Christmas Cookies
"Nicholas Wilde! You mean to tell me you've never made Christmas cookies before?
Judy was the very picture of shocked. Eyes wide, mouth open, paws spread out and towards Nick as if begging him to give her another answer. Sadly, all the fox could do was offer a sheepish grin, scratch the back of his head and chuckle nervously.
"Have I never baked the cookies I've eaten around Christmas time? No, no I have not...woah! Where are you going! Judy...Judy! Not the tie again!"
And that is how he ended up with Judy the rest of their day off, not that he was complaining of course. He had planned to spend the whole day with her. A romantic walk in Central Park. Some hot cocoas at her favorite cafe followed by a trip to the Christmas Ice Sculptures in Tundratown where he was certainly going to take the opportunity to help keep his bunny warm by holding her tight.
That was all out the window now.
As soon as she'd learned he had never made Christmas cookies, a time honored and long dating tradition in the Hopps' household, she had dragged him by his tie to her new apartment, one that actually had an oven and range, and proceeded to pass him ingredients. She assured him that he was in for a treat and she'd finally be able to share in some of her own families traditions that Christmas.
That and secretly Judy was hoping that maybe making the cookies would let her stand so close to him, helping him make cookies of course, so that their fur would brush, or maybe snuggle next to him on her couch afterwards with a cup of hot cocoa. Maybe put on a romantic Christmas movie and lean up towards him and...
Judy blushed hard. Shaking her head from such distracting, though not unwanted, thoughts, she grabbed the final ingredients and shut the fridge's door. Placing the eggs on the counter, she turned to Nick who was behind a wall of other ingredients, all precariously balanced in his paws.
"A little help here?" Nick pled. He heard a giggle in front of him, as he could only see Judy's ears beyond the sack of four that was balanced on top of the sugar, mixing bowl and electronic mixer. The flour disappeared and a beaming bunny stood before him.
"I thought you were going to place those down as I passed them to you?" the grey doe asked as she placed the flour on the counter.
"Is that step one for baking cookies?" he asked.
Judy paused, one paw on the sugar sack. Oh boy...she thought. This might be harder than I thought...
Cookie Batch #1
"Okay, so mix in the salt, just a teaspoon..."
Nick looked at the set of measuring spoons in front of him, all orange and all hooked together on a green ring that was shaped like a bunny head. An assortment of letters and numbers stood out on each and every one of them and as he flicked through them, he cast a wary smile at Judy. "Uh...that's the one with the acronym 'TPS' on it, right?"
The two mammals stood in front of the pan of black, hard as a rock, reduced to charcoal cookies that they had removed from the oven a minute prior. Nick held the fire extinguisher loosely in his right paw, the nozzle in his left, ready to spray the blackened bricks of dough that somehow had still not cooked, but easily blackened and caught fire.
Judy sighed, drooping her shoulders and turned towards the ingredients still left on the counter. "Let's try this again."
Cookie Batch #2
"Well...at least they didn't set the fire alarm off this time."
Judy grimaced as she spat out the remnants of the cookie she had tasted, wiping her tongue with a towel before tossing it. Grabbing a carton of carrot juice from the fridge, she washed down the offending flavor, drinking it straight from the carton while Nick held the most embarrassed of expressions.
Judy let out a heavy breath as she finished drinking, grateful the taste had been extinguished from her tongue. "Nick..."
"Yes, Carrots?"
"How much salt did you put in those cookies?"
"Uh..." Nick's eyes flickered to the measuring spoons and saw a few fleks of salt left in the largest one labeled 'TBS'. " 'TBS' means 'Two Big Teaspoons', right?"
The groan that left Judy's lips led to a sigh from Nick. "How about we try this again. I promise you I'll get this right."
Cookie Batch #3
"You made sure you were using teaspoons, right?"
"Yes."
"And the measuring cup instead of your drinking cup, correct?"
"Absolutely, one hundred percent certain."
"Right temperature for the oven?"
"Three fifty."
