Snowball Fight

Taconny's Wildehopps Christmas Week - Day #4

Written by Cimar of Turalis/WildeHopps


Nick slunk low to the ground, his ears whipping back and forth as he listened for any movement of his quarry. He tossed the soft, snowy ball in his paw a few times, snickering to himself. Spotting his target, he moved in closer until he was hiding behind a tree just yards away from the unsuspecting doe.

She has no idea this is coming...he thought as he caught sight of his prey with a quick glance from behind his hiding place. With a snicker, he raised his arm...


Judy was sitting on a park bench in the middle of Savanna Central park, sipping on a hot cocoa. Nick had called her, asking if she'd like to meet up for a movie, though that was well over an hour ago. While she had waited in the snow covered park, she had bought this scrumptious hot cocoa, holding it in her gloved paws to keep warm, a cheery smile on her lips. I wonder if we're going to see that new Ramnarok movie that came out... she thought with a grin.

Her ears raised instinctively when she heard what sounded like a snicker from behind her, followed by a whooshing sound she was all too familiar with having 275 siblings. Ducking easily, the snowball flew right over her head.

She let out a heavy sigh.

Nick...this was supposed to be a romantic date...well, I was hoping it would be one. Sipping the last bits of her cocoa, she leapt off the bench and tossed the cup into a nearby bin. Hearing another whooshing sound, she rolled forward, dodging a second snowball which smashed into the ground behind her, combusting into a thousand snowflakes once again.

Now facing her partner, who had readied another snowball, she groaned and let her shoulders slump. Putting up her paw in front of her face, a third snowball smashed into her glove, exploding around her.

Sighing, she dropped her gloved paw and refolded her arms, tapping her foot in irritation as she looked to where a dumbfounded Nick had his mouth hanging open, another snowball dropping from his paw. "Nick, did you think that I wouldn't hear you approaching?" She pointed to her ears and then to the snow behind the fox, where a trail of pawprints lay. "The top level of snow froze last night so I can hear each and every crunchy step you take."

Nick's shoulders slumped. "Those ears really make it hard to sneak up on you, you know that, Carrots?" He shuffled over to Judy, who rolled her eyes and prepared for the hug that was coming. She was grateful for his arms wrapping around her and the smile that, despite her best efforts, couldn't be halted from appearing on her muzzle.

"Do I know that?" Judy repeated. "Yes, yes I do...eeeep!"

Judy jumped into the air as a wet ball of snow appeared on her head, falling onto her rump as she desparately tried wiping off the slushy snow. Nick snickered, bent over with his paws on his knees.

"Oh, Carrots, that was a beautiful face you just made." He wiped at a tear at his eye and grinned. "You should have seen your face, because it...looked...angry..."

The bunny was still sitting in the snow, but the glare she held towards him felt more cold than a Tundratown blizzard.

"Nicholas..."

Uh oh, she used my full first name...

"Piberius..."

Double oopsie...

"Wilde..."

I'm dead...

"I was thinking that today would have been a nice date for the two of us. Something romantic and calming." A smirk with narrowed eyes slowly appeared on her face. "But then again...I'm sure the others at the precinct will love to hear how a resident snowball champion of Bunnyburrow completely destroyed her partner in a snowball fight."

Nick's jaw dropped. Resident snowball champion?

"Four years running before I moved here, Slick," Judy replied, easily reading his dumbfounded expression. He blinked, and a perfectly formed snowball was already in her paw. Tossing it up and down with a coy expression, she pushed herself to her feet. "So, what's it going to be?"

Nick's feet were moving before his brain could even think. Yet before he could take a single step in any direction, the snowball connected with his right cheek, splattering snow across his face and muzzle.

Two more snowballs connected and a third whizzed past her ear, nicking him a tad as he ducked behind the nearby tree. That bunnies dynamite! he thought, breathing heavily. Peeking around the corner only earned him a snowball directly to his muzzle. He pulled back, licking the snow that remained off his nose before wiping the rest off.

"Come on out, Nick!" Judy cajoled in a sing-song voice.

Right...Nick thought as he spotted a nearby line of bushes. Grinning, he darted off, ducking low to the ground as a snowball swooshed across his tail, a small yip issuing from his muzzle at the coldness seeping through the appendage. Jumping behind the hedgerow, he pulled his tail close to him and glared through the bush at where he knew Judy would be.

Nobody, hit his tail with a snowball.

It's on now, Judy...

Nick rolled several snowballs and peered through holes in the bushes leaves and branches. Gauging the distance between himself and Judy, who had taken up a position behind the bench from earlier, he formulated his plan.

"Hey, Judy. You got me, okay? So how about we go see that Ramnarok movie you've been wanting to see. I'll get you a carrot smoothie afterwards!"

"Really!"

Judy poked her head up over the bench, only to receive a snowball directly to her face for her efforts. She groaned inwardly as she ducked down and brushed the snow from her face, her expression cross. Of course he would do that...

"Now it's up to two carrot smoothies!" she yelled from behind her bench as she rolled another snowball. Grinning like only she could do, she jumped from the bench into a nearby snowbank and disappeared inside it.

If you want a snowball fight...she thought with glee as she burrowed...You're going to get the snowball fight of your lifetime.


Nick glanced through the hole in the bush, once again grateful for spending so much time at the ZPA's range for practicing his aim with their tranq darts. By the end of his stint at the academy he had managed to top even Judy's scores in accuracy and speed, an accomplishment both he and Judy had been proud of.

