Chapter Text
Kip looks at the pile of student papers in front of him and sighs, pushing his glasses up and pinching the bridge of his nose. Why did he continue to be surprised by what passed for an essay from NYU freshmen? He’d been so excited when he was offered the opportunity to lead the introductory Medieval Art unit, but now he was questioning whether the hours he spent writing what he considered to be interesting lectures and thoughtful discussion questions was even worth it.
In an unfortunate quirk of timing, the registration for his unit had opened shortly after the New York Admirals won the Stanley Cup and his boyfriend, the team captain, had made a split-second decision to call Kip down from the stands and kiss him on the ice in front of his whole team, 18,000 hockey fans, and (once footage was uploaded to the internet) seemingly the entire world. It seemed that a not insignificant number of NYU students had chosen to disregard their educational goals and enroll in his unit simply out of curiosity about Scott Hunter’s boyfriend. This felt completely bizarre to Kip, given the cost of tertiary education, but by the second week he’d had to lay down a strict ban on any questions that were unrelated to the course syllabus. There’d been quite a drop-off in the enrollment numbers once the census date had passed.
Of course, that was a small price to pay for Scott to be able to come out and for them to be together openly. Kip would never regret that. But they would both honestly admit that at times, the past few months had been… A Lot.
Kip is jolted out of his thoughts when his phone rings.
"Hello, Kip Grady speaking."
"Good afternoon Mr Grady. This is Emily from the Manhattan Animal Care Center. I'm calling because a member of the public has brought in a rabbit they found in Riverside Park, and the microchip is registered in your name. Are you the owner of Scout, Mr Grady?"
Kip furrows his brow in confusion. "Scout? I don't know -"
Realization suddenly dawns on Kip and he finds himself standing and pacing his small office.
Right, so, that was the other thing. Scott Hunter had come out publicly as gay, but… he still had another secret. Scott was a shapeshifter. Specifically, Scott was a shifter who could take the form of the cutest, softest, sweetest little bunny that Kip had ever laid eyes on.
Kip had discovered this fact just three weeks into their whirlwind romance, when he had woken up in the middle of the night to find the bed next to him empty, except for a small bunny burrowing into the comforter. Of all the ways that Scott had surprised him over the course of their relationship, that one was probably the most unbelievable.
While Kip wasn't a shifter himself, he had friends who were, which was how he had learned most of what he knew about shifting. In particular, his friend and former co-worker, Maria, was a shifter could take the form of a multi-colored macaw. Maria was very open about being a shifter, and loved spending time with their friendship group whether as a human or a macaw (and Maria the macaw had learned quite an impressive vocabulary from the group). Kip knew that shifters could transform from birth, but they gradually learned to gain more control over their transformations during puberty and young adulthood.
Scott didn't seem to like the fact that he was a shifter, and he didn't seem to want to talk about it either. Kip gathered that at some point in his past, Scott had learned that being a shifter was something he needed to bury deep down inside. Kip also knew that anxiety could lead to uncontrolled transformations, and the extra attention and focus on his and Scott's lives over the past few months had certainly been a source of anxiety. It seemed that Scott had anticipated the possibility that he might unexpectedly shift some day, and had registered his microchip in Kip's name? With the name Scout? He wasn't completely sure why -
"Sorry, Mr Grady, are you there?"
Kip shakes off his train of thought. "Yes, sorry, I'm here." He checks his watch. "I'll be there in about an hour or so." After a pause, he adds, "Emily, can you do me a favor? Can you tell Scout I'm on my way?"
"Of course, Mr Grady." Emily's voice softens and Kip thinks he can hear the ghost of a smile. She probably assumes he is a typical overly anxious pet owner. "We'll look after him until you get here, don't you worry."
An hour later, Kip stands in the busy reception area of the shelter. The small area currently holds a lot of different emotions. At one counter, a receptionist is explaining the essentials of cat care to a couple with beaming smiles on their faces, while their young daughter is crouched in front of a small cat carrier looking completely smitten with the tiny kitten inside. On the other side of the room, a woman holding the leash of a sandy-coated dog is crying as she is ushered through a door marked Surrender Room by a shelter worker with a clipboard in hand and a soft, kind smile. Kip shuffles anxiously as he diverts his attention to a display of leads and harnesses in an array of colors, keen not to intrude upon someone else's sorrow.
"Kip Grady?"
Kip looks up at hearing his name, and sees a shelter worker with bright pink-streaked hair styled in an undercut standing in a doorway. Kip notices her arms are covered in colorful tattoos. "Hi, yes, that's me," he says, standing quickly.
The worker smiles and says, "Hi, I'm Emily. We spoke on the phone earlier. If you'll follow me I can take you to see Scout."
