Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO Cocotato ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.
Hello, and welcome to the story! I do very much hope you guys enjoy this fic, because I COMPLETELY fucked up my planned-out fanfiction schedule to write it XD Like actually, I had like 5 long RotBTD fics planned out plus a bunch of one-shots, and I knew what order I was going to write them in and when I was going to submit them and everything.
And THEN. I SAW. ZOOTOPIA. AND I GOT THIS STUPID LITTLE PLOT BUNNY THAT TURNED INTO A GIANT FUCKING PLOT RABBIT THAT I COULDN'T GET RID OF NO MATTER WHAT I DID. And here we are 12 parts later, with the fanfiction that never would have been written if I had any commitment at all to my previously-planned fics ^^; Whoops!
Be warned—if you're looking for a drama that keeps you on the edge of your seat and is filled with intense action and dramatic cliffhangers, this probably isn't the fic for you ^^; This is more of a slice-of-life fic about Nick and Judy growing up together, with appropriate drama mixed in due to the whole they-love-each-other-but-can't-touch-for-more-than-ten-seconds issue. If you're chill with that sort of thing, you'll probably like this story just fine! Damn, I don't know what it is with me and relatively plotless chapter-by-age OTP-growing-up-together stories XD *Glances at 15-part Jackunzel fic*
That said, this is my first Zootopia fanfic and I really have no idea what the reception to this will be. Back when I started writing this (back in March, if you can believe it!), the childhood friends AU was actually relatively rare, so I thought I was being soooooo original XD But now it's all over the place! Hopefully, though, this'll be a somewhat unique spin on it. Also I decided to compress the 8-year age gap between Judy and Nick to 2 years. I still wanted there to BE an age gap, but I also wanted to make it believable within the "childhood friends" setting. Can't really have a 16-year-old being besties with and developing romantic feelings for an 8-year-old, you feel?
Okay, enough of my rambling! This will update either once a week or once every two weeks on Wednesday, depending on how busy I end up being during the college quarter. I will definitely let you all know by next update if it will be once a week or once every 2 weeks! And fear not, the story is already 100% completed, so you don't have to worry about it getting abandoned or discontinued or me "losing interest" or "life getting in the way" or any of that. You WILL see this story through to its conclusion! I hope you like it!
Judy: 4
Nick: 6
The first day of kindergarten hadn't gone as well as Nick Wilde might have hoped.
When he had pawed at the thick fabric of the collar enclosing his neck before he left for school, his mother had waved a paw dismissively, saying, "Don't worry dear, the other predator children will have them too." She had assured him he would have no trouble making friends.
She had been wrong.
Nick didn't know what exactly he had expected, but the fearful stares from the prey animals and the vicious whispers from his fellow predators wasn't it. He really had tried his best, talking to as many kids as he could and being as friendly and pleasant as he could manage. The conversations he did manage to have were short and clipped, with the other kids making it abundantly clear that they were only humoring him so as not to get called out by the teacher for not being inclusive.
At lunch, he did find a group of big cats to sit with (although he was fairly certain they only did so out of pity). When recess came around, he had only played with them for a little while before they drove him away, claiming that he "wasn't a good enough supervillain." One by one Nick went to every group of children on the playground, and one by one they told him "you can't play with us anymore" after he'd only been there a few minutes. They would always find a reason, no matter what he did.
As he made his way down the elm-lined sidewalk, he let out a huff of frustration. To any passerby it would look like he was slumping under the weight of his little backpack, although it barely weighed anything at all.
Perhaps he would have better luck tomorrow, but it seemed like no animal at Ramson Elementary, predator or prey alike, wanted to be his friend. And the little fox was utterly perplexed.
Why don't they like me?
And to make matters worse, he still had a whole 10 blocks to go before he would be home to his mother's comforting words and homemade snacks that he so desperately needed right now.
This is the worst day of my life.
At that moment he was passing through a very nice neighborhood, the clean-painted two-story houses with well-groomed lawns and symmetrical gardens a far cry from his and his mother's own dingy house. He eyed them curiously as he passed, wondering what it would be like to be able to see all the way over the roof of a neighbor's house through a second-floor window, or to have one of those glimmering cars that would mean he wouldn't have make the 30-minute trek to and from school each day.
A soft rustling cut into Nick's thoughts. He froze, pricking his ears curiously. It sounded again, and he realized it was behind a wooden fence bordering one of the big houses.
The little fox inched forward, wondering if he could peek through a hole in the fence and see who was fumbling around behind it. His mother would probably tell him it was none of his business, but she wasn't here, was she? And he admitted it—he was curious to see just who lived in a house like this.
