"Apologies are the first step in a great friendship"

It was a battle trying to figure out the right sized couch. And the inquires of why a rabbit of her size was trying to buy a couch possibly twice her size, to fit it into her tiny apartment didn't help either. She eventually did find one that accommodated to Nick's size after going through some major loops to find one. A sturdy piece of furniture made of dark brown faux suede would blend in well with his auburn fur; she decided she would have to get a vacuum in the near future to suck up any shedding fur. Unbeknownst of her chit-chatting, a fox across the room shifted in her bed slowly fluttering his eyes to reveal the blinding light in his vision. Taking a few minutes to adjust, he saw her silhouette against the harsh light and had only heard the tail end of the agreement. "Yes, yes you can have it in cash. I'll be sure to have it in your delivery man's paws when they come. Thank you." A moment in silence included the raising of an eyebrow. "You too. Good night."

A tap of the screen from her paw meant the end of the conversation and her turning around found her in shock as she realized her fox was awake. With a flinch she readjusted pretending to not seem surprised and feigned a smile.

"Hey! Welcome back sleepy head. Did you enjoy your nap?"

"Yes. Who… was that?"

"Who was what?"

"You know what I'm talking about! Now who was it on the phone?"

"How long were you awake?"

"Long enough."

"Say! Aren't you getting hungry? I think it's time to order some food~!"

He wasn't buying it. Too long of a con-man was to know when something was fishy and he didn't like it coming from this rabbit he called a 'friend.' She swiped the phone to unlock it and was trying to get on the browser, but Nick was too quick for her and batted at her paw while grabbing the other in a lock. Interlocking her eyes, he looked at her firmly while he asked,

"I'm. not. hungry. Now please quit dodging the question and answer me. WHO were you talking to just a moment ago?"

For a moment there she was petrified. He could be honest to god scary when he wanted to be and with that face of his, he could do really pull off an interrogation well if he was part of the ZPD. The way he looked at her with his own death trap glare that at any given moment could snarl and bare his fangs to scare the living daylights out of someone.

"I'm not going to ask you again. WHO were you talking to Carrots?"

No response from her, only the twitching of her nose and wide illuminated violet eyes.

"Look… I'm not going to hurt you or think of you wrong. I only need to know because I've had my fair share of someone getting hurt for a wrong call. Now tell me."

She busted into a spasm of laughter which left the fox to release his grip and have a most perplexed face on his muzzle. Head cocked and mouth aghast, he twitched one ear to the side as he looked at her with confusion.

"What did I say!?"

After a moment Judy recollected herself to apologize before responding.

"You really get worked up don't you? Says the fox who told me to 'Never let them see they get to you' and look at you! TWICE in ONE DAY!"

He groaned with a deadpan glare.

"All right, what is it?"

"That's so sweet for you to care for my well-being. And here I was just thinking about yours."

He placed two paws on his hips simultaneously.

"What are you talking about?"

She was looking at her phone and graced it very slowly with her palm before responding.

"Oh… Idon'tknow… maybe I SHOULD call back the company I was just talking to and cancel the order of a brand new couch."

His arms lowered as he raised a brow.

"You… you bought a couch? That's what this is all about?"

She smiled and sat very adorably with phone placed between her legs.

"Well yea… what did you think it was all about?"

"You… just…"

He smacked a paw to face and sighed.

"You know what? Never mind. Forget it."

Her smile suddenly withered and Nick looked between his fingers to see the bunny saddened.

"Carrots?"

She huffed to express the saddened mood.

"Sorry Nick… I wanted it to be a surprise but…"

An idea hit him and he let loose his coy smile.

"Wait… what was it you said? Caring for my well-being?" He asked copying Judy's tone during which she had used during the certain conversation of any moron could run a plate.

He paused to place a paw to his heart.

"Why gosh Carrots, you /do/ care about me!"

That warmed her up. He noticed her grow a shy smile on her muzzle as she looked back up.

"Yea… I may or may not have a bought a new couch INTENDING for a fox that may or may not be taking care of me."

"You know Carrots you didn't have to do that."

