Alright lovelies! Thank you so much for all of your wonderful comments and suggestions!
As of today there are exactly four weeks until the movie comes out, which means you'll get at least 4-6 more fanfics from me with limited spoilers! And then after that we're gonna get to the good stuff!
And by good stuff I mean I'm gonna deliver exactly what you want! Who wants to see people get shot, buried alive, and mauled by predators!? WELL THAT'S ALL GONNA BE HERE SOON! So stick around!
Until then there are a few other things that we're going to see out of this fic! Go to the bottom to either cast a vote or give an idea! Because as of now I might need prompts to write!
But until next time here's Judy and Nick at a stakeout. Nick's inaugural ceremony isn't for another month (according to this weird, awkward timeline I've created) and so they're gonna do some fun not cop but cop things until that time gets here! Like this one.
A brief summary: Judy has a lead. Nick has donuts. It works out in the end.
Enjoy!
o0o
"I will never compromise Truth for the sake of getting along with people who can only get along when we agree."
~D.R. Silva
o0o
Judy had always wanted to be a cop. Since she'd been a kit, watching bullies harrass smaller mammals on the school yard, she had known that she'd been destined to help others and see that justice was given to all. In her idylic mindset she had seen herself accepting honors and awards, humbly fixing up the streets and doing it all with a smile. She saw herself as a cop of all cops, a Jack of the trade, a winner all around. Someone that children looked up to and parents trusted and her chief thought of as a perfect example of law enforcement at its best.
And then she'd become a cop. And it had not been like that.
At all.
Needless to say the streets were still at odds, there weren't any medals, her coworkers thought she was a joke and her chief had done his best to use what power he had against her by finally giving her a case after weeks of endless parking duty but had instead done his best to give her the worst time slot possible.
It was already well past midnight, she was more than exhausted and life wasn't seeming as perfect as she had expected it to be from the start.
Oh. And she was lonely.
Apparently Bogo didn't see any clear reason to allow her soon-to-be partner Nick Wilde on the case with her, though he'd already shown himself as a more than dependable asset in other situations. She'd been sent out alone with promises that what she was going to be looking for was most likely not dangerous and if anything did arrise then backup would be there as soon as possible. But until then, no partner.
Especially not Nick Wilde.
And Judy, who was well beyond the point of frustration, had a sneaky suspicion that the reason was less to do with the fact that he wasn't on the official roster and more to do with the fact that they didn't trust him, a Fox, to be sitting alone in a car with his Prey, a Bunny. And that was really just the icing on the whole goddamn cake. Because as much as she hated to admit it to herself, as much as she despised that others pressed upon him and her their ideas of what should and shouldn't be, she still knew that in the deepest pit of her beliefs... she agreed.
And perhaps it was the doubt and lingering fear that scared her even more.
She'd never liked labels though there were some that even she couldn't deny. Class, genus, species, family. All of them shaky and different and unsure. But there were a few that were far too stable to deny. They were partners. They were maybe even friends. Good friends. Best friends.
But at the end of the day there would be one solid truth that would always rise to the top.
They were Predator and Prey.
There was a certain expectation with living in Zootopia that the long time feuds between animals would automatically be erased. But like any chalkboard, there would always be remnants left behind that were almost impossible to shake away. She'd had her prejudices, and so had Nick. But he'd lived in the city his whole life, and had grown up with the judgements of Prey. Her life in the burrows hadn't been easy, Predators that were present making it their goal to be at the top of the food chain and she still had the scars to show how well those incidents had gone. But even so, she was hesitant to ever let Wilde notice that she still carried around Predator-Be-Off in her glove-box, sidled closer to her larger coworkers in Predator heavy areas and did her best to stay out of the way of all things with teeth.
Things weren't made easy for her.
And then she'd announced her partnership with Wilde, and suddenly that strange plane of not-so-easy-but-managable that she'd been coasting on took a nosedive and everything seemed to be bumpy from there.
"You're working with a Predator!" She wasn't sure how her neighbors had found out, most likely from the many newspapers that piled up outside their always closed doors, but somehow they'd found out. And from the moment they had they the hallway had become a buzz of activity filled with skepticism and worry. Yesterday the old Lemur down the hall had practically been pacing in front of Judy's door, dropping hard candies in her wake. The day before had been a young Pig couple who'd sent her over a cake with the words Watch Your Back in pink frosting on the top (a message that had really been quite mixed because of its threatening tone but delicious chocolate filling). And today, after she'd barely made it through the first few feet of the landing, had been the Beaver who lived next door. He must have heard her, because he'd already been standing, arms crossed, doing his best to show off the few inches that he had on her. "Your Predator! Do you realize that, Miss Hopps?"
"No, I'm working with my friend. And yeah. I'm helping him study. I see him at his apartment twice a week. I realize it." He'd cornered her on a Tuesday after she'd gotten back from the supermarket. Her arms were sore from holding ripping plastic bags of carrots and okra. Apparently Nick had found out about her dinner-for-one's that she'd been eating out of her microwave and had decided to donate a few pots and pans to her meager kitchen, saying plainly that it was a thank you for helping him study for the test (though Judy had her suspicions that it was more along the lines of pissing off Bogo that had him feeling more than generous). Good reason or not, she finally had decent meals on her table and a spice rack that had a reason to be more than salt and pepper.
