Hi everyone! So glad I always find the way to publish each weak and not let you down. I'M having some trouble finding internet connection these day, and I might have some trouble for the next 2 weeks, sorry if I keep you waiting. But I will try to publish on the weekend as usual ;)


Chapter 7 – The Lab's Results

When Nick woke up the next morning, he found himself smiling for absolutely no reason. It was way too early. It wasn't a day off. It certainly wasn't Christmas. But it almost felt like it. He could almost still feel Judy's light head on his lap. The softness of the fur covering her ears. Her subtle scent in his nose. He had put off going off to bed until he practically slept standing. As much as he would have preferred to sleep near her, and he had debated over that (Nick was not afraid of inappropriateness), he had decided that they both needed a real night of comfortable rest – which would not be achieved sharing a small couch. He walked to the living room, wondering how he could wake up his partner in the most prankish way. But the couch was empty.

He stared at it for an instant, disappointment squeezing his chest ratter stronger than it should have. But then he spotted the familiar light blue backpack near the entry door. Satisfied, Nick decided to assess the available food in his pantry, and to try to whip up some sort of breakfast. Now he slightly dreaded Judy's reaction at having spent the night. Was this going to be awkward? Would she be mad?

Judy entered the apartment a few minutes later. She was wearing her running cloths, her earphones on.

"Oh hi, you're up!" She exclaimed delighted. "Hope you don't mind, I had my things so I decided to go for a run. I'm not making us late, am I?"

She looked at her phone, anxious. Classic Judy. No awkwardness then.

"Of course not." He smiled. "You rabbits are always so punctual. Come have a bite."

"Sweet. Thanks Nick."

She attacked the poor toast in her plate. Nick had found some fruits to complete the meal, but he had almost been ashamed to put them in her plate. They looked old and dried compared to what grew on her family's farm. He sadly didn't have anything better to offer her. But she didn't comment and quickly ate everything.

"Mind if I hit the shower?" She asked him, pointing at her sweaty t-shirt.

He must have made a face, because she quickly added apologetically:

"Ho, did you need to go to? I can wait!"

"No, no, you go, I'll go after." Nick replied, resisting the urge to casually answer there's room for two in there.

Besides, he knew Judy would be so fast it wouldn't change anything to his morning routine. He had to mentally beat himself not to think about what he was missing in his bathroom at the moment, nervously eating his breakfast. Thankfully not for long, as he quickly heard the shower stop and door handle turn. Judy walked past him, wearing nothing but a towel.

"Forgot my clean cloths!" She grabbed her bag and quickly returned to the bathroom.

Nick didn't say anything, too caught off guard to react. The towel had barely hid her curvaceous hindquarters, revealing her muscular upper tights, where her fur was so short it was almost bare grey and pink skin. The sight of her perfectly proportioned and almost nude body had triggered wild feelings in the fox, especially below the belt. He had seen her in her swimsuit, but somehow it was not the same to know she didn't have anything covering her exquisite behind. He remembered her dancing in her perfectly moulding bathing suit. Oh God. The excitement was replaced by anxiety, as suddenly as it had appeared. Clawhauser was right, the son of a bitch. Until now Nick had not reflected much on his relation with his partner. Of course he loved her. He wanted to be with her. To protect her. To make her laugh. But he had always assumed that was within the extent of a perfect friendship. But the images that had flashed in his head while she had passed half-naked in front of him… those were certainly not things you did to a friend. Were they even remotely appropriate? She was a rabbit after all, and he was a fox. And even if they were, there was very little chance that she would see things the same way. The tightness in his chest had come back running.

"I'm done! You can go!" He heard Judy's voice happily declare.

He raised his eyes from his unfinished breakfast to see her wearing her police uniform and casting him a worried look.

"Everything ok?" She asked.

Nick now realised that whatever she would wear, he would always find her attracting. He looked at her beautiful lavender eyes. He had always seen them, and every inch of her body, for what they were – utmost perfection – but now he realised how he saw them: with desire.

"Nick?" She was still eyeing him with a concerned look.

