June 5th, 20X8
Noon
Savannah Central
"Fin, you really need to talk to her, look at how much it's bugging you," Nick said, taking a bite of some fries.
"I almost knocked on her door last night," the tiny fox replied, not touching his food. "Last week I couldn't even make it into the building, I say I'm makin' progress."
"Aaaand where'd you leave the money this time?" Nick said teasingly.
"… mailbox…", Finnick's ears lowered, annoyed, as he drank from his soda.
Nick chuckled as he drank his black coffee, not wanting to laugh too much at his friend's troubles. The two were eating outside in front of a food stand, sitting at one of the tables set up in the shade of a potted tree on the wide sidewalk. Mammals walked by busily, but the two foxes were absorbed in their own troubles.
"Man, I don't know what to do anymore," Finnick fumed, "I used to think I had my life under control… you know?"
Nick frowned empathetically at his friend, he let out a soft sigh. "Hey Finny, just give it time. Just because you have a problem that you can't solve right now doesn't mean your life is out of control."
"Yeah, yeah, nothing gets to you, I get it," Finnick rolled his eyes as he slowly started eating his neglected meal of cheese sticks and fries.
"Ehhh, I never said nothing gets to me," Nick corrected as he gave a slight grin, seeing his friend come out from his dark mood. "Never let them see it. You can feel it all you want, if you don't, that's when you let it bottle up."
"Right, sure thing Zen Master Wilde," The white fox chuckled, stuffing a cheese stick in his muzzle.
The two continued eating, the mood picking up considerably. They chatted about other things, trying to keep their mind off the troubles that had been really bothering them. Finnick chatted about some movies, something Nick didn't really care for, though he was glad that his friend was out of the dumps. But in the back of his mind, Nick couldn't help but think of a certain long-eared mammal. Nick didn't bring it up; there wasn't anything to say, just the memory of some words that were said, and looks exchanged.
Eventually, the two finished eating, and Nick disposed of the trays in the nearby medium garbage can, then followed Finnick to his van parked on their side of the street.
"Let's go pick up the fabric, we need to grab it before they close up the warehouse," Nick said, hopping into the passenger side.
"Yeah, I know the drill," Finnick replied as he strapped his seatbelt and started up the van. He headed off towards the textile warehouse, which happened to house some materials that they needed for a certain routine that Nick so liked to call "Riches for rags." The rags in question already bundled up nicely in the back of the van, piled onto a big pallet that barely squeezed into the modest sized vehicle.
The rags were of course acquired for free, thanks to the duo posing as a cleaning team offering a complimentary promotional laundry service to a local fancy restaurant, who were all too willing to part with their dirty table linens.
"Honestly, Finny! I don't know why you bother taking off the elephant suit when you'll just need to put it back on again," Nick raised an eyebrow at his partner.
"Huh, you always on about that dumb elephant suit. In case you hadn't noticed, it's the middle of summer, and that suit hasn't been cleaned since last weekend."
"Phew, yeah I noticed when I was giving my little eley-welly a kiss yesterday," Nick laughed, nudging Finnick in the shoulder with his knuckles.
"Maybe if we had a few routines that didn't involve me being a damn baby, I could have some time to put it through the wash. I swear, man, you got me wearin' that suit just to humiliate me."
"Oh, come on, remember we tried the little rhino suit, the buffalo suit, the lion suit, people just weren't buying it!" Nick started chuckling in his usual foxy laugh, "Oh! And that giraffe suit! Thought I'd never get you down from that ceiling fan!"
Finnick waited for the larger fox to stop laughing, eyeing him grumpily but allowing a smile to show through his annoyance, "Heh, yeah, OK, that one was a little funny."
"Oh, come on, ok tell you what, one of these days, I'll be the baby," offered Nick, almost sincerely.
"Why does there always gotta be a baby?"
"Because babies are innocent— no one ever suspects a baby!"
Finnick let out an amused groan, Nick had a point there.
The two spent a moment in silence as the traffic slowly started to pick up, seeing as it was after lunch time.
"Do you ever miss the old days?" Nick suddenly let out, still looking out his window.
