Hey everybody! Sorry for the wait, hope you enjoy this chapter! As stated previously, I do not own Zootopia.
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The ride back to the precinct was certainly different, if not more eventful, than most. Since Nick and Judy were seated in the back of the police cruiser with the strange child in between them, they had a chance to get a better look at the kid. He was pretty small, coming up to midway past Nick's elbows. His face was pale and gaunt, the signs of malnourishment obvious as they looked at him. Where most mammals' snout would be, the kid's face was relatively flat, with an odd lump above his lips that had to be his nose. That was another odd thing, whereas most mammals had noses with nostrils that faced forwards in front of them, the kid's nostrils faced the ground. His ears were unusual as well, instead of being on top on his head they were hidden beneath his hair on the side of his head.
As they took in how odd he was, the kid took stock of the situation and the people he had just decided to trust. After glancing at the two officers in the front of the cruiser, a rhino and a wolf who were doing their best to ignore him, the kid turned slightly to look at Judy.
She seems….different. At least, she doesn't seem to be freaked out by me. Judy turned as she noticed the kid watching her, looking directly into his eyes in the process.As the kid stared back, he noticed something that struck him as strange. Is she….concerned about me? Her eyes seem so kind, not fearful or hateful. Pulling himself away from Judy's purple eyes, the kid turned to observe Nick. He seems pretty calm too. When he talked to me, he acted like everything was normal. Nick noticed the kid watching him and turned, looking at him with half-lidded eyes and a slight smile. He seems pretty laidback, but he doesn't seem to be a bad guy. His eyes are kind too, same as the girl. But why….why are they being so nice to me….?
"Not bad looking, am I?" Nick's comment startled the kid, causing him to quickly look away from Nick. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. Oh and I forgot to mention, my name is Nick. My partner over there is Judy." The kid said nothing, slipping his hands out of the sleeves of his jacket and staring at them. Yet another oddity, the kid's hands were just as furless as his face. His fingers were long and thin, and rather than pointed claws the kid had rounded nails. Unperturbed by the kid's silence, Nick made another attempt to get him to speak. "So, how long have you lived in that alley?" The kid looked at him, looked back down to his lap, and then slowly uncurled two fingers. "Two? Two what? Two weeks, months, years?" As Nick said the word years, the kid nodded slightly. Judy became even more concerned at this. "Two years? How could a kid be homeless and live alone in an alley for two years? That's terrible!" The kid seemed confused by this, as if her concern was odd to him.
They sat in silence for the remainder of the trip, Nick and Judy processing what they had learned while the kid processed Nick and Judy's attitude towards him. Finally, they pulled up to the precinct. As Nick, Judy, and the kid walked into the main lobby, Nick called out to Clawhauser. "Hey Clawhauser, how's it hanging?" The cheetah looked up from the box of donuts in front of him, the ring of sprinkles around his mouth making it even more obvious what he had been previously doing. "Hey Nick, hey Judy! You guys better watch out, Chief Bogo is-"
"HOPPS! WILDE! MY OFFICE, NOW!" The bellow came from the upper floor, where Chief Bogo stood in front of the door to his office, glaring at the two officers and the kid. "Oh boy, this is going to be interesting…" Nick muttered as they made their way to the stairs.
Chief Bogo's office
"Can I ask why we are up here Chief? After all, we didn't break protocol." Judy said to Chief Bogo, both her and Nick sitting in front of Bogo's desk as they talked to the huge water buffalo behind it. "I called you up here to discuss the matter of the child you decided to bring with you. I want to know, in full detail, exactly what led up to you bringing him in and why." Bogo said in his no-nonsense way. As Nick and Judy began explaining the situation, the child sat in a corner of the room with his knees to his chest under his jacket, observing the chief. Looking away from him, the kid noticed something lying on the stand next to him.
"So seeing that he was homeless, and possibly either an unknown or endangered species, we decided to bring him in." Nick said as he and Judy finished explaining everything to Bogo. Bogo sighed, then addressed the two officers in front of him with a softer, but still gruff, tone. "So you are telling me that you saw him race out of a grocery story after having stolen fruit, chased him to an alley, realized that he was homeless and an unidentifiable species, and then decided to bring him in. I can't fault you for that, but what do you think we are supposed to do with him?" A confused look appeared on Judy's face. "What do you mean sir?" Bogo had an exasperated look on his face as he explained. "I mean that we don't exactly have anywhere to put him. We can't keep him in a cell. Besides that, we don't know anything about him. We don't know what species he is, we don't know if he is prey or predator, we don't even know if he is actually a he! So what exactly do you expect we are going to do with him? Because the only real option I can think of right now is to just send him back out onto the streets."
