Chapter Text
"Hey, Nick-kun."
"Don't call me that."
The wind whisked away to fill in the brief silence after, bringing with it a few stray leaves from the branches above, but Judy chit-chattered away as if he had said nothing.
"We meet so much," she continued.
His expression shifted from What a bother to I'm annoyingly curious. "...Where are you going with this?" the fox inquired.
She brought her phone out and powered it on. "What's your number?"
"Huh?" Nick looked around to see who was around in the park they were in. "Ah, Clawhauser-san's here, you know. And his friend too. What if he gets the wrong idea?"
"Wouldn't he get the wrong idea from just seeing us anyways?" she shot back. "You know. Alone. In the park. On the same bench."
"Yeah, but... there's some space between us, right?" he defended.
"It's just, I think it's a little inconvenient that if we have to meet for study or other things, I have to ask you in school first," she told him, looking down at a caterpillar on the floor.
He groaned just a bit and brought out his phone, or rather his...
"You have a flip phone?!" the rabbit yelped out.
"Dude, calm down...!" Nick gritted his teeth and glanced over to his right. Benjamin Clawhauser definitely saw them now.
"I-I'm sorry, it's just..." Judy suppressed a laugh, but Nick could tell this was (apparently) very humorous to her. "You being such a city boy and all... I would've assumed you'd have gotten, like, a jPhone or a Sssssamsung or something. But here you are with a Nyakia. Like a 33-year-old."
He raised an eyebrow. "That's a very specific age. Also, this is a Cawcera."
"I dunno, 33 just seemed like it fit." She showed him her phone. "Even I, a 'country bumpkin,' like you always say, have a jPhone. Not exactly the newest model, but a 12 is still pretty good, right?"
"I'm not averse to the color pink," he said as he stared at the kawaii-aesthetic cartoon bunny wallpaper, "but that is too pink."
Pink-tinted see through case to a pink-bodied smartphone, pink lockscreen, pink notification icons—with all this, the average animal might be inclined to agree with our Nick.
"I got this phone when I was around twelve, don't insult twelve-year-old me!" she bickered.
He tried imagining little twelve-year-old Judy Hopps. He chuckled a bit as he thought about it, the phone was probably much bigger than her hands, maybe even her head.
"I'm not insulting twelve-year-old you, I'm insulting you right now," he told her bluntly. "And this phone's pretty good for what it's worth. I can call, I can text, I can watch MooTube, and I can play snake. That's all a guy needs in a phone really."
"'Play snake'? Wow, you really are a 33-year-old in a 17-year-old body, huh," Judy said.
"So what is it?" he asked.
"Huh?"
He gestured toward the phone, and she saw he was in his contacts.
"A-Ah! Yeah, my number! So......"
As they walked toward home, they reached the fork on the street where they'd go their separate ways. They'd meet the next day going to school anyways—they lived pretty close.
"See ya tomorrow, Nick-kun," she told him as she waved, the sun setting as she smiled back.
"Don't call me that." He sounded irritated, but his faint smile betrayed him. "But you too."
"Oh! And by the way..." she added, getting a little quieter, "'Clawhauser-san's friend'... that was Ben-kun's boyfriend."
"Eh?!?!?!?!"
Character Profile 001: Nicholas Piberius "Nick" Wilde ♂
Species: Red fox (Vulpes vulpes, predator)
Age: 17
Birthday: February 9, 20XX
Height: 122 cm (4 ft)
Weight: 36 kg (80 lbs)
Likes: Pawpsicles, money, peanut butter, keeping up a solitary appearance (but failing), Judy Hopps (won't admit it), children (also won't admit it), dandelions (won't admit this one either)
Dislikes: Any sort of work, that one convenience store near their high school (bad relationship with the owner) (he might have stolen something) (he definitely stole something), muzzles (long story), being away from Judy (won't admit this one as well), being called "Nick-kun" (at least, he seems to dislike it...)
Out-of-School Attire: Nature-y colors (dark green, brown, etc.), likes (unbuttoned) button-up shirts + white undershirt combo + jeans, khakis, currently experimenting with Hawaiian shirts and ties