Work Text:
i.
As soon as Lucas had met Eliott, he knew he would never be able to truly deny him anything. Lucas would do anything to make Eliott happy, to keep that smile on his face.
Eliott had made him the happiest he had ever been in his life, and Lucas just wanted to make sure Eliott felt the same way about him in turn. And thus, as soon as he saw the big black and white rabbit in Eliott’s arms, he knew what was coming and he knew he would be hopeless to refuse.
And so, after some drama where they had found out that the rabbit was meant to be their dinner and Eliott had begged Basile’s grandpa to spare her, Lucas and Eliott found themselves the proud fathers of a twenty pound rabbit dubbed “Fifi”. Well, Eliott was a proud father, at least. Lucas knew it was stupid to be jealous of a rabbit, but well...when Fifi took the coveted place next to Eliott in the car that Lucas had previously held and Eliott spent the whole ride home petting her fur with his free hand instead of laying his hand on Lucas’s thigh, Lucas couldn’t help but to feel a bit grumpy about it.
The grumpiness continued when they were back in Paris. Lucas would try to curl into Eliott’s side when they were watching movies on the couch and Fifi would be there. Lucas would attempt to cuddle with Eliott in bed and Fifi would worm her way in between them, making a happy noise as Eliott put his arm around her and began to baby talk her. When Lucas would try to move her to regain his rightful place, she would nip at him and Eliott would scold him for “scaring her.”
Needless to say, Lucas was just about tired of having his boyfriend's attention commandeered by a rabbit. He had met Eliott first, Eliott had fallen in love with him first. Plus, he didn’t see Fifi contributing to the rent- what right did she have to invade Lucas’s place and keep him from his important boyfriend cuddling time? No, Lucas could no longer stand for this. And so, one day after returning from school, Lucas decided it was time to confront Eliott: did he want to cuddle with a rabbit or him, his loving boyfriend of over a year? Part of Lucas knew that he was being ridiculous, but this is what happened when he was unjustly deprived of Eliott cuddles for far too long.
However, when Lucas arrived home, he felt all of the annoyance drain out of him as worry took its place instead. All of the curtains in the apartment were still drawn, no lights turned on to make up for the darkness this caused. Lucas opened the fridge to see that the breakfast leftovers he had left Eliott hadn’t been touched. Lucas let out a sigh. He had seen the signs that Eliott was starting to feel down again- waking up later, going to bed sooner, the way he stopped showing much interest in movies they watched or in drawing things for school.
Even so, knowing that another down period was likely coming didn’t make it any easier to see Eliott that way. Seeing his beautiful, happy boyfriend who shined brighter than the sun itself being unable to get out of bed hurt Lucas in a way that he didn’t know it was possible to hurt. He hated that he couldn’t help Eliott in these times, that this wasn’t something Lucas could just fight with his fists or his words. All Lucas could do in these times was be there for Eliott- show him that he wasn’t alone and never would be ever again.
“Eliott?” Lucas said quietly as he opened the door to their bedroom. “Are you awake, baby?”
No response. Lucas opened the door a little bit wider to let in some light as he entered the room as silently as possible, not wanting to disturb Eliott. As light permeated the darkness, Lucas was able to make out the hunched form of Eliott laying in bed, his back facing the door. He didn’t move or give any sign that he was awake and had heard Lucas come home.
Lucas moved around to the other side of the bed. He needed to see Eliott’s face, reassure himself that no matter what, his boyfriend was still there, still fine. However, as he moved around the foot of the bed, he stopped himself. There, curled up next to Eliott, was Fifi. One of Eliott’s arms was around her, his face buried in her fur where she was nestled under his chin, her ears down and eyes closed in sleep. As Lucas moved closer, he could see some still-wet fur on Fifi where some of Eliott’s tears must have fallen before he had finally fallen asleep.
