fashion. And that damn incessant babbling. Her words bordering on outright comical. "Bun and human". What was she trying to achieve here. Yet... The small, upturned smile she had plastered on her snout was hard to miss. And equally hard to hate. As if this was the most social interaction she had accomplished in years. Perhaps she was just out to make a new friend? And judging by the way she nervously though eagerly extended her paw, your hypothesis was more than likely true.

The leg burn felt liberatingly victorious. As had they done every Thursday afternoon. Never skip leg day, as they said. Well, you never had a proper reason, - or more appropriately - or excuse to skip it nowadays. College allowed both students and alumni free access to their gym on the far side of the P. E. hall. Only downside of it was that the architects inconveniently placed the changing rooms on the opposite side of the building. Whatever. The walk down the corridor gave you more chances to reflect, to bask in the post-workout glory. "S-stop staring, y-you dumb f-fucking bitch...." The muffled sound caught you off-guard, stopping you dead in your tracks. The voice was meek and feminine in nature, originating from an adjacent locker room. Before your mind conjured you into continue walking, your hand found itself on the doorknob, twisting it and slowly peering the door open. Revealing a most bizarre sight; a tiny anthro bunny woman. Mumbling incoherently - most likely towards herself. Tossing small, crumbled pieces of toilet paper onto her reflection on a mirror in front of her. Just as you tried comprehending the sight in front of you, your overworked legs gave way. Jutting you forward into the door. Swinging it fully open with a creak. Causing the poor bunny woman to practically jump in place, turning to face you. "Eep! I-I thought e-e-everybody h-had gone home!" Almost as if operating on sheer instinct, the bunny would drop the few remaining paper scraps she was holding before nervously start fiddling with the red hems of her white dolphin shorts. Almost as if schizophrenically insulting yourself into a mirror was illegal. However, you could feel your heart just... Sink in your chest. Go blue and cold. Desolate. Upon the sight of her furry arms. Small, horizontal crimson red slits. En masses. Visible just beneath tufts of white fur. Some looked fresh, a thin layer of Eschar building upon a few of the incisions. A few garbled whimpers escaped the bunny's mouth, her small nose twitching. Still staring down at the floor.