A/N: Sorry for the week's delay. Here's my excuse:
Procrastinating writing fanfic by learning some principles of quantum physics - decently good idea.
Procrastinating writing an overdue oral presentation by writing fanfic instead - bad idea.
Telling my parents I'm writing fanfic - TERRIBLE IDEA GOSH DAMMIT WHY DID I DO THIS
Nick's eyes were wide. He looked as shocked as if I'd punched him on the muzzle, and was totally silent. Lost in thought. I just felt so stupid, like some kid who'd done something just because they'd been told not to and been caught. Likewise, I had an almost insurmountable urge to complain, to say it's not fair! or any one of a number of petty insults aimed at the council, at Bogo, at myself…
Nick slowly and deliberately looked me in the eye. 'Judy, I'm really sorry that I got you into this mess. I didn't think that I'd put a black mark on your career, or anything. Actually, I didn't think, so…' I put a paw on his muzzle to stop him.
Nick, apologising? But…
'It wasn't your fault, Nick. You don't have to say sorry for something you didn't do.'
He looked at me with a pained expression. 'But Carrots, I came up with the idea in the first place!'
I sighed in frustration. 'Your idea was the best way. I agreed to it too.'
'I thought of it first. This is on me.'
'Nick! You didn't know things would turn out like this, and neither did I for that matter. You might as well blame me for getting you into the force, or… I dunno, your mother for giving birth to you. It doesn't add up!' He looked like he wanted to argue. 'I'll cut you a deal,' I said, shushing him again. 'You can take…' I pretended to think for a moment, 'sixty percent of the blame. Does that sound fair?'
He gave me a long look, and I started to think he might not lighten up.
Finally, he groaned, 'Ninety.'
I allowed myself a small smile. 'Seventy.'
'Deal. Not that it changes the mess we're in.'
'That's true enough,' I conceded. This time we really had stuffed up. Chief Bogo had been equal parts annoyed and nonplussed as he'd told me the council almost never intervened, especially without rock solid evidence.
Nick seemed to be thinking along the same lines as me. 'Did Bogo say how they knew?' he asked, sounding as though he only vaguely cared.
I thought back over my conversation with Bogo. 'Nope,' I sighed.
That, I decided, was the most confusing part. Bogo had explained he'd received a phone call from a representative, who had insisted we be suspended and investigated for misconduct. But where was the evidence? How could they have known, sans being informed by Mr. Big? Our phones were encrypted, we didn't take anything else electronic, and no-one could have known who we visited outside the Bigs. Weaselton had been sworn to silence, so it wasn't him… was it?
'Nick, you don't think anyone else could have known where we went, could they? I mean, you didn't tell anyone, right?' My voice came out almost sounding like I was asking a question rather than making a statement, and I felt a little guilty for not fully trusting him.
He gave me a sideways look. 'No, Officer Fluff. Big's big on big security,' he muttered gloomily. I scolded myself. It was obvious Nick still blamed himself, and making him feel suspect wasn't going to help that.
I reached up and hugged him, pressing myself close to him. Trying to comfort him without words. I knew that if I said anything, the stubborn fox would find a way to rebut. He would find that one more way to blame himself, and I would have made it that much worse. It was endearing, but also annoying. It was so him. And to me, at least, that was the most important thing.
He hugged me in return, burying his head into my shoulder, and I got the feeling he was reassuring himself just as much as I was. The fox was almost shaking. I guess he felt I wasn't someone he had to put on a brave face for anymore. We were both in this together now.
And I had a really, really bad idea.
Unfortunately, it was also a really good one. Well, in a sense.
'Nick,' I said quietly, almost hoping he wouldn't hear me, 'no-one's working on the terrorist case.'
He shifted back and looked down at me in surprise. 'Carrots, if you're thinking what I know you're thinking, then this really is a Dumb Bunny moment.'
'But Nick, what if they get away? What if this was all for nothing?'
'Then I'd be happy to leave it to the case analysts,' he stated despondently.
