A/N
After "Through the Veil" I needed to write something utmost fluffy to lift my spirits.
And in case you'll need this fluffiness, too, I waited until after I uploaded this dark story to release this one here.
Enjoy ^^
I scream, you scream...
"Two hours?!"
The almost yelled exclamation drew the fox's attention.
Lowering his cellphone Nick's gaze traveled to the grey doe who impatiently tapped her foot as if she was attempting to stomp a hole into the station platform.
A groan fled her lips, shortly followed by a sigh.
"Alright. Just, call me when you are moving again. Bye."
Pocketing her phone, Judy turned around, facing her partner and best friend with discontent written all over her face.
A lopsided grin played around the reynard's muzzle.
"What happened, Fluff? Did the train from Podunk run out of coal or something?"
"Oh, har har. Funny, Slick. No there is just a... well some... ugh," her face scrunched up with her anticipating his reaction upon her next words. "The train is stuck somewhere between Sandersend and Bunnyburrow. There is a flock of runaway chickens blocking the trails. Some hundreds. So it might take some time to capture them all before the train can continue."
She saw his smirk widen and glee lighten up his eyes.
"Don't you dare say a word!"
Nick raised his paws in what should have been a pacifying gesture, though his next words destroyed that illusion quickly. "Would I ever?"
His rhetorical question - which both of them knew the answer to was 'yes' - caused Judy to lower a glare at the reynard that made his left ear twitch oh so slightly.
Bunny reached the red zone. Abort the mission, fox!
Letting his smirk fall away, he turned around, halfway facing the doe, halfway facing in the direction of the train station's exit.
"So, what do you wanna do now, Fluff? I presume you are not eager to wait here for the next two or more hours?"
Mollified by Nick's surrender, she mulled his question over for a moment.
"How about we go back to one of our apartments and watch a movie or some episodes of a series?" she asked halfheartedly.
He immediately shook his head.
"We would need more than an hour to reach either of our places no matter if we use the subway or the bus, and the same time again to come back here."
"How about we just take a stroll through the streets and see what we can find to occupy ourselves with?"
"Or," Nick smiled as an idea popped into his mind, "we could check out that new ice cream parlor over in Sahara Square. The one I told you about which offers over twenty different sorts of vegetable-based flavors."
He had to suppress a shudder at the thought of carrot-flavored ice cream - or worse - but it caught Judy's interest, seeing as her ears shot up straight at the mentioning of frozen, creamy goodness in a crispy wafer-cone.
"The way your eyes light up I'll take that as a yes?"
Even before he had finished, the doe had passed him by, aiming to leave the building.
Shaking his head in amusement, he granted himself a second to admire her happily upraised tail, bobbing with every step, before he followed suit.
Half an hour later they stepped out of the subway station onto the scorching sidewalk of Sahara Square, right outside of the Palm District.
Whenever she entered this part of the city, Judy's gaze was drawn to the towering silhouette of the Palm Hotel and Casino. It brought back the memories of her first time in Zootopia, staring wide-eyed at the cityscape flying by outside the glass-dome of the train she had arrived in.
Pulling her gaze away, she expectantly looked at the fox at her side and got momentarily distracted by the sight of his cream-colored fur peeking out of his now unbuttoned shirt.
Forcefully moving her focus from his chest to his face she saw that he had obviously caught her staring.
"Feeling hot, foxy?" she jibed in an attempt to cover up her embarrassment.
"Not sure it's just me," he wriggled his eyebrows at her, "but my excuse is that I'm not made for this climate. What's yo-"
"Well then let's go get that ice cream," she commanded, quickly moving down the sidewalk and away from Nick in the hope that he hadn't seen her blush.
"Wrong direction, Carrots," his voice teased her from behind.
Spot turning she passed him by heading down in the opposite direction.
"Whoops, my bad. That was the right direction."
As she passed him by for the second time, Judy socked him in the shoulder without sparing a look at him, smirking in satisfaction as she heard his mumbled 'ouch, brutal bunny'.
They only needed another ten minutes until Judy saw their destination.
The ice cream parlor was located in the shadow of a large rock, offering its visitors not only a cold treat but also the means to hide from the burning rays of the sun.
Right next to the store, there was a palm-fringed, natural oasis.
The water got barely touched by the shadow of the rock, causing the surface to glitter in the sun.
Signs, put up in regular intervals, announced that swimming here was forbidden.
Only a very small area close to the waterfront was an exception, where visitors were allowed to sit down and enjoy their ice cream while cooling their feet in the shallow water. It featured a limited number of tables and chairs, centered beneath sunshades.
The duo counted themselves lucky that their day off was a workday causing the place to be rather empty at this time.