Lucas felt his heart break a little at the sight of Eliott’s clear pain, but he also found comfort in the fact that Eliott hadn’t been alone while Lucas was at school all day. That he had something that could be there for him, that clearly loved him as much as he loved her. Even if that something was just a rabbit, it was clear how much Fifi helped Eliott and how protective she felt over him and how much he loved her in return. As Lucas climbed into bed beside Eliott and scooted forward until he was spooning Eliott from behind, one of his hands joining Eliott’s in Fifi’s soft fur, he decided that maybe Fifi wasn’t his enemy after all. Maybe she just knew a good thing when she found it, just like Lucas had known the very first time he had seen Eliott.
ii.
After Eliott’s episode had come and gone, Lucas and Fifi came to an uneasy truce. Fifi would no longer completely hog Eliott, instead laying on one side of Eliott while Lucas would snuggle up to Eliott’s other side. It was like seeing how much comfort Eliott found in Lucas helped the rabbit understand that Eliott needed him too, and that was okay. Eliott still paid just as much attention to Fifi as before and still baby talked her all the time. Fifi was rapidly becoming spoiled.
Case in point: Eliott had just arrived home from getting some groceries and was pulling organic vegetables out of the bag. Lucas approached his boyfriend, hugging him from behind and pressing a soft kiss to his back through his shirt.
“Organic vegetables?” Lucas questioned, picking up some carrots marked with an organic sticker. “Since when do you care about eating organic?”
“It’s not for me,” Eliott said, pulling the carrots out of Lucas’s hands and beginning to chop them into bite sized pieces. “It’s for Fifi.”
“What? Why does she need organic vegetables?” Lucas turned to look at where Fifi was laying on the couch, an almost smug look on her face like she knew Eliott had a treat planned for her.
“Lucas! Our baby deserves only the best! And nonorganic vegetables have too many pesticides on them, we don’t want our little girl eating something like that, do we?”
“No,” Lucas sighed. “I guess not. But remember, don’t give her too many carrots. They’re only meant to be a treat, not her main food.”
“No, no, of course not.” Eliott replied distractedly, carefully continuing to chop the carrots.
Of course Eliott would seem unconcerned- he wasn’t the one that had to pick up the orange poop when Fifi had gorged herself on carrots and ended up having diarrhea. Lucas would never forget Fifi watching him clean up her mess with her beady eyes- it was like she saved it specifically for the time she knew Eliott would be at work for eight hours and Lucas would be forced to clean it up. Like Lucas said- it was an uneasy truce. There was still no love lost there.
“Okay, baby.” Eliott said as he finished chopping up the carrots. “Come and get the treat Daddy prepared for you.”
Immediately, Fifi jumped down from the couch and hopped over to where Eliott had sat down on the kitchen floor, delicately holding out some carrot bits in his hand. Lucas watched as she chirped happily and wiggled her tail a bit in excitement as she saw what Eliott held before she started eating right out of his hand as Eliott cooed at her and told her what a pretty girl she was. Lucas had to admit- they were pretty cute together. Not as cute as he was with Eliott, of course. But still pretty damn cute.
Once Fifi finished eating, Eliott sat petting her for a bit before standing up and making his way to where Lucas had sat back down on the sofa and begun working on homework again.
“Okay, well, I have to get changed and get to work soon. Do you have anything exciting planned for tonight?”
“Nope,” Lucas said, making sure to pop the p. “Just studying, yet again.”
“I’m sorry, baby,” Eliott replied as he leaned over and gave Lucas a kiss on his cheek. “It’ll be over before you know it and then we have the whole summer to enjoy ourselves.”
“I know. I’m just ready for it to be summer now.”
“Me too. But there’s nothing we can do about it but wait, right? Minute by minute, remember?”
“Right.” Lucas smiled as Eliott once again brought up their mantra. He never knew the words would have such an impact, but it had helped them both out so much in their relationship and he would forever be grateful for that.
“See you later then?”
“Yeah, later.”
Eliott leaned forward to press a lingering kiss to Lucas’s lips, one that Lucas felt all the way to his toes. But before he could push his textbooks to the side and really get into it, Eliott was pulling away and getting up to head to their bedroom. A few minutes later, he emerged dressed in a new outfit for work and with a “Love you!” to both Lucas and Fifi, he was off again.
