The Stake

by IncognitoFoxxo

The inseparable duo gets assigned to go on a stakeout, with so much time to kill and as mates, they have conversations and take actions they wouldn't typically take in their concealed, mysterious relationship that continued to beguile mammals who were inquisitive about their relationship. Rated M for the topics discussed.

2. Hour 2

Don't worry I'm probably going to upload a lot more regularly to this story now because I'm thoroughly enjoying writing this story and additionally, sorry for the lack of uploads, my life's very busy with a certain someone…

About this chapter itself, I included a Judy flashback when she was roughly around the same age as Nick was in his last chapter. But that target of 100k words is going to happen, mark my words.

Anyway, as always, hope you enjoy.

Hour 2:

"Soooo, carrots, how many siblings have you actually got? I mean I saw a load of your siblings when I visited your parents, that had to be all of them, right?" Nick was trying to change the topic to one with more of a less tense mood and one that was less personal to him because it all got too real when he spoke about his past as it did on the tram when he leaked another bit of his past to the doe who is currently his world.

"Well, you met about 200 out the 300 I have, mainly because the others moved to the city and abroad. Like, some people in my family are scientists whilst others are hillbillies. For instance; my sister had 7 piercings in one ear by the age of 13."

"I can just imagine your sister now with a balaclava with a leather jacket riding a chopper." Nick laughed at the thought of a bunny riding a motorcycle as he started to imagine how their ears would flap in the window.

"That's how she ended up." Nick felt a little humiliated that he had just insulted her sibling but Judy didn't seem bothered that he had mocked her family, in fact, she seemed rather light about it all. It was clear to Nick that Judy's family was very varied. Judy knew some of her family were basically the ones who were disappointments. She was just glad she wasn't one of them.

"You know I never had any siblings and as much as you loathe your brothers and sisters sometimes, it's better than having no siblings. Trust me, I was so bored. Come to think of it that's probably why I ended up as a crook. Anyway, the burrows didn't seem full of hillbillies when I visited. I mean I met this fox named Gideon who was alright." Judy mentally ceased to function and running her paw over her cheek, still feeling the scar that was only millimetres thick drew her straight back to the moment where she had been scratched by Gideon. It wasn't the pain that seemed to cause the most damage it was the actual concept of being scratched by claws that really drilled the memory in. The best she could do to get over her fear of them was to associate Gideon's claws with pain and Nick's with pleasure. Nick placed his paw on her shoulder and she was snapped away from that memory and instead set her sights on Nick's face. "You alright, Fluff?"

"Erm yeah, don't worry it's nothing." She tried to brush the memories of angst aside and instead focus on what they were speaking about before.

"It's not nothing, I know my bunny too well for her to lie like she is, so why doesn't she just tell me? It can't be that bad, right?" Judy was debating whether to confess her childhood incident to Nick as he'd probably act irrationally in one of two ways. He'd either flip out and ask why she didn't tell him sooner or would feel empathy for her and Nick wasn't as strong as he made out to be when empathising.

"Carrots, it isn't nothing. You know you can speak to me about anything."

"Yeah, but you're just not-"

"Not what? Not your mate? C'mon Judy you know you hurt me when you do this; close yourself up and act like this doesn't matter." Nick was now attempting to guilt trip her into blurting out the secret that made her seem weak. That was the only thing stopping her from saying it. She appeared weak if she did and she wasn't willing to let Nick lower her self-esteem because he would mock it with one of his intendedly facetious sarky comments. Nevertheless his plan to guilt trip her was working as she stared at the floor with a face that expressed the lower in her reluctance to tell him.

She couldn't reply. She had no excuse that wouldn't give it away. "I was bullied as a kit."

"What?" Nick was surprised that she had been bullied in her youth whilst she appeared very hardy now, it must have been a contrast when she was younger. "Why? By who? When was this?" He wasn't trying to know it out of curiosity yet that was the detective part of him shining, it was the concern for Judy, the concern that she was hurt by this 'bully'.

"It wasn't that bad but..." Judy sighed before expressing her thoughts. "There was this one time when I was nine. After a school play, I saw Gideon Grey, the bully, picking on my little sister and her friends." She took another sigh. "I decided to intervene because I'm an idiot and then when Gideon pushed me over, I kicked him, like an idiot. Then he scratched me round the face- Told Ya! Nothing to worry about, now can we please drop the topic."

Nick was listening to the dial tone as he rang a number that Judy only knew as the one her parents would call whenever they needed pies. "Nick, what are you doing?"

"Asking him what that was all about." Judy leaned across the gear stick to snatch the phone out of Nick's paw and listened painfully as Nick asked for Gideon on the phone whilst pushing Judy away with his other paw. "Hello? Is Gideon there? He is? Can you put him on please?" Nick smirked at Judy as he defied her wishes with such contemptuousness.

Judy bent Nick's arm the wrong way and he dropped the phone onto his lap and when they both set their paws on it, it was like a tug of war match but whoever lost also lost their dignity. Gideon answered the phone and in amongst the grunts they were exclaiming in their strength, Judy heard the muffled voice and shouted. "Don't listen to him, Gideon! He's losing his marbles!" Judy just about managed to gain enough grip on it that she snatched it out of his grasp. Not thinking straight she wound down the window to Nick's car and he helplessly watched the phone bomb it across the sidewalk from her paw and into the snow. She smiled at him with a smug grin that only reinforced the anger he was set on displaying.

"What the actual fuck have you done?! That has literally everything on it! My accounts, banking, contacts, pictures, work, emails!" He opened the door, jumped down and slammed the door behind him, startling Judy into jumping out of her skin. She'd realised she had done something more than wrong when Nick was mad at her out of all mammals. He was almost never mad at anyone and when someone performed a little stunt like Judy had, that ground Nick's gears too far. He leant on the passenger window where Judy was sat and interrogated her. "Why did you do that?!"

