Author's Note: I realized that words that had lines through them in my original draft of this story did not have lines through them when uploaded to the website. This made a certain portion of my story make very little sense or seem poorly written and because of this I have removed those portions entirely. While it removes some character depth (and humor) from my story I believe it best that these portions remain removed until I find a clear way to indicate the intended message. Without further ado, Please enjoy the story.

Nick Wilde wasn't one to openly convey his emotions but that didn't mean he lacked them. He felt emotions just like anyone else; he just chose to keep them guarded with a guise of unrelenting apathy and sarcasm. To an outside observer he might seem like a boring and uncaring individual, with a constant, neutral expression plastered across his muzzle. To anyone who really knew him however, which very few did, they would know that he was actually a very sensitive fox. They'd know it hurt him to see sheep steer clear of him on the sidewalk, to see mice try and hide themselves behind larger animals, and to see bunnies speed away at the sight of him. Well, not every bunny left him in the dust. Judy Hopps was a very special case; he'd never met anyone quite like her. At first glance she seemed like his opposite, she was extremely energetic, slightly naïve, and wore her emotions plainly for all to see. However, after spending some time with her, even if it was against his will, he discovered there was much more to her than he first thought. She was clever, hardworking, determined, and most importantly caring. She cared about her job, the citizens she was protecting, what others thought of her, and she even cared about him. He wasn't used to that yet but that didn't mean he didn't like it. He had a feeling that she was starting to rub off on him; he was becoming more vigilant in his recently acquired employment, more open both with his emotions and in conversation and he even cared about something other than money now. He cared about his job, how he made others feel, and of course, his partner in crime prevention and best friend Judy.

Just because he cared didn't mean he was great at showing it yet, he was still used to showing an apathetic demeanor at all times. Luckily for him, Judy was there to help bring him out of his shell and would subtlety encourage him to open up in conversations. If it wasn't for her he'd probably still be a friendless bum selling popsicles on the street. Which brought him to his current issue… thanking her. While he was usually an eloquent speaker, he wasn't used to making sappy speeches and decided that writing her a letter would be best. This was a decision he was regretting as he angrily balled up another failed letter and tossed it at the rubbish bin in the corner of his part of the shared office… he missed it.

"Why is this so hard?!" He groaned while massaging the sides of his head.

The digital clock on his desk started franticly beeping. Was it time to go home already? Looking out the window he saw that the sky was darkening to a deep purple, sunset was nearly over. Since he wasn't being paid for overtime, he disabled the alarm and went to clock himself out. On his way out however he was intercepted by none other than Judy Hopps, who was returning to her office from a brief trip to the restroom.

"Oh, hey Nick, you clocking out for the night?" She asked tilting her head to the side.

"Yeah, I'll see ya' tomorrow, goodnight, Carrots."

"G'night Nick," She replied not batting an eye at the seemingly obnoxious nickname.

As she began to walk off Nick found his courage and cleared his throat, "Actually, um, there's something I've been meaning to tell you."

She stopped and turned to face him, "Oh, okay. What is it?"

As quickly as his courage had come, it faltered as he began to break into a sweat that he prayed she wouldn't notice.

"Er, never mind I forgot, sorry about that. Goodnight, Carrots," He hastily walked out the door and into the cool night air.

What was that about? Judy couldn't help but wonder what was up with her partner but decided that it wasn't worth chasing him out the door over; she'd ask him about it tomorrow. Upon entering her side of the office that she and Nick shared she noticed that her partner neglected to shut down his computer. Deciding to shut it down for him she took a sticky note and wrote:

Nick, please remember to shut down your computer.

