The alarm went off. Two groans responded.
The two former sleepers wriggled in the general direction of the hated sound, trying to get close enough to disable it without breaking their embrace, before Judy finally gave a final groan and dived at the alarm, flailing at the buttons until she hit one that ended the terrible noise. Silence descended once more, but it was too late. They were both awake.
Judy had come to a realization about herself in this posting. When sleeping alone, in nicely temperate weather, she was able to bound out of bed and meet the day the second the alarm went off. But one or both of the endless chill of Tundratown and her newfound bedmate had given sleep a new and powerful hold over her. Being wrenched from it's sweet embrace each morning was horribly traumatic, no matter how many times she suffered through it.
She stumbled towards the kitchenette and fumbled at the kettle, sighing with relief at discovering that there was water in it, then managed to hit the switch to turn it on and stood there, staring at the wall next to it with the patience of someone unable to think. There was a thump behind her as Nick finally managed to escape from the bed, and a moment later he had slouched up behind her, enveloping her in a big, warm hug, his chin resting on the top of her head. She leaned back into it and lost herself in the moment, momentarily comfortable enough that she could almost slip off to sleep again... but then the kettle started to whistle, and once more she was forced to tear herself away from Nick's embrace.
Two mugs. Two spoonfuls of instant coffee in Nick's larger mug, one in hers. Two spoonfuls of sugar in Nick's, none in hers. Pour water. Stir. Top up with milk - almond for her, soy for Nick. The familiar ritual did as much to wake her up as the coffee would, she often suspected. She went to hand Nick his mug, noted his closed eyes, and guided it into his paws, which grasped it reflexively. By the time she had turned back to her own mug, muscle memory had prompted Nick to lift the mug to his lips, and he shamelessly slurped at it. Judy rolled her eyes and took a daintier sip, relaxing as she felt the warmth of the coffee radiate through her. Suddenly facing the day seemed almost possible.
Soon enough, coffee was finished, and the two went to their respective clothing piles - Nick a jumbled mess he was somehow able to keep track of, Judy a neatly-folded pile. They got changed with only a little side-eyeing of each other's bare bodies, Judy having a thoroughly miserable time waiting for her body heat to warm up the material of her bodysuit and Nick having the usual trouble sorting out his tie before Judy took mercy on him and undid and retied it for him, her nimble bunny fingers having a much easier time with the knot. They strapped on belts, grabbed phones, and started to head for the door, before Nick halted, staring at his phone.
"Judy?"
"Yeah?"
"It's our RDO today."
"What?"
"Yeah, three on, one off. We were off last on Monday. It's Friday now."
Judy closed her eyes and counted backwards. He was right. It was their day off.
Judy felt like crying.
Stripping off their uniforms again took much less time than donning them in the first place had, and with the chill of the room striking her Judy didn't bother to grab her nightshirt to throw on over her panties before following Nick as he burrowed back into the bedcovers, only slightly self-conscious about her near-nudity.
Tragically, the heat had been leeched out of the blankets in their absence, and the sheets aroud her were uncomfortably chilly. She sped up and quickly reached the core of the blanket burrow where Nick was waiting, and she tried not to think about his night vision as she threw herself into his arms, her discomfort fleeing in an instant as Nick's arms and warmth and smell surrounded her. She'd resented her relative smallness quite often in the past few years, but in moments like this it all seemed more than worth it. For once, she felt sorry for Nick for being larger than her. Her entire world had become warmth in an instant, but he had to wait for the blankets to warm back up, the poor dear. In an effort to show her gratitude, she snuggled even closer into him.
Now that the delightful shock of warmth had worn off, she began to notice how different she felt. Without a nightshirt covering her to around mid-thigh, almost her entire front half was in direct contact with Nick's wonderfully soft and warm fur, plunging her into almost hedonistic levels of comfort. The sensation of his fur on hers sent luxurious shivers through her as she wriggled against him in delight, and judging from how Nick's paws were roaming softly over her bare back, he was enjoying the extra level of closeness too. Modesty, be damned, she thought - she was never wearing a nightshirt again, not if it was keeping her from this luxurious feeling.
She lay there for an indeterminate amount of time, the caffeine in her system all that kept her from the precipice of sleep. She drew idle patterns in Nick's fur with her nails, and for a time he did the same on her back with his claws, before his movements stopped and his breath fell into the deep, steady breaths she'd gotten to know so well in recent nights.
Maybe she'd fall asleep, despite the caffeine. Maybe she'd just lie there in quiet, peaceful bliss until Nick woke again. Maybe she'd wriggle temporarily free of Nick's embrace to fetch her phone and return to message her siblings from her refuge of warmth and comfort to entertain herself.
Presented with that selection of equally palatable options, Judy honestly could not remember ever feeling more content than she did in that moment.
A/N: I know this is significantly shorter than the other chapters, but I was working on what was going to be the seventh chapter, and then I was considering making a cup of coffee and next thing I know I had opened up another document and written all of the above. Consider this a bonus while I work on the next chapter, which should be up in the next few days or so.
One way of reading Judy's newfound infatuation with her time off is as a lessening of her appreciation for policework. That's not actually the case, it's just a side-effect of this story focusing almost entirely on her off-hours. She isn't appreciating being a police officer any less, she's just enjoying her time off more than she used to. Cultivating a healthy work-life balance is important for long-term mental health, after all.