"I don't know, I-I just thought-"

"I'm going to have to buy a new phone, get all my contacts back and get all the confidential information from work back because you destroyed mine in snow, this is coming out of your wages." Judy didn't want to risk raising Nick's ire and agreed to pay for a phone with a solemn nod.

"Maybe it still works."

"I highly doubt it." He sighed and knelt down to pick up his phone.

Judy was hesitant to raise her voice or ask if he felt okay. "Nick, are you alright?" He had been knelt down for a pretty long time and wasn't responding to Judy's question which was making her start to worry what was actually taking him so long to pick up a phone. "Nick?" Her voice was lowered as she opened the car door and when she turned to shut it she felt something hit the back of her head, it was in the form of a ball and it was cold. With snow on the ground, it didn't take a genius to figure out that Nick was throwing snowballs. She gasped and turned around to see Nick tossing a snowball up and down in his paw whilst grinning at her. She presumed his phone was alright by his childish behaviour and reminded him they were still technically on shift. "Stop acting like such a kit, we're on a stakeout remember, we can't create any noise or draw unnecessary attention to ourselves."

"Yeah, but it doesn't mean we can't have any fun in the process." She still seemed apprehensive to the idea of having 'fun' whilst doing work, two words that usually didn't marry but with Nick on the force, it was quite hard for them to separate. "C'mon carrots, you know you wanna."

Judy bent over and Nick whistled in an attempt to further provoke her into joining the fight. She rolled her eyes and caught him off guard by launching one right at his chest. She smiled with vengeance for his past actions in the one snowball. She liked the feeling she got out of throwing a snowball at her insufferably annoying tod that constantly teased her. She picked up another and got hit by Nick's snowball before launching a volley of snowballs at him. He swung the passenger door open and blocked the incoming snowball before he peeked round the side to have a ball of snow crumble on his face. He grinned mischievously and compacted the most snow he could into the size of his palms and threw it harder than meant at Judy who flew backwards onto the snow from the impact.

Nick gaped his eyes at what he'd just done and rushed over to her. It couldn't be serious, she had to be joking. "Okay carrots, you can stop fooling now." He stood over her whilst leaning down. But, before he could get a chance to tickle her conscience, she grabbed the biggest pawful of snow she could get. She grasped his collar to pull them closer together and she shoved the snow down his back.

He froze as he felt the snow turn to mush within seconds, freezing his warm back that contrasted the ice cold slush. He picked his shirt up at the back and shook it in an attempt to dispose of the freezing water that crawled through his red forest of fur. "Judy, what in the-" He shrivelled as he felt the snow hit his lower back whilst chunks fell out the back of his top. "hell do you think you're doing?! You're gonna blow our cover!"

"Shut up and get back in the car you big wimp." Nick screwed his face in discontentment and scorn at her insult after the stunt she'd just pulled. Nick was making a mental tally of how many times she pranked him. It was currently 2 to 0 so he decided to step it up a notch. He narrowed his eyes filled with desire for revenge.

Nick grabbed placed his already freezingly numb paw on the snow to prop himself up before deciding to fill Judy in on a way ticket to making her feel envious of what he was going to do.

After shaking as much as he could off, he buttoned up his shirt and sat in the car. "You know you're a right little shit sometimes." He didn't say it with an aggressive tone, he said it with a smile pulled and a small chuckle after it. He knew the incident was a joke and even though she was still delving into sporadic bursts of sniggering, she did feel a little bad.

"I could say the same for you." Judy was hardly ever sassy yet when it came to her mate who constantly mocked everything she said or did, it wasn't a hard decision to return the favour, especially when he started to drive her ire.

He pushed the button of a chair filled with arrows on the dashboard and snuggled back into his chair as Judy stared at his pleasured reaction, not sure what to make of it. "Are you alright there slick?"

He turned his head to face her and gave her a satisfied grin. "You don't even know what alright is until you feel this fluff." She placed her paw against the back of the chair and gasped at the intense heat he'd been dwelling in for the last few minutes. She noticed that the button he'd pushed was mirrored on her side of the dashboard and pushed it in like he had his before he leant forward and turned it off. She tutted at him before he tapped the fuel gauge.

She switched the roles and turned his off whilst maintaining the heat that dispersed out her seat. He smiled at her before switching the heat back to his and he turned hers off once more causing her to sigh and force her plan into action.

"Shirt off. Now." Nick was shocked by her sudden impulse to be sexual with him and he wasn't one to turn down an opportunity for it no matter where they were or what they were doing. He leant forward to kiss her but she pushed him away lightly as a joke and he was now even more confused than he was originally by what she wanted out of him. "Not everything I say is related to sex you filthy tod. Just take your shirt off."

"You know I have nothing on underneath this?"

"All the better."

He rolled his eyes and proceeded to unbutton the top couple of buttons and once he'd pulled it over his head he chucked it towards Judy and almost immediately after he sat with his arms crossed in an attempt to preserve the heat he had from the seat. He yawned whilst stretching his arms up touching the roof in the process.

"Look, I don't have a clue what you're trying to prove here so lay it on me." She threw the thin material around her whilst watching him cling to the seat for the little heat source he had. She wanted to take a picture of him hugging his own tail for warmth, that was her real goal in all the fuss she was creating. She just needed an excuse to make him cold and this was her chance to greatly embarrass him through social media to get back at the picture he took of her whilst she was sleeping in his arms captioned something Judy went mental at him for and included the words 'Look at my cute little bunny.' Two things Judy was anxious about in that. The 'my' and the 'cute' part she was just livid at him for, as he knew she loathed the use of the word to describe her, but through that argument, Nick managed to gain a pass to use it.

