Whoa! This story, in terms of views and readers and favorites and what now, has the most growth of anything I've written! I am so flattered by that! I find it amazing, even! Hopefully, this blows some of my other stories out of the water, especially since I think some of my past work kind of stinks. Anyway, I saw Zootopia again today and I loved it just as much as the first time! On top of that, it's freshened up my inspiration!
Anyway, thank you all so, so, so much for reading! This story would not be where it is without your support! I hope you continue to do so. I will do my best. Thank you all! Without further ado, enjoy!
Chapter 4: Making Plans
The rabbit-fox pair clocked in at the ZPD with Officer Benjamin Clawhauser, who looked especially happy today. The round cheetah was practically bouncing on the balls of his hind paws. Judy finally forced herself to ask, "What's so funny, Clawhauser?"
"Oh, just…this!" Benjamin told her excitedly and stuck a slip of paper in her face. Judy took a step back and saw that he had gotten two tickets to a Gazelle concert. "Cool, right?"
"Very!" Judy agreed with the operator. "Everyone on the force knows you're a huge Gazelle fan."
"Get this! So is Chief Bogo!" Benjamin gossiped. "He and I have the same app where you can paste a picture of your own face onto one of her dancers and dance with her! I think I'll ask him if he wants to go to the concert with me as a work buddy!"
Nick, who was intrigued by thus, nudged Judy and muttered, "Pass me your pen and notepad. I've got to write this down."
"Out of material already?" Judy teased. She giggled at herself a bit and stopped when Nick discretely wrapped an arm around her.
"O… M… Goodness…! You guys really are a thing!" Benjamin squealed in delight. "And here most cops think you two just work really well together!"
"We do…in more than one sense," Nick responded, confirming some accuracy to Clawhauser's statement.
"We really just decided it this morning after discussing some philosophies and Nick's poem," Judy explained to the cheetah.
"What kind of philosophies?" Benjamin asked.
"Well, we concluded that…" Nick began.
"Hope is the driving force of the world," Judy finished.
"You guys just started dating this morning and you're already finishing each other's sentences?" Benjamin continued his barrage of questions, shocked at the seemingly quick development.
"I like to think of it was we've sort of dated for a while and didn't realize it until today," Nick replied, yawning at the end.
"Poor foxy. He didn't get much sleep last night," Judy justified her partner's yawn. "He says it was because of my neighbors."
"It was because of your neighbors," Nick grumbled. "They're terrible. Keep in mind this is coming from an ex-popsicle hustler."
"You were a popsicle hustler?" Benjamin was once again shocked.
"I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of, Clawhauser. Luckily, meeting this fluffy bundle of love isn't one of those things," Nick proudly told the cheetah, holding Judy closer to him.
"We're going to Bunnyburrow so he can meet my parents. We just need to ask the chief when would be a good time to take a few days off," Judy divulged, feeling a spiraling combination of angst and excitement in her stomach.
"I've been dying to meet the growers of those lovely blueberries," Nick stated genuinely. "I love blueberries and those blueberries saved our lives. If not for them, we wouldn't have had anything to swap out Bellwether's pellets with. I'd most likely be locked up in the asylum and Carrots would be…"
Noticing that Nick didn't seem comfortable with the thought of killing her with his own claws and teeth while in a feral state, Judy re-railed the conversation quite cleverly. She made Benjamin an offer: "Clawhauser, you've got to try these blueberries. I think I have some on me if you want some."
"Ooh! Yes, please!" Benjamin excitedly accepted the offer.
Judy took out a small zip-lock baggy and unsealed it. She instructed, "Now cup your paws." When Benjamin did as instructed, Judy gently poured a small portion of the blueberries into his paws.
"Thanks, Hopps! You're awesome!" Benjamin thanked the bunny, sincerely thankful.
When the cheetah made his way over to his desk, Nick chuckled to himself. He said to the rabbit, "I like how excited he gets about everything. He's probably the second-most personable cop I've met."
Not feeling the need to ask who the first was, Judy instead asked, "So…were you planning to spend the night at my place? Because Finnick showed up awfully quickly."
