They were a mess of missed connections; one taken when the other was single. Eternally. When Nick came back from the academy, Judy was dating a buck. When Judy dumped him for picking up a waitress before a date, Nick was seeing a vixen. He ended it three weeks later because she was too high maintenance, but by then the bunny was seeing another rabbit, a female this time. Six months later he was single, but she went home to visit her family and came back sans doe and avec buck. He never asked what happened. It didn't seem polite, but a month later, when she broke up with him, Nick was with another vixen.
On and on it went. They both had awful luck. It probably didn't help their relationship issues that every time they went through a break up, the other one was who they turned to. When Nick's fiancée walked out on him, Judy was there for him. When Judy got divorced, Nick was there just like he was on her wedding day, soothing jitters. None of their relationships lasted long. Judy's marriage being the longest at 2 years and a bit.
It became a game for them. Tallying who had what go wrong, comparing notes, trading stories like collectors' cards. Whoever was dating at the time pretended to take notes while the other presented their most newly acquired "wisdom" over drinks and dinner. It was decided that whoever was the most recently heartbroken was the more experienced and therefore had the right to instruct the other.
It was at what they jokingly called their anniversary, their ninth from the day they met to be exact, when the game stopped being fun. The evening had started the way they always did. She showed up with whatever take-out was easy to get to and good for soothing hurts. He opened a bottle of whatever they chose as the poison for the night; in this case, some schnapps Finnick sent him from the continent. TRhe two partners and friends settled in to wallow in their misfortunes and relax with steaming, spicy noodles and full shot glasses. Oddly, neither of them was feeling it that night.
The shots went down and so did the mood. They barely spoke after the jokes at the door to his apartment. Work was work. Never enough free time. He was in a dry spell. She was stuck with a buck too nice to ditch, but too dull to stay with. Sadly, there was nothing new to joke about and their many failures of the romantic variety didn't weigh so lightly on them as usual.
Judy was the first to break the silence. "Penny for your thoughts?"
"They're worth millions of pennies, I'll have you know."
"But I'm the only one buying and I'll pay a penny. Take it or leave it."
"Friends and family rate." Nick sighed. "Twent- four "relationships" in nine years, carrots."
"Huh?"
"Since I've met you, I've had twenty-four unsuccessful relationships."
"Oh, come on. You can't count one night stands as relationships.", Judy quipped around her glass before it emptied into her mouth.
"You know what's depressing? I'm not." Nick downed another shot. "And isn't it strange that so many of those happened on your birthdays?"
"Or yours." Judy shot back as she refilled their glasses.
"Were those your doing, Fluff?"
Judy grinned wolfishly. "A few were. What? I was trying to do you a solid. Most days you looked like you needed a little fun."
"You succeeded. Except for Annette. That was no favor." Nick commented, referring to a one-night-turned-doomed-commitment.
"She left before you paid for the wedding!"
"She kept the ring."
"Ouch... yeah. I forgot about that one." Judy winced and raised her glass in acknowledgment. "You win. "
"Sometimes. So how many for you?"
"Other than Charlie?"
"And whatever happened with Yuki and Bill at the farm.", Nick grinned.
Judy winced. "Thanks for the reminder."
"Any time, Carrots. Well?"
"You win. Single-use relationships not included, I'm at 22, but I was married."
"You still hold the record between us for longest duration and degree of commitment." Nick took another shot.
"Thank you!" Judy chirped before emptying her glass, again. "Now, what made you think about our records, tonight?"
"A supreme sense of irony, I think." In answer to Judy's confused look, Nick continued. "We're celebrating our ninth anniversary, Carrots. It got me thinking. The most successful relationship I've had in the last decade has been with you."
Judy considered that statement before responding. "I find that comforting, I think..."
"You think?"
"Comforting or depressing, Wilde. Take your pick."
Nick caroled, "Comforting for table three!", she he sloshed a bit of his glass onto the tabletop.
"Good boy. And that's alcohol abuse! Take another shot!"
Nick complied and shot back, "Oh, like you'd know how good I am."
"Don't I?"
"Second hand, at best, Fluff.", the fox retorted with a wink.
"You've got first hand covered." Both of them laughed. "Remember, nick, you've dated a few of my friends. You think we don't talk?"
"Not about how I am in bed."
"Whoopsie for you."
"Apparently."
Judy put down herr glass and stared across the table at her partner. "Now that we've had the obligatory masturbation joke, what brought this on?"
"I'm not sure. I mean, I've dated a lot and it's never worked out, but I've never been too broken up about it. Even when Annette left."
"Yeah... you were pretty chill about that. You were angry she kept the ring for about two weeks, but that was it." Judy considered for a minute before something occurred to her. "I guess it's the same for me. When Charlie left it was more a relief than anything."
"So, what's the connection?", Nick mused aloud.
"Us?"
"Excuse me?"
"Well, who have we ever turned to for support?" Judy posited. "We know each other better than anyone. Hell, I was married to Charlie for two years and he couldn't even remember my favorite food."