"I wanted your shirt to compensate for the heat I was missing out on."

"My shirt won't do anything! Are you kidding me? It's a couple of millimetres thick and was only 5 dollars." After wrapping herself in it, she could smell Nick all over her so that was at least a bonus from the entire thing. "Why do you really want my shirt?"

At least she had a reason, that happened to be a coincidence that didn't reveal why she really seized his shirt for herself. "I love your scent."

"Oh shut up fluff, if you really want my scent, just ask. You know what I can do..."

"What, mark me? Nick, people will know and I thought this was going to be a 'private' relationship."

"Well, we could always have ..." He mumbled the last word knowing that she'd almost definitely say no and probably moan at him for the next few hours.

"You know we can't do it right now don't you? We've got a job to do. We're basically 10-10, not 10-7 so before you even try to pull any more hints on me, it's not gonna happen. That's final. Besides, I'm happy with your shirt." Nick huffed at her before she spoke up trying to break the tension so she wouldn't receive an as big as it could be punishment for taking the picture that would be the most embarrassing for Nick if it got into the wrong paws, that meaning Clawhauser. "All that ZPD training has paid off, huh?"

"I didn't tell what the coach said to me did I?" Judy shook her head after he started speaking again. "She said 'Oh you're such a wimp...'" Judy loved how Nick impersonated people with the impressions of them and she couldn't help but snigger whilst Nick was making a point. "...and all of this yet, I could lift something nearly double my body weight. Explain that, and just because I have smaller legs than everybody else, she called me slow. I actually said to her that if she just let me run on all fours I might be able to go around about 30 miles per hour but apparently; no, I can't do that because of cheetahs. She also was having a moan at me struggling with my shooting yet the targets were about thrice the height of me and that isn't even the worst part. She would not stop saying that I'm jacking off in the dorms at lunch over you so of course that made people believe h-"

"Were you?" Judy asked that question hesitantly knowing that they were out by then and that they spent nearly every night on the phone to each other unless Nick was dragged out of bed by the instructor to do a series of push ups or lift some weights and he wasn't adept to the task of being a police officer. The truth was: All Nick needed to do to actually become a police officer was conquer one or two obstacles along with improving his endurance. Yet somehow the polar bear thought it was a great idea to consistently drag Nick out of bed because he wasn't as strong as some of the tigers or elephants, she only did this because Bogo didn't want Nick in his precinct but as a valedictorian, he was obliged to be located to the precinct with his favourite mammal and the one he loathed. In the months he was there he spent his free time yearning for Judy to be in his arms as they slept. But that seemed a world away from the allegations the polar bear was making.

"Once or twice in the entire six months but that isn't important because I didn't get caught." Nick wasn't too opposed to telling Judy about the times he'd jacked off over her to her as they were mates after all, but Judy just couldn't get the image out of her head and didn't know whether to feel privileged that he found her so attractive or disgusted by the fact he was supposed to be studying and instead he sat jerking off to her, so she couldn't really have an opinion on that, therefore, keeping her mouth shut about it. "So then I basically got known as the fox who jacked off to his bunny girlfriend in the dorms and that title basically stuck for the entire time I was there. Then when I get out, I realise that my bunny is waiting for me with a gym membership and a daily jog as well as my first day on the force consisting of the reminder that I'd jerked off to the bunny I was sat next to." Whilst Nick had been in the academy, Judy had started to try new experiences that she never had the opportunity to join or experience in the burrows such as gyms and the naturist club that her and Nick tried but ended up flunking on due to the constant need they wanted to fulfil in there and they were sick of having to run back to the car to fulfil that need.

"I mean you didn't exactly keep it up, but you still look hot and you can go for hours."

Nick twisted his head in confusion for what she just said. "What do you mean by 'Go for hours'? And besides, that, am I not good enough for you?" Nick drew her gaze towards his torso with his paw.

"No, I mean- you're perfect honey okay, nothing can change that. You're my favourite mammal in the entire world no matter what you look like, so don't feel obliged to keep it up for me. I mean if you're loving the love as much as I am then I guarantee that you will want to keep it up. Like yeah sure sometimes we go for hours and get up all dazed but I love you for it, and I'll love you no matter what you do and nothing will change that. You know that, right?"

Nick realised she was talking about sex from the comment before and took pride in the fact he could please his bunny visually and sexually. "Oh course I do, you dumb bunny." A grin stretched across and up the side of his face before inviting her in for a kiss. He leant across the gear-stick and he gave her a light kiss. Nothing to do with the sort they would have when having sex but again as they did less than an hour ago they needed to show some sort of love which wasn't presented in the form of sex but instead in the form of a kiss and familiarising each other with one other's mouths. After she had pulled back for a breath he felt the need to remind her the very obvious fact that he'd just displayed to her. "I love you like you wouldn't even believe, I don't care what anyone says about us. I love you. I love you." Nick loved to say the three words that rolled off the tongue and into the form of verbal affection.

"I love you too you foxy fox."

"That's new." He chuckled at her new name for him, not like he was opposed to being called sexy but it was still new coming from a 'naive' bunny.

"Well, isn't you being affectionate new?" She couldn't help but arouse some witty banter from Nick's intendedly sexual orientated comment but Judy took it as an insult so retaliated causing a tragic mood drop for Nick.

His face dropped at her remark and his trembling face managed to overcome the emotional angst and utter out a word. "What?" Nick was confused by the thought that he wasn't affectionate enough, he just told her he loved her. He constantly told her that he loved her, he showed it through kisses, hugs and sex. He constantly bought her gifts. He listened to her all the time. Respected her wishes. What more did she want? Then it occurred to him that it was sarcasm from abunny who didn't know how to use it.