The Beaver, a well meaning but far too inquisitive mammal named Harold, scoffed, holding one of the newspapers from a few weeks before aloft in the air like a token. "It says that you're working with a Fox!" He gave the paper a shake. "You've seen the display at the museum! You know what they do to Prey like us!"
"That's a museum, Harold," she said. "It's filled with things that are old and dead and don't happen much anymore."
"He's a Fox!"
Judy fished her keys out of the pocket of her jeans, searching through them to find the one she needed. "Yeah," she sang easily, flipping another one down the ring. "That's what he is."
"Mrs. Hopps-!"
"He's a Fox, not an ancient curse, Harold."
Harold twisted his head violently at the thought, tail thumping the ground with an agitated beat. "Foxes eat Rabbits, Judy! Have you seen his teeth! And those claws-"
"I don't think he's going to be eating me anytime soon." She found the right key, jamming it into the lock. It stuck for a moment, and she gave the metal a twist. "He's more of a beef and crickets kind'a guy."
"But what about those hunting instincts! He's still got those! And he's got those eyes that do that glow in the dark thing-"
"They don't glow in the dark," she answered through a rankled sigh, wondering vaguely if this was how Kindergarten teachers felt explaining the letter B over and over again. "There's a gland in the back. It shines."
"It's creepy!"
"We've all got our thing. Last week you said my big feet were weird." She held back the cruel comment of your tail is a laughing stock, instead putting all of her anger into one final twist at the lock. The key did its job, urged on by her desperate hands, and she slid the door open with an internal cry of joy, dropping her bags on the other side of the stoop. "Now goodbye, Harold."
"Watch your back, Rabbit!"
"Goodbye, Harold."
It wasn't until she was putting away the last bunch of vegetables into her fridge that she realized what had been going on. Her neighbor hadn't been wrong. Not because he was right, but because there were days where, like him, she had found herself staring at claws and teeth and eyes that seemed to glow in the darkest of places and had to hold back a shiver of unsettlement. It was what kept the spray can in her glove-box and the taser on her belt and the constant idea that there was something around the corner waiting to jump out and hunt her in her place.
She hadn't even told her parents the news yet. As far as they were concerned she was partnered with a mild-mannered Zebra or deer, or at least still passing out parking tickets with an orange vest.
She was waiting for that day where she called them. Mom, dad, she'd say, taking a breath to bring the world in, My partner, the one who I have entrusted to protect and defend me is one of the Predators that you used to tell me was the monster under the bed. Hope you don't mind!
She had imagined over and over again what their reactions were, but in the end it was never good. Sure, they worked with Foxes now, but there was a certain amount of distance still taken. And it was that distance that felt like the miles that she was going to have to cross.
It wasn't particularly easy. It never had been though, Judy mused, watching outside with glazed eyes. The ball of her hand had begun to sore where the sharp point of her chin had dug in over time, her elbow beginning to absorb the imprint of the car's interior where it had been pressed against for the last few… minutes? Her gaze dropped, focused through the tired fuzz and then widened when green, luminescence blazed, stretched and cleared.
3:46 A.M.
Groaning, rubbing her fingers over her face, she leaned back. Five hours. She'd been sitting in front of the abandoned wheat mill for five hours thinking about Foxes and all the horrors of facing her parents, and still nothing had happened.
Of course she'd be the one to be given a false lead.
Two days had gone by since a theft in one of Zootopia's smaller bank's. Not much had been stolen, but the odd way it had been procured, taken from beneath the vault, tunneled under without so much as raising a single eyebrow, had sounded all of the alarms, and soon enough Zootopia's Finest had been in a tizzy.
Bogo, usually so reluctant, had needed all hands on deck. And, to Judy's immense pleasure, had put her on the case instead of parking duty. Not that he'd made it at all easy for her. No, the Oxen was determined to break her anyway possible (as he had from day one and really, why would she expect any different?) and so when he'd assigned shifts she'd been given little choice. And that was why, at ten p.m., she was pulling up in front of the old mill preparing herself for the red eye shift.
And now it was 3:50 and she'd been there for five hours and barely holding it together.
Not that he'd give her any sort of risky job. She was getting a Fox as a partner in just a few months time. And Bogo was reluctant to give her anyone else to work with in the meantime. He was most likely hoping she'd quit before it happened, giving Wilde a reason to drop everything and go back to scheming. But she'd accepted, and Wilde continued his journey up the Lawful Ladder, and now she sat early in the morning wishing more than anything that she was back in bed.
The silence was too silent, the smell of the squad car was a used and brittle one and the air was too warm. Part of her wanted to crack a window, the cold night a perfect shock back to the land of the awake and living, but the district they'd placed her in was littered in garbage and the atmosphere reeked with three day old fish and sewage.
And so she suffered, blurry eyed and miserable and alone, waiting for something to happen.
