A Day in the Rain

Written by TheAsssassin_2

Edited by Cimar/WildeHopps &

OnceNeverTwiceAlways

Rain. Rain was an interesting thing. It could turn almost any day boring. Some people loved the rain, like Nick. He'd always loved it when it was pouring outside, even when he was little. It always made him feel safe in a way. On the other paw, Judy didn't quite see the beauty of falling water. She had always seen it as an obstacle and sometimes a pain in the neck.

It had been raining for several days in the city of Zootopia and it was starting to wear the bunny's patience thin. It was their days off and they hadn't been able to do anything! They had trips to the park planned with their kits, a romantic picnic planned for the two of them...and all of it out the window.

Nick had an idea after noticing his wife's recent mood. "Hey, Carrots?" he said in a sing-song voice.

"What, Nick?" She didn't quite growl but came close.

Nick recoiled a fraction of an inch. She's grumpier than I thought.

Which was strange; Judy had been uncharacteristically on edge all weekend. Nick couldn't even say for sure if she'd even smiled since sometime the day before. I mean, I know I wasn't thrilled about having to cancel our picnic... But… not this much. This calls for drastic measures!

"How about you and I go down to Fitwik's and have a little bit of fun?"

Judy looked over at her fox and sighed, though her ears perked up. "You know, Nick, that sounds like a good idea."

And so two jackets, a bunny sized umbrella (Nick didn't mind as he really liked being close to Judy, and this was the perfect excuse), and a brief argument about what they were going to do after Fitwik's, they arrived at the arcade.

"So what are we going to do this time, Slick?" Judy asked as she hung up her coat.

"I don't know, Fluff. You pick this time." With Judy's recent mood he didn't want to have her mad at him, again. So he (begrudgingly) let her make the decision for today.

Judy looked at him as though his ears had turned into horns and fire was dancing above his head. "You're being awfully nice today. What for?"

"Well, you haven't been in the greatest of moods today, and I just wanted to cheer you up."

"I'm sorry, Nick."

"It's no probl—"

"No, for this." Judy smirked before she laid back and flipped the visor down on her helmet.

"You're kidding me, right?" He sat back and lowered his own visor. "You're not even going to give me a hint about… what... we're…" He couldn't finish as he dozed off and the simulation began.

~ ~ ~Page Break

The smell of hot oil. The whirring of machinery. The sound of metal being chipped, cut, and ground apart. This was Judy Hopps' dream.

She had always wanted to be a machinist. No one in her family had believed she could do it. They'd never even supported her. Everyone but her mother; she had always believed. When Judy had told the rest of her family three years ago what she wanted to do with her life, her father had openly shunned her for not wanting to be in the family business. It was almost enough to make her want to quit—but she didn't.

Judy flew through school, completing three grades in the time it took to do two. When Judy was in the tenth grade she discovered a way to put herself on the fast track to her goal. Instead of continuing in high school she could drop out and get her GED instead. All she needed to do was have her mom sign some paperwork, study; and then pass a few tests. Easy.

During her time studying to take the big test, Judy was advised by her instructor to go and talk to the local workforce service office. What she discovered couldn't have pleased her more. Turns out, she qualified for a pell grant that would pay for a substantial amount of her training.

So now, here she stood—two and a half years later—meeting her instructor in front of the shop that she'd be using for the next five years. Judy had finally made it.

Even though her program was through a college, the coyote exiting the shop owned his own business. He walked up to Judy, put his paws on his hips, and smiled.

"You must be Judy. My name is Jack. It's a pleasure to meet you." He held out his paw.

Judy took the offered paw and gave it a firm shake. "The pleasure is all mine."

Judy was excited—to say the least—she could not wait to get into the enormous building across the driveway from them. Across from the shop stood a large log cabin. It had been built in an old style that Judy hadn't seen before with elements of a modern house added on. The logs had been allowed to weather slightly and then stained to give them an older feel. The roof was red tin and there was a porch that ran the whole length of the front. In all it looked like it came right out of a movie.

The small complex was a good deal outside of any town and tucked into the trees almost ten miles from the main road that would take you to Zootopia—or Bunnyburrow, if you went the other direction.

