Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Angela Wilde gently put her framed diploma into the cardboard box, a faint smile on her lips. It wasn’t much. More a certificate from a course rather than a full fledged diploma. Signifying that she was competent at working with bug farming equipment. But still, it was hers and thanks to this little piece of paper her and her son could get out of the city. No more scrounging together the last of her money so they could afford to live in this little hole in the wall. They would be away from Zootopia’s seedy underbelly that swallowed up so many young lives. Her eyes narrowed in determination. Her son wasn’t going to end up in there.  She stretched out as she looked around her bare room. Everything was put away, except for one last thing. 

Angela picked up the picture frame that stood on her nightstand, gently brushing her thumb over the picture. A smiling young Nick stood in front of her and her late husband. Memories of happier times.

“I’m going to make sure our boy is happy, dear,” she said in a choked up voice. “I promise.”

She swaddled the picture frame in a cloth and put it in the box, taping it closed. That was everything of hers. Time to see if Nick had made any progress, the movers were going to be here in an hour.

She made her way through her empty apartment and knocked on the door. “Nick, are you done packing? Do you need some help?”

The only reply was a grumpy grunt and the sound of stuff getting shoved into a cardboard box that strained underneath its own weight, followed by the unmistakable sound of duct-tape being pulled off its roll.

“I’m coming in okay?” She didn’t wait for an answer and walked inside, wincing at the absolute mess that were his boxes. Sides bulging out and only a copious amount of duct-tape making sure the cardboard box didn’t just tear itself apart. But still his room was littered with unpacked knick knacks and clothes.

“Do you need some help?” Angela offered. “The movers will be here in about half an hour and then we’ll need to be ready to go.”

“I don’t even wanna go,” Nick whined, his arms crossed and a scowl on his face, which honestly looked more like a sulking pout. “Bunnyburrow is a podunk town right in the middle of nowhere! And… and I won’t know anyone there!”

Angela plastered a smile on her face, getting him away from his so called ‘friends’ was half of the reason she decided to move out. “I know it’s going to be hard, but you’ll make new friends in Bunnyburrow and we really can’t keep living here, sweetheart. It’s just too expensive.”

“Friends? It’s all dumb bunnies and other prey over there,” Nick scoffed. “They wouldn’t trust me with a bucket of water if they were on fire. And, well you know, if you just let me work we wouldn’t need to move in the first place!”

Angela barely suppressed the urge to cuff Nick around the ears. “Stealing and scamming people isn’t work ,” she snapped at Nick. “And you’re not even fifteen, Nick! You shouldn’t be helping to keep your family afloat.”

“My birthday is only a few months away,” Nick weakly spoke up.

“Doesn’t matter! You’re still a child, I don’t want you to have to worry about bills, finances and rent! Those aren’t things a child of any age should be worried about.” Angela deflated slightly at the sight of her son, his ears straight back and his tail curled around his knees. 

“I… I know it’s going to be hard on you,” she lowered her voice as she sat down next to him, her own ears going flat as he scooted away slightly. Her paw hovered in the air, hesitating if she should try to put it over his shoulders. She looked to the ground and dropped her arm. “But Nick, there are predators in Bunnyburrow. It’s not all just prey, I’m sure you’ll be able to find some friends with them. We’ll be living in the predator neighborhood. So you’ll only be seeing prey at school.”

An awkward silence filled the air for a few moments, Angela’s mind racing as she tried to find something to say, anything to break it.

She took a deep breath. “Sweety, it’s going to happen. We’re supposed to be out of the apartment by the end of the day. I’ve already signed the lease on our new home. I’ve already changed my job. Things aren’t going to change no matter what you say.”

Angela awkwardly patted her son on the back. “It’s not going to be that bad I promise. Even the school is going to be way better than the one you’ve been going to.”

Nick gave her a flat stare for a few moments. Angela just met him with a tense smile on her face.

“Did you really just try to cheer me up by talking about school?” Nick pulled a face. Still, he leaned against her side.

The tension bled out of Angela's smile as it widened. “Okay, probably not the best thing to use. But what about the food? We’ll be right in the middle of the farms, those blueberries you love so much might go from an occasional snack we can afford a few times a month to a regular snack.

“You’re bribing me with food?” Nick’s ears flicked up and there was a ghost of a smile on his muzzle.

“Well, is it working?” Angela asked.

“Kinda,” Nick muttered.

Angela brushed her paw over the top of Nick's head. “Come on then, let's get the last of your stuff packed and I promise I’ll get you a bag of blueberries for the road.”

Nick looked up at her and nodded. “Okay, Ma. I’ll keep you to that.”

“When have I ever lied to you?” She leaned in for a quick kiss on his forehead and giggled at the face her son pulled.

“Mooooom,” he whined as he rubbed his head. “I’m not a kit anymore.”

“You’ll always be my little kit, Nick,” Angela laughed. “That’s never going to change, now let's get this packed shall we?” 

“Fine, fine,” her son groused.

Nick awkwardly shuffled on his train seat, keeping close to his mom. Not because he was scared! But as soon as their train had begun to leave the city proper the number of other predators in their cabin had swiftly dwindled to only them with each stop, leaving only bunnies and hares. Their eyes flicking towards the both of them, mothers pulling their kits closer as the adult males subtly tried to step between him and the young ones. Puffing out their chests with pride and bluster. 

Nick snorted. Yeah, standing in front of the incredible threat of a single mom and her kid, real brave. If this was just a small group of bunnies on the train, then he didn’t even want to know how they were going to act if they had an even bigger numbers advantage.

Nick let out a sigh and morosely popped the last of his blueberries in his mouth. He groaned as he could hear a few of them gasp as soon as he opened his mouth. He fiddled a bit with the empty packet as he looked around to find the nearest bin.

As soon as he stood up the bunnies flinched, he suppressed a snarl and stomped his way towards the bin to get rid of the trash.

“Ma,” Nick murmured as he sat back down. “We there yet?” 

“Almost,” his mom said with a smile, “Bunnyburrow will be our next stop. Just be a bit more patient.” 

“I’m not impatient,” Nick groused, “Just sick of—"

"Nick," she interrupted, and there was a sadness in her voice that filled him with guilt, "I know, but we've talked about this."

Nick's eyes went back to the rabbits. One of the kits was staring back at him, wide-eyed and trembling. Nick sighed and slouched in his seat, and the little bunny buried her head in her father's shoulder. Nick's mother nudged him until he sat up properly. "Just ignore them," she said, voice wavering a little bit. "They know nothing about us."

Nick shot another glance at the rabbits before looking back at his mother. 

Never let them see that they get to you. 

Nick leaned back against his seat and wished the train would go faster. 

After what felt like hours, but what could barely have been a few minutes the train pulled into the station.

"Bunnyburrow station," an electronic voice echoed through the train, the doors opening with a pneumatic hiss. “Please make sure you take all your personal belongings with you when leaving the train.”

Nick quickly stood up and grabbed their bag, ignoring the kerfuffle of bunnies that rushed out of the cabin as fast as they could and the foul stares they threw their way. His ma picked up her purse and they left the cabin and got their first look at Bunnyburrow.

It was... clean. Not just the buildings and the station, but the air didn't smell of smoke and  exhaust. It even sounded clean, no screaming tires, honking cars and the yelling of disgruntled drivers. There wasn't a trace of the hurried hustle and bustle from the city. Everything sounded calmer. It felt a bit weird.

"So," Nick looked at his ma. "Where to now?"

"Our new home is in Mildew Lane 327," his mom said. "It shouldn't be that hard to find. It is very close to the bug farming districts."

"You know where those are right?" Nick nervously said.

His ma just rolled her eyes. "Of course Nick, I've even got a map with me." She held up the piece of paper she called a map and Nick couldn't help the foreboding feeling settling into his stomach. Half faded printing, half scrawled over with a bright purple pen to mark the path.

"It looks a little old, doesn’t it?" he carefully brought up.

"It'll be fine. It's Bunnyburrow, it can't possibly be as complicated as the Zootopian streets now can they?" his ma said with a wide smile.

"This isn't a town, this is an anthill," Angelamoaned as she took another look at the map, back to the plaza they were in and back to the map and just shoved it into her purse.

Nick honestly couldn't blame her. He was pretty sure that even with an accurate map that wasn't falling to shreds, navigating this place would be a nightmare and a half. Once you went outside the main plaza by the station and into the town proper things just turned into a maze.

“We’ll, I guess we have no choice but to ask for directions,” his ma said with a wry smile.

Nick couldn’t help the short bark of cynical laughter. “Ma, we’re surrounded by bunnies . I think they would rather eat their tails then believe two foxes are just asking for directions.”

“Eventually one of them will spit it out after we asked enough of them,” she answered with a tired sigh. “So better gets started. Not like we have any other choice.”

Yeah, Nick had to give his ma that, he didn’t have any better ideas.

“Can I help you two?”

Nick looked towards the voice and his jaw fell open. A giant tigress wearing a Bunnyburrow Sheriff’s Department outfit loomed over them, the friendly smile on her face not putting Nick at ease in the least.

“Aaaand, they called the cops on us,” Nick groaned.

“Yes,” the tigress said with a bit of embarrassment. “We’ve gotten plenty of reports of two strange foxes wandering around ‘behaving suspiciously.’ I’m… I’m really sorry about that.”

Nick couldn’t help the snarl crawling on his face. Of course, of course a bunch of bunnies saw two foxes walking through the street and called the cops. He honestly didn’t know why he hadn’t seen this one coming. 

“Well, you came at just the right time then!” his ma said with a bright smile. “I’m Angela Wilde and this is my son, Nick. Could you point us towards Mildew Lane 327? I’m afraid we’ve gotten ourselves lost.”

“Mildew Lane 327? Wait,” an equally bright smile crawled on the tigress's face. “Are you two the new arrivals then? I knew that the house across ours was rented out. But I didn’t know you would be arriving today.” 

“That would be us! ” his ma said with a wide smile. “So we’re neighbors then?”

“Seems like it! Well, I’m Sadine Roarkin,” she held out her hand. “Very nice to meet you. Both of you.”

Nick reluctantly shook Sadine’s hand, unsure what to make of her. She was a cop, cops and foxes together usually went about as well as a house on fire. Nick couldn’t remember how often he had been singled out by them, even if he was just minding his business.

Sadine quickly gave them their directions. “Well, I would talk more if I could, but I’m still on duty. I’ll let my husband know you’re here though! He’ll help you get settled and unpacked!”

“Oh, I really wouldn’t want to impose,” his ma started.

“It’s not a problem at all,” Sadine assured, “In a place like Bunnyburrow us predators have to stick together.”

With a final goodbye, Sadine was back on the beat, leaving the two foxes to get back to it.

“Let's get going Nick,” his mom said with a bright smile. “At least we know one of our neighbours are good people.”

“I guess,” Nick shifted the bag in his hands and followed his ma down the road.

The movers were already there. Their van idling in front of their new house, the buffalo’s and rhino’s glowering at the two foxes as they finally arrived. Nick’s ears went flat against his skull.

“You’re late,” one of the rhino’s grumbled.

“I apologize, we managed to get lost in this maze of a city,” his ma said in a firm tone as she quickly went up to the door and unlocked it.

As soon as she had opened the door, the movers exploded into a flurry of activity. Furniture was lugged inside and put into place or rebuilt in the spots his mom directed them to. Their boxes of stuff quickly followed and were dragged into the right room.

The entire flurry of activity took less than an hour from the first piece of furniture being lugged out of their van to them closing their van’s door after the last box left it’s cargo hold. 

Nick’s ma went outside to round off the last bit of paperwork. Leaving him alone in their new home. Home, his ears flicked against his skull as his tail drooped against the floor. This really didn’t feel like home. Just an uncomfortable mishmash of familiar memories starkly reflected against the brand new home. The fact that the entire home still looked bare just added to the discomfort.

His ears flicked up as he heard his ma walk back into the house. Gently putting her hands on his shoulders.

“It feels weird,” Nick blurted out. “The house I mean,” he quickly added.

“I know,” she gently brushed the top of his head. “But it’s something you’ll get used to in time. It happened to me every single time I moved and it never took too long.”

She clapped her hands together. “You know what’ll help? Unpacking! All these bare walls are just making the house feel cold. Why don’t you go unpack your things while I tackle the kitchen? It’s getting close to dinner time. And I’m sure some of the grocery stores are still open.”

“Okay,” he glanced between his own boxes and then towards the much bigger boxes that contained all the pots, pans and who knows how much else. “Do you need me to help with that after I’m done?”

“I would really appreciate that,” A mischievous smile made its way on his mom’s face. “Though if you’re as slow at unpacking as at packing, maybe it's you that’ll need the help?”

Nick stuck out his tongue at his mom and grabbed his boxes and trudged his way towards his own room. 

Freya panted heavily as she came to a stop in front of her home, sweat was dripping from her paw pads into her fur and the muscles of her legs were burning something fierce. Maybe adding that extra kilometer onto her jog hadn’t been the greatest idea. She was going to feel this tomorrow so badly. She trudged up to the door and got inside.

Her ears flicked up in surprise and her mouth began to water as she could smell something heavenly cooking in the kitchen. She wiped her drool away and quickly made her way over to the kitchen. Popping her head inside. “Dad, what’s cooking? It smells great!”

“A chicken casserole,” he said without looking away from the oven.

“Awesome!” She grinned, licking her lips. “Do I need to set the table already?”

“Ah, no no,” he shook his head. “I’m cooking this for the new neighbors.”

And just like that, all her giddiness fled her like air out of a deflating balloon. “Awww, come on. You sure I can’t have at least a little piece?”

Her dad finally looked at her, an indulgent smile on his face. “I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you get yourself freshened up and come with me to greet our new neighbors? I honestly don’t think they’d mind if you took a plate and Sadine did say the woman’s son would be around your age.”

Freya bit her bottom lip as she looked down at her feet, fumbling with the edge of her shirt. Her stomach flipping at the idea of meeting new people. What if they were weird, or more likely, what if they found her weird? What if she shoved her foot so far in her own mouth that they’d laugh at her forever.

“I’m not going to make you do anything Freya,” her father said in a soothing voice. “Just think about it while you take your shower and get all cleaned up and let me know if you want to come with or not.”

Freya nodded and plodded off towards the bathroom, going through the motions of cleaning herself up as her mind kept mulling through every single thing that could go wrong if she decided to join her dad to say hi to them.

In the end, did it even matter if she didn’t greet them now ? They were her neighbors, she was going to have to meet them eventually. Maybe she should just get it out of the way now, treat it like a bandaid and just rip it off instead of fiddling with it and having the stress of having to meet the new neighbors hang over her. She stepped out of the shower and toweled herself off. Yeah, that sounded like the best idea. Just, just get it over with so she can hide the rest of the day under her sheets in embarrassment.

Freya fiddled with the hem of her blouse as she followed her father to their neighbors house. Ears flat against her head as her mind kept screaming at her that this had been a bad idea. 

“It’ll be fine Freya,” her father said one last time as they reached the door. “You mind ringing the bell?”

Freya swallowed, her throat feeling as dry as Miss Thumper’s crumble cookies and she rang the doorbell.

There were a few quick barked words that she couldn’t really make out coming from inside, followed by footsteps coming closer and the door creaked open. A young fox looking up at them.

“So you guys are the Roarkin’s I assume?” the young fox said with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. He stepped aside and motioned at them to come inside.

“Yes we are,” her father said as he walked inside and she followed him. “The name’s John by the way. I brought a casserole. Hope you guys like chicken and mealworm casserole!”

There was a pause in the conversation as the young fox looked at her. Her father gently nudged her in the side with his elbow, making her jolt upright.

“Oh, right, euhm. I’m Freya, Freya Roarkin. Nice meeting you?” She thrust out her paw, wanting to slap herself already. Good job on introducing yourself, if you did it any stiffer they probably would’ve called a coroner!

“Nick Wilde,” the fox simply answered as he shook her paw. 

“Don’t dawdle at the door!” A friendly voice rang out as an older looking fox stepped into the living room. “Come in, come in! Sadine told me her husband was going to drop in. Didn’t expect you to drop by so soon though! I’m Angela Wilde.”

Angela ushered them towards the table. Her eyes fell on the steaming casserole in John’s paws. “You really shouldn’t have, I’m sure we could’ve found a grocery store on our own to make our own dinner.”

“It wasn’t a problem, Mrs. Wilde.”

“Just call me Angela,” she interrupted.

“Angela,” he corrected himself. “Besides the two of you probably still have a lot to unpack, making a meal so you don’t have to stress about food is the least we can do.”

Freya sat down, feeling a bit out of place as her father and Nick’s mother began talking. She glanced at Nick, wondering about what she should say, or if she even should say something at all? What if he didn’t wanna talk?

Angela took the decision out of her hands though. “Nick, would you set the table?” Angela’s eyes flitted towards her and her dad. “So, do you two want to have a plate as well? Or did you two just come by to drop it off?”

“If we aren’t imposing, we would love to,” her father said. Freya nodding along vigorously as the smell of the casserole made her mouth water all over again now that she actually had a chance to eat some of it!

Nick had already flitted off towards the kitchen, rummaging through the shelves and cabinets before coming back with a few plates and forks.

“Sorry about them being small,” Nick said with a shrug as he sloppily began setting the table. More just putting a plate and cutlery in front of them then actually setting the table. “We weren’t really expecting tiger sized guests.”

“It’s not a bother at all,” her father said as he sat down. Freya followed suit. “It’s not like we knew you were fox sized either.”

“That explains the massive casserole at least,” Nick’s mother said with a smile as she quickly began to serve up the casserole. “I’m glad you two are here to help eat it. That’s almost enough food for a week if it was only me and my son.” 

Freya dug in immediately, groaning in satisfaction as she finally got to enjoy the food. From the corner of her eye she saw Nick carefully prod the food, the tod giving it a careful sniff before putting it in his mouth.

She couldn’t help but giggle as his eyes went almost comically wide. 

“This stuff is good,” he muttered as he began to dig in.

Freya’s tail flicked nervously. She could do this, it was just a simple conversation, just talking to somebody of her own age. “Yeah, my dad is a pretty good cook.” She carefully offered.

“You can say that again,” Nick agreed as he kept shoveling food in his mouth.

“Nick, sweety,” Angela cut in with a long suffering sigh Freya knew all too well from her own mother, “mind your manners and chew before you swallow.” 

“Yes, ma,” Nick muttered,the tips of his ears going a bright red as he slowed down. 

“So where did you come from?” Freya tried to continue the conversation. When she saw the teasing smile creep on the tod’s face. She realized her mistake.

“Well, when a tod and vixen love each other very much,” he started.

“I meant where you moved in from!” Freya quickly cut him off. She felt the heat creep up her face, from her cheeks to the tips of her ears. Of course the new guy was a jokester. Just her luck.

“Okay, okay. We’re from Zootopia,” Nick said with a laugh as he finished his plate.

Freya winced in sympathy. Moving from a place like Zootopia to Bunnyburrow of all places. Talk about a downgrade. “Well, that explains why you didn’t stare at us like we were a bunch of aliens. You must’ve seen a lot bigger mammals while living there.”

She couldn’t keep the curiosity out of her voice as she continued on. “So, what’s it like living in Zootopia? In the big city? I heard the concerts, festivals and events are just amazing. Did you ever see one of them?”

Freya stared at Nick, shuffling slightly on her chair as she waited for his answer with baited breath.

Nick slowly shook his head. “No, no I never saw one of them. I, well, euhm, we never did really have the chance to go and see one of them.”

Freya’s ears drooped a bit as she heard that. “Oh. So what did you do instead? I mean, in such a big city like Zootopia there had to be things to do right?”

“Me and my friends just hung around a little bit,” Nick said in an irritatingly vague tone.

“Zootopia isn’t as interesting a city as you think it is, Freya,” Angela gently cut in. “There are a lot of things to do, yes, but most of it is just too expensive for most people and the things that aren’t expensive aren’t things most adults, let alone teenagers, should be doing.”

“Well, I know, why don’t you talk to Nick about what there is to do in Bunnyburrow?” Angela tried to steer the topic away from Zootopia.

“Well, nothing. Bunnyburrow is a podunk town with nothing to do,” Freya blurted out, eyes going wide and slapping her hands over her muzzle as soon as she realized what she had said.

Angela let out a long suffering sigh as she shook her head. Nick on the other hand, well the tod was clutching his sides and doing his very best to avoid falling out of his chair with laughter. She thought she could hear him say I told you so , but it could’ve just been him wheezing for air.

“No, no, I mean, there obviously are things to do!” Freya desperately tried to salvage things as she fretted and blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

”I mean there is make-out creek… wait no…” Freya scrambled to take those words back. Setting off Nick for another burst of laughter.  If her cheeks had been burning with embarrassment before, now she was expecting her fur to catch on fire any moment now. “I mean hump hill… No no no! not that either.”

She let out a pitiful whine as her ears went flat against her skull. Just shoving another forkful of casserole in her mouth to shut herself up and wished that the ground would open up to swallow her.

“What my daughter tried to say is,” her father thankfully came to her rescue. “There are some after school activities. She plays ping pong, for instance.”

“Daaaad,” she whined. As much as she liked playing ping pong, that was about the most uncool thing you could tell other people about. Especially if they came from the city.

Nick finally had managed to compose himself and looked up at her. “So.”

Freya braced herself for whatever joke the fox had cooked up this time.

“Ping pong,” Nick started.  “That’s the smaller sized tennis thing with the paddles instead of rackets, right?”

Freya blinked in confusion. That wasn’t what she had expected, she honestly didn’t know what she had expected. A quip about a big mammal like her playing something like pingpong. Another joke about something else, him pressing her about the makeout creek slipup? But an honest question that one was new. She nodded. “Yeah, that’s ping pong. You didn’t know it?”

Nick shrugged. “I knew of it, vaguely, I just never played it before that's all. Didn’t know Ping pong was something mammals played in Bunnyburrow.”

Freya raised her eyebrow. “Why wouldn’t it be played?”

“Dunno, with all the open space I would’ve thought outdoor sports would’ve been more popular or something,” Nick simply asked.

That did make sense. “Well, it’s cheap. You don’t really need much more than a table and some paddles and maybe sporty clothes. And you can play it pretty much wherever and whenever. That one really helps, the amount of quibbling over the sport fields in Bunnyburrow-West High school is just unbelievable at times.”

Nick, chuckled at that. “I can imagine it, a kerfluffle of bunnies trying to muscle each other off the fields."

“You joke about it, but well, you know. Sometimes things did get bad enough the teachers had to intervene,” she winced at that memory. Peter Barker had been pissed for months after getting kicked off the field despite them having reserved it a month in advance. Scheduling problems her butt.

“You’re kidding?” Nick’s eyes went wide and his ears went up in full alert.

“Unfortunately not,” Freya ruefully shook her head. “So euhm… would you wanna try play it sometimes then? There aren’t a lot of people in the after school club thingy. So you’re free to just drop by and try it out if you want? I mean, if you go to Bunnyburrow West, at least. I’m not sure how it works in between schools, I don’t think anything would forbid it. But it would be kinda weird to come over to a school you’re not following.”

Freya winced at her own babbling, of course he wouldn’t wanna play ping pong. Oh god, what if he thought she was trying to make him hang out with her or something?  She didn’t think it would be that bad. Aside from his weird sense of humor, he didn’t seem to be a bad guy and she always could use another friend. Her gut felt like she had swallowed a block of ice as her ears drooped. She… she just wasn’t very good at keeping her friends.

“He's going to be going to the same school as you, Freya,” Mrs. Wilde spoke up, interrupting Freya’s nervous train of thought. “So that won’t be a problem at all.”

Mrs. Wilde looked at her son, a smile playing on her muzzle. “So Nick, do I need to dig out your exercise clothes?”

Nick just shrugged. “Eh, why not. Beats digging through boxes or doing nothing.”

Freya couldn’t help the small smile crawling on her face. “I’ll show you around at school tomorrow then. I mean, we don’t have to go and play tomorrow after school if you don’t want. I just could show you around at school. Because well, Bunnyburrow itself isn’t the only thing that’s a maze.”

“So it’s a bunny thing to make their towns and buildings completely horrible to navigate?” Nick rolled his eyes in an overly dramatic way. “What a cruel fate.”

“I dunno, it could be!” Freya giggled. The conversation devolved into simple and pleasant stuff about Bunnyburrow or school. For the first time in forever, Freya actually looked a bit forward to school. Just a little bit.

Not long after the meal Freya and her dad said their goodbyes and made their way back to their own home. 

“So,” her father started as he fumbled for the key. “You and that Nick fellow went on pretty well. I’m happy you made a new friend.”

“It’s a bit early for that,” Freya muttered. “I’m just going to show him around and maybe play some ping pong. For all we know he’ll get sick of me tomorrow, or he was just humoring me because I was in his house.”

Her father opened the door and they both walked in. She heard her father sigh and the weight of his paw settled on her shoulder. “Then he would be an idiot, Freya. We’ll see tomorrow. But believe me, I know he wasn’t just humoring you.”

“Maybe not now right now then. It doesn’t mean he won’t get sick of me soon though,” Freya morosely said. “I mean you know, it happens. Not a lot of mammals want to hang around a gangly tigress.”

“We know that’s not true. Peter Barker and his friends are also your friends aren’t they?”

“Peter Barker is everybody's friend,” Freya insisted.  “And I’m not saying most predators hate me, they just rather hang with other mammals.”

“Well, maybe this time it’ll be different,” her father said with a final pat on her back. “Well, I’m going to turn in now. I’ve got an early shift tomorrow. Say goodnight to Sadine for me when she comes home will you? Let her know how it all went?”

“I will dad,” Freya said with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Goodnight.”

Chapter Text

Angela groaned as the piercing drone of her alarm clock dragged her out of her dreams. She poked her head out from underneath the blankets, ears flicking in irritation as she felt around her nightstand for the infernal device that dared to call itself an alarm clock, silencing it with a firm smack on the off button. She enjoyed the blissful silence for a few seconds before dragging herself out of bed, ignoring the siren call of her soft and comfortable bed. Her body tried to insist that it wasn’t even 6 am yet, that she had more than enough time for another ten minutes of snoozing.

But she couldn’t afford to be late on her very first day. Besides, the sooner she forced herself to get up at this ungodly hour, the quicker she would be used to it. She hastily made her bed, grabbed a set of comfortable clothes she didn’t mind getting dirty, and trudged off towards the shower, hoping an ice cold one would shake her awake. If not, well, that would suck, because she was pretty sure she didn’t have any coffee around to wake her up...

The ice cold shower had perked her up at least a little bit, but not nearly as much as she hoped. She quietly tiptoed past Nick’s room on her way towards the kitchen. Trying to suppress a yawn, she popped some bread in the toaster and dug through the fridge for anything to go with it. The casserole leftovers were for this evening, so those were out. She made a mental note to make sure to go to the grocer today or else they wouldn’t have anything to eat for the rest of the week. Maybe she could ask one of her co-workers where the cheap grocery stores or supermarkets were. She hadn’t seen one while they had been looking for their house.

The vixen raised her eyebrow in confusion as she saw two small brown bags in the fridge, a little note sticking out from underneath the larger bag. She pulled it out and unfolded it. Nick’s familiar chicken scratch greeting her.

Ma, I thought you wouldn’t really get the time to put a lunch bag together for me or you tomorrow, with you having to get to work so early and all. So I made them already to save you some time.

Don’t mention it, really, don’t. I’ll deny any involvement.

Angela could feel her heart melt as she took a quick look in her lunch bag. It wasn’t much, basically just a few sandwiches with some random stuff thrown in between. This was just adorable. Her eyes fell on the pen and pieces of paper still lying on the kitchen counter. Well, she couldn’t just let this go without a bit of a thank you note, now couldn’t she? She quickly scratched something down and slipped it in Nick’s lunch bag. Hopefully it would brighten his day, just as his little note brightened hers. Well, it probably would embarrass him a little bit if Freya or anybody else managed to read it, but her Nick was sly enough to keep the note away from others she was sure of that.

She quickly finished her breakfast, grabbed her lunch bag and rushed out of the door. There was a spring in her step as she got an ungodly early start on the day.

Nick’s ears shot up when a familiar screech drilled it’s way into his skull. With a grunt, he reached over towards where his alarm clock should’ve been and slammed his paw down, only for him to hit air. His eyes shot open as he reached for anything that could steady himself. But he only managed to get a grip on his blankets, which were promptly dragged off the bed with him as he hit the floor with a dull thunk.

Nick laid there for a few seconds, groaning in pain as he tried to get his bearings as the shrill beeping of the alarm clock continued to drill into his skull. Why was his alarm clock way over there? He pushed himself upright and slowly but surely his brain put the pieces back together.

Right, they had moved and he had a new room. New bed, new layout, new everything. No matter how much he had tried to cover up the uneasy unfamiliarity with the familiar posters and knick knacks of his old room,it hadn’t helped at all. If anything he had made it worse. Just familiar and unfamiliar enough at the same time to fall right into the uncanny valley. If that was even a thing for rooms?

Whatever, he better get that alarm shut off before he went deaf. With a grumble and a stretch, he pushed himself back on his feet and turned off the hellish screeching. He grabbed the first clothes he could get his paws on and trudged towards the shower, hoping that this hadn’t set the tone for the rest of the day.

 A quick shower later, Nick was double checking his schoolbag and gnawing on some toast. He made a mental note to go find out where the grocery stores were in case Ma got herself lost in her work again. He doubted Bunnyburrow had much in the way of fox-friendly takeout. He had everything except his books, which were supposed to be waiting for him at school. He hefted his bag over his shoulder and walked outside of the house, locking the door behind him.

He really hoped the school was as easy to find as the pamphlet said it was. But he had his doubts, honestly. Well, worst case scenario the friendly locals would just call the cops again and he could get a nice escort to school. His eyes glanced towards the house across the road, he could see a bit of movement in the Roarkin’s home. He shrugged. What the hell, at the very least he could get some directions from whoever was still home.

He plodded over and swiftly knocked on the door and settled in for a wait.

It didn’t take long before Mrs. Roarkin opened the door, looking down on him with a confused look in her eyes. Nick squirmed a bit under the sheriff’s gaze, letting out a sigh of relief when her expression softened and a knowing look crawled on her muzzle.

“Lemme guess, you’ve got the pamphlet?” Mrs. Roarkin asked in an amused tone.

“Yep,” Nick said with a nod as he held the piece of paper up.

“And after reading it you have absolutely no clue on where to actually go in the maze that’s Bunnyburrow,” she continued on.

“Got it in one, Mrs. Roarkin,” Nick said with a smile.

“Sadine, just call me Sadine, we’re neighbours.” She gently interjected.

“Right, Sadine. You, eh, think you can give me some better directions than,” he looked over at the pamphlet, “follow the southernmost road for thirty paces, take a right sunside and keep walking till you find the tallest building?” 

Nick quickly looked over his shoulder, scanning the Bunnyburrow skyline for anything that could qualify as the tallest building. But aside from the station in the far distance, everything looked more or less the same height to him. “Because call me weird, but I’m not really confident they won’t need a search team to come get me if I’m let loose in Bunnyburrow with these directions. Or that I’ll get you or another cop called on me, again. ”

“I’ll do you one better,” Sadine said with a grin. “Why don’t you walk to school with Freya? She’s still getting ready and she knows the way like the back of her paw.”

“Sure, sounds good to me,” Nick said with a smile.

“Come in, come in. I’m not going to let you wait outside!” Sadine said with a wide grin as she ushered him inside. “Freya! Can you hurry and get dressed, please? Nick is here and you really need to get to school on time!”

Nick raised an eyebrow, didn’t they still have plenty of time? He made sure to wake up earlier than normal so he would have had some extra time to find his way. Not nearly enough, but he made at least a token effort.

“Whua?” the garbled and sleepy voice of Freya shouted back and footsteps got closer. Either Freya didn’t care or she had missed at least half of what her mother shouted. “Whatever, still got loadsa time, loadsa time. Can easily eat and shower still,”

“No, Freya, really get yourself dressed before you come i-.” Sadine tried to warn her, but it was too late.

Freya, still clad in a long T-shirt and shorts, plodded into the living room. Her fur and whiskers still sticking out everywhere akilter. “Mom, it’s fi-”

The tigress stiffened as her eyes fell on Nick. 

Nick barely had enough time to avert his eyes before she let out a high pitched yowl, puffing up and fleeing back where she came from. The last thing the fox noted before slapping his paws over his eyes, were the large and well defined legs of Freya. Ping-pong, right, makes sense. The door slammed shut behind her and Nick carefully lifted his paws, checking if the coast was clear.

“Please,” Nick started as he rubbed his forehead, trying to keep the heat of his cheeks from rising all the way up to the tip of his ears and the thought of Freya's legs out of his mind. “Please tell me you didn’t plan on this?”

Sadine had the good sense to look embarrassed. “No, no, I didn’t.” 

Once again, Freya wished the ground just opened up beneath her and swallowed her up. Why was Nick here? Had her mom anything to do with this? She must’ve, how else could Nick be in her house before school? She let out a pitiful whine as she buried her muzzle in her paws, leaning against the wall and sliding down to the ground. 

There was a gentle knock at the door. “Freya, dear, are you alright?”

“I’m not,” she moaned. “Nick just saw me in my night clothes. How else should I feel? Gods, why didn’t you tell me? Why is he even here to begin with?!”

“I tried to warn you, I was just a tad too late,” her mother tried to explain.  “Nick wanted directions to school. I thought you could walk him since you know the way and I invited him inside because I didn’t want to make him wait outside. I just didn’t think you would walk into the kitchen with your nightclothes on. I’m sorry about that.”

That made sense, but of course her own rotten luck and sleepiness screwed all of that up. Stupid, stupid stupid!