"I know, but I wanted to. I kinda figured with you taking care of me, I didn't want to see you keep laying on the ground there…"

She waved to the bed on the wooden floor before they locked eyes again.

"… and besides, I'm sure you would agree a couch is MUCH better than a hard floor… right?"

He huffed in amusement.
"I can definitely attest to that."

Several awkward moments passed before either of them said anything.

"So… you really aren't that hungry?" she asked.

"Not really, no."

"Well darn… I guess I'm just going to have to eat all of this blueberry cake myself."

He blinked a couple of times.

"Say what now?"

"There was an ad that I noticed as we were heading back to the station. It was for this lemon and blueberry cake that looked really good to try." She was imaginarily petting the air above her iCarrot and kept her eye contact away from him.

"Lemon zested pound cake is what it looked like… infused with melted blueberry berries and decorated with a blueberry dressing on the top. And it looked like it had the plumpest berries to decorate the finished look." She strongly accented the world 'plumpest' to tease Nick.

He was practically salivating with his mouth hanging open and tail wagging. Judy only caught a glimpse of this out of her peripheral and casted a giggle.

"Oh! And did I forget to mention it was accompanied with the words, 'Fill you heart with delight as this cake treat is complete with cold vanilla almond ice cream!'?"

She shrugged.
"But like you said, you aren't hungry so I guess I'm going to have to try it all myself."

"Oh no you won't!" he barked jumping at her and making Judy practically jump out of her seat in startle, fumbling with her phone to catch it after it almost fell.

"Because you're going to order two! Possibly three!" he brought his paw up in the number references as he spoke.

She snorted and had to contain her further trailing laughter.

"Three?" she asked in a higher-toned voice.

"You betchya your heart out I can eat two of those!"

She sighed, partly to relieve any further giggles and shook her head.

"So… two for you and one for me?"

"Exactly!"

"Nick. Really?"

"Carrots… I ALWAYS make room for blueberries." He winked.

She giggled.

"Oh okay Slick, I'll call it in."

As she was swiping her phone, he noticed that her black stitches were exposed and his ears dropped to the back of his head, reminding him of the bittersweet conversation between the two of them on the train early this am. He definitely was not going to get over this so easily even if it wasn't his fault. Judy having the conversation started in her ear did notice Nick and mouthed what's wrong. He abruptly pointed at her leg and Judy taking a second to look down caused her to gasp and straighten her back. She gestured a wince in the best effort to say "I'm sorry." and he only shrugged with the unspoken reply of "It's all right." While Judy was conversing with the cashier to order the desserts, Nick went to clean it up, reapply the lubricant and re-wrap the clean dressings. He had only just finished the final gauze wrap when she tapped the phone.

"Thanks Nick."

"Sure thing Carrots." He smiled back at her before getting up from his kneel to clean up.

She smiled only for a moment before something else took over her mind. Hopping down from the chair, she went over to her bed and crouched down to pull open the right drawer underneath her bed. Nick curious what she was doing leaned over her shoulder for a moment to observe, only to receive a punch to the bottom of his jaw. Unfortunately he had a tongue clenched in his teeth when he received that sucker punch. Yelping in surprise from the sudden pain he held his mouth backing up a couple of steps and whimpering.

A annoyed grey bunny looked over her shoulder with a nasty sideways glance.

"Serves you right. Don't you know it's rude to look through girl's clothing?"

"Awww Carrizzssss!" He tried his best to say it while apparently impersonating a snake.

She let out a single huff and a sly smile.

"Oops! Sorry~" she apologized in a sorry-not-sorry attitude.

Rubbing his tongue with newly formed corner tears, he watched distantly as she shuffled around to dig apparently deep in that drawer. With a few minutes of waiting, a ah-ha of triumph, and a wiggle of her tail, she found what she was hunting for and hopped herself on her bed with Nick to cautiously approach her. She held a piece of somewhat folded paper in her palm.

"Come here." She instructed with a couple of pats on her bed with her open paw.

Reluctantly at first, Nick did as he was told and waddled over to plop on the left side next to her. With a gestured paw, Judy said "Here." and offered the folded paper in her paw to him. Raising a brow, this paper seemed familiar to him. Was it? Grabbing for it, he slowly unfolded the piece of paper. Uh-huh, it was; his open application to the ZPD. Looking at it for a moment with both raised eyebrows, he softly sighed smiling.

