Chapter 3—What Big Eyes You Have

A/N: This chapter focuses primarily on building up the friendship between Nick and Judy. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. There will be plenty of action in the next chapter, though.

Again, if you're interested in knowing what song goes with this chapter, check it out on AO3.

Thanks for all the support the story has received so far! We're still just scratching the surface, and I hope to make it worth your while. :)


Day 2: Tuesday, June 17th, 2016, 8:22 a.m.


"We're late!" Judy huffed anxiously as she and Nick rounded the block where the Basic Instinct diner was waiting for them.

The fox directed a smirk and quirked eyebrow toward her. "So you're one of those mammals."

"What do you mean?"

"To you, fifteen minutes early would be on time, and five minutes early is late."

Judy pivoted to walk backwards and stick out her tiny tongue at him. "So I take punctuality seriously. Sue me."

"I just might, Carrots, if your idea of punctuality means I have to regularly wake up a full hour and a half before I'm actually supposed to be at work," Nick quipped. "That has to be some form of cruelty punishable by law."

"As it is, we barely made it out the door in time. If you'd get up on your own, I wouldn't have to resort to using cups of cold water to help you," Judy remarked, turning herself back around and raising her shoulder to her chin in a flirty manner that made him smile.

"Well, if you hadn't decided to keep us up way too late by watching another Furminator movie, I might have had an easier time getting up," Nick returned.

Waving her paw dismissively at his jibe, Judy responded, "I'm not taking the blame for that. You're an adult, Nick. Why didn't you just go to bed before me if you were so worried?"

Nick opened his mouth, but nothing came out, so he closed it, knitting his brows together. Good question, actually.

By then, they had reached the front of the diner, so he shrugged off the thought, opened the door, and flourished his paw inward with a bow. Judy dipped her head gratefully and bounced inside.

The diner wouldn't officially open for another half hour, but Yannis and Greg were already in the kitchen, chopping fruits and vegetables and warming up the equipment. The goat was muttering something about how the night crew never cleaned the grill properly, but he looked up and fell silent as he heard Nick and Judy enter. His eyes narrowed at them. Only then did it occur to Nick that it might seem strange that he and Judy had arrived together. Judy, however, seemed oblivious to it, skipping toward the office with a cheerful smile on her face.

Deciding it was best to play it cool, Nick adopted a casual pose in front of the service counter, paws in his pockets and posture nonchalantly slumped. He gave a single nod in greeting to Greg, who returned it in kind. Yannis stared at him with a stony expression for several seconds before the door to the office opened, and Judy bounded out, apron tied around her waist and her paws full of cleaner and a rag. As she hummed a jubilant tune and set to work cleaning the tables, Yannis jerked his head in the direction of the office. Nick followed him there.

"Keep in mind that if I see you harassing anyone, you'll be fired on the spot," Yannis grumbled from his chair at a chaotically disorganized desk as soon as Nick had closed the office door behind them.

A hundred sarcastic responses hurtled through Nick's mind, but he settled with, "Good morning to you, too, Yannis."

The goat grunted and rummaged around in a drawer at the desk, finally pulling out a few sheaves of paper and handing them to Nick. "Here's your hiring paperwork. I assume you know how to fill it out since you've already gone through so many jobs."

Once again, Nick elected to ignore the subtle jab, though he couldn't keep just a hint of exasperation from coloring his voice. "Yep, I'll have them done in a few minutes."

"See that you do," Yannis said. "Breakfast crowd will be here at nine o'clock on the dot."

With that, he shuffled out of the office. Nick released a sigh and slumped into the chair at the desk, his mood quickly deflating. The events of the night before rushed back to his memory.

What am I doing here?

About ten minutes passed as he filled in his personal information on the forms and signed and initialed his name in all the required blank spaces. He was occasionally interrupted by a server walking in to officially begin their shift, enduring their suspicious glances with a blank expression. The only employee who even said hello was Andy, though he didn't stick around to chat.

When Nick was done, he passed the paperwork along to Yannis, who had returned to the kitchen. The goat went back to the storage room and returned with a few white polo shirts in Nick's size, shoving them against his stomach with the strict instructions to wear a clean one every day and wash them weekly. Nick went to the bathroom to change and then busied himself helping with the final preparations before Yannis turned over the sign hanging at the door so that the side that said "OPEN" was displayed to the outside world.

