Hey guys, I'm back from the dead. A good four year's worth of being dead. Whether I will remain alive, remains to be seen. However, for the moment, I have become inspired to once again pick up the proverbial pen and put thoughts to paper. I saw Zootopia twice because I enjoyed it that much, and I really wanted to do a short story about Nick and Judy, because I think they make a really cute couple. Rating it K+10 for cuddles and fluff.
'I really like blueberries,' Nick thought absentmindedly as he and Judy patrolled in their squad car. They only had about a half hour left on duty, and it had been a relatively quiet night in the metropolis of Zootopia. The fox had been snacking on them off and on throughout the day, but Nick could also smell the scent on Judy as well, underneath the usually more dominant carrot scent of course. 'It's a nice smell,' he mused, 'kind of reminds me of home in a way...-wait why am I focused on how nice Judy smells?' Nick shook the thought out of his head and tried to think about something else for the moment. He had been having a lot of those random thoughts about the bunny cop partner ever since the Bellwether incident, and he couldn't quite shake the fact that his feelings for her might run deeper than their close friendship.
"Earth to Nick," Judy nudged him from the driver's seat, "You alive in there?" She looked at him with her violet eyes. Nick snapped back from his daydream to meet her questioning stare with his own. Judy raised an eyebrow, "Hey officer, what are you thinking about that's got you so dazed? I know it's been dead tonight, but we're still on duty here! Traffic law violators won't write their own tickets you know!" She said jokingly.
"Yeah, Carrots, I know," Nick yawned and stretched for a second before continuing, "Cut me some slack, Judes, you'd find more action at the DMV this hour. In fact, I'm sure Flash would love to see you again," he smiled slyly.
"Hahaha, first off, DMV's closed now. Second of all, I'd rather not turn the half hour we've got left into six more," Judy chuckled, inwardly thanking God she didn't have to go back there as she continued driving around a small neighborhood area within the Savanna Central area of the city. "It's been a month since you started, not exactly as easy as melting down popsicles, but definitely way more exciting huh?" Judy replied enthusiasticly.
"Oh yeah, oh my gosh, there's a jaywalker, let's go instruct him on the wonderful city ordinances of using a crosswalk," said Nick dryly, making a mock worry face and pointing in a random direction as a joke while Judy just rolled her eyes and smiled. They continued driving in silence for a few minutes, passing through several more streets before Judy posed another question.
"Honestly though Nick, do you like working for the ZPD?" The bunny said in a more serious tone than before.
"What do you mean, Carrots?" Nick called her by his favorite pet name, "How could I not love working for the place that could put a certain someone away for nickel for alleged tax evasion?" Nick chuckled.
"Nick, I was being serious," Judy laughed then continued, "Besides, in a court you'd need evidence to prove charges, and last I checked I didn't see any." Judy smiled innocently. "But what I really mean is do you enjoy this job more than your last one?"
"Heh, if you could call it that," Nick replied, then looked serious for a moment, "To answer your question, yeah Judy, I do love it," he sighed, "I get to be loyal...brave...honest...To protect and serve, Mom was so happy when she found out." Nick smiled, "I go out there now, and animals don't always look down on me anymore. I can do something positive." Nick stopped for a moment, and Judy remained silent as she continued to listen.
"I never imagined making history being the first fox officer right after the first bunny cop," Nick gave a slight smile, amused at the thought, "But you were the one who helped me realize that I could do it. If I never met you, I'd still be hustling popsicles."
"Nick..." Judy started to say something but stopped.
"No, no, I'm serious this time too, Carrots, and I just really wanted to say thanks for believing in me. All this because a certain meter maid decided she wouldn't allow a social injustice to be done no matter what animal it was," Nick laughed and nudged Judy in the shoulder playfully.
Judy laughed, "Cut it out, 'slick,' I'm trying to drive here."
Both fox and bunny glanced at each other for a moment before Nick grinned, "For the record, Finnick was very touched by your act of kindness."
Judy smirked, "In helping a couple of con artists with their evil schemes right?"
Nick feigned being offended, "All I wanted was to buy a jumbo pop. Nothing illegal about that, right, officer Hopps?"
"Haha, all right sly guy, it's probably about time we got back to the station," Judy picked up the car radio, "Clawhauser, this is officer Hopps, nothing unusual to report, we're heading back now, over."
"Copy that, Hopps, good work tonight," Clawhauser responded from the comms desk. Judy could hear the sounds of dance music playing in the background. 'Probably messing around again,' she thought, turning the car back to head to the police station. "Hey uh, Carrots," Nick asked, "You want to know what the best part about working for the ZPD is?" Nick felt himself getting warm underneath his police uniform collar as he realized what he was about to say.
