Chapter 10: Fire on the Ice

"Oh, Nick, come on!" Judy whined.

"Nope. Not happening." Said the fox, crossing his arms and turning up his nose at the bunny before him. "No way, no how."

"But, Nick, you promised! You said I could pick where we went, and this is what I wanna do!"

"I get that, Carrots, but I just don't feel comfortable going on a date that might result in my spine getting broken!"

Judy huffed and crossed her arms as well. "You foxes, so overdramatic. You'll be fine, Nick!"

The couple stood in their bedroom, one on either side of the bed. They'd just been getting ready to snuggle up and go to sleep when Judy thought she'd mention that she knew where she wanted to go for their next date, which they had scheduled for the coming weekend. Nick had decided to let Judy pick their venue on this occasion. However, he hadn't counted on the place she had chosen.

"I'm not being dramatic, Carrots. I may be quick on my feet, but that's only on normal ground, not on ice!"

"Oh, come on!" Judy groaned. "All those years making pawpsicles in Tundratown and you never once went out on the ice?"

"As a matter of fact, I did," Nick retorted. "And I fell every time, just ask Finnick. So far, the only thing the ice has given me is a chipped tooth, three sprained wrists, four broken noses, and a twisted ankle. I am not going ice skating, even if it is with the most beautiful bunny in the world."

"Oh, you're not going to charm your way out of this one, Slick," Judy said with a sneer and a shake of her finger. She put her paws on her hips stubbornly. "If you're that afraid of falling, I will gladly hold your paw the whole time and teach you how to skate. But you said you'd let me pick for this date, and I plan to hold you to that."

"Sorry, Carrots," Nick said, laying down on the bed and covering himself with their shared blanket. "It's not happening."

Judy heaved an exasperated sigh. She could see that Nick wasn't going to bend easily on this subject. If she really wanted him to take her ice skating, she was going to have to use some different tactics. Some more…Nick-ish tactics.

Judy hung her head and muttered "Fine" very sullenly as she climbed into bed with her fox. She immediately got under the covers and snuggled up against him, the familiar warmth of his strong, red-furred arms wrapping around her momentarily making her light-headed. "It's just…" she sighed again and gave the tiniest hint of a sniffle. "It's just, my mom used to take me skating all the time during winter back in Bunnyburrow. Not with all the other kids, you know, just me and her. It was…so fun. Those were some of the only times we ever spent alone, just the two of us." She rubbed at the corner of her eye with her paw, although her eyes were completely dry. "But then, when I went to the academy and joined the ZPD, I never got to go skating with her anymore. I just…really want to go again because…I miss it so much…" Judy let out tiny squeak and looked up at Nick, giving him what he had come to call the "Carrot Eyes". "You know?" she said tearfully.

Nick gazed into the amethyst pools that were his girlfriend's eyes and felt his heart clench. Why was it so impossible to resist those eyes?

Nick put his paws to his face and let out a loud groan. "Okay," he said from behind his paws. "We can go ice skating when we have off this weekend. Just please stop making that face at me. I'm already about five seconds away from a stroke."

Judy squealed with delight, then wrapped her arms around Nick's neck and pressed her lips to his. The fox placed one paw on the small of her back and the other just below her ears, pressing her body to his and deepening the kiss. Then he pulled away before his heart could explode.

"You really are one sly bunny," he said breathlessly, leaning back and gazing at the girl he loved so dearly.

Judy gazed into her boyfriend's emerald eyes, the same expression on her face as she'd had after she'd booted Finnick's stroller. "It's called a hustle, sweetheart," she said, and leaned in for another kiss.

They sat there on the bed, simply kissing each other, for almost five whole minutes. During this time, Judy let her mind—and, to Nick's delight, her paws—wander. He was so gullible sometimes. Sure, the story had been true, but honestly, she just wanted to go skating for the fun of it, less than to relive the memories with her mother. Those skating trips had all been at Judy's prompting, and her mother had constantly warned her to be careful, being the over-protective bunny she was.

