Chapter Two - The Cleanest Bun in the Buniverse

Crossover: Cinnamon Bun by RavensDagger

***

The bunny-ears girl blinked at Dreamer the way people did sometimes. “Wait, time-out.”

Dreamer didn’t like being put in time-out, but then this girl wasn’t Abigail, so she hardly had to listen.

“Could we start over? It’s always really confusing for a little bit after you get summoned to another place... are we still on Dirt?”

“Dirt?” Dreamer asked. “No, this is the café.”

“Ah,” the girl said. She nodded, which was a good sign. “Well, my name’s Broccoli, Broccoli Bunch. I hope we can be friends!”

Dreamer considered it, then she shrugged. “Alright. I just need someone to clean this place.”

“Oh?” Broccoli asked. She had such a tasty name.

“Yeah. Abigail’s gonna open up a café, and it’s very dirty here, so I made a summoning circle and now you’re here to clean.”

“I see, I see... sorta,” Broccoli said. She reached up and rubbed her chin, the pose of a mortal doing some serious thinking. “Do you do this often? Summon people to do stuff?”

“No, it’s my first time,” Dreamer admitted.

Broccoli nodded again. “Good good. Well, I don’t mind helping, I guess, but I need to get back to my friends. They’ll miss me, I hope, and it would really suck to just leave without even a goodbye hug.”

Dreamer hadn’t considered that. What if she had to leave Abigail all of a sudden, without even getting goodbye headpats. Of course, Dreamer wouldn’t leave for long. “I can put you back where you were.“ Dreamer decided. She just needed to figure out what the opposite of a summoning circle was.

“Oh, that’s nice!” Broccoli said. “So, summoning, huh?”

“Yup,” Dreamer said.

“You know, if you’re going to summon yourself new friends--and I’m not saying you shouldn’t--then you might want to consider setting up some rules or something.”

“Rules?” Dreamer asked. “I just want to make stuff clean.”

“Oh, right, we can start with that!” Broccoli waved her arm to the side and Dreamer felt a twist in the air. Magic but not the same sort of magic she was used to. It scurried across the room and attacked the dust and grime, when the magic moved on, there was only sparkly-cleanness left.

“Oh, good,” Dreamer said. Her summoning circle really had worked.

“Thanks!” Broccoli said. She waved her hands this way and that, and every time she did, there was more clean-ness left behind. “Was it just this room?” she asked.

“No, the cafe is downstairs,” Dreamer said. “We should probably do all of the upstairs first.”

Broccoli nodded along. She was very agreeable about things, which was nice. A lot of people just did the whole screaming and running routine around Dreamer, and that got old fast. “So! Rules!”

“I don’t know if I want rules,” Dreamer said.

“Oh, but think about it! You could summon all sorts of friends from all over the place! I’m pretty sure this isn’t Dirt or Earth, so you have far-reaching friend-making potential!”

Dreamer tilted her head to the side as she thought, the same way some dogs she'd seen did. When they did it, they usually got pats right after, and she found that it helped her think like a mortal sometimes. “Okay?”

Broccoli clapped her hands. “But first! Tell me about yourself!”

“Oh, right,” Dreamer said. She was supposed to introduce herself, that was one of those polite things that mortals did when they didn’t dislike each other. “My name is That Which Lies Eternal Dreaming, and a bunch more names, but Abigail and everyone else calls me Dreamer.”

“That’s a very cute name,” Broccoli said. “Can I ruffle your hair?” she asked.

Dreamer nodded.

The bunny girl reached over and waggled her hand over Dreamer’s head, sending her hair this way and that. It wasn’t quite a pat, but it was still very nice. “Thank you,” Dreamer said, because she was very polite.

Broccoli laughed. “You’re welcome! So! A café, huh? I guess it’s not open yet?”

“Not yet,” Dreamer said. “Abigail wants to open it so that she can make a bunch of money and stuff. I think. I mostly want it to work because it makes Abigail happy.”

“And when Abigail is happy you’re happy?” Broccoli asked.

Dreamer grinned. She liked it when people caught on fast like that.

The two of them made the rounds of the rooms on the upper floor. Broccoli whooshed magic around and cleaned things off. Sometimes she’d pick a thing or two up and set it in its place too, and some trash was too big for her to magic away, so she gave it to Dreamer who ate it. Broccoli seemed a bit confused when Dreamer ate the remains of a broken cup, but it was a clean cup so it didn’t matter.

“We should go downstairs next,” Dreamer said.

“Alright!” Broccoli agreed. “You know, this isn’t what I expected when I got yoinked over to another world. Last time it was a lot more adventure... though I think this is about the same amount of cleaning.”

“Getting yoinked places can be bad, but sometimes it can be good,” Dreamer said sagely. She liked spreading her wisdom around. “Why do you have bunny ears?”

“My ears?” Broccoli asked as she reached out and touched the furry stalks sticking out of her head. “I got them when I became a bun. See, I have a tail too.” She wiggled her butt, showing off the brown patch of fur sticking out from a hole in her skirt.

“Is it good?” Dreamer asked.

The ears twitched. “I like them. I think they’re very cute! But it makes it hard to go hat shopping.”

Dreamer considered this. “Is cute... good?”

The bunny girl locked eyes with Dreamer. “Cute is the best.”

Dreamer was really happy with the results of all this summoning stuff. She was learning all sorts of good things. “Maybe I’ll give myself ears too,” she muttered.

Not bunny ears though. Bunnies were food. She’d give herself proper, tentacle ears.

“Okay. This is downstairs,” Dreamer said as she opened the backdoor of the café and led Broccoli in. “We need to clean all of this too.”

“No problem! Give me ten minutes and the whole place will be cleaner than... uh, something that’s very clean! But after that, I think I’ll have to go back home. Is that okay?”

Dreamer smiled. “Yeah, that’s okay. But maybe I can summon you again one day for more cleaning?”

“Or for tea! You know, I’m something of an amateur tea-maker myself.”

Abigail might find that useful, and Daphne liked tea too. “Okay,” Dreamer said.

Now she just needed to figure out what the opposite of a summoning circle was. Circles had two sides, so what was the opposite of two?

***