“Freya.” The door opened and her mother walked in. Sadine knelt down next to her and gently brushed the fur on her head. “Honey, I know this is absolutely embarrassing at the moment. But this wasn’t your fault and these are moments the both of you will look back on and laugh at. Besides, Nick didn’t even see anything. His paws were over his eyes almost as soon as you walked through the door.”

Freya looked up from her hands, clutching onto that glimmer of hope with everything she had. “You sure?”

“I’m sure. Now, just get yourself ready for school so neither of you’ll be late.” Freya let out a content murr as her mother gently scratched her behind the ears. “I’ll keep Nick occupied, don’t worry!”

“Okay mom,” Freya sucked in a shuddering breath as she stood up. “I’ll try not to take too long.”

“See you in a bit, then,” her mom said with a smile as she walked back out of her room.

Freya walked over to her closet and began digging through her clothes. She picked out a long sleeved blouse and a long skirt that went all the way to her ankles to wear. As soon as she got herself in her clothes, she shoved a sport outfit into her bag. She hesitated in front of her door, her cheeks still burning as she thought back to what happened. But with a deep breath to calm her nerves, she got out of her room and walked back to the living room.

Her muzzle fell open as she saw a very confused Nick sitting at their dinner table. She wasn’t sure how the fox was even able to look over the table. None of their chairs were really made for mammals smaller than a wolf. So how? She shook her head. Not that important.

“I’m ready to go,” Freya started, but her mother shook her head at that.

“No you’re not, you haven’t eaten anything yet.” She put a plate stacked with bugabuns on the table. “And Nick here somehow thought going to school while only having scoffed down a piece of toast was going to end well. Teenagers these days.”

“I don’t know how Sadine did it, but before I knew it, she knew what I ate and I was put in the chair. She should’ve been a detective with how she’s able to pull info out of mammals.” Nick grabbed one of the bugabuns and gave it a careful sniff, before just shrugging and tearing in. 

Freya quickly followed suit.

“Phanks fo the food,” Nick mumbled out in between bites.

“How are you even sitting at our table?” Freya asked the question she hadn’t been able to get out of her mind. “I would’ve thought you would’ve needed a booster seat to get your nose over the edge.”

“At the moment I’m sitting on at least two boxes and every single pillow your mom had within paw’s reach,” Nick said with an embarrassed groan. “I’ve lost every little scrap of dignity I’ve ever had. Thank the gods there isn’t any photographic evidence of how I got on it or I would’ve to move and change my name.”

“I just picked you up and put you on there Nick, don’t be overdramatic,” her mother said in an amused tone.

“I felt like a ragdoll,” Nick pouted. “And thanks for spreading that little nugget of information around.”

Freya couldn’t help it, bursting out in laughter at the idea. “Really?”

The corner of Nick’s mouth quirked up into a smile. “Now she laughs. Good to know it only takes my dignity to make that happen.”

“At least that makes two of us with none of it left,” Freya mumbled as she glanced at the clock. “Still, euh I think we should get going? You still need to get your books as well don’t you? Best we get there on time then.

“If you say so,” Nick said as he finished the last of his bugabuns. 

“Need some help getting off that chair?” Freya said in an teasing voice as she stood up.

“Hell no,” Nick yipped out with a laugh as he scampered off the chair, snatching up his bag and coming to a stop next to the door.

“You two have fun now,” her mother cut in as she handed Freya the packed lunch she made. 

“It’s school , Mom,” Freya said as she pulled a face. “School is never fun. See you later.”

“Later, sweety,” her mom cheerfully shot back as the both of them walked out of the door.

Freya took a deep breath of the morning air and began to walk down the street. “Come on Nick, school’s only ten minute walk away. But we better hurry before the main kerfluffle of students arrive. Don’t wanna get clogged up in the main hallways.”

“Are those ten minutes at your or my pace?” Nick said with a grin as he had to jog to keep up with her long strides. “But really, thanks for showing me the way. Bunnyburrow really looks like it was designed by a complete madman.”

“Oh, sorry,” Freya apologized as she slowed down a little bit to let Nick more easily keep pace with her. “Well, it’s a bunny thing, I think. The school is also just as weird to navigate as the rest of Bunnyburrow, if not worse. I think I read somewhere it’s to do with how bunnies used to build their warrens to be defensible.”

“Great, even when they aren’t around those bunnies are giving me a headache,” Nick said with a sigh.

“They’re good at that, aren’t they?” Freya mused as they took another turn. “So euhm, should I write down the route for you to take so you don’t have to knock on our door tomorrow? I mean, I guess it could be pretty tiresome to constantly have to deal with me.”

“Well, sure,” Nick nervously began, his paws fidgeting with the hem of his shirt. ”But you know, maybe I could walk with you to school anyway? I mean, we’re friends, right?”

Freya froze for the second time that day, eyes wide as she gaped at Nick as if he had just grown a second head.

“I mean, we’re not the greatest of friends since we barely met of course,” Nick backpedaled. “But I thought, you know. That we could at least hang out together?”

“Yes!” Freya slapped her paws over her muzzle, eyes flitting around if she hadn’t caught anybody else's attention by screaming out the word. “I mean, yes, of course we can. I just, well, euhm…”

Freya fidgeted as her mind raced, trying to figure out a way to say it without sounding completely lame. She sighed, arms just flopping down. “I.. I just don’t really have a lot of friends. So it took me by surprise, that’s all.”

“Well, what would you know, seems like I also don’t really have a lot of friends,” Nick said with a happy grin on his face. “Seems like we can help each other out here. It’s what friends do isn’t it?”

Freya couldn’t help the massive smile that slowly crawled it’s way onto her muzzle, a smile so wide she could actually feel her cheeks start to hurt. And for a brief moment, all those doubts and second thoughts about Nick just hanging around her until he could exchange her for a better friend didn’t matter. Somebody actually had wanted to be her friend. “Nick, I would love to be your friend.”

The rest of the walk had been uneventful and in almost no time they managed to get to the school, the main rush of bunnies and hares trying to get in still a few minutes away.

“I’m never gonna get used to how quiet Bunnyburrow is,” Nick remarked as they walked through the gates. “I haven’t had a motorist angrily honk at me to hurry my fuzzy butt up as I was crossing the street. It’s almost surreal.”

“Yeah, I can imagine it must be weird if you’re used to a place like Zootopia, but I’m sure you’ll get used to it. Can’t imagine you’ll miss angry yelling and honking,” Freya put in her own two cents. “So let's get your books, locker number, and which class you’re in, alright? You’ll have to go to administration for those things. It’s four floors down.”

“Well, lead the way,” Nick simply, blinking as his mind finally registered the last part of what Freya said. “Wait.. four floors down , how big is this school that it has six floors? Because I’m pretty sure I saw another floor on top of this thing when we walked in!”

“It’s got more then that,” Freya said in a chipper tone. “Don’t worry though, everything above ground aren’t places where us students are allowed to go, and the last 3 are for gyms and stuff. So most of the time we only have to think about seven floors worth of classrooms.”

Nick just gave her a flat look. “Please tell me this building has a map.”

“It does, and it’s almost comprehensible,” Freya let out an awkward chuckle as she scratched the back of her head.

“Whelp, I’m just gonna stick to you for now then,” Nick said with a long sigh. “Let's hope we’re in the same class or else I’m very sure they’re gonna have to send a rescue team in for me at the end of the day.”

“Well, if you keep going up you’ll eventually find the exit of the building at least!” Freya said with a smile as she began to walk deeper into the building, making sure not to walk too fast so Nick could keep pace.

“Or I’ll end up on top of the roof with no clue how I got there,” Nick said as he followed her. “Us foxes always get into places we aren’t supposed to be, you know.”

Freya laughed at that, the idea of Nick trapped on the roof just being oddly comical. “Let's hope foxes aren’t like us felines then. When we get up something we never know how to get down!”

Freya smiled as the both of them devolved into easy banter as they walked through the mostly empty halls, with only the occasional teacher or small group of predators lingering in the building.

“Well,” Freya said as she rounded a corner. “Administration is right over the-”

She trailed off into a whimper as she saw the mammal behind the administration desk. Richard Hopps, the rabbit stuck so far in the past he probably could give a first paw account of the bronze age. And his reaction to foxes was so out there even the majority of the prey population thought he and his ramblings were too much. Luckily the rabbit hadn’t seen them yet, the old man’s head resting on his chest, ears hanging limp over his head as he was snoring loudly.

“Euhm,” Freya began wringing her hands at the very thought of Richard going on one of his infamous rants. “Maybe, maybe I should just try and get your books and schedule for you?”

“Come on, the pile of books can’t be so big that I’ll need you to carry them for me,” Nick said with an easygoing smile. He walked up to the counter and raised his hand to ring the bell.  “They’ll probably give me the prey editions anway, saves me a lot of weight.”

Nick rang the bell and the rabbit shot upright. The old rabbits' eyes whirling around wildly before they fell on the fox standing in front of him. The rabbit’s ears shot up straight, his muzzle hanging slightly open as he seemed to be frozen in time.

Freya curled in on herself and put her paws on her ears, bracing herself for the onslaught.

“A fox!” the rabbit screeched as the old man jumped out of his chair. “Martha! Bring me the fox spray, the taser! Those red furred devils got into the burrows, call the police, the army! Sound the alarm and get the kits to safety!” 

Freya felt her heart break as Nick’s ears went flat against his head, his tail curling around his legs as he leaned as far back from the buck as he could. Freya instinctively took a few steps forward, her mind trying to figure out anything she could do against the irate rabbit that wouldn’t just make it worse. She didn’t have to worry as another voice cut in.

“For goodness sake, Pop Pop!” A much younger doe walked in with a scowl on her face. “Bunnies haven’t had to worry about foxes raiding the burrows from before your time! I don’t get your obsession with it!” 

“They’re just laying low till our guard is down, I tell you! Can’t trust anything that a fox does. Tricksters and thieves that’s all they are!”

The doe rolled her eyes and firmly pointed at a door. “Yes, yes, of course, now why don’t you go and do something useful other than antagonizing the predators here?”

Freya winced at the tone of the rabbit when she mentioned predators.

With a grumble and a hop, the old buck shambled out of sight.

“Don’t mind him, he’s rude but harmless,” the doe said as she forced a tight smile on her face as she looked at the both of them. Paw limply hanging past her hip.  “What are you two doing here?”

NIck bounced back remarkably well, giving the doe a wide toothy smile and his ears standing straight up. “I’m a new student here, Nick Wilde? Moved in yesterday. My ma said you guys knew I was coming. So I’ll be needing my books and class schedule you know.”

“Oh, right well,” the doe stiffly put on a pair of glasses as she began digging through a few documents. “I think I heard something about that. Yes, lets see here.

Nick Wilde, yes you’re in here, Grade 9 right?” She gave him a glance over her documents. 

Nick nodded. 

“Okay, I’ll get the books for you in a moment. But do remember, the cost of them are separate from the enrollment fee. At the very latest,” the doe stressed the last word, “deliver the money to administration at the end of the week. If not we will be having words, understand ?”

“Oh, I understand you clear. As. Crystal,” Nick said. “Just as clearly I’m seeing your paw hover over that can of fox-repellent at your hip. So why don’t you drop the attitude, hop to it and get me my books so we can both be on our merry way?”

The doe’s muzzle flapped a bit uselessly, trying to find words, but in the end, she just let out an annoyed huff before grabbing his books and slamming them on the counter. “Payment due by the end of the week, Wilde.”

“Sure sure,” Nick flippantly said as he grabbed his books and schedule. “I’ll make sure the school gets paid before the end of the week.”

Without even waiting for a response, Nick walked away and Freya quickly followed, not wanting to be near the doe who was giving the both of them the stink eye. “Sorry, I tried to warn you about Mr. Hopps. He’s the biggest speciesist still in the burrows.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Nick said with an almost disturbing ease. “They’re just dumb bunnies anyway. Still, do you think your mom still has her receipt for your books lying around? Wanna make sure the rabbit didn’t add a fox tax to it or something.”

“I’ll ask, but they didn’t do it with any of the other predators so I think you’ll be safe. Not sure how they could’ve gotten away with that at all,” Freya quickly changed the subject as she leaned over his shoulder to try and get a look at his schedule. “So what class are you in?”

“9D it seems,” Nick answered.

Freya’s ears fell, that wasn’t her class. Of course it wasn’t. “Oh, I’m in 9K. So I guess we won’t have any classes together.”

“That sucks,” Nick’s ears fell. “Hey, at least we can still hang out during the breaks, right? And walk home together.” 

“I shouldn’t have gotten that excited anyway. There just are so many classes, the chances we would’ve been in the same one were really small to begin with.” Her ears flicked up as she felt a paw on her forearm.

“It really would’ve been nice if we were in the same class,” Nick admitted. “Who knows, maybe I’ll annoy the teachers enough that they’ll shunt me into yours or something.”

“Please don’t try that,” Freya said, but she couldn’t help the smile pulling at the corners of her mouth. “Your mother would probably kill you for trying, and then where would I be?”

Nick laughed at that one and Freya stuck out her tongue. 

“Thank you for laughing at my concern,” she said in a teasing tone, her ears flicking up as she could hear the familiar pitter-patter of bunnies start to grow closer. “Well, the kerfluffle is almost here. Why don’t I make sure you know where your next few classes are so you aren’t late to class the first day in school?”

“Sounds like a plan!” Nick said as he zipped open his bag and shoved his books inside. “And maybe figure out where we’ll meet for lunch or something.”

“Okay!” Freya said with a wide smile as she bent over his class schedule and began to walk him through it all as well as she could.

Nick’s head was lying on the table, ears flat against his head as he watched the clock. Less than a minute left and he could finally get the hell out of the class. Not that the lessons had been worse than the ones in Zootopia, nor any more boring. But trying to pay attention when every single prey classmate of his spent more time staring at him as if he was some strange and terrifying attraction from the great beyond. Well, it made it a lot harder than it should’ve been.

And whoever had made the decision to put him in this class, either had the laugh of their lives or hadn’t given a shit. Every single one of his classmates was prey and not just any prey. They were bunnies. With the way they were staring at him he felt like he was the bad guy in one of those horrifyingly dumb bunnymade slasher flicks. All he missed was a weird leather mask and a murder weapon.

His eyes flicked back to the clock, which was still slowly ticking down to the end of the class.

Come on, just let us go already!  

“Well then.” The old teacher in front of the class finally had noticed that nobody was even pretending to pay attention anymore. “Homework is going to be the practice problems on pages 54 to 56. feel free to...” The teacher didn’t even get to finish his sentence as the entire class erupted into a flurry of activity. Books and pencil cases got quickly shoved into backpacks and bunnies starting to huddle together at the door, excitingly chattering about everything and nothing. “Start packing up.” 

The teacher just shook his head, and finally the bell rang.

Nick waited till the main kerfluffle of bunnies had pushed their way out of the door before he stood up and slunk out behind them. A smile making its way onto his face. Time for him to find Freya!

It didn’t take him long to find the place. The tall tigress excitedly waved him over from where she stood. “Nick, over here!”

“I see you Freya,” he said as he pushed his way through the crowd of bunnies towards her. “How was class?”

“About as good as it could’ve been,” Freya said, smile falling for a brief moment before she plastered it back onto her face. “You?”

Nick couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at that. Did something happen?

“I felt a bit too much like the freak at the circus. Everybody in my class is a bunny. I really stuck out and they just couldn’t stop staring. Maybe I should start charging,” he said with a wry grin, making a wide gesture with his arms, like one of the old-time circus ringleaders. “Come one and all, come see the great and mystical common red fox, marvel at its average size.”

“Yikes,” Freya winced. At least you won’t have to deal with that for a full year, but come on! I know a decent spot for us to eat. A lot of predators flock to it so we won’t have to deal with any prey looking down their noses at us either! I would’ve asked you to meet me there, but it’s a bit out of the way.”

“Not having bunnies look at me for a bit sounds great. Lead the way!”

It wasn’t a lot, just a large unused meeting room that was tucked away in the bowels of the rabbit built maze that was Bunnyburrow West with some tables strewn around. But it was completely and utterly packed with predators, big and small. The familiar red foxes, brown and grey wolves and some smaller otters, weasels and racoons. With a pair of brown bears standing head and shoulders above them all but Freya.

“I think I saw some space near the end for us to sit!” Freya happily spoke up.

“I’ll take your word for it, can’t see a lot through this crowd,” Nick answered.

“Yo, Freya,” A tall timberwolf greeted as he walked towards the both of them. A small group of other wolves followed him on his heels. He gave the both of them a wide friendly grin. “Who’s your new friend?”

The entire pack honed in him, ears flicked upright as they leaned in close. A strange mixture of curiosity and weariness playing over their faces as they waited for an answer.

“He’s my new neighbor, Nick Wilde,” Freya said as she turned back to Nick. “And this big lug is Peter Barker, he and his friends look more intimidating than they are.”

Nick let out a sigh of relief as the intense looks softened and were replaced with some more friendly smiles. 

“Nice meeting you Peter and,” Nick said, cocking his head as he waited for the other wolves to introduce themselves.

“Benny.”

“Elsa.”

They all quickly exchanged their names. 

“Wilde, Wilde,” Elsa scratched the top of her head, “I remember that name from somewhere. Does your mom or pop work in one of the bug farms or something? I think my pop said something about having a new coworker.”

“Yeah, that would be my ma,” Nick said with a nod. 

“Right, so do you wanna sit with us Freya? Might be a good time for us to get to know the new guy a bit,” Peter asked. “Only if you both want to, of course, no pressure.”

“I don’t mind?” Nick offered as he saw Freya’s eyes flicker from him towards the pack of wolves.

“Okay then, if you don’t mind,” Freya eventually admitted. Nick raised an eyebrow at her hesitation. Had he accidentally pulled Freya into something she didn’t want to do?

Nothing really stood out to him as going wrong as the wolves bantered a bit of nonsense as they walked towards the benches. No hidden remarks, no Freya cringing in on herself. Just standard teenager talk between them all. Elsa couldn’t help but keep flicking her gaze from Freya to him for some reason. But nothing that really stood out to him as obvious signs that they were picking on her.

They got seated at a free table and pulled out their lunches. Benny letting out a big sigh of relief. “Fucking ‘ell, man. Glad to have a break, old Ironsides really had it out for me today.”

“Maybe you should pay more attention then, Benny,” Elsa said with a smirk. “You’re just giving the old hare more ammo by falling asleep in class .”

“Oh get off my tail, it’s math. Nobody can figure out math! Don’t think I didn’t see you snoozing as well Elsa,” the wolf smirked as he tore into his lunch. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Elsa said, her ears tinted red as she began to eat with a little bit more grace.

Nick just let the wolves and Freya settle into their usual conversation. He kept an eye out for anything strange as he pulled his own sandwich out of his bag, eyes widening in surprise as a piece of paper fluttered out of the bag and slipped underneath the table.

“I’ll get it Nick”, Freya said quickly as she tried to reach for it.

“Don’t worry, I already got it!” Elsa said with a wide smile as she dove underneath the table. “Let’s see what this says!”

Elsa opened up the piece of paper, ears flicking up in excitement and Nick just knew this wasn’t going to end well as he realized the only one who could’ve put that note in his bag. And why she had done so.

“Aww, little message from mom on your first day of scho- Ouch!” Elsa ducked out of the way as Peter cuffed her around the ears and snatched the paper out of her hands. Sliding the paper, contents down, back to Nick.

“S’not cool to shove your nose in other mammals' stuff, Elsa,” Peter said with a shake of his head.

Nick ignored the little squabble breaking out between Elsa and Peter. The roll of both Freya’s and Benny’s eyes marking it as something that was pretty common at least. And mostly in good fun. He glanced at the little note.

Thanks for the premade lunch Nicky, I’ll make sure to enjoy it!

I hope you have a good first day at school sweety.

Nick folded it up and snuck it into his pocket. Just a dumb little note, he would get rid of it. Later, of course, when he was near a trash can or something. He really didn’t wanna throw garbage around. Yeah, that was the only reason and totally not the small smile crawling it’s way onto his muzzle.

“So,” Freya prodded. “A good mother's note?”

“Ha, just my ma not realizing I’m not ten anymore,” Nick tried to play it off and quickly decided to switch the subject. “But anyway, how did your day go? Did you fall asleep like Benny?”

“Yes, mothers,” Freya agreed with a teasing smile, but thankfully dropped it anyway. “It wasn’t so bad, just regular old classes.”Freya tilted her head as she tapped her paw against her muzzle, “Well, not completely regular I guess I had that new teacher for natural sciences. You know, the city bunny? He was nice . Well, you’ll see what I mean when you get him. I think he’s also responsible for your science class.”

“Oh? A bunny being nice to a predator. There is a first time for everything, I suppose,” Nick said with a shrug as he bit into his sandwich, “Also right, would you mind showing me to my locker later on? Don’t wanna lug around these books for any longer then I absolutely have to.”

“Sure! What’s the number?” Freya said as she began wolfing down her own lunch.

“1354 I think, lemme doublecheck,” Nick started to rummage in his bag. “Yep, that’s it.”

“Well, that one isn’t that far, pretty close to mine as well!” Freya said. “It’s not a problem at all, I’ll need to get my books for the next class anyway.”

“Thanks, I got no clue how any of you find anything in here. My old school didn’t even half a quarter of the space here. Then again, space in Zootopia is at a premium I guess.”

The banter between the wolves came to a stop, the three of them staring at him with wide eyes.

“What?” Nick said as he shrunk in on himself, hackles slowly raising.

“You’re from the big city? From Zootopia? What’s it like?” Benny leant in closer, a bit too close. “Hell, why did you even bother moving into Bunnyburrow if you and your folks used to live in Zootopia? It’s like the city of golden opportunities!”

“Well, we did,” Nick groused as he put his paw on Benny’s snout and shoved him out of his personal space. “Sometimes things just happen.”

Benny glanced over him, right at Freya and he shrunk back a bit, holding up both of his paws in a placating manner. “Right, touchy subject, sorry ‘bout that dude. But euhm, what is it like though? Living in the big city?”

“Well,” all of the wolves and even Freya leaned in slightly closer. The burning curiosity plain to see on their faces.

Nick gave them a sly smile, “Well, seems like it’s time for some stories.”

It was almost embarrassing how easily the wolves and Freya were enthralled by Nick’s stories. But, everything had to come to an end. Most mammals slowly gathered up their stuff as the time to get back to class came closer. 

“So, euhm, not that I mind telling more stuff,” Nick gently brought up. “But I still need to find my locker, same with Freya.”

“Oh! Right, nearly forgot!” Freya quickly began cleaning up her garbage and Nick and the wolves followed suit. Freya and Nick saying a quick goodbye to the wolves as they walked through the hallways.

“So, they seemed nice?” Nick gently prodded.

“They are, they’re basically everybody's friend. Well, every predator’s friend for obvious reasons,” Freya amended. “They’re a bit much sometimes, but good mammals anyway.”

“Yeah, I can see that.” Nick said. But if they were everybody's friend, Then why did she feel so hesitant to hang out with them? He would just have to keep his eyes open and see if anything clicked into place. He followed Freya as she quickly guided him through the maze-like hallways of the school.

Something felt off . The fur on the back of his neck pricked as he could feel it stand up. Ears flicked upright as he scanned his surroundings for anything. The hallway was mostly empty, a few bunnies and hares minding their own business as they were digging through their own lockers. Nothing seemed to be out of place.

“Right, my locker is here, won’t take long I promise!” Freya quickly said as she pulled out her key and walked up to her locker.

And then Nick heard it, faintly, but he could hear somebody trying to suppress their laughter and failing horribly. Eyes narrowed as he took a closer look at the hallway. And there they were, four bucks  trying to act like they were occupied with their locker not that they did a good job of it. Mostly because the thing was still closed and they couldn’t make it more obvious where they were looking at Freya and her locker if they tried . What the hell were they doing?

“Damnit,’ Freya let out a frustrated grunt as she shook the padlock. 

“Something wrong Freya?” Nick asked as he walked over. Tail flicking agitatedly behind him, he really didn’t like where this was going.

“Just, the stupid key doesn’t turn,” She hissed as she fumbled with the lock. “Why is it not turning?”

The bucks burst out laughing, the mocking laughter echoing down the hallways, “What’s up oversized cat? Can’t figure out how a simple padlock works? Top of the food chain my ass!”

Freya’s ears went flat against her back, tail poofing out as she glanced over towards the mocking laughter, shrinking in on herself as her eyes widened with recognition. 

Even to Nick it was clear this wasn’t the first time those assholes had pulled something.

Freya stiffly turned away from the bucks and focused on the padlock. Futility fiddling with the padlock some more. That if she just kept trying it would pop open. 

“Hey,” Nick gently said as he took another step closer, gently putting his paw on her arm. “Can I take a look?”

Freya slumped against her locker. “Not that it’s going to help. Those bunnies probably broke the lock or something.”

“Pushing won’t work, dumbass,” another one of the bucks cheerfully yelled at them. “You gotta pull, to open a locker. You do know what pulling is right?”

“Now, don’t put too much pressure on the predator,” the previous buck mockingly added. “Their brains don’t really do much else other than if it moves, pounce, and if it’s still, bite.”

Nick’s lips pulled back into a snarl, fur bristling as he glared at the Bucks, which only seemed to increase their amusement. He took a breath to try and calm himself down.

Don’t let them see they got to you. 

“Well, I know a bit about locks, I might figure out what’s been done to it,” Nick forced a comforting smile back onto his muzzle, “It can’t hurt right?”

“Okay,” Freya said in a small voice that just sounded so wrong coming from a tall tigress like her. She stood aside so Nick could get a closer look at the lock.

He didn’t see anything wrong with it.  Keyhole looked clear. It didn't look like something had been jammed deeper into it either, no obvious signs of tampering on the rest of the shell either. Hell, the thing didn’t even have a scratch on it. Did they manage to somehow open it up without any signs of tampering on the outside? Nick’s eyes narrowed as his brain started to put two and two together.

Nick glanced at the locks on the lockers next to them. The scratched, old battered looking locks that looked like they’d been through a few years of constant use. They hadn’t tampered with Freya’s lock, they had outright replaced the damn thing. Did those assholes take the effort to smuggle bolt cutters into the school or something?

He fumbled around his pocket and pulled out a pair of paperclips, twisting them into the shape he needed and gently slipped his makeshift lock picks into the padlock.

“You can pick locks?” Freya exclaimed?

“Not so loud,” Nick hushed her as he leaned in close, putting his ear as close to the padlock as he could while still being able to easily manipulate it. “Let's not make the whole school aware that the fox knows how to pick a lock.”

It took Nick barely two minutes before the lock opened with a satisfying click. “There we go!” Nick pulled off the padlock and pulled open the door of her locker. “Easy as pi-”

His voice died in his throat when he saw the sleeping rooster in the locker, the bird twitched as the light fell on it and it started to finally wake up. No, rooster was the wrong world entirely for this beast. Rooster implied a domesticated animal, a plodding chicken that was content to scratch at the dirt and pick grain. Only a threat to the youngest cubs and the very small, like a mouse. This thing had looked at the entire concept of domestication that his fellows had accepted, called it a lifestyle for wimps and had taken a page out of the book of his ancient forefathers the raptors .

This thing was massive , it’s now open beady eyes shone with barely restrained malice at the world for daring to stick it with feathers. Nick felt Freya's paws grab him by the shoulders and pull him back as the beast stood up to its full height. Tall enough to peck him in the neck without having to stretch at all. It let out a bloodchilling cluck as it lumbered out of the locker.

In a complete reversal of genetic and evolutionary norms Nick was frozen with fear, heart pounding in his ears as he tried not to look threatening or challenging the monstrous chicken’s authority. Something in the back of his mind told him that he should feel ashamed for being afraid of a chicken. But given that Freya was also trying to make herself as small as possible while refusing to make any sound he thought he could be given a pass just this once!

“You’re supposed to kill the bird before you pack it as your snack!” one  of the bucks howled out. “How stupid can you be!”

The bird’s head snapped towards the noise and Nick could see a spark of recognition in the beasts beady eyes as it was suddenly laser focused on it’s new targets. It let out a loud crow that echoed off the walls, sounding more at home coming from a demonic creature from the deepest depths of hell then a mortal chicken as it charged the kerfluffle of bucks.

The bucks let out a high pitched scream of mortal terror and they nearly fell over themselves in their haste to put distance between them and the enraged beast.

Nick just stared at the retreating bunnies and the raging chicken vanishing down the hallway. His brain barely able to register the sheer absurdity of the sight before him. He let out a nearly hysterical chuckle. Served those idiots right, fucking with Freya’s locker like that! He hoped the chicken got some good pecks in before being caught. He turned towards Freya with a smile on hims lips.

And suddenly everything sounded a lot less funny. Freya was staring dumbfounded at her locker, or what was left of it . Bird poop was smeared all over the inside of the locker. A giant mass of completely shredded books and congealed bird dung laid on the bottom of it. The smell hit him in the face like a hammerblow.

“Oh, no,” Nick managed to mutter before Freya broke down crying. He shuffled over and gently put his paw on the small of her back, his mind blanking on what he could say here.

Chapter Text

Freya felt numb. Everything felt distant and muted, just going with the flow when the teachers finally arrived and dragged her off towards the admin office and sat her down so they could get the story later. The sight of her locker just drilling into her mind. Her books, her notes, homework, her gym clothes, everything that she had in there was just completely destroyed.

She slumped deeper into her chair, resting her head in her paws. A feeling of dread just settling in her stomach like a block of ice, with one question going through her head over and over.

Why? Why was she getting targeted like this? Why her? Why go so far as to destroy her stuff? What had she ever done to them?

Freya was pulled out of her thoughts when she felt the weight of a small paw settle on her shoulder. She looked over and blinked in confusion as she saw Nick sitting next to her.

“Nick?” she croaked out.

Nick’s ears nervously flicked, eyes flitting between his paw and her face. His uncertainty was clear for anybody to see and she felt him slowly pull back his paw. Before she even knew what she was doing, her own paw was clutched over his, holding onto him like a lifeline. 

“I.. I didn’t know you were here?” Freya started, “Shouldn’t you be in class? How did you let the teachers stay? I mean, I’m glad you’re here, I just don’t really understand how.”

“They wanted me to go to class, yeah,” Nick gently squeezed her shoulder. “But I just told them I was evidence. I’ve seen everything happen and I wasn’t letting you go off alone after something like that happened to you. Not surprised you didn’t notice me though.”

“You, well.” Ears went flat against Nick's skull as he fumbled with his words. Something that looked oddly out of character for him. Up till now he always had easily known what to say or do. “You were really out of it. Didn’t really react aside from nodding and stuff. Well euhm, you feeling any better now?”

Freya shook her head. No, she didn’t. 

“Right, stupid question,” Nick muttered as he glanced away. “Anything I can do?”

“Just,” she glanced at him. “Keep doing what you’re doing... It’s helping, I think.”

“That’s good?” Nick carefully said. “The teachers are still trying to catch the chicken and save those assholes from being turned into chicken feed. It’s taking a lot of them to corner it. They said that as soon as they got them they would be getting to the bottom of it all.”

Freya let out a derisive snort at the idea of the teachers doing anything that would make the assholes and their friends stop. They’d been at it for as long as she could remember and the teachers were usually less than worthless. If they even believed her in the first place. 

“I guess this isn’t a new thing then?” Nick carefully spoke up.

Freya numbly shook her head, “I don’t really want to talk about it.”

She could already imagine the thoughts running through Nick’s brain. A tigress getting pushed around by bunnies . Would he still want to be around the biggest bullying target of the school? 

Freya was glad that Nick didn’t push further on it. He just kept his hand on her shoulder. Though that could be because he just didn’t know what to do with a giant crying tigress. Well, she should just take comfort in it while she still could. It probably wouldn’t be long before he found some other friends and she gently drifted to the sidelines. Maybe some foxes or even just with Peter and his friends, with them being canids and all that. 

A door was pushed open and Freya glanced towards the noise, whimpering as she saw the four ruffled bunnies being pushed into the room by an angry teacher. The quartet gave one look at her and couldn’t stop the chuckles and smiles. Even when they only barely escaped a mauling from an angry chicken even with a teacher right there , they still didn’t bother to hide their amusement.

She didn’t want to be here, she really didn’t want to be anywhere near those smug assholes. 

“Well, well, had some fun cardio with the chicken you stole?” Nick snarled at them. 

“We didn’t do it, you dumbass. We were just nearby and that stupid chicken attacked us,” one of the bullies shot back, lying through his buck teeth.

“Of course, of course,” Nick snapped, scorn just dripping of his words “You just happened to be nearby and eagerly waiting for something to happen. And the angry chicken going after you instead of us, the mammals closest to it, was also just a weird happenstance and not because it remembered you all and was pissed at you.”

“Nick Wilde, if you can’t be civil while we get to the bottom of this, then you are free to go back to class,” the teacher calmly intervened. “It’s too early to be throwing blame around. Besides, I doubt any of our prey students would be dumb enough to risk the wrath of a tigress.”

Yeah, that was the intervention Freya was used to. All about staying calm and getting to the bottom of things with evidence when it was done against a predator. But all too eager to bring the book down on a predator. She slumped over in defeat, same old same old.

She could hear Nick grind his teeth together in frustration, his tail flicking in irritation. “They broke the lock of Freya’s locker, shoved a chicken inside and laughed as it destroyed her stuff. I’m pretty sure that's a good reason to stop being civil. I bet that if you check their lockers you’ll find the bolt cutter they used to get her padlock off.”

One of the bunnies ears drooped down as his eyes went wide in panic. “You can’t look in our lockers,” the bunny rushed out. “That’s against some privacy rule isn’t it?”

