To all viewing this, thank you for taking the time to obsessively click on another Zootopia fanfiction. While I have written before, this is my first actual fanfiction. I plan to keep this going for a long while and the more you like it, the more motivated i shall be to give you more.

So, I do hope you enjoy this first chapter and cannot wait to see how people react.

Judy's nose twitched and wiggled an inch away from Nick's muzzle as her gleaming amethyst eyes locked onto his own emerald ones.

"So," Judy started, "are we going to do this?"

"Anytime you're ready, Fluff," came Nick's snarky reply.

She raised a paw, becoming very annoyed at his overconfident tone, then she smacked the balled-up paw into her open one...

"Rock," she breathed.

"Paper," Nick said slowly.

"Scissors!" both their voices rose in volume on the last word, Judy more so than Nick as she basically hopped on the last fist bob. Her overexcited smile drooped a bit as the annoyance she felt before flared up again and caused her eyes to dart from Nicks open palm for paper to her rock fist,

then up to his half-lidded eyes and lopsided sneer. Her own face deadpanned as his mouth opened to rub his victory in her face but...

"Stop!" she said quickly and a little too loudly...

"You win," she sighed as she pulled out her wallet and handed some cash to the Snarlbucks clerk leaning over the counter.

"And here is your blueberry smoothie and carrot venti latte," voiced the polite sounding cougar handing them their order for the morning. Her foot thumped the floor rather fast as she grabbed it off the counter and shoved Nick's order right to his nose, earning a slight yip from him and a vengeful sneer curling at the edge of Judy's muzzle.

Nick licked his tongue over his nose with his sneer returned full force.

"Sore loser."

"Har har…" she muttered as the both of them walked outside and back on their path to the ZPD precinct.

"How do you always win at that anyway?" Judy asked as her eyes gave Nick a once over.

Ever since his stint through academy training, Nick became even leaner and more imposing as a male specimen. Not that he wasn't already lean and fit to a certain degree. When Judy thought about back to when they met, he lugged a jumbo pop thrice his size up to a roof in the Sahara District, somehow traversed the hundred-foot distance to the street corner in the span of a second when he distracted her, and kept up with all the running with no complaints. Though, he did complain about a great many other things at the time.

Nick scratched at his chin, pretending to be deep in thought, to which Judy rolled her eyes.

"You, Carrots, are just too easy to read." Nick gave her a sideways glance through half lidded eyes and a snarky grin that she both loved and wanted to slug him for.

Judy raised an eyebrow and huffed, "Well I would ask why but I have a feeling I won't get a straight answer…"

"Nope."

The both of them continued their banter until reaching the ZPD and tossing their empty cups in a bin, to which Judy cut her remarks short to address the chubby cheetah bubbling with enthusiasm behind a counter that Hopps felt no jealousy to be stuck to.

"Hey you two!" Clawhauser nearly yelled as the two crossed the lobby to his desk. "You two look extra cu- uh…" Judy's foot thumped the lobby floor as her eyebrow raised. "Excited! I meant excited!" Clawhauser quickly and nervously corrected his near faux paw.

"Uh huh," Nick interjected with a bouncing paw upon Judy's head, irritating her further with each pat to her head until she frantically waved her paws above her to clear the air of Nick's offending paw.

"Ignore her 'fun' demeanor. She just lost another game of rock, paper, scissors with me."

Clawhauser raised both eyebrows at Hopps and said through a bite of a donut, "And you're still playing why? After how many losses?"

Judy opened her mouth, closed it, opened it partially again, and finally sighed. She grabbed Nick's tie and dragged him silently towards the bull pen as Nick could barely contain his chuckles, turning back towards Clawhauser.

"I'd say its hitting the end of the third month worth of wins for me Benny! Ugh-" Judy yanked his tie a little to keep him walking.

"Move it, Slick…" she whispered in a deadly tone. She could almost feel his snarky grin form on his muzzle at her expense.

"Yes ma'am," he replied almost too quickly for Judy to take as serious. She paused and turned around right at the entrance to the bull pen.

"I doubt you're relenting to me because I said so?" Judy asked with a slight grin.

