Nick and Judy sat on the curb next to their patrol car, knocking back cans of RC Cola.
"Carrots, you've gotta stop hitting the 'Royals so hard," Nick opined, "I know they're refreshingly crisp, but think of your blood glucose level."
As if on cue, Judy smashed her fifth can against the sidewalk with an eviscerating screech. "Sweets when there's nothing to do," she muttered, her ears twitching restlessly. "Sweets when there's nothing to do. Can't help it. Plus, it's blazing."
The two were waiting for their contact, Rich the Platypus, outside of a taco stand in Sahara Square. Rich was a bookie in the mini-horse horseracing ring, an illegal and highly lucrative sport. Mini-horse jockeys ride horses without proper lumbar support. Nasty stuff.
Nick smirked. "Suit yourself, but save the rings for me."
Judy looked up at him with a wary eye. "What for?"
"I know a guy at the farmer's market who spaces them out between some puka shells, sells them to the yaks for fifty bucks a pop. 'Necklaces,' he calls it! Hah. Cuts me in."
Judy felt her heart flutter. Every time Nick displayed his entrepreneurial wiles licitly, the otherwise-proud and proper bunny would grow weak in the knees. But no! He'd never go for a small town girl with big dreams and an upbeat attitude, like her. She was just a friend.
"The folly of it!" Judy cried aloud.
Nick frowned at her. "Well, it's worked out so far. Oh, look, here comes Rich the Platypus."
Rich the Platypus sauntered down the block towards the duo, characteristic nark aviators perched on his wide platypus beak. A large tape cassette printed conspicuously through his wifebeater.
Nick and Judy stood up and leaned against their cruiser trying to look nonchalant.
"Hey Nicholas Wilde and Judy Hopps, police officers. I hope you don't arrest me for a crime I committed with some of my many associates," Rich carefully enunciated.
"Your wire doesn't need to be on all the time, Rich." Judy explained, finishing off her seventh RC Cola with a jostling swig.
Rich glanced left, right, then beckoned Judy and Nick to lean in, handing over the wire. "It's going down tonight at the old glue factory warehouse," he murmured out of the side of his beak, "on Tundra-Canal and Fifth. Nine O'Clock. Good soundproofing in case there's another trample."
Nick shook his head while smoothing out his fur where it had become matted from sitting on the curb. "Amateurs. What kind of circumference can you get in there?" This wasn't his first rodeo.
"That's such a good point!" Judy ejaculated. She didn't know if the dizzy spots floating in front of her vision were caused by Nick's street smarts, or the sugar rush from her eleventh 'Royal of the afternoon. She adjusted her footing, a blush finding its way to her cheeks. "Uh, that's such a good point, Nick, Officer Wilde, we should probably tell the chief so we can coordinate a stakeout."
Rich the Platypus coughed loudly. "Before you do that, officers, a nark doesn't lay his truth-eggs in your mind-burrows for nothing." His eyes darted deviously between the two. "There's the little matter of my… reward."
"Woa hold up," Judy interrupted. "What do you want?" She glared suspiciously at the Platypus.
Nick joined in. "What do you want, friend? Yeah, you get paid, but why the ominous ellipses? Why the creep look?"
"Yeah Nick, I mean what is that about, is he gonna Jafar us?" Judy raised an eyebrow.
Rich blanched. "I mean, I'm a nark, there's supposed to be some dramatic flair. I'm requesting my… reward." He gesticulated menacingly.
Nick pointed at Rich's gesticulating claws. "I don't know, are you gonna Jafar us or something? What's with that shifty look? And, no, Rich the Platypus, the claw thing is making it worse,"
"Or, are you asking for some licentious favor?" Judy gasped.
Nick nodded in agreement. "Yeah, do you want a fake license or something? I can hook you up, but not on the clock."
"Oh, nothing like that," Rich answered, punctuating his words with a dark chuckle. "You see, I only want…"
Rich pointed a lone claw at Judy.
"...your remaining thirteen 'Royals."
Seven hours later, Judy and Nick were staked out in a parking lot a block down from the warehouse- the warehouse where the mini-horse horserace was set to go down. Two other teams watched from the rooftop of a neighboring building. There, they awaited the chief's order.
Nick glanced down at his sulking partner, letting out an empathetic 'tisk' as he looked her up and down. Sure, the 'Crown is a harsh mistress, and Judy's pancreas was better off without the remaining thirteen they had paid to Rich the Platypus. Still, Nick couldn't stand to see her hurting; Judy's a good kid, he thought, and her pep's all that gets her through the day… she didn't deserve this.
"Judy!" He wrapped his arm around the wounded rabbit and leaned into her across the center console. "You gave up a lot for the force today. You really are a good cop."
Judy's breath hitched. She looked up into Nick's eyes, searching for an anchor to hold onto amidst the crashing pre-diabetic waves of grief threatening to drown her.
She found it.
"Oh Nick," Judy buried her face into his shoulder, weeping openly. "I just don't know how much more I have left to give. It's like this city is an ice cream scoop and I'm the bottom of the carton."
Hey there, bud," Nick lifted her chin, "The best thing about someone like you? As long as you don't give up, your tub never runs dry. Carrots, you're vanilla-blueberry swirl all the way down. And your buddy Nick's gonna stick by you through it all."
Judy had never wanted anyone or anything more in her life.
Scrambling across the center console, Judy planted herself in Nick's lap and kissed him furiously. After what seemed like an eternity because Nick had failed to reset the dashboard clock after changing the cruiser battery, the two separated.
"Oh Judy, what the heck. You can be my gal."
Judy smiled a small smile.
"You can change your status to 'In a Relationship," Nick added.
"Oh… my… gosh." Judy began hyperventilating, crying fat, happy tears. "I just, oh Nick, I just can't even, I'm so thankful. Can I tag you in it?"
Nick patted her shoulder. "No, let's… no, we aren't going to do that."
Judy grinned a big grin. "Okay!"
The cruiser radio crackled to life. "Stakeout units, move in!" The chief's voice rang out loudly in the compact cruiser cabin.
Judy hopped off of Nick and into her seat. "No time to update now, partner," she said coyly, "let's go do our job."
Nick cranked the ignition and put pedal to the metal, sending them screeching toward the warehouse.