Roo knew there wasn't any one else in the whole, wide world who would understand him or make him laugh like Tigger did, but he didn't want to keep causing Tigger and Rabbit to fuss or Rabbit to be sad. He reached out and touched the bunny's knee with a gentle, timid paw. "I'm sorry I made you sad."

"Oh, no," Rabbit sniffled, sucking in his ears. He shook his head. "It wasn't that at all," he assured. "I made myself sad."

Roo blinked and cocked his head to one side. "How'd you do that?" he asked.

"By being mean," Rabbit told him simply, and then he shrugged. "By being me."

"My Daddy once told me, way before we moved here, that if you didn't like you, you should change you."

Rabbit looked at him in surprise. "He told you that, huh?"

"Yup." Roo nodded. "I was trying to fit in with the other kids, but I did something I didn't really like to do and felt bad about it later, and he told me that if I didn't like me, I needed to change me so that I'd like me and not worry about if the other kids liked me or not."

"And did you?" Rabbit asked. "Did you change yourself and like yourself better now?"

Roo nodded again. "Yup. I got a much better friend in Tigger than in any of those kids back home."

"He does make a good friend, doesn't he?" Rabbit mused, hearing footsteps behind them.

"Uh huh," Roo agreed, "he does, but if you want him all to yourself, you can have him. You don't have to share if you don't want to."

Rabbit looked up over little Roo's head, and his dark, shimmering eyes met with Tigger's. "I think I'd like to share," he said quietly, trembling inside from the intense feelings sweeping through his heart and soul, "very much." Why had he been so blind, he wondered? Why hadn't he been able to see how much Roo was hurting and that Tigger was only trying desperately to help the little guy? Why hadn't he been more caring instead of so self-absorbed?

Still gazing quietly into Tigger's eyes, Rabbit asked Roo, "You miss your father, don't you?"

The little kangaroo bobbed his head quickly up and down. "Yeah, I do. A lot. But having Tigger around makes it easier." He grinned. "He makes me laugh a lot."

"He's good at that, too," Rabbit agreed, telling Tigger with his eyes how much he loved him.

Tigger returned the unspoken message, then winked, nodded, and began to bounce backwards.

"He really is the best friend in all the world," Rabbit remarked as he watched Tigger bounding backwards and prepared himself for what he knew was coming.

"Yeah," Roo agreed, and then giggled. "You know, one time - " he started to say but his words broke off as he was suddenly jumped from behind. Tigger rolled the little kangaroo onto his back and tickled him with striped and swift paws.

"There's my little buddy boy!" Tigger exclaimed, purring loudly. "Where you been hiding, little guy?"

"I've been . . . " Roo admitted between giggles, " . . . right here . . . " He laughed shrilly as Tigger rolled and tickled him, and Rabbit smiled as he quietly watched the pair. He'd never thought he'd willingly share his beloved Tigger with any one, but their lives, he knew now, had been forever changed. At long last, he was ready to accept that change with open paws and never look back, and if he did have to share his love with some one, he could think of no one he'd rather share him with than this little, forlorn joey who seemed, at times, to carry the weight of the world on his tiny shoulders.

He thought again of the time he'd overheard Kanga and Roo talking about Roo's missing father. Kanga had tried her best to be strong, but she'd broken down and started crying. It had been little Roo who had held his mother while she'd cried and who had changed the subject and successfully cheered her back up. Roo needed Tigger almost as badly as Rabbit himself did, and Rabbit vowed then and there that he'd never try to keep the two apart again.

Roo squirmed underneath Tigger until he broke free and pounced on top of him. "My turn now!" he cried and started tickling him until he heard his mother's voice.

"Oh, Roo, sweetheart, thank goodness you're okay!"

"Mom?" Roo asked, looking up and blinking to see his concerned mother through the tears of joy filling his little, brown eyes. He leapt off of Tigger when he saw his mother crying and bounded immediately to her. "Oh, Mom, it's okay! I was just having fun with Rabbit and Tigger!"

Kanga threw her arms around her baby and held him close for a long time, silent tears of relief and gratitude for her little joey's safe return racing down her furry cheeks. Rabbit and Tigger watched in silence, and Rabbit reached out and took Tigger's paw in his own. Tigger's eyes again met Rabbit's, and he smiled as he squeezed his paw. "I thought you said the other night that you don't have a maternal bone in your body?" he whispered.

"I did," Rabbit admitted with a nod, "and I still don't. You," he said, smiling proudly, "on the other paw, most certainly do. I'd be more the father type, I think, or maybe an uncle. I don't have what it takes to put everything else to the side to make sure a baby's happy, buy you do, Tigger, and you do it beautifully." He leaned close to his love and kissed him.

Kanga cleared her voice, and the two males jumped apart and looked at her. "Thank you," she said, taking first Tigger's paws and then Rabbit's paws in her hands and squeezing them gently. "Thank you so much for taking care of my baby!"

"Any time, madam," Tigger said gallantly. He bowed and then sprang back up into the air. "After all, taking care of friends is what Tiggers do best!"

Kanga laughed. "Tiggers do a lot of things best, don't they?" she asked Rabbit, and he nodded proudly.

"They do, but, like he said, any time." He offered a wavering smile. "Maybe we can meet tomorrow at my house for lunch?"

"I think we'd like that, wouldn't we, Roo?"

"Oh, yeah!" Roo cried eagerly. "Mom, Rabbit makes the best carrot cake and carrot pie in the whole, wide world!"

Kanga looked down at him in surprise. "You mean he actually got you to eat vegetables?"

"You bet!" Roo grinned from ear to ear, and Kanga looked back up at Rabbit with new respect and increased gratitude shining in her eyes.

"We've definitely got to get together and share some recipes then," she said.

"I'd like that," Rabbit replied, his heart warming. "We can do that while Tigger and Roo play."

"And I'm going to hide so good," Tigger told Roo, pressing a paw against his nose gently, "that you're going to have the whole One Hundred Acre Woods looking for me just like we were looking for you today!"

"You were?" Roo asked in surprise.

"Yes, we all were," Kanga told him and turned so that he could see all of their friends gathered behind them from his rightful place in her warm pouch. Pooh, Piglet, and Owl gathered close around the little kangaroo.

Gopher whistled sharply from where he was hanging out of his hole. "You betcha, and it sure took all day to find you too! I've got a look of work to catch up on!" He burrowed back down into his tunnel.

Eeyore sighed sadly and shook his head. "It did take all day," he agreed, "but at least we finally found you and my tail actually stayed on today." He felt a pressure release from his rear end, looked between his legs, and gave a hefty sigh. "Oh, well," he moaned. "So much for that." He then stuck his face closer to Roo. "But I'm glad you're okay, little fellow."

"We all are," Rabbit acknowledged, "and we'll see you tomorrow at noon."

"Be good, buddy boy!" Tigger told Roo as he turned away, still holding hands with Rabbit.

"I will!" Roo promised and then relished all the attention from his other new friends as Rabbit and Tigger bounded away into the growing shadows of the forest, paw in paw.

Rabbit sighed softly as he leaned into his forever mate. "I love you!" he told Tigger.

"I love you, too, bunny boy," Tigger answered, hugging him tightly and softly stroking his furry face, "but you know I said something wrong earlier."

"What's that?" Rabbit asked with a knowing smile; a twitch of his pink nose and fluffy, white tail; and an expectant shimmer to his brown eyes.

"Bouncing and making and protecting friends are all things Tiggers do best," Tigger exclaimed, "but what we really do bestest of all bests is bouncing the Rabbits we love!" He bounced high into the air, came down upon Rabbit, and proceeded to bounce him gladly all through the night!

The End