I scrambled to think up another line of argument. I wasn't sure why I didn't just stop there. I knew this was possibly the worst idea I'd ever had, even counting speeding up towards an oncoming freight train, but it felt important, somehow.
'If we let the case analysts get their paws on this, they wouldn't have our intel.' Nick looked at me blankly. 'I mean, the intel we got from Mr. Big. Giving it to them would mean telling them where we got it, and you know they can't trust criminal sources. It's too large a risk.'
He looked a little miffed. 'Criminal sources, like me? So, just for the sake of the argument, let's say I do join you in this hare-brained scheme…'
I wondered for a second about the weird emphasis in his sentence before I realised he was making a pun. I grinned reluctantly and punched him in the arm. 'Nick, I'm a rabbit as you very well know!' I complained, secretly glad that he was at least making jokes again.
'Well, just say I did. How much of the blame would you take when it goes wrong?' My ears drooped.
'Um… All of it?' I asked, looking away sheepishly.
'What if I don't let you? I'll be going, whether you like it or not.' A cheeky grin had lit up his face.
I was happy and confused at the same time. 'You will? But a minute ago you said—'
'Fluff, I know it's a bad move to continue with the case even if we're suspended. But it's the right move. If there's one thing I've learned from you…' he shrugged, '…it's to be able to tell the difference.'
The modesty in his voice absolutely floored me.
I grabbed his paw and, not knowing what to say, settled for touching my nose on his. 'Thank you,' I whispered.
Nick, on the other paw, knew exactly what to say.
'Breakfast?' he offered jokingly. I shut him up by giving him a swift kiss.
'Sure. What's on the menu?' I asked, laughing at his wide-eyed, vacant expression. I'd never get used to this, and it pretty much looked like he wouldn't either.
'Uh, more kisses?' he asked, blinking.
I laughed. 'How about some cereal? I can't even remember the last time I ate.' My stomach growled its agreement.
Nick walked into the kitchen and opened a few cupboards.
'No cereal,' he called. 'You okay with porridge?'
'Sure,' I called back. 'Also, do you have any carrots?'
'Really? No, just blueberries.'
'They're just as good.'
He rattled around the kitchen for a few minutes, busying himself with the microwave, and I picked up my phone. The maps app would come in handy here. I clicked on it and tapped in the address given by Mr. Big. The app loaded for a few seconds, before a 3D view of a gigantic rusting warehouse filled the screen alongside directions to it from Nick's apartment.
Nick wandered over. 'So that's it, is it? Looks like an aircraft hangar,' he commented. He was right. The warehouse was taller than the ones on either side, and had massive full-height hangar doors. The arched roof was crumbling with rust, and in some places had fallen in to reveal the steel support beams. I swiped to change the view, and saw that the side of the building had a set of smaller garage-size doors locking off an access drive. The small doors looked new in the image, and so did the access road, which was freshly paved. The rest of the building was solid walls with no visible exits.
'Well, it sure is a fortress. No personnel doors,' I said, looking at the screen to make sure.
'Yeah, I didn't think about that. If we're scouting out the place, how d'ya reckon we're getting in? Short of BASE jumping, I mean.'
'I don't think we'll have to resort to that. I have a better idea.'
'Go on.'
I looked more closely at the side access drive, which was surrounded by dense hedges. 'I think we can sneak some photos of the inside when the trucks come. Mr. Big said they made regular deliveries.'
'What? They'll see us easily!'
'Not if we wait in the bushes. They wouldn't be able to see us then.'
The microwave interrupted with a series of beeps. Nick got up again, and I went back to looking over the images. This was going to be a very tricky operation. Despite my confidence in front of Nick, I knew this was extremely risky, especially since we still didn't really know what we were facing. A full-on terrorist group? A bunch of crazies? Some kind of well-armed prey-run street gang? And then there was the possibility of being tracked. What if we were found out, and got in even more trouble? We'd have to be even more cautious this time, but if that failed… I didn't even want to think about the consequences. I voiced my concern as soon as Nick returned with two steaming bowls.
'Are you sure you want to do this?' I asked him warily. 'I mean, we still haven't figured out how we got caught last time.'
