Chapter Text
“It could have been worse,” Nick mused, sipping his coffee. “You could have walked in on something actually important.”
“But it was embarrassing, you should have seen the look on his face!” Judy lamented, her paws coming up to cover her face. Nick leaned over and gave her a comforting pat on the back.
“Listen, we all like Gazelle. So what if the guy has an app that…uh…”
“Swaps his face with a tiger in booty shorts,” Judy finished. Nicks eyebrows knitted and he took another swig of coffee to stifle his laughter.
“Yeah. That. The point is, he wasn’t mad. I wouldn’t get your cottontail in a twist over it.” He stuck the coffee stirrer in his mouth, chewing it.
“You’ll both get over…” As he spoke, the unmistakable feeling of something wrapping around his tail became apparent. Judy’s expression turned quizzical as Nick’s ears shot up. She followed his gaze to see a young badger with both hands tightly grasping Nick’s tail.
“Hey there!” A nervous smile crept on her face and she reached out to the little tyke. Nick’s left eye twitched but he forced a friendly expression. “Whatcha got there?”
The tiny badger looked up, brown eyes innocently peering at Judy.
“Bad guy.”
Nick’s posture stiffened and Judy’s ears wilted down her back.
“Bad guy…?” She repeated, hands shrinking back in confusion. Her eyes flicked up to stare quizzically at Nick but he avoided her gaze. Choosing instead to inspect the tiny puddles of dripped coffee on the table.
“Matthew, don’t run off!” An older badger with grey flecking her muzzle bounded towards them. She hurriedly swept the toddler in her arms. Matthew—Judy presumed that was the young badger’s name— dropped Nick’s tail in surprise. Slowly, it slinked behind him, the fur dented where Matthew had grasped it.
Then, the older badger did something that thoroughly shocked Judy.
She turned and left without another word.
No apology, no acknowledgement of what her son had said or done. She had pretended that they weren’t there.
No, Judy corrected herself, she had pretended that Nick wasn’t there.
Her fur bristled and she hopped down from her seat.
“Where you headed to, fluff?” He asked, knowing full well. He plucked the abused coffee stirrer from his mouth and set it down on the table. “You’ve still got half a cup of decaf here.”
“Nick, don’t do that,” She felt her chest swell with emotion. “Don’t pretend like that was…like that was okay. Because it wasn’t.”
“It wasn’t,” He agreed, solemnly nodding his head. His tail came to rest in his lap and he began smoothing out the fur. “Matt really messed up my fur. That kiddo sure did have a grip.”
Judy’s nose scrunched up and she shot an angry look at the retreating figures of the badgers. To fit the mood, it began to rain. Nick tilted his head towards the sky, eyes half lidded.
“You owe me five dollars. I knew we shouldn’t have sat outside.”