Sure enough, just as the goat had said, mammals started waltzing inside right away. Many of them hesitated when they noticed a fox in the kitchen, but none of them left. As Nick watched the servers seat them, he wondered if all the customers had looked at him like that yesterday, too. Admittedly, he had been a bit distracted trying to get Judy's attention, chatting with Greg, and keeping up with the orders.

A smirk crossed his lips when Judy greeted a pair of dik-diks as if they were old friends, even though the way that they were glancing curiously around made it clear that it was their first time at the diner. After watching her lead them to a table, he put his attention on the grill, where he was frying hashbrowns, eggs, bug steaks, and a few other items that had already been requested by other tables.

Another minute or two passed before he looked up and saw a couple of deer, who—like almost everyone else so far—appeared to size him up before deciding to be taken to a table. He frowned and shook his head as he flipped an egg.

What am I doing here? he asked himself again, this time more heatedly. Why do I even continue to bother with—

His thoughts were interrupted when a gray paw slapped an order slip onto the counter, and he blinked as his head shot up. Judy, sporting an immensely self-satisfied grin, winked at him.

"Hasta la vista, baby!" she spouted in a deep voice, then rushed away while giggling madly.

Before Nick knew it, he was smiling softly to himself as he watched her scamper eagerly toward a young fox couple and their kit who had just slowly entered the diner. She bent low to look the kit in the eye to welcome him personally. As she beckoned them to follow her to a table, the kit's eyes brightened when he spied Nick in the kitchen. Once the family was seated, Nick's chest melted when Judy handed them their menus and spoke with them in warm tones.

His ear twitched as he listened to their exchange. After the fox father explained that he already knew he wanted the bug steak and egg breakfast combo, Judy scribbled it down in her notepad—still using that ludicrous carrot pen, Nick noted—and asked, "How would you like your steak, sir?"

The fox blurted, "Over medium." Immediately, he joined his wife, son, and Judy herself as they erupted in laughter. Several other customers glanced at them in surprise or wariness, but they were ignored. Judy shook her head in mock exasperation and pulled a nearby chair next to the table so that she could sit in it, crossing one leg over the other and balancing her notepad on her knee.

"I guess I should get comfortable. This might take a while," she teased.

"Sorry, I was thinking about the eggs!" the father exclaimed, one paw shielding his eyes in embarrassment.

"Well, at least you didn't say scrambled," Judy joked. "I don't even know what I would have told the kitchen."

She kept interacting with the foxes as naturally as though they had been friends for years. Nick watched her as subtly and frequently as he could. He didn't ask himself any more questions about what he was doing there.


Day 2: Tuesday, June 17th, 2016, 11:45 a.m.


"Bunny!"

Judy halted on her way to the storage room to grab more napkins and twirled around to find Yannis regarding her with his usual scowl, his hooves full of dirty plates that he had just picked up from a recently vacated table. She had given up on trying to get him to call her by name. "Yes?"

"You're late for your break," Yannis stated, gesturing at the clock that hung upon the entrance.

Glancing at it, Judy realized that he was right. The lunch rush usually began right at noon, and she was already behind. While some of the other servers got to take their breaks during the lunch rush, Yannis preferred having her on the floor because she was so fast.

"Sorry, I'll get right on it," she said, telling herself that the napkins could wait until later.

"And tell the fox to take his break, too," Yannis added.

"The fox?" Judy repeated with a terse sigh, feigning ignorance. "You mean the fox whose name is Nick because his parents named him Nick even though he's a fox and foxes have names, too, and his happens to be Nick?"

The goat glared and said nothing before disappearing into the kitchen. Judy rolled her eyes with a shrug and moved toward the service counter. Once there, she reached up to rest her palms on top on it and then laid her chin on her knuckles, looking steadfastly at Nick.