Judy marveled at how easy it was to get Nick to do what she wanted sometimes. Were all foxes this bendable, or was it just him? Sometime she'd have to try the Carrot Eyes on Joseph to see if she could get him to clean the bathro—

Judy's eyes snapped open and she immediately pulled away from the kiss, which elicited a whine of displeasure from her boyfriend. "Oh, fertilizer," she muttered, her ears going slack against her skull.

"What is it, Carrots?" Nick said in his characteristically sardonic tone. "I thought I was doing pretty well."

"No, it's not that," she said. "It's Joseph."

Nick's heart skipped a beat. Had she been thinking about the other fox while she was kissing him?

"Um, what about Joseph?" Nick questioned, doing his best to hide his nervousness.

"We still have to watch him. Including on our days off."

Nick let out a groan as he realized what the bunny was saying, even if he was relieved that she hadn't been thinking about Joseph that way.

It had been nearly a week since the incident in the alley, and everything had calmed down better than anyone expected. The police had cordoned off the area soon enough that no one from the media could see in, allowing the ZPD to release the official statement that Officers Wilde and Hopps had eliminated the threat and tracked down the remaining assailants. No mention was made of Joseph or the massacre, and it seemed that no one was any the wiser about it. However, Bogo had insisted that the pair keep Joseph under their watch 24/7, at least for a couple more weeks until they could be absolutely certain that everything had run its course. That meant that, if they went anywhere, including on a date, they would have to take the young fox with them, or else face the Chief's wrath. Given that he had once shattered the precinct doors because Officer Delgato had accidently ticketed the Chief's vehicle, they wanted to avoid making the buffalo angry at any and all costs.

"Nuts," Nick murmured, returning to the conversation. "I like the kit and all, but I really don't want to have to take him on our date. Especially since he'll be able to watch me wipe out and break my face."

Judy let out an involuntary snort. One of the things she loved about Nick was his ability to retain his sense of humor even in difficult situations.

She let out a sigh, the humor leaving as quickly as it had come. "Well," she said, "I guess we can either take him with us or wait to go until Bogo says he can be alone."

"Yeah," Nick reluctantly agreed. "I guess that's all we can do." He leaned back on the headboard of the bed, closing his eyes and trying to think of a better solution. He couldn't readily find one. It would be incredibly awkward to have Joseph sitting on the sidelines, watching the couple skate (and kiss). It would be even worse if he skated with them, as that would turn it from an intimate date into what Nick would almost describe as a family outing. About the only way that it wouldn't be awkward was if Joseph had someone else to skate with…

Nick's eyes snapped open as an idea occurred to him. "Hey, Carrots," he said, sitting up.

"What?" she said, somewhat pouty.

"It would be really awkward if Joseph came along and was just the third wheel on our date, right?"

"Um, yeah," the doe said, wondering why Nick would ask such an obvious question.

"Well, what if he didn't have to be the third wheel?" Nick said, his old sly smirk spreading across his muzzle. "What if…we turned it into a double date?"

Judy slowly blinked at her boyfriend, annoyed at what she thought to be his characteristic sarcasm. "Yeah," she said, her own voice dripping with it, "because Joseph has vixens lined up around the block pawing for a chance to skate with him. Seriously, Nick, who would he go with?"

Nick glanced at the digital alarm clock on his nightstand, seeing that it was almost 10:30 at night. "How late does Jamie usually stay up?" he asked, his eyes half-lidded in a distinctly Nick-ish expression.

"You're kidding me," she said in disbelief. "You want me to ask my sister to go on a double date with a fox she's met twice, just so it won't be as weird for us?"

"Well, it doesn't have to be an actual double date, Carrots," Nick said, rolling over onto his side so as to look more clearly at Judy. "We can just say that the three of us are going to go ice skating this weekend, and we'd really like her to come along. After all, it's not like you two have seen each other a whole lot lately."

Judy deflated slightly. She had to admit, Nick had a point. It would be much less uncomfortable for the two of them if Joseph had someone else to spend time with. Plus, she could handle some more time with her sister, even if it was during a date.

And, she thought to herself, if Jamie's there, you know Joseph's going to enjoy it.