After a short wait in line they got served and afterwards sauntered along at the edge of the water in comfortable silence, enjoying their sweet, frozen treats.
Opting for a little more comfort, they sat down on a bench facing towards the oasis.
An idea struck Judy and she decided to take a selfie of Nick and her, licking their ice cream with equally satisfied expressions, and sending it to her siblings to tease them. It was no wonder her jester of a partner approved of that with a smirk and a look of respect for her.
After the last morsel of his wafer vanished noisily into the tod's maw, and his long tongue had licked off the last traces of the tasty dairy product he felt ready to needle his favorite bunny for her choice of flavors - one scoop of kale-ice and an apple one.
Not that he could fault her for the latter, but the mere thought of that combination was enough to make his taste buds revolt.
Before even one word left his muzzle, a surprised yelp from Judy made Nick jump in his place.
When he faced in her direction, he couldn't stop bellowing laughter from escaping his muzzle.
Sitting right between her agitatedly upstanding ears, a scoop of ice cream adorned the lagomorph's head and slowly began to melt.
"What...?" She reached up to investigate what had hit her.
Drawing her paw back she found it to be quite sticky.
Gazing around she spotted a pair of giraffes chatting away while their long tongues darted out every now and then to get a lick of their cones.
Only that one of them was missing its content, causing the mammal to look down, searching the ground for her missing treat.
With a sigh, Judy searched her pockets for tissues or anything she could use to get that mess out of her fur.
Glimpsing a motion from the corner of her eye she faced the still chuckling fox next to her just in time to see him fishing his phone out of his pants.
"Nick, I swear if you take a picture of me now, I'll drag your sorry tail over to Tundratown, bury you in the snow up to your throat and sell you to the lemmings as a frozen fox-sicle."
For a moment he entertained the idea of taking the risk, but his survival instinct won out in the end.
"You, my dear, are such a spoilsport. But I have to give it to you, that scream was perfect. I know that 'we all scream for ice cream' but I didn't think you would take that commercial so literally"
"Har har. How about you stop making fun of me and help me instead. Do you have anything to get this out of my fur?"
Leaning in closer to get a better look at the mess, he clicked his tongue.
"That won't be easy. Seems that someone had an extra serving of caramel-sauce."
"Oh come on, seriously?" Her words were almost a whine. "Maybe I can wash it..." her voice trailed off when her eyes fell upon the signs once again, causing the doe to groan.
"How about you just go to the shop's washroom and wash it off under the sink?"
The bunny's ears fell behind her at the thought, earning her a quizzical look from Nick. "What?"
"I would be the laughingstock for the customers, and I don't really fancy that," she admitted in a tiny voice.
"Well, that leaves me with just one more idea."
The doe looked at him expectantly
"I'll get it off. Come over here."
Confusion was written all over her face. She was already sitting right next to him.
Though the tod was patting his lap invitingly and it took Judy a couple of seconds until she connected the dots.
"Oh, no. Not going to happen. I'm not going to sit in your lap," she refused vehemently, already feeling the heat creeping into her cheeks and up her ears..
"Well, it's either that or you go entertain the whole ice cream parlor."
He raised an eyebrow, wordlessly asking her what it would be.
Judy barely got a chance to think about it when a droplet of molten cream traveled down her forehead, leaving a trail between her eyes until it reached the tip of her nose.
Wiping it away she gave in, scampering over to the fox and sitting down on his lap.
She could feel her ears burning, but at least they were far enough away from the shop that not many mammals should pass them by and see them.
She still wondered what the vulpine had in mind when she felt a soft, dragging sensation on top of her head.
Is he licking it off?!
The thought of Nick grooming her here, in public, caused her blush to deepen some more, and she felt like the ice cream should actually be evaporated by the heat radiating from her.
"This is so embarrassing," she mumbled.
"Hush. I'm trying to savor my scoop of caramel-bunny."
The unexpected comment managed to draw a chuckle from her.
After thirty seconds the stiffly sitting bunny started to relax, Nick's grooming slowly driving the tension out of her.
After two minutes, she leaned back against him unwittingly, enjoying the treatment as much as the feeling of his still exposed, fluffy chest-fur without caring much for her surroundings anymore.
After five minutes, Nick began to purr, the deep, soothing sound rising and ebbing with each slow lick.
Without realizing it, Judy was dragged along, joining in with her own tooth purring.
When a quarter of an hour had passed, both mammals had entirely lost track of time.
Even when others walked by, pointing at the odd pair lost in an apparently rather intimate moment and chuckling at the sweet couple, neither bunny nor fox noticed any of it.
"That explains why she didn't answer her phone," a female voice next to them exclaimed.
