Work Text:
Nick and Judy were typing away in their conjoined cubicle, filling in their reports for the day’s work. The streetlamps flickering on outside as the evening sunset draws nearer to the horizon.
Today they found themselves in a bit of a pickle.
A robbery at a local jewelry store caused a disturbance, luckily only a few mammals got injured in the process of capturing the perpetrators. Unfortunately however, during the chaos Judy dropped her wallet without realizing it, figuring she basically ran out the police cruiser at the first sign of danger as she usually does. It’s safe to assume that her lack of self preservation made her forget to check her pockets after the job was done.
With her wallet missing, she had to file a report for lost items to the commissioner as a way to recover her missing items. One of them being her Zootopia Identity Card.
Back to the present, Nick groaned, stretching on his chair as he submitted his daily report. Looking at the wall clock, their shift was coming close to an end as it showed a quarter to 6.
Nick, being the fox that he is, was naturally curious as to what his bunny partner was doing, especially since he noticed that she was looking for something around the crime scene earlier. Figuring that his work was finished, he decided to check up on her and maybe annoy her a little as well, one of his favourite pastimes to do ever since she came into his life.
He got up from his desk and sauntered to her side of the cubicle. As usual, she pays him no mind when he arrives at her desk, completely focused on the task at hand.
‘Let’s see, what do we have here… incident reports, arrest documents. hm? missing item report?’ He inched closer to her desk, interested as to what she might’ve lost, focusing on the list of items lost before…
“Huh.” Nick voiced his thoughts out loud, observing a specific paper on her desk.
“Gah!” Judy jumped at the sudden appearance beside her, shocked by his sudden close proximity. “You really need to stop sneaking over my desk Nick.” She complained, turning her office chair to face him, quirking an eyebrow when she realized that his eyes were turned on her desk instead of her. Already sensing what he might be staring at, she quickly flipped over a paper on her desk.
It was a paper to recover her missing identity card.
“Judith Laverne Hopps huh?” Nick echoed her name out of his head, raising his eyebrows and smirking in a smug fashion that he always does when he's about to be an insufferable joker. Judy grumbles, already knowing that her middle name is enough teasing fuel to last at least a month for him.
There's a reason why Judy Hopps never announces her full name out loud when chasing criminals. It’s an insecurity that has always been there, ever since her childhood. She thought it made her look weak, delicate, the complete opposite of what she wanted to be. In any case, Nick was the last mammal she wanted knowing her vulnerability, and so-
“Nick.” she hissed, giving him a stern look, feeling heat start to rise up to her face. Warning him of what she would do if he traverses further.
“Well well, cute middle name you got, Lavender” Nick instead quips with a smirk, finding more than a little enjoyment in discovering a new way to call her. Judy shoves a playful punch to his belly in return. Firm but just enough to not seriously hurt him.
“Ow!” Nick reels back from her desk while clutching his center. “Hey, that was totally not accounted for!” he argues jokingly.
“First, keep your voice down, second don't call me cute, and third,” She shot him a sharp look. “You deserved that” She stated with a flat face, huffing as she turned her office chair back to continue working on her papers. “Hey come on, you are cute.” Nick half confessed in a jest, shrugging his shoulders. Still eager to tease her.
She ignores him this time, twitching an eye at the word ‘cute’ but giving him no further amusement. Naturally he does not register her anger as he continues trying to get under her skin. Moving closer to the back of her office chair again,
“Lavender~” he leans comically to the right,
…
“Carrots~” to the left,
…
“Carrots?” forward now, overlooking her ears,
…
‘Waitwaitwait, is she… Actually mad?’
Nick felt his stomach turn a little, his signature grin slowly disappearing from his face. He shifted to the side of her chair now, bending down to peer at her face. Searching for any sign of emotion to no avail as she keeps her emotionless expression.“Judy?” he called again, softly now, the earlier comedic tone stripped from his voice. Another couple of seconds which felt like an eternity for Nick passes as Judy continues to disregard him.
‘Fuck.’
A gut dropping feeling hits him this time and his palms begin to sweat a little. He definitely stepped on something he shouldn't have.
He got down on one knee to level with her. An action that was very out of character from Nick Wilde, but he was desperate for the bunny’s attention at this point. His past self would be laughing at him for getting so worked up over getting another mammal angry, but so was the case.
In his defense, this bunny was the mammal that basically turned his life around and saved it at the same time after all. Causing him to harbor an unhealthy amount of feelings toward her, whether it was romantic or simply his attachment issues acting up, he didn't know. But if he's ever going to resolve that problem, she is the last mammal he wants to upset. Moreover, he couldn't take her being mad at him.
Hence, he takes a breath to regain his wits and focuses his eyes on hers, eyebrows furrowed from regret, and genuine concern. Giving a second for himself to gather his voice. “Hey, Judy” He called again, his tone low with a hint of tightness as he put a paw on the armrest of her chair.
A moment passes, before she finally turns her head towards him, Judy’s eyes widening a bit as their gaze met each other. She started observing his face, her eyebrows furrowing in a similar fashion to Nick’s. It seems she wasn't expecting to have such an effect on him. Especially when she glanced down at the paw on her armrest, and her expression turned to one mixed with pity and sorry.
She now turned her body to face him properly this time, opening her mouth before Nick beat her to it. “I- ” He started, his eyes quivering a little as he struggled to keep her gaze. “I'm sorry.” He murmured, ducking his head as his ears lowered slightly.
