Eddie has never been one for household chores, preferring to put them off until the last minute or just skip doing them entirely if he can get away with it. But helping Steve clean their rabbit's cage? That has quickly, surprisingly, become one of his favorite activities.
And of course it's because of Steve. Because every single Monday evening, Steve turns the light on in their bedroom and announces gravely, "The time has come, my friend," to the tiny black fluffball who has hopped up to the edge of the cage, curious. And, without fail, he stands with his hands on his hips for just a few moments, staring between that innocent little gaze and this week's carnage of hay and toys spread across the cage floor.
"Why do you have hay spread to kingdom come in here?" he asks Paul in such a disappointed tone that Eddie can't help but giggle.
"Because he's a bastard, you know that," Eddie tells him as he readies a trash bag and pulls on some gloves. He hands another pair to Steve.
Steve laughs. Takes the gloves. Coaxes Paul into the kennel attached to the hutch with a treat and closes the door. Drops another treat inside. "That's all you get today, you know," Steve warns the rabbit and Eddie thinks he deserves some credit for not laughing when they all know full well there will be at least one more before bed.
Steve sings as he sweeps the cage clean. Snippets of songs from the radio, snatches of Corroded Coffin's latest. Eddie sometimes sings along and sometimes just listens, listens and feels like he could make a home in Steve's voice.
And then he takes the trash out while Steve readies a new litter box. Comes back just in time to see Steve sitting by the cage, Paul flopped in his lap. Leans in the open doorway and watches.
Laughs when Steve sternly tells Paul, "Now, this time, let's not dump our hay box over again, okay?"
"You're such a dad," he teases and Steve rolls his eyes at him, but he's laughing, too. And Eddie's heart feels so full at that moment that he can't help but sit down next to Steve and lean his head on his shoulder as he reaches over to pet the tiny white mark on Paul's soft forehead.
"You're gonna be such a good parent someday. You know that, right, Stevie?" he whispers.
And Steve is quiet, not responding, and Eddie knows his eyes have filled with tears and he knows exactly why, knows Steve is thinking about his dreams of a family and his parents and how desperately he doesn't want to be like them, and so he just turns and softly kisses the tears away until they're gone. Presses a gentle kiss to Steve's forehead.
"C'mon, let's go be boring parents and watch dumb TV until we fall asleep," he tells Steve, gets a little laugh in return. They put Paul back in his cage, go cuddle on the couch. Enjoy being in their home, just them and the quiet noise from the TV and the sound of Paul hopping around his newly clean space.
Twenty minutes later, they hear the unmistakable sound of the hay box being turned over and Steve calls out, "Paul, what did I tell you?" so indignantly that Eddie just has to laugh and pull him closer and kiss that disgruntled look off his face until he settles in again, warm and heavy against Eddie's side.
Yeah, this is definitely his favorite chore.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7
ao3: And Rabbit Makes Three
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I’m rereading the Saga of Darren Shan (Cirque du Freak) and oh my goddddddd
What do you put in your books Darren?? It is not often I read something so addictive. I saw someone describe them as being like crack. And yeah I can see that I don’t even read Animorphs books this voraciously
(Spoilers below)
And yet. Rereading the second half of the series. When you know who the vampaneze lord is and how it’s going to end. Just:
God. (Or should I say, Charna’s guts!) the planning that must have gone into the series. I can see the foreshadowing/just a prophesy that they don’t know how to follow properly because they don’t know how it ends. It’s like how a horror film protag doesn’t check why a cup fell down because they don’t know they’re in a horror film. Darren! You had Steve at your mercy! SEVERAL TIMES!!! Kill him! It’s unbearable!!! He’s lying!!!!!! This is like a fucking Greek tragedy mess of a plot!!!!!!!!
(Just try. Try reading Allies of the Night knowing full well what’s happening)
(The Greek tragedy comparison makes sense though, Darren is literally struggling against Des Tiny, even if he doesn’t know it)
And then, Mr Crepsley is dead, and Darren (post depression) and Harkat go on holiday to the nuclear dragon desert to gather panther teeth, gelatinous toad globes and Grotesque venom so they can go fishing for souls! It’s very reasonable that the war is drawing to a close so we need a break before the final battle but those toad spheres came of left field.
And then we hear the cirque du freak is returning to Darren’s hometown!! Love it when heroes return after most of their journey and discover they’ve changed too much to go back! But especially Darren, who cannot talk to anyone or even look around too much. He died. I LOVE IT I LOVE THESE BOOKS SO MUCH BUT I AM TEARING AND CRAWLING OUT OF MY SKIN THEY HURT SO BAD I JUST WANT MY BOYS TO BE HAPPY AND SAFE AGAIN)
(Boys includes: Darren, Harkat, Mr Crepsley. Vancha, Alice and Debbie. Not Steve Leopard. Fuck Steve Leopard. All my homies hate Steve Leopard)
And another thing: now I know about actual science - ‘vampire atoms are wobbly so they don’t show up on cameras’ - that is some of the most shallow pseudo scientific bullshit I’ve seen outside of JoJo’s. I love it. It’s so silly and makes no sense.
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