Thomson's Apartments, Apartment 15

3:15 PM

For more than a dozen minutes, Milo was sitting still. He was still at a loss for ideas for what he was supposed to do in order to take care of the situation that unfolded at his former home. There was nothing he could do right off the bat, and time was running low. If his parents were in as bad a situation as they said they were with their work, he needed to think of something in as little time as possible. In the meantime, he would tend to today's work – he turned his computer on, in order to transfer his recordings to his company's cloud storage on Zoogle Drive.

Before he could refocus his attention, a concerned Steve opened the studio door, peeping inside to see if there was anything wrong with his friend, "So, how did you do?"

"I did just fine…" Milo didn't face the wildebeest, lest he'd see that he was troubled from the past conversation. Feeling a slight rumble in his stomach, he realized that he spent his whole work day having had nothing but breakfast. Promptly, he turned around, "Is there anything to eat?"

"Oh, yeah," Steve nodded his head, raising a comic book that was in his right hand, "Pizza dude should be here in twenty minutes."

How typical…

"Alright. I guess I can wait that long," Milo replied, nodding in understanding. "I just need to make backup copies of these recordings. I'll talk to you when I'm done."

"Got it…" Steve muttered lazily, then returned to the living room to continue reading.

Without further ado, Milo hopped off his chair, and reached for his recorder. Setting it down, he connected it to his computer via USB. On the one hand, he was copying the files to his computer's integrated hard drive. On the other hand, he was uploading the files on the Stagart Studios Zoogle Drive, in order for the ambient sounds to be used later during post-production. In the meantime, he removed the track top he was wearing, and placed it back inside his wardrobe. Had he not have been riled up by the recent argument with his parents, he would have done it sooner.

After about 18 minutes, both of the aforementioned tasks were done successfully. Milo could finally afford some time to rest, and talking to Steve was the best way to make use of that time. As he opened the door, he could see that his wildebeest roommate was sitting on the couch. By the looks and sound of it, he clearly wasn't watching television, which made the rabbit's nose twitch curiously. He walked over to the back of the couch, and performed a high leap to the top, sitting beside Steve's head. It turned out that he was reading a tie-in comic to the iconic Jurassic Park. Being one of the most successful pieces of dinosaur-related media in popular culture, it still influenced modern depictions of extinct animals 25 years later, leaving aside the fact that they were generally outdated in terms of accuracy.

"Jurassic Park? Again?" Milo puzzled, failing to see how Steve could read the same thing more than ten times over and not grow tired.

"Never gets old…" Steve smiled sheepishly, obviously mesmerized by the art style. Milo couldn't say the same about the comic's portrayal of a particular theropod dinosaur that was shown on the current pages.

"Eek," the rabbit pointed to the aforementioned dinosaur. Even though he was no paleontologist, he knew as much as Steve taught him, "Can't say the same about Dilopofos…" he stuttered, before giving up on the awkward name altogether, "-whatever spitting venom…"

"Can't blame 'em for using artistic license, bro," Steve suggested a counter-argument that had nothing to do with science, but considerably more so with style. "Good thing that mammalkind is a long shot away from being able to recreate these guys. But at the same time, it'd be really cool to see a living, breathing dinosaur."

Listening to more of his friend's almost calf-like fantasies, Milo couldn't help but chuckle. However, as his memory started passively jogging itself, it brought back what happened earlier that day. He neglected to tell his parents, because that would not have made their already awful conversation any better. He promised himself that he wouldn't have told anyone until he had a precise idea of what he should say. However, the compulsion of his conscience was stronger than anything his overthinking mind could throw at him, "Steve, I happened upon something really suspicious today."

Quizzically mumbling at first, Steve was more than willing to hear his friend out, "Do tell."

"I think I managed to record a-" No sooner had Milo begun to explain, than the doorbell had rung.

