DISCLAIMER: Zootopia is owned by Disney. This fanfic is written by me (Damie243).
Chapter 1: Mid-duty Break Affections
Savannah Central, 11:30 am, Wednesday
It was a beautiful day within the Zootopia's central hub.
The sky was nearly cloudless, leaving the clear sight of its endless blue expanse to undisturbed for all eyes to see, along with the sun intensifying that beauty by shining it's very hot rays of light to the city bellow. This gave the Savannah Central the trademark heat it was well-known and popular for, being a favorite place for mammals that were accustomed scorching hot environments. Buildings all around the district reflected the light off of their structures, brightening the vast array of colors that were painted onto their construction, adding more local senses of fascination for those to witness; especially those that loved heated temperature. However, animals of all species tend to come to the district, regardless of their own race's environmental preference. Being Zootopia's downtown center, it held many places and zones of importance, causing many individuals from other locations within and out of the city's borders to relocate to this particular district for employment opportunities and tourism.
Regardless of the reasons, the residents of the city held plenty of love and respect towards Savannah Central just like they would with the other districts in the mammal-filled metropolis.
Speaking of the city's resident's, almost every walking space in the hot downtown center was filled to the brim of them. Mammals of all shape and sizes, native to the district or not, were casually strolling around the open streets in large crowds, getting to their destinations with no signs of urgency. Many were doing their daily tasks or getting to their workplaces, others were just having fun by hanging around the parks; chatting amongst each other and eating icecream, or just simply playing around. Also, every ginormous broadcasting screen was showing recorded music videos of Gazzel's latest hits, blaring her songs to the excited denizens under a lot of high volume. This was the usual day in Savannah Central, the kind of activity that made this part in the city to be very much alive and give off the aura of excitement to newcomers that just came right out of the station.
For some, it was more scary than exciting, as they were not used to relocating to such a new surrounding such as this, especially with prejudices and interspecies tensions still a thing. Fortunately, with the firm conclusion of the Night Howler case a year-and-a-half ago, people all around Zootopia have begun to be more open-minded and accepting of each other's differences. Of course, they haven't dropped all of their biased views entirely, but merely became more tolerant of each other, which was still considered a great change to start with. Many acknowledged that it won't take one night for everyone to drastically switch off their old views; it'll take much more than that. However, seeing the effects of some people from different species wanting to bring those positive changes much quicker by forming much closer bonds to one another has brought a stronger air of hope for the majority of the city's residents.
Judy Hopps was currently in her police cruiser, parked right outside of an icecream café as she waited for a specific sly fox to pick up some frozen treats for them. She just sat on her seat, resting her chin on her left arm that lay out of the door's open window, feeling the warm savannah wind brush against her fur.
This moment of peace was interrupted as her cellphone rang loudly in her uniform's pocket, snapping the rabbit officer to snap out of her phase in relaxation and check on the device.
Incoming Call from Mom & Dad
Judy looked at the screen with a smile, which was showing a nice picture of her parents, granting her a familiar feeling of love and warmth, before answering the call and activating the video setting, seeing the recording images of her parent's smiling faces.
"Hey mom! Hi dad!" The rabbit officer greeted the two in excitement.
"Morning, Judy!" Her parents responded simultaneously.
"Now how's our lovely burrow-born ZPD Officer doing today? Caught any ruffians red-handed in their crimes?" Judy's father, Stu, asked in his usually proud enthusiasm.
"Stu, you can't always expect our daughter to catch criminals on a day-to-day basis," her mother bickered the male rabbit with a frown. "Zootopia is a big place and she's doing her best to protect the city, and is most importantly: SAFE. That's all that matters."
"Hey, hey, it's okay mom, you know dad means no harm on that, and thank you for the support," Judy reassured her mother in a tenderly tone, before returning her attention to her father. "And no, dad, not a lot of action has been happening lately. Everything is pretty peaceful so far, the only scuffles me and Nick get into usually involve the ruckus that happens in most Grump rallies and traffic jams."
"Speaking of. . . Nick. . . how is he? He hasn't mistreated you in anyway, right?" Stu asked with visible uneasiness showing in his voice and facial expressions.
"Stu!" Bonnie nearly shouted at her husband in anger.
Judy wasn't too surprised by this, even with the end of the Night Howler incident and Nick's recruitment of becoming the ZPD's first fox police officer, her father was still hesitant with the idea of his daughter working with the vulpine. It's obvious that he still held on to the old and somewhat prejudice views, but it was also mixed into worrying over her personal safety. Her mother was almost identical to her father in terms of these kinds of things, but was able to become more accepting towards the reality of Judy liking to work with the fox after some time pondering about it.
She acknowledged that her father was simply looking after her own well-being (to her annoyance), and old biased views don't go away overnight. She learned that much by the conclusion of Bellwether's schemes revolving the Night Howlers, and was still learning more about it by the coming days. It wasn't too surprising to see her own father still in the process of accepting the concept that she and Nick Wilde were good friends, and has made some slow progress.
Unfortunately, he still held on to his obvious paranoia about many foxes outside of Bunnyburrow being potentially aggressive and dangerous to them (with the exception being Gideon Grey and his family). It's usually this kind behavior, including his lingering hostility towards Nick that would get on her nerves and fill her head with hot-blooded anger.