"Yeah, I was just thinking about the case. You're starting to have a bad influence on me, carrots. We're not even at work yet!" He reprimanded her, as if it was all her fault.

Woof. Faculty of speech had come back to him. He threw away his half eaten meal and quickly went for the bathroom, under the confused gaze of his partner. Nick took a cold shower, chasing away the thought of Judy naked at the exact same spot where he stood a few minutes earlier. Preys almost didn't scent anything, but foxes had such a sensitive nose that he could still smell her odour in the room, so it was no easy task not to think about her.

When he joined her by the entryway, she was wearing her usual "make the world a better place" smile. Good. She had not stick on his weird behaviour.

They arrived at the station together, something that Nick did not think had ever happened. He knew most officers wouldn't pick on that, caring as much as Bogo about their personal lives, but he doubted Clawhauser would let such a juicy piece of information pass without reacting. There was no avoiding the reception desk.

"Precious flower!" The cheetah exclaimed at seeing his favourite rabbit. "Since when do you to show up here together?" He added with a teasing smile.

Obviously.

"Nick gave me a lift this morning." Judy happily replied.

Nick kept his face still, wearing his usual sly smile, even though her answer surprised him. As thankful as he was for Clawhauser staying ignorant of their little stay over, he couldn't help feeling a bit betrayed. Was Judy ashamed of their behaviour? Of him?

Lost in his thoughts, his morning was unproductive. Judy was burrowed in books, searching for any useful information. Nick's eyes were sliding along the words written on the pages in front of him, without reading. His focus always came back to Judy's warm thigh brushing his.

Since it was a slow day, they decided to go out for lunch.

"Why are you so quiet today?" Judy asked as they sat down with their tofu sautés. "Normally you never shut up during breaks. Or between them, for that matter."

"I'm not quiet. You're quiet." He replied before engulfing half his plate.

Judy smiled, casting him a curious look.

"I really enjoyed last night." She said suddenly, toying with her meal. "It did me good. You… (she sighted) You were right, I was working Saturday."

Nick stopped chewing, looking at her apologetic eyes.

"I know, it's pathetic. I have a problem." She added.

"You want to right a terrible wrong. Of course it's hard to stop. I get it."

"But you are able to. You can still think of yourself."

"I'm a narcissist." The fox replied, shrugging.

Judy chuckled.

"You know that's not what I meant. Anyways. What I wanted to say is… I wouldn't mind doing this more often." She concluded, talking to her plate.

Something warm stirred inside Nick stomach, but it wasn't the tofu.

When they came back to their desk after lunch, Judy sprinted to the filing cabinet.

"Oh good, lab results are in!" She exclaimed enthusiastically.

She flickered through the pages under Nick's watchful gaze. Her ears slowly dropped as she read the report.

"Well, that's not much to go on." Her voice still showed confidence, as if simply enjoying the challenge. "They didn't find any trace of the killer on Yvette, no hair, or broken claw or nail, or body fluid that didn't belong to her, so no chance of getting the culprit's DNA. Buuuut she did have some dirt on her. As I said, not much."

She showed the picture joined in the file to Nick. It was a sample of reddish dirt in a small glass jar. The consultant geologist had added notes on the sample, explaining that such dust usually originates from limestone.

"Fascinating." Nick commented. "When exactly does one reach the point where they actually think they want to be a geologist?"

"I have to admit it takes superpowers to find rocks interesting."

"Still, maybe we should try to find if there is this limestone thing somewhere specific in Zootopia."

"Yes. Good idea, partner." Judy winked at him.

At the end of the day, they had learned one thing: limestone was no common thing. It didn't seem to have been used in constructions for centuries. Some more rural districts, similar to bunny burrow, had fields made of red soil derived from limestone naturally found in the nearby wild areas, but they couldn't see why Yvette would have been there. It was to far for her to have traveled there and come back on the hours she was out that fatal day. So they exited the precinct, rather disappointed but happy to get to think of other things. Nick knew Judy would walk away to the subway station; he had a split-second to try to keep her from leaving.