A tapping on the passenger side sent a sharp yelp out of her mouth that she'd later deny vehemently, her fist jumping to her chest to bunch fitfully at her nylon uniform. Terrified of the teeth and the claws and the two, green, glowing things that stared back at her.
She expected a perp with a vendetta. That was not what she received.
"Really, Hopps?" his voice was muffled from outside the door and his breath, passing through his deadly canines to fog up in patches against the window. "I thought we were past the whole predator and prey thing."
And there, in the doom and the gloom, at four in the freaking morning, stood Nicholas Wilde, donned in a windbreaker and carrying two paper bags.
She let out a snarl of her own that she'd have dared to call intimidating for someone her size and relaxed against the torn seat. "Oh can it, Wilde," she muttered, straightening out her shirt, feeling her heart beat stubbornly refuse to slow. "This is a stakeout," she added, looking up to glare through the glass, speaking loud enough for him to hear her through it. "Would it kill you to not blow my cover."
"Our cover," he pointed out with a weak smirk. He balanced one of the bags in the crook of his arm, tapping the glass with a knuckle. "Let me in."
She crossed her arms. "I already told you. It's a stakeout."
"And last time I checked," he added, words puffing, "we're partners!"
"Not yet. You're not supposed to be here until we are."
"You said we were before." Another of his trademark smirks pulling at his lips. "You know kindergarten rules, Hopps."
"Refresh my memory."
"No takebacks," he noted with a wise tone that looked otherworldly when spoken around all the sass. "That's what I'm here for. To remind you to play nice."
"That was before you tried to ruin my stakeout." She made a show of crossing her arms. "You're not supposed to be here. Not until you've got a badge."
"Do you have more of those stickers."
"No!"
"I know you do." He was right. She did. She always did, carrying them in the glove compartment to give to especially chatty and friendly children with dreams to one day join the mammals in blue. But damned if he could know that… not that he already didn't.
"Go away."
"Oh come on, Carrots! It'll be good for me to get some fieldwork! I need the practice."
"Ask your instructor! I'm sure he'd give you something to do."
"My instructor spends half the time saying that Foxes can't be Officers. This is so much better."
"All you'll do is annoy me!"
"What else am I for?"
He stepped from one foot to the other, a pink tongue darting out to lick chapped, blackened lips, and for a moment she could see his carnassials flash an unsettlingly pointed, bony white, his muzzle wrinkling into a faux snarl. "Besides, what Bogo doesn't know won't hurt him, right?" He smiled, and his teeth flashed. Her long ears twitched, flicking against the warmed air. There was always a moment, she'd admit. That odd, strange, primal moment where predator and prey were oh too real and nightmares were just premonitions of something horrible that would occur.
That her mother had been right- she was nice to far too trusting. And that one day she'd turn around from a hug only to find a knife had been stuck in her back.
Or perhaps, ears lowering, pressing against her spine, it was her father who had been the voice of reason. Watch out for those Weasels. And Lynxes. And Foxes, he'd told her and her siblings time and time again, nervous fingers intertwining in sailors knots they'd never had the skewed nerves to learn. Especially Foxes. They'll eat you whole and gnaw on your bones. Then, after a moment, or just insult you… at least. Her father had grown up in a time where it was perfectly normal to hear alarms blaring from sidewalks to alert them all of predators in the area. Where they were dinner not just sold in supermarkets. Where rabbits and smaller animals could have found themselves in the center of a table for being in the front yard at the wrong time.
But times had changed… somewhat. There was still an air of tension around them all. And no matter how much she pretended to not remember, it was hard to take away the truth that over in towns filled with just carnivores of Nick's ilk it was perfectly normal to pick up a frozen hare in the deli aisle.
Dad, things aren't like that anymore, she'd said.
Her father had just patted her head the same way he had years before when she'd still been a kit and gazed down at his daughter with eyes far older in their sympathies. Just… watch out, alright, Judy?
Alright, Dad.
He had a right to be scared. She was a police officer, not a shop girl. There were reports of violent assaults weekly; animals reverting back out of a desperate need, a sickly pleasure, a forgetful snap. She'd seen the bruises and the shock and the apologies and the recommended therapy that came with events like that.
Like it or not, she was still prey.
And the thing that was standing outside of her window…
"Hey, Judes!" She snapped from her reveries, ears flinching back. He was bouncing now, clicking incisors in the chill. "It's freezing out here! Mind letting me in before my tail falls off!"
"Oh!" Her hand reached back, tapping the side door mutely, before finally feeling the snap of the button, locks falling back with tiny thunks. The door was open before she'd had a chance to tell him that he could, and she nearly flinched at the assault of freezing wind that hit her without mercy. It wasn't snowing yet, but the temperature was well below the thirties. A light windbreaker was all that he'd grabbed, and even that he stripped off as soon as the door had slammed shut, throwing it into the back. He gave his ridiculous patterned tie a tug (today was apparently orange with purple squiggles which clashed horribly against his green shirt), pulling it tighter where it hung sloppily around his neck. "Sorry…" she chuckled awkwardly when he'd puffed out a sigh of relief. "Got… a little lost in thought."
"Yeah," he breathed, running his paw over his ears, rubbing at them with a sour twist in his lip. "I could see that."
