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Chapter Text

It was their first big case, one that had taken them on location to the neighboring city of Mammalville. The duo had followed their suspect’s trail to learn that his last whereabouts had been at a hotel, a hotel they were now spending the night at.

Undercover, of course. On assignment, of course. Platonically, of course, despite the knowing giggle Clawhauser had given Judy when she’d phoned him that she and Nick were going to be away overnight. Besides, they had an entire room to themselves, it’s not like it would be anything weird -

“There’s only one bed,” Nick informed her, bringing her thoughts to a jarring halt.

Her eyes widened, cheeks flushed. “What?” She pushed past him, entered the hotel room, and saw in fact, there was only one bed. The rest room was nice enough, there was an impressive flatscreen, a plush loveseat, and the wall was lined with windows that offered a grand view of the city.

But only one bed?

She could feel her cheeks growing hot as Nick entered the room, closing the door behind them. “This…I…I told the panda at the front office that we needed a room for the two of us! Two! I thought that would mean two beds!”

Nick shrugged, loosening his tie and flopping down on the bed, already making himself at home. “I guess he thought we were together,” he smirked at her, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively on the last word.

“Nick!” Judy blushed harder, grabbing a pillow off of the love seat beside her and throwing it at him. “You’re so dumb!”

Nick caught it easily, tossing it behind him. He smiled at her, “Carrots, it’s been a long day, we’re both exhausted, and it’s only one night. We’ll just share the bed.”

Judy smiled shyly, cheeks growing even redder under her soft gray fur. Back in the burrows, a very conservative community, it would have been frowned upon to just share a bed with someone who wasn’t your blood relative or spouse. Her parents would have had a fit. But Nick was her friend, besides, like he said, it was only for one night; it’s not like this would become a regular thing.

Right?

“You’re right,” she smiled, shaking her head. “I’m just being silly. Friends sleep together all the time!”

Nick gave her a look, and Judy felt as though even from across the room he could feel the heat radiating off of her cheeks. “Y-you know what I meant!” She corrected herself quickly.

He smirked, getting off of the bed to begin undressing. “You said it Fluff, not me.”

They kept their backs to each other as Judy removed her belt, armored vest, knee pads, and cuffs, leaving her in her blue undershirt and navy pants. When she turned back to her partner, he was sliding back into the bed, clad in a white undershirt and navy pants.

Judy felt suddenly shy as she followed him under the covers. She wasn’t quite sure why; this was platonic, of course. Just for one night, of course. There was no use making a fuss and paying for two separate rooms.

She just hoped he couldn’t hear how loudly her heart was beating.

He turned his back to her, facing the windowed wall, and she did the same, facing the opposite wall. Judy was just getting comfortable when she felt his tail move under the sheets, brushing past her legs. It was a brief contact, but she still felt suddenly anxious and nervous and excited and shy all over again.

“Hey, Carrots?”

Her heart skipped a beat. “Y-yes?”

“Goodnight.”

Then she softened, not turning to face him but smiling all the same. “Goodnight, Nick.”

Morning crept upon them, and it was far past the time they should have awoken, but the bed was so warm, and they were so close, and the golden sunrise filtered through the white curtains, casting the small room aglow.

As she awoke, Judy could feel his arms around her, holding her against his chest, his slow breathing against her neck. She fit perfectly there, ears tucked under his chin, chest rising and falling in time with his, his tail wrapped around her. He was awake, she could sense it, and the morning haze made it seem perfectly natural when his paws began running up and down her arms.

Her name, her real name, not Carrots or Fluff or Cottontail, was a nothing more than a whisper, and she rolled over to face him, causing their noses to touch. Her head felt fuzzy as she met his gaze, held it.

“Nick…”

And suddenly and all at once, his lips were on hers, loving and desperate and craving everything and more. She bit down on his lip; he buried his face in her neck and made her gasp. It was a loving jumble of touches and kisses here and there, punctuated by the rustling of sheets and feverish gasps.

For a moment Judy wondered if she was dreaming, but the weight of him against her, on top of her, the nip of his teeth against her neck, it was all too real.

He murmured her name again, needier this time, and she nodded, pulling him closer to her. They were in a daze, a beautiful, blissful daze, but it had to come to an end, and it did, far too soon. Just as Nick was pressing closer to her, they were startled apart by the sound of Judy’s phone ringing.

Nick swore under his breath, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her against him. “Don’t answer it.”

Judy blinked up at him, feeling suddenly awakened and self-aware. “I have to,” she insisted lamely, reluctantly pulling away from his grasp. “It could be important.”

He sighed, lying back on the bed and burying his face in his pillow. Judy walked over to the dresser where her phone lay, answering the phone call from Bogo. They had a new lead, their suspect was spotted at the train station, buying a ticket back to Zootopia. They had to leave, now.

After she hung up, she told Nick the news, and he began getting ready without protest. They grabbed their things, fixed their uniforms, both quickly and silently. “You ready?” He asked when they were finished, approaching her from behind and placing his paw on the small of her back, holding it there.

She turned to look up at him, purple eyes meeting his own green ones. Ready for what? The case? Whatever happens next? To forget this ever happened? To always remember it did?

She had a thousand questions flying through her mind, but she knew they had a job to do, she had to stay focused. So, she swallowed her worries, forced a smile.

“Yes,” she murmured. “For anything.”

Chapter Text

“Well, thank you for your questions,” Judy chirped, voice positively oozing with sugary sweetness. Too much sweetness. Clearly fake, passive-aggressive, if-you-put-your-flirtatious-little-paw-on-my-Nick-Wilde-ever-again-I-will-find-some-way-to-arrest-you sweetness. “But my partner and I must be going!”

“What?” Nick asked, using that innocent voice of his, the same kind he used for hustling. “This lovely fox - Valencia, wasn’t it? - and I were just having a nice conversation here.”

The vixen smiled sweetly, looking up at Nick with eyes so starry and gooey, Judy felt even more hopping mad than she already was. This was a new emotion for her, it balled up in the pit of her stomach and made her want to do things quite unlike her character. But Nick hadn’t seen the way this girl looked at him. The way she laughed at the dumb puns he made as he answered her questions about what it was like being the only fox on the police force. The way her paw had landed on his arm and stayed there, even when 10 whole seconds had passed - not that she had been counting.

(She had)

“Yes, but,” Judy said, her voice getting higher and sweeter with every note, “I just got a message from Clawhauser; he said Bogo needs us at the station right away!”

Nick was smirking now. “I didn’t hear your phone ring, Carrots.”

“Well, it was on vibrate!” Judy hissed through her smile, his growing grin infuriating her even more. “And it was a text!”

“Is that so?”

“Yes!”

“Careful, Carrots,” Nick warned, eyes practically sparkling with delight. He loved making her mad. “Thump that foot any harder and you’ll start an earthquake.”

Judy hadn’t even noticed that her foot had indeed, started thumping madly. It didn’t exactly stop, especially not when Valencia laughed yet again.

The bunny felt her face grow hot, and roughly grabbed Nick’s paw, practically dragging him to their squad car. Nick said some sort of farewell to the vixen, but Judy could hardly hear him, the ringing in her ears was too strong.

The feeling in her stomach was back again, stronger this time, and she hated it, she hated him. She wanted to slap him, yell at him, kiss him.

Wait a minute.

She shook the last thought away, but when they were finally alone in their car, the idea was pestering her even more than Nick was.

“What’s got you so riled up, Carrots?” Nick was saying, almost laughing at her. “If you weren’t so cute I’d be a little scared right now.”

“Don’t call me cute, and it’s nothing!”

He paused, eyes scanning over her before widening in comprehension. “Wait a minute….are you jealous?”

(She was)

She felt herself blush under her fur. Finally, a word for the emotion that was eating her up inside, tormenting her. “No!” She lied, unable to look at him. “I just…I think you’re jealous! Of…of how that girl was talking to you!”

“Yeah, cause that makes sense.” He smirked, sliding his sunglasses down over his nose and raising his arms up and behind his head. “Don’t worry, Carrots, your little crush is safe with me.”

He was joking of course; that’s what Nick told himself. There was no way that Nick was kinda hoping that she secretly did like him, and that he already kind of like her too. No way.

(He was)

Chapter Text

Nick could still hear Finnick laughing his ass off on the other side of the door, still amused that Nick’s spun had landed on Judy. The closet the pair currently stood in was cramped, to put it lightly. They’d been shoved inside together by a swarm of other party-goers before either of them could protest, and were now standing with Judy’s face pressed into his chest. “I can’t breathe!” She mumbled, voice muffled by him.

“I think that’s the idea,” he smirked teasingly, smiling even more when she wrenched her face away to glare at him.

“Nicholas Wilde, if you think I’m going to kiss you just because I’m stuck in here with you, then you are wrong!”

“I wasn’t thinking that,” he said carefully, eyes still adjusting to the darkness. “I was thinking you were going to because you liked me.”

“Like you?!” Her voice rose in indignation, and was that a slight squeak he detected?

He leaned closer, whispering in her ear now, his voice a low growl. “You heard me, carrots. We still got 6 minutes in here, so if you want to confess anything, I’m all yours.”

He could practically feel the heat radiating off her cheeks. “I…I don’t…you - you’re just a…uh-” But as much as she tried to protest, her motions gave her away, and she leaned closer to him, and within moments, they didn’t need the cramped closet to keep them pressed together.

Chapter Text

With Judy, everything was extremely imminent. Whether it’d be helping an elderly otter cross the road, even though she and Nick were late for work, or rushing back to their apartment to make sure they were there in time for the latest episode of the crime drama they were currently into, everything had to happen now, it was all important, vital, even. And if they didn’t move, go, do, act NOW it might very well lead to the ultimate destruction of Zootopia, perhaps even the world.

Her words, not his.

That’s why Nick wasn’t incredibly surprised when she woke him up at 1 am by hopping on top of him, that eager and frantic look in her big purple eyes. “Nick, I just realized something terrible!”

Nick, despite being a nocturnal animal, was too groggy to reply fully, instead grunting in acknowledgement of her presence.

“We’re out of coffee!” Judy continued, sitting up on him. “How are we going to function in the morning!? We need it for work!”

Nick smirked tiredly, his paw flying up lazily to rest on her. “This may come as a surprise to you, Carrots, but there are other ways to solve sleep deprivation. One being by getting sleep. Now shoo, you’re interrupting my beauty sleep.”

Judy smiled at him, half-laughing, half-incredulous. “We need to go to the store, now!”

“You’re crazy.”

“Pleaseeeeeee?” The bunny pleaded, snuggling closer to him. “We could pick up some blueberries too! You won’t really make me go alone, will you? C’mon Nick!”

It was a stupid, crazy, ridiculous idea.

But the catch was that Nicholas Wilde was stupidly, crazily, ridiculously in love with Judy Hopps. And that was why they wound up in a grocery store at 1:30 am, still in pajamas, fur ruffled, one of his paws around her waist as he held onto the shopping basket with the other. He was a dumb fox alright, but only because he loved her so much.

His words, not hers.

Chapter Text

It had been a particularly bad day for them both. Their current case was pretty dark, and the bloody trail of leads had led them nowhere but dead ends. It’d hurt Nick to watch Judy leave the station that day, looking so dejected and hopeless, her ears were practically drooping to the floor.

That’s when Nick had made it his personal mission to cheer up Judy Hopps, no matter what the cost. Only, whoopsie, he’d decided this at 3:30 in the morning, and by the time he made it to her apartment, it was 4 am. Double whoopsie, he didn’t have an access key to get into her building. And whoopsie number threesie; the groggy and angry-sounding apartment attendant wasn’t happy to be awoken at 4 am, and would not let a shifty fox enter the building without an access key, as she told him over the apartment buzzer.

But Nick Wilde was a fox on a mission, not to mention he had a quart of ice cream in his backpack that was going to melt soon, and so, he did what he had to do.

He scaled the side of the building swiftly, thankfully winding up at the right apartment. He tapped at her window, arms growing sore from holding onto the windowsill. “Come on, Carrots,” he grunted. “Hurry up.”

It would look rather incriminating if he was to be caught hanging from the side of an apartment building at 4 in the morning, especially with him being a police officer and all.

Thankfully, Judy awoke, rubbing her eyes sleepily before spotting him. She then dashed over to the window, looking shocked. “Nick!?” She gasped, unlocking and opening the window for him. “What are you doing here?!”

“Do you want some ice cream?” Nick asked, smiling as she pulled him through the window. “It’s carrot cake flavored.”

Judy laughed, wrinkling up her nose and shaking her head at him in disbelief as he dropped onto her carpet. “Who crawls through someone’s window at 4am for ice cream?!”

“Someone who’s crazy about you,” Nick teased, smirking in satisfaction when the bunny blushed bright red. “And…someone who knows you had a bad day.”

Her face softened, and she took the quart of ice cream when he handed it to her. “You’re crazy,” she muttered, going to her kitchen area (aka a microwave and mini-fridge) to get two spoons. Then, more seriously, she added, “Thank you.”

“Anything for my bunny.”

She smiled at that, rolled her eyes too. “Dumb fox.”

“I think you mean cute fox. Or handsome, charming. All 3?”

She shut him up by shoving a spoonful of ice cream into his mouth. He didn’t complain.

Chapter Text

Judy felt as if she was a very brave bunny. She was tougher than most of the boys her age, and she had the scars and sports trophies to prove it. She wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself, or defend a kid that was being bullied. She was strong, fearless.

However….as much as she hated to admit it, she did have her weaknesses. And of course, the one person said weaknesses would be exposed to just had to be the annoying-est, meanest, stupidest, slyest, cockiest person of all time ever: Nick Wilde.

They’d been assigned to be anatomy partners, must to her distain, but apparently much to his delight, if the impish grin he’d thrown her after the teacher announced this meant anything.

He’d still kept smiling as they’d walked to their lab table together, that same stupid smile he’d given her when he leaned up next to her by her locker, the one that grew bigger when she’d shoved him into said locker, insisting that he was without a doubt the most annoying person in the world, the smile that practically split his dumb face in two when she’d leaned in close to yell at him, only to have him kiss her on the nose.

She could still hear his dumb voice now, taunting her as she’d stormed off angrily, swiping at her nose with her paw. “Aw, c’mon Carrots!” (Carrots! Of all nicknames…) “No kiss bye-bye for Nick?”

“You’re an idiot!”

“You know you love me!”

She didn’t understand why he was so obsessed with teasing her, tugging on her ears when he sat behind her, taking her pencils and holding them above her head so she had to hop high to reach them.

But this was all beside the point. The point was that Nick was her partner, and thus saw one of her weaknesses: her queasiness. They were dissecting frogs today, and the second Nick took off the lid covering the frog, Judy instantly felt her stomach lurch. The smell alone was horrendous, let alone the sight of Nick slicing it open, and the insides…

She was a brave bunny, strong, fearless. Judy Hopps could handle anything, Judy Hopps…

…Fainted directly into Nick’s arms.