Nick just patted her head and raked his thumb and forefinger along the edge of her ear up to the tip.

"Nope! Just trying to get a rise out of you, Fluff," he said with no small sense of satisfaction at her shivering response.

He entered the bull pen ahead of Judy, leaving her to her reactions and thoughts. As Nick ambled on through the crowd of mostly much larger mammals than himself already in the room, his own thoughts wandered as he leapt effortlessly into his and Hopps shared seat.

She didn't seem to notice that when she pulled his tie, his muzzle was yanked dangerously close to… well… everything. For the duration of the time it took to walk to the bull pen, Nick could barely keep his gaze off Judy's tail and curves. It was a wonder how she found pants that fit so snugly to her lithe form. Regardless of species, her hips and legs were an appealing sight to say the least. Her scent also tickled his nose with a sweet and earthy smell. Luckily, he was able to draw in a deep breath of her scent before she turned on him.

Bringing his mind back to the present, Nick turned his head to see Judy catch up and hop right next to him in the same oversized chair. She gave him a rather mixed signal glare with her eyebrows furrowed and angry but eyes as soft as Nick imagined her tail might be if he could get a good feel of it.

"I shall have my revenge," She said in a falsely foreboding and slightly overdramatic tone. Wilde merely settled his face into the perfect mask of his trademark grin and half lidded eyes.

Judy huffed once again but still smiled herself at the infectious good mood her partner seemed to be exuding.

Her reverie was cut short when Chief Bogo entered the room with all the fanfare one would expect any morning. All the officers were doing their normal room rattling desk pounding and hooting. Nick barely changed his cool demeanor but Judy settled for thumping the air with an errant foot.

"Settle down!" Bogo yelled in absolution. The room reached respective silence near instantly.

"I have two things on the docket today. First…" Bogo paused and turned his gaze towards the grey rabbit. "Instructor Friedkins stopped by to gather some files on new cadets. She wanted me to pass on her regards to you Officer Hopps." Judy grinned almost from ear to ear at hearing about her past instructor at the academy.

Bogo rested a less exuberant gaze upon Nick, if that were possible to begin with, as he stated in a bland, reluctant tone, "And she passes onto you, Officer Wilde…" Nick leans forwards slightly expectantly, "a rather obscene gesture I will not be repeating."

Judy's grin faltered slightly… until she saw Nick's own grin curve further into his muzzle. She could not completely understand the rapport between the two seeing as it looked to be a continuous loop of frustration and snark. Although, she did begrudgingly know why they had such a relationship. Nick had been infuriating during academy, and not in a terribly incompetent way. He practically aced everything. ACED! She thought to herself.

Apparently, living on the streets of Zootopia all his life served as a sort of training in and of itself. He did struggle with a few obstacles and such but he took even the daunting tasks and challenges in stride. He easily got himself through the simulations, dragging his body through the sand like a weird type of burrowing, using all four limbs to climb upside down through the rain forest instead of hanging like most, and, while initially failing at the ice wall, he adapted quick to dig in his claws and do a strangely interesting leap frog hop up the wall several feet at a time. Judy actually got to witness this through videos sent to her marking her then future partner's progress. It was during the ice wall she was most impressed, seeing his powerful legs pull taut with each jump as he sprung higher than she initially thought a fox could jump. Though, to be fair, the only fox she had really seen before trying to jump before that was Gideon Gray, of whom was… rather… an unfair example of an average built fox.

Now, while all of that would be the base of a phenomenal relationship between a cadet and instructor, Nick's overconfident nature and-

"Aww, I knew she cared enough to acknowledge me in such a caring way," responded Nick with a paw over his heart and a wink to Bogo, who snorted while the corner of his mouth gave the slightest twitch upwards.

-his mouth…. got him into far more trouble than he should have been.

From everything Judy had seen during her visits and told from various sources, Nick's snarky attitude, retorts, and quite blatantly ridiculous answers to the instructor's obvious rhetorical questions earned him a plethora of extra laps and duties that seemed to do little to dim Nick's rather persistent snark.