His attention was on whatever he was cooking, so she indulged in a moment to study him. She hadn't known many foxes in her lifetime, so she wasn't sure whether he would be considered attractive within his species, but as she had become accustomed to him, she thought he was rather… aesthetically pleasing. There was something boyish yet sophisticated about him. Though his features were more angular than hers, they still seemed so soft. His green eyes were especially intriguing, sharp and hinting at his layers of intelligence, in addition to strikingly complementing the orange of his fur.

All these thoughts ran through Judy's mind in the two seconds it took for Nick to sense her presence. The moment their eyes met, he granted her a smile, which she returned.

"Ready for lunch?" she asked him.

His smile turned into an amused smirk. "What, just because we had lunch together yesterday, you assume we'll do it again?"

Judy blinked, twinges of embarrassment and disappointment pricking her heart. "Oh," she said. "Sorry, I didn't mean to—"

She was interrupted by his chuckle. "Just teasing, Carrots. I'll be out in a minute." After flipping something, he turned to ask Andy to take over.

As he passed his duties along, Judy went to the office, clocked out, and grabbed the lunches she had packed for Nick and herself from her purse. After claiming the same corner booth that she and Nick had used the day before, she only had to wait another couple of minutes before he joined her, sliding into the side opposite hers with a tired grunt.

"I love cooking," he said as he let his head fall back against the seat, "but it is tiring."

"That's why we take breaks," Judy replied cheerfully, handing him the brown paper bag containing his lunch. She paused before digging her salad out of her own bag, watching with bated breath as Nick took a bite from the tuna fish sandwich she had made for him that morning and chewed thoughtfully. "How is it?" she asked.

He shrugged. "It's fine. Kind of bland."

"Oh, sorry," Judy said, her ears drooping a little.

"Don't worry about it, Fluff," he winked. "If you hadn't packed it for me, I wouldn't have had time to make anything myself after how long it took me to drag myself out of bed. I appreciate it."

Judy felt herself brighten considerably more at that. "Well, I admit there's still a lot I could learn about cooking. There's not a lot of time for getting fancy when you have two hundred and seventy-eight mouths to feed every day."

To her alarm, Nick suddenly choked on his bite. Just as Judy was wondering whether she needed to hurry over and try to dislodge the food from his throat, he swallowed thickly and pounded his own chest with a fist. "How many mouths?" he gasped.

"Two hundred and seventy-eight," Judy reiterated as she stabbed a forkful of spinach and lettuce. "I come from a big farming family."

Shaking his head, Nick ripped off another piece of his sandwich, and Judy found her eyes lingering for a moment on his teeth, fascinated with their pointy ends. "I don't know how you could possibly handle that," he muttered.

"I didn't really have a choice," Judy shrugged.

Opening the small bag of chips Judy had included with his lunch, Nick asked, "Do you miss them?"

"Yes and no," Judy smiled fondly as she thought of her family. "I love them, but I've also come to appreciate the privacy I get here in Zootopia. Besides, I'm usually too wrapped up in thinking about how to chase my dreams to get homesick."

After a pause, Nick popped a chip into his muzzle and queried, "Have you gotten a chance to see much of Zootopia yet?"

"Not really," Judy admitted. "Haven't had much time."

"Well, how about I show you around a little tonight?" Nick offered. He was smirking casually at her, but it seemed warm. "I can show you some of the best hangout spots."

A grin spread across Judy's face before she even realized it. "That sounds like fun! Let's do it!"


Day 2: Tuesday, June 17th, 2016, 12:18 p.m.


Assistant Mayor Dawn Bellwether was just checking her watch with pursed lips when a very rotund ram slipped into the seat across from her. Their dimly lit booth couldn't hide his usual emotionless expression, which used to tug at Dawn's nerves when they first met, but now she simply regarded it as more proof that he was the best mammal for the job to which she had set him. Generally, she was quite pleased with his work. Right now, she glared at him.

"You realize that we're already halfway through my lunch break," she stated flatly.

Doug shrugged. "Work," was all he said.

Scoffing, Dawn took a sip of her water. "This is work, too, you know."

"Yeah," Doug said. "So tell me what you want me to do next so I can get back to it."

With a sigh, Dawn leaned back and crossed her arms. "Fine. Woolter finally figured out which one of Big's drivers was in the limo that was taking Emmitt Otterton to his mansion last week. It was a black jaguar named Renato Manchas. Big has kept the whole incident mostly quiet, but Manchas apparently heard Otterton shouting about Night Howlers before Otterton attacked him."