Suddenly the rustling stopped, and a sleek gray shape flew over the fence, landing right in front of Nick. He let out a yelp and stumbled backwards.
"Hi!" the animal bubbled. It was a tiny gray rabbit, looking to be a little younger than him, with bright purple eyes that gleamed with unbridled excitement.
"Wha…? Uh…hi." Nick looked away shyly, fixing his eyes on the ground and fidgeting with a strap on his backpack.
"I'm Judy!" she told him enthusiastically. "What's your name?"
"Nick," he muttered, still studying the ground.
"Do you live around here, Nick?" she asked. "I've never seen you before."
"No…uh…I live a few blocks thataway." He pointed down the street. "I was walking home from school."
"You wanna play with me?" Judy the rabbit piped up.
Nick looked up in surprise. Another animal actually wanted to play with him?
Joy began to bubble up in Nick's chest, but he forced it down. Something wasn't right.
"Aren't bunnies s'posed to not like foxes?" he asked, thinking of the group of rabbits in his kindergarten class who were always shooting worried glances his way, and inching away from him whenever he walked past.
"They don't?" The purple-eyed rabbit looked genuinely puzzled by the sentiment. "Why not?"
Nick fingered his collar, wondering if he should tell the little rabbit that once upon a time, foxes ate rabbits. He considered for a few seconds, and decided against it. He didn't want to ruin her wide-eyed innocence, and aside from that she was the only animal he had met all day who seemed to want to be his friend. Maybe I can tell Mama I made at least one friend today!
"I d'know," he replied finally. "This big group o' bunnies at kindergarten was avoiding me all day. But I didn't do anything to them!"
"Well, that's dumb!" Judy huffed.
"Yeah…" A smile tugged at Nick's snout. "They're all just a bunch of dumb bunnies. But you don't seem like a dumb bunny," he added quickly. "Can I still play with you?"
"Yeah, come on!" She reached out to grab his paw, but he jerked it away.
The little bunny looked taken aback. "What's wrong?"
"I can't touch a prey animal for more than 10 seconds or my zap collar'll go off," he explained.
Her purple eyes widened in horror. "What? That's awful!"
Nick shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. "Mama says they put 'em on predators 'cuz sometimes predators can get kinda mean and hit prey, and if they don't let us touch a prey for more than 10 seconds than we can't hurt anyone bad."
"But you don't all want to hurt the preys, do you?" Judy asked, sounding anxious. "So why do all predators have to wear zap collars?"
"Cuz they don't know who's gonna get mean and who's not," Nick explained.
"So can't they put you through a niceness test or something?"
"Mama says they're just being super super careful so none of the preys ever get hurt, so they put zap collars on all of us."
"Well, whatever your mama says, it's still dumb," Judy proclaimed importantly, crossing her arms. "But I won't touch you so you don't get zapped."
He gave her a grateful smile. "Thanks."
"Now come on, let's go play!" She bounced over to the gate leading through the wooden fence, hopping up to undo to latch. Nick grew giddy with excitement as he poised himself to walk through the gate. He was going to see a rabbit's backyard for the first time!
Judy's backyard wasn't particularly exciting to the average onlooker, with a trampoline situated in the middle of a neat rectangular expanse of grass and the only other noteworthy things being a small vegetable garden growing by the back fence and a few cone-shaped hedge trees lining the side fences. But to Nick Wilde, it looked like the most exciting playspace the world could possibly have offered.
"Okay, now you're gonna be the mean old thief who's robbing a bank, and I'm gonna be the really brave cop who stops you!" Judy declared. Nick nodded obediently, taking off his backpack and setting it down on the grass.
Her cheery smile quickly turned to a scowl, and she made a gun shape with her paw and pointed it at him. "Stop, in the name of the law! You're under arrest for taking money from innocent animals!"
Nick gave her his best menacing grin, holding an imaginary bag of cash over his head. "Mwahaha! I'm going to take every last dollar in this savings account for…orphan baby red pandas, and there's nothing you can do to stop me!"
"Hey, you're pretty good at this!" Judy broke character to give him a brief smile before returning to her stern scowl. "You mean ol' robber, the red panda orphanage needs that money or else it'll go out of business and all the baby red pandas will have to live in refrigerator boxes in alleyways! You give it back right now!"
