Hello everyone and welcome to Lover From Another Planet! You may be able to guess what it's about, so I'm not gonna say. Hope you have fun reading it! (I think this is my shortest A/N ever…)
*BEEP...BEEP...BEEP*
Nick forces his eyes to open back up. He'd been lying there, listening to that cursed alarm going off for almost five minutes. Waking up in the morning was a difficult task for Nick, being biologically nocturnal, but, it was 5:30, which meant for him, it was time to get ready for work. He wearily lifts his paw, and pounds the top of his alarm clock, causing it to finally fall silent. Slowly, he forces himself out of bed, grabs his work uniform, and heads for the bathroom to take a shower.
~oOo~
A sight you don't see every day is a grumpy Nick headed into the woods with shower supplies, but, it is a sight you'd see if you were at Nick Wilde's house this morning. Of course, nobody saw him, becasuse he lived alone, in his small log cabin in the woods, on the property he inherited from his father. That was the only area where luck was good to him. "Stupid water bills" he mumbled to himself. "I'm just a couple weeks behind on the payments, and they shut the water off completely!" He cursed his luck under his breath. A lot of curses to the water company later, Nick finally reached his desired destination. Nick sighed to himself in frustration. "I've never liked this stream."
~oOo~
A hot shower in the morning before work is disireable, but if the water company shuts off your water, you may just have to settle for a cold bath in the stream in the woods behind your house. Finally dried off from his bath in the woods, and dressed in his work uniform, which was a white long sleeve button up collared shirt, tan slacks, and a really tacky red apron, he was finally ready for work. Where? Well, at Central Zootopia Supermarket. His job wasn't all that bad. Customers were usually nice, and all he really had to do was restock shelves, and occasionally answer some questions. Some days were rougher than others, like the one day when there was a rodeo across the street, so the store was filled with mammals trying to buy snacks somewhere else, and sneak them in so they wouldn't have to pay for the overpriced food they probably had there. Actually, Nick didn't really go do many things. He couldn't afford to. He could barely afford to pay his bills, let alone go out. He did go to the bar with his friends on Saturday nights, but other than that, he stayed at home, and upon occasion, he'd lay in the hammock in his backyard on a starry night, and just look at the sky. He usually did that if he's had a bad day.
Which today was looking like it would be one.
"Ma'am, as I've said before, the prunes are in the snack aisle, with all our other dried fruits." Nick told the elderly hyena standing in front of him, as he turned around to grab some more apples from the crate on the floor next to him to add to the display.
"BUT" She screeched, really high pitched, causing Nick to jump, and drop the apples he was holding. "Prunes are made from plums, which are a fruit! So why aren't they with the fruits! Why on earth would you keep them in the snack aisle?"
Nick gave an annoyed sigh. "I don't know, It's not my job to decide what goes where. My job is to restock the shelves, and tell customers their prunes are waiting for them in the snack aisle, which is not here." Nick replied sarcastically, as he picked up the now bruised apples. He'd have to throw them out now. What a waste. Not to mention, his manager was rather stingy at times, and got really upset when food got wasted, instead of sold.
The elderly hyena scoffed, than said "Where's your manager! Mr…" She angled her head to read the nametag Nick had sloppily pinned on his apron "Nick Wildey."
He put out an elbow to rest on the display stand, and sighed. "It's Wilde, as in, the 'e' is silent, and if you wanna complain, the customer help desk is close to the snack aisle, so, you could grab your prunes after you finish your rant." He said, still keeping his usual calm demeanor.
"Fine, Nick Wilde" She said in return, emphasizing his last name. "I'll see to it that something is done about you and your rude behavior! You filthy rat!" She gathered her cart, and storming off in a huff.
