Authors Note: Ok! So after the decidedly brutal 7th chapter of my main project at the moment, I decided to take on a prompt given to me by tumblr user mama-bunbun! Do pay her a visit and show her some love if you have the time : ) .

This will be a fluffy story (originally a one shot), set in a high school in bunny burrow. This isn't the kind of stuff I usually write, but I thought I would give it a shot.

Also, just to clarify, both Nick and Judy are sophomores in high school in this au, so the age difference is going to be set aside.

The emotionally drained fox slumped up against the train window, glossy eyes taking in the charming scenery as the train made its way into the station.

BunnyBurrow

Despite looking so pleasant, from Nick's perspective the burrows were as dreary a place as one could hope to find. The young fox bit his lip and exhaled, fogging up the window slightly before turning to look at his mother, sleeping next to him, only to look back outside again, his paws clammy from the anxiety currently over taking him.

The teens in his old neighbourhood could be cruel sometimes. Zootopia held some vile people within its borders, many of whom held their own foul beliefs. But, at least he knew them.

Whenever Shaun showed up to his after school hangout spot under the bridge, he knew what the sheep's intentions were. That sheep was going to rough him up. Then he was going to beat up his friends.

It was awful

It was predictable.

Now he was going to be stuck in a backwater neighbourhood filled with bunnies.

Despite these bunnies being half his size, they were going to pick fights with him.

And he was going to take it.

Nick was never a fighter, preferring to use his words to squirm his way out of life's sticky situations. It served him pretty well when he ran away from home as a kit, got him places he needed to be.

But kids didn't listen to reason.

The wicked webs he would weave with his silver tongue never changed their minds. Because they were young, and they wouldn't listen to reason.

Nick whined slightly, he wasn't going to like this. He wasn't going to like this one bit.

"Sweetie, this is going to be good for us…" His mother spoke, her eyes still closed, "You just need to calm down."

"Ya, ma. Calm down. Gotcha" the slightly smaller fox rolled his eyes at the proposal, grimacing at how little her statement helped ease him.

Calm down? Easy for her to say!

He knew she was just trying to get some shut eye before they had to get off the train, and would likely have said anything keep him from having a nervous breakdown right now, but she wasn't helping.

"Ma, you aren't the one that has to go to school with these kids!"

His mother immediately opened her eyes and sat up.

"You're right Nicholas, I only have to work with them," seeing the pain in her son's eyes, she slumped back in her seat, "You know they're honest folk honey. You're going to make friends here."

"Humph" was the other fox's only reply.

…

Nick had to push his way past several squirming rabbits to get to the back seats off the bus.

"There is plenty of room back here! Why did they all insist on squishing together in the first couple of rows!?" the only fox on the entire bus thought to himself, carrying his hefty book bag in front of him as he went, bumping into several bunnies because he couldn't see the tiny high schoolers hidden beneath the sack filled with school supplies.

"Hey, watch it!"

"Asshole…"

"Sorry! Sorry…"

After a needlessly interminable amount of time, Nick found his way to the back of the bus.

"Hey, um… Is this seat taken?" the fox had asked several cougars and a few ferrets the same question before reaching the prudish jaguar.

The spotted cat didn't say anything, only raising an eyebrow.

Nick didn't budge.

"Are you serious?"

"Y-Yes?"

The cat scoffed before standing up and pushing past the fox, taking an open seat next to a bunny.

"Better a bunny than a fox? Ok…"

Nick took the now open seat and sat his bag down next to him, placing his forehead in his paws. Yeah, this was gonna be good for him alright.

"Can't this bus get a move on? C'mon! Let's go" Nick was nearly on the verge of tears, already wanting this day to be over, when he felt a tender paw tap his shoulder gingerly.

"Hey! Uh… is this seat taken?"

It was a bunny, a single finger on her paw pointing gently to the seat next to him, his books currently taking up the spot.

He sat there for a moment in awe, and then laughed to himself.

The female bunny put her free hand in her hip, the other carrying her note books.

"Move the bag"

"No"

"Move it"

Nick angrily picked up his book bag and let it fall into his lap.

...

The majority of the ride to school the two didn't speak a word to each other.

"So what gives, Carrots?" Nick asked, turning to the bunny as the bus rounded the corner onto a dirt road, almost reaching their destination.

"The ground? Trust me, my parents are carrot farmers. If anyone knows where they come from it would be me."

"I mean-"

"Yeah, I know what you mean you rude little Reynard." She turned her nose up to him haughtily.

Nick slammed his head repeatedly against the cushiony head rest of the bus.

