Disclaimer: I do not own any of the rights to the movie, characters, etc. I am just a big fan of this movie (It's actually my new favorite), and I wanted to dig deeper into Nick's past. This is just something I have thought about, and wanted to see how it went.

Nick's secret

Judy Hopps had just arrived at the precinct at an extremely early hour, as always. She glanced at officers McHorn and Rhinowitz, two of the rhino officers, talking by the coffee machine, rubbing their crusty eyes, and trying to wake up properly for the day ahead. Judy was as awake as she could possibly be. She had wanted to be a cop ever since she was a little girl, despite everyone telling her to be something else, so she never considered this job as a job. It was simply something she loved to do.

But Judy was in an especially good mood today, for her new partner would be arriving for his second day on the job. Nick Wilde, her best friend, had just officially become a police officer a few days ago. Judy, herself, had given him his badge. All Nick wanted was to be part of a pack...and now he was. She remembered the look he gave her when she gave him his badge and saluted. That look was something she wished she could freeze and photograph in her mind. It was a look of sincere happiness, a look that told Judy that he finally felt accepted. It was the proudest moment of both of their lives as Nick happily saluted her back and everyone cheered.

Now, Judy would finally get to work with Nick as her partner. It was a very unlikely partnership, a fox and a rabbit, but no one was against it. No one questioned it. Judy walked up to the desk where Benjamin Clawhauser sat, munching on a chocolate donut with extra sprinkles. She laughed as he finished it in one bite.

"Hi, Clawhauser!" Judy said happily, giving a friendly wave at the chubby cheetah.

"Hey, Judy!" Benjamin said with equal joy, knocking over the box of donuts as he raised his paw to wave at her. Luckily, Judy caught the box before it could spill out any of Clawhauser's precious sugary, fried pastries. The squeal he emitted when the box dropped, though, almost made Judy drop it with laughter. But she managed to get it back onto the desk as she continued to giggle. Even Clawhauser was laughing at his own ridiculous shriek of fear for his food. "Thanks, Judy. I don't know what I would've done if they spilled all over the floor."

Probably would have eaten them anyway, Judy thought with a hint of regret. She hated to think things like that, but it was probably true, which made it even more sad.

"Ben, is Nick here yet?" Judy asked, already knowing the answer. Nick had barely managed to make it to work on time yesterday. He wasn't the type to wake up early every morning. She would have thought that after waking up so early every day at the academy, it would teach him to be more timely. Still, Judy was pretty glad that they hadn't been able to change Nick entirely. His appearance was no different. He was still as skinny as a pencil, and hadn't lost that sly smile that seemed glued to his face at every waking moment. Judy was the only mammal in Zootopia that knew that Nick's smile wasn't always sincere. He had told her about a traumatizing event that he experienced at a young age, making him vow to never let anyone see that they got to him.

Despite the one moment Nick had let her in, he hadn't made that same mistake again. Not once had he confined in her about anything else. In a way, she wanted to be offended, but she knew that it was Nick's way, and that he would allow himself to be vulnerable to her again when he felt he was able.

"No," Clawhauser stated simply to Judy's question, "I haven't seen him yet. Sorry." Judy looked at the entrance, hoping to see Nick walking through the front door. But the sly fox wasn't behind her as she had hoped. Judy said goodbye to Clawhauser, and with a final glance at the entrance, made her way over to the briefing room where most of the other officers were waiting for Chief Bogo to come in and assign everyone their tasks for the day. Everyone was chatting happily to each other. A few officers that noticed Judy gave her a nod or a "Good morning" to which Judy replied with a toothy smile.

She walked over to her seat where she and Wilde both sat. It was a pretty big chair for the two smallest officers at the ZPD, so Nick and Judy never had a problem sharing it. She waited as patiently as she could, which was hard for a bunny, not noticing that she was rapidly tapping her foot on the seat. Since the table was too tall for her to see over when she sat down, Judy was forced to stand up in her chair all the time. It never bothered her much, but she still wished that they could lend her a seat that went up higher.

