What if?
What if she hadn't been born deaf? What if she'd had a chance for a perfectly normal life? What if she could have heard her parents back when they used to kiss her goodnight? What if she wasn't destined to miss every single enjoyable sound that existed? What if she could've become a police officer? What if she had the chance to live like everyone else? What if the all surrounding silence that had always controlled her life hadn't blocked out the words coming from the seat behind her?
"Hey! Ears down, Fluff!" Nick pleaded in a near whisper, the gray and white bunny sitting at the desk in front of him not so much as flinching at the request. "I seriously can't see a thing that professor Boring over there is writing, so could you kindly drop 'em?"
No reaction. His day had already been extremely crappy, filled with a caffeine-free morning and far too many hours of sitting down scribbling about things he'd never need in real life, so it was no wonder that at this point he was getting a little exasperated- to put it mildly.
Leaning his muzzle as close to her ear as possible without letting his slightly damp nose brush against her soft fur, the red fox whispered in the softest tone he could produce in an attempt to catch her off guard: "Could you lower your ears, please? I seriously can't study like this."
Still nothing. Why wasn't she acknowledging him? All he was trying to do was to get his notes down and move on with his day, so why was she being such a jerk to him?
Groaning a few carefully chosen words to himself in return, Nick settled back into his seat and did his best to ignore the whole existence of the prick of a lagomorph.
After a few more minutes of trying to find occasional glimpses of the whiteboard located in the very front center of the classroom both through and around the ears that were blocking about half of the text on said board, he couldn't bear it anymore. The fox leaned in and tapped the grey mass on the shoulder with an extended claw of his right front paw. Finally, he caught her attention, the rabbit turning around in her seat with a puzzled expression.
He raised his voice once more and repeated himself, but the result was a bunny still as confused as before. To both of their misfortune, that was the last straw for his nerves.
Getting embarrassed wasn't something that Nick Wilde, the slickest and most attractive vulpine in all of Zootopia, in his words of course, did too often. Then again, he'd never been witnessed shouting at a deaf and meek bunny in a classroom filled with mammals before, all of whom he knew personally. Most of them seemed to stare straight into his soul, their eyes full of spite and a bad sort of amazement. Prof. Boring, better known as professor Ferrer - an old Ferret who'd spent the last thousand and something years teaching calculus at the campus - had unsurprisingly dismissed him from the lesson after making it rather clear just who the fox had been 'arguing' with.
Nick had simply picked up his very basic looking grey hoodie and black backpack, and then swiftly escaped through the lecture hall's large double doors surrounded by a thick cloud of shame.
Unfortunately for him, that bunny had been Judy Hopps, the only deaf valedictorian in the college, maybe even in the whole city. Apparently she was the most emotional one as well, because she actually felt bad for being a burden. So, after finally having gotten a hang of the situation, she excused herself to the professor and burst after the canid, already planning her apology.
Soon after, the rabbit spotted the orange furred fox sitting at a round wooden table in the campus café, chugging down caffeine like a madmammal whilst fiddling with his phone. He was wearing a hoodie and black sweatpants, looking as comfy as one possibly could in the situation he was in. Although, even if he seemed calm and collected at first sight, she could tell he was still a bit ashamed and nervous.
Pretty much everyone knew of Nick Wilde. Nearly every day there would be a new rumor about him spreading amongst the students, whether it was about a drunken folly at a party, something regarding his personal matters, or even an episode with the law enforcement. But even though everyone seemed to know a lot about him, she'd been told there were only a pawful of mammals who actually knew him.
Judy knew that foxes tended to be pretty solitary by tradition, but the one she now stood in front of apparently took it into a new extreme. She started waving her paw in front of his lively emerald green eyes, which were still locked on the screen of his phone. He was hunched over the table and hadn't seemed to be paying attention to her, as he almost banged the top of his head to the ceiling - which was, for the record, very high up - when he at last did realize someone was indeed standing next to him.
Quickly calming down and readopting his, so called among other students, 'trademark smug face' back on, he turned to face her and changed his facial expression into a bewildered one, shocked by the reappearance of the bunny. He was about to ask her 'What is it?' but immediately snapped his mouth shut and scolded himself for forgetting such a basic and important fact as someone not being able to hear. Instead of talking, he rolled his paws in front of him and gave her a 'go ahead-kinda' look, indicating her to start speaking.
"Look, I'm sorry for what happened back there and I'm guessing that you didn't know that I'm deaf so it wasn't really your fault and I just came here to-", she was cut short by his front paw in the air with one finger held up. Nick opened up his backpack that was laying on the floor and pulled out a notebook and a pencil. He quickly scrabbled something on one of the pages and turned it to her, holding the notebook against his chest with his face still showcasing the half lidded eyes and mischievous grin.
All that was written on the paper was 'Don't worry 'bout it, Carrots.' Again, he turned the paper to face her and actually got a smile out of her this time. 'Hop back to class before you make prof. Wasteofmytime mad.'