"That's pretty SPECIEST, don't ya think?" He called after her with a smirk, than went back to restocking the fruit display
~oOo~
"Will Nick Wilde please come to customer service." he heard over the loudspeaker, about fifteen minutes later. Nick sighed to himself, and turned to his partner, a light brown rabbit, with dark brown fur stripes on his ear tips. "You got this Ace?" He asked, to which his coworker, Ace Ranger replied with a smirk "Yeah. You're probably not coming back though.". Nick jokingly punched Ace's shoulder, and calmly made his way to customer service. Even though he always put off the impression of being calm and collected, there were certain times, where, he was nervous, but for the sake of his reputation, he wouldn't let it show.
This was one of those times.
See, the problem was, this wasn't the first time he's done something like this, and his manager was honestly fed up, but didn't have the heart to fire one of his good friends, but even with all that, he had a fuse, and Nick could feel himself getting closer to the end of it.
He cheerfully greeted the two polar bears working st the customer assistant counter. "Raymond! And is that Kevin? Long time no see!" His remark earned half chuckle-half scoffs from both Raymond and Kevin. "A week is a long time?" Kevin retorted, earning a few chuckles from Raymond, and causing Nick to twitch uncomfortably. "How...how mad is he?" He asked, to which the two polar bears exchanged knowing glances. They knew something Nick was about to find out, and he wasn't completely sure he wanted to find out what it was they knew, not when it meant it put his job in jeopardy. Raymond turned to face him, while Kevin left to assist another customer. "Seething" Raymond replied, than opened the little gate that lead to behind the counter, and Nick nervously made his way to the manager's office.
He knew his way, practically by heart now. His manager was pretty respected, and everyone knew he meant what he said. No funny business. He was so well respected, in fact, that he even got his own office, and a higher pay. Higher pay, now there's a thought!
Nick slowly crept up to the door, contemplating the right moment to open it.
Five...four...three...two...one and a half...one and a-
"Wilde! Just get in 'ere already!" He heard from the other side of the door, to which he quickly opened the door, and strode in casually.
"Finnick! Hey buddy! How's it been? Did you miss me?" He said, as he made his way to the seat in front of the desk. With how many times Nick visits his manager's office, they should just embroider that dang chair for him already.
"Wilde, we got another complaint about you." He started off calm, this seemed like it was starting good! "On a monday. First day of the week, and you're bullyin' old ladies."
"Well I wouldn't really call it BULLYING, more like-" "YOU'RE RUINING the reputation of the store!" Nick started to say, before being cut off by his steaming mad manager, and friend. Finnick continued "Nicky, you know I don't wanna let chu go, but Ima have to if you keep chasin' the customers away."
"I swear sir-I mean, Fin, that I don't intentionally make them mad, they just act so stupid, and I act on their stupidity getting on my nerves." Nick replied. It was a weak response, but if it had any chance of protecting his current, and only source of income, than he'd try it. He couldn't afford to be out of work. Not when there were meals he needed to pay for, and bills to pay. Not to mention a specific water bill.
Finnick thought for a moment, cracking his knuckles, and swiveling around in his chair. He then turned to face Nick. "How's about this, since you obviously can't handle being around other mammals, we'll put you on trash duty for this week. That way, you can work all by your lonesome, without the 'stupidity' of other mammals gettin' to you. How's that sound?"
Trash duty? That sounds terrible! I don't wanna be on smelly old trash duty! There's all kinds of disgusting things thrown in trash cans at supermarkets! Like...like...oh God, I don't even want to know! I'll just tell Finnick that trash duty is absolutely un-doable, and that'll be the end of it! "Trash duty works for me!" Is what he said instead.
"Great! You'll start tomorrow. In the meantime, just…" He checked the time on his watch, than turned back to Nick "Just leave, it's almost time anyways." He turned back to his computer, and started typing away.
Nick sullenly left the room. If you thought this was his first time put on trash duty, you'd be wrong. It wasn't like he was constantly being put on trash duty, but it was enough. Enough that he wrote himself a little vow that it'd never happen again...that was two trash duty's ago. Regardless, it was time for him to leave work, and go home. Finally! Home. Where there were no annoying customers! Where there were no old hyenas screeching in his ear about prunes! Where he could just relax, watch TV, and just empty his thoughts.