Lucas let out a deep sigh as he looked over at where Fifi was still sitting on the kitchen floor, now munching on some hay from her food bowl (a pink one, emblazoned with the word ‘Princess’- Eliott had picked it out, of course).
“Well, it’s just me and you again, huh?”
Fifi remained silent, continuing to eat as she stared at Lucas with one beady brown eye.
“Yeah, yeah, I’d prefer him over me too. But this is what you get. Sorry about it.”
With that, Fifi completely turned so her tail end was now facing Lucas.
“Fine,” Lucas huffed in annoyance. “I can take a hint.”
A few hours of studying later, Lucas found himself driven to the point where he was nearly about to cry in frustration. He just wasn’t understanding how to do these equations and no matter how many different ways Imane tried to explain it to him, he couldn’t figure it out. He pushed his textbooks away angrily and leaned back into the sofa cushions, hiding his face in his hands as he tried to control his breathing and stop himself from crying.
After about a minute of this, Lucas was startled to suddenly feel a weight on his lap. He pulled his hands away from his eyes and looked down and- oh. There was Fifi, sitting in his lap. This was the first time she had ever done this since they had gotten her. She usually preferred sitting with Eliott and when he wasn’t there, she would elect to sit in the fluffy soft bed he had bought her. The fact that Fifi had chosen to sit with him now...well, that couldn’t be a coincidence, could it?
Lucas tentatively reached his hand down to start stroking her fur, not wanting to startle her. Fifi made a chirping noise as Lucas started to stroke her, and readjusted herself so she was seemingly more comfortable.
“Hi, baby girl,” Lucas said softly as he continued to pet her. “You could see your Dad was a little upset, huh?”
Fifi’s nose twitched as she chirped again.
“You’re a sweet girl, aren’t you? Yes, you are. Coming to comfort Dad when he needed you.”
Fifi turned to look at Lucas and Lucas felt his heart melt a little as he looked at her face. She really was adorable.
“Yeah, you love Dad, don’t you? Dad loves you too, don’t you worry. You’re Dad’s baby girl.”
As Lucas continued to sweet talk and pet Fifi, he pulled a blanket down from the back of the couch and readjusted himself and Fifi so he was now laying down, Fifi cuddled up next to him.
“I think it’s time Dad take a break from studying. What do you think, Fifi? Should Dad take a break and pay attention to you instead?”
Fifi burrowed herself closer to Lucas, her soft ears tickling his chin a bit.
“Yeah, let’s just lay here a bit together and snuggle, huh? Maybe Dad will rest his eyes for a bit, they hurt from staring at these textbooks for too long.”
When Eliott arrived home a couple hours later, it was to the sight of the two loves of his life curled up on the couch together, Fifi cuddled up to Lucas and Lucas’s arm wrapped protectively around her in his sleep. And from that moment on, Lucas and Fifi moved on from an uneasy truce to true fondness for each other.
iii.
Once Lucas was as enamoured with Fifi as Eliott was, their levels of spoiling her reached new heights. Fifi was now wearing bows around her neck on a daily basis, Lucas having gone to a craft store to purchase several ribbons to fashion them for her.
“Look at how pretty our baby girl is, Eliott!” Lucas would coo as he would pick out the bow Fifi was to wear that day.
Lucas even started an Instagram account for her- fifithefrenchrabbit- and between him and Eliott, daily photos would be uploaded to update the world about Fifi’s life. In just over a month, she had amassed around 750 followers, something that Lucas made sure to smugly share with people as much as possible before asking if they followed her yet.
Lucas and Eliott were continuously coming up with new concepts for pictures and as Eliott was the photographer in their relationship, he would make sure to do frequent photoshoots with Fifi so her insta content stayed fresh. So far, Fifi had been Peter Rabbit (“Shut up, Eliott, it’s cute!”), an apple, Harry Potter, a princess (“Wow...we sure have a beautiful child, Lucas”), and the Easter Bunny (“Yes, Lucas, this is only an American tradition, but we have to appeal to an international audience here!”).