Judy awoke to the sharp scent of rubbing alcohol and antiseptic. Sitting up quickly, head still pounding, she realized she was in the nurse’s office, resting on the simple cot in the corner.

“Good, you’re up!” The nurse said cheerily, walking over to her. “I was starting to get worried.”

Judy rubbed her forehead, confused. “Wh-what happened?”

“You fainted,” the sweet hippo answered, handing Judy a glass of water and some aspirin. “I think your friend said you were dissecting frogs? I don’t blame you honey, the sight would make anyone a little nauseous. Thankfully your friend was willing to carry you over here.”

Judy almost choked on her water. “Friend? Who?”

And of course, the “friend” just had to be the annoying-est, meanest, stupidest, slyest, cockiest, and dare she add, most caring person of all time ever: Nick Wilde.

She found him waiting in the hallway outside the nurse’s office, checking his phone uninterestedly. When he saw her emerge, his face visibly brightened. “Carrots!”

“Well, well, well,” Judy said slyly, feeling stupidly happy that he had waited for her. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you required to be annoying someone at any given time? Or do you really care about me?”

He laughed dryly. “Don’t get your hopes up, I just had to make sure you were ok, Fluff. Kinda felt obligated, since you decided to collapse all over me and all.”

Judy peered up at him, smiling doubtingly. Her next question was hesitant, almost shy. “And you carried me here because-?”

She could have sworn she saw him blush, but he played it cool, shrugging and slipping his hands into his pockets. “Anything to get out of class,” he replied. “Besides, I was planning on you doing all the work on our lab, but then you just, well…you know, pass out in my arms.”

Judy smirked and rolled her eyes at him. “Sorry to foil your plans, then.”

He smirked back, half-lidded eyes bright with mischief. “You know, if you wanted my attention you didn’t have to go to such extremes. I know you love the feeling of being in my arms Cottontail, but next time, all you have to do is ask.”

Her gaze narrowed, budding warmth shrinking back into irritation. “Why do you always have to be so - so - UGH! Do you really love annoying me so much?!”

His smile only grew. “Yes, 100 percent.”

A huff. “Jerk fox.”

A wink. “Cute bunny.”

“Don’t call me cute.”

He shrugged, moving away from the wall and walking past her, tail brushing around her legs as he passed. “Whatever you say, bunny. But my offer still holds, next time you want to embrace me, you know where to find me!”

Judy glared at him, he blew her a kiss. She called him some name, he gave her that smile, that smile that made her both furious and flustered, the smile he gave her when she caught his eye in class, the smile he gave her from the crowd when he’d decided to come watch her baseball games, the smile that she’d caught herself daydreaming about on more than one occasion.

She had her weaknesses alright - and he was turning into every last one of them.

Chapter Text

The entirety of the ZPD knew Nick and Judy liked each other before they did. After all, it didn’t help that their coworkers were officers trained in the art of detecting deception, and secondly, the pair wasn’t subtle about it.

At all.

If it wasn’t the way they stared all googly-eyed at each other half the time, it was the way they sat so close to each other during morning briefings, the way Nick brought her a carrot muffin every morning, and she, his coffee.

It was the way they were practically attached at the hip, the way Judy held his paw as she dragged him into a corner to whisper something into his ear, or tell him a funny joke she’d just thought of.

The way Nick had almost lost it last month when Judy had been injured in action. The way he’d gone to visit her every day in the hospital until she was better again, despite her insisting that she was fine, the shot had just grazed her leg. The way the stubborn fox had nearly driven himself mad, tracking down the slimy weasel that’d shot Judy and making sure they were going to be locked away, far away from his bunny.

They loved each other, that much was obvious to everyone but the pair in question. From Nick and Judy’s perspective, they were friends, close friends, nothing more. Besides, why risk ruining something that was perfectly fine the way it was? Being friends was fine, ignoring all other feelings was … also fine.

But sadly, there was one problem with that: feelings cannot be easily ignored, and if suppressed, have a nasty habit of popping up in the most unexpected and misguided ways, and for the bunny and fox, their romantic tension, in times of stress, often emerged as just tension. And bickering, lots of bickering.

“Gawsh, you guys fight just like a married couple!” Clawhauser had gushed once. They’d come to visit him on their break, Nick had said something dumb, Judy had rolled her eyes and snarked back (something that’d been rubbing off on her ever since she started hanging around Nick), and the rest was history. “Just shut up and kiss already!”

For two cops that were supposed to be trained in detecting deception, they were terrible liars.

They’d been close, practically nose-to-nose, eyes narrow, but at that comment, pulled away from each other quickly, eyes wide and sputtering frantically.

“What!?!?”

“I’m not going to kiss her!”

“We are NOT dating!”

“Me and Carrots?”

The cheetah simply smiled, biting into a powdery doughnut as he talked. “Suuuuuuure. Just call me when you’re done eye flirting. Or fighting. Both, actually.”

Judy’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Eye flirting?”

Clawhauser smirked. “That thing you two do? When you look at each other the same way I look at this delicious doughnut!” He took another bite, continuing to talk with his mouth full. “You two are in love!”

Nick rolled his eyes. “C’mon, now you’re just being ridiculous. I don’t look at Judy like she’s a doughnut…if anything, she’d be a carrot cake, or something.”

Judy eyed him.

He shrugged, smirked. “I’m just saying.”

And despite their tensions, no matter how many there were, their bickering would never last long. Nick always found a way to make her smile, Judy always appealed to his empathy or hugged him, refusing to let go until he forgave her.

“You weirdo,” she muttered, nudging the fox and smiling.

“You love it.”

She looked up at him, gaze warm and a shy smile on her lips.

I do.

And while they fought to maintain oblivious denial, both Nick and Judy couldn’t help but wonder if there was something more underneath all the playful banter and friendly exchanges. It seemed like sometimes, in the way they were together, that there was. In the way Nick caught Judy looking at him when she thought he was distracted. The way Nick would casually slide his paw around her waist and hold it there, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. The way they could communicate just by looking at each other, the way just simple looks could exchange humor, fear, worry, comfort. The way they were falling hopelessly in love with each other, with each moment they were together and apart, with each shy smile, each glance when they thought the other wasn’t looking.

The entirety of the ZPD knew it, and within time, Nick and Judy would too.

Chapter Text

“And that’s the last of it,” Nick grunted, setting down the final box, one that Judy had labeled as Nick’s Random Junk. “Why is this one so heavy?” 

The bunny smirked, looking up at him from where she stood in what would be the living room, once they unpacked everything. “You tell me - it’s your junk.” 

“One bunny’s junk is another fox’s treasure,” Nick said sagely (or at least, he tried to sound so - Judy just smiled even more at his tone). 

“Oh really?” Judy grinned, shaking her head incredulously with her hands on her hips. “I didn’t know a rubber band ball and a bunch of old Jerry Vole CD’s were treasure!” 

He smirked at her, shrugging. “You never know when you could use a good rubber band. And the CD’s make for excellent paperweights.” 

“I guess that’s true.” The bunny laughed. “Then again…maybe you’re just a dumb fox.”

Nick didn’t reply, settling instead for letting her win this round. While they did banter often, and she was the only person he knew who could keep up with him in that respect - hell, outdo him - he found he didn’t need to always be on his toes, to have a snarky or sarcastic comment on the ready. With Judy, he could relax, be himself. It was a strange form of comfort he’d never known before. 

His eyes scanned her over then, her in her pink button-up shirt, gray fur glowing softly in the sunlight that filtered through the big windows on the opposite wall, golden wedding band glowing even more so on her right paw. 

Nick had spent so much time on his own, not homeless but not having a home either. But then he met Judy, and well…everything changed. They had their own home now, a small 2 bedroom, 1 bath flat. It was nothing fancy, but they were together, they were happy, and that was all that mattered. He knew they were still in the honeymoon phase, still high on the feeling of love and being in love, but Nick was content to just ride it out, let reality hold off for awhile. 

She called out his name, and he straightened, snapping out of his reverie. “Sorry,” he apologized, absentmindedly scratching the base of his muzzle. “So, uh, what should we unpack first?” 

Judy hesitated for a brief moment before grinning and running over to him, practically tripping over the packing boxes on the floor. Nick registered this sudden movement just in time to catch her as she threw herself into his arms, wrapping her thighs around his waist. She pressed their noses together and gave hers a gentle twitch, cheeks pink and rosy. 

“The bed,” she whispered, biting on her lower lip shyly. 

The fox felt himself flush as he turned to smirk at her. She was smiling at him through heavy lashes, paw gently dragging up and down his nape in a way that made him shiver. “Well, this is sudden, Officer Hopps,” he said, loving the way she whined at his lack of immediate reply. 

“I can’t help it,” Judy said in a low voice, almost purring now. “You looked all strong and…and tough carrying all those boxes. And your dumb cute face…I just…I got all hot and bothered.” 

“Yeah, you bunnies do tend to get that way, huh?” 

She hit him playfully, but didn’t pull away, still looking at him eagerly. “C’mon, Nick! Please?” 

He smiled more, letting her win yet again (as he always did). “Fine, but if you keep looking at me like that Carrots, we won’t make it to a bed,” he said slyly, moving his paw to rest on her lower waist. 

“Then forget the bed,” Judy insisted, peeling away from him to clear a space on the floor. She turned to face him once more, pulling him close to her with a tug of his tie. “Let’s do it! Right now!” 

She was breathless, excited, all riled up. The way she bounced on the heels of feet, eyes sparkling, nose twitching - Nick almost had to laugh. She was adorable. 

She was his. 

“You’re crazy, you know that?” he said, leaning in close to kiss her neck.

“And yet, you still married me, Mr. Wilde-Hopps,” Judy giggled, undoing the top buttons on his shirt. “I hope you don’t regret it.” 

He chuckled. “Not in a million years, Mrs. Wilde-Hopps.” 

Chapter Text

Judy loved parties…usually. For her, there was nothing more fun than getting a group of friends together for a good ‘ol fashioned game of charades, or maybe even poker, if things were getting a little bawdy. But parties like this, parties where more than half of the attendees were drunk off their rockers, parties where she’d seen a leopard swinging off the chandelier, as well as several spin the bottle games, not to mention countless campus violations, were completely outlandish to her. She had no idea what she’d been getting herself into when the burly hare had approached her in the library, buttering her up with compliments before inviting her to the party he’d be throwing at his fraternity’s house tonight. She still hadn’t seen him yet, though she had to admit she wasn’t missing him too much - he’d had the air of the kinds of hares that only had mating on their minds.

Now, she was just trying to find a place to sit. Someone had handed her a drink, which had left her feeling a little fuzzy, not enough to be as wasted as most of the other guests, but enough to make her stumble right onto a lap.

A fox’s lap, no less.

“Hey!” The fox exclaimed, looking startled. “Watch it!”

“I-I’m sorry!” Judy gasped, rolling off his lap and settling down on the couch beside him. “I slipped a little, that’s all…”

The fox rolled his eyes. “Let me guess, it’s your first time getting wasted.”

She sat up straightener at that. As buzzed as she may have been, she was definitely not wasted, she still had some of her morals in check. Besides, he was the one with a beer in his hand, she noted, he even took a sip from it as he eyed her. “I’m not wasted!” She insisted, cheeks hot. “Besides, I don’t need to explain myself to you!”

He snorted. “Riiiiight. I too, tend to stumble on top of people and offer no explanation whatsoever. My apologies, Carrots.”

She frowned. “You’ll want to refrain from calling me ‘Carrots’.”

“Refrain?” He mused, smiling as he took another drink. “Maybe you’re not wasted after all.”

“I told you, I’m not-” She huffed and crossed her arms, deciding against arguing with him. “Whatever. What are you even doing here, anyway? Just sitting, doing nothing, waiting for people to trip over you?”

“Well, it wouldn’t be the first time I’d have girls falling for me,” he winked, causing her blush to deepen.

Her buzz made her feel more fluttery and fuzzy-minded than she usually did, that’s why she wasn’t completely ashamed when she couldn’t think of a proper retort. “I’m sure,” she said sarcastically, noting when he turned to face her a little more.

She felt his eyes scan her over, still feigning casualness but secretly scrutinizing. “Let me guess,” he ventured. “This is your first frat party?”

Judy considered lying, but she could tell by the look in his eye that the fox wouldn’t buy it. “Yes,” she sighed, “Is it that obvious?”

“Yes,” he answered bluntly. “For one, you’ve only had one drink, I assume, and it’s already enough to mess you up. Secondly, you still have that bright-eyed, bushy-tailed look that just screams freshman desperation.”

“I’m not desperate!” Judy snapped. “I only came here because some hare invited me.”

“Lucky guy,” he said absentmindedly, and Judy couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not. Either way, she dismissed it.

“Well, I can read you too,” she said confidently, tilting her chin up to look him in the eye.

He smirked. “Oh really?”

“Yes! Let’s see, you’re probably some…Senior-”

“Junior”

“Junior who thinks he’s all that, just because he’s older, and meaner and sarcastic-er! You’re probably here to just slack off, and…and mess around! You probably have a tendency towards laziness as well, if the way you hardly bothered to adjust your tie means anything.”

“Laziness, is that what you said?” He countered, stroking his chin in faux-thoughtfulness. “No, I see it more as…selective dedication. I can’t argue with the other stuff though,” he shrugged, and once again Judy found herself doubting his seriousness. “So, you must be what, a Psych major?”

“I…I’m majoring in Criminal Justice,” Judy said hesitantly. Normally, she would state her major with far more confidence, after all, she was proud of her goal, not to mention the top of her class: her first semester had passed and she’d already made the Dean’s List. But the night had been long, and after multiple rounds of chit-chat with other party go-ers, in which she was laughed at (loudly) each time, told that she was crazy, that there had never been a bunny cop, that there never would be, her spirit couldn’t help but feel a little wilted.

“Criminal Justice?” The fox eyed her. “What, you wanna be a lawyer or something?”

She braced herself. “No…I’m going to be a police officer.”

She waited, wincing, waiting for a laugh…

…That never came.

“A cop, huh?” He said casually, as if it was no big deal at all. “That’s…well…”

“I know there’s never been a bunny cop before,” Judy said quickly, words flowing out almost as fast as her foot began thumping. Maybe it was the alcohol, or the relief of being able to pour her heart out after musing over her thoughts all night long, but once her words started, they wouldn’t stop. “But I know I can do it! I’ve been studying like crazy, and working hard ever since I was 9! And I got here on a scholarship since my family couldn’t really afford - well, you know, college is a lot of money! Especially since this school is supposed to be the best in Zootopia, the whole country, even! And even if it doesn’t seem like I can become a cop, I’m going to do it! I don’t care who laughs at me! I wanna make a difference and help people! I know there’s other bunnies and prey out there who wanna be cops, they just need someone to step up and be an example! And really, it’s not that impossible, a bunny cop? Everyone always just brushes me off or thinks I’m crazy but it’s not like being a bunny makes me any less - ”

“Hey, hey, hey!” He insisted, holding up his paws. “I never said you couldn’t do it, Fluff! Sure, it’s a little crazy, insane even -“

Judy pouted, shoulders slumping as she turned away from him. “Thanks…”

“But it’s not impossible,” he finished, nudging her gently. He hesitated over his next words, choosing them carefully. “If anything…it’s pretty cool. Most people don’t care that much, about anything.”