"Old days? You starting to sound like someone who belongs in a retirement home."
Nick didn't respond.
"Hmm. Do I miss the old crime life where I almost got killed daily and didn't know who I was gonna off next?" Finnick thought for a moment. "… Hell yeah, I do, I was good at what I did, and you did whatever it was you did behind the scenes. The whole crew… yeah, it was stressful, but it was what I was good at it. Lost me my girl though, she won't talk to me anymore since she found out… Can't really say that was a price I wanted to pay…"
The two soaked in a moody silence.
"Man, what the hell you bringing this dusty stuff up for? You been acting all funky lately."
"Yeah," Nick replied plainly. He stared out the front window, eyes half lidded.
"You gonna talk? Talk man, I'm listenin'. Otherwise, if you wanna talk about the old days, I have ways of makin' you talk."
Nick sighed, "That bunny, from yesterday…"
"Oh yeah? Thinkin' about that cop again, huh," Finnick raised an eyebrow, interested to see what was getting to Nick. "Thought you said you had to tell her off. That she wasn't interested."
"I did, and she wasn't— too innocent, thinks the world works like some fairytale," Nick rubbed his paws on his lap, not sure where he was going with this, or what he was trying to get off his chest.
"OK, so she's out of the picture then, what's the problem?"
Nick thought back at how the two verbally laid into each other. He wanted to get something of his chest, but he didn't quite know what it was. "No problem, the crew's fine how it is. Besides, there'll be other opportunities."
Finnick knew there was more to this than Nick was willing to talk about, but he let it go.
A police siren screeched from behind them, and the cruiser it belonged to shot past them. Another cruiser wasn't far behind; Finnick pulled over the van to get out of the way, as did other cars on the road.
Several police cruisers were gathering on the road near Little Rodentia, as officers seemed to be drawn to something towards the middle of the tiny city.
"Huh," Finnick pondered aloud, "big cops being called to mini-city. Wonder what's up."
June 5th, 20X8
Afternoon
Sahara Square
( Ready? )
( ready )
Nick put his phone in his overalls pocket, and straightened his hard hat. "Flash is good to go, you ready?" Nick managed to wear his green silk shirt and tie underneath the denim overalls. Above it all, he wore a bright orange visibility jacket.
Finnick pulled the hood of the elephant costume over his head and signaled thumbs up on both paws.
Nick gave some hand signs, to which the tiny elephant nodded, and the two departed into warehouse. The larger fox walked in, past a few warehouse workers dressed in the same clothing; the smaller snuck around some of the pallet shelves.
A few of the workers stared at Nick, to which he cheerily waved and smiled. The skeptical mammals shrugged and continued about their business. No one with high visibility vest would be out of place here. A large polar bear worker was walking around, writing on a clipboard; a badger was driving a forklift. Nick counted half a dozen mammals in the warehouse. The warehouse was fairly large, seeming to hold smaller containers on rows of tall shelves near the truck loading bay on the one side, but larger shipping containers stacked on the other.
There was a single short-length truck awaiting cargo parked near the far side of the warehouse. Now Nick just needed to locate the merchandise. He was looking for a pallet that contained a fancier fabric than the pallet of dirty table linens they had brought to trade for it.
Nick looked around for the tiny purple elephant, seeing him peeking from behind one of the shipping containers. He relayed this information to him via hand sign. The elephant responded by pointing to a pallet sitting near the shelf behind Nick. There it is, Nick thought to himself, allowing a goofy grin to spread over his muzzle. They were going to need to act fast. He signed to Finnick to begin, to which he nodded.
Nick wandered inconspicuously over to the badger who was driving the forklift. He pulled out his phone and texted Flash.
( Distraction in 5 )
He put the phone away and brought his arms behind his back and started counting on his fingers. 3…2…1 There was a loud crash followed shortly by the sound of someone shouting for help. The alarmed badger parked the forklift, leaving it running. The polar bear and the rest of the mammals all rushed over to the origin of the sound, leaving Nick alone near the loading bay. An unseen mammal shouted about how a baby managed to climb so high, Nick chuckled.
