Chapter Text
The room was moody, only the faintest of evening light managed to get through the uncovered window of the underground apartment. Small dust particles danced in the orange light that bathed the room in a golden autumn glow.
The only other light present belonging to the TV. A movie playing long forgotten with its volume set to low as it droned on, uncaring if the fox and bunny in the room were paying any attention to it.
The fox laid languidly over the entire length of the couch, a little soft purple throw pillow propping his head up while his eyes rested closed. Tail comfortably encircled over the bunny resting on his chest as a paw absentmindedly stroked her ears while the other laid on her lower back. The small smile on his muzzle and the sporadic soft sigh through his nose telling of a fox that desired nothing else but to remain in the current moment.
The doe’s arms placed around his chest, holding him close like the tod could somehow disappear from under her. Her nose pressed in the small patch of fur over the collar of his shirt, inhaling the comforting scent she came to cherish, a mix of lavender with musty forest she found could relax her into a grey puddle regardless of how terrible a day she could have. Her ears limp against her back as they received the loving petting from her partner, instinctually twitching minutely whenever a car drove through their street or the heating pipes dinged.
They wore baggy, lounging clothes. Muted colors and thick fabrics to aid warding off the evening chill with something else beside body heat. Maximizing comfort over style while in the recess of their home. Away from the public eye on their mandated day off the force.
They simply laid happily, willing to forget the world for a single day to bask in the warmth of their significant other.
“Say,“ His voice disturbed the quiet moment. For a moment he stopped, structuring his thoughts while keeping his eyes closed. “Have you ever thought what you'd have done if the ZPD thing hadn’t worked out?” His voice soft in inquiry, a simple question that for some reason had jumped to the front of his mind and he was now satiating the curiosity it brought.
“Not really?” She answered after a few seconds, her tone curving at the end to denote a question, slightly confused by his words. “I mean,” She continued regardless. “it’s been my dream from kithood, the single thing I strived for my whole life”
“I know,” He placated, soft mirth in his words at the impassioned response. “You might have mentioned as much a time or two” His soft smile broadened, a sharp canine peeking beneath his upper lip.
“Why the question?” She couldn’t help but ask, now with curiosity of her own. “Something on your mind?”
“Not really” He replied. “I just heard a song this morning and I guess it just snuck its way back into my head”
A few moments passed, the TV slowly regained its relevance as once again its low volume reigned as the only sound to be heard. Conversation seemed finished by both parties when.
“I guess…” Judy’s voice broke through, a careful uncertainty tinted words that still showed a quiet fondness and deep thought “I would have gone into the family business”
His chest shook with a small chuckle as the image of farmer Judy Hopps filled his mind, complete with dirt stained overall and stalk of wheat poised between her lips. He found it endearingly cute. “I’m sure you would have been the best carrot farmer ever”
Her arms tightened just a fraction, enough to squeeze the tod in silent affection before pulling back as a puff of air came out her nose. “You know my family doesn’t only grow carrots, right?” Her smile only grew despite herself.
“Of course” The smirk he now sported present on his voice “How could I ever forget about those wonderful blueberries”
“Right,” She tittered at his theatrics. “carrots and blueberries. A whole farm dedicated to those two things, my parents are true visionaries of the agricultural field”
“Carrots for you and blueberries for me. What else could we possibly need to survive?”
“I can definitely see you trying to survive only on those” Her tone a display of pure adoration “Good thing you have a caring girlfriend that sees you eating properly” She dotted her sentence by nuzzling her nose over his chest. The fur tickling her whiskers as his musk flooded her nostrils.
He scratched a specific spot behind her ear in appreciation, one that after countless hours of pampering her he’d found by pure accident. Her right foot began repeatedly strumming like a wolf’s, a paw lightning fast coming up to bat his own away. He could feel the temperature of her ears growing a few degrees in embarrassment.
“If they are your family’s?” He asked before pressing his nose between her ears, leaving after a quick nuzzle and a kiss. “Absolutely” His words carried as much love as he could cram into them.
Her head rose slightly, just enough to look him in the eye while remaining perched over him. Her face a mix of fondness and exasperation that left him with the clear message of ‘You are lucky I love you’ and ‘You’ll pay me back’.
Silence grew once more. Careless and unburdened, the kind of gentle one that grew up along a couple. A silence that meant ‘I’m happy just staying here like this’ rather than ‘I have nothing else to say to you’.
“But then, I wouldn’t have met you” Her morose tone leaving a small distaste on both their minds.
“Please,” The fox was quick to push the thought away, his voice chipper and playfully selfmocking. “I’m sure the hustling would have gone sideways at some point and I would have been forced to flee Zootopia. Maybe to some rural town where no one knew my name?” He finished by suggestively wiggling his eyebrows while he still had her sight on him.