Judy watched as the cookie dough on the tray sloshed around and was thankful for the raised lips that prevented it from pouring out onto the floor.
"You forgot the flour didn't you."
"Why madam, I would never have forgotten..."
"Nick..."
"..."
"..."
"Where is the flour?"
Nick chuckled. "Would you believe me if we, uh...ran out?"
Judy blinked once.
Then twice.
Sighed heavily and grabbed her car keys, motioning for Nick to follow. "Let's go get the flour."
Cookie Batch #4
Nick dropped the ingredients off on the counter, watching as Judy trudged past him, heading for the bathroom. He saw her droopy ears, slow pace and her tail, which usually was standing tall and happy, not that he ever paid attention to the fluffy appendage, was low and as droopy as her ears.
He felt awful. The day had started off so well, with both of them excited for the day. Now? Three hours later and he had only succeeded in wasting nearly forty dollars of ingredients and left the smell of burnt cookies wafting through Judy's apartment.
As the door to the bathroom shut, a determination flooded through Nick's body and mind. There was no way he was going to let his partner be sad any longer.
Nick grabbed the air freshener from one bag, hung it on a fan nearby, grabbed the ingredients from their paper sacks and stared hard and long as the recipe in front of him, as well as the cookie cutters he had secretly grabbed while shopping.
"You will have your Christmas cookies, Judy my love, if it's the last thing I bake!"
She hadn't needed to use the restroom at all. She just wanted some quiet and time to think. The day wasn't going as planned. What she thought could become a flirty, fun and festive occasion was turning into a point of frustration for her. She hadn't realized how bad Nick was at baking, or how long of a process it would take to help him learn.
"Should have just gone with his idea..." she muttered to herself. At least then you could have had an actual excuse to cuddle up next to him. Maybe even get him to wrap his fluffy tail around your legs to keep you warm like you've been wanting him to do for oh so long...
Her head fell into awaiting paws with a heavy sigh. A combination of worry and distress biting at her. The day felt like it was fast becoming a flop and images of her in Nick's arm that evening, maybe even sneaking a kiss in under the mistletoe she had secretly bought shopping now went up in flames faster than their first batch of cookies had.
Judy knew that her affections for her partner weren't one sided. She'd had enough times where his tail wrapped around her legs and enough Zoogle searches to know what that meant in fox culture. She could practically recite the definition verbatim.
Tail guarding is a protecting act that a male fox would do for his mate. It is instinctive and is a show of completely fidelity towards a fox's mate.
She didn't even really need to think of the other ways he had shown his affections towards her. Buying her dinner...at a fancy restaurant that he had somehow made reservations for and when pressed said he didn't know how that happened.
Or the other time that he swore wasn't a date, even when he had shown up to their office in the morning, two sold out Gazelle tickets in paw when he didn't much care for her music. Then finding out later they also came with a 'couples package' of meeting the star backstage.
Judy snorted at the memory. He hadn't told her that of course, but she had figured it out. After Nick had left Judy and Gazelle to use the restroom, Judy has asked what sort of package deal this was and the star had spilled the name before clamping a hoof over her mouth, trying to wave it off afterwards.
So many things had piled on top of each other that Judy knew without a shadow of a doubt that Nick loved her. Which was why she wanted to make these cookies with him so badly.
It was a Hopps' family tradition to make them with your mate after all.
A knock on the door caught her attention with her head whirling towards the sound.
"Hey, Carrots. Are you okay in there? You haven't fallen into the toilet...again?"
Judy noted the worry in his tone, though rolled her eyes at the intended joke, as they always showed up when Nick was worried about something.
"I'm fine," she replied, trying to sound bright and cheery. She didn't know if she succeeded, but with the door between them at least he couldn't see her droopy ears.
"Alright. I ask because you've been in there for over a half hour now."
"What!"
Judy pulled open the door in a flash. Nick stood in front of her, smiling as he saw her wide eyed expression. He watched in nervous anticipation as her nose twitched, ears shot up and shoulders relaxed.
"Did you..." she began, slowly walking towards the kitchen.