"I'm just joking Nick, you know I love you more than anything in the entire world and I wouldn't trade that for anything in the universe because I love you so so so so so much!" She blushed as she said it with the fact she was showing intense verbal affection to the tod she loved more than anything she could imagine.

"Woah, carrots, I love you too, m'kay?"

"Yeah, I know that." She gave him the quirky innocent smile whilst he returned the favour with his classic smirk. A fox and bunny staring at each other in a car from the 80s. An extraordinarily unusual sight in Zootopia but everything had its tale. From the car itself to the torn leather seat, it all held history.

They both were so delightful in one another's company, they failed to notice some random guy across the street. Nick felt as though he needed to continue the conversation and despite Judy's little grin pleading for attention, he did so. "I wish we didn't fall asleep that one time though because of Jesus fucking Christ, that killed the next day. Like, imagine if your parents walked in on us. I was supposed to be halfway down the corridor asleep rather than doing what we were."

"We did have a quick one in the morning though, and that was so good." To Judy, every single time she and Nick were on the floor or on the couch, or even in the car with intimate desires that were being fulfilled, was a time to relish and recall as 'so good' or 'absolutely amazing'. Nick on the other hand just chose to remember the moment by reenacting it, which wasn't always too practical.

"Yeah, that was good, but it was only to actually get you off me." Nick had once again made it awkward. He'd ran dry of topics to talk about and Judy sighed at the constant periods of tranquillity backed by awkwardness at the absence of conversation. They'd both told each other as much as they could remember and Nick decided to stop revisiting past events and focus on the ones that sat firmly in the present which involved resolving his shirt situation. "Can't you just give me my shirt back?"

"Nope."

"Why?"

"Because this is a punishment." Nick rolled his eyes at her parent-like attitude.

"Fine." He sighed with a strong hint of surrender and stood up on the floor before sitting back down with his tail between his legs and his body curled up in it. Judy hastily grabbed her phone out her back pocket with no time to lose and swiftly swiped right before snapping a picture of him.

Unfortunately for Judy, Nick heard the shutter and almost immediately whipped his neck around to meet the gaze of Judy's phone's camera and he gasped before wailing and whining in protest to her devious and devilish plan. Then he started to demand phrases like "Delete that now!" as Judy couldn't contain her laughter whilst tapping her phone screen rapidly for the caption.

Once Judy had dodged Nick's arms with the mission to shut down the process of her uploading that blush-inducing picture online, she tapped one button more forcefully than the others whilst enjoying the feeling of revenge by returning the favour he always passed onto her. She was plastering a wide, smug, derogatory, contented, contemptuous smirk across her small pink lips whilst Nick sat in disbelief. For all, he knew that picture could go viral. He could be in Times Square by the end of the day, that thought alone was rage encouraging enough to lightly growl at her. He knew she wouldn't take offence from it. Instead she'd probably enjoy and endeavour to hear his predatory growling and sure enough, she was sitting there blushing in sexual fantasies whilst grasping her phone.

That only reminded Nick to check his phone to see how bad the picture really was so delving deep into his pocket he grabbed his phone and opened his account on Furbook. It was the first thing in his feed as he didn't follow many people, not really taking much interest in the site. The only reason he made an account in the first place was that Judy had forced him to so she could tag him into the countless number of photos she took of them. Nick didn't get it even after spending half an hour sitting down trying to work out how to change his name from the very formal 'Nicholas' to his better preferred 'Nick' and after Judy had helped him the same way she did his tax forms he just about managed to do it.

He glanced at the caption then at Judy in disbelief for what she had written. "Cute A F, heart eyes emoji, heart eyes emoji, flame emoji and flame emoji. Carrots; care to explain?" She blushed as he said his infamous "That's my praise". Sensing the fact that Judy was blushing by the fact she was quiet and seemingly embarrassed he continued to deepen her blush hopefully to the point where she would snap or gain her interest by inclining some statement she'd want to fight for no matter what mood she was in such as a topic her and Nick were talking about but got interrupted whilst doing so by the chief who seemed set on trailing their every footstep in the hopes to catch them in the act so he could file Nick for fraternisation and get them split up so there wouldn't be a chance but he had no solid evidence and with them both only whispering innuendos to each other, concealing activities of that nature for the evening after work, it was going to take him quite some time to get it. Nick decided to taunt her further with her own mistake and Judy didn't like her misdeeds recited, especially by some sarky reynard. "You should just be lucky I didn't throw your phone out the window when I had the chance…" Judy's ears stood up from their droopy crimson previous state. "...Like you did mine." Nick mumbled that part loud enough for Judy to hear, knowing she'd just interpret it as the way that he forgot about her sensitive ears and not catch onto the fact he said it with the means to aggravate her.

To Nick's surprise, he got nothing, absolutely nothing. Sure, he'd got the ears standing up but not even her nose twitching in the refraction of the glass that mirrored her blank mindless facial expression. Her eyes that glimmered in the streetlight and sparkled in the moonlight as she gazed endlessly at her and Nick's paw prints on the sidewalk, trying to forget about everything she had done wrong and instead draw her attention to the vitality of her already complete life. She didn't have money but she definitely had love and cases to be solved and that cut it for her.

After a couple of minutes in the deafening silence that seemed to threaten Nick's mentality, he tapped her on the shoulder, jumping her out of the trance she was compelled to be intertwined with. She drifted her vision around the car and ended up with her nose pushed against Nick's snout. He casually asked her whilst in their love-dazed position "What does A F mean?" She loved him exactly for what he was doing right then. He was compassionate at all the right times and all the wrong ones, but yet he was so caring, considerate and compassionate. The three Cs that showed one's affection for another and Nick used all three on overdrive.

