A/N: Haha! I come bringing more Buck and Keeva love. I didn't know I'd enjoy writing for these two as much as I do, but they are just so sweet together!

Disclaimer: I do not own Ice Age or any of its content. I do own my OCs.

Fight Smart

Keeva groaned softly as she moved through the underbrush, a fire searing through her leg. Silently, she cursed Blue and her pack, she's lucky to still have her leg after that scrape, and she could just see Buck's face when she got home. He'd be furious. Understanding though he may be when it came to odd relationships with the dinos, he would not appreciate her putting herself in the line of fire the way she had, no matter how justified Keeva thought she may be in the matter.

On a related note, if a velociraptor wants your kill, don't fight her for it. There's more prey to be had. Maybe one of these days Keeva would trade in fighting bold for fighting smart. Clearly that day hadn't been today, probably wouldn't be tomorrow either.

She breathes in Buck's scent as she nears their den, its fresh, he's home. Suddenly, the blood loss isn't the cause for her shivering. Trying to call back some of the boldness she'd been riding so high on earlier, she entered the den.

"Buck?" She calls out hesitantly announcing her return. "Keeva!" His tone is chipper, he'd clearly had an eventful day. "How was-?" He broke off as he came into her line of sight, appearing from somewhere in the back of the cave. "My day?" She finished with a raised brow. "Peachy."

"What happened?" His eye doesn't leave her leg, her blood now staining the floor red. "Blue," she replied simply, evasively. The she-wolf brushed by him, wanting terribly to lay down, and settled down in their nest of fur and leaves. "Damn raptor interfered with my hunt."

"And won." Buck frowns at her pointedly. "Don't move."

"No problem," Keeva murmured making herself comfortable. She watched through lidded eyes as Buck scurried out of the den.

A yelp tore out of her mouth as she half whirled around to see who was prodding her leg. Unsurprisingly, it was Buck, tying off the wound to staunch the bleeding. He'd probably cleaned and salved it too, all of which she had apparently slept through. Their eyes locked and suddenly Keeva felt like a young pup again. She lowered herself back down onto the bed, laying her ears back apprehensively. Size had very little factor in their relationship, if anyone were to ask, not that they would, Buck was very much the Alpha. Not that he would claim such a title, of course.

Her wounds were tended to, he'd let her have a rest, and now he was going to let her have it. Keeva barely suppressed the urge to tuck her tail as he moved around to face her. "What happened between you two this time?"

Blue was a long time rival of Keeva's, rather like Rudy was to Buck, except the females didn't actively seek each other out. When they did clash however, there was always bloodshed, usually Keeva's. The she-wolf didn't have a pack of gen backing her the way Blue did.

"She was watching me," she muttered, "she had to be watching me. Let me do all the work for her, lazy, overgrown gecko." Keeva shifted her weight, getting more comfortable, Buck was probably going to put her on lockdown for a couple of days. "I was tracking a group of compy across the Platoue, it took longer than usual to pick one off, kept having to dodge long neck feet. Anyway, I did manage to wrestle one to the ground and finish it off, I should've been paying more attention, it's just like Blue to show up when she isn't wanted."

"You fought her for a compy?" Buck asked incredulously. Keeva bristled at his tone, "I defended my kill." There's the slightest hint of a growl in her voice and Buck's eye turned cold. "Blue is not a wolf, Keeva. She's not a saber, or a bear, or anything you may have faced up there." His tone was hard and almost pleading. "She's a dino, a dangerous one, and one with a pack." Keeva looked affronted, bit Buck spoke up before she could snap. "You are one wolf."

Keeva didn't appreciate having her strength questioned, it brought up bad memories. Intellectually, she knew that Buck wasn't calling her weak, and that he didn't know or care anything about a pack's hierarchy, but she felt insulted anyway. Stubbornly, she turned her head away, mostly to hide the sting of tears in her eyes.

"Aw, Keeva, don't be like that." All of the fight left him at the sight of his mate cold shouldering him. "Keeva, please." He considered his words to her and realized with a spike of frustration how it must've sounded to her. She thought he was calling her weak.

"Just because you can't beat her doesn't make you weak." Her ear twitched, she was listening. Good. "I've never won a match against Rudy, after all."

Keeva blinked. Never won...? All of Buck's encounters with Rudy, ones she'd seen and ones she'd only heard about came rushing forward. How many times had the weasel been nearly trampled, or eaten? Half a dozen? More? Now that she thought about it, Buck had had a lot of close calls. How many hits did he ever land on Rudy? Lapis irises fell on her mate's knife, propped against the cave wall. Only one.

She turned wide eyes back to her mate, heart beating faster than it had been seconds before.

"Its not about winning, love, not down here. The only thing you have to prove is that you can survive. And the only way you can do that is by fighting smart, my bold Keeva." Keeva grinned and huffed out a laugh. Buck smiled warmly back, glad to see her coming back around. "Now that that's settled, make room!" Keeva laughed out loud as Buck darted over and nuzzled up to her side. He took a moment to run his fingers through her head fur and scratch her behind her ear, loving the way she melted into his touch. Finally, he pulled her muzzle to his for a long lingering kiss, before they settled down for sleep.

A/N: Yay for happy endings! Sorry if you were hoping for something more humorous, but I really wanted to try and write them at odds with one another, fights happen in relationships, Keeva and Buck are no acception. I figure Keeva would be more brazen after meeting, and certainly after begining a relationship with Buck. I'd think she'd idolize him a little and want to be as bold and brave as he is.

As for Buck and Rudy, when you really think about it, he hasn't won a single fight with Rudy. Not in the simple terms of winning and losing at any rate, Buck wins by surviving. I think that'd be the name of the game down there. Buck is crazy, not stupid, he's not going to walk into a situation he can't walk back out of.

Oh! A compy (compsognathus) is a small dinosaur about the size of a turkey. They're in one of the Jurassic Park movies, can't remember which one, but I figured they'd be a pretty easy meal for Keeva.

P.S. Sorry if this comes out in a weird layout, I wrote this on my phone.