There was a sound of tires screeching in the distance, at which Nick gave a grin. Without skipping a beat, he hopped into the forklift and put it into gear. A truck backed into a loading door further down the bay, its rear shutters opening automatically, revealing the pallet of rags Nick had loaded earlier.
He deftly slid the pallet of dirty rags out of the freshly parked truck and drove it back to the larger one awaiting the precious cargo, keeping an eye out for any stray workers that may have caught him.
He drove the fork lift and swiftly deposited the pallet into the awaiting truck. He parked the forklift off to the side, and hopped out. He grabbed the clip board the polar bear had dropped and hopped out of the loading bay, jogging along side the truck. Nick kept trying to keep the oversized hard hat from falling off; it obviously was a size too large. Climbing up to the driver of the truck, he peeked in, seeing a sheep and a somewhat taller deer as his passenger.
"Howdy, fellas! Truck's all loaded and secure, just need you to sign," Nick handed the clipboard expectantly to the driver of the truck.
"Hey, hey, not so fast, we need to inspect. You guys are always trying to rush us out of here."
"Oh, by all means guys, it's all there," Nick gave a polite tap of his hard hat.
The sheep gave his deer passenger a nod, to which the deer opened the door and hopped down, out of the truck. Nick ran around to the other side of the truck to meet him.
"Hey, how you doing?" Nick asked casually. The deer was tall, with Nick only coming up to the deer's chest.
"Eh, seen better days, but whose keeping track, eh?"
The two walked to the end of the truck and climbed the short stairs back into the loading bay. Nick could pick up the commotion from Finnick's little distraction, the deers ears perked up.
"Whoa, what's going on in here?" the deer asked, a concerned expression on his face. Fortunately, they couldn't see any of the action from where they were standing.
"Ah, well we're just having a little going away party for one of our guys! And he's just a little emotional so we're trying to cheer him up."
The deer looked at him, raising an eyebrow, "Ahh, gotcha." He replied, nodding as he peered into the open door of the truck to see the pallet of rags that Nick had placed inside. He had arranged it in such a way that the dirty linens that appeared facing them were cleanest, and tried to make it seem as nice as possible. The deer closed the doors, seemingly annoyed that Nick had left them open, but didn't say anything.
"Eh, seems to be in order, let me give you that signature so you can get back to your party," The deer pulled a pen out of his pocket and clicked it as Nick happily handed over the clipboard.
"Have a good one!" The deer waved, heading back for the truck's cab.
Nick placed the clipboard where the polar bear had dropped it and pulled out his phone as he wandered over to the forklift. That signature would state that the goods were received and hopefully provide a good amount of time before anyone realized the switch. Flash would have a harder time selling if the load were reported stolen.
( Truck leaving, loading now ), he texted Flash, and re-pocketed the phone.
The truck that was loaded with rags finally began to pull away, leaving the open dock.
He looked over to the commotion, hoping no one had come to check on him. Finnick was high up in the rafters, several mammals were screeching at each other, demanding someone did something. The polar bear was trying to physically force the badger, to his extreme dismay, to climb up into the rafters and retrieve the little elephant. Oddly enough, none of them seemed to have called the fire department.
Nick leapt back into the forklift, scooped up the fabric pallet, and revved it over to the awaiting truck. Depositing the fabric he pulled the forklift back and abandoned it, giving Flash a hand sign in his sideview mirror that the goods were secured. The shutters on the back of the truck lowered as the truck began to depart.
Almost done here, Nick thought rubbing his paws together. He jogged over to the corner of the warehouse where the other mammals were panicking and yelling at each other.
"I can't believe this!" Nick screeched. Causing all the mammals to quiet down and look in his direction. Save for a pig that had passed out on the floor from the stress. He moved his way past the mammals and positioned himself under Finnick. "I bring my little boy to work ONCE, and you guys let this happen!" He made a accusatory face as he waved both arms at the mischievous purple elephant. "Honestly, a single working father can't even trust his workplace to help keep on eye on his precious little buddy!"
Nick clapped his hands together as he stood underneath the rafters where Finnick had climbed, "Come on, big guy!"