A few minutes later, Judy watched in horror as Chief Bogo walked into the room. That was enough to terrify anyone, but that's not what shocked the little bunny. As all of the animals sat up straight in their seats out of respect and fear for their Chief, Judy had to resist the strong urge to yell at the fox that was walking silently behind him. She thought that Nick was in trouble for something because of his naturally mischievous behavior, but she soon realized that Bogo hadn't the slightest idea that Nick was even behind him. As Bogo stood at the podium, Nick smoothly followed, making sure he was behind the chief the entire time.

Bogo put on his usual glasses and look around the room. "Where's Wilde?" he asked in his gruff voice. At that point, Judy knew that no amount of cleverness could get the fox out of this one. But as she glanced at him, he had the classic sly smile he always had on his face. Judy couldn't see his eyes behind the shades that he had yet to take off, but she knew for a fact that they were sparkling with pride. As Bogo was about to ask the question again in a less polite tone, he heard someone in the hall call his name in a frantic manner.

"Chief Bogo," said a voice. "Come quick." Bogo quickly walked out of the room, noticing the frail looking armadillo that worked in forensics as he looked out. He reluctantly followed her out of the room to see what was causing the alarm. As the chief did this, Nick walked casually to his seat and climbed up into his spot next to Judy. His proud smile had no intention of faltering as Judy playfully elbowed him in the ribs.

"I can't believe you were stupid enough to do something like that. You're lucky that armadillo called him when she did," Judy said, giving him another elbow to the ribs. Nick flinched at the attack with a laugh.

"Not luck, Carrots," Nick said confidently. "Just a little bit of persuasion." Judy looked confused at first, but suddenly knew what he was talking about.

"You payed that poor armadillo to lie to the chief?!" Judy whisper-yelled at her partner. She was trying her hardest not to smile at the fox.

Nick put a hand on his chest as if he was hurt, raising his sunglasses with the other hand so Judy could see his eyes widen with fake surprise. "Why, Miss Hopps, how could you accuse me of such a terrible act? I didn't pay her to lie to the chief." Nick said all of this in the most dramatic voice his could. "I just payed her to distract him. Listen, Carrots, she really is in horrible distress." Judy listened as she heard the shrill voice of the armadillo speaking to the chief.

"I really did, chief," said the armadillo in what sounded like an earnestly upset voice, "I lost my coffee! It was here one moment, and it was gone the next!" The chief was walking back into the briefing room, with the armadillo trailing behind him.

"I cannot believe you would disturb my briefing with such trivial matters as your lost coffee, Susan. Just go make another cup," the chief wasn't yelling at Susan, but Judy could tell that he was ready to snap. Right before Susan exited view from the doorway, she gave Nick a small thumbs up. He responded by raising his sunglasses again and winking. Judy wasn't sure if she should elbow him again or tell him how smooth that was. Maybe she would do both. But before she could decide, Bogo had finished mumbling unkind things about Susan and continued on with the briefing that he really never got the chance to start in the first place. "Alright, as I was-Wilde? When did you…" Bogo sighed. He had only known Nick for a few days, but wasn't surprised that the fox had somehow managed to magically appear in his seat. He didn't suspect that Nick had a part in Susan's interruption, but still gave him a glare. "Lose the shades, Wilde, we're inside." Bogo really didn't care if Nick was wearing his shades, but he wanted to scorn the fox for something since he couldn't technically accuse Nick of being late, therefore rendering him unable to reprimand him for his possible tardiness.

Nick didn't even move in the slightest when Bogo ordered that he take his shades off, except to open his mouth. That was Bogo's one weakness: Nick's silver tongue. That thing was more dangerous than anything in Zootopia as far as the chief was concerned. He was the one mammal that had ever been able to render him silent, and he hated it. Before he could tell Nick to shut his mouth, it was too late.

"Oh, I'd love to take my shades off, oh grumpy one," said Nick with a slight bow of his head, his sarcastic voice thinly veiled by a fake sincerity that made Bogo snort in anger, "but if I take them off, I might be blinded by your gloriously bright personality." Almost all of the animals behind Nick were chuckling, despite the chief's deadly stare, and Nick took his shades off just to meet the chief's eyes with his own stare. Usually when Chief Bogo looked someone in the eyes like he currently was with Nick, they cowered away. Not Nick. He kept looking his chief in the eyes with that playful smirk of his. Judy didn't even think her partner was blinking. The silence in the room grew tense, and Bogo eventually had to break the stare with the sly fox, surprising most of the officers, especially Officer Fangmeyer, who's jaw looked like it was about to hit the floor. No one had ever managed to make the chief back down from a stare before.