"After all this time, you kept it?" he asked carefully not biting his swollen tongue.

She snorted.

"It's only fair; you kept my Carrot pen for a while. I knew… well, I thought… that maybe you would come back. Someday. So I didn't have the heart to throw it away."

He snorted as well with his signature coy smile.

"Well… as you can see your handsome fox is back in town."

She giggled.

"Though something has been nagging me."

"What's that?"

"What does the P stand for?" she asked as she pointed at his application.

He rubbed his neck nervously and hesitated in the answer.

"You're going to laugh…" he moaned.

"Try me."

He side glanced over at her.

"I promise I won't laugh."

"Yea, when pigs have real wings."

"Nick."

He sighed and rolled his eyes before continuing.
"It's Piberius."

She blinked not once, not twice, but three times.

"Piberius?"

He nodded. She stared at him for a moment before she bloomed a huge grin and not once, but twice almost chuckling with a snort coughing from her each time. He could literally see her chest shuddering as she was holding them both back. Taking a moment to take a deep breath to hopefully not laugh again, she looked at him to ask her question:

"Piberibus? I thought it was like Patrick or something." Though the rest of the sentence came out very spastically and falsetto-toned while she was trying to best to hold back laughs.

"Patrick? Really Carrots?"

He was clearly not amused with his eyes narrowed and his ears very folded back.

"You're a real joy to be with you know that?"

Realizing her boundaries, she blinked and huffed to rid away any hints of mocking.

"Nick, look, I'm sorry. I'm promise I'll stop."

He raised a brow.

"Really! I'm done!" she further emphasized with mock surrender.

After a moment pause he sighed.
"Okay. I forgive you."

"Patrick? Guess it doesn't exactly ring well does it?"

He shook his head.
"No… and just because I look red, doesn't mean you have to imply I have no soul. I indeed have one." He crossed his arms as if to throw himself into an angry pout.

She giggled at this gesture.

"Well I think it does have a nice ring to your full name. Your parents did good choosing it. Nicholas Piberius Wilde" She rocked along her bedside as she repeated his name.

His eyes lowered.

"Well… there is a reason why they chose it."

She turned her face directly his way to ask a non-conversational, "Why?"

"It was… a namesake to keep me going. They thought if I had a fancy name that it might help me get through my youth. Sort of like a lucky charm, that sort of thing."

She kept listening in.

"If nothing else, other kits would respect me for my name if they didn't respect me as a fox. But you can clearly see where that landed me."

She smiled and let out a soft content huff. He wasn't going to tell her he was named after some science-fiction character they adored. Wait… did she just? Curse this bunny for getting under his fur! She did it again! He really needed to control just what he told to her instead of blabbering it all out! She was a good friend and all but there were some parts of his life that were best to be left out. And yet she seemed to be the only one that could really read him like an open book. It was only fair to ask hers.

Worth a shot

He raised his brows.

"So what's yours?"

"What?"

"What's your middle name? Surely it can't be as bad as /Piberius/"

"Oh! Well…" she mumbled darting her eyes elsewhere.

She looks so cute when she's embarrassed. He thought to himself smiling. He absolutely loved teasing her and getting her all worked up to see her like this; her raw emotions were just too perfect to watch.

"It's Lawhvurn."

Her answer brought him back to focus.

"Sorry?" he asked again since her voice was muffled before due to the trance.

"If you must know, it's Laverne." She muttered.

"La-verne?"

"No. Lav-earn."

"Well that's a pretty name. What's the honor for that decision?"

She looked away briefly before replying.

"Ugh… I hate it. It doesn't really fit my name well."

Turning back into his direction she pointed at her eyes. The settling sun was bringing out the blend of not just amethyst but also violet, magenta and some tints of deep blue as well.

"This is why. When I was born with my litter-mates, I was one of the ones that inherited the Hopps Lavender Eyes from mom on her side. Funny story about that trait, when dad first looked into her eyes when he was smitten by her years ago, he saw the flower itself. Hence why we have this title."