Judy’s nose twitched, and she turned to him, violet eyes wide with relief. “Yes…yes! Thank you! That’s what I’ve been trying to say all night! I’m not that crazy!”

He shook his head with a smile, and she laughed, even though she didn’t really know why. Maybe it was just the relief of finding someone who finally understood where she was coming from. “So,” she said, grabbing the beer from his paw and taking a swig. “What’s your major?”

He blinked at her for a moment, looking surprised by her bold gesture. Then he relaxed again, slouching back against the wall, eyes half-lidded with indifference. “Business,” he said.

“Impressive,” Judy said, genuinely astonished. “I guess I was wrong about the whole slacking off thing, huh?”

“Well, you know what they say,” he shrugged, taking the beer back from her and taking a drink. “Your first impressions are never really correct.”

She smiled, leaning slightly closer to him. “Wise words for a sly fox. Maybe you’re not completely wasted after all.”

He laughed, turning to grin at her impishly. “Not yet bunny, not yet.”

Frat parties were still completely outlandish to Judy. One minute, she’d been completely lost, then one slip and stumble later, she’d found herself laughing on a couch with a fox, feeling completely at ease. Then, several more drinks and a handful of flirtatious remarks later, she’d been straddling him on the same couch, completely engrossed in everything that his paws and mouth could do.

“I u-usually don’t do this kind of thing,” Judy had gasped, giggling uncontrollably, both due to his peppered kisses across her shoulders, as well as the drinks (especially the drinks).

“Me neither,” he laughed, equally as buzzed.

All other words were lost then as they kissed eagerly, a mess of slurred gasps and giggles. The music was loud, pounding in her ears, fast and matching with the beat of her heart. She knew this was wrong, on so many levels - she barely knew him, let alone the whole different species thing, but, as much as it ashamed her to admit it, she was having fun. Kissing a complete stranger like this, in full view for anyone to see, it was daringly exhilarating.

“H-hey,” she gasped as his paws roamed under her shirt. “What’s y-your name?”

“Nick,” he said huskily, and she worried for a moment that she might lose it right then and there. “Yours?”

“Judy,” she breathed, face flushed and heart hammering loudly. She had no idea what she was getting herself into when she lost herself in him, no idea how dangerous a game she was playing, how much unlike her character this was. But she decided that for once, she was going to live a little. It was time for her to stop stressing about her future, her worries, her dream job. It was time to screw it all and for once, focus on the present, the passionate, very attractive present. She needed, for once, to stop caring.

So she did.

Chapter Text

When Judy had moved into her dorm that first day, everything had been perfect. Her new school? Perfect! Her small, 10 x 10 dorm room: also perfect. Her neighbors, who’d joked about how loud they were? Completely perfect! Her freshman year was going to be perfect!

But then her first semester had passed, and she’d survived, but only barely. And quickly, she realized everything wasn’t so perfect. She was no longer the star student, and had to fight to get the perfect grades she wanted. Maintaining her perfect 4.0 average involved a lot more late nights, coffee, and every ounce of dedication she had in her. But it wasn’t that bad, really. Everything came with a learning curve, and Judy was never one to back down from a challenge. It just took a lot of hard work, something she had never been lacking.

That’s why she was still up at 11 o’clock, because she was determined to study for this test until she fell asleep over the page. Unfortunately, her neighbors had other ideas. Her neighbors, who’d joked about how loud they were? Not-so perfect, because apparently they’d been serious! They’d kept her up many nights with their loud arguing, parties, and other activities she wasn’t sure if she wanted to know about, and tonight was no different. Tonight, they were playing loud rock music AND arguing, a combination that was making it impossible for her to focus on her notes.

“Can you guys keep it down?!” Judy yelled through the wall, pounding on the too-thin drywall that divided their dorms.

In response, the music turned up louder.

The bunny groaned, slamming her head against her desk. Great, just great. There was no way she was going to get any studying done here, which meant it was time for another late night trip to the library. It was the third one this week.

But it was all a part of the curve, the challenge, she could handle it. So, muttering under her breath the whole time, she packed up her things and made the 15-minute walk to the campus library.

It was a big, modern-looking building, and even at 11:15 pm, it was bustling with activity. Mammals hunched over their textbooks, surrounded by empty coffee cups. Predators and prey alike typing away furiously at computers, not looking up for even a moment.

She managed to find a small, circular table to sit at in a lounge area, and she quickly got to work, reviewing her flashcards, scanning over her notes, and testing herself with ease. A good half-hour passed before she finally looked up from her work, needing a brief mental break. The library was quickly becoming a second home to her, she realized as she scanned the area absentmindedly. Not that she exactly minded, it was a good place to just sit back, relax, and -

There was a flash of red fur, and her eyes stopped at him instantly. A fox entered the library, tail swishing behind him as he walked, shoving a small mp3 player into his pocket and holding a Star-Bucks cup in the other. Judy recognized him instantly, the nervous, exciting, sinking feeling that washed over her made sure of it.

Nick.

She watched as he tossed the cup into the trash and looked around for somewhere to sit, gaze flitting past her before he paused. Slowly, she saw his head start to turn back in her direction, but Judy didn’t give herself enough time to see where his gaze landed.

With a small squeak, she ducked behind her book, cheeks burning red. After all, what was she supposed to do? She couldn’t just go up and talk to him! What would she say? ‘Hey, sorry, it’s me again! That bunny you drunkenly made out with 2 weeks ago at some party you may not even remember!’

It wasn’t happening. She had to study, stay focused. She didn’t have time to worry about nice, attractive foxes that just so happened to be incredibly good kissers.

But as hard as she tried, the words she stared at on the page weren’t registering in her brain. The more she attempted to force herself to read, the more her mind found it an appropriate time to entertain fantasies of Nick dragging her behind a row of bookshelves and kissing her senseless.

Frustrated, Judy peeked out from the book she was hiding behind, nose twitching nervously as she tried to see if he was still there.

He was, and he was looking at her now, curiously, head cocked slightly to the side. When they made eye contact, he smiled a soft, easy smile.

She hid behind her book again, heart racing and mind jittery. He’d seen her! Then she heard footsteps, smelt the familiar scent of his musk coming closer.

Please don’t come over here, please don’t come over here, please don-

“Well, well, well,” he said smoothly, pulling out the chair across from her. “If it isn’t Zootopia’s future bunny cop.”

Damn it.

Did he even remember her name? Judy pushed the thought away as quickly as it came. She didn’t care what he thought or remembered of her. Their…interaction had just been a fling, right? Something they were supposed to just accept and move on from, right?

So why was he talking to her?

“Nick,” she said, setting her book down, and while she intended to sound coy, the squeak in her voice gave her away.

He smiled at her, looking her over once before turning his attention to the patterns he was idly tracing with his paw on the table. “I haven’t seen you around, Fluff. You almost had me missing you.”

She could feel that damned blush creeping up again. “Well, there’s almost 40,000 students enrolled here,” she remarked casually. “It’s pretty easy to lose track of people.”

He eyed her again. “Guess so.”

Judy just glanced at him, feeling conflicted. A part of her was still wishing he’d never spotted her, but another, louder part was rejoicing that he did. As much as she tried not too, she’d started missing him too.

“What’s wrong?” He asked suddenly, catching the bunny off guard.

“W-what?”

“You seem…I dunno. Weird.”

Her response was curt. “I’m fine.”

“C’mon, Carrots, I think we’ve established that you’re easy to read. What’s going on in that bunny brain of yours?”

You, kissing me at that party. The way you smiled at me, understood me. The way I’m still feeling fluttery, even though I’m sober. The way I wish you’d kiss me again. You, shoving these books aside and pulling me into your arms and -

“I’m just stressed about this test I have coming up,” she answered quickly, which wasn’t a complete lie - she was. “It’s tomorrow morning, and my neighbors were being loud, as usual. That’s why I came here in the first place - to get away from them.”

“Well,” Nick said slowly, giving her a sly smile, “I got an off-campus apartment, if you ever need a place to study or if you wanna…you know.”

Judy raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

He smiled more, giving her a better view of his impressive teeth. “Hook up again.”

Her cheeks flushed red as she gaped at him, completely taken aback. “I…we…you…oh, sweet goodness.”

He shrugged in that casual way of his, leaning back in his chair. “That is, if you wanted to.”

Normally, if someone approached Judy like this, she would have rebuked them right away. She didn’t have time to focus on “hook ups” or romance, and besides, this kind of attention from guys always made her roll her eyes - it was just so cheesy. But when Nick flirted with her?

She just hoped he couldn’t hear how fast her heart was racing.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Judy said quickly, shoving her things into her book bag.

Nick looked so hurt, he was almost pouting. “Why not, Carrots?” He asked, following her as she stood up and began to walk away. “I thought we had fun.”

Judy gave a nervous laugh as she inadvertently led him through some rows of bookshelves, not really knowing where she was going or what she was looking for. She found that when she was stressed, confused, or just needed to think clearly, the best thing for her to do was move. So she did, pretending as if there was a book she really, really needed. “Because, we barely know each other!” She explained, glancing up and down the shelves absentmindedly.

“Then we can get to know each other!” He insisted. “We can go out, or something.”

Her heart skipped a beat. She kept walking. “So…you and I, we would go somewhere? Together? And…do stuff?” She mentally cursed herself, hating how tongue-tied she was around him.

He gave a little huff of a laugh. “It’s called a date, sweetheart.”

Judy paused, stopping to lean back against a row of bookshelves. She chewed on her lip as she thought, glancing up at him with shy violet eyes. A date. The notion was unfamiliar to her; the last time she’d been on one was in high school, with another rabbit. It hadn’t gone well, not only due to confusing teenage hormones, but mainly the way he hadn’t shut up about himself, the way he’d laughed at her when she’d told him about her dream of being an officer. To put the cherry on top of the horrible-first-date cake, she’d nudged him away when he tried to kiss her goodnight.

But a date with this fox would be different, that she knew. For one, she already knew that he was a lot better at conversation, he accepted her dream, and if he tried to kiss her…

Judy was more than willing to let him.

She still hadn’t replied to him, and he hesitated, eyeing her a little nervously. “You did have fun the other night, right?”

“Yes!” She answered, a little too quickly. “I mean…you were, we…” Every second she rambled on only seemed to amuse the fox more, causing him to grin, which made her smile too. “Shut up!” She blushed, laughing despite herself. “You almost had me accepting your offer.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Did I?”

She nodded coyly.

He placed a paw on the bookshelf behind her, leaning into her as he smiled. “Alright, Fluff. What do I gotta do to get you to accept?”

In her head, she sounded a lot more confident, alluring. But when she made her request, the shy part of her shown through, even if just a fraction. “Kiss me.”

Without further request, he closed the remaining distance between them, and all those butterfly-y feelings that were so new to Judy came rushing back all at once. His paw cupped her chin, tilting her closer to him as he dipped his head. It was a quiet little thing, much less passionate than their last kiss and with far less tongues involved. And yet, to Judy, this chaste, soft kiss tucked away in some hushed corner of a library meant so much more.

After a long beat, she pulled back, and Nick gave an audible whine. The bunny smiled up at him, giggling when he tried to pull her back in for another kiss. Everything had a learning curve, and she was quickly learning him. The awkwardness she’d first felt was ebbing away now, replaced by a determination, the same kind she got before a test. “If you want to kiss me again,” she said, digging into her backpack and ripping off a sheet of notebook paper, “You’ll take me out Friday night.”

She jotted down her number, handed it to him, and he looked incredulously at her before relaxing back into that cocky smile of his. “Sounds like a deal, Carrots.”

Judy matched his smile. “Guess so.”

“Although, maybe we should kiss again, just so we have something to hold us over until then.”

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” she replied smoothly, pulling away from him. “Looks like you’re just going to have to wait ‘till Friday! You better make it worth my wait.”

His face brightened mischievously, accepting her unspoken challenge. “Trust me, Cottontail, it will be.”

Judy Hopps had never been one to back down from a challenge, and this would be no different. A part of this curve was learning that Nick was a game, from the way they bantered to the way he kissed her, she was going to master it all. So she gave a final playful smirk, turned away with a spin of her hips.

“Perfect.”

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

“UGH!” Judy groaned loudly, startling the silence of their office. Nick didn’t flinch. Something he’d learned pretty quickly from being around Judy was that his bunny partner was a firecracker of emotions and thoughts. They’d be silently working when she’d suddenly gasp or squeal, having discovered a new possible lead in their case. They’d be waiting in line for coffee when she’d suddenly jump up and down and tug on his tie, excitedly going on about how she knew exactly what they should get Chief Bogo for his birthday. To others, it was surprising, unpredictable. To Nick, it was just another thing he loved about working with her.  

“What is it?” The fox asked, spinning around in his swivel chair to face her back. His paws were on his knees, and he smiled as he noted the way her ears perked up at the sound of his voice.

She didn’t turn her chair to face him, instead staring at the massive pile of case files on her desk in front of her. “I’ve been trying to pin down this perp in this robbery case,” she sighed, lowering her head onto her desk, “And I have absolutely zero leads! I just can’t stand the idea of someone out there, stealing from people and getting away with it! It burns me up! He’s hit 3 convenience stores already, and we still don’t even have a good surveillance photo of him!”

“You’ll catch him,” Nick said simply, shrugging his shoulders and lounging back in his chair. “Officer Toot-Toot always gets the job done.”

That would get her attention. And indeed, she turned to look at him, eyes narrowed but a smile curving her mouth. “Don’t call me that!” She insisted, but as much as she tried to sound angry, Nick could still hear the light laughter in her voice. “Thanks to you calling me that during our last visit to the Burrows, my little siblings won’t refer to me as anything else!”

“I guess Toot-Toot’s becoming more infamous than I originally planned,” Nick said, smiling mischievously. “Maybe we should change the sign on our door from Wilde/Hopps to Wilde/Toot. I’m sure that Bogo wouldn’t mind changing your name ta—”

He was cut off by a crumpled wad of paper bouncing off his head.

“Dumb fox,” Judy giggled, laughing at the bewildered expression on his face.

He sighed, relaxing back into his typical smirk. “I guess I earned that one.”

“You’re lucky we’re still friends,” Judy said, turning back around in her swivel chair.