"You're so old." At least she spoke and it wasn't some depressing speech or some apology but Nick didn't condemn the insult she just shot him with after she was the one staring into eternity.

Nick knew he was though, despite him not being too happy when people highlighted it, he did know it. That was one of the factors that made him question whether being in a relationship with Judy was worth it with the 8 year age gap standing strong and repugnant to budge. Instead of sacrificing a relationship with a bunny he'd probably never meet anyone like again, he cut down on the alcohol and ceased the smoking in order to take up the exercise she dragged him out to do and eat healthily. He was now living a healthy life in an attempt extend his life and live like there was a tomorrow. He didn't want to leave Judy for 20 years by herself, all because he was too selfish to stop smoking and drinking but with a fox's life being longer than a bunny's in the first place it would just about lap over and even though Judy didn't want to speak or even think about Nick dying, it was a real issue that she couldn't escape from. The same way how when Nick joined the force, there was always the chance of them getting called out to an ambush and getting shot. She felt as though he was like a dead eye though by the demonstration of his abilities back at the training range, whilst on the contrary, he felt as though she was a bodybuilder with the strength she had for her little size. They made the perfect team. Judy having the ears, Nick possessing the eyesight and the nose. Then Judy had accumulated strength at the Academy whilst Nick had improved his already impeccable shot. It was the main reason why they worked so well together and actually worked together in the first place, aside from the fact they were the only two officers smaller than a car, if nature hadn't given Nick his excelled vision that was even more useful at night he would probably be partnered up with some wolf or rhino that would constantly take the piss out of him.

According to Judy, Nick looked younger than what he was and he was just thankful that was so. If the morons at the academy found out about the age gap, it would probably cause quite a few problems on both Judy's and Nick's ends. Despite all that, he wasn't afraid to use his age to his advantage in this situation. "Yeah, I know I am. You even took me on a shopping spree, making me spend about 400 dollars on clothes I've only worn once. That much money was wasted because I apparently looked like your dad on vacation."

"Yes, but we're not on vacation. Do you remember the ZPD training shirt?" He didn't even have time to give some sort of signal that he was answering before she hared off to the answer herself. "It looked lovely like the style was great and really highlighted your figure but no, apparently Judy is wrong and it looked bland and boring and doesn't look as good as your shirt."

"No, I never said my shirts look better, I said they feel better. You know slapping on some tank top isn't going to make me comfortable. I might as well just take my shirt off rather than wearing a tank top and my shirts are like 5 bucks a piece, whilst the clothes you made me buy were around 50 dollars. And out of a 3 hour long trip to the mall, I literally gained 4 new tops, a pair of shorts and a couple pairs of pants. That's not even including the phone you made me buy which just cost me about a thousand dollars more. I was saving to get a new car but instead, we go to the mall and burn through over 2000 dollars right away." Nick was now starting to show his vexation towards Judy for forcing him to buy, what seemed like, all the store.

"Well, clothes are more beneficial than buying a new car. This one's fine and now you have a whole new wardrobe which looks great!" Judy was trying to lighten him up with increased enthusiasm but Nick seemed fixed on showing his ire towards her.

"I don't think me getting tank tops looks great."

"You didn't say anything about the t-shirts."

"Yeah but that's because they're alright, yet I have to pay extortionate prices for them." Nick actually loved the t-shirts, he wore them whenever he wasn't due to meet Judy, but that soon backfired when Judy asked why he'd changed from his shirt in the morning to his t-shirt when her and her sister came across Nick and Finnick Downtown and that caused quite a few eyebrows to rise but Nick just about managed to pull it off and lie to her with some witty excuse. Which was lucky for him, unfortunately, he lost a shirt in the process and now he was only down to 3 shirts, the green one from the case, the yellow one from when they first met and a red one that Judy didn't mind. The only reason why they were the only ones standing was that she threw the other ones out and couldn't bring herself to throw either of the ones they had history with, in the trash. "We should have gone in whilst 10-10 and arrested them for daylight robbery because you managed to convince me to get 1000 dollar phone, yeah it's great but is it really worth it?" Judy felt obliged to say no as Nick constantly lost his temper at his phone due to the fact he'd switched operating systems and constantly asked for her help with it and it usually ended up in an argument before that managed to, somehow, morph into sex.

"Look, Nick, you made your point. I egged you on to buy all this stuff you didn't need but I just thought they looked really nice on you and I thought that phone would be great for you since as you're on it all the time and it was… sorta." Nick wasn't really sure what the word 'egged' actually meant so just assumed it meant provoked in the context she was using and shook his head mentally before denouncing her country talk. Then that thought occurred to him; that all of what she was telling him to buy was the type of stuff they'd wear out in the countryside.

Nick was starting to make sense of it even though he could have been picking in the wrong direction. "Did you force me to buy them clothes because that's what you wear out in the countryside?"

Judy sighed, sick of having to explain the same point to Nick's narrow-minded mind but yet whatever she told him about the fact they lived similar lives, it seemed to go in one ear and come out the other. "We've already been over this. We wear the same things as you." Nick knew she would pick him up for the comment he made and he knew very well that the kids in the burrow wore similar clothes to those in the city whilst others wore the most rural thing going making it a real contrast, but yet he still loved to hear her drone out the same explanation each time. Yet, this time he had an argument for it.

"What about your mom and dad, they wear very different clothes to the ones we wear here. Like, overalls? Really?" Nick had no choice but to change into some of the tank tops she bought him when he visited the burrows, well for some of the help he was doing to gain the trust of Stu and Bonnie, both two narrow-minded farmers who had it out against foxes. In the meanwhile Judy and some of her sisters were catching up whilst Nick was sweating in the fields, leaving her sisters to compliment Nick. Then just as Judy thought she was going to get away with concealing the fact they were mates, he pulled something so lascivious on Judy in front of the entire group she was in and that let at least the four bunnies in the group know that they were mates and the way he was holding her was what Stu would call 'obscene'.