"So let me guess, Lavender is your favorite flower?"

"Har-har. Actually it's Adenium Obesum."

His brows furrowed.

"English please?"

She giggled.

"Sorry, the Impala Lily."

"Noted."

He looked at his application again.

"It's full of creases… you think they'll accept this?"

"Probably not. You may need to fill out a new one."

"And show them off my calligraphy? Certainly!"

"Oh please! I read the note you wrote to me the other day; it was of an elementary kit at best."

He feigned hurt with a paw to his chest.

"Carrots, you would me. I'll have you know that was because I was in deep thought while writing that out to you."

She rolled her eyes.

"Uh-huh. Sure you were."


It didn't take long after that for the delivery mammal to arrive with their delicate desserts and Judy who had paid the order ahead of time on her card gave a genuine tip for quick delivery. Thanking the driver, she only had time to turn herself around with the bags of food before Nick was behind her and snatching up the delectable treats in a bag like a little kit getting his first present. Judy initially blinking in shock snorted in amusement and shook her head before joining him over onto the bed where they split the food. She got her single serving of cake and ice cream and Nick happily obliged to eat both servings of the cake.

"Oooo! This looks sinfully delightful!" he grinned wagging his tail.

She giggled.

"Okay Slick, just don't be getting nauseous on my clean sheets. I don't need them to be washed twice in one week."

"Say Carrots, thought just occurred to me. Where are the facilities and where do you do your laundry?"

"Oh the restrooms are a few doors down, does before bucks, and the laundromats are a door before them. Each floor has them available for the tenants. However the problem is that there are only two sets of washers and dryers. So if both of them are occupied, there is a laundromat a couple blocks down."

"I don't know how you do it Carrots."

"Hmm?"

"I mean your laundry; bed linens, clothes, maybe uniforms, and not to mention your small size… all with the potential of going down three flights of steps?"

She groaned a little for the demeanor comment, but then did a little chuckle to his surprise.

"I don't /mind/ the steps if I have to, Slick. I don't own a lot of clothes so I don't necessarily need to wash it them as often as someone else. But if you, so help me, puke or get sloppy on my bed, I will personally make sure you take my linens downstairs and outside to the laundromat."

He looked at her wide eyed just as he was popping a clump of cake bit in his mouth. Taking a few bites and swallowing hard, he complained,

"No! Please never that!"

She giggled.

"Well then don't be messy."


She had finished her piece of cake at that point and was getting to eating her ice cream when her phone started vibrating. Ears perking up, she hopped off the bed and limped over to her desk to see who was calling. Looking at her screen, she grimaced and dropped her ears.

"Ugh… it's my parents. Likely checking on me. Nick, could you be quiet for a minute please? You chew like a hungry hippo."

He folded his ears back in hurt and furrowed his brows.

"I'll have you know my way of digesting is perfectly,"

He was cut off when Judy answered the phone with a tap.

"Hey mom… Yes, yes I'm at the apartment. What's up?"

"Hey Bun-Bun. I just heard the news about that case you left home so suddenly for. Is everything all right? Are you okay?"

She grimaced.

"How much do you know?"

"Enough to know that there were reports of you getting hurt! It's all over the news. Listen here at this headline, 'ZPD's First Bunny Cop to Solve City's Unsavory Case"

The background noise seemed like she was unraveling a newspaper fold.

"The first bunny cop known as ZPD's Judy Hopps unravels this case and proves the culprit behind the schemes is former Mayor Bellwether. In the foil of the acts, we know that the recruit did get injured during a chase. Not whether the causalities are severe or not we do not know at this time…"

She winced while listening to this and it perked Nick's attention while he was finishing the last bites of his second piece. Having not hearing the conversation, he wondered was getting to this bunny so badly.

She face palmed her head.

"Well that's over the top… Cripes mom! How did word get out so fast!? It hasn't even been three days!"

"You tell me sweetie. How does the media get word so fast about how OUR little girl gets injured while on the job?"

She groaned.

"Mom please… it's not really that bad of an injury… they're blowing it up more than they should. I'm perfectly fine."

