Cute Friends..

In a forest lived a rabbit named Cheeku. He was playful and enjoyed hopping around all over the place he lived. But his mother always warned him not to go far as wild animals would catch hold of him. Cheeku was careful and took care of himself quite well. He used to play all by himself and felt alone. He felt sad that he had no friends and often used to convey his feelings to his mother who would console and hug him and tell him that he would get a good friend soon. Hearing that, Cheeku would be happy and would daily wait for that day to arrive so that he could have a friend to play with all day and he need not feel alone anymore.

Days and months passed by. One day while playing, he saw a small bush shaking violently. He was curious and scared at the same time. He watched closely and again the bush shook. He ran towards his home and didn’t come out the entire day. The next day as he was jumping around, the shaking of the bush caught his eye once again. This time he mustered courage and shouted out, ‘who’s there?’ There was no response. As the bush shook again, Cheeku slowly walked towards it but his mother's advice hovered around his head yet he was very determined to know as to what was behind the bush.

On reaching near the bush, he slowly moved the branches to take a peek and he was surprised to see a pair of small eyes staring at him intensely. He further separated the branches only to find out that it was a porcupine whose thorns stood erected in full form as it felt threatened by Cheeku’s presence near it. Cheeku found it cute and told him, ‘ I’m not any danger to you. I want to be friends with you. My name is Cheeku, What’s yours?’. The porcupine felt safe but at the same time felt confused thinking what if it’s an enemy and he remembered his mother telling him to stay away from danger and other animals. The porcupine ran away and Cheeku felt sad and called out to him to stay back for some more time. But the porcupine didn’t listen and fled the scene soon.

Cheeku walked back home feeling really sad. He didn’t have his carrots and his mother asked him if he was okay. He said he was fine and didn’t feel hungry and went off to sleep but he kept thinking of the porcupine. The next day, Cheeku sat looking towards the bushes but he didn’t see any movement. This wait of his went on for few more days till finally one day the porcupine came and Cheeku felt very happy and hopped towards him. They kept looking at each other for some time till Cheeku asked him if he would be his friend as he had no one to play with. The porcupine understood that Cheeku was friendly and slowly opened up to Cheeku and told him that his name was porky and he lived nearby with his parents and siblings. Cheeku was very happy and told him that he too lived with his parents and he had no siblings and felt all alone. They became friends in no time.

They smiled looking at each other but Cheeku realized that he couldn’t go near porky because of his thorns. Porky’s thorns would hurt him and porky too felt bad that he couldn’t hug Cheeku.

But that didn’t stop them from playing and talking with each other. They were very happy and excited that they found each other and finally they both did not feel alone and left out. They told their parents about their ‘newfound friend’ and they too felt happy for them as they no longer had to see their child complaining of being alone with no friends to play with.

But the feeling of hugging each other and wanting to be close and touch one another was so overbearing that they both had no idea how to overcome it. If Cheeku went near porky he was sure to get stung by his thorns not intentionally but that was what porky’s body was made up of. Cheeku understood porky’s body issues but he was sad that he couldn’t hug his dear and only friend.

One day while they were playing, Cheeku felt hungry and ran towards his rabbit hole to fetch some carrots for both of them to munch on. As he was coming out from the hole he thought of an idea. He told porky that he would dig a hole up to the place porky stood and make a small opening so that porky could fit his nose through it and Cheeku would travel through that hole whenever he felt to hug porky and cross both their noses together as a gesture of hug. Porky too was excited and thought it to be a good idea. That way they both could give each other nose hugs and feel friendly and close.

The next day, Cheeku started digging the hole with his tiny paws. After few days of intense work of digging, they wanted to try it out to see if it works. Cheeku told porky to stand on one end of the hole and put his nose through it and wait for him to reach that end. Porky was excited and so was Cheeku. Cheeku started venturing through the freshly dug hole and in no time he could see porky’s wiggly nose waiting to be snuggled. Cheeku reached and crossed his nose with porky’s as a ‘nosy nosy’ gesture and they both laughed aloud and enjoyed the love of friendship they shared in this unique way.

And in this way whenever they wanted to hug each other Cheeku would go into the hole while porky would put his nose down the hole only to be snuggled by the other and they both would giggle. They found a way to cherish their friendship in spite of all the struggles they faced together.

They both enjoyed each other’s company and found a good friend for life in each other and realized that nothing is impossible if both want things to work out between each other.

And there is always a way to reach out and love.