"Night Howlers?"

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Midnicampum holicithias. You should know its colloquial name by now."

"I prefer proper names," Doug replied coolly. "Anyway, you're one of the only mammals I know who's even heard the term 'Night Howlers.'"

"Good," Dawn said curtly. "But that's neither here nor there. We can't risk Manchas talking to anyone else about this. You need to take care of him."

"You mean feed him a bottle of warm milk and rock him to sleep?" Doug asked dryly. Despite the fact that it was obviously a joke, he didn't crack even the slightest hint of a smile.

It wouldn't have mattered if he had. Dawn simply fixed him with a long, stern stare.

Finally, Doug broke the silence with an easy shrug. "Got it. But I won't have a fresh batch of serum ready for a while. I'll need more midnicampum holicithias soon, by the way. I still haven't gotten enough soil to start growing my own."

"I'll have someone get some for you."

"Do you know where Manchas will be for the next few days?"

"Big had him take a month off to recover since Otterton attacked him, so he should be at home," Dawn informed him. "If he goes anywhere, it probably wouldn't be for long. You shouldn't have any trouble finding him."

"Sounds good," Doug said. "Are we done?"

"We're done," Dawn nodded, watching as the ram stood and sauntered away.

The booth was in the farthest corner of the restaurant, but Dawn could still see most of the space as long as she leaned out just a little bit. As she pushed her empty plate to the side and finished her water, she looked around. It was a high-end restaurant that catered to prey, and the owner was more than happy to keep his lips sealed about her meetings with Doug there as long as she supported his love of gentlemammals' clubs with a little extra income under the table. He wasn't exactly her favorite ally, but she couldn't afford to be picky.

Not when the future of Zootopia depended on whether she would win the fight against predators. Not when the power to shape the world according to what she knew was right hovered so close to her grasp.

Eyes darting to her watch again, Bellwether clicked her tongue, left a couple dollar bills on the table, and jumped to the floor. Her hooves made small clacking sounds against the tile as she ambled toward the doors, but no one looked up to notice her. For now, that was good.

But she so looked forward to when they would all hail her as a hero.


Day 2: Tuesday, June 17th, 2016, 4:34 p.m.


A round of laughter made Judy swivel her head toward the kitchen as she hurried past, carrying a few dirty plates with her. She paused and watched as Greg and Andy hastily quieted the noise they were making, resorting to muted snickers as Nick smirked smugly to himself. Despite not knowing what had happened, Judy couldn't keep the edges of her lips from curling upward.

Upon entering the kitchen and placing the dishes carefully in the sink, Andy nudged Nick. "You should tell that to Judy!"

"Tell me what?" Judy inquired curiously, her ears perking.

"I was just telling them a story from when I used to be a bartender," Nick explained.

"And?" Judy pressed, stepping closer.

Rolling his eyes but still smirking, Nick continued. "I overheard a couple of drunk customers talking to each other right at the bar. One of them said that he wanted a piña colada. The other looked at him like he was crazy and said, 'What is a colada, and why do you want to pee in it?'"

At that, Greg and Andy barked another laugh together before they covered their mouths with their paws and continued chuckling, tears forming in the corners of their eyes. Judy was laughing, too.

"You should stay back here for a while, Judy," Andy said as they all calmed down. "He's got some of the best stories."

"Yeah, but he should focus a little more on cooking," Yannis cut in as he walked into the kitchen from the office. "I'm hearing a little too much noise in here."

"Cooking? I'll show you cooking," Nick said. He snatched up his frying pan, flipped a bug burger into the air, and spun around quickly enough to make a full circle and still catch the patty on the pan. Judy gasped while Greg and Andy murmured their awe. Yannis simply stared with his mouth hanging open.

Nick raised his eyebrows at him. "Not impressive enough? Sorry." Then he pulled another frying pan from a hook above the counter, sent two patties into the air, whirled lightly on his feet, and caught them both with the pans just before they splattered onto the grill. Judy was clapping before she could even think better of it, and after sliding the patties down where they belonged, Nick graced her with a bow.

