Michael had reached out with a cryptic message and a promotion: Jude was now acting head of Backforest Tactical on one condition. He had to watch his boss' dogs while he took his girlfriend on holiday.

Michael was weirdly capricious, but even for him this was on the extra side of weird. Why would he give up control of the company he started up? Was he... thinking of starting a family?

And how did Jude, of all people, end up having to take two bear-sized dogs into his tiny apartment? When they were all in there, there was hardly enough room to shut the door! The absolute worst part of the deal was that as well trained as the dogs were, they apparently trained them in Russian?

"Сидеть." Google translate had told him, and so the dogs sat. One dog, aptly named Dammit, looked directly at Jude as she sat on top of his running shoes.

"You are why I do not understand why people like animals." Both dogs wagged their tails, one knocking his bedside lamp to the floor.

Grumbling, he got their leashes affixed, wrestled his shoes out from under one, got them to sit again, and got his jacket on and then went out into the unknown cold, armed with two dogs that came up to his breastbone. He brought three plastic bags for pick up. There was so much. Always so, so much to pick up. No wonder he deserved a promotion.

As much as he complained, they were pretty well-behaved. It was only when they across really, truly interesting scents that they disregarded him entirely.

Like now...

"Стоп! Wait!" He was skiing across the cold pavement and no doubt wearing the rubber from his soles. Digging in his heels was no good. They smelled something and were on the hunt. "Stop! Uh-" Crap. He couldn't wrestle the leashes and google translate all at once.

Zaid was on his way to the store, one of the few events that could drag him out of the house. His fridge was sadly lacking, and he wanted fresh veggies tonight with dinner. Despite how cliche he felt it was, sometimes having s nice salad just seemed nice. And carrots. Screw it, he was getting carrots, Bugs Bunny references be damned!

When he was turning a corner, his ears perked at the same time his nose did. There was a sound that made every bunny vein in his body freeze. Dogs. And frankly, by the scent and sounds, it was two of them. He glanced from side to side, looking for a path to safety. The closest thing was a tree. Glancing side to side, he was relieved no one seemed close enough to spot him, so he made the jump up to the nearest branch, and swung himself up on the limb. In the process, his hat decided to fall to the sidewalk below.

Retrieve the hat? Stay in the tree? He heard the dogs getting closer and pulled his legs up, trying to pull himself out of site. His ears quivered and he waited. If the owner was useful, he would drag the dogs on their way and not look up. Don’t look at the rabbit hiding in the tree. Nothing to see here.

"No! Erg. Halt! Spyetchna-kaffka... Arrêt! Dammit, Reveille, arrêt!" He was not strong enough or RUssian enough. The Ranger was strong enough, but he was also strong enough to man handle a fire truck so Jude wasn't terribly upset about not being up to Michael's level there. The Russian thing was now a bonus, considering politics and election meddling.

They pulled him along with zero hint that they could hear or respect him. Jude was not the alpha dog, here. He caught his foot on the curb and was able to catch the dogs and pull them up short for a moment. They seemed to be aiming for something small on the ground, but then his tenuous hold was broken by the constant strain against the leashes. Whatever poor, helpless, small animal had been on the ground was no more.

"Stop. Stop!" And then he remembered that the sound wasn't so different for the Russian command. "Сидеть!" They stopped. Reluctantly- but they did. Something dropped from the side of Reville's mouth. It gave Jude enough time to fish out his phone. "Stupid commie dogs." He muttered. "I'm going to teach you to speak in French like sophisticated, proper ladies."

He typed in the command for "drop it" and as soon as the phone had spoken, they did. Eugh. It was time to inspect the remains...

Someone was yelling in Russian, and that was strangely terrifying by itself. Despite all his efforts to be open minded, Zaid had terrifying images of a Russian psychopath letting his dogs lose after his poor little bunny self. He was never coming out of this tree. Never never never—

Then, he aw the guy. Okay, he did not seem as intimidating. The dogs were certainly gigantic, and they were destroying his hat in the lost delighted manner he had ever seen. What if that had been him? His ears were not going to be chew toys, thank you very much! In an effort to get further away, he wiggled sideways on his branch, and there was a crack.

No. No no no. He slid sideways, legs wrapping around the branch for dear life, ending up dangling upside down like a sloth with his bunny ears and even his bunny tail visible for all to see. Why did he wear THESE pants?! Yes, his tail felt better being free but it was hard to feel dignified with a tail poking through your jeans.

Maybe could just let go after all. He was dying of embarrassment anyway.

Reville sat all on her own and Jude was reminded of why she was the favorite foster-dog. Dammit was nosing the thing in question as Jude approached, but true to their bargain, she hadn't picked it up in her mouth again. That got her a good girl pat. And then he felt guilty so Revvie got one too.