~ Judy, (Carrots)

She wouldn't openly admit it to anyone but Nick but the nickname had grown on her, just a little bit. Turning to leave she noticed several wadded up balls of paper strewn about near his trash can causing her to stamp her foot in frustration. She swore it was like she was looking after a child sometimes. Placing the wads of paper in the trash she decided to open the last one, just out of curiosity. She wasn't expecting anything really interesting, maybe a crude drawing or shopping list but she figured she'd do it anyways. She was not expecting it to be a letter addressed to her. Several things were scrawled out; he seemed to have trouble writing the letter. She read on anyways:

Dear Judy,

I really don't know where to begin here; I just want you to know how thankful I am to have you around. You're a great friend and you've changed my life in a lot of ways. I know I can seem a bit condescending and sarcastic and I'm sorry about that. Please, don't mistake that for apathy though, I really do care about you. You were the first animal that actually believed that I could be something more than what society pegged me to be. You're also the only other animal I've told about my childhood. Please, I beg of you, don't tell anyone about what happened on the cable car. I trusted you; I still trust you because you're my best friend. I can't tell you how much you're friendship means to me because I-

With that, the letter ended. She was stunned at the amount of emotion in it, flattered into silence even. Is this what Nick wanted to tell her on his way out? Why the note, though? He could have just told her, right? She noticed the large amount of papers she had just thrown away and snatched one out of the trash can. Quickly unraveling it she gaped as she saw it was another unfinished letter addressed to her. Were all these papers actually letters to her? She had a guilty urge to read them all; Nick usually wasn't so open with his feelings. Part of her mind was disgusted with herself for wanting to rummage through her friend's trash and read things he had decided not to share with her. The other part of her mind however was ablaze with curiosity about how her friend thought of her. While the letters were in the garbage and not in an envelope they were still all addressed to her so it would probably be okay if she read them, or at least that's what she told herself. She fished the letters out of the garbage and brought them home with her that night to read later.

Nick stood outside his recently acquired apartment waiting for his partner to carpool him to work. The temperature was pleasantly cool on his neatly combed fur, perfect weather for a cup o' Joe. He slurped some black coffee from his "#1" mug only to spit it out with a singed tongue. He desperately hoped he hadn't spilled any on his uniform; he'd spent ages ironing the darn thing and would hate to see it soiled at the last minute. A loud honk snapped him from his thoughts as he saw Judy hailing him in beat up pickup truck. It seemed to fit Judy, not in mean way though; it was just like its driver, determined to do its job regardless of what others thought of it.

"Wazz oop Carroots?" He felt stupid already.

"You speakin' in tongues, Nick?"

He clicked his mouth a few times and paused, "More like with a burnt tongue, I didn't let the coffee cool down before I drank it."

"Dumb fox," she chided playfully.

He supposed he deserved that one so he let it slide for now. He somehow heard a grumble over the clanging of the engine.

"You eat anything, Carrots?"

A fierce blush spread across her face as she realized the grumbling of her stomach was somehow louder than the roaring engine of the old pickup she was driving.

"N-no I was planning on stopping if you didn't mind it."

"Not a problem, I was planning to treat you to some carrot cake at lunch anyways, why not now?"

"Really now, what'd you do this time?" She teased.

"Do I still want to buy you a slice of cake? I don't know anymore."

Judy's stomach complained loudly at this, causing her to blush in embarrassment.

"A-all right, fine you win. I just wanted to know why; my birthday isn't for a while."

"Oh y'know is just… a friend thing? Friends buy each other gifts occasionally to show they… care, I guess?"

"Aw, how sweet! You care about me," She would have given him a quick hug if she wasn't driving.

"Do I care about my about you? Yes, yes I do."

"By the way, how'd you know carrot cake was my favorite?"

"Lucky guess."

After stopping to get his partner a healthy breakfast of carrot cake and chocolate milk, which he teased her about mercilessly, they entered the police station and went directly to the bullpen for their briefing.

"Officer Hopps and Officer Wilde you'll be chasing down some budding young artists today," Explained the chief while passing them a case file.

The manila folder contained several pictures of crude graffiti around town which had apparently been linked to two individuals. Both of those individuals had pictures in the document, one was a chubby, male pug and the other was an extremely lean, male raccoon.

With not a moment to spare Judy assumed what Nick affectionately called "Officer Hopps Mode" giving a vigilant salute and remarkably straight posture she responded with a respectful, "Understood sir!"

Nick leaned on his partner's head and glanced back to the chief giving a lazy nod, "What she said."

The chief resisted the urge to roll his eyes. How those two became the seemingly inseparable pair they were today was beyond him but he'd bet it would make a good movie. Maybe he'd ask them sometime, after all it wasn't every day a fox and rabbit would trust each other, let alone with their lives.