With a grunt, Yannis shook himself out of his consternation. "If you ever get something stuck on the ceiling, the cost to clean it will be taken out of your paycheck."

"Yes, sir," Nick mock saluted him when he headed back into the office. Andy and Greg were doubling over from the effort to laugh silently, and Judy just gazed at the fox with a delighted grin. He winked at her and whispered conspiratorially, "I think you'd better get back to work, Carrots."

Judy blinked, almost blushing, and turned to leave. "Right. But, um—" She pivoted and opened her mouth, suddenly not sure what she wanted to say, but certain that she wanted to say something. "Don't forget that our shift will be over soon!"

With a soft smile, Nick replied, "How could I forget?"


Day 2: Tuesday, June 17th, 2016, 6:37 p.m.


If Doug weren't already so practiced in the art of feeling apathetic toward most everything around him, the ringing of his cell phone might have broken his concentration and caused his hoof to slip. As it was, he didn't even flinch. He made sure that just the right amount of midnicampum holicithias extract was dropped with the rest of the chemicals composing the serum and took a moment to watch them interact with each other in his pressure container before yanking his mobile out of his pants. It took some effort; he either needed to lose weight or buy looser clothes. That was a problem for another day, though.

Today, the problem was a jaguar. And Doug was sure he could guess who was calling him.

Sure enough, he recognized the purposely unsaved phone number as the one belonging to Dawn's office. He accepted the call with a toneless, "Yeah."

"I just hired a weasel to get you some more Night Howlers," Dawn said hastily in a stage whisper. "I'll tell him to meet you in your lab."

"Good, I should be here for a while," Doug replied. "Then that jaguar will go down in a few days."

"Why does it take so long?" Dawn sighed irritably.

"You can't rush science," Doug answered. "Unless, of course, you're experimenting with the concept of rushing itself."

"I don't know why you insist on never making sense," Dawn retorted. "But whatever—"

"Also, you're late on your payment," Doug interrupted dryly. "I'll work when you can prove that I'll be compensated according to our agreement."

The ewe snarled on the other line. "Fine. I'll wire some money over, but it may take a couple of days to get to you. Call me whenever it is that you get the job done."

"Sure," Doug promised, then promptly hung up. With a sigh, he watched the chemicals continue mixing with each other—slowly, but surely. It would still be a while before the serum would be ready to put into a pellet.

The most frustrating part of the job was that he would spend so long getting the serum just right, and the shot itself only took a second. It was like slaving over a stove for hours just to make a meal that would be eaten in five minutes. Something about it felt anticlimactic and disproportional to the labor that was put into it.

But life wasn't fair. The jaguar would be finding that out in just a few days.


Day 2: Tuesday, June 17th, 7:12 p.m.


"That hit spots I didn't even know I had," Nick said, stretching as they strode out of the Taaj Cuisine restaurant, which was nestled between a phone store and a bike shop in the Sahara Square.

Judy hummed her agreement and appreciatively eyed the beautiful elephant statue just outside the doors. "Thanks for showing me that place. They don't have anything that spicy in Bunnyburrow, but I loved it!"

"No problem, Carrots," Nick replied, smiling down at her and secretly amused that she had missed an opportunity to entertain a lewd interpretation of his comment. "I'll take any excuse to have someone else do all the cooking and cleaning."

She giggled. "Where to next, tour guide?"

Rubbing his chin in thought, Nick said, "Let me ask you this—green or brown?"

"Huh?" Judy blurted, brows furrowing.

Smirking mischievously, Nick asked again, "Green or brown?"

"Uh…" Judy considered the question for a moment. "Green?"

With a nod, Nick gently laid a paw on her upper back and began leading her down the street. "Green it is."

"Wait, where are we going?"

"You'll see."

After a few minutes of weaving their way around other mammals walking along the sidewalks, they arrived at the Sahara Square train station. A train was already there and waiting for passengers. Upon confirming that they both had an annual pass, Nick boarded it with Judy at his side. They stood next to one of the huge windows, close to an overhead speaker that quietly played radio music.

As the train began to move, Judy pressed her paws and nose against the glass window, clearly enthralled with the city lights and rapidly varying landscapes.