"Why-"

Slam

"Did you-"

Slam

"Want to sit next a nasty old fox like me?"

Slam

The bunny placed a paw on her chin and looked up to roof of the old bus, as if somewhere in its rusted tin make she would find the answer. As she thought, the bus pulled up to the school.

"Probably because my boyfriend over there," she pointed towards a jackrabbit laughing along with his buddies, "would rather sit next to his team mates. Whom I don't really care for."

She shrugged as she stood up, taking her books back up into her hands as she smiled a tight lip smile at the fox.

"And I guess I couldn't bear the thought of seeing the new kid all alone. I just didn't think he would be such an asshole" she continued, her smile softening slightly.

"I'm Judy Hopps by the way" she said, her paw extended towards him.

The fox took it in his own and shook.

"Nick Wilde-"

As the bus doors flung open the entire tin can seemed to shake, startling the already shaken vulpine, his ears drooping flat against his head.

"Geez Louise…" Judy let go of his paw and started making her way down the aisle.

"What? What!" he started after her.

By the time Nick finally exited the bus the kind soul had disappeared into the sea of bunnies and the occasional predatory species. He swallowed heavily as he looked up at the sign hanging over the gates to the school.

"Woodlands High"

…

"Geez Louise…" Judy let go of his paw and started making her way down the aisle.

"What? What!" Nick had shouted out to her as she slid through the crowd to reach the bus doors.

"He's cute"

…

The jack rabbit tossed the football into the air before catching it in his paws.

Off in the distance he could see a fox sulking as he walked across the bustling campus grounds.

"Pred coming our way boys" one of the other rabbits spoke, narrowing his eyes slightly as Nick drew closer.

The Jack rabbit put a paw up to the other rabbit's chest.

"Chill guys"

"Hey, hey foxy!" the jackrabbit called out to the orange toned vulpine.

Nick thought for a moment about ignoring the call and continuing on to his next class.

He didn't.

"What's up?" he asked, feigning interest. This couldn't go well.

"You're knew here right? Names Jack Savage" he forcibly took the fox's paw in his own and shook it, grinning amiably.

"Nick…"

With the vigor the other rabbit shook his paw he felt like he would snap his arm off.

For being such a small little guy he seemed to command authority.

"I just want you to know that around these parts, prey or not, we don't tolerate nobody picking on the new kids"

Nick smiled, the gloom previously covering his candid face slowly clearing. The way this rabbit talked reminded him of those greaser foxes that would appear on those 70's styled shows his mother used to watch with him late into the night.

"Thanks… Hey, aren't you Judy's guy" Nick asked inquisitively.

"Yeah," Jack laughed to himself, "That's sort of why I called you over. She told me you were a decent fella. Didn't want you to run into any trouble."

Wow

"Oh…Well I gotta get to class, thanks man. I'll see you around?" the fox began to walk off, obviously flattered.

The jackrabbit responded only with a slight nod and a sly grin.

…

"Hey Slick!" a feminine voice called out to him.

"Oh, Hey! Judy, right?"

The little bunny gave a smirk of delight and nodded. "Guess you aren't just a rude reynard after all."

"Oh believe me, I am." He smiled as the two began walking to their shared class, advisory with Mr. Gerbil.

"Well alright then, rude or not, I think I'll keep you. How's your first day holding up?"

"It was going smoothly until a certain bunny decided to sit next to me on the bus."

Judy lightly punched the fox's side, too short to reach his shoulder.

"I guess it wasn't all bad. I did find a new friend who is willing to physically abuse me!" he smiled as he lightly shoved her.

"Well then, she sounds like a keeper to me."

…

Dinner was already set on the table by the time Nick had arrived home. He hurriedly threw his book bag by the door and kicked off his shoes, running over to the table so that he could start scarfing down his food as soon as possible.

"So…" his mother started, not wishing to disturb her hungry boy, "how…how was school?" she continued, already expecting a snide remark – he had been known to give those out liberally these days – and sat down.

"Okay I guess," he swallowed to speak before shoveling food into his abyss of a mouth again, "Met a girl" was all he said when next he swallowed.

"A girl? I knew there were foxes around these parts but I didn't expect him to find a vixen so early! Let alone one that would talk to him…"

"Oh?" was all she said.

"Yup" he finished off his plate before hopping out of his chair to go wash his dishes.

…

"Oh, sweet cheese and crackers!"

The fox startled, wiping the sleep out of his eyes.

He had dozed off on the bus ride to school again, it had become a sort of ritual for him these past few months.

With Judy as his bus partner, he knew that nobody would mess with him. She may look tiny, but she packed quite the punch.