Kip follows Emily down a corridor and out onto the shelter grounds. The air is suddenly filled with the cacophony of dogs barking from the kennel blocks. Emily leads him in the opposite direction to a building with a sign above the door that reads Block 4 - Small Animals. He walks in and Emily closes the door behind them, blocking out the sounds from outside and enveloping them in a tranquil quiet, with only the soft sounds of lullaby-style music playing in the background. This building has a hallway down the middle, with walls of modular cages on either side. Some of the cages appear empty, while others have printed profiles attached to the front of the cage on clipboards.
"Sorry about the wait," Emily says, "It's been an absolute madhouse here today. But what's new!"
"Not a problem," Kip replies. Emily walks down the hallway with Kip following behind, and stops at a cage about halfway down with the following profile attached to the cage door:
Kip walks towards the cage and looks through the bars. The cage floor is covered in straw, and there are food and water bowls in one corner and a litter tray in another. At the back of the cage is a small cardboard box which has seemingly been placed there to give the occupant a hiding place.
The entire cage looks untouched except for the fact that the current occupant - a small rabbit with a cream-colored body and light-brown ears - has evidently tried to burrow under the box. He now sits with his head under the cardboard box, facing the back of the cage - ears flat against his body, which is tucked tightly as if to make himself look as small as possible.
"You're really lucky, a woman was at Riverside Park with her young son and the rabbit just hopped right up to them. She figured he looked way too well cared for to be a wild rabbit, so she brought him to us."
"Wow, yeah, that is really lucky," Kip answers, thinking on the spot but trying to choose his words carefully, "We, uh, we live right near there. I guess the hutch door must be faulty and he managed to get out… and then out of the apartment." He thinks this sounds like a pretty unlikely explanation, but Emily doesn't seem to notice. Kip supposes that with the number of animals in their care, she is probably just relieved to reunite any of them with an owner.
At the sound of Kip's voice, the rabbit suddenly perks up. He lifts his head, tossing the cardboard box aside in a kind of comical way, and turns towards the cage door. The rabbit hops across to the door, nose twitching, and stands on his hind legs looking intensely at Kip. Then out of nowhere he jumps up, twisting his body in mid-air and kicking out with his back legs.
"Wow!" Emily exclaims. "Check out that binky! He sure knows his Dad's voice."
"Hah, yeah," Kip says uneasily, deciding that this is not the time to unpack how weird that statement is in the context of everything. "Hey, buddy, I'm glad you're okay," he says, putting his fingers between the cage bars to scratch the bunny's soft fur. The bunny closes his eyes and seems to lean into the touch.
Emily claps her hands together and says, "Alright! Well how about we get this little guy into a carrier and then you can fill in some paperwork and take him home?"
Kip opens the door to Scott's apartment an hour later, carry cage in hand. He drops his keys on the hall table next to the door, and immediately hears a loud thump from inside the carrier. Kip sighs, picks up his keys, and places them in the ceramic bowl - Scott is always reminding him that the keys have a designated place, and this seems to be no different in bunny form. He walks into the living area and places the carrier on the floor next to the kitchen counter. Kip opens the carrier door and busies himself in the kitchen preparing a sandwich for himself and two bowls for Scott - water in one, pellets and blueberries in the other. Kip is grateful that his boyfriend is so organized that he keeps an emergency supply of pellets in the apartment. Scott hops out of the carrier and wedges himself between Kip's feet while he prepares the food.
When everything is ready, Kip places the food and water dishes on the kitchen floor and sits down heavily, leaning against the cabinets, taking a bite of his sandwich. Scott sips from the water dish and makes quick work of the blueberries. They eat together in silence for a while until Scott hops over to Kip and climbs up into his lap. Kip puts his empty plate on the floor next to him and pats Scott gently. Scott stands up on his back legs and places his paws on Kip's chest, looking up at him with the same intense gaze he'd had earlier in the shelter. Actually, it's a gaze he has seen often on his boyfriend's face (in human form), ever since that first morning at the kitchen island when Scott confessed he wanted Kip to stay. It is kind of uncanny how that piercing gaze seems to transcend across species, only this time the intensity is somewhat lessened by the blueberry-stained fur around Scott's mouth.
It is clear that Scott desperately wants to communicate something to Kip, but Kip realizes that it's not really going to be a fruitful conversation in their current situation. Kip is exhausted from the afternoon's events, and he assumes Scott must be even more so. Knowing that when an uncontrolled shift happened it usually takes about 12 hours before the shifter returns to human form, Kip scratches behind Scott's ears and says, "I really want us to talk about all this, but I think right now we need to get some sleep. What do you think?". The rabbit closes his eyes and nudges his nose into Kip's hand, which seems to be a reply in the affirmative. Kip gently cradles the rabbit against his chest, placing a kiss on his head, and stands up to make his way to the bedroom.
Kip gently places Scott on the bed and then proceeds to change into his sleep shirt. He settles in bed under the covers and Scott nestles next to him. Kip strokes the soft fur between Scott's ears and watches as the rabbit's eyes slowly close and he drifts off to sleep, Kip not far behind him.