"I'll never get tired of this," she breathed reverently.

Nick shrugged. "Maybe it's just because I grew up here, but the city stopped being fascinating to me when I was kid."

"That's too bad," Judy remarked, turning her attention to him. "How old are you anyway?"

"Thirty-two."

"Oh, really? You look younger."

"Don't try to butter me up, Carrots. It doesn't work."

"I'm not trying to—what? Butter you up? What does that even mean?" Judy giggled.

Nick shook his head with a smirk. "And you? How old are you?"

"I'm twenty-four."

Before he could ponder much on that, the overhead music changed to a bouncy pop tune that Nick recognized as part of Gazelle's recently released album, which, of course, had already topped the charts. He rolled his eyes and turned to Judy in order to commiserate with her—only to find her eyes bright and excited while she started swaying her hips from side to side and pumping her fists in the air.

Nick groaned. "You like Gazelle? Oh, Carrots, I thought you were different."

Judy kept dancing as she cast him a sardonic expression. "Funny, I don't recall asking you for your opinion."

"And I don't recall waiting for you to ask me for it."

Laughing, Judy tried doing a clumsy pirouette. As she stumbled, Nick caught her by the elbow.

"Careful, Carrots," he chuckled and briefly glanced around at the other passengers, many of whom were staring at them. "Keep that up, and you might fool everyone into thinking you're a good dancer."

After shooting him a playful glare, Judy closed her eyes and lifted her chin away from him. "Feel free to leave me alone now."

"Oh, I do feel free, but thanks for checking."

She stuck out her tongue at him before going back to the window to drink in the sights. Nick examined her delighted reflection for a minute or two before joining her.

The train stopped twice, and each time, Judy asked if they needed to leave. Both times, Nick told her no. The third time, however, he tapped her shoulder and motioned toward the sliding doors with his head. She followed him off, and they both spied a large sign in the middle of the platform that read, "WELCOME TO THE MEADOWLANDS."

"Okay, so we're in the Meadowlands. Now will you tell me where we're going?" Judy implored in an almost whiny tone as she padded after Nick.

Turning to her and spreading his paws innocently, he asked, "Come on, Fluff, don't you trust me?"

"Yeah, but I still want to know where we're going," she huffed.

Nick opened his mouth to reply, but the significance of the exchange suddenly hit him.

She trusts me? Really?

He hurriedly cleared his throat. "You'll see. We're almost there."

Indeed, only about five minutes passed by the time they reached an enormous park. Rainbow-hued flower plots drenched the hills and grass in meticulously organized formations as dozens of different kinds of trees dotted the landscape, beaten dirt paths winding their way through it all. Here and there, a stone-paved path led to the occasional gazebo or cement bench; many of them had plaques dedicating them to citizens who had contributed something significant or simply had loving family members with the means to put their name somewhere. Since it was already dark outside, there weren't many other mammals around, but that was their loss, since the elegant streetlamps lighting the area granted it a dreamy, ethereal atmosphere. Nick was gratified to hear Judy gasp and see her clasp her paws over her mouth as she gazed around.

She was speechless for a minute before she murmured, "What if I had said brown?"

Nick leaned down and smirked slyly at her. "That's for me to know and you to maybe find out someday, if you're a good bunny."

Her eyes locked on his and stayed there for a moment before she chuckled and looked away.

Straightening, Nick continued. "Zootopia's a big city. It will take a while to really show you everything."

Judy nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, of course. Well," she chirped as she stepped onto the path, "for now, let's go exploring!"

"Okay, you're the boss," Nick quipped as he tailed her.

They walked in silence for a while, Nick content to let Judy admire the scenery in peace. Every so often, he glanced at her to see her reaction and felt pleased that her fascination never seemed to waver. Honestly, although he had been to this park countless times already, it made the whole experience a bit new to him, too.

At length, they started nearing a small mom-and-pop store that had been cleverly built right next to the park. Nick knew that it got a lot of business from the mammals who frequented the area.

"Oh, perfect!" Judy exclaimed as she sped up. "I want to get something to satisfy my sweet tooth."

"Really?" Nick said. "Which one's the sweet one?"