'Wow, you really don't want me to come along, do you?' he laughed, picking up his spoon. The porridge did smell inviting, but I ignored it for the moment.
'You're really sure you don't know how we were tracked?' I persisted.
He paused with his spoon hovering halfway between bowl and mouth, apparently thinking seriously this time. 'Well…' he said slowly, then shook his head dismissively. 'Nah, not possible.'
'What?' I asked, almost desperate at the thought of new information.
'No, never mind. I didn't think it through. So when do we leave?' he asked, starting on his breakfast with an enthusiastic expression. I snorted with laughter.
'Wha'th thfunny?' Nick asked through a giant mouthful.
Swallowing the urge to laugh even harder, I replied, 'When you look like that, that hyped face you've got, I can't tell if you're excited for catching bad guys or just for eating!' I cracked up again, Nick looking confused.
He swallowed. 'Why's that so funny, though?'
I chuckled. 'I'm not sure. We're both total idiots, you know?'
Nick put down his bowl, looking even more confused if that were possible. 'Not following you, Fluff.'
'If we survive this and take down the mammals that blew up half a street… I might just tell my parents I'm dating a fox,' I said, laughing at my lack of logic. 'Why should I be more scared of them than of… homicidal, predator-hating crazies? Well, my parents kinda don't like predators, and my dad's a bit crazy, but neither of them are homicidal…'
Nick looked mildly amused. 'I don't know about both of us being idiots… one of us, for sure.' He said jokingly. 'What's made you think about that, anyway?' he asked.
'Well, I don't know…' I paused to think. 'Everything just feels really trivial compared to what we're doing now. Once this is over… I don't know what to think, I feel like I just won't be… afraid to do anything anymore.'
Nick nodded. 'I think I know what you mean. Except maybe telling your parents, if they're really that bad.'
'I didn't tell you about the fox taser, did I?'
'They sell tasers for zapping foxes?'
I nodded. 'It's a rabbit thing, there are heaps of Fox Away products sold in Bunnyburrow markets. Anyway, my dad tried to convince me to bring an arsenal of that kind of thing to Zootopia. That's where I got the repellent, by the way.' I could still remember my dad's enthused expression as he demonstrated the contents of the 'care package', and wondered whether he'd calmed down some since befriending Gideon.
'So he still has the fox taser?' Nick asked, a look of mixed concern and fear spreading across his muzzle.
'Yep, and something that looked like a fox airhorn. But don't worry, I'll introduce you to them over the phone.'
He seemed to relax a little. 'That's good. Wouldn't want to face up to an angry buck wielding a taser and an ear-destroyer. Anyway, you've pulled me off track. When should we leave?'
'As soon as I've finished this, if you want.' I picked up my bowl and started popping blueberries into my mouth. 'We'll have to do some proper scouting.'
'So,' Nick spoke in a fake dramatic voice, 'There's only one question remaining. Bus or cab?'
'Cab,' I answered instantly, having already thought it through. 'It'll be more private, I don't want to risk us being caught again. I mean, we can't rule out that someone saw us last time.'
Nick nodded thoughtfully. 'How about we order a Zuber? I don't feel up to paying the usual ridiculous fare.'
I snorted derisively. 'Says the fox with a million and a half in dirty money.'
He put his paw on his chest and made a face of shock. 'You wound me, Fluff! I spent most of that on this place. Besides, Pawpsicles, were a legitimate business venture!' he said, voice full of sarcastic hurt. Something in the way he paused during his sentence made me feel a little suspicious. I stopped eating for a second.
'Yeah, maybe you could convince me of that if you had some real permits,' I said, wondering whether my ruse would work. I wasn't disappointed.
'Carrots, that paperwork is clean as a whistle. No nefarious dealings attached, I swear. Look,' he said, pulling the laminated sheet from his pocket, 'since you're the expert, and we both passed the forged documents unit…' I snatched the sheet and, giving it a quick once-over, scrunched it up in my paw and chucked it into the bin.
'Hey!' he exclaimed, looking genuinely surprised. 'What was that for?'