She let out a small huff at that. "Guess I should. Anyways, I'm sorry for getting you dismissed. Believe it or not, you weren't the first one to go through this", she added in a sincere and somewhat embarrassed tone, so captured in rambling her apology she managed to miss the over ten second long carefully inspective stare the vulpine sent her way.
Breaking out of his odd haze, the cause of which - like everything else throughout the day - he blamed on the first few hours of his day, Nick repeated the process with the stationery once more and grinned at her. 'I'm sure I wasn't with those huge flappy thingies you've got hanging off of the top of your head. As to me missing the lecture, we could meet up at the library tonight, say at 6 p.m. I can copy everything I missed from your notes then.'
She gave him a puzzled glance, locking her lavender eyes with his emerald ones, head slightly tilted to the left, all the while still smiling, (partly because of the dumb names he used and partly because of his dumb face,) but before she could even open her mouth to respond, the fox had gotten up and was walking away from the table at a lightning fast phase. She was left there thinking 'what just happened' for a good half a minute before she ran back to catch the rest of the lecture.
'Well, he didn't leave me much of a choice, now did he?' she thought to herself, slowly scuffing herself back the hallway she'd come from with occasional glances behind her in case the canid decided to show up again. 'I guess I have half an hour to spare.'
The closest library - now that the campus' own one was closed due to renovation - was located about a mile away from her apartment. She could've taken the subway as the building stood right next to Crevasse Street's station, but ultimately chose to walk instead in order to save money, which she had very little anyways. Grabbing herself a light wind jacket, her bag, the keys and her phone, she double checked that she indeed had everything with her, and finally left.
Even with a jacket on, the cold evening breezes of Tundratown really cut their way all the way to one's bones. Judy arrived to the location of their meetup with a good fifteen minutes to spare, since she'd had to run a couple of times just to keep herself warm. Her eyes spotted an empty table near the corner of the large, modern styled library, the rest of her body following their order and taking a seat there.
A while, which to her felt like an eternity for some unexplainable reason, passed before she finally let herself check her phone. It was already 6:07 p.m. and Nick still hadn't shown up. He had been the one to tell her to meet him there, so what was taking him so long?
Not that she was too worried if he would come or not.
A few more moments passed before she caught a small glimpse of reddish fur and a darker tail swinging through the door. A slight sensation of relief washed over her. He looked around for a second, searching, before his emerald orbs locked with her lavender ones, and he began casually strolling towards her. He was wearing the same grey hoodie, but instead of sweatpants, he now had brown khakis.
'Well that's a weird pairing if I've ever seen one', Judy noted to herself mentally.
The vulpine finally arrived to the table and greeted the bunny with a lazy wave of his paw. He then sat to the opposite side of the small metallic fitment and looked at her like he was expecting her to do something. She completely lost track of his thought process before realizing what he was waiting for.
Letting out a quick 'Oh', she swiftly turned around and grabbed her own notebook and put it on the table in front of Nick. He nodded gratefully in return, before pulling out something from his pockets. It was a stack of yellow sticky notes. He then reached for his other pocket for a pen and wrote something down.
'Thanks.'
"Don't worry 'bout it, Slick", she responded in what she hoped was a witty tone.
'You literally met me less than three hours ago. During what point of that time have I been covered in liquid?'
"Well… Never mind, Mr. Pettifogger", she groaned in defeat.
'That's what I thought.' He once again pulled out his notebook and started copying the text off Judy's.
After only about two minutes of watching Nick playing a scribe, the silence became unbearably awkward and Judy decided to spark up a conversation. "Well you're talkative, huh?" she remarked, trying to sound as jokingly bored as possible.
'You wouldn't listen to me anyway.' She could see him hold in a distant chuckle. Despite this, he still somehow managed to keep his smug look on.
She let out a slightly annoyed "Really?"
'Sorry. I just had to. How long have you been deaf anyway?'
"Just my whole life. How come?" she said in a sarcastic but confused tone.
'Oh nothing. It's just that I've heard that mammals who lose their hearing or don't have it to begin with have problems with pronunciation and stuff, but yours is damn near perfect.' He barely got all of that to fit on the relatively tiny piece of paper.
"Oh, yeah. Thanks. It just took a lot of practicing as a kit. Nothing too special."
'So, I assume you've already got your future all sorted out.'
"Yep. The main goal is to become an attorney-", she said almost automatically before adding "-and no, it's not impossible. There have been other deaf lawyers before me and besides-"
'I wasn't gonna doubt you, Cottontail.' Her ears perked up a little at the surprising comment.
"So what about you? Any lifelong dreams of your own?" she asked jokingly. He shrugged before handing out another paper square.
'Not really. I'm just trying to get by, you know. I've always been pretty gifted in business tho, so I think that's my path to follow. Or at least for now.' He looked up at her and then quickly back down at the yellow stack.
