"You're thinking about turning in that application, right?"
Nick glanced at his friend. "Hmm. Yeah, thinking about it," He said, keeping his tone even. Judy's ear flicked with annoyance.
"Oh, whatever, you big lug. You want to join ZPD just as bad as I do."
That made the red-furred fox turn to her, one eyebrow raised. "Not true."
"How is that not true?!" Judy retorted, frowning.
"You don't want to join the ZPD. You're already in."
The tense air lightened immediately and Judy rolled her eyes, irritated but amused. "You know what I meant, Smart-Alec." The two animals continued strolling down the street a ways in a comfortable silence before Nick shattered the atmosphere.
"I think I'm going to. I really do want to, you know, be a police officer and everything. I think I could do a good job, I think I have the skills required, and I think that I'd have the guts to save someone when it came down to it. I think I could be the first fox officer at ZPD." Judy frowned at Nick's tone. He sounded unsure.
"...but? What's stopping you?"
Nick slowly came to a halt, calmly gazing up at he cloudy grey sky. He blinked, took a sip of his coffee, and then leaned against the wall, looking into his empty cup and sighing.
"Do you think they'd let me in?"
Judy scowled at he comment. "Nick, I know they'd let you in. You're obviously good at what you do, and you-"
"Do you think they'd let a fox in?"
There was a terse moment of silence. The way Nick said the word 'fox', like it was poison- the way Nick kept his emotions in check but couldn't look at her in the eye when he talked about his insecurities- it all grated on Judy's nerves. She felt a stab in her heart as her friend shuffled awkwardly. Then her sympathy and pity turned to sharp anger.
She wanted to talk with whoever got all this into Nick's head.
Yes, of course it was those awful prey animals from the scout group he wanted to join, but it had to be someone else as well. And it made Judy fume with outright outrage.
Nick seemed to sense the anger wafting out of her ears, and he glanced up quickly.
"Sorry, forget it, Judy. I didn't mean it like that. Let's just keep shopping, yeah?"
Judy realized her mistake and quickly held her paws up to stop him. "No, no, sorry. I got lost in thought."
Nick gave her a quizzical look, but continued drinking from his empty cup so things didn't get awkward.
Judy sighed before rubbing her ear and continuing. "Sorry. Look, anyway, Nick... nobody is going to judge you just because you're a fox."
The fox snorted, nearly choking on his not-coffee. (Air.)
"Nobody is going to judge me because I'm a fox, yeah right. They'll judge me because I'm a liar and a conman and a thief and an untrustworthy predator. "
Judy turned and leaned down next to Nick. "Look, Nick. You put up that image and awful people have told you awful things about who you are supposed to be. The world has taught you to hate yourself and not trust yourself and yet I trust you and I know for a fact that you are an amazing person and-"
"Seriously, shut up, Carrots."