A tingle on Nick's chest brought him out of his sleep. He laid in silence as he cursed his brain; how dare it have the gall to end his favorite dream. It always starts with him alone in an empty, barren room. One baby rabbit appears out of nowhere. As he stares into its eyes, hundreds of adorable bunnies materialize in a circle around him, all twitching their noses in sync. They all jump at him, bringing him to the ground into a massive cuddle puddle, surrounding him in the fluff of a thousand bunnies. Sometimes he'd stay in that world for hours, appreciating the comfort of their soft, warm fur.

The tingle on his chest comes back with vigor, tickling his fur in tiny, repetitive twitches. He reaches to scratch the offending area, but instead, his paw is intercepted by a patch of softer, thinner fur. He glances down to find Judy's face buried in his chest, nose twitching against his fur. God. She's criminally adorable. It's sickening. If he's forced to look at it for even another second, he might even be driven to playing with her ears, expediting the radiation of cute coming from the bunny in his arms. He can't think of a better way to go than being exposed to lethal doses of radiated adorableness.

He carefully swings one of his legs over Judy's body, making sure to not rustle her awake. Hoisting himself off the bed, he holds himself up on his paws as knees, Judy still lying on her side between them. Her paws mindlessly reach out to where Nick was just moments before, but fall to the bed when they determine his absence. He lays himself down with his chest against her back, squishing his tail between their two bodies. Wrapping his arms around the bunny in front of him, he pulls her in closer and snuggles his chin into the crook between her ears.

Nick's thoughts eventually roam to his reoccurring dream. He's always extremely happy when he finds himself in this particular dream, but when he's brought back into reality, it always leaves him with emptiness. His relationship with Judy was… complicated? They were basically dating, but the boyfriend/girlfriend titles haven't been explored yet. They worked together, ate together, laughed together – hell, more recently, they even slept together. She had asked to sleep over one night about two weeks ago after a particularly diligent stake-out. They had gone to sleep on opposite sides of the bed, back-to-back, but when Nick woke up halfway through the night, he found her nuzzled up against his back, wrapped up into a tiny ball, her cheek lying against his warm fur. Judy hadn't spent a night in her apartment since.

He absentmindedly stroked his paw against her stomach, feeling the soft cotton of her t-shirt against his paw-pads. Judy brought her paws to her chest, resting them against the back-side of Nick's, wordlessly begging him to continue. As he stroked her stomach, her tail began to wiggle, ruffling against his own. Her fluffy, rounded tail tickled his fur, making him grin as he rubbed his cheek against her floppy ears. When he touched a spot just below her ribcage, she let out a tiny, quiet giggle, pushing herself back against Nick's chest. Her tail twitched even quicker, giving Nick more motivation to continue brushing against her t-shirt.

His mind wandered back to their relationship. He knew that he wanted to be together, but whenever he thought about what it'd be like to ask her, he always focused on what could go wrong. His mind constantly went through different scenarios in which he'd be rejected. She could be scared – of him, of being in a predator/prey relationship, of the questionable ethics in dating her partner at the ZPD, of her family rejecting him. She'd be shocked, telling him that she only saw him as a friend, as a partner. She'd be disgusted, telling him she'd never be in a relationship with someone with his background. So many things could go wrong… It was much safer to just wait. It hurt to see her as only a friend, but he never liked change. Change wasn't safe. Change was new territory, everything could go wrong. It was much easier this way, he told himself.

He noticed her breathing becoming less even, taking shorter, shallower breaths as each one passed. Eventually, she clutched on to Nick's hand, stretched her legs, and let out a contented sigh.

Nick spoke quietly, nuzzling his chin against her ears, "Hey there, sleepy bunny. You know, usually you're not the one to sleep in. I think my cuddles are finally chipping away at your attentiveness."

Judy opened her eyes, giving him a deadpan look. She flipped herself around, smothering her forehead in Nick's soft fur. "Mmmff shut up and hug mee.", Judy replied, her breath once again tickling Nick's fur. He wrapped his arms around her, delicately scratching her back with his claws. Judy sighed in approval, her breaths slowing down. She closed her eyes once again, hoping to get another few minutes of sleep. After a few deep breaths, Nick noticed her nose twitching, a sure sign that she would be asleep soon. He felt a breeze pass over his chest.