His compatriots glanced at him, muzzles scrunched up in bafflement or anger. 

The teacher facepalmed. “No Alex, searching your lockers when we have a situation like this is completely within a teachers power. But if you have nothing incriminating in there then you have nothing to fear. Don’t you?” 

The teacher opened the door and stuck his head outside and started talking to somebody just outside. “Hey, can you get Mr. Muller to check out the lockers of the four students we saved from that angry chicken? Tell him to check for a bolt cutter or something that could’ve been used to cut a padlock off.”

There was a quick reply Freya couldn’t quite make out. But the teacher just closed the door and gave a tired glance at everybody else still in the room.

“So,” the teacher started, still rubbing his head like he could feel a headache coming on. “We’ll know whether the fox has pulled a fast one as soon as Mr. Muller comes back.”

“He still could’ve planted the thing in our locker!” Alex yelled as he pointed at nick. “He’s a literal fox! They’re all kinda sorts of shifty!”

Freya saw Nick’s ear flick in irritation at the insinuation and before she knew it the words were tumbling out of her mouth. “So there is a bolt cutter in your locker?” 

She let out an eep as the younger bunnies glared daggers at her. Their cold gazes promised a lot of suffering if she didn’t shut herself up right now. She wanted to run, she wanted to hide, she wanted to go home and shut herself in her room until everybody, prey or predator, had forgotten about her and she could just go on with her life.

“Freya has a point there you know,” Nick backed her up, barely restrained disgust easily audible in his voice. “Mr. Muller hasn’t even come here and told us what’s in your locker and you’re already trying to blame me for something that might not even be there. Bit strange, isn’t it?”

Nick thoughtfully scratched underneath his chin. “Unless, of course, you already know what’s in your locker. Which would be weird to know if I put something in it. I didn’t even know you guys existed before you decided to butt into Freya’s and mine business. And even if I could've snuck a pair of bolt cutters into your locker while you guy’s ran for your lives from the giant chicken, if I had those on hand for some reason, then how the hell do you know they’re in there when you haven’t had the time to check your locker? Bit fishy isn’t it?”

“Oh shut up you scheming fox , you’re just trying to make us look worse,” Alex snapped.

“I don’t need to do that, you’re doing a fine job at that yourself,” Nick said with a shrug. 

“Just, just stop talking, Alex,” the teacher warned him. “I think you’re doing a fine job digging yourself into a hole already. Cheese and crackers, I never thought I would’ve had students both dumb enough to smuggle a Dharma rooster into the school and smart enough to actually pull it off.”

“So you believe the fox ?” another one of the bunnies said incredulously. “You can’t be serious.”

“He’s the only one that’s making sense at the moment. But we’ll see if he’s telling the truth when Mr. Muller comes back,” the teacher said with a tired sigh, looking like he wanted to be anywhere else.  

An uneasy silence settled over the room. With the kerfuffle of teenage bunnies throwing every obscene gesture that they knew at them. The teacher impatiently looked at the clock and grumbled underneath his breath how Mr. Muller was taking way too long. While the both of them just had to deal with the bunnies antics.

Thankfully the door was thrown open and a younger teacher walked into the room. A scowl on his face as he brandished the bolt cutters. His angry gaze bored into the bunnies as he stomped towards them. “Alex, do you have fluff for brains? What could’ve possibly made you think this was acceptable to have in school? Why did you even have it?”

Mr. Muller looked at the other teacher in the room. “Mind filling me in on what’s going on here?”

“Somebody put a rooster in Freya’s locker,” the other teacher simply said. “And since Wilde claimed the lock was cut off and replaced, I thought it would be prudent to see if his word was worth anything.”

The teacher gestured to the bolt cutters. “Seems like they were. Pretty open and shut case now. Destruction of school property and depending on how they managed to get their hands on the rooster they might be guilty of theft as well.”

The unruly kerfuffle of teenage bunnies quickly quieted down. Their ears completely flopped down over their backs as they realized how much trouble they were in. 

“We’ll, have the parents been informed already?” Mr. Muller questioned.

“Yes, Freya’s father and the parents of them,” he gestured towards the bunnies, “were called for a meeting after school to make them aware of the situation. Gives us some time to deliberate what punishment to give and to notify the sheriffs of the entire stolen chicken situation. They can figure out what else has to be done with that.”

“Right,” Muller’s eyes flicked towards Freya and Nick. “So what now? The meeting is still hours away.”

“We can send Wilde and Freya back to their classes I suppose,” the teacher said with a shrug. “No need to keep them here now that the situation is mostly resolved.”

Freya wilted at the thought of having to go back to class. “But, what about my textbooks? My notebooks? How am I supposed to follow along or take notes without either of those?” 

The words, how am I supposed to face everybody else after this happened, died in her throat. 

“I’m sure you can handle a week or so without books until your replacements arrive. And you’ll be able to buy a new notebook or two by tomorrow,” the teacher dryly stated as he turned towards the bunnies. “I’ll get these delinquents settled. Can you handle getting those two back to class Mr. Muller?”

“But are you sure that is the best thing to do -” Mr Muller started but was quickly cut off by the older teacher.

“Yes I’m sure, just get that done will you?” the other teacher grumbled as he guided the delinquents out of the door and pulled it closed behind him. 

The sound of the door slamming closed seemed to echo with a sense of finality in Freya’s head. Burying her head back into her paws as she felt tears burn in her eyes.

Mr. Muller looked at the two of them with a helpless expression. “Well. Freya right?”

Freya nodded weakly, but didn’t look up.

 “I’m sure we’ve got some more notebooks in our supply room,” the teacher continued, uncertainty audible in his voice. “Why don’t the two of you take a bit of time to catch your breath, clear your head you know, while I go and get some notebooks for you to use. That’s at least a part of the problem filed away?”

“Unless of course,” the bunny scrambled out. “Either of you two would rather talk about this instead of being left alone? I’m still not entirely sure of everything that happened. But I’m willing to listen to either of you. Whether it’s now or later.” 

Freya lifted her head up from her paws, staring in confusion at Mr. Muller. The teacher looked like he was sincere, but that couldn’t be right could it? He was a bunny, why would he care about what a predator was feeling? He probably was just being polite.

She shook her head, no use in just making it awkward for everybody involved by taking him up on an offer that was made only to be polite. Or because he felt he was supposed to offer his help.

“No, I’ll be okay,” Freya said as she rubbed her eyes. “The notebooks would be lovely though.”

Mr. Muller's shoulders slumped slightly. But he nodded, “Okay, It shouldn’t take any longer than ten minutes or so for me to get back with the notebooks.”

The teacher gently closed the door behind him as he went off to fetch the notebooks.

Nick let out a defeated sigh and slumped back into the chair next to hers. “That could’ve gone way worse. At least they didn’t walk away scott free?” 

“I’m glad they’re getting some punishment, even if it took years before they did something ,” Freya choked out, trying to keep back the tears as they started burning in her eyes again. “But, they all went on about school property and the stolen chicken. I... I don’t think they really cared that it was also my property that was destroyed.”

Nick’s ears drooped as he hesitated for a moment, before gently putting his paw on her hand again. “Yeah, and that they basically glossed over the fact they intentionally targeted you in the first place.”

“I expected that would’ve happened,” Freya couldn’t hold it back anymore and the tears began to stream down her cheeks. “It always happens, but it keeps hurting.”

She tried to dry her tears with the sleeves of her blouse, only succeeding in smearing it deeper into her fur. “Gods, sorry that you have to see me when I’m such a mess.”

Nick quickly dug into his bag and offered her a packet of paper tissues. “Here, these might work a bit better. Sorry that they’re a bit small.” 

Freya gratefully took a few of them and tried to clear away the tears while Nick helplessly looked on, unsure of what to do. 

“Thanks, Nick,” she eventually hiccuped as she finally managed to get herself under control.

“No sweat,” Nick said.

“I, I just don’t know how I’m going to deal with classes until I’ve got my new books, A notebook only helps so much. How am I supposed to follow along?”

“They can’t get you your books immediately?” 

She shook her head, “No, as far as I know they only order as many books as they need at the beginning of the year. They probably only had yours on hand because they knew you were coming a few weeks in advance. I’m gonna have to deal with this for a few weeks at the very least.”

Nick cocked his head and Freya could see the gears start to turn in his head.

“Well, we can always share my books for that time. It’ll be a bit of a puzzle, but as long as we  don’t have too many classes at the same time we can make it work,” Nick offered  “They’ll be a bit small for you, but hey, better than nothing right?

“I, wha, Nick,” Freya sputtered out. “I can’t just take your books. I mean, it could work in school I guess, but what if we have homework? I can’t just take your books back home with me and do my homework when you have the same work.”

Nick just gave her an amused glance. “Freya, I literally live across the street. We can just meet up with each other at either of our homes and get our homework done together. It takes less than a minute for either of us to come over. And I don’t think our parents will mind. Sadine took one look at me and started feeding me so I doubt she has any problems with me coming over to study. And I know ma won’t have any problems, though she might have to find a more comfortable chair for you.”

“Oh, right,” Freya dumbly said. Yeah, that had completely slipped her mind. She couldn’t remember the last time somebody had actually come over. She’d been to other people’s houses before obviously, but that was always just as one of the people who got invited over. Not her specifically. “That, that does sound like a good plan.”

“You still have your schedule right?” Nick spoke up as he began digging through his bag. “What classes do you have next?”

“Oh, right right.” She quickly pulled her own schedule out of her bag. “I should’ve had two hours of history after the break and two hours of English to round out the day.”

“Okay,” Nick quickly glanced at his watch. ”That would still be around an hour of history. Are you feeling up for it? Or should I teach you how to play hooky for the rest of that class?”

“Play hooky?” Freya tilted her head in confusion, ears flicking upright in alarm as she clicked the pieces together. “I can’t miss a class, I mean, nobody should sneak out of school and miss a class in the first place. But I really can’t miss history, I have homework to… turn… in.”

Freya trailed off as she realized that her homework was probably not in the state to be turned in. “Horse-apples, I, I don’t have something to turn in in the first place have I?”

“Hey, the choice is still yours, no homework to turn in or not,” Nick said with a sly smile as he held out the english and history book. “Not forcing you to do anything.”

“I’m going to go,” Freya said as she took Nick’s books, they looked comically small when she held them in her paws. But a small smile ghosted it’s way onto her muzzle regardless. “And don't think I forgot that you basically admitted you skipped classes before. You really shouldn’t do that.”

“Some classes are just so boring though,” Nick said in a mock depressed tone. “The wolf I had as a teacher back in Zootopia just read from his slides anyway. I could just as easily read it at home and get the same amount of learning done.”

“But did you?” Freya questioned.

“Now let's not bother with those details,” Nick hurriedly answered. “And let's change the subject before I incriminate myself even more.”

Freya couldn’t help the giggle, the things that happened to her around an hour ago feeling a little bit more distant for the moment. “Thanks for that, Nick.”

“Heh, no problem. Now we’ll just have to wait for Mr. Muller to come back with those notebooks and you’ll be set for the next hour,” Nick said as he made himself more comfortable in his chair.

“I just hope I didn't miss too much,” Freya murmured as she gently put Nick's books in her backpack. “I actually like history class.”

“I’m sure you’ll be back on track in no time,” Nick nodded.

They didn’t have to wait very long before they could hear footsteps getting closer and the door was thrown open and Mr Muller stumbled inside.

“Right, notebooks,” Mr, Muller gasped for air. “Got, got them right here.”

He held up a few notebooks, not the regular bunny sized ones. But either a large predator sized ones or just a very big one for a bunny. “It took me a bit to find em.”

“Thanks, Mr Muller,” Freya murmured as she took the notebooks. “You really shouldn’t have gone through the extra trouble to get appropriately sized ones. I could’ve managed with normal sized ones for a while and just gotten appropriately sized ones from the store.”

“The point of me giving them to you was to replace the ones that were lost when those delinquents destroyed the ones you had. It doesn’t really make sense for me to give you something that you’ll have to replace anyway now does it,” the bunny said with a pleasant smile. 

“Thanks,” Freya said. “So how much do I owe you?”

Mr. Muller shook his head. “Nothing, the reason you have to get new things is because the school wasn’t able to keep your things safe while they were on school property. It’s the very least I can do.”

“Now, are you two ready to go back to class or do you need some more time still?”

“No, I’m good.” Freya said in a grateful tone. “Thanks for this, Mr. Muller.”

“As much as I’d like to skip some more classes with teachers permission,” Nick said with a smirk. “It’s probably not the best idea to start missing too many classes on my first day. Some might think it’s a common thing for me.”

Mr. Muller held open the door for the two of them. “Also, if either of you two have any problems with the classes you missed. Feel free to ask me for some help. I’m always there for the students of our school.”

“We’ll keep that in mind.” Nick answered and Freya followed him out of the administrative area. Quickly hurrying towards their classes.

Angela let out a groan as she finished feeding the last batch of dead mealworms into the processor. When she had taken the course and learned how to handle the machines, she had never expected there was this much physical labor involved. 90% of the process was automated and only required you to operate the machinery. So how much hard labor could there possibly have been involved.

Well, to bad the last 10% of that work involved a lot of hauling stuff around. Feed that needed to be loaded into the machines at least every few hours. Cleanup of the breeding cages, transferring the larvae and young crickets into their larger habitats for easy feeding. Keeping an eye out for diseases, disinfecting the many machines responsible for processing the dead bugs, and so on. And since this bug farm alone had a few hundred cages in total, and the process from egg to processed bug took less than a week, Angela didn’t know how many cages she had hauled today having lost count somewhere after the first two hours. But her arms and legs were screaming for rest before she braved the walk towards her home.

Still, it felt fulfilling in a way that her previous desk job hadn’t been. 

“You doing alright there, Angela?” the voice of her overseer sounded through the farm.

“I’m doing fine, Joshua,” Angela reassured as she hefted the now empty cage out of the machine. “Just, tired. I hadn’t expected the job to be this physically demanding, but I’ll get used to eventually, right?”

“That always sneaks up on people,” Joshua said in an amused tone as he gestured towards the tangle of machinery surrounding them. “But you’re right, you’ll get used to it eventually. Just make sure to take care of yourself for the coming months, because you’re gonna be sore a lot.”

“Months?” Angela couldn’t help but groan. “Well, at least I’ll be getting rid of those last few pounds.So, anyway, why were you looking for me?”

“Mostly to check up on the newbies work,” Joshua admitted. “You’re doing fine with that at least. Also to let you know that after you’ve finished with this job we’ll be needing your help with prepping the empty cages for the new brood.”

“Thanks, and that won’t be a problem. This was the last batch of mealworms that had to be prepped for processing,” Angela said with a smile. “I’ll be able to handle the cage prep.”

“Good, if it helps, prepping the cages for the new brood is usually the last thing we do in the day. So after this you can stumble back home and collapse in bed or something,” Joshua clapped her on the back. “Well, until you’ve got to drag yourself out of bed tomorrow and go through the entire thing all over again.”

Weirdly enough though, Angela was looking forward to it.

Angela let out a sigh of relief when she reached her home, there wasn’t a part of her that hadn’t ached. She needed to take a breather and get herself washed up before she went out to get the groceries. At least the shops didn’t close till about six, which gave her plenty of time. 

School had been out for an hour or so now, so Nick should’ve been home. She really hoped that he had a nice day at school. She stumbled into the house and her ears lowered slightly as she saw Nick was busy putting away a bunch of groceries. 

“Nick, did you go to the grocery store?” Angela hesitantly asked. “I don’t think I asked you to do that? Where did you even get the money?”

“Hi ma,” Nick said as he gave her a quick smile. “No you didn’t, I just figured that since I was home earlier than you I could get it out of the way. ‘Sides, wouldn’t have been the first time getting groceries slipped your mind because you were working hard and there aren’t any fast food places in Bunnyburrow that are fox friendly,” Nick continued putting away the groceries. “I just bought the stuff we usually got. Lemme know if I’ve missed something.”

Angela winced at the mention that she had forgotten to get the groceries before. She couldn’t deny it. Back in Zootopia, it hadn’t even been an uncommon thing, with her just being so desperate in trying to get enough money through overtime that even some very important things began to slip her mind. “Nick, not that I don’t appreciate you doing this. But why don’t you let me handle the groceries from now on? And how did you get the money? Did you spend your own pocket money on this ?”

“Well, yeah. You were at work, where else would’ve I gotten money from?” NIck said in a matter of fact tone.

“Do you still have the receipt?” Angela said with a sigh.

“Sure?” Nick handed it over, ears flicked up in confusion.

“Right, I’ll pay you back immediately for this,” Angela said as she began digging through her wallet. Luckily it was just food for a week and just the basics at that. So at least Nick hadn’t spent too much of his own money.

“Ma, you don’t need to -” Nick quickly shut up as he saw the look Angela gave him.

“Nick, I know that you used to, chip in, with the expenses behind my back,” Angela began, pressing the bills in his paw “And I never approved of it or the things you did to get the money. But those days are gone now. With my new job and the much lower rent, I make more than enough to keep us fed and the lights on. I still have enough to save a little bit at the end of the month as well. I don’t need extra help to keep everything going anymore. I want you to have a childhood, for you to spend your money on hanging out with your friends and do things you enjoy.”

Nick held her gaze and for a moment Angela feared that he would disagree and that it might all spiral out of control into an argument. But her son just let out a long sigh.

“Okay, if you really think you don’t need it,” Nick gave in. “Just, can I at least still help with getting the groceries and stuff? No offense ma, but you look like you can barely walk.”

“Well, if you insist. Just ask me for the money next time you do something like this, okay?” Angela walked up to her son and gave him a quick hug. “Though, most teenagers would probably jump with joy of not having to help around the house instead of forcing their parents to let them do chores.”

Nick gave her a sly grin. “I’m a teenager, rebellious by default and you obviously don’t want me to help around too much. So think of it as my way of bucking authority.”

“Ohh, such a rebel my little kit is,” Angela said with a laugh and a quick affectionate kiss on Nick’s head, much to his annoyance.

“Ma!” He squirmed out of her grip as he ruffled the fur on his head back into place and pouted at her. “Come on, I’m not a kit anymore.”

“You’ll always be one to me, sweety,” Angela laughed at the face Nick pulled at the all too familiar phrase. “So, how was it at school?”

As soon as the words left her muzzle, Nick wilted, shoulders slumping over, tail curling around his legs and his ears going flat against his skull. Angela gently put her paw on his shoulder. “Nick, did something happen to you at school?”

“Not to me, but something did happen,” Nick chewed on his bottom lip, hesitating if he should go on. “I, well...I guess you’ll know about it soon enough if you keep talking with the roarkins.”

Well that was setting off all kinds of alarm bells in her head, but Nick said it hadn’t happened to himself. Hell, she was sure that if something bad had happened to him she would have one hell of a time to get him to open up to her about it. She gently prodded him to continue. “So what happened?

“I, well… Some dumb bunnies put a live chicken in Freya’s school locker,” Nick admitted. “A big mean one, not too much shorter than I am. It kinda destroyed everything she had in it.”

Angela stared dumbfounded at her son, the sentence looping in her brain over and over. But it just didn’t make sense. Why? How? It just sounded completely and utterly absurd. But if Nick was going to lie to her, she knew that he would come up with a more believable story than that. 

“Oh no,” Angela shook her head as the horrifying absurdity of it all began to sink in. “Poor girl.”

“Wait,” Angela’s gaze snapped towards Nick and she sniffed the air, she didn’t smell any blood, but any wounds the chicken had made could already have been bandaged up and not smell anymore. “Are you okay? Did the chicken hurt you, is Freya alright?”She quickly closed the distance and began checking Nick all over.

“Ma, ma, I’m fine,” Nick grumbled in annoyance as he just let her get it out of her system. “And so is Freya, physically at least. The chicken immediately went for the bunnies who stuffed it in the locker.”

“Thank goodness for that, at least.” Angela let go of her son and smiled a bit as he tried to get his ruffled fur back into order. “I really hope the school sorts this all out and those bullies get what’s coming to them.”

Nick snorted. “They only seemed to care about the stuff that got destroyed and not what the bullies put Freya through. So I doubt they’ll get what they deserve.”

Angela wanted to dispute that, but honestly, she knew better than to expect decency from prey animals when it came to predators. “But at least they’ll get some punishment at all, that’s something. Do you know anything that we could help her with?”

“I guess,” Nick said with a sigh. “Well, I’m loaning her some of my books until she gets her new set. And since we both need those books to do our homework. We’re gonna study together till she gets them. I probably should try and find a way for her to sit down comfortably. I doubt sitting in a too small chair at a too small table is going to be comfortable.”

Angela scratched her chin as she thought about it. She wouldn’t be able to afford a chair specifically for Freya, especially if it was just something for a few weeks at best. Then again, maybe she could convince Freya and Nick to keep doing those homework sessions. Nick was smart enough, he just needed a kick in the tail to get him to actually do the work at times. “I think you guys could study in the living room when she comes over, the sofa should be roomy enough for her to sit on. Might be a bit awkward with the low table, I’ll have to look out for something that could fix that. But it could work for a little while. It might be easier for you to go to her house for this until we got that all worked out.”

“Yeah, maybe. Not looking forward to sitting on pillows and a box again, though,” Nick let that thought slip out. “That was humiliating.”

Angela really wanted to know the story behind that one. But she was still covered in sweat, muscles aching and in need of a relaxing shower or she would be cramped up all of tomorrow. She’ll get that out of him later. “Well, why don’t you get the last of the groceries packed away? I’m going to take a bath so don’t smell like dead bugs and who knows what else.”

“Sure, should I warm up the leftovers from yesterday as well?” Nick questioned as he continued loading the cabinets.

“Don’t worry about that, dinner time is still an hour away.” Angela smiled as she moved towards the door. “I’ll start warming it up after my shower.”

“Okay ma,” Nick simply responded as he focused on his task.

Angela dragged herself towards the bathroom, the aching making itself known again with a vengeance. Yeah, she was going to enjoy that hot shower and go to bed early today.

Nick let out a sigh as he sat down on his bed. Getting the groceries filed away had been a quick job, and it hadn’t taken him long to realize that most of his stuff and entertainment had still been packed up in his boxes. So he spent a good half an hour unpacking all of that. But now that everything had been mostly stowed away in convenient spots, he just didn’t really have any desire to get into any of it. The few times he had picked up a comic book or tried to get into something else, his mind just wandered back to Freya. How was the talk going? Had it already ended? Were they still arguing and trying to hammer out the punishments? Did the school even care enough?

Nick roughly ruffled his paws through the fur on his head. Gah, wondering and thinking about it helped absolutely nobody and just made himself more agitated. So why couldn’t he just get all of that out of his skull? He grumbled as he trudged outside of his room and made his way into the living room. He just needed to find something to do. He doubted it would take very long until his mom would start warming up dinner, so he couldn’t start wandering around town and explore the sights. He nervously glanced out of the window at the house of the Roarkins. No lights and no movement either. He couldn’t even walk over and ask how the talk had gone.

He sunk deeper into the sofa with a sigh, ears drooping down. He really needed to figure out what there was to do in this podunk. He didn’t even know if there was a comic book store or arcade around for him to mess around in. 

“What has gotten you down?” His ma’s voice rang out as she took the leftovers from the fridge and placed it on some plates.

“Just bored, I guess,” Nick muttered as he glanced out of the window again. No change on that front. “Don’t really feel like doing anything, or know what to do anyway.”

“Well, can’t help you there I’m afraid,” Angela said as she put one of the plates in the microwave. “If you’re that bored, why don’t you set the table for now?”

“Sure, why not.” Nick shrugged as he began to rummage through the kitchen. 

“Second drawer on the right is where the cutlery is,” she helpfully piped up.

It didn’t take him very long to get the table set up. Despite knowing in the few minutes that had passed Freya and her parents couldn’t possibly have gotten home, he still gave another glance through the window.

“You’re glancing out of the window a lot,” his ma spoke up as she pulled out the first of the plates and put it down on the table before putting her own plate in the microwave. “Boredom isn’t the only thing that’s making you down, isn’t it?”

“Wha?” Nick sputtered, eyes flitting around the room, tail fluffing out. “What makes you think that?”

“You’ve been looking at the Roarkin’s house over and over,” she replied simply. “Are you worried about Freya?”

“Well, no. Yes. I mean, a little?” Nick rushed out the words. Why was he being such a mess here? “I mean, she’s a friend and she looked really down. I don’t think it’s weird to be worried even if I barely know her.” His ears flicked anxiously. “Is it?”

“No, it’s not, Nick,” his mom soothed him. “Why don’t you go over after they’re back home to see if Freya wants to talk about it? Or maybe she wants to get to work on one of those study sessions you mentioned before. Might help to take her mind of things.”

“I guess, but wouldn’t it be really weird for me to just suddenly show up on their doorstep?” Nick’s ears nervously flitted around as he dug in. “I mean, I know we kinda get on well, but we’ve still known each other for less than a day, you know?”

“I think she just really needs somebody to show that they care,” his ma said. “The both of you nearly got mauled by a chicken because of a very tasteless prank. Even if she wants to be alone, I think it would do her good to know at least somebody asked afterwards if everything was okay.”

“Oh,” Nick muttered, ears cautiously rising. He guessed that made sense. He just hoped that Freya thought the same though, because sometimes. Sometimes people and life just refused to make sense. “I guess.”

“And I know,” shesaid with a knowing smile as she took her own food out of the microwave and sat down across from him. “You know, this reminds me a lot about how I met Matthias when I was young.”

“Dad? How does this remind you of-” Nick let out a groan as his brain clicked it all together. “Ma! Do I need to remind you I’ve barely known her for a day ?”

“Oh shush”, Angela laughed as Nick glowered at her. “Let an old vixen live vicariously through her son for a bit, will you.”

Nick kept glowering at his ma, who looked pleased as punch as she continued to eat. His brain trying to figure out to get himself out of this conversation. In the end just deciding to shove the rest of his food in his mouth in the mean time to make sure he didn’t say anything else that she could pick up on and twist around.Hell, how would Freya react if she heard his mom talk like that? The poor girl was probably going to have a heart attack!

“Ma, just, don’t say that around Freya, will you?” Nick just ended up with. “She doesn’t need to be more embarrassed than she already is, okay? She’d probably try to sink in the ground if she heard you talk like that.”

His ma cocked her head, eyes softening as she let it sink in. But that annoying satisfied smile didn’t leave her muzzle at all. “Okay, you’re probably right there. I’ll just keep teasing you about it when she is out of earshot then.”

Nick dropped his head on the table with a loud groan. That wasn’t what he had been going for.

“Just be a good friend to her okay? I think you’ll be good for her,” she said. “And she for you.”

Nick glanced up at her, eyebrow and ears raising in confusion. “You barely met her? How would you know?”

“Parents have a good eye for these things,” Angela said, being as infuriatingly vague as she could possibly be. “Just believe me on that front.”

“Whatever,” Nick murmured as he grabbed his now empty plate and dirty cutlery and dropped it in the sink. “I’m going upstairs to my room.”

“You sure?” his ma asked with a sly smile on her face as she pointed out of the window. “Freya and her parents have gotten home while we were eating.”

Nick’s head snapped towards the window, and sure enough the lights were on and he could see some people move around inside. Freezing in the spot, his brain tried to figure out what to do. Would it look weird if he went over immediately? Should he even go over right now? What if she just wanted to be alone? The familiar questions raced through his skull again.

“Just go and ask Nick,” his ma’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts. She had walked up to him and put her own empty plate in the sink. Gently putting a paw on his shoulder. “There is nothing wrong with being concerned about a friend.”

“What if she doesn’t want me to be concerned though?” Nick muttered, ears flattening against his head and his tail nervously flicking behind him. “Shouldn’t I at least think about that?”

His ma gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze.. “Then give her her space when she tells you that. This is just about showing that you care and letting her decide what to do with that.”

That, that sounded like a halfway decent plan. Just, walk over, ask if she’s alright and then do whatever Freya wanted, whether it was him leaving her alone till tomorrow, or studying or something else.

“Okay, right,” Nick muttered. “Thanks for the advice ma. It was actually good for once.”

“When have I ever steered you wrong?” Angela said with a wide grin.

“Yesterday,” Nick deadpanned, matching her grin with a sly one of his own. “You got us lost remember.”

“Shush.” She playfully flicked his ear. “Stop sassing your mother and just get your fuzzy tail over there and ask Freya how she’s doing.”

His ma’s ears flicked upwards as she remembered something. “Oh, and ask her which snacks she likes. I don’t want to have a cupboard without anything she can eat or taste in it when she comes over for those study sessions.

“Sure ma, I’ll ask if she isn’t too upset.” Nick extracted himself from his ma’s grip and walked over the door. “Anything else?”

“Don’t get home too late, it’s still a school night you know,” Angela quickly added before she turned on the faucet and got ready to do the dishes.

“Sure ma, see ya,” Nick said as he walked out of the door.

Nick’s nerves became worse with every step closer to the home of the Roarkin’s, hoping that they wouldn’t think him a weirdo for suddenly knocking on their door just a few moments after they were back home. Would they think he was a stalker? Nick shook his head, no, just like his ma said. He was just concerned, he would knock, ask his question and then see what Freya or one of her parents said about it.

He came to a stop in front of the door and gulped. All easy to say and think, but now that he was standing here, there was a part of his brain that just wanted to hide and just ask tomorrow. But it would look really really weird if he turned around after coming up to the door. So he took a deep breath to steady his nerves and knocked on the door. His stomach tensed up while he waited for any response.

He didn’t have to wait long, Freya’s father opened the door, confusion clear on his face as he looked down at him.

“Nick? What are you doing here?” Something seemed to click in the tiger's brain. “Right, this is about Freya still having your books right? I’ll go get them for you.”

“No!” Nick quickly cut in shrinking in a bit on himself as John looked at him with his eyebrow raised. “I, euh, well. I don’t mind that she still has some of my books. I can get them back tomorrow or whenever we study together.”

Nick completely failed to notice John’s ears flicking up with interest at that last little titbit he let slip.

“I just wanted to know if she was alright?” Nick hesitantly offered. “I, well she looked really down. Even at the end of the day. So I was wondering.”

“Okay, thanks for worrying about my daughter Nick,” John said with a gentle smile. “Why don’t you come in and I’ll tell Freya you’re here?”

Nick let out a sigh of relief and followed Freya’s dad inside. Awkwardly waiting by the dinner table as the large tiger walked deeper into his house. Nick fiddled with his paws, eyes flicking around the kitchen as he waited for Freya’s dad to come back.

He didn’t have to wait long. Freya walked into the kitchen just a few minutes afterwards, wearing a baggy shirt and some old shorts. He gave her an unsure smile. “Did I catch you at a bad time?”

“Oh, this?” she murmured as she gestured at her clothes. “Euhm, well, i was going to go for a small run, try and get the stress a bit out of my system. 

“Ah, well, I just wanted to know if you were okay. Seems like you’re not really doing that great,” Nick said as he scratched the back of his head. “ At least I know that now. If you’re about to do something about it, then I’ll just be on my way again.” 

Freya hesitated, tail nervously flicking and pressing her fingers together.  “Well, I, do you want to come with? I mean,” she continued, rushing out her words. “You said you wanted to play pingpong and I run mostly to get some more stamina for the sport and because it’s a relief to just run and put your brain on zero. You don’t have to of course, it just. I think it could help me feel a little bit better if somebody was there to run with me.” She rubbed her paws through the fur on top of her head, refusing to look him in the eyes as she focused firmly on her feet. “Ah, sorry this has to be something really stupid to ask.”

“Eh, why not.” Nick blurted out to his own surprise. Sports had never been his thing, so why the hell was he suddenly agreeing to go on a run? He basically tried every excuse in the book and then some back in his old school to get out of PE. He’d agreed to the ping pong thing because it had sounded less like a workout and more like a fun game.  “Just,” Nick cracked a smile “Expect me to collapse somewhere in the middle of the run. Cuz I’m out of shape and your strides are probably twice as long as mine.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve only been running myself for a few months. I’m not some kind of athlete.” Freya mumbled. A small grateful smile on her muzzle. “So, euhm. I’ll come get you in a bit then?”

“Sounds good to me. See you in a bit.” Nick turned around, a paw on his shoulder stopping him. He glanced over his shoulder, seeing Freya stand behind him, her paw on his shoulder as she chewed her lip.

“Yeah?”

“Nick, euhm… thanks.” Her tail flicked nervously as she fiddled with her cheek fluff. “Thanks for caring.”

“Not a problem at all,” Nick said with a small smile. “Just don’t leave me behind when I inevitably collapse.”

Freya let out a small giggle. “I’m a big tigress. I can probably carry you home if it comes to that. See you in a bit, Nick.”

Nick nodded and walked out of the door and back towards his own house, a skin in his step. Freya still wasn’t feeling great. But at least he was able to do something to help her through it. Even if it was something as horrifying as going on a run.

As soon as he opened the door his ma walked up to him, a concerned look on her muzzle. “You’re back soon? Is Freya doing alright? Did she not want to talk to you?”

“It’s all fine ma,” Nick reassured her. “She didn’t really wanna talk much about it I guess, she did ask me if I could go on her afternoon run though. So time for me to get changed into something sporty I guess.”

His ma just looked at him as if he had grown a second head, muzzle hanging open as she tried to process what he had just said. “You actually agreed to exercise? Without coercion or bribery?”

Nick sheepishly scratched the back of his head. “Yeah, I did I guess. Not sure why, but I’m not gonna back out of it now.” 

“Well I’m not complaining,” Angela said with a giddy smile as she ushered him towards his room. “Now, get changed so you don’t let Freya wait too long!”

“Hey, hey, I’m going I’m going!” Nick rolled his eyes as he made his way towards his room.