Friends. Nick didn’t think the word was supposed to sound so bitter, it never had before, but whenever Judy referred to him as one…

He thought back to that time a couple weeks ago, when they were both here, in their office, and Judy had been talking to her mother over the phone. “No, Mom!” She’d squeaked, cheeks flushed, and Nick hadn’t been able to stop himself from listening. “I don’t like anyone!…Nick?” Her voice had lowered then, and he’d sensed her turning to glance at him. “Nick and I are justfriends,” she’d whispered, and Nick felt a weird lurching in his gut that made his ears flatten and his grip on his pencil grow tighter.

Or a month before that, when she’d gone on a date. It was with some hare, named Randy or Random or something, and afterwards, when it’d gone sour, Judy had invited Nick over to watch TV and eat some brownies she’d managed to make with her new convection oven (a feat she was extremely proud of). “Oh Nick,” she sighed as they sat on the couch, resting her head against his shoulder. “I’m so happy we’re friends.”

…Needless to say, his positivity towards the word was wearing thin.

“Yeah,” he now said lamely, but thankfully Judy didn’t seem to notice his lack of proper retort.

She sighed, stretching out her arms before rubbing at her neck, wincing slightly. “Goodness, I’m so tired. I was up working all night on this case, and I think I strained something when we were chasing down that mongoose yesterday, my shoulders are so sore…”

He watched her try to knead her own shoulders, but her angle was awkward and it didn’t look like it was helping much.

“Do you…” he cleared his throat, tugged on his collar. God, why was he so nervous? “Well…I mean…I could give you a massage?”

The bunny eyed him over her shoulder, eyes narrowed suspiciously. “No thanks. I don’t need some excuse for you to try to tickle me or…karate chop me in the back.”

“Why the hell would I ever karate chop you?”

“I dunno! My siblings, when we would give each other massages, they’d just run up from behind and — you know what, never mind. I’ll be fine, it’s just a little stiff.”

“You know, you’re really an awful liar, Carrots.”

“Am not!”

He mimicked her sing-songy tone. “Are too.”

“Well, not all of us can be as crafty and slick as the great Nicholas Piberius Wi — Oh, cheese and crackers Nick, that feels nice.”

He’d crossed the space between their two desks while she’d been talking, paws going to her shoulders and rubbing gently. He watched as she relaxed underneath his touch, and as he pressed his thumbs into the small of her back, he was further reminded of just how small she was. “What can I say? I got the magic touch.” He said cooly, trying to ignore the weird feeling growing in his chest.

“Oh, Nick, please just shut up and keep—”  But then his paws got just the right spot, and she let out a small gasp and thumped her foot in approval.

He blamed the growing feeling in his chest on unexperienced nerves — after all, as close as the pair were, they didn’t have physical contact often (disregarding the time she’d injured her ankle in the museum), not the lingering kind like this. She’d hug him goodbye sometimes, but it’d be quick. He’d nudge her or tickle her, but it would never last long enough to arise suspicion.

Judy was still trying to come up with a secret handshake for them, which she’d talked him into practicing during slow spots while patrolling in their cruiser. He secretly found it amusing to “forget” the steps and mess up on purpose, just to see her face scrunch up in that adorable way and to hear the cute frustrated sigh she’d emit, but most of all for the way she’d grab his paws and show him how to do whatever handshake she’d come up with that day. But even that wasn’t like this — this, where they were so close and her fur was so soft and her ears were drooping in content and brushing against his paws and she was humming and moaning softly and—

He pressed harder into her back, shaking his head slightly. He needed to get himself under control. They were friends. Friends. And if that’s what Judy wanted to be, Nick wasn’t going to try and force her into anything else.

“Oh, Nick,” Judy said, turning as much as she could to look at him over her shoulder. “I’m so glad—”

“Don’t,” Nick interrupted, and instantly regretted it. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Judy suddenly looked worried, and she frowned at him. “What?”

He stopped his ministrations, but didn’t remove his paws from her shoulders. “I know we’re friends, okay?” God, couldn’t he just shut up?

She turned her chair to face him now, causing his paws to fall helplessly at his sides. “Nick, that’s not what I was going to say,” she said softly, and he had to avoid eye contact to stop himself from doing something even more stupid or running his mouth again.

Judy was stubborn though, almost as much as him, sometimes even more so. She leaned forward to tug on his tie, forcing him to kneel in front of her chair so that they were now at the same eye level. Then her paw was cupping his cheek and Nick had to grit his teeth to keep his emotions in check because God, Judy always knew how to make him crack.

“Nick, listen…”

Her pager went off then, causing yet another startle in their silence. She pulled away quickly, and it was a message from Bogo, saying that their robbery perp had just hit for the 4th time. They’d escaped in a stolen car, and the chief needed more officers in pursuit.

Judy had never looked more invigorated (okay, that was a lie, she had, many times, but at least not today). “We have to get to our squad car!” She gasped, hopping up from her chair and grabbing her things. “C’mon, Nick!”

He stood up, grabbed his shades off his desk, and slipped them on, ignoring the pestering part of him that kept wondering what she’d been about to tell him. “Nothing like a mid-afternoon high-speed car chase, am I right?” He said, smiling slightly when she grabbed his paw to tug him out the door.

She held his hand all the way to the parking garage, and, counting the time in the museum, it was the third-longest time they’d ever touched. Nick hated the way he kept track of dumb stuff like that, but it was becoming increasingly harder to stop. Every time they touched, every time he made her smile, every time he comforted her, he stored it away, calculating and planning all the different ways he could make it happen again. You’re just being a good friend,he told himself. Just like she’s just being a good friend to you.

It was the same thing he’d told himself that night on the couch, after her date, when Judy fell asleep in his arms, and she was snuggled up against and around him and Nick hadn’t moved.

The same thing he’d told himself after Judy’s call to her mom, when she’d found him in the break room making a coffee. “My Mom thought you and I were dating!” She’d explained, laughing at a slightly higher pitch than usual.

“She wouldn’t be the first.” He sipped from his coffee, smirking at her.

Judy blushed at that, for it was true. They’d recently discovered the ZPD had a betting pool for them and everything. “Can you imagine it?” She’d asked, leaning against the wall beside him. “Us? Dating?”

“It wouldn’t be so bad,” he shrugged, “I’m sure I could suffer through it.”

It was a joke, a thing just for friends, something she wasn’t supposed to know he might actually mean. But she laughed again, and Nick stored that away. Then she smiled shyly, looking right at him, and Nick felt his dumb fox heart filled with dumb emotional emotions skip a beat.

“I think I could too.”

Chapter Text

Judy had been nervous the first time she brought Nick home to meet her family. Even though her parents were close with Gideon, she knew it would probably take time before they felt comfortable around a second fox.

And yet, to her surprise, it’d gone almost perfectly. Her younger siblings, while slightly scared at first, had quickly warmed up to Nick, and within hours were hanging off his tail and begging for him to play tag with them. He’d even helped her mother get dinner ready, but not without a couple of teasing jabs about Judy’s lack of cooking skills.

“I can cook!” Judy had insisted, throwing Nick a look that was half angry, half amused. “I made cereal yesterday morning and it came out fine.”

He’d laughed at that, thrown his head back and everything, and Judy had found herself transfixed by the cream-colored fur on his neck. “Touché, Carrots, but remember how you tried to cook me a blueberry-carrot casserole? In the microwave?“

"THAT WAS ONE TIME!”

Her mother had smiled at the two of them, and Judy felt her cheeks grow hot at the knowing look she’d given them. Their first time visiting, and already her mother hadn’t stopped pulling Judy aside and commenting on how nice Nick was, and did Judy think he was handsome, because she was certain that she’d seen Nick eyeing her at lunch yesterday and as a mother she knew these things and besides, it was really time that Judy settled down, no matter if it was with a bunny or fox.

“I don’t like him like that, Mom!” She’d insisted when her mother had pulled her aside before dinner. But then Nick had walked over with flour on his face and wearing this dumb carrot-adorned apron, asking her mother when he should take the carrot casserole out of the oven, and Judy had just blinked at him all stupidly and shyly.

She hated lying.

It had been January, and winter was settled comfortably over Bunnyburrow. The deep snow was blanketed over the rolling hills, leaving no tree, crop, or field untouched. It was cold outside, to put it mildly, and over their week-long visit, there would be a good number of nights that Nick and Judy fell asleep in a snoring, messy heap in front of the living room fireplace, surrounded by case files, card games, or empty hot chocolate mugs.

The cold made her shiver slightly as her siblings got the dinner table set, something Nick noticed and fixed by coming up from behind and rubbing her arms. It was an innocent gesture, but Judy’s heart still got all fluttery and topsy-turvy over it.

Dinner time meant commotion and everyone running about, an assembly line of bunnies grabbing food and running off to the never-ending wings of the Hopps’ home. It meant Nick and Stu talking about life on the force, and Judy blushing to her ears when Nick insisted that he’d keep Stu’s little “bun-bun” safe. It meant Nick calling Judy “bun-bun” for the rest of the meal, no matter how many dirty glares she threw him. It meant Nick’s tail brushing against her legs under the table, and Judy pretending she’d felt nothing at all. It was Nick muttering jokes into her ear and Judy laughing so hard one of her brothers had to pound her on the back so she wouldn’t choke on her blueberry cobbler. It meant Judy was happy, really happy, and looking around the table at her family, with Nick sitting beside her, realizing that things felt perfect.

After dinner, Judy and Nick had gone out to the backyard — Stu needed someone to shovel a path to the barn, and Judy had eagerly offered. Nick tagged along to make sure that “bun-bun didn’t sink up to her fluffy little ears in the snow,” and Judy had punched his shoulder and smiled. So, bundled in several warm, woolen layers, they’d trudged out to the barn together, Nick griping the whole time about the cold.

“I thought all that fur of yours was supposed to keep you warm,” Judy had teased as she got two shovels out of the barn. “I mean, it’s gotta be useful for something.”

“Other than making me look devastatingly attractive?” He smiled cockily, and Judy rolled her eyes so hard it was almost as audible as the groan she emitted.

“Just start shoveling, Slick,” she snorted, pushing the shovel into his hand.

“You’re the boss,” he’d shrugged, and the pair had gotten to work. Together, they’d made light work of it, even as the snow continued to fall. Within half an hour, they’d shoveled a mostly clear path from the house to the barn.

“I think we’re done!” Judy smiled, as she examined their handiwork, her words coming out in puffs of cold winter air. “We did it!”

It was evening now, and the winter sun had long since set. The only sources of light came from the lantern hanging above the barn door and the light flickering through the windows of her house off in the distance. Nick was leaning against his shovel, and Judy had found herself admiring how the green of his scarf highlighted his eyes nicely. “Good,” he said gruffly, rubbing his paws together and blowing on them. “I’m freezing. For next year’s winter vacation, I say we choose Sahara Square.”

She scoffed. “Baby.”

He was too busy being a dumb fox to notice her bending over to make a snowball. She tossed it in her paws experimentally as he went on about biology and being used to the comfort of Savanna Central and heaters and how he still didn’t get why his room here was heated with a fireplace instead of an actual heater and how he hadn’t had any Stagbucks in almost two full weeks because the closest location was 1 hour away.

“Furthermore,” he continued, waving a paw for emphasis. “If I can’t have coffee, I can’t function, and if I can’t function, I can’t — ” He paused then, finally, finally, noticing her walking closer to him, snowball in hand.

“Defend yourself against a snowball?” She finished for him, a mischievous glint in her eye.  

“Carrots — don’t you dare throw that snowba-, goddammit!”

It hit him right on his cheek, bursting and clinging to his fur and Judy immediately burst out laughing. “O-oh! Y-your face!” She gasped, pointing at him. “Y-you s-s-should have seen it!”

Nick shook the shocked look off his face, along with the remnants of the snowball. Then he leaned over to ball up some snow in his padded paws, a determined glint in his eye. “Oh, you’re gonna pay for that one, rabbit.“

“If you can catch me!” she teased, squealing when he darted after her. He chased her through the snow, both of them haphazardly throwing snowballs whenever they could. Judy was bundled up so tightly, she found it a bit harder to run — she had to waddle more than anything else, but Nick wasn’t nearly as fast at crafting snowballs as she was, so that made up for it. They ran about her backyard until she’d put a good several feet between them, and Nick hunched over to catch his breath.

“C’mon, city slicker,” she taunted, throwing another snowball that smacked against his coat. “Come and get me! Or are you going to just give up now? Save face? It’s okay, I won’t let the ZPD know that you’re a big, fat baby!”

“Trash talking?!” The fox laughed, still panting. “Is that how we’re gonna play it?”

Judy stuck out her tongue at him in a juvenile fashion, giggling and dashing through the snow as he started chasing her again. She was running down their freshly shoveled path, towards the house, when she slipped on the icy ground, tumbling flat on her face. It hadn’t hurt nearly as much as it probably looked, but she still lay there, waiting for Nick to come get her. As always, she had a plan.

Sure enough, Nick swore and called out to her. “Carrots?!” He exclaimed, running over to her, dropping the misshapen snowball he’d been assembling. “You okay? Can you hear me?”

She waited until he was closer, standing right over her.

“Judy!?”

1…2…3…

“HA!” She shouted suddenly, rolling over to look up at him. “I hustled you!” She threw a snowball up in the air at him and missed, but it didn’t matter anyway — Nick had been so startled by her sudden movement that he’d jumped, slipped on the ice, and within seconds was falling.

Right on top of her.

Judy let out a squeak as she felt his weight crash against her, but she was quickly silenced when his muzzle smashed up against hers, and their mouths met. Her eyes had been shut tight, but her heart was racing and every other sense was immediately heightened. She smelt him — his musk and smoky scent that was distinctly Nick. She could taste him too, and he tasted warm and of the hot apple cider he drank at dinner. His mouth was at a awkward angle, almost pressed sideways across hers, but she could feel the soft fur on his cheeks brushing against hers, and she didn’t move, instead opening her eyes and looking up at him shyly.

It’d been their first kiss, an awkward and clumsy and not-really-even-a-kiss kiss, and after a moment of blinking at each other they’d both pulled away quickly and stammered some hastened excuse. He’d hurried back to the house while Judy grabbed the shovels and dashed back to the barn, lips swollen and still tasting of him. “Cheese and crackers,” she whispered as she slouched back against the wooden wall, and despite the bitter chill of the winter air she’d found herself extremely warm.

They’d just been friends then, nothing more on paper and yet somehow everything in actuality. It had been awkward for a couple hours after that kiss, but eventually they’d moved past it and settled back into their usual routine of teasing and amiableness.

Then, they just had to fall prey to clichés, and fall in love, and everything to come was just as awkward and warm and confusing.

And yet, it was all perfect.

