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Nick wasn't the type of mammal to celebrate his birthday. It wasn't a distaste for the date or some childhood trauma associated with it — so he claims; he simply didn't have the time for huge parties, or friends to invite to his place, or even the interest in doing so. Birthdays were just an excuse for him to get some gift cards, discounts at places, maybe get some free cake at select establishments, and relax if the opportunity called for it. He was a cynical and uncaring fox like that.
However, if he were interested in doing any activity for his birthday, being buried in mud, covered in grime and sweat, and his lungs basically burning holes in his chest from extreme exhaustion and strain would be the LAST thing he’d choose.
Which is exactly how he was spending his 33rd birthday.
A year ago, when his birthday came around (which he wouldn’t have realized if it weren’t for Finnick reminding him), he spent it lounging on his old, worn-out couch, bouncing a tennis ball off the wall. He spent the day before doing a scheme that successfully covered the month's rent, and thanks to that, he deserved some very well-earned downtime, especially considering how pissed off that tiger looked after being found out. He chilled on his couch, a jar of peanut butter in his hand with a spoon in the other, and a marathon of the latest action flick with Lionheart on the cover on his TV.
Compared to what he was going through in the present, that banal, boring, and otherwise unremarkable day seemed like Nirvana to him now.
Originally, he thought this year he'd simply share a couple of beers with Finnick, and maybe Flash too. Though if he invited him, odds were that his party would've lasted a whole weekend instead of the couple of hours he wanted to spend at the local dive bar. And that would've been just waiting for him to order.
He never thought this was what his life had become. Just a few months back, he had gotten his hands on a high-tech audio system for his also new and improved Elephant-grade TV — all legal, obviously. He was dying to sit down and have an all-night movie night with someone to break it in.
That is, if he had anybody he was willing to invite to his den.
There was a certain loppy-eared friend in his life he'd like to invite over, but that didn't matter anymore, because he was now stuck in knee-deep mud, under the simulated thunderous rain of the training grounds of the rainforest biome.
His thoughts were interrupted by a booming (and irritating at this point) voice.
"YOU'RE DEAD, ORANGE DOG!"
The polar bear instructor screamed at him, as if that was supposed to fill him with the energy to somehow pass over the very narrow, tightrope he just fallen off.
Was he aware this was going to be hard? Yes.
Did he think he was going to be this miserable? Probably.
Was this his idea for a birthday party? Absolutely not, no.
Nick thought the day-to-day job of a cop would be a bit easier than this when he signed up for it. He’d simply be able to do what he did best: look handsome with a uniform and badge. But reality came in to give him a swift smack to the face.
The first couple of weeks of the academy were definitely the hardest; his background as a criminal con-man did not help him at all, as much as he thought it would. His sly silver-tongue proved to be useless against the very real dangers of what a rookie has to go through at five in the morning till sundown came.
It was also apparent that his previous illegal lifestyle didn't put him in the best of shape either, since the first benchmark proved to him and everybody else that he was at the very bottom of the class.
Did it get easier? Sure, if "easier" meant that the first few notes of the Reveille trumpet call had traumatized him enough to instinctively stand at attention despite being in deep sleep just seconds ago, like he had been hit with a splash of freezing cold water.
Was it worth it…?
He wasn't quite sure… yet.
His journey back to the police academy headquarters was a slog, with his matted fur muddied and dried, and muscles aching with every step. He questioned if this was even worth the trouble. Why was he even here? Was he really looking forward to another six months of this? And for what? To be an exemplary fox? To be a beacon of hope?
He honestly couldn't care less about those prospects or silly dreams; his brain was too caked with mud to care at this point.
Finally, he made it to his issued quarters. Nothing special about the place; just a bed, desk, and drawers for clothes. Not having the mental strength to shower or take off his clothes, Nick crashed on his bed, ready to end this awful, terrible birthday with a sleep that would surely be interrupted by that damned trumpet fanfare.
But it seemed that his rest was cut off way earlier than he thought, as before he could even close his eyes and finally sleep, he heard a distinct shave and a haircut rapping at the door.
Ugh, he really didn't want to get up again; his aching body was already shutting down for the day. But the nagging voice that lived in the back of his brain, known as his conscience, worried that it was probably something important with the sergeant, or just the wolf from the other room asking for his tennis ball bucket again (also important). So, he used the last of his energy to hobble out of bed, open up the door, and greet whoever dared to disturb his well-deserved beauty sleep-
"Carrots?"
"Surprise!" The gray bunny looked up at him with wide purple eyes and what appeared to be a small box of cupcakes with a small candle on each of the pastries. Nick's eyes widened at the sight under him.