Once the pair got into their new squad car, which they both loved very much and had named Ted, Judy's phone vibrated. Since she was giving Nick the privilege to drive, she checked her phone. It was a message from her mother:

Hey sweetie just wanted to tell you how proud we are of you! I know you're living it up in the city right now but we still love and miss you so please don't forget to visit. You could even bring Nick with you! From what you told me he sounds like an upstanding young man so the family would love to meet him!

She wanted Nick to meet her family but it was so large that she wasn't sure if it would overwhelm him. Then again if that letter she found last night was any indication of how he felt than she was sure he would go through with it. Still she didn't know if it was fair for her to put him through that, she had a very big family. Her thoughts were broken as Nick parked the car.

"There they are. How do you wanna play this, Carrots?"

"I don't see why we can't just talk to them, there graffiti artist not murderers."

Stepping out of the car, the two flashed their badges at the felons.

"Good afternoon gentlemen my name is Officer Wilde and this is my partner Officer Hopps from the ZPD. We've been hearing some complaints about… Sir put the can down!"

"You'll never take me alive copper!" The pug screamed spraying hot pink paint in the poor fox's face and then booking it in the other direction with his partner.

Hopps was on hot on their trial while her partner floundered about before recovering and sprinting to catch up with them. The crooks did whatever they could to try and shake the pair; going down back alleyways and knocking things down behind them but it was to no avail as they were finally cornered.

"You've got nowhere left to run, get on th- ppaafffft!" Officer Hopps was interrupted by a can of deep blue paint blasting her in the face. Officer Wilde jumped in front of his partner to prevent further harm to her and received a splotch of sunflower yellow paint on his new uniform from a raccoon for his efforts. Recovering, Hopps tried to swat the paint can out of the raccoon's grasp and succeeded at a price; the back of her neck down to her rear end was now painted an annoying shade of safety orange thanks to the efforts of an aggressively artistic pug. Moving in on the pug Wilde swiped the can away only to be hit in the back with neon green paint. This cycle continued until the felons ran out of annoying colors and surrendered.

"It looks like we fought a rainbow," Nick lamented from his seat in the squad car.

"And lost," Judy added sadly.

"Well look on the bright side that blue really brings out your eyes," He joked.

"Yeah, I guess," she scoffed while secretly plotting to look into blue eye shadow.

Suddenly, Judy's phone lit up with activity as several text messages bombarded her phone. They were all from her mother and father.

"Wow, someone just got popular! You got a secret boyfriend I don't know about, Judes?" He shook his head disapprovingly but in a joking manner.

"Me with a boyfriend? That'll be the day," She scoffed.

"Well, maybe not now, you look like you were mugged by the nineteen sixties."

"We're in that together," She laughed at his wit.

Nick nodded. She was right; he looked ridiculous and was not looking forward to seeing all his coworkers make fun of him. He wasn't really sure how the situation could get more awkward for him.

"Sooo, I've been meaning to ask you Nick… Would you um, like to… meet my family this weekend?"

Nick had found out how it could get more awkward.

"Please, Nick. I'm sure they'll love you… I think you're pretty great."

The smell of social discomfort lingered in the air.

"H-how big did you say your family was?" The fox asked tentatively.

"There are just under three hundred of us, but you know… no pressure, the worst they'll do is ask you some personal questions."

"Oh?" Nick was sobbing uncontrollably on the inside at this point but kept a guise of calm.

"Yeah, I've told my parents a lot about you, so that might help. They'd love to have you over! What do you say do you wanna y'know meet 'em or… I'll understand if you say no I promise! I just really wanted to…" Her ears started to droop anticipating the answer.

"No, no it's okay really! I'd love to meet your family… this weekend was it?"

Judy parked the squad car in front of the station and wrapped her partner in a tight hug.

"You're the best, Nick! Love ya'!" With the hug his fate was sealed before she jumped out of the squad car.

"Dude," Was all the amused raccoon in the back could say.

"Good luck with that train wreck," Came another supportive voice from the back of the car.

"T-thanks," was all Nick managed to wheeze out as he reclined farther back into his seat gripping the arm rests like lifelines.