"Yep. And without that picture we would probably still be waiting at the train station," a second, male one answered.
"We would also miss out on the chance to take these juicy pictures of JuJu and her boyfriend," the first one exulted.
Judy's right ear twitched oh so slightly.
"Pictures? Where is the fun in that? You might be able to capture her dopey smile that way, but I'm already recording them for five minutes by now, including purrs, happy sighs and those soft little moans. Mom will love finding out that she was right about Judy and her 'partner'."
Judy's nose followed her ear's example, and with a dawning sense of dread, she reluctantly cracked an eye open, silently cursing whoever interrupted her heavenly moment of peace.
A black-furred shape slowly took the form of a bunny, standing right in front of her with a grin.
"Hi there, Sleeping Beauty."
"...Cassie?"
The still slightly dazed, grey doe turned her head a little to inspect the other mammal - a buck with reddish-brown fur and blue eyes.
"Jake?"
A look of incomprehension crossed Judy's face at first.
Then her eyes gradually widened when realization dawned on her.
"Why are you here? I thought you were still waiting for the train? Why didn't you call? How did you find us?"
The questions left her muzzle in quick succession.
"Because we are visiting you," the black doe replied.
"That was over two hours ago," the buck answered the second question.
"We did call, but you wouldn't pick up your phone," Cassie continued.
"And last but not least: we found you through the name of that ice cream parlor which was visible in the background of the nice little picture you send us," Jake finished.
Unbelieving, Judy's gaze darted back and forth between her two siblings.
Her two siblings who had just told her that more than an hour had passed since Nick had started to groom her.
In fact, she still felt his tongue slowly dragging over the top of her head and licking around her ears, tempting her to lean back again and forget about the world.
Then her memory kicked in, her siblings' words which had barely registered with her before running on playback inside her head.
"You took pictures of us?!"
Judy would have shot out of the fox's lap if not for his arms that had reached around her, taking her in an embrace and effectively keeping her in place.
Though the sudden movement finally roused Nick from his trance.
He blinked multiple times in an attempt to make sense of the weird scene presenting itself to him.
The pair of grinning bunnies with still raised phones in their paws on one side and his adorable bunny-partner, sitting on top of him with expressions of embarrassment and anger switching places on her face on the other.
"Wha..?"
His arms loosening around her, Judy finally darted towards her sister, aiming to get her paws on the phone and delete the incriminating files. Though Cassie anticipated her sister's move and made a run for it, laughing and teasing Judy over her shoulder.
While the two does were moving further and further away, Nick turned towards the buck who still stood next to him.
"Alright, I missed something here. Care to fill me in, uhm...?"
"Jake," the other male introduced himself. "And you must be that rumored partner of Judy's, Nick Wilde."
Shaking the offered paw, the tod nodded in confirmation.
"So, why is my dear partner hunting her sister?"
The grin reappeared on Jake's face. "Because Judy wants to delete the pictures Cassie took of your lovely grooming session."
Nick's ears sprung up at that, standing to attention as if he wasn't sure he had heard right.
"Though I daresay the video I took is far better than some pictures."
Seeing the fox's gaze fixated on him, he prepared himself to flee should Nick try to get his paws on his phone as well.
But after a moment of impassivity, the tod broke into laughter, shaking his head in amusement. "We must have been quite a sight to behold. Oh boy."
He leaned back against the bench's backrest, one arm thrown over it relaxedly.
"I absolutely need this video. And the pictures, should they survive this day."
The unexpected statement rendered the buck speechless for just a moment before he whipped out his phone once more, sending Nick the file after exchanging contacts.
Sitting down next to the vulpine, Jake followed his gaze, spotting both his sisters still darting around the by now increased number of mammals visiting the oasis.
Just before Judy caught the black-furred doe, she sidestepped at the last moment, causing the grey bunny to run into a slightly chubby wolf who in his surprise dropped his cone.
... which landed squarely on Judy's head, drawing another surprised yelp from her.
Next to him, Nick heard Jake piping up with hardly contained glee.
"I scream-"
"You scream," the tod took over.
"We all scream for ice cream," they finished in unison, bursting into laughter and watching the doe hurrying towards them.
Another scoop of lovely bunny, please, Nick thought to himself with pleasant anticipation, a soft smile replacing his smirk.
A/N:
Can you guess it? Yes, my thanks go out to my dear friend Quakky for proofreading once more.
Also, Nick mentioned in this story that "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream" is part of a commercial.
I'm not sure if there actually is a commercial using this text (besides the one I found for Hershey's Syrup) but originally it's part of a song from the late 1920s by Howard Johnson, Billy Moll, and Robert King ;-)