Rather than impede his snark, the extra work seemed to only expand his already extensive stamina. While Judy could still outrun him in the short run, Nick can now outlast her, much to her chagrin and minor amount of jealousy, in a longer run.

Even the enormous criminal test results both impressed and infuriated her. Instead of taking any notes from her takedown, seeing as foxes have a similar amount of natural strength in their legs compared to their size as rabbits and hares do, he barely threw any hits and let his opponent tire himself out. He threw a few mild insults here and there, goading his opponent into wasting his energy, then used his lack of an energetic defense to strike his neck and jaw with several leaping hits. It didn't seem to be taking until the Rhino opponent eventually fell over… exhausted.

"Second," Bogo continued, bringing Judy out of her thoughts, "we finally have info on our drug case."

Bogo started passing out files to a few officers up front, including Hopps and Wilde, to pass to everyone behind them.

"The whispers we've heard these past two months concerning a new drug going into production finally has a more solid lead. We've been told through local sources that a warehouse on the border between Downtown and the Rainforest district is housing a large amount of said substance, waiting to be distributed." Bogo waited for everyone to get a quick look at the file summary before huffing and continuing.

"For those unfamiliar with this drug, it appears to be a chemically combined form of other illegal substances in an attempt to create the next best thing. It has been reported to increase aggression, moderately addictive, and euphoria in large enough doses, but it's capable of too many side effects. The most common of which is heart damage and failure."

In the back, Officer Delgato piped up as his eyes still raked over the file, "How do we know this warehouse is storing the same drug that has been spreading on the streets?"

Bogo raised an eyebrow and spoke slowly, "A confidential but reliable informant. The warehouse is apparently storing a recently modified version of the drug we have had trouble reigning in, which is why everyone gathered here, as well as a few select individuals from other precincts, will be participating in a raid tonight to secure the warehouse before they can distribute this drug. We gear up and leave by 6pm. Until then, catch up on paperwork, rest, and continue your assigned patrols. Dismissed!"

Judy and Nick exited the pen and proceeded slowly towards their assigned office. It used to be meant for one medium sized mammal but was refurnished so that the two of them could work in comfort.

Nick plopped rather dramatically into his chair and sighed as he looked over the paperwork needing to be completed on his own desk.

"Reports," Nick rasped, "my one weakness!" he put a paw over his heart and leaned back, letting his tongue loll out to the side of his muzzle, giving Judy a mock dead eye stare.

"Hmm…" Judy mused, "I was under the impression that a certain carrot pen was your one weakness."

She threw him a knowing grin as she hopped into her own chair and found a pencil to start scribbling notes on her own reports.

Nick stayed still for a few seconds then gave up the play dead act to give her his signature smirk while he muttered, "Wrong carrot."

Judy's ears twitched upon hearing that, sneaking a glance at him. He had proceeded to trying to diminish his daunting pile of paperwork as if he hadn't said anything.

She could only imagine the ways he might have meant that as her mind decided to run her train of thought at full throttle. Was he making a joke she wasn't supposed to hear so he could amuse himself? Was he simply teasing her? Was he actually correcting her as subtly as he could? Or was there some deeper meaning to it? And was it wrong of her to hope for the last one? She certainly liked to hope. Despite their initial meeting and subsequent views of each other, Judy couldn't help seeing Nick as an attractive mammal. Most notable to her was his eyes. Such vibrant green always made her think of a field in spring, teeming with life. If that wasn't enough, his red fur, that should have been an odd opposite to green, actually added a gap of intense contrast she found rather alluring.

Her eyes then followed the sleek, lean build of his figure down to his tail. It was mesmerizing to her as it swayed back and forth, in all its fluffy glory. Generally, Nick is pretty guarded with respect to his tail but during an overnight stay at his apartment for a movie night, Judy was able to sneak in a ten second feel when he fell asleep. His tail found its way into her lap as he slept and she couldn't pass up the opportunity to touch.

To her delight, it was soooo soft. Like a silky, fluffy red and black cloud. She leaned in to rest her head against it lightly and sighed contentedly, drawing in a breath that smelled of… flowers? She had little time to ponder as Nick roused and she faked being asleep when he turned to her when waking and slowly removed his tail.

