Author's Note:
Welcome back to Neverwere Moments, this is Helpful, the fourth and final installment of the series. As fair warning to the WildeHopps fans in the audience, I'll be continuing the relationship between Nick and Esther in this story and hope you'll continue to read with me. That said, enjoy~
"Join me, my love," sang Judy Hopps.
"Join me, my love," her companions responded, in traditional shanty fashion and meter.
"On an adventure for two."
"On an adventure for two."
"With derring and doing."
"With derring and doing."
"For hearts strong and true."
"For hearts strong and true."
The round-robin verses continued throughout the blazing hot and humid days spent on Zootopia's roadsides until, at last, Judy turned to her choked-up crew as a whole and braced her heart. "As you all know, today is my last day… and it's been rough for all of us but we got through it, didn't we?" she said to some grunting acknowledgments, "This has been amazing, you guys and I will miss each and every one of you…"
"We'll miss you, too, Judy," said a particularly gruff-looking and weather-beaten fossa, to some more grunting acknowledgments, "and hope to see you again real soon."
"But not too soon!" said an oryx standing just behind him, her fur covered with freshly-dyed tattoos. The rest of the group laughed, including Judy herself as she winked and wagged her finger. "Stay outta trouble, Jude."
"No promises!" the bunny said as she waved, even standing up onto her toes when the rest of them piled into a bus with their foremammal and were driven off. She sighed wistfully and looked up at her dear friend and partner in the ZPD, Nick Wilde.
He pulled the Pawpsicle from his mouth to gesture while maintaining his iconic smirk, "You do know that your community service was supposed to be a punishment, right?"
The rabbit rolled her shoulders in a shrug and hummed fancifully, accepting the second Pawpsicle he handed to her and savored its cool, cherry flavoring on her lips. "I paid my debt to society for abducting and interrogating Duke Weaselton during the Pred-Scare; there's nothing in the law saying I can't make friends in the meantime," she then slipped the homemade wrapper into her pocket, "Plus, all the trash we picked up made Vole Gardens look that much cleaner, so I call it a win-win."
"You would," he scoffed and turned on a heel toward the buildings of northern Savannah Central, lapping and slurping his own blueberry-flavored treat, "They practically had to toss you out of trash-pick-up; even got time-off for good behavior, not that you accepted it. Curious little diddy you were singing, though. Any particular reason for it or did you forget your iPaw?"
Judy was apt to follow as casually as she cared, giving her shirt's collar a gentle flap to air out the especially fluffy fur underneath with a soft huff at the daily warmth, "It's just a simple shanty to keep everyone's spirits up while working as a unit; something I learned when dealing with big groups on big projects. 'A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down', as they say."
Nick bit off a piece for some thoughtful crunching. "Sugar makes many things better but that song must be of special significance to you."
"It's one of the few I can sing off the top of my head that isn't Gazelle," she unabashedly admitted, "'If You Would Come With Me' is a lullaby written by my great-great-aunt Laverne and it's something us Hoppses grow up on. Are you familiar with it?"
"Nah, only in passing," he denied and then smiled, "I was just curious, is all."
She eyed him sidelong. Nick couldn't lie to her but he certainly seemed apt to try, lately. Not for any particular reason, either, only to… avoid some topics of conversation. He hadn't been like that since before the Pred-Scare when they first met, and Judy knew what was bugging him… but didn't want to poke that sore spot.
The fox swallowed his chunks of flavored ice when those green eyes darted away from her. "Jeez, I'm fried," he duly avoided, quickly marching to a less sunlit alleyway off the sidewalk, "Let's get out of here and find some shade."
"Mind if we stop by my apartment?" Judy requested, gnawing the red Pawpsicle as she pointed to one of many stops of the city's shuttle bus system, "I need a shower and a change of clothes before I do anything else."
"Knotash really provided for you, didn't they?" the fox queried implicatively, remembering when the rabbit still showered at the precinct for lack of better accommodations.
Gentle slurping of the Pawpsicle paired with a smug inference, "I think Graham had more to do with that than anyone else, truth be told. Don't get me wrong, The Grand Pangolin Arms was great and all - you know I savor my autonomy - but that greasy-walled 'apartment' was more like a dormitory and only meant to be temporary, anyway. Where I'm at now has its first and last months paid for, an obscenely discounted rent, plus my own bathroom and kitchen. It'd be pretentious to not accept it."
"Big enough for two, I wouldn't wonder."
