Prologue: A Coffee Shop Banter

Judy's face contorted in shock. She didn't know why she was surprised. She should have seen this coming from the very beginning.

"You're being absolutely ridiculous," the gray bunny huffed, placing a paw on her brow, and rubbed. Hard.

The fox sitting across the small café table from her shrugged, holding his paws up empty, "One of us has to."

The bunny's paw dragged down her face, past her muzzle, until it dropped onto the table, "It wouldn't hurt you to take this a little more seriously. This is serious."

"Seriously serious?!" Nick's eyes opened widely, his mouth hanging slightly open.

"You're hopeless…" Judy rolled her eyes, turned away petulantly, and crossed her arms across her chest.

She wondered why she was surprised by his lazy, easygoing approach to a situation that so abruptly disrupted his life. It had been nearly three years since they first met. That was more than enough time to adjust to his dry and sarcastic personality.

The rabbit sighed and reached for her cup on the table, Stagbucks' best: the Las Lluvias coffee, straight from the city-state's famous coffee tree orchards. She hummed in satisfaction as the hot, dark black liquid filled her mouth. Las Lluvias, hmm? How fitting, she thought shifting her eyes to see Nick sipping his own drink. A white and light brown liquid filled the cup with even whiter whipped cream nearly spilling over the cusp like the peak of the snow topped mountain at the heart of Zootopia.

The café around them was fairly quiet. It was not quite lunch time yet so most weren't on their breaks until later. The couple still had a few hours till the coffee shop began bursting with people.

Green eyes caught hers as they both observed the café, happening to gaze into each other's in the process. He looked away and sighed. "So…it's a little water damage."

"'A little'?! Nick, your apartment would put the rainforest district to shame."

"I've always wanted a canopy condo there." Even when he had that obfuscating, wry smile on his face he always found a way to draw out a smile from Judy.

"You liar," A girlish giggle escaped from her muzzle before her paw could cover it up, "You'd hate it."

Nick tapped his chin, "You think the fact that it makes my coat feel ten times heavier every time we patrol there trumps the stellar, picturesque vistas?"

He paused.

"Yes. You'd be one-hundred percent right."

The bunny laughed, nearly knocking her coffee off the dark brown table. The fox's orange-white muzzle skewed triumphantly. He counted every laugh as a win.

Nick threw his left arm around the back of his chair and looked out the window, watching the many mammals go about their business. A pair of gazelles nuzzling each other affectionately caught his eyes before Judy interrupted his attention. Golden Savanna Square sun rays glinted off her purple eyes like a car's freshly cleaned body.

"Where are you gonna stay then? While they fix it?" Judy's muzzle fell slightly, her brows following suit. Nick almost frowned himself, but practice payed off.

He shrugged largely, his eyes closing, "Not sure. I was thinking about asking my dearest, best friend if I could bunk with them. Till its fixed at least."

It was Judy's turn to sport the infamous 'Nick Wilde Smile'. "Oh yeah? And who might that be?"

Nick opened one eye to look at Judy, "Finnick."

"You… you asshole!" Nick did not realize a bunny's eyes could get so big, but if anyone would surprise him it would be Judy.

"Oh. Cursing. Now I've done it."

Judy threw her paws up in defeat. "I don't know what I expected from you."

The fox winked at her playfully, "I would ask you, Carrots, but your place is even smaller than mine was before it became an extension of the Canal District."

Judy backed up slightly and puffed her chest out indignantly, "That's only because I paid for mine legitimately!" A gray finger pointed at him accusingly.

"Point stands that we'd be living on top of each other…" Nick's face fell for a moment, then slowly smirked upwards "Oh…"

"'Oh' what?" Purple eyes squinted.

"You clever bunny. You're just trying to take advantage of my vulnerable living conditions to get into my pants." Nick wished he could take a picture of the face before him. Maybe next time, he pondered.

"'T-Take advantage'?! All I need to 'take advantage' of you is a handful of Hopps Farm blueberries and a skimpy tight outfit!" Nick was nearly taken aback. That was more bark than he was expecting. Nicely done, but not nice enough.

"Ooh, slowdown Farm Girl or you'll give me 'blueberries'," He moaned, pushing his ears back with a slow paw.

Judy's fleeting victory fell into her hands in despair alongside her face, "Sweet cheese and crackers…"

"As not to ruin this delicious sexual tension thing we have going on I'll stay with Finnick." Nick punctuated his reasoning with an upheld paw.

"And this isn't an excuse to get back into the Pawpsicle game?"

Nick lifted his right paw with two fingers pointed up and closed his eyes, "On my honor as a true, blue, cub scout." As he said it his left eye twitched. A hot-cold feeling slithered up his spine. Maybe closing my eyes was a mistake. The darkness was a little too familiar.

The bunny lifted one eyebrow high, "Nick, you didn't join the cub scouts."

Nick's salute faltered and he grabbed his chest with as much hurt as he could muster, "Ouch, Carrots. I spill my guts to you only to have you come back and strangle me with them. You're colder than I thought."

"Oh please," her face still held its annoyed countenance, but the eyes held a warm playfulness. The friendly banter helped him. "I better not catch you conning anyone in between shifts."

"I catch the cons. I'm a clean fox now."

"Keep it that way, Officer Wilde."

"Ma'am yes, Ma'am!" Nick saluted his senior officer with hyperbolic gusto. However, he soon let it fall and let his smile settle into something genuine. "And… thanks, Judy. For caring." Judy blinked in hesitation. Of course she had seen the 'true' Nick before, but every time he let the armor down she felt like she had been given a gift she could not possibly repay. It was still Nick, though.

"Oh. Gratitude. Maybe you're not so hopeless after all." She took ahold of the coffee once more and silently cursed Nick for distracting her long enough that it had grown lukewarm.

He chuckled and pointed a clawed finger at her, "Don't get used to it, Cottontail."

The coffee shop stayed quiet for ten minutes, the two drifting into a companionable silence as they nursed their respective beverages. They both simply enjoyed the quiet of each other's company.

"This is nice."

"Yeah. Almost too nice." Nick squinted his eyes and looked around erratically.

Judy chuffed and leaned back, sighing, "It's been awhile since we could relax while on duty."

"Too many bad guys to catch and too little time."

"Misguided," Judy corrected.

"Nope. 'Bad'. Jaywalkers are the darkest depths this city has to offer." Judy laughed. Although she couldn't remember ever charging someone with 'jaywalking', she was sure Nick had playfully given some poor animals a hard time over it.

Nick crossed his arms over his blue and gold police uniform and looked at her with accusing eyes, "It probably also doesn't help that one of use likes to take their determined, try-hard attitude too far."

Judy shrugged and winked up at her partner, "'One of us has to'."