Judy turned slightly so she could look at the fox while driving, "Nick, I swear if you turn on the siren again like you did last time," she threatened jokingly.
"Carrots, I would never do such a thing," Nick replied, feigning an offended tone, "You know what? Just for that I'm not going to tell you unless..."
"Unless what sly guy?" Judy looked curious.
"Unless...you agree to have a quick coffee with me tonight at my place," Nick tensed for a moment, not sure how the bunny would respond since it was past 10:00 PM already and they had been on duty for the better half of the day.
Judy paused just long enough to see if Nick would start to fidget while waiting for her to reply then said, "Hmm, I'm sure it *must* be a good reason if it's worth getting coffee over, so I'll take you up on it," she smiled when she saw the fox visibly relax, "Score one for the sly bunny," she thought to herself.
A few minutes later they arrived back at the police station, quickly filed the few reports remaining, and headed back outside. "Ahh," Nick stretched as he walked outside with Judy. "Seems like I've been cooped up in that car all day. So, my place now?" He gestured to the parking lot where Judy's family truck was. Her parents had let her keep it until she had saved up enough for her own car, which had actually been far more helpful than the "meter mobile" she had been using for the first couple months. Judy replied, "Sure, but I'm driving."
The drive to Nick's apartment didn't take long. The fox had still kept most of his other hideouts around the city, but since becoming an officer, Nick had decided a more respectable living place would be appropriate and purchased an apartment not too far away from the police station. Judy's apartment was actually fairly close to his, so they would often carpool together to work unless Judy wanted to walk, since the station was within walking distance.
Inside, the apartment wasn't anything fancy, a simple kitchen that was connected to one living room area which doubled as Nick's dining area, and one bedroom. It was certainly bigger than Judy's, since everything was fox sized instead of rabbit sized, but the bunny had mentioned to him she was planning to move fairly soon. Upon entering, Judy first noticed that the evidence of a bachelor's pad was not hard to spot. Nick wasn't an absolute slob, but his furniture was very simple without any ornaments or decorations. A simple bookcase stood on the side far side of the living room next to the TV. A small two-seater couch and coffee table sat in the center of the room, but what really caught her attention was the collection of pictures on top of the bookshelf. One was of a younger Nick and his mother, who Judy was sure Nick got his looks from. Another one was of Nick and Finnick just being silly. The last two were pictures of Judy and Nick together, the first one being a selfie they took together the night they went to Gazelle's concert, and the second one was the day Nick became an officer and they had both posed together afterwards in uniform. "Nice place you have here Nick," Judy said, choosing to go admire the pictures up close.
"Ah, thanks Carrots, make yourself at home," Nick put his officer's jacket away, turned on a few more lights, and started to brew coffee for them both.
"I like your pictures Nick," Judy picked up the frame of the concert photo and turned it to Nick, "This one's my favorite though," she laughed, remembering how Nick had tried unsuccessfully several times to take a selfie with just himself, but eventually gave in to Judy's relentless photo bombing and took a nice picture of them together. Because of the crowd that was around the floor of the stage that night, they had had to lean in close to each other to the point where their cheeks were pressed together. Nick remembered it too, because the fox felt himself start to blush as if he could feel the warmth from the bunny all over again. Thankfully he didn't have too much time to become flustered as the coffee had finished brewing. "Cream or sugar?" Nick asked.
"Both would be great," Judy responded, taking a seat on the couch. Nick stirred both into the coffee and then suddenly remembered something. "Oh wait just a second Carrots, I've got something to go with the coffee. He opened the small fridge in his kitchen and pulled out a carrot cake. "I know it's probably not as good as whatever you make back in Bunny Burrow, but I wanted to try. I made it this morning, and had plans to give it to you tomorrow actually, but since the opportunity is here..." Nick shrugged and grinned sheepishly.
"You didn't just buy a cake from the bakery and pass it off as your own to impress me did you?" Judy poked him in the side as he came over and handed the cake and coffee to her.
"Nope, I promise it was one hundred percent me, Carrots. Scouts honor," Nick held up his right paw, "With maybe a phone call or two to Mom asking for help," he laughed and sat down next to her. To avoid an awkward silence, Nick quickly switched on the TV. He had it on the news channel so what appeared was a Zootopia newscaster talking about random happenings around the city. Both the bunny and fox watched in silence for a few minutes just enjoying each other's company, eventually both finished their coffee and set the mugs aside.
Inwardly, Nick sighed, 'This is isn't like me at all, I'm supposed to be slick and smooth and collected, and she's got me nervous like the time she outsmarted me that day on the street! Come on Wilde! Just say what you wanted to say!' Nick realized he did have feelings for the bunny sitting next to him, but he wasn't sure how he was going to deal with it or let it out, and he was growing slightly more flustered with each minute. He had realized what he wanted to say after remembering their talk on the gondola in the rainforest district when he stood up to Chief Bogo for her, but never got around to trying to continuing that conversation until now.
