A/N
I've had this idea for a little while. Was wondering if I posted, whether or not it would get any traction.
"When exactly is he supposed too be here, again?"
Judy Hopps was agitated. She was a woman with a schedule and that schedule was currently under threat. She was waiting for the handyman to come and tend to her AC unit. But she couldn't wait long, it being almost a quarter to six, and she had to be at work at 6:30 in order to be a half hour ahead of all her coworkers.
I can't let Wilde beat me again, she thought.
So now, here she was, waiting for the handyman to show up, when she should have left five minutes ago.
"As I said before, he should be there around five-thirty Ms. Hopps." Was the landlady's monotone response. This was the second time Judy had questioned the poor armadillo in the past hour, slowly growing more desperate.
Who does he think he is, making me wait- Judy stopped that train of thought quickly. Okay, maybe he's having a bad day too, she reasoned. Maybe he got a flat tire or something.
"Okay, I'm sorry," she said, dropping her ears as she calmed down. "I just-"
"Have an ongoing competition with your coworker to establish yourself as the perfect model of attendance," interrupted the landlady. "I know Ms. Hopps. We had this discussion last week."
"Sorry," Judy cringed out. Today is just getting off to an awesome start. She thought with not a hint of sarcasm at all.
"Mhmm." Was the last she said before the click of a hanging up phone sounded.
"So, I guess I'll just keep waiting," she mumbled.
Within a few minutes she heard a knocking on the door.
"Repairman. Anybody home?" Came a voice from behind the door.
"Oh thank heavens..." Judy whispered. She bolted to the door, and whipped it open. On the other side was the last animal she expected to see. Dholes, after all, were not the most common species. After a second, the surprise wore off and Judy remembered her manners. "Uh, yeah. Hi, come in."
He ducked through the doorway, as a canine just over a meter tall doesn't work with a just under a meter doorframe. Judy took a second to take him in visually.
His fur was a bizarre red, like terra cotta covered in dirt. The tips of his ears were a darker tint, more brown than red. His neck was lighter, similar to the color of dried mud. She would have like to have known his eye color, but he was wearing yellow tinted safety glasses.
He also had on a canvas jacket with fleece collaring, and a yellow shirt underneath. Wrapped around a pair of very worn out jeans with scorch marks, was a navy blue nylon tool belt that had more duct tape holding it together than the role in one of the pouches. Topping off his ensemble, was a faded gray-green field cap with some kind of insignia above the bill. In a rather bizarre twist, he was wearing a leather pistol holster on his hip. Instead of a pistol though, it held an assortment of wrenches. Judy did a double take on that one.
"So..." the dhole started, "I'm here to fix an AC unit, right?" He spoke with rather melodic accent. It reminded her of Mr. Big, but a little less adjusted. It almost sounded like Mamilian wasn't his primary language.
"Oh, yeah, yeah. Sorry, I just... uhmm..."
"Never seen a dhole before, or-"
"Oh, no!" Judy interrupted. "No it's just, I mean I have a few times, but what I mean is your accent. It's just that you sound like..." The dhole's face slowly furrowed his brow into a bemused expression. Before Judy could finish comparing this handyman fixing her air condition unit to one of the top mob bosses in Zootopia, she took pause realizing that such a statement might be rather rude. "Sorry, never mind. Forget it..."
"Ms... Hopps, was it?" He slowly responded. "I hate to sound rude, but I'm thinkin' dat we both got jobs to do."
"Oh, yeah. Yes, you're right." She said, and cleared her throat. "AC is busted. It sputters a little and dies and makes this weird clicking sound." She stepped aside and gestured into her room, granting him permission to enter.
A nod in response, followed by a glance in her direction as he walked in. "Model?"
She thought for a moment. How am I supposed to know that? But I guess, to someone like him, it could be like not knowing your car model.
"I haven't the slightest clue." She answered as she closed the door, leaving it slightly ajar. By the time she had turned around, he had already removed the device from the window and was unscrewing the back. Wow, he works fast. Then she realized a crucial detail that had not been brought up. "Sorry if I'm making you repeat yourself, but I didn't catch your name."