Ever since the both of them were assigned as partners in the ZPD, they've been spending lots of time together. Whether they were in or out of work, the two of them would always be seen side-by-side, nearly inseparable even. Because of this, the unlikely duo have turned into something that was far more than just friends, and formed a strong bond that many never thought could actually exist. This resorted to Judy becoming more 'protective' over Nick, especially whenever she witnesses any kind discriminatory behaviors targeting foxes (especially towards her partner in particular).
Fortunately, she has grown to be more tolerant against them, despite those same kinds of prejudices still getting on her nerves from time-to-time. As being a police officer in the ZPD, it's required to be resistant to the aggressive attitudes that a cop would face from people.
"No, dad, Nick hasn't mistreated me, at all. And he is doing just fine, he's getting some icecream, right now," Judy answered casually, really wanting to prevent another argument to happen between her parents, while trying her best not to roll her eyes in irritation.
"Well, that's good! That's, uh, good. . ." Stu replied awkwardly as he scratched a spot behind his head.
"Honey," Bonnie addressed her husband, but was back to her calm self "I think I hear some of the kids playing too close to the tractors again. You should probably. . ."
"Oh, right, right! Well, Judy, looks like I have head back outside, but it was dandy talking to you again," Her father said adamantly, losing his worrisome awkwardness from earlier. "Be a good girl and keep them city folk safe."
"Alright, bye dad! Talk to you again next time," Judy bid her father a kind and happy farewell before he left, leaving her with only Bonnie on the screen of her phone.
"You know he doesn't hold any actual ill feelings towards Nicholas, right?" Her mother asked with a sympathetic frown.
Judy responded with an irritated groan as she placed her free hand on her forehead, finally feeling some relief by letting out all of the built-in anger from earlier. "I know, mom. But it still gets to me, you know?"
"I'm well aware of that, dear, but you know he's just looking after you. The idea of you being that close with a fox is still a little concerning for the both of us, especially for your father."
"But what about Gideon? The both of you have been working with him for a while now, and dad's actually comfortable with having him around."
"Judy, you know that we've known Gideon for a long time, and he lives not that far from our farm, so we see him almost every day. And not to mention you've never dated him."
"Yeah, that's true," She groaned in acceptance.
"And you know that it will take a while for your father to be more accepting towards other foxes in general. Do take note that he's making some slow progress."
"I just wish it could all come to him a lot faster," the rabbit police officer replied as she rubbed her forehead. "You guys met him. You know he's a great guy."
"I know, dear, I know," Bonnie continued in her sympathetic tone, trying to ease the stress of her daughter. "But like I keep reminding you. . ."
"Old habits die hard."
"Exactly, Judy. And lots of us rabbit folk in Bunnyburrow have lived with the fear of foxes for lord knows how long, so it will still take more time for someone like your father to change out of that outlook."
"Yeah, you have a point," Judy stated with a tired frown.
"Don't I always?" Bonnie asked teasingly, a smile curled on her face. This somewhat surprised Judy, mostly because this would be the kind of playful demeanor she expected from Nick.
The younger rabbit couldn't help but giggle in response to the teasing question, bringing back the energetic joy back into her system. "Yeah, always."
"Good that you know that, dear."
"Hardy, har, har, mom."
"Anyway, I think I should get going. Your pa may need some help looking after the kids outside, and I think it's time I should let you be."
"Okay, mom, thank you so much for the call. I'll call you guys back when I'm off my shifts, as usual."
"Goodbye, Judy. Remember to be careful, and be safe. Love you, and tell Nicholas that I said hello."
"I sure will!" She beamed with an enthusiastic smile. "Again, thanks for the call. Love you too, and goodbye."
"Take care of yourself, honey," Bonnie bided her last, motherly farewells before finally disconnecting the call.
With the call over, Judy was left to her herself once again, and placed the phone back in the same pocket she would usually leave it in. The rabbit officer went back to what she was usually doing, waiting for her partner while leaning her head outside of her open window. She took advantage of the alone time she had by just relaxing in her own cruiser, feeling the warm savannah winds blow through her head, and finding some relief from the background noise of the many mammals moving around the city.
Despite being an animal that were known for their sensitive hearing, she didn't find the loud sounds of the city too bad for her ear-drums. On the contrary, she loved it all. Ever since she first stepped out of the train station a year-and-a-half ago, she felt an immense amount of exhilaration flooding her body once she finally walked out of the building and listened to roaring noise of everything around her. She remembered it all well and still finds the racket of thousands of animals in one place, yelling, shouting, singing and having boisterous fun just as enjoyable as the first time she experienced it. Of course, there would be times when the areas she and Nick were patrolling in would become so loud that it would start to inflict harm on her (or both of their) hearing, resorting the bunny to put on ear protection.
"Special delivery for a lovely Officer Carrots," said a recognizable voice coming from outside of the car, an orange and brown paw holding a cup of icecream in front of her face.
The cup was pretty big in size, bigger than her own two hands combined, and was adorned with rainbow-like patterns. Two large scoops of the orange and white colored dairy treats were filling its insides up to the brim, making it appear that they could start falling out the edges any minute. Red sprinkles littered the surface of the cold delights like party confetti, and small gummies the shape of baby carrots were scattered amongst the sides. A white plastic spoon laid on the very top, it's flat head was stabbed deep inside of the top scoop with the handle sticking out.
Looking at the icecream any further was already making her mouth water, so she quickly grabbed the large cup with two paws and yanked it away from the other hand it was previously held on.