"Low head clearance, Slick," Judy teased as he rolled his eyes in good humor, "but yes, as soon as Bo finishes his training with Phil, he'll be moving in with me and then will head into the MMA; I hear that old goat is even coming out of retirement to coach one last shot at the championship, as well." They stood at the shuttle stop patiently, vastly unnoticed by some of the larger mammals nearby; despite the notoriety afforded to them from previous endeavors, it seemed to them both that their fame was still low-key enough that they were not swamped by admirers at every turn (much to their combined relief).
"If that bunny's not careful, he might get as big as Lanny one of these days," Nick said with a laugh. Many ears perked at the newly arrived shuttle that sighed and coughed against the sidewalk, its doors folding wide open, "After you, Ms. Hopps," Nick said with a theatrical bow and ushering of his finished Pawpsicle.
"Thank you~" Judy accepted in all due pomp, and then reminded, "Don't forget, we have dinner at Gid and Lory's tonight."
"'Eh," he dismissed, soon following her to hold a low-hanging handle as he gnawed on the blue popsicle stick, "Pass."
Sidelong-glancing purple eyes transitioned to a head-on gaze. "Gid will be cooking, you know."
"Yeah, no kidding," the fox dismissed in his avoidance, "I'm sure he hasn't ordered take-out once since coming to the city. We really should introduce him to some drive-thru or-"
"Nick," she beseeched, and then folded her ears back to exhale as he studied his curled toes and wrung his grip; the both of them marginally jostled with the bus's lurching movement. She pursed her lips a moment and reached around the pole on which their respective handles hung to bat at his elbow, saying in a slightly lighter, if gently teasing tone, "Everyone knows you're crazy for Gideon's cooking. It's like you're not even trying to hide your intentions."
His tail gradually untucked from around his ankles. "You're right, that was a lousy excuse for an excuse."
"So…?"
"I'll be there," he said, smiling as best he could, "He is my cousin, after all, it'd be rude of me not to visit."
Judy proceeded to beam. "There's a distinct possibility he'll be making curry."
Nick softly whurf-ed, ears pricking. "I do like curry…"
"And…" Judy baited, "I might have heard that Lory, finally, found something out about Mack but can't make heads-or-tails of it~"
He smirked with all his wryness. "Okay, now you're just spoiling me." Nick then huffed and shook his head, smiling somewhat flattened as he released the bus-handle to, instead, hold the pole a bit lower.
Her paws exchanged grips to hold his arm, instead. "It's not your fault, you know."
His paw rested thankfully on hers. "It might as well be; I practically let it happen."
"You did everything you could…"
"Not everything."
Judy sighed… and removed his paw from the bar to secure the base of his thumb such that only she was anchored to the bus. Nick stepped a bit closer and draped his tail about her frame but not in the embrace or shield as was so common in the past, rather, as would a kit wrap their tail around a parent's ankle; this, he did, throughout the bus ride.
Underyard Gardens was a newly built, lower-to-mid-class gated community designed for the living comfort of smaller mammals, both predator and prey alike, that are also individually larger than those of most rodent populations. It, as is common with garden variety architecture of small mammals, was circular in shape and bulged upward at the center with solar panels erected to resemble an art-deco sculpture which, at first blush, appeared random; upon further inspection, the gradual shift provided an optimal collection of solar energy that shone around and through the surrounding buildings.
"Swanky," Nick observed.
"Wait until you see the inside," Judy boasted.
"You never struck me as the 'swanky' type, Carrots, at least to this degree."
A paw swatted casually as they entered the lobby, "I'm also not the type to wear a dress until I found myself in one and - not to toot my own horn - didn't look half bad. You know that the only type I'm not, Slick, is one who shies away from trying new things. Besides, I learned from you to 'go with the flow' and 'never just let an opportunity pass you by'."
"So," he leered, "what we have here is a very convenient bump in lifestyle. Far be it for you to not take advantage of that," the fox then chuckled and flicked his finger to launch the thoroughly licked popsicle stick into a nearby trash receptacle, "I've taught you well, young padawan."
Judy wrapped up her own length of red wood to toss it into that same bin. "I could never surpass the master, though," she teased, waving to the rabbit receptionist (who, in all due professionalism, spared a warm smile and a single ear twitch when spotting Nick and his casual grin). The lobby was busy for the time of day with the comings and goings of other rabbits, some squirrels, and even a mole or two as they checked their mail, came home from a long day at work, left for a long night of work, or met up with their own visitors.