The chief did his usual routine of giving all of his officers jobs to do around Zootopia until it was just him, Nick, and Judy. Judy didn't know why Bogo always gave them their reports last. She couldn't really blame him for doing it today because of Nick's famous talent for making him angry. Then again, Nick annoyed the chief yesterday, too.

"Wilde. Hopps," said Bogo, getting the attention of his two best officers. "There have been a series of robberies across all of Zootopia. So far, we haven't been able to get much. There are no connections between the stores or their owners, and the robberies all seem to be random. Clawhauser will show you the file we have on it." Judy enthusiastically reassured the chief that they would not let him down, and Nick just quietly followed his partner to look at the case file. Bogo wanted to take Nick's silence as the fox's way of backing down, but he still had that infernal smile on his face, making Bogo worry that Nick was waiting for the right time to verbally torture him again.

Once they were out of earshot, Judy looked at Nick with a small smile, wishing that it was a scornful frown, but unable to force her mouth to move from any position except a smile. "You just love standing up to him, don't you?" she asked her smiling partner.

"Well," Nick said, "it started off as an occasional witty remark, but I'm curious now as to how far I can take it."

"You really should be careful," she said. "He's not just an experiment for ex-cons, he's our chief."

"True," said Nick, his smile getting a bit wider. "I guess I just have so much pent up sarcasm from the academy, I just can't contain myself. I'll be sarcastic to a lot of people, Carrots, but I learned the hard way to be careful around that crazy polar bear." Judy laughed harder than she wanted to, getting the attention of a few people. She could relate so well to the insanity of the academy, and it felt good that she could talk to Nick about that kind of stuff now.

The duo walked to the desk where Clawhauser was excitedly awaiting them. He handed them the folder and watched Judy walk back to her and Nick's shared office with it.

"Morning, Sprinkles," Nick said to Clawhauser with a wave over his shoulder. Benjamin loved that nickname. He was officially named after his favorite food, or at least an accessory to his favorite food. Judy practically hopped to her office and sat down with the folder in hand, opening it hastily. Nick took a bit longer to catch up to her with his casual walk, sitting down in his own chair next to Judy. At least they didn't have to share the same chair in their office. "You know, I saw you opening this thing," Nick said, tapping his claw on the file, "and I feel like you could have made it more dramatic. You know, open it like you would if you were in a movie. Just throwing it open in a hurry ruins the suspense."

Before Nick's sly smile could halfway spread across his face, Judy said, without looking up from her file, "I'll make sure you get the file for the next case we crack. Then you can open it any way you want...you're such a drama queen." Her tone was surprisingly serious, but Nick could see the smile on her face as she said this. He scooted his chair closer to look at the file with her.

"Not much to go on," he said. Judy twitched her nose in determination.

"I've had worse," she said confidently. "The nighthowler case we cracked had no leads or witnesses, and I wasn't in the system at the time. Good thing I saw that pawpsicle in Mr. Otterton's hand, and that goofy tail of yours in the picture of his last known location."

"Goofy? You think my tail's cute. Admit it, Carrots. You love my tail."

"I'm about to love kicking your tail if you don't help find a lead, Mr. Wilde," Judy flashed a smirk at him and continued studying the file with Nick close to her side. The fox laughed and looked at the file with her for a bit. There were no witnesses to the robberies, and only a few leads, all of which apparently lead to dead ends. Judy looked down at some of the notes near the bottom of the page.

No sign of forced entry, no alarms tripped, and nothing caught on surveillance.

Judy kept studying the files they had while Nick started typing on the computer. Judy, for a moment, wanted to turn around and make sure he wasn't playing online poker again like he did yesterday, but before she could even look up from her paper, she heard Nick laugh in triumph.

"Check this out, Carrots," said Nick as Judy looked at what he was doing. It was the surveillance footage from a jewelry store a few blocks from The Mystic Springs Oasis. Judy wasn't quite sure what Nick had such a proud smile on for. "Watch." He pointed at the screen, and Judy got in closer. Whatever it was Nick was seeing, Judy definitely didn't spot it. She was about to accuse her friend of messing with her, but then she noticed a small glitch in the footage, and the jewelry was all gone in a flash. Nick paused it. "You saw that, right?"