"Thank you!" Judy said with pure glee as she rest the hefty cup full of icecream on spot between her legs on the seat, then proceeded to eat large spoonful's of the cold delicacy, purring in delight.
"You're welcome," Nick replied as he walked to the other door of the police cruiser, his usual sly smile plastered on his face. "And they say foxes tend to have the best paws for swiping," he mumbled, jokingly, in his usual attitude.
Judy just ignored the comment, being used to the fox's sarcastic sense of humor, and resumed eating her cold treats in enjoyment and pleasure.
Meanwhile, Nick Wilde made it into the large police cruiser by going through the other side, closing the door as soon as he made sure his tail made it into the vehicle with him. Afterwards, he pivoted himself on to Judy's seat to get closer to her, while trying his best to not spill any of his own icecream in the car's interior.
Like a majority of vehicles used by the ZPD, they usually tend to be large, heavy and bulky. This was because many police officers working within the force tend to be from species of animals that were both hefty and robust, granting a significant amount of equipment to accommodate their respective sizes. The cruiser's chairs were built to withstand the size and weight of elephants, which had just enough elbow room for Judy and Nick to share the driver's seat together without concerns for space. Also, their current car was given modifications to suit the needs of their immense size difference with the automobile itself, like an easier to reach steering wheel, higher elevated pedals and brakes, and so on.
Nick Wilde was wearing his on-duty police uniform, just like his partner beside him. A blue collared shirt with long sleeves and matching black pants, his favorite reflective sunglasses placed right above his eyes, allowing his emerald eyes to be visible for all to see.
"Enjoying it, carrots?" He asked as he began to eat a spoonful of his blueberry-filled icecream.
"I'm loving it! Thanks again, Nick!" She answered with a lot of satisfied enthusiasm, before continuing munching down on her cold dairy treat.
"You already thanked me once, carrots, no need to repeat it," the fox mused with his usual demeanor as he kept eating his sweet dessert. "Again, you're welcome."
For the next few minutes, everything was silent between the two of them. The only sounds being made from the inside of the police cruiser were the two officers enjoying their cold and creamy treats. They would playfully nudge each other's elbows or push one another in teasingly ways while they ate, wanting to have a bit of fun while they still had the time too.
"Whoa, slow down there, carrots," Nick cautioned cordially, watching his friend devouring her icecream with such speed and vigor. He could see that she was almost done with the whole cup, leaving only about an inch of what's left of the cold treat on the bottom of the paper bowl.
But that's not the only thing that got his attention.
Judy's muzzle was a mess. Some of the red sprinkles scattered amongst the fur around her mouth, and a couple somehow ended up on the area between her eyes. Not only that, but the edges of her mouth had smudges of melted icecream that was beginning to ooze down her chin, making it look like slime was splattered on her face.
A part of Nick actually wanted to facepalm as a reaction to the results of his partner's messy eating, but just couldn't. The dominant side of him found it all to be more adorable and even cute, only leaving him with his usual sly smirk. However, it was more of a kind, genuine smile instead of the typical smug grins that many would often see him do.
"We're not joining up for an eating competition, so it's okay to take it slow," he continued as he got the female rabbit's attention. "I think you've shown that icecream a thing or two on what it looks like for a rabbit to have the appetite of a lion. And eating that fast could get you brain freeze."
"Har, har, har, Officer Wilde," Judy replied smugly, slowly swaying her hips on her seat with playful seduction. "It will take more than brain freeze to put down this bunny."
"I see that, because it already started with your face. Go look at the mirror."
Judy briefly stared at the fox with a look of stunned curiosity, then proceeded to bring her head back out the window once again, using the side mirror to see her reflection. Her eyes widened a little out of surprise and minor embarrassment, but just saw the current mess on her face to be more hilarious than concerning.
"Oh, my bad," Judy said sheepishly with a slimy smile and an adorable giggle.
"Good thing I keep these around just in case." Nick bent over and reached to the floor below their seat, bringing up a cyan blue box that had images of a baby Zebra on all sides. "Foalpers' Baby Wipes for all our sticky bunny needs."
"Really, Nick? Baby wipes?" Judy asked with humorous curiosity.
"Hey, as long as it could clean that messy face of yours, then yeah, really," He said as he opened the lid and pulled out a few wet wipes.
"They were meant to clean baby butts."
"And they're just as good as cleaning a messy rabbit's face, so hold still."
The vulpine proceeded to dab the wet wipes on the rabbit's face, slowly and gently rubbing the sludge-like cream and sprinkles out of lagomorph's fur, while also cleaning them with the stored liquid. He took his time with this, wanting to be sure that he didn't miss a single spot as he amiably rubbed his friend's cheeks and mouth, and finally finishing it off by wiping the sprinkles out of her forehead.
Normally, Judy would've just taken the wipes and do all of the cleaning herself, but after spending so much time with Nick on and off work hours, and getting to know much more about each other as close friends, she gave more than enough trust for him do such an action like this. And from what the fox could tell, she was definitely enjoying the physical contact, just as much as he was.
"And there you go, all done," Nick said as he took the now dirty wipes away from her face and threw them in a plastic bag where they throw all of the garbage in, along with her empty cup. He looked back to see the progress he made on the current state of his partner's muzzle, only to continue smiling from the feeling of satisfaction.
Judy's face was back to being clean and clear like earlier, all of the sludge and sweet specks of debris were no longer present, only leaving the adorably sweet and beautiful smile that the fox always loved seeing. However, her fur was noticeably darker in tone and damp from the disinfecting liquid stored in the wipes, but that was to be expected with no worries.