The common area, to and from which all the apartments branched, was something akin to a park with squat trees and shrubbery about a garden path, and a modest fountain affixed into the immense pillar holding the marginally shifting, art-deco solar cells. While it certainly wasn't a hard-fast rule, it was clear by the stylized door frames that the ground and first level apartments were primarily inhabited by rabbits with the squirrels up on the second level; it was also clear that the moles occupied the apartments just below street level and varying modifications were made to the aesthetics to reflect the species.
"You weren't kidding," Nick said as he ducked his head through Judy's rabbit-eared doorway and thusly closed it again with a nudge of his heel, "I hereby promote this place from 'swanky' to 'posh'. Heck, I can barely feel the ceiling on the tips of my ears."
"Well, if you'd stop slouching…" she kindly suggested.
"Oop, there it is," and then chuckled, "It's almost like the Hopps house back in Bunnyburrow. Golly gee, that felt like a lifetime ago…"
Judy shared in the chuckle, "You're telling me. Go ahead and grab something from the fridge; I'll only be a bit," she then offered, disappearing behind a wall in the minimalist layout.
Green eyes scanned the wholeheartedly quaint interior decoration of warm, welcoming earthy colors (something prominent with small, burrowing mammals, it seemed) but Judy's tastes were bright amongst the bookshelves and pictures hanging about. Nick stooped, ears flicking to the sudden running of the shower, and examined a row of shiny, metallic frames depicting a grand photo of her family centered on her parents, a tender picture of her and Bo, a playful one of her and Nick, another playful one of her and Gideon, one that she snapped of her flexing on top of the shoulder of an also-flexing Lanny, and then a glamor shot of her and-
Nick glanced about some more, first at the mini-fridge with its no-doubt mini-snacks, the counter and stove and table with a few mini-chairs, and then at the mini-L-bend-couch in front of a mini-TV. Just… everything was small there. So, instead, he skulked over to the ajar door of what could only be her washroom and flopped against its frame, one leg crossed over the other with his paws folded lethargically on his trim stomach.
"Not sprawled on the couch, Slick?" the bunny asked over the running water.
"Nah," he curtly dismissed.
An awkwardness manifested amidst the pattering of the shower until it mutedly squeaked off. "How are we doing?"
"Fine." His answer was both practiced and immediate.
An unconvinced scoff vocalized her standing opinion.
"Hey Judy," the fox struck up in conversation, "Ever wonder about stuff you might've done differently?"
Soft, wet paws walked across a tiled floor before a towel was pulled from its rack, each sound clear and concise, aside from the occasional, residual drip. "Are we talking about… recent events?" she carefully (if hopefully) tread.
"Just in general, like, 'whole-life' kind of things."
"An example wouldn't go amiss."
Nick hummed and bounced his foot in thought, "As you know, Mom and Dad were 'Mr. & Mrs. Foxglove' back in their heyday and… part of me wonders if my little kit brain figured that out somehow and tried to emulate them. The best way I could do that was by joining the Junior Ranger Scouts which, as you know, showed me how the world really was and yada yada. However… my big tod brain wonders what might have happened if I had actually stayed to my 'shifty nature', i.e., kept to other foxes and small predators, instead of trying to earn the trust of prey."
The fur-dryer acted in short bursts between towel-ruffling. "And?"
"And… it's possible that I might've done what most mammals do without a life goal: go into the family business," Nick said, craning his neck towards the ajar door, "What if I apprenticed under Dad and became a tailor, instead of a popsicle hustler? Apparently, I showed some aptitude with a needle and thread back in the day; even had an eye for fashion," he paused for only a half-beat, "How about you? I know you still would have resisted the path of the carrot farmer, even if you hadn't donned the uniform."
"Well…" she continued to tread, and tread right out through the door, one towel binding her ears up and another her torso in, "I often wondered how life would've been if I pursued a career in singing, instead of law enforcement. I had the voice for it and likely could've seen my name in lights instead of on a ZPD shield." The rabbit then smirked, "As I recall, there's a Chronicler proverb for doubt-riddled situations like this."
Nick rolled his eyes, good humor in full force, "Yes, 'I am where I need to be when I need to be'. All part of a 'grand plan', I'm sure," and then muttered under his breath, "If some big, cosmic lion really is working behind the scenes, then I guess this is what everyone else around me has to deal with whenever I enact one of my crazy schemes…"
"Feel better?" asked Judy, hip cocked.
A clawed finger tapped the back of a 'gloved' paw. "I'll get back to you on that. One more question?"
"Shoot."
His gaze returned to her. "Do you… remember the news conference, right after Cliffside?"