On the way back home, he passed by Duke Weaselton, a local hustler he'd gotten to know pretty good. He was at his movie stand, where he sold pirated movies. He even had some movies that weren't even out yet! "Well, well, look who it is, The Duke of bootleg." The weasel looked up, and kept his same rugged expression. "What's it to you Wilde? Shouldn't you be sellin' some fruit or somethin'?" He replied to Nick sarcastically.
Nick rolled his eyes "Ha ha ha. Very funny...how've profits been today?" He asked, leaning against the table Duke had set up.
"Not bad. About 250 today." Duke said, smirking like he'd just won all the money in the world. Nick on the other hand, he made about 200 a week! His eyes widened, and his mouth fell agape.
"250 a DAY?" He asked, dumbfounded. He knew criminals made good money, but he didn't know it was THAT good. Sometimes he thought about what it would be like if he weren't an upstanding citizen. What it would be like to be a hustler, make 250 a day. It definitely did sound appealing, especially since he's never heard of a hustler having to take a bath in the stream because the water company turned their water off.
Weaselton's smirk grew even bigger. "Oh yeah. It's pretty great." He was about to say something else, when he saw a red panda approaching his stand. "Hey move it Wilde, I got a customer." Nick figured he should be on his way anyway, so he waved farewell to the weasel, desperately trying to sell some more movies, and made his way to the bus stop, the entire time, one question, and all the possible answers were circling through his mind over and over again.
What would it be like to be a hustler?
~oOo~
The bus finally arrived, after almost a forty-five minute wait. Nick was a bit disappointed that it wasn't his regular driver, Flash the sloth. He'd gotten to know Flash pretty well, and often had some nice conversations with him, but today, he had a lot to think about, namely the one question that had been on his mind since work ended.
He sat, deep in thought for about a half hour, when suddenly, he realized…
"Why aren't we moving?" He asked the driver, a middle aged male zebra.
"Can't you see all the cop cars blocking the road?" The driver replied gruffly. Nick hadn't realized there were any cop cars, but indeed, there were about four of them, smack dab in the middle of the road. What were they doing there he wondered, until he heard someone, a child, holler from the back of the bus "Look mommy! The cops got the bad guy!" and started pointing somewhere. Nick looked in the general direction the child was pointing in, and saw a group of three mammals in handcuffs being led out of the jewelry store by three larger cops. When they got out of the store, the cops unmasked the criminals, and, not to anyone's surprise, the group of robbers was led by none other than Duke Weaselton. Guess 250 wasn't enough for him.
Well, the situation may have been time consuming, but at least it helped Nick answer the question. The life of crime wasn't for him after all.
After about ten minutes, the cops had the road cleared back up so vehicles could pass by, and before Nick knew it, he was at his stop. Really, it was just the communal bus stop that was fifteen minutes away from his house, but nobody else stopped there, so he just called it his stop.
~oOo~
Home at last. Nick flipped on the lights, and just let out a relieved sigh. He went upstairs, to his room, changed into his pajamas, and went outside, to lay in his hammock, and watch the stars. It may seem nerdy, girly, call it what you like. Nick found it quite calming. A better way to relieve stress than to smoke, do drugs, get drunk, etc. At first, he took a long moment to just close his eyes, and relax, than he found himself growing curious. Could he find any constellations? He'd never seen one before, or maybe he had, and just didn't know it. Promptly, he opened his eyes, and started scanning the sky. It didn't take him long to find something that stood out to him. In the sky, he saw a star, about three times bigger than all the rest, and it had a reddish-orange color to it. Funny. He'd never seen that star before. He'd never seen ANY star like it before. Is it a big deal? Should he be worried? Or is it just one of nature's talent shows, like mother nature was saying "Hey! Look at this pretty star I made!".He stared at it for a few more minutes, until finally, he drifted off into sleep.
So, Do you think it's really a star? Or could it be something else ;) Who knows? You'll just have to follow, so you can get the next chapter, so you can find out for sure :)