The bunny cop leaned her head out the open window to recheck her reflection on the side mirror, only to return to the red fox's smug-like gaze with a bit of laughter, and smile he'd considered sweet. "Thanks, Nick, now my face is wet and smells like baby wash."
"Again, you're welcome, and I hear that a lot of women like the smell clean babi-" Nick stopped as he noticed that a pair of shocked mountain goats were watching them the whole time.
In hindsight, Judy knew exactly was going on by the time she spotted the stunned bovid pair awkwardly standing a few meters away from the front of their police cruiser.
They spent about a minute being absolutely speechless, filling the entire atmosphere that was painfully awkward and nearly insufferable for any of them to mutter a word. Nick and Judy were the ones suffering more, feeling lots of pained embarrassment for not even noticing anybody walking around the area they were in. And knowing that they were parked close to the entrance of the icecream café, where many could walk by and see them, only made the situation more unbearable. Bouts of fear and worry to clouded their minds, thoughts and imaginings of nightmarish scenarios that could have negative affects to their lives if word about this spreads throughout Zootopia. Thankfully, both of them managed to keep themselves together from outright panicking, but were still too stunned to say something.
"Hey! No standing on the crosswalk!" Judy commanded the two mountain goats in an authoritative voice, breaking the unbearable staring match and possibly scaring the bovid pair into thinking about something else. "If you have to cross the street, then cross the street! Get a move on before you cause traffic or get hit by a car!"
Scared by the rabbit officer's commanding outbursts, the two mountain goats broke their frozen gaze from the two police officers and hurried themselves across the street and out of their line of sight. This made both of the law enforcers to slump their bodies deep into the backrests of their seats as they let out a loud breath to relieve themselves, letting out all of the stress that built up inside their chests.
"Good save, Carrots."
"Get your seatbelt on, we're going to find someplace more private."
"You got it," the vulpine complied as Judy turned on the ignition and began to the drive the car off into the streets.
The drive was a relatively peaceful one, there wasn't any traffic or road congestion to speak of, so the roads were clear and offered a smooth ride throughout the next ten minutes. They passed through a couple places of interests, such going around a park and drove by some of the popular hotels in the whole district. Their car went through blocks that were heavily occupied by people of many species, the tall and big ones being the most noticeable to spot in the thick crowds. To the both of them, this wasn't very surprising as this particular district was one of the most visited and populated in the entire city. Adding to the fact that they were often stationed in Savannah Central for a majority of their patrol duties, Judy and Nick have gotten used to its atmosphere. However, there were still times that something would catch their attentions, luring their gazes into trances of joyful bewilderment. The lagomorph and vulpine may have seen a lot of things in the downtown areas, but there would always be something that could end up surprising them.
For the whole ride, none of them said a single word to each other, filling the interior of the police car with an uncomfortable silence between the two, with the exception of background noises coming from Judy's opened window. The racket came from crowds of Zootopians that they drove by. The two police officers were too occupied with their thoughts on what happened back in the icecream café. Worries and strong senses of anxiety clouded their heads as they desperately tried to think of other things to distract their minds, hoping that could somehow make them forget about the whole thing. In many normal circumstances, seeing a man and woman, especially couples, playfully clean each other's faces wouldn't be such an eye buster. However, seeing that happen between a predator and prey species was considered extremely strange, an utter taboo to society amongst many, even. What made matters painful and humiliating for the duo, was that they were caught doing it while they were still in uniform. While they were still on break at the moment, two cops getting caught doing something like that could create a ginormous disaster to the entire police force if word of it spread throughout the populace, including the media. It didn't help Nick and Judy knowing that they and their families would end up suffering the worst of the consequences in many terrible ways. Though, the further they drove, the more they relaxed, finding those situations more as paranoid assumptions and less likely to happen at this current rate in time.
After driving into one of the quieter locations in Savannah Central, Judy pulled the car over to a small parking lot that was placed directly behind an office building, and parked their cruiser to an empty spot all the way in the far back.
Nearly the whole parking lot was empty with the exception of two empty cars left in parking slots close to the rear entrance of the building. Not a single person was in sight, nor a voice could be heard, casting an air of peaceful silence that was further enhanced with the bustling of nearby trees; their branches being blown by the warm winds.
"A business parking lot, cozy," Nick commented as he casually looked around the vacant space through his window, ending the silence between him and his partner as he still tried to forget what happened earlier. He turned back to looking directly at his counterpart, his sly smile showing no signs of phasing. "I know you wanted to find somewhere more private, but never thought it would be behind an office building."
"It's not that far from where we're supposed to patrol and you can see there's practically nobody here for us to worry about," Judy replied, somewhat rushed and hurried as she slumped back on her seat's backrest, then pressed her palms deep into her forehead and let out a disgruntled groan. "How can we be so stupid?! Doing that in front of an icecream café of all places! If word of this gets out-"
"Hey, hey, cowgirl, take it easy. Relax," the vulpine attempted to assure his partner as he slowly reached out for her hands and pulled them away from her face, cradling and massaging them under his paws while looking into her purple eyes. They were sad and sulky, struggling with holding back the immense feelings of anxiety and fear but was not even close to bursting into tears, all he saw was her just trying to hold in a lot of stress. "No one is going spread word about this to anybody. Those two just caught us playing a bit with the wipes on your face, it may've been strange to them, but I doubt they will take it as a big deal."
