Chapter 1: Making Up For Past Favors

(A/N: Hello everyone! This new storyline is set after my first story, A Year to Detective. Maybe this one will actually be good!).

Today wasn't a bad day, not by a long shot. The breeze was good, the food he had made Judy pay for was good, and he was having fun picking at her pet peeves. It was a great stress reliever.

Nick Wilde leaned back in the chair, paws behind his head. "Hmm," he said. " What if it went- 'The alluringly-red fox bravely strode forward, fighting through the hordes and hordes of crazed rats to reach his goal. His alluring green eyes flashed with anger, and-'"

Judy interrupted him, again. " I really need you to stop doing that, Nick.," she said. "Please. You aren't good at writing, leave it to all the fangirls." She sipped at her shake, glancing out at the traffic whizzing by. " Eyes don't flash, first thing, and if you really want to show how alluring you are, you gotta get into detailed descriptions, not just repeat the same adjective over and over. Trust me."

Nick raised an eyebrow, stabbing a fork back into his pie and carving off a piece. He took a large bite, and shook his head. Judy frowned. " Listen, Ace Detective," Nick said. " I know how to get someone's heart going, and with all those horrible stories that you make me read, I think I get how I'm supposed to phrase things."

Judy muttered something nasty, and Nick focused back on his pie, eating up the last few chunks while Judy went to toss her shake. Considering she called for a check and left a tip while he kept eating, she probably wanted to get going. It might have also been her standing by the door and glaring at him. Nick sighed- he just wanted to enjoy his time off, and she had to rush things for no reason. They had earned their break, why did she always want to go off running?

He wiped his mouth and followed her back onto the main street. It was around one, as far as he knew, so traffic was especially dense. The car smoke really didn't mesh with the café smells, and the folk pushing him around on the sidewalk didn't help his mood any. Judy wasn't really waiting up for him, taking the opportunity to slip through the crowds and up the street. Seemed like they were going for a walk.

Luckily, he was able to catch up to her. Tucking his paws into his pockets, he tried to meet Judy's gaze. She wasn't giving him much attention today, unfortunately, and that hurt his feelings more than he wanted to admit. She knew that he was joking, didn't she? Was she still mad about him lying about something that had turned out well?

Only one way to tell. Once they made it to the crosswalk, he spoke up. " You still mad at me for the Detective thing?" She focused on the other side of the street, one foot tapping. " Hey, we came out of that okay, and you got a big boost out of that whole deal without getting hu- "

She crossed the street without him, moving much faster than she needed to. That seemed to be it then. He had been hoping that she would have gotten over it by now, but hoping apparently wasn't enough. He trotted after her, and eventually, she got tired enough to stop powerwalking down the street. She did talk this time, sparing him a glance every few seconds. She wasn't smiling, though.

" Nick," she said slowly. " The problem is- Do you get what's going to happen when we finally get to go back to work? That we won't get to be around each other nearly as much?" She hoped he wouldn't take this as a joke. She could stand for a serious word from him today.

Nick sighed. " I know," he said. " Trust me, I know. But this can end up doing a lot more good than harm, and yes I said that right." She scowled at him, again. " Partner," he said. " Remember that we can't be super-close at work all the time anyway- we can save it up during work and let it all out over the weekend together. We just gotta shift all the time together to a different day."

That was an odd look on her face, he noted. " Hey," he said. " Just think about it. If I could make it up to you on those days, doing…" he winced, knowing he would regret this. "…doing whatever you want, would that at least make up for the split?"

Judy leaned against the wall of a store, lost in thought. Nick still owed her for everything- lying to her to take down a gang meant that he had a lot to make up for. And now she was going to have to leave him behind, and he'd be stuck with the Gang boys all day… She didn't have to take the Detective job, but it was a good opportunity. That was the confusing part- she was angry for the lie and happy for the promotion, sad for the transfer.