"Pizza's here!" The portly wildebeest's reflexes were suddenly tantamount to those of an athlete, as he jolted vigorously from the couch and tramped towards the door with glee. However, when he lifted the lid of the peephole, he saw no one. Not even the top of the pizza delivery mammal's cap. Ergo, he presumed that it was someone more fit for Milo's size, "Milo, it's for you."

With a twitch of both his ears and his nose, Milo hopped off of the couch, finding it odd at best that someone so small was delivering a large-sized pizza, which he knew was Steve's preferred size. However, when he peeped through his own door's hole, he could feel a surge of numbness course everywhere from the tips of his ears to the ends of his toes. They were police officers. Not just any police officers, for that matter. They were the same two that he ran into earlier today, plus another strange cop he hadn't seen at their side before. He hastily lowered the lid of the peephole and put on the chain door guard. Only then would he unlock the door and open up.

"Oh, it's you again," Milo tried his best to look at ease, spying at the officers standing in the poorly lit corridor.

"You know these guys?" Steve's sudden intrusion into the exchange didn't help at all. If anything, it made Milo feel uncomfortable.

"Shush!" The rabbit whispered, prompting the wildebeest to figuratively zip it.

"Mr. Rabberts," Judy was very quick to divert the other rabbit's attention to the matter at hand. She took out a notebook, along with a pen shaped like a carrot, "We have some questions about the robbery of a pet store."

"Robbery?" She was definitely on Milo's trail. The buck rabbit, unsure of his next step, strived to look as clueless as possible, "Where?"

"37 Dollowbush Street, in south Savanna Central," Nick took the word on, in order to elaborate why he was being questioned. "Your motorcycle was parked in front of Komodo's Pets, when two mammals, namely an armadillo and a hyena, took two boxes from said store and loaded them into a white van before driving off. Do you happen to be aware of any of this?"

Milo's nose twitched in shock – all he heard were the voices. He was afraid that they saw him as a potential suspect – if there was anything that he knew, it was that they were hard to dissuade when they made an assumption they wanted to have verified. Yet again, he felt relatively safe, because there was nothing he had to lie about, "I didn't see what they did. I was in the park across the street, recording ambient sound. The only reason my ride was there was because there were no free spaces available closer. However, I managed to record the whole thing. When they started roughing up the owner, I hid from view, because I didn't want to get involved, or have them see me. Maybe the recordings can be of help to you?"

For all the initial suspicion, Judy was convinced was Milo was telling the truth. He seemed to be very meek, if insecure in his explanation, and didn't give away signs that he was trying to protect the perpetrators. With a positive rapport established, Judy wanted to press on with interrogating their witness, "Okay. So, you just open the door, let us hear the evidence, and we'll be on our way. Is that alright?"

Milo looked down for a split second, hesitantly puzzling. Eventually, he saw the greater good in it, "Alright. Give me a second." Seeing as the two foxes that accompanied Judy were too tall to fit through Milo's door, the rabbit closed and locked the smaller door, "Steve, why don't you open the whole door? There are two foxes, and they're on the tall side."

With short work, the wildebeest unlocked and opened the door graciously. Unlike Milo, he looked upon the officers for the first time, seeing a doe rabbit, and two foxes – one red and one Arctic.

"Wassup?" Steve greeted them with a sheepish grin.

"This is Steve, my roommate," Milo noted, moving to the door of his studio, and observing the cops. They seemed to be examining the living area of the apartment out of curiosity, still not given any indications where they could listen to the evidence. Judy, being the only one that was his kind, caught Milo's attention. Compared to his relatively brawny physique, she was rather slim and lithe, with the exception of her wide hips. Purple eyes broke the dullness of her grey coat, and both of her ears were tipped with black patches of fur. Did she look pretty? Most certainly.

However, he stopped himself from musing about it any more, and reset himself back to his manners, and the matter at hand. He opened his bedroom studio and motioned, "Right this way, Officer…?"

