The small, popup street market is known for its unusual wares: flowers that only bloom after nightfall, black ivory, panda heart, and prey trained to satiate either kind of hunger. Usually Finnick picks up Nick's bouquet of Night howlers when he buys bull serum, but the fennec is laying low after his last run in with the police. Nick can't imagine what Finnick needs a libido booster for anyway, but he doesn't want to ask. Anyone could guess why Nick could use an extra dose of machismo.
Package safely secured, Nick is prepared to sprint to the florist and dash for the exit when a tall, burly salesmammal ropes him in. Not his type, but Nick ends up listening to the pitch despite himself. It isn't a very good one. Nick has sold harder sales with more finesse.
"This was clearly bred for consumption," the sly fox complains, looking unimpressed.
Small, even for a rabbit, huddled in the back of a hutch with hay like a domesticated pet. Nick circles the wood and chicken wire prison. Outdated, even by regulation standards. When he leans down to peer into the cage the rabbit freezes before thumping a foot deliberately against the floor. The foot slows when Nick remains impassive; too aggressive for the kind of service he's advertising her for.
"It's young," the salestiger insists. "It'll grow."
The nose twitch is the only warning before the rabbit snaps at Nick's prying paws. He flinches away. "Not interested."
The salestiger laughs and claps a hand on Nick's shoulder. "A little bunny too much for you to handle?"
Affronted, Nick ducks out from under his hand to peruse the cage one last time. "Hardly," Nick says, but the salestiger has already moved on to more valuable customers.
Defeated, Nick turns to leave when a quiet voice stops him. "You have to get me out of here."
Stupefied, Nick glances around and ends up turning a circle. The rabbit snickers and Nick drops his jaw. "Excuse me?" For a moment, Nick thinks he's becoming unhinged. Nick turns back and remembers: prey can talk. The ones here usually don't, especially not rabbits and especially not to a fox.
"I need out," it tells him, moving closer.
In full view Nick can see her chest and the soft curve of her hips. Gender isn't really a novelty for Nick, but she's working those big lavender eyes and fur like graphite from a mechanical pencil. Her ears rise and her tail twitches when Nick meet her gaze.
The bunny smiles. "I can make it worth your while."
For a dumb bunny, she knows how to work a hustle. This is part of the reason Nick hates lingering around these places. There's always someone shady who wants to involve him in something even shadier. The worst part is that he's buying it. He should turn about face and floor it back to Finnick's apartment.
Instead he says, "Oh yeah? How?"
The bunny smiles, eyes glowing. Nick can't tell if she's puffing out her chest because she's confident or because she wants to distract him. "I know where all the best flowers grow," she assures him with a wink.
Ears erect, Nick's eyes widen. Something in his gut contracts. There isn't enough time to react before the salestiger notices him loitering. Nick glances at the price tag; he knows Nick can't afford it. "Hey, no fraternizing with the merchandise!"
Nick turns to leave but she presses her nose to the chicken wire. "Take me with you," she urges.
Whispering, Nick ducks down. "I can't even afford you!" On a good week Nick struggles to make end's meet. Rent isn't cheap and drugs are no cheaper.
"Who says you have to buy me?" For a bunny, she thinks quick on her feet.
Nick eyes the salestiger, he's going over paperwork with a salivating hyena. Nick lowers his voice and shakes his head. "What makes you think I would risk my tail for you?"
The bunny shrugs and sits backs on her haunches. Nick can see her pink paw pads when she stretches. "If you don't think you can pull it off, I understand."
The salestiger barrels towards Nick and he bows his head, pressing his back flat against the brick. Nick waits for the clear and produces a bobby pin from his pocket. He doesn't carry it exclusively for this purpose, but it's not uncommon that he has to pick a lock or two to pull off a ruse. It sticks the first time, and the second time he pulls it back the hairpin is misshapen. The rabbit's ears stand and her body stiffens when the lock unlatches with a click. The salestiger's head swivels in their direction two seconds too late.
After three blocks they lose him by sliding under a hole dugout in front of a fence. Around the corner under the protection of the overpass, the rabbit leaps into the air and Nick watches the rest of her bounce. "That was amazing!"
The bunny's laughter is infectious, and Nick finds himself returning her smile. "It's called a hustle, sweetheart," he tells her.