Though his glee turned to surprise when he didn't spot a grey bunny in a purple coat on the bench. "Where did she go?"

*Thump* Nick's head jumped forward as a clump of snow hit him on the back of his head between his ears.

"Right here!"

He whipped around to see where Judy had yelled at him from, only to see nothing but deep, snow covered fields. It was only a few seconds of confusion later when a second snowball hit him in the same place.

"Come on Nick, I know you're faster than that!"

Nick whirled around again, only to see clear white fields only punctuated by the occasional flora or mammal in the park. The pattern repeated twice more, with Nick now whipping his head in all directions, trying to find the disassociated giggling of his partner.

It was only after the fifth snowball did he manage to catch a glimpse of her before she burrowed back into the snow.

So that's the game she's playing...Nick thought with a chuckle. Of course she'd burrow, and it was a trick that had caught him flatfooted during their first adventure together. "Two can play at this game..." he said with a grin, dropping his snowball. He slinked forward, ears rotating around as he padded forward slowly on all fours. He caught a curious glance from a zebra, who was slowly picking out a phone from her pocket.

Nick casually waved at her, offering his brightest grin before continuing one.

Scritcha scritcha scritcha

There!

Nick paused, ears focusing in one a single spot a few feet away from him as his tail flicked back and forth behind him. Readying his legs, when the sound of his partner burrowing had stopped, he leapt into the air.

Nick plunged face first into a nearby snow bank, hind-paws and tail sticking out of the snow.

"Eeeep!"

Nick's head appeared a few feet from her in the middle of her tunnel, offering an amused grin to his partner, cutting her off from the tunnel she had burrowed.

"Hey Carrots," he chuckled, before scraping some snow from the tunnel wall and tossing it at her, coating her in a fine layer of white.

Judy spluttered something unintelligible before the fox was gone. Left blinking in surprise, she crawled tentatively towards the hole, cautiously peeking out into the sunlight above.

Tha-thump!

Judy whirled around at the noise, seeing a wall of red and cream fur and green eyes lazily looking at her from where she had just been sitting.

"Second try's the charm?" he asked before pulling his head out of the snow just as a snowball was about to hit him. Now panting, Judy did the only thing she could do...burrow. With both paths of her tunnel now blocked by collapsed snow, Judy dug out another way. Several times she heard the recognizble 'Tha-thump' of Nick diving into the snow behind her. Twice as she was about to head in one direction, she'd be stopped by the sound of pattering feet in front of her, altering her course.

This is feeling more like a hunt than a snowball fight now...Judy thought with a groan. Though the thought also fed a piece of her mind, giving her a sense of thrill and excitement from it. Nick, was hunting, her.

Before she could feel too giddy, the snow in front of her gave way. She'd reached the end of the deep snow and was now poking her head out from the snow, gazing out onto one of the many paths through the park.

She was also staring straight into the eyes of her partner, who was tossing a snowball lightly in his paws.

"Surprised to see me, Fluff?" was all she heard before soft snowball met bunny face.

Judy sat, half in and half out of the hole with snow covering her face, her large eyes blinking away bits of white fluff as she let out a groan.

"It's alright, Carrots," Nick offered with a chuckle. "We can't all be snowball champions for five years running. Was a good effort though. You really..."

His sentence was cut short when a large amount of snow rumbled in front of him. He looked down with only enough time to see Judy had carved out a healthy chunk of the snowbank that was supporting the wall of fluff in front of him.

"Oh turkey gravy..." he muttered before the wall of snow collapsed on top of him, burying him up to his neck in snow.

Looking behind him, he groaned when he saw an upside down Judy Hopps walking towards him, a snowball in her paw.

"What were you saying?" she asked calmly, tossing the snowball several times.

"You win..." Nick muttered, waving his paws as he tried to remove himself from the mound of snow. "Now can you help me out of here? My tail's freezing."

"I will for a price," Judy giggled.

Nick huffed as he struggled vainly some more. "What do you ask?"

"Only this..." she sauntered up to him, and Nick couldn't help but gulp at the doe walking towards him, hips swaying and paws gently cupping his cheeks as she titled his muzzle back and placed a light kiss upon his lips.

Nick blinked at the euphoric feeling moving its way through his mind and body and he barely recognized when the simple kiss had ended. "Uh..." he began, already pining for a second. "I think I missed that, could you repeat what I had to do?"

Judy rolled her eyes and laughed as she hopped on top of the snow pile. "Maybe if you get me that carrot smoothie like promised I'll show you an encore."

"Third times a charm, you know," Nick replied, earning a giggle from his partner. With her digging him out, he could finally move somewhat. Another few seconds and the snow began moving as he struggled until he freed his arms and chest.

Judy was busy facing away from him, digging out his lower body when she felt two strong arms wrap themselves around her, spinning her about. It wasn't until she felt Nick's lips pressing against her own did she relax, gently tracing his muzzle with one of her paws as he cupped her cheek with his own.

"Best snowball fight ever," Judy whispered after breaking the kiss, peering gratefully into Nick's eyes.

"Want a rematch soon?" Nick asked, waggling his eyebrows. Both laughed as she pushed away his muzzle as he leaned in for a third kiss.

"Maybe after the movie and dinner," Judy replied.

Nick shrugged. "Works for me. Now.." He clasped his paws together and gave Judy a sheepish smile. "Now can we work on freeing my tail? It's really starting to feel cold."