Nick,

I got another package today-three grand this time. the notes were all balled up and crumpled and I knew in my gut that it was you who sent them. Sally from next door tells me I'm losing my marbles - but a mother knows these things.

You didn't give me an address to follow or a postcode to send this to, so I guess I'm writing this for the sake of it.

I burned the money, Nick. All of it. I can guess how you go about things nowadays and I know you didn't get ahold of that money honestly. Well, I don't want any part of it. I don't want to know what you're getting up to out there and I don't want your dirty money.

I just want you to come home. I'm not mad about those stupid cons you pulled or those nasty things you said. Just come home. Come back to me. It's been twenty years and there hasn't been a day I wasn't worried sick about you. I miss my little trooper.

I wish I had a way to send you this,

Mom.

The train jostled angrily on its tracks, and Nick found himself awed once again by just how heavy a sleeper Judy was.

The bunny led up against him, making a pillow out of his shoulder. Her ears wilted behind her head, twitching in synchronization with her deafening snores. It would've been sort of cute if she wasn't currently drooling on him. He briefly weighed the pros and cons of shaking her awake, settling on leaving her alone. Judes had had herself a hard day, and she deserved a little bit of shuteye...

That, and Judy hated being woken up, and a grumpy Judy wasn't really something he wanted to deal with right now.

The train was practically empty apart from the two of them and a couple more bunnies who were less-than-talkative. Outside the sky was black, and Zootopia was naught but a greasy, neon smudge staining the horizon. Nick couldn't stop his stomach from turning whenever he looked at it.

He'd never left the city before. For all his life his world had been skyscrapers and slums, concrete jungles and glass behemoths.

When he looked at it from this distance, his world seemed pretty damned insignificant. When compared to the thickets of forest and jagged, moonlit clumps of mountain which surrounded it, the city was a mouse in the company of giants. Nick found the size and scope of it all, in no uncertain terms, terrifying.

He held Judy tighter in a vain attempt to quell the pileup of anxiety weighing down the pit of his stomach. He hated this. He hated this so, so much. He hated leaving the city, he hated train rides and he hated the sideway glances he was getting from all of the other tight-lipped bunny passengers.

The latter was what pissed him off most of all. He considered himself a talkative guy - in fact he prided himself on it - so when Judy had nodded off he'd tried his luck at mingling with the others. He'd gotten naught from them but the occasional 'hello'. Yeah, turns out foxes weren't very popular among rabbits. Which was just dandy, because right now they were on their way to a place practically wall-to-wall with them. Great. Wonderful. Fuckin' A.

...

"Crap," he grumbled to himself, not for the first time this night. When Judy had brought up the idea of meeting her parents, Nick had been ecstatic. He couldn't fathom why. The two of them had been together for the better part of a month and he'd still been high on that happy feeling that only finding love could give you, so maybe he'd made the fatal mistake of being optimistic. His dad had always told him that love could make you stupid, and like a damned moron he hadn't addressed any of the problems until it was way too late.

It was about the time Nick stepped onto the train that all the little niggles and problems reared their ugly heads: he hated travelling, Bunnyborrow was full of country bumpkins who 'didn't like yer kind 'round here', the wifi was shit and, perhaps worst of all, Judy's parent's didn't have a clue that they were dating.

That last one came as an especially shitty surprise to him.

Apparently Judy had been so caught up between dealing with her cop duties and 'committing to their relationship', as she put it, that she simply forgot to mention it in her weekly phone calls home. Honestly, he just reckoned that she wanted to put off telling her dad that she was screwing around with a predator. From what she'd said of her father, Nick gathered that he hadn't been the biggest fan of foxes up until recently, and somehow Nick doubted that he'd take too kindly to finding out that one was banging his daughter.

He sighed, woefully taking in the rolling hills of the countryside. Zootopia had disappeared over the horizon a while ago. He missed its artificial, orange glow already. Shit, why did he agree to this?

"Stop being so nervous," muttered Judy, and Nick realised only now that she'd stopped snoring. She kept her head led against his shoulder, eyes still closed, feigning sleep.

"Hmm?"

"I said stop being so nervous," she repeated, and this time she shuffled closer, burying her head into the soft crevice of his neck.

"Me, nervous?" he said with a feigned disbelief. "C'mon, Judes."

"I can feel you shaking," she said with a yawn. Dammit, why'd she have to be so good at reading him? Her arms moved around him, squeezing at his midsection. She stretched briefly before settling into him. "Stop it... You make a better pillow when you're still."

Despite being determined to be miserable, that got a small giggle out of him. "When did you get so funny?"

"I learn from the best. Now seriously, calm down," she cracked open an eye to look at him, throwing a reassuring smile his way. He wished he could tell her just how better that made him feel. "Mom and Dad are going to love you..."

"Yeah, I'm sure they're gonna be overjoyed to find out that a washed-up conman of a fox has gone and bagged their prettiest daughter. Why, I wouldn't be surprised if your parents rushed us to the altar as soon as we get off this train." he ranted with no small amount of sarcasm.

Judy raised a brow. "Prettiest daughter? You aren't trying to butter me up with compliments again, are you?"

"Is it working?"

"No," she grunted before closing her eyes and burying her face into his fur to hide the red bloom of her blush. "... Well, maybe... Look, you don't know my parents like I do - they aren't going to point the finger and call you a bad guy just because you used to be."

"Gee, thanks,"

"Not that you ever were one!" placated Judy. "It's just that some people might see it that way... Namely everyone... L-look, nobody is going to judge you because of stuff that happened in the past. I mean, my Dad is business partners with the kid who used to bully me at school. He really isn't the judgemental type."

Nick rolled his eyes. 'Not the judgmental type.' This was the guy who gave her a can of anti-fox spray when she first came to Zootopia, right? Yeah, 'not the judgmental type' his furry, orange ass.

Judy must've sensed his scepticism, because the kiss she placed on his cheek was full of reassurance. "Trust me," she said. "you'll do fine. Now lemmie get back to sleep. It's late, I'm tired... Wake me up-" *yawn* "-When we get there..."

"Would you like a bedtime story?" he joked, earning himself a weak elbow to the ribs from Judy.

"Shut up... And hug me some more, it's cold..."

He complied, gathering her up in his arms and coddling her to his chest. She sighed blissfully, the rhythm of her breathing softening as she slept. Damn. He'd spent the better part of his life out on the unforgiving streets cutting deals with mobsters, thieves and pickpockets, but somehow Judy always managed to find that backdoor into his heart.

With a weary huff he led back into his seat and closed his eyes, taking whatever comfort he could in Judy's embrace. The weight of all his worrying and panicking lifted itself from his shoulders, and all of a sudden he was more tired than he had been in weeks. He nestled his nose between Judy's ears, content to fall asleep to the flowery smell of her fur...

And then Judy began to snore.

*SNRRRRRK... FUFUFUFUFUFUH... SNRRRRK...*

... Whatever. Sleep was overrated anyways.