"Hey Carrots."

She turned to face him at his words. Her striking eyes startled him.

"I – Why don't you come at my place? You can't have anything interesting to do in that tiny room you call an apartment. You could make yourself comfortable, stretch your legs a bit for a change." He laughed.

"Oh – it's just – I don't have any clean cloths anymore, I should really go home and do some laundry…"

"We have a washing machine in the building."

"… and do some groceries."

"I have food."

She looked at him with a surprisingly serious expression. Nick almost gulped.

"Ok. I'd love to."

She started walking towards the parking, where Nick's car was. Relieved that he would get to enjoy her presence for a few more hours, Nick followed her grinning. By habit, he let her drive. He really didn't enjoyed driving that much, but he knew she loved it. Stuck in the traffic, he entertained her with his usual teasing and rhetorical questions. He quite enjoyed pondering on philosophical themes when killing time, but it was even more fun with Judy because she was too down-to-earth and didn't understand the goal of such reflections (precisely because there wasn't any). It really satisfied him to see her so annoyed. They were still at it when he opened his apartment door for her.

"Just because, Nick! Why would it be different, a brain is a brain!"

"But how can you know that the way I experience consciousness is exactly like you do? Maybe I'm just a walking talking robot on autopilot!"

"That would explain so much." Judy mumbled through her teeth. "You're overthinking things Nick. Why does it matter anyways?"

"It doesn't at all." He answered, smiling.

She shook her head, clearly exasperated. Damn he loved teasing her. They quickly assembled a snack from everything they could find in Nick's cabinets – mostly crackers, humus spread and vegetables – and dropped on the couch, facing each other.

"So, how do you know I am not a robot?" Judy asked, dipping a carrot into the humus spread.

"Well… have you ever injured a mammal or, through inaction, allowed a mammal to come to harm?"

"No?" She answered, uncertain.

"Do you obey any orders given, except in cases where a mammal would come to harm?"

"Well, generally, yes."

"Have you ever harmed yourself, except to protect a mammal from harm?"

"Not that I can think of."

"Oh dear." Nick said dramatically. "How could I have been so dupe? Get out of my home, robot!"

He brandished a celery branch in front of her like a sword. She laughed and fended off the vegetable with her carrot.

"On guard!" She warned him with a fierce look but a wide smile.

"And how do you think you will hold up against my weapon of massive destruction?"

Dread flashed on Judy's face a split second before he spread humus on her face. She gasped theatrically.

"How dare you!?" Then she added more seriously "We shouldn't be playing with food."

"You're right, we don't want to see it go to waste. Let me get that for you."

He leaned over and licked the spread on her cheek. Her soft scent filled his nose, and his brain suddenly realised how close they were and decided to freeze. She turned her head to face him. Big, round lavender eyes stared at him for a few seconds. Her eyelids slowly closed. Her lips were so close to his, he couldn't even see them anymore. Best to close his eyes too, his slow brain decided.

As soon as their lips touched, Nick felt an electric wave jolt from his heart to his lower abdomen. He pressed his muzzle as close as he could against hers, eyes tightly shut. He gently laid his hand on the couch's cushion, next to her hip, to better lean towards her. The other hand shoved away the celery branch, and came to rest on her soft, warm, exquisite face. With one last brush of his lips against hers, he broke the kiss.

When he opened his eyes again, he found beautiful purple irises staring into his. He gave her one of his sly smiles, absolutely clueless of how attractive those were to the young female. She smiled back, even chuckling a little. Swiftly, she spread hummus on his nose with the tip of the carrot she was still holding. Eyes still fixed on her cute rabbit face, he licked his nose with a teasing look. She bit on her carrot, where she lingered just a second too long, gazing at him with a naughty smile.

Bzzzz! Bzzzz!

Judy cast a look at the tea table, where the fox's cell was buzzing.

"I'll just close that." Nick extended a hand towards the table.

But Judy had snatched the device and was handing it to him.

"You should answer it Nick," she said, "it's Bandit."


And they kiiiiised :)))