Judy Hopps awoke at her usual hour of 5:30 and sprang out of bed as if she had all the energy in the world. After dressing and polishing her police badge in the mirror as part of her morning routine, she made her way down her apartment building's staircase, emerging onto the already bustling city street. The sun was barely peaking over the buildings, yet it seemed that Zootopia's inhabitants of all shapes and sizes we unperturbed by the earlier hour as they began the uphill battle that was your average Monday morning.
All inhabitants except for one, that is.
Nick Wilde leaned against the bus stop sign, waiting for his partner just like always – and just like always he still looked slightly ruffled from sleep and his eyes were half lidded showing he was not quite awake yet.
"You look awful, Nick," the bunny teased lightheartedly as she approached the sleepy-eyed fox, who in turn just shrugged.
"You know I'm no good 'till I've had my coffee," he yawned.
Judy rolled her eyes as she and Nick fell instep together and headed towards the small café on their way to the ZPD. They ordered their usual – a caramel latte and an everything bagel with lox for Nick, and a green tea and a carrot cake muffin for Judy – before continuing on to work. As he sipped his coffee and slowly started the rejoin the world of the living, Nick gave Judy a sideways look and smiled. "You know, if I'm recalling it correctly, today marks our one year anniversary of being partners."
The little gray doe beamed at him, her ears standing straight up in excitement. "You remembered!" she all but cheered. Nick shook his head in amusement as he took in her overjoyed expression, still smiling, and thinking to himself. Judy was one of those people that always seemed to be emotionally and mentally running at around a hundred miles per hour. It was so easy to get her excited, and quite honestly Nick couldn't help but think when she was like this that she looked like a certain "C" word Judy hated to be called. But it was true, though.
Judy was just so damned cute.
"How could I forget?" he replied easily, taking another sip. He knew better than to tell her what he was thinking at the moment.
"Sometimes I never know with you," she said, still smiling.
"You know you love me," he teased.
"Do I know that?" Judy replied with their typical banter, "Yes. Yes I do."
Nick's expression didn't change outwardly, but as always he felt the same mental pang as he always felt after they made that playful exchange.
I love you too, Judy.
He'd loved her for a while, if he was being honest with himself. Falling for the bunny had been easier than falling asleep after a long, hard day. It hadn't been too long after they'd solved the Night Howler case that he'd begun to realize it, and it had taken him even less time to decide that he should stay quiet with that little bit of information. As much as it pained him to look at Judy and know that she wasn't his, he knew it would be a hundred times worse if he lost her all together because he expressed feelings that she didn't reciprocate. If she didn't reciprocate them – it was always the thought of that "if" that made this so much harder than it needed to be. Not knowing one way or the other was maddening, and he'd lain awake at night on more than one occasion playing scenario after scenario in his head.
What if she said no?
But what if she said yes?
"Earth to Nick!" Judy's voice cut through the fox's thoughts and he noticed the bunny waving her paw in front of his face. "You awake in there?"
Breaking out of his mental wonderings he looked down at his partner and made a face. "Apparently I should have ordered a stronger coffee this morning. This case of the Mondays is getting me good. Sorry, Carrots," he lied smoothly.
Judy rolled her eyes, "Well you better snap out of it. Roll call's about to start."
True enough, while Nick had been in his daze, they'd made it to work and were now seated in the Bull Pen, sharing the large chair as they normally did instead of finding their own individually.
Chief Bogo then entered the room, and waved a hoof to quiet the ruckus of his subordinates as they greeted him.
"Morning all," he started in a bored voice, peering over his glasses at the room full of mammals before him. "We've got a fair bit of work for us today, so let's get to it. First order of business, we have a missing animal case – Office Hopps and Officer Wilde, you've proven yourself in this area enough," the water buffalo said, handing the pair a red folder. "I want you to see what you can do about finding the young zebra."
Judy opened the file and she and Nick read over its contents as Chief Bogo continued handing out assignments to the rest of the officers.
Ellie M. Pundamilia was a twenty two year old female zebra from Savanna Central who had been reported missing after never making it home from her night shift at a tavern called "The Watering Hole" late last night. There wasn't much information to go on just yet, but as Judy looked over the papers before her, she conceded they had done a lot with much less than this before.
After the chief dismissed the room, the gray rabbit looked up at the fox beside her raised an eye brow. "You ready, partner?"
Nick reached in his chest pocket and pulled out his sunglasses, placing them on his face. "Let's hop to it, Carrots," he replied.
Judy made a face at the pun and shoved him in the arm. "I'll go start the cruiser."
A/N: Hello everyone, I'm back again with a new story and its in a new fandom! It's going to be quite different from my stories so far, but I'm excited for the challenge.
All comments are welcome as always, and I hope you all will enjoy the story :)
* Also, fun little note: the missing zebra's surname, "Pundamilia" is Swahili for zebra.
- Erin