"Judy Hopps," the doe smiled affably at Milo, who only sported a one-second smile that was clearly faked, in response. Not before long, the red fox also introduced himself. "Nick Wilde…" sporting the same suave grin that never seemed to go away, even when he was asleep. Last, but not least, the Arctic fox chimed in joyfully, "And Jimmy Frost!" Milo was taken aback not only by the volume of his introduction, but also by the exuberant optimism he displayed saying so. His head was raised high, with a starry-eyed grin. This was something that did not resonate with Milo in the slightest. The last time the buck was optimistic about anything, he ended up getting hurt. Therefore, he expected a lot of this to happen to the fox cop in the long run. One by one, the officers walked inside the office.

In due time, the officers made themselves at home in Milo's studio. It was a far cry from the outside temperature, thanks to the ventilation installed. Milo seated himself at his computer, and launched his go-to digital audio workstation, Pro Drools, in order to play back the audio of the robbery; since it was a multitrack file, it was more convenient to open it in a software that could process that much information. Judy leaned on the desktop, to Milo's right. A well-defined, although not jutting chin, a finely shaped nose and bright blue eyes – both literally and figuratively – is what she saw of his face. She would've said he was downright sweet if it wasn't for a stance that seemed overall embittered and nervous. He was hunching over, his furrow-browed gaze fixed at the screen.

"Okay. This is gonna take some time, because I have to find the right file." Here, Milo began to scroll through his file database. Wheeling through the files, he tried to find the group that was recorded during the time of the robbery. Some planning in advance would save him the trouble – he regularly set his recorder up to name files in a manner that gave away the time during which a recording was made. His archive was cluttered, however, and the search wasn't going to be over any time soon, "It's gotta be around here, somewhere…"

In the meantime, Nick and Jimmy were scanning the back of Milo's studio for anything he would find to be suspicious. All that they could notice was an array of equipment they were utterly unfamiliar with. Bits, baubles, and almost nothing they could identify, other than a few microphones, and the infamous 'bike mic' that Nick remembered effortlessly. Nothing of interest, and nothing even remotely suspicious.

However, the interest part changed, as far as Nick was concerned. He noticed a turntable phonograph resting comfortably on the right-hand side of the shelf. Taking a careful look, the sly fox saw that it had both 33 and 45 RPM operation, which was something he remembered from his childhood. What interested him now was where the records were.

Fortunately, they were situated close to the phonograph. The first stack was the entire discography of the late King of Pop, Michael Jackal. His particular favorites were Off The Wool, Thriller and Bad, and their presence here made him grin with pleasure. He folded his ears back, and dug onwards, finding various other 1980s artists – Sade, Kenny Doggins, Michael McBunald, Aretha Franklion and countless others.

"There we go," Milo sighed in relief, having finally managed to discover the right file, "Sorry it took so long to find it, if you're in a hurry." That said, the buck rubbed the back of his head shyly.

"Oh, it's okay." Judy brushed it aside.

"No way!" Nick's sudden gasp of shock took everyone aback.

"What? What is it?" Jimmy was the first to address the fox after this sudden alarm.

"He's got Kalimba De Luna!" It turned out that Nick was fumbling again. He pulled out one of the singles among Milo's collection of vinyl. It was one of the better known songs of Tony Espossumito, a rather obscure artist from the Rainforest District. It turned out to be one of Nick's favorite songs of the '80s. "I haven't heard it in ages…"

Judy sighed with exasperation, while Milo winced neurotically: if there was anything that grated him, it was someone touching his collection without asking. He possessively implored, "Put that back, please. It's original."

Nick immediately complied, albeit with a frowning sigh of boredom. Seeing that this rabbit wasn't the most relaxed of mammals, he decided to prod him with something to stir up his nerves, "Who even buys vinyl these days?"

Milo found this dry quip to be a challenge of his knowledge on the matter, so he immediately engaged, "Beg your pardon, Officer Wilde, but in recent years, vinyl has sold better than CDs."