"mmmmm...ilufyuu….."

Judy's body stiffened as her brain caught up with her mouth. Oh sweet cheese and crackers, please don't tell me I just said what I think I said.

Nick noticed her relaxed form suddenly lock up. Did he hear what he thought he heard?

"Carrots, uhh. What was that again?"

Nick's chest felt a growing patch of warmth where Judy's face was resting against him. He glanced down, noting the tinge of red that was clearly visible beneath her fur. She jerked herself awake, pushing herself away from his chest, "Who. Me? I didn't say anything! It must have just been a weird coincidence that my breath sounded a lot like words but who am I to judge what I say when I'm about to sleep I mean it could have been anything honestly like you know how your brain kinda shuts off when you're sleeping maybe it was something like that hahaha." Judy panicked. There's no way he bought that. Come on Hopps, get it together!

Nick raised his eyebrows in surprise. He knew she was a nervous talker, but he'd never seen a reaction this severe. I wonder if I heard what I thought I heard…

Judy was in full damage control. She couldn't think clearly – she needed some time to think. "Hahaha I need to go to the bathroom be right back!" She jumped up onto her feet, shouldering his paws off of her body, and began to hop towards the edge of the bed. As she was in the apex of her flight, her tail tugged her back, resulting in yelps from both Nick and Judy. Her trajectory changed dramatically, her tail tugging her down, away from the edge of the bed. As her face sped towards the blankets at painful speeds, she put her arms out in hopes that they could break some of her fall. Her eyes clenched shut as a final line of defense. She prepared herself for-

*poof*

Her face landed on the bed. She groaned as Nick snickered, flaring off his signature smirk. As she raised her face off of the comforter, Nick inquired "After that stunt, maybe they should start calling you Officer Plops." Judy sighed as she plopped her head back on the bed. At least Nick couldn't see the red tinge that her cheeks had developed. Nick continued laughing, only stopping to take a desperate, needed breath.

"Are you done, Wilde?"

Nick slowly ceased his laughter, brought a finger to his eye to wipe away a falling tear, and returned a pompous, exaggerated salute. "Of course, Officer Plops!"

Judy sighed, brought her paw into a fist and punched him in the arm. She hoped it hurt. At least a little. "Carrots, you wound me." He put the back of his paw to his forehead and fell backwards, mock fainting. She giggled, "Oh you foxes, always so dramatic."

"Award winning actor Nick Wilde, at your service." He bowed. She rolled her eyes and looked back at her tail. It was attached to Nick's in multiple different places. She tried tugging some of the connections apart, but they remained unbroken, even after she tugged a little harder to get back at Nick's comments (she inwardly smirked at the tiny yelps that interrupted Nick's grins).

"Well Carrots, looks like you're stuck with- to me, rather.", Nick corrected himself. He pulls her in for a hug, "Maybe this is just a sign that we should stay in bed for the day. We can miss a day of work. Thanks to you, we haven't used any of our sick days for two months."

Judy hated using her sick days, but in this case it seemed like a necessary use.

"Hey, Nick. How exactly did our tails get so… knotted together? It hasn't ever happened before."

It was Nick's turn to blush as he realized what caused their tails to get tied together. His ears folded back against his head.

"I petted your stomach a couple of times and you… trapped my paw with yours. Your sighs were irresistible, I wish I would have had the carrot pen on me." He winks, "You liked it so much that your tail started wiggling against mine and… yeah." Nick gave her an apologetic smile, noting how her face was tinged red once again when he mentioned her tail. "It really was your fault, how can you expect such a shady fox to resist such a cute bunny?"

Judy glared at Nick, knowing that he knows how she feels about being called "cute". For some reason, though, she didn't feel offended when he said it. She found it comforting that he thought she was adorable. She wiggled herself against Nick's chest, beginning to think of ways that they can get untied and still get to work.

Nick lazily started thinking if this means they could stay in bed all day. He can dream.