My ears jumped up. 'Nicholas Wilde, there will be no more hustling from you!' I said forcefully, pointing at him with an angry claw. 'Why was that even in your pocket?' He shifted guiltily.
'I was just… saving it for Finnick, if he ever wanted it,' he mumbled, flicking his tail agitatedly against the couch. 'I wasn't doing anything with it.'
I raised my eyebrows. 'You'd better not have,' I said pointedly. 'And just because Finnick is our friend, doesn't mean he's above the law.'
'Didn't stop us going to Big when we needed to,' he muttered, then clapped a paw over his muzzle, looking instantly contrite.
I raised an eyebrow. 'That was a totally different situation. We needed information from Big. He felt like he owed us, he gave us info. We're not… friends with him.' But I couldn't help feeling that Nick was right. Just because Mr. Big and his syndicate had been useful, did that really give them any kind of protection? For all I knew, they could be just as bad as the group we were chasing. Just how many mammals had he ordered dead? I couldn't kid myself into thinking it was none. Having a dedicated ice hole was too big of a giveaway. And besides, Big had a lot of notoriety, with his huge network of almost every kind of criminal mammal. He was like the spider at the centre of a web, tugging on a strand whenever he needed.
I shivered at the turn my imagination had taken, and resolved to make Big my priority after this case. If there was an after this case. Could Nick and I ever dig ourselves out of the legal hole we were in?
Shaking my head in an attempt to clear it, I put down my now empty bowl and loaded up the Zuber app. I scrolled around the map and dropped the pin just outside Nick's apartment block on Cypress Grove Lane.
'Right,' I announced, 'creepy warehouse, here we come!' I pressed the summon button, and a small box popped up to announce our ride would be here in less than ten minutes.
'Hey, whoa there Carrots!' Nick exclaimed frantically. 'I'm not even ready! I need to get my civvies on!'
'Better hurry up, then,' I said, teasingly waving the phone at him. He cast an appraising eye at me.
'You,' he said, finally jumping to his feet, 'are a crazy bunny.'
I gave him a toothy grin. 'I'm the crazy bunny to your sly fox. Would you love me any other way?'
He flashed his teeth at me. 'No, no I wouldn't.'
I picked up our bowls and headed to the sink, thoroughly rinsing them before placing them in the dishwasher. I hopped over to the bathroom to clean my teeth, but decided I probably needed a shower too. I wriggled out of the light pyjamas I'd been wearing. I unzipped my bag and laid out a fresh pair of clothes and towel, then stepped into the slightly oversized shower and twisted the knob. The water ran cold for only a few seconds, then warmed considerably, taking me by surprise. High-cost apartments came with high-quality showers, I supposed. I quickly ran my fur brush up and down my body a few times, trying to remove built-up fluff and dust from Nick's bed. If anyone really needed to learn how to keep houses tidy like a rabbit, it was Nick, I thought.
I turned the tap off, and watched the small puddle of water as it swirled down the drain. I towelled off the droplets of water stuck to my fur, then quickly blasted myself with hot air from Nick's fur drier to remove the more persistent dampness. I turned the noisy machine off, then pulled on my fresh shirt and jeans and was out within a few minutes.
'Wow, Carrots. That was fast.' Nick strolled out of his bedroom wearing a hooded jacket and tracksuit pants.
'When you've lived with as many siblings as me, you learn to shower quickly,' I said. 'Also, that really wasn't what I thought of when you said civvies.'
He looked down at his clothes, then back at me with confusion. 'What's wrong with them?' he asked.
I rolled my eyes. 'What's wrong with them is that they are almost as sloppy as your garish leaf-print shirts.'
Nick made a siren noise. 'Woo-woo-wooo! Pull over now! It's the fashion police!'
I couldn't help but chuckle at his antics. 'Well, keep it on then. It might even drive away criminals, you never know.'
He snorted. 'My fashion sense isn't that bad.'
My phone pinged from the coffee table. 'Too late, looks like our Zuber is here!' I announced, stuffing the phone in my pocket and marching toward the door.
