Disclaimer: I do not own Zootopia or its related characters. All is the property of Walt Disney Animation Studios, Clark Spencer, and Byron Howard. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

(A/N 1: I have a head-canon where Nick is Robin Hood.)

(A/N 2: This fic is not in any way associated with my other 'Nick is Robin Hood' fic, "Under a Green Hood".)

There Can Be Only...

Chapter One: All Things Hooded

An arrow sailed through the air and stuck in the fox's back. A red fox vixen. The Countess of Huntington. She went down, spitting blood from her mouth. Her three Cucullati reacted just a little to slowly. Two of them -a brown bear and a striped rabbit- throwing themselves between her bleeding body and the direction from which the arrow had come. The third jumped out of the window, sprinting after the shooter from the opposite building.

Running so fast the hood was thrown back from his head to reveal another red fox. Older. With graying fur around the muzzle and intense emerald eyes burning with a determination of purpose.

He reached the sniper's roost. The evidence of the shooter having been there laying in wait for a long time before his target wandered into range. Empty coffee cans and bags of buggo-chips. Evidence of the shooter, but not the shooter himself. The sniper had fled the moment the arrow connected with the Countess' open and unprotected back.

Stupid.

He was stupid. They had done a sweep of the room, but failed to check the surrounding buildings -or at the very least, the windows- for possible threat.

The earbud in his ear crackled, a half-second warning before the voice of one of his fellow Genii Cucullati asked, "You get the doer, John?"

The fox tapped his earbud to respond. "No. He split before I even got here. How's Huntington?"

The channel was silent a little to long and John knew he wasn't going to like the answer even before the voice on the other side said, "Dead. Pierced her heart and was tipped with iron. Bit of an overkill, really." Because it was said that the only way to kill a fae was with iron. "John... without Huntington, there's only one descendent left..."

"I know." The red fox growled, holding down the button on his ear piece.

"Marian Longstride's son." Continued the one on the other line.

"I know!" The fox snarled back.

There was silence over the channel and the red fox, John, was glad for it as he started back to the hotel. They would have to call Scotland Yard and report the death of the Countess. That would be sticky. He should probably leave before they arrived at the scene. Otherwise they would request he stay in town while they investigated. But that would mean there would be no one to protect or even warn the last descendant.

In fact, he should just head straight to the air port. Not even go back to the hotel room.

John tapped his earbud again. "Jack, can you handle the local LEOs for me? I'm heading straight for Zootopia."

"Not even stopping to catch your breath, I see." The rabbit's voice came back. Even to spite the graveness of their current situation, there was still a small measure of humor in the statement. Jack knew the fox had other reasons for not wanting to delay in rushing off to the last descendent's side. While the last living descendant of the Robin under the Hood was the son of Marian Longstride, he was also the son of John Wilde. "Tell Nicky I said 'hi'."

One of the electronic store's front windows was smashed in. A half of a red brick already sported a numbered evidence tag just inside the shattered pane. Judy stared at the yellow plastic tag for a moment, realizing that it implied that she was late to the crime scene. Officer Judy Hopps of the ZPD was almost never late!

And Officer Nick Wilde was almost never on time.

But when the bunny opened the store's door, she found her fox partner's face plastered on every TV and video screen still in the shop. The actual fox himself, was in the back of the store, staring into one of the demo-cameras, reciting a monologue from some cop-drama Judy couldn't recall seeing.

She walked right up to him. "What are you doing."

"Hey, Carrots, you made it!" Nick beamed down at her, his vulpine lips curling upwards into a smirk. "Just in time for the paperwork. I already cracked this case. The burglar was a raccoon -no jokes- approximately two-six, with a nick in one ear. Goes by the name 'Clank'. -He also cheats at Scrabble."

Judy crossed her arms over her chest and fixed him with a skeptical stare. "The robbery happened in the middle of the night with no witnesses. How could you possibly know all that?"

That sly vulpine smirk extended even further into a full blown grin of triumph. "Ah... you see, I had a Mammal on the inside!"