From what he could see... It was not an animal. Jude toed the moist heap of cloth until he heard a crack.

In slow motion he looked up just as someone else was having a slow-mo oh god why me sort of fall. Jude put his arms out, out of instinct. He wasn't really trying to catch the falling person, it just sort of happened. He fell into his arms, Jude's phone was slapped down out of his hand, and they were both bowled backwards by the momentum. One-two-three steps backwards and he was able to catch his balance and not drop anything terribly important.

Shocked, Jude's mouth just sort of flapped open. In his arms was a grown-up version of his sort-of step brother Roger. If his own mutation wasn't champing at the bit to copy this person's power, he would have been sure this was some sort of weird fetish thing. A cosplay. But it wasn't and that's why the dogs had gone crazy.

And the dogs continued to be incredibly excited. They came snuffling in immediately and Jude wrestled his catch up in an attempt to keep the bunny out of their reach.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I am so, so sorry. They're usually better behaved and there's no excuse. Сидеть!" He spat the command and they both sat down, responding to the crack of force in his voice.

Zaid wasn’t sure when he lost his grip on the tree, but the sensation of falling was terrifying and short lived. He hit something solid, and found himself held and rather close to a guy who looked roughly the same age. He wanted to feel embarrassed (because when you are a un-closeted bunny suddenly caught by any guy, blushing seemed valid), but then the dogs reminded him he was frickin’ terrified.

”Stars and aces!” he squeaked while the guy holding him apologized. Meanwhile, Zaid display a frantic scramble of acrobatics to try and get as far away from the dogs as possible, clambering higher toward the guys shoulders. A dogs nose touched his tail and he squeaked in the manliest way possible, every muscle in his body flinching away from the contact.

Maybe it would have been okay if they listened once they sat. But one dog (the name sounded like Dammit, which seemed fitting) decided to jump. Giant bear paws came flying at them, and the due was quickly claimed by gravity. Zaid took this as a sign to make one last desperate scramble for freedom, only to get caught between dog and man, and land awkwardly in the quote literal dog pile. Circled up into a defensive ball, he landed across the guys stomach, face dangerously close to things it should be, tail now close to the strangers face. One dog licked his ear and he froze, forgetting how he had landed.

No, it was not a cotton ball tail, thank you very much! But having a tail in your face was not normal for human greeting, mutant or not.

Sorry it sorry I blame your dogs!

Cute. How could Jude not think it when it was so fluffy and blushing and right there. He was totally cute. And totally trying to climb him in a near-blind planic.

Jude was helping. Sort of. He thought he might be helping anyway, but he tried most of all to help himself not get strangled. He tried to get the bunny boy's fingers free of his throat and he wasn't watching the dogs close enough to interfere when they thought they might want to help as well.

He didn't let go quick enough to be able to properly protect himself, and all the air left his lungs in a whuff that summoned the licking questioning from his goodest doggo friends. Stunned, he wasn't sure what was up, let alone what was dog fluff or what was tail fluff. He also was not holding on to to the leash of his mutation and it greedily roved through the bunny boy like someone might have walked over his future grave.

Dazed from the light smack to the back of his head, Jude took a moment to regret all of his life choices.

"Off." He waved his arms to ward off the puppers who, from his current angle were far taller than he was, and made motions in an attempt to sit up. Only sitting up was sliding bunny boy down. Jude groped for the shoulders. The shoulders were safe and he just wanted to safely rearrange how they were sitting. That was all. Safety first. He snapped at the dogs until they backed off a step.

"Are you okay?" That was dumb. He was the one who'd gotten landed on. And now the crown of his head was itching, a result of his head smack, he reasoned, mostly because he could not see the bunny ears growing in.

It took several moments for Zaid to realize he was not being mauled to death. In fact, he was pretty sure he was much more at risk of being licked to death than anything. The stranger took the opportunity to rearrange them, making Zaid feel a bit more like a rabbit than a guy for a moment. Then he realized the minor expression of pain the stranger had.

”I’m sorry, I’m sorry, are you hurt?” he blurted our in typical paranoid fashion. He tried not to jump when his tail was sniffed again, and nervously glanced at the dogs. Human! Not bunny! Human! he tried conveying. Then he felt his own attention drift.

Something was, different, about the guy who caught him. Well, two somethings. Two, uh, ears. ”When...” he was fairly certain the stranger was NOt part rabbit when he caught Zaid. In fact, based on their very close encounter he knew he wasn’t mistaken. He got a good look at the mans face, probably too good of a look. Stars and aces, what was going on?