The bunny chuckled lightly to herself. The few times she'd mentioned Jamie to Joseph in the last week, she'd immediately seen a glint in his eyes that said that he was very interested in anything having to do with the other Hopps sister. Even if Judy wasn't the best at reading emotional cues (she'd had no idea that Nick liked her until he formally asked her out), she could tell that Joseph was falling for her sister, and he was falling hard. She had to admit, the fox could do worse. And, if she really thought about it, so could her sister.

Judy glanced up at her partner, a sly smirk of her own now grazing her lips. She reached over to the nightstand on her side of the bed and grabbed her phone off of it, firing off a quick text to her sister.

Hey, u still awake?

A few moments later, the phone vibrated in her paw, indicating a new message, which she promptly opened.

Yeah. What's up?

Judy thought for a moment over how she should put this, then decided to just be forward.

R u busy this Sunday?

A second later, another buzz. No, I have off. Y?

Nick, Joseph, and I are gonna go ice skating. U wanna come? It'll be just like back home, except we'll be able to watch foxes faceplant into the snow. Judy let out a tiny giggle as she sent that one, prompting a raised eyebrow from her boyfriend.

This time, the phone was silent for almost two whole minutes. Judy was beginning to wonder if she'd made a mistake when the phone finally buzzed again.

Sounds fun! U wanna pick me up?

Sure, she responded, relieved. 11:30?

Sounds good. C u Sunday sis! With that, the conversation was over.

Nick looked expectantly at the doe on the bed. "Well?" he said.

"She's in," Judy said with a smile. She placed the phone back on the night stand, snuggling up to her sweetheart and getting back under the covers. "Nicholas Wilde, you are one devious fox."

"Not as devious as you, Fluff," Nick said with a chuckle. He then placed his paw on Judy's cheek, turning her eyes to gaze into his. The emerald fields of his irises held more tenderness than usual, making Judy's ears heat up involuntarily. "You managed to steal my heart without me even knowing."

Judy stared at her boyfriend. Damn, she thought slowly. How did he get so good at this?

She put her paws on Nick's cheeks, bringing his muzzle closer to hers. "Shut up and kiss me, you dumb fox."

Nick made no snarky reply; he merely did as he was told. He took Judy in his arms and rolled over so that his body was positioned directly above hers, a playful growl seeping from between his teeth as he pressed his lips firmly against those of his girlfriend. Every other thought and reality fled from the reynard's mind as Judy began ferociously nuzzling his neck, right on the spot where she felt his pounding heartbeat. As the two lovers sunk deeper into each other's embrace, neither gave a thought to the young fox down the hall…or his hypersensitive hearing.

They wouldn't be getting to sleep any time soon.

SCREEEEEEEEEECH.

The silver sedan skidded to a stop on the icy Tundratown road, all four mammals within having brief flashes of their lives go through their minds.

After a brief moment of regaining her breath, Judy gave her boyfriend a firm smack on the arm. "NICHOLAS PIBERIUS WILDE!" she yelled. "I told you that you need to start braking earlier when we're in Tundratown. That's the third time today you've almost ran a stop sign!"

"I had it under control, Carrots," Nick said from the driver's seat, although Judy's sensitive hearing caught his heart beating at a mile a minute. "I can't help it you distracted me."

"Oh, how did I distract you?" Judy said, still slightly fuming.

"You were trying to give me directions and were getting all flustered," the fox said with a smirk. "And when you get flustered you're really quite…" he leaned over to whisper the last word in Judy's ear. "…cute."

Judy slowly turned her head from the road to look into Nick's eyes. Her pupils were pinpricks in the amethyst pools of her irises.

"Don't," she said in a dangerously soft voice, "call me cute." The frightening calm in her voice caused the vulpine to lean as far back from her as he could, suddenly fearing for his life.

"Now," the rabbit said, her voice returning to its normal tone, "switch seats with me. I'm driving the rest of the way."

"Carrots!" Nick exclaimed in a wounded voice. "Are you implying that I am not capable of safely operating this vehicle?"

"YES, DEFINITELY," said two voices in tandem from the back seat.

Both Nick and Judy leaned past the back of their seats to look at the mammals in the back. Jamie and Joseph were seated side by side, their bodies rigid with fright, eyes staring straight ahead. Judy glanced down and, with the tiniest of smirks, noticed something else very interesting about their positions.