"Talk about eyeing some tail…" Nick remarked with a sideways glance as his chin rested on his paw. The tapping of his pencil could be heard lightly as he gave her his signature grin.

Judy's eyes widened and she looked down as her back stiffened. "I… uh… That was…" she stammered.

"Sorry," was all that could escape her muzzle.

"Oh, no worries there, Carrots," Nick comforted. "All you did was inflate my ego a little more. Good to know my tail has the power to hypnotize."

He scratched his chin, mocking deep thought.

"I wonder if it would make Officer Mahalo dress in drag and do the hula?"

Judy's initial discomfort was blown away as she snickered, then began a small fit of giggles at the joke made at the meerkat officer's expense.

"You are so awful sometimes," she choked out between laughs.

"You know you love it."

As Nick waited for her giggles to end, he took that opportunity to do some staring of his own. When she laughed, her feet drummed the floor in the most awkwardly adorable way. Her tail also twitched and shivered in her delight. He felt it was only fair to give hers a good stare after the not-so-subtle gaze she gave his tail.

He didn't let his look last long though as he turned his eyes up towards the rest of her. From the side, he could get a better look at her legs, full and shapely with a lean quality to them that reminded him of a more predatory look. Obviously, she didn't quite look like a predator, but he surmised that all her training probably made her more on the lean side than the expected build of a bunny. Thankfully, she wasn't muscular, at least as far as his view of attraction was concerned. Her figure was definitely something he loved among other qualities.

Love? He mused to himself. I admit she is rather…. Fetching, but love might stretch that thought too far.

Nick turned his eyes back to his work before Judy could catch on to his stare.

For the next several hours, the tension in the precinct mounted as the raid drew closer. Nick and Judy both completed their myriad of paperwork with little fuss. Well, at least from Judy. She couldn't figure out whether it was some affinity for complaining or just a lack of control over his muzzle when it came to expressing his distaste for the menial and repetitive task that came with the badge.

Nevertheless, he completed his daunting tasks and quite well too. It shouldn't have surprised her too much. Aside from the hustle she caught him in, he apparently covered his bases well in terms of paperwork and proper procedure. From the limited information he divulged at her 'gentle' prodding, Nick's cons and such over the years never truly delved into the subset 'illegal' when taking the varying actions and results into account.

Aside from their escapades, the rest of the precinct was a colorful kaleidoscope of differing events.

Both Delgato and Wolford had decided on taking care of their patrol early and came back lugging a rather twitchy wildebeest after apparently trying to make off with a handful of jewelry and subsequently attempting to swallow some of it when he was caught. Nick could only clap a paw over his mouth to keep from laughing at how funny that must be to claim to an insurance company.

A wildebeest ate my establishment's jewelry and took a several thousand-dollar trip to the toilet.

Being the lovely females that they were, Pennington and Fangmeyer apparently decided to get their beauty rest once their duties were out of the way, using the overnight precinct facilities.

Grizzoli, Snarlov, McHorn, and Trunkaby did an assortment of all of the above that tapered off near the end of the day with talking to Clawhauser and supplying his rather unorthodox and almost clinical addiction to donuts.

At 5pm, everyone getting involved with the raid was gathering any gear they needed from the armory and outfitting themselves for their mission. Many of their fellow mammalian officers were checking and cleaning large rifles that looked about as intimidating as some of the predators holding them.

While they seemed to look like the lethal firearms Judy had heard about being used in some parts of the world, these were non-lethal variations on their deadlier kin. Depending on the size of the rifle to fit the mammal holding it, they would use a cap to propel a projectile or compressed CO2. The smaller weapons used the CO2 since it was hard to compensate for recoil with smaller mammals and still retain a non-lethal projectile. Speaking of which, the ammo used a mixture of a non-lethal paralytic and tranquilizer to immobilize targets.

Since the tranq took a few seconds or so to take complete effect and a mammal could still inflict a certain level of harm in a fearful or aggressive state until then, a short-term paralytic was added in the raid gear ammo for quicker takedowns. It only lasted 10-15 seconds and took instant effect by way of short circuiting motor functions in a mammal, but that time was more than enough for the tranq to take full effect and finalize the neutralization of targets. It wasn't standard issue for normal beats for a couple good reasons.