Now, almost one year later, she was in his apartment, snuggled up beside him and wearing his shirt. Their apartment was dark, lit only by the festive string lights Judy had hung over all the walls. She was watching him sleep, forever transfixed by just how different he was and how much she loved him for it. His long muzzle, his soft fur, his sizable paws, so much larger than her own.

It was funny to her, how one year could change everything and nothing. She still couldn’t cook, he still complained about the cold, and they were still the best of friends. But now, they lovedeach other, and they were living together, and she could kiss him whenever she wanted to! Well, except at work, and in front of her parents, because she was sure her parents were still reeling over walking in on them during their last visit to the burrows — Judy certainly was.

The memory made her face burn with embarrassment, and she leaned forward, burying her face in Nick’s fluffy chest. She should have known better than to not to though — being a nocturnal mammal, Nick was a light sleeper, and the soft thud of her head bumping into his fur was enough to wake him. “I thought you were sleeping, Carrots,” he said, voice thick and slurred with sleep.

She didn’t reply, instead just mumbling something incoherent into his chest and rubbing her cheeks against his fur.

She knew he was smirking, and he lowered his paws to gently run up and down her ears. “You just want to cuddle, is that what this is?”

“Yes, please,” she nodded, never pulling away because he was so soft and fluffy and warm and their apartment was rather cold — they really needed to work on getting that heater fixed. “It’s an official police order.”

“Is it now?”

“Mmm hmm.”

“Well, if you say so, Officer Hopps,” and he bundled her up in his arms and started showering her with kisses.

Judy burst out laughing as he kissed her, squirming in his embrace. "S-s-stop!” She giggled, squealing as he began attacking her neck. “Y-you dumb fox!”

“Aw, c’mon,” he mumbled, smiling into her neck. “You know you love me.”

She really did — and that was one more thing that would never change.

Chapter Text

Nick was annoyed. What other name could there be for the sickening feeling in his gut, the feeling that was making him tense, that made him scowl and clench and unclench his paws so much they were getting clammy? The feeling that made him roll his eyes when the bumbling farm fox had ‘oohed’ and ‘ahhed’ all over their office, going on and on about how impressed he was, how proud Judy should be, how great she looked in her uniform, and how much he missed seeing her around the burrows.

Gideon was visiting Zootopia for a couple days, he’d wanted to see the city and Judy had so graciously offered because she was being kind and thoughtful like she always was. And ever since Gideon had gotten here, they’d been too close for Nick’s liking. Always laughing, joking, reminiscing, walking side-by-side.

They’d gone to the theater last night, because gosh golly it’d been AGES since Gideon had seen a movie in a REAL movie theater, and they just HAD to go. They’d seen some comedy, or at least that’s what Nick assumed it was. Judy had been laughing a lot, but he hadn’t been watching the screen with her, because Gideon had been sitting on her other side, and then he actually did the stupid yawning bit where he put his arm around Judy. Judy had laughed and nudged him off, and they’d laughed like it was the funniest thing ever, and Nick had to go excuse himself to get some more popcorn.

He was just annoyed, that’s what he’d told himself as he paced back and forth in the theater lobby. Annoyed because some stupid selfish part of him thought he was the only fox Judy was close with, annoyed because they were best friends and now someone else was getting all chummy with her. It definitely had nothing to do with liking her, or pining over her, or anything romantic at all. He was just annoyed — that was all.

Then Gideon and Judy walked out, and she’d had his cheap flannel jacket draped over her shoulders, and Nick felt like he was going to combust.

Okay, okay, fine. Nick was jealous, and he hated it. He hated how much it was driving him crazy, how much he couldn’t stop worrying. Like, did Judy like Gideon? Were they going to fall in love? Would he have to go to the wedding, and sit there while everyone went on about how Judy and Gideon were cute childhood sweethearts, and how perfectly they got along now, and did anyone remember that adorable time he gave her his flannel at the theater, and gosh golly they were perfect together? What if Judy moved back to the burrows with him? What if they had kits? He was pretty sure it wasn’t genetically possible, but the thought alone made him cringe.

All these thoughts were rushing through his mind, and he finally just had to stop. Stop feeling, worrying, thinking.

It was hard.

Today, he was in the lobby of the ZPD, leaning against Clawhauser’s desk. Judy had just finished her little ZPD tour with Gideon, and was wishing him goodbye at the front doors.

“What do you think of Gideon?” Nick asked suddenly, turning to look at the cheetah behind him.

Clawhauser raised an eyebrow, smirking. “You mean, do I think Judy likes him?”

The fox felt his face grow warm, though thankfully it was hidden by the red of his fur. “W-what!?”

“Oh, c'mon Nicky. You’ve been staring bullets at him ever since he got here! You love her, but you think she loves someone else and it’s driving you crazy! It’s unrequited! Star-crossed! It’s just like these two characters I saw on this new romantic drama I started watching on Nut-flix —”

“Hey guys!” Judy chirped, walking up from behind Nick. Her hips brushed against his as she passed, and Nick blushed even harder.

“Hey, Carrots,” he said coolly, ignoring the wink he knew Clawhauser was giving him. “What happened to your little friend?”

“Gideon?” Judy smiled, taking the jelly-filled doughnut Clawhauser handed her. “He just left!”

“Bummer,” Nick said somberly, though Judy raised a suspicious eyebrow at the smirk on his face.

“I think he likes you,” she said, taking a bite of a doughnut. “There’s not too many foxes back in the burrows.”

Nick eyed her, gaze flitting down to the small purple droplet of jelly filling that appeared above her upper lip. “I figure.”

“You should talk to him more! It’d be good for you to make another friend!” Judy said, beaming up at him and eagerly bouncing on the balls of her feet. She looked adorable, which made the stupid jealousy feeling in his chest even harder to ignore.

“I’ve got friends,” he said defensively, resting his paws on his hips. “Finnick.”

“More than one, Nick,” she said, finishing her doughnut with a perturbed frown on her face.

“And I have you, Fluff. There, that’s two.” The cheetah behind him gave an offended gasp, and Nick quickly corrected himself, adding, “And my old chump Clawhauser. That’s three.”

“Nick!” Judy rolled her eyes, lowering her face into her palm. “You know what I mean.”

The fox leaned back against Clawhauser’s desk, feigning indifference. “Well, I’m fine with three. Besides, he’s not my type.”

She looked up from her paw at him, eyeing him in annoyance. “You have a friend type?”

He shrugged, a mischievous glint in his eye. “Yeah. First things first, they’ve gotta have a good personality, so Gideon already misses that mark—”

“Nick!” Judy snapped suddenly, and both the fox and the tubby cheetah behind him jolted up straight. "You…you…you drive me crazy sometimes.”

She stomped off to their office then, and Nick felt both ashamed and weirdly accomplished.

“You know,” Clawhauser said as they watched her retreat, “You’re never going to get her to fall in love with you if you keep acting like a jerk.”

Nick felt his cheeks flush as he immediately began spouting off a series of hastened fragments. “I-I don’t want! Judy’s just! Friends! Love?”

Clawhauser just smiled at him, paws rested under his chin. “If I were you, Nicky, I’d go apologize to your lady before you drive her into the arms of another!” His voice rose on the last note for dramatic effect.

Even though Nick knew Ben was just joking around, deep down the fear was a little too real. He just couldn’t let anyone know that, like, ever. So he took a deep breath and collected himself. Then he gave a casual smirk and saluted Clawhauser, turning to follow his bunny partner back to their office. “Good day, Ben.”

The cheetah pouted, calling after Nick as he turned to walk away. “Aw, c’mon! Please do it, Nick! You two are so much cuter when you’re getting along!“

Nick felt himself blush again, but he kept walking, navigating his way to his and Judy’s office on the second floor. He paused before entering, staring up at the engraved Wilde/Hopps on the door.  His heart did this weird flip-floppy thing, but he ignored it, taking another deep breath before entering their office.

Judy was seated at her desk, determinedly typing away at her computer. Her brow was scrunched up and her upper incisors were chewing on her lower lip, a sign she was completely focused, or at least, trying very hard to appear so.

“Hey, Jude the Dude,” Nick said light-heartedly as he entered their office, borrowing the nickname her father had given her. “Watcha up to?”

He heard her give a tiny gasp, as if she was opening her mouth to speak, but she quickly pressed her mouth shut, staring ahead with more focus than ever.

"I know you can hear me,” he sighed, walking over and leaning on her desk. “I mean, your ears are bigger than your head, I don’t think you really have a choice.”

Still nothing.

“Look,” he said sincerely, dropping the joking manner. “What I said about Gideon…it was only partially true.”

She turned to glare at him. At least it was something.

“Okay, okay!” He relented, holding up his paws. “It wasn’t true. His personality is…fine. And I’m glad he’s here — he’s made you happy.”

Judy just looked at up him, nose twitching as she assessed the situation. Then, finally, after Nick thought he might go crazy from all the silence, she relaxed. “He has made me happy,” she admitted. “It’s always nice to see my friends from home.”

Nick nodded, guilt creeping up on him before he could stop it. “I know, I’m sorry,” he mumbled, “I’ve just been a little…off lately.”

“Nick, you know you can tell me anything,” Judy said in that sweet, gentle voice of hers, the same voice she’d used to comfort him on the sky tram, when he’d first told her about the muzzle incident. The voice that always made him feel like a dumb emotional fox who wasn’t afraid of his own feelings.

The only problem with that sweet, gentle voice was that she was wrong, because even though Judy was one of his 3 friends, his best friend in fact, there was no way in hell he could ever tell her that he liked her.

“Nick? Are you listening to me?”

He blinked out of his musing thoughts and turned to look at her, really look at her. She still had the drop of jelly above her upper lip, he noted. It was very distracting, so much so it had Nick staring at it and stupidly daydreaming about giving her a peck right there, just to get it off, of course, he had no interest in tasting or kissing her…

"What is it?” Judy asked, blinking up at him nervously. It wasn’t until she spoke that Nick realized he’d been staring silently at her for a solid minute or so.

“You just got a little —” He explained quickly, pointing to his own lip.

Judy crinkled up her nose, cocking her head to the side and looking up at him in confusion. “What? Nick, you know I can never understand your hand signals.”

He rolled his eyes, sighed. Then he leaned forward, and before she could blink, swiped it off with his paw. “There.”

The action seemed to both startle and embarrass the bunny. The minute his paw left her fur, she blushed and turned away from him quickly, turning her attention back to her paperwork. “Thanks!” She squeaked, sounding uncharacteristically shy.

Why was she so anxious? Did a simple touch really have that much of an effect on her? Each question brought on a flurry of more questions, and for a brief moment the fox entertained the idea that perhaps, just maybe, Judy liked him too.

Nick shook the idea away quickly. He had to make sure he maintained some reasonableness here; he was already falling for his best friend, if he lost any more of his senses he might just collapse into a hot emotional mess. So he just eyed her carefully, smiling as he turned to sit at his own desk. “So, Fluff, do you got any plans tonight?” He asked casually. “I was thinking we could grab a bite to eat, or something. Just the two of us.”

“Oh gosh, Nick, that sounds like fun, but I have plans already!”

He raised an eyebrow. “With who?”

“Gideon!”

And there it was again, that sickening, gut-wrenching, reminiscing, flannel-sharing jealousy.

He thought he’d fixed this.

Nick tensed, but kept his cool, staring determinedly at the random clutter on his desk. “Huh. I thought he was going back to the burrows today.”

“He is, it’s his last night in the city, so we’re going out to dinner! We found this really classy pasta place, I’m so excited!”

Nick listened to her as she went on excitedly, still looking at the junk on his desk. His eyes flitted over to a framed photo he had sitting by his computer, a picture of him and Judy from a camping trip they’d taken together last summer. He’d just barely functioned out in the woods with no access to coffee or a decent cell phone signal, and not to mention the bugs, but having Judy by his side had made it all worth it, even if she hadn’t stopped teasing him about being a city slicker. The photo was a favorite of his, a selfie he’d taken while Judy was teaching him how to roast a marshmallow. They were sitting side by side on a log, and she was leaning against his shoulder, firelight glimmering in her eye, stretching upward to make sure she was seen in the photo. She looked so small in comparison to him, so much so he couldn’t help but think she was cute, no matter how much she would hate it. His paw was wrapped loosely around her waist, and in this screenshotted moment, they almost looked like a real couple.

Almost.

Nick just wanted things to be simple again. Simple in that they were just friends, and that he wouldn’t get stupidly jealous over some other fox. Simple in that he would be happy for her, happy that she found someone else. Simple in the way that he wouldn’t care how happy or enthusiastic she sounded about a night spent with another guy. Things had to be simple again, he’d be miserable any other way. So he had to keep ordering himself:

Don’t be jealous, don’t be jealous. For the love of every high deity don’t —

“I’m just glad Gideon’s here,” she finished. “Even though we didn’t get along when we were kids, I can tell he’s really changed! I think we’re making a really good connection!”

Nick had never been good at following orders anyway.

“Wow,” he said dryly, “That’s really interesting.”

He could practically hear her jaw set before she turned to face him. “What?”

“Oh, nothing,” he said, not meaning for so much sarcasm to pour through. “I’m really, really, happy for you.”

She frowned again, paws going to rest on her hips from where she sat in her chair. “You’re being sarcastic!” She said accusingly. “Why?”

“I’m not being sarcastic!” Just an asshole.

“And now a liar! Nick, please tell me what’s going on. Why don’t you like Gideon? And don’t tell me you do — I know you don’t! You always make fun of him!”

She had him cornered. He ground his teeth together as he thought, trying to figure a way to maneuver himself out of this very uncomfortable conversation.

He kept coming up blank.

"I don’t trust him,” he said slowly, spinning in his chair to finally face her. “He’s a little too friendly.”

Judy looked insulted. “Too friendly? Nick, it’s because we are friends! I know you didn’t like him because of when he scratched me, but that’s in the past now, I can’t hold it against him!”

“It’s not just that!” Nick snapped, “He’s just all over you, and now you’re going on some date together —”

She gaped at him. “What?!”

“C'mon, you know it’s true!” he said hotly, throwing his arms in the air, not really understanding what he was saying either. “All those pies he keeps giving you, and his cheesy compliments, and the flannel — he’s just trying to butter you up, Carrots! Just so be can get into your pants!”

Judy’s violet eyes were little slits as she glared at him, tiny paws clenched into even tinier fists. “Why would he want to do that!?” She exclaimed, “My pants would be way too small to fit him! You’re not making any sense!”

"What?! No, Carrots, that’s not —” He blinked at her for a moment, then he waved a paw, dismissing the entire thing. “You know what, never mind. I hope you two have fun on your little ‘date’ tonight.“

"It’s not a date! We’re just grabbing dinner!”

“Whatever.”

Judy turned back to her computer with a huff and a swift spin of her chair, and their office fell into a sharp silence. He heard her mutter something under her breath, but she was the one with the super-hearing, not him, so it went unheard.