Their paws were laying on the seat between them, Jamie's fingers firmly gripping Joseph's as if they were a lifeline.

Nick let out an airy chuckle. "You two okay back there?" he asked, his eyes flitting to their entwined paws.

Both fox and bunny followed the path of Nick's gaze, and, seeing their paws clenched tightly together, immediately released their grip.

"Fine," Jamie said, frantically wiping her now-sweaty paw on her indigo parka. "Be better if we didn't have a crazy vulpine trying to smash us into a snowbank, though." Jamie glanced over at her friend, who had his eyes fixed on the paws in his lap.

"Joseph," Judy said, taking note of his silence, "you good?"

"Mm-hmm," Joseph said, quickly glancing up. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Judy gave the fox a friendly smile. She could tell that he was nervous being in such close proximity to her sister, and was now even more flustered by the fact that he'd just been involuntarily holding her paw.

Smitten as a kitten, Judy thought to herself.

For the last four days, Joseph had clearly been very anxious about the upcoming outing with Judy, Nick, and Jamie. When Judy had first told him the morning after she texted Jamie that the four of them would be going ice skating this Saturday, he had desperately tried to get out of it, insisting that he'd be fine on his own and had never skated before in his life. She'd quashed his response, however, telling him that Bogo still wanted him to be watched 24/7 for at least another week. Finally, Joseph had relented, wilting like a flower in his chair. Judy assured him that the outing would be fun.

Now, as Judy pulled into the parking lot right next to the ice-skating rink (having switched seats with Nick), she could hear Joseph's breathing begin to increase in pace. He was even more nervous about this double-date-but-not-a-double-date than she had thought. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, she thought. Then she rapidly shook the thought from her head. Joseph had been cooped up either in the house or the cruiser almost the whole time he'd been in Zootopia, and he didn't even have a real life for two years before that. He needed to get out and have some fun—whether he liked it or not.

Judy put the car in park and hopped out, circling around to the back to grab the ice skates out of the trunk. Nick joined her, lifting out an insulated picnic basket that contained cookies, cups, and a thermos full of Judy's home-made hot chocolate.

Hearing the other two car doors shut, Judy looked up to see Joseph coming towards her. "You guys are gonna have to help me out here," he said, a nervous chuckle in his voice. He picked up his designated pair of skates and said, "I've never even put a pair of these things on before."

"Don't look at me," Nick said sarcastically. "I've got about as much experience ice skating as Carrots has driving trains."

"Hey!" his partner said, indignant. "I think I did alright."

"The train crashed and exploded, Carrots. And it took most of the evidence with it."

"If I recall correctly, it was you who tipped the car over. I was hanging off the front drop-kicking a ram."

"Fair point," Nick said, trying to undo the laces on his skates. "Anyway, Joseph, you're not the only one here with no experience."

"Well, at least I won't be alone in my humiliation," the fox said. This comment elicited a slight giggle from Jamie, who was sitting on a nearby bench on the edge of the rink, already lacing up her skates. The sound sent a sudden swarm of butterflies through Joseph's stomach.

Stop it, he thought to himself, hoping that his face didn't betray his emotions. Bad bad BAD. BAD FEELINGS. GO AWAY. He then made his way over to a bench a few feet from the one Jamie was sitting on, sat down, and began to put on his skates.

Jamie looked at the vulpine with a slightly wounded expression. Does he not want to sit next to me? she thought. He had seemed kind of distant in the car. Jamie hoped she hadn't already spoiled their budding friendship with the kiss she'd planted on his cheek a couple weeks ago. She'd just wanted to show him that she cared about him, even after only knowing him for a few hours. Now she wondered if she hadn't just made things awkward between them.

Jamie looked over at Joseph. He'd managed to get his skates on, but was clearly struggling in trying to tie them.

"You need some help, Joseph?" she asked.

Joseph looked up, then immediately back down. "Yeah," he said quietly. He was suddenly grateful that he now had orange fur, which covered the blush rising in his cheeks. "I'm just not used to…" he held up his paws. "These."

The rabbit gave him a gracious smile. "Here, let me help," she said, and, as if she had been doing it her whole life (which she pretty much had) she stood up and skated over to Joseph, coming to rest in a kneeling position just before him. She immediately began to tie the laces at his feet.

