Work Text:
The first time it happened, Kip was blissfully unaware. He and Scott had texted throughout the day and Kip had offered to come over once he was done with his shift. And now here he was, once again at Scott Hunter's (!) fancy penthouse, opening the door with the key (!!) that Scott had given him about a week in. It was still kind of surreal that Kip was actually dating an NHL superstar, but apparently this was his life now.
Once inside the apartment, he called out for Scott as he toed his shoes off. He heard no immediate response, but maybe Scott was in the shower or just in the bedroom, reading with his headphones in. No, wait, Scott lived alone, why would he wear headphones around the house if he could also just blast music on full volume?
Shower it was then, probably, though he didn't hear the water running from where he was standing in the foyer. Kip got his phone out of his back pocket, checking whether Scott had texted him about not being at the apartment when Kip would arrive, but he didn't have any missed messages from Scott or anything. The last message in their thread had been a can't wait to see you later from Scott, that Kip had reacted to with a heart emoji.
Kip walked into the living room, leaving his messenger bag next to Scott's weird room divider. That's when he saw it. A tiny white bunny, sitting on the carpet next to the coffee table. Kip did a double take because surely, there wasn't really a bunny here. But when he looked again, the bunny was still there, looking up at him. Kip stared back, completely thrown off.
Scott didn't own a bunny, did he? Kip would know if Scott had a bunny. Yeah, that would've definitely come up by now. And Kip would have seen... well... bunny stuff around the apartment if Scott had a pet, right? And besides, who looked after the bunny when Scott was away, which was a lot? No, Scott didn't have a bunny, that was for sure.
And still, there it sat anyway, seemingly unmoving, and engaged in a staring contest with Kip. But then... where did it come from? This was a penthouse in the city, not a one story house in the country where a bunny might perhaps randomly turn up. Did bunnies randomly turn up in the country? Kip had no clue, he'd lived in Brooklyn all his life. Were stray bunnies in the city a thing? Had Scott taken pity on a stray bunny he found on a run and brought it here? It would be kind of weird and impulsive but then again this was Scott he was thinking about.
But no, New York had rats, not bunnies, very famously and unavoidably. Kip shook his head, as if to dismiss all the thoughts of how that bunny could have gotten here. None of them made much sense anyway. Instead, he made one step more forward before crouching down, stretching his hand out, so that the bunny could smell it and wouldn't suddenly be spooked and hop away if he'd reach out for it.
Because he should pick it up and put it... somewhere, right? Somewhere safe. Because having a tiny bunny hopping around the apartment seemed dangerous. But again, Scott didn't have any bunny stuff, so that made things harder. Kip sighed and muttered "Pro athletes and the weird things they do" under his breath, before, oddly enough, raising his voice to a normal volume to apparently talk to the small fluffy animal.
"Hey there buddy. How did you get in here? Are you Scott's new friend?" At the mention of the word friend, Kip wondered if Scott was perhaps just pet-sitting for a friend. But did Scott really have friends outside of his team mates? And if no, did one of his team mates really have a bunny that no one else could look after? But why was Scott not around then, if he was watching a friend's pet?
It was hopeless, he couldn't figure out how the cute little fluff ball in front of him had gotten here. And the animal itself didn't seem up to answering any of his questions either – duh – but at least it had moved about an inch towards Kip and sniffed his finger. Apparently content with whatever it was getting from that, it hopped just a little bit closer to Kip, who took the risk and petted the little animal, hoping it wouldn't immediately hop away and disappear under the couch. Kip was pretty sure that it would fit, and that it would be a nightmare to get it out from under there again.
But nothing happened, besides Kip very lightly stroking the bunny's white fur. He had to admit, it was quite a cute bunny. But all tiny animals were kinda cute, weren't they? After petting the surprisingly calm animal for a while, Kip moved back a bit and got his phone out again. Still no new messages. Should he be worried about Scott? Kip had to admit that for a moment, he had kind of gotten distracted by the bunny and had stopped wondering about where it had come from and where Scott had disappeared to.
Kicking himself, because he should have texted Scott right away, Kip typed out a message to Scott, letting him know that he was here. He wanted to mention the bunny and about a thousand follow up questions as well, but he told himself that he could also still ask in person. That was, if Scott would come back anytime soon, or at least answer his text.