"Is that so? And are you taking care of yourself? Do you need to come home and rest up?"

"Yes mom, I'm fine, no need to worry. No I don't need to come home."

She wasn't completely telling the truth, but she wasn't lying either. She was in good paws with Nick helping to take care of her and her bum leg. There was a moment of silence before she spoke again.

"Mom?"

"All right, fine. Listen though… I know you were in a hurry to get back to the city, but we need the old girl back. How soon do you think you can get home?"

"Oh… right… umm…"

When Judy had to get back to the city, she had to borrow their old farm truck to get there. Now it was a matter of getting it back to the farm. Nick at this point was listening in to the conversation and letting his partial eaten almond ice cream melting in its container. When he saw her hesitate he knew something was up.

"You know what? I think I have an idea. Isn't the Carrots Day Festival coming up?"

"Why yes, yes it is."

"And you know how much I love to help. Plus I'm sure someone would love to meet you."

She looked over at Nick as she was speaking. His eyes bulged while he looked at her frantically.

- Carrots… what do you think you're doing? -

"Who dear?"

"The one you wanted to see."

"A buck?"

"No… not just a buck. A fox. The fox you wanted to make amends with?"

"Oh I see… you're thinking about bringing him along?"

"If that's all right? I'm sure he'd love to see the family AND enter the Blueberry Pie Eating Contest this year." She was grinning deviously as she was bringing up that point.

His ears perked up. - Blueberries? -

"Well… I don't suppose there'd be a problem with that. What do you think Stu?"

The patriarch could be heard in the background.

"What's that? A fox is coming!?"

"Stewart please…this is the one we need to apologize to from before."

"Oh well… I suppose we do owe him that."

"Then it's settled. See you guys in a week?"

"Sure thing bun-bun. Be careful, love you sweetie."

"Love you too mom. Good night."

"Good night."

With a click she ended the call and hopped back over to scooch onto her bed to finish her ice cream and help Nick with the second one. She was only a couple of bites in when she turned to see Nick staring straight at her with an annoyed face.

"What's with the face?" she asked.

"What do you mean what's with the face!? Carrots you just agreed to something without my consent!"

"What are you talking about Nick?"

"Oh yea sure… I LOVE Blueberries, love them love them. I definitely want to eat them especially in pie form since it sounds SO good… but REALLY? Why did you do that!?"

She blinked a couple of times before responding.

"Is it wrong to bring a friend over?" she muffled.

"Yes it is! Did you stop to think for a second maybe I DON'T want to meet your family? Did you think MAYBE I might be nervous as hell for ME, a PREDATOR, to meet a PRED family!? Or did it not go through your thick skull that just because I helped you with a case doesn't mean society was going to accept me as a rabbit's friend right away?"

"Nick, stop it you're acting silly. No one's going to judge you because you're a predator!"

"Oh yeah? And how do you know that?"

"Because they're my /parents/ Nick, for one. They'll understand. They're clearly accepting you if they're admitting the need to make an apology. And two, everyone in the city knows that the cause of the savage attacks was because of the Night Howler drug. No one thinks of predators otherwise beyond that. We've changed, Nick."

"That's called being respectful in the case of your parents. And just because we've 'evolved' doesn't mean mammals are still going to hold grudges. Whether we like it or not, everyone has them Carrots. No one's going to get over the Night Howler Case so easily."

"You're being too conclusive Nick! Okay yea sure I admit it, maybe I should have discussed first. But I thought that with you coming to visit me and my family, you might feel more included as a friend. You might've wanted to meet them sometime anyway."

"Again, did you think to consider that factor otherwise Carrots?"

Her heart was thumping loudly in her ears and the inside of them hot from the boiling emotions. Looking at him with tense awkward silence and nervous eyes, she could hear her heart pound in time with his shallow breathing as he fumed angry irritated puffs. It only took a moment for her to register what he meant by what he said. Continuing to look at him with a melancholy glance for another moment, she looked down at her container filled with almond juice at this point.

"What are you saying Nick? That you don't want to see my family?" she muffled.

"I didn't say that fluff."

"Then what did you say so I can hear you correctly?"