"I think it's called stealing, but I'll let you have it."
Nick shrugs off his shirt before the bunny can take off again. "Do us both a favor and cover up," he complains, handing her the article of clothing. The bunny shrugs it over her small shoulders where it hangs past her tummy and covers the most distracting bits from sight.
"Happy?"
She takes off again before Nick can ask her where they're headed. When they finally break the city border and slow to a walk Nick tries not to stare at her tail swishing under the hem of his shirt. For half his size, she's outpacing him without trying. They walk through buttercups, morning glories shut tight for the night. When they reach a clearing that winds behind a group of willow trees Nick sees it, a batch of night howlers growing in an arc behind the largest trunk.
"You weren't kidding," Nick says, before rushing over to examine the flowers. He drops to his knees and touches his paw gently to a petal. "I'm rich," Nick realizes.
He's still trying to decide the quickest transport method when he notices the bunny crouching beside him. "If we pick them now, they'll lose potency before we can sell them," she says. She isn't wrong. "What should we do?"
Somehow, this bunny has gotten the wrong idea. "There is no we," Nick explains carefully. "You got out, I got flowers. Now you get going." He shoos her with a wave of his hand. This entire situation is already a little more intimate than Nick would like. It reminds him of a perfume commercial. Nick saves intimate for five am with a bouquet of blue flowers after a sweet scheme succeeds. "You can keep the shirt though," he tells her, like it's any consolation. "It looks good on you."
The bunny's eyes blast from confusion into hurt. "You're just going to leave me here?"
"I was actually sending you away," Nick explains. He motions away from the clearing. Finn is going to crap his pants when he finds out about the profit Nick is going to turn from this field. "C'mon Carrots, did you really think it could go any other way?"
"My name is Judy!" Insists the dumb bunny.
Nick tries to block out the information but it's too late. "Don't tell me your name," he says with a scowl. Names turn objects into people and strangers into friends.
"Judy Hopps!" She clarifies, stomping her foot. She crosses her arms over her chest before she's flung into the air.
When her heel slams against the dirt it sends dust flying and a rope tightening around her ankles without intervention. The branch retracts from a bowed position and hoists the bunny high into the air. Nick's green shirt hangs over her face and exposes everything it was intended to cover. Nick isn't surprised the place is guarded, and can't help but laugh at the bunny's naivete. Hopps face flies from fear to embarrassment as she writhes in the trap and tries to pull the shirt back down. A few moments ago she was content to hop through the city like a savage.
"It's not funny!" Her face is turning red.
Nick clutches his stomach. "Are you sure? Cause it looks pretty hilarious from where I'm standing." Judy blows with the breeze and frowns. "I have half a mind to leave you hanging." When tears well in her eyes Nick stops laughing. "Alright, alright," he relents. "I'll get you down."
It only takes a few moments to figure out how to untie the snare. When Nick releases it she lands in an unceremonious heap on the ground. Twice today, he's saved her. The problem is he doesn't understand why. Carrots chews through the remaining rope while Nick watches. She brings a paw to her hind leg and winces.
She studies the dismantled trap, the hook and the slip knot. "How did you learn how to do that?" She asks in awe.
Nick turns away. "I got stuck in a claw trap when I was a cub," he admits. "So I read up on them after that." Nick shows off the scar tissue where his hind paw is permanently missing fur.
He doesn't like to think about it. The way he knows his father must have heard him and left him yowling for hours. The rabbit cringes with sympathy. "That's so awful," she says quietly. "Those traps should be illegal."
Nick knows Carrots is talking about the poachers that caught her. The hunt and capture of all prey mammals was banned a decade ago, but that's not always enough to discourage a shifty character from the allure of a quick buck. Another result of the predator mandated segregation.
"You can't leave me here now," Hopps Insists, and Nick is loathe to realize he was thinking the same thing. She limps toward a pile of flowers and takes them into her arms. "Besides, it'll go faster if you let me help," she says triumphantly. Nick watches her stumble down the path the two of them came from.
He waits until she hobbles a few meters in the wrong direction before telling her. "My house is the other way."