Now Joseph was very thankful for the orange fur. He looked down at Jamie, who was concentrating on his skates, and noticed an orange blur behind his legs. He realized that it was his tail, wagging back and forth involuntarily through a space in the bench. He immediately stopped it, though it took him a moment-he was still getting used to the appendage.

"There ya go!" Jamie said, rising from the ground in one swift motion. "Now you're all set to skate."

"I guess we'll see," Joseph said.

"You guys ready?" he heard Judy ask from a bench a few feet to the right. Like her sister, she was standing naturally on the skates, while her fox sat nervously on the bench.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Joseph stated. He and Nick both tried to get up at the same time, and both foxes none too gracefully slipped back onto their respective benches, unable to get up.

Judy cast a sly glance to her sister. "Foxes," she said with a roll of her eyes. She reached down and grabbed her boyfriend's arm, hauling him to his feet and letting him lean on her.

"Thanks, Carrots," he said.

"Oh, don't thank me yet," came the snarky reply as she pulled him onto the rink.

Jamie turned back to the fox on the bench. "Ready?" she said, holding out her paw in a gesture of aid. After hesitating for a moment, Joseph took it.

"Sure am," he said, trying to sound confident.

"Good, let's go!" said the rabbit, and swiftly pulled him out onto the ice.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" he said, desperately trying to stay upright. "Slow down a little. I've never done this before, remember?"

"Don't worry, Joseph," the doe said. "As long as you've got me, you won't fall." She cast a sweet glance at him that made Joseph's heart throb.

"Thanks," he managed to choke out.

She was right, for a while at least. Both the bunnies were teaching their respective foxes the basics of skating: how to stand upright, how to move forward and back, and so on. Joseph did fine as long as Jamie held onto his arm, but Nick could barely seem to go a whole minute without falling on his tail, a fact which the others found hilarious.

"Laugh it up, fuzzball," Nick said as Judy helped him up from his sixth fall in five minutes. "Your time will come."

"I'm sure it will," Joseph said with a smirk, standing almost completely on his own now. "I just hope doesn't keep on coming like yours seems to be."

Nick let loose a low, sarcastic growl, but he was glad that the kit seemed to be enjoying himself. Over the last two weeks, Nick had gotten the sense that Joseph wasn't the kind of person that really smiled much—or really ever had a reason to.

Jamie dragged Joseph away from the pair, ready to teach him another lesson. "Okay, Joseph, I think it's about time you skated on your own now."

Joseph's head swiveled rapidly towards the bunny, a look of fear dawning in his eyes. "Okay, just hold on a second—" he said nervously.

"Nope!" Jamie said with a hysterical laugh. She grabbed Joseph's other paw and began to spin him in a circle. She found the look of trepidation in his amber eyes highly amusing.

"Rabbit," he said, "whatever you do, do not let go!"

"I'm gonna let go!" she said in a sing-song voice.

"No, you—WHAT?!"

"One," Jamie counted, delighted by the panicked look in Joseph's eyes. "Two."

"No, no, no, no-" Joseph stuttered in terror.

"THREE!" Jamie shouted, releasing her hold on Joseph's paws, letting him go flying across the ice.

"No no no no RAAAABBBIIIIT!" Joseph yelled as he went skidding across the icy surface, somehow managing to stay upright, but having no way to stop himself. Jamie had made sure that she had let him go in a position that would land him right in an elephant-sized pile of fluffy white snow on the edge of the rink. It was into this small mountain that Joseph presently crashed, releasing a loud "oomph!" as his body disappeared into the powdery mound.

Nick, now back on his feet, simply stared at Jamie, beginning to wonder if all the Hopps children were as sly as his own girlfriend.

"Is it just me, or did that really remind you of a little adventure we had on Vine and Tujunja?" he asked, purposefully mispronouncing the name.

"It's Tu-hung-ga," Judy said, thinking back fondly to the event. "And yes, it did. After all, that was the first time I saved your life."