”Did they, did I, When did...” should he move? This felt awfully uh, close for comfort now. Then the dog sniffed his ear and he recited, deciding moving away was still a bad plan.

Was he hurt? Good question. Jude reached up to touch the tender spot near the back of his head, but somehow managed not to touch the budding ears that were growing like a stop motion flower.

"Yeah. I think I'm okay, actually. Oh, man! My phone!" He'd dropped it! Crap. Was the screen cracked? he hated that. Jude scrambled up through the blanket of doggo licks and grabbed his phone. It looked okay. A new ding on the corner and a single, long crack, but otherwise it still turned on. He scratched absently at the base of an ear as he fiddled with his phone and as the other guy sputtered.

> "Did I, When did..."

"Yeah. When you fell on me, I guess." He was trying not to be grumpy about falling over and getting dragged around, honestly. Good attitude and all that. "It's- fine- I guess." He pocketed the phone and regained control of the leashes. For some odd reason both Reveille and Dammit were now trying to jump on him. They weren't jumpers... normally... but today was turning into a totally non-normal day.

"Down, girl." One of them goosed him which made Jude aware of something... fluffy... in his pants.

He looked at the bunny boy then scrambled to tug open the back of his pants and confirm that, yes, he had grown a fluffy cotton tail. And if he had a tail then... Jude reached up and felt the fluffiest, softest, furriest, biggest ears he'd ever grown.

A lot of strange thing had happened around Zaid since he moved to the city. It was someone of a consequence of being around a high number of mutants. He saw people randomly walk through walls or shape shift. But seeing a stranger spontaneously develop rabbit ears in front of him was new. Based on the guys reaction, this was not a normal occurrence for the guy. To make matters worse, Zaid was pretty sure this guys ears were better looking. Wait, was he jealous of someone else’s ears? They look fluffier....

He caught himself staring and blushed again. His ears did an awkward dance where they wanted to lie down in unhappiness and kept peeking up to listen to all the noise the dogs were making.

He shook his head. The ears weren’t important. ”No, your head. Do you need to see a doctor? Wait, ears. They may not take those well. Is there a mutant doctor? Phone.... we can fix the phone! I uh, I don’t make a lot, but I can do something... oh stars!” one of the dogs got a much too close look at his tail again and he jumped several feet higher in the air than normal humans could.

This was new, but no reason to panic and, as much as he'd like to, it also wasn't a reason to blame the bunny. Again. The urge was rising. Instead, Jude tried to placate the other guy, but the other guy was pretty jumpy (no pun intended, though his vertical was impressive).

"Uh. Hey. Relax. It's not a huge deal. This sort of thing happens to me every now and again, and it's pretty temporary." Though, he'd rather not demonstrate just now. That took concentration and then it would mean further concentration to keep his power in check. Though a quick prod at his power proved that it was coiled up like a freshly fed snake, happy to hang out for a bit. "And I don't think I smacked my head that hard. If I went back to the mutant doctor I know again so soon, I think he'd start changing me." DocProf was equal parts good heart and sassy face. He should charge for what he did, but if Jude had to guess, the Mansion paid him enough to keep his heart bigger than his face.

"Look, I think we sort of, whoah-" Reville made like she was gonna jump up on the other bunny so Jude had to reign her back in. Reigning in two giant animals was just not his normal. And as much as they only sort of obeyed before, now they just blatantly did not care. "I think we got off on the wrong foot. I'm Jude. I sometimes copy powers. These are my foster dogs, just here for the holidays. Meet Dammit in the reddish collar and Reville in the leather." The way he said the last showed he definitely had some French language experience.

Though he wasn't going to make a deal of it, his head was throbbing and he couldn't wait to get out of the cold. He still had to walk these pups until they looked tired enough not to chew through his apartment door. So. Really. If the boy could just calm down and stop making the dogs so excited... that would be ideal.

After the rather invasive sniff, Zaid felts little closer to both dogs, whether he welcomed it or not. He tugged his jacket down so his tail was firmly tucked out of harms way, giving a rueful glance at the canine. I’m watching you. he thought.

Hearing the guy say this was normal was a little surprising. But he was relieved there seemed to be no lasting damage. This was embarrassing enough as it was without adding further injuries to it. ”I’m Zaid,” he responded to Jude’s introduction. He looked at the two canines and smiles slightly at the names. His ears perked at the slight difference in the pronunciations. ”Did you live outside the US?” he found himself asking. He was calming down, at Jude’s request, well, as calm as rabbits ever were.