She giggled, weird mood gone without a trace. “What happened to all the bravado from when we first met?” She asked as her cheek returned to its place on his chest, a paw leaving his side to lightly scratch the side of his neck where she knew she'd get a reaction, just below the jaw and towards his nape.
“Acting tough, mostly” He tried to play it off, but soon a soft pleasured whine escaped his throat traitorously. He took the offending paw on his own, placing it over his lips and leaving a single peck on each of her fingertips before letting it rest on his chest, right above his heart. His paw over it protectively. “Fin and I could have probably lasted a year more at most, before having to change tactics. It’s a tough world, quasi legality”
“Really now?” She asked in honest curiosity. Looking through the window of his past activities that not often left itself open for her to peer, hoping to find something new about her tod. As much of his life he’d shared already, he always had a story or two in his back pocket that always left her wanting for more.
“Oh yes, not only you have to watch out for the newcomers but for big corporations as well” He spoke with nonchalance.
“Sounds like something we should probably look into” She replied without thought.
“Be my guest,” He said humorously, “I could help you research it a bit, if that’s what you truly want?” adding with a curious tone. Before in a more serious one saying “Mammals have tried before to varying degrees of success, but for every legislation there are at least 3 or 4 morally grey areas to exploit. I wouldn’t stake my career on it, anyways”
“Sounds like a story I’ve heard before” They laughed fondly at her words, the deep rooted memory of their first ‘case’ together resurfacing. Falling silent as they contemplated the past, how neither of them could have ever imagined back then that first encounter blossoming into a strong partnership and eventually a loving relationship.
“Besides,” He said a few moments later, mind returning to their little what-ifs “I don’t believe there is a world out there where Nicholas Wilde doesn’t meet Judith Hopps and falls hopelessly in love with her” He mindlessly began scratching her back, movement careful but fluid in practiced manner.
“You sweet talker” She swooned, one part playfully and the other truly having her heart melted by the sentiment. One she fervently reciprocated, as the simple thought of never having met or fallen for the fox seemed inconceivable in her mind.
“No, no. It’s true” He was quick to play along, before his voice turned loving and sincere “Maybe I would have simply gotten tired of it all. And looking for a change of scenery I’d stumble into little ol’ Bunnyburrow”
“I would’ve already been there, helping my family farm and produce stand. Making the world a better place, one carrot at a time” She laughed silently at the phrase, with it bringing a memory that felt from so long ago, back when she had been just a kit and her parents wished fervently for her to change her mind about her future career.
He eyed her curiously for a simple moment, before letting it go.
“Maybe I would have started looking for a stable job, something to fill the belly in a more honest capacity”
“And maybe my family just so happened to need a farmhand willing to get dirty for said pay”
“Their daughter would have been so against it, I’m sure” He laughed out loud when he felt one of her stubby claws digging into his side. “Something about sly foxes and what have you” He finished the playful rib nonetheless.
“I’m sure she would have come around eventually. Maybe she’d watch as he broke his back over in the field or played carefully with her brothers and sisters” She sighed wistfully, remembering one of their many visits to her family’s home, where she’d seen exactly that, a weird-at-the-time thought surfacing on her consciousness how the tod would make a wonderful father as she witnessed him lovingly play with a few of her youngest sisters and nieces and their dolls. “Finding a strong work ethic and a heart of gold inside another animal usually helps in changing anyone's perception”
“He’d try so hard to win her over too,” He added to his care for the bunny by rubbing her knuckles with his thumb, her warm paw still prisoner of his affectionate hold “maybe just to try to prove her wrong at first. But then he’d notice he enjoyed her attention a bit too much”
“She’d start finding herself lost, searching for russet fur amidst a field of greens without meaning to, hoping to find that smirk she secretly came to adore directed her way”
“Maybe he’d get hurt, something about a big harvest and lifting with his back instead of his legs?”