Without missing a beat, he replied, "I didn't give it." He didn't even stop fiddling with what looked like a fan motor.
Alright then. She thought, taking the chance to attempt some impromptu investigation. Super Cop Judy Hopps is investigating. "So who do I make the check out to?"
"You're building already paid me."
She deflated. Crash and burn. "Oh."
"If ya' want to know my name, Ms. Hopps, ask."
"Alright," her smile returned as she meshed her fingers together. "What is it?"
He stopped working for a moment and slowly turned. She could almost swear he was smiling faintly.
"Name's Albero."
"Well Albero-"
"Mister." He interrupted, returning to the task at hand.
"...Pardon?"
"It's Mr. Albero." He said, now with a noticeable grin, looking reminiscent of Nick in one of his snarky moods. "Albero is my surname."
"So does this mean you don't have a first name?"
"Oh, I do," he said, starting to lose some of the amusement from his voice. "I'm just tryin' to stay professional." Any comment Judy would have given was immediately silenced by the vocalization of a new arrival at the door.
"Uncle Vitto," came the voice of a young male coyote, walking up to the door.
Mr. Albero turned to the young pup and gave a short exclamation in some unfamiliar language. Not a rare happening in Zootopia, as such a large city was bound to have members of multiple nationalities, many of witch Judy had encountered. There was a fantastic salad bar down the street from her apartment that she liked to frequent, owned by a bison family from the Bovinian Empire. Wolford, who's family was from Volkaria, had unintentionally taught most of Precinct One a smattering of profanities. All the more rare for an unfamiliar language to cross her ears. The incomprehensible verbal exchange continued until the young pup got words caught in his mouth.
"... I... We're going to be late. I can't be late for school, Uncle Vitto." He seemed to not be as fluent as the dhole, clearly having learned the language secondarily.
The dhole huffed, and muttered something under his breath. "You can't change pronouns, Walt. It's 'I' or 'we', and I'm not da one who's going to be late if you keeps arguing with me, yeah?"
"Fine."
The room was silent again as Mr. Albero finished his work. It wasn't long before the AC unit was back in the window, and cool air was flowing out without the loud screeching that used to accompany it. All was done in less than fifteen minutes.
"Wow," Judy stated after a glance at her watch. "You're good."
Mr. Albero huffed and smiled while putting his tools away. "Well, if I was you, I'd hold off on dat Yelp review for a few day's to make sure it works." He stood up and walked out the door. "Come on Walt, or you're gonna be late!"
"Coming!" He threw his book in his bag while putting it over his shoulder, then stopped to turn around. "Have a nice day, Miss police lady," and he was gone.
6:43 AM
1st ZPD Precinct
Judy hustled through the hallway out of the First Precinct's locker-room into the main lobby, still fastening her vest across her chest. I think I can still get there before-
"Oh hello Carrots, finally decided to show up for work did you?" Was the reynard ever not smug?
She sighed. "Hi Nick," she breathed, already frustrated with the days to come of his victory dangled over her head. She turned toward the hall leading to the bullpen, and observed the familiar sight of the fox leaning against the wall a cup of coffee in each paw. On this particular instance, one cup had a small sliver of cinnamon, presumably acting as a stirring stick. The other had it's seasonal purple Bears & Bucks Coffee top still on it.
She pointed to the cup sans cinnamon. "Mine is pumpkin spice, right?"
He gave her a befuddled look. "This is a chocolate mocha... for Wolfard."
Raised eyebrow, cocked ears, and a paw on her hip was her response. Come on Slick, not today.
"What," he shot back to her nonverbal retort. "You think I'm joking?"
Other paw out and both eyebrows up. You always are, dumb fox.
"I'm serious, Carrots!" He insisted vehemently. "I got here early in a rush, forgot my shades and coffee, so he gave me his Oaklynxes." Nick held up the sunglasses, further testifying to his conspiracy. "I offered him coffee since I needed mine anyways, so... and, I might add, you were late."
She walked up and snatched the foam cup out of his grip. "Why's it a quarter?" she asked in reference to the quarter liter size cup. I'm not that gullible today, Slick.