"Ha!" Nick stuck his tongue out at her. "You'll never catch me alive, cuz I'm getting in my getaway racecar!" He proceeded to dash around the yard, turning an imaginary wheel with his paws and making vrooming noises. Judy stared after him in dismay, her face falling into a pout.
"Oh yeah? Well…well I'm calling backup!" She proceeded to do just that with an imaginary walkie-talkie, and chased after him making siren noises.
"We've got you surrounded, mister!" she screamed, springing out in front of him. "You'd better surrender the money if you don't wanna go to jail!"
Nick dug his shoes in the grass to keep from running into her. He looked wildly around in mock panic before turning back to her and smirking. "Well, too bad my getaway racecar turns into a rocket!" With one quick motion and the appropriate sound effects, Nick leapt onto the side of Judy's trampoline and wriggled in through the net.
"I'm on the moon now!" he called down in a singsong mocking voice. "And Imma build the greatest space mansion ever and no one can do anything 'bout it!"
"You think you can get away that easy?" she taunted. "Betcha didn't know at police school they gave me a magic potion that gave me super strength, and I can jump all the way to the moon!"
She followed him onto the trampoline and proceeded to chase him around in circles, laughing and screaming. They both tumbled and bounded every which way, trying with little success to keep their footing on the springy surface. Every time Judy got anywhere close to Nick, he managed to bounce out of her reach at the last minute.
"You still can't touch me, officer!" he giggled. "This moon gravity is on my side!"
"Oh yeah?" she panted. "Well…good thing I brought my space lasso!"
Nick looked back at the little rabbit, her purple eyes hard with determination as she swung the invisible rope around her head. Perhaps it was time to let her win.
"Ha! Gotcha!" she called out.
"Oh no! Not the space lasso! Anything but the space lasso!" Nick collapsed onto the trampoline, writhing dramatically while making choking noises and clutching at his neck.
Judy bounded over and smirked down at him, her hands on her hips. "Your days of robbin' banks are over, mister. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in court!"
"Really? Can you even hold this against me?" He stuck his fingers in his ears and made a long string of noises with his tongue, causing Judy to burst into a fit of giggles.
"Yeah, the judge will think you're a weirdo!" she huffed, after she had regained control of her laughter. "But come on, let's get you to court." She reached out a paw to help him up, but he shrunk away.
Upon seeing his hesitance, she gave him a reassuring smile. "Hey, it's okay…it's gonna take way less than ten seconds for me to help you up!"
Nick shyly returned the smile, and reached out his paw. She gripped it and tugged him to his feet, hastily letting go as soon as he was standing.
This is great, he thought, gazing into her gleeful violet eyes. I can tell Mama I made a friend today after all!
"JUDY!"
The shrill voice nearby made both children freeze, turning nervously toward the source. A short-eared gray rabbit came bustling out of the back door of the house, followed by a wide-muzzled brown rabbit. The brown rabbit scowled as soon as he caught sight of Nick, while the gray rabbit's expression turned to one of alarm.
"Judy, what is this?" she demanded. "What are you doing with a fox?"
"Oh, this is my new friend Nick, mom!" Judy exclaimed, sliding out of the trampoline netting and hopping down to face her parents. Nick followed more apprehensively, not meeting the two older rabbits' eyes. "He was walking by, and I invited him to play with me," she added enthusiastically.
Judy's mother was shaking her head, eyes filling with horror. "Sweetie, you can't play with a predator! Don't you know they can be dangerous?" The young rabbit responded with a look of utter bewilderment. "Quick, come inside," the mother rabbit said, rushing over and forcibly herding her daughter toward the door.
"But Nick's not dangerous!" he heard Judy protest. She stole a despairing glance back at him, but her mother turned her head away. "Nonsense dear, you've only known him for a day. How would you know?"
Nick watched in despair as his new friend was led away, letting out a final frustrated "Mom!" before the door shut behind her.
Judy's father, who had been watching his wife and daughter leave, turned to glare at Nick. "You!" he growled. "Get off of my property and stay away from my daughter!"
"B-but—" Nick stammered.
The brown rabbit took a threatening stride toward him. "I said get out of here! Or do I need to call the police on you?"
Nick snatched up his backpack and scurried away, tail bushed out in fear. He crashed through the gate, nearly tripping over his own paws in a rush to get away.
"And don't come back!" the brown rabbit yelled after him. "Filthy little vermin fox!"
Nick kept running down the sidewalk, tears already starting to form in his green eyes. Perhaps this was still going to be the worst day of his life after all.