Freya carefully knocked on the door, nervously shuffling as she waited for anybody to open up. She didn’t have to wait long. Nick opened the door after a minute or so, wearing his old school’s PE uniform.

“Whelp, I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” Nick said with a grin. “So let's get this done before my brain realizes I’m about to exercise and chickens out.”

“We’ll just be going around the block, it’s about two or three kilometers, tops,” Freya quickly reassured him as they walked towards the sidewalk. “And we’ll be taking our time. I’m not gonna sprint the entire thing. Just a casual jog.”

“If you say so, just lead the way,” Nick said.

Freya nodded and began to job down the road, trying to get into a nice rhythm while at the same time fretfully glancing over her shoulder every so often to keep an eye on Nick. He had said he had been out of shape, and of course his stride was half of hers. So how much could he take? How fast was she supposed to be going? He did mention he could collapse, and she was sure it had been just a joke. But what if he really couldn’t go on and she only noticed that when it was too late.

“Hey, relax.” She was pulled out of her fretting by Nick’s voice. “I know I’m out of shape. But It’s not bad enough that I’ll fall over any minute now.”

The run was mostly spent in relative silence, with Nick soon having to focus his energy on just putting one paw in front of the other instead of talking. Freya paced herself so Nick could keep up, the muscle burn quickly creeped up on her as well.

Still, it felt… nice? She could just turn off her brain and exist in the moment, only breaking the comfortable silence to tell Nick about the next turn they would have to take. And when Freya saw the familiar sight of her home in the distance, she was a bit disappointed at how quickly it had been over.

“Lets just walk the last bit,” Freya panted out as she slowed down to a walk. She giggled as shelooked at Nick.

The tod’s muzzle was hanging open, tongue hanging out as his canine instincts were kicking into overdrive and trying to cool himself down from the exertion. He quickly snapped his muzzle closed as soon as he saw her looking. “Feeling a bit tired yourself?”

Freya nodded, maybe going for a run after pushing herself the day before with it hadn’t been the best idea. “A little bit, but my mom said that you need to walk a while after you run. It helps prevent injuries or something like that.”

Nick just nodded as he was obviously concentrating on just trying to get air. Freya just enjoyed the comfortable silence until they came to a stop in front of his house.

“So,” Freya started, “see you tomorrow then?”

“Yeah, sure,” Nick panted out, a small smile playing over his muzzle. “Let's walk to school together again. Just, before you start dragging me out on a run again, gimme a day or so to recover. I’m gonna feel this in the morning soo badly.”

Freya couldn’t keep the smile of her face. “Of course. I, euhm, normally only run around three times a week. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I, euhm, just… needed to clear my head today. But yeah, let's just skip tomorrow's run and give you some time to recover.” She was rambling again, but honestly she didn’t care. She had at least a temporary running buddy and somebody to study with. This day had been shit, and she honestly didn’t think that what was left of the school year was going to be any different. But at least she had somebody to share it with. “But yeah, see you tomorrow then.”

“Right,” Nick nodded through his exhaustion. “See ya.”

Chapter Text

Nick’s eyes flew open as the screeching of his alarm drilled into his skull. Ears flattened against his head as they tried to shut out the horrifying sound and failed horribly. He stiffly pushed himself upright, letting out a groan as his entire lower half burned in protest at the very idea of movement. It had been a run with his legs. Why was his tail of all things burning? He rubbed the gunk out of his eyes, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. He stood up, wincing as his muscles screamed out in protest. Some primal part of his brain suggested he call his ma and act like he was sick. But Nick dismissed the idea as soon as it came to mind.

His ma would never fall for it. Him calling in sick the day after he went for a run? Yeah, she would know what was up. He waddled to his alarm clock and turned it off, looking towards his wardrobe with a feeling of dread. The very simple task of getting himself in his underwear and getting a pair of pants on suddenly looked as intimidating as scaling a mountain.

His ears drooped down as he opened up his wardrobe. Well, you make the bed you lie in. So Time to face the music.

Nick tried not to think about his aching legs as he went through the rest of his morning routine. Making sure to not just shove a piece of toast in his muzzle and call it done. He didn’t want to impose on the Roarkin’s any more than he already had.

He idly wondered if his ma would enjoy the packed lunch he made her as he shoved his own lunch in his bag and walked out, locking the door behind him. The extremely short distance to the Roarkin’s house suddenly looked a lot more intimidating now that his legs felt like they were made out of a thousand angry wasps trapped in a pile of jelly. 

He slumped over. Well, no sense in prolonging his agony. He wobbled across the street, trudged up to their door and gave it a quick knock. He didn’t have to wait long.

“Hello Nick,” Sadine said with a wide smile on her face. “Come in, come in.”

“Morning Sadine,” Nick said with a smile.

“Are you feeling well?” Sadine prodded. “You’re walking a bit funny.”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Nick quickly tried to reassure her. “Just, well, a bit stiff from the run with Freya yesterday. I’m aching in spots I didn’t even know I had.”

She gave him an empathic smile. “Reminds me of my academy days. Muscle pains were a constant thing. Let’s sit you down and I’ll get you some aspirin for it. Usually works.” 

“You really don’t have too,” Nick blinked. “Wait, didn’t you mean I should si-,” Nick yipped in surprise as Sadine just picked him up again and gently sat him down on one the same chair he had sat on yesterday, boxes and pillows still on it.

“Right, of course, how could I have forgotten.” Nick shook his head.

“Sorry about that,” Sadine said in a sheepish tone. “But I figured, with your legs aching and all that, climbing onto a chair might be a bit too much. I’ll be right back with your medicine!”

She walked out of the room. Nick awkwardly twiddled his thumbs as he waited. Only the sounds of Sadine rummaging through a cabinet not too far away broke the silence.

A few moments later Sadine walked back into the kitchen and put the bottle in front of him, a glass of water was put down in front of him not too long after.

“Thanks Sadine,” Nick said as he plopped the tablet into the glass of water. “So, is Freya still asleep?”

Sadine shook her head, “No, she’s awake. But she's still getting ready. Don’t worry, she’ll be here soon enough. Did you eat already?” 

“I did, really!” Nick quickly sputtered out. “More than a piece of toast this time, I swear.”

“That’s good, breakfast is the most important meal of the day and all that,” Sadine said with a smile as she began to rummage through the fridge and pulled out some ingredients. Another silence falling over the two of them as she got started on breakfast.

“Morning mom,” Freya mumbled as she walked into the kitchen, wearing a similar set of clothes to yesterday. A simple blouse and a long skirt. Ears flicked up as her gaze fell on him. “Hello Nick!” she blurted out with enthusiasm as she sat down. 

“Morning, Freya,” Nick said with an easy smile on your face. “Are you doing alright after yesterday’s run? Somehow I feel like my tail is going to fall off.”

“Ouch,” Freya winced. “Sorry. I should’ve thought about that.”

“Nah,” Nick shrugged. “If anybody is at fault for my cheeks feeling like they got run over by a tractor, it’s me for deciding to go on a run with somebody who has been doing it for months. Especially when I’m more of a couch potato.”

Nick picked up his glass of water. “‘Sides, Sadine gave me some aspirin. I’ll be fine, don’t feel too bad about it.”

“Still,” Freya hesitantly began, “Next time we’re going a little bit slower or have more breaks or something. I don’t want to turn you into a puddle every time we do it.”

“I’m not going to complain about that,” Nick said happily as he drank the aspirin water thing in one go. The disgusting medicinal taste made him shudder as it clung to the back of his tongue. “Gah,” Nick muttered as he stuck out his tongue. “Still tastes as bad as ever.”

Nick quirked up his eyebrow as he heard Freya giggle at his expression. “You wound me Freya, taking such pleasure in a poor tod’s suffering.”

“I would feel bad about it,” Freya put her paw over her muzzle to muffle another giggle, “but that same tod just said I shouldn’t feel too bad about him feeling all achy.”

“Well, you got me there!” Nick said with a shrug.

“Mom,” Freya sat down, “how long till the bugga buns are ready? I’m kinda starving.”

“Oh, it’s not bugga buns today,” Sadine easily answered as she kept working. “I thought, it’s been a while since you’ve had breakfast that wasn’t something out of a bag. Why not cook an extra healthy omelette for you?”

Nick tilted his head in confusion at Freya’s reaction. No exuberant joy, no look of pleasant surprise. Instead her ears were folded back against her skull, muzzle hanging open and the beginnings of what Nick could only describe as mortal terror crept on the poor tigress’ face.

“Mom,” Freya began in a slightly hurried tone, “Buggabuns are fine. You don’t need to put in all the extra effort, really! I mean, me and Nick really should hurry, gotta get to school on time right?”

“It’s just an omelette, Freya,” Sadine said, humming as she poured the mixture into the pan. “It’s not like it takes much more effort or time. You’ll get your food in no time!”

Nick really didn’t get why Freya was feeling so adamant about having an omelette. Did she not like cooked eggs or something? That… that sounded a bit doubtful to him. He didn’t know Sadine very well yet, but if she was down to feed somebody else's kid without a second thought, he doubted she would knowingly feed her own kid something she really disliked.

Then the smell of the cooking omelette hit him in the face like a jackhammer. Now, Nick couldn’t really claim to be a great cook himself, hell, he had managed to mess up boiling spaghetti a few mothers days ago. But that did not smell right. He didn’t know what was up with it. But when his ma made omelettes they didn’t smell anything like this. At least that explained it. Sadine wasn’t feeding Freya anything she disliked on purpose. She was just terrible at cooking omelettes.

“Here you go, sweety,” Sadine said with a wide motherly smile on her muzzle as she scraped the goopy omelette on a plate and put it in front of Freya. The thing jiggled like a mountain of jello. Why was an omelette jiggling ?

“Thanks mom,” Freya said in a weak voice, plastering a smile on her face. “It’s looking good.”

“I hope you enjoy it,” Sadine said with a fond smile on her muzzle before looking straight at Nick. “Nick, I know you said that you already ate, but I really wouldn’t mind cooking up another batch of eggs if you’re still hungry.”

“No, no, no,” Nick blurted out, trying to pull his gaze away from the rather disturbing sight of Freya shoving the goop in her muzzle with a grim determination that shouldn't be connected to food in any way, shape or form. “I mean, already ate you know. Completely full, can’t eat another bite. And I really shouldn’t eat myself sick, you know!”

“That is true.” Sadine walked over to the sink and dropped the dirty pan in it and began scrubbing it down. “Well, I’m glad you learned your lesson about breakfasts!”

Nick numbly nodded. He was morbidly curious as to how Freya was able to shovel it down as fast as she was without choking.

“I’m done,” Freya choked out, walking over to the sink herself and dumping her plate in it giving Sadine a brittle smile. “Thanks for the food mom, I enjoyed it.”

“I’m glad you did,” Sadine gave Freya an affectionate nuzzle. “Now, why don’t you and Nick get going? You did say you really didn’t want to be late.”

“Yeah, good idea, mom,” Freya answered. “See you tomorrow. Have a good shift!”

Nick slid down the chair, wincing as his feet hit the floor. “Have a good day, Sadine!” Nick quickly followed the tigress out of the door.

As soon as the door closed behind her Nick gave Freya a wry smile? “Are you okay there? You looked like you were forced to eat poison.

Freya slumped over with a groan as she walked down the sidewalk. “It’s not that bad. My mom just really really can’t cook. I mean, unless it involves a microwave or a toaster. She just can’t manage to make something that tastes good because she keeps dumping things in stuff that aren’t supposed to be in there? I mean, I'm pretty sure I tasted anchovies and bugs in there, with something slimy I don’t wanna think about.”

Nick trudged after her, “Yeah that sounds bad, not sure why you didn’t just say you don’t like her cooking though.”

“Because, well,” Freya scratched the back of her head. “Mom just always looks so proud and happy that she got to cook something and I just can’t find it in my heart to tell her it tastes like a mistake . So I just eat it. I mean it makes her happy, right?”

Nick couldn’t help the fond smile crawling on his muzzle. The comment caused his mind to bring back old memories of him cooking something for his parents on mother's day years back. He had been, nine years old or something and had gotten it in his head that cooking couldn’t be that hard. So he had snuck into the kitchen behind his ma and pa’s back. God, the kitchen had looked like a mess and his pa had spent at least an entire afternoon to get the stains out of the ceiling. Hell, he wondered to this day how he hadn't managed to burn down the entire apartment block. But despite it being overcooked and looking like a complete mess, his ma and pa still ate it. After giving him a lengthy lecture on why he wasn’t allowed to touch the stove without supervision of course, but they still ate it. Granted, his pa had immediately started to teach him how to cook a week or so to protect himself and his ma from further horrifying food abominations. But he enjoyed those cooking lessons. Just spending time with his pa and goofing off while his ma got a break from cooking.

Gods, he missed him.

“Nick?” Freya’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts. “Are you doing alright? You’re, euhm, crying?”

“Wha?” Nick quickly wiped his paw over his eyes, feeling the wetness on his fur. “Euhm, I’m okay, probably got something in my eye! It’s nothing.” Nick quickly rushed out. “Right, euhm, speaking about food and all, what kinda snacks do you like?” Nick’s ears flicked. “Ma told me to ask you that yesterday. But I forgot with my lungs burning for air and all. She wanted to have stuff you could snack on when you come over for a study session.”

“Oh, well you really don’t have to,” Freya started, fiddling with her paws. “I mean I wouldn’t want to be a burden. I can just eat whatever Angela puts on the table.”

Nick just gave her a reassuring pat on the arm. “Come now, it’s really no big deal. ‘Sides, I’m about as able to stop her from going to the store and getting you something you can actually taste as you are able to stop Sadine from trying to feed me whenever I’m on your doorstep.”

“Well,” Freya started, “I really like chicken jerky. I know it’s about as healthy as stepping in front of a tractor with how much salt and stuff that’s in there. But it’s just sooo good.”

“I’ll let my ma know that she needs to stock up on it then,” Nick said with a smile. “And now she can’t nag me about me forgetting it anymore either. It’s a win-win!”

“Well, now that we’re talking about me coming over for studying,” Freya fumbled with the hem of her blouse, “uhm. Do you think you can come over this evening? The teacher gave me two days to redo my history homework after it got.. You know, so euhm. I’m really going to need your book. I mean, if you don’t want to I’ll be okay with you just loaning me your book.” She hurried out, tail nervously curling around herself. “Because I know you don’t have to do that history assignment and all.”

“Sure,” Nick said with a wide smile. “I’ll come over. I might not have to do any of that history stuff, but the math teacher gave us a bunch of practice problems we’ll need to figure out by next class. Might as well get that done. Otherwise, I’ll just put it off till the last minute anyway.”

Freya’s face lit up. “Awesome, let’s just do that immediately after school then! I mean, I’m not up for any ping-pong after yesterday and the day before that.”

“And my legs thank you for not dragging me to a ping-pong table right now,” Nick grinned. “So yeah, sure, looking forward to it even. The company at least, not the activity.”

The tip of her ears went a bright red and Freya suddenly tried looking anywhere but him. 

Nick’s eyes widened. Wait, what did he say wrong? Why was she blushing? “I, euh, I mean,” he stammered out as he tried to steer the conversation to less awkward places. “You’re fun to be around. That’s what I meant.”

“I euh, got that, thanks” Freya murmured. “I, euhm, I guess I’m just not used to being called good company.”

“Well, you are,” Nick insisted. “Other mammals are dumbasses if they can’t see that.”

“Thanks,” Freya shyly said.

The conversation steered back to safer territory for the rest of the walk towards the school.

Freya, like every single teenager, never found school to be a pleasant experience. Sure, some classes were fun and she really enjoyed learning, but there was just no way in hell anybody could make English interesting. She already knew how to write legibly. What did it matter if a few of the word choices were suspect? If she was understood, shouldn’t that be enough?

But what made the entire school day even more agonizing was the thought that after it all, she was going to have a study session. And she didn’t know whether she was really really looking forward to hanging out with Nick, or dreading to hang out with Nick in her own home because she had already managed to embarrass herself once. With the way life had been going lately, she was bound to shove her foot in her mouth in some way or another.  She slumped onto her desk with a groan and glanced back at the clock, just a few more minutes till the bell rang and the school day would be over. She quickly copied the last useful looking things written on the chalkboard down in her notebook. English was already bad enough without decent notes. She wasn’t going to let a bit of slack make it even worse on herself.

The bell rang and snapped her out of her musings. Freya quickly put Nick’s books and her own notebook away and darted out of the classroom, ignoring the annoyed mutterings of her smaller classmates that she cut off. She made her way towards the school entrance, her eyes glancing around to find any trace from her friend, fumbling with her tail as she didn’t see him yet. Was he just running late? Had he gotten into trouble? With his mouth and most of the mammals in the school being bunnies, that didn’t seem as unlikely as she wanted. She shook her head, trying to dislodge the thoughts out of her mind. She had literally rushed over to the school gates to wait on him. He was taking his time, or just having trouble pushing through the fluffle of bunnies and other predators or was just taking it easy because his legs were jello. A lot of reasons that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to make it.

“Yo, Freya.”

Freya whirled around to face the familiar voice. “Nick, you made it!” Freya wanted to slap herself. She plastered a smile on her face and tried to play it off.  “I mean, euh, I thought you might’ve gotten lost and was about to call my mom to assemble a search team.”

“Well, thanks for the vote of confidence,” Nick said in an amused smile. “I did have to ask for directions though. But anyway, you said you were going to do history stuff right?” He took a look into his own bag. 

“Yeah, why?”

“Just don’t want to find out I left my history book in my locker after we did the entire walk. Would be pretty embarrassing,” Nick simply explained. “But I got it, so let's get going.”

Freya eagerly nodded. “Yes, lets!”

“So,” Nick broke the comfortable silence as they were walking home. “How was school? Did, well, did you have any problems from yesterday?”

“Not really,” Freya said. “I mean, nobody has tried anything today.” She slumped in on herself, “But, they’ll be back. Eventually their suspension will be over and there are still plenty of others who pick on me regardless. Can, can we just talk about something else? Anything else?”

“Right, euh, okay, sorry,” Nick yipped out. “What’s your assignment on anyway?” 

“Something about the old Roarman empire. I had to write a small essay on how their senate and stuff influenced the current day and all.” She groaned. It had been kinda fun to write it all the first time, but doing all the work all over again? Yeah, she wasn’t looking forward to that. 

“Sounds like something I don’t really know anything about. Always used to fall asleep during history class I’m afraid,” Nick offhandedly mentioned. “That or we didn’t spend much time on the Roarman empire. We learned a lot about what led up to the founding of Zootopia and all.”

“If you keep sleeping in class like that, you might get held back, you know,” Freya gently prodded. “But fortunately, I don’t think I really need much help. Maybe just another set of eyes to look it over for spelling mistakes and stuff. I’m really bad at all that stuff and I don’t wanna lose points just because I misspelt senator or something. What does proper spelling even have to do with history, anyway?”

“Beats me,” Nick answered. “But well, it’s school. Half of the stuff you learn isn’t ever going to be used by most of us anyway. I’m just trying to get through it without too much baggage sticking to me for the rest of my life.”

Freya winced. That sounded like a very depressing way of looking at things. “I guess so. At least we still can have some fun while going through it, right?”

“Yeah,” Nick said with a smile. “Anyway, if we’re going to your house, I’ll have to leave a quick note at home for Ma. So that she knows where I’m at when she comes home. Last thing she needs after work is getting herself all worked up in a panic.”

“Oh, is her job hard on her?”

“Well, she came home with a lot of muscle pain yesterday and had collapsed in bed when I came home after our run,” Nick said. “So, I guess so, yeah.”

Yeah, that sounded like a very good sign that Angela’s job was tough on her. “I hope it improves quickly. For both your sakes.”

“Well, if it comes down to it, I’ll just help her with the household or something. Wouldn’t be the first time I did that,” Nick said in a matter of fact tone.

Man, was Freya glad that her mom or dad didn’t expect her to help around the house other than keeping her room clean or help wash the dishes. But she guessed it made sense in a way. Between her dad and mom, there weren’t really a lot of chores left to give her. 

“Well, we’re here,” Nick’s voice pulled Freya out of her own thoughts. “I’m just gonna go and put a note on the dinner table. It’ll be a minute. Why don’t you get the chair all set up for our study session? I’ll be right back.”

Freya gave an excited nod. “Okay, sure! I’ll make sure you’ll have enough boxes and cushions that you can look over the edge of the table. Though I think mom might not have cleaned up the stool from this morning.”

“Less work for you then!” Nick said with a laugh before darting off into his home.

Freya couldn’t help the skip in her step as she walked up to her house and unlocked the door. Yep, just like she thought, the box and cushions were still on the chair. So what else did she need to get? Drinks maybe, snacks for sure. If he explicitly asked her what her favorite snacks were, with the intent to offer them, then shouldn’t she be a good host and offer him some as well? Wait, what did Nick even like to eat or drink? What if he didn’t like what she offered him?

She shook those thoughts out of her mind. From what she knew about Nick, she doubted he would make a problem about not having his favorite snacks or drinks . She would just have to ask him and then make sure to get some of them in house for the next time. Luckily he was an omnivore and could eat everything she offered him. And as far as she knew, foxes could taste everything just fine. Freya grabbed some glasses from the cabinet. She would just offer him water. Maybe see if they had some buns, cookies, or jerky lying around when the both of them got peckish. They shouldn’t eat that much before dinner anyway.

Freya had set up the table with some drinks when somebody loudly knocked at the door. Her ears flicked up in excitement as she dashed over to the door and quickly pulled it open, giving a wide smile to Nick. “Come in, come in! ”She ushered him inside. “I got some drinks ready, just water though, don’t know if you would like anything that’s feline friendly.”

“Water’s fine,” Nick said, his ears swivelling around curiously. “Your parents aren’t home yet?”

“Yeah,” Freya said as she led him towards the dining table. “Mom’s been having the evening shifts lately, while dad also works on one of the bug farms so he’s got the same hours as your mom.” She quickly glanced towards the clock hanging on the wall. “Dad gets home in an hour or two though. So still plenty of time to study on our own!”

Freya moved to help Nick into his chair, but the wily tod had quickly clambered up in it and she couldn’t help but pout at him.

“No ragdoll Nick this time,” Nick laughed as he awkwardly shuffled his stool closer to the table and grabbed his books. 

“Boo.” Freya stuck her tongue out at him, which just made the tod chuckle even more. “And here I thought I would get used to hauling you around.”

“Sorry to disappoint! But hey, if you keep dragging me on those runs of yours, you might have to drag me home one day!”

Freya felt a mischievous smile crawl on her muzzle. “So, what you’re saying is we should go for another run this evening?”

She couldn’t help but giggle as Nick’s satisfied smile was wiped off his face as he realized what he had walked into.

“No, nope, no thank you,” Nick quickly rushed out. “No running till Friday comes around. Or else you won’t just have to carry me home today, you’ll have to carry me to school tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” Freya said with a wide smile as she sat down at the table and pulled out her own notepad and school papers. “Let's not put your poor legs through that!”

“Don’t forget my ego,” Nick chuckled as he pushed the history book her way. “If the entire school saw you carry me, I would instantly lose all the cred I’ve got!”

“Cred?” Freya tilted her head in confusion. “Never heard that word before.”

“Like, you know, coolness and stuff.” Nick scratched his head as he was obviously wracking his brain for a way to explain it. “I would lose all the ‘kid from the city’ mystique and would become the guy that had to get a piggyback ride because he was so out of shape.”

“Ohhh, right. That would look kinda weird wouldn’t it.”

“Yeah.” Nick flipped through his math book, trying to find the page of his homework. “Let's get this done. The quicker we get our homework out of the way, the faster we can go and start slacking off.”

“I don’t think it would be slacking off if we do it when our work is done you know,” Freya said as she flipped to the relevant pages herself and tried to remember what she had written down a few days ago.

“Well you know what I mean,”  Nick said as he childishly stuck out his tongue. “I rather spend time doing stuff together that’s fun rather than, you know, homework.”

“What do you even do for fun?” Freya blurted out, “I mean, I don’t know what you do for fun really or have as hobbies.  You know what I mostly do, running and ping pong. So I was just wondering, you know.”

“Well, aside from hanging out with friends, I just mostly read comic books and stuff,” Nick said, half focused on his homework and half on the conversation. “There used to be this comic book store run by a fox nearby that always had cheap ones for sale. Speaking of which, is there one of those in bunnyburrow?”

Freya sheepishly shook her head. “I don’t think so. Maybe one of the other predators at school knows about one. But even if one exists, well, I mean...it's probably going to be run by a bunny or something. So I dunno how much that would help?”

Nick groaned and flopped his head onto the table. “Great, there goes half of my hobbies.”

“Sorry,” Freya muttered.

“Not your fault,” Nick waved it off. “Besides, I’ll find other things to do with my time. There has to be something to do around here right? I mean, I know it’s a podunk town but you have to do something else then ping pong and running right?”

“Of course, I well, read… or watch TV,” Freya started. “But uehm, well that’s kinda it for me alone, I guess. Of course, you could always ask Peter and his friends what they do? They’re a lot more familiar with the town then I am.” Freya knew it was selfish, she knew that it was stupid to think like this, but she really really hoped that Nick didn’t ask Peter or anybody else. Because then he’d be hanging around them instead of with her. She doubted any of the predators would really object to her hanging around them, but still, she would just feel out of place and awkward. 

“I guess,” Nick said with a sigh as he continued working. “Man, there really isn’t anything to do around here, is there?”

Freya shook her head. “Aside from fairs and some celebrations, there really isn’t, no.” She perked up at the mention of though. “Well, Bunnyburrow does go all out on those. I mean, it’s not something that happens a lot. But there are games, food stalls and even rides! That’s something at least, right?”

“That actually sounds pretty interesting,” Nick said, his ears perking up at the idea. “When is the next one of those fair things?”

“Not too far off actually, most of them are in late spring and summer. There is traditionally one focused on people our age after school is out for the year, to really kick off the summer vacation. So a month and a half off? You missed a few, but in the summer there are plenty of them!”

“Hah, a fair right after the exams? I can see why that one became a thing,” Nick said with a laugh. “Looking forward to checking it out with you.”

“Well,” Freya said with a sly smile on her muzzle, “you better start paying attention in school then. Because if you fail some exams, you might be trapped inside studying instead of going outside and having fun!”

“I don’t think I'm doing too badly,” Nick said with a smug grin as he held up his homework. “I’m almost halfway done with my math stuff. Haven’t seen much words on your paper though. So I’m having an edge in the homework department at least.”

Freya’s eyes widened in realization. Right, they were supposed to be doing homework. “Crap,” she hissed out, slapping a hand over her muzzle. Thank god her parents hadn’t been around to hear her swear. “Right, homework, the thing we came together for.”

“I mean, I don’t mind the talking in the least,” Nick started.

Freya shook her head. “No, no you’re right. I really need to get this done. ‘Sides, it’ll be a lot more fun hanging out when all of this isn’t in the way!” she said with a determined stare at the still mostly empty sheet of homework. “I’m going to get this done before you even know it, just watch!”

Freya let out a sigh of relief as she wrote down the last paragraph of her essay. Thank the gods that it was over. Her paw was cramping from the death grip she had had on her pencil, but it was over. Finally, no more rewriting crap she already wrote down a few days ago.

“So, need me to look it over?” Nick spoke up as he sat up a bit straighter. “I mean, I don’t know anything about the subject. But I might, you know, find a few spelling mistakes.”

“Sure, we can switch homework and check each other for mistakes!” Freya eagerly nodded as she pushed her essay over to Nick. wondering what the fox had made of his math homework. A good twenty minutes ago he had dropped his pencil and decided to just lean back and make himself comfortable. And with how casual he had been about missing school and playing hooky, she really worried if he was playing a bit too fast and loose with it all. She finally found somebody that wanted to check out those fairs with her specifically. Would really suck if he couldn’t because he failed.

Freya grabbed his piece of homework and quickly began looking it over, wrestling her way through his chicken scratch of writing and numbers as she did so.

And… things seemed to be okay? Well, no, more than okay. Even as she was almost halfway through the math problems, she hadn’t found a mistake yet. She wasn’t the best at math herself, so maybe she should make sure her dad or somebody else looked it over as well. But even while she had his math book beside her to double-check it all, it all checked out. 

“Well, I can’t find anything wrong with these,” Freya simply said as she shoved his homework back at him. “I mean, when dad comes home he might be able to find something. But I think you did everything right. Wish I could say the same with my math homework sometimes.”

“Not too great at it?” Nick simply asked as he was still reading through her essay, occasionally scribbling something down.

“I’m okay at it,” Freya admitted. “But, well. I just do it all to quick and make stupid mistakes sometimes. Really had to learn how to look out for those.”

“Well, at least you knew what the homework was about. This all reads like actual Latin to me,” Nick said with a sheepish smile as he slid her essay back to her. “I mean, I found some spelling things. But really, get a second opinion on it. My ma always despaired about my English grades back at my previous school.”

“So it’s a bit of the blind leading the blind here,” Freya giggled.

“Might be the exact same thing with my math homework. I don’t even know how good you are at it and I still let you check it over,” Nick joked.

“I’ll have you know, I’ve never failed a math class! So there,” she quickly answered. “But, now that euhm, homework is over, do you wanna do something? I mean, we can watch some TV or something. Or I think we still have a board game or two lying about that still have all the pieces. I mean, if you want. If you just wanna go home, that’s fine. I mean, I’m already glad you came over to help me with homework at all.”

Nick glanced at the clock. “I don’t think we’ll have time for a board game. We got what, twenty minutes before my mom comes home? She’ll see my note and come get me soon after.”

Right, time, that was a thing. “Well, wanna just hang out on the couch, watch TV and have a snack till she comes then?”

“Sure,” Nick said with a smile. 

“Great.” Freya darted over to the cabinet where the snacks were, peering inside of it as she tried to decide what to pull out. “Euhm, would you mind some cookies?”

“Hey, it’s your home, take whatever snacks you want,” Nick simply answered.

“Then cookies it is!” Freya pulled out a small packet of cookies for each of them. Maybe she shouldn’t be eating cookies when dinner was only an hour or two away. But hey, she just had wrestled through her homework and she wanted a snack. Besides, she couldn’t let her guest go snackless, now could she?

Freya made her way into the living room, Nick close on her heels. “Well, euhm, take a seat while I go get the remote.” She offered him his cookies. Nick quickly accepted it and clambered onto the sofa.

“So, is there anything good on the TV at this hour?” Nick said as he began to fiddle with his packet. “Or are we just going to flip through it in the hopes of finding something interesting enough to pass the time?”

“Probably the latter,” Freya admitted, ears flicking up in triumph as she finally found the remote. “Aha, there you are,” she said with a satisfied smile and sat down next to Nick, who had finally managed to get open his cookie packet and was now staring at it with a combination of shock and unhealthy glee.

“That’s some big cookies,” Nick muttered. “For me at least. Benefits of being small!”

Freya winced slightly, of course, every single snack they had in their house was tiger sized, or at least large predator sized. What for her was a cookie she could polish off in just a few bites was sandwich-sized for him. “Right, euhm. Should I get something else that’s less big for you?”

Nick laughed, “Please don’t. This is the jackpot. I don’t even have to think too much about getting fat because you’ll be helping me run it all off later!”

Freya turned on the TV and began aimlessly flipping through the channels. “Okay, then. But I’m not sure why you were surprised that it was so big. I mean, you can see it from the size package can’t you?” Fumbling with her own package of cookies.

“I was expecting 50% of it to just be air or something, to be honest. Like opening up a bag of chips.” Nick explained.

“Never had chips,” Freya admitted. “Most of the snacks mom gets are made in Bunnyburrow. It’s way cheaper.”

“Well, you’re not missing too much honestly,” Nick said as he bit into his cookie, ears flicking up and head tilting as he slowly chewed on it, trying to get his head around the taste. “‘This tastes more like a pastry than a cookie? It’s all savory instead of sweet.”

Freya giggled at that. “Well of course. I mean, like I told you, felines can’t taste sweet stuff. So of course a feline cookie won’t taste normal, well not normal to you at least.” She froze. “Wait, that’s not a bad thing, is it? I mean, If you don’t like it you don’t have to eat it all.”

“It tastes good, Freya, don’t worry about that,” Nick quickly cut in. “Just wasn’t expecting the taste because you called it a cookie.”

“Right, right, yeah that makes sense.” Freya’s gaze flicked back towards the tv and she pulled a face as it was just another commercial for something overpriced and just kept zapping. Eventually settling on some show where an overly enthusiastic kangaroo was talking excitedly about a large crocodile lurking in the water just a few meters away from him and the camera. “So euhm, how’re you settling in? The teachers treating you well?” 

“Eh, ” Nick said with a shrug. “It’s fine, I guess. School is school, isn’t it? No matter where you are, it’s all the same. I guess that Mr. Muller dude seemed alright and you mentioned something about your science teacher also not being that horrible?”

“Oh, the science teacher was Mr. Muller,” Freya admitted. “I mean, yesterday was one of the first times I had him. Since he’s new and all. So I didn’t know his name before the entire, you know, situation. ”

Great, even when she was the one leading the conversation. She managed to blunder it into the very things she didn’t want to talk about. “Uehm, wait,” Freya’s eyes widened as they fell back on the TV. “Is that kangaroo wrestling that crocodile?”

Nick’s head tilted in confusion. “Yeah, seems like it… not sure what confuses me more. The fact he’s doing that to begin with, or that he’s winning .”

Freya’s muzzle fell open as the kangaroo hoisted the crocodile up in his arms and with a wide smile began to spit out facts and tidbits about the crocodile species he was holding on to. As if the giant reptilian trying to bite his face off wasn’t any more dangerous than a newborn bird. 

