A/N: I would like to thank Lupineleigh for being my beta reader, and Blenderguy15, Aninat131, Zanrok, PizzaSteve3902, Emmi-chan, Cimar of Turalis WildeHopps and Saforite154 for their respective reviews. And to Aninat131, happy birthday! I've been influenced and inspired by a lot of different stories on this site, but his phenomenal work "Evergreen" has definitely been my biggest influence for this particular story. For the occasion I had an Evergreen piece commissioned by the talented Ziegelzeig on deviantart; the link is on my profile.


But by the time they got to the door of Judy's Grand Pangolin Arms apartment, Nick had realized that then might have been a good time to break his non-coffee wasting streak. In the car ride over he started to get the jitters, which made it difficult for Judy to keep the wheel steady. While trying to parallel-park in front of her building he had accidentally twitched her paw so hard she had driven onto the curb and nearly flattened a rodent-sized fire hydrant. Needless to say she was rather ticked with him right now, so for the moment he deemed it prudent to walk on eggshells around her. Normally he was never short on quips about her room's small size, crazy neighbors and lack of private bathroom, but tonight he would keep those to himself.

"So, uh, what should we do tonight, Carrots?"

"Um, 'do tonight', Nick? I was under the impression we were just going to go right to bed."

"Well, we've got the whole night ahead of us, so I figured, you know, maybe we could hang out, watch a movie, play cards…"

"Nick, it's 2 in the morning, and this isn't a slumber party. I get that you're caffeinated, but I did tell you not to drink that second coffee, so you're just going to have to tough it out."

"Oh, I know! We can go over the case again!"

"What more is there to talk about? The car thief steals older vehicles of small to medium size, operates between the hours of 10 PM and 7 AM, and must have some kind of specialized equipment because we've never found glass at any of the scenes. This happens in low-traffic areas, so there's never any camera footage to be found. Until further notice, that's all we know."

"Hey, maybe we could finally play Bunn-opoly; you've been asking me to play you for ages…"

"IT'S 2 AM, NICK! LET'S JUST GET TO BED ALREADY!"

"Hey bunny-cop! You and your boyfriend keep it down; we're trying to sleep in here!"

Judy snapped at her neighbors behind the wall: "Guys, he's not my boyfriend, and he's been here enough times that you should KNOW that by now!"

"Then why do you two sound like you're having a sleepover!?"

"'Sleepover'? This isn't a - didn't you just hear me say…ERRGH, never mind!"

Nick just stood by quietly for a minute, opting to give Judy a little time to calm down before speaking up again:

"So, um, should we just head to bed then, Carrots?"

"Nothing I'd like better, Nick."

"Okay, so… how do you want to do this?"

"Well, unless you want me to get the scissors it looks like we'll have to sleep in our uniforms all night, but let's at least take our duty belts off." Both instinctively reached for their own belt buckles, and simultaneously pulled on each other's cuffed arms. Then without thinking both tried again, and tugged each other yet again. They then compromised by awkwardly standing face-to-face and undoing each other's' belts, and then without speaking both removed their police badges and set them on Judy's desk, along with their respective wallets and phones. Then as a finishing touch Nick loosened his tie, pulled it over his head and laid it on Judy's chair, the knot still in place. Judy rolled her eyes.

"Now, Nick, which do you prefer to sleep on - your stomach or your back? It doesn't matter to me."

"Errr, stomach."

"Alright, then we'll crawl onto the bed from the end, like this, and sleep on our stomachs for the night."

The pair clumsily crawled up onto the rickety bed, the springs inside creaking loudly. Judy had been right in assuming that there was room on it for the both of them, but she had also underestimated how much more space Nick himself took up, for when they laid down they found themselves with barely six inches of space between them, their muzzles practically touching. Judy immediately sprang back up, making Nick let out a yelp as she pulled on his cuffed arm while doing so. "Okay, there's less space than I thought; we may need to set up some kind of boundary."

"'Boundary'? Carrots, I can assure you I'm not going to try and devour you in your sleep. I am a gentlefox you know."

"Humor me, please," Judy put her free paw to her chin and thought for a moment: "Okay, I can't believe I'm considering this… Nick, reach over the side and open the middle drawer under the bed, and bring out what's inside."

Nick acquiesced, but the moment he saw the contents of the drawer he turned back to Judy with a delighted grin on his face.

"Stuffed rabbits? Carrots, surely you jest."

"Not a word pal, just bring them up here."

One-by-one Nick fished Judy's well-worn and well-snuggled stuffed rabbits out of the drawer, unable to resist commenting on each one as he went along:

"What's this one's name?

Ooh, isn't this a Jack Savage doll?

Hey, this one's shaped like a fox!

Aww, this one says Junior ZPD Officer, that's so cute!

What? Am I not even allowed to call a stuffed rabbit cute?"

Once he was done, Nick pushed himself back onto the bed and immediately saw Judy's handiwork: she had taken all of her dolls and plushies and lined them in a row straight down the middle of the bed, forming a cute and fluffy wall between herself and Nick.