For the next several days Nick crossed the street when it came time to walk by Judy's house. He couldn't deny that he felt a prickle of longing when he thought of the feisty little rabbit who has almost been his friend, but it was far outweighed by the terror of her angry father. The way he had scowled at Nick was still seared in the back of the little fox's mind.
Nick kept telling himself that he was never going to set foot near that house again. But as the days rolled by and the fear of the big brown rabbit's booming voice became more and more distant, Nick's curiosity finally got the better of him. Making sure no one was around to see him, he crept toward Judy's fence, hoping he could peek inside and catch a glimpse of the little rabbit jumping on her trampoline or running around her yard or nibbling on veggies from her garden.
He wasn't entirely sure what he intended to do after that. Call out to her? Sneak back in and join her? Nah, chances were he'd simply watch her play for a while and then slink away like he was never there, feeling as lonesome and desolate as ever.
Unfortunately, Nick couldn't see Judy anywhere when he found a wide enough crack in her fence to peek through. And given the experience he had with her father, he wasn't inclined to look for a particularly long time. Tail drooping in disappointment, Nick skulked back to the sidewalk, trudging past the front of Judy's house and onward to his much less scenic neighborhood.
He was passing a bush on the far side of her neighbor's lawn when a noise slipped from it, making his ears perk up.
"Pssssst!"
Nick took a step toward the bush, studying it curiously. Bushes generally didn't speak, to his knowledge, so this was an unusual one indeed.
A small gray head popped out, and Nick jumped back in surprise. The rest of the bunny followed, and she started striding toward him. Nick slowly backed away.
"Hi!" she said perkily. "I was hoping you'd come by this way again."
Nick eyed her fearfully. "Why are you talking to me?" he whimpered. "Your parents don't like me!"
"So what?" She crossed her arms defiantly. "I like you!"
"But…" He rubbed the back of his head uneasily. "If they catch me talking to you, we're both prolly gonna be in trouble."
Judy grinned. "So we go where they can't catch us!"
Nick glanced anxiously around, looking for any sign of Judy's parents. "Like where? We can't go to my house because then my mama might wanna meet your parents, and then we'll be busted!"
"It's okay. I know just the place!"
Judy took off bounding down the path, leaving Nick struggling to catch up. She stopped in front of an enormous treehouse at the end of the next block, turning to grin triumphantly.
"It's been completely abandoned since the Squirrelburgs moved out," she explained. "It's the perfect place to play!" Before Nick had a chance to respond, she started scaling the ladder.
"Aren't your parents gonna wonder where you are?" he asked her as he hesitantly followed.
"Oh, I told them I was going over to my friend Sheila's house!" She turned to smirk at him. "And ya know, with eight brothers and sisters, they can't really keep a super close eye on me anyway. So I tell them I'm going to any friend's house and they can't be bothered to check. And I pretended I was all scared of you after you left, so they think I'm never gonna go talk to a fox again and they don't have to make me stay away."
"Wow." Nick's smile broadened as she turned away. "Sly bunny."
So this chapter in particular was kinda inspired by a part of Chapter 4 of The Fallen Chronicles by Jacato, which has Judy wanting to play with Nick when they're kids but then an adult flipping a bitch when he finds them playing. I wanted to do a similar scene, but…have a happier ending to it ^^;
Honestly, it's a ton of fun to write kids playing games, largely because they just come up with the craziest shit on the fly and just go with it XD You can literally write the game going in any number of completely insane directions, and it's perfectly believable. Also probably partly because I'm always a bit nostalgic for those days myself…and I guess writing out kids' games is a way to relive them!
I hope I didn't make Judy's dad TOO much of a jerk ^^; In my defense, he WAS pretty prejudice against foxes initially, and we never saw him interact with one when Judy was a kid…so who's to say he wouldn't have been this cruel? :/ Besides, in this AU, prejudice against predators is multiplied, like, tenfold, so that's another reason for Stu's excessive dickishness.
Yay for Judy wanting to be Nick's friend anyway! Ah kids, so simpleminded and free of prejudice. This poor bunny just wanted a fun playmate and did not give an honest crap what species they were XD And heh, Nick is already calling Judy a sly bunny just a few days after they've met!
Hmmm…when I read over this chapter again, it honestly felt a bit…compressed. I dunno, it just felt like the dialogue scenes ended too soon and Judy and Nick's sudden friendship was kinda rushed. Then again, they ARE kids, and kids don't exactly put a lot of thought into making friends, they just DO it XD And hey, I tend to have overly drawn-out dialogue scenes, so maybe making it a bit more clipped is better. I hope, anyway.
Until next update!