Freya was pulled out of her dumbfounded and confused state by a loud belch. Her gaze snapping towards Nick, who was desperately trying to keep his ears from heating up in embarrassment.

“Euhm, sorry about that,” Nick muttered. “I euhm, didn’t feel that one coming. Erh, also do you need the second cookie in here?” He offered it to her. “Not that it isn’t good, but well. I still need to eat dinner soon and I really don’t wanna spoil my appetite completely.”

“Right, sure!” Freya grabbed the leftover cookie and tore into it. “Phanks.”

Freya’s ears flicked upright as she heard the door swing open.

“Freya, You home already?” her father's voice rang out through the house and footsteps got closer.

Freya panicked and without thinking shoved the two cookies she still had to eat in her mouth immediately, cheeks bulging out as she awkwardly tried to chew around the mass of dough and meat inside of her mouth. This, this, hadn't been a good idea. Why had she even done it in the first place? She had guests, it wasn’t as if she had been caught red-handed sneaking out cookies for her own before dinner? Well, she technically had. But Nick had been with her, that made it okay!

Her father walked into the room, staring at Nick dumbfounded before his mouth quirked up in a smile. “Hello Nick, didn’t think you would be coming over this soon,” He glanced between the both of them. “How did your homework go?”

“Phine,” Freya managed to get out around the food in her muzzle. 

“It’s done as far as I’m concerned,” Nick said as he gave her a concerned glance. “Euhm, you alright?”

“Phine!” Freya finally managed to swallow it all down. “I’m fine, no worries. And, euhm, yes, dad. It went great. My history homework is all done and so is Nick’s math homework. Though euh, maybe you should look it over. For spelling mistakes and all that.” She gave her dad the most innocent smile she could muster and hoped that the crumbs around her muzzle didn’t spoil the effect.

“Well, alright. I’ll do that after dinner. Speaking of which,” her dad gave her a sly smile. “I do hope you haven’t spoiled your appetite yet with those cookies you have been eating.”

“I only ate tw- no, three,” She quickly admitted as she brushed the crumbs out of her fur. 

“I’m just joking Freya, Nothing wrong with offering guests a snack,” her dad looked at Nick. “You going to eat with us Nick?”

Freya’s ears flicked upright and her stomach flipped over at the idea. It shouldn’t be that important, she went over and ate there. But well, that was different wasn’t it? They were being good neighbours at that point. It felt different to her.

“I, euhm. I would like to, but I don’t know what my ma has planned for dinner. Would be a bit weird to leave her hanging and all, you know.”

And somehow, despite that being the safe reasonable choice, Freya felt disappointed. Some part of her mind still whispered to her that Nick hadn’t said no. 

“True,” her father admitted. “She also works at one of the bug farms, right? She should be coming home then sooner or later. Did you leave her a note?”

“Yeah, stuck it on the dinner table in plain sight,” Nick answered. “Told her where she could find me.”

“Why don’t you stay with us till Angela comes and gets you then? Might as well offer a seat to her at the table,” he shuddered. “I still vividly remember my first month of working at the bug farm. I got completely wrecked by it. And I went through the military, I can’t imagine how badly the workload is running your mother down.”

Nick’s ears went flat against his back. “Is it that bad? I mean, is ma going to be alright?”

“It’ll be fine Nick,” he quickly reassured him. “They won’t be working her to the bone. She’ll just need a period to adjust and get her footing. Besides, I’m pretty sure the reason they pulled me through the wringer as badly as they did was because I swaggered in there and tried to make everything look like it was a piece of cake.”

Freya shook her head, a fond smile on her face. Yeah, that was still a much talked about thing at potlucks. Usually brought up whenever somebody wanted to playfully puncture her father's ego for a bit.

“Yeah,” Nick said with a smirk. “That just sounds like asking for trouble.”

“Oh yeah,” the large tiger shuddered. “They saw it as a challenge and thoroughly humbled me there. I doubt they’ll haze your mother the same way they did me.”

“Ma usually is smart enough to avoid getting in over her head,'' Nick wholeheartedly agreed with that.

“Anyway,” her father glanced at the clock. “I’ll be starting on dinner, I’ll be making some extra just in case you and Angela decide to join us.”

“Wait, you really don’t need to,” Nick sputtered out. “What if she already planned to cook?”

“Then we’ll have some leftovers to take to work and school tomorrow,” her father waved off his concerns.”It’s fine”

“What are you planning to cook, dad?” Freya piped up, tail flicking around in anticipation. Oh, she hoped it was something great. Not that her father was a bad cook, he was great. Just that, after the abomination she forced past her tongue, she needed something good to soothe her traumatized taste buds. 

“Lemon brined chicken,” he easily answered. “With cricket dumplings as a side dish. Non-negotiable I’m afraid. Your mother asked me to make it for her, she had a hankering for it.”

“No, no no, it sounds fine!,” Freya smiled back. True, lemon brined chicken wasn’t her favorite, but it tasted good enough.

“Well, I’ll leave you two alone then,” her father said, glancing between the two of them with a smile on his muzzle. He gave her a sly wink before disappearing into the kitchen. “Have fun!”

Freya just tilted her head in confusion. Why the wink? Was there something she was supposed to get? “We will!”

She settled back into the couch with Nick, shaking her head. Her dad could be weird sometimes. She guessed every dad was supposed to be. 

“Freya,” Nick spoke up, pointing at the screen with completely bewilderment. “That kangaroo guy is going to poke some big komodo dragon lizard with a stick.”

“He’s what?” Freya scooted closer, muzzle falling open as the guy was carefully hopping closer towards a giant lizard that was minding its own business, stick in hand. “He actually is. Is… is he alright?”

“I guess so? I mean, he wrestled that croc right? So he probably knows what he’s doing right ?” Nick said in an uncertain voice. “And I doubt that a channel would show somebody getting mauled by a lizard on tv. So he probably is going to be fine at the end of it.”

“Let's hope so,” Freya muttered, eyes glued to the tv as the kangaroo raised his stick for a poke.

Angela let out a sigh of relief as she finally arrived at her home. The day hadn’t actually been any more straining than before. But with her arms and legs still aching from the day before, yeah, it hadn’t been pleasant. It would all pass. Eventually she would just get the muscle needed to work through it all. Besides, she didn’t need to work on weekends for now. Hell, she wasn’t even put on the weekend rotation yet, specifically to give her time to recover after a hard week. So at least that was a small mercy.

She frowned as the door was still locked. School had been out for a while already so shouldn’t Nick already be home? Had he gotten sidetracked somewhere? Had he gotten in trouble? She shook her head, maybe he had just locked the door behind him. She quickly made her way inside.

“Nick?” She shouted, ears flicked upwards for any sound. “Are you there?”

Nothing, she nervously bit her lip as she walked deeper in the house, eyes falling on a piece of paper that had been left neatly in the middle of the dining table. She quickly grabbed, letting out a sigh of relief as she saw Nick’s familiar chicken scratch.

Ma, don’t worry, I’m at the Roarkins. I’m doing my homework with Freya. 

Of course, he had said that he was going to do his homework with Freya, she had even asked him to find out what Freya’s favorite snack was so she could get it. She let out a sigh and slumped over slightly.

Gods, she was tired.

Well, time to get Nick then. It was getting closer and closer to dinnertime and she didn’t want to impose on the Roarkins for too long. She hoped he was done with his homework already. Then again, there wasn’t anything stopping them from hanging out again after dinner. She trudged back out of the house and crossed the street, legs aching with every single step.

As soon as she arrived at the door, she quickly knocked.

“Coming!” she heard a faint voice yell out and it didn’t take long before the door was pulled open, Freya looking down at her with a shy smile. “Euhm, hi, Mrs Wilde.”

“Just Angela, Freya,” Angela gently chided. “So, did you and my son have a good time doing your homework?” She couldn’t help the sly smile crawling on her muzzle, but she had promised her son that she would keep the teasing to herself. He knew the young tigress better than her and she really didn’t want to make it all awkward between the two of them.

“Angela, right,” Freya quickly corrected herself. “Euhm, yeah! We both got all our homework done for the day. So that went well.”

“Hi, Ma,” Nick said as he walked into view, he frowned as he gave her a look over. “How was work?”

“It was fine,” she quickly sussed him. “Just a bit tired, so let's go back home okay? I’ll get started on dinner.”

“You can join us for dinner,” Freya blurted out. “I mean, it’s no trouble and my dad is making a bit more than usual since he thought Nick and you might be joining us at the table.” She nervously fiddled with the hem of her blouse. “It’s lemon brined chicken.”

“That's very kind of you and your father Freya,” Angela gently said, a smile on her face. “But we’ve already been eating your families cooking for two days in a row now. If we keep doing that, I might forget how to cook myself!” That, and she was the one supposed to run her own household. Of course, going over for dinner once in a while would’ve been fine. But eating somebody else's food three days in a row? She had thrown her own and Nick’s entire life upside down for a better future for her son and to be able to get into a lifestyle that she could support on her own. Not to start being a burden on her neighbors and foist half of her job as a mother onto them. 

“Oh,” Freya said with a small voice.

“But, if you want to hang out a bit more with Nick, feel free to come over after dinner,” Angela threw a teasing smile to her son, who simply rolled his eyes. “Or should I send him over to your house if that’s more convenient? I must say, it’s not quite often I find somebody so taken with my son! Most people of his own age and older think he’s a bit of a smartass.”

“ Ma, ” Nick hissed at her, his glower growing worse as he saw the amused smile creep on her muzzle. 

“He’s not that bad,” Freya quickly came to her son's defence. “I mean, he is a smartass, but he’s nice about it. Well, most of the time.”

Now that was just adorable. Both the fact that Freya was speaking up for him and the fact that Nick’s ears were becoming as red as his fur. “Oh, I know. As his mother I know exactly how sweet he can be, even though the last few years he has tried to keep it hidden under a facade of smartassery and classic Wilde wit.”

“Why, I’m suddenly famished ,” Nick stepped out of the door and looked as if he was very tempted to wrap her entire muzzle in duct-tape. “Why don’t the both of us get back home, stop this line of conversation dead in its tracks and get started on dinner?”

“Sure, if that’s what you want,” Angela said in a sing-song voice. “Let's go then. Bye Freya, give my thanks to your father for the offer, okay?”

“Okay, sure. But euh, Nick, don’t forget your bag,” Freya quickly blurted out, darting back in and returning to the door in a few moments, handing her son his bag. “So euhm, I’ll come over in an hour or two then? I mean, or whenever you two are done with dinner? I mean, if you want to of course, I don’t want to intrude.”

“You’re not intruding at all Freya, but yeah, just give it two hours,” Nick reassured her. “Ma still has to start cooking and stuff.” 

The bright smile that sprang onto Freya’s face warmed Angela’s heart.

“Okay then,” Freya brightly said. “I’ll see you in a bit then!”

“See you then Freya!” Nick said with an equally bright smile and they went on their way.

Angela really wanted to make a quip about how eager both of them looked to spend more time together. But honestly, she understood. Freya was basically the only friend Nick had at the moment and her son had always been a social mammal. She would let him get away without some teasing from her, just for this once.

“You sure you’re going to be able to cook ma?” Nick said with a worried stare. “I mean, you’re looking kinda worn out.”

“I’m fine,” Angela sussed him again. “I’ll get used to it before you know it! So don’t worry about it.”

Nick gave her a dubious look, but dropped the issue. “Okay ma, if you say so.”

Angela rolled her eyes. What was it with all the people treating her like she was made of glass lately? She was fine, just a bit tired. It wasn’t going to stop her from keeping her and Nick’s life in order.

Chapter Text

The last few days had been, remarkably uneventful. Not that Nick was complaining about it, after nearly getting mauled by a chicken let loose by a bunch of complete idiots. Some normal days where his biggest concerns were boring teachers and way too much, as in, any, homework being assigned to him were really welcome! Any bullies that had been targeting Freya had been laying low as well. He didn’t know how long they were going to keep quiet, but the longer they did so, the longer he had time to cobble together some kind of plan to keep the idiots from getting to Freya too much.

Hell, if worse came to worst he would just piss them off enough that they would start to aim their barbs and slings at him. There was never a bully he hadn’t been able to string along and make a fool of.

But right now, he was just going to enjoy his first ever weekend in Bunnyburrow. And the first order of business was getting his fuzzy butt to the place where the ping pong club set up their stuff, he promised Freya he would at least check it out and it honestly didn’t sound that unpleasant.

“Yo, Nick!” A familiar voice rang out.

Nick turned towards the source of the sound, a lazy smile making its way on his muzzle as he saw Benny and Elsa walk towards him.

“Yo, Benny, Elsa, what’s up?” Nick said.

“Just wondering if you were free after school,” Elsa started, “I mean, you’ve only been around here for a few days so we thought about inviting you to hang out at our local hangout!”

“With hangout she means at Richard’s home,” Benny helpfully piped up. “He and his dad actually completely reworked their garage into a pretty cool place to hang out, sofa’s, buncha comics, even a few old video game consoles. Always a fun way to spend some time.”

“Yeah, it’s a pretty cool place, and there are some others coming, like Peter barker, but also the baker twins, Samantha and Jennifer,” The female timberwolf scratched the underside of her muzzle in thought before she looked at Benny. “You know of anybody else who said they would turn up for sure?”

“Andrew had some kinda odd job to do for pocket money, so he’s not coming for sure. But I dunno about any of the others, might just be best to wait and see. Introduce them all when they’re there?”

“Probably for the best,” Elsa nodded, “Else we’re just throwing names at you and the gods know I can’t remember people that way,” She looked at him, an eager smile on her face. “So, what do you say, you’re in?”

Honestly, that did sound a lot of fun, get to meet some more people and just hang out and play some games and stuff with others. But, he had promised Freya and he wasn’t about to go back on a promise with her. Sides, he had also looked a bit forward to the entire ping pong thing, just to see what the fuss was all about and why Freya was so enamored with it. “Sorry guys, it sounds a lot of fun, but my evening is already booked today. I’m hanging out with Freya.”

“Ah, bummer,” Benny said with a shrug of his shoulders. “Maybe next time, have fun with Freya!”

“Aww, I really wanted to hear more stories about Zootopia,” Elsa said with a pout.

Nick put his paw over his heart as he looked at her with an overly dramatic shock filled face. “You wound me Elsa, here I thought we actually had something but you only wanted me for my stories.”

She just rolled her eyes at him. “Anyway, the offer is still open for the rest of the weekend or next week. Just let us know.” Her ears flicked upwards as she realized something. “You can even invite Freya over with you if you want? I think she would have fun there as well.”

“I’ll bring it up with her,” Nick still didn’t quite know where Freya stood with Peter barker and his friends. He had seen her talk with them on her own and she hadn’t really looked tense around them at those points, just when he was around them with her that she sometimes looked like a cat trapped in a room full of rocking chairs. It just didn’t fit with how mammals behaved around people who were pushing them around and it just left him baffled. “Can’t promise anything, but thanks for inviting me over. I gotta be going now though, can’t let Freya wait too long you know.”

“Yeah, what you still loitering around for,” Benny said with a wide grin. “Get going before she thinks you got lost again.”

“Happened one time Benny, only yesterday,” Nick groused.

“Sorry dude, you’re gonna hear about that at least for the rest of the school year!” Benny said with a wide grin.

“Or until something more interesting happens!” Elsa piped up. “But yeah, have fun! And let us know if you’re up for hanging out somewhere later this weekend!”

“I will do that,” Nick said, waving them goodbye and resumed his walk to the school's gym.

Nick, luckily, didn’t have any trouble finding the gym, a bunch of other mammals, mostly bunnies, spread all over the place, each group keeping themselves busy with their chosen sport, basketball, badminton, tennis and a whole host of others. It didn’t take him very long to find Freya, as she stood head and shoulders over the crowd. She was standing all the way at the back of the gym, idly talking with some other club members.

He quickly made his way over.

“Yo Freya,” he said, glancing over to the other club members, only four other members, a female otter, two male lynxes he wasn’t able to tell apart for the life of him and a female timberwolf.

“Nick! You made it!” Freya’s face lit up with a smile and Nick couldn’t help but smile as well at the sheer joy visible on her face.

“Hey, I told you I would be here wouldn’t I?” He said. “Wouldn’t miss it.”

“So he’s the new recruit you found?” the female timberwolf walked up and gave him a lookover, “He looks a bit scrawny, but usable, still given how excited you were about him attending I expected more though. Well, at least now we’ll have an even number of medium-sized members.”

“He’s not a recruit, he’s just a friend who was interested in playing ping pong.” Freya interjected quickly before turning back to Nick. “Don’t pay her any mind, Sally has been watching too many foreign sports cartoons again.”

“It’s anime , not a sports cartoon,” Sally pouted as she crossed her arms. “And I haven’t watched too many, because there is no such thing.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” one of the male lynxes spoke up, holding up his hands in a placating gesture as soon as Sally shot him an annoyed look. “Because every single time you binge watch a season you get all,” The lynx hesitated for a moment, obviously trying to find a polite way to put it. 

“You get way too serious about this entire ping pong thing,” The otter bluntly interjected. “And you start to forget that you can count all the ping pong players in Bunnyburrow with only two paws. That’s way too little for one of those tournament arc’s you fantasize being a part of.”

Her pout deepened “Oh come on, at least let a girl dream!”

The otter shook her head fervently. “No, not after the time you dragged us all out of our bed at 5 am for so-called extra team training! And then while you made us run laps you fell asleep yourself!”

Nick’s eyes widened. “Please tell me that isn’t going to be a future thing with this club?”

“Not if I can help it,” The otter quickly reassured him. “As long as we can keep Sally from getting overzealous it’s a very chill club. So you don’t need to worry on that front.”

Sally was now pouting like a little cub, quickly looking towards Freya for support. “I mean, you didn’t mind it did you?”

“Well, euhm…” Freya didn’t look Sally in the eyes, “I know, why don’t we do introductions! I mean, Nick doesn’t know any of you and getting introductions out of the way would be a good way to start wouldn’t it?”

“Right,” Nick quickly jumped on that, it all looked like gentle ribbing that was going on, but a change of subject seemed to be a good idea. “I’m Nick Wilde, Freya’s friend and recent running buddy, nice to meet you all.”

“Same, I’m Bert Undergrowth,” one of the Lynxes quickly piped up, he pointed at his doppelganger. “And that’s my twin Andrew.”

“Yo,” Andrew gave him a quick wave. “Nice to meet you dude.”

“And I’m Sally, Sally Greenpack,” Sally said as she composed herself again. “I’m the one who is the leader of the club, though honestly that only means I’m the one who has to deal with teachers when things inevitably break down or when there are space issues.”

“And last but certainly not least!” The otter piped up. “I’m Cassandra Visserman, the one responsible for keeping Sally from going off on her harebrained ideas most of the time. Nice to meet you Nick.”

“Same,” Nick said. “So euhm, is there somewhere I change into my gym clothes? I didn’t know where the changing rooms are, or if there were any in the first place. I know that at my old school we had to use empty classrooms to change into our gym stuff.”

“No, we have them,” Andrew spoke up. “If you go out of that door and go to your right, the boys locker room is the first room to your left, right before the bathrooms. You can’t miss it.”

“I’ll get myself changed quickly then,” Nick said.

“Don’t waste any time,” Sally yelled after him as he walked towards the door. “We only get so much time after class to use the space before we have to get out.”

“I’ll hurry!” Nick said as he quickened his step.

Andrew was right, the locker room had been easy to find and it took him no time at all to change, stow his bag and get back to the rest of the club. 

One of the twins was leaning against the wall, watching the rest of his club members play against each other, Cassandra going up against his brother while Freya and Sally were playing against each other.

Nick couldn’t help but wonder how Cassandra and Freya were able to play against any of the other members though, wouldn’t the height difference make it more difficult? They had to have a solution, because if one of them were sick then the other one wouldn’t be able to play at all if they didn’t have some way to compensate for the height difference.

“Yo Nick, let's haul a table out of storage and get ourselves started!” The twin said with an excited smile. “Pretty cool to finally have another guy to make the numbers even, now nobody is stuck sitting on the sidelines while the rest of us are playing.”

Nick followed him into the storage part of the gymnasium. “So, euhm Bert right?”

“Nope, I’m Andrew,” he pointed at the spots on his cheeks, “look at the spots, I got a few more of them than Bert does, it’s a subtle difference but it’s there. You’ll get the hang of it.”

“Speaking of playing, how do you even play pingpong?”

“Never played before then?” Andrew asked as he pulled a table out.
Thank god the thing had wheels, Nick grabbed the other end and helped him steer the table through the fairly cramped storage. “No, no I haven’t.”

“It’s pretty easy actually. You’re just smacking the ball at each other without hitting the net or missing the table on the other side.” Andrew said as they finally managed to get the table in position and Andrew began unfolding the thing and adjusting the net.

“Dunno, hitting a really tiny ball with a really tiny paddle doesn’t really seem as easy as it sounds.”

“You’re right about that!” Andrew said with a laugh, “But really, don’t sweat it too much, you’ll get the hang of it in no time if you keep going at it. And none of us really take it that seriously, just doing it for fun. Even Sally keeps it chill most of the time.”

“Unless she has been watching that anime thing she talked about right?”

“You got it!” Andrew passed him a paddle. “Well, I could go over all the rules and points and stuff. But why don’t we just jump in and teach you how to handle that paddle and hit a ball? I mean, no point in keeping track of points if you can’t hit a ball right?”

Nick let out a sigh as the lynx grinned at him in smug delight at his own horrible pun. “Please tell me you don’t make puns constantly?”

The grin Andrew gave him said enough on that matter. “You’ll get used to them don’t worry, so let's get playing!”

Andrew didn’t hide the fact he was taking it very easy on him, something Nick was thankful for, the last thing he wanted to do was just never be able to hit a ball back in the first place and just look like a complete and utter fool. But even though Andrew was always serving and sending him very slow balls, he still missed them more than half the time and the times he actually managed to hit something the balls just shot all over the place, hitting the net, the wall behind Andrew and even nearly hitting the poor lynx in the face once.

“Don’t sweat it too much,” Andrew said as he collected a few balls. “You’re getting the hang of it!”

“I’m not sure if hitting one out of ten balls is that much of an improvement of one outa eleven,” Nick said with an easy grin.

“Hey, if you could do it without any effort nobody would have to practice, we wouldn’t be able to lord our superior ball skills over you.”

“If you keep showing off your superior ball skills in public you might get in trouble you know,” Nick said with a faint smile on his face. 

“Told you you would get used to the puns!” Andrew laughed, “you’re starting to use them yourself now!”

Nick gave him a mock horrified look. “Oh no, the infection is spreading.”

“The what is spreading?” Freya said in a confused voice.

“He’s talking about puns,” Andrew helpfully clarified, “What’s up Freya?”

“Euhm, well,” she fiddled with the hem of her gym vest. “I was thinking, me and Sally are done with our little match, and Cassandra and Bert are also nearly done, so euhm. Maybe we should mix the tables up? Let you actually play for a bit while somebody else looks after Nick for a bit.”

“I mean,” she hurriedly continued, her ears starting to burn red. “Not that looking after Nick is a bad thing, but you know, just throwing the tables around so that we can really mix the matchups around?”

“I’m okay with it,” Nick quickly spoke up to stop Freya from trying to dig herself a hole. “I got what you meant Freya.”

He grinned at the both of them. “And at least it’ll boost somebody else's confidence when they start trouncing me.”

The tigress let out a sigh of relief.

“Yeah, sure that sounds good to me,” Andrew said before he looked past Freya towards Sally, the wolf’s tongue lolling out of her muzzle as she was panting heavily. “Hey Sal, we’re thinking of mixing the tables up, you in or do you want to keep going with Freya?”

“Sounds good,” Sally said with a shrug. “So how do you want to shuffle it up this time?”

“I’ll just pair up with Nick this time,” Freya quickly spoke up. “I mean, I brought him here so it’s only fair I also teach him a bit or two about ping pong, right?”

Sally and Andrew cocked their heads in confusion.

“Well, I guess,” Andrew started.  “But I mean, wouldn’t the height difference be a bit weird for a complete beginner?”

Nick just shrugged, “I really don’t mind it, I mean, I have been wondering how you guy’s do the entire, you know, play against somebody who is a head or two taller than you are thing.”

“Well if you’re sure,” Sally relented, she looked over at the final two members, “It does seem like they have finished up.”

“Yeah!” Freya grabbed Nick gently by the shoulder, an excited grin on her face. Ignoring the slightly confused looks the other members were sending each other, if she even noticed them at all. 

“The method to make up for the height difference we use is pretty slapdash, but it worked out well enough up till now!”

Nick just let himself be dragged along, giving a faint wave at others before focusing on Freya. Curiosity taking over. “Oh?”

“Yeah, we just push one of the tables up to there,” She pointed to a slightly raised part along the wall, going up for about a foot. “Nobody is quite sure why that part of the gymnasium is raised, but it’s about the right height so that everybody in our club can play against each other.”

“Huh, I expected something more complicated,” Nick said.

Freya simply gave him a large smile. “Hey, sometimes the simplest solution is the best! Now, what did Andrew manage to teach you while we were playing our own games? Did you play one of your own?”

Nick shook his head. “Nope, we just hit the ball towards each other. Well, he hit the ball towards me, I either missed the ball or it just went everywhere but where I was aiming at.”

“Yeah, aiming is hard,” Freya agreed. “Especially when you’re just starting out. You mind showing how you’re holding the paddle?”

“Like this?” He held up the paddle. “Am I doing it wrong somehow? I mean, not sure if you even can hold it wrong. It’s just a paddle right?”

“Well, not wrong per se. it’s just, there are just better ways of holding it?” Freya said.

“That would be what one would call, holding it wrong, Freya,” Nick sniggered. “No need to spare my feelings, I’m not that thin skinned.”

“Okay, fine you are holding it wrong,” Freya giggled. She walked up to him and gently grabbed his hand as she began to put his fingers in the right place. “If you hold it like this you’ve got a more stable grip and a bit more reach too!”

Nick wasn’t listening anymore, His throat having gone dry and his ears heating up as she continued explaining. That felt kinda, nice? He quickly shook those thoughts out of his head. She was just explaining something to him, this really wasn’t the time to go all nervous. Since when did he get all flustered over something simple as contact anyway? He never really had a problem with it before when friends or people he knew touched him.

He suddenly felt her stiffen and quickly pull her hands away from him, her ears burning a bright red as well. “Sorry, euhm, I got a bit overexcited and just went for it, I mean, I should’ve, you know, asked, before I started touching you and stuff and oh gods please don’t tell me I’ve made you uncomfortable because if so I’m so so sorry.”

“I-It’s fine!” Nick quickly blurted out. “I wasn’t really uncomfortable, just… surprised, I just didn’t see it coming and all. But I really didn’t mind it.” 

“Okay”, Freya said meekly.

An awkward silence fell over the two of them and from the corner of his eye he could see Cassandra give the both of them a weird look.

Right, time to get everything back on track before the others start to show more interest. Nick thought. The last thing he or Freya needed were a bunch of people starting to search for things that weren’t there, like problems or something.

“Right, so,” Nick gave her an easy smile. “Now that you’ve fixed my atrocious way of holding the paddle. Why don’t we check if it actually helped or if I’m just completely hopeless?”

“Of course,” Freya jumped on the chance to break the slight awkwardness. “So, do you just want to keep hitting the ball back and forth, or do you want to try out playing a full game?”

“Why not do the full game? I mean, you did invite me to play ping pong and not to just hit a ball with a small piece of wood,” Nick easily said as he hopped onto the raised part of the wall. “And I gotta learn the rules sometime don’t I?”

“That’s true! Right the rules are actually pretty short and simple!” Freya launched into an explanation of the rules of ping pong and Nick paid rapt attention, the smile on his muzzle growing a bit wider as Freya herself got caught up in her own explanation and he could see the excitement as she lit up..

Nick slumped over with a slight sigh of relief after the last game. It had been a lot of fun, even though he had lost every single game against Freya, but hey, this was the first time he ever played it while she had been playing almost weekly for a year or so? He had seen this outcome coming from a mile away. But he really hadn’t thought Ping pong would’ve been this demanding. Sweat was dripping from his paw pads and into his fur. His tongue was lolling out as he kept panting. He quickly glanced towards Freya, who seemed to be a little better off, but she still looked pretty wiped out.

“So, what did you think?” Freya said as she handed him a small bottle of water. A hopeful look on her face. “Think you’re going to come along next Friday?”

“Sure, it was pretty fun,” Nick admitted before drinking from the bottle. Something he needed to remember for next time, to bring a water bottle with him. Because holy crap he was parched. 

“Great!” Freya couldn’t keep the massive smile off her face. “I’m really glad you liked, I was kinda afraid you would think it was something dorky and not wanna come next time.”

“Hey, up till now I spent most of my time reading comic books. The only way I could be a bigger dork was if I needed glasses and got into collecting action figures.” Nick said, taking a final gulp of water and handing the half empty bottle back to Freya. “So I really can’t nag on others for being dorky you know.”

“So you think it is dorky!” Freya giggled, lightly bumped him in the shoulder before taking her water bottle back. “Maybe I should tell the others about that and see what they think about you saying that.”

“Please don’t,” Nick sniggered. “From what I heard about Sally she just might try to instil some pride off the sport into me by dragging me out of bed before sunrise. And believe me, seeing a Wilde who got up before sunrise is not a pretty sight.”

“Oh she’s not that bad,” Freya said. “But I’ll keep my mouth shut about it, just in case they concoct something else up to prevent you from having your precious beauty sleep.” 

“Mirrors around the world thank you for that service Freya, they are forever in your debt,” Nick Joked. “Anyway, I think it’s really time we get changed, so euhm. I’ll wait for you at the entrance so we can walk home together?”

“Oh come on, I’m sure you don’t look that bad in the morning. Of course, meeting up at the entrance sounds fine! See you!”

Nick gave Freya a wave as he trudged off towards the changing room.

It didn’t take Freya very long to get changed and she quickly made her way towards the entrance with a skip in her step and a smile on her face. He had liked it! Enough to come again next Friday. This was awesome! And, and this wasn’t even the last thing they would be doing together today. There still was that run, I mean, she probably should still ask him if he wanted to do that, he had looked rather wiped out. But she always took a shorter run on Fridays because she was pretty tired as well after all that.

She absentmindedly raised her water bottle up to her lips. Eyes going wide and a blush creeping up her face and ears. Nervously fiddling with the bottle as she lowered it again.

Nick had drunk from it. Wouldn’t that kinda be like one of those indirect kisses that she had seen in one of those cartoons Sally had shown the club once as a bonding exercise? She shook her head, come on, just because Nick had drunk from it and touched the rim with his lips, didn’t mean that it would be anything like a kiss if she drank from it now. That kinda thinking was just dumb. Right? Right?

She raised the bottle back to her lips aand… chickened out before she took a sip. Quickly screwing the cap back on. Well, she wasn’t really thirsty anyway. And, and maybe Nick needed a drink more than her, yeah that was it! Totally not because she got tripped up by something as dumb as drinking from something Nick had drunk from before.

She pushed those thoughts out of her brain when she turned a corner and saw Nick walk down the corridor. 

“Nick!” She yelled at him, a smile on her face as he turned around and she quickly caught up to him.

“Yo Freya,” Nick said with a lazy smile on his face. “Are you ready for the weekend?”

“Yeah, I mean, it’s probably going to be the same old same old,” With her catching up on some schoolwork, sleeping in and lazing around for the day. “Unless, of course you wanna do something together this weekend? I mean, my schedule is open and maybe this time we can break out a board game?”

She nervously fiddled with the hem of her blouse, unsure how Nick would react to the offer. Sure, he had been hanging around her a lot since he was here. But what if he just wanted to have a break. “I mean, you don’t have to of course. I mean, we’re still going on that run this evening, so I’m okay if you want to just take a weekend off to yourself to recover from all the social stuff that you’ve been pushed into. New school, new house, new everything. Has to be pretty tiring.”

“Well, you’re not wrong,” Nick said as they walked out of the school and began making their way to their houses. “But I’m down to hang out with you this weekend for sure, speaking of hanging out. Benjamin and Elsa came up to me right after class was out. They said they and some other friends were coming together at Richard’s, whoever that is, home and they invited me along. Their offer was good for the entire weekend, I just needed to let them know if I wanted to come along.”

“Oh,” Freya weakly said. Unsure of why he brought up wanting to hang out with her doing the weekend when he was invited by some other people to do things already? “Well, maybe you can go tomorrow and we’ll do something together later in the weekend?”

“Or you could come with?” Nick asked. “They said you were invited as well if you wanted to come. I think it would be pretty fun, for the both of us. There is going to be video games and comics for sure. Probably more stuff as well since they were talking up their hangout place quite a bit.”

Freya nervously bit her lower lip as she mulled it over. Well, she didn’t know Richard very well, but she had seen him around and he hung around with Peter barker, so he couldn’t be that bad. But still, she didn’t really know any of them. Neither did Nick, but Nick hadn’t even been here for a week, that was normal. But she was born in Bunnyburrow and was barely on the edge of their friend circle. That had to make it at least a little bit awkward. But, what if Nick went on his own and he decided that hanging with them and playing games was a lot more fun than hanging with her? 

“Okay, I’ll come,” Freya said, trying to cover up her nervousness with a smile. “I mean, it does sound like it could be fun.”

“Cool, I’ll let Elsa know we’ll be down for tomorrow then,” Nick said with a smile on his face. 

Freya cocked her head in confusion, “How are you even going to tell her we’re coming? I mean, do you know where she lives or something?”

Nick shook his head, “Nope, but she did give me the number to her cell phone yesterday, probably for things like this. So I’ll just give her a call as soon as I’m home to let her know that the both of us are coming.”