"Look… I do want to meet your parents. I do. But a week? That's too soon. And besides… if you really want to be a friend to me, you have to trust me when I say this; I like doing things at my own pace. And things like this, I prefer a chit-chat /before/ we go suddenly deciding what we're doing at a moment's notice."

"Then in that case when? Two weeks? A couple of months? A year? WHEN would it be appropriate time for you to meet my parents as a friend?" she spatted while wincing and tears threatening to come out.

"Carrots…"

"I trust you Nick. I WANT to be your friend. But I can't have you in my shadows forever. Eventually my parents would have found out anyway. They're the kind of parents that even though they know their daughter is doing her heart's desire job, they're still going to call me every single night worrying about me. MAYBE I thought that if I introduced a "friend" to them that they would stop worrying /less/ about me because they knew I was being looked out for!"

Shit. He did it again… he pushed her too far. He had to say something.

"Judy…"

"So yea sure. I apologize that I didn't consider your side of this whole thing! *sniff* I guess I'm not a good friend after all if I didn't even think about your privacy!"

He quickly intervened and turned the bunny to face towards him and clung his paws on her shoulders.

"Hey, hey, hey… easy there Fluff!"

She was shedding a few tears and he lifted his paw to wipe away some with his claw.

"I didn't say I didn't want to go. And I certainly didn't say you weren't being a good friend for not considering my privacy, I just don't like being rushed into things okay?" He spoke softly and wandered his eyes to make sure she was listening. She nodded.

"Now… for your sake I will go. But please, next time, talk to me first. Okay?"

She nodded and grew a smile to copy his.

"Now… let's finish this almond milk before it spills all over your bed and I have to go clean it against my will."

She giggled before they continued on to finish the three containers of almond milk. As they wrapped up the last container, Judy stretched and yawned. Looking at the time on her clock on the desk, it read 7:30.

"So Nick… what do you want to do tomorrow?"

"I don't know… yawn… what do you want to do?"

"Hmm…"

Her phone started buzzing again. Picking it up this time since she brought it over with her, she looked at the phone screen and gasped.

"It's the chief!"

"What's he calling this late at night for?"

"I don't know… it must be important. *tap* Officer Hopps speaking?"

While Judy was speaking with Chief Bogo, Nick gathered up the take out trash and tossed it away in her trash bin. It was a brief few minutes before he realized her mood had been dampened by the conversation. Respecting her privacy, he wandered over to the window to see the sun settling down over the horizon of the city and illuminating the sky with starlight.

Judy on the other paw was discussing to the chief about the fact that becoming an officer again was not as easy as it sounded, along with the fact that there would be a press conference tomorrow requesting her participation. What got her mood dampened was the discussion regarding her job:

"I apologize for calling you so late. I wanted to give you an update on what was going on but I had business to conduct during the day and I'm now sitting down for personal time."

"It's okay. What's the problem chief?"

"I'm sorry Officer Hopps. I'm doing everything in my power to get you back on the roster, but unfortunately legal procedures are forcing me into this situation. You'll have to partake in and pass rehabilitation, which includes retaking the test if you want to get back in. And unfortunately given the state of your leg, it might be some time before you're back on the force."

Her ears drooped at the sound of not being on the force, but she pretended that didn't bother her as much as it did hurt.

"I understand chief. I appreciate everything that you're doing for me."

"Believe me Hopps, I want you to be back on the force as I am… but what has to be done has to be done."

"I understand. Is there something else Chief?"

"Yes, unfortunately."

The conversation continued on for a few more minutes, Judy casting occasional glances at her fox staring out of the window. She was thinking as she was listening to the chief about how to drop the news of being interviewed tomorrow about the case and presenting it with her fox in hand. After the call was ended she called out to Nick.

"Nick?"

"Hmm?" he asked twitched his ear and curling his tail he turned to look at her. "What's up?"

"I guess we have something to do tomorrow."

"What's that?"

"I… I'm supposed to be scheduled to do a press conference at City Hall at noon."

"Okay… what about?"

*sigh* Guess there was really no way to avoid the discussion.

"It's about the Night Howler Case. The media wants an update."