When he turned to his side he was surprised to see a frantic Judy tearing through her notebooks, sifting through the pages in the search for one particular set of notes.

"What's up?" Nick asked, slightly annoyed to be aroused from his peaceful pre-school nap.

"My trigonometry final in Mrs. Cowperns class is today and I was going to review on the bus ride over!"

"It can't be that hard, just wing it." The fox suggested, closing his eyes again.

"I can't 'just wing it' Nick! This is Z.B. Trig!"

Z.B.

Zootopian Baccalaureate.

Pretty much the most rigorous academic program in the Zootopian school district.

He opened his eyes again and straightened out his back.

"I thought you bunnies were good at multiplying?"

Judy answered his inquiry with an elbow to the ribs.

"Ok! Ok… I guess I am pretty good with numbers, show me the problem you're working on and I'll see what I can do" the reynard said, a paw rubbing his now aching side.

"Nick you're in geometry…"

"Well, I intend on being a particularly savvy business man when I get older, Carrots, so I probably know more about mathematics then you think" he says, pinching her worksheet between two clawed fingers.

Judy snatched it away immediately.

"Trig has nothing to do with business!" she exclaimed, angrily gritting her cute little buck-teeth at him.

"You want to argue!? Or do you want to learn!?"

…

"Nick!"

His bus partner wrapped her arms around the fox, only able to reach his waist.

"Aghh, Carrots! I need to get to my next class! The next final starts in like… 3 minutes and I actually can't afford to fail this one.

Judy kept her tight squeeze around the fox as they walked.

"What's the big idea? Why are you so clingy today?" he asked her, struggling to walk with a bunny wrapped around him.

"Nick, what you showed me made up 40 percent of the final, and my answers all matched the multiple choice answers! If it wasn't for you I would have failed with a D!"

She clung to him like he had saved her life.

And he kinda liked it.

"Well, ya know, I am pretty good with numbers" he said, patting her head as they walked.

"Hey guys!" Jack called out to the pair as they walked.

Judy released Nick and ran over to the jackrabbit, giving him the same affection she was showing Nick just a moment ago.

Mmmm

"Hey Jack, aw geez, I really gotta scram. I can't miss this next final." Nick stated, patting his other rabbit friend on the shoulder before sprinting off to class.

"Dude, he was all over your gal!" one of Jack's posse members exclaimed, gyrating his hips in an effort to get his point across.

"Screw off Charlie." Judy responded, pushing the other rabbit away.

Jack simply raised his paw. "What did I tell you before man? Just chill."

…

Nick all but broke down the door to his house, another ritual he's taken a liking to the past months of school. He eagerly sat down at the dinner table and devoured his meal.

"So, how were finals today bud?" Mrs. Wilde asked, sitting down to join her son.

"Pretty good, failed the first one," his mother pouted, "pretty sure I passed the second one". She smiled gently and shook her head before reaching over for the silverware.

"Well, how have you been getting along with that Vixen?"

"The what?" Nick didn't bother to look up from his meal, continuing to eat at a pace that made one wonder how he managed to not choke.

"You know? Like, a female fox… you dummy! Don't act like you don't know"

"I've met like…"

Chew chew swallow

"Like…"

Bite chew chew swallow

"Three foxes on campus? And I hate all of them."

"What? If Judy wasn't a fox then what was she? A cougar? A jaguar?"

"But… What about Judy."

For once the younger fox stopped shoveling food into his open maw. Instead, he sat his fork down on his napkin and looked at his mom.

"Ma, Judy is a bunny"

"A what?"

"Bunny, ya know. We have a few around these parts."

"You… you fell for a… rabbit?"

Nick looked down and away from her, unable to maintain eye contact anymore. Instead he got up and wandered off into his room.

…

"Nick?"

Mmmmm

"Nick?"

The tired lump on the bed several sizes too small for a fox pulled the covers over his bright red head.

Mrs. Wilde sat down on the bed beside him. As well as she could, there was hardly enough room for him alone.

"I'm sorry if I was insensitive last night"

The younger fox threw the covers off of his head.

"I… it's just that you know that people don't take very kindly to interspecies romance 'round these parts…"

Nicks claws slowly extended into his bed, gripping the mattress.

"But… I know how happy she makes ya. You hardly ever talk about anything at the dinner table aside from her anymore. I just want you to know, that if she really does make you happy, then I don't have in qualms with it."

Nick slowly retracted his claws, leaving little holes in the fabric.