Nick is proud of his apartment even though it's a sparsely decorated hole in the wall. A little studio on the third floor with a futon in the main room and too many dishes in the sink. Usually the ladies he brings back to the apartment don't mind the mess. That's a joke. The last person he had over was when the landlord let himself in because Nick was six days late on the rent.
Eyes impossibly wide, Carrots grins and kicks her feet out as she surveys the small space. "Wow, this place is huge!" She exclaims. Given the little box she came from, Nick is forced to believe her.
"There's a first aid kit in the bathroom," Nick tells her as he pushes some trash off the counter into the garbage pail. Judy glances between two identical doors. The one on the left is a closet, but the other is the bathroom.
"It's the only one with a toilet," Nick explains unhelpfully.
Judy rolls her eyes before checking both rooms. "Very funny," she says dryly. She finds the first aid kid under the sink without further instruction. The blood is already dried in her fur, and although she's limping she isn't screeching in pain so it's safe to assume her ankle is sprained at worst.
Carrots emerges from the bathroom, paw wrapped in gauze. "So can I know the name of my hero?" She asks slyly. Nick can't tell if she's being sarcastic. Besides, that's against the rules. Never tell anyone your name, his father taught him. Names turn strangers into friends and friends into lovers. "Nick Wilde," he tells her. What has his father's advice ever really done for him anyway?
Nick slides into a barstool and reaches for a flower. The first three petals Nick hardly chews. It isn't until the fourth one that he notices the distinctly sweet taste. Night howlers are as bitter as unsweetened tea. If what Judy is feeding him is poisonous, it's probably too late.
"What, the usual flavor out of stock?" He shrugs. "I hope it's new and improved."
Judy nods her head, smiling nervously. No wonder she was so quick to follow Nick home with an armful of drugs. They probably aren't anything more than blue irises or violets that look blue in the moonlight. The little bunny played the fox for a fool, and now Nick is going to get his payback. He approaches her slowly, mimicking the slow movements of predation.
"I'm sure it'll kick in any minute now," Nick says after the final swallow, gauging Hopps for a reaction. "You sure you wanna be around for that?"
Nick smiles when her ears droop. "Scared of me yet, sweetheart?"
"You aren't scary, you're just a petty criminal," she tells him, but the spike in her heartbeat and the uneasy smell of fear tell Nick otherwise. He approaches her with caution, his ear rotating at the sound of blood rushing through the artery in her neck.
"Are you sure?" Nick asks flatly. "If I'm the petty criminal," He circles the bunny while sizing her up. "What does that make you?" The bunny backpedals until her shoulders touch the tacky wallpaper. Nick leans down to breathe against her neck. "The prey?" For a flash of a second, he imagines biting her. Not because he wants to, but because that's what he'd be doing if he were intoxicated. Instead he whispers into her ear. "I know they're not real night howlers, Hopps."
Judy crouches out from under him and sprints across the room. "It was a convincing lie," Nick confesses. "For a dumb bunny." Nick is used to being the one with the upper paw, and playing the fool is his least favorite role.
"I was just trying to-" Nick doesn't let her finish.
"Listen, Carrots," Nick explains to her. "I do lot of drugs, okay?"
A tight, hurried head bob. "I get that," she says.
Nick shakes his head with a condescending smile. "I don't think you do." He closes in on her again. This is the first time he's missed a batch of flower power since, well, since Finnick introduced it to him when they first met. "Not just a little. Not just here and there to unwind. I'm talking every night. Five times a night. Until I'm blue in the face." The bunny remains frozen in the corner of his living room. "And since those weren't real night howlers now I'm going through..." Nick gestures for her to finish the sentence.
She guesses immediately. "Withdrawal?" Irritation is already setting in without his regular dose.
"Good. Do they teach you that in cute little bunny school?" He tries to box her in with his arms but Judy sidesteps him with a smile.
Her ears fall back behind her head. "Do you really think you're the first predator to ever try and intimidate me, a dumb bunny?"
Nick's face falters. "What?"
"C'mon Nick, think about it. You just gave me a get-out-of-jail-free card, a bodyguard, and a roof over my head-all for the price of a couple of blue hydrangeas. Do you really think you're the one in control?"