"Carrot & bell pepper stir fry with mirin and low sodium soy sauce."
"See?"
"Call me crazy, Carrots...", Nick began.
"I do frequently.", she snarked.
"Thanks. So, call me crazy, but have you ever thought that's the problem?"
"How is mutual support a problem?"
"Not the support, dumb bunny. The effects of it. What if we can't really take relationships seriously because we already have someone who... fills that void?"
Judy finished her shot and refilled both glasses to buy herself a moment to think. "I'll skip on the usual sex joke here, because you're sounding crazier than usual."
"Gee, thanks...", Nick groused and shot his drink.
"You're in good company tonight, though.", Judy chimed and followed suit.
"Hm?", Nick prompted.
"You're talking crazier than usual because that actually makes sense. Does that make sense?"
"I'll work on that when I've got a month or two to spare. What are you saying, Carrots? We're half a bottle in. Drop the subtlety."
"I'm saying you might be on to something. You and I are what each other needs. All corniness aside, we care about each other, we're there for each other... I've always known you'd be there when things went bad, complete with take out, booze and bad movies."
"You know you love me."
"Shut up, smart ass. I'm being serious."
"So am I, Carrots." Nick shot his glass again and gathere himself as much as his tipsy self could manage. "OK. If this goes badly I'll blame it on the alcohol and we'll forget it after some ribbing, agreed? It'll be a drunken story we can laugh about in years to come."
Judy nodded. "Ok...? What?"
"Have you ever considered dating me?"
"You are drunk!"
"So are you."
Judy scrambled. She needed a second to think. "Ok. I'll answer, but can you give me a little more to work with?"
"It's pretty simple, silly rabbit. Just think about it." Nick leaned back and counted off on his fingers as he spoke. "Aside from what we've already said, we work together every day, we spend what little free time we have together even if we have a lover, we vacation together, I have a room at your family farm. An actual room. Not a guest room. You have coffee with my mother every week. Carrots, the guys at the precinct joke about us being a married couple. Hells, tonight is our "anniversary"!"
"That was a joke because of our coworkers!"
"And I don't think they were joking." Nick let Judy have a moment to absorb that statement. "Even if they were, and they probably were, is it such a strange assumption? Look at the evidence."
"I can see it. Oh, wow... did we just never catch it?"
"I think we did, but blew it off, or deflected. Easier not to think about it, you know?"
"Yeah. Ok, so, Uh... what now?"
"What do you mean, Carrot Cake? You owe me an answer."
"Oh, right." She considered taking another shot, but opted to pass. She was tingly already and it looked like this wasn't the time for it, anymore.
Sensing her line of thought, Nick got up and poured two glasses of water. "Don't worry about offending me. Just yes or no will do. I won't ask any further if you don't want."
"Honestly, I don't know."
"Do you have an issue with the whole fox/rabbit thing?"
"No. I thought I would, but no."
"Yeah. Living in the city'll do that to you.", Nick joked before taking a long pull of water.
"Not what I meant, smart ass." Judy grumbled as she had some water, herself. "I mean... I wouldn't date a fox. I don't find them attractive. But you aren't a fox. You're Nick."
Watching Judy fumble with her pocket, Nick couldn't help but ask, "What are you doing?"
In response, she held up a finger and finally unearthed her phone. A few taps later, it was ringing and then Nick sat, lost, as Judy spoke. "Hi, tom? Yeah. It's me. Listen, I hate to do this, but it isn't working. Yeah. You're great, but I'm just not feeling it. Yeah me too. Alright. Yes, still friends. I'll see you at the shop. Take care. Bye!" Turning back to Nick, she chirped "Done!"
Nick was incredulous of what just happened. "Wha...?"
Judy put her phone down and smiled. "So, Mr. Wilde. Care to give it a try?"
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Nick, tom and I just broke up. Neither of us was feeling it. Now, I'm single and so are you. Do you want give it a try?" Judy enunciated the last sentence vey clearly to make sure it cut through the schnapps and made it to the fox's brain.
"You sure about this, Carrots?"
"I said I don't find foxes attractive, but you aren't a fox. You're Nick." Suddenly, she was very grateful for the liquid courage she'd had. "You, I find attractive." She let that hang in the air for a moment. "The more I think about it, the more I think this is overdue. Come on. Treat a lady to dinner."
Judy hopped up and grabbed his wallet and keys, before dragging him out of his chair. They were out the door and on the sidewalk before Nick had a chance to say anything.
"We just had dinner, tipsy bun. Ice cream, instead?"
"Ooh! I could definitely go for that!"
"It might cool off your ears."
"Gimme a break, fox. Alcohol and embarrassment will do that to a bun."
As they walked down the street, Nick commented. "It's not so different than normal, is it?"
"Nope! The difference is that you might get a kiss goodnight, instead of a punch to the shoulder."
"Ooh! Things to look forward to!"
Judy threaded her arm through his and smiled up at him, saying, "I suspect we have a lot of those."