A look of annoyance and apprehension flashed across what was visible of Finnick's face through the elephant's hood. It turned to bitter resolve as he let himself fall from the rafters. Several mammals gasped as the tiny elephant fell.
"Oof!" Nick huffed as he caught Finnick. "There we go, there we go! Everything's gonna be alright little buddy!" He glared at the other mammals in the room, all too petrified to respond. Another mammal, a wolf, let out a pitiful wail and passed out, his hard hat rolling off and clunking along the ground.
"You'll all be hearing from the Mammal Occupational Safety Commission! No one even bothered to call the fire department," Nick snorted furiously, pointing a sharp claw at the shamed lot, some of which had lowered their heads to avoid his accusatory glare. He briskly walked past them, and back outside to the van in the front parking lot.
Nick's heart was pumping; it had been a while since he pulled a hustle this risky... or blatantly illegal.
Still carrying Finnick, the larger fox hopped into the back of the van and set him down. Nick closed the doors while his partner hopped up to the driver's seat and started up the van. With a huff, still catching his breath, Nick plopped himself into the passenger seat as the van sped away.
June 5th, 20X8
Evening
Savannah Central
Nick settled down onto his couch, and unbuttoned the suspenders of his overalls. He let out a relaxing groan as he stretched; he was still feeling the high he had gotten from the fabric job. The good part about the high-paying jobs is that they usually were finished earlier in the day, allowing Nick more time in the evening to relax.
Finnick had just dropped him off. They had driven around for a bit to make sure they weren't being followed.
He pulled out his phone and opened the messages he received from Flash. Each message being about 20 minutes apart.
( load sold )
( ur share is 4300 bucks )
( will stop by tomorrow with cash )
( that was fun )
( nice working with u guys again )
( keep in touch )
Nick smiled as he read the messages. Working with Flash did bring back some good memories.
( Nice working with you too, Flash. Glad I can still count on you, buddy ), Nick tapped.
He tossed the phone aside onto the couch as he stood up, and let the heavy overalls slide off him. Not sure it this job was worth wearing these clothes….
He wandered over to the kitchen in his shirt and boxers and rummaged for something to eat. Hah, made 4,300 bucks in one day! That brings my daily average for this year alone to what, 200 bucks? Even if I count the days I didn't work! He dug through his fridge, but nothing seemed to catch his eye, he didn't seem to be eating well the past two nights. I'd like to see that rabbit make that much on a police salary. Nick froze. He slowly straightened and closed the fridge. So this is why he had the sudden urge to pull a big job. He was trying to prove the bunny wrong, that he was more than a pawpsicle hustler.
He let out a whimper-y sigh as he trudged back to the couch, not feeling hungry anymore. He unbuttoned his shirt, leaving his tie on.
"Oh, Nicky-Nicky-Nicky-Nick… what did that little dumb bunny do to you…" he groaned as he fell back on the couch. His phone buzzed.
( I stopped by her place again, I'm going to talk to her this time )
Well, at least I'm not the only one with problems right now, Nick thought, chuckling quietly.
( Do it, Fin! You can't keep doing this to yourself, you guys can figure this out )
( Thanks, Nick. Today felt good, you know? We're good at this )
( I better get it over with before the high from the heist wears out, talk tomorrow ), Finnick continued.
( Yep, see you in the morning, bright and early )
Nick let his phone fall to the couch again. His apartment grew darker as the sun set. He stared around at his living room, his thoughts drifting. Guess it won't hurt to fall asleep on the couch tonight.
His attention wandered: patterns on the wall, lights blinking on the electronics, sounds his refrigerator made, crevasses in the couch as he slid has paws around the fabric. He took in a deep breath. His mind was blank, only the occasional thought of a certain grey bunny. Those eyes, the way she looked at him… She was so disappointed. No one ever looked at Nick like that, everyone else always looked at Nick and saw him for what he was; A shifty, lowlife... fox. But she had thought better of him.
Well, sorry to disappoint, sweetheart. Nick let out a big foxy yawn, as he let his eyes close. What you see is what you get.
