Chapter Text
The next day, a lump of fur and whines lazily collapsed above her head, right in the space between the ears. “Carrots… just kill me.”
“Don’t tempt me” Judy replied, as her fingers angrily pressed the keyboard. “And don’t breathe on me; you still stink of wine.”
Nick muttered something hardly intelligible. “I feel like I’m going to vomit my very soul.”
“What soul?” She asked, rolling her eyes. “You don’t own a soul, Nick.”
“… All this hostility, first thing in the morning” he sighed, walking away from Judy. “Just because last night I got a little drunk…”
“A little?” Judy stopped writing and gave him a gaze filled with repressed hatred. “Nick, you mistook Bogo for a phone booth. ‘And this isn’t even the worst thing you've done.’
“He’s got the size right” he replied, sitting on his chair. “Besides… no, besides my ass… I can’t sit on this thing; it moves waaay too much.”
“You will sit on that thing, officer Wilde.” Judy politely smiled, as anger silently pulsed in her flesh. “You have to fill reports for the next two hundred seventy-four days; and, just so you know, I’m not going to help you.”
The fox shrugged. “I can’t figure out the source of your resentment, officer Hopps. Even the most estimable animal happens to drink too much, from times to times.”
“Some people get drunk well, some don’t; guess which category you belong to.”
Nick’s ears drooped slightly, and an uncertain expression slowly crept on his muzzle. “Did something happened, Carrots? Something I can’t remember?”
‘Oh, just… everything.’ Judy really wanted to say those words. They were just, just on the tip of her tongue, dying for a chance to come out and punch him in the stomach… but it was another sound that left her mouth: “Nothing. Nothing happened, Nick. What could a drunk fox even do, after all?”
“I don’t know. Make his precious bunny despise him?”
“You already do that when you’re sober” she reminded him, “and better.”
Nick fell back on his chair and proceeded to slide, slowly and inexorably, toward the floor – but he didn’t seem to care too much about it. “I must have done something terrible, for you to keep staring at me with those eyes, Judy.”
“It’s just your impression.”
“You do want to physically hurt me.”
“… Yes, I do.”
“You’re hiding a knife in your pants.”
“Possible.”
“How much time do I have left?”
“Five minutes, and you’re wasting them saying…”
“Time is running out, right?”
Judy blinked, confused. “… Nonsense.”
“Carrots?” The fox frowned – a quite comical reaction, given the way he was lying on the floor like a sack of potatoes. “I may be a poor idiot, still trying to handle the hangover of last night, but you don’t seem less idiotic than me, to be honest.”
‘And whose fault do you think it is, you poor idiot?’ “You’re the last mammal who’s allowed to say such things” Judy claimed. “You look like a mop dried up. Care to regain a bit of composure, Wilde?”
“Go and find me an animal who doesn’t look like a rag after spending the whole night throwing up.”
“You could stay at home and get some proper sleep” she suggested, crossing her arms over the chest.
“And miss an opportunity to be with my favorite bunny? Never.”
“Your words move me, officer mop.”
“Stop calling me like that” Nick protested, almost completely seated on the floor, with his head resting on the edge of his chair. “It doesn’t suit me.”
“I think it does suit you quite well, indeed.” Judy shook her head and went back to write the report she was working on before a certain fox came to annoy her.
“Hey.”
Tap, tap, tap…
“Hey, Carrots.”
Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap…
“Officer Judith Hopps!”
Tap, tap, ta… ‘What have I done in order to deserve this?’
The bunny reluctantly turned to him. “What’s now, Nick?”
And then panicked.
“Come here” Nick said, as he spread his arms toward Judy. “Tell this wise fox the reason why you’re so grumpy.”
“Come here.”
Judy froze. “Not this again” she murmured, paralyzed by a horror she was not ready to relive.
It was the same. It was like the last night. It was…
“Stop being so stubborn, you’re literally sullying all the good stereotypes about your species.”
‘No… it’s not the same.’
Judy forced herself not to tremble. “Why… why should I listen to you?”
“Because you have a very big ‘SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME’ written all over your face and, well, I casually happen to want to help you, so… just come here, ‘kay?”
“Will you nicely help me while sitting on the floor like a tramp?”
“So what?” Now it was Nick’s turn to cross his arms. “At least the floor doesn’t move.”
“Well, scientifically speaking… due to Earth’s rotation, the floor is rotating too…” In saying that, a genuine laughter went up her throat and came out, so pure and clear that Judy found herself blinking for the second time. How could she make such a crystal clear sound in those circumstances?
And yet, the answer to that question was already before her eyes, sitting on the floor just a few meters away from her. A sullen and slightly uncertain one, maybe, but… undeniably, unmistakably sincere.
Possibly. Probably.
“Do we want to talk about astronomy?” He argued. “Let’s talk about astronomy, then, if it can help you feel better; but, if I may say so, I don’t think the planets’ rotat— whoa!”
A moment later, in the blink of an eye, Judy had jumped down from her chair and desperately flied into his arms.
“I’m always myself.”
“Carrots…?”
“Shut up” she grunted, squeezing him with all her might. “You’re just dumb, Nick. No… it’s me who is dumb. We are dumb, both you and me!”
“Er, okay?” A couple of nice arms slowly returned her embrace. “If calling us idiots can relieve your pain, I’ll let you do it, I guess. Just for today, though.”
In the end... every piece went in its own place.
Every piece, which couldn’t make sense by itself… together with the others, it could. And the picture they finally formed…
‘It’s fine… isn’t it? For me… to hope just a little… it’s fine.’
“… I’ll wait.” She said so, out of the blue. “I’ll wait, Nick. Don’t make me wait too much, though.”
And Judy laughed at his empty and confused expression; laughed at his “what will you wait for?”; laughed at the way he tilted his head in asking so – just like wolves do – and laughed at her own stupidity, because she really was a dumb bunny.
Indeed, the dumbs were two.
‘But it’s not so bad, being dumb… if you’re not alone.’