'Carrots, wait!'
I turned around. 'Yes?'
'Shouldn't we be taking our tasers? Just in case?'
I considered this for a moment, then shrugged. 'Can't see why not,' I replied, hurrying back to my bag and fishing out the heavy device. I turned around and looked quizzically at Nick. 'Aren't you getting yours?'
He grinned back at me and pulled his out of his pocket. 'I was taking mine whether you liked it or not,' he said. 'Come on, let's go.'
The cab was bigger than I'd expected, a white Herd station wagon with Zuber decals on the doors. The driver, a middle-aged Arctic Fox, waved at us impatiently through the window.
'All right, all right…' I muttered to myself, picking up my pace a little. I grabbed Nick's paw and pulled him along, opening the back door and clambering in. The seats were noticeably large, obviously designed more for Nick's build than mine. Nick seemed to pick up on this.
'You ordered us a fox-sized cab?' he asked.
I nodded. 'It's easier for me to fit in this cab than for you to fit in a bunny-sized cab.' Nick shut the door.
'All right you two, what's the destination?' the driver asked, pressing a few buttons to clear his GPS.
'Number el—' I started, but Nick gave me a warning look.
'The Tundra Wonder Takeaway diner on Markus street,' he said to the driver, who grunted and typed the address.
'Bit of a dodgy area. You sure?' the driver asked cautiously.
'Yep,' replied Nick, 'we're friends with the owner.'
'Alrighty, then.' The car pulled away smoothly, and the driver started humming a little. I guessed it must be pretty boring, just driving around all day.
The drive to Tundratown lasted a full half-hour, even with non-peak traffic. The tunnel road from Central under the refrigeration wall was almost empty, with only a few tired mammals driving around from early-morning work shifts. The air became noticeably colder as we passed through the tunnel, and my breath started to fog up. I shivered. Maybe Nick had been right to wear a hoodie… and anyway, I didn't have a jumper with me. It wasn't like I'd been expecting to go all the way to Tundratown.
'Okay, this is it,' the driver said a while later, pulling up outside a small greasy-looking establishment.
'Th-Thanks!' I chattered, my jaw now spasming a little from the cold.
'Be sure'n give me five stars, mind,' the fox called out. Nick shut the door behind him, and the car pulled away fast enough for the tires to squeal on the asphalt.
'He seems keen to get out of here,' said Nick, scratching under his collar.
'He's p-probably got g-good reason t-to,' I managed, looking around at the tagged shopfronts and warehouses.
Nick looked at me with amusement. 'Having second thoughts about my choice of clothing, Carrots?'
I looked back at him with a pained expression. 'What-t do you think, sly fox?' I asked. He grinned at me, then unzipped the front of his hoodie and wrapped the side around my back. I instantly felt his body heat flooding around me, pushing away the cold air.
'Mm, that's better,' I said, hugging his arm. 'So why are we outside a takeaway place, anyway?'
'Well, going to a restaurant looks more normal than going to a warehouse. Especially since it would look like we're on, you know, a date.' He started walking along the snowy path, pulling me on toward the cluster of warehouses.
'So… how did you know about the shop?' I asked.
'I wasn't lying, I do know the owner of the place,' replied Nick. 'He's one of Big's associates, so I reckon he was the one with info on the warehouse.'
'Huh.' We walked through the thick snow for a minute, until I recognised the particularly patchy-looking Number Eleven. The place seemed to have been lazily repaired, with slightly less-rusty scraps of corrugated iron tek-screwed into place over the old cladding. The 'new' doors on the side of the building were hidden from here by the overgrown hedges, which were luckily still in place.
'There aren't any cameras,' I said in surprise, squinting across the street.
'Do you think we could sneak in and have a look?' asked Nick, looking around cautiously.
I groaned. 'Nick, we're already in enough trouble. Just scouting, taking covert pics, that stuff is, well… more legal than breaking and entering. Let's try and keep this to a minimum.'
'Well, okay… but in case you change your mind, I did bring some extra kit.'