"Nick!" Judy urged with wide desperate eyes, slightly leaning closer to the fox. "This could wind up being a big deal against us. Them seeing you cleaning my face wasn't the thing I'm worried about, it's that they saw us loving it! Loving it like a couple! And what makes it worse was they caught us doing it in uniform."
"Judy. Relax. Please," Nick continued to reassure her with a comforting tone, his hands still clenching onto hers, gently rubbing them as a way to try and soothe the worries she was going through.
The female rabbit let out a quiet breath through her nose, causing it to twitch slightly, a sign that she was clearly afraid of something, according to what Nick has learned from all their time together. She broke eye contact with the fox, tilting her head down as she looked at nothing in particular, her shoulders lowered and felt heavier than before, a sad-looking frown the only thing present on her face. Her ears were drooped downwards, adding more the depressing atmosphere.
"Judy, please look at me."
She complied, her anxious and sad expression still unchanged.
"They didn't catch us making out, we've always kept that as a rule to NOT do while we're in active duty," Nick explained in a tone filled with lots of gentle care, obviously getting through to his friend. "All they did was catch me cleaning your face, probably thinking we were playing some really weird game or something, like winning against me in a dare, and us enjoying it. I doubt they're perceptive enough to see you loving it in anyway romantic."
"But I did, and I made it pretty obvious to you."
"And only to me, Carrots, not them. Besides, those goats look like young teenagers, all they can do is make this a debatable conversation in their high school."
"That's not making me any less worried, Nick, you're saying that they may still spread word about this."
"Doesn't mean anyone would believe them, and I did say it would be 'debatable'," he replied as he brought his face closer to hers. "And possibly hard to believe and skeptical. You know high school gossip, not meant to be taken seriously."
"Yeah. . ."
Nick brought himself straight back up to his seat, his palms still held on to the rabbit officer's hands. Next, he began to slowly pull her whole body closer to his side. She resisted a little for the first few seconds, but ultimately gave in by leaning her head and torso on his abdomen and tightly wrapped her arms around it. Nick took advantage of her current position by softly coiling his left arm right above the bunny's stomach, and gave a light tug, which she reacted the same way in turn.
While Judy has a habit for hugging and clinging on to her partner, something that everyone in the police department knows all too well about, this one was far different and usually done in secret between the two. This was no regular hug between friends or best buddies, this was an affectionate cuddle between lovers.
"Nick, we shouldn't be doing this. Not while we're on duty."
"You bunnies, always so worrisome."
"Nick."
"Relax, Carrots, the parking lot is still empty as a graveyard, and the car's input sound and video recorders are still broken. No one is going to know," he said in a reassuring and caring way as he gazed down on her purple eyes. "And we're still on break, so we are not technically letting this get in the way with our jobs."
Judy just let out a tired sigh, before tightening her grasp on the fox's waist and slowly pushed more of her head and upper body on to him.
The fox carefully maneuvered himself to grant a better position for his close friend to rest herself on his abdomen, as well as giving room for his tail to actually lie on her waist. He heard her make a satisfied cooing sound, obviously telling him that she liked it, just as much as he liked the moment they were having right now. This made him continue to look down on bunny with his usual sly grin.
"C'mon, Carrots, smile for me."
She just made a light groan in response.
"You know it actually makes me sad seeing you like this."
"That's a surprise," she moaned with (obviously) light traits of sarcasm, causing Nick's earlier smile to quickly change into an unamused frown. His ears, once stood up and perky, now lowered all the way down to the back of his head.
"That's it!" He said loudly with a mischievous smile as he began to tickle his partner's stomach ravenously, causing her to laugh uncontrollably as she tried to push his arms away to no avail, and attempted squirm and shift herself out of the fox's reach but only gave him more exposed areas to target.
Nick continued doing this for another couple of seconds before finally stopping, leaving a tired rabbit on his lap gasping for air. "There you go, now you're smiling."
"You jerk!" She protested somewhat angrily as she still tried to relax her breathing. "This is a forced smile!"
"Not exactly forced since you're enjoying it."
Judy just made an irritated groan, then heaved herself back to the position she was at earlier; lying on the side of the vulpine's lower abdomen and wrapping her arms around his waist. Thankfully for her, Nick didn't really move much, making the process of repeating the position they've made together both easy and quick. Not before long, they were both back into each other's affectionate embrace.
"So, what's the other reason for parking us here?" Nick asked, shifting his gaze to the nearby tress for no apparent reason.
"Huh?"
"I can tell you didn't drive us here to avoid those teenagers or have a private cuddle session, sweetheart, so spill it."
"Sly fox."
"Indeed I am, Fluff. And I still want an answer."
"My parents called me while you were still in the café."
"Did something bad happen to anyone in the family?" Nick asked as he returned his sights to Judy's purple eyes, her previous smile gone back to a sad-like frown.
"No, no. Everything is back in Bunnyburrow still seems to be going well, they were just checking up on me is all," she answered with solemn smile as she tilted her head a little to have a better line of sight with the fox's face. "And mom wants me to let you know that she says hi."
"Tell her I got the message and I wish her well, but you're still not telling me what's making you like this."
"It's dad, he was asking on how you were doing."
"Now why would that sour my lovely bunny's day?" he cooed affectionately with his sly smile, bending his down closer to her eye level.