"For which I am eternally grateful," Nick said, leaning down and planting a kiss on Judy's head, just between her ears. Looking up, he saw that Judy's sister was slowly making her way towards the snow pile that now contained Joseph Solomon. Seeing an opportunity, Nick placed his paw on Judy's chin, lifted her face to look at him, and pressed his lips to hers.

A shiver passed through Judy's body. After a nearly half-hour drive to Tundratown, she was more than happy to have a little affection.

Nick pulled away from the kiss, but left his nose resting against that of his partner. "Love you, sly bunny," he whispered tenderly to her.

"Love you too, dumb fox," she replied, and placed a parting peck on his lips. That small amount of bunny love was apparently too much for the fox, as his feet slid out from under him and he once again fell to the ice, eliciting a giggle fit from Judy.

After both of them had regained their composure and Judy had helped Nick back to his feet, they skated over to the snow mound where Jamie was standing, trying to hold in her laughter as she looked at the defeated, half-buried fox within. Only his feet, paws, and the tip of his muzzle were visible.

"You okay in there, Joseph?" she managed to say.

The fox's muzzle opened, barely managing to speak through the snow cascading into his mouth. "I have fallen, and I choose NOT to get up!"

"Oh, come on, Joseph!" Jamie said, beginning to dig him out. "We haven't even been here fifteen minutes and you're already giving up?"

"Yep," the fox said, finally pushing his face out of the mound of fluff. "I'm made of three different species, and I'm pretty sure that none of them evolved to fly around on the ice."

"See, Carrots? He gets it," Nick said, earning him a punch in the arm from Judy. She meant it to be gentle, but Nick's pained "ow" told her that she needed to learn her own strength.

"Oh, it's just one fall," Jamie said, freeing her friend from his chilly prison. She stood him up and dusted the snow off of his shoulders. "Besides, why do we fall?"

A confused look passed over Joseph's face. "Um, so that bunnies can laugh at our pain?"

Jamie gave him a smile and a gentle poke in the shoulder. "So that we can learn to pick ourselves up," she said.

Joseph simply stared at the rabbit for a moment. The comment, however small, had struck a chord inside him—he just wasn't sure which one.

"Okay," Jamie said after a few seconds, a peppy look returning to her face. "Ready to keep skating?"

"Oh, no," Joseph said, leaning on the rabbit as he still couldn't manage to stand upright. "I think I've had quite enough of this little adventure."

"Joseph, come on!" Jamie said, getting just the tiniest bit frustrated with the fox's stubbornness. "You haven't had fun in like, two years, try to let loose a little!"

The bunny then did something that surprised everyone present, including herself. She grabbed Joseph's right paw in her left, dragged him out onto the ice, and began to sing to him.

"I can show you the world," the bunny belted out,"shining, shimmering, splendid! Tell me, Joey, now when did you last let your heart decide?"

At the moment, said heart couldn't seem to decide whether it wanted to fly through his chest or stop completely. Hearing Jamie's angelic singing voice, coupled with the fact that she had just called him "Joey", had caused the fox's brain to cease all function. He was all but limp as the bunny dragged him around the rink, continuing to sing.

"I can open your eyes, take you wonder by wonder, over, sideways and under on a magic ice skate ride!"

Judy stared at her sister in shock. Was she actually singing the love song from Aladdingo to a guy she'd known for two weeks? Maybe Joseph's not the only one who's got it bad, she thought.

"A whole new world! A new fantastic point of view! No one to tell us no, or where to go, or say we're only dreaming…" Jamie stared with delight at the shocked look on Joseph's face as she continued to sing, spinning the both of them in a gentle circle. It was really quite…adorable.

Joseph, meanwhile, was still trying to regain his higher cognitive functions, which, looking back, he thought might explain why he did what he did next.

Joseph had never thought himself to be particularly brave. Sure, he'd come through some incredibly dangerous situations, but he'd mostly gotten out of those thanks to his fight-or-flight instinct. He'd never in his life done anything especially daring. That was what made what he did next either the bravest, or stupidest, thing he'd ever done.

He started to sing along.

"A whole new world!" the fox belted out involuntarily, a look of almost childlike joy splitting his face into a smile. "A dazzling place I never knew! But when I'm way out here, it's crystal clear, that now I'm in a whole new world with you." The words came naturally, as the film they came from had been one of Joseph's favorites growing up. His heart soared once again when Jamie continued the song without skipping a beat, responding to his line with "Now I'm in a whole new world!"