Judy advances on him and Nick backs up without explanation. He certainly isn't afraid of an herbivore with teeth like blunted plastic. Who ever heard of a savage bunny? When she has his attention, she lifts up her shirt and raises her eyebrows. Even though he's already seen everything she has to offer, his pants tent. Judy advances not unlike a predator.
When their stomachs touch Nick pulls away. "I can't have sex with you. It would be..." A couple words filter through his mind: impossible, immensely pleasureable-Judy interrupts with her own interpretation.
"Wrong?" She shifts her weight to the other foot.
"Disturbing," Nick corrects her. Weird is an understatement. Having sex with prey is more than stigmatized. Nick's father taught him never to play with his food.
Judy hesitates for less than a second. "Because I'm not a predator?"
Nick explodes. "Because none of this makes any sense!"
It never felt right, passing by prey crammed into cages like they weren't even mammals at all. It was easier to stomach when they painted the perfect picture of feral, when they didn't talk to him and make eye contact like an equal. The way Judy has him wrapped around her finger is just making everything worse, or better, depending on perspective.
"Just think of it as a favor." Judy appears unphased at the prospect.
Nick frowns. "Write me an IOU." He takes and makes payments in several forms, but sex isn't one of them.
"Are you sure that's what you really want?" Judy wheedles, and he begins to wonder if he's the one overcomplicating the situation.
Of course Carrots knows her way around a predator. The one thing dumb bunnies do better than eat carrots is have sex. At least, he's pretty sure he learned something like that in middle school when his teacher taught the food web. Judy presses her body flush against his and Nick can feel his cock emerge from its sheath. Usually this doesn't happen until the part with the-
-kissing. Judy presses her lips to his with a giggle, talking directly across his mouth. "See? You've probably forgotten all about the drugs already."
If only it were that easy. The cold sweats have already started, itchy little pinpricks from behind his fur. Still, he has to admit she makes a valiant diversion. Nick can tell she's stretching on her tiptoes just to reach his mouth. She brushes her tongue over Nick's canines and he shudders, inviting her into his mouth. Judy pulls Nick down with two paws at his shoulders.
"You're too tall," she complains, tightening her grip. "But I can fix that." She coils her body like a wind-up spring. "Think fast!" She shouts before twisting into a jump and wrapping her calves around him like a baby koala. Her legs tighten and her ass brushes his crotch. Nick turns a semi-circle with her clinging to him so their positions are reversed.
Before now, Nick has mostly fooled around with other foxes and once, when he was way in over his head, an arctic wolf. The more Judy kisses him the more this is starting to remind him of that time. It scares him a little, feeling this out of control. It makes him feel like he's stuck in that claw trap all over again, at the mercy of iron wrought teeth jammed in his leg.
"Hey," Judy says. When Nick opens his eyes Judy is staring at him. This close, Nick can see every emotion flicker across her face, which means she can probably see the same. "Are you okay?"
The arctic wolf had never bothered to ask. Nick shrugs. He's totally fine, his cock tells him. Judy squirms in his arms and even with the size disparity Nick is losing interest in taking the brunt of her weight. Judy reads his mind. "To the bed!" She demands, but doesn't detach. Nick trips over himself trying to make it to the mattress without losing his grip.
"It's actually a futon," Nick corrects her as he drops her onto the stiff platform.
"How do you even sleep on this rock?" Judy complains.
Nick lands beside her and pulls her onto his chest. "Usually, I don't." It's about right here that Nick realizes he's going to go through with this. It's not even the most morally questionable thing he's done this week.
Judy bounces experimentally in his lap and Nick warns her not to put pressure on her right ankle. This isn't how Nick imagined sex with a bunny would be (not that he imagined it.) Even Finnick won't be able to beat Nick now, will have to leave one line on his bucket list unchecked. The size difference is wide enough that her knees don't touch the mattress when she spreads her legs on either side of him. Judy straddles his waist and cants her hips. Nick's breath stutters to a halt.
It's been awhile since Nick has done something like this, unless he counts the no-touching jerk off sessions with Finn whenever Nick gets a new triple-X porn parody. Even then, the DVD release for, "The Fox Who Gets Around," was over two months ago. He's still working through what Hopps is getting out of all this when she lifts her shirt completely over her shoulders.
