Koslov dropped Nick off in front of his apartment, said a coldly formal goodbye, and then zipped back into traffic. Nick stood on the curb and watched the black car vanish down the street before letting a breath hiss between his teeth.

Well…that had been unexpected.

Koslov had said that he wanted to hear about Hubble, but that clearly hadn't been the case. Or at least all of it. The bear had seemed to want to make amends for his past actions. But why? What could he possibly stand to gain from wooing some marginally famous fox? It wasn't like Nick was in any danger of telling the ZPD about him. After the nightmare in the Palm Hotel had ended both him and Hopps had edited Koslov so thoroughly out of their stories that for the most part the Tundra Town mob had been a footnote in the subsequent legal proceedings.

Hopps had done it to keep her family safe. Nick had just never wanted to see Koslov again. And hadn't, up until this morning.

Nick glanced to the front of his apartment building. Thought about going inside. And doing what?

The thought of watching television made him feel dispirited, the internet wasn't anything more than one grand distraction…

"You were going for a walk." He reminded himself gently. And set off down the street.

As he skirted the edge of downtown proper, mingling with an ever growing crush of pedestrians, Nick tried to recall his nightmare. But, aided by the distance of time and place, it was already fading into the recesses of his mind. He'd been in a classroom, Hubble had been there…and that was about all he could remember.

He pulled off to one side, standing in the shadow of a concrete stoop, and decided to make a call.

The phone rang. Rang. Rang. Just when Nick was beginning to wonder if he'd hit voicemail he heard a staticky commotion on the other end of the line.

"Hmm?" A sleep addled voice asked.

"Finn," Nick said, glad to have caught his friend, "I'd ask if I woke you but that kinda seems unneeded."

Finnick yawned.

"It's seven fifteen Nick," the fennec growled, with just a hint of indignation, "you gotta stop calling me so early…it's unnatural."

Nick smiled faintly. Leaned back against the wall, one foot propped up against cool concrete.

"Judy's an early riser, so I kinda have no choice but to follow suit. Anyway, can I come over? Something weird just happened."

"Weird? What?" Finnick asked, sounding just a little more awake.

"I'll tell you once I'm over there…I'm kinda in public right now."

That seemed to pique Finnick's interest.

"Oh?" He asked.

"I'll be over in just a few minutes." Nick said, and started walking.

Finnick no longer lived in a van. Mostly because the van had been impounded by the ZPD following the Wild Times bust and torn mostly apart by officers searching for evidence. Instead he had a tiny apartment nestled on the edge of the canals. Nick glanced over them as he buzzed Finnick's apartment. Couldn't help but find them just a little foreboding after the events of the morning.

A moment later he was walking through a narrow hallway, lit by flickery fluorescents. The wallpaper was drab, the floorboards creaked. He knocked on one of the white painted doors and heard a bolt being drawn back. Finnick peeked his head out, shirtless and disheveled. He let Nick in.

"So," the fennec said, "define 'weird' for me."

Nick did. Finnick froze in the middle of opening a drawer, head cocked towards Nick, eyes widening.

"That…that…" He gave up looking for an ugly enough term to describe Koslov and slammed the drawer shut with a bang, simmering.

"He seemed to want to make amends…I think." Nick said, taking a seat on one of Finnick's chairs. It was just a little bit too small for him and reminded him very much of the furniture at the Hopps' family home out in the Burrows.

"Gotta say," Finnick said, "he has a nose for business…" There was a hint of grudging respect in his voice.

"Judy mentioned she was looking for the people behind this the other morning," Nick said, "she'd explode with rabbity joy if I told her all of this."

Finnick let out a low, humorless chuckle.

"But you wont."

"Nope. Cant say I'm a fan of the whole 'Koslov trying to kill me' experience." Nick laughed nervously, became aware that he was wringing his paws.

"It doesn't sound like he'll be back," Finnick said after a moment had passed, "if he was as unhappy as you said he was."

That was perfectly fine with Nick.

...

Somewhere on the other side of the river, bundled into a thick coat and sitting in the front seat of a command vehicle, Hopps was overseeing a stakeout. Officer Hart, Hopps' second in command, a deer with carefully trimmed antlers and golden brownish fur, seemed listless.

"No calls in from any of our people yet," he said, noticing Hopps' gaze, "the coast is clear…"

They'd been observing a derelict building in Tundra Town for nearly an hour now, waiting to see if anyone suspicious decided to go inside. No dice so far.

"It's early," Hopps said, glancing at her phone, "the bad guys are still waking up."

Hart nodded dutifully at that. Hopps fiddled with her phone for a moment before putting it away. It was simply too tempting to mess with it when she was on stakeout. Especially a boring stakeout like this one.

"I'll keep an eye on the frequencies if you need to get out and stretch your legs." Hart said. They were parked in an alleyway, Hopps could leave the vehicle if she wanted so, provided she was very quiet about it.

Hopps shook her head.

"I'm fine." She said.

"You're fidgety." Hart replied.

Hopps supposed that the deer was right, but that didn't make her want to leave any more. She'd still be restless even if she took a little circuit around the alleyway.

"Just…thinking I guess." Hopps said with a shrug.

"About your boyfriend?" Hart asked. It was a needless question.

