Nick

Nick knew he shouldn't have winked at her while she was giving her speech. She managed to get through the majority of it without making a single reference to him. It gave him hope. Then, of course, she had to go and blow it all by referencing the ZPD's "first fox officer," and then in typical fashion, he went and winked at her. Nobody saw it, but still. He didn't want to make an awkward situation for her just yet. If she had to go through a round of "are-you-dating-a-fox" interrogation, he wanted to at least be there to make sarcastic comments from the sidelines.

He stares down at his new badge. It's fresh, sparkling new, and yet he feels like he's owned it for quite a while.

Typical, he snorts to himself, just typical, Wilde.

He glances over to where Judy stands. She's besieged by fans, recent graduates of the Academy, and that damn polar bear who threw Nick into the lake during his first week of training. She looks extremely uncomfortable, and throws him a helpless glance. He smirks.

Help me, she mouths.

Not a chance, he grins.

There's a tap on his shoulder and he turns around. A small rabbit in a baseball cap is standing on his tiptoes to touch Nick's shoulder. His face is lined, but looks kindly enough. Another bunny stands a few feet away, looking harried as three smaller rabbits chase each other around her legs. Nick studies the male directly in front of him. He has no direct confirmation as to who these mammals are, but he has a good guess. That guess scares him a little.

"Nick? Nick Wilde?" The rabbit asks.

No, I'm Fur. Fur Foxsayk. "Yeah, that's me." Nick says.

"I'm Stu Hopps, and this is my wife, Bonnie." Stu points to the female rabbit, who appears to be dragging two of the kits off of each other by force.

"Oh! You're Judy's parents!" Nick feigns surprise. Of course they are. Now that he looks closer, Stu definitely has Judy's kindly features, the ones that only come out when she tells a story about someone she helped while on the job. "Nice to meet you." The rabbit has a surprisingly firm pawshake when Nick leans down to greet him. This is not a good sign.

"So…" Stu looks to be at a loss for words. Nick doesn't blame him.

"Look." He sighs. Stu looks up at him. "What do you want to know?"

"What do you mean?" Stu asks innocuously. "I just wanted to… admire your fur."

"Stu, shut it." Bonnie says gently.

"Thank you, Mrs. Hopps." Nick says gratefully.

"Don't mention it." Bonnie smiles. "Do you want to come walk with me?"

It sounds more like a command than a question, so Nick decides that it's best to comply for right now. Slowly, he follows the plump rabbit away from the crowd and back towards the stage. She turns towards him, looking him up and down. Nick feels instantly self-conscious.

"Where are your parents?" She asks. He flinches internally. It's not an uncommon line of questioning. Most people see the valedictorian of the Police Academy and wonder why he stands alone, a wine glass in his paw but no proud relatives by his side.

"They couldn't come." It's his standard response. He gives it to everyone when they ask questions like this. It's hard at first, but lying becomes easier over time. Everyone knows that. The expression she's wearing makes her look exactly like an older version of Judy. This does not help the knot in his stomach.

"You're going to be my daughter's partner on the force." It's a statement, a fact.

"Yes, ma'am."

"I'm not going to lie to you, Nicholas." She says slowly, "The fact that Judy wanted you as a partner came as a little bit of a shock to us."

"I would have been shocked too." Nick points out fairly. "I'm assuming she told you about my less than prizewinning past."

"Yes, she did tell us a little about that." Bonnie laughs. "Stu was less than pleased." She pauses. "I am sorry about earlier, hon, he really didn't know how to start a conversation with you. He even keeps Gideon at a distance. It's really quite annoying of him."

"Ah, don't mention it." Nick gives a half smile.

"You're family, you know." She says, smiling. "You saved Judy from that terrible sheep lady."

"She would have been fine on her own." Nick chuckles honestly.

"She's quite the fighter." Bonnie chuckles right back. "But thank you for treating her like she was your blood sister. It really means a lot. In the line of work you two have, you can never know what's going to happen."

Nick bites back the sarcastic comments which move to the tip of his tongue when Bonnie says this. Instead, he settles for the vaguest possible answer which is still true.

"Judy means a lot to me. She's become a lot more than a friend to me."

Bonnie nods pleasantly. Nick smirks internally. Judy's gonna kill me later.