The rabbit cringed as she turned to her bedroom, "Talking about stuff I might've done differently…"
"When you asked me to be your partner," Nick then said to her halted back, propping himself up, "Was that… was that what you were really going to ask me?"
Judy continued to her door and then paused, halfway in, to answer, "No… I was going to ask you out for coffee," she said, purple eyes cast over her bare shoulder… and then excused herself as kindly as she was able, "I'll just dip in here for some pants; it won't take a sec."
"Right, of course," he allowed, and scooted along the floor to, instead, lounge on the frame of her closed door, "So… why didn't you ask me out for coffee?"
Shuffling through clothes sounded within the sleeping chambers. "I'll admit, Slick, you were charming and handsome - fox though you were - and we formed a rapport over that experience. So I thought, 'Hey, maybe a bunny/fox couple would be an excellent symbol of cooperation for all species'… and then continued to think 'He's still a hustler and I'm a cop, so I should steer him back to above-board activities' and 'Is this just me being nervous about all those reporters?' and I felt that… it wouldn't be a good way to start a relationship. Not in that circumstance. So, I remembered the last time that I…" she hesitated, "…requisitioned the aid of a fox, and since she went on to become a lawyer, I figured you could… join me in making the world a better place; on the force of the ZPD.
"I looked it up, you know, relationships between officers," Judy then hastily continued, extrapolating through the door, "It's… generally frowned upon but so long as they're the same rank, not partners, and it's okayed by their commanding officer, then it's allowed," the rabbit promptly explained. "But then… the news conference happened… I practically accused you of being a predator… and started the Pred-Scare…" She then exited, wearing a peaches-and-cream v-neck tee and a pair of simple blue jeans. Though it was not clear whether the exposition weighed heavily on her still (not even to her partner's keen eyes), she was undeniably okay with herself as she stood and smiled, softly as it was.
Nick's thoughtful gaze focused on her, soon smirking with a wiggle of his finger, "You've got some dulap showing."
Judy attempted to smooth the fluffier fur around her neck common with many female rabbits at that time of year, "Do I really? I hadn't noticed," she softly grumbled, "So how about you, was coffee also on your mind?"
"It was," the fox reported, rolling to his feet to follow her back through the apartment, "I thought about it the entire Otterton case, off-and-on but more so towards the end; figured I'd enjoy a month or two, break it off nice and easy, and then get back to my shifty, low life. I'd dated a rabbit before," he revealed, earning her pause, "I was young and foolhardy and she wanted to upset her ex-boyfriend, parents, and probably everybunny that knew her, which I was all for. It lasted… about a week, maybe ten days?"
"You sure know how to pick 'em," Judy teased as she turned to exit again.
"More to the point… I was happy that you come back," Nick said, stopping in the middle of her living room and slouching again as his arms crossed awkwardly, "I caught your scent when you got out of the truck at that old industrial park and ran through everything I wanted to say to you, whether to be happy or mad or crying…" The fox then took a seat on the couch (his tail occupying a good chunk of it) as Judy sat beside him. "Everything going on in my brain suddenly clarified when I…" and in one of the few times of her life, saw Nick's ears burn hot red, "I smelled some other bunny's scent on you. So, I decided to be prickly about it and remembered everything you said at the press conference in the worst possible light. It was unfair and mean but… I felt justified and maybe it wasn't half so harsh as what you did to yourself…
"I also didn't think it was going to last, whatever you had with this other farm-bunny, and I guess I just held out hope that because I couldn't always smell him on you then that meant maybe you were still available, but then we were partners and I heard all kinds of horror stories about 'partners' in more than one sense of the term," he rambled and wrung his paws, "And thought 'I don't need that in my life' and 'I finally made something of myself, so don't screw it up' but 'That doesn't nix the possibility'. When I found out about what Bo meant to you, it was something of a relief," he admitted, "You know how bad I am with decisions; I mean, I can still be decisive when I want to be," he explained unironically.
Judy groaned and held up a finger, her own ears warmer. "Hold up, go back a few paragraphs," she requested, "Did I hear you right, you 'smelled' Bo on me?"
Nick sighed and rolled his eyes, "I smell most of your family on you, some of it's stronger than others and I honestly thought he was a brother, at first, until it was very clear that he wasn't, but again, I didn't think it'd last long-" He then paused at her horror-stricken face and could not subdue his smirk any longer, "Oh, you didn't know that?"
"No, I didn't know that! I deodorized-!"