"No, they just wear the type of clothes that they grew up in." Nick rolled his eyes at her before asking why Gideon wore overalls in a demanding and frank manner, growling the 'Gideon' out of his mouth in the hopes that she would tell him the truth or answer his original question.

She couldn't think of anything and Nick was 'egging' her on for an answer so she just came up with some fake excuse in the hope he would take it and leave. "Because he finds them comfortable." She was already kicking herself for saying it and combined with the answer Nick gave her to why he wore his shirt a little while ago she was back to square one.

"Then why can't I wear my clothes?!" Nick was now just sat in disbelief how she could know that he likes the comfort of his own clothes and when it came to Gideon it was fine, but when it came to Nick she wasn't fine and she had even said she doesn't mind his shirts, yet she was adamant to change Nick's fashion sense to her standards by branding him with big name companies which cost a lot of money, at least now Nick knew why she didn't have a better apartment. Sure she was in the heart of the city and it did cost a lot for any place, no matter how small in the Downtown area, but Nick's 2nd rank detective pay was strung when he had to contribute towards the added apartment cost and living costs in general and without stealing anything that living cost between both him and Judy was a lot. So in the end, after all, expenses were taken out of the mix, they were pretty wealthy, due to the fact they only had one shabby old car whilst living in a shabby apartment and mostly working overtime. But what do you spend 2000 dollars on? Judy would just answer "Let's go mad and spend it!" Whilst Nick just wanted to put the money away in savings so he could save for a surprise honeymoon.

But back in the present and a honeymoon was the last thing on his mind whilst fighting for his fashion rights. He'd pushed Judy too far though and she exclaimed the truth that even shocked him a little. "Because you're clothes aren't hot!" It was silent. Nick's stern face reclined to one of an expressionless nature whilst she continued in a more hushed voice. "I think you look really hot and sometimes I just wanna show other mammals that and show them that you're really fit."

"So you want to make other mammals jealous of what you have, which is me?" She nodded her head and Nick was just speechless at how she wanted to make others envious of him. He didn't know whether she was trying to take advantage of him or trying to display how great he looked. He was debating it whilst Judy sat blushing in the silence that daunted over them.

Nick couldn't come to a conclusive answer so just assumed it was a bit both which he didn't care too much for anyway as he was happy that she found him attractive. He wanted to break the silence though so resurrected the conversation that was lost in one about fashion. "So, what does AF mean?"

"It just means as eff." Nick was now at an all time loss. She had literally just repeated what she had said prior and that it was quite obvious that she was censoring a word, it was just anyone's guess as to what word it actually was.

"What do you mean by 'eff'?"

"Just F-U-C-K." She was still too stubborn to say the word even though Nick had given her the all clear earlier a countless number of times.

"What? Fuck?" Judy cringed when she heard the word, she didn't know what it was about the word, it just vexed her whenever someone utter that or anything of a coarse nature. "Oh my lord." He muttered and proceeded to actually get some background on why she didn't curse. "Judy we've already been over this. But seriously why don't you swear, tell me."

"1: It's profane, 2: I'm a cop so I shouldn't have to swear and 3: Something my dad did when I was younger." He could've guessed it was something relating to her parents, she was a daddy's girl and as much as she fought to get away from that title, the more of one she'd become.

"Whatever this thing that your dad did, just forget about it, he's not here right now and besides, I curse all the time and I don't see anything bad about me." Nick fail of a reassurance sort of helped her and she felt as though she could be 'profane', as she called it, in public. After all, everyone in the city did curse but it was just the factor of whether they had bad history involving a slap. Judy couldn't get over things easily, therefore causing things that went wrong in her childhood drag into her 20s such as, the scratch from Gideon. That didn't just leave a tiny scar on her body but it also left an even bigger one in the mind. When she met Nick, she thought he was hot, right from when she glanced across the road. She wanted to follow him in the ice cream parlour, not only because he looked shifty but also the fact that she wanted to know him, she wanted to know his whereabouts and whether the bias her father set on foxes was morally correct. Of course, now, she knew it wasn't but after a day in the urban jungle, you could separate things of a moral nature from things of an immoral nature easily; especially when you had an ex-street hustler on your side.

She still didn't feel comfortable doing it and refused to do so, mainly because she felt it was hostile. She just remembered something her dad said ad felt as though that was a good enough excuse rather than speaking her mind. "My dad slapped me and in short told me that idiots swear and that if I do, I'll have no friends, so yeah."

"That's bullshit."

"Nick, how many friends do you have?"

"Why don't we talk about something?"

"No, didn't you keep your friends from high school."

"Expelled; twice."

"I kept my friends and fiends from high school. Like do you remember Gideon? He was a bully in high school and yes sometimes I was on the receiving end, but I had a major incident that completely destroyed my life essentially." Nick sat up more curious at what she was going to say.

"Well, it was on a Friday, I think. But in the burrows with over 300 siblings, some become your best friends whilst others, your worst enemies. Anyway, I was at the store with my friends because it was the last day of the week and that's what you do, so after that, we headed home…"

Judy in her youth would have either been known as the idiot, the teacher's pet or the rebel. All three she welcomed with open arms and sometimes sneaking a couple of magazines into the house wasn't all too hard. Unfortunately for her when she pushed the door open to her bedroom, she got the shock of her life.

They'd found them.

Judy managed to rack up over a dozen magazines porn magazine with the contents of her fetish; foxes. She instantly regretted buying them, but in the day and age of early internet access, it was impossible to go online and clear up your history after yourself so a hard copy of whatever you wanted would be the way forward.

