It was an average fall day in Bunnyburrow; the sun was shining, the birds were singing, the population count was rising by the minute, and for Judy and Nick, it was officially banter-o'clock.
"I LIVE corn," Judy insisted.
"You live carrots, Carrots," Nick corrected her, arms folded across his chest.
"I grew up on a farm, it's all the same thing."
"I'm pretty sure a corn maze is a lot different than a carrot maze, sweetheart."
They were standing in front of the entrance to the corn maze, one of the most advertised features of Bunnyburrow's Carrot Days Harvest Festival. The title was a mouthful — Nick had chosen to refer to it as "Bunny Fest" — because there were bunnies everywhere. Bunnies bobbing for carrots, bunnies munching on caramel-coated carrots, bunnies knocking over milk bottles to win stuffed carrot-shaped toys, bunnies running over his tail and between his legs, baby bunnies mistaking said tail for a carrot, bunnies using their violet eyes and little pout to try to lure him into the corn maze of probable death.
"C'mon, Nick!" The violet-eyed bunny pleaded, "I can't go in alone — it's no fun! Don't be a baby!"
He scoffed defensively. "I'm not being a baby! Corn mazes are death traps, Fluff! Haven't you seen Kits of the Corn?"
"No! Besides, that's just a movie, and you're being a dumb fox."
He placed a paw over his heart. "I'm just looking out for my own life, Carrots, and yours. You should be thanking me, actually, for being so sweet and protecting you from being attacked by corn-kits."
Judy wasn't buying it. Nick should have known that the more he resisted, the sooner she was going to resort to drastic measures.
So she did.
The little bunny placed her paws on the hips of her worn blue jeans and started to make this sickly adorable whine, batting her teary lashes up at him innocently and sniffling her nose.
"Stop that!" Nick groaned, trying (and failing) to look away. "No fake crying!"
"Pleaseeeeeee?" She sniffled, ducking her head and looking up at him shyly.
If Nick had been on duty, he definitely would have arrested her for being illegally adorable. Or entrapment. Something.
He sighed, paw lowering to fiddle in his pocket. "Do I have to?"
She smiled hopefully. "You'd be the best boyfriend in the history of the world!"
The fox smiled dryly. "Well, I can't give up that title, can I?"
She shook her head insistently. "You really can't."
"Alright then," Nick shrugged, darting forward and scooping the small bunny off the ground and onto his shoulders, "let's go."
Judy brightened up instantly, cheering as she held onto the bases of his ears. Her legs draped over his shoulders as he carried her into the maze, and she snickered softly. "Sucker," she teased, nudging his ear gently.
"Shut up."
"If I shut up I can't tell you that I love you."
Nick paused. "…I guess you can say that."
Judy snorted and rested her chin on his head. "Okay, make a left at the next fork."
Nick rubbed her ankle affectionately. "You sure you know where you're going, babe? I wanna have time to do more stuff after this."
"Like what?"
"The ferris wheel looked like a lot of fun."
"Oh! Well, don't worry, I've been doing this maze every year since I was a kit! We'll be out in a jiffy!"
And, of course, that jinxed it, because over an hour later, they were lost, as they had been for basically the entire time they were in the maze.
They kept walking in circles — every left they made felt like it brought them right and every right they made led them to a dead end or another left. The sun was starting to set, and Nick could feel his fur prickling from the growing chill in the air. Judy had departed his shoulders after the half-hour mark and was now holding his paw, leading him through the maze as best she could (which wasn't the best).
"Didn't we pass this stalk of corn already?" She asked worriedly, though it was more to herself than the fox.
"Hate to break it to ya', Fluff, but literally every stalk of corn here looks the same," Nick sighed, starting to get antsy. He glanced up at the sky, which was beginning to fade from a warm peach to a deep indigo. "Bunny Fest is gonna close soon, and I kinda wanted to ride that ferris wheel…"
"Don't worry!" Judy assured him, turning to look back over her shoulder at him, "I've totally got this! They probably just changed it a tiny bit, that's all!"
He raised an eyebrow. "A tiny bit?"
She smiled weakly. "A big bit?"
"Well," Nick frowned, inspecting the corn thoughtfully, "we should figure out a way to mark which path we took, so we won't keep walking in circles. My feet are getting sore."
"Oh!" Judy's eyes lit up. "We could leave a trail of breadcrumbs!"
Nick smiled teasingly at her. "Great idea, Fluff! One problem: I left my loaf of bread in my other pants."
Judy gave him an exasperated look. "Nick, can you stay with me for 5 seconds here? We need to get out of this maze and I'm starting to freak out!"
Nick gave her paw a squeeze. "You know I can't help teasing you," he said light-heartedly, "and hey! If push comes to shove, we could just light the whole thing on fire and burn our way out."
Judy snorted. "Too bad I left my flamethrower in my other pair of pants."
"I think you're hot enough to do the trick," Nick smirked, though his tone remained completely conversational.