The fox snorted derisively, "Please, your pitiful bunny deodorants are the most adorable things ever. I'm pretty sure every canine and most of the other predators in the precinct could smell it. Honestly, it's something of a running gag in any self-respecting community that prey species think they can deodorize everything; these schnozzes are far more sensitive than most believe," he boasted to her moaning dismay, "If you really want to send some noses for a loop, buy predator brand stuff."
Long ears flicked and swayed as she rubbed her temples. "Stars above, Slick, why didn't you tell me any of this sooner? Who knows how many cases we might've compromised because I thought I was undetectable…"
A clawed paw reached around to rub her shoulder. "There there, Fluffikins, the reason why I didn't say anything is that an absolute void of one's scent is by far more alarming than some random, nearby bunny. Don't you trust me that I would've told you if it were an issue?"
Her arms crossed, but with indignation, "I don't know, you seem keen on not telling me plenty."
"Well…" he hesitated, a finger held up as a point of order before inverting the whole of his palm to explain, "I'm telling you now what I wouldn't have told you then."
Judy's ears and eyelids sprung up to relax her other features, even leaning forward some as those bright, purple eyes studied him. "So… you are feeling a bit better?"
His fingers pinched the air with a high groan. "Well enough…" and rubbed her back thoughtfully as she scooted closer, "I was also glad when you introduced us, me and…" he sighed for a long minute, "Me and Esther.
"I have trust issues," Nick confessed, "in that, I trust too easily (which I got from my Dad) and take betrayal of that trust too harshly (which came from Mom). Those eventually reversed as I got older and cocky, and then reversed again after meeting you. I could tell, though…" he continued, "there was something about Esther like you chose her for me."
The rabbit furrowed her brow with concern. "Nick… I'm not an oracle, I can't ordain anyone. I trusted her, she crushed on you, and I felt my two fox-friends would make a cute couple, that's all…? Which, in hindsight, might've been a teensy bit patronizing…"
"Ah, you trusted her," he instructed after a quick chuckle, "and if I've told you once I've told you a thousand times: trust is super-duper important to foxes. I'm pretty sure that's also a Chronicler proverb." Nick then leaned forward and folded his paws between his knees. "It's why we mate for life because losing that kind of trust… I hear it's like losing a limb or an organ."
Her gasp was muffled by a palm as she almost swooned at the poeticism, "Like… losing your heart?"
Nick thought about it. "I always interpreted it as, like, losing a lung or a kidney. You could live without it but… you wake up every morning and remember it's gone, knowing there's nothing you can do except get through to the next day without it. Finnick's dad lost his mate… Goliath lost his… I've known others and some don't ever recover…" His tail and ears could not sag any further as he braced his forehead into a palm, and peeked out the corner of his eye when Judy held his arm. Nick took a breath. "Do you remember when Kela chewed me out last week?"
She nodded solemnly.
"I was messing up… and when the alpha wolf called me out on it, I challenged him; looked him dead in the eye and stood my ground… and how I wished I blinked…" the fox murmured, "just backed away, rescind everything and cower but his eyes were locked on me and I knew there was nothing I could do that he did not allow. Something in the pit of my stomach wanted to curl up and wet myself and it was all I could do to not break down into tears as he burned a hole in my skull… He said that I couldn't lie to him… that I wasn't 'okay' or 'fine' and that nothing was 'hunky-dory'." Nick drummed his fingers against his own brow. "I don't remember how or when it happened, but I was under our desk, behind the wastebasket… and you were in my lap, holding me. He was right, though… I am 'distraught'…"
"Nick, you can't blame yourself."
"I could have saved her…" he argued, frame tightening before slumping, "Esther's been gone less than a month and it hurts… physically. Why… why does it hurt so much…?"
Last Month
"Don't mind the mess," Esther assured.
"What mess?" asked Nick.
The vixen sighed awkwardly and gestured to the whole of her (mostly vacant) studio apartment, made substantially more inhabited with the addition of his suitcase. "The unmade bed, the trash can full of takeout boxes, the clutter on my desk, the clothes strewed about, that pile of mail, the non-perishable groceries I didn't put away before leaving for Bunnyburrow last week…" She did eventually stop when Nick reeled her in by the waist, tail wrapped about her thighs.
"All I see is a stream of comfortable chaos in one's own home," the tod said, and then guided her around the corner of the apartment she occupied, "You've got lounging sweats sitting in a pool where you stepped out of them or otherwise slung over the edge of your bed; and despite all of these take-out boxes, I can see by peeking into your fridge that you keep leftovers in plasticware for later consumption; most of this mail is advertisements and yet the seemingly important stuff is kept inside folders and other such organizers; to further prove my point, I would say that you keep your closet in exquisite order, what with all of these pressed, lint-free business suits sorted by… I want to say color and fabric?" he said, feeling one of the sleeves. "And most crucial of all, your parakeet's cage is immaculate."