Nick reached a paw behind the camera he'd just been monologueing into and withdrew a generic and unassuming bunny plushie. He wiggled the stuffed toy down at her, moving the plushie's paw so that it was waving at the bunny officer.

"Ya see, I figured in a store filled with cameras, there had to be at least one that was still turned on and running last night." The fox explained. He flipped the stuffed bunny around and pulled its back open to reveal a small domestic spy-cam. "I present to you the nanny cam N-800 Model 101, not to be confused with the T-800 from Terminator. This little bunny cam caught the whole thing on tape. I called Fangmyre a little before you showed up and told her where she could find Clank."

"And how do you know he cheats at Scrabble?" Her arms were still crossed, but even Judy had to be impressed by that little bit of inductive reasoning.

"I told you, I know everybody." Nick only scoffed. He closed the back of the bunny nanny cam, turning its head up to look at him. "Good work, Officer N-800. Its time to come home."

Judy rolled her eyes.

But her partner wasn't done there. Nick turned the stuffed bunny back around to face her and lowered his voice an octave to sound a bit more like Finnick. He wiggled the bunny plushie in the real bunny's face as he voiced. "I've been on the inside so long... I don't know if I can return to a normal life. If only there was a gentle... soft... doe-bunny to ease my-"

"Alright. I'm walking away." Judy turned around and marched off to find the store owner to make sure Nick remembered to take his statement, and if the fox hadn't to do it herself.

"Officer Hopps!" Nick called after her in his low, gravely 'undercover stuffed bunny' voice. "I need you. Don't abandon me!"

When she didn't turn back around the fox gave up the joke and stowed the nanny cam away in an evidence bag, all while keeping an appreciative eye on the his bunny partner's backside. If someone had told Nick Wilde a year ago that he would be enjoying the view of short, curvy, and round bunny butt with its stubby little fluff-tail that he just wanted to pinch sometimes, he'd tell them that they were crazy -or needed to lay off the nip. But here he was, drinking in the sight.

Perhaps she felt his eyes on her, because as the store owner was recounting his narrative of coming to open the shop in the morning, she turned her head slightly. Giving the fox a questioning look. As if to ask, 'Do you need something?'

Nick swallowed a lump that had formed in his throat and tugged on the collar of his uniform. Yeah, he needed something alright. He needed someone to smack some sense into him before the day finally came when he made an ass of himself in front of his partner -or worse, to his partner.

The fox cleared his throat. "I'll just head back to the station. See if Fang's already got out perp ready for booking."

Loath though she was to admit it, Judy had to begrudgingly concede that Nick was right. She had arrived just in time to do the paperwork. Both at the electronic store, and back at Precent One. After taking the store owner's full statement and logging a few extra pieces of evidence -such as the brick used to smash the window- Judy returned to the station to find their raccoon burglar -no jokes- already in the holding cell.

"Aw, c'mon, Nick!" The raccoon groaned from behind the bars. Groaned, as if his arrest was just some prank between friends.

The fox just shook his head smiling ruefully. "I told you, you keep cheating at Scrabble, you'll end up behind bars one day. Now look at you."

"Is this because I tried to play 'cucullati'?" The raccoon pressed. "C'mon, it was just eleven points!" A pause. "And a triple word score. It was just thirty-three points."

Judy came up between them. "One, we're not arresting you because you cheat at boardgames. Two, 'cucal'-whatever isn't a word."

"Sure it is." Insisted the raccoon. "Just ask foxy over here. His species has the market cornered on all things hooded."

Nick banged a fist against the bars, rattling them enough to make enough noise to startle several Mammals passing by. "That's enough outta you."

Clank took a step back deeper into the holding cell.

Judy looked up at him, confused. "What is a 'cucullati'?"

Nick huffed, as if it were the most inconvenient and irritating thing in the world to have to explain. "'Cucullati' refers to the Genii Cucullati." He said. "They're sort of hooded guardian spirits..."

He trailed off as if there was more to it but suddenly realized as he started talking that he really didn't want to talk about it. Instead he changed gears.