Copying powers... suddenly his ears perked up, realizing maybe this could help after all. Clearly Jude was having issues controlling his canine companion. After a pause, he blurted out, ”Use your legs more to brace against their weight. Uh, we, I mean, if you have my powers, then you may have more strength in your legs than normal.” now he was looking at the guys legs. Stars, this situation would have actually been less awkward with a girl. Well, a human girl. Girl dogs did nothing to help this. ”And here, take these. The city will make your headache worse unless you block some of the noise out.” he yanked his headphones off and pushed them into Jude’s hands, careful not to make him drop either leash. The headphones had a shorter top to them so they could sit higher on his head, much more suited for bunny ears.[/b]

Only a select few people frowned over Dammit's name. Jude was glad that Zaid was the type to smile about it, instead.

> ”Did you live outside the US?”

"I was born in Saint-Fargeau, France and lived there until I was nine." He shrugged. No big deal. It felt like the city was full of a hundred different accents and immigrants. He'd worked hard so that there was hardly a hint of accent anymore. "Then I got adopted and I've been here ever since."

Seeing Zaid's ears move made Jude curious. Were his perking and telescoping without him knowing? Or was that a learned on-purpose skill?

> ”Use your legs more..."

Legs? Jude also inspected his legs, but his jeans were not so skinny that he was busting through them. In fact, they had a loose leg and there was no discernable change. He did as instructed, leaning away from the monstrous beasty dogs and using his legs more. He definitely felt that he had more strength to tug back when they tried to test their boundaries. Maybe that was a good tip even in not-bunny form. And he even passed over his headphones. Jude had the distinct urge to jerk away as Zaid approached, an uncharacteristic shyness for him.

"Thanks. Do you, maybe... want to walk one with me?" Jude offered a leash. He was doing better than before, but the dogs were huge and strong. Splitting the work would mean splitting burden. Four hands were better than two and all that.

And he had to notice that Zaid didn't exactly seem local. Though, there had to be millions of people (and therefore hundreds of mutants) that he had yet to meet. "What about you? Did you ever live outside the US?"

France... Zaid had never been to France, but it sounded fascinating. Europe and all those surrounding countries were a mystery to him, always just out of reach. His parents didn't travel much, and when he was younger what he knew tended to be from video games or school. He always wanted to travel, but it was never in the plans. When they moved, it was even more unlikely. His parents put all their efforts into their immigration, and it wasn't worth the risk trying to leave. There was no telling he would be allowed back into the country, so why risk it? He wasn't that threatening as a bunny, but he was still a mutant, and that always seemed to put people on edge.

Zaid was rather pleased to see Jude listen and adjust his stance. It seemed the suggestion worked, and the dogs looked a little more manageable. And then Jude surprised him and offered a leash. Zaid felt surprised. No one had ever offered him to do, well, anything with them before. Being asked to walk a giant dog seemed as eventful as being asked to play video games in his world. He accepted the task, wrapping his fingers tightly around the handle. It felt a bit like being strapped to a freight train.... so why did he feel happy about it?

Jude's next question also surprised him. Zaid nodded, trying to stop himself from fidgeting. Once they started walking at least he had to focus on keeping the dog in check and not getting dragged into any nearby trees or trash cans. "I was born in Tokyo. I lived there most of my life. Now I just live here. It's just me though." He didn't go into details about his parents passing away, just as he avoided questioning Jude about being adopted. Some things were better asked as a friendship grew. Could this be a friendship? That thought made him feel hopeful too.

And just like that, Jude's troubles were cut in half. With only Dammit to tow around and bunny legs for bracing, it was totally more manageable. He reached up to scratch again and ended up poking the headphones. Ah. He'd have to remember to return those. For now, he tried to be grateful about them. He could still hear. So it wasn't terribly difficult to imagine how much more he would hear without the help.

Just four words and Jude was cut real deep.

> "...It's just me though."

"You should meet my adopted mom. If-if you wanted to, you know. I think she'd freak out, actually. Uh- in a good way." In the best way, probably. "She lived in Japan for a long time and she's got bio kids with, uh, ears." So it was totally true that he could on occasion sprout his own. Though Roger didn't seem to have the leg thing, he was still young.

How did Jude keep trying to tempt people to the Mansion? It wasn't like he really believed in their mission. If he did, he would have gone through with his plan to become an X-man.

Instead, he was out here. Walking a dog with a bunnyman. As a bunnyman.

"Get a room ya weebs!"

With all the grace afforded to him and by the miracle that was Christmas spirit, Jude turned them away from the road and in toward the walking trails instead of making rude gestures and shouting back. See? He was totally mature now. An actual grown up.

"Thanks for walking with me, with us, I guess. I hope I'm not keeping you from something..." Because, when it came down to it, it was just Jude out here, too.