"Sorry," she said again, offering him a tiny smile.
The smirk was back, "Hey. A little cold isn't gonna get to me, Carrots. I'm tough as a-"
"Fox."
"I was gonna say Bear, but whatever floats yer boat." Nick gave his ears one last rub before dropping his hand. He looked at her, cocking his head, ears perking. His eyes crinkled and she pressed back. It was a look she'd seen before, but there was something different about it. She'd seen him terrified, furious, smug. This was… concern? "You okay, Judes?" Yes. Concern. That was it. Not entirely new, but not something she was used to.
"Am I-"
"You look like you saw a ghost. Or a Naturalist. What? Is there something there?" He looked out the windshield, almost expecting a perp to be standing in front of them, gun in hand.
"What? Oh! No… No I'm-" she forced her ears back up, trilling an awkward laugh out, waving his question away with a shaking paw. "Nothing. It's just… things getting to me. Stress or something like that." The Fox next to her gave her a look. "I'm fine," she assured him, not sure who she was calming, but doing it all the same. "Promise."
He finally relented, shrugging it off. Giving his tie another tug he grabbed something before reaching towards her, paw nearing her face. She almost ducked away when-
"I wasn't sure if you liked sugar or not," Fortunately he was looking into a bag and hadn't seen her reaction. She blinked at the cup he held out, taking it hesitantly. He grabbed his own and tucked into the cup holder between them while he rooted through the other bag. It was a white, crumpled thing, pinched in the middle to keep it closed. She looked down at the cup and her nose twitched, snatching onto whatever scents she could. Coffee. Sipping it she couldn't help but smile. Three sugars, two creams.
He knew her too well.
"It's not the cheap stuff either," he promised with a smirk. "'was gonna get it from the gas station down the way, but Hole was open-"
"You went to Hole!" The bakery was uptown, closer to the snazzier shops, and was run by a Mole who had gotten up in the world by selling overpriced baked goods. Wallets hated their owners for going there, but sometimes it was more than worth it. Too much money or not, Hole knew how to fry dough.
"Yeah." He finally pulled out what he was looking for, passing her the orange donut. "And you owe me a mint. I was the only one there. They hadn't even started up the fryer. Guy practically shoved me out the door for ordering this early." He took a gulp of his own coffee -black, dark roast, bitter- and smacked his lips. "You'd better eat it all for what that things worth." She snatched it, humming through the first bite. Her stomach growled in appreciation. She hadn't realized she'd even been starving. He took out his own, crumpling the bag and tossing it in back with his coat. The rabbit with the badge swallowed back the indignation, letting the carelessness she'd gotten so used to slip with the ever so wonderful sacrifice of 4 AM breakfast and sweet, much needed caffeine. "Gave me a look when I told him my partner was a rabbit."
"You didn't have to tell him, you know," she said around a bite.
"I ordered carrot, Carrots." he pointed out, taking a bite from the one in his hand, leaving jagged marks and the smell of something that like the dark ends of a roast and crunched like fried bunches of crickets. And it took her a moment in the smell and the sound to realize that she'd gotten morosely used to both of them. "The guy was about to question my ethics."
"Sure he was." Sighing, taking another sip of coffee and letting the steam of it fog up the windshield with a homey memory of her parents kitchen back at the Farm. He leaned forward, fiddling with the radio dials, growling through the static until he finally found one with the least amount of interception. Fuzzy jazz crooned softly into the space, filling the car with a familiar and friendly quiet between the two natural enemies. They both looked forward, watching the empty building in front of them.
"What's been happening so far?"
"Nothing much. Been here for a few hours already."
He snorted. "Bogo assign you the red-eye again? Or did you volunteer? Because I swear, Carrots, if you did we need to have a long talk about taking care of your stupid self. I can't always babysit you, you know?"
"You don't actually have to take care of me, Wilde. I'm a big Bunny."
"You're an idiot with a need to please."
"Oh hush." She took a sip of coffee. "And for your information, I didn't volunteer. I was assigned. Whis is more than I can say for the last few months." Because really all she'd worked were a few parades, parking duty and the ever so thrilling evidence room. But Wilde was still less than impressed.
"Let me guess." He took a bite of his donut, and she listened to the crunch as his canines sunk into cricket wing sprinkles. "He gave everyone else the reasonable hours. And then you were left with the bottom of the pot."
"No!" He gave her a withering look. "I mean… it wasn't the bottom. And at least it's something, right!" She was tempted to change the channel. The trumpets were a little too soft for her liking, and she'd already lost enough sleep over this case alone. Another hour of soothing melodies and she wasn't sure if she'd make it.
"You're too nice, Hopps."
"I'm an optimist, Wilde. You should try it some time, cynic."
"I'm not a cynic," he defended easily. "I'm a realist. There's a difference. Look it up."
"Uh huh. Sure." She was silently grateful when jazz picked up a tempo, drums ticking away a crazy, unmanaged beat. "How'd you find me here, anyway? I didn't send out any info. And Bogo'd have my head if I did."