The fox smiled down at his partner. The kind of sweet, gentle, and unassuming smile Judy had learned to associate with him knowing he was about to dump a whole bunch of long and tedious busy work on her and not caring one bit. "Now, Carrots, seeing as how we're partners and -all things being equal- I was first on the scene, I cracked the case, and I arrested the suspect. It's only fair that you finish up the paperwork and make sure it gets filed into the system."

And there it was.

The bunny smiled back at him. The kind of sweet, gentle, and unassuming smile Judy was hoping that he was learning to associate with her being about to intentionally make him uncomfortable. "Sure thing, Sweetheart." She said. "But it's gonna cost ya."

Nick suddenly looked wary. He was learning. "Oh yeah...? What price am I gonna have to pay?"

"Dinner. On you." The bunny smiled up at him. A true smile this time. His calm facade cracked for just a second before he slid his 'too cool for school' mask back into place. Judy took advantage of the slip-up, dog-piling on his facade's weakness. "At your place."

The fox choked.

The raccoon in the holding cell raised an eyebrow. "Uh, is that ethical? I mean, you are work colleagues... right? Are officers allowed to fraternize outside of work?"

"You hush!" Both fox and bunny snapped in near perfect unison. They were locked in the throws of 'relationship-chicken' and couldn't allow for distraction -lest one of them blink and swerve out of the path of the on-coming other one.

Nick's eyes brightened, his mouth splitting into a smirk as he accepted the newest challenge in their on-going, unspoken battle of stubbornness. "Alright, Carrots. Dinner, on me, my place -tonight. I'll leave my tie on if you bring your handcuffs."

Judy blinked at the insinuation. But recovered quickly. "Alright. I'll bring my cuffs -if I can still wear my uniform."

The raccoon looked from one officer to the other, suddenly wondering if he had been legitimately arrested by real police. Or if he'd just stumbled into the line of fire for a deviant couple's role-play foreplay.

"So, our usual after work routine then." Nick nodded. "Plus dinner at my place."

Judy offered to hold the take-out bags while Nick fished in his pocket for his keys.

"So, why wouldn't you let someone use 'cucullati' in Scrabble?" Judy asked spontaneously.

Did his paw jerk while trying to slide the key into the lock? Actually, yes. The bunny was pretty sure it did. Whatever his issue was, Nick recovered quickly. "Its not an English word. You can't use foreign words in Scrabble."

"Mm." She nodded, watching how his tail swished in irritation. She loved the way he fidgeted when he was slightly inconvenienced or uncomfortable. If her parents knew she was ogling the slender and trim bottle-brush of a fox's backside, they'd faint from mortification. Judy decided to take a chance on possibly making him more uncomfortable. "Is it a Robin Hood thing?"

He dropped his keys trying to put them back in his pocket. "What? Why would you say that?"

The bunny shrugged. "Hoods... foxes... I think its a logical conclusion to jump to."

"Don't do that." He shook his head, avoiding eye-contact.

"What? Make logical deductions using the inductive reasoning they taught me at the academy?" She smiled up at him. If there was a smug challenge in that smile, Nick did not take the bate.

"Jump to conclusions." The fox corrected. Then, before his partner could say another word on the matter, he cut her off before the bunny even had the chance. "And I don't wanna talk about Genii Cucullati or Robin Hood, okay? At all. Ever. In fact, no Hoods in general. Hoods have nothing to do with me."

Judy had to wonder at, not only the odd specificity of that statement, but also the sheer passion with which he said it. But neither of them got the chance to say more on the subject. Nick opened his door and they stepped into his apartment to find someone sitting on Nick's couch.

A fox dressed all in green. Commando-style pants of a dark uniform green, with hooded vest in a deeper forest green. The hood drawn up over his head -obscuring his face.

Both fox and bunny froze at finding an intruder in Nick's -locked- apartment.

Judy nearly dropped the takeout bags, just barely remembering to set them down gently on the floor as she went for her dart-gun. The weapon was barely out of its holster when the stranger stood, lowering his hood to reveal the face of a red fox who looked almost identical to Nick. Several years older than her partner, fur graying around the muzzle, the emerald green eyes were nearly identical to Nick's own. He looked hard and serious, even as his mouth split into a friendly smile.

"Hi, son." He said.

...