She inches backward to undo the zip and something like a lightbulb goes off in Nick's brain. "So you are trying to distract me from the withdrawal symptoms with sex." Judy pulls back and chews her bottom lip and Nick follows the gesture with his mouth on hers. "Do you think it's working?"
Judy grins with a jerk of her hips. "Some might say it's a wild success."
Nick groans and pushes her face out of the way like he's been listening to her bad puns for six nights instead of six hours. He stumbles out of his pants, cringing at the realization that he's still wearing socks. Rearranging the pillows exposes a dirty magazine Nick quickly tosses to the floor. Judy is quicker, and she snickers at his expression.
"I was holding that for a friend," he says solemnly. Technically it was Finnick's copy of Big Cats Exposed, but Nick has no plans to return it.
"You sly fox," she says, and Nick smirks.
Without clothes, Nick's cock rises to full attention against Judy's ass. She grinds back against him until the tapered head of his cock bumps her tail from underneath. Judy wastes no time positioning herself over him, trapping his dick between her wet slit and his stomach until it drips precum and a little patch of fur sticks together. Judy babbles nonstop as her slick glides between them.
"Ohmygod," she says in a rush. "This feels really good!"
"No kidding," Nick rasps.
When his paws land on her hips to encourage movement she slips away and shimmies down his hips. She stares at his cock with a scrutiny that almost makes him shrink. He tenses when she wraps her paws carefully around his warm erection. Her eyes dart to Nick's face for reassurance.
He winces before her tongue touches his cock. "Are you sure-with the teeth?"
Judy runs her tongue over the two shiny perpetrators. "Good point," she admits.
Frustrated, Nick grips her waist and flips their positions. "Pinned you," he says, nosing at her chest and then her neck. She smells like sunflowers and timothy hay.
"Only because I let you."
"Only because you want me to do all the work, you mean."
He inches back and and buries his face between her thighs. The bunny has a tiny little box, clit hidden in folds of her flesh. Nick runs his hands across her hips as he eases her onto his tongue. Her knees tremble with the effort to stay still. She squeaks when he drags his tongue across her clit before plunging inside.
Nick pulls away and his tongue darts out to swipe at his muzzle. "Trying to drown me?"
"Fingers...crossed," she manages when Nick nuzzles her inner thigh.
Judy is soft inside, small and slick. He licks at her until she's leaking onto his paws. Nick worries about the tight fit but her enthusiasm is quick to quell his fear. "C'mooooon," she complains when he lines himself up but doesn't enter. "What's taking so long?" Nick pushes forward just enough to wet his cock. "I thought foxes were quick." Nick tugs on her tail and her toes curl.
"What's the rush?" Nick asks. "Got a hot date?"
"Yes, with the slowest fox in the world!" She tries to cross her ankles behind his back and pull him closer but Nick stops her.
"I went through a lot of work for that ankle," he says. "Don't ruin it." Judy rolls her eyes and thumps her foot impatiently against the mattress.
Shrouded in the mating musk, she smells more than ready. Nick's tail swishes behind him in anticipation. Nick isn't huge but Judy is small, smaller than any other mammal he's fucked. When he finally dips his dick in he can feel her stretch to accommodate him. The pressure is like nothing Nick has ever felt.
"You good, Carrots? Need me to slow down the gravy train?" Nick wants her to know he can stop at any time.
Judy laughs and her muscles contract around him. "As if. You're not the first mammal to take a ride."
Nick feigns hurt. "I thought what we had was special." He grips her knees tightly in his paws, splaying her thighs so he can watch his cock disappear inside of her.
"Oh!" Judy gasps when he pushes in to the hilt. Her pussy fits like a glove. "Yes," she says with a low hiss. He can feel her tail twitching behind his balls. He paws at her chest and she snaps her hips forward. "Yes, yes, yes!" She screams as he tugs on her nipples.
Nick pulls out slowly, sinking back inside at an agonizing pace. "Nick," she seethes. "Faster."
Judy's muscles tense and her eyes screw shut as he thrusts forward. "Yes!" She squeals in his arms. Nick had worried he wouldn't have the stamina to keep up with a hyperactive bunny, but she comes three times before Nick ejaculates and then flops back against the bed. He can feel her soaking his cock as she rides the post-orgasm aftershocks. Nick's muscles tremble from strain as Judy blinks lazily back at him.
