How the Rest of the City Lives

Francine

I leaned over to our resident bunny officer (a dangerous task, I didn't want to squish her) and whispered. "You know, if you don't bone him, I will."

Judy's ears shot straight up in surprise. "Wh- I have no idea what you're talking about!"

She said it way too fast. I rolled my eyes. "Look, I just saw you staring at his butt not two seconds ago. You clearly want that foxy rear and I really don't blame you." It was nice, with that long poofy tail bouncing all over the place... I wondered if I should really be helping this girl.

"I was just eager to get those copies!" She returned, "He just happened to be bent over the machine."

I groaned. This poor girl was clueless. "Look, one abused minority to another, this is getting out of hand. You need to live your life, and that includes not taking anyone's shit about who you want to bone."

The bunny's nose twitched in indignation. "Damn it, I don't want to bone hi- Wait." She tilted her head, confused. She eyed my three ton physique. "How are you an abused minority?"

I rolled my eyes. "You small folks don't get it I guess, sure I can bench press a truck made for a wolf, but if you think I'm not stuck behind a glass ceiling, you're blind."

Her ears twitched, uncertain (man those ears were cute). "Glass ceiling?" A look of horror crossed her face. "Wait, is this department sexist on top of everything else?"

I shook my head. "Nah, it's not that. Remind me to introduce you to senior detective Dawood sometime... Or maybe not because that camel's gone Internal Affairs and she's scary as shit. The problem is that I'm an elephant."

Judy bit her lip. With those teeth of hers I was half afraid she would bite it off. "Uh... Okay, I know I've been small minded in the past, so please don't take this the wrong way, but I always imagined being really big and strong would help you with police work."

I sighed. "That's because you're looking at it from the wrong angle Hopps. Literally. It's like..." I tried to think of a good way to explain. Then it hit me. "Remember when you were chasing a perp through Little Rodentia? It's a lot like that, but all the time. You try to calm some poor lamb down and they think you're trying to scare information out of them. So eventually folks are like 'Well, Francine is big and intimidating, why not give Francine the problem cases?' and 'Wow, Francine can sure handle herself, why not let her charge in first to raid that crack den every, single, time?'"

I rubbed at my head. "Seriously, do you know how many times they've offered me a transfer to SWAT? I want to make detective some way, but so long as the higher-ups see me as some big scary thug there's not much chance of me advancing beyond being a grunt."

Judy looked genuinely sad. "I... I'm sorry, I had no idea. I-"

I held up a hand. "It's okay Hopps. I know you have the exact opposite problem so mine's hard to wrap your head around, but we're getting off topic. Like 90% of the department is rooting for you and Nick to get together and the rest can take a hike if you really like him."

I smirked, eyeing the fox collecting papers. "And you'd have to be blind not to." Damn that butt was fine...

She twitched. It was a hard twitch, not the usual bunny jitters. "I... I have to go grab some files. Be back in a flash okay?" And then the nervous bunny bolted over to the filing cabinet and started rooting through it like a mad woman.

Nick slid back to the table. "Hey there Fran... Is... Is Judy okay?"

She was currently half buried in a cabinet, her perfect little bunny butt with her cute cotton tail concealed only by her standard issue slacks.

I leaned over to Nick. "You know, if you don't bone her, I will."

Flash

"Officers I can-

"SaveitFlashyouweregoing90milesanhourina45zone." Officer hops spurted.

"-explain!" I finished, nervously eyeing Officer Hopps and my old friend Nick. He'd always been pretty cool for a fast one, and he knew how to enunciate, so I could understand him better than most of the speedies.

But he just shook his head. "Flash you know you did wrong buddy. You need to come with us."

I blanched. It was over wasn't it. The guy who'd actually sat down and hung out with me when no other fastie would had come to crack down on me.

I felt a shiver roll down my spine. He was going to take me down to the station. Take away my license.

I felt the smooth seat of the car, the power locked inside it. I thought of watching fast ones roll their eyes at me. Telling me I was slow when I was practically running to get my work done every day. Not having a car... Not having that one place where I was the fastest?

That wasn't living. I narrowed my eyes. "Bye." That said, I slammed on the gas pedal so fast my foot was a blur.

And then, hyperspace.

I loved the feel of it, the purr of my engine as I careened down the street, the air whistling past and the scenery blurring as I felt the power, the speed. I zoomed through downtown, dodging cars left and right, burning rubber past them all. I felt my heart pounding. The adrenaline filling my veins. I was made for this.

I smiled. I may have been a sloth, but they called me Flash for a reason. My family never understood my need for speed. The rest of my classmates shuffled through the hall and I ran. I studied for a driver's license day and night as soon as I was legal and I spent ages tuning up my car, increasing the responsiveness of the controls, making the engine hum with unbridled 10 cylinder power.

I grinned. It was all worth it. In a car I wasn't some stupid slowpoke the fast ones could mock. I was just as fast as them. Faster even. I'd met like minds among the fast ones. People who weren't afraid to put the pedal to the metal and just race through the-

"Flashareyoucrazypulloverrightnow!" Screamed the tiny rabbit flattened against my lap.

I blinked. "Judy, whe-"

The tiny police officer was practically vibrating, pressed into me by the g-forces and hastily slipped under my seatbelt. "DamnitFlashIhoppedinthewindow! 'tslowdownwe'regoingtocrash."

I grit my teeth, glaring down at her. She wanted to talk fast? I'd talk fast too. "JudyIneedthiseveryonethinksI'mawasteifspaceandasaracerI-"

I was cut off as we slammed into a cabbage cart and my beautiful baby car went into a roll.

#

"Well you'restillunderarrest,butthankyouforhuggingmewhenwecrashed." Judy, completely unharmed, eyed me from the hospital bedside. It was hard to hear her though the beeping of my heart monitor, but I nodded. The doctor had said I would be in the body cast for 6 months. Which was roughly how long I'd be clawcuffed to the gurney so it all worked out.

"My car?" I asked, weakly.

Judy winced. "I'msorry,thathingwastotaled."

I felt an ache inside me that no painkillers could wash away. My car. I'd worked so hard on her. No one thought a sloth like me could drive a beast like her. And now, she was gone. Along with my chances of ever getting behind the wheel again.

I started crying. I knew what I did was dangerous, but I never imagined this.

I felt a paw on my claw. Judy looked up at me, sad. "Forwhatit'sworthIknowwhatit'slike. Thatneedtoproveyourself? Toshoweveryonewhatyoucandonomatterthecost..."

She squeezed my claw, then her speech slowed. "Find a safe way, but don't give up."

That said, she slipped something in between my claws. Two tickets to the gokart speedway. Dated six months away.

I smiled and started to thank her... But she was already gone.