“Ugh, what am I even doing…’ he thought to himself, closing his eyes in embarrassment. Now not having to keep his emotions in check from showing on his face, he can instead focus on reconsidering his actions of the past minute. Not that it’ll change anything other than deepening his desire to bury himself 6 feet under right this moment. Figuring that he can't take much more shame and awkwardness than he already had. He started to regain his footing, deciding that he should just give up and take the walk of shame back to his desk.
Only stopped by an abrupt touch on his jawline. ‘A paw?’ He assumed, opening his eyes to glance at the sensation, it was indeed a paw, ‘Judy’s paw’ he noted. Which started to raise his head back up to face hers in one smooth motion. Now he's looking her straight in her eyes again and his heart skips a beat.
She's giving him this… Familiar look.
Suddenly he felt his vision start to blur, and he quickly turned his face from her and put a paw over his eyes. It didn't take him long to realize why, his brain instantly taking him back to the past. Back to the time when he came back home, crying. After his dreams of joining the Junior Ranger Scouts were crushed. And his mother, standing in the doorway. Giving him that same look.
A look as if to ask, What's wrong?
A look as if to say that he is safe.
A look as he hasn’t seen in god knows how long.
Of course, Judy immediately picked up his distress, his attempts at hiding his emotions rendering useless. “Wha- Nick are you okay?” Judy slid down from her chair and crouched beside him putting a paw on his back. “Yeah~, yeah. I’m fine.” He answered, his voice wobbly before he forced it to be as monotone as possible. She ‘humphed’ in response, peeking outside their shared cubicle to give the office a once over, making sure no one was there to overhear them. “You are clearly not fine.” She stated, pausing for a second.
“Is it because of-” “No!” Nick retorted, clearly knowing she's feeling guilty about what she did. “Is this about earlier? Me running out the police cruiser I mean." She nagged, still determined to know the reason for his emotional outburst. "It's not about you.” He reassured. “Then why did you just start crying out of nowhere?”
Nick took a deep breath, trying his best to stop the tears from flowing out, before taking his paw off his face. “Look, can we just talk about this at another time?” He deflected, not quite ready to discuss this matter, especially in the precinct office. She spent a moment observing him and she could definitely still see the moisture in his eyes. But decided to shove her worries for later, if he wants to talk later they’ll talk later. “Fine, but don't think you’re out of this Nick” She exclaimed, pointing a finger to the ceiling, Nick agreeing with a simple nod as he stood up.
They both then settled into a slightly awkward silence, it was getting quite late now, the clock just passing 6 pm. Both of them used the moment to glance back at her desk, finding the paper for her missing identity card again. Nick deliberated on a way to actually show that he is genuinely sorry, he landed on an idea, but not before a proper apology this time. “Hey.” Slowly turning his head back to her. “Hm?” She hummed as she found his gaze.
“Earlier.” He specified, “I really was sorry if I made you mad.” He offered his apology, eyes still focused on hers. “Oh, it's fine really. Sorry too, if I made you uncomfortable or something” She offered her apology, rubbing her elbow. Nick sighed in relief, which slowly turned into a quiet chuckle, both very glad that she's willing to forgive him and laughing prematurely at what he is about to propose. Judy gave a small smile at his amusement, feeling the tension from the moment prior slowly dissipating. “What now?” she asked in a breathy giggle.
“If you think it’ll make it fair, I'll tell you my middle name” Judy’s face immediately lights up, but quickly turns into skepticism. “What are you planning here, Wilde?" Judy questioned, putting her paws on her hips as she raised an eyebrow. “No plans, just thought I should make it fair for both of us, hm?” he shrugged halfheartedly, turning his back to walk towards his desk. Judy deliberated for a beat, wondering if he really is willing to give his middle name so easily, before eventually humoring him. “Alright then, what is your middle name?”
“Well~ the P, stands for Piberius” Nick answered as he started to gather his belongings, Judy now also doing the same. "And that’s true?” She spared a peek over her shoulder towards him, still wary if he really is telling the truth. “No lies here.” Nick frankly replied, still busy tidying up. She paused, mulling over the new information as she slowly turned her head back to her desk.
“Wow, Nicholas Piberius Wilde…” She's the one to echo his name out of her head now, eyes still distant in thought. “Yup” Nick is about finished with his stuff now, so he turns back towards her, and a quiet snicker escapes from Judy’s lips. Nick strolled over her desk again, what could she possibly be thinking about? He thought, grinning as he found her amused expression.
“That's funny” Judy looked up at him, still cheery as she finished packing up as well. “What’s funny?” He leaned his hips on her desk and folded his arms in a smug fashion, his usual smirk finding its way back to his face. “Pi Berry Us. get it?” She put both paws up in a shrug, mimicking his mannerisms. Nick raised an eyebrow in consideration before chuckling. “Seriously?
“What? I can't joke about your name but you can?” She bantered, pushing a digit to his chest, “No, I just thought you would've gotten better at nicknames after all this time hanging out with me” He snapped back, tracking her movements as she took a few documents to take home and slipped them under her arms. “Hey, It's not my fault that blueberries are your favourite food” She justified, giving him a cheeky smile as she started to head out of their cubicle. Nick can only give her a gentle smile in response, following her stride. “And it's not my fault that carrots are your favourite food”
They both shared a laugh
“Fair enough, carrots and berries it is”