Reminders

The second she stepped foot into his house, the guilt began to eat her away. Just moments before, her partner; her best friend, had ran away from her and the rest of the ZPD. She was fortunate enough to know where he lived and how to track him down; she came over every day after all.

"Nick." The rabbit officer's noise twitched as she took another foot inside. Along with feelings of remorse, her ears drooped down at her sides. "Nick." Judy repeated, yearning for an answer. "Where are you?"

His response was a much less enthusiastic; "What do you want Judes?" that seemed to be coming from the bedroom. Carefully following the sound of his voice and fortunately having her sharp sense of hearing, Judy pushed one door open before stepping in.

Her partner, lay face down against the mattress. Nick didn't even move to greet her. "What do you want Judes?"

"You already asked me that." Slowly, the rabbit jumped up beside him on the bed. Reaching up to rub his head, Judy's expression instantly softened. "I'm sorry about all that outside..."

"Oh. It's fine. Who cares?" The fox retaliated, sarcastically. Brushing his partner away, Nick fumbled back beneath the blankets.

"You do." Judy answered. She didn't move this time around, but kept her eyes peeled to his actions.

It had been a normal, busy day. In the city of Zootopia, no day was boring. That rule applied especially obvious to police officers. Chasing down criminals, arresting bad guys, was all in a day's work.

This morning, it looked like another day of adventure -It kinda was really. In retrospect, it was just more adventure then Judy had bargained for. Nick and her had halted an alley fight that got out of hand. But before they knew it, one of the five remaining Jaguars neared them with snarling teeth and eyes looking to kill. They couldn't fathom why he was so angry with them, and at the time weren't sure they'd live to know why. It was obvious they would have been torn apart if Judy hadn't called for backup ten minutes earlier. Unfortunately, her backup hadn't taken the exact route of action she was looking for.

Considering all the despicable acts the snarling jaguar had scarred them with, Judy had hoped Nick would be alright with the fact he was muzzled. But Nick wasn't. And Judy didn't ever think she'd forget that look in her partner's eyes.

Nick had taken off towards his house shortly after and against Chief Bogo's most likely better judgement, Judy had followed.

"Nick, come on. Get up." Judy begged, ruffling the sheets. "We need to get back to work. You can't just lay here."

Nick seemed to think this over. From the way he suddenly shifted back, just enough to look at his partner, ex partner maybe, Judy was close to positive he was ready to return to work. However his answer soon caused her hopeful smile to slip into her original frown. "No."

"Why?"

Nick store at her as if the rabbit had two heads. "You know why!"

"It's not like you'll have to see the muz... the jaguar. He's speaking with Chief Bogo and I'm positive neither of us will run into him. We can just go drive around and talk. But please Nick. You can't just lay here all miserably."

"I'm not miserable." Nick huffed with a miserable sigh. He squirmed back against the bed, tilting his head back again on top the pillows. "I'm smart. I am not going to go back just to be questioned about that guys savage attacks and the course of actions we had to take! And then -bam- next thing ya know the world is debating on owning more muzzles!"

"You're exaggerating, Nick. It's okay."

"Why do you always say that?! Not everything is okay!"

Judy watched with wide eyes as Nick turned away from her. The fox slumped back against the blankets in an extra effort to simply avoid her. Her heart ached at the thought, and slowly but surely she reached out.

"Nick." The bunnies ears drooped back down. "I know not everything is okay.. And I understand why you're upset. If I were you.. Well I wouldn't like it either." Lifting his head up, Nick eyed her as Judy kept talking. "But you can't just lay here! I won't let you! Come back to work with me. I promise you, no one will mention anything about what happened. You and I can go cruise around in the car, pick up some coffee -my treat, and do what we do best. Catch bad guys. And forget about what happened."

Sensing as Nick was still unsure what course of action to take, Judy continued. "I know there will be times when.. Extreme measures seem to have to be taken. We witnessed that today." The bunny shook her head. "But I promise you, I won't be any part of it. And if something like that happens again, well... We'll just find a new course of action to take."

"Chief Bogo's going to expect witnesses to speak." Nick mumbled. "You and I are the only witnesses."

"I'll talk to him about it. Besides, he kinda owes me a favor anyhow.. I caught him watching Gazelle's new music video and didn't say anything."

Hearing this, seemed to bring a light smile to the foxes face. "You broke that deal now, Carrots."

"Yeah, but I trust you to keep a secret, even if it is for Chief Bogo." With a chuckle, Nick's eyes moved to her's.

Judy rubbed his head, just like she did when she previously arrived. "Nick.. I know it's horrible. And I'm so sorry about this whole thing. But things are getting better. I know you don't like muzzles.. And I'm sorry you had to watch that."

"It's alright, Carrots. I've seen worse muzzle-related incidents."

Judy smiled -and Nick smiled back! Standing forward on his bed, Judy put her arms out. "Come here, you dumb fox."

"Sly bunny." Nick retorted, but allowed himself to listen. The pair hugged silently for over a full two minutes, refusing to break apart. And when they finally did, Nick had gotten up, and just like promised, Judy and him went out for coffee. She spoke with Chief Bogo shortly after.

A/N : For the readers who read this while it was a short story all on its own, thank you. Im honestly so happy you guys like my oneshots so much. So that's why I finally decided to do my own collection of oneshots. It was hard to decide which one of my oneshots to continue on from, but eventually I chose this one as it makes for a good base and demonstrates Judy and Nick's relationship.

However even though the oneshot series title is currently 'Wilde Hopps Oneshots' not all of my oneshots will be romantic. Some will be friendship, others will be unspecified and there will be tons of different genres I'll be experimenting with.

I'm also planning on writing the entire Tundra Town mission I referenced in Falling For Her, It's not mandatory if you read that first but it does reference it. Just a heads up.

Thank you for the love, and I hope whether you ship Wilde Hopps or not, you'll stick around. There will be lots of fluff, angst, and a whole lot more.

Review, favorite, and follow❤️