Chapter Text
The Ember Parlour was a Zootropolis venue like no other. Centred on a stage still edged with brass lime-lights nine decades after it first opened, the space was surrounded by ornate galleries rising upwards to the vaulted ceiling and looking down on a central floorspace set with small, intimate tables for two or four, clothed in red and glowing with candles. Little huddles of chairs were arranged in private boxes around each gallery, until you reached the Gods – the cheap seats – where throw pillows were occupied by animals who came every night to soak up the music, the atmosphere and nearness to a bygone era. Red velvet, wrought iron, polished dark wood, gold. Dark, secret corners, shimmering spot lights. Lethal liquor.
Judy Hopps had first come to this magical place with a colleague from the ZPD one evening when she had been so worried about her soon-to-be new partner’s field exams at the academy she already hadn’t slept for a week. Mina Tadoba was a muntjac who worked in evidence, and she had bought Judy’s ticket and her one and only drink, ordered her to lay down on a cushion in that highest gallery, and encouraged her lose herself in the live performance of a suite of orchestral pieces which had, in fact, made Judy cry. Then sleep.
That colleague was now a friend, and Judy’s official barometer of culture. Tonight it was cabaret, and they even had first-floor standing tickets (one day, Judy vowed, she would make it as far as a table), which would place them under cover of the first gallery with prime access to the bar. Judy was so excited, it was as though there was electricity in her veins. There were always three acts on cabaret nights, Mina told her, two billed and one surprise. Gazelle had been known to appear, especially during her early career, so the sparks of possibility in the air were genuinely palpable. Judy’s fur stood on end when Mina led her, Benjamin Clawhauser, Joel Brooke – a sweet, quiet deer currently tucked safely under Mina’s proverbial wing and whom Judy knew from Partners in Crisis, plus the last minute addition of her now partner, Nick Wilde, through the packed foyer and into the main hall. Gilded mouldings shone in the lights and haze hung in the air. It was like stepping back in time.
For Judy, at least, traveling back in time that evening was nothing but fun, fantasy. Dressed in a short, black denim jumpsuit with a halter-neck and low cut back, and with a little sparkle around her eyes, the worst she had to worry about was feeling over dressed (or under clothed) in front of Nick, whom she hadn’t been expecting to join them.
Her partner, though, dressed casually as ever and forever immune to glitz, found himself confronted with the past in an apparently horrifyingly tangible way.
“Nicholas Wilde.”
“Oh my god. Blue.”
Judy’s paws went to her mouth in utter shock. Standing in front of the two of them was Blue Valentine, a fox with deep russet fur, ice-blue eyes fanned by lashes that defied nature, and the second most valuable record deal in Zootropolis history. She was pop royalty, but she’d strike you down for suggesting it. Her soulful, jazz-era style mixed with sharply modern lyrics and take-no-prisoners attitude when it came to promoting feminine power, made her an icon in this city and far beyond. Judy had every album downloaded, and going to one of this vixen’s concerts was on her bucket list – she was touring at the moment, and Judy was manifesting hard. And she was somehow, here. Meeting Blue Valentine in a back corridor of a cabaret club after serving the bar manager 48-hour notice on his expired license (they had already been coming here, after all, why not tick off another job?), however, most certainly was not on that same list.
Neither was Nick being gotten a hold of by her.
The staggeringly beautiful fox held Nick at arms length and looked him over, head to toe and all the way back up.
“Can’t even say look what the cat dragged in,” she remarked in her sexy, clipped, impossibly cool accent. She gave Nick a sly smile. “You look great.”
Paws dropping to her sides, Judy’s eyes flew between Blue Valentine and her partner. Nick had been in a perfectly normal mood, other than a level of scorn for their evening plans which surprised no one in the group. Relaxed, long-suffering but cheerful until now, Nick’s eyes took on an oddly haunted look, and he didn’t deliver a response with anything like his usual speed or prowess. Judy’s heart thumped out of rhythm in her chest, caught completely off-guard by such a strange and unexpected moment.
Nick’s brain seemed to suddenly catch up and he schooled his features to cool. “Can’t even ask what you’re doing in town,” he said to the fox in front of him. “You’re headlining your own tour. Good for you.”
The vixen’s smile was a mirror of Nick’s, and the sight sparked the weirdest, most uncomfortable sensation in Judy’s middle. Her brow creased as she chased the strong but fleeting sensation down, only for it to skitter away from her grasp. What in the heck?
“Are you here for the show?”