Freya’s eyes widened in shock. Elsa’s parents had given her a cell phone? No more pressing than that, Elsa had given Nick her number ? She couldn’t help but feel her stomach do flips at the idea. She knew it was dumb, hell, Elsa gave her number to all her friends, hell, Elsa had even given it to her. Somebody she only occasionally sat with at lunch or talked to in the hallways. It didn’t mean anything. At least, she hoped it didn’t.

“You okay there Freya?” Nick said as he looked up at her, head tilted in curiosity. “You went pretty quiet for a while.”

“I’m okay!” Freya quickly rushed out, “I mean, just a little bit jealous about Elsa having a cellphone. A phone in your pocket just sounds so convenient.”

“I guess a cell phone can be handy,” Nick agreed and Freya felt relieved that he had accepted the excuse.  “You don’t have to wonder who will pick up the phone when you call anymore for one thing.”

“True,” Freya answered as they turned into their home street. “Anyway, I’ll see you for the run then after dinner? I mean, if you’re too tired for that that’s okay. But I do always take a shorter one every friday. Because I’m also a bit exhausted after ping pong. But you know, gotta keep to the schedule right?”

“I’ll go with you on the run Freya,” Nick said with a gentle smile.  “Because if I don’t and just laze around today the run on monday will just feel way harder.”

“Yeah, wouldn’t want to have to drag you out of your house just to get you running with me,” Freya smiled.

“Come now, you wouldn’t do that to your good pall would you?” Nick sniggered, putting his hand on his heart and trying to pull his most offended face while also trying not to break out in laughter.

“It’s for your own good Nick!” Freya gently bumped him against his shoulder. “Besides, I’m pretty sure your mom will take my side. If she doesn’t outright kick you out of the door when it’s time for the run!”

“But knowing my ma?” Nick said with a shudder. “ She totally would force me into my gym clothes and push me out of the door if you turned up at the door asking me to join on your run. She was almost ecstatic when I went running with you Tuesday. Well, after she picked her jaw off the floor when I told her I was willingly exercising.”

“And now that you did it once, her expectations are raised and she expects you to keep running,” Freya giggled. “So face it, you’ll be stuck with me for a long time!”

“You make it sound like that would be a bad thing,” Nick said as he looked up at her with an earnest smile on his face and Freya’s throat suddenly felt extremely dry as her face began to heat up. 

“I would say that you’d be the one stuck with me,” Nick continued with the same smile. “But who can complain about being stuck with a fox this roguishly handsome? And with a charming personality to boot!”

“Well, the big ego might be a bit of a downfall there,” Freya goodnaturedly shot back. “Look out with that, or you just might take up the entire room!”

“It’s not ego if it’s true!” Nick joked and they came to a stop in front of Freya’s house. “Well, I guess I’ll see you in a bit then?”

“Yeah,” for once in her life she wished she had lived further away from the school, so she could’ve kept walking and talking with Nick. “I’ll see you soon!”

She gave him a wave goodbye and walked inside her own home, her stomach making flips as anxiety and excitement struggled inside of her as it finally sunk in that she had agreed to go out and hang out with a group.

“Ma, what’s for dinner?” Nick called out as he walked into the kitchen. The only response he got was the idle chatter of some kind of show on the TV and a loud sound that made him think of a chainsaw. “Ma?” 

Nick dropped his bag on the floor and walked over to the living room. A smile crawled his muzzle as he saw his ma all sprawled out on the sofa, tongue lolling out of her head and a small puddle of drool dripping onto the sofa’s armrest. While she loudly snored away, not a care in the world and the remote control still clasped in her paw. “At least take a nap in your own bed. Or take a blanket.”

Nick hesitated for a moment, debating if he should wake her up or just let her sleep. On one hand, the sofa really couldn’t be comfortable. On the other hand, his ma had been tired ever since she started working at the bugfarm and he knew her well enough that she no doubt would start doing stuff again instead of just moving her nap to her bed if he woke her up. She really needed the rest.

He tiptoed his way over and gently took the remote out of her paw. Her only response were some dreamaddled mutterings and a slight twitching of her ears. Nick turned off the TV and silently rummaged through the little bin next to the sofa. Pulling out a blanket and gently draping it over his ma. Well, he could find out what was for dinner on his own. If she had been watching television she probably would’ve already made dinner, well, he hoped so at least.

Nick gently backed out of the living room and opened the fridge. Letting out a small sigh of relief as he saw a plate of food in the fridge, at least it meant his ma had eaten a hot meal and not just crammed some bread in her maw like she used to do back in Zootopia. He took his plate out of the fridge and put it in the microwave. Nick wiped his hands on his shorts, grimacing as the sweat that was clinging to his paw pads was just wiped deeper and deeper into his fur. He needed a shower, but it sounded really dumb to shower to get the sweat off, only to go and get sweaty all over again. Besides, it couldn’t be that bad could it? He lifted his arm and carefully took a sniff.

Nick shuddered as the smell hit him in the face. I’ve been walking next to Freya while smelling like this? Nick quickly dropped his arm back down. I mean, sure she probably didn’t smell like roses either after how much they played. But still, what had she been thinking when he just showed up and smelled like this? Why hadn’t he planned ahead and taken some deodorant with him just to cover up his grodyness. Did he even have deodorant in the first place? He never really needed it before. Spending most of his time skipping PE class, or if his teacher had managed to drag him to it anyway, slacking off and otherwise dodging as much exercise as he could.

The loud shrill beeping of the microwave pulled him out of his thoughts. Ears flicking up in alarm he scrambled to the microwave and hit the stop button. But it was too late as he could hear his ma stretch and yawn and stumble into the kitchen a few moments later.

“Nick, you’re home,” She yawned as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. “You could’ve woke me up.”

“You really looked like you needed sleep,” Nick admitted, “Besides, It’s just microwaving food. I can do that much on my own, ma.”

“Of course you can,” She said with a smile. “But I really wanted to know how the after school club went for you. Did you enjoy hanging out with Freya?”

“There were more mammals around then just Freya ma. But yes, yes it was fun.” Nick said with a sigh as he tried to take the plate out of the microwave, immediately jerking his paw back as it touched the hot ceramic. Quickly grabbing a nearby towel before taking out the plate this time.

“Did everything go well with them?” his ma quickly followed up. “I mean, after what happened a few days ago with Freya-.”

“ Nothing like that happened there ma,” Nick quickly reassured her as he sat down. “I mean, it’s an afterschool activity, not like Freya would keep going if she didn’t feel comfortable right? And she’s been going for over a year.”

“That’s true. Well lets hope she continues to drag you along then,” his ma said sitting down in front of him. “It’s good for you.”

“Right, so, euhm, speaking of exercise,” Nick hesitantly started feeling awkwardly self conscious about it all, he was just going to ask his ma if they had deodorant, or if they hadn’t that she could grab it the next time she went to the store? “I well, kinda stink? So euhm, do we have any deodorant in the house I could use? Both for right now and for the other times I go to that club?”

His ma cocked her head in confusion. “I don’t have any deodorant for men. But why don’t you just take a shower?”

“Because I’m going on a run with Freya after I’ve eaten, remember? Showering twice sounds a bit wasteful” Nick felt his fur stand on end as his ma looked at him with a knowing smile. Whatever was going through her head, she probably should stop it. “It’s just exercise with a friend ma.”

“Oh I know, I know,” his ma said in a tone of voice that made it very clear she didn’t think it was just hanging out with a friend. “I’m just very curious as to why you’ve suddenly become so active? You used to pull so many many ridiculous stunts to make sure you didn’t have to be overly active. But here you are, doing it out of your own free will.”

“I just like hanging out with Freya,” Nick’s eyes widened as he saw his ma’s smile grew. “You know! I, I like hanging out with friends in general, not just Freya. I’m going to hang out with some other people from school tomorrow as well. So it’s not like I only hang around with Freya. She’s just a friend that’s a lot of fun.”

“Of course she is,” his ma said as she ruffled the fur on top of his head. “Well, to go back to your question, I do have some deodorant of my own, you can use those, it does smell of flowers though.”

“I just don’t wanna walk up to her door stinking of sweat before we start running,” Nick said as he finally began eating, relieved that his ma had dropped the subject. “I don’t really care about how it smells, as long as it covers up the stink.”

“Sure, my deodorant is in the mirror cabinet of the bathroom. It should be somewhere in the middle. But I’ll make sure to get some deodorant for you before next friday,” She said.

“Thanks ma,” Nick said in between bites.

“So tell me, who are you hanging out with this weekend?” his ma asked. “And where are you going?”

“Oh, Benny and Elsa invited me to hang out at their friend Richards house,” Nick’s ears flicked up as he remembered something. “Right, I still need to call Elsa to tell her that I and Freya are coming.”

“I’ll make sure that you don’t forget,” his ma said with a smile.

Nick finished up his food and quickly put his plate and utensils in the sink.

“Why don’t you go and change into your gym clothes while I take care of the dishes?” His ma said as she stood up, shooing Nick towards his room. “Don’t let Freya wait!”

“But,” Nick hesitantly began, “You’re pretty tired. Shouldn’t you just get some rest?”

His ma rolled her eyes at him. “It’s just the dishes Nick. I’m tired, not an invalid. Now shoo.”

“Okay, okay,” Nick said as he quickly made his way to his room.

It didn’t take very long for Nick to get changed into his gym clothes, he quickly glanced at the clock, he still had some time before Freya would get here. Maybe it would be best if he got that phone call to Elsa out of the way before it was too late. Shouldn’t take much time.

Nick dug the paper with her number out of his pocket, grabbed the house phone and quickly punched in the number and waited as the dialing tone sounded.

“Hello? Elsa here, who am I speaking with?” Elsa’s voice asked.

“It’s Nick, i’m calling about the hangout thing you mentioned earlier today,” He started. “I’m open to come hang out tomorrow if the offer is still open.”

“Nick, so you’re coming? Awesome!” Elsa said in an excited voice. “Did you ask Freya if she would come with? Or are you just coming alone?”

“Freya is also coming.”

“That’s great! So, I’ll guess you’ll need to know when and where to be tomorrow then?”

Nick grinned, “That would be handy. You said it was at Richard's place, but I don’t know where that is.”

“Right, sorry ‘bout that. It’s at Meadstreet 259, it’s an old looking house surrounded by newer buildings, you can’t miss it!” Elsa quickly said. “Freya hasn’t ever been there before, but she knows where the street is, so she can help! We’ll start gathering there at noon!”

“Thanks, I’ll see you then,” Nick offered, eyes glancing at the clock. Better wrap this up, Freya probably would be here any moment.

“Yeah, it’ll be fun just you wait! See you then!” Elsa said in a happy tone before hanging up.

And not a moment too soon, Nick had barely put the phone back down when the doorbell rang.

“I’m coming!”

Freya stretched as she walked out of her house, taking a deep breath of the cooling air and she couldn’t help the smile on her face as she made her way towards Nick’s house. There was nothing like the feeling of winding down with a relaxed run at the beginning of the weekend, to just let all the worries of the school week slide off her and turn her brain off as she jogged down her familiar route.

Freya rang the doorbell at Wilde's house.

“I’m coming!” A muffled voice from inside rang out and quick footsteps closed in. Nick opened the door moments after. “Yo Freya. Are you ready for our run?”

“Yes I-,” Freya blinked as a strong floral scent made its way to her nostrils. She tilted her head in confusion as she looked at Nick. “Do, do you smell of flowers?”

“Yeah,” Nick looked away, his ears tinting red with embarrassment as his tail flicked and wrapped around his legs. “I euhm, had to use my mom’s deodorant because I stunk pretty bad from the ping pong session.”

Nick’s ears went flat against his skull.  “Does it bother you? I mean, I probably overdid it a little bit, ”

“No, no, I euhm, just didn’t expect it that's all!’ Freya quickly rushed out. “It smells nice, maybe a bit much, but not bad! So euhm, you ready for the run?”

“I am, let's get started before I get cold feet and try to back out.” Nick said with a small smile. “So how long are we running this time? You said it was going to be shorter right?”

“Yes, only a kilometer or so. We follow the usual path for a while before taking a fairy big shortcut through some dirt roads along some fields!”

“Sounds great to me,” Nick said with a wide smile as he walked to the sidewalk. “I really don’t know how the path goes. So lead the way.”

“Of course! Of course!” Freya couldn’t help the smile on her face as she joined him on the sidewalk and began to jog at a casual pace. Keeping a keen eye on Nick as he kept up with her.

Freya didn’t know if the silence the both of them slipped in was because Nick didn’t have the breath to keep up a conversation with all the exertion they had done today already, or if he just didn’t see the need to talk. But honestly? She didn’t mind the silence. It was a comfortable one that just let her mind wander ,breathe in the cooling air and just listen to the sounds of the world that was about to go to sleep interspersed with her and Nick’s footsteps. The all too familiar burn in her legs slowly built up.

Freya kept a close eye on Nick, the fox's shoulders slumping and his feet starting the drag.

“Do you need a break?” Freya panted out as she slowed down a little bit. “We- we could if you wanted?”

“How,” Nick gasped. “How far do we still have to go?”

Freya quickly glanced around before answering in between pants. “Not… not that far… anymore. After this corner we’ll only have to go down part of that street and- and then we can walk the rest to cool down?”

Nick shook his head at that. “Right,- lets just keep going. If I stop,- I don’t think my lazy ass will start running again.”

Yeah, she remembered that feeling from the first few times she started to run. “Okay, lets keep going.”

Still, she didn’t speed back up and kept a keen eye on the quickly tiring fox, even as her own brain started to fog up slightly and her legs and lungs started to burn. The last few meters were the hardest one, but eventually the both of them rounded the last corner, their houses coming into sight.

The moment Freya slowed down into a walk, she heard the massive sigh of relief coming from Nick, who just gasped for air as he bent over, leaning on his knee as he tried to catch his breath.

“You okay?” Freya hesitantly asked as she walked closer. 

“I’m fine ,” Nick waved of her concern as he gave her a tired smile. “Just bone tired, just- just gimme a sec to catch my breath.

“Okay, okay,” Freya odded. “But, euhm, you really should keep walking or you’re really going to feel it tomorrow.”

“I’m already feeling it now though,” Nick whined.

“Well, it’ll get worse if you don’t keep,” Freya couldn’t help the smile on her face. That was exactly how she reacted when her mom told her to keep walking after she had done some of her first runs. “Believe me, I’ve been there.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me it can get worse?” Nick groaned, but he took her advice and started walking next to her. The both of them slowly hobbling their way towards their home. “I’m just going to drop in the sofa and not move until it’s time for bed… or just sleep on the sofa.”

“It’ll get better, I promise,” Freya said as she gave him a pat on the back. “In a few months you’ll be running with me without even feeling it!”

NIck just gave her a flat look, a hint of amusement playing on his lips. “ You are still feeling it after way longer than a few months Freya. Foxes are crafty and natural sprinters, very dangerous over short distances. Not really long distance runners.”

“Okay, okay,” Freya giggled. “Maybe not feeling it in a few months is just me trying to keep your spirits up. But it will get better I promise!”

“I hold you to that promise Freya,” Nick sniggered. “And I will complain if it doesn’t.”

“Well, if you don’t improve we can always just switch over to sprinting instead of jogging to take advantage of your natural foxy ‘sprintyness’,” Freya said smiling as she made the air quotes. “We can do the beep test and more!”

“No thank you!” Nick quickly rushed out, looking horrified at the very idea. “I’ll take the jogging over that every day of the week!”

“See, it could be worse,” Freya said, her tail flicking disappointingly behind her as they came to a stop in front of her house. “So euhm… we’re here. Thanks for running with me?”

“Just like last time it was fun,” Nick admitted. “In a strange, please let it stop now because my legs and tail are going to fall of way.” 

Freya couldn’t help it, her smile went even wider, her flicking happily. “I’m glad you’ve had fun. And euhm, we’ll have more fun tomorrow right?” Freya nervously licked her lips as the hangout forced itself back to the forefront of her mind. “So euhm, when do we need to be there?”

“Oh, right, I hadn’t told you that.” Nick said as he slapped his forehead. “They said we were welcome from noon onward. I don’t know how far the place is, so how long beforehand do you think we’ll need to leave? Can we even make it there on foot or should one of our parents drop us of?”

“It should be doable on foot,” Freya quickly said. “It’s not much further then the walk to school we do every day. I mean unless you really don’t want to do the walk, then I can ask my dad to drop us off?”

Nick shook his head, “Nah, that sounds a bit wasteful, gas isn’t cheap. But euhm,” Nick awkwardly scratched the fluff on his chin. “So i’ll just come to your house a half hour before noon? Gives us more than enough time to walk there at a leisurely pace. Because holy crap, after today I could use some more leisurely pace.”

“I’ll make sure to keep your tired legs in mind then,” Freya said with a smile that she didn’t quite feel reached her eyes. “So see you tomorrow then?”

“Yeah, but well,” Nick sighed and gave her a gentle pat on her paw. “Freya, if, if you feel uncomfortable tomorrow while we’re there, just let me know okay? I’m not going to keep you there or force you to walk back home alone if you don’t want to stay there.”

“Thanks, but it’ll be fine Nick. them being jerks to me isn’t exactly what I’m worried about,” Some part of her wanted to tell him, that she was scared that they would just be more interesting friends and that she would eventually be put to the side for them. Turning well, whatever they were into nothing more than occasional talks in the hallways of school. Or maybe if she was lucky, a run with him sometimes as he gradually became more and more busy with his other friends. But how silly would that sound? Hell, how clingy would that sound? She wanted Nick to stay her friend. Telling him that would be a sure fire way to make the fox scamper to the hills and never want to talk to her again.

Nick looked at her, cocking his head as she could see him think about what she had said. Her heart was hammering in her chest, what was he planning? Was he going to press the issue? Was he going to try and coax it out of her? After what felt like an eternity, but couldn’t have been longer than a few seconds, he just shook his head.

“Alright then, still. Just keep in mind alright?” Nick gave a friendly pat on her lower back. “I’ll see you tomorrow then, I need a bath and drag myself to bed.”

“See you tomorrow, bye!” Freya eagerly nodded and gave him a wave as he hobbled across the road to his own home. And she turned around and walked to her own house, wincing as the rush of the run had flushed out of her system and the burn came back with a vengeance, backed up with the unsettling idea that she might have bitten off more than she could chew for tomorrow.

She shook those thoughts out of her head. It wasn’t going to be that bad. She could handle it! 

Freya let out a high pitched whine as she dug through her closet. What the hell had she been thinking? She totally had no clue what the hell she was going to do. Sure, it was a hangout at Richard’s just to play some video games and do other relaxing stuff. But she really wanted to make a good impression! Well, she knew most of them already, so the first impression chance to wow them had gone out of the window. But she didn’t want to look like a total dork , what if people thought she looked dumb with all her ankle length skirts? But on the other paw, what if she went too far the other way and she looked out of place that way.?

She slumped against her dresser. It was just a dumb hangout, why did she even think this much about it all? Why did it freak her out this badly?

“Freya,” Her father's voice called her attention. “What are you up to? It sounds like you’re renovating your entire room?”

“Nothing!” She shot up and tried to keep the panic out of her voice. “Just, just trying to find what to wear! Sorry if I’m loud!”

“Hmmm,” There was a short pause. “Can I come in, Freya?”

Freya let out a defeated sigh, great, so much for pretending to stay calm and collected, great start to the day she was having here. “Sure dad.”

The door creaked open and her father walked into the room. He took care to close the door behind him before gently putting his giant paw on her shoulder. “So, do you want to tell me what’s bothering you? Or do you just want me to help you find out what to wear?”

“I…” that caught her off guard. “do you even know anything about fashion dad?” 

“Enough to tell you if you’re overdoing it for a simple outing or not Freya,” her dad said gently. “So, do you just need a little bit of help? Or do you just want me to leave entirely?”

“No! I mean, no, euhm, I could probably use some.. You know.. Help” Freya finished lamely. 

“Right, so,” her father said as he looked at the mess in her room. And Freya couldn’t help but wince, in her desperation to find something she had thrown at least half her clothes on her bed. ”Are you trying to impress somebody while you’re going to that little hangout thing you couldn’t help but mumble to yourself about yesterday or?” 

“Impress?” She cocked her head in confusion. Her eyes widening in horror as she realized what her dad was implying. “N...No! I mean, I’m just worried about fitting in. Not trying to look pretty or anything. I just don’t want to embarrass Nick in front of his future friends.”

“There is nothing wrong with how you usually dress Freya,” her father simply stated. “Not to mention, Elsa is going to be there. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen her walk around wearing a bright orange hawaian shirt. So there isn’t exactly going to be a high bar to clear there.”

“Well, that was then,” Freya simply stated. “We’re older now you know. We know better.”

“Right,” her father said with barely contained amusement.

Freya let out an annoyed huff as she crossed her arms and looked away. “If you’re just going to make fun of me then you can leave.”

“Sorry, sorry,” her father apologized. “But really, if you’re not trying to impress somebody. Then what’s gotten you so nervous?”

“I’m not..” Freya sighed, that was a bold faced lie. And it was pretty dumb to try and deny since her dad had heard her pacing and fretting so hard he had come and check on her. “I mean, I’m just… worried that I’ll look like a dork…” Freya shrunk in on herself and swallowed, “And that Nick will want to hang out with the cooler crowd instead of with the weird tigress.”

“Well, you managed to drag the lazy fox with you on a run two times now and made him play pingpong with you,” her dad said with a warm smile. “It’s quite obvious he doesn’t mind you being a dork in the least Freya. He likes hanging around you else he wouldn’t have bothered doing all those things with you in just a few days. He even came around when you were down just to check on you remember. I can promise he cares enough about you to not just drop you for some other people.”

Her father gently rubbed her behind her ear, some of her anxiety just melting off her shoulders and then leaned into him. Still she couldn’t help but look up at her dad and pout,” Aren’t you supposed to go all, ‘no you’re not a dork’ and all when you’re talking with your daughter?”

“But you are a dork , my precious little adorable dork,” There was a mischievous glint in her dad’s eyes and before she could react he pulled her into a big hug. “And you’re absolutely great the way you are.”

“Daaaaaad,” Freya whined as she put up a token effort to try and squeeze out of his hug before just leaning into it. “I’m fourteen, a bit too old for hugs!” 

“Right, right, you’re growing up so fast.” Her dad chuckled as he let her go. “Are you feeling a little better?”

Weirdly enough, she actually did. “I think I do.”

“That’s good to hear,” he affectionately ruffled the fur on top of her head as he walked to the door. “Well, it’s about quarter past eleven, so why don’t you get dressed while I keep an eye out for Nick?”

“It’s already that late!” Freya yelped as she shot up. “and I’m still in my pajamas!”

“I’ll leave you to it then!” Her father said with a hearty laugh as he closed the door behind him.

She quickly ruffled through the parts of her wardrobes, the anxiety was still there, bubbling underneath the surface of her mind, but now that it wasn’t hissing in her ears about how every single outfit made her look stupid or out of place. Things easily slid into place. She didn’t have anything to prove and pulled out a nice looking sundress. So why shouldn’t she just go for what she thought was nice and fitted comfortably?

Now that she had chosen though, she grimaced at the state of her room. Blouses, skirts, T-shirts and dresses had been haphazardly thrown over her bed and desk, with some even lying on the floor. She grimaced.

Better clean up this mess before I go.

By the time Freya came down to the living room after having gotten everything order. Nick was already there, talking with her dad about something or the other. “Hi Nick! You ready to go?”

Nick’s ears perked up immediately and his head snapped towards her, a wide smile on his muzzle. “You took your sweet time to get ready, but well. Euhm, you look nice.”

Freya really didn’t know why her ears suddenly felt like they were lit on fire. “Tha-thanks, you don’t look too bad yourself.”

“Nothing can make me look bad,” Nick said in an overly dramatic tone as he puffed himself up.

Freya couldn’t help but giggle at the pompous act and Nick couldn’t keep a straight face for long after that. Letting out a chuckle himself.

“So ready to go?” Nick said with an infectious enthusiasm.

“Yes, I’m ready, bye dad!” She gave her father a wave as they both walked out of the door. “I’ll see you soon!”

“Have fun!” Her father said. “Both of you.”

Chapter Text

Freya could feel her stomach tense up and do flips as they slowly got closer and closer to Richard’s house. It would be fine, she had Nick right? And, well, Benny and Elsa weren’t bad mammals, so why would anybody they regularly hung out with be any different? It would be fine and, and even if it wasn’t, Nick had promised she just had to say something and they would leave, no questions asked.

She swallowed as they came to a stop in front of Richard’s house. 

“You alright?” Nick’s voice pulled her out of her own thoughts, a gentle paw touching against her wrist.

“Yes, of course,” Freya said with a faint smile, some of her nervousness melting away. Nick wouldn’t just be her escape ticket, he would be there with her and if her dad was right, he wouldn’t just leave her to be on her own as soon as they entered. She wasn’t just throwing herself into the deep end. Nick was going to be flailing around with her in the unknown. “I mean, I’m not going to back out before we even walked into the house. That would just be rude!”

“That’s the spirit,” Nick said, an easy going smile on his face as he rang the doorbell. 

Freya nervously shuffled her feet as they waited. Time seeming to stretch on. After what felt like minutes but couldn’t have been more than a few seconds at best, an older female bobcat opened up the door, cocking her head in confusion at them and for a split second Freya’s stomach clenched, had it all just been a joke? No, Elsa wouldn’t do that to her or Nick, had there been a miscommunication somewhere?

“Ohh! You must be the two that Elsa and Benny invited over,” the bobcat stepped out of the way and motioned at them to come inside. “I was confused for a bit since I didn’t think Richard really hung out with you Freya and I’m not sure I ever saw you before young man?”

“It’s Nick Wilde and I don’t think we ever met before, me and my ma moved in this week. Nice to meet you too!” Nick answered.

“It’s Roselyn Carver, but just call me Rose, everybody else does. Now, Benny and Elsa are already here, just take the second door on the left in the hallway,” Rose said with a quick gesture. “Also, what would you two like to drink?”

“Just water is fine for me, thanks,” Freya softly answered.

“Same for me. Thanks a lot Mrs C-,” Nick quickly held up both his paws in a placating manner as Rose looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Rose, thanks a lot Rose.”

“It’s not a problem, I’ll bring it over in a bit, so why don’t you two go say hi to the rest?” Rose said as she walked off towards the kitchen.

Freya went down the hallway, nervously fiddling with her blouse as she came to a stop in front of the door, the sounds of laughter and muffled conversation audible from behind it. She took a deep breath as she tried to quiet down the nerves. No sense in putting it off right? Not to mention how dumb she and Nick would look if Rose came back with the drinks and they were still standing here. So, here goes nothing!

She opened the door and they both stepped inside. Freya could only blink in awe, the decor, the colours, the sheer size of it. The room was magnificent! A large TV stood proud on its sturdy cabinet to overlook a cluster of sofas, the cabinet sporting consoles, controllers, a fancy looking VCR... and to its left, a towering display filled with movies that were brand new to ones spanning decades back!

Further in now, a heavy hardwood table sat surrounded by chairs and right next to it, another cabinet stocked high with games. bright smattering of pop culture and personal favourites dashed across the wall between them in all sorts of glossy prints and posters. She could even spot an antique-looking arcade cabinet tucked neatly away in the corner.

This place had everything . It was no wonder they wanted to hang out at Richard's place.

A bobcat poked his head out over one of the sofa’s, a wide grin on his face. “Told you they would be dumbstruck Elsa, so I’ll be picking the first movie of the afternoon!”

There was a loud groan as Elsa and Benny also looked up over the sofa. “There goes my attempt to scare Benny with an old horror flick.”

“Yo,” Nick said as soon as he managed to pick up his own jaw from the floor. Giving  the trio of mammals a wave. “I tried to be fashionably late, but it seems the both of us still managed to be on time. Or did the rest just try to out fashion us?”

“You’re ten minutes early dude,” Benny said with a laugh.

“Hey, I said I tried, never said I succeeded.” Nick smiled.

“Euhm, yeah. Hi!” Freya said as she walked into the room, her eyes still flitting around. “This is eum, very impressive though. How did you even get all this? I mean, you can’t have bought all of this on your own right?”

“Believe it or not, most of this was stuff my parents bought for themselves!” Richard explained as he gestured them over. “They’ve been movie and video game buffs since before I was even born.”

Richard stood up from the sofa and walked over to Nick and Freya “Anyway, nice to have you come over Freya and nice to meet you Nick.”

“Thank you,” Freya mumbled, unsure of where to go with the conversation. 

“Same to you,” Nick said. “So, what are we doing next? Just waiting for the others?”

“Nah,” Benny said as he leaned over the sofa. “The baker twins would be coming an hour or so later and Andrew is chill enough that he’ll just follow with whatever we’ll be doing when he gets in. So let's just get going, what do you guys wanna do first? “

“Oh, oh, oh!” Elsa excitedly put up her arm. “Movie! I might not be able to choose but Richard has pretty good taste in horror movies! Especially the schlocky B-rated ones!”

“Are we even supposed to watch those?” Freya blurted out, wincing as soon as the words left her muzzle. Way to be a wet blanket.

“We totally aren’t!” Elsa just said with a wide smile. “But Richard’s mom lets us get away with it, she’s awesome like that.”

“Honestly,” Benny said in a flat tone. “I’m pretty sure she realizes there is no way to keep Elsa and Richard away from those movies and she gave up on a losing battle.”

The door was pushed open and Rose walked in, a pair of glasses and a bottle of water in her paws.

“Well, here you go,” Rose said with a smile as she handed it over to Nick and Freya. “And yes, that’s pretty much what happened. The more my husband and I tell our Richie,-”

“Mooom, not in front of my friends!” Richard whined.

Rose just continued on with an amused smile on her face. “That he can’t watch them, the more inviting it becomes. At least when we allow him to watch them he doesn't sneak them out or sneak in the room in the middle of the night to watch them. We take our wins where we can get them.”

“But,” Rose gave Richard a stern look. “While I do let you and your friends watch those kinds of movies, do keep in mind not everybody finds them as easy to watch as you.”

“Yeah, keep me in mind when you choose a movie,” Benny spoke up, “Last time we saw one I spent more time clutching to Elsa in pure fear and jumping out of my skin than actually following the movie.”

“Well,” Rose spoke up. “I’ll leave you all to it. Just behave and you three.”

She looked at Benny, Nick, and Freya. “Do keep an eye on those two so they don’t get into too much mischief.”

“Can’t promise anything,” Both Richard and Elsa said with a grin.

“We will,” Freya promised. 

“Well, we’ll try at the very least,” Nick chimed in.

“It’s all I can ask for, now have fun you all! I’ll let Andrew and the twins in whenever they arrive!”

“Thanks mom!” Richard said as he gave his mom a small wave before looking back at all of them. “So, what are you guys up for? A movie sounds good to me.”

Freya fiddled with the hem of her blouse. She really didn’t wanna watch a scary movie, at least, not this early in the evening. Wasn’t the point of getting together to actually, you know, interact with each other? Then again, maybe all of them already knew each other well enough that they didn’t even need to talk with each other to have fun hanging out.”

“I’m gonna say no to that,” Benny spoke up. “Gotta at least try to convince the newbies I’m a big bad wolf.”

“Big bad wolf my ass,” Elsa cheekily spoke up. “When we saw the leprechaun you clutched to me like a piece of velcro to fur, we needed to turn the lights on because you jumped at every sound!”

Richard looked at her and Nick. “Yeah, you should’ve seen him when my mom came in in the middle of that movie! He jumped so high he could’ve gotten stuck to the ceiling!”

“Hey,” Benny said with a chuckle “That leprechaun did things with a pogo stick nobody should witness!”

“Well, euhm,” Freya twiddled her thumbs, watching a horror movie really really didn’t appeal to her right now. I mean, Elsa was just gently ribbing Benny because he couldn’t handle them either. But she wondered if it would be as friendly when it was aimed at her. “I, euhm. Maybe let's do something else than watch a movie? Sounds, well, more like an end of the evening kinda thing I mean?”

“I’m with Freya there,” Nick said with a nod. “Let's do some other things before we start vegetating before a screen? Like some video games! Haven’t been able to go to the arcade in a while now and I’m just feeling myself getting out of practice!”

“So, you don’t want us to vegetate before a screen,” Richard said with a shiteating grin on his face. “But then you immediately suggest video games. Seems a bit contradictory isn’t it?”

“Wha? I mean,It’s totally different,” Nick insisted, looking at the others for support. “I mean, you gotta do more than just look at the screen you know. It’s totally different right? Right guys?”

Freya couldn’t help but let out a giggle as Nick pouted when the rest of the group just shook their heads at him, faint smiles of amusement on their muzzles.

“Well, fine, maybe it is vegetating in front of a screen.” Nick admitted. “But it’s fun interactive vegetating.”

“Honestly, I have to agree with Nick there,” Benny spoke up.

“You’re just trying to get out of watching a horror movie,” Richard chuckled as he gave the bigger wolf a prod.

“Sure am!” Benny said with a loud laugh.

“Well, I’d enjoy it… I think,” Freya gently spoke up. “I mean, I never played a video game, but I mean I heard it’s fun!”

The entire group went quiet as they looked at her, heads tilted in confusion.

“What?” Freya said, eyes nervously flitting between all of them. “Did I say something wrong?”

“Nothing bad,” Nick quickly spoke up. “Well, I just didn’t expect you to have never played a video game before? But nothing’s wrong with that!”

Freya winced, great, way to make herself look lame.

“Hey, easily fixed!” Benny spoke up as he got up from the sofa and began digging through the cabinet as he tried to find something. “Sides, nothing is better than getting somebody in something new!”