"Okay, Judy, I like to get to know my students before I have to live around them for five years. Tell me, why do you want to be a machinist."

Judy was silent as she thought of a response "You know the show How It's Made?

Jack nodded his head with a smile. "It's one of my favorites."

"Back when I was fourteen. I saw some machining on TV, metal spinning to be exact. In the show the narrator said that not just anyone could be a machinist—it took a feel for it. I always thought that it would be fun to be able to learn to do that—that maybe I had that feel."

"Do you know how to do any basic machining?"

Her ears wilted. "I know the concepts, but I've never touched a lathe or milling machine before."

"That's alright. I'll get you up to speed. But first, we need to wait for my second student. I just talked to him on the phone and he should be here any minute."

"I don't mind waiting," she chirped.

The two stood around for a while until Jack got restless and went to sit on the porch swing. "Come sit in the shade Judy. He'll be here any minute."

They sat talking about this and that, getting to know one another. Where they grew up, stuff about school, that sort of thing. They had been sitting for about five minutes when an older Furd classic truck pulled up with a large camper being towed behind it.

The truck pulled up beside Judy's and the engine went quiet. The door opened and out stepped a red fox wearing a pair of aviators. Jack stood up and started walking out towards the fox.

"You're Jack right?"

He nodded.

"Oh man, am I glad to see you! I'm sorry about the delay. I turned down the wrong road and it took me a while to get backed out. Where are my manners? My name's Nick Wilde." The fox offered his paw to the coyote who gladly accepted it.

"It's a pleasure, Nick. Now, you are allowed to live here in that." He gestured to the camper. "You can park it over behind the shop. All the hook-ups you need are over there."

As they were talking, Judy had been checking out the camper. "What kind of camper is this?" she asked. "I've never seen anything like it before."

"It's a camper alright, just much stronger than anything you'll ever find on the market. I made it myself." He turned to the bunny and held out his paw. "I'm Nick Wilde."

Judy took his paw which was almost three times bigger than hers. "Judy Hopps. Your house is quite impressive."

"Thanks."

Jack clapped his paws together earning the fox and bunny's attention. "Okay, I'm going to give you guys the grand tour and let you get settled in. We'll start official class in the morning."

The first stop they made was to the house.

"Since you're so far away from any type of town, I let my students live with me if they so choose. I'll pay for your meals and your utilities. In return, you'll be hired on as part of my business. You're both welcome to come and go as you please when you're not on the clock. But you will still have to earn your keep."

As Jack was talking, they walked through the cabin door and into a mudroom. It was fairly small with concrete flooring and a welcome mat in front of the door to the main house. It also had lots of hangers for coats, a couple of trays for winter boots, and a few drawers for storing gloves and hats.

The inside of the house didn't look like the outside at all. It had all new furniture and appliances. Judy realized that it actually wasn't brand new, it was all old, but had been very well taken care of. This guy is pretty clean. She noted.

They walked through an entryway where halfway down and on the right Nick and Judy saw the kitchen. She walked further in and looked around. To her left she saw a long hallway, and, up ahead, Judy saw what she would guess was the living room. She waited for Nick and Jack to catch up before they continued the tour.

The living room was rectangular in shape and had windows along the wall opposite from where they came in. Nick meandered into the room as he looked around.

"This is a pretty nice setup you've got here." Looking to the left was a fireplace with an alcove to its right where firewood was stacked. In front of the windows was a brown recliner.

Jack followed him and sat in the recliner. "Thanks, I'm was hoping you'd like it here." To the right of Jack was a camel brown sofa which Nick decided to sit down on.

In the corner next to the sofa was a dark brown ottoman with a green leaf design on it with a matching paw rest in front of it and a torchiere style lamp behind it. Judy decided to sit down there.

"This is really nice. I really like your fireplace. I was never around one when I was little." Further to her right sat a love seat that matched the ottoman in design.

Across from the group was a large opening that led to the dining hall. Further to the right of that was the entertainment center which was quite large. On the left of the TV was a cabinet with a glass door full to the bursting with movies.

"Alright as you can see this is the living room." He motioned across the room in a sweeping fashion. "I have movies and a few old games, I don't want those to get in the way of work, but you can play around with them in your free time if you would like."