"Naw. I just asked Clawhauser. He's taking the late hours tonight anyway. I got lucky he was there, too. His shift replacement doesn't like me. Wouldn't have told me anything. Stubborn cow."
"Nick!"
"What!" He laughed when she swatted at him. "She's a Cow! What else do you want me to say!"
"You're impossible."
"No. I'm irresistible." He waggled his brows. There was nothing she could do to keep her frown secure, and after a moment her smile had broken back and she's cuffed him on the arm. He'd victoriously reached over, ruffling the fur on her head in retaliation. "Alright, what's the story with tonight, anyway. A murder? An assault? Ooh! Secret government information!"
"A robbery. Few thousand bucks went missing at a time. The lead you gave me was super valuable by the way. Lead me here. Bogo already caught a few of the accomplices, but so far none of them are talking."
"So you think you've found the big fish, huh?"
"Looks like!"
"Well look at that!" Nick nudged her with his elbow, practiced smug mask flawlessly seeping into his features. "Judy and Nick! Solving major crimes all over again!"
"Yeah," she smiled back. "Together again."
He gave her a long look, ears twitching this way and that in thought. She paid him little mind, leaning forward to turn the music up. A new song had started, and from the applause in the background it must have been live. Trumpets blared, a saxophone yawned and drums hissed into attention. Part of her just wanted to sink into it all and disappear for a while. Together again. They were together again. And she should have been happier. But for some reason the feeling of doubt gnawing away at her gut didn't seem to want to go away, testing her in every which way, repeating warnings spoken by those who didn't know any better.
Looking over for the briefest moment, giving her to-be partner a once over, she couldn't help but know how lucky she was. Not many ended up being so close to the person they worked with, and even less trusted that person with their life. But she did. And now, because of that, he was losing friends, she was questioned endlessly, and the world expected her to be hanging from his jaws or running in fear. And scolding the both of them when they didn't follow through.
She almost expected him to leave. To wake up and realize the mistake he'd made. A Predator partnering with it's Prey. There was nothing more ridiculous or shameful. And he had every right to recognize that and turn on his tail.
But now he was sitting next to her, chiding and goading and acting like nothing was wrong. Like he was so willing to be there. Happy to be there. And promising, without so many words, that he wasn't going to be going anywhere.
Judy wasn't yet sure if that irked or terrified her.
Nick noticed the way her face had dropped, leaning forward to turn down the music. The saxophone fell beneath static once more, the audience drowning in the reception.
"Carrots? You okay?"
"I'm fine."
He didn't buy it. She didn't know why he would. She had always been the worst of liars. With a snort he gave her ear a chastising tug, ignoring her yelp of protest. "What's with you?"
"Nothing's with me." She took the last few bites of her donut, rubbing at her poor, abused ear, glaring vehemently through her lashes. Giving herself anything to do.
"Like I can't tell by now. You're brooding."
"I am not brooding, Nick. I'm on a case. This is my on-a-case look."
"No, it's your someone said something look." There was the sound of slurping when he gave his coffee another draining gulp. "So, what'd they do this time? Ask you how the meter maid business was going."
"No!" Her ears fell. "Sort of."
The smirk followed the half lidded eyes, and Wilde muffled a victorious hah! through more caffeine. "Have I ever been wrong."
"Are you actually asking me that? Because you might not like the answer."
He shrugged, waving it away. "So, what'd they do."
It took a moment to collect herself so that she didn't spring him with a million different reasons why people were the worst and that there was no way around the fury that was slowly building inside her. Part of her wanted to lie and say that it was the meter maid business. Another wanted to strike down her enemies with vicious words. But she had never been one for revenge, and if she even tried to make up a story he'd be on her case faster than… then a Fox hunting a Rabbit. And tonight was already hard enough as it was to pretend as if she wasn't hating that idea more.
So after a few breaths, sure that she could speak in a relatively civil manner, she offered the Fox beside her a mild, withering look. "The newspapers everywhere have us on them." she explained evenly. "I didn't even know that they'd seen us. And I'm not sure if its about the case or about… Who the heck knows what its about. But we're there. That's all." He made a face, snout crinkling in realization. "I mean, we're not even on the first page. I didn't really think anyone besides my dad read the paper anymore. But my entire hall does. Or did, I guess. And now they're all really adamant on giving their opinion."
"And what's their opinion."
"The usual," she brushed crumbs off her lap, trying hard to avoid his gaze. "They just want to warn me."
"Warn you!" He snorted. "About what! The dangers of the job? Don't think a rabbit can jump high enough to get away?" He cackled, his laughter filled with aging coffee and too little sleep. "Or what! Does it have to do with me? What do they think I'm going to do? Eat you?" Another laugh. He looked at her jovially, waiting for her to join in. It was when she didn't that his features began to slowly droop. Judy just stayed silent, fiddling with her shirt. It didn't take long for Nick to get the message. "Oh…" Ears dropping, sitting back against the seat. "Oh."
She was back up in a moment, watching how he mirrored her just moments before, looking at anything but the violet eyes that now were doing anything just to catch his attention. "It's not like I listen to them, though!"
"It's fine."