Kip turned back to the bunny. It had, in the mean time, started hopping in the direction of the bedroom, and Kip got up from the floor to follow it, because he couldn't just not do that, right? He felt like he had to supervise it. Letting it out of his sight seemed wrong to him. Once in the bedroom, the bunny seemed to move in the direction of a heap of Scott's clothes on the floor.
Kip raised an eyebrow. Scott usually never let his clothes just lie around on the floor. At least not when Kip was around, he supplied. And that was kind of the thing, right? Scott and Kip hadn't been... well, an item, for very long. There was still a lot they didn't know about each other. Maybe Scott was secretly messy and only tidied up for Kip. Maybe he was an impulsive animal adopter as well? Perhaps he was a serial killer after all?
But no, serial killers didn't adopt cute bunnies. That was too much at odds in Kip's head. The bunny in question had, by now, reached the pile of Scott's clothes and hopped on what looked like a discarded shirt on top of the pile. "Okay, that's kind of adorable", Kip declared and got his phone out to snap a picture. He decided to send it to Scott, because sure, they could talk about this when he was back. But when Kip saw a cute animal and took a picture of it, he had to sent it so someone. And he couldn't really send it to any of his friends or his dad, because there would be questions.
When Kip hit sent, he was startled for a moment because just then, a noise emerged from the pile that definitely wasn‘t a bunny noise. Equally startled, the bunny hopped off of the pile of clothes before training its eyes on Kip, as if it was looking at him expectantly. Kip frowned and reached into the pile, ignoring the fluff ball for a moment to… there it was! Kips hand fished out the phone that had vibrated just now. Scott's phone. Showing Kip‘s message on top of the previous message he'd sent before.
Kip's frown deepened. Why had Scott left his phone in the apartment? And why did it almost look as if he'd stripped all of his clothes, entirely forgetting about the phone in is back pocket, and then left? Was there a naked Scott Hunter loose in Manhattan? Had he completely lost his mind? Kip looked over to the bunny as if it had the answers, and after a moment, Kip's eyes went comically wide and one of his hands flew over his mouth.
Could it be that… "Scott?", Kip asked the bunny, probably having lost his own mind. Because Scott was known for being one of the only players on the Admirals who wasn't a shifter. Unless…
The bunny sat up on its haunches and Kip could swear, he swore what it did looked like nodding. "Oh my god", Kip muttered. The bunny was… Scott! He hadn't randomly left the apartment without clothes and without letting Kip know. He also hadn't adopted a bunny out of nowhere because Scott was the bunny! A "Holy shit", escaped him, and the Bunny – Scott? – sat back down on all fours and moved its paws back and forth over his little head as if…
"Are you hiding your face?", Kip asked incredulously and a hysterical giggle escaped him. The bunny - Scott! - he reminded himself, remained still, almost glaring up at him. Okay. Okay, okay, cool, cool. Kip could deal with this. This was fine. So what if Scott was a a shifter? Many people were. Some of his friends too, in fact. There wasn't anything weird about it. It was just…
He hadn't known that Scott was. And neither did the public, Kip thought. Then again, it was also not really anyone's business, but he guessed being in the public eye for being a professional athlete was weird like that. Hell, some teams were even named after the animals most of their players shifted into. Kip wondered if the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Boston Bears had like a quota for how many team-name-specific shifters they had to have on the team at all times. That seemed kind of… excessive.
Not that it mattered, because there was still a bunny sitting in front of Kip that may or may not be (but probably was) Scott. But why didn't he just shift back when Kip had come in? He knew from Maria and Shawn that this was very much a thing they could just do at will. Did Scott not want to shift back? Or had he maybe just shifted for the first time and was as surprised as Kip was? But no, shifters presented much earlier in their life, so this really couldn't be Scott's first time shifting. But what did Kip know, he wasn't a shifter after all.
He peered down at the bunny. The bunny looked up at him.
"Can you understand me?", Kip asked tentatively, still not fully convinced that this was Scott, even if this would make the most sense in this whole situation. The bunny did that thing again that almost looked like nodding, and sure, it could just be a coincidence, but Kip decided that he would just take this at face value now. "Okay, okay. And you're Scott?" Another nod. Okay, so this was happening.
"Uh... right", Kip looked around the bedroom. They needed a better mode of communication. If Scott was willing to communicate, that was, since he apparently wasn't interested in shifting back. Or couldn't? Not that it would be good if Scott wasn't able to shift back, but it would kind of reassure Kip that he hadn't done anything wrong. Though, if Scott couldn't shift back, that would likely still be the bigger problem, but Kip was feeling selfish and confused at the moment, okay?
"Okay, uhm, I have an idea", Kip announced, and grabbed Scott's shirt and a sock from the pile of clothes and arranged them on the floor about two feet apart. "Shirt is yes, sock is no", he announced, hoping that Scott would play along. So far, so good, Kip thought, when Scott hopped over to the shirt. Right, time for questions then. He should probably start with something easy.
"Is this the first time that you shifted?", Kip asked, already pretty sure that the answer was going to be no, because how can one go through life for almost thirty years, be a shifter and never shift? If that was possible, then Kip might still eventually turn into that golden retriever everyone told him he sometimes acted like. But no, it wasn't Scott's first time shifting, because the bunny was hopping over to the sock.
Kip nodded. Yeah, that made more sense. "So, you knew that you're a shifter, then?", Kip asked, probably unnecessarily because of course Scott knew if this has already happened to him before. But bunny Scott seemed to be humouring him, hopping back to the shirt that meant 'yes'. "Right. Okay. But you don't tell people that you're a shifter?" Kip asked and the bunny stayed put, moving its head to the side a little as if to convey a duh. Which, fair. Obviously Scott didn't tell people.
"Sorry, stupid question. I just... I don't know. Sorry. Uhm, did you shift on purpose just now?", Kip asked, hoping he wasn't being too annoying and that he was asking the right questions. Perhaps Scott hated all the hopping around that Kip made him do? But bunny Scott dutifully answered his question by moving over to the sock again, meaning that no, his shift had not been planned. Okay. Interesting, Kip hadn't really heard that this was a thing from either Maria or Shawn.
But then if Scott didn't shift on purpose... "And now you can't shift back?" The bunny hopped over again. Shirt. Yes. Yes, he couldn't shift back. Scott was stuck in his bunny form, somehow. Which was... not good. But at least it wasn't because of Kip. Get it together Grady! He reprimanded himself. This wasn't about him, this was about Scott turning back into human Scott, damn it!
"Should I call someone for you or...", Kip trailed off, realising that asking questions that contained an 'or' were kind of pointless if Scott could only give him 'yes' or 'no' for an answer. But from the hurried hopping over to the Sock, Kip gathered that calling someone was a hard no. Okay fair enough, Scott had told him – well, told was a stretch – that people didn't know about him. Plus, how would Kip explain who exactly he was, and why he was in Scott's apartment, or why he had a fucking key?
"Okay, no calling. Got it. Uhm, do you maybe want me to google it for you?", it felt ridiculous, asking a shifter whether Kip, a non-shifter, should google how one of the very basic things shifters just did, worked. But apparently not totally ridiculous. Bunny Scott didn't seem enthusiastic about it, but his reluctant movement over to the shirt told Kip that yes, he should google it, though Scott didn't seem happy about it.
Kip nodded "Got it", and picked up his phone again, which was when he realised that they were still sitting on the floor in Scott's bedroom. "Uhm... do you want to, I don't know, be put on the bed maybe? Or are you okay on the floor?", shit, that was another 'or' question. And would Scott be offended by the suggestion? Maybe he could get up there himself? But he just looked so tiny... Kip wasn't even sure Scott would make it on the coffee table. It was really fucking adorable, though Scott might not think so.
If he was offended by the question, Scott didn't show it right now (duh, Grady, he's a bunny. Bunnies couldn't look offended... or could they?). He kept sitting by the shirt and then deliberately looked over to the bed. Okay good, Kip thought, Scott had found a way to answer his not-so-straightforward question.
Bed it was. Which made sense, Scott probably didn't want to shift back to lie naked on the floor, once he made it back into his human form. And Kip wouldn't be too mad about moving somewhere more comfortable either. He was only in his mid-twenties and still, sitting on the floor slowly but surely lost its appeal.
Kip pocketed his phone and got up on his knees, slowly leaning forward and gingerly cupping his hands, so that bunny Scott could hop into them. When he did, Kip felt his heart lurch, suddenly worried that bunny Scott might fall, or not feel safe, or get hurt in his hands or something like that. Kip knew that human Scott wasn't that breakable, he was a professional athlete in a full-contact sport. But this version of him? Bunny Scott? He looked cute and adorable and tiny and super ultra breakable.
He got up slowly – probably too slowly, but he was trying to be careful here, okay? – and carried the warm tiny bundle over to the bed. As he held him, Kip noticed that bunny Scott's heart was beating very fast. Were bunnies' heart beats always that fast or was he just stressed? Oh god, was Kip doing something wrong that stressed Kip out?
He anxiously put bunny Scott down on the sheets and took a step back to give him space. He wasn't sure whether he needed it, but Kip just wanted to make sure. God, he looked even smaller when sitting on the large bed. Kip wanted to instantly take a step forward again and protectively curl himself around the tiny floof. He swallowed. Focus Grady! You have a job to do, he reminded himself.
"Okay. I'm gonna google that for you now", he muttered, mostly to himself, and got his phone back out to type problem with shifting back into human form into his search bar. The first to results that came up were ads, because of course they were, but the third one looked promising. An article from the shifter's health department from only two years ago. He clicked on the site and skimmed the introduction.
Apparently, shifters were most likely to get stuck in their animal form or randomly transformed into it when they were either a) just experiencing shifting for the first time, b) have not shifted in a very long time, or c) were going through extraordinarily emotional or transitional periods in their life. Kip looked down at the small white bunny on the rumpled sheets.
The second reason sounded very much like something that Scott would do. You know. Repress it. Like he used to repress other things. As for the third reason... Yes, they were moving fast and Scott had told him that he never hooked up in the city or hooked up with someone twice or more. And were they truly only hooking up if Kip had a damn key to his apartment? Kip sighed, yeah, most likely Scott was stuck in bunny form because of reasons two and three.
Repressing his shifter nature and suddenly letting himself have the physical and emotional attention of a man (something he must have craved so much)? Scott's body was most likely just fed up with all the repression. And now that he let the reins on one of the things he kept buried inside of him loose for a bit, his shifter nature came to bite him in the ass. Or, well, in the cute, adorable, white-furred teeny-tiny butt of bunny Scott. Focus, Grady!
Kip scrolled down to the list of things one could do when stuck in one's animal form and huffed in frustration after reading through the first few. He looked up from his phone and at bunny Scott, who had hopped towards the head of the bed a bit as if to make space for Kip. Christ, why was this so adorable? "So, the internet is blessing us with it's finest wisdom, it seems", he sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, keeping his eyes on bunny Scott.
"You need to either relax, or like, manifest yourself in your thoughts as the form you would want to be, or, oh yeah that one's really helpful", Kip snorted, "Try to stretch and go beyond the boundaries of your current form", he read and rolled his eyes. "That sounds absolutely pseudo-sciency, how is this a government site?", he looked back at bunny Scott, who, bless his heart, was actually doing a really stretch on the mattress right now. Kip felt his lower lip wobble and his heart swell. Protect this man (or bunny!) at all cost.
Kip looked back down at the phone again and sighed "You know what, the most convincing advice on the list here is the thing about just being in a calm environment and trying to doze off. Apparently, inexperienced shifters sometimes just transform back in their sleep." He hated the though of just leaving bunny Scott in the bedroom – anything could happen! – but it was probably best not to stress him out even more with Kip's anxious hovering. Surely, Scott was stressed out enough already by the fact that he wasn't able to turn back at the moment.
He looked longingly at the bed for a moment, but then decided it was for the best if he went to the living room for a bit. "I think in that case I'm going to let you rest for a bit. Uhm-", he wanted to check in with bunny Scott whether that was alright with him, but their yes/no signs were discarded on the floor. "I guess hop towards me if you would want me to stay?", he suggested.
When bunny Scott motioned to hop but then froze and sat back down, Kip's heart broke a little. But rationally, he knew that Scott didn't want him to leave because he wanted him to... well, leave. He just wanted to shift back and Kip just letting him be for a second might just do the trick. And, besides, Scott had instinctively wanted to signal to Kip that he wanted him to stay first, so they were probably good. Kip nodded to himself and muttered the what must have been hundredth "okay" to himself, before getting up from where he was sitting on the edge mattress.
"I'll be back to check in on you, promise", he said and quickly collected Scott's discarded clothes on the floor to put them in the hamper before moving to the door. He shot bunny Scott one last longing glance – god, he just wanted to cuddle up around bunny Scott and tell him it was all going to be okay. He really needed to get a grip. This was an adult man he was thinking about. Well, an adult man with probably more trauma than he would let on, Kip supplied...
With an almost inaudible sigh, he closed the door behind him and was back in the living room. He slumped down on the couch and got his phone out again. Stupid government website, he thought and closed the tab, just to open a new one and research the hell out of bunnies and what they needed in terms of food, comfort, activity, etc.
**
He must have dozed off during his research at some point, because when he heard a noise from the bedroom, his eyes flew open and he saw that his phone was lying on his chest. Shit, had something happened to bunny Scott? Had he accidentally knocked something over? Like the lamp on Scott's nightstand? What if he'd fallen down from the nightstand and the lamp had landed on him? Was bunny Scott okay?
Kip got up quickly and realised a bit too late that he shouldn't have done that, trying to balance himself on the arm of the couch and closing his eyes to adjust to the vertigo he was feeling. When he opened his eyes again, he was startled so much that he tripped and fell backwards onto the couch again. For some reason, he just really hadn't expected a naked human Scott in the doorway.
"Jesus", he muttered as he tried to sit up again and calm his wildly beating heart at the jump scare of seeing literally the one person he had expected to see when he first arrived a few hours ago.
Scott awkwardly shifted his weight from one leg to the other. "Yeah, so... uhm... sorry about...that", he said with a voice that sounded hoarse. Kip frowned, unsure what exactly Scott was apologising for, but somehow suspecting it wasn't for scaring him just now. "Hey, no. Don't be", Kip murmured as he approached Scott cautiously. He was back in his human form, but the hunched shoulders and unsure stance still made him seem smaller. Kip grabbed a blanket from the couch as he crossed the room and wrapped Scott in it before hugging him without squeezing him too much.
"It's okay", he whispered in his shoulder as he held him. He felt that Scott was shaking lightly, and decided that maybe, he could hug him just a little tighter, show Scott he was there for him. "You're okay", he murmured and stroked over his back. He felt Scott lightly nod against his shoulder, and decided to just hold him some more until the first waves of whatever Scott was feeling now were over.
After a moment, he took a little step back, still holding Scott by his shoulders and tipped his chin up, so he could look him in the eyes. "You're back", Kip said with a small smile, hoping he could distract Scott from the negative feelings and make him focus on something positive. A corner of Scott's lip twitched up as he nodded. That was almost a smile, right there. "Yeah, I'm back", he acknowledged. "Sorry I, uh... went away."
Kip shook his head as he gently guided Scott to the couch. "No need to apologise", he told him as he sat him down and quickly went over to the kitchen to fetch him a glass of water. Scott sounded like he had a really dry throat. Shit, he should have put something out for bunny Scott to drink before he left him alone. "Here", he said now, apologetically, as he pressed the glass into Scott's hand.
Scott eagerly drank the cool water and put the glass on the coffee table once he emptied it. He pulled the blanket closer around him and looked sheepishly at Kip "I'm sure you have questions", he said as he cleared his throat. Kip took Scott's hand in his and squeezed it lightly, "First and foremost I want to know whether you're okay, Scott", he told him earnestly.
With the way he looked at him, Scott seemed as if he hadn't expected this to be Kip's first question. He blinked a few times, letting himself relax into the cushions of the couch a bit more before answering "I think so? I wasn't... you know, not okay before. I was just kind of panicking because I didn't know how to shift back."
Kip nodded "That's completely valid", he stroked Scott's hand with his thumb. "Sorry that I didn't immediately get it and though you randomly adopted a pet", Kip even had to laugh a little at himself for that. His mind really had gone into every direction except for the one where the bunny was just Scott.