"She has a boyfriend ma"

"Oh dear… Nick-"

"Ok, time to go to school! Bye ma, love you!" Nick through off the rest of his sheets and threw on some clothes, stumbling out of the room much like he had stumbled into it the night before.

…

Nick exhaled in satisfaction as he left the classroom.

Finals were over

Finally

And to make matters even better, here came his favorite group of people.

"Hey guys!" he exclaimed as he waved to them, his expression much cheerier than usual.

"Hey buddy! We're on our way to a party at my place if you want to tag along?" the jackrabbit said, his arm around Judy's waist.

A party?

And I'm invited?

"Sh-Sure!" Nick struggled to talk, his tongue tied when faced with the sudden invitation.

"Alright, we're all gonna cram into Tyrone's car then, cause he's the only one of us that can drive. Might be a tight fit for you…" Jack reminded the fox.

"I'll make it work."

…

It was a tight fit.

But he did make it work.

That didn't stop him from being absolutely relieved when he finally fell out of the truck alongside the geyser of rabbits that came bursting forth when the doors opened.

As the group of rabbits, a couple sheep, two ferrets and a fox walked up Jack's driveway, the booming music radiating from inside the burrow only grew louder.

The party already started?

Was Jack really late to his own party?

He is so cool!

Nick tried to contain his excitement, but was quickly foiled when they entered the burrow. Almost immediately, the entire party turned their heads to the fox knowingly.

"Hey Nick!"

"Nick!"

"Nick, my fox! What's up?"

He had never been this popular in the main city of Zootopia. Something told him this was all Jack's doing. The rabbit really did make his sophomore year bearable.

Immediately he was inducted into the festivities. It was a little hard to breathe in the stuffy burrow amidst all the rabbits, but he managed. The music resonated so loudly throughout the hollow that he felt his ears would bleed, and he was honestly surprised that the rabbits – with their hearing being as good as it was – were able to take this kind of auditory abuse. Regardless, he enjoyed himself. Unable to find a clock in any of the rooms the party was going on in, time sort of slipped away from the fox.

…

Nick wasn't a fan of club music, but when Judy asked him to dance he didn't dare refuse.

The fox and rabbit awkwardly made their way across the dance floor, jerking and jiving to the beat the massive speakers were supplying. Nick couldn't dance to save his life, but he danced anyways. The pair danced for what could have been hours as far as the fox could tell, but he would let it go on for years if he could.

Eventually breaking away from the main party, the two went out in search of water.

Not an easy task when the party consisted of four hundred teens.

Every time the fox found a cup, it was immediately snatched up by one of the faster bunnies.

Eventually, his guardian angel came to save him once again.

"Judy! Need some water?" Jack asked her, holding the cup out to her, which she happily took.

Ok, so maybe he isn't his guardian angel, whatever.

Water cup in paw, Nick and Judy made their way to the back of the room, slightly less cramped then the rest of the hollow.

"Having fun slick!?" Judy screamed over the music.

"What!?" the fox leaned down and cupped a paw to his ear.

"Having fun slick!?" she yelled again, this time into his ear.

"Oh…Yeah!" he replied, rubbing his ear tenderly.

She was loud when she wanted to be.

He rubbed his throat tenderly, looking back out into the crowd.

"Hey, you thirsty?"

"Yeah"

Judy smiled a close-lipped smile and held out her water cup, an eyebrow raised slightly.

Nick wholeheartedly took the cup in both paws and brought it to his lips, savoring it as it went down his throat.

"Th-Thanks…"

"Hey Nick? We were going to have a water balloon fight outside, care to join us?" Jack said, noticing the fox as he passed by, a filled balloon resting in his paws.

"Yeah, I'd love too! Judy?" he turned to his dance partner.

"I don't really feel like getting wet, but I'll watch." she said dismissively, taking the cup back from Nick.

…

The party goers made their way outside, atop the mound which Jack called home.

Water balloons were being passed out, and most everyone but Nick couldn't manage to get their paws on one.

"Alright! You guys ready?!" Jack shouted towards the teens, recently released from school.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Nick exclaimed, raising his paws in the air, waving them as he tried to get some bunnies attention.

"I don't have a balloon yet!" he said with a chuckle.

Judy, watching from the sidelines, smiled to herself before raising her cup up to her lips to take a sip.

Jack slapped the drink out of her paws.

"Go!"

Nick was immediately hit in the snout with a balloon, the latex quickly molding to his face before bursting on him.

And it burned.

"What the fu-" Nick couldn't finish his sentence, his eyes tearing up and snot running down his nose already.

It felt as though his entire upper body was sunburnt and someone just took a heat lamp to it.