He told himself he didn’t care anyway — it was simpler.

The rest of the day went by without incident. Well, incident being either of them having any contact whatsoever. She didn’t talk to him because she was hurt and annoyed, he didn’t talk to her because he was stubborn and a little stupid. At the end of their shift, they parted ways, Judy to be with Gideon, and Nick to sulk.

And sulk did he ever. Hours after he’d left the ZPD, he was sitting on his couch, mindlessly watching some trashy reality show. He’d called over the second of his three friends: Finnick, who was lounging beside him, scrolling through his phone.

“Stop being such a pissbaby,” the smaller fox ordered, rolling his eyes at Nick’s umpteenth forlorn sigh, and yet still not looking up from his phone. “You didn’t fuck up that bad.”

“Right,” Nick nodded, sarcasm oozing once again. “She could completely hate me. Now she onlypartially hates me.”

“Man, shut the hell up — you know she don’t hate you!” Finnick snapped, looking up from his phone just to toss an empty beer can at Nick. “You guys are tight! She’s just pissed because you got all jealous and acted stupid, dumb ass.”

Nick was pretty sure the fennec fox was a little drunk but it didn’t really matter because either way, he was right. “So, what do I do?” He asked, hating how weak and vulnerable he sounded, but at the same time not really caring because he just wanted everything to be simple again.

“You go apologize to your bunny. You can’t hate her because she likes someone else, unless you like being a piece of shit.”

“I don’t…usually.”

“Then man up and go.”

It was the simple thing to do.

As much as Nick had complained about camping, all of the bugs, hiking, and coffee detox was made up for at dinner.

“Then we finish off with a graham cracker…and ta-dah!” Judy smiled proudly as she held out her creation to him. “One perfectly crafted s'more!”

They were sitting by the fire, having finished taking Nick’s desk selfie several minutes ago. Judy was wearing that pink flannel shirt of hers, the one Nick always thought she looked really adorable in (not that he would ever let her know). “I hope you’re not trying to poison me, Carrots,” he said teasingly as he took the s'more from her paws.

“Not yet,” she teased back, scooching closer to him so she could watch him eat it. “Now hurry up! You need to try it! I can’t believe you’re over 30 years old and have never had a s'more!”

“Well excuse me, Madam, but I’m used to living the finer, city life,” he quipped, placing his paw over his heart. “Not in this primitive, Podunk manner.”

He earned a punch on the arm for that one. “Just eat it!”

He considered teasing her a bit more, just to see her squirm, but decided against it. “Here goes nothing,” he said dramatically, taking a bite into —

Heaven. He’d died and gone to heaven, chocolatey, gooey, buttery-golden heaven. How had he never tried this before?

“Oh my god, Carrots,” he groaned happily, eyes closing in content. “This is amazing. God, you’re amazing.”

The last part had just slipped out, but he was too distracted by the deliciousness in his mouth to care. Judy had blushed, but tilted her chin up in the air cockily. “I know.”

“Can you make some more?…Some more…S'more…Oh god, it all makes sense now!”

She chuckled and shook her head. “Dumb fox. And yes, but you’re going to help me this time.”

He shrugged, licking the chocolate off the pads of his fingers. “Fine by me.”

He’d turned out to be not as bad of a s'more maker as they’d anticipated, something he was rather proud of. They’d eaten s'mores until they both felt like they were going to burst, then one thing led to another and they cracked open some beers. An hour later, they lay on their backs in the grass, staring at the stars and feeling very tipsy.

“Do you ever think?” Judy had asked suddenly, eyes narrowing as she mulled over her own question.

Nick laughed. “No.”

She puffed out her cheeks and the laughter came bubbling up, causing her chest to shake and her eyes to water. “No! You dumb fox!” She giggled, hiccuping. “Like, do you ever think about…everything. Like do you think about me?”

“Absolutely,” Nick nodded, rolling over on his side to look at her. “I think about that time when you got your feet stuck in cement.”

She frowned, rolling over to face him too. “That was mean. You were mean then.”

“I was mean. But you looked funny.”

“I looked really funny because I was so mad at you, meanie.”

“I’m sorry,” Nick had slurred, and if he wasn’t drunk he wouldn’t have leaned in and kissed her on the forehead, but he was drunk, so he did.

Judy laughed hard when he did that, beaming up at him and punching him playfully. He smiled back in that lazy way of his, and Judy had stared back for a long minute before rolling back over and gazing at the stars. “Nick, Nick, Nick, Nick — do you ever think about how like in a different universe, we might not have met? Like, like, what if there’s this other dimension, with ANOTHER Nick and Judy, and they don’t know each other?”

Nick had squinted at her, too buzzed to process the question fully. “That’s…that’s really fucked up Carrots.”

“I’m sorry,” she said somberly, pouting up at the sky. “I’m drunk.”

“I know.”

“You are too.”

“I know.”

“We would always be friends in any universe ever, right?”

“You’re damned right.”

“Good.”

She’d rolled over again then, only this time she didn’t stop and rolled over right on top of him. Her ears had flopped onto his face and her back was now pressed to his chest as they looked up at the stars together. She fit nicely there. “I really love you a lot, Nick,” she slurred, hiccuping again. “So much.”

“I know.”

“You love me too, right?”

“I do.”

“You would love me in any universe ever, right?”

“Right.”

“Good.”

Nick awoke from his dream, or memory rather, with a start. He was still on the couch, surrounded by empty beer cans and bare pawsicle sticks, but Finnick was long since gone. The TV was playing softly, now a bunch of the regular midnight infomercials. He blinked around tiredly, slowly coming back to his senses, becoming more and more aware of the bitter taste in his mouth, the chill of his apartment, and the sound of the glitzy hippo desperately trying to sell a blender/juicer combo.

Then it hit him.

Judy.

He fumbled his paws across the coffee table in search of his phone, night vision not quite kicking in yet. He grabbed the device and turned it on anxiously, shamelessly hoping that maybe he’d have a text from her, a voicemail, hell, even an e-mail.

Anything.

He got nothing. His lock screen stared back at him, the same old photo of Judy wearing a Santa hat and a smile at the ZPD’s last holiday party. He looked at the screen, thinking back to all the fun they’d had, and the longer he looked at her photo the more he wished she was here.

Nick sighed and tossed his phone aside, flopping back onto his couch and staring up at the ceiling. He must have been the dumbest fox in the world, because he really did miss her. It’d only been a couple hours and the thought of her out there, angry at him, was driving him crazy. As much as he pretended he didn’t care, he could never handle when they fought. A tiny part of him always panicked and thought back to their biggest fight thus far, during the Night Howlers case, a fight that’d ended with them being apart for 3 months. Needless to say, he never wanted that to happen again.

So there was one thing he had to do.

It was late, nearly 1 am, but Zootopia was a city that never slept. There were plenty of fellow nocturnal animals out and about, as well as those getting off late shifts at work or leaving late night clubs. Nick got himself together and headed to the subway station, taking a route that would bring him halfway to Judy’s, where he’d transfer to another line.

As he stood sandwiched between a lion and a rhino on the way there, he kept rehearsing a thousand different apologies in his head. One for if Judy was mad at him, one for if Judy was furious with him, one for if she never wanted to see him again, one for if she announced she was marrying Gideon —

But despite all his rehearsal and planning, every last apology went right out the window when he got to the transfer station and saw Judy. She was stepping off an opposite line, the one that usually went from her place towards his. Even though the station was bustling with activity, their gazes somehow found each other, and when they did, neither looked away.

Judy looked surprised. Her ears were standing up tall and straight, and even from across the station he knew her little nose had to be twitching.

Nick immediately darted over to her, weaving his way in and out of the crowd. Thankfully, she was still standing there when he’d made it across, though her ears had dropped and she was glaring at him.

“Carrots!” Nick exclaimed, unable to stop himself from grinning at her. “God, I was going to see you and —” He paused to look her up and down, just now realizing that she was still dressed up from her date/dinner/friends/Gideon thing. She was wearing a periwinkle blue top and simple slacks, a conservative look, but somehow Nick still found himself entranced by it.

He really had to learn to deal with his emotions sometime.

He’d start tomorrow.

“You…you look nice. For once,” he added jokingly, just so it wouldn’t sound too mushy.

She just pouted, still clearly cross with him. “Thank you.”

“Yeah…” Nick put his paws in his pockets, averting his gaze to the ground. “So…you went out with Gideon, huh?”

“Yes.” Her voice was stiff, and Nick suddenly realized she was using the same stance she did when she was doing her bad cop routine. The stare-down, the folded arms, the clipped sentences — it was all the same tactics she used to extract information from the most hard-hearted of criminals.

So she wanted something out if him. But what? An apology? She certainly deserved one.

He was too stubborn to crack yet. “How’d it go?” He asked instead, trying to keep his tone light and casual.

“Good.”

“Did it just end?” Nick paused after he asked it, not liking the connotations of her date ending at almost 1 o'clock in the morning brought.

“No.”

He frowned then. “Alright…so what are you doing here?”

The question seemed to fluster her, as a brief wave of hesitation crossed her face, breaking her frown. “I…I was just conducting some patrols.”

He smirked and raised an eyebrow. “Dressed like that?”

She blushed bright pink, but didn’t break her defensive stance. “I wanted to blend in,” she said coolly.

She was good — she was a cop, after all, and handling interrogations was a requirement of the job. But Nick had been fast-talking ever since he was 12 — he was better.

“Well, you’re doing a pretty bad job then,” he smiled, “I mean, you’re the best-looking person in here right now, other than me, of course.”

The compliment seemed to do the trick. She dropped her interrogating manner and shook her head, eyes rolling all the way up to the ceiling. “You’re an idiot,” she groaned.

“I know,” he admitted. “But you love me for it, right?”

Judy just eyed him silently, the ghost of a smile affirming his claims.

“Look,” Nick then said seriously, clearing his throat, “I’m sorry, I was just being…uh…I was a little…a little bit…er…je — ”

“Jerky?” Judy finished for him.

Sure, they could go with that.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “Jerky.”

She sighed then, gaze flitting over his face in a deeply thoughtful manner. The fox still felt uneasy, he couldn’t tell if she was still angry with him or not, but he wasn’t about to get on his paws and knees and beg for her to forgive him. Not yet, anyway.

“I was being a huge jerk,” he continued, looking her right in the eye. “Gideon is a good guy, and…I was just…worried?”

She looked at him curiously. “Worried about what?”

He felt his cheeks flush — he didn’t think “Gideon marrying you” would go over so well, so he settled for a half-truth. “That, uh,” he coughed, “You were closer with him? That you were better friends and just — you know what, never mind, it was really stupid…”

“You’re my best friend, Nick,” Judy said simply, and even though she was still frowning her voice was genuine. “Nothing’s going to change that.”

It was something he should have already known, but hearing it from her made a wave of relief wash over him. He smiled at her briefly, but there was still one question left unanswered —

“So…” Nick asked cautiously. “Why are you here? You still never answered my question, Fluff.”

Judy hesitated again, seemingly considering brushing him off once more, but Nick knew he could get to her like no one else could.

She could only stay mad at him for so long.

“I was coming to see you,” she finally confessed, slumping her shoulders and gesturing to the subway cars behind them, “Even though I was mad at you, I still wanted…I wanted to see you? It sounds like a dumb bunny thing, I know, but when I was at dinner with Gideon, he was talking about his new girlfriend, Marielle, and it just made me want you there with me because he was just going on about how happy Marielle makes him and I thought about how you make me happy when you’re not driving me crazy and — I don’t think I’m making sense.”

Nick just blinked at her. There was so much to process in her cascading sentences (most of all being that Gideon had a girlfriend? God, Nick had really been an idiot), he didn’t quite know what to respond to first.

So he settled for a simple, albeit lame, “Oh.”

She smiled shyly up at him, tugging on the ends of her ears. “I just hoped that if I came by, we could work things out.”

She’d forgiven him. Nick felt like hugging her, but instead he nudged her playfully.

“Well, I think we’ve scratched that off the to-do list,” he said with a sly smile, praying he could get the same reaction from her.

Success. She smirked back, ears perking back up again. “I think so too. If you’re done being a dumb fox, that is.”

He shrugged. “I’m sure I’ll find some other way to annoy you tomorrow.”

She laughed at that. “Oh, I know you will.”

After they’d made up, they’d both agreed that as it was nearly 2 o'clock in the morning, and they both had a 7 am shift coming up, they really needed to get some sleep. Nick had insisted that she not walk home alone, despite Judy’s protests that she was a cop and she could handle herself. Nick wouldn’t have it — he had to make up for all of his earlier jerkiness (jealousy), and he was going to start now. Judy didn’t argue with that.

But after they’d taken the subway ride all the way to her neighborhood, walked all the way to her apartment, and climbed the stairs all the way up to her floor, Nick had found himself incredibly exhausted, which is how he found himself lying on his back, resting on the floor beside Judy’s bed in a makeshift pile of blankets and pillows.

Her blankets smelt like her and it made him think of smelling her and that drop of jelly and kissing her and it made it all very hard to fall asleep, so he stared up at the ceiling thoughtfully, wondering how many cups of coffee he was going to need to function in the morning.

Judy was apparently as much of an insomniac as he was, and she suddenly broke the silence from where she lay on her bed. “Nick?”

“Yeah, Carrots?”

“Do you ever think about…us? Like, what we are?”

He frowned. “Well, we’re friends, aren’t we?”

“Yeah, I know, but do you ever think that in some universe or dimension, just theoretically speaking, you and I could…uh…you know?”

“I don’t follow, Fluff.”

She was silent for a moment, seemingly readying herself for her next words, which came out in a tumbling hurry. “DoYouThinkWeCouldEverBeMoreThanFriends?”

He didn’t reply at first, completely taken aback by the question. This gave her more time to explain herself. “It’s just what Gideon and Marielle have, it sounded like what we have — that trust and closeness and…well, it just made me realize that you and I are really good friends, like really really, and Gideon pointed out that the best of friends can make for the best of relationships and I just was wondering if you ever think about us like that because then I think we’d have a really good relationship. So do you…do you think so?”

Nick felt himself blush bright red, but thankfully it was dark in the room, and Judy couldn’t see him. He told himself to not be such a dumb emotional fox, to not get so wrapped up in her.

He’d start taking orders from himself tomorrow.

"Yes,” he said, rolling over to look up at her silhouette on the bed. “Yes I do.”

She rolled over to face him, looking down at him from her bed. “Me too,” she said shyly, and if Nick had been drunk he would have pulled her right down into his arms and kissed her, but he wasn’t drunk, so he didn’t.

Instead, he smiled back, and settled for the simple response.

“Good.”

Chapter Text

Even though Judy is Judy Hopps, valedictorian of the ZPD Academy, top of her class, the best of the best, Nick is still very protective of her because she’s so small and sometimes she jumps headfirst without thinking. He would take a bullet for her, and that’s just what he does. 

Judy hates him for it and cries over him as she waits for the ambulances to arrive, and she keeps sobbing that he’s such a dumb fox, why did he have to be such a dumb fox, and goddammit, she needed backup now. 

He’s losing too much blood and can’t really reply, so he just squeezes her paw in response and rests his head against her chest. As he slowly blinks in and out of consciousness, all his life’s regrets flash in his mind, but not one of them is taking the bullet for her. 

He decides dying in her arms isn’t a bad way to go. 

The doctors thought he wouldn’t make it, but he got lucky – like he always did. Judy visits him every day and sits in his hospital bed with him while he gives her his pudding cups and she tells him about everything that’s happening at the ZPD while he’s gone, like how Clawhauser is planning a surprise party for him, and how Bogo told her things have been far too quiet without someone there to sass him back constantly. 

Nick listens to every word, gazing up at her, thumbs idly running over the fur of her drooping ears. She starts this weird habit of doing crosswords with him – she says she read in some article somewhere that it’s supposed to help sharpen your critical thinking skills, or something like that. Nick doesn’t complain because it means Judy gets under the covers of his hospital bed with him rests her head in the crook of his neck. When she’s this close, he can feel the rhythm of her heartbeat and he listens closely for it, just to make sure it’s still there.

“I need a four-letter word for ‘amorousness’,” Judy asks, chewing on the end of her pencil.

“Love,” Nick answers simply, and listens as the rhythm of her heartbeat falls in sync with the gentle tick of the heart monitor beside his bed. “You know, like how I love you.” 

He says it quickly and casually, hoping that it won’t alarm her too much. 

It doesn’t. 

Instead, she just leans closer to him, soft, warm breaths tickling his fur. “I know.” 

Chapter Text

Nick had found a way to turn their conversation suggestive, as he always did, and somehow it got out that Judy had never kissed anyone.

“What?!” Nick had laughed, blinking at her in disbelief. They were sitting in their patrol car, parked near a city park, and Judy gave herself the excuse of the humid summer air as the reason for her cheeks being so flushed. “You mean, you’re over 20 years old, and have never kissed anyone?”

“Well, when was your first kiss, Slick?” Judy pouted, punching him in the arm.

He rubbed his arm and shrugged. “Like, 13?”

She snorted. “Of course.”

“God, did they have you locked up back at the burrows? Or were you just so focused on becoming a cop you just kissed a Law and Order DVD goodnight?”

She glared at him. “You’re hilarious.”

“You love me.”

She simply snorted again, folding her arms over her chest and looking out the car windows, focusing on what they were supposed to be doing, surveilling the park, not discussing her non-existent love life.

There was a lengthy silence as the two sat, until Nick finally cleared his throat and rested his arm on the car windowsill.

“Well,” he said casually, looking out the windshield at nothing in particular, “If you ever wanted to try it out–”

Judy froze, eyes widening, annoyance quickly melting away into…curiosity?

He smirked and gave her a wink as she turned to look at him. “I think I’d make a pretty good tutor.”

Judy found herself laughing, though her voice was pitched high with nervousness – or was it excitement? “I’m…I’m sure you would!” She gasped, cheeks absolutely burning now. “I mean…I…andyou…”

He only smiled at her hastened replies, but didn’t pressure her further. Instead, he turned his focus back to the park. “Just an offer, Fluff. Don’t stress it.” 

This was stupid. And crazy. stupidly crazy. They were friends! Friends weren’t supposed to kiss, right? The idea of kissing her best friend shouldn’t have gotten Judy so riled up, or made her toes curl, or her body shiver. 

“Well, would you look at that?” Nick said suddenly, leaning in closer to the windshield. “That cheetah totally just face-planted off the merry-go-round. I don’t know what he was thinking, honestly, he looks like he’s 30…” 

Screw it. 

Judy turned to face him, and with one swift movement, yanked on his navy blue tie, pulled him down, and pressed her mouth to his. 

He yelped at first, but swiftly relaxed into the kiss, paw moving up to cup the back of her head. 

It was a little awkward at first, dealing with the size differences of their muzzles, but they kept trying different angles until finally they found one that worked, and Judy moaned softly because it felt so good, kissing was so good, or maybe just kissing Nick was, and his tongue darted out to touch her lip and cheese and crackers she was flying! 

After a long moment, she pulled back, trying (and failing) to suppress the delighted grin on her face. 

Nick blinked back at her, looking confused, but happy. Very happy. “Well?” 

“It was…nice,” Judy said cooly, sitting back in her seat and looking towards the park. 

He almost looked offended. “Nice?!” 

She nodded. “Nice. I think I could use a little improvement though, we’ll just have to practice again later.” 

He paused, then smiled slowly, comprehension dawning on him. “Whatever it takes,” he agreed, slipping his shades on and sitting back in his seat. “Which might take several more tries, a couple hours, even. You sure you’re up for that, Fluff?”

It was a double-edged question. On the surface, she knew he was asking if he wanted to repeat what had just happened 5 seconds earlier. But there was another, deeper proposition: was she ready for the risky, emotional mess they’d surely have to deal with if they got attached? 

She decided, yes. 

“Bring it on, Wilde,” she said, snatching his sunglasses off his head and placing them on her own. 

He chuckled, smiling at her in admiration. “Sly bunny.”

“Dumb fox.” 

Chapter Text

She’s standing by the side of the road with her paw out, one thumb raised, wearing a pink plaid shirt and scuffed-up jeans. Nick notices her immediately because she stands out like the grimy neon sign of some cheap motel, a bright pink dot amidst the hazy, tan desert.

He pulls over his car, a beat-up thing that does what he needs it to. The car comes to a stop in a cloud of sand clouds, and the bunny coughs, waving them aside. She grabs her one small suitcase up from beside her feet, hops into the passenger seat, and they’re off.

The desert is hot, the sun a hazy orange, and Nick’s car doesn’t have air conditioning, so the windows are rolled down. He pulls back onto the interstate highway, and the rabbit squirms excitedly in her seat.

“Where ya’ headed, Fluff?” He asks, scanning her over behind sunglasses.

She sighs and does a flippant sort of laugh. “Anywhere.”

“I’m headed west.”

“Then let’s go.”

Nick doesn’t pick up hitchhikers, or anyone else for that matter. He suddenly realizes that he could now be stuck with this bunny companion for a long time, and the thought makes him cringe a little.

“Whatever,” he mutters to himself. Out here, he was probably the best bet she had. She was lucky to not be picked up by some of the scum of the earth Nick had encountered on the road. Not that he was exactly the cleanest guy himself.

“So, what’s a cute lil’ bunny like you doing out here?” He questions, because as much as he hates to admit it, he’s curious.

“Don’t call me cute,” She says warningly, and throws him a dirty look.  

He doesn’t apologize, and just eyes her, waiting for her to continue.

She sighs. “I’m…exploring,” she says cautiously, voice hesitant with the weight of a secret. “I want to try new things, experience the world, you know?”

He nods. She must be young, he thinks to himself. The last time Nick had that much optimism had been a good 10 or more years ago.

“Well, welcome aboard,” he says with faux-grandeur.

The bunny smiles eagerly and squirms in her seat again, her ears just as perky. “I’m Judy, by the way,” she says, “Judy Hopps!”

Nick cringes. He doesn’t need her name — names turn strangers into friends, and friends into attachments, and the last thing he wants right now is to be attached to a bunny.

But it’s already too late. She said it and he won’t forget it.

So, cursing under his breath, he mutters, “Nick.”

“Nick….?” She asks, leaning in closer to him.

He throws her a glance. “Wilde.”

She seems pleased to have extracted this information from him, and sits back in her seat. “Well, Nicholas Wilde, it’s a pleasure to be traveling together!”

He laughs a sarcastic huff of a laugh, and drums his fingers over the wheel. “Alright, sweetheart, first off, it’s Nick. Secondly, we’re not ‘traveling together’ — I’m giving you a ride. And lastly, when you get to where you wanna go, we part ways, got it?”

She frowns slightly, but nods cooly.

“Got it.”

It’s a couple of hours later, and the tension has lessened. Judy spent most of the ride peering out the window, seemingly in awe of something as simple as the desert. Then, when that bored her, she got to poking around his car, because of course, why wouldn’t she?

That’s how she spotted his stash.

“So you’re a con man,” Judy comments, eyeing the duffle bag of money he has shoved into the backseat.

He smirks at the road, cheeks actually warming a bit. “How’d ya’ figure that?”

“Well, judging by the ridiculous amount money in your car, you’re either a con man, or a drug dealer.”

“Sly bunny,” he simply laughs, running a paw through his fur as he pushes his sunglasses onto the top of his head.

“Are you on the run?” She asks in a whisper, looking up at him with a dumb, innocent bunny smile. Her eyes are sparkling, and it’s as if she’s almost pleading with him to say yes, and Nick suddenly realizes that he’s probably the biggest adrenaline rush this rabbit has ever gotten in her entire life.

He answers her question with his own. “Are you?”

She answers simply. “Yes.”

The nature of the whole thing makes Nick laugh, and he takes his eyes off the road to glance at her. “Well, that’s…damn, Carrots. What’d ya’ do, rob a bank?”

“No!” She says, blushing. “It’s nothing like that…I just wanted to get away. I’m tired of being told what I can and can’t do. I need to…” her voice trailed off then, and she turned her attention to the horizon. “I need to do something. Something more.”

Nick eyes her again. “You’re not a cop, are you, Fluff? Are you going to rat me out?”

She snorts. “No, I’m not.” Her face falls slightly then, and she hesitates before saying softly, “I wanted to be.”

A bunny cop? Nick had heard of stranger things, he supposed. “What happened?”

The bunny looks out the window, and shakes her head. “Everything.”

Nick looks at her curiously, but says nothing.

The car rumbles down the interstate, and dusk begins to fall.

Dinner means a grimy BugBurga drive-thru, and sleeping arrangements mean a motel located less than a minute off the interstate.

“You can have the bed,” Nick says, because a suite with two beds was $30 more, and he didn’t see the necessity in it.

“You’re just going to let me sleep with you?” Judy asks, oblivious to the double-entendre of her question. “What if I’m a murderer?”

“Well, you’d have to be a pretty bad one,” Nick snorts, tossing his stuff onto the ratty love seat in the corner, “If you’re going to go around asking questions like that.”

She blushes slightly, and eyes the small room. “Where will you sleep?”

He shrugs. “The love seat.”

“Isn’t that uncomfortable?”

“I’m used to the back seat of my car, so, no, no it is not.”

She frowns uncertainly, but doesn’t protest. As Nick gets himself ready for bed, she washes her face off in the bathroom, and comes out in a pair of pajamas she had stored in her suitcase. She sets the suitcase on a dresser situated across from the bed, and then hops into the sheets.

“Well, goodnight, Nick!” She says cheerily, resting her head against the pillows and falling asleep within minutes.

She must have been exhausted, Nick notes, and he smirks when he starts to hear her snore.

He sits back on the love seat, which is rather uncomfortable, but he’ll live with it. He’s supposed to be sleeping, but his eyes start scanning the room and somehow land on the small, bunny-sized suitcase on the dresser.

He’s…curious, to say the least. Even though he knows he shouldn’t care, because caring about something led to getting attached to said something, he can’t help himself. He wants to know a little more about the bunny he was currently stuck with.

He carefully tip-toes up from his chair and across the room, stopping at the dresser and running his paws over the metal case.

The sound of cars rushing by on the interstate create a soft rumble through the small room, and Nick double checks that she’s truly asleep before carefully zipping her suitcase open.

She doesn’t have much — a couple outfits, a toothbrush, a cell phone charger, but what catches his attention most is a white envelope, hidden between a pair of jeans. He glances at the bed again before peeking it open.

Hundreds. He counts about 10 or 11 bills, making her stash somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,000.

A thought crosses his mind, and he hesitates.

It would be so easy, he thinks, eyeing the stack of cash, to just run. She’d wake up and he’d be a good hundred miles away, free from her and with an extra grand too. A quick and easy hustle.

He considers it, he really does.

But then the bunny shifts in her sleep, and makes a soft sigh, and of course, Nick’s conscience comes rising up for the first time in years.

If he screws this bunny over, she wouldn’t make it. Not this far away from her family, broke, alone.

Nick may be an asshole, but he’s not heartless.

He puts the money back, fixes the contents of the suitcase, and returns to the love seat.

Just don’t let her get to you, he tells himself as he drifts off.

It’s the hottest day of the summer on record, and Nick is sweltering. The half-functioning radio is playing some old country song that’s grating to his ears, but reaching across the dashboard to change the station would require far more effort than he’s willing to put out.

“You think you could use some of your con money to fix the AC?” Judy asks desperately. She’s seated beside him, fanning herself, gray fur slick with sweat.

“Hey!” he snaps, sweat dripping off his forehead. “Beggars can’t be ch—”

He glances over at her, and she’s taking her top off.

Well, damn.

She’s still wearing a white cami underneath, but that doesn’t make the sight of her tossing her pink button-up into the backseat any less distracting.

He turns his attention back to the road quickly, because there’s no way in hell he’s going to let himself check out a rabbit. A significantly younger, naive, deliciously-bare-shouldered rabbit.

He blames his thoughts on the heat.

“Can I change the station?” She asks.

Nick stutters. “W-what?” He winces at the sound of his voice, because it really is ridiculous that at 32 years old, he’s getting flustered by a rabbit in a camisole.

She eyes him. “Can I change the radio station? I’m getting tired of country.”

He nods quickly. “Do whatever you want, Fluff,” he says dismissively. “I don’t care.” His indifference sounds foreign even to his own ears.

She smiles, and Nick has a flash of regret before she changes it to a pop station. Some old Gazelle song starts playing, and Judy bobs her head along enthusiastically.

She’s cute, Nick thinks, as he watches her move along to the beat. A big pain in his ass, maybe, but cute.

He tries to turn his attention back to the road, back to the feeling of the wind rippling his fur, the sweat beaded on his forehead, and the hiss of the desert cicadas beneath the burning sun, but his mind keeps wandering back to the humming bunny in the passenger’s seat.

His heart sinks as he realizes he’s starting to care about her.

Evenings were spent at grimy gas stations. Nick picks up two cherry popsicles for the heat and a package of cigarettes for his vice.

“Here,” he says gruffly, handing the popsicle to her.

She’s sitting on the hood of his car with her pink shirt tied around her waist. He’s parked the car out by some old lookout post that overlooks the desert valley. Nick!“ She beams, taking it from him. "Thanks! How very sweet of you.”

He rolls his eyes at her cheap pun, as well as the notion of him being sweet, while she laughs.

The heat has died down slightly, and the cool relief of the popsicles help with that too. They both suck on them for awhile, watching the sun start to set over the horizon, and when Nick finishes his popsicle, he pulls out a cigarette.