On this day, Lucas could barely hold back his excitement once the package had finally been delivered. He thundered back up the steps, yelling to Eliott as he reentered their apartment.
“Eliott! Come here! You need to see what I ordered for Fifi!”
A moment later, Eliott emerged from their bedroom, Fifi nestled safely in his arms. Lucas smiled at the sight of them and gave Fifi a kiss between her ears and Eliott a kiss on his cheek.
“What? You ordered something for her?”
“Another outfit.” Lucas said, bouncing on his heels in excitement as he continued opening the package. “I just couldn’t resist, it was too perfect.”
Eliott groaned.
“Come on, Lucas, we said we would try to start making her outfits from now on, it gets too expensive to keep buying them.”
Lucas stopped unwrapping the package to look at Eliott, his hands on his hips.
“Are you saying our baby girl isn’t worth it?”
Eliott’s eyes widened and he went to cover Fifi’s ears as if to shield her from Lucas’s words.
“What?! I would never say that about Fifi, you know that!”
“Then why are you trying to deny her the outfits that she loves so much?”
“I’m not! I’m just saying, we need to start making them instead.”
Lucas sniffed and crouched down to look at Fifi where she was still laying happily in Eliott’s arms.
“Don’t listen to Daddy. I know you deserve these. Daddy is just jealous you look prettier than him.”
Eliott scoffed.
“Now that’s just a lie, and you know it.”
“Nope,” Lucas said, returning to the package. “Fifi is prettier than you, just accept that you’re no longer the prettiest thing in my life.”
Eliott laughed.
“Well, as long as you are only saying it about our child and not some random, I’ll accept it. Now come on, show me what you got her.”
“Hmmm. Are you sure you deserve to see it? I mean, you did try to say Fifi didn’t deserve it…”
“Lucas,” Eliott fixed him with a stern look, the effect lessened by the giant adorable rabbit in his arms. “Come on, show me. You know I’ll need to see it anyway to take photos. Your photos suck in comparison with mine.”
“Fine,” Lucas replied with a haughty air about him. “But only because Fifi deserves the best photos possible for all of her fans to see.”
And with that, Lucas pulled it out of the box. Eliott couldn’t help but laugh when he saw it. It was a Mario outfit- the iconic red shirt and overalls, complete with the red ‘M’ hat. It was the most ridiculous and perfect thing Eliott had ever seen.
“Oh my god. Lucas...this is amazing.”
“I know.” Lucas said smugly, reaching out to take Fifi from Eliott’s arms so Eliott could better inspect the outfit.
“Where did you even find this?”
“Oh, I was on this forum of rabbit owners and we were discussing outfits, and someone mentioned that they had dressed their rabbit up once as Mario for Halloween. I asked where they had gotten it, the link was sent, and here we are. With the best outfit ever.”
“I can’t believe this.” Eliott laughed again before turning to Fifi and holding the outfit out in front of her. “What do you think, baby girl? Do you approve?”
Fifi sniffed the outfit thoroughly before chirping and beginning to purr against Lucas. Lucas looked up at Eliott in delight, a big smile breaking out across his face.
“I think that means she likes it.”
Later, once the outfit was on Fifi and Eliott was taking photo after photo of her from different angles and with different backdrops, Lucas found himself watching his little family with a fond look on his face. When he had first met Eliott over a year ago, he never imagined they would end up here: living together and having adopted a rabbit together. Something like this- a love like this- seemed impossible for him, a lost boy with a broken family who had once been forced to live in a basement.
But now, here he was, with Eliott and Fifi. His biological family may have broken apart beyond repair, but Lucas had been able to form a new one, one full of light and laughter and love, so much love. And this: this was something Lucas knew he would never tire of having, something that he would never lose. Because he and Eliott, they were in this together. And when they had that, nothing could break them apart.