He could hardly open his eyes but he swore his face was being pricked by a thousand white hot needles, and his vision turned red, fountains of tears streaming from the slits of his eye lids.

"Nick…"

He could hear Jack's voice.

"Buddy…"

What the hell?

"You know the only way for a fox to fit in at the bunnyburrow, is to be tamed first. Don't you?"

The party goers erupted into laughter.

"You were right Jack! The look on his face was worth the wait!" a familiar voice called out, Charlie.

The rest of the party goers unleashed a barrage of water balloons, each one filled with the same solution used in fox repellent.

Nick curled up on the floor, resigned to succumb to his fate. If he could open his mouth he would probably be bawling for mercy, but the risk he would take by opening his mouth didn't seem worth it.

Until the balloons stopped, and the jeering quieted.

"Guys… What the fuck?"

It was Judy's voice.

"C'mon Jude."

"Yeah! Get out of the way Judy!"

"Go, go, go, go!"

"Why?" was all she asked. Her quivering voice representing the exact antithesis to the taunts coming from the crowd around them

"Why did you pretend to be his friend Jack?"

"Judy don't be like this"

"Why Jack?"

The jack rabbit sighed loud enough for the shaking fox to hear it.

"How else could we get him to trust us? It took months to get my paws on this much fox repellent-"

"What the hell did he ever do to you?" Judy sounded like she was nearly in tears now, her teeth gritted together in righteous fury.

"Hey! Don't you dare act like you didn't see the way he looked at you Judy! Like you were meat. Like you were his prey. To think you were going to drink after him-"

"No one told me this was going to happen. I didn't… I didn't know this was what the party was about."

"Look Judy, I love ya but you've always been a little Miss goodie two shoes. You would have snitched."

Judy didn't respond.

"He brought this on to himself Judy, he came into our burrow."

The fox could only hear gross sobs coming from who he was almost certain was Judy.

"Judy, move."

"Moving"

The female rabbit spat the words out at Jack as if they were poison.

Judy turned to the trembling fox and, putting his arm over her shoulder, made off into the night, much to the horror of the other party goers.

…

Everyone stood around Jack for a moment. Nobody having the nerve to speak.

Taking up his brothers baseball bat, Jack finally spoke.

"Let's go get them."

…

Judy was sprinting now, her paw tightly wrapped around the larger one of her vulpine companion.

He couldn't see if he wanted to, so she had to lead him.

She could run him into a tree if she wanted to. A pole, a lamp post.

But he trusted her, and she didn't let him down.

Older bunnies were leaving their burrows all throughout town, yelling into the night about "what all the racket was about".

Several blocks behind the fox and the rabbit hundreds of other bunnies filled the streets, charging out into the inky blackness in search of them.

"All this for me?" Nick said, trying his best to appear aloof despite looking like a mess.

"All this for you."

…

Overhead the two could hear the rapid stomping of rabbit paws crossing the bridge above them.

Judy sat still in the creek, Nick beside her, washing off in the cool water running through the stream.

Their clothes were soaked but it was probably better than being beaten with blunt objects by a crowd of racist teenagers.

It wasn't until after they were sure the other rabbits had all crossed the bridge that either one of them said a word.

"Thanks, Carrots."

The rabbit held out her paw to help the fox back up onto the creek bank and out of the flowing water.

"Don't mention it. Don't… Don't ever mention it Nick…"

"Judy…"

"Nick… I'm so sorry" her eyes were almost as red as his at this point.

"I'm so-"

The fox scooped the rabbit up into his arms, placing his chin on her head.

Wrapped in the cold blanket of night, it was nice to have a friend to keep you warm.

"You're the best friend I could ever hope to find here, you don't need to apologize."

…

"One of these days it's going to be my job to track down people like Jack. Mammals that hurt other mammals."

The rabbit kicked her feet in the running stream.

"Yeah? How are you going to do that? You planning on becoming a copper or something?"

"Yup"

There was a breathy pause.

"Laugh it up foxy."

"I'm not laughing fluff."

She turned to face him, picking her feet up out of the stream.

"You saved me today, we could use more cops like you."

He rubbed his toes on a stone embedded in the little river, letting the running water cool him off still.

The rabbit scooted in a little closer to the fox, watching his foot as it played in the stream.

"Nick?" she turned her face upwards to look at him.

He looked down to her.

Propping herself up on her paws she struggled to kiss him gently, barely managing before slumping back to the ground.

He gingerly placed his arm around her and pulled her even closer.

The two talked late into the night, a warm summer morning threatening to overtake Bunnyburrow in just a few hours.