On the other end, Judy was trying very hard not to let on that she knew all too well what the fox was trying to do. She saw Nick slightly blush as she caught his eyes for a moment, then smiled, "You did a great job with the cake, Nick, it was really good! Was this your first time trying?" The cake was slightly dry, but she could tell the fox had really put his heart into making it for her. She had finished every bite.
"It was a bit of trial and error, but I managed," Nick relaxed a bit, remembering his first two attempts, one severely overdone and burnt, with the other being the complete opposite.
"Nick, I really appreciate it," Judy placed a paw on his shoulder, "So what was it you were wanted to tell me back in the car?" Judy had a pretty good idea already, but still wanted to let him be the one to tell her. She had already fallen for the fox, she admitted it to herself a while ago, but had wanted to make sure he felt the same way.
'She really knows how to put a guy in the hotseat,' Nick thought to himself, but it was now or never for him so he spoke, "Well you know how I was saying what the best part about working for the ZPD was?"
"Hmm, something about turning on sirens right?" Judy grinned, looking at the fox. Their eyes met for a second before Nick said, "It's you, Judy. Being able to work with the world's best partner. You believed in me when no one else did. You've had my back all this time, thank God for that otherwise I would have been gone a while ago," he laughed slightly then continued, "And I think now I realize tha-" Nick was stopped midsentence when he felt something warm on his mouth and realized Judy had kissed him. Judy was grinning from ear to ear, "You know you love me," she said, still smiling.
"Yeah...I do," Nick replied slightly disappointed he didn't get to finish, but he was quick to recover from his initial shock, "You stole my first kiss you know, that one with Finnick doesn't count,"
"It's called a hustle sweetheart," Judy laughed and leaned in closer to Nick, "Can I steal your second too?" She whispered.
"I don't know, isn't stealing a felony?" Nick smiled, "I might have to arrest you."
"I think you can let that slip by with a warning this time, especially since I'm the senior officer here," Judy replied as her lips met Nick's. The fox and bunny shared contact for a few seconds before breaking away. "That was mine too, so we're even," said Judy.
Nick was extremely happy in the moment, but still somewhat surprised, even though they had said as much to each other a while back when they had caught Flash street racing, he didn't really act on it until now since he had said it in a more joking manner. The fox knew for sure now, he really did love Judy. "Carrots," Nick formed that trademark sly grin on his face, "You smell like blueberries."
It was Judy's turn to blush now, "Oh that's just um, my new perfume, Gazelle #5," she played with her ears, secretly happy with her purchase. She had bought it on Fru Fru's recommendation, when she asked for advice on getting Nick to notice her more.
"I knew it wasn't just the blueberries I was eating earlier today," Nick smiled and placed his paws on Judy's shoulders before kissing her forehead gently, "Sense of smell. I'm a fox remember?"
"Do I look like Finnick to you?" Judy pouted teasingly then quickly said, "Don't answer that, you'll ruin the mood."
Nick glanced at the clock on his wall, which was now well past midnight and sighed, slightly disappointed, "Actually, Carrots, I hate to ruin the moment too, but..." He nodded in the direction of the clock. Judy grabbed his own paws with her smaller ones and smiled, "All right, Nick, that just means you'll have to make it up to me some other way then," Judy gave Nick her ever optimistic smile.
"All right, Judy," Nick hated and loved when she made that face, "How does this Saturday sound? I know a good place in the Rainforest district."
"Nick Wilde, are you asking me out?" Judy smirked, knowing she had already won. It was fun for her to tease the fox like this.
"You're really going to make me say it aren't you?" Nick asked, to which the bunny just nodded her head in response, "All right, fine, you win. Judy, will you go out with me?"
"Of course I will, Nick." Judy hugged him, then started heading for the door. Of course, they would see each other again beforehand since it was only Thursday and they were partners, but both were already looking forward to it. Nick held the door open for her as she walked out. Judy got two steps from the doorway then turned, kissed Nick once more on the cheek, and said once more, "You know you love me."
'Sly bunny,' Nick sighed happily, "Yeah... I do."
Well that's it. I hope you guys enjoyed this story. I'm not sure if I'll continue it and write about that upcoming date or not, I have an idea about how it would go, but for now it remains as a oneshot. Also the formatting for this site threw me off a bit. Hopefully it's easy to read. I tried to make it not a huge block of text, but apparently it doesn't want me to double space.
Updated! I've continued the story and hope you all will continue to read and review!