He gestured at some book shelves that were next to the entertainment center. "I've also got some books to read. There's a little bit of everything, I've got the 'Machinery's paw book' 'Welding Principles and Applications' and I've even got some sappy romance ones mixed in there too, if that is what you'd like." He barked a laugh with his comment.

While Nick and Judy were getting a look around, Jack started talking again. "You guys are welcome to hang out here whenever. If you do make a mess—and this means anywhere in the house and the shop—clean it up. That'll make all our lives easier. Through there—" he pointed to the dining room—"is the dining room. It joins with the kitchen which you guys saw on the way in. They make a loop."

He pointed the way they came. "Down that hall are the bedrooms and bathroom. Judy you can pick either the first one on the right side or the one at the end of the hall. The bathroom and my room are both labeled. Please don't go in my room unless it's an emergency."

They both nodded.

"Alright, there is a downstairs. Let's head that way next." Jack stood up and led them into the dining room and immediately turned right and opened a door. The stairs down were very steep from Judy's point of view. It looked like the stairs went down two stories instead of one.

Once they were all at the bottom, Jack started showing them around. "To your right through that door is the laundry room and pantry. You both can use the laundry room. And if you get anything from the pantry write it down on the shopping list on the fridge in the kitchen so I can replace it when I make a supply run. Second thought, do that with anything that you notice is starting to run low."

In front of the group there were two beds, and a door that said bathroom across from them. Around the corner further into the room were some desks with computers on them. "Over there is my improvised classroom. That is where I'll teach you about metallurgy and the math that you need to know to work machine tools. I know that college has given you each a set of online classes to work on as well. That is also where you can work on those."

"Now I know you guys will like this. Come over here" He led them to a door next to the stairwell. Opening the door took Judy's breath away. Inside there was one milling machine and one lathe. On the far wall was a very nice workbench that had a peg board above it filled with tools.

Judy's ears sprung up and she clasped her paws together in front of her and looked up at Jack. He nodded. "Go ahead."

She jumped in the air in joy and took off in to the small room. The first thing she ran to was the lathe. It wasn't a huge one but it could get most jobs done. She turned around. "Can I, sir?" She could barely contain her excitement. He nodded again. She turned around and just gazed at the machine in front of her. If this coyote had these in the basement of his house, she couldn't wait to see what he had in his shop.

The group had taken a break for lunch before they headed out to the shop. The shop was fantastic! It was huge; it even had a second floor office! Jack had so many tools it was making Judy light headed. He had two lathes, two milling machines, four different kinds of grinding machines. A drill press that was almost as tall as the roof was. He had an automatic metal cutting band saw, and another one for cutting wood. And even a separate room with a whole slew of different kinds of belt grinders. He even had a plasma cutting table and paw held plasma cutting equipment. Each machine and area even had its own three by five workbench so different projects didn't get mixed up.

One whole corner of the shop was dedicated to welding. In it were one TIG welder, one MIG welder, and an engine powered stick welder. There was even an oxy-fuel cutting and welding set!

Another corner drew Nick's attention. It was the only one that didn't look to be in pristine condition and was dedicated to blacksmithing. There was one hydraulic press, two power hammers, one striking anvil and one normal anvil. In the center of all the power tools were two forges, one powered by gas and the other by coal.

Nick hadn't really said a word since he had arrived. It was all a lot to take in. "Sir why isn't your forge as clean as the rest of your shop?"

Jack sighed. "Blacksmithing is quite the dirty line of work. Every time I clean it, it's dirty again within the hour." He looked over at, Judy who was partially bouncing in excitement, and rolled his eyes. "Okay guys that's enough looking at my collection of junk. Go get your stuff unpacked and get settled in. Dinner is at six. I want to see you both there."

AN: Hey everyone Assassin here. First off I'd like to thank Cimar for letting me be a part of this, it's an honor. I'd also like to thank OnceNeverTwiceAlways for looking over this and find those dastardly grammar mistakes. Last what did you guys think? Any theories for what is going to happen next? Spam Cimar's comments. So I have something to read. XD Thanks again! Bye.