'How is it?' he wrote before lying the note onto the table top. His facial expression now slightly more serious.
"What? Being deaf?" she sounded as if she had been caught off guard.
'No. Eating salad while flying. What do you think I meant?'
"I mean I can't really tell the differences since I don't know the other half of it. I try to get by my day like everyone else, but social events can get pretty… you know." Nick could make out a slight tone of uneasiness in her voice.
'Oh c'mon, Carrots, you're not doing half bad so far. Besides I think you're pretty cool for a bunny coming from the countryside.'
"First of all, thanks. I guess. Second of all, how did you know where I come from?" She was grinning a little but sounded a bit shocked.
He mentally facepawed himself and looked generally unamused. 'Earth to Fluff! You're wearing a pink flannel shirt! Besides, all you cute bunnies come from some farm in Bunnyburrow. But you can call it a lucky guess if it makes you feel any better.'
"You can't say that!" she whispered loudly.
'What? Bunnyburrow?' he inquired, his other eyebrow raised and head slightly tilted.
"No! The c-word! Only bunnies can use that of other bunnies, jerk"
'Again, when did I actually say anything? My mouth has been shut for the whole time.' His grin grew almost all the way to his ears.
"Dumb fox", she retorted, trying her hardest to keep the slowly building up wide smile of her own restrained.
He shrugged and seemed to let out a satisfied huff. Their eyes locked with each other for a brief moment once more, the air filled with comfort this time around. Nick then turned back to the notes in front of him and continued copying.
The bunny got lost into the depths of her own mind for who knows how long, eventually brought back into reality by something buzzing against her thigh. It was a MuzzleTime call from her parents- something they did every single week by tradition. She set the phone on the table so that it was leaning on one of the books, facing her. Before accepting the call she took in a deep breath and put on a fake smile- not that anyone could ever tell if it was fake or not.
For a second Nick was beyond confused. All that he was witnessing was her talking to someone on the phone but he didn't hear anyone respond to her. He scolded himself for forgetting the fact that she is deaf- STILL. This really was a new sort of situation to him, huh?
He leaned over the table so that he got a quick look on the screen. There were two elderly bunnies, one looked just like the rabbit physically in front of him and the other was standing next to her waving his paws around. He was light brownish and wore blue overalls, reminding Nick awfully lot of a stereotypical carrot farmer. That's all he could make out before a grey paw pushed him back into his chair with a surprising amount of force.
'Who's that?' Bonnie Hopps asked using sign language. She had developed a partially concerned expression while inspecting her daughter's odd behavior but Judy couldn't help but notice the suggestive smile her mother was giving her.
"I know what you're thinking and it's nothing like that, mom. I'm just helping him out with his studies", she said- sounding as stale as possible.
"She's telling the truth Mrs. Hopps. No need to worry", came the reassuring voice from across the table, though she couldn't have known about it.
'Turn the phone so we can see him', Stu signed.
"Uhh… I'd rather not." Her parents have always been suspicious of foxes so she really didn't want them to see who she was with. Such worry-warts.
Nick had finally finished the notes and handed the violet covered notebook back to its rightful owner. She simply nodded back and started packing up her things while still maintaining eye contact with her parents. All that was on her mind right then was to get home and relax for the rest of the evening. After all, this was one of her very few study-free nights.
Bonnie said something to the other rabbit and gave him an angry/disappointed stare that only married couples can make. After some more small talk and catching up, the pair wished their daughter well and gave a final 'Keep safe, sweetheart', before hanging up.
Judy got up to pack up her things since Nick had already handed over her notebook, indicating him being finished.
He was once again swifter in his actions as he had already walked out the front door before she had even stood up. She caught a glance of him stepping out into the dark wearing only what looked like a light blue T-shirt. Judy just shook her head, knowing that she was just seeing things- getting tired had that effect on her. 'No one can go out there dressed so lightly', she reasoned to herself.
She was just about to step outside but finally realized that she had indeed seen his hoodie out of the corner of her eye on the round metallic table. Or had she? Sighing heavily, she walked back the way she came, passing by several tall shelves filled with all sorts of books- mostly novels from authors that she'd never heard of.
Sure enough, the grey garment lay on the white tabletop- another one of the yellow paper squares plastered right on top of it. The bunny picked it up and read it out loud- a rather odd thing to do considering that she was standing there alone and was unable to hear herself.
"Return to the handsome fox", she mumbled- although not arguing against the term handsome being used of him, her eyes half lidded as she continued, "Really?". A part of her was confused, but otherwise she was, more than relatively, flustered. Taking a look on the backside of the note she noticed a long row of numbers, which ended with a poorly sketched winky face.
One really shouldn't care about what could've happened if something went different. Maybe her life would've been easier, or she would've been able to become a cop- who knows? But one thing is for sure. She might've never gotten to share her life with one particular fox.