“She’d volunteer to take care of him, much to her parents' surprise. And being stuck with a few days of bedrest they’d begin talking more about themselves, something deeper than the witty banter and crop rotation talk they developed” She raised from her prone position, placing a kiss underneath his muzzle before falling back down a little higher on his body, her face now nestled on the crook of his neck. “Maybe she’d end up showing him that one willow that became her special place to be alone throughout her kithood”
“I know he’d love that, I did” He rubbed his cheek over the side of her head, a display of affection she clearly appreciated by the soft chattering he heard. “They’d start spending time together outside work, the fox often whisking her away without anyone else noticing”
“She’d start showing him the town, regaling him with stories of growing up in the quiet place while he’d share his own of Zootopia in that beguiling way of his to tell stories that always captivates her”
“Then one evening sitting by the willow, in a moment of weakness where the remaining sunlight hit her just at the right angle to turn her grey fur into a pool of mesmerizing liquid silver, he’d come forth with his past”
“And she’d accept him, all of him. Because she came to know the real Nick Wilde underneath the mask the world forced on him. The brave, caring, loving fox wrapped handsomely with a bow of wit and charisma”
He couldn’t help his heart skipping a few beats, growing a little misty eyed even after all the time they’ve spent together, at the thought that someone, never mind such an amazing female, could say things like that about him and mean it wholeheartedly.
He cleared his throat loudly, forgoing discretion as he knew she felt, and probably heard, his heart doing all kinds of pirouettes in his chest. He could feel her body shaking in silent laughter, deciding to lovingly lick from the bottom of her neck all the way to the base of her right ear. Smirking softly as the laughter became a shuddering exhale.
“After hearing her say that about him, he took her paw in both of his in silent reverence. And looking her in those beautiful eyes of hers he told her that for the first time in his life, thanks to her, he felt like he belonged somewhere, and for that he would always love her, even if their relationship should forever remain platonic”
“She got tongue-tied, her thoughts flew left and right without rhyme or reason. And seeing the look of quiet acceptance on his face because of her silence she panicked and decided to cut the middle mammal, kissing him before he could leave”
“So forward” He joked while the arm around her waist squeezed his bunny. Lowering his muzzle, he affectionately nibbled the base of her neck, in the little space left by the strap of her camisole that seemed to have rolled off her shoulder when she repositioned.
She raised her head, staring at him with a muted fire in her eyes.
Their noses almost touching as they dared the other to close the distance.
It was not an innocent kiss, but neither a passionate one. It was a simple, but lengthy affirmation of everything they felt for the other. A wordless show of love between two animals who chose each other.
As they separated, he couldn’t help himself but whisper to her. “I love you so much, Judith”
To what she replied by running her chin down the length of his muzzle, before saying in no higher voice “And I you, Nicholas”
They looked at each other, the charged air around them slowly loosening its hold as they relaxed back into their earlier position. The silent promise in their eyes of time for more physical activities coming later.
“I guess they’d start dating secretly” Judy resumed their little storytime, both of them fixated to see it to its logical conclusion.
“Naturally” He answered with a small nod, “During the day they would only get the furtive glances and the stolen touches in passing” his voice turning sweeter with each word.
“And at night, she’d escape through the window of her room to find him waiting for her in one of the barns” A little mischievous spark forming in her tone, like she was the one actually sneaking out to see her secret boyfriend.
“They’d try to come up with excuses to be together, each growing more ridiculous as their love grew”
“Her mom would definitely know, somehow. She always had a sixth sense for this stuff”
“Would she be supportive?”
“Absolutely, her father’s the one they were scared of”
“Then she’d be the first to know. To meet him as her partner in work and life”
“And seeing her reaction, the reassurance she was more than okay with her daughter’s love. She would push for more daring stunts”
“He could probably be convinced to sneak in, rather than her out. Spend the night cuddled up on her small bed before waking early and disappearing with the first rays of sunlight”
“Until one night, when they stayed up past their usual time, and woke up to heavy knocking on her door and the faint voice of her dad”
“He’d hear unusual noises inside, after the tod fell down the side of the bed. He’ll open the door before he could escape, and Nick would start making excuses that sounded unconvincing even to himself”
“She tries to help him, but everything they come up with always gets crossed. Until her dad starts laughing and tell them to next time use the front door”
“They would stand flabbergasted as he walked down the hallway to continue waking the stragglers still sleeping”
“They’d later come to discover they weren’t actually that sneaky, and everyone in the burrow already knew something was happening between them”
“That’s when he’d male up and properly meet her family, not as the worker but the courting boyfriend at their door, hoping to take his girlfriend for a night in town”
“They started dating openly after that, her family slowly welcoming him into it like a new member”
“He’d spend his first Christmas in decades with them” He spoke with a tone of fondness, a weakness on display that the doe on top of him was the only allowed to witness. He swallowed thickly before finishing the thought “He definitely grew misty eyed when he received a drawing done by the kits, of him playing with all of them, as they told him they loved their uncle Nick”
The memory of their first Christmas as a couple rushed to the surface of her mind.
It had not been the first time she took him to spend time with her family, not even after becoming more than friends. But it was the biggest celebration since her whole family came to acknowledge him as hers.
That particular night, as everyone was opening their presents, several groups of kits orderly made their way to stand before the fox. Each with their own piece of paper depicting the tod in different poses as he played with them.