"No it's not, Nick! They're just… ugh!" Her hands were in the air, almost scratching the top of the roof. "I mean, I can't talk! I was like them a while ago! But god do they have to be so… persistent about this! And don't you dare say it's okay!" She cut him off, and his maw snapped shut with a pop. "Them being afraid for me is affecting you. And it shouldn't. We're partners, not a hazard zone."
"They seem to think so."
"Yeah, well they'll think anything as long as the two of us are still together." He made another sulking noise. Judy snorted. "Don't act like an innocent in this, Wilde. You had your thoughts. And I'm sure that if some of your friends found out who you were partnering with they'd be less than happy."
His arms folded across his chest, careful of the coffee still in his hand. She looked out the windshield, equally glad and peeved at the silence between them. Watching for something to move, waiting for everything between Predator and Prey to resolve itself. She was about to speak up, tell Nick to forget she'd said anything, when he spoke up. "Found out."
"What?"
He shifted to face her, and for once it was unsettling to see that the trademark smirk held a strange and sad sort of twist. "I told them, Carrots. Last week. Went out for beers with some of the guys, you know? And they asked what I was doing. So I told them."
"You told them!" If she hadn't been so completely dead set on not dropping her breakfast, both her treasured donut and coffee would have gone spilling to the floor of the cruiser. "What! Why! You never told me!"
"Of course I didn't tell you! If I had you'd act- well, you're acting like it now, so there you go! And what do you mean why? Why wouldn't I!"
Because I didn't think you would! She wanted to say back. Because I know that that could ruin your reputation. Because I know how much your image means to you and I didn't think for a second that you'd chance giving it up for someone like me. But instead, "Because… because I don't want you to lose friends over this." It was sincere enough, even if it wasn't what she wanted to blurt out. And he knew it, his smile going sadder.
"A few stuck around. And that's good enough, right?"
"Oh god… Nick. I'm-"
"Hey!" He cuffed her on the arm. "No harm no foul, right? If they couldn't take me like this, then who needs'm!"
It wasn't entirely true. Nick hadn't had many friends to begin with. Con artists weren't known for their trustworthy behavior, and none of his acquaintances were given gold stars for comradery. But there were a few (a very select few) who he was more than happy to go out for a beer with. So a few weeks ago, sitting in the dingy bar near his house, surrounded by a few old business partners, he had told them the news without thinking anything of it.
A Ferret by the name of Dave Putois had been the first to ask.
"So Slick Nick's becoming a cop!" He'd elbowed the Fox with a pointed arm that dug in far deeper than intended. "Finally decided to join the Pigs, eh!"
"In a sense, yeah." The beer in the backroom bar was awful, and his snout recoiled and folded at the metallic, sour taste. "Except there aren't many Pigs. Mostly Rhino's and Elephants."
A Mongoose on the other end of the table snorted. "So what? You gonna be paired with one'a them leatherheads? What if they accidentally step on ya! Must be tough always being underfoot!"
"Like he wasn't always underfoot here too," a Hyena chortled, and the rest of the table fell into cackling laughter.
Nick didn't bother waiting for it to die down, forcing down another swallow of the tepid stuff in front of him. "No. My partner's smaller than me. No worries there."
"What? You got yerself half a Rhino or somethin'!"
There wasn't even a chance for another round of laughter when Nick calmly and careless replied. "Naw. Judy's a Rabbit."
And that had been it.
The sounds of the bar around them, fighting, crying, screaming, singing, heels clicking on counters, an old jukebox in the corner, all expanded as his table became silent. Sets of eyes, all glowing green in the dim light, blinked owlishly at the Fox, who took another gulp of awful beer and stared back at them from under his lashes.
"... Wait… what…?" The Hyena leaned on his elbows. His eyes gleamed and sparked in the headlights that passed outside the bar's front door. "You're joking."
"Naw. Never been much of a jokester."
The Mongoose clapped his jaw closed from where it had been hanging enough to exclaim, "You're a Fox!"
"We're sly." Wilde counteracted without so much as a beat. "Not liars. Just really, really good at getting our way."
"But you're a Fox!"
"You ever thought about becoming a philosopher. You're just so… introspective."
"Come on, Wilde!" Apparently Dave Putois had reached a steady enough mind before the others, his smile as cool and slick as the animal's before him. "You're not thinking straight. What? Did you have a bad hustle? You know if you ask we can all help you get on your feet?"
"You shouldn't be telling me that." Nick sang the words out through a smile that reached his eyes. "You of all people should know that talking to cops won't do you any good."
"Aw come on, Nick! Don't be like that! You wouldn't rat me out. After all we've been through!" He took a gulp of his own beer, and from the way he slurped it down it looked as if he'd grown far too accustomed to the cheap stuff to even notice the flavor. "You not make enough money lately? You an' Finnick break up the team?"
"Finnick's fine. He's got his own thing right now."
"Well maybe you should call him! Get this new Partner… what's his name? Get him off your back!"
"First of all, Finnick's making more dough right now with his own gig. He's not gonna wanna come back to me. And as for my Partner," he decided finally that he wasn't going to chance anymore of the fermented filth in the glass, pushing it away. "she's a girl. And she's staying where she's at. But thanks for the concern."