"He was also worrying if you 'mistreated' me in any way," she answered bluntly, an obvious tone of disgust when she said 'mistreated'.
"Oh." Nick backed off a bit in bewilderment.
"Yeah, now you know why."
After hearing that kind of answer, Nick wasn't too surprised. As much as he still hated it when others show dislike to people like him all because they're foxes, he could understand some of the other (non-racist) reasons. From what he knows about Stu Hopps, he still held some paranoid fear of vulpines, even remembering Judy mentioning that he wouldn't let her board the train to Zootopia without taking something from a bag full of anti-fox peripherals. The same could be said about her mother, but she was a little more willing to give a benefit of a doubt.
Nick knew that they never really had any actual hate towards foxes, just the occasional fear of the big unknown. He's been told that the Hopps family don't venture out of Bunnyburrow very often because of their responsibilities to the farm, as well as having to look over 276 children all at once. Not only that, but everyone in the town was so used to seeing each other almost every day. Sure, there were the occasional visitors and tourists but not many outsiders actually move in and settle. This meant that not a lot of big or exciting things usually happen in the rural farming town, aside from the usual fairs and public events, which he found pretty dull. Although, despite some of the obvious, old-fashioned racial tension that tend to occur between the predator and prey species, everyone got along virtually well.
To his surprise, Judy's parents partnered up with a fox named Gideon Grey a year ago, who they would help supply him with vegetables and fruit for his baking business. Nick found some comfort in learning that, knowing that a family of rabbits, who still held on to some irrational dismay towards foxes, actually built a mutually beneficial business partnership with a fox. While they did know him for a long time, it gave Wilde a sense of contentment that they began to put some of their prejudice fears to rest. It became even better when he was told that Gideon was becoming more of a family friend, often being invited for dinner or to have fun with the kids during any free time he had.
He remembered the day when Judy brought him to Bunnyburrow to spend time with the Hopps family for a weekend, six months ago. When they first met him in person, his partner had to admit to them that they were both in an official relationship, something that ended up being awkward and uncomfortable. The vulpine clearly recalled Stu and Bonnie Hopps' reactions, their eyes widen in shock and jaws slacked open it looked like their mouths would break off from their heads and fall on the floor. In the middle of the astonished stares he was getting, the fox tried his very best to keep himself together by keeping a big happy (and awkward) smile as he tried to shake their hands.
These were one of those changes that not many took lightly, especially for people like Judy's parents. Interspecies relationships was still a social issue in today's society. Though, it was never considered an illegal practice, and tolerance for interspecies marriage has grown over the years, it was still a very touchy subject for many.
Afterwards, he attempted to get himself settled with the rest of the Hopps' family, with Judy's help of course. Wanting to gain more of their trust, he decided to help some of this partner's teenage brothers and sisters with some of the yard work around the farm. His girlfriend's parents found the offering odd and insisted that he didn't have to be involved with any of the day-to-day errands, mainly because he was a guest and only visiting for the weekend. But with some insistence of his own, mixed with his best friend's support, the two older rabbits gave him a rundown on the kind of tasks he could assist on.
Not used to the daily activities of farming, the work he got himself involved with was tiring and exhausting for the fox, leaving him completely drained of energy after the first two hours. This prompted Judy to poke fun at him for being a 'soft city-man', which turned into humorous bickering between the two.
Whether he actually acquired more of their trust in the end of all that effort he put himself through, was a bit unsure. Being good at reading people, he saw that he did get something good conveyed from them, but it wasn't anything spectacular. Nonetheless, he was just glad that they treated him with good decency, instead of viewing him as a criminal fox.
As they were halfway through with their stay in the Hopps' family residence, Nick made the decision to open up to Stu and Bonnie about his history as a conman back in the city. It was very uncomfortable to do, but he knew he had to do it if he wanted to stay on their good sides and prevent further problems between them and Judy. In the end, he told them his previous occupation in the past, him and Finnick hustling from one place to the next and getting involved in conning others to get the money to pay for their necessities. He wasn't doing anything dramatic or sappy when he told them about himself before being a police officer, he remained plainly honest to them throughout his admittance. Lastly, he finished off his involvement with the Night Howler case, meeting Judy for the first time and stopping Bellweather from completing her schemes to corrupt the relationships between predator and prey species in Zootopia. As well as letting them know how grateful he was to their daughter, how much he owed her for helping him get an actual career, and becoming one of the greatest friends he could ever have.
They took it relatively well, slightly better than he expected, possibly because he further proved them that not all foxes were deceiving liars and were just as good (and honest) as any other mammal, but he had a feeling that they already learned that from reuniting with Gideon Grey and his family. Of course, they still held negative feelings and skepticism from learning that he was con artist and committed scams before changing out of that life.
Stu Hopps was strongly against it and was very vocal on his opinions on those activities, but they weren't filled with rage or specist anger, he looked more disappointed and sad than anything else. While he still shown some anger for practicing that kind of profession in the past, not wanting Judy to be influenced (or harmed) from the elements of that kind of life, Stu actually thanked him for the honesty, something that definitely surprised Wilde. The fox further reassured him that he's no longer committing cons and wants to live out a decent life as a police officer with his daughter, which further soothed the male rabbit farmer's anger.