Raising his eyebrow in confusion as to why such trivial information would be relevant, Nick was only slightly fazed that the compact disc was that out of fashion. He merely shrugged it off with a half-lidded deadpan, "Why am I not surprised?"

"Well, can we hear the evidence?" Judy quickly interjected, feeling that everyone's focus was drifting away.

"Yeah, sure…" Milo complied, nervously wiping his eyebrow with his index finger. He soon hit the playback button, and the recording started to play. There was some stifled indoor commotion that could not be understood, not even to Milo. Thankfully, it was evident that the shop owner was being violently prompted into cooperation for the theft to be performed successfully. After a few dozen seconds worth of ruckus, some voices could finally be understood.

"Careful with those!"

"I am being careful! Keep your voice down, dammit!"

"Well, it's about time you guys showed up!"

"Vicky, get in the van! We gotta get these to Franky Melone!"

After this commotion, all that was heard was the sound of the engine starting. All the while, Judy was taking notes of all the spoken words. While she was successful for the first few lines, she lost track at the mention of an actual name, "Can you just roll that last bit back again?"

Milo agreed, returning the playback to the spoken lines. This time, Judy listened more attentively.

"-van! We gotta get these to Franky Melone!"

An utterly unfamiliar name, by every standard. As Judy wrote down the last letter of it, she sighed and puzzled. "Franky Melone?"

Suddenly, Jimmy hummed thoughtfully, "I think he's that blind old badger I've been seeing in Tundratown. One of the local…" at this point, the Arctic fox stuttered awkwardly, resorting to a nervous chuckle, "Procurers. I don't know what he could have to do with any of this, tho."

"Right…" Nick jumped in, rubbing his chin, thinking of a possible plan of action. It didn't last very long – he snapped his fingers in revelation, directing a witty smirk at Judy, "But Carrots and I have someone underground who might."

Almost instantly, Nick would hear a high-frequency beep, and a familiar voice chiming in from elsewhere, "Officer Wolford to Officer Wilde. Do you copy? Over." The fox instantly reached for his radio, "Officer Wilde here. Over."

"We caught the mooks that robbed the pet store. Over," Wolford notified.

"We're on the trail of a potential lead for those guys. I'll hook you up with Special Agent Pardrick, for further questioning of those guys – don't mook it up!" Rolling her eyes, Judy followed her urge and nudged the fox in the ribs with her elbow. Not eliciting any vocal reaction, the fox chuckled, "Over," Nick asserted.

"Roger that, Wilde. Over and out."

After the whole ordeal was done, Milo couldn't help feeling relieved that it went smoothly, and that he was finally going to be left alone. Overall, he found all of the police officers to be much too cheerful for their line of work. "Well, it wasn't much, but I hope it helped…" he said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head with his hand, all the while hesitating to make eye contact with her.

"Oh, it helped enough," Judy smiled cordially, while both Nick and Jimmy waited for her outside. Looking back at the apparently shy and reclusive buck rabbit, she took a deep breath and said, "Thank you for your time, Mr. Rabberts," before turning her back and leaving for the door.

"Have a nice day…" Milo mumbled dryly, hiding how foolish he found her disposition to be, in spite of her physical attractiveness. For a few seconds, his gaze was fixed at her rump. Maybe it was that skin-tight suit rounding it up almost perfectly that made him look more than he should have. However, he was quick to snap himself out of it, and shifted towards Steve closing the door.

"And good riddance…" the red-haired rabbit scowled, finally letting his relief show that these cheeky, happy-go-lucky cops had been dealt with. He then turned his gaze up towards Steve, to whom he still owed an explanation for the situation that just took place, "I was gonna tell you about the robbery, but I guess you got the hint."

"At a pet shop?" Steve tried to jog his memory on the exchange that his friend had with the officers.