Nick watched Judy as she tried to figure out what they could do while trying to keep a calm demeanor. As he watched her struggle with the idea of having to throw a homeless kid back onto the streets, he suddenly saw an option. Sure, a crazy, most likely going to fail option, but him and Judy seemed good at making those work. "Sir, why don't you let me and Judy take care of him?" Both Judy and Bogo looked at Nick at surprise at his suggestion. "Let you two take care of him? And why do you think that would be a good idea?" Bogo said to Nick, obviously against the idea. "Well sir, considering that all we have been doing since the nighthowler case is patrol work, it's not like we don't have time to spare…" As he said this Judy caught on to the idea, continuing on from where Nick left off. "And the kid seems to trust us, so we could take care of him!" Bogo sighed and proceeded to crush the idea. "I know that you two are just trying to do the right thing, but it's not going to work. Neither of you know enough about him to take care of him. You don't know what he eats and you don't even know his name!"
At this point Bogo pointed at the kid, all three of the officers turning to look at him. This also caused all three of them to adopt a look of confusion, as they then saw the kid writing on something with a pen that he had pulled from his jacket pocket. As Judy slipped out of her seat and walked to the kid, he handed her what he had been writing on before looking at the three officer.
"What is that?" Bogo inquired. As Judy read the paper she had been given, a slight smile appeared on her face. "Well sir, it looks like this is exactly what we needed to figure out who he is, and what he is. It's one of our police officer application forms, and he filled it out." The paper she held as in fact one of the same forms that Judy had handed to Nick when she had asked him to become her partner. The kid had noticed it lying on the stand next to him, and for some reason had decided to fill part of it out as if he was applying himself. Judy began reading out what the kid had written. "Name, Renn. Age, 9. Species, Human. Prey or predator….both? Oh, he wrote 'I eat meat and plants' next to that. I guess he technically is both then." As the three officer looked back to Renn, they still had questions. Nick, of course, said what they were wondering. "What is a human?" Bogo shrugged and looked back to Nick and Judy. "It doesn't matter right now, what matters is that we at least know his name, how old he is, and what he eats. Though I'm still not sure that I should let you two take him." As Bogo said this both Nick and Judy could see that he was starting to cave. As Nick looked back at his partner, he noticed that Renn had written something on the back of the application.
"Well Chief, I think that you and the kid might disagree then." As Bogo and Judy gave Nick a confused look, he took the form from Judy and handed it to Bogo, the back side up. "See here Chief, 'I want to go with Nick and Judy.' Looks like the kid wants to come with us." As Nick said this, Renn scooted out of his chair and walked up to Judy, taking her hand. Looking at him in surprise before giving him a warm smile, Judy turned to Bogo. "I think that settles it, we'll take care of him!"
As Bogo watched how Nick and Judy seemed to be so prepared to take care of a random child, and the child's willingness to go with them, he finally caved with a sigh. "Fine. You two can take the child with you and take care of him for now. But, if I even think that you two are doing a bad job, the kid is gone and sent to child services! Is that clear?" Judy was beaming while Nick simply had his trademark smirk on his face. "Of course Chief, since when have we let you down?" Bogo shook his head before finally dismissing them. "Out you two! And I still expect to see the both of you here tomorrow as usual."
Nick and Judy walked out of Bogo's office with Renn in tow, still holding Judy's hand. As they walked down the stairs and across the lobby, Nick realized something rather important and turned to Judy. "Hey carrots, which one of us is going to take Renn home tonight?" As the two looked at each other, Judy saw the potential problem. "Well, I guess I can't really take him, my apartment is too small." As Judy started to frown, Nick quickly absolved the problem. "Well then I guess he can just stay with me. After all, how hard could taking care of him be?" Judy was surprised by his willingness to let Renn stay with him, but still had concerns. "I don't know Nick, I think I should be there with him too. How about I come spend the night with you while Renn stays with you?"
Nick stood up a little straighter at Judy's question, facing away from her in order to hide the rising blush on his face. Judy, taking that as Nick's discomfort, looked a little downhearted as she spoke softly, her ears drooping. "Or I guess I could just stay home if you're not ok with that…" Nick quickly spun around, immediately reassuring. "No! That sounds great carrots! No problem at all!" Judy perked up a little. "Are you sure? I mean I could just…" Nick cut her off. "It's fine carrots! You can come over and I'll pull out the extra mattress for you. There's plenty of room." Judy smiled, ensured that Nick didn't mind. "Well then, I guess we can head by my place, let me grab some extra clothes, and head to your home."
The entire time this is going on, Renn is watching the two of them with a knowing look. So, Nick likes Judy. I wonder if she realizes…
Nick grinned, relieved that he hadn't hurt Judy's feelings. "Ok carrots, you're the boss." Judy grinned back and then started walking. "Then let's go!"
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Well that was fun. It was interesting to figure out how I was going to present most of the info about Renn, but now you know! I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, and I hope that everyone enjoys whatever comes next!
Feel free to leave a review. You can point out my mistakes so I can fix them, tell me what you really liked or disliked, or leave suggestions on what you think should happen. I really enjoy reading reviews, so the more the merrier. I'm especially open to ideas on how to spice up my writing, as I know it can seem bland or repetitive at times.