Author's Note:

This chapter is named after a track from the Zootopia Soundtrack that plays when Judy confronts Nick about his hustling.

Chapter 7: Walk and Stalk (21)

Today, Nick was walking down the sidewalk, thinking. He was meditating on his life.

I wonder if I should ever get married. If I did, I wonder if I would have to stop hustling. It's profitable, but not predictable, Nick thought.

Nick sat on a bench and looked at the park across the street from him. He saw kids of all species playing together and their parents. The one that caught his eye was the fox vixen and her kit. The little kit looked about two or three years old, and he looked familiar. The vixen's back was turned to Nick, and the kit was looking at Nick as he played in the sandbox. The kit pointed straight at Nick and stood up and waved. Nick waved back, then the vixen got up and carried the kit away. Nick saw the kit's tail. It had a dark red end instead of the usual white. It was just like Nick's tail.

.

Dian was sitting on a park bench across from the sandbox. She was here with her son, Zane. She was reading a book while Zane played in the sandbox. She saw Zane pointing and waving at someone across the street. She didn't look at who he was pointing to. She picked Zane up and walked down the sidewalk towards her apartment. She was tired, and didn't want to have to deal with other people today.

.

Nick watched the vixen walk down the sidewalk with the toddler on her hip. She and her son looked familiar, but Nick couldn't place it. After she turned a corner, Nick went back to his thoughts.

I wonder how Viki is doing. She is about nine years old by now.

Nick tried to picture what Viki would look like as a nine year old.

It would be kind of hard to find my parents and Viki, seeing as they moved to Okladensa recently.

Nick stood back up and started walking towards the subway station near him. He bought a ticket and boarded. It was headed to the outskirts of town, where his favorite spot to relax was. Once the train stopped, Nick walked out and went to the bridge he liked to sit under. The chair, the cardboard boxes, the bucket, everything was just as he left it. He put his sunglasses on and sat on the chair.

Life's good, Nick thought. Nobody to tell me what to do, I don't have to pay taxes, and I don't even need an apartment if I wanted. But, I need it.

Nick smiled as he thought of all the good times he had in his life, the first hustle, meeting Archie, coming under the protection of Mr. Big, and so on.

But, as hard as he tried, the memories of Archie's death came creeping into Nick's mind, removing the smile from Nick's face and replacing it with a frown. The one thing that stuck out for Nick was what the leader had said last—I won't trust your kind. The key word for Nick in that is "Won't." It bothered Nick that he wouldn't even give any fox a chance. It seemed everyone else in the world was like that, too.

Nick got up and opened the cooler that he kept well stocked and grabbed a root beer can and opened it. He took a good long sip from it before he sat back down.

"What to do tomorrow?" Nick wondered out loud.

"Let's hustle an ice cream parlor," came Finnick's voice.

"Finnick?" Nick asked, opening his eyes, seeing Finnick leaning over the edge of the bridge above him.

"What's up, Nick?"

"Nothing. What're you doing here?"

"Just came to hang out."

"So you want to do the old Jumbo Pop Hustle?"

"I hate that costume, but it makes a bunch of money."

"Ok, then. Let's make some plans."

Nick and Finnick started making their plans for their next hustle. Eventually, they decided to put the whole thing off one more day.

Author's Note:

So sorry I haven't been uploading sooner. I have gotten distracted writing another story that I think would be very well-received.

The working title is The Case of the Kuznetsov, and it is about Nick's dad during his deployment, and he got involved in a Russian plot during the Cold War, and Nick discovers it and tries to find out more.

The next chapter was one of the first I wrote for this story.