Judy giggled. "Okay, let me correct myself. All of them are sweet."

"That explains so much," Nick replied with mock dryness.

The bunny stopped, set her paw on cocked her hip, and narrowed her eyes teasingly at him. "I'm sorry, but we can't all be smarmy and cynical party poopers, unlike some mammals I know."

Letting his jaw drop open in pretended shock, Nick declared in a haughty tone, "Now you can feel free to leave me alone."

"I do. Trust me, you're not that captivating."

Nick clutched a paw over his heart with a strangled cry. "Agh! Right in the ego!" He collapsed to the grass next to the path, extending his paw dramatically toward her as he spoke with a choked voice. "Tell my children… that I love them… But don't tell anyone else. I want them to wonder."

He heard Judy laugh as she grasped his paw and yanked him upward with surprising strength. "Come on, Slick," she said.

The moment he was back on his feet, Nick's breath left him. Something about this angle and the way the moonlight framed her face made her violet eyes especially luminous and vibrant. It seemed to highlight all the warmth, wit, and cheerfulness that he knew by now lay beneath them.

And that feeling—that deep, shimmery feeling that takes over when the heart freezes up for a moment—was one he recognized. This wouldn't be the first time he'd developed a crush. Never on a bunny, and this one seemed to be especially potent, but he knew the process quite well. He also knew that this was the worst time in his life to nurture it.

There was one more thing that he knew—if he starved it, the crush would die. If he kept his distance, it would fade away. If he—

"You okay, Nick?" Judy asked, cocking her head as she looked at him curiously. "You look kind of upset."

Nick blinked and glanced away. "No, no, I'm good. Sorry, I just realized that I need to, uh… buy paper towels."

"Okay, well, we can go get some," Judy said, hooking a thumb in the direction of the store. As if to follow her own suggestion, she turned toward it, then suddenly noticed a flier pinned to a cork bulletin board outside of it. Gasping in delight, she snatched the paper down and waved it at him. "Have you heard about this?"

Nick gently wrapped his fingers around her wrist to make her hold it still, peering at the words. "The Predators for Harmony Association? Yeah, I've heard of it. They have meetings every Tuesday night. I've actually attended some of them."

"It says here that they discuss ways to advance predators' rights," Judy commented as she studied the flier again. "Prey can join, too, can't they?"

Hesitating, Nick raised an eyebrow at her. "Yeah, but not many have. Why?"

"Because I want to join!" Judy exclaimed, grinning at him.

Her declaration—and the enthusiasm with which she expressed it—knocked Nick's mind off-balance for a moment. His mouth opened, but it took a few seconds for something to come out. "I thought you wanted to focus on getting the Mammal Inclusion Initiative passed."

"Well, I want to do that, too, but I'm interested in everyone's rights," Judy explained, her eyes back on the flier as she read the details. "Besides, the Mammal Inclusion Initiative would help predators, too, not just prey. Anyway, I want to be as involved with the community as possible." She frowned. "I guess it's too late to go to the meeting tonight, but—" Now she paused and looked hopefully up at him. "Want to go with me next week?"

"Uh…" Nick swallowed. "Sure." A genuine smile crossed his lips. "Actually, that sounds great."

With an excited squeal, Judy started bouncing ahead of him toward the store entrance, tucking the flier into her purse. Nick felt a little lightheaded as he watched her go.

A vibration in his pocket jarred his senses back into place. He fished his phone out of it and saw a text from Finnick.

"Need to get together with Duke to figure out presentation," it read. "You free tomorrow night?"

Sighing, he opted to answer it later. He returned his attention to Judy, who was standing several feet ahead, half-turned toward him and wearing an expectant but patient smile as she waited. She was looking at him with those… those eyes of hers. Those terrible, beautiful eyes.

Hastily pasting a lazy smirk on his face, he walked as close as he dared to her, and when she was satisfied that he was following, she continued into the store.

Okay, so this crush definitely needed to be—well, crushed, but…

It couldn't hurt to be friends, right?

… Right?


A/N: Thanks to my husband, my older sister, my awesome waiter, Jose, at Shari's, and my own sleep-deprived brain for some of the exchanges that occurred in this chapter.