In the burrows, it was often that rooms would get raided for a joke and to see if whoever dwelled in that room had some dirty little secrets and boy, did they hit the jackpot in Judy's. She was only 14 and was dreaming of foxes instead of bunnies. She just wasn't attracted to her own species, it was just a fact and whilst she fantasised over some very kinky things involving a fox that she was now doing after 10 years of waiting, others thought of kinky things to do with bunnies.

But, who found what?

Her sisters found her, as she preferred to call it, 'collection'.

After she had been interrogated about them, some outraged at her deranged behaviour, whilst other took the sassy approach which seemed to the same, if not more pain and after getting teased for about an hour as her sisters flicked through them flashing the images in Judy's face, they left an Judy sunk down to her knees and wept. Harder than she had ever wept before. She was in a state. She just got mocked by her friends with an unforgivable amount of derogatory quotes that stretched far past a friendly joke.

The reason why teenage Judy was in a fit of uncontrollable bawling was down to the fact that she was screwed by whatever happened. Just to start the streams of tears, her friends were clearly her friends no more with only a couple staying behind to actually comfort her. Now her parent was going to know, as snitching wasn't uncommon and happened regularly but with so many bunnies it was hard to speak to another in the burrow in private. That's how gossip spread.

Later after she had reclaimed her senses and tidied her room her dad bashed down the door to her room. "Jude! What have you been doing? Your sisters tell me you've been looking at naked foxes. Is that true?" Her father didn't believe in the slightest that his best-behaved child in that litter would go against his word to keep away from shifty foxes and look at fox erotica. He knew it was nonsense and that it was just a rumour that the 'gossip girls' started but he needed to seem like he was being fair or war would wage between him and his daughters.

Judy was not sure of what to say. Lie and make her dad happy or tell the truth and make him do god only knows what. "Yes." Stu clenched his fist whilst staring blankly in front of him before excusing himself and she saw her mum dart past to help Stu calm down and regain his bliss. To Judy, it felt good. To her, that was standing up to her parents and not just telling them what they want to hear. Her dad refused to speak to her later that evening and didn't say a single word to his daughter for two whole years whilst her mum just tried to forget about the whole situation and see her daughter as her daughter and not see her for the fox loving bunny she was. That made Bonnie extra nervous when she watched Judy walk past a fox in the street.

But whilst everyone in Judy's litter had endured the painful 'talk' their parents would force them to discuss, but Judy's 'talk' had been avoided for two years by her parents and Judy knew exactly what she was going to say to her parent before they even tried to speak. This compelled her dad to make contact with the disgrace of the family as Judy thought her father saw her.

"Jude, do you mind if we just talk about a couple of things with you as you've been very secretive about it?" She already knew what this was about and was just about to walk away before Bonnie got up and dragged her by her back to the chair. She continued to speak in a hushed tone even after the burst of intense aggression she'd just displayed her. "So; Judy, can you tell us more about this thing you have."

"What? My fox fetish?" Stu cringed in disgust for them 3 words to be said together by one of his own.

Bonnie just kept a straight face after accepting the fact that her daughter was sexually attracted to foxes a little more than Stu who refused to even look at her. "Yes, whatever it is can you tell us why you feel that way about them, you are still young."

"First off I'm 16, I can make my own choices and I just love everything about them that a rabbit doesn't have."

That sparked both Stu's and Bonnie's interest. "Yeah, but what is it that bunnies don't have that foxes do?"

Judy was put on the spot but had an answer for almost any question you could throw at them and this was one on that list. "They have massive fluffy tails, great teeth, claws. They're also, you know, larger and they also have a knot." Before Stu could get a chance to scream why she found claws and their teeth attractive, Bonnie spoke up, interrupting Stu vexation with her curiosity. All in the meanwhile Judy was wishing she could take the last word she said back.

"What's a knot?" All the feelings of regret weren't for nothing as now she had to explain what a knot is to her own parents.

"Well, it's like a thing a fox has and I don't really know how to describe it." Judy stalled as always and after 5 minuted her father got bored and left. "Why is dad even here if he's not going to listen?"

"I don't know, you know him, but let's-"

"What's he doing?!" Judy shot up and rushed out the room before Bonnie caught the sight behold outside the window and as Judy almost smashed the door open she could only hear Gideon standing in his front yard on the opposite side of the dirt trail making up the road stuttering an answer to whatever her dad was saying to him and for her dad to be talking to a fox, it must have been bad. As she got closer, she could only hear her dad asking to see Gideon's knot. "Show me your knot."

"I-I-I don't know about that sir. I ain't no homosexual."

"Dad! Stop it!"

"Judy?" Gideon was confused by what the Hopps family was now doing in his yard but was thankful that Judy had prevented the interrogation Stu was giving Gideon, forcing him to show his knot.

"For cripes sake! You can't just ask a predator that! Oh, my- just come inside, I'll tell you what one is." Gideon stood in disbelief at what had just happened before his own eyes in his very own front yard.

After returning to the table where Bonnie was sat, Stu and Judy returned to their original seats. "Look, I know you probably won't want to hear this because it's something that's embarrassing for predator and prey to speak about like when Gideon was talking to dad."

"Just get on with it Judy!" Her dad had spoken to her for the first time in years and it didn't seem to shock her too much but it was an achievement, even if it was in an aggressive manner.

"So, a knot… So, it's basically something on a fox's penis. And this, knot; it stops the fox from withdrawing." Bonnie was just holding her face in her paw whilst blatantly blushing and shaking her head whilst Stu… Stu looked like a buffalo in a blood bath.