"Yeah. Some punks stole something and drove away. It's a good thing I managed to be helpful." He rubbed the back of his head, "It's beyond me how they, of all mammals, can be so chipper about their job…"

"Free coffee and donuts?" Steve deadpanned, prompting a snorting snicker from Milo. Suddenly, the rabbit could hear a massive-sounding gurgle coming from the wildebeest's belly, then felt a little rumble in his own. It was then that they realized that their scheduled pizza delivery was a bit over a dozen minutes overdue. Steve was growing impatient, and adjusting his glasses. "Pizza dude's got fifteen seconds…"

"Right. I'm starving…" Milo rubbed his belly, having already been drained by the waiting himself.

Steve's keen ears have been drawn to the vibration of a telephone. When he went to inspect, he saw that it wasn't his own, "Milo, you got a message!"

Milo immediately ran up to it, and swiped it unlocked. Apparently, it was an email sent via Zoogle. After several minutes of staring at it in utter shock, he began to read it aloud:

To all fellow staff at Stagart Studios,

We hereby announce that Gary Roestrom, chief sound effects designer, has had a family loss and is in mourning. A meeting will be held on June 28th, at 10:00 AM at the sound department office. All staff from the sound department are required to be present at the meeting.

Jeremy Stagart, Supervising Sound Editor, Stagart Studios

Milo was taken aback by this sudden revelation. The death of a loved one was a predicament he'd never wish for anyone, let alone an esteemed colleague. Nevertheless, something deep down in his gut told him that if he wanted to improve things, he shouldn't wait – this looked to be it. He rubbed his chin in deep thought, "I assume they want to figure out who's going to fill in for him." When Steve went silent for a few seconds, the crimson rabbit had to look up at him. The bovid was staring back at him with a proud grin, as he patted Milo on the head. "You still think I have a shot at it, don't you?"

"You better believe it!" Steve beamed affirmatively.

"I don't know…" the rabbit wavered, placing his hands behind his back, "As much as I doubt they're gonna let me into it, I could really use it, if it's paid."

"What? Of course they will!" Steve's spirit wasn't moved at all, "You just need an opportunity to prove yourself, and that just might be it, my friend!"

"You know why I could use the money?" Milo hoped that the wildebeest would be understanding of what he was about to tell him, "My mom and dad got evicted."

"Say what?!" Steve's reaction to what Milo just said was more distressed than shocked, seeing as they weren't doing too well last year, and needed help from Steve in paying their bills.

"They got evicted from our house in Podonk, and are now stuck in a hostel," Milo conceded, crestfallen. "They can't afford to pay their bills. I'm not gonna ask you to pay up more, not with all you're getting ready for your studio and all – you've already done enough for me. I need to figure something out myself…"

"Like I was saying, buddy, this might just be the answer to your problem! Now get on out there and grab it by the horns!" The wildebeest topped it off by pointing towards Milo's face with his index hoof, which made his nose twitch. As As if things couldn't get any more awkward for him at that moment, the doorbell rang once again.

"Lemme get that!" Suddenly, Milo wanted to open up for the pizza delivery mammal. Once he looked into the peephole - whoopsie. It was Judy Hopps again. He frowned, and opened the door. "What now?"

The doe rabbit stifled a slight giggle, as she began to explain her intentions. "I was wondering if the police could request your services in case of a mission?" Upon hearing this, Steve rolled his eyes and threw his arms into the air in exasperation.

Milo thought he hadn't washed his ears properly this morning. Was she about to give him a job proposal? "What do you mean?"

"Well, since we don't have any wires at our disposal at the moment, I wanted to ask if you could come up with something that'll help us record the admissions of suspects." Yes, she was giving him a job proposal.