"You can keep going," she says, propping herself up on her elbows.
Judy sucks in a breath when he pulls her entire body onto his cock. Nick grabs hold of her legs and hoists them over his shoulders, bending forward for a better angle. With her knees by her ears and his forearms on the mattress Nick has better leverage to fuck her. He curls his body around her and pistons his cock inside her.
"Nick!" She shouts, tightening up again.
The sound of his name sends a spike of pleasure straight to his dick and the wet sound of their sex pushes Nick to go harder. He can feel the knot forming at the base of his cock, and only then does he realize he should have had this conversation with Judy sooner rather than later. He considers pulling out but his cock can't bear the thought.
"Judy," he says, before another shudder overtakes him. "I'm going to knot."
Judy says something but Nick can't hear her over the noise he's making. Embarrassing, really. Little yips that don't communicate anything more than this feels so good. She leans up to kiss him and Nick's cock erupts like a firecracker inside her. Hands curling in the sheets, head bowed, Nick's hips twitch as cum continues to seep from his cock. Judy twitches around him as the knot continues to inflate. Her eyebrows knit and she scrunches her eyes closed.
"Hey, Carrots?" Nick says meekly. He can feel the cum oozing from where they're attached. He can't stop the tremor in his legs. When Judy shakes her head Nick can feel something in his gut sink. The knot is too big for her, stretching her impossibly wide. "Cottontail, you okay?"
Judy cracks one eye open and tries to move but Nick stops her. "Nonono," he says. "You definitely don't wanna do that. Moving is not an option right now." His voice cracks from a whine when his cock twitches again, draining inside her. They're stuck together like a toasted marshmallow between two graham crackers.
"It's almost over," Nick assures her. This is the part Nick never likes, the awkward twenty minute post-orgasm glow that crashes with the realization he's knotted to a vixen who can't wait to slip out from under him and shower his scent from her fur. "Knotting," Nick tries conversationally. "You know how it is."
At last, Judy speaks. "Nick," she says cautiously. "It hurts." His knot is done inflating, it's just holding the two of them together now. Nick's heart trips over itself. He leans down to nudge at her neck again and she whispers into his ear. "Keep touching me."
Relief swamps Nick and he slips a paw between them to caress her clit. Her pussy spasms in little jolts, shocks of pleasure straight to his dick. Nick nuzzles Judy's throat and plays with her breasts until she's worked over, close to coming one last time. Thirty seconds of a steady rhythm has Judy arching off the bed with a muffled cry. When she falls back against the mattress Nick is already pulling out of her.
"Sorry about that," Nick offers without explanation, before disappearing into the bathroom.
Nick takes his time searching for a washcloth under the sink, sparing no luxury as he waits for the tap to heat up. He tries not think about what he has to say when he goes back out there. He tries not think about what's going to happen next. Most of all, he tries not think about how much he likes her. He soaks the green fabric and rings it out twice before smoothing over his expression.
Nick doesn't bother to close the door behind him; he hands her the washcloth without looking at her but she doesn't take it. "How can you trust me?" He wonders, eyes trained on the ceiling.
Judy cuts through his false bravado. "For starters, I can hear you coming from a mile away." Nick makes a face and Judy shrugs. "I guess I can't," she says honestly. "But I can trust my instincts." She smiles wide until all her teeth stick out. "They never let me down," she declares.
"And what are your instincts telling you right now?"
Judy smiles. "That you're a good guy." He can't help but stare at the mess: the spunk spatter on her thighs, the stained sheets and strewn clothes. Nick realizes they'd do better to take a bath.
He scoffs and tosses the washcloth onto her face. "How would you know what kind of guy I am?"
Judy scowls and wipes gingerly between her legs before giving up. "Maybe you could give me a tour of your luxury bathtub," Judy suggests wisely. The only thing in the bathroom aside from a toilet and sink is a standup shower with a leaky door. Judy remains undeterred. "And maybe you could let me get to know you, and I could find out for myself."
"Nice try," Nick pushes her face away with his hand, "Sly bunny."
Nick tries not to think about the three thousand ways this could go wrong, because it already has. Judy tosses the washcloth back at his face and grins. "Dumb fox."