"Get out." Stu coarsely hushed to her. Judy was unsure of whether that was directed at her or her mother. But that soon became conclusive when Stu repeated his last words in a different tone. "Get out!"

Judy wasn't having any of this and stood up for herself in front of her parents. "You asked for me to tell you so why should I be the one leaving?!"

"Because no one else in this burrow knows what a knot is and you're only gonna learn the hard way!" Stu grabbed the collar of Judy's shirt and dragged her outside. "Come back when actually learn to respect your parents." Bonnie was fuming at Stu's irrational actions and had a very heated argument during the few days Judy was gone.

As Judy was telling Nick about the story in her youth, he could only imagine arguments to be way less violent in the burrows with the absence of claws and let his mind wander as Judy was continuing the recollection of the incident.

A few days later Judy returned and her worried mother was there to greet her with open arms and an apology that Judy couldn't see as anything other than sincere it was hard not to oblige. After all, Bonnie hadn't done anything wrong to her in the first place.

Apologies aside Judy inquisitively asked where her dad was and she replied without a care or clue where he could be. As though summoned, Stu walked into the kitchen to ask Bonnie for some help until he caught sight of Judy which is where he replaced his questioning gaze for one blazing with scorn. He sneered at her only for Bonnie to get up and smack him around the face which wasn't uncommon in the country, often married couples engaged in more than one type of physical affair and Bonnie was sick of her husband mistreating Judy by releasing a sneer or shooting a frown over to his own daughter. "You are going to sit down and listen to what your daughter has to say, she's sixteen and if she likes foxes in that way then so be it. But this is probably the reason she didn't want to tell us, because she knew you'd act like this and this is how your kids lose trust in you so if you have something negative to say, there's the door." Bonnie wasn't vexed or livid towards her husband vocally but she was mentally and as much as she wanted to force him out the house, he was still her husband and mate. Bonnie calmed herself down before turning back to Judy. "Right Jude, we just want to know if you bought those magazines because it just doesn't seem like you to do somethi-"

"No, I didn't buy them, someone must have planted them there who knew about my thing. It couldn't be anyone other than my friends, but none of my friends would do something like that."

Bonnie nodded before ushing Stu back outside to what he was doing and just before Judy disappeared out the door to go to work she was stopped at the door by Bonnie. "Look, Judy, I know you don't want to tell your dad about this because well, it is what it is. But I won't tell your father it's true if you tell me?" Judy needed to make a decision and quick, so she went for the option that was less likely to make foxes a touchy subject.

Later that night Stu came back home drunk off his head and with Judy up for a quick burst of caffeine, it was down to her to guide him to his bed. "Dad, I do love you. it's not that I don't and I'm sorry I have to be this way, but the least you could do is accept me for it." In the end, he ended up accepting it but not agreeing with it, whilst Bonnie fully condoned her daughter's decision and supported her. Of course, Judy didn't erase the prejudice held on foxes until she brought Nick, her 'friend' to the farm to show that her dad didn't need to constantly follow him around to make sure he didn't steal anything. Bonnie was more happy by her daughter's mate's visit whilst Stu was more concerned about his daughter's best friend's visit. When Bonnie heard about the fact that Judy was mates with a fox after being a bit tipsy, well, incredibly tipsy, she was first annoyed but soon came round to the idea and was happy for them. But their 'friendship' was very intimate and the amount of trust she had for a fox persuaded Stu to open his mind to Nick and it sure enough did.

"So, let me get this straight; you had to explain to your parents what a knot was! Haha! Oh my god carrots, no wonder why your mom knew what a knot was!"

"Shut your pie hole, the only reason I took you in on that time when you were drunk off your head was that I had experience with drunkards."

"I wasn't that drunk… Was I?

"Oh trust me slick, you were more than drunk. But I took you in because I had done it before… and because I love you."

"Jesus Christ, I hope I wasn't too bad." Nick knew very well what he'd be like when he was drunk and being in a room alone with a bunny he wanted so badly meant anything could've happened. Judy blushed with an awkward laugh, resentful to reveal what actually happened before Nick presented his adamant attitude to change the subject as he didn't want to know what he did to Judy but he'd get it out of her that night if it killed him. He just needed to wait. "Anyway, the only reason why I really helped around the farm was that your dad was against me from the moment I arrived but after about 4 days of lifting hay bales and doing my back in, I think I just about managed to get on his good side. Isn't he the one who tried to give you a fox taser?"

"Yeah." Both of them remembered the memory of the fox repellent that cost them time apart that killed both of them. To spend so much time together and be ripped apart by Judy's naiveness made them both distraught and left both of them in tears that night. Craving one another's company and even though Nick had her number, he couldn't bring himself to text her and when he did finally text her, she had smashed her phone by throwing at her bedroom wall in anger with her own actions that led to Nick's departure. After repairing her phone she saw the message he sent to her and felt compelled to return to the city and whilst she was sorting out train tickets, she stumbled over the answer to the case and totally forgot about Nick's message when she went to find him under that bridge until the point where he displayed his disdaining attitude where she felt obliged to blab out an apology.

As that train of thought crossed both of their minds, the clock on Nick' dash switched from 21:59 to 22:00 and Nick's phone buzzed.

"Don't tell me you actually have an alarm for each hour."

"You know me too well." He leant across and they shared a kiss.

Judy drew back from her tod and proceeded to utter "You know my weaknesses too well."

Nick smiled before grabbing the bit of paper he marked the tally on and using the pen in his pocket to mark the second line by leaning on his leg as he did the hour prior. But at least they were both comfortable in each other's company and kept each other entertained with the stories of their eccentric and intriguing past. But as much as Nick and Judy wanted to be the duo of rebels they were, they were stuck in a car…

Still with 6 hours to spend in each other's company.