Putois whistled. "Ooh! Look at you! Who knew this is what would get you down! A Rabbit!" The Weasel picked peanut shells out of his sharpened incisors. "You gotta be kiddin' me! That's who they paired ya with?" He'd laughed, his thin body stretching and bending along with the motion. "Do they know what's gonna happen to her if they do that?"
"What are you talking about this time, Dave?" Nick tapped his claws against his glass, condensation breaking and slithering down in hazy droplets.
"Aw don't act like you don't know!"
"Enlighten me."
"She's a Rabbit! One'a our Prey! What! Did they just have a dinner special at the Police station and decided to hand you the leftovers!"
If he had been getting angry, Wilde was doing a fantastic job at not showing it. Taking another gulp from the neck of the bottle he put it down, searching through his pockets for spare change. "Yeah, about that. They didn't choose her for me. I chose her. Because I worked with her. She's gonna be my partner."
"What!"
"You chose to work with a Rabbit!"
"Mmhmm." The other two were done with the conversation it would seem, sitting back defeated, their faces shifting with their conflicting emotions, from fear to distress to anger to fury, too much and too fast. "She was worried it would ruin my reputation. But I told her that it'd be fine. We're gonna sign the papers in a month after my training and commencement."
"Wilde, come on!"
"How much was this again? I only got one beer, and I'm not picking up the tab."
"Wilde what are going doing!"
"That bartender was an ass, too. He's not getting a tip."
Claws slamming on the thin, stained table caught his attention, and his ears perked up, eyes casting a bored stare back at the heaving, frantic animal. "You're givin' a bad name to Predators everywhere!" Dave snarled, teeth flashing in a snarl. "Why are you doing this! Why Prey! Why your Prey!"
"Because," Nick had told them smoothly, offering a thin leer. "She's my friend." He slapped a fiver onto the table, motioning for the bartender to let him see. When he got a nod he slipped off the chair, adjusting his tie. "And if any of you so much as look at her the wrong way, I'll taze you and drag your sorry asses into a cell. I have enough to book you now anyway. But hey," he shrugged, turning on his heel. "That's what you get for doing bad business with a cop."
He'd hailed a cab before they'd had a chance to follow him out. But that night, after locking his deadbolt, and double checking every chain, he'd gotten more than a few calls and texts that were all warnings for him and his newly found partner. He'd called McHorn and Clawhouser that night, emailed them transcripts, phone numbers and the like with promises that his and Judy's safety would be a priority.
He hadn't told Judy. And he didn't think he ever would. But for now he was happy enough to explain that what friends he'd had were now not exactly in contact. From the look on her face she was obviously distraught, not wanting to be the reason that he ended up losing connection with people that she, in her purest of minds, thought were the most important things in the world. Apparently she hadn't yet grasped the concept that he'd never had any real friends to lose…
… Except, of course, until her.
"Judes, it's okay, really!" She still looked like she wanted to pitch in something. Always willing to do anything for people she cared about, the poor thing was about ready to launch into a new project of getting all of his friends back. He just shook his head when her mouth opened, and she snapped it promptly shut. "They were jerks, alright? Don't get involved."
"But-"
"Nope! Don't wanna hear it!" He moved as if it to pull her ear again, but she ducked out of the way before he could, swatting at his hands with a growl. "You're stuck with me, Judy Hopps. Me and my midnight escapades to crash your stakeouts! Except next time there's a stakeout you're bringing the coffee."
"I thought Foxes were supposed to be charming." she added dryly, defending her poor ears by plastering them back.
"We're sly, Carrots! And last time I checked I was kind enough to supply your little snooze fest here with something other than silence." He crossed his arms in faux offense. She just rolled her eyes.
"Fine. I owe you."
"Thank you."
He leaned forward to turn the music back up, settling himself back into the seat. At one point he took out his phone, the sound of tapping its own percussion. She watched out the window. There was still no movement. A street light began to flicker and from the sidewalk an old Tiger strolled down the way with his cane scraping the cracks of the broken sidewalk. The sky was overcast, but a break in the clouds let a few strings of moonlight arch through, and the fell through the dirty and dusty glass hitting both her and the Mammal beside her, whose eyes, for the barest of moment that the clouds allowed, shone an eerie and disturbing green.
A bottle shattered off to the side and her ear shot up, twisting this way and that. But it must have fallen out of a trash bin because besides the music and the tapping of Nick's phone there was no other noise. The car fell back into easy silence and so she did her best to relax, envying Wilde, who so effortlessly could let everything go. Letting her large ears focus on other noises instead to try and calm her beating heart, doing her best to overcome the pressure of a case that she couldn't afford to lose and the exhaustion of too much time without sleep. The sound of the wind coasting along the car, the distant rumblings of a train far off, Nick's steady breathing.
