Once there was a fox who was loved by a rabbit – but he felt small, sometimes, within the openness of their love (because he loved her, too, and that made it bigger and bigger, with every passing day). Feeling small made him feel uneasy, and he thought he might do wrong by his rabbit – so he said to her, “I should leave you.”

“If you leave me,” said his rabbit, “I will run after you, because you're my fox.”

“If you run after me,” said the fox, “I will become a cup in a cupboard, and hide from you behind the coffee mugs.”

His rabbit smiled, and said: “If you become a cup in the cupboard, I will become a dishwasher and I will find you and clean you up and drink from you.”

“If you become a dishwasher and drink from me, then I will become a book nobody loves on a shelf, in a library nobody visits.” The fox thought he was very clever.

“If you become a book nobody loves in a library nobody visits, I will become the only librarian who works there, and I will keep you for myself to read,” said the rabbit.

“If you become a librarian,” said the fox, “then I will become a star in the sky, far away and too dim to see.”

“If you become a star in the sky and are too dim to see, I will become an astronomer with the most powerful telescope in the world, and I will find you in the night sky and watch you every evening.”

“If you become an astronomer and watch me every evening, I will become a shipwreck at the bottom of the ocean, and hide in the dark and the cold.”

“If you become a shipwreck at the bottom of the ocean, I will become a whale who can hold her breath for hours, and swim to the bottom to find you,” said the rabbit.

“If you become a whale and swim to the bottom of the ocean,” said the fox, “I will become a house in a town that no one can find on a map.”

“Ah,” said his rabbit. “If you become a house in a town that no one can find on a map, I will become a mapmaker and make it my life's work to mark every town that is not on the map, and I will find you and live inside you.”

“If you become a mapmaker, I will become a stone rolling down a hill, and I will roll faster and faster away from you, until you can't see me anymore.”

His rabbit closed her eyes and took his paw in her own. “If you become a stone and roll away from me, I will become to hill you roll down, so that I might always be near you.”

“If you become the hill I roll down, I will become a musician in a band that never stops roaming the world, and you will never find me.”

“If you become a musician in a band, I will become your biggest fan, and listen to your music every time I'm at home, so that I will always remember what you sound like.”

“If you become my biggest fan, I will become a rabbit and run away from the music, and hide myself away in the smallest apartment I can find in the biggest city I can move to.”

And the rabbit smiled, and said, “If you become a rabbit, I will become a fox, and I will know every part of you and find you in the smallest apartment in the biggest city, and I will love you all the same.”

The fox felt his worries ease, and he said with a soft realization, “You will never love me any less, will you?”

“No,” said the rabbit. “I could only ever love you more.”