"Well… Horatio is very important to me," she cooed, earning a fervent chirp from the azure bird as she made kissing noises towards the cage, opening it up to a slight fluttering before inching her paw in. The feathered fellow hopped onto a finger as she pulled him out for proper introductions. "I had a neighbor look after him while I was out of town until Ma and Pa returned, so even with everything that happened I still got back in time." She pivoted to introduce him to Nick but found that her newly mated tod was, instead, sifting through her closet again. Esther cleared her throat.
Nick glanced over his shoulder, grinned, and pulled out a slinky, sparkly, cocktail dress. "This."
"Blue…"
"Hmm?"
"Do you not like birds?" she coyly inquired on approach.
"I have no problems with birds," Nick responded, casually laying the dress on himself before her standing mirror, and then muttered under his breath, "Yikes, this isn't flattering at all…" and hung it up again.
"Do they have a problem with you?" she wondered, perching Horatio upon her shoulder as she reached around Nick to pull out something a bit frillier. "This one."
"Ooh, how provocative," he mused, it also laid across his lanky self, "Truth be told, I never had unique experiences with birds until I faced a tribunal of ravens - which still gives me both the heebies and the jeebies, if more so the former than the latter - that's not to mention the eyewitness accounts Bo gave me of an eagle almost flying off with a fellow bunny. So, let's just say that I have a newfound wariness of flying things with talons and beaks," Nick explained, sidelong glancing at the suddenly nearer parakeet. He grunted as it nipped his ear.
Esther trilled in approval and nosed Nick's neck. "That means he likes you."
"Does he give out free piercings to all who earn his favor?" the tod snarked.
"Love me, love my bird."
Subdued grumbling preceded any audible answer. "And I do love you… quite a lot, in fact. I suppose there's enough for your bird, as well."
"Darn tootin'." They shared a chuckle and then a kiss; Horatio nipped at Nick's ear again, causing a muffled yip from him and a snorting snicker from Esther. "So… which dress for the Kings' luau…"
Nick groaned indecisively, "I think I'll keep it simple and wear an ugly floral shirt… unbuttoned," he then added to dissuade her momentary dismay.
"Ooh~" she cooed, "Like the one I picked out for you at the TBR?"
"I might go with something a little more up to date and a little less restrictive at the armpits," the tod pondered aloud, "It's not for another week, after all."
"And…" the vixen anticipated, her tail around his waist, "you said you can get backstage passes for Gazelle's performance at said Luau…?"
A suave rumble rolled about in the back of his throat, grinning all the while. "I know a guy."
Another trill voiced her abject approval. "You spoil me."
Nick scoffed playfully. "This is nothing, you should see what happens when I try."
The coffee maker bubbled to life in the twilight-burgeoned apartment, a single red light (for sensitive, predator's eyes) blinked as boiling water poured through finely ground beans. Esther rose from her pillow to yawn, fur and bangs skewed in the weirdest directions as she nudged the nigh-lifeless lump of crimson fur beside her; it groaned a groggy groan. "C'mon, Blue, up-'n'-at-'em."
"I could get used to waking to a coffee-maker," Nick commended, nostrils gathering the aroma of rich percolation to kickstart the brain, "Sadly, I am enchanted to sleep another hundred years without true love's kiss," the tod prattled on, paws reaching in the general direction of his vixen, "Free me from my magical slumber, fair princess."
A grin formed beneath blue eyes as the bangs which framed them were brushed aside, so to not obstruct the delicate process of leaning her mouth in toward the presented, puckered lips… and exhaling a lungful of breath directly into the nose. Esther laughed as Nick coughed and flailed right out of bed, collapsing to the floor with exaggerated choking. "I'll let you have the bathroom first since I know you like the strong stuff at the bottom of the pot."
"Counterpoint: you need to get in there and brush, girl, because da-" he wheezed, and then flailed again when a pillow was dropped on him. Nick was quick to sit up again, though, and tossed the cranial cushioning back onto the bed as he strode towards the offered cleaning station. "What time is it?" he asked of the vixen.
The vixen turned on the kitchen light and studied her BUNNY coffee maker's clock. "About a quarter 'til."
He belched his disgust. "Early."
"It's almost 8, hun."
"Early," Nick asserted through the ajar bathroom door.