Well, no turning back now, Joseph thought as his brain began to work again. Might as well go through with it.

"Unbelievable sights!" he sang, now spinning in a steady circle with the rabbit, suddenly having no problem skating. "Indescribable feeling! Soaring, tumbling, freewheeling through an endless diamond sky! A whole new world…"

"Don't you dare close your eyes..." Jamie continued.

"A hundred thousand things to see…"

"Hold your breath, it gets better…"

"I'm like a shooting star, I've come so far, I can't go back to where I used to be." As Joseph sang that line, he was surprised by how true it was. As he looked into Jamie's sky-blue eyes, and those unwanted feelings once again rose up in his chest, he knew that, in just two short weeks, this bunny had changed him for good. Although it had been Nick and Judy who had made him feel like he belonged, it was Jamie who was now showing him how it felt to be really and truly happy—for the first time in his life.

The pair continued the song to the end of the song, each gradually pulling the other closer to themselves without even knowing it. To Nick and Judy, who stood about ten feet away watching them, it seemed as if the two were completely oblivious to everything around them, completely pulled into their own whole new world.

Nick slowly leaned down to Judy's ear and whispered two words into her ear.

"Told ya," he said.

The doe responded with a half-hearted shove to Nick's chest, but said nothing, her eyes still fixed on the scene before her as one side of her face lifted up in an involuntary smirk. As Joseph and Jamie finished the song with the line "For you and me," they stood still on the ice. The two were now almost completely wrapped in each other's arms, their muzzles only inches apart (though Judy thought they'd probably be closer if Jamie hadn't been about half Joseph's height). They were silent, only looking into each other's eyes.

Oh, sweet cheese and crackers, Judy thought. They're gonna kiss.

She really thought they would have, too, if the pair's reverie had not been broken by the sound of slow, sarcastic clapping emanating from Nick's paws.

"Bravo, you two!" the fox said, a coy smirk splitting his face. "So, I'm guessing you'll have an Ara-bunny Nights-themed honeymoon, right?"

The comment brought Joseph back to reality. Realizing the position that he and Jamie were in, he tried to quickly back away, forgetting that he was balancing on two knives on a sheet of ice. As a result, his feet slid out from under him, knocking Jamie's feet out of the way as well, sending both mammals tumbling to the ground. Joseph landed on his back, his tail pinned underneath him, while Jamie landed on top of the fox, her involuntary grip on the front of his coat causing her to land with her legs straddling his abdomen. The force of the fall propelled her face forward, and her muzzle connected with Joseph's with a tiny smack.

As Joseph lay there on the ice with Jamie on top of him, he could have sworn that he was on the surface of the sun with all the heat that was flooding through him. For a moment, time seemed to stop, and he was frozen in place with the bunny straddling him. As the fox looked up into her amazingly sky-blue eyes and felt the pressure of her paws on his chest as she tried to right herself, he felt a flash of dark fire ignite in his chest, spilling over into his limbs and singeing every nerve ending in his body. He felt suddenly lightheaded as a flood of endorphins cascaded through his brain, causing his heart to pound and his breathing to accelerate as a torrent of thoughts flooded his mind.

The young fox was brought out of his fiery stupor by the sound of Nick roaring with laughter. He had fallen to the ice in a fit of mirth, laughing his tail off at the sight of the two mammals lying prone on the ice. "I guess they don't want to wait for the honeymoon, eh, Carrots?" he choked out through the laughter.

"Nick, shut up," Judy said in a not-so-quiet whisper, and aimed a tiny kick at the fox's ribs, making sure not to hurt him this time.

Across the rink, both Joseph and Jamie were struggling to get up off the ice. Jamie managed to rise in just a few seconds, her cheeks and ears burning so much she thought she might accidentally melt the rink. Joseph, on the other hand, was floundering around on all fours on the ground, desperately trying to right himself as his head buzzed with fire.

Jamie, coming out of her shell of embarrassment, deftly leaned down and helped the fox to his feet.

"Thanks," he mumbled, worried that the fur on his face would soon catