You're a Rabbit, Louis

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/3164933.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Categories: M/M, Multi
Fandoms: One Direction (Band), Radio 1 RPF
Relationships: Nick Grimshaw/Harry Styles, Nick Grimshaw/Harry Styles/Louis
Tomlinson
Characters: Louis Tomlinson, Nick Grimshaw, Harry Styles
Additional Tags: Rabbits, Animal Transformation
Language: English
Series: Part 1 of You're a Rabbit, Louis
Stats: Published: 2015-01-12 Words: 5,634 Chapters: 1/1
 You're a Rabbit, Louis
by sunsetmog

Summary

"Maybe Louis turned into a rabbit," Nick suggests. They both laugh. Louis doesn't. Harry is
an idiot and Nick is an even bigger one.

Louis stomps past both of them on four tiny, furry, baby rabbit paws, and into Nick's flat. "I
hate you both," he says. He sits on the rug by the TV. "And you can stop following me around
too," he says to Pig, who sits down next to him on the rug.

"But seriously," Harry says, from the door. "Where's Louis?"

Louis thumps his back leg on the floor. "I'm here, you idiot."

"I'm not really suggesting this could be true," Nick says carefully, "but are we sure he isn't a
tiny baby rabbit?"

Notes

Thanks to crwthr for the read through, much appreciated <3. Any remaining mistakes are my
own.

I have no idea where this came from. A couple of days ago I contemplated the idea of Louis
turning into a tiny baby rabbit, and now here we are. I have read more rabbit websites in the
last twenty four hours than I had anticipated 2015 could possibly contain, as well as relying
upon a childhood with many rabbits for pets, but please do not take this as any indication I
know what I'm talking about. I also forgot to put any jokes about carrots in, of which there
are many, and for this I sincerely apologise. Louis, we know how you feel about carrots. It
would have seemed a beautifully appropriate place to make a joke, and I've let myself down.
I can only offer my sincere apologies.

Now with amazing, amazing fanart by slowestdive here.

See the end of the work for more notes

"Are you ready?" Harry asks, as soon as Louis picks up the phone.

Louis rolls his eyes. "Ready as I'll ever be," he says, picking at the wrapping paper on the gift
in front of him. "Unless you want to change your mind and cancel this whole stupid thing."

"You promised," Harry says. "Come on."

"Fine," Louis says. It's not fine. He doesn't want to go over to Nick fucking Grimshaw's for
the evening. He doesn't want a 'nice evening' watching Nick and Harry fawn all over each
other as they finally make some kind of formal attempt at getting together. He doesn't want to
be this hangover from their past that they want to put right.

"You're my best friends. I just—if we're doing this, I need for the two of you to be able to get
along. Please."

"You've said that a million times," Louis says. He's hunting round his living room for his
Vans. He's got one, but not the other. How did they get so separated? Maybe he should wear
odd shoes. That's all that Nick deserves. He's said yes to this dinner with Nick and Harry
because he's a good person and he loves Harry more than pretty much everyone else on the
planet, and because he's been mostly (secretly) in love with him for a lot longer than he'll
ever admit to, but even despite all of that he can't make any sense of why it's so important to
Harry that he and Nick get along. Surely it can't matter too much if his new boyfriend and his
best friend don't see eye to eye? It's worked out so far, at least.

"Look, I'll be at yours in five minutes, all right? Did you get some wine?"

"Yes, I got wine. I also got Nick a present to say thank you for having me, does that meet
your requirements?"

Harry lets out a breath. "Yeah," he says. "Thank you."

"Okay," Louis says. "I'm going for a piss. I'll see you in five minutes."

He hangs up the phone, and goes to splash cold water on his face. It's his own fault, he knows
this. A long time ago, he could have had Harry, but he hadn't wanted him. He'd wanted
something else instead, something different, and now it's too late. Harry wants Nick instead.

~*~

"Thank you," Nick says, gingerly taking the present Louis's offering.

"It won't bite," Louis says. He waits until Nick's holding it a bit tighter. "Much."

Harry shoots him a look, but Louis just rolls his eyes as Nick starts to unwrap it. He'd picked
the thing he'd hated most on the stall at the back of the market near his house, with the
reasoning that he and Nick were diametric opposites on everything, so why not good taste as
well? And if the stall happened to be a bit dodgy—all bells and tarot cards and auras, as well
as a selection of really ugly wooden boxes—then even better. He shouldn't be the only one
hating this evening.

"Oh," Nick says, as he opens it up. It's a dark wooden box with an engraved lid and a hook
for a catch, jewellery box size, and Louis would have no use at all for it in his house, but
looking round Nick's flat, it's possible Nick might. "It's really nice, Louis. Thank you."

He does sound almost sincere. Louis shoots him a look. "The guy who sold it to me said it
was really old. He told me all this other stuff about where it came from but I wasn't listening.
He did say you were supposed to put rosemary in it or something. For remembrance? I don't
know, maybe it's magic or something. He had all these bells on the stall and tarot cards and
stuff, it was distracting."

"It's really great," Nick says again, and then he does the most awkward thing ever, which is to
lean over and kiss Louis on the cheek, and Louis definitely does not know how to process that
experience. He goes a bit red.

"It's all right," he says. "Couldn't show up without a present. Properly rude."

Next to them, Harry looks hopeful and happy and pleased.

Jesus, the things Louis does for him.

~*~

Louis doesn't feel very well over dinner, a queer sort of tightness in his chest he can't put a
name to. Maybe it's knowing that whatever he might have wished for him and Harry, Harry's
picked Nick, and Louis has left it way too late. Maybe it's the slightly old ham he'd used to
make a sandwich at lunchtime. Maybe it's Nick's spinach pie.

By the time dessert rolls around, he's got a headache to go with it. Nick and Harry keep
sneaking glances at each other, and sharing smiles, and it's rubbish, so Louis makes friends
with Nick's dog instead. Pig at least isn't destroying all of his too-late, secret hopes for
happiness. He feeds her a bit of pie and she climbs up into his lap to put her head on his
shoulder.

He likes dogs. Dogs don't break your heart when you're not looking.

He knows it's his own fault, but that doesn't make it any easier.

It looks like Nick and Harry are holding hands under the table as they finish pudding. Louis
stands up with a jerk. His head's swimming, but he hasn't had all that much wine. "I'm going
out for a cigarette," he says, reaching into his jacket pocket for his packet of Marlboro and his
lighter. "I'm assuming I can use your back garden?"

"Feel free," Nick says, tearing his attention away from Harry for a moment. Louis rolls his
eyes and goes outside, Pig following him. Outside, he steadies himself with a hand to the
wall, and he sits down in the corner and rests his head against the brick, suddenly exhausted.
He closes his eyes.
He doesn't remember falling asleep, but when he wakes up, the world looks terribly different,
and a lot larger, and a giant, dinosaur-sized Pig-dog is nosing at him.

Also, Louis is a rabbit.

Pig noses at him again. Louis is incensed. Pig's tongue is huge and wet and bigger than
Louis's head. "Stop manhandling me," Louis says, but nothing actually comes out of his
mouth. His nose keeps doing a snuffly, wiggly thing. He tries for his fiercest expression
instead.

Pig cocks her head to one side and licks him again.

Oh no, Louis is having none of that. "Unhand me," he says. "No, stop that." Nothing comes
out but a snuffly sort of fierce silence. Oh god, he's mute. His biting wit is his most treasured
attribute. This is even worse than waking up a rabbit.

Pig appears to be nudging him towards the open door back into Nick's flat.

Louis does not like to be nudged. He stays right where he is.

Pig licks him again.

This does not appear to be working out very well for Louis. He makes an angry snuffly kind
of a noise. His whiskers shake.

"Louis," Harry says, coming to the door, "do you want a coffee?"

"No," Louis says. "I never want coffee. I only ever want tea. Just because Nick fuckhead
Grimshaw drinks coffee, you've forgotten everything you ever knew about me." His nose
wiggles.

"Louis," Harry says. "Where are you?"

Pig barks.

"Louis's disappeared," Harry says.

"He can't have," Nick says, coming to the back door. "There's nowhere to go."

"I'm here," Louis says. "I'm here, but I'm also a rabbit." He recognises that this could be an
issue.

"Oh my god," Nick says, "look, a bunny. A baby bunny. Where did he come from?"

Louis shakes, incensed. He is not a baby bunny. He is a fierce rabbit of death. He'd like to
think he was a rodent of unusual size, but he's not sure rabbits count as rodents.

"Do you think he's escaped from somewhere?" Nick asks, coming over and crouching by Pig
so he can reach out and stroke Louis's ears. "Hello, tiny bunny."
Louis gives Nick his best fierce stare. That does feel rather nice, though, being stroked. He
refuses to react. His ears go flat without his permission. There's an overwhelming urge to curl
into the ground and beg for more touches. "Go away."

"Let's call him Thumper," Harry says, coming over and covering Nick's hand with his own.

Louis is not a vehicle for getting Nick and Harry together. His whiskers twitch. His nose
wiggles.

"He's adorable. Look at his little nose."

"Hey, do you think he's eaten Louis? Isn't that his phone and his cigarettes?"

Louis rolls his eyes. "I'm a rabbit."

"Maybe Louis turned into a rabbit," Nick suggests. They both laugh. Louis doesn't. Harry is
an idiot and Nick is an even bigger one.

Louis stomps past both of them on four tiny, furry, baby rabbit paws, and into Nick's flat. "I
hate you both," he says. He sits on the rug by the TV. "And you can stop following me around
too," he says to Pig, who sits down next to him on the rug.

"But seriously," Harry says, from the door. "Where's Louis?"

Louis thumps his back leg on the floor. "I'm here, you idiot."

"I'm not really suggesting this could be true," Nick says carefully, "but are we sure he isn't a
tiny baby rabbit?"

"How could we tell?" Harry asks. "Maybe we could get some pictures or something and get
him to pick one."

"He could put the passcode into his phone," Nick suggests. "Or maybe his paws are too big
for that."

"Jesus fucking Christ," Louis says, and he debates hopping up onto the coffee table—which
is very low and close to the ground, but unfortunately, Louis is even shorter now that he's a
tiny baby rabbit—and he heads for the kitchen instead. Pig's knocked the remains of the bag
of spinach onto the floor, and Louis starts to arrange it neatly on the kitchen floor.

"Oh my god," Harry says, "look, the rabbit's spelling something with your spinach."

Louis grumpily picks up another piece of spinach in his mouth and puts it down again in the
right place on the floor.

"K-N—" Nick spells. "O-B. Knob. Oh look, he can spell his name."

Louis's whiskers twitch. He steals a bit of spinach and eats it. It tastes almost delicious, which
is not how spinach normally tastes. "You're terrible," he says. "I don't know why Harry wants
to go anywhere near your dick."
"Louis's turned into a rabbit," Harry says. "What are we going to do?"

"Google it?"

"I'm going to die," Louis says. "I'm going to actually die." He stomps over to Harry's foot and
goes up onto his back legs, demanding to be picked up.

Harry picks him up and cradles him in the crook of his arm, and strokes down his ears and his
back. Louis's eyes close without him saying that it's okay.

"He's very cute as a tiny bunny," Nick says.

Louis gives him his very fiercest stare. It's difficult to be fierce when Harry's fingers are
doing delicious things to him, but he makes an effort for Nick's sake.

"Do you think he'll hate me even more if I say he's adorable?" Nick leans over and strokes the
back of his head.

"He doesn't hate you," Harry says.

"I do."

"Well, maybe he'll hate me less after we look after him whilst he's a rabbit."

"I hate my life," Louis says, shifting position so that he can rub his chin all over Harry's arm.
Harry smells a lot better now, like Louis. He's going to make everything in Nick's flat smell
like Louis. Best punishment ever.

~*~

He doesn't mean to fall asleep in Harry's arms.

~*~

He wakes up still curled up in the crook of Harry's arm, but this time Harry's lying on the
sofa, and he's asleep too. The flat's in darkness. Louis wriggles out of Harry's hold and goes
to wake him up. Maybe he can snuffle in his ear or something.

Fuck, he misses talking.

"Oh no you don't," Nick says, coming over and scooping Louis up.

Louis makes a squeaky noise of horror. "Why don't you turn the fucking lights on?"

"I've been to the shops," Nick says, tucking Louis up against his chest. "Got you some rabbit
food and some hay and a bowl and stuff."

"I refuse to eat rabbit food."

"Got you some lettuce, too."

Louis's ears prick up. He'd kill for a bit of lettuce. "You're not forgiven," he says. "Unhand
me. Give me back to Harry."

"Come and hang out with me in the bedroom," Nick says. "Let's let Harry snooze."

This sounds like the worst idea ever, but Nick has an lettuce in his other hand, so Louis is
willing to go with it for now. Plus he's never been in Nick's bedroom, always choosing to
avoid going to the loo at Nick's so he didn't have to go in. He can check it out now that he's a
rabbit, have a bit of a nose round. If Harry's going to be virtually living here, then at least
Louis can do a bit of a quality check. It's the least he can do.

Nick puts Louis down on the bed, which—it turns out—is a very long way away from the
floor. Louis peers over the edge a little dubiously. "Why can't you have a lower bed?" he
asks, when Nick comes out of the loo with a little bowl of water.

"Let's put this on here," Nick says, making some room on the bedside table. "Are you thirsty,
Lou?"

"Don't call me Lou," Louis says, stomping across the bed and gingerly stepping over onto the
bedside table. He—very grumpily—laps up a little water. He'd thought it would be hard but
actually it's quite easy. Much easier than trying to lap it up as a human. He does get it all the
way down his chin, though.

When he turns around, Nick's filming him on his phone.

"Don't put that on Instagram."

"Just putting that on Instagram."

"Jesus fucking Christ." He wiggles his nose a little ferociously. "Why are you so terrible?"
There's a little bit of chest hair poking out of Nick's shirt. It's terrible. Louis wants to rub his
wet chin on it.

He'll put that down to being a rabbit.

He steps back onto the bed and then clambers awkwardly onto Nick's lap, and tries to climb
up his shirt.

Nick rolls his eyes, and settles back against the pillows. "That better for you?" he asks.

Louis stomps up Nick's chest so that he can nose at Nick's chest hair.

"That tickles."

"Good," Louis says, and does it again.

"You're such a brat," Nick says, but he sounds affectionate about it. He strokes down Louis's
back, and like before, Louis is powerless to contain his reaction. His ears go flat and he
flattens himself down against Nick's chest, begging for more. "Why can't we be friends,
huh?"
"Because you're terrible," Louis says, eyes half closed. If being touched felt like this when he
was a human, he'd demand it all the time. He doesn't let himself think about how he won't be
able to demand it from Harry anymore.

Nick unwraps the lettuce and gives Louis a piece. It's so big compared to Louis that when
Louis starts to nibble on it, it stands up like a giant blind between the two of them.

Good, Louis thinks.

Nick carefully takes it back again and tears it into three.

"This is because you're going to film me being adorable and put it on the internet," Louis
says, going in again for another nibble. God, this tastes good. He'll punish Nick for being
terrible later. When the lettuce has gone.

Nick is filming him with his phone. Louis gives him a look.

"You're really cute," Nick says, putting his phone down. "I mean it, you know. I want us to be
friends."

"We both love Harry," Louis says, and he feels sad, right down to his tiny bunny paws. "And
you've got him. I don't want to be friends with you."

"It would mean so much to Harry," Nick goes on, stroking Louis's back. "And me, you know.
I'm really serious about him. And he's serious about both of us."

"It's not fair," Louis says, and the thing is, he knows that's not entirely true. He hadn't wanted
Harry when he'd offered himself to Louis, and he'd left it too late. He knows that. He just
loves him now, that's the thing. He loves him now.

Louis puts the lettuce down and crawls into the curve of Nick's neck. His nose wiggles and
his whiskers are probably tickling Nick. He doesn't care. He just wants a hug.

Nick strokes his back until Louis's stopped quivering.

~*~

He must fall asleep again, because when he wakes up, Harry's joined them in the bedroom,
and is sprawled out on the bed next to them, his foot hooked over Nick's and his arm wrapped
around Nick's chest. They're not saying much, but Nick's mouth was just touching Harry's
forehead.

"Oh, no," Louis says. "None of this." He picks up a half eaten piece of lettuce and positions
himself neatly in the two inch gap between Nick's face and Harry's.

"Louis," Harry says, shifting so he's not going to be suffocated by rabbit.

Louis starts to carefully eat his lettuce like that was his aim all along.
"Brat," Nick says affectionately, and strokes his fingertips over Louis's ears. "Always want to
be the centre of attention, don't you?"

That nice feeling inside is just because he's a rabbit, and rabbits like to be stroked. That's it.

"It's late," Harry says. "We should probably sleep."

"Where's Louis going to sleep?" Nick asks.

There is no way Louis is letting the two of them have sex tonight. He stretches out on the
pillow in the middle of the bed, and closes his eyes.

"Cockblocked by a rabbit," Nick says very quietly, when Harry's climbed off the bed and
headed for the bathroom.

Louis opens his eyes, just for a moment, and very slowly blinks.

"Brat," Nick says again, and he strokes two long fingers down Louis's back.

Up until that moment, Louis hadn't known that rabbits could purr.

~*~

Louis has free rein of the flat the following day, if free rein counts when you're constantly
being followed by a very enthusiastic dog. Nevertheless, Louis takes the opportunity to nose
all round Nick's flat, leaving his scent on anything he can rub his chin on, and clambering
into Nick's open underwear drawer, just to fuck shit up.

Nick and Harry are quite attentive in the morning, but it's only when the flat's been quiet for a
while that Louis realises he's been left to his own devices.

"Oh no," Louis says, leaping out of the drawer and racing into the living room. Sure enough,
Nick and Harry are sprawled out across the sofa, wrapped up in each other, Nick on top, the
two of them kissing, hands in each other's hair.

He stands and watches for a minute. If Louis wasn't a rabbit, he'd be quite turned on at the
sight.

He's a rabbit, though. There's a piece of lettuce in his food bowl, and he takes it into his
mouth as he mounts his assault. There's a satchel leaning up against the chair at the end of the
sofa, and he scrambles up onto the bag, then the chair, then leaps from the arm of the chair to
the arm of the sofa, and then wanders round the back of the sofa until he's level with Nick's
back. Then he jumps, and lands square in the middle of Nick's back.

He sits on his hind legs and nibbles daintily on his lettuce.

Nick and Harry have stopped kissing.

"There's a rabbit on my back, isn't there?" Nick asks, burying his face in Harry's neck.
"Looks like it, yeah," Harry says. He reaches over Nick's shoulder and holds his finger out for
Louis to sniff, before stroking down over Louis's back. "Hi, Lou."

"Hi," Louis says, and settles down for a bit of a rest.

~*~

"I've got to go out for a meeting," Harry says the following lunchtime. Louis has slept in the
middle of their bed again, and demanded to be carried round all morning, and he's nuzzled
Harry's neck and been stroked repeatedly, and he is not in favour of anything that changes
that. "You'll stay here with Pig and Nick."

"Fucking great," Louis says, and makes a face at Nick.

"I'm sorry," Nick says, coming over to kiss Harry on the temple, "but, like, have we talked
about how fluffy his tail is? It's so fluffy."

Louis tries to see his own tail and ends up turning in a circle.

Harry snorts. "He's really cute."

"I'm not cute," Louis says, as snootily as he can when he's trying to see his own fluffy tail,
"I'm a rabbit of mass destruction."

"Come here, love," Nick says, picking Louis up from Harry's lap. "God, you're cute."

"I'm going to poo on your pillow," Louis says, as Nick cradles him against his chest, and
strokes his head. "I'm going to wee on your sofa."

Nick strokes his ears.

Louis immediately goes floppy and his eyes half-close. God damn it.

"He likes you," Harry says. He brushes off his lap and leans over to kiss Nick goodbye.
"Love you," he says. He leans down to kiss the top of Louis's head too. "Love you too, Lou."

Louis doesn't mean to quiver, and he doesn't mean to burrow closer into Nick's chest, tiny and
sad and fluffy and alone. Nick keeps stroking him, holding him close, and Louis is comforted
by it, and he doesn't even know why.

~*~

The afternoon goes downhill after that. Nick comes back from the fridge with a bag of
watercress and rocket salad, and tries to feed Louis it. Louis is so incensed by the fact that
Nick would dare to feed him posh hipster lettuce instead of normal lettuce that he refuses to
speak to him for an hour. He also sits on the remote, so the two of them are stuck watching an
Antiques Roadshow rip off on one of the Sky channels. Pig—who has been mournfully
following Louis around for the last two days—is banished to the bathroom after eating one of
Nick's new shoes, so there isn't even anything else to steal Nick's attention other than Louis.
"Louis," Nick says finally. "I'm very sorry I tried to feed you watercress. Will you just turn
around and forgive me?"

"No," Louis says, without turning round. "Also I don't understand why watching you and
Harry kiss earlier was hot."

"How about I make you a salad, just of things you do want to eat, huh?"

Louis's nose twitches.

"You could have hay for a starter, and then a salad of—well, we've got cucumber and green
beans and cabbage and cauliflower and peas in a pod."

Louis makes a cautious, forty-five degree angle turn in Nick's direction.

"As many of them as you want to eat," Nick says, carefully.

"This isn't forgiveness," Louis says, picking his way across the sofa and into Nick's lap, so
that Nick can pick him up and let him sit on his shoulder, one large hand holding him as they
go to stand in front of the fridge. "This is me taking advantage of your good nature so I can
eat what I want to."

Nick chops up green things into a bowl whilst Louis nuzzles his neck, and then puts a tomato
in the middle on top like a garnish. "There," Nick says. "That's more vegetables than I've
prepared this year."

"I can't cook," Louis says. "Harry's the one that cooks."

"Harry's the one that cooks," Nick says. "You'll have to come round for your tea a lot if he's
cooking. Take advantage." He pauses. "Anyway, it'll be nice having you around."

He carries the bowl back into the living room and puts it on the floor next to the hay, and
goes to get fresh water. Louis makes an excellent effort at eating his own body weight in
dinner, and then sleepily goes to stand on his back legs at Nick's feet to demand to be picked
up.

Nick scoops him up into his lap, and smiles as Louis tries to tell him that he wants to be
picked up and held. "Pushy little guy, aren't you?" he says, and Louis is just getting ready to
be extremely rude when Nick bends down and kisses the top of his head. "I like you, Louis. I
wish you liked me back."

Louis snuffles a little bit, his fluffy tail trembling, and curls into Nick's chest, his nose
twitching.

Nick strokes him a bit more. Louis wants to purr. "Wish you liked me back," Nick says again,
and Louis has to stop himself from saying, I do.

~*~
Louis stays curled up against Nick's chest even when Harry gets home from his meetings
with Chinese takeaway.

"You can't eat with Louis there," Harry says.

"Can," Louis says sleepily, nose twitching.

"Can," Nick says. "That's why I went for sweet and sour pork balls. You can just dip them in
the sauce and voila, avoid dripping them on the rabbit."

Harry rolls his eyes, and goes to the kitchen to get a tea towel out of the drawer. He covers
Louis with it, and moves the prawn crackers a bit closer to Nick. "Don't drip on Louis."

Louis appreciates the thought. "Love you," he says, because he never normally gets to say it.
"Love you love you love you."

Harry leans in to kiss the top of his head. "Prefer Nick now, do you? Always knew you two
would get along."

"Shut up," Louis says.

"Shut up," Nick says. "Eat your chow mein."

Louis buries his face into Nick's neck and stays just where he is.

~*~

"But I want to hold him," Nick says, later on.

"You held him all afternoon," Harry says. He pouts. "It's my turn."

Louis makes a big deal of shaking his fluffy tail in their general direction. He's humming my
milkshake brings all the boys to the yard under his breath, and doing a little bunny dance on
the living room floor. He wonders how high he can jump, and whether it will show his fluffy
tail off to best advantage.

It turns out he can't jump very high, but he can do this thing where he sort of twists mid air
and his feet sort of flick out and he lands somewhere different to where he started. That's fun.
He does that again, and again, and again.

This time it's Harry filming him on his phone. Nick's filming him on his iPad.

"Oh yeah," Louis says, shaking his tail. "Who's the hottest rabbit in the room? Is it me? It's
me. I'm the hottest rabbit in the room."

Pig cocks her head to one side.

"I know, baby," Louis says, jumping up and down again. "I'm fantastic."
Afterwards, he flops on Harry's feet with his paws out. "Still the hottest," he says, when
Harry leans down to scoop him up and let him curl up on his lap instead.

"Show off," Nick says, leaning over to stroke him.

Louis blinks slowly and lazily, and nudges his nose into Nick's fingers. "Keep stroking me,"
he says. "I am your king."

"I think he likes you," Harry says, and he leans over to kiss Nick.

Louis tries not to be jealous. Nick keeps stroking him, though, and Harry keeps a hold of
him, and if this is the best it gets then it's not a bad place to be.

~*~

He goes to sleep for the night nestled in between Nick and Harry in the bed, stretched out
across the pillow so that they can't get close to each other. They're still holding hands under
the duvet.

He wishes they were holding him instead. He's not entirely sure when things changed.

~*~

He half wakes up to Nick and Harry talking quietly, and Harry climbing out of bed, and
telling Nick to stay right where he is.

Louis nestles a little closer, tucked up against him, and goes back to sleep.

~*~

"I told you he likes you," Harry says a bit later on, coming in with a mug and putting it down
on the bedside table. Louis doesn't open his eyes, but he listens to Harry bending down and
kissing the top of Nick's head, and then the top of Louis's head.

"Wouldn't be so sure of that," Nick says.

"Shut up, I like you, all right, and I love him," Louis says. "Stop going on about it, and stroke
me, okay."

There's an odd, queer kind of silence.

Louis opens his eyes.

He's no longer a rabbit.

What he is is naked in Nick Grimshaw's bed, wrapped around Nick like a jellyfish, and
Nick's hugging him back.

"Um," he says.

"Louis," Nick says carefully, not letting him go. "Don't freak out."
"Christ," Louis says, skittering back across the bed.

"Louis," Harry says, equally carefully, hands out. "It's fine. Everything's all right. You've
been a rabbit."

"I know I've been a rabbit," Louis says. "And if I didn't know I'd been a rabbit, how on earth
is you saying you've been a rabbit in any way reassuring? Jesus Christ."

"You were more of a tiny fluffy bunny, if we're being honest," Nick says. "You had a very
tiny tail."

