Chapter Text
Judy Hopps was a rabbit with a plan. There was hardly anything in her life that did not have some sort of routine to it. Especially when it came to her work. Failure to prepare is to prepare for failure, especially when it comes to police work.
That’s why she and Nick had a small collection of carefully styled outfits they could use undercover. Most were small enough to be kept in an extra locker at the station, like the outfits they had worn earlier that day. There were tacky outfits like those, and other more inconspicuous, hide-in-plain-sight type outfits. Nick wasn’t a fan of those, he was more of a bright colors and patterns type of guy. But some things were too delicate to keep at a place as dirty as a station locker, so she kept them at her apartment.
At the very back of her clothing rack, there were two garment bags. Inside the smaller one, Judy brought a beautiful one-shoulder yellow silk dress with a yellow flower crown to match. It was the dress her mother had bought her thinking she was allowed to choose whatever she wanted to wear for her police academy graduation. Regardless, Judy still loved the dress and kept it just in case. For undercover formal wear it would do-despite standing out with its bright yellowness. It wasn’t a sexy, femme fatale type of dress like you’d see in a spy movie, but Judy didn’t think of herself as being able to portray that type anyways. It was sentimental, something about its whimsicalness reminded her of home.
In the other, larger garment bag, was a tuxedo for Nick. She never told him that she had it despite secretly hoping they’d be able to use the formalwear undercover someday. It was a funny story really, in an effort to let Nick focus on his training, she decided to take care of all the graduation stuff, including ordering the uniform. Judy let her mind wander back to that day.
Towards the end of his training, Judy had decided to bring him some food from a restaurant she knew he liked. The academy had set him up in his own little dorm-a bit of special treatment Judy made happen. She knocked on his door with her free hand.
“Knock-knock, police, open the door!” she called.
“You need a warrant to enter the property ma’am!” she heard him say from the other side. Cheekily, she slid the receipt of the take-out in her hand and slid it under the door.
“There, a completely valid warrant,” she said. “Now c’mon we ain’t got all night mister.”
She heard him shuffle to the door. “Ah, signed by a Judge who works at the Wildabeastro, I’ll budge,” he said, opening the door with a relaxed smile and familiar raising of his right eyebrow.
“Got you your favorite,” Judy said walking into the dorm. The room was pretty much bare, just a bed, nightstand, lamp, a desk, and chair. Judy set down the bag of food on the desk and helped Nick move it to be parallel with the bed to use it as an additional chair so they could eat together. After a few months they got good at doing it quietly to not disturb the other trainees with the sound of furniture scraping against the floor.
“Please tell me there’s alfredo in here,” Nick said, digging into the bag like he hadn’t eaten in weeks. Judy remembered well how bland the academy food could be. His face practically melted at the smell of the alfredo.
“Of course, and their roasted carrots. I mean I am from a place that farms carrots and I have never had better roasted carrots in my life!” Judy said, sitting on the bed. Nick had always let her take the bed since she was shorter and was less likely than him to get crumbs all over the bed.
“Much better than those god-awful ‘carrots-for-one’ microwave dinners you eat all the time,” Nick said with a mouthful, “You know, there’s other vegetables besides carrots, Carrots.”
Judy rolled her eyes, “it’s comfort food, cheap and easy considering I’m no cook.”
“Does it even have any seasoning? Or do you add seasoning?” Nick asked playfully.
“Uh, no- besides maybe some salt?” Judy replied.
“Okay never bring me to Bunny Burrow for Thanksgiving, you country folk never season anything!” Nick chuckled.
Judy laughed at the thought of bringing him home for Thanksgiving. Not at the concept itself, because she definitely would bring him home for Thanksgiving if he agreed, but at how funny it would be to see her family interact with Nick.
“Yeah, we see Thanksgiving more as a family gathering than a dinner,” Judy laughed, “but god, my little siblings would have you so exhausted that I don’t think you’d care whether or not there was seasoning on anything. Anyone that my older brothers and sisters brought home got eaten alive by them.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Mhm,” Judy said, covering her mouth, “God, one year the boyfriend my older sister Beth brought home actually broke up with her over the stress of it all. I thought it was so stupid because like, the dude was also a rabbit so he couldn’t act like his family wasn’t pretty much the exact same type of chaos. But honestly, it was probably more the elders of the family grilling him too hard that stressed him out-“
As Judy rambled on about the story of the unfortunate boyfriend Nick was frozen on one word she let in. Boyfriend. Surely, she didn’t mean that of him, right? That would be…strange, right?
But as he watched her talk so fondly of her family Thanksgivings, he imagined being a part of a family like that. As much as he wanted the idea of Judy bringing him home to be strange, it didn’t feel strange. It felt warm, safe, and a bit normal. He didn’t have a big family, it was just him and his mom really. He had always wondered what it would be like to have a family that big.
“But yes, we do use seasoning out in the country, we just don’t care for spice is all,” Judy finished.
“We’ll work on that, Carrots,” he said, snapping out of his fantasy, “Building up your spice tolerance. No pain no gain, I always say.”
“You never say that.”
