This was completely normal.
There was nothing weird about a sleepover between two friends. It was just that their totally not weird movie night had stretched out longer than either had expected and it wouldn't have made sense for him to make a half an hour trip back to his apartment that late at night.
The offer for him to stay had been made purely out of practicality and the fact her ears had flushed had nothing to do with it.
She'd tried to tease him; told him that he was a real nightmare to deal with at work whenever he was especially tired.
Her seemingly timid and unsure behavior whilst doing so had simply been the result of wishful thinking on his part- as had the change in her scent.
'Yup, this is just a nooormal thing for friends to do,' he thought. 'You're just embarrassing yourself by getting so high-strung about it.'
An all-too-small inflatable mattress paired with a thin blanket and a sofa cushion wasn't what Nick considered to be the ideal sleeping conditions, and being mere feet away from his partner did little to calm his racing mind.
The fox had to put a lot of effort into staying still. The last thing he wanted to do was to wake the peaceful bunny up just because he couldn't stay put.
Judy was a mess.
Trying to keep herself absolutely still as to not wake up the peacefully sleeping fox on the floor next to her bed, she wondered how she'd got there. In her life, that is.
She was a rabbit.
A rabbit who'd deliberately had her fox friend stay over at her place for a night.
Her fox friend who she felt all sorts of warm and nice things for.
She wondered what her mom would think if she saw the bizarre scene that was her tiny shoebox of an apartment. Or even worse, if she knew what sort of bizarre scenes had gone through her mind for the past who knows how many months.
How soft would that gorgeous russet tail feel in her paws? Or how it would feel to cuddle into his cream colored fluffy chest in the middle of a cold winter night? How it would feel to have his paws and claws roam over every square inch of her body and-
She heard the faint beat coming from his direction fasten in rhythm. His breathing was also rather shallow.
'Is he having a nightmare?'
The faintest of whimpers cut through the silent atmosphere of the room and the bunnies ears sprung to full attention.
As if she hadn't been tempted enough before to just turn to her other side and creepily watch her best friend sleep in the dark.
Which, after a good moment of hesitation, is exactly what she did.
Nick's nose was going haywire.
'Whatever that bunny is dreaming about is so not PG-13.'
It was getting increasingly difficult not to just turn around and creepily watch her nose twitch in her sleep.
The smell of earth, lavender and sweetness was getting worse (better) by the second. Nick knew if things didn't change - and change quickly - he'd end up doing something stupid.
What he didn't know however, was that that stupidity came only seconds later in the form of a high-pitched, longing whimper. Instead of going to open the window like he'd planned, the vulpine froze, staying so still and quiet one couldn't tell him apart from a statue.
His heartbeat, which had increased already substantially due to the bunny in the bed next to him, skyrocketed even further. The fox kept his eyes closed.
He wouldn't hear the end of this if her brain had registered the noise.
His muscles tensed when he heard her squirm in her sheets, supposedly turning so that she was now facing him.
'You're fine, Nick. Just keep breathing,' he tried to calm himself, only to once again have her scent (pleasantly) invade his nostrils.
'Shit.'
The digital alarm clock on the windowsill hit 03:01.
Judy stared intently at the dark form of the canid covered by the blanket, still unsure whether or not her ears were working properly. After all, it wasn't all too easy to believe that the Nick she'd known for over a year could act so… well, cutely.
Was he handsome (or more like mouth-wateringly hot)? Yes.
Was he charismatic and confident as hell? Definitely.
Was he caring, funny and an all around amazing mammal otherwise? No doubt about it.
But to say a fox of all mammals could be seen as cute from a bunny's perspective? Well that was something she found a bit difficult to process.
Her eyes, which had slowly traveled down the full, sprawled-out length of his damn-blanket-covered body, quickly returned to the back of his head as another pained (?) noise escaped him.
Her brain now fully awake, she fought back an "Aww!" and quickly shot out of bed.
Unbeknownst to her, the fox secretly spied her retrieve something from the other end of the room before hastily putting his head back down just as she was about to turn around.
Her phone now in her paws, she tiptoed to the cheap airbed, careful not to step into the fox's hindpaws, which easily reached over the edge of the mattress. She opened the camera app.
Nick held his breath and concentrated on keeping his eyes closed.
'Had she been awake the whole time? Or did I wake her up? What is she doing just standing there in the middle of the night? Do I dare and take a peek?'
Minutes passed with both mammals keeping their movements and breathing to a minimum.
It was with great disappointment that Judy eventually gave up hope of catching the vulpine's nightmare induced whimpers on tape and stopped recording.
She wasn't about to let this moment go to waste, however. There was a lot of potential for a new background for her phone in the view in front of her.
Taking a few careful steps over his paws and around the mattress, she crouched right in front of his face. Having found the perfect angle, she switched to regular photo mode and tapped on the screen to focus the picture.
There was a sudden flash of light.