"Happy Birthday, Nick!" She said with a wide smile that warmed the coldest fox heart in Zootopia.
He suddenly remembered why he was here in the first place, and why he was going to spend the next six miserable months doing his absolute best, with a smile on his face.
"Wuh- What’s all this? You came here all by yourself, just for me?" Nick laid a hand on his chest, giving Judy a look of sheer bewilderment. But of course, it was just for show as his voice had a teasing, sarcastic tone and dropped the shocked look for his default smug-bastard face. But deep down, he was honestly taken aback by the gesture. Last time he had a surprise birthday present was… huh. Nothing was coming to mind. Kinda sad.
"Wouldn't miss it for anything, Slick! Now move over, you have a cupcake to eat, Hopps' specialty." Judy invited herself into Nick's room with a hop on her step.
In what was a rare but steadily rising occurrence, Nick was out of his element here. It was rare for him to let anyone into his home. Wow, look at him, calling this sad gray cube with the worst mattress he's ever slept on a "home". This place was definitely getting to him.
But here he was, his best friend, partner in crime-fighting, wandering into his private space to eat what he assumed to be homemade cupcakes for his birthday.
He couldn't help but hold a warm smile on his stupid, smitten, foxy face.
Judy placed the box on the very small and very cheap desk that Nick had. One by one, she lit each candle with her lighter. Nick couldn’t help but stare at how her face came aglow from the warm, orange flickers of light, with a smile that alone could light up the darkened room.
As she sang to him the classic birthday song, it was as if every word that came out of her was an angel soothing him and cleaning out all the mud that was stuck in his ears and fur. He completely forgot about all the mistreatment of the day in those sweet moments.
"Make a wish, Nick!" She said as she finished her angelic melody.
He could wish for material stuff, or for the training to be less hard on him, maybe even for him to graduate early, but then all his hard work wouldn't mean anything.
In reality, he already had everything he could ever wish for, right in front of him, and was expecting him to blow the candle with her big, beautiful amethyst eyes.
With a deep inhale, he blew out the candles, making the rabbit beside him start to clap and cheer. Nick could see the eagerness in her eyes, insisting on trying one of the cupcakes. Plucking the half-melted candle off of one, he picked it up, and the first bite was pure heaven. He had to make a mental note to visit that Hopps' farm she was from sometime, because these blueberry cupcakes were absolutely out of this world.
"Compliments to the chef, she's definitely outdone herself with these. How can you make these and still eat those microwaveable carrots? It’s like you’re wanting to starve yourself." Nick's teasing was interrupted by the classic Hopp's arm punch.
"For your information, those carrots have all the nutrients I need for my dinners."
"Yeah, well, maybe that's why you're still so tiny. You are what you eat after all!" Nick teased back.
Judy couldn't help but let out a small chuckle at that joke; there was that beautiful sound again.
"Well, you're no better yourself, Slick! thirty-three years old, and you're barely taller than me. You gotta lay off whatever it is you eat."
"Are you really mocking my age, Carrots? How low of you, I'll have you know I'm tall even for Fox standards! and that I'm very much in top-tippity shape for my age." Nick said, feigning being insulted.
"You're old enough to be an uncle of mine, don't think too much about that, old man." She retorted back at him, a grin growing on her face.
"Well, you gotta like this 'old man' too much for you to bake these delicious cupcakes for him, so that 'old man' thanks you kindly."
Judy leaned her head back, eyes rolling in annoyance, but the smile that crept up on her face betrayed her as she nailed Nick straight in the arm again. Was that blush he saw in her cheeks? Nah, had to be the lighting.
Something suddenly appeared on the fox's mind, rather a question. He was curious about how that rabbit knew of his birthday, when he definitely hadn't ever mentioned it to her. He pulls his trademark sly grin as he eats the crumbs off his fingers.
"So, bun-bun, how did you know it was my birthday?"
He wasn't sure if it was a trick of the light, but he swore he saw Judy's ears become a bit redder.
"O-ohhh… you know, police stuff, files, records, all that stuff." She was then interrupted by Nick's sudden interjection.
"From what I gathered at the legal training classes, looking through a civilian's personal files and records is not permitted unless they have a warrant signed by a judge. Am I correct on this, officer?"
"I-uh- wait… You actually learned in legal training classes?" She stammered as her ears went down.
"I'm a con-artist at heart, Carrots! I was already reading laws and legal stuff before, of course, to avoid it rather than to follow it. But you're dodging my question, bun-bun."
It was a good thing her ears were behind her; otherwise, Nick could see they definitely turned red hot. She was caught. It was no use lying to a professional liar (ex-liar… hopefully), so she had to come clean.