Bonnie took it a lot calmer than her husband, showing slight signs of distraught but nothing more than that. While Nick could feel the disgust coming from her as he admitted to being involved with conning, he also felt sympathy from her passively sorrowful gaze. Not only that, but she attempted to calm her husband during his disapproval outbursts, and even persuaded him to give the fox a chance because he's no longer involved with that life, and the fact their own daughter had good reasons to trust Nick into being a partner in the ZPD, and a boyfriend in a relationship. Of course, these attempts proved to not be much needed because Stu Hopps turned out to be much more reasonable than any of them actually anticipated, but the act of wanting to give Nick a chance with their daughter in something like this was more than the fox could ask for.
Despite some of the good that came out close to the end of that conversation, it was obvious to Nick that the Hopps parents still held skepticism into how the relation could pan out in the end. They admitted themselves that seeing their own daughter being paired up with a fox wasn't something they'd be comfortable with, but were still willing to give it a chance as long as Wilde wouldn't end up harming her, and try to look after her in the best of his abilities.
Nick found it all understandable and agreed to them.
"Then you better tell him that I have mistreated you, alright."
"What!?"
"Mistreated you like this!" Nick brought both of his palms back on the rabbit's vulnerable underbelly and began returned to ravenously barrage her with tickles.
Like last time, Judy reacted by constantly tossing and turning her body to try and shake the fox's hands off of her, resulting her head falling back on to Nick's lap as she was uncontrollably laughing. Despite the rabbit officer's best efforts, her partner always managed to find another sensible spot to target in a very short notice, making those attempts worthless, like earlier. And no matter how hard she would push or slap his hands away, the vulpine just avoided them with ease and resumed tickling her with no signs of giving up.
"Nick, stop!" Judy shouted nearly through the top of her lungs, finally grabbed a hold of her partner's hands, evidently stopping him from making her laugh any further, and jumped on the fox's lap. Locking her eyes with his, staring at him with an irritated and serious gaze, while the fox just shrug it off with a smugly smile.
"Any closer and we would have to kiss."
Judy took one of her hands out of the grip holding the fox's arms at bay, and gave a hardy punch to his stomach. "Not after all that, Wilde."
"Ow. . ." He wheezed, while still maintaining his sly grin, albeit more painfully "Hit a little harder, why don't you."
"You really want me too?" She asked in fuming irritation as she clenched her fist for another punch.
"No."
"Good." The rabbit completely let go of the fox hand, and shifted her position on his lap, softly resting her back on his torso.
"It's a little hard to breathe when you're lying on me like this, Fluff."
"Aw, has the big bad fox gone that soft for a measly bunny like me?" Judy teased in a sweet, challenging tone.
"Not in your life, sweetheart," the fox dared slyly as his breathing got better, slowly wrapping his arms around his girlfriend's stomach.
"You better not tickle me," the rabbit cop threatened as she grabbed her partner's wrists and squeezed them tightly.
"I won't, you already taught me what you will do if I go for a third strike."
"You better." She eased her hold on the vulpine's hands, allowing him hold on to her stomach in a lovely hug, and felt his paws gently rubbing it in a massage-like fashion.
"Doesn't mean I won't try to do it in the future," Nick nearly cooed as he rest the underside of his snout on the top of the rabbit's head, right between her ears.
"Then you better be prepared on how I could react to that, Wilde."
"Even when you threaten me, you're still adorable."
Judy ignored the sly remark as she really wanted to take the free time they have left to enjoy the soft affection they were having. For what felt like a minute or two, everything was completely silent between the two officers, once more. Unlike the silence they had earlier, this one was far more comforting as their worries in relation to the two teenage mountain goats were mostly gone from their heads; taking the remainder of their break time to relax in physical contact with each other.
"Feeling a lot better?" Nick asked soothingly, ending the second round of silence between him and his partner.
"In comparison to earlier, so much better," she nearly cooed in delight.
"That's good, but I can tell something is still bothering you," he continued reassuringly, affectionately tightening his hold on the rabbit.
"Yeah. . ." Judy sighed somberly. "I just can't stand it when my dad is like that, you know? Still having that paranoid fear of you possibly mistreating me, and being afraid of most foxes in general. I know old habits like that are hard to get rid of. . . some more so than others, but he met you. You made sure that he and my mom got to know you, see you what you really are, knowing that not all foxes are the red-sign dangers that rabbits should typically fear." She clenched her hands on her friend's palms, but lovingly this time. "I can't help it, but. . . it just gets to me."
"Come on, Carrots, he's your dad. And we both know him well enough to feel that he just wants to look after you."
Judy couldn't help but snort out a small laugh. "You are starting to talk like mom; she said the exact same thing on the phone."
"Oh? I always liked you're mom, she's more accepting to foxes than some of the other rabbits in Bunnyburrow."
"Like dad, she still has some of the old-fashioned fears, though."
"But she's better at casting it aside and actually gives people, like me, a chance to try and be settled with the family, instead of looking down on me under the typical stereotypes."
"Yeah, she is easier to get through in comparison to pa."
"Aw, now you're giving your dad very little credit. He wasn't that bad, he was actually a lot better than I thought, far better than how you constantly warn me about him."
"Yeah, you're right," Judy said with a giggle. "Happy to see that you two got along okay."
"He's a pretty good guy; there were some awkward moments. . ."
"Were they bad?"
"No, they weren't bad enough to worry your wittle head over," Nick teased with a smug smirk.
"Hmph!" The rabbit pouted as she crossed her arms in brief annoyance, but wasn't holding any anger.
"I may not see that well from up here, but it always looks cute on you, regardless on how mad you are."