“I could start saying it,” Nick said, taking a sip of his drink. Judy laughed, rolling her eyes. They ate in silence for a few long moments after that, catching glimpses of each other’s eyes and smiling. After a while, Judy spoke up.
“So, how’s your training going? Are you keeping up fine?”
“Oh, yeah. I don’t think I’ve ever been in this good of shape in my life, really,” Nick said, flexing an arm. “Look, I think the difference in gains is night and day.”
Judy glanced over to his flexed arm. The difference between his build a few months ago was definitely not night and day, but Judy had noticed. “Uh huh, sure,” she still joked back. “How’s the combat training going? Are you staying light on your feet like I told you?”
“I lived on the streets, Carrots. I’m light-footed by nature. No one hears me coming,” he replied, gesturing with his fork.
“Not in a quiet way, dumb fox, in a quick moving way! Being quiet doesn’t win a fight, being quick can, especially for us.”
“Oh believe me Carrots, I am. They actually invented a whole phrase for it. ‘The quick orange fox jumped over the lazy dog’” he said, making air quotes.
“I didn’t think it was possible to jump over yourself?” Judy replied back with a fake tone of questioning.
“Har-dee-har-har,” Nick said, taking a bite. “You know, I survived a couple of fights back in the day.”
“Oh, really?” Judy asked. “Did you start any of them?”
“No, I avoided as hard as I could, to be honest. Although one time when I was a kid I started a fight at the playground with a wolf that had to be twice my size because he was bullying a poor bunny that was new. That did not end well for me, I’ll tell ya.”
“Aw,” Judy cooed in a way that made Nick’s ears perk up a little bit. Judy couldn’t help but revel in the moments where Nick revealed that there was more to him than he let on. “Don’t go starting any fights for me, though. Especially not ones you’re gonna lose.”
“Oh, I don’t think it’ll ever be me that’s going to start fights, Carrots.”
They continued bantering over dinner for about an hour or so before Judy looked out the window and saw it was getting dark. She started to notice that her friend was looking a little tired too, so she cleaned up dinner.
“Oh, one more thing, Nick, I need your measurements for the graduation uniform. I was going to take care of it for you so you don’t have to worry about it.”
“Oh, yeah,” Nick yawned, “sure, here I’ve got the forms right here, I just haven’t had the time to do it. Thanks.” He handed her the form and the pencil. Judy motioned him to step back so she could stand on the wooden chair and unrolled her measuring tape. “Uh, what are you doing?” he asked.
“Measuring you, dumb fox. If you knew your measurements off the top of your head you would have filled it out already, hmm?” Judy replied. Nick shrugged to himself, she did have a point. He hadn’t gotten proper measurements since he got fitted for his scouts uniform as a child. And that, of course, did not go well. Since then, he had no reason to buy properly tailored clothes.
“You know what you’re doing, Judy?”
“Of course I do, now stand with your arms out like this,” She gestured the movement, and he copied her looking at her with his iconic half-lidded stare.
She measured away, running the flexible tape across his arms in a way that was oddly relaxing. Their fingers touched lightly as she reached the end of his arm, the warmth familiar yet intriguing. She wrapped the tape around his torso, sticking her tongue out in concentration. Nick couldn’t help but take the moment in a bit. The warmth radiating off her from this distance was astounding. The smell of her perfume wafted into his nose, and he could smell each note in incredible detail at this distance. Lavender with a hint of something fruity-he thought probably blueberry since it wasn’t too citrusy.
It was strangely intimate. He wasn’t used to it, but he wasn’t averted to it.
He snapped back to reality as she gave him an instruction to hold the end of the measuring tape. She wrote the last of his measurements on the paper and rolled the tape back up.
“I probably could have done that myself, you know,” he commented.
“Oh I’m sure you could have, but its more honest that I did it,” Judy laughed.
“I would never,” he gasped. “I have nothing to overcompensate for,” Judy’s eyes instantly shot up. Oh shit, he realized. That came out a little dirty. “Uh, height wise. I’m actually tall for a fox.”
“Uh huh, sure,” Judy replied. She gave a soft chuckle as she folded the paper into her purse and slung it over her shoulder. She noticed Nick yawn as she checked the time on her phone and realized she stayed a little longer than she had intended.
“Alright, you look tired and I know you’ve got an early morning tomorrow. I’ll get all this taken care of. Just think not too long from now we’re gonna be official partners!”
“Can’t wait, Carrots. Get home safe,” he replied as she went in for a light hug. He did everything he could not to drink it in. “Oh, and thanks for dinner. I uh-I really like getting to hang out like this.”
Judy gave a soft smile. “Me too. And don’t mention it, anything for my future partner in crime stopping!” She turned towards the door. “Goodnight Nick.”
“Goodnight, Judy.”
Judy snapped back to reality, not wanting to waste a second to get to that gala. But she couldn’t help but unzip the garment bag and take a look at the tux she had picked out and tailored to his measurements. She put a lot of thought into it, more than she would ever let him know.
It was a normal black tuxedo at first glance, but when Judy looked at it she saw the small details she picked out that made it his. She admired the silver floral print vest that poked out just underneath the jacket and the pawpsicle-shaped cufflinks she got to match. She was so proud of it that she was excited just to see him in it.