Every single one different, from crayons, to pencils, to colors, to styles. But the one thing they all had in common was that signed at the bottom, it always read ‘we love you uncle Nick’.
Later than night she had to hold an inconsolable fox as he bawled his eyes out, her own failing to stay dry. To this day, he proudly hung them in their office, every few days carefully swapping them from the box he kept at the side of his desk, new ones adding to the pile every single time they decided the city had grown too noisy and took a small getaway vacation back in Bunnyburrow.
That’s when she felt the deep inhale breaking her out of her thoughts, then the long exhale as the paw that refused to stop scratching her back from the very beginning changed its cadence just the minimal amount.
To another animal that would just mean Wilde was deep in thought. To her, it was a clear signal that whatever her fox was about to say, would leave him vulnerable and it made him nervous.
“Then,” He finally spoke, his voice careful, measured. “after 6 or 7 months of their relationship being in the open, he’d drag her over to the willow tree that witnessed the beginning of their relationship” The tip of his tail began nervously flicking while still covering the body of his bunny “He had prepared a little picnic for them to enjoy with help from the matriarch”
She felt her own nerves growing, her paw began scratching at his chest while still trapped underneath his. Her tone cheerful and loving in hopes of reassuring the tod “She’ll probably let him, tired after work and everything. After all, every moment spent with him always felt like an adventure worth living” She let the moment breathe, peppering a few kisses on his neck and shoulder. “What did he get?” She finally asked when it felt appropriately rested.
“I don’t know, some sandwiches probably. Strawberry, cheese and daisies for her,” He said, knowing it to be her favorite snack. ”Blueberries, cheese and salmon for himself. Maybe a slice of pie to share”
“Sounds nice” She held him tighter, the image painting a beautiful picture in her mind.
He pulled her further against himself, nose nuzzling against her ear as she giggled at the tickling sensation. “Then, after the food was gone… He’d stand up, saying he needed a good stretch or something”
“Careful not to pull anything” She joked. His breathy chuckle making her titter alongside him.
“He’d then kneel in front of her, taking her paws as he looked into those eyes he knew he wanted to wake up to for the rest of his life” He stopped when he heard the stifled whimper.
“S-she’d be surprised, probably start crying” She finally said after a moment, her watery voice muffled on his fur as she dug her nose deeper in his neck.
“He’d tell her she’s the best thing to ever happen to him, how without her he’d be nothing but a sad fox looking for his next dollar by the street corner. How she gave him a reason to wake up happy in the morning, to do a job he could feel proud of by her side. How thanks to her he now had a family to come home to, that wanted him to be there, after over twenty years of drifting alone. And then, he would ask her to bless him one more time, by asking her to marry him”
He could feel his fur underneath her getting damp. His own eyes letting out a few tears of their own, as he let them fall freely. “She’d take a second out of pure happiness, just to make sure what she heard was real and not a wonderful dream, but she’d definitely say yes”
She lifted her head, now staring squarely at him. Her eyes were red and the fur of her cheeks a complete disaster, her nose wiggled out of control but above all, the smile she showed him, in his humble opinion, could power an entire city on its own.
“They would marry underneath that same willow” She continued, walking their story through its final steps.
“Maybe they’d move out, start a warren of their own”
“With a little farm on the side, full of carrots and blueberries”
“They’d teach their children the way of the earth, but always encouraging them to follow their dreams”
The mention of kits squeezing her heart momentarily as a soft longing permeated her body.
For the agreement they had come to of ‘letting things happen’.
For the secretly purchased pregnancy test hidden in the bathroom cabinet that she was too scared of using.
For the symptoms her sisters assured her were everything but felt could mean nothing and still sparked a quiet hope of being something.
For the image of little foxes or bunnies or whatever mix of the two of them they could conceive, playing around as their parents ran behind them, tidying up all their messes.
“Say Fluff” His voice quietly derailed her thoughts.
“H-hmm?” She asked, the fog of longing leaving its vestiges on her mind.
“What do you say if next week we cash in a few sick days, take a short vacation down in the Burrows”
“I, I’d like that” His earlier words, the understanding they both shared over their imaginary scenario that suddenly didn’t feel quite as fictional. It left her with high expectations, an excited flickering of her tail the only outward signal of the parade traveling through her stomach. The quiet thought of becoming Judith Wilde warming her heart and filling her with the bravery to finally discover if their little family of two would be growing sooner than they thought.
And Nick, well. His mind filled with plans, favors he’d need to ask, things he’d need to prepare but most importantly, the ring he’d need to find an opportune moment to discreetly smuggle out of their underwear drawer.