Milo's nose began to twitch ever so slightly – he was promptly surprised by this. Being the kind of mammal he is, various ideas and what-ifs came pouring into his mind. He anticipated potential danger to his safety. He anticipated violence. Whatever this would entail, he was certain that this was far from his usual line of work. It made him uncomfortable to think about, but on the other hand he also thought that it was better off than leaving his parents on the line. For the first time in a while, he showed some assertiveness. "Not for free," the buck rabbit deadpanned.

This only caused Judy to stifle a giggle, because she found it rather silly that he'd think she'd be using him in such a manner. She quickly brushed aside this needless concern. "I didn't assume you work for free. We'll negotiate the price, and the mission details, in case it's required… What do you think?" As she finished, she laid her hands on her waist, awaiting an answer from the buck rabbit, who had fallen silent.

Milo was in a stressful position from the very beginning. Stick with a low-paying job and starve his parents, but keep himself out of harm's way, or try a risky, cautious job for a potentially greater payment that could save his parents from the emotional and literal squalor they've landed into. As hard as it was, the red-haired rabbit could no longer allow himself to give in to fear for his own security. He was currently more willing than not to accept the officer's offer. He looked into her eyes and nodded his head affirmatively. "Deal."

Judy, like always, brandished a cheerful smile of gratitude, "Alright, thanks. Bye!" And thus, she was on her way, hopefully for good. Again, he couldn't help staring at her figure from behind. His deprivation of the opposite gender's presence made him feel a little needy, and he was quenching it in any sort of way, even if it was a meaningless stare. He slowly closed the door, and heaved a sigh.

"It was the doe cop again…" Milo addressed his companion, ready to reveal his exchange with Judy. This only prompted Steve to mumble quizzically, leaning in to hear what Milo was up to. "She offered me a job, and I said yes," Milo said, then explaining his viewpoint on the whole situation. "Just gotta wait and see if she's serious. It's gonna come in handy in case the board meeting doesn't go as planned."

"At least it's a start…" Steve mumbled, half to himself. Nevertheless, he was curious about what the job was about, "So, what's this job?"

Milo knew as much as Steve, and could only assume what was to come. "I've yet to find out. For all I can guess, it's either wiring or recording interrogations… I'll have to see what she tells me. I mean, she's been cordial so far, so I don't think she's looking to scam me, or anything like that." In the back of his mind, he chose not to reveal this to his parents until the errand was done, as a positive surprise.

The doorbell chimed yet again, and this time, Steve leaped straight to the door knob. "Finally!" The wildebeest clumsily unlocked the door and eyed the pizza delivery mammal, who turned out to be a spotted hyena.

"Howdy do, sir?" The predator tipped his cap, brandishing a wide grin of pleasantry, all the while holding two pizzas in his left arm. He then proceeded with a professional inquiry. "One large-size spinach & grass, and one small five-cheese pizza. Was this your order?"

"Yup!" Steve smiled pleasantly, reaching out his arms, while the hyena handed the pizzas over.

"That'll be 17 dollars," the hyena spoke.

"Here you go," Steve gave the hyena 25 dollars, which turned out to be a generous tip. "Keep the change."

"Aw, shucks," the hyena chuckled, moved by this kind-hearted gesture on his customer's behalf. "Have a nice day, and bon appetit!" That said, the hyena tipped his cap and headed off, with his job done, and some appetites about to be sated.

"Ba-bye!" Steve bid farewell, closing the door, and finally acquiring much-needed lunch. Milo was also satisfied to see that they were about to eat. The wildebeest carried the pizzas over to the dining table. "Let's get our grub on!"

For Milo, this felt like a day that was slowly peeling back a very filthy page in the book of his life. In all his years, no one had managed to convince him of an alternative solution for his situation, and now, for the first time, such a situation had arisen to which he needed to adapt. Not only for his own good, but also the good of those he held dear. He had to play his cards carefully, because the decisions he made in the hours, days and weeks to come were bound to make or break his future…

Well, this turned out to be my birthday gift to me...

I hope you folks enjoyed yourselves! Catch ya later down the trail. ;)