"Yeah...they must have hacked into the camera system and put it on a loop until they were finished taking all of the jewels. That still doesn't answer how they managed to get in without setting off the alarm or breaking anything."

"Or does it?" asked Nick, his smirk getting even wider. "If they can hack into the camera system, they should also be able to get into the alarm and overwrite it. After that, all they need is a good lockpick and you have free reign of all the jewels."

"Wow, look at you. Didn't I tell you that you'd make a good cop?"

"Eh, once you've lived on the streets a bit, you just pick up stuff like that. Not that I've ever stolen before, of course."

"Oh, of course not," Judy giggled. Sometimes she wondered what all things Nick did as a thief and a con artist. This wasn't the first case where his criminal past helped them get closer to solving it. She probably shouldn't find such things funny, but Nick was reformed. It was like laughing at a tragic event that happened years and years ago. Joking about it was a way of moving past it.

"Anyway, if they put the system on a loop, then we should be able to remove it and see the real footage."

"Do you really think you can do that?" Judy asked.

"Well, I'm more of a businessman than a hacker, but I do have a guy that can encrypt this for us...except…" Nick trailed off, as if wondering if he should finish what he was about to say.

"Well?" said Judy expectantly. "Except what?"

"He can probably show us the real footage, but he's not exactly big on cops."

"Well, neither were you, and here you are now."

"Yeah," Nick said distantly. "We'll have to talk to him at night, though. He's not much of a daytime kind of guy."

"Okay, so do you want to go on patrol or something while we wait, or maybe we could question a few of the store owners," Judy suggested. Nick planted a smile on his face.

"Or maybe," he said, "we could watch that new movie you've been so excited about."

"Nick, we can't watch a movie during a case," Judy said, looking around to make sure no one could hear her before lowering her voice. "Okay, let's go." She hopped out of her chair, followed by a laughing Nick. The fox and rabbit walked out of the precinct as Nick was patiently listening to Judy's excitement for the movie. "Everyone's saying that it's one of the best movies of the year."

"Sounds great," Nick said somewhat unenthusiastically. Judy's ears drooped a little.

"What's wrong?" she asked him.

"Nothing's wrong," Nick said simply. "I just haven't seen many movies."

"Too busy planning scams with Finnick," Judy said jokingly. Nick smiled.

"I still watch television, but I guess I'm just more of a music kind of a guy."

"Really, I wouldn't have guessed with the way you acted at the Gazelle concert."

Nick laughed, "First of all, I enjoyed that concert, I'm just not a big dancer. Second of all, she's not my favorite singer." Judy smiled, remembering when she managed to convince Nick to dance at that concert. Sure, he just kind of rolled his arms from side to side, but it was good enough for the bunny.

The two friends kept talking until they made it to Judy's apartment. "I wish we could watch the movie in theatres, but you were at the academy at the time," Judy said.

Nick shrugged, "Believe it or not, I'm not a big fan of theatres. I like to enjoy a movie at the comfort of my own home."

"Speaking of which," Judy said. "My apartment doesn't have a T.V, so can we watch it at your place?"

"Oh," Nick said. He certainly wasn't expecting Judy to ask that question, and Judy felt bad for not asking earlier. The thought just slipped her mind completely. Nick let his surprise show for a few seconds before putting his smile on out of habit. "Why, Officer Hopps, if I didn't know any better, I would say that you had a crush on me."

"Well then, Mr. Two-Hundred Dollars a Day, maybe you should buy me a T.V for my apartment so that I won't have to find out where you live." Nick laughed. Judy was one of the few people who could actually make up comebacks to his wit.

"Sure, we can watch it at my place. I'll text you the address and you can meet me there in, say, an hour or so?"

"Yeah, that's fine," said Judy. "See you in an hour." Judy hugged Nick goodbye, and they went their separate ways.

Hey, guys. This is my first fanfic, so please tell me what you like and dislike about this fanfic so that I can fix it to your liking. By the way, I will be posting the next chapter within the next few days, depending on how long it takes to get some feedback. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.