So, of course, in Judy's typical fashion, she started to ramble, picking up speed as she went along.
"Well… at first I tried to look you up on Muzzlebook, and you had an account there, but it was a really old profile, and you didn't even include your birthday, so I looked you up on other social media to see if you have anything else, but apparently you have nothing else apart from that. So I went to ask Finnick to see if he could help me, but he told me that he "Doesn't talk with the fuzz" and to "get a warrant," and I even tried to ask Flash, but it took me four hours just to get an "I don't remember." So I had no other choice than—"
"CARROTS," Nick interrupted her word scramble.
"Y-yeah?"
"Get to the point."
"…"
"Carrots…"
"…"
"Hopps…"
"…"
"JUDY!"
"I BRIBED THE GUY'S ON RECORDS WITH GIVING THEM SOME OF MY COLLECTED PTO TO GET IN THE SYSTEM AND SEE YOUR FILE," Judy finally admitted, hiding her face in shame behind her reddened ears.
Nick couldn't help but chuckle at her confession. That was it? Bribery? He's done that at least a million times in his life. To a con artist, it was the equivalent of learning how to walk. Meanwhile, poor little bunny looked like she committed first-degree murder so she could read a date in a recorded file. So, of course, being him, Nick decided to tease her about it.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. First bunny cop in ZPD, and a first-time bunny briber. Now, where did you learn to do that, hm?"‘
"Ugh… Niiiick…"
"Bet it was from the best, after all, can't get all the information without a little… out-of-the-box thinking."
"You… You're the worst."
"And you still did all of that for dear ol' me, you must've missed me so much for you to go through all that trouble~."
"…Yes. Yes, I did." She said confidently.
She completely disarmed him with that reply. Did she admit to missing him that much?
"You… you did?" Nick asked earnestly.
"Well… yeah. It's been like three months since we last saw each other, Nick. Honestly, there's no one back at the precinct who gets me like you did when we worked together. I'm getting paired up with… it doesn't really matter."
Nick stood silent, listening to her.
"And even if we texted and Muzzletimed each other after your training was over, it just wasn't the same. Sometimes I'd count down the minutes till we could talk again."
She looked up at him with a bashful look on her face.
"That's why I decided to look for any excuse to come visit you here. Even if it meant bribing police officers. I even used a day of my HUGE backlog of PTO to come over here, AND bake those."
"Wow, Judy. I, uh… I- I had no idea."
"Pfft, yeah, that's just what a lonely dumb bunny does when she's all alone at her dream job. Simply an occupational hazard, I suppose." Despite her laughter, Nick could see it plain as day on her face. She looked a bit… Dejected? Sad? Melancholic? Nick couldn't quite place it, but he knew something for certain: he couldn't let her kick herself into this depressive mode.
So he admitted to it.
"Well… if it's any consolation, Carrots, this has been one of — if not, THE best birthday I’ve had in a while."
Her face looked up again at him, her nose slightly twitching and her ears rising back to full mast. Her face started to shine with her characteristic buck-tooth smile. That did the trick.
"R-really!?"
"Well, none of my past birthdays had these scrumptious blueberry cupcakes and an adorable little bunny singing to me, so it's definitely a step up— Ugh!" Nick nearly stumbled off his feet as what felt like a missile launched right into his chest with a force that he swore could've broken a rib or two. He looked down to see Judy hugging him tight around his chest. Her tiny arms and paws were circling his torso, hugging as if he was going to disappear if she stopped holding on for a single second.
And Nick did something very unlike him.
He hugged her back as tightly as she did.
"Thanks, Carrots… This meant a lot to me."
"Anytime, Slick." She hugged him even tighter, both of their eyes closed, as they both took in the hug, taking their time to burn it into their brains.
After a while, they finally let go of each other, with a warm smile on both of their faces.
It wasn't even awkward at this point; it was just a nice, simple, and mundane moment between the two.
After a bit, Judy interrupted their silence.
"Sooo, how's the academy so far? I bet Major Friedkin has you on a vice, huh?"
"Gosh, you have no idea, I swear she's actually trying to kill me."
"She does that with everybody, you'll be fiiiinne."
"No, seriously, Carrots! Let me tell you what happened today! So there I was…"
And so Nick and Judy spent the remainder of his birthday talking, gossiping, complaining, and just existing around the other. It had been a while since Nick had this much fun with someone else, beating out all those schemes he planned out with Finnick in the past.
And it was there that it occurred to Nick that he did something else that was also unlike him that night. He didn't tell a lie.
It truly was the best birthday he's ever had.