"Alright Slick," Judy said, pointing to the row, "This is a border, and these guys are the guards. Nothing except your cuffed paw is permitted on my side. So unless your tail has a passport, I ask you to move it before I'm forced to have it deported."

"I don't suppose I could apply it for a visitor's visa...?" Nick jokingly queried. But Judy shook her head no and he complied, and tried to relax and make himself comfortable. But there was still lingering caffeine in his system, and while he could keep his arms and legs still there was still one appendage he could never fully control when he was caffeinated: his tail.

His fluffy russet tail suddenly sprang to life, involuntarily swishing back and forth and wagging up and down on the bed with soft thumps. Nick tried to relax and act casual, but from the way Judy's ears were twitching with each thump she was clearly noticing his tail's movements. Suddenly his tail flicked over the border between them and landed an inch from Judy's feet, the stray hairs from it threatening to tickle. Nick quickly moved his tail back, but two wags later it rolled onto Judy's side again, and this time it really did tickle her feet, making the rabbit yelp and instinctively jerk them away.

"Cut it out, Nick!"

"I'm sorry Carrots, but when I can't sleep my tail gets a mind of its own!"

"Well, at least turn on your side, so it stays away from me!"

"Fine!"

"Nick obeyed, turning on his right side facing Judy, but his tail remained noncompliant. It kept thumping and thumping away; against the mattress, against Nick's legs, even against the floor. Nick tried to fight it and Judy tried to ignore it, but it was a losing battle. The breaking point finally came when the tip of the tail caught in the back of Judy's desk chair and pulled, causing the chair to fall over with a loud crash.

"Alright, THAT'S IT!"

Judy leaned over the stuffed-bunny border and with an almighty shove pushed Nick off the bed, sending the fox tumbling to the floor and missing the fallen desk chair by an inch. His left paw, still cuffed to Judy, was left hanging over the edge of the bed while the rest of him laid in a heap on the hardwood floor, his nose pressing into the drawer under her bed.

"If you can't keep your tail still, Nick, I'll just have to deport it from the bed and you along with it! Good-NIGHT!"

"Come on Carrots, let me up! I'll keep my tail under control, I promise!"

All Nick got in response was a loud, fake snore from Judy. He sighed, shivered, and tried to get comfortable again while his tail thumped freely behind him.

Roughly half an hour later Nick's tail final stopped twitching, and he decided to try again. "Carrots?"

No answer.

"I think the caffeine has worn off by now. Really, you can let me back up now."

"Nothing doing, pal."

"But Carrooots, you've got no rug, and this is a hardwood floor! Come on, it's cold and very uncomfortable down here!"

He looked up straight into her face, making his green eyes look as wide and weepy as possible. "Pweeease?"

"Come on, bunny-cop, give him another chance!" hollered the neighbors.

Judy sighed. "Fine, get up here." She shuffled backwards as Nick joyfully scrambled back onto the bed.

"Just please keep your tail on your side, okay?"

"Way ahead of you, Carrots. I shall sleep like this…" Nick curled up on his side again and wrapped his legs and free arm around his tail, immobilizing it. "Satisfied?"

"Very," Judy replied, unable to stifle a small smile as she noticed just how endearing Nick looked with the tip of his tail covering his nose, "Goodnight Nick."

"Good night… Judy."

And with that, the pawcuffed pair finally drifted off into sleep.


A few hours later, Nick found himself jarred awake as something bumped his leg. He shook it off and tried to go back to sleep, but the same something hit him again. Fully roused now Nick looked down to see that one of Judy's grey feet was thumping in her sleep, breaking the bunny-barrier and kicking him. He let out a great wide yawn and glanced towards Judy's face, and a beautiful sight met his eyes: despite her cuffed paw Judy had managed to grab one of her plushies in her sleep and was now snuggling with it. And not just any one: it was the fox doll. If Nick could reach his phone (and was not trying to stay in Judy's good graces), he would have gladly taken a picture of the sight. Nick released his tail and tried to stretch, only to be forcibly reminded that one of his paws was still connected to Judy's. There was now a defined indentation in the fur on his wrist where the cuff sat, and looking down his slept-in uniform looked more rumpled and wrinkled than his oldest Pawaiian shirt. Judy's foot lightly kicked Nick again, and he idly wondered how the bunny border's deportation laws applied if the transgressor was asleep.

Suddenly a familiar awareness came over him, followed immediately by a certain longing spreading through his nether regions, growing more and more powerful. Nick tried to relax and ignore it, but he knew he had to deal with it and soon. He shifted and fidgeted anxiously for a few minutes, but the sensation got worse by the second, and soon he could stand it no longer. He had to act. He had to tell Judy; she had to be feeling it by now too…

He started rapidly shaking Judy's shoulder with his free paw. "Ummm, Carrots?"

Judy awoke with a yawn that Nick would have found much more adorable if it weren't for his current state. "Yaawwn… Yea' Nick?"

"I have to go to the bathroom."