“Ah, well, true,” Freya’s gaze fell on the consoles, each of them only having two controllers. And there was only a single TV, so wait? Didn’t that mean only two of them could play? “But euhm, what is the rest going to do? I mean.” Freya gestured towards the consoles.

“There is plenty of stuff to entertain ourselves with,” Elsa said with a wave. “We’ll play a boardgame or something.”

“Sure,” Richard looked at Nick, “How good are you at board games Nick? You good for something like Robo-Rally?”

Nick just gave the lynx a blank look. “What’s Robo-Rally?”

“Only one of the best chaotic board games ever made,” Richard quickly said as he walked over to the cabinet and began digging through it. “You basically program robots to race and nothing goes how you planned it.”

“Programming?” Nick tilted his head in confusion.

“You’re making it sound harder than it is Richard,” Elsa piped up. “Just get it set up and we’ll explain, won’t take more than five minutes. I mean, if you want to play it of course.”

“Sure, I know nothing about board games so I’ll follow you guy’s opinion on it.”

Freya nervously bit her own lip as she looked on as Nick, Elsa and Richard chattered on as they started to set up the game. Nick looked right at home with the entire situation, not a sight of nerves or hesitation on him as he slid in with them like he had known all of them for months and not just a few days.  

“Freya you alright?”

She was pulled out of her own thoughts by Benny’s voice.

“I mean,” he continued on. “If you don’t want to play we can join the others with their board game?”

She really really wanted to. It was stupid, all of them went out of the way to invite her. To have fun with all of them, together.. But here she was, just worrying that if she didn’t stick to Nick’s like a piece of velcro against fur he would just move on from her.Nick wasn’t like that, she just knew he wasn’t. She was just almost freaking out of nothing. “I’m fine, just a bit, you know, nervous, I’m not that great with groups?”

Benny cocked his head and for a moment Freya dreaded that he figured something out and that she said the wrong thing. Instead, he just nodded. “Yeah, I feel that. Didn’t have the easiest time fitting in when I first got here either. But give it some time. They’ll grow on you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” He flashed her a wide grin as he raised his voice slightly so the others could clearly hear him as well. “They’re like mold, once they get on you, they’ll be there forever and you’ll never get them off.”

“Pfff,” Elsa said with a roll of her eyes. “You love us.”

Freya couldn’t help but giggle at their banter. “I guess so yeah.”

“Right, so going back to the more important question,” Benny turned back to her. “You got any preferences with what game we wanna play? I mean, I know you don’t have any experience with them. But any of these that look interesting to you?”

The wolf pushed a small stack of video game boxes over to her. She gently began digging through the surprisingly big pile, looking at the covers of every single one. Some game about falling blocks, one with a very feral looking creature right out of some kind of horror movie standing in front of a bunch of other monsters, some flying space ship looking things blasting away. Freya stopped when she pulled out the next box. It didn’t really stand out much from the rest, a trio of tough looking fighters were all standing ready to punch the crap out somebody with a city in the background. But one of them was a female Tigress, defiantly staring out at whoever dared to come close and looking ready to kick some ass.

“I euhm, wanna try this one out?” She held it out to Benny.

“Yeah, course. He took the box out of her hands and took out the cartridge. “You wanna quickly leaf through the manual while I set it all up?”

“Yes please, at least then I’m not completely clueless, right!” Freya said and quickly took out the manual, starting to flip through it. The first two pages were some quick paragraphs about the story, so she quickly skipped those. It didn’t really sound that interesting, just there is a bad guy causing crime in the city. Now go beat him up. She quickly began reading over the controls and all the other stuff, her eyes glazing over when it began talking about combos and special moves, how was she supposed to keep all of this in her head? This might’ve been a ba-


SEEEEEGGOOOOAAAAT!


Freya let out a yelp, dropping the manual as she slapped her paws over her ears. Trying to block out the extremely loud and distorted voice boomed from the television, dropping the manual as she tried to figure out where that horrible noise came from.

“Holy crap, Benny, my ears!” Richard yelled. 

“Sorry, sorry! I forgot the volume was still turned up from the horror movie!” Benny quickly apologized as he scrambled to turn down the volume. He gave Freya a sheepish grin as he offered her a controller. “Sorry ‘bout that.”

“You nearly had to knock me down from the ceiling after that,” Freya weakly joked as she took the controller, it felt slightly flimsy and small in her paws. Clearly made for mammals more of Elsa’s or Benny’s size. “Why is the controller so big though? I mean, isn’t this Richard’s stuff?”

“Oh,” Richard spoke up. “I bought some large sized controllers when Benny, Elsa and Peter started to come over more often. They kept using it as an excuse when I beat their asses in Street Fighter.”

Benny’s ears went flat against his head as he sighed. “Yeah, and he still keeps beating us. Can’t even use that as an excuse anymore.”

He sat down on the sofa and Freya quickly followed suit. Eyes focusing on the tv where the intro had just finished and Benny was already pushing buttons, navigating through the main menu with the ease of somebody who played the game a hundreds of times before.

“You wanna pick first?” Benny spoke up when the character select screen came up. “I usually pick the wolf dude, but newbies first and all that.”

Freya awkwardly navigated her character select over to the Tigress character, the controller still feeling weird and alien in her paws. The name Blaze Fielding popping up in bright bold letters as some statistics she couldn’t really understand. “It’s alright, I wanted to play with her anyway. What do those things beneath the picture mean though?”

“Ah, well,” Benny started as he selected his own character. “There are some minor differences between each character and all. With yours being slightly less powerful but much better at jumping and running then the bear guy. But it really doesn’t matter that much to be honest.”

A pounding electro beat began to play as their two characters were dropped into the game world and two enemy characters walked in. At least the game was starting slowly. Right, this should be easy, just walk up to them and start punching them in the face. She pressed a button and her stomach clenched as suddenly the entire screen panned over to the left. A pixelated car screeching to a halt before the driver fired a bazooka. The screen following the projectile as it exploded, raining fire down over the entire screen and the two thugs dying with a digital scream.

She... she had just wasted the once per level super attack… by accident.. On a duo of weak enemies. Her ears went flat against her skull as she sunk deeper into the sofa. What a great start.

“Finger slipped?” Benny asked, honestly not sounding too bothered about it.

Which made sense, it was just a video game, a fun activity, why was she treating it like they were going to snap at her for losing or doing badly at it?

“I forgot which button did what,” she quietly murmured. 

“‘We’ve all been there,” Benny said. “Don’t worry, you’ll get a new one when the next level starts, just relax and have fun!”

“Okay, at least now I can’t accidentally fire it off again right?” Freya said with a weak smile as she concentrated back onto the tv and the new wave of foes.

Lets kick some digital butt!

Nick couldn’t really help but glance at Freya every so often, paws nervously fiddling with the board pieces. But, aside from one weird moment all the way at the beginning, she looked… happy. All scooted forward to the edge of the sofa, eyes glued to the screen with a look of intense concentration on her face. Her tail playfully flicking around in an almost mesmerizing pa-

“Hey Slick, your turn to move,” Elsa said. Her voice pulled him back to the game.

“Right, right,” He glanced at the board, “Wait, why is my robot all over there?”

“Because I accidentally rammed you all the way over there with my robot,” Richard said with a grin. “Gotta pay attention!”

“I just averted my eyes for a few seconds Richard,” Nick said with a roll of his eyes as he began to execute his robot’s order queue. “You two have just played this game so often you can go through it all without second guessing yourself, that's why I look slow.”

“You’re averting your attention quite often though,” Elsa said, grinning like the cat who just got the canary. “Always towards the same spot too. I wonder why!”

Nick didn’t know why, but he could feel the tips of his ears start to heat up. “Because that's where the chiptunes come from and it grabs my attention?”

“You’re starting to dig for gossip where there isn’t any again Elsa.” Richard pointed out.

“There totally is though,” Elsa said with the same eager grin still dominating her face. “We’ve occasionally invited Freya over before, but she never took the invitation. But then you ask her once and there she is.”

“I mean,” Elsa quickly added. “That's a good thing in our books, just you know, makes a girl wonder as to why.”

“Seems obvious to me,” Nick started as he gave Elsa a flat stare. “ It’s always easier to come to a party or stuff like this when you’ve got a friend there with you. Else you just kinda shuffle about and don’t know what to say. I’ve been there, hell, I’m pretty sure we’ve all been there.”

Richard let out a small snort. “You’ve been there? Nick I’ve only known you for an hour or so and I find it hard to believe you ever didn’t fit in.”

Nick smirked at the two of them “ Believe it or not, but even this magnificent fox was an awkward guy once.”

Richard let out a groan while Elsa just burst out laughing.

“Careful there Nick,I don’t think this room is big enough for that ego of yours!” Elsa managed to sputter out in between her bouts of laughter. She elbowed Richard in the shoulder. “At least that means there is still hope for us to become as slick as this guy and get ourselves a date before the end of the year.”

“Us?” Richard smirked at Elsa. An evil glint in the feline’s eye as he leaned in closer, voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. “You mean you, I’m doing fine.   I’m not the one who has obviously been hopelessly pining afte-”

Elsa quickly lunged over the table and clamped both of her paws over Richard’s muzzle, the wolfeses’ eyes darting over towards Freya and Benny. 

Nick couldn’t help but cock his head, what was that all about? Why couldn’t Freya and Benny hear who she had been pining after? He followed her slightly panicked gaze and couldn’t help but chuckle as it all clicked together. She didn’t care about Freya overhearing them. Benny on the other hand.

“Don’t worry Elsa. The both of them, especially Benny, are way too caught up in Streets of Rage to have heard anything we’ve been saying,” Nick quickly reassured Elsa. Unable to keep the grin of his face as Elsa’s ears went visibly red. Oh how the tables had turned.

“You’re both having the wrong idea, I’m not pining after anybody.” She leaned in close to the both of them. Trying and failing to suppress the blush creeping into her ears.

“Of course,” Richard said with a smirk, as he pushed Elsa’s paws off him. “You totally didn’t have an ulterior motive. First convincing us all to watch a horror flick and then sit down next to Benny, who you know clings to whoever is closest to him when he’s scared out of his fur? Right, no motive there, none at all.”

She sputtered, her eyes flicking around the room and Nick could see the gears turning in her brain as she tried to find a way out. 

“Yo guys!” The door was swung open as Andrew. “Sorry I’m a bit late, did I miss anything?”

“Andrew! Yo, glad you made it!” Elsa said. Eager to change the subject to absolutely anything else. Talk about being saved by the bell.

“Nice to see you too Elsa,” The lynx said with a lazy wave. His smile growing wider as he saw Nick.“Yo, Richard,  Nick. Glad you and Freya could make it this time.”

Andrew glanced at the pair completely absorbed into their video game and gently shaked his head. “Well, I would say hi to those two, but I doubt they would notice. So what's up with you guys?”

“Getting my ass kicked by those two,” Nick said with a chuckle.

“Ass kicked?” Elsa scoffed, “If you paid as much attention to the board as you did to Freya’s videogame you would’ve noticed you are in front of the race.”

“Wait,” Nick’s eyes widened as he leaned in closer. “I am? How did that happen? I was running into walls for four whole rounds?”

“That’s Robo-Rally for you!” Richard laughed before glancing at the clock. “Anyway, I think the Bakers will be here in ten minutes. Not really enough time to squeeze in another game after this, you cool with just sitting it out while we continue playing it or should we just pack it up already?”

“Eh, just finish it, probably won’t take too long anyway.” Andrew said with a shrug. “So, do you guys already have a clue of what we’re going to do when the twins arrive?”

“Might just start a movie if that’s okay with everybody.” Richard piped up  ” Gotta get started on that early enough so we aren’t keeping everybody till it’s dark”

“Wait, till after dark? These things take that long sometimes?” Nick said in surprise. Crap, he hadn’t even thought to ask about how long it would go on for. 

“Yeah, sometimes we’re here till Richard’s pop kicks us out past eleven,” Andrew chimed in. “Why? Did your mom give you a time when you had to be back home?”

“Not exactly,” Nick awkwardly started. ‘But I didn’t exactly tell my ma how long me and Freya were going to hang out here. So she probably expects me to be home in time for dinner at least. And the last thing I wanna do is send her into a tiff because I’m out and she doesn’t know where I am or something.”

Yeah, with all the things that were already on his ma’s shoulders right now, the very last thing she needed was extra stress and worries. Especially if they were about dumb stuff like getting home too late. 

“Well, that’s still quite a few hours away,” Richard pointed out. “But still, we probably shouldn’t start watching a movie too late if you and Freya have to get home early. Nothing sucks more than having to go home in the middle of one. For anybody involved really.”

“Well, I don’t have a problem with watching one as soon as the twins have arrived,” Elsa glanced at the duo playing video games, a fond smile on her face. “If we manage to drag Benny and his new partner in crime away from the video games at least.”

“Neither have I,” Andrew said with a smile.

“Right, then let's get back to me somehow kicking these two’s asses,” Nick said, a smile playing on his muzzle as both of his opponents shot him a friendly glare.

“Oh, you’re going to eat those words Nick!” Elsa shot back with an amused smirk.

“Better put your money where your muzzle is Elsa,” Nick quickly shot back.  “Because up till now I was winning without even knowing what I was doing and I think I’m finally starting to figure it all out!”

“We’ll see,” Richard said with an ominous grin as they all got back to their game. 

Freya winced as the massive bear on the screen slammed into her character and took away the last bit of her health bar. Benny’s character following suit, the screen fading to black and in big bold white letters ‘game over’ was displayed on the screen.

“Aww, we nearly had him that time,” Freya muttered as she looked over towards Benny. “You wanna try again?”

“I want to, but the baker twins have arrived,” Benny said as he motioned towards them. “And from the way Richard is digging through the cabinet and how Elsa can barely keep herself from bursting out laughing, I think we’re about to go and watch a movie.”

“Why would Elsa almost bursting out laughing have anything to do with watching a movie?” Freya couldn’t help to ask.

“Because we usually watch horror movies and I’m horrible with anything scary,” Benny easily admitted.  “I still love watching them, but I usually have to be pried of the person sitting next to me with a crowbar afterwards. Which she finds very amusing.”

“Oh. Right,” Freya said. “Well, I have to say, the video game was fun.”

“You can come over and play with any of us anytime you want, ” Benny powered down the console and started to clean up. “Just ask Richard.”

Freya quickly stood up to help and it didn’t take any time at all to get it all cleaned up and they walked over to the rest of the group. Freya’s eyes nervously flitting towards the newcomers. Andrew she knew obviously. But the Baker twins? She didn’t remember ever meeting those vixens.

“Eh, hi?” Frey’s voice squeaked out. A small and weedy sound that made Freya want to hide behind the couch in embarrassment. What kind of tiger sounded like a startled kitten?

“Hello Freya!” One of the vixens said with a wide smile on her face.

“Euhm,” Freya’s eyes went wide as she desperately tried to remember the vixen’s name. The vixen knew her, so she should’ve met her before, right? But for the life of her she couldn’t remember her name. “Do, I know you from somewhere?”

Freya winced at how blunt that sounded to herself. “I mean, you know my name and all, but I don’t remember meeting you before. Euhm, sorry.”

“Ah, no I don’t think we ever really met,” The vixen answered. “But it's hard to miss a tigress in bunnyburrow of all places. I don’t think there is anybody who doesn’t know you, even if it is just from hearsay! Anyway, my name is Samantha.”

Samantha’s sister gave her a lazy wave. “And I’m Jennifer, just call me Jenny though. Everybody does.”

Samantha continued on. “But it's nice to finally meet you in the flesh, Freya!”

Freya’s mind went completely blank as those words drilled into her skull. There wasn’t anybody who didn’t know her. Because she was a tigress. Why did that simple fact always throw a monkey wrench in the wheels? She didn’t want to stick out like a sore thumb wherever she went.

“You okay there?” Jennifer’s voice pulled her out of her fugue. “You kinda drifted off?”

“I’m fine, I euhm, just,” Freya fumbled with her words. “I just, didn’t think everybody would know of me. You know.”

“Oh, well. Sorry for bringing it up,” Samantha quickly said. “But well, if it helps. Most mammals don’t really know anything about you other than, She’s the young tigress!”

Freya let out a whine. It really really didn’t.

“Anyway!” Jennifer cut in. “How you doing! You having fun?”

“Yes,” Freya grabbed a hold of that lifeline of a question with both paws. “Me and Benny spent some time playing a video game and I think we’ll be watching a horror movie next. Kinda looking forward to it to be honest? I mean, I never really saw a horror movie before and the videogames were a good experience.

Freya winced as she caught herself just going off on another of her rambles. Nobody wanted to hear aimless rambling. “So, euhm, yeah. How about you two?”She finished lamely.

“Well, we just arrived, but it usually is always fun at richard’s,” Samantha spoke up, a bit of concern crawling on her face. “Did you tell Richard that you haven’t seen any horror movies before? I mean, some of the movies here are pretty… well,”

“Lets just say, if he ever offers you to loan or otherwise let you watch a movie called Event horizon, just don’t,”  Jennifer said with a vacant look on her face, as if the name itself brought back awful memories.  “Most of us couldn’t sleep for weeks and Benny couldn’t stomach looking at uncooked meat for weeks. Great movie, but I’m pretty sure we should’ve gotten in trouble for watching that movie at our age.”

“I haven’t told him no,” Freya trailed off, she really hoped that it wasn’t going to be too bad of a movie. What if she freaked out badly in the middle of the movie? Or worse, what if she was the only one that freaked out and she looked like a total wuss? I mean, sure, Benny couldn’t handle them either and he didn’t bother hiding that. So she doubted they would really care that much, but still. She really didn’t want to look like an idiot in front of all these people.

“So,” Nick’s familiar voice pulled her out of her spiral. “How was the game Freya?”

“Euhm, good!” She blurted out.  “I really liked it, I sucked at it but I had fun. I hope It didn’t feel like I just dropped you Nick.”

Freya glanced towards the two vixens and Nick, unsure what to do here. Just chattering on with Nick just seemed rude, but introducing the two when she knew the vixens names and nothing more just seemed a bit presumptuous. Luckily for her, Jennifer took that choice out of her paws.

“So you’re Nick then?”

“That’s me,” Nick said with an easy smile. “I would guess you two are the baker twins then?”

“Yes, I’m Jennifer and that’s my sister Samantha.” Jennifer said with a quick gesture towards Samantha, who just gave him a wave. “Nice to finally meet you.”

“Finally?” Freya couldn’t help but mutter out loud, which caused all three of the foxes to look at her.

“Yeah, finally.” Samantha said. “We’ve been hearing about him through the grapevine and Elsa and her friends for days now. So we got curious as to what kind of guy got them so excited.”

Nick gave the two of them a large grin. “Probably the fact I’m from the city and everything It ell them blows their minds half of the time. And I’m not going to blow my 15 minutes of fame early by letting them realize life in the city is exactly as boring as life in the burrows, except with less bunnies around.”

“Right, I’m sure there is more to it then that.” Jennifer said with a wry smile.

“Hey, mystique is a big draw, so even if there is more to me I’m not going to explain it,” Nick continued with the same large grin on his face. “But anyway, Richard is almost finished setting up the movie. So we probably find our seats.”

“What’s the movie?” Freya gently asked.

“Some movie about a guy killing people in a dream,” Nick said. “I never saw it before but Richard said it was more comedy than horror though. He said he was giving Benny a bit of a break after ruining pogo sticks for him?”

Freya blinked at that sentence and Nick just let out a small chuckle. “Yeah, I’m just as clueless as you are. But let's just get a seat before all the good ones are taken.”

Freya couldn’t argue with that, she quickly grabbed the bottle of water and both of their glasses before plopping down next to Nick on the couch and settling in for the movie.

Nick tilted his head as the credits started to roll. Trying to piece together what the hell had happened in the last few moments of the movie. “I, what the hell was up with that last scene?”

“I,” Freya scratched the top of her head. “Think Freddy never died in the first place? Somehow? I thought they won?”


“Don’t think too much about it,” Elsa spoke up.  “I saw every movie in the series at least once and this movie at least four times, the ending still makes no sense to me. Hell, even Richard can’t make much sense of it.”

“Yep, don’t think to much about it,” Richard confirmed with a nod.

Nick couldn’t keep a grin of his face as he saw Elsa. Or more accurately, saw the predicament she was in. Pulled into the lap of a pretty mortified Benny who had buried his head into her neck. His fur completely floofed out. The wolfess however, didn’t seem to mind at all, quite the opposite judging by the smile on her muzzle.

“I’d ask Benny for a third opinion, but I’d doubt he would be of any help,” Nick couldn’t help the teasing grin on his muzzle. “ I’d be surprised if he saw anything but your neck fluff for the entire movie.”

The inside of Elsa’s ears went a bright red and Samantha and the others started giggling.

“No I didn’t,” Benny shot back, completely unaware of what was going on around him, his voice still muffled. “I’m pretty sure I saw the first twenty or so minutes.”

“Still means you don’t have a clue of how it ended though,” Nick shot back. “Anyway, maybe you should pry yourself of Elsa and give yourself some room to breathe, I’m still not sure how you aren’t choking on her fluff.”

“Probably a lot of practice,” Jennifer said with a smirk. “They usually end up like that.”

“Anyway!” Elsa snapped as she reluctantly extracted herself from Benny’s grip. “What you guys wanna do next?”

“Well, euhm.” Freya piped up, “What’s the time? I mean, I don’t know about Nick, but I told my Mom and Dad that I would be home in time for dinner. Sorry.”

Nick’s stomach fell as he could see Freya shrink in on herself with every word. Reaching out and gently patting her on the shoulder. “You weren’t the only one who missed the ball on that one.”

“It’s about 3 o’clock anyway, so we still have a good two hours before you two have get home,” Andrew piped up. “You guy’s up for another movie? “

“I don’t think Benny is though,” Jennifer said as she motioned towards him with her head. “Dude looks like he barely avoided a heart attack. Why do you still try to watch these kinds of movies?”

“Cuz being scared shitless is part of the fun?” Benny said with a weak smile. “But yeah, I’m gonna need a bit of time before I’m braving another movie, unless we’re watching a non-horror one.”

“I’m not really interested in watching two movies back to back though,” Samantha piped up. “I don’t mind one, but I don’t wanna spend an entire afternoon watching movies.”

“Then let's just use the old standby of board and videogames again,” Andrew piped up as he gestured towards the board games in the closet. “I mean, there has to be one in the pile that we all like.”

“Sounds good,” Samantha said as she darted over towards the closet. “I call dibs on choosing the next one!”

“Well,” Richard said as he stretched himself out. “Anybody up for some street fighter?”

The group slowly began to divide itself between the ones wanting to play a video game or a board game and Nick walked up to Freya. “So, what do you wanna do?”

“Oh, euhm,” Freya glanced over at the group over at the tv. “Well, it seems it’s already pretty crowded over there. So I’m going for board games.”

“I’ll join you then,” Nick couldn't keep the smile of his muzzle as Freya lit up and they both sat down at the table. Listening as Samantha began to explain the rules for the game she had chosen.

Much sooner than Nick or Freya wanted it, the time for them to say their goodbyes and head back home. The two said their farewells to the rest and thanked Rose for the hospitality.

“So, you looked like you enjoyed yourself,” Nick asked her as they both walked down the driveway.

“Yes,” Freya nodded as she fidgeted with the hem of her dress “ I really did, they were nice. And, the fact you were there really really helped make it fun.” 

Freya mentally kicked herself at how needy that must’ve sounded. “I mean, thanks for Inviting me out.”

“No sweat, I’m glad you enjoyed it,” Nick said with a wide smile on his muzzle, one that made Freya’s stomach do a flip and she couldn’t help but mirror the foxes smile. “Good enough for a repeat sometimes? Or would you rather not that I invite you with me?”

“I would love for you to invite me with you,” Freya blurted out, surprised that she actually meant it. She wasn’t thinking about how Nick might be pulled in other friend groups and leave her behind, she honestly had had a great time there. And it made her feel a bit silly that she hadn’t gone with them earlier. Then again, would it have gone as well if Nick hadn’t been there with her? She shook those thoughts out of her mind. It had been a lot of fun. And, and maybe she could make a few more friends. Well, maybe, if Nick helped her out maybe.

Still those were all worries for later. Now, she just followed Nick to their home, a smile on her muzzle as they just devolved into aimless banter.

Before Freya knew it, the weekend had come and gone and another week of school was waiting right across the corner. Together with all the worries and stresses it would bring. True, she had gotten the entire homework and loss of books situation all sorted out with Nicks help. But now she had to go back to school. And she knew from experience that a few day’s was more than enough to embolden the bullies again. She really really really hoped she was wrong, but she couldn’t help the nagging feeling in the back of her brain that the few days of peace had just been the silence before the storm.

The School came into view and Freya couldn’t help but brace herself. She could do this, she had gone through things like this before, it sucked but she could do it again. And, and at least now she had Nick with her right? It would help.

“You okay Freya?” Nick piped up.

“Oh, euhm. Yeah, just euhm. Reminding myself I need to pick up my new key and padlock before classes start.” Freya sputtered out. “Can’t forget that or I’ll get a little lecture for being tardy.”

Freya plastered a smile on her face and hoped Nick fell for it. Of course, she actually had to pick up her key and padlock. But it had been far from the most important thing on her mind.

Nick cocked his head, studying her for a few seconds before shrugging. “Sure, okay, I’ll walk with you then.”

“Oh, you don’t have to,” Freya automatically started.

“I want to though,” Nick easily said. “Sides, it’s not like I have anywhere else to be.”

“Oh,” Freya blinked, that was a good point and a small smile crawled on her face. “Well, okay then. Lets get it all out of the way quickly I wouldn’t want to be the reason you were late to class.”

“Don’t worry,” Nick said as he gave her a friendly prod with his elbow. “If you do end up making me late to the oh so interesting classes, I’m sure I could find it in my heart to forgive you.”

“Oh shush,” Freya said. “Just because class is boring doesn’t mean you can just try and find ways to skip it you know.”

They fell into some light banter as they made their way through the school, picking up her key and new padlock without any trouble and even though Nick made some half hearted attempts at delaying the both of them. They made it to her locker with still time to spare.

Freya’s smile dissolved and her ears went flat against her head as soon as they came in view of her locker. The door was completely plastered in papers that were covered in crude insults and snide remarks. About how it was her fault that good bucks got suspended, about how she was a liar and she was blowing things out of proportion and that she deserved whatever she got.

Of course, she knew it was going to happen, as soon as one set of bullies left her alone the others just picked up the slack.

And then she felt Nick’s paw on her lower arm. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t need to, his furrowed brow and clenched paws saying more than enough.

“Idiots,” Nick growled as he started to pick up the papers, crumpling them together in a ball. “They’re stupid idiots Freya and if I get my hands on them...”

“Please don’t,” Freya pleaded, “ I mean, euhm. If you lash out you’re going to be in more trouble than they are. And I don’t want that.”

“But,”  Nick started.

“Please,” Freya continued.  “I don’t want you to end up with detention or worse just because of me.”

“Freya,” Nick finally spoke up after what felt like ages. “You can’t honestly be telling me to just let this go?”

“This isn’t like the chicken thing Nick,” Freya said in a defeated tone. “They’ll just brush it off as kids being kids and that I should grow some thicker skin. And in the end nothing will happen. Kicking up a fuss about it will just make everything worse.”

Nick let out a sigh as he continued to clean up the mess and Freya quickly walked over to help him out with it.

“Okay, if that’s what you want Freya,” Nick grumbled. “But I want to help you with this you know. It’s not right.”

“Thanks,” Freya mumbled,wincing as she read another one of the notes. Nick quickly snatched it out of her paws.

“Don’t bother reading it,” Nick said as he walked towards the nearby trashcan and just dumped it all in there. “It’s angry drivel. ”

“I know, I know,” Freya acknowledged. “I shouldn’t let it get to me.”

“What?” Nick said, ears flying up in alarm as he turned back to her. “No! I mean, you feeling bad about something like this is perfectly normal. I just meant you shouldn’t make yourself miserable by reading it. Don’t beat yourself up for this. You’re not at fault here.”

“Oh, right,” Freya mumbled as she bent down to pick up another piece of paper. The nasty words glaring up at her.

Nick glanced up at the clock. “Look, why don’t I give you your books and you make your way to your class already? I’ll clean this up for you.”

“Nick,”  Freya hesitated. “I can’t just let you clean this by yourself.”

“It’s fine,” He waved off her concerns. “My class is closer to here anyway and we wouldn’t want you to miss yours right?”

Freya knew the distance between their classes was negligible and they still had a lot of time. More than enough to clean it up and make it to both of their classes. But she didn’t want to look at those nasty words. To be blamed for being the victim. “Thanks Nick, I, I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Nick said with a reassuring smile as he dug into his backpack and handed her her books. “See you during the break Freya.”

“Yeah,” She flushed as her fingers touched NIck’s when she took the books. “See you then too. I mean, if you’re sure you don’t need any help?”

“I’m sure,” Nick gave her a quick pat on her lower arm. A bit of redness creeping up on the inside of his ears.

“Well, you’ll need this then,” Freya handed over her lock and key. “To euhm, you know. Close the locker after you cleaned it. I mean, if you’re really really sure you don’t mi-”

“It’s fine Freya,” Nick said as he took the lock and key out of her hand.

Freya nodded and hurried to her class

Nick's smile faded as soon as Freya rounded the corner. His eyes darting around, hoping that this new batch of bullies was just as dumb as the last one nad that they had been hanging around to see the reaction. But nope, this early the halls were still silent and mostly devoid of others. With no giggling or bullies to be found. He sighed, of course it couldn’t be that easy this time. He unfurled one of the crumpled notes, the writing was rough and large. Not looking at all like somebody's normal writing. So he couldn’t even ask a teacher if they recognized the writing. It would’ve been a long shot, but at least it would have been a way to start to figure out who did this.

Freya had told him to leave it alone. To not lash out at the people who had done this and he had agreed to it. But as far as he was concerned, precise and calculated payback was something completely different. But it was pretty hard to do that if he didn’t know where to aim it at.

He glanced at Freya’s locker, a wry smile coming onto his muzzle as it clicked in his brain. He might have no clue who did this. But the first set of bullies targeted her locker, and so did this new one. So he had a hunch that it wouldn’t be the last time they would try to go for the locker.

So all he had to do was to… concoct a little surprise for whoever was stupid enough to dare to mess with Freya’s locker. Of course, without getting Freya involved in the entire mess. It would take a bit of planning, figuring things out and getting his hands on some supplies.

He sniggered to himself, plans and ideas whirling through his brain as he finished the cleanup. He closed the locker behind him and grabbed his bag as he walked to his own class. The people who had gone after Freya were going to regret that decision.

He was going to make sure of that.

Chapter Text

As the day’s crawled by, the bullies kept doing the same thing over and over. Every morning when they reached Freya’s locker it was stuffed to the brim with nasty notes plastered across and sometimes even shoved inside through the cracks.

Every morning he hurriedly tried to make Freya move on so he could clean up the mess behind her and every morning he could feel his blood boil just a little bit more as to how utterly defeated Freya looked.

But if his plan worked, well. That problem would be fixed, hopefully for longer than a single weekend. He just needed to do two more things.

“Freya, hey!” Nick waved at her as he weaved his way through the crowd. Smiling as he saw her light up when she saw him. “Before we go home, I was hoping to ask you something.”

“Hi Nick,” She cocked her head. “And sure? But why do you need to ask it before we go home? Do you need some help talking to some teachers or something?”

Nick waggled his paw. “Kinda, I was just wondering, what do you think about switching our lockers?”

Freya just stared dumbly at him for a few moments as she tried to process it. “I, well.. Why would you want to do that?”

“It would give you a locker that wasn’t stuffed with trash every day?” Nick said. “I mean, I know it bothers you a lot more than you let on. So you know, I thought it would help at least.”

“Nick I can’t just force you to use my locker and take the brunt of all that,” Freya started. “You don’t deserve having to go through any of it.”

Nick frowned, well, she didn’t deserve it either, but that thought didn’t seem to cross her mind. “Well you’re not forcing me Freya. I’m asking you about it.” He gently pointed out. “And hey, we both know that I don’t really use my Locker lately. Between the two of us we need most of them at home for our homework. Might as well just keep my books at home and cut out using the locker right? Let those dumbass bullies put their messages on a locker neither of us is using.”

Freya fiddled with the hem of her blouse as she thought that over. Eyes nervously flitting around as she tried to figure out something to say against it. “Can we even switch lockers?”

Nick nodded. “Sure, I ran it past one of the teachers. It’s no problem, they just need to know about it so that they don’t think we’re ransacking each other's lockers.” his face softened slightly as he saw Freya’s Tail flicking nervously back and forth. “Freya, if you really really don’t want to do it that’s fine. I just want to help and, since you basically banned me from hunting them down and getting myself in trouble. This is one of the few things I could think of that didn’t involve any of that.”

“Well,” Freya started, a faint smile crawling on her face. “Okay, let's at least try it. But, but if it is causing you trouble in any way we immediately switch back ok? No sense in making you suffer with me.”

“Alright, alright,” Nick said. “But don’t worry, I won't be the one suffering.” Nick said with an easy smile, now he just needed to do one last thing. Tell Freya he was going to need to get to school earlier without actually saying what he had planned. “Anyway, Let's get the switching locker thing out of the way and then we can get home. Also, before I forget, I’ll have to be at school a little bit early tomorrow. I don’t really understand something and the only time I can get to Ms. Dellwit to ask the questions I have is before classes start,” He pulled a face and let out an exaggerated sigh. “At least, I hope so. Else I’m gonna go into the quiz that’s planned for our next lesson blind.”