"Jerk," she muttered angrily as she pushed the fox's arms off her body to the vulpine's surprise. Afterward, she stood on her hind-legs, careful to not too much pressure on Nick's lap as she turned around to face him, her purple irises locked on to his emerald ones. The rabbit reached out and grabbed the collar of her partner's uniform in a tight grip and pulled the somewhat surprised fox's snout on to her mouth.
Nickolas P. Wilde briefly looked at his girlfriend with wide eyes of confusion, before completely giving himself in and let his mind be filled with bliss. Next, he brought his paws up on to the bunny's back and gingerly pushed more of her towards him.
The two ZPD officers started to softly moan and purr to themselves as their minds were overtaken with the multitude of romantic sensations in the heat of the current moment. Eyes were closed as they slightly shifted the positions of their heads during the kiss, lips making contact with the fur around their jaws and finally circling back to the animals' mouths. Their noticeably slight rise in body heat and increased heart beats made the couple a little more vigorous in their make-out session while they push the rim of their lips on to each other. Small pecks and licks were placed on random spots around their faces, particularly within the close vicinity of the mouth area, and went downward upon each other's necks. Despite the activity that was going on between them, they still kept more than enough awareness to not take things too far and potentially hurt one-another. However, with the amount of times the lagomorph and vulpine pair had done this outside of the work environment, they've already learned all that they need to still romantically have fun and be naughty without worrying about any of them being hurt.
Normally, they would never do something remotely close to this during work hours for many obvious reasons and keep a strict rule to leave this kind of affection locked at home. But there have been a few 'exceptions' they could exploit in their favor of sneaking some very good smooches from time-to-time. Though, these 'opportunities' tend to be few and far between, which they don't mind because it enforces them to stay focused on their jobs during active duty.
They try not to focus on those kinds of thoughts as of right now, since they're already deep into their rounds of kisses and wanting to make the best of it before the time is up.
"Dispatch to Officers Hopps and Wilde. Please come in. Over."
And their time was now up.
Judy and Nick slowly separated their grasps of each other and let out some satisfied breaths, ears perked straight up on their heads in surprise from the radio. They briefly looked at each other's eyes, both of them giving one-another their own playful smile before the rabbit officer got off the fox's lap and grabbed the radio's transceiver.
"Dispatch to Officers Hopps and Wilde. Again, please respond," said the familiar voice of Clauhauser over the police transmission.
"This is Officer Hopps to Dispatch, Officer Wilde is also present, what do you need?"
"The repair crews back in the Precinct finally managed to clear up some space in the garage to schedule a proper tech check-up for your cruiser, and they want it in now."
"Aw, and I was starting to think those oil jockeys really want us to crash and burn in an auto accident," Nick joked in usual smug demeanor, which was responded with an annoyed punch to the shoulder.
"Thanks for letting us know about that, Dispatch. Anything else?"
"Yeah, Chief Bogo wants to see you in his office for a new assignment, after you drop off your cruiser. I don't have any details about it, so you're gonna have to see him."
"10-4, Dispatch, we'll be on our way."
"Affirmative, I'll let the Chief know. See you two back in the Precinct."
Turning the transceiver off and placing it back in its designated slot, Judy sat back in her spot on the driver's seat, put her seatbelt on, and activated the car's ignition, feeling the engines heat up and roar once again.
"Looks like break times over," Nick said while he fastened his seatbelt. "What a shame."
"We'll have more time to have fun back at home. We always do."
"Yeah, but this one feels a little more exhilarating, don't you think?" The fox asked with a big smirk on his face as leaned his head closer to his partner.
"Now I thought every deep kiss we do is always exhilarating to you?" Judy asked back with a flirtatious tone and expression, while she also leaned closer to the vulpine.
"Oh they are, Fluff, they are." Nick rubbed the top of his snout on her chin in an affectionate matter, then placed one last loving kiss on her nose. "And you're really good at doing it."
"Sly fox."
"Dumb bunny."
After exchanging those last words, Judy drove the police car out of the nearly empty parking lot and out into the public streets to their new destination. The whole ride being silent between the pair once again, as they took the time to relax and contemplate on whatever new task that their Precinct Police Chief wanted them to do later.
Author's Note
Hello fellow readers! It is I, Damie243, the writer and friendly fanboy of Zootopia and the popular WildHopps shipping community.
Typing this chapter has been a bit of a challenge and took a pretty long while, but I am more than satisfied with how it turned out in the end. There will be more chapters coming out in the near future, and I will start the next one as soon as possible, but that will take time. I want to make the plot (or plots) of this fanfic to come out as legitimately good as it can be, and I will have to devote a lot of time planning it. I'm not trying (or expecting) this to be one of the greatest Zootopia fanfics out there, but I do want to put a lot of effort into making this into a fanfic worth reading.
I also want to say that I WILL have some personal OCs involved in the future, but Nick and Judy (as well as their relationship) will always take a vast majority of the spotlight.
Anyway, thank you very much for taking your time to read the beginning of 'Unexpected Shortcomings' and there will be more chapters to come.
Lastly, PLEASE leave a review and some constructive criticism because I would appreciate that GREATLY. There are times that I am blind to errors, so I need help finding them before doing proper corrections. But PLEASE be kind and patient while you're giving out criticism; I won't be very motivated when you are yelling out at me.
Anyway, I'll try to get the second chapter out as soon as I could, but no promises
Thank you for reading,
Damie243