“Is my tongue red?” Judy suddenly asks, sticking it out for him to inspect, and Nick has the fleeting desire to put it in his mouth.

He ignores the desire, pulls out his lighter, and smiles. “Extremely.”

She laughs and finishes off her popsicle, red tongue darting out to lick the juice off the sides of her mouth.

The sun continues to set while Judy hums along to the radio, which is still playing from inside the car, and Nick smokes.

“Why do you do that?” She asks, raising her knees up to hug them close to her chest.

He eyes her. “Do what?”

She motions to the cigarette. “You know those things will kill you.”

He shrugs. “Old habits die hard.”

She makes a thoughtful expression as her brow furrows and she chews over his answer. She eyes him curiously though, and Nick can see the question in her face without her even having to ask it.

“You wanna try?” He asks, handing it out to her with a smile.

She blushes. “I shouldn’t.”

He leans in closer and gives her a playful nudge. “Oh c'mon, Carrots. You said you wanted to do more things! Take a walk on the wild side.”

Now it’s her turn to roll her eyes at his pun, but that doesn’t stop her from taking it from him cockily, slipping it into her small, soft mouth, and taking a long drag. The butt glows red, and she coughs, sending jagged, gray smoke rings into the sky. “How can you stand this stuff?” She asks, shoving it back into his paw. “It’s disgusting!”

“The first time’s always the hardest,” he quips with a wink, and Judy blushes again and eyes him wryly. He slips the cigarette back into his mouth and they both turn their attention to the sky.

Dusk is upon them, and the violet hues of the sunset begin to blend with the indigo of nightfall. Judy squints up at the sky before gasping in excitement and punching him in the arm. “Look!” She says, pointing up at the first star of the night, a white glowing light amidst an array of clouds. “It’s the first star! You’ve gotta make a wish.”

Nick eyes her. “I don’t wish on stars, Fluff. Not since I was 8.”

“Everyone wishes on stars, Nick,” she says without a hint of humor in her voice.

There’s no point in arguing, really. So he closes his eyes, thinks of things that feel unfulfilled in his life, and winds up with a long list.

He wishes for simplicity.

One night they sleep in the car, because there’s no motel for a good hundred miles and Nick is too tired to drive.

“I could drive!” Judy offers eagerly, to which Nick laughs.

They sleep in the back seat, Nick with one paw on his duffle bag and the other around the waist of the bunny curled up on top of him. Her head his tucked under his chin, her ears resting on either side of his muzzle, and he can feel the patter of her heartbeat fluttering against his chest. She’s snoring, actually snoring, and it’s a tiny little sound that threatens to make Nick feel something.

There are worse ways to sleep, he decides.

There are worse ways to wake up too, he adds, because the next morning, even when his back is sore, the sun is far too bright, and the air is hot, she’s smiling down at him and is looking more tempting and inviting than a tropical oasis in the driest of deserts.

“Ready to go, Slick?” She asks, giving him a gentle nudge.

Nick has to look away, reminding himself that he doesn’t care about this bunny, he doesn’tneed this bunny, this bunny could walk out on him right now and he wouldn’t give a single damn because she didn’t get to him, no one did. “Yeah.” He pauses. “Did you…uh…sleep well?”

“No. You snore like an elephant in heat,” Judy smirks, climbing off of him and hopping into the passenger’s seat.

Sly bunny.

“Spoiler alert, Fluff,” he smirks back, leaning his muzzle close to hers. “So do you.” He dares to bop their noses together playfully, and she bursts into giggles. They make eye contact, and for a split second, Nick allows himself to imagine what it’d feel like to fall for this bunny.

It’s not that bad.

Midnight at some dingy truck stop. There’s one lamppost lighting the outdoors of the small building, leaving everything else lurking in dark shadows.

“Don’t wander,” Nick tells her before getting out of the car.

She nods and smiles at him. “Don’t worry Slick, I’ll keep your drug money safe,” she teases.

He snorts and eyes her wryly.

Nick should have known she wouldn’t listen though.

He comes back from the restroom, and she’s not in the car. The money is though, which oddly doesn’t provide him the relief he needs right now.

“Carrots?” He calls out, searching the rest of the car.

Nothing.

His heart lurches as he starts scanning the parking lot, never more grateful for his night vision. “JUDY?!”

Nick runs to the other side of the truck stop and finally spots her several feet away, pressed up against a vending machine, a burly leopard leaning over her. The leopard has one paw on her wrist as she squirms frantically, and from what Nick can see, he isn’t letting her go.

His heart lurches again. “CARROTS!”

Nick’s outburst causes the leopard to pause and glance over his shoulder, giving Judy enough time to twist the leopard’s wrist, jump free, and kick him right in the jaw. The kick is enough to send him spiraling to the ground, not without knocking his head on the vending machine on the way down. The blow echoes throughout the dark parking lot, and he crumples up on the ground, completely knocked out.

Nick’s shocked, to the least, but he sets it aside for now and dashes to Judy’s side.

“What a jerk,” she mutters, clutching her wrist with one paw and a chocolate bar in the other.

“What the hell were you thinking?!” Nick snaps.

She flinches at first, eyes wide. She seems taken aback by the sight of him looking so angry, especially with his teeth bared and fur standing on edge, but she keeps her ground, straightens up.

“I just wanted a snack!” Judy snaps right back, waving the chocolate bar in her paw. “I was hungry!”

“You almost got hurt!”

“I think I managed it quite well, actually.”

“Yeah, because I showed up!”

She snorts. "Don’t give yourself so much credit.”

He gapes at her, fuming silently. She’s so damn stubborn, and naive, and…and…

…He cares about her. Dangerously so. She’s getting to him and the idea terrifies him almost as much as Judy getting hurt does.

“Just…don’t do that again,” he says gruffly, not looking directly at her.

She stares at him for a long moment, and he briefly fears that she knows how much he cares. “Fine,” she finally says, putting her paws on her hips. “I won’t.”

They walk back to the car, and Nick thanks every deity he can think of that she left things at that.

He thanks too soon.

“It’s okay that you were worried about me,” she says as he puts the keys into the ignition.

His paw freezes over the keys as the car rumbles to life, and he allows himself to look at her.

He doesn’t confirm or deny her statement, instead he just looks at her with a lost sort of feeling in his chest. “Buckle up, Fluff,” he mumbles instead, “We’re going to be driving ‘till morning.”

She doesn’t say anything after that.

Morning comes, Judy buys him a blueberry muffin, he gets her a carrot muffin, and they sit in the front seats of the car and drink their drive-thru coffee. It’s very domestic and Nick knows he should hate it, but he doesn’t.

“Sorry about last night,” she says to her coffee cup.

“Don’t,” he cuts her off, and looks at her. His apology goes unspoken.

She smiles at him, her paw somehow finds its way to land over his, and he doesn’t pull away.

There’s a thunder storm one night, the same night Nick and Judy just happen to be sleeping in the car again.

Nick quickly learns that Judy doesn’t like this, not one bit.

She jumps at the lightning, and lands on Nick, who’s currently sprawled against the backseat.

“Carrots!” He yelps.

“I’m sorry!” She winces, but the thunder rolls again and she wraps her paws around his neck.

Nick can’t help but smirk at her. “Well, well, well. Judith Hopps, fearless in the face of danger, and yet, cowers at a thunderstorm.“

"I’m not scared of thunderstorms!” Judy insists as she nudges his leg with her knee, “I’mworried because we’re stuck in one with only your death trap of a car for protection!”

He pretends to take great offense. “Excuse me Madam, but my car is not a death trap.”

She eyes him. “Yes it is.”

“Is not.”

“The air conditioning doesn’t even work.”

“…Touché.”

There’s a flash of lightning, and Nick’s paws wrap around her tiny waist. “Just try to get some sleep,” he tells her, tilting his head back slightly so his nose isn’t nuzzling the top of her head. “The storm will be over before you know it.”

“I can’t sleep,” Judy mumbles, ears drooping. “Tell me a story.”

“A story?”

“About you! What was young Nicholas Wilde like? Were you born knowing you wanted to be a con man?”

He shouldn’t tell her anything.

He does.

He keeps it light, non-personal, but she somehow has a way of silently drawing information out of him and within an hour he’s telling this bunny his whole life story, because really, why wouldn’t he?

“My dad was a con man too,” he says slowly, squinting up at the ceiling. He really shouldn’t be telling her this. “Always gone, just stopping by to drop off money, except for the times when he’d bring me along on his cons. I’d help him scam whoever he needed to, and afterwards he’d take me out for ice cream just like we were a normal family.“

Judy’s looking down at him with wide, violet eyes, and he can practically hear her sympathizing for him.

“Then one day,” he continues, looking away from the bunny with the penetrating stare, “He just left. Said he was going to run some errands, or some shit like that. Fast-forward 24 years, and he still hasn’t even called.”

Judy runs her paw up and down his cheek soothingly. “Oh Nick, that’s horrible. I’m so sorry.”

He shrugs dismissively. “I’ve learned to get over it.”

“Still,” she says gently, “No one deserves to grow up without their dad, especially you.”

He snorts and gently pushes her face away. “Alright, that’s enough mushiness for one night, Fluff — you’re going to make me sick.”

Judy giggles softly and darts her tongue out to lick the paw pushing her face. Nick yelps again and gives her a nudge with his free paw.

“You’re disgusting,” he tells her, which only makes her laugh more.

“You love me,” Judy retorts cockily, and bumps their noses together.

Nick swallows back the urge to kiss her, and shakes his head. “You wish.”

Breakfast means a diner in a small drive-by town. Nick orders a stack of blueberry pancakes for the both of them, and Judy takes all the whipped cream. He orders her coffee for her because he’s heard her do it what feels like a hundred times now, and she rolls her eyes and smiles at him.

She’s wearing a purple top that brings out her eyes, and Nick can’t help but take what’s left of the whipped cream and dash it across her nose. “You look rather cute today, if I do say so myself,” he teases, sucking what’s left of the cream off his finger.

Judy flicks a straw at him, and tries to look angry (she fails). “Just shut up and eat your pancakes, fox,” she smirks, and Nick feigns an innocent look before taking another bite.

Another night in another motel, only this time they’re sharing the bed. It’s something that started happening after the third or so time of renting a room. Nick had set his duffle bag on the dresser and gone to the love seat, ready for sleep, when Judy had reached out to hold his arm.

“You could sleep with me,” she’d offered shyly, once again reminding Nick that he had to teach her to choose her words better. “I don’t care what you say, those chairs are uncomfortable, and the bed’s big enough to share.”

“I’m good,” he’d snorted, but she’d tugged on his arm and even whined a little, so he’d given in, something that was becoming a trend with her.

It was supposed to be a one time thing, just to get her to calm down and leave him alone about it, but one time faded into two, and three, and four, and now it’s just routine.

It’s 1 am, she’s curled up against his side, paws gripping as much of his torso as she can, and Nick’s trying to ignore how nice it feels.

It’s raining, another hard, powerful summer thunderstorm that will likely muddy the desert interstate tomorrow, the room is slightly humid, and the fan is running. One of Nick’s cigarettes is cooling in the ash tray on the nightstand, a faint, flickering glow that sends off faint, gray wisps. The shades are drawn over the window, but the neon lights of the motel sign still leak through, illuminating their snuggling forms in flashing bright greens and blues.

Nick knows Judy can’t sleep because he can feel her gaze on him and she’s not snoring. He shifts under the sheets and turns his head to look down at her.

“Trouble sleeping?” He asks, and he can feel her smile against him.

“Only a little bit,” she admits, voice muffled by his chest.

“You know, Carrots, I think you may be becoming a bit of an insomniac.”

“And I think you’re just a dumb fox,” Judy smirks in reply, a lazy paw tracing patterns on his stomach.

“C'mon, you know you love me,” Nick teases, shifting again to poke her in her soft belly, but Judy doesn’t reply.

Instead, she lifts her head and stares at him, and Nick suddenly wonders if he’s said something wrong, crossed a line. It wasn’t that weird, was it? She’d said it first, so really, he wasn’t being—

That’s when she starts kissing him.

He’s completely taken aback, and she’s quick, so quick he doesn’t completely register at first that she’s climbing on top of him. She’s breathing softly and showering him with tiny little bunny kisses on his forehead, cheeks, nose, and mouth. He can feel her heart picking up speed in her chest, until it feels like it’s nearly flying.

It feels strangely incredible.

Her small tongue darts out to taste the side of his muzzle, and Nick can’t help but groan under his breath because this bunny always has been and always will be too much for him.

He’s never been one to be this slow to the uptake, however, and within seconds, his paws move up to engulf her hips, and he momentarily starts to relish in the feeling of letting her kiss him.

Judy only smiles at him through her lashes and continues peppering him with kisses, working her way down from his muzzle, to his neck, to his torso. Her mischievous paws yank his dark t-shirt over his head with a slightly awkward tug, and she continues her ministrations, much to Nick’s alarm and begrudging pleasure.

If only his conscience hadn’t picked now to make a reappearance. “W-what the hell are you doing, Carrots?”

“I love you,” she breathes in reply, kissing down the front of his chest.

Nick swears under his breath as she tries to move lower, and his paws release her hips to curl into the bedsheets. He has to use every ounce of restraint in him to not enjoy this, because the notion of him enjoying the pleasures of a rabbit is wrong on so many levels, even without throwing love into the mix. He tries to shut her down. “N-no, you don’t.”

“Yes, I do!” She insists, sounding almost offended. She stops from her kisses to look up at him, brow furrowed and mouth pulled into an adorable pout. “I love you, Nicholas Wilde.” She punctuates her declaration with another kiss, practically curling herself around him.

This isn’t right, Nick tells himself, even as he gingerly starts to kiss her back. She’s much younger, and a rabbit. Prey. His natural enemy. An emotional bunny who got caught up in excitement and adrenaline and confused it for love. He needs to put a stop to this, right now.

But then she straddles him, and starts grinding, because why wouldn’t she? She is a bunny by nature, despite the fact that she’s quite unlike any other bunny Nick has ever met.

"I want this,” she insists. Her scents are going haywire right now, and he allows himself to bury his nose in her neck and take a deep whiff. Judy in response makes a soft humming sound and presses herself closer to him. “You do too, don’t you?”

Nick should have said no, but he couldn’t bring himself to lie to Judy. “Yes,” he breathes, teeth nipping at her neck and earning a delighted squeak out of her.

Judy has a determined glint in her eye as she kisses his cheek and clings to him, grinding her small hips harder against his, and damn it, if Nick isn’t enjoying this way more than he should be. “I trust you,” she whispers, a sentiment Nick hasn’t heard in years.

She shouldn’t trust him, and yet, she does.

He kisses her harder, pulls her in closer, all the while reminding himself he shouldn’t fall for her.

And yet, he does.