"PM," Esther called out, pouring herself a steaming hot cup of joe into the awaiting cream at the bottom of her prepared mug, "And if we want to catch Giddy's train when he arrives, we'll need to hustle." She first checked her breath, found it wasn't as acrid as she was led to believe, and then flicked her ear to some rhythmical humming between the telltale brushing of fur emanating from the bathroom. Esther figured his hips were swaying to some outdated disco song if only because Nick would not idly pass up a pun, and so a smile erected her ears as she leaned on the counter to sip coffee and read up on some night time headlines.
It was only a few days since they moved in together, sharing her studio apartment in a fox community that the vixen wrangled for pennies on the dollar because, years prior, there was horrendous electrical interference that repelled mammals sensitive to such things (it was a rarity when she was glad to not see North as well as the rest of her kind). The electrical issue was resolved but Esther kept her rent low by helping out the landlord and the other tenants with minor legal issues otherwise too daunting for private citizens who did not dedicate themselves to practicing law.
Suffice to say, Esther was ecstatic that her baby (half-)brother had plucked up the courage to make the trip into the city… that she wouldn't be the only city-fox in the Grey family. She "understood" why they couldn't attend her graduation from law school (even if they had a stupendous reception awaiting her return, which all of Preds' Corner came for); after all, her mother Ruth was exceptionally sensitive to electrical interference and so the city was practically a death trap for her; her father Goliath was an escaped slave from the drug empire Reino del Sol, so its (not publically) known connections to the city of Zootopia was always a deterrence (Esther admitted gratitude that she was underdeveloped for her species of the large fox, allowing her to blend in better with normal-sized vixens); and her brother Gideon… he could never have made the journey himself, not with his mental state… something she only recently learned was leagues worse than anyone actually knew… The baker of farmyard-renown wasn't making the trip alone that night, however, for his newfound pastry-deliverer and sweetheart had come along for the ride (and according to Nick, with her own business to tend to).
The late-night train was the earliest that Gideon and Lory were available, what with his newly bustling bakery and the permission she needed to get from her pack, being the runt and all; wolves were always sticklers for rules in that regard, Esther found. So late an hour wasn't such an issue for the likes of predators, who boast active night lives anyway, but since the two city-foxes worked full time and wanted to show the newcomers a great first night, they napped a few hours after work and set the coffee maker to wake them accordingly. It wouldn't be long after their caffeine infusion that a quickly-groomed Nick and Esther traversed the bus lines to Savannah Central Station (and lamented that Judy could not join them; her newest living arrangements had a curfew, apparently, which she had to submit exceptions in advance for until the end of her "new tenant probationary period"; in that regard, wolves could not hold a candle to the stickling of bunnies and their rules).
What lightened her heart the most about her brother's arrival was that he'd be joining them for the "Dress in Drag and Do the Hula" charity luau held by the Kings each year. The awareness it arose for the plight of missing children some decades past was no longer its sole issue to raise, but thanks to the many donors involved, it continued to act as a source of revenue for youth centers and schools across the city; it was also one of the biggest parties and since it was the twentieth, it was due to be even bigger. Esther's excitement was palpable, knowing that she and her group of friends would get to go backstage to meet Gazelle and her Tigritos (a thought which tickled the vixen, considering Mr. January and Mr. July of her calendar; a parallel tickling was the pair of sparkly shorts she spotted in Nick's drawer of the dresser).
Nick then groaned disapprovingly over her shoulder.
"What?" she asked.
"That," he pointed out, and then scrolled the screen of her phone to the next news article:
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
Doug Ramses and Dent Wooler implicate nothing on Magnus Hopps
A ram whose deadpan perpetuated ever since he was marched into Precinct 1; the Pred-Scare Sniper, the Gravedigger, officially named the city's most dangerous criminal. His associate, a ram with a chunk missing from his horn and ear whose notoriety inflamed when he came into the spotlight; the "Ba'ad Shepherd", as some bleating Meadowlanders decried him as, already nailed with a record of forming wayward flocks to join in activities of the Black Sheep Market, whether it be drugs, stolen goods, or mammals that needed gotten rid of. He was one of the disciples of the late Cyrus Bellwether, it was told, and endeavored to actualize his vision, especially after the Pred-Scare failed. Finally, a rabbit who… by any historical metric, could be classified as a "genocidal tyrant". Of him, Doug said nothing; Dent could hardly shut up but, ultimately, said nothing. Magnus was safely locked away pending his trial.