Nick…
Her gut twisted at the thought of him. Judy had come into a city with no contacts or connections. What she'd had to let go was so near to nothing that there wasn't nearly enough to feel sorry for. Her neighbors were awful, her new landlord gave her the occasional pitiful look, people on the street were apparently more than happy to offer their opinions and there were days where she herself doubted everything for reasons that she couldn't be sure… History, maybe. Past ideas. Fear that stuck more than roots in the ground. Fear that she still dealt with every day…
But Nick had lived in the city since he'd been a kid. And she didn't want her presence, a new and intruding one, to mess up life as he knew it. Her fear, her doubts, her Species, shouldn't be the thing that lost everything for him.
She didn't realize that she'd been twisting her shirt in her hands until she let go of the thing between cramped fingers. Giving him another look she quickly ducked her head away. The words were out before she'd had time to think about them. "You didn't actually have to tell them, you know," she offered shyly, fiddling with her badge. "I… I get it. If you didn't want to tell them. Don't feel obligated or anything. From now on, I mean." Because you're a Fox, she didn't say, and I'm a rabbit. And we go as well together as carrot and meat donuts in a warm car on a freezing morning.
Nick -Sly Fox, Always Knows What to Say, friend above all friends, Nick- looked up from his phone, alarmed at first and then, just as always, slinking into his usual smugness that she'd used to think held nothing but animosity. He slung his arm over the back of her chair, giving her the low lidded look. The one that now made her feel safe and at home and wonderful. The one that had taken time to translate through the odd language that only he had seemed to speak until she'd come along and had to learn it for herself. The one that she had picked up fairly quickly. The one that said a million different things, all of them punctuated with friend. "C'mon, Judes," he told her, rolling his eyes skyward. "You really think I'm not gonna tell them that I'm partnered with the best Bunny on the force."
"I'm the only-"
"You're the best. Bunny or not." He gave another shrug. "They can think what they want. I'll just say what I want and ignore'm all."
It was times like these that Judy was driven to tell him that she loved him. That she'd never had a friend as close as him and if anything happened to him, to them, she wouldn't know what to do. That she was lucky to have him by her side and that she couldn't see a future without her phone blowing up with texts and calls or the hand at her side or the daily hugs or the smirks or the quips or the unlikely pair they'd become.
But she kept her mouth shut.
Because Bunny's and Foxes weren't supposed to be best friends… and she wasn't supposed to say that… and she was so scared, like with everyone else, like she had once before not so very long ago, that she'd ruin everything and lose what she had. Because what she had was perfect, and for the first time in a long time she wasn't ready to let any of it go.
So she kept her mouth shut.
"You're an idiot," she said instead.
He smiled back, and she really hoped he'd gotten it all.
Tell him, a voice shouted. The voice that tended to come out whenever she had coffee and donuts brought to her by a potential best friend who she'd had yet to admit that to. An event that was seemingly occurring more and more. Tell him how you feel, you Dumb Bunny. Tell him how much he means to you!
Movement in the distance saved her from having to listen much longer. Her ears perked, shifting, and Nick's eyes narrowed through the darkness that she found thicker than mud but he cut through without much trouble. The Badger they were looking for had closed the factory door closed with a bit more force than he'd needed to, sneaking across the grounds towards a beat up white truck hidden behind two dumpsters. The ignition started up with a coughing gasp. "Looks like our lead did us good."
"What do you mean our lead," she scoffed. "I was the one doing the work!"
"After I gave you my contacts."
"Oh yes. Your shifty, past contacts that, might I add, Bogo still doesn't know about."
"Do you want to talk or do you want to catch that guy?"
"Sly Fox!"
"Dumb Bunny!"
"You're gonna eat those words."
"Then prove it!"
She let him turn on the siren, revving up the engine, and the two of them were off after the van before he'd had much of a chance. Nick lowered the windows, whooping into the cool night air, leaning his head out into the thick, cool breeze. With the wind in her ears, the smell of coffee permeating the space, and her partner at her side, there wasn't much that could stop her from smiling, and soon enough she was howling along with him.
One day she'd tell him. And even if that wasn't the day, it still made for a pretty damn good one in her book.
She looked over at him one last time.
One day, she promised herself before she floored it.
She hasn't told him that she loves him yet! BUT SHE WILL! AND I CANNOT WAIT TO WRITE THAT! BUT UNTIL THEN...
There are a few things that I want to write before the movie comes out. Some will come after, but for the most part this is the tentative plan.
1) Meet the parents (both Nick meets Judy's and Judy meets Nick's) (This one will contain some spoilers!)
2) Valentines Day (hopefully that'll be out by Valentines Day!)
3) Trust
4) Nick and Judy in training together (so much research about animals was done for this one!)
But you know what- I DON'T HAVE A FRIGGEN CLUE!
SO TELL ME SOME IDEAS PEOPLE! I might write them! Prompts are necessary and I can't always stick to a plan! So if you have something you want to see that hasn't already been said (or maybe already has been!) give me what you've got! Whatever they are, for now make sure that they take place before Wilde is given his badge! That's not going to happen until the movie comes out!
And yes, I promise, the mauled one is coming up. One or the other is going to be severely injured. It's going to be fast paced, terrifying, spine tingling and heart breaking. It's already 1/4 written. AND I CANNOT WAIT TO SHARE IT WITH YOU! Because I know so far that one is a winner.
So that's what I got! Tell me what you want to see!