Nick huffed. "Danny doesn't like a lot of coffee." Judy half listened as she put the cup to her lips. "So he usually doesn't get-"
"What the..." she interrupted suddenly, before she took a sip. She held the cup up to her nose. "Really?"
The smugness returned to the fox's face yet again. "Yep. I think it has something to do with Canines and caffeine-"
"You seriously didn't get me coffee?" Her tone had changed, and Nick's face reacted appropriately.
Ears back and a glimmer of fear filled his eyes. He had only now realized his mistake of prolonging his smugness, when he should have apologized. Despite being friends for almost a year now, Nick still hadn't fully figured out when to be tactful with Judy. Usually, in the mornings or around lunch, and as he was discovering today, especially in regards to her morning coffee.
"Now on for a second, Fluff," he said, holding up his paws in a peaceful gesture. "Be reasonable."
"Stop."
His mouth clamped shut.
"Just... you can get me coffee when we go on patrol."
Nick released his baited breath, and his face flooded with relief. With the return of a friendly smile, the two started towards the bullpen. "No problem, Carrots. Pumpkin spice espresso, as soon as we get our assignment."
The two officers made their way into the bullpen, where most of the other on duty officers were chatting away with one another before Bogo showed up in a few seconds. Fangmyer and Delgato were talking about some music concert that Delgato's daughter was going to that weekend, Rhinowitz and Snarlov were talking about a movie, and Grizzoli was listening to Wolford talk about his anniversary in a few days.
"Hey Danny, got your coffee, bud." Nick said while offering the wolf his relatively small caffeine shot. Judy went ahead to claim the duos usual sea as close to the chief's podium as possible. After a brief exchange of gratitude for favors rendord, Nick joined his partner in their shared chair.
"Still can't belive you didn't get me coffee," Judy muttered.
Nick rolled his eyes with a sigh. "Ugh, really Carrots? Are you going to hold onto that all day? You were late, I beat you, and I'll get you one later. In fact, I'll even throw in a half dozen beignets from Doe's Bakery just to make you happy."
Judy grinned, but before she could respond, Nick cut her off with, "but we're splitting those."
Before she could protest that remark, Higgins walked into the room. "Heads up!"
With that, the bullpen erupted into the cacophony of the duty officers' grunts, growls, and rhythmic desk-bashing. Even Nick and Judy postponed their conversation and joined in on bumping the table, albeit with less impetus than those of the higher weight class officers. After a second or two, Chief of Police Adrian Bogo walked into the room, a manila folder in his grasp. Without looking up from the contents of the file, he made his way to the podium and held up a hoof.
"Alright, shut up everyone," Bogo stated to silence the room, finally looking up. "We've got lots to get to, today."
"Good morning to you too Chief."
"I'll make it a poor one if you don't shut it Wilde," the Chief shot back without even looking at the fox. Before Nick could respond in turn, Bogo added, "and take off the sunglasses. We're indoors, and you look like a twit."
Nick made an impish face. "Don't think inner city police Chief with pickup truck-"
"Alright!" The Chief was looking at him now. "One more word and you'll be on court duty for the rest of the month."
That got the desired reaction. The one stick that every precinct chief had over every officer was court duty. The most insubordinate officer could be brought to heel with the threat of waking up to get to court before 6:00 in the morning, stay awake and stand for hours, and watch over a preceding of two insurance attorneys rambling on about recorded invoices, talking about the discrepancy of when the invoices were requested by once council and when the other council received the request for sending the recordings. Or some other similar situation.
"Alright," Bogo cleared his throat. "We've got a few things on the agenda today, and a few updates from yesterday. First up, if you've noticed, Edward isn't with us-"
As everyone took note of the absent white wolf, Officers Francine and Fangmeyer shouted out in unison, "Boy or girl?"
For the past few days, Officer Edward Barkson had been exiting the entire precinct with news of his first pup. As the due date approached, everyone had been speculating on the details of the expected while Edward refused to release any information until the pup had been born. The elephant and tiger had been particularly invested. Judy as well, but had acted with much more subtlety.
Bogo pulled his glasses down, peering over the rims. Without que, the room gave a drum roll.