Scott shrugged "I didn't give you a reason to believe it was me", he sighed and then added "I might have warned you if I knew this could happen. I haven't shifted in so many years, sometimes I forget that I can." Kip nodded, feeling like he was probably right in his theory about why it happened now, but also not wanting to spring all of that onto Scott now. They could talk about it in the morning.
"It's alright. I figured it out in the end", Kip reassured him and put an arm around him. "I gotta say though, you are super cute as a bunny." At that, Scott sighed and put his head in his hands. Kip couldn't help but be reminded of when bunny Scott had kind of done the same thing a few hours ago.
"Yeah, the 6'2 hockey captain is a cute little bunny, I see the irony myself", Scott said self-deprecatingly, and Kip knew he had to put a stop to this right now. "Hey!", he protested and pried Scott's hands away from his face. "Damn right you're cute, but that's not something bad", he argued, but Scott didn't look like he was convinced.
"Look", Kip began, "I know that hockey is kind of fucked up that way and that the league wants you to be all straight and manly and shit, but that doesn't mean you have to believe them when they say that. You can be a big and strong hockey player that professionally body-checks people into the the boards. But that doesn't mean that you can't also be a bunny. You're the Scott Hunter no matter what."
Scott sighed and looked at him with that slightly tragic expression that he sometimes wore on his face. "Perhaps. But people would still see me differently if they knew." Kip nodded slowly and lay his head on Scott's shoulder "I know. It's fucked up. But honestly, you don't owe the public everything that you are. You're allowed to keep this to yourself. But you have to still acknowledge that you're a shifter at least once in a while. Otherwise you get stuck again."
At that, Scott snorted and nodded "Yeah, and then we have to play another game of yes/no/maybe." Kip laughed and swatted Scott lightly on his thigh. "Hey! I tried as best as I could there, okay?" A small grin was now visible on Scott's face as he replied "I know. And honestly, you did pretty well. I would have probably been more overwhelmed by the whole situation."
"I did what I could. Which was probably not that much, because I was, frankly, really distracted by how cute you are", Kip just had to bring it up again and emphasise that at least to him, bunny Scott's cuteness was a great feature. Scott sighed "Why do I get the feeling that you think I'm cuter when I'm a bunny than when I'm a man?", he asked, but Kip could see it on his face that he was only teasing.
"First of all", Kip said and emphasised it by holding up one finger, "You're always cute", he leaned in for a quick peck on Scott's lips. "Secondly", he added, "You being a bunny means I get to have adorable-ass cuddles with a bunny. Buuut", he dragged out the last word there, and used his now two fingers that he was holding up to part the blanket down Scott's chest. "You being a man means cuddles and lots of other great things...", he let his finger down Scott's abs, but didn't go lower than that, because Scott was still recovering all the events of the evening.
"So you don't need me to shift into a bunny constantly from now on because I'm so tiny and cute?", Scott asked challengingly. Kip shrugged innocently "Well, as I said, it's good and healthy for you to shift now and again anyway. And if you wanted to do that when I'm here, I'd be down." Yeah, Kip so wanted to be able to pet and hold bunny Scott again, even if he might still be terrified of hurting him.
"You're impossible", Scott muttered, but there was a smile on his face. Kip grinned back at him "I just don't want you to get stuck again", Kip said as if it was the whole truth, without even trying to hide it. Scott only shook his head. This reminded Kip that he didn't even know yet how Scott had gotten back into his human body. "What was it that helped you to shift, after all?", he asked curiously.
Scott looked at him and raised an eyebrow "That one thing on the list you really hated and called pseudo-science", he grinned. Kip opened his mouth to protest but then closed it again and shook his head. "No way you could just... what was it? Stretch and go beyond the boundaries of your current form? That sounds like bullshit", especially because the mental image of tiny bunny Scott doing a big stretch being the solution just sounded fake.
Scott shrugged "What can I say, it worked." Kip shook his head again and sighed, burying his head in the crook of Scott's neck. This man was ridiculous. And a bunny, apparently. He was ridiculous, and secretly a shifter that turned into a bunny and deeply closeted but... Kip just couldn't help it. He was falling for this utterly ridiculous man, because apparently, this was his life now.