'Such as…?' I could imagine only too well the sort of thing Nick would call 'kit' with that kind of gleam in his eyes.
'Just, ah, the usual bits and bobs,' he said, chuckling a little.
I looked both ways down the street, then tugged Nick's arm.
'Come on!' We crossed the road as quickly as the jacket-sharing situation would allow, with Nick trying to keep it from slipping off with his free arm. Up close, the warehouse looked even more gigantic. It must have been originally designed for use by much larger mammals than us, but the new additions were all closer to the size I was used to. The new entry road looked at most a quarter of the width of the street it led on to.
'Fluff, are you sure we're going to fit behind these?' asked Nick, brushing his paw through one of the hedges. 'They're pretty dense.'
I nodded. 'We can make do. I think we'll fit over there.' I pointed out the area nearer to the side of the warehouse, where the hedge curved slightly away from the brick boundary wall.
'Yes,' said Nick slowly, 'but how long will we have to wait there for? Until the delivery truck comes?'
'Who knows, who cares!' I said, pulling him towards the suitable-looking gap.
'My tail will care! But Carrots, do we have to stay there for the whole day? Don't they only come here at night?' whined Nick, sounding like he already regretted agreeing to come.
'Yeah, we do. It'll be fun, like a stakeout!' I said, almost dragging him now.
'This is exactly why I brought lock picks,' I heard him mutter.
'Well, you aren't going to be using them,' I said. 'We're just doing a stakeout to take pictures.'
'Well, okay. Oh, this is a bit roomier than I thought,' he said, pushing around the bush to the space behind. There was enough room for both of us to fit, albeit a little snugly. I smiled, thinking that that wasn't really a problem at all. I kicked away with my hindpaws at the small piles of snow that had managed to fall through the leaves, then sat down fast, pulling Nick with me.
'Wa— ooph!' he exclaimed. 'Was that really necessary, Fluff?' he asked, gingerly rubbing his ribs with one paw.
'Of course it was! It was funny.' I nuzzled my head into his side, enjoying the protection from the cold. A thought occurred to me and I instantly had to ask, thinking amusedly that stakeout really meant truth or dare. 'Nick, how many mammals have you dated?' He looked down at me with a slightly surprised expression, which quickly shifted to a depressed one.
'Um… three,' he said after a short pause. 'Two vixens… and one male fox.' I was a bit surprised. Well, of course I'd heard the stereotype of foxes swinging back and forth between sexualities at maximum velocity… but I'd just dismissed it as another one of the things rabbits had made up.
'Nick, that's not something to be ashamed of,' I said reassuringly.
He nodded. 'Yes, yes I know, but I thought, maybe because of your upbringing, you might, you know… not think that way.'
I shook my head. 'You can't have hundreds of kits without at least a few being bi or gay. My parents have pretty much accepted that, thank goodness.'
'Well… I guess I hadn't thought of it like that. Anyway, I'm not really… not really prepared to talk about my past. If you don't mind.'
'Okay, that's fine. I was just, curious,' I said, hugging his arm, but at the same time wondering… Nick still seemed to have a lot of hurt he was covering up. Could this be why? What exactly did he mean by not wanting to talk about his past? Had he been heartbroken, and never actually dealt with it? I didn't want to upset him, least of all by bringing it up… But what if this was it? One of the reasons he was so, for lack of a better word, distant? I looked up at his face, and there it was. The neutral expression, eyes locked unseeingly on the hedge in front of him. Oh, he normally did a good enough job at hiding it, but once you'd been around him for a while, it was impossible to miss.
'Nick?' I asked. His ear pricked, and his eyes twitched down to look at me. Assuming we only really needed to be here at night?
'Getting impatient already, Carrots?' he asked. I'd have all day to figure him out.
'No, not really. Just one thing, all right?'
'I'm all ears.'
I jumped up, grabbed at the fluff on either side of his face and pulled him forward, kissing him on the end of his muzzle.
He made a small sound of surprise, then cupped my face with a paw, pressing forward a little more.
This promised to be an interesting day, on more than one front.