Those thoughts wouldn't do anything stuck in her head. She focused back on Nick and straightened herself up. " Nick," she said. " That sounds like it could work, but it's- it's just hard knowing that you'll be gone soon. That I'll be working with someone new, you'll be with a bunch of folk that you're probably all friends with…"

Nick started laughing at that, shaking his head, earning bemused glances from folk walking by. " Friends?" he said. " It's hard to make good friends with people when you aren't trusted, partner. You would think that getting stabbed by rats would mean-" He stopped himself, and turned his gaze back up the street. " No friends yet- it'll come with time though. You know how friendly I am, anyway." He shrugged.

She stepped in front of him. "Hey, don't you act like I didn't hear that. What happened when you guys cleared out that hideout, Nick?" She crossed her arms. He tried to avoid looking at her, but she was more stubborn this time around, and he eventually sighed and focused on her.

"What happened at the hideout?" Nick echoed, a glum look in his eyes. " Well, Detective-" that came out harsher than she expected. "- I did my job, as a good and noble police officer would. I just- I didn't get as much support as I had hoped for, that's all." He shook his head, arms crossed across his chest. " You would think taking down a major crime boss would get you some…" He sighed, and looked down at the sidewalk. " You see why I don't like telling you? It makes me think, Judy, and thinking gets me into all sorts of moods."

There he went again. During the whole gang-bust, he'd been acting all out-of-sorts, but he'd slowly been getting back to his usual self. She wasn't sure if these moods of his were a leftover of that, or if he was just opening up again, in his own way.

Judy poked him in the chest, and he looked up to see her grinning at him. " A good friend gets you out of them, though- or are you not used to that?" Her eyes were bright and cheerful, he noticed. That same nice shade of purple that he… admired. There was a lot to admire about her, and that annoyed him plenty. It was that same mix of emotions again, and it had been easy to push it away before- she was his boss, they were working together, and she got on his nerves- but things would be different, and his brain knew that.

A part of him knew that he had no reason to hide anything- not from Judy, at least. But the other sides of him were… apprehensive. He wasn't afraid, he told himself. Just apprehensive- a nice, big word to cover up his feelings.

He had been staring for a while now, and he jerked his head back up once he realized that. Judy, thankfully, didn't say anything about it, choosing instead to sigh and step beside him.

"If it means anything, even though a part of me is mad, I still admire you for all that work." she said softly. " Come on, let's walk a bit- talk when you feel like it."

They walked for a bit longer, at this point just walking aimlessly and enjoying the company. They talked about the weather, the random tourist that would walk around confused, complain about long hours and annoying people. Judy eventually led the conversation back to where she wanted it, though.

They found themselves in the residential part of town, near a bench. Judy sat down, stretching and sighing. Nick sat down beside her. " So," she said. "We've got a week off, Nick. I feel like people haven't been appreciating you enough, with all that complaining you've done. How about I try and spend that week doing something nice for you? Pay you back?"

Nick looked skeptical. " And what do I have to do in return? I can't get you promoted again, you know." He stretched his back out, watching families and couples walk by.

Judy leaned closer to him, smiling. " Well," she said. " Let me treat you nice, and maybe, you just tell me what's going in that head of yours. Share those deep dark secrets that you don't want anyone to know." She scooted close to him, trying her best pleading look- ears down, paws cupped near her face, eyes wide. It worked well enough- he was at least looking at her now. She still couldn't place that expression on his face.

Nick sighed. " I did say I'd do whatever you wanted on our days together…" he muttered. " But you can't push me if I don't want to talk!" he said playfully, turning his body towards her. If a week goes by, then you can't complain that I didn't say anything! " She nodded, and he felt relieved. Do something nice for the bleeding-heart detective and she could focus on the important things. This would be easy, over quick, and he'd get the respect he deserved from her.

Well, he already got plenty of respect from her. She was trying to help, he'd argue with himself later. Let her try, and maybe it'll turn out to something good. Not like there was anything to lose, right?

It only took four days for him to regret that. Very much.