“Yeah, our class is lagging a bit behind with chemistry so I can’t help you study there.” Freya let out a giggle as she looked at his dejected face. “Well, I told you to ask your questions during or immediately after class. Prevents things like this happening. But, I guess that means you won’t be walking to school with me tomorrow?”

“Not unless you want to get up earlier than usual. Like a good forty minutes. I don’t know how long she’ll be able to explain things so I wanna make sure I get all the time I need.”

“No thanks!” Freya quickly said with a laugh. “I’m gonna sleep for as long as I can.” Her eyes went wide for a bit as she quickly tried to reword it. “I mean, sorry. I really don’t want to get up earlier than usual and be a zombie for the rest of the day. So euhm.. Good luck?”

“It’s fine,” Nick waved off the concern. “I mean, you did warn me to not keep putting things off till the last minute. I just hope a quick explanation will be enough to sink it in my brain so I can at least pass the next test.”

“You’ll be fine,” Freya assured him. “But yeah, let's get the locker thing figured out before the teachers have all left.”

“Yeah, let’s.” Nick couldn’t keep the wide smile off his muzzle, up till now everything was going to plan and tomorrow, tomorrow those bullies would learn to not mess with Freya.

Nick tried to quell the nerves as he walked up to the school gates. Sure, he had planned this out as much as he could. But now that he actually had to do it, his stomach felt like he had swallowed a block of lead. Was, was this actually a good idea? He slapped his cheeks. No, Freya didn’t deserve to have a bunch of dumb bunnies shit on her because they thought it was funny. They shouldn’t get away with it. He was not going to let them get away with it. And he had read the school rules. Even if he was a fox, the worst he could get from this if they found out it was him, was a stern talking to and a few weeks of after-school detention. It would suck, but it wasn’t as if he hadn’t had to suffer through that before.

Nick quickly made his way towards Freya’s, now his, locker. He quickly looked over his shoulder to make sure the hallway was clear and dug some string, tape, and a stink bomb out of his backpack. He had been looking up the bullies routine, he still had ten or so minutes to get this all set up, get out of dodge and get the rest of his plan rolling. He managed to get the booby trap up and running with time to spare. He carefully closed the locker, making sure not to set off the trap in his own face, and left it unlocked. They had been haphazardly stuffing cruel notes in the locker for a while now, with a bit of luck the jostling should make the entire thing go off in their faces. It had worked the last time he pulled this stunt anyway.

Either way, he had no time to dwell on it. If it didn’t blow up in their faces he would have to think on his feet, right now he needed to get his fluffy but all the way to the teachers’ lounge.

Nick was only lightly panting from the two flights of stairs he dashed up, making a note to himself to thank Freya for dragging him with her on those runs. Taking a brief moment to compose himself, he walked up towards the teachers’ lounge and knocked on the door, impatiently bouncing on his feet as he waited for any response. The seconds that ticked by feeling more like minutes, he raised his paw for another series of knocks. But the door was pulled open and a young and slightly familiar looking rabbit teacher looked up at him.

The teacher cocked his head, furrowing his brow for a bit. “You’re Nick Wilde right?”

Nick gave the man a genial smile as he nodded. “A teacher I don’t have, knowing me by name? That can’t be good. Anything I need to be worried about?”

The teacher simply shook his head, “No, nothing like that. I’m Mr. Muller, I was there while the school,” Mr, Muller’s face twisted in distaste. “Handled the incident.”

“Ah,” Nick snapped his fingers as it all clicked back into place. “So that’s why you looked so familiar.”

“Indeed,” Mr. Muller said. “But I doubt you came all the way to the teachers’ lounge just to chat, so what can I help you with? Do you need a specific teacher or…?” He trailed off. The teacher looked like he wanted to ask more, but couldn’t get it out.

“Oh right, well this is a bit embarrassing,” Nick started. “But euh, well. I lost my key for my locker. I couldn’t find it anywhere at home. So, well. I was wondering if you could open up my locker? Or see if there was a spare key and lock for it? I really don’t wanna drag all my books with me the entire time.”

“Ah,” Mr. Muller said, “yes, of course, we should have a spare key around here somewhere. As long as you still have your originally assigned padlock of course? What's your locker number?”

“Of course I’m still using that padlock. Else it would be kinda dumb to ask a teacher wouldn’t it?” Nick easily said, “My locker is 2598.”

The rabbit paused and looked back over towards him, raising an eyebrow in suspicion. “Isn’t that Freya Roarkins locker?”

“It used to be,” Nick easily admitted. “But we switched lockers yesterday because well…”

Mr. Muller’s face softened as it all clicked together in his mind. “That makes too much sense,” he said with a sigh. “Just give me a moment and I’ll get the spare key.” The rabbit disappeared around the corner. the clatter of metal keys and Mr. Muller’s mumbling followed a few moments afterwards. After what felt like an eternity Mr. Muller darted back around the corner, triumphantly holding up the key and another padlock set. “Aha, Found what we needed, so let's get your locker open before you break your back with all the books in your backpack.”

Nick cocked his head, “you can’t just give me the key?” Nick already knew the rabbit couldn’t, but hey. The better he acted this out, the less suspicion would fall on his head, right?

The rabbit shook his head, “Unfortunately not, we can’t just give out spare keys to people. Without access to a spare we can’t open up a student's locker. Which, well, you know why we need to do that sometimes. So no can do, You’ll be getting a new lock with its key. And I’ll have to update that information for the rest of us.” The rabbit shook his head, “I never know why they didn’t go with number combinations on the lockers to be honest. Would be so much easier.”

Nick followed Mr, Muller “I wouldn’t know,” he said with a shrug as they went down the stairs. “Maybe it was cheaper at the start or something? Or they just don’t want to change the locks on more than five thousand students? Because that sounds like a headache and a half.”

“Yes, that might very well be it. But,” Mr. Muller hesitated for a second. “Well, how is Freya doing? How long has this been going on?”

“A while,” Nick's ears drooped down.

“Figures,” Mr. Muller shook his head and glanced up at him. “Nick, well. If you, Freya or any of your friends have troubles. My door is always open for everybody, even if a lot of the staff don’t think the same.”

“And what can you do?” Nick couldn’t help it. The bitter words fell out of his muzzle without even thinking.

“Whatever I can,” Mr. Muller resolutely said. “I’m not just saying this because I have to, Nick. I can’t, and I don’t want to, force you to open up. But when you or Freya feel ready for it. Just keep that in mind okay?”

Nick couldn’t help the feeling of weariness crawling up on him at those words. He had heard them all before. And they usually were nothing more than a faint excuse to keep a closer eye on the shifty fox. Why would this time be different? As soon as push came to shove, he would throw him in front of the bus anyway. Because they all expected the slick fox to be the problem anyway. “Sure, I’ll keep it in mind.”

An awkward silence stretched out between them. Mr. Muller’s ears drooped as it dragged on. Luckily for the both of them. Loud screams and retching broke the awkward silence. Mr. Mullers ears flicked back up and he wrinkled his nose as the rancid smell hit his nose. “What.. that came from your locker!” he blurted out as he broke out in a run.

“Ye-” Nick coughed as his eyes teared up from the smell. He had bought some strong stuff, but holy crap. This made him want to consider sticking his head in a clogged up sewer just to get this smell out of his nose.” He rushed after Mr. Muller, he still had one thing left to do.

He turned the corner and the smell just became worse. But he still couldn’t help but smile at the sight before him. A trio of rabbits were retching and coughing as they gasped for fresh air. One of them was just sitting on the ground. Her face blank and her fur covered with residue from the stink bomb. Her brain desperately trying to reboot after being hit by the worst of the bomb at point blank range.

“What, Is going on here?!” Mr. Muller managed to force out. Looking over the carnage with wide eyes.

Nick composed himself slightly before going in for the final blow of his plan. “What did you idiots do to my locker!” He snapped and stomped forwards. Grabbing one of the rabbits by the collar of her vest and forcing her to look up at him. “You,” Nick coughed as the smell hit him like a jackhammer. “you, think this is funny?” Nick carefully slipped the key to his locker into the pocket of her jacket. “Hey! Answer me!”

“Wha,” The doe barely managed to mumble out.

“Nick!” Mr. Muller’s voice barked out as he walked closer. “I know you’re angry. But this isn’t going to help you, not in the long run.”

“Fine,” Nick mumbled as he let the doe go and stepped away from her.

“Thank you Nick,” He glared at the trio of rabbits. Nick could see the questions fighting in the teacher’s head. Trying to decide where to begin with this mess.

“Let’s start with the beginning,” Mr. Muller finally started. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Stink Bombs are banned in the school. And that’s just for having them on you, trying to plant them in somebody else's locker is another matter entirely!”

“We didn’t try to plant a stink bomb!” one of them finally found their voice. “It, it was just unlocked! We didn’t do anything! It just fell open and things went to hell. I swear!”

“It wasn’t unlocked at all! Hell, I lost my key!” Nick snapped. “And lockers don’t just fall open, So you were messing with it for sure!”

None of the rabbits wanted to meet his or Mr. Muller’s eyes. “We didn’t! And of course it was unlocked, how would it be able to fall open otherwise you idiot!” One of them snapped back.

“Everybody, quiet down.” Mr. Muller spoke up again. “Unless the locker is broken, they can’t just fall open. And Mr. Wilde came to me this morning to say he lost his key.”

“What, you think we stole it?” The rabbit couldn’t help but laugh at the idea. “We didn’t, we’re not a fox!”

“Well, there is an easy way to check that, now isn’t there?” Mr. Muller managed to force out. “Empty your pockets, all of them.”

With a smug smile they did so. Pulling out knicknacks, one of their wallets and four keys. The rabbit looked completely dumbfounded. Her smile wiped off her face very quickly. “I. euh.”

“So an extra key?” Mr. Muller shook his head as he took all of them. “Let's see if one of them fits Mr. Wilde’s locker.” The teacher quickly began testing them on the lock. With one of them easily fitting the padlock.

The doe finally managed to get her wits back.“I euh, I swear I don’t know how it got in my pocket!” She jabbed a finger at Nick. “He must’ve put it there! He’s setting us all up!”

“Yes, I was somehow able to put my lost key in your pocket... Without anybody seeing.” Nick said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “What do you think I am? A magician?”

“I think this all say’s enough.” Mr. Muller said with a sigh and he handed the key back to Nick.” Here is your key. Though I don’t think it would be a good idea to store your books like you planned. Just go and freshen up before the first lesson. I’ll...“ the teacher rubbed his forehead. “I’ll just take care of them and this.” he gestured towards it.

“You can’t do this to us!” one of the rabbits snapped as the teacher began leading them away. “Yeah! We didn’t do anything!” Another one added. The third one just numbly followed the group with only a little prompting. Her mind still blissfully retreated into her happy place.

“Will do Mr. Muller.” Nick said as he trudged off towards the bathroom, A wide grin splitting his face as soon as he got out of sight. “Serves you right.” He muttered under his breath. He couldn’t believe how it all fell into place. Sure, he had planned things out, but at every moment things could’ve completely blown up in his face. But they didn’t. He had gotten payback! And with a bit of luck they would be too busy with their detention to take out their ire on him! But as long as they were aiming their ire at him and not Freya he would be happy.

Mr. Muller tuned out the protests of the three students he was leading back towards the offices. Ignoring the confused and wrinkled up faces of the other students he passed in the hall. Caught up in his own thoughts for now. This didn’t feel right. Everything just seemed to happen smoothly. What were the odds of this entire situation happening? A stink bomb going off in the bullies face’s he could get. He also could see Nick lose his key and ask for help or change his locker with Freya. But Nick changing his locker the day before, immediately losing his key and then a bunch of bullies finding the key and them having all the stuff to try and rig his locker with a stink bomb the day after?

Add in the final fact that those rabbits had been a thorn in Freya’s side for who knows how long. And this started to look less like an accident and more like Nick planning to get back at a bunch of bullies.

It was reckless, completely against the rules, things could’ve gone wrong in so many ways. Both for Nick as for the people around him. But somehow, even after all that, he still couldn’t find the will within him to let the rabbits go and go and get Nick punished. Because honestly, what could Nick have done? Talk to the other Teachers? Nick had seen first hand how that would end up when he had been there with Freya. He had to fight tooth and nail to get them to consider the obvious last week. Nick had a sharp tongue, but Mr. Muller doubted he would be able to cut through that mess.

Especially when the trio were a lot more slippery than they seemed at first glance. Somehow always managing to have some kind of alibi or excuse that made him or a few other teachers just stew in frustration as they managed to get away scot-free or with barely a slap on the wrist.
Didn’t help that they were Hopps and Thumpers either. More than enough Uncles and aunties that worked at the school that just couldn’t accept their sweet nieces had done something mean. This could be the one time he could actually pin a punishment on them without any chance of them slipping away. They deserved one for all the shit they had pulled, not to mention all the shit they did and got away with.

All he needed to do, was to keep his mouth shut and let Nick get away with his stunt. Not something that sat well with him either. He herded the protesting trio into the office. “Stay here,” He snapped at them as he stomped off to get the rest of it dealt with.

“Benjamin,” a female voice called out to him. “What has gotten into you this early?”

“Some idiots set off a stink bomb in the school.” Mr. Muller turned towards the voice, giving Jane Hopps a polite smile, his ear flicking irritatedly as he saw the canister of Fox repellent hanging off her hip. “In the hallway that has the lockers two thousand to three thousand fivehundred. Could you inform the janitors about it? We really need to try and clean up the mess. I don’t think our students would enjoy having to walk through the stink to get through their books.”

“Eugh,” Jane groaned, “Lemme guess, one of our resident foxes was trying to be funny? I bet it’s that new one, do you know he went off on me the first time he saw me? For no good reason either!”

Mr. Muller rolled his eyes, maybe if Jane didn’t wear a bright pink fox-away canister on her belt, She might actually be able to hold a conversation with a fox without them immediately figuring out she was a raging specist. He sighed. “No, it wasn’t a fox,” the lie rolled off his tongue easier than he thought it would. “It was your niece Jessica and her friends actually. I caught them red handed while they were trying to rig another students locker. It blew up in their face. Literally.” He tried to keep a straight face as Jane’s ears went flat down her head, her eyes growing wide as saucers and she gaped at him like a goldfish that had flopped out of its bowl.

She quickly recomposed herself. “Well, you sure? I know Jessica has always been a bit rowdy, but I can’t see her doing something like that. She’s a good girl at heart.”

“Yes,” Mr. Muller said in a tired tone. “I’m very sure. Her being a good girl at heart doesn’t really matter, she and her friends still broke the rules.” Maybe not the rules about bringing banned goods into the school. But they still had been terrorizing their fellow students. Which didn’t really make this a lie. “If they’re good kids then this will just be a moment of them being teenagers and doing dumb stuff and they’ll laugh about how dumb they were.” He gave her a thin smile. “I mean, we all have done dumb stuff as teenagers right?”

“I suppose so,” Jane said. “Don’t be too hard on them though, I mean, like you said, they’re just teenagers.”

“I won’t be,” Mr. Muller reassured her with a thin smile on his face. He was going to be exactly as hard on them as they deserved. Which was definitely worse then what Jane was expecting after he said those words. But hey, he already was dipping his feet into moral relativism today. Might as well go the whole way and stick with what he thought was right. And them getting off with barely any punishment for everything they pulled was not it. “But I think we better get on this. The stench was bad enough to nearly make me puke and the less time we give it to sink into the furniture the better. ”

Jane gagged. “Oh gods, I can imagine that. Yes, I’ll go and inform the janitorial staff right away. I don’t want to subject any of our students to that smell for any longer than I have to. I’ll leave you to deal with our pranksters then.”

“Of course,” Mr. Muller answered, giving her a nod as he went back on his way.

No matter how much he had tried to get the smell of the stink bomb out of his fur. When the start of class rolled around a faint whiff of it still clung to him. With the other mammals in class giving him disgusted and confused looks. But a win was a win, and he wasn’t afraid to be stinky for a while if it kicked those bullies down a peg or two.

Even though his ma was probably going to hose him down before letting him inside for a shower. But hey, that was a small price to pay to make sure Freya got a few more carefree weeks without bullying. The bell finally rang and the entire class erupted into a kerfuffle of motion. Nick didn’t rush as he shoved his stuff into his bag. Waiting till the big ball of people trying to force themselves through the door had resolved itself before leaving the classroom. Time to find Freya and see what she had been up to.

Luckily, it didn’t take him long to find Freya, who was timidly talking with Elsa and Peter. Well, less talking and more just awkwardly standing next to them as she listened to the conversation. But hey, they’ve all been there. “Yo guy’s, how's things going?”

Freya immediately turned towards him with a bright smile, “oh hi-” the words died in her throat and she slapped her paw over her nose. “What is that smell?”

“Yeah, no offense, but you smell like a dead skunk,” Peter said as he took a step back from him, Elsa quickly following suit as she covered her own nose, “what happened?”

“Some dumbasses tried to rig my locker with a stink bomb,” Nick said with an easygoing grin. “I didn’t get hit by the worst of it since it backfired on themselves. But man, the scent really clings to you.”

“They did what,” Elsa blurted out, eyes wide with shock. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Like I said, I didn’t get hit directly, this stink is just from walking through the aftermath,” Nick couldn’t help the wide grin on his muzzle. Oh yeah, it had definitely been worth it to see the looks of horror on the rabbits’ faces. He really should thank his supplier. “So it ended up being delicious karma.”

“You sure?” Freya gently prodded. “I mean, don’t take this the wrong way. But you really really stink.”

“I noticed,” Nick said with a smile.

Freya rolled her eyes at his little moment of snark and continued on. “I mean, doesn’t it hurt your nose?”

He shrugged. “I can’t really smell anything anymore. I think my brain just blanked it out after a while.”

“Let's hope ours do the same,” Elsa said with a shudder. “Well, let's find a spot outside, maybe airing you out will do the trick.”

“At least now we’ll be able to find a decent spot to hang out outside,” Peter said in a nasal tone, his paw clutched over his nose. “As soon as we get close everybody else will hightail it out of there.”

“Well,” Freya gently cut in. “If you don’t mind of course, I know I wouldn’t like being seen around the school if I smelled like that. We can hide out somewhere instead if you want?”

“I really don’t care what most people think about me,” Nick added. “The weather is nice, I’ve been cooped up in the classroom for what feels like ages and maybe, just maybe, the fresh air will get my nose back in working order so let's go for it.”

“Not sure you really want your nose back in working order though,” Freya couldn’t help but giggle. “Because then you’ll smell it again.”

“I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it,” Nick said. “I just hope this is all aired out by lunch,”

“Yeah,” Elsa cut in, “I’m sorry, but if you still smell like that during lunch you’re gonna have to stay away until we’re done eating. I don’t think I’ll be able to keep anything down with you smelling like that.”

“At least you can run away from the smell,” Nick said with a dramatic sigh. “I’m dreading lunch to be honest.”

“Well, I’m sure you can find some nose plugs somewhere,” Freya said with a small smile on her muzzle. “That would fix it.”

“Yeah,” Nick whined, “But then I wouldn’t taste anything at all.”

“Better that than tasting a sewer isn’t it,” Freya giggled.

“We could always ask the home-ec teacher to dunk you in a bathtub of tomato sauce,” Peter piped up. “That usually works when you get hit by a skunk and you definitely stink like somebody got a faceful of skunk spray.”

Nick could help but shiver in horror at the idea of having to scrub himself with tomato sauce. Just thinking about the sauce crusting in between his fur was making him feel itchy all over. And then it would be getting everywhere. And then he had to deal with that for the rest of the day until he was able to take a shower. “Thanks, but no thanks. I rather stink than go through that. Do you know how hard it would be to get out of my fur?”

“But you’re red already,” Elsa grinned. “Nobody would notice.”

“But it would feel disgusting,” Nick whined, looking over at Freya for support. Only to see her having clasped both of her paws over her muzzle, desperately trying to muffle her giggles. “Laughing at me in my time of need,” Nick said with an overly dramatic whine. “The friends I ended up with.”

“Oh shush,” Freya gently hit him on the shoulder. “I should’ve introduced you to the drama club instead. You drama-queen. Now, let's get going.”

The rest of the day passed without anything noteworthy happening. If he ignored the fact he could barely taste his food and that people took a wide berth around him there wouldn’t have been a difference at all. He let out a sigh of relief as the bell of the last period sounded and people started to gather their stuff and file out of the classroom. Finally, cleanliness awaited!

Nick was making his way through the corridors and towards the entrance so he could wait on Freya, when he heard Mr. Muller call him

“Nick Wilde,” the teacher stepped in front of him, a polite smile on his face. “Do you have a minute? I need to talk to you about what happened this morning? Get some more facts straight and all.”

“Sure,” Nick said with a tilt of his head. “As long as it doesn’t take that long, I walk home with Freya and I don’t want to keep her waiting, you know.”

“It won't take more than a few minutes, I promise,” Mr. Muller said, “please follow me.”

Mr. Muller led Nick towards an empty conference room, well it looked like one at least. A simple place for teachers and students to come together and talk about things. The teacher flipped the placket on the door to occupied and motioned for Nick to sit.

“So, what do you want to know, Mr. Muller?” Nick spoke up, wanting to get this out of the way as soon as he could.

“I know that you were behind all of this Nick,” Mr. Muller said. It wasn’t a question, it was a statement.

Nick felt like somebody had dumped a bucket of ice water over him. His muzzle was moving but the words didn’t come out. His brain, usually able to come up with excuses and explanations on the spot, utterly failed him. The teacher's stern gaze had stolen the wind out of his sails.

“This, this is because I’m a fox isn’t it,” Nick finally sputtered out.

“No, it’s because your plan went too smoothly,” Mr. Muller said. “You happened to have changed lockers with Freya. Then you somehow managed to lose the key to your new locker. Which somehow ended up in the pockets of the bunnies who have been terrorizing Freya. How they managed to get their hands on Freya’s old locker key without knowing the lockers had been switched is also quite the mystery. Even if they found the key by pure chance, they wouldn’t have known it was yours or Freya’s because they are labeled by lock number, not name or the number on your locker. And if that already wasn’t pushing the boundaries of coincidences. They somehow got a hold on a stink-bomb, flubbed rigging the locker so badly they got caught up in their own trap while you just happened to have asked a teacher to help you with your lost locker key. Just in time for us to hear the bomb going off so they didn’t have a chance to gather their wits and escape.”

Nick winced, if you put it like that. That did sound pretty unbelievable. He squared his shoulders and glared at Mr. Muller. So what if he got caught? Yeah it would suck for him and he probably would get a suspension, but what else was he supposed to do? Talk with the teachers? Yeah right. They would just ignore it, it's what they’ve been doing before all of this.

Mr. Muller shook his head. “Nick, as strange as this is going to sound, you’re not in trouble. As overcomplicated and out of line your plan was. I know that most of the teachers don’t care about the bullying because it’s happening to a fox or tiger.” The distaste was clearly visible on the teacher's face. “And I have corroborated your series of events to the other teachers.”

“Then why did you pull me aside?” Nick asked.

“Because both you and I know this could’ve easily landed you in a lot of trouble,” Mr. Muller said. “Do you think Freya wants that? What do you think would’ve happened if somebody else had opened the locker before your actual targets came around? Or if anything else didn’t work out like you hoped? What if your targets hadn’t come along before you were there with the teacher? No doubt they would have checked the locker and gotten a face full of stink-bomb. Where would that leave you Nick?”

Nick felt his ears going flat against his head as that reality sunk in.

Mr Muller rubbed his paws across his muzzle. “I know that you and Freya don’t have many people to turn to but doing things like this is only going to make it worse on you and we know that it doesn’t stop anything in the long run. So next time, please just come to me with this? I know I’ve said it before and I know words don’t mean much to you. Especially from a rabbit teacher in a place like the burrow. I am here to help. But I can’t do that if you don’t talk to me or if you keep pulling more stunts like this.”

Nick really wanted to believe Mr. Muller, but he couldn’t. It could all be an act, an elaborate joke to gain his trust and then pull the rug out from underneath his feet when he felt safe. He could easily imagine the mocking laughter and the sneer on Mr. Muller’s face as he berated him for thinking somebody would ever trust a fox. He could feel his claws dig into his palm as his paws squeezed into fists at that memory.

He couldn’t bear that, not again.

“I’ll keep it in mind,” Nick said in a hoarse voice. His heart hammering in his head and his paws shaking. He forced a smile on his muzzle and tried to stay calm. Don’t let them see they get to you “Anything else?”

Mr. Muller shook his head. “No, that was all I wanted to say. Just keep what I said in mind okay?” The teacher gave him a wry smile. “Even if it is just the first part.”

Nick nodded, grabbed his bag and walked out of the room.

Freya nervously fidgeted with the straps of her bag as she looked around for Nick. Trying to find his bright red fur in the sea of whites, greys and browns. He was late, Nick never lingered longer at school than he absolutely had to. Always eager to find something to do and dragging her along for the ride.

So he either had planned something to do. Which she doubted, Nick would’ve told her to just go on without him if he had something to do after school. Or Something had suddenly come up. She didn’t like the idea of the last one, when it came to predators something unexpected coming up usually ended with detention.

She perked up as she finally saw his bright red fur stick out in the masses. “Nick,” She waved at him, trying to catch his attention. “I’m over here!”

Freya’s smile faded a little bit as he got closer. She had only known Nick for a few months and yeah the fox was pretty hard to read usually, always having that unflappable grin on his face as whatever the world threw at him slid off him like waters of a duck's back. But now she could easily see the tension. The easy smile looked more like a grimace. His normally laid back posture was all hunched up and even if she hadn’t picked up on any of that stuff, his fluffed up tail was distressingly obvious.

“Are you alright?” Freya asked as soon as Nick was close enough. “Did something happen? I mean, of course something happened because you were late, did something bad happen? Because well, you don’t look okay?”

As soon as the words stopped tumbling out of her muzzle. Nick's eyes went wide and he forced himself to loosen up.

“I’m fine,” Nick said, his act not fooling her for a minute. “I had some more questions to answer about the incident that happened in the morning.”

Freya went along with it for now. Nick was hiding something. But she wasn’t going to pry. Well, she wasn’t going to pry while they were surrounded by students. That could wait when there were less wandering ears around. She started walking and when the crowd thinned out and they were nearly alone she picked the conversation back up. “They didn’t try to blame you for it did they?”

“Nah, nothing like that,” Nick quickly shot back. “Mr. Muller just had some questions he wanted answered I guess.” He nervously rubbed the back of his neck, trying to pat down his hackles.

Freya tilted her head in confusion, small tendrils of panic coiling around her at how Nick was almost falling to pieces. His usual calm collected nature was nowhere to be found. “Mr, Muller? I thought he was pretty cool. I mean, he at least claimed to listen a bit. Was he lying about that? He didn’t hurt you right?” She doubted a teacher would actually physically hurt a student. But there were much worse ways people could cut you down, especially if they had power over you. Freya was all too familiar with that. She gently put her paw on his back, unsure of what to do if that had been the case.

“No, he didn’t,” Nick hesitantly said. “Kinda wish he had?”

“Why would you wish for that?” Freya couldn’t help but blurt out, she glanced around. They had broken off from the crowd a while ago and now it was just the two of them.

“Because I know how to deal with an asshole teacher,” Nick said in a flustered tone. “I don’t know how to deal with this.”

“Nick, what happened?”

“I don’t know,” Nick threw up his paws in confusion. “He said he knew what happened and instead of telling the rest of the teachers what I did he let me go with a warning.”

“What, you did?” Freya said. That part of the sentence bouncing around in her brain. He did something? Hadn’t he been the victim? It had been those three that had planted a stink bomb in his locker because they had thought it had been… hers. Things started to fall into place, all those little inconsistencies in his story that she had first ignored or waved away suddenly made much more sense if it had been something Nick had planned. The bullies wouldn’t have known where to get a stink bomb, they never used physical pranks before, so why would they suddenly do it now? And Nick didn’t drag himself out of bed early for anything, especially not school. So why did he suddenly want to be at school early? And it all had fallen into place very conveniently after that as well.

“Nick,” Freya felt slightly bad as her best friend flinched but she needed to know. “What did you do? Was that your stink bomb?”

Nick’s jaw moved for a bit, his usual slick and eloquent self was nowhere to be found and the silence said all she needed to know.

“Why would you do something that stupid?” Freya blurted out. “You could’ve gotten expelled!”

“I couldn’t let them get away with it!” Nick shot back. “They were hurting you and I wasn’t going to sit around while they were hurting my friend.”

“Why did you do this though?” Freya said in disbelief. “You could’ve gotten expelled. Where would that leave you then?” where would that leave her having Nick around made school bearable. “You would be throwing away your entire future just to get back at some bullies.”

Nick laughed at that. A hollow, mirthless cackle that made her fur stand on end and her ears flatten against her skull. “Come on, that's a bit too dramatic isn’t it? It's not like getting expelled from school is going to be the end of my life.”

“No, but it makes things a lot more difficult!” Freya insisted as she nervously wrung her paws. Trying to figure out why Nick couldn’t see the blatantly obvious. “You can’t go to university or further education without it, and finding a job will be a lot more difficult.”

Nick shook his head at her words. “Come on Freya, when is the last time you ever saw or heard of a fox working a job that required a higher education?”

Freya drew a blank there. “Well, euhm.. Just because I don’t know about any doesn’t mean there aren’t any! Or that you couldn’t be one of them. But you’ll never know if you throw away your future over something as small as this!”

“Don’t say that,” Nick snapped at her, his hackles raised. “Stop calling you being bullied and nobody doing anything about it, a small thing! It’s not. Not to you and not to me!”

“Oh, and your education is?” Freya shot back as she growled in frustration. “Do you think I like the idea of you getting expelled because of me?”

“You aren’t responsible for the people who bully you Freya,” he crossed his arms as he gave her a defiant stare. “If I got in trouble because I got back at bullies, that isn’t your fault, they made their choice and I made mine.”

“If that is how it is then let me make my own choice in how to deal with them!” Freya met his eyes and didn’t back down.

“So I’m supposed to watch and let my friend get bullied every day? I can’t do that!”

“I’m not some damsel you need to fawn over and take care of Nick!” Freya spat out, Tail flicking in irritation.

“I never said that, but you sure as hell aren’t doing anything to take care of yourself when it comes to them!”

Freye grit her teeth, not doing anything? Not doing anything? What the hell was she supposed to do? Punch them in the face? Snarl at them and growl and act like the tiger stereotype they all believed her to be? That would just make things worse. She would get punished or even expelled while they went off scott free. “And what am I supposed to do then Nick? Stand up for myself? How? By snarling? Drop Kicking them into tomorrow? Tricking them and blowing up a stink bomb in their face and nearly getting caught? They deserved it, but that doesn’t mean we should drop down to their level or start to live down to their standards.”

“Are you saying I’m like them?” A flicker of hurt crossed Nick’s face. But it was quickly smothered underneath anger.

“You’re sure acting like them right now!” Some part of Freya already regretted the words as soon as they tumbled out of her muzzle. But the words not doing anything rang through her head and drowned it out.

“Well, Fine!” Nick spat out as he stomped off towards his own home . “See if I care next time.”

“I’ve been doing fine without you caring up till now!” Freya shot back as she turned her back on him and stomped to her own home, slamming the door shut behind her.

“Freya?” Her fathers voice rang out, he rounded the corner. A concerned frown on his face. “Are you alright?”

“I-” Freya wanted to snap that she was alright. That it had just been Nick being dumb and stupid and and something. But the anger was already ebbing away. Her own words tumbling through her brain loud and clear. What the hell had she been thinking? She put her face in her hands. She hadn’t been thinking, that had been the problem. Nick had said something stupid and then she had stopped thinking. She wilted as she looked over at her dad.

“I think I screwed up.” Freya whimpered.

Her father gestured towards the couch and sat down. Patting the seat beside him. Freya plodded over, tail dragging over the floor and dropped herself in the seat. Her father put a comforting arm around her. “So what happened?”

Freya let out a whimper as she leaned into him. “Nick and I had a fight. A pretty big one.”

Her father nodded, “What was it about?”

“I, well,” She fumbled her words as she tried to put it all together. “You promise you won’t tell anybody else?”

“I promise,” Her father rubbed his hand on her back. “So what happened?”

“Nick, euhm.. Set of a bunch of stink bombs in a group of bullies’ faces.” As soon as the first few words tumbled out of her muzzle, it was as if a dam had broken, the rest of the words rushing out to follow them. “He didn’t get caught, but he could’ve been and he could’ve been expelled and then he just laughed that off and acted as if that wouldn’t even matter because he was a fox. I tried to tell him he was wrong about that but he wouldn’t have it and then I told him I could take care of myself and he said I wasn’t doing that and then-,” Freya took a deep breath, fiddling with her paws as she shrunk in on herself.

“Then I said he was living up to what the bullies and people like them expect him to be.” She winced, it sounded even worse that she had thought. “I don’t even know what I was thinking that I thought saying that was okay.”

“That doesn’t really matter right now,” Her father gently started. “What matters is that you feel bad about it and want to make it up to Nick, right?”

Freya nodded. “But how do I even do that?”

“Only one way to go about it really, you go and apologize.” Her father simply said. “I know that you aren’t the only one who stepped out of line. But you can only fix this if one of you steps forward and starts with an apology.” He gave her a reassuring pat on her shoulder. “But honestly? I think Nick feels just as bad about what he said as you. So as soon as you apologize I have no doubt he’ll give you one as well and you two can put it all behind you.”

“You sure?” Freya muttered, hopefully looking up at her father.

“Quite sure,” He reassured her. “Come, why don’t we get started on dinner and then you can apologize after.”

Freya nodded, a look of relief on her muzzle. “Okay.”