"My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard," Louis says, without really thinking about it.

"And very tiny paws," Nick goes on. "And a very tiny nose."

"We took about nine million pictures," Harry says.

"And you didn't show me any of them. I couldn't even tell which one was my best side." He
clears his throat. "I'm still naked in your bed."

"Yes," Harry says. "For the record, I liked seeing you and Nick together. Just now."

"You are the weirdest fucking dude."

"I, um," Harry's gone red. "You just said you loved me. Like, uh, a friend? Or like more.
Because I'm just saying, I can get Nick off by talking to him about you."

Nick goes a very handsome shade of bright red. "Harold."

"If you can't be honest when one of you has been turned into an adorable baby rabbit, when
can you be honest?"

"I was a fierce rabbit," Louis says.

"Course you were," Nick says.

"Can you really get off if you talk about me?"

Nick puts his face in his hands. "You're so going to use this against me, but yes."

"Right," Louis says. "I liked watching you two kiss. You know, when I was a rabbit. A fierce
rabbit of unusual size."

"Right," Harry says.

"Um," Louis says. "The second option. The bit where I love you as more than a friend. That's
the option I'm picking."

"Right," Harry says again. "Are you, like, pathologically against the idea of threesomes?"
"I'm sort of, you know, well, for them," Louis says cautiously. "Are you, like, desperately
against sort of, you know, touching me a lot? Because I liked that whole stroking thing. You
know. When I was a rabbit."

"Jesus," Nick says, and he buries his face in the duvet for a moment. "We are so fucking
crap."

Harry sits down on the bed. "I love Nick," he says. "and I also love you. You love me, and
you don't hate Nick—"

"Thanks," Nick says.

"I'd say, like, I like him a lot more than I did," Louis concedes. "Also, you two kissing was
hot. And I like being near him. Like just now. I'd, um, you know. Shag him."

"Right," Harry says again. "You love me, and you are not against the idea of sleeping with
Nick, and you think Nick and me are hot together, and Nick loves me, and gets off thinking
about you. That's right, right?"

Louis gives a cautious nod.

"A perfect circle," Harry says. "Wouldn't you agree?"

Nick looks at Louis, and Louis looks at Nick, and then they both look at Harry.

"Worth a punt, I'd say," Louis says.

Nick just rolls his eyes. "What am I getting myself into, huh?" He reaches for Louis's hand,
tugging him nearer, and when Louis gets close, Nick strokes his other hand down Louis's
back. Harry's hand follows Nick's, so that the two of them are both touching him, and Louis
tips his head back and groans.

"Yeah," he says, biting his lip and reaching for Harry's other hand, "just like that."

~*~

Six months later, Louis can't find anywhere to hide the stupid friendship bracelet he'd bought
for Nick in Spain, and because he can hear Nick and Harry letting themselves in the front
door, he dumps it inside the ugly wooden box he'd bought Nick all those months ago.

They eat Wagamama's takeaway in front of the TV, bickering about what to watch, Harry and
Nick's legs tangled up in Louis's lap.

Louis doesn't feel very well.

~*~

"Oh, fuck," Louis says, two hours later, when he wakes up on the bedroom floor and he's a
rabbit again.
Harry and Nick barrel through the door.

"Oh my god," Nick says. "The bunny's back."

"I want to hold him," Harry says.

"No, I do. Let me."

Louis very calmly licks his tiny bunny paw. He's singing Britney Spears' Piece of Me under
his breath. "I am your king," he says, and lets Nick scoop him up so he can nuzzle into Nick's
neck, Harry leaning over to stroke him hello, "and I love to rule."

[End]
End Notes

tumblr // twitter

For absolutely no reason at all, here have some pictures of tiny rabbits I nabbed off Google.

Amazing fanart by slowestdive here.

There is also a not-fic sequel to be found here.

Please drop by the Archive and comment to let the creator know if you enjoyed their work!