"At 322 grams, the newest addition to the Barkson family... is Richard-"
A trumpet blare blasted over the rest of the cheers and hollers that filled the room. It took a moment for everyone to settle down again, before Bogo could resume the mornings briefing. "Now, that being said, Edward will be on leave for the rest of the week, so we'll be breaking up his patrol routes. Fangmeyer, Delgato, you got expanded to cover Mesa Street and west."
The two officers walked out, taking the folder of all information needed for the day's duty. Group by group, assignments were given out. Daily patrol routes, assistance to Tundratown Road Commission for traffic control, dispatching for a few warrants, and so on. Until one of the last pairs left in the bullpen was the dynamic fox-rabbit duo.
"Wild, Hopps... I'd like to get an update on that special assignment. In my office."
After the room had cleared out, the pair made their way to the Chief's office to await the news of any developments in their special case.
For past few days, Nick and Judy had been assigned as liaisons to the Zootopian International Commerce Regulatory Office. Specifically, they had been coordinating as ZPD overseers for the Contraband Enforcement Division, who had been investigating a rising narcotics gang. The Fifteenth December Syndicate, also known as the Dicembra Nostra, was a coalition of criminals that had partaken in every form of illicit act from mammal trafficking, manufacture and distribution of restricted substances, to arms trafficking and murder. Although they had predominantly operated in the oversees nation of Rodentia, recent developments hint towards a potential intercontinental threat.
"So Hopps, you've had almost a week to find leads. What have you got?"
Unfortunately for Nick and Judy, 'liaisons' as it turns out, was bureaucrat speak for 'do all our field work, and we'll handle the prosecution in court'. Essentially, the two police officers, with less than a half dozen years of experience between them, had been tasked to root out an international crime cartel. How hard could it be?
"We got squat," Nick summarized.
Judy mouth, which was still open and just about to give an elaborated explanation, clamped shut. "Yeah, we've been looking into all of our own drug cases over the past ten months, but those have all been local gangs. If we had more information on who to look for-"
"Classified."
"I know, but we can't just go through every single drug, arms trafficker, or hitman looking for some connection to an organization from another country that Zootopia doesn't have good relations with."
Bogo crossed his arms and huffed. "What we need to start looking at is the ones we haven't found yet. You know their main products are amphetamine, mephedrone, and other stimulants. If you can't find anything, start over and look closer."
Nick nodded along with the Chief. "Look for higher cases of stimulant usage in specific areas."
"Exactly. In the meantime, I want you to patrol the Canal District. We've had a string of B-and-Es, mostly in automotive parts stores. "
Judy's eyebrows rose in curiosity slightly. "What've they been stealing?"
"Carburetors and air filters."
"... Just those?"
"That's it."
"Hmm. Alight then."
Later that morning
Canal District
"Okay Carrots, here's your pumpkin spice caffeine free-"
His paw was empty before he closed the cruiser door. Having just gone on their 'pre-patrol snack grab', the buddy cop team was now fully stockpiled with a box of cereal, a bag of turkey jerky, and an assortment of candy bars.
"Thanks Slick."
Nick turned the ignition and pulled into traffic. There was yet to be too many cars on the road yet. This area of the Canal District was mostly residential, and of a higher income, so there would be another hour or so before most animals started to get to work. Nick made it past a few intersections before they even saw another vehicle on the road. A light mist blanketed the ground, with a thin coating of dew of the grass from the previous night. Which, come to think of last night...
"So..." Judy started. "How was the date last night?"
"Huh?" Nick stumbled for a second. "Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was pretty good. She took me to a hockey game."
Judy laughed at that. "Hahaha. I forgot about that. She asked you out, right?"
"Yep, I had to get a new phone..." Nick shifted a glare in her direction. A pointed gaze with an accusatory expression. "Since someone got mine wet weekend when she just had to-"
"Yeah, yeah! I get it!" She held up a paw to silence him. "But," she said with a smile. "It did work out in the end, yes? You got a date out of it."
The foxes face light up with faux surprise. "Oh I get it! This was all some elaborate plan to hook me up with a date. You sly bunny you. How ignorant and oblivious-"
"Well it worked, didn't it?" Her voiced rose over his. "Anyway," she made to change the subject, taking a sip of her coffee. "What happened after? And what was her name again?"