"No, not initially. Finnick and I are just pretty tight. You've probably got friends like that," Nick answered.
"Well…I don't have any friends that are as close to me as you," Judy admitted. "I was always an outlier of sorts. No one ever thought I could defy the odds I went up against, so I never really got to relate to anyone before you came along."
"I guess…it's easy to feel alone when you feel like the only one who understands you is you," Nick theorized. Judy's distant gaze confirmed his statement. He could tell she was trying hard to think of someone she was close to before him and coming up with nothing. Then, her sweet lips parted.
"Bellwether…" Judy mumbled.
"Bellwether?" Nick echoed.
"Ex-Mayor Bellwether, back when she was the assistant mayor, had gone out of her way to reach out to me and let me know she was supporting me. I guess she at least tried to get close to me. I was so enamored with everything that was going on around me that I never really tried to reach out to her until I needed help," Judy muttered, feeling guilty. "If I had only given her some of the attention she needed, that whole incident could have been prevented!"
"…One, I think she was too far gone. She was nice, but she was too deep in her plot to just be talked out of it. Two," Nick tried to reason with Judy, gripping her shoulders, "if that stuff hadn't happened, you and I probably wouldn't have come this far. If anything, I'm pretty grateful that she was a psycho bent on revenge on society. I have you, and you have me and an excellent point made. If anything should divide the mammals of the world, it should be our character, not our race. We've evolved enough to look past that and celebrate the differences that once dominated our way of life."
"…You should get less sleep more often," Judy suggested, enraptured by Nick's deep thinking.
"It's not because I'm dog tired, sweetheart," Nick sighed. "We're stopping at Snarlbucks later, right?"
"Sure, Nick," Judy promised him. They held paws as they made their way upstairs to Chief Bogo's office. When they finally stood before his towering door, Judy knocked on it with her free paw. "Chief Bogo?"
They heard the faint sound of Gazelle's music from within the office and listened closely. Nick whispered, "Clawhauser was right!"
"Just a minute!" Bogo called out.
"Wow, you're a great dancer, Chief Bogo," an automated Gazelle voice complimented the chief of the Zootopia Police Department.
A short moment later, the fox and the rabbit heard the sound of Bogo's phone locking. Then, the cape buffalo yanked open the door and demanded in a low voice, "Tell me how much of that you heard."
"Enough to know that you have pretty good taste in music," Nick told him with a big, sly grin. "Of course, you don't think it matches the big, strong image you like to keep up, do you?"
"You want something, don't you?" Bogo guessed.
"Just a request for a day or two off," Nick told the buffalo. "We're reasonable."
"Nick…" Judy nervously groaned in protest.
"To do what?" Bogo asked.
"I want Nick to meet my parents," Judy explained. "You see, we…believe that our partnership and our chemistry is beyond that of a crime-fighting team."
"I agree."
"Well-you do?"
"I do. While I'm normally obligated to separate you two on the force to keep work and personal relationships apart, you two are too good a team to break up," Bogo divulged his thoughts.
"Sir, I…thank you, sir!" Judy thanked the buffalo officer, bowing deeply. "Thank you for keeping us together!"
"You two are better together. It's common sense," Bogo responded nonchalantly. "I'm sincerely happy for you. Take the weekend off."
"Thank you, sir! Thank you, sir! Thank you, sir!" Judy thanked the buffalo profusely.
"You know, sir, I hear Clawhauser has two tickets to see Gazelle in concert and no one to give the other ticket to," Nick informed Chief Bogo.
"Are you hustling me?" Bogo asked the fox.
"Just repaying the favor, Chief," Nick denied there being any act of hustling on his part. He beamed at Judy with his emerald eyes before kissing her between the ears. "I think I'm going to like your parents, Carrots."
"I hope so. And I think I'll like your mother. You owe me a meeting with her," Judy reminded the male fox.
"I know, I know," Nick acknowledged her point as he gazed into her beautiful, vivid, purple eyes. "I'll tell you this much so you have something to look forward to; her name is Kristy Wilde."