A/N: This is going to be an extremely short piece to entertain me through the day-offs while I still write the next chapter for A Predator's Heart.

The song for this one is Natural Blues by Moby. And extremely nostalgic piece from a long time ago, and it fit.

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Nick Wilde was many things throughout his life. He was charming, sly and shifty. He was a red fox with a drama queen attitude and a large ego. He was called a son of a bitch, a heartless bastard and a devil's spawn. And he was totally okay with all of it. For despite how much others scorned his constantly present smile no matter what issue the tod was thrown into, in spite of all the slurs and curses thrown his way, he was needed.

Now though, in the aftermath of the Alistaja project and its origins being made public, the fox suddenly found himself "free from the oppressive hands of government" and completely unneeded. In the eyes of society, he was a pitiful wretch. In the eyes of current public office, he was a mistake of the predecessors that had to be dealt with in the most quiet yet publicly approved way. So, the fox was given a small pension, that would barely cover a rent of a small flat after all his maintenance expenses, a promise to help him adapt to the new life, and then just thrown out onto the street under the applause of dumb yiffers that should have kept their noses to themselves. If he ever got his claws on that ewe…

Still, this was how Nick found himself late in the evening on a train station of another city. Or was it a town? He wasn't sure what to make of it, but the station was deserted despite it being only twenty-two hundred. Well, the tod didn't care anyways. He was broke, scraping whatever was left of his initial funds for the ticket. Usually, he wouldn't even consider leaving Zootopia, a place he knew like the palm of his hand, but there was a position open for someone with his set of skills, and the employer was willing to consider him for the position, given the fox was able to pass the test period lasting three months. He would be given a place to live in, minimum wage exempt from taxes, and some other privileges. As well as fancy title, that even now made him smile for real.

After all, Deputy Sheriff of Bunnyburrow Nick Wilde did have a nice ring to it.

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After five years as a street patrol officer at ZPD Precinct One, the first and still only bunny cop in Zootopia, understood one thing. She would never be able to advance and realize her dream of making the world a better place. She couldn't be whoever she wanted here, only what she was allowed to be by her superiors. And Chief Bogo would never see her as anything but a "waste of space that could be occupied by another competent cop". The water buffalo would never acknowledge how useful she was when dealing with small mammals and the cases they brought to the department. How larger detectives often requested her presence and participation in covert operations, and were denied after she proved herself to be useful in the first three. There was no place for her here.

So, when she suddenly heard of her hometown's sheriff, an elderly bobcat, finally resigning and looking for a substitute, she wasted no time. Her application was not the only one, but out from several goats and deer from nearby villages, there was no one capable of beating her credentials. In two months' time the bunny transferred to Bunnyburrow, and half a year later, was officially Sheriff of Bunnyburrow Judy Hopps.

At first, everything seemed fine, but soon enough, the sharp bunny has realized that if she was to really apply her skills, she needed someone to deal with the brutal part of the job. She looked into the applicants who wanted the sheriff's post, but apparently they lost all interest after learning they would be working for a bunny mascot. Gritting her teeth, Judy located and ad for the position on some large work-search website. There were several applications, but only one of them seemed to be competent enough to answer all of the questions she posted to assess whether or not they were suitable for the position. She didn't know who it was, but they were willing to come to Bunnyburrow and stay for the three-month period when she would be evaluating and teaching them the ropes.

Bunnyburrow was not the peaceful place she left all those long eight years ago. Now, a thirty-two years old bunny, single or some would say married to her work, Judy had to deal with at least one assault each day, two robberies and she had a strong suspicion there was a drug market functioning in her town. Three deaths that seemed to be accidents but all the evidence was too good to be true, six mammals missing for longer than two months. She saw the traces, knew there was a pattern, but with how loaded she was with trivial stuff, she couldn't even start on it! And the bodies couldn't be held in the morgue indefinitely.

Hopefully, her new deputy would arrive soon.