Hopps sighed. Was aware that her ears had gone flat, almost of their own accord.

"About Nick," she confirmed, "I don't want to be the nagging shrew in the relationship…" Hopps trailed off, aghast as she realized what she'd just said. "Sorry…didn't mean to…say that."

Hart shook his head, unconcerned.

"It doesn't matter," he said, "you were saying?"

"Well…uh…right. I don't want to have to nag at him, but he needs to do something about all of this. Something really bad happened between him and Hubble, and I cant figure any of it out."

"It might not just be Hubble," Hart said thoughtfully, "Hubble might be the face of his fears, but he's gone through a lot Lieutenant. Have you thought of having him go to see a councilor?"

Hopps nodded slowly.

"I have. But I don't think that Nick would want to, you know?"

Hart raised an eyebrow.

"He has to know that the force sends us to the councilor pretty much at the drop of a hat. The first time I stunned a suspect I had to go visit the ZPD councilor over in the Sahara Square station and tell him how it made me feel. It's not anything abnormal."

"I'll try to convince him." Hopps said. And fell silent again.

Somehow none of this made her feel any better.

...

"Still feels weird having the collar off," Finnick was saying, rubbing at his neck, "every now and then I'm sure that it's gonna be there, like if I look in the mirror then I'll see that green light again."

That was a sentiment that Nick was unfortunately familiar to.

"I saw an ad when I was going through Sahara Square once," Nick said, "I was in a taxi, we were stuck in traffic so I turned on the little TV they have built in the back of the driver's seat. And it was for a collar themed episode of Dr. Filly. All these predators coming on and telling the good doctor about how they were getting along after getting their collars taken off. Made me feel weird…seeing society suddenly give a fig about us."

Finnick listened to this, then got silently up and fetched a pair of beers from the fridge. He offered one to Nick.

"It's eight in the morning Finn," Nick said, "thanks but no thanks."

"You've had a rough start to your day," the fennec countered, popping the cap off of his bottle, "unwind for a little bit."

Nick contemplated the bottle, condensation sweating off of the green glass. Finally he sighed, shaking his head ruefully at himself.

"Alright," he said, "one beer. One."

Finnick smiled and tossed the bottle over. Nick caught it.

"Have you heard anything from Honey lately?" Nick asked.

Finnick shook his head slightly, wiping a little crescent of foam from his muzzle.

"Nope. Kitty's gone AWOL. Again."

Nick said nothing. This wasn't terribly surprising, Honey had picked up the habit of vanishing every now and then. In Nick's mind the cheetah was probably out building a new bunker. The old one had been seized by the city and pretty thoroughly dismantled.

"He'll turn up." Nick said.

"Yep," Finnick said, "sooner or later..."

They sat in comfortable silence for a moment, then the fennec glanced over.

"How's your police bunny doing?" He asked.

Nick frowned very slightly.

"It wouldn't kill you to say her name."

Finnick's ears went flat for a moment.

"Judy." He said. "How's Judy?"

"Fine," Nick said, "work's keeping her busy busy busy."

"Uh huh," Finnick said, taking another sip of his drink, "it's a busy time for Zootopia..."

"I'm thinking about proposing." Nick said before he could stop himself. The words seemed to come directly from some place beyond his conscious waking mind...yet they felt right nonetheless.

"...Oh boy," Finnick said after a moment, "you're serious."

Nick nodded, watching Finnick fiddle with his half empty bottle. The fennec looked uncomfortable. Fidgety.

"I love her Finn," Nick said, all levity gone from his voice, "I know you don't like her, but-"

Finnick cut Nick off with a sharp wave of his paw.

"Hey," he growled, "don't put words in my mouth buddy. I think Judy is a fine lady, and you two make a good couple...just...don't rush into anything. You've been together a year, right? That might not be enough for marriage."

Nick listened to his friend's words. Knew that Finnick only meant the best by them but felt a little coal of hurt flame up within him regardless.

"These must be dark days if you of all people are acting as the voice of responsibility in my life."

Finnick smiled a faint ghost of a smile. Finished his beer.

"Keep what I've said in mind Nick. Oh, and if you're not gonna touch that beer then feel free to pass it over."

Nick did so. Finnick tucked in.

"That's a lot of beer Finn. You're not the biggest mammal in the world." He noted.

"I've got a big personality." Finnick said, and took a larger swig, as though Nick had challenged him.

"You wanna take a walk somewhere?" Nick asked after a moment had passed. He was feeling restless again. Fidgety. The mood in Finnick's apartment felt all wrong to him. Perhaps outside it would clear up a little bit.

"Can't," the fennec sighed, glancing over to a wall clock that hung over the oven, "I'm a working stiff now, gotta catch my bus in twenty minutes."

"Oh. Right. Forgot..." Nick smiled apologetically. That was right, it was a Tuesday, Finnick worked on Tuesdays. And most other days too.

"How's the job treating you?" Nick asked after a moment had passed.

"Well, I sure wish ZNN had libeled me so I had the option not to work," Nick blinked, what was that look that Finnick had just given him? "But it's not too bad. The days go by quickly."

"Good to hear..."

Nick excused himself and left Finnick's apartment, feeling even uneasier than before.