"Have I baked the most delicious cookies that you'll ever taste in your life?" Nick stated as they walked, watching as she reached the dining room table.
There, on two plates, were over a dozen and a half perfectly baked cookies. One plate was filled with bunny shaped cookies, coated in a coating of several colors of blue and grey icing that matched her uniform and fur. Two tiny purple candies sat as eyes for each of them.
"Took me a while to get the frosting the right color, so you might not like the state of the kitchen." He reached up and scratched his ears nervously.
Judy's smile widened as she looked from the bashful fox to the second plate of cookies, shaped as foxes, lay decorated in the same police uniform colors.
"Didn't have time to make any dyes in green."
"I love them!"
Before Nick could reply, he was enveloped in a bone crushing hug around his waist from Judy. Recovering quickly, he wrapped her in a hug of his own, enjoying the pure happiness enveloping his partner, knowing he was the reason for it. "Thank you, Judy. I saw your droopy ears when you left for the bathroom and wanted to see a smile from you. I thought maybe I'd get the batter done by the time you came out but, I like this surprise a bit more so whatever you were doing in there, thank you for the time."
Judy nuzzled into Nick's chest. "Nick?"
"Yes?"
"Don't ruin the moment."
"Alright. But one thing?"
"Yes?"
"Can you look up?"
Judy was puzzled, but looked up anyways. She had to squint a bit as the ceiling lamp was right above them, but as her vision cleared, a little sprig of green was seen hanging from the fixture.
"Is that my..."
"Mistletoe that you thought you had secretly bought without me knowing? Yes, yes it is."
Her eyes widened. "You knew?"
Nick nodded. "You can't hustle a hustler..."
"I have though," Judy interjected with a smile."
"Touché," Nick replied with a soft laugh. "Though I guess I mean I'm very good at finding out secrets." He pointed up. "That being one of them."
Judy blushed, leaning into Nick's chest. "So I guess you know why I bought that then?" she asked quietly. She could feel his rumbling laughter as his chest shook.
"I have. Though in order to give you my reply you'd have to look somewhere besides my shirt."
Judy laughed and looked up to have her lips be met by his in a sweet and gentle kiss. One which exploded her mind with the emotional weight behind it as she felt him pressing more deeply into the kiss. Her arms went from wrapped around his chest, to his neck as the kiss continued, each basking in each other's love for one another, cookies nearly entirely forgotten...
Until Nick's stomach grumbled.
The kiss broke into awkwardness as Judy's stomach messaged out its own response.
"I guess that means you're hungry?" Judy joked. "We have been making cookies for a while."
Judy gave a coy smile and raised an eyebrow as she stole a fox shaped cookie from the table. "Maybe for more fox?" she asked, bringing the cookie to her mouth and nibbling on the tail.
Nick grinned. Two can play at that game. He grabbed a bunny cookie from the table and smirked. With one long , slow, lap of his tongue, he licked all the blue uniform frosting from the cookie, leaving only the grey 'fur' behind. "I have been feeling in the mood for bunny lately."
Judy's mind seemed to hit a standstill as she watched Nick lick off the 'clothing' from the bunny cookie. Her own cookie was still in her mouth, and at his words, she bit down, snapping the cookie in half along the lower waist.
Nick's eyes widened, a bit of fear working through his system. "Or maybe we can call for take-out. Take-out is good. Pizza. How about some pizza."
"Nick..."
"Pawnese? Okay, Pawnese it is. We'll get that curry and shrimp combo you love so much and..."
"Nicholas Piberious Wilde!" Judy shouted.
The fox stopped mid sentence, staring down at the bunny still somewhat wrapped around him. "Yes?"
"Just kiss me again."
Nick grinned. "As you wish." He leaned down, pressing his lips against hers, their cookies dropping from their paws as they were swept up in each other's emotions the rest of the night.
AN: This story was written for FeverWildeHopps over on Tumblr, so go check out her stuff as it is amazing! Especially her comic, "Missing You". So go check her page out already, what are you waiting for! XD And may you all have a very Merry Christmas!