One, it causes a lot of panic and undue stress to many mammals who become targets of officers with nervous trigger fingers. Two, the cost, while not sky high, doesn't justify using it unless it is assumed from the start that the target(s) would be hostile.

Nick watched as Judy donned her specially made gear just for her, with her still being the smallest mammal on the force, even if the ZPD had started inducting many new species in the recent months.

Her tactical vest was replaced with a thicker looking but still nonrestrictive hard shell chest armor. Made from a lightweight fiberglass/plastic mix, it could take tranquillizer hits and block small blades with ease. She found some bicep and forearm armor pieces to strap onto herself as well and took to begrudgingly sliding on some heavily padded foot wraps that covered her feet entirely and protected her soles. Most mammals didn't care to fully cover their feet, hooves, etc., but in a raid going to a warehouse that likely has many obstacles to obstruct foot traffic, it was required for ZPD officers to wear full foot protection in some special cases.

Last thing either of us want, Judy thought sarcastically, is to take two steps in and cut up our paws on an old busted warehouse window.

She looked up at Nick and saw him struggling with his chest armor. Considering his longer, leaner frame, the armor ended up fitting on his chest a little too wide and not quite as far down as he'd like. He made it work though after a few adjustments.

"Alright everyone! Load up and get moving!" came the authoritative boom of their cape buffalo chief. Bogo strolled through the room in his own gear already donned with a clipboard in his hooves as he finished some last-minute paperwork. He snorted heavily with one last tap on the board, quickly and curtly handing to Clawhauser, who was trailing behind him. As soon as Benny took the clipboard, he shuffled out of the room faster than one might think a mammal as… unbalanced as he was could move, even if he was a cheetah. Nick followed his form with a tilted head and ear, lazily flicking it when Judy sighed next to him.

"I want all of you in the vehicles in ten mins," Bogo sternly said. "We'll be traveling in several unmarked civilian vehicles to dissuade these guys from catching onto us. All drivers have already been assigned their routes and drop off points, so I want this done quickly and carefully. Keep chatter on the com down to a minimum- I'm looking at you Wilde." Chuckling ensued through the room, disrupting the stern tension caused by Bogo's voice and subsequent stare towards Judy's partner. He could only grin at the attention.

"Aww but everyone needs a little bit of my soothing voice to keep the nerves calm. I daresay I have a distinguished voice much like Morgan Treeman. That sloth's wonderfully low, slow tone can calm a hyperactive horde of overcaffeinated rabbits." Judy slugged his arm as his grin grew wider.

Bogo let the ghost of a smile tug at his muzzle as he continued to glare at Wilde.

"Got it boss!" Nick chirped merrily. "Don't give a crap so shut my yap."

The room erupted into laughter as the Chief silently turned and went on his way.

Bogo would have said something, but he secretly found Wilde to be correct. The group did need a little something to calm their nerves. He would never admit it, seeing as how it infuriated him most of the time, but Wilde has always been a good source of humor to settle tension and his reactions only seemed to goad the fox into further exuding more smart remarks.

Judy herself couldn't repress a snicker as she put a paw to her muzzle and accidentally snorted, mortifying her and thanking goodness that it was drowned out by the rest of the room. She looked up at Nick and froze.

His ears flicked in her direction and his gaze had just left her to face forward as his snarky grin returned full force.

Sweet cheese and crackers, the now blushing rabbit internally moaned.

"That was…" the tod started before Judy glared at him.

"You say anything further than that and I WILL take the next few opportunities to catch your tail in any door that you go through," she warned him as deadly serious as she could muster through the residual blush tainting her cheeks.

"incredibly-"

"DON'T"

"supremely-"

"YOU"

"infinitely…."

"DARE!"

"…adorable."

Judy's balled up furry fist found its way into the uncovered portion of his gut, whereas he proceeded to double over in pain.

He gasped and coughed for a few seconds before wheezing out, "Worth it." The infuriated rabbit rolled her eyes as the both of them settled in their assigned vehicle and prepared for a potentially rough night.