"Mom!" Nick turns and sees Judy sprinting full speed towards them. She skids to a halt, trying to tug her mother away from Nick. "What are you doing here?"

"We came to see you give the speech, hun-bun!" Bonnie squeals. "You did so good!"

"Mum! Gerroff!" Judy squirms as Bonnie wraps her in a tight hug. Nick gives her a toothy grin, which she returns easily with a glare that could kill a fully grown rhino.

"Jude the Dude!" Her father bounces up, ruffling the top of her head. Nick actually laughs out loud at this.

"What was that?" He asks through laughs.

"Oh, that's her favorite pet name." Stu says fondly. "'Jude the Dude.' Has she never told you that?"

"Why no, sir, she hasn't!" Nick turns to Judy, the picture of hurt. "Why, Carro- Judy? Why must you keep secrets from me?!"

"Shut it, fox." She growls.

"So what are you two going to do?" Bonnie asks. "After this, I mean?"

"Mmm." Judy looks thoughtful. "I'll probably go to get some paperwork done before tomorrow. By the way, Nick, Bogo says he's got a fairly interesting case for us on your first day."

"Does he?" Nick asks mildly. "Sad. The only things I find truly interesting are shuffleboard and the blueberries from your farm."

"You like those, do ya?" Stu asks excitedly.

"Definitely." Nick isn't about to tell him when those berries came in the most helpful. No need to retell a story the press has told a thousand times.

"I'll send you a package full." Stu says with a smile. "You've got to promise to share with Jude, though."

"Deal." Easy enough, seeing as we now share a place.

"As you were saying, Judy?" Bonnie is glancing at Nick with an odd look in her eye. Nick brushes it off without thinking about it.

"Oh, nothing." Judy smiles. "I'll probably just get some paperwork done and head home."

"Home?" Bonnie blinks. "Like… to us? To Bunnyburrow?"

"Oh no!" Judy laughs. "No, to my apartment."

"Okay." Stu chuckles. "You just never talked about your apartment as home before."

"Not in front of us, at least." Bonnie's voice is unusually light.

"I should probably head home myself." Nick smiles cheerfully.

"Oh, alright." Stu looks slightly disappointed. "Nice meeting you, son."

As Nick walks back to his car, his phone buzzes. He picks it up. He knows who it's from even before he sees the alert.

JUDY: Pick up dinner, would you?

NICK: You gotcha, Fluff. What do you want?

JUDY: Anything but Purrsian.

NICK: Ayyyyy you stole my line

JUDY: :P

JUDY: Love you

Nick smiles.

NICK: Love you too. I'll buy you desert.

JUDY: YAAAY!

JUDY: Way to be the gentleman around my parents.

JUDY: btw

JUDY: They still don't suspect a thing, but I think my mom's catching on.

NICK: You have to tell them at some point you know.

JUDY: Yeah, yeah.

JUDY: I have a present for you because you were so well behaved around my folks.

NICK: Presents! What is it?

JUDY: ;)

NICK: OH

NICK: OKAY

NICK: HURRY HOME THEN

JUDY: See you soon 3

Nick smiles and shuts his phone. He opens the car door and enters the cramped vehicle, still stuffed with their luggage from the trip. His phone buzzes again.

JUDY: Are you okay? I know your Mom didn't come.

He sighs.

NICK: You know what Carrots

NICK: I think I am

NICK: I've got you

NICK: And that's all I could ask for

NICK: It's sad that I didn't see her. Idk what happened you know

NICK: But you're here and if I had to pick I would choose you over her every single fucking time

Nick shuts his phone and puts the key in the ignition. It buzzes again. He whips it out.

JUDY: You're definitely getting that present tonight

Nick smiles and starts the car.

THE END

A/N: It's done! Not really! I love this story and I love writing fluff so much that I'm going to start a set of one-shots set after this story. It's going to have some dark moments, and each chapter will read as it's own story, but the chapters will also interconnect and have (in the words of ShippingMammals) "liberal fox-bunny smooching." The first part of that will be up later this week. I will be sending out an announcement to the followers of this story when that one goes up so you can just keep on fluffing out with WildeHopps.

Thank you for reading me and putting up with my crap. I appreciate you all.

Stay chill

NJ