Nick took a second to check the intersection before turning. Judy had noticed he seemed to be a particularly cautions driver, even more noticeably when compared to her rather careless style. While Nick did have a license, and claimed to drive extensively while in high school, he did seem to take public transport more often. Judy, contrastingly, had grown up going sixty on dirt roads, dodging turkeys, before she was in high school. Her dad was classmates with the county sheriff, and underage driving was as common as carrots.
"Sarah."
"Huh?" Judy was the one who stumbled that time, having been engrossed in her thoughts on automotive operating styles.
While Nick could have jumped on her for not listening to the answer of the question she asked, he passed. He had other stuff to give a hard time about later. "My date. Her name was Sarah."
Judy scoffed at that. "Really?"
Now Nick was confused. "Yeah, why? What's so big about that?"
"Oh come on, Slick. Sarah? Works for a phone company?" A blank stare was all she got back. "You never saw that show?"
Nick shrugged. "I'm at a lose Carrots! I swear, I have no idea what you're talking about."
Judy waved him off and huffed. "Oh, what ever. It was my dad's favorite show growing up, and... never mind. How'd the rest of the date go?"
"Well, after the game, I took her to this restaurant by my place. It's more of a sandwich deli, really, but still has good food. And service is fast, so you don't have to wait forever."
Judy hummed in response before Nick got the jump on her "Sort of like how I waited for you at work this morning."
"Ugh, get over it Nick." She said, putting her face in her paws. "It was the first time."
The smugness had returned. "But your first time being late, Fluff. I can't-"
"Now hold on there, Slick. I was not late-"
"Such a disappointment to all the young Junior ZPD officers-"
"I wasn't late!"
"Next thing you know you'll be showing up hungover and-"
"You're insufferable, you know that."
He turned to her. "I'm irresistible. That's why you still bothered to show up to work. Your life wouldn't be complete without me. I knew it."
"What I find irresistible is a working AC unit. I had to call a repairman in to fix it. Which is why I was almost late." Judy finished off her coffee and pulled up her phone, having thought she felt it buzz.
Nick pulled into a turn. The Canal District was starting to get a little more lively as they pulled into a commercial area. A few gas stations, dinners, and hardware stores lined the streets. Among them was a few car parts stores they had been tasked with observing. She could feel Nick get ever so slightly on edge as traffic picked up. She knew for a fact that he was in a minor fender-bender in his high school days, which gave him a wariness with other drivers after weekends.
"So, did you have some handsome, strapping, young buck come and fix something for the doe in distress?"
Judy smirked at the thought. "Yeah, you'd get a kick out of that, wouldn't you. But no, he was a dhole actually. Had a funny accent too."
"You catch his name?"
"Yeah. It was… something flowery."
That made Nick huff in bewilderment. "What, like Daffodil or something?"
"No," Judy sighed in frustration, trying to remember the dhole's sure name. "It wasn't a flower, it just sounded..."
"...Flowery?"
She sighed again. "Yeah."
A moment of silence fell between the two. Judy groaned and pulled her ears over her face. And he seemed like such a nice guy, too. It was just this morning. While she was racking her brain, Nick was still hung up on try to decipher the bunny's explanation. "Azalea?"
"Wha… no!" She smacked his arm. "Not an actual- Oh! Wait, yeah!"
He rubbed his arm and replied, "If that was right, then why'd you hit me?"
She gave an annoyed look. "Because it's not Azalea. It was Albero."
Nick slammed on the breaks. The light was green and the intersection clear. "What the heck Nick!"
"Vittorio Albero?" Judy, who was still startled by the sudden stop, simply looked at him. "A dhole named Vittorio Albero. Had an accent like Mr. Big? Hat with a little emblem on it? Wears yellow tinted safety glasses?"
"You know him?"
Nick paused and looked forward, while the light turned from green, to yellow, to red. No one was behind them luckily. He didn't answer at first.
"I'll tell ya' Judy..." She took notice of her name. A barely noticeable mix of fear and regret was in his eyes.
"That's a Hell of a story."