Nick shrugged in answer to Blue Valentine’s question. “I got invited to a gig, didn’t know it was yours.”
“It’s not mine.”
“It’s not hers.”
Judy’s ears burned. What in the actual heck?
“I mean… no one knew you were going to be here tonight.” Judy scrambled to cover herself under the gaze of two foxes, shoving away thoughts of strange emotional reactions and snapping back into the present almost as fast as Nick had a moment ago but with none of his chill. “It was a surprise! A great one. The best, really.”
Blue Valentine’s eyes slid to Judy and she received the same top to toe assessment Nick had a moment ago. Judy felt the full body tingle of someone else’s judgement and maybe, just maybe, in spite of how weird she must be coming across, tentative approval.
“Blue, this is Officer Judy Hopps.”
The sound of her title pulled Judy’s focus up through her spine, straightening it and giving her some much needed clarity. Bamboozled fan, deranged friend of a friend - chaotic, not at all cool. Police officer - collected, comes with a level of expectation she knew she could meet.
She held out her paw. “It’s nice to meet you, Miss Valentine.”
“Blue.” The fox shook Judy’s paw with a satisfying grip and genuine smile. But her heart dropped as she saw a flash of the friendship the two of them might possibly have had before her stomach did that weird thing when her partner and probably the second most famous animal in Zootropolis tripped out matching, earned smiles.
Honey-smoke voice wrapping around every note, Blue swayed her hips from dazed mammal to dazed mammal, skimming her claws over shoulders, sliding her own sultry, worldly gaze passed stunned, adoring ones, barely lingering.
Judy had been glued to the spot for the entire set, mesmerised by the animal on stage. Her confidence, her sass. Her… body. How every movement told you a story. The way her lyrics seemed to hold the whole world as if no animal could hide anything from those crystalline eyes. Directly in the beam of those ice-blues a little while ago, Judy hadn’t felt confident even for a second that Blue Valentine wasn’t just reading the inside of Judy’s head and heart simultaneously. The way she’d looked at Nick. Then at Judy. Then back. Everything from how close she stood to him to each and every time they shared a sidelong look suddenly seemed like a beacon under such watchfulness, declaring things Judy didn’t know how any of the three animals in that corridor might react to. Judy was trying her best to enjoy the cabaret but, truthfully, she was on high-alert. Her partner, however, seemed to be sinking. A couple of songs in, Nick announced he needed a drink and Judy’s tummy dropped at his jaded tone. Her mind jumped to their work day tomorrow - at the moment it was pretty clear, so she didn’t comment on the drink, and asked for something light-ish herself to help settle the butterflies inside, while she figured out whether or not to address how them running into Blue earlier was clearly affecting Nick. Let alone her. Why it seemed to have… got to him.
In between songs, Judy looked past the crowd to the bar which sat at the back of the room, spotting Nick waiting, his attention firmly on the surface of the bar, shoulders tense. Needing a drink. On stage, Blue dedicated the next song to everyone and anyone who had left something behind and the cheer that went up rattled the crystal on the tables. Everyone knew what was coming, and Judy’s fur stood on end. At her side, Clawhauser grabbed her paw and squeaked in choked, sheer delight.
The chart-obliterating track began and Blue took the offered paw of a jaguar in a sleek black suit and earpiece, making her way down the steps of the stage to the floor. The atmosphere in the room pitched upwards, everyone in the galleries standing to look. The jaguar lifted Blue onto one shoulder with ease, and she crossed one knee over the other, reaching up her free hand to touch fingers with animals reaching down while they belted out her most famous hit right along with her. Blue’s padded feet touched back to the floor like a ballet dancer and Judy watched, fascinated, as she made her way through the ecstatic crowd towards the bar leaving behind her a trail of broken hearts and dreams made reality.
Nick.
Judy’s heart climbed her throat without her having any clue where it thought it was trying to go. All too soon, she didn’t need to flick her gaze to move between Blue and Nick. She was close. Too close, and only getting closer. Nick had turned, his back to the bar and leant on it. Judy swallowed as the starlet she’d idolised almost as much as Gazelle until the moment she made eye contact with Judy’s favourite person like ownership could be transmitted that way, reached out a paw and let Nick’s tie - the one Judy had given him - flow over her fingers like water. Nick’s eyebrow raised in… challenge? Warning? His smirk was almost not there, and his arm stayed across his front like a shield. But Blue Valentine finished her famous line about burning bridges and females who could handle the flames, grabbed Nick’s tie and kissed him right on the lips.