Esther shared her tod's visible concern at the prospect that such an open-shut case against the villainy of those in the article was proving less open-shut than they'd originally expected, but Nick voiced his consolation first. "I guess no news is bad news, 'eh?" he discreetly snarked, "It's only been a few days, babe, besides, there's a mountain of incriminating evidence and anything short of their own deus ex machina will land them all in the slammer for consecutive life sentences."
Her visible concern did not lessen. "I thought so, too… but then I heard chatter in the legal circles that they're being defended by Shyster & Sharky," Esther informed Nick, whose slow blink and flat frown spoke far more than words ever could, "Nothing I can substantiate but I'm sure you know who they are."
"Of course I know who they are," he said not unkindly and certainly not directed at her, before adding under his breath and glancing away, "I might've needed nonspecific services in a former life," and then conversed with the vixen again, "Okay, that just means this whole thing will take longer, but the DA is persistent and ruthless, if nothing else. Those weaseling rats," he then added, speaking quite literally about Shyster & Sharky, respectively, "will have a hard time playing their slimy games with Conner Shere. Plus, it'll make for some excellent courtroom drama."
"Yeah…" she ceded.
Nick pressed close and nuzzled her frown into a grin, "Hey now, none of that grumpy-wumpy stuff; imagine what your brother would say if I can't even bring a smile to my mate's lips. I have a reputation to uphold, you know."
"Perish the thought," she scoffed but chuckled, nuzzling back all the same with a renewed smile, "Besides, I'm far too excited for this weekend to let anything get me down," but then paused from the confidence to teeter her paw through the air, "The presence of the Supais notwithstanding. I really hope Gazelle's not okay with performing for them."
A decisive slurp (and approving sigh) preceded Nick's scholarly exposition. "Honestly, Gazelle isn't doing anything for them, no matter what those drug-dealing llamas might think. She is raising money for kids not only in the city but across the world; they are 'honored guests' of Tycho King who - for the record - is not the official host of the Luau, that would be Memphis and Sarah King, as it has always been and will be. Now I know what my Uncle Corbin said about their target being you," he continued, "however, I would like to point out that Finnick heard from Mr. Big himself that the Supais are here for the party and only for the party. As for us, we'll just stay away from the VIP box, even while backstage. Couldn't be simpler."
"You have such a sly lilt to your voice when you talk like that," Esther cooed and flicked a disheveled bang from her face as she strode from the kitchen and to the bathroom, "I think I'll go brush up."
He sipped again (if less decisively) and then spoke with assurance. "May I watch?" A single sweep of her tail was all the answer he needed. There were times when she caused his brain to skip a thought or two but he'd learned from his father, John, that his mother, Jackie, did that to him all the time; that's how a fox knew who their mate was, someone that they could drop their defenses around in totality and yet still be at peace. It was a serenity and serendipity that transcended rational thought or explanation; easily downplayed as a tautology that, "It works because it does", a foolhardy state that was idiotic when viewed from the outside and yet… once attained, was something no fox worth their moxy would let be lost. As for Nick, he would never let anyone or thing take Esther away from him. Never.
Author's Notes:
"A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down" is an iconic Mary Poppins quote.
iPaw is the Zootopian analogy of the Apple iPod.
When Judy asks if Nick is familiar with the lullaby, she knows he's lying but not how or why. He is familiar with the song as it is a lullaby Jackie sang to him as a kit, back in Brave, chapter 12.
"Jeez, I'm fried … Let's get out of here and find some shade" comes from Timon and Pumbaa in The Lion King.
The Grand Pangolin Arms are from the movie, wherein Judy first lives in the city. Even though his walls are less greasy and bed less rickety, her neighbors are still plenty crazy if not as loud.
"Underyard" is a pun referencing both mammals that typically live in or around lawns, or "under the yard", and mammals who are shorter than 3ft.
Phil Octaves, based on Phil from Hercules, trained MMA fighters before "retiring" to a bar out in Preds' Corner. Bo gives him hope that there's still a chance to get a fighter to the championship.
"BUNNY" is a Zootopian pun on the "Bunn" brand coffee makers.
The headline, "SILENCE OF THE LAMBS" is a reference to the 1991 film of the same name, along with Magnus's parallels to Hannibal Lecter.
Shyster & Sharky references two characters from the 40s and 50s, both rats named "Sylvester" who are also lawyers; for the record, Floyd Gottfredson, who took over the character of Sylvester Shyster after Win Smith, officially made him a rat and not a weasel. For the sake of this story, however, Shyster will remain his original species of the weasel.