Judy's heart dropped.
The fox was awake in an instant.
Confused emerald eyes met shocked amethyst ones.
Judy, still crouched and pointing her phone at his face, gave the tod a small wave of her paw. "Hi," she greeted awkwardly.
Nick blinked at her. "Carrots, what are you doing?"
Finally standing up and making an escape to her bed, she tried to come up with any half-believable cover-up story. For some reason however, her mind was stuck on the odd way her partner's eyes had shot open.
'Had he been awake this whole time?'
Before she could find out the answer to that question though, her mouth was already blubbering. "Oh, I was just coming back from the bathroom and dropped my phone right by your bed and I'm sorry if I woke-"
"That was a camera flash, wasn't it?" he interrupted. His voice was steady and void of any emotion.
Burying deeper under her blanket, she didn't dare to face the fox. Her ears were unusually warm against her back. "No," she denied bluntly, "there's a storm coming. That was lightning. You just couldn't hear it with those useless foxy ears of yours."
'Wow, Judes, I knew you were a horrible liar, but wooow,' they both thought in unison.
Silence fell between the pair.
Nick was trying to piece together what had just happened.
Judy was guessing whether or not Nick knew what had just happened.
'Of course he knows. It's Nick after all.'
The digital clock hit 03:05.
Neither mammal could rest.
The digital clock hit 03:08. They only had a few more hours before they'd have to get up.
It was at 03:21 that the tense silence was finally broken.
"Nick?"
"Mhmm?"
"It's getting really cold in here, don't you think?"
It was more of a statement than a question. A false one at that considering how she was burning under her fur.
To be fair, Nick wasn't fairing much better.
"Uhh, yeah, I guess it is," he replied, uncertain of what she was going for. "The window is already closed, though. Not much I can do for you."
Not that it was particularly cold outside, either.
"That's weird-", she hummed, once again turning to her other side to look at her partner, leaning on her other elbow, "'cause I sure can come up with at least one thing off the top of my head."
No doubt she was sporting a raging blush at this point.
Nick turned to look at her over his shoulder, his quizzical expression vanishing as he saw the bunny regard him with a small, nervous smile and serious, somehow hopeful and seductively inviting eyes.
Her nose was twitching, too.
And all he could do was to let out an almost breathless "Fluff?".
It was like he was a teenager again.
"Look, Nick. We can either pretend that I was just taking a picture of you so I could tease you, which is at least partially true-," she admitted, continuing in a more hushed tone, "or, you can get in here and help me, you know... get some shut-eye."
He must've been dreaming.
Slowly but surely, a smirk began taking over the fox's face, his eyes going half-lidded. He spoke all the while he got up and motioned her to scoot over. "What's the matter, Carrots? Can't sleep without your very own foxy plushie?"
She gave a little amused huff at that, making some room for him by her side. She couldn't believe he'd complied. "I'd tone down on that smug if I were you, Slick," she replied with surprising ease considering how her heart was hammering in her chest. "Don't think I can't see your tail wagging like crazy."
Just about to crawl next to her, he stopped on the edge of the bed and glanced at the appendage over his shoulder. "Traitor."
Judy laughed as the fox finally collapsed on his back next to her. He watched her with a fond gaze, her giggles eventually dying down. She met his eyes with equal warmth and a genuine smile.
"Get on your side," she said.
He did as commanded and soon the bunny had buried herself in his chest, her arms reaching around his torso.
Letting out an amused huff of his own, he pulled the covers over them.
She tried not to be too obvious about huffing in his musk while he had to keep his paws from traveling too far down her back on their own accord.
Afraid, excited, hopeful and - most of all - happy about the sudden change in direction their relationship had taken that night, the two snuggled tighter together, simply relishing the moment.
"Nick?"
"Yeah?"
Judy couldn't help but smile into the fluff of his chest. "I didn't actually mean it when I said your ears were useless."
He wanted to kiss her so badly.
But he'd made enough progress for one day as it was. If there was one thing he'd learned during his hustling days, it was to never get too greedy.
So, he settled for hugging her even tighter and wrapping his tail around her under the blanket.
"I know that, Fluff. In fact, I think you may even love them," he replied half-jokingly after a few moments.
"Hmm, I can never hide anything from you, can I?"
"What can I say? I'm sly as a fox."
"That you are. Good night, Nick."
"G'night, Judy."
It took mere minutes before fox and bunny alike had drifted off to unconsciousness.
The digital clock hit 05:35 with a disgusting and loud, continuous beeping.
A grey paw slammed the top of the device and the noise stopped. It was dark. She tried to roll only to realize that russet paws were keeping her captive. The previous night storming to the forefront of her memory, she smiled to herself and gave the fox a quick peck under his chin.
The fox gave an appreciative grumble at that and his tail seemingly wanted to wag under the covers.
"I'm calling us in sick for work," she told him.
"You know I love you, right?" came the reply.