Judy groaned and buried her face in her paws. "Nick, that was terrible. Like, really terrible."
"I know. You still liked it though."
"Barely."
"A lot."
"A little."
He grinned. "Good enough."
As much as Nick tried to stay positive for Judy, he could tell as another half hour went by that she was starting to lose hope. Her ears were droopy, her steps were heavy, and she didn't even attempt to fake-laugh at his jokes, just huffed and kept walking. It all came to a breaking point when she was certain she'd finally found her way out, only to be met with a mockingly dead end. She thumped her foot and began making this odd sort of high-pitched squeaking sound he assumed was some sort of rabbit distress call. The sound would have been nearly amusing if she wasn't actually upset. Her eyes started to water, and as much as she tried to look strong, Nick knew the frustration had gotten to her.
Judy was so used to being good at everything, to proving she was worth more than her size, to being the valedictorian of her class, to being one of the top cops at the ZPD — she never handled flat-out failure well. Nick had learned this very quickly during a Monopoly game night. After landing on his Boardwalk hotel, twice, she was about ready to flip the whole board over.
"I'm so sorry Nick," Judy now sniffed, paws wiping at her eyes frantically as the tears threatened to fall. "I have no clue where we're going! This was all my idea and I forced you to come and now we're lost and it's dark and you're probably so mad at me all because I acted so dumb and it's all my fault and I failed and—"
"Hey, hey, hey!" Nick cut her off by placing his paw on her shoulder and getting down on one knee so they were at each other's eye level. Judy looked up at him nervously, and he responded with a soft smile. "You're not dumb. And you didn't force me, I want to spend time with ya', Judes."
"I know, but—"
"No buts. We have our phones, we can just call one of your siblings to help. It's not the end of the world."
"But Carrot Days is almost over! And you said you still wanted to ride the ferris wheel, but now we won't have time…"
"Don't worry about that, " Nick hesitated, paw lowering to fiddle in his pocket again, "the ferris wheel….it wasn't that important. I mean, it kinda was, but it's not that big of a deal…"
Judy's sniffles paused as she looked slightly confused. "Then why did you want to go so bad? And what does kinda important mean?"
"You're always so full of questions," Nick said dryly, eyeing her when she smiled unashamedly.
"Of course, it's me, after all!…Are you sure you're okay, Slick?" She asked, looking down at him gently. "You look a little ruffled."
Nick took a deep breath. "It's just…I kinda had this whole big thing planned…"
"Like a surprise?"
"Yeah, like a surprise…"
"Well…you could just surprise me now," she offered, "at least then something good would come out of this disaster maze."
Nick looked unsure, but upon glancing at the beautiful bunny smiling down at him, face still flushed from her sniffling, violet eyes shining with warmth, and downy fur reflecting the orange glow of the sunset, he knew that he didn't want to wait for some grand, 'perfect' moment. All he needed was her, and here she was. They could be high above the clouds, or down in the corn and mud, and he would have been happy.
"Well," Nick began, slowly removing his paw from his pocket, "I had planned on this being more romantic, we were going to go up on the Ferris Wheel and stop at the top and everything, but since I'm already on my knees and you're so impatient…"
Judy cocked her head to the side. "What are you talking about, Nick? And I'm not impatient! I just like things to get done fast and I don't really see the point in waiting for something when—"
She stopped when she saw him remove a silver ring from his pocket, holding it up to her with a slightly shaky paw. It was a simple band with a faded shine, like it was an older piece of jewelry that'd been attempted to been polished back to its original sheen. A single, small diamond rested in the center, faintly reflecting the pink, oranges, and deep purples in the sky. The bunny stopped talking immediately as she looked back and forth between the ring and the nervous-looking fox.
"Judy, we've known each other for a long time now, and ever since you entered my life, I — ""
"YES!" Judy gasped, cutting him off mid-sentence and tackling him to the ground in a tight hug. "Yes, yes, yes!"
Nick laughed as he caught her. "You didn't even let me finish! That was going to be one hell of a proposal speech, Fluff."
"I know!" She giggled, nuzzling her face into his chest. "But I love you! And you're amazing and I'm so happy and I want to marry you! So yes!"
Nick smiled as he cradled the weight of her in his arms, pulling back only to slip the ring on her paw. "I know it's not the fanciest-looking ring," he explained as she watched him put it on her, "but it was my mom's — she really wanted you to have it."
"It's beautiful," Judy assured him, eyes sparkling with a new kind of tears. She beamed at him as she admired the ring, then turned back to give him a tight hug. "You're beautiful."
Nick snorted and laughed, feeling slightly delirious as feelings of marriage and true love set in. She'd said yes. She was going to marry him, him being a lowly fox that she'd nearly literally dragged out of the gutter. Her best friend, her partner. "You know I love you, right, Judes?" He mumbled into her shoulder, nuzzling his muzzle into the crook of her neck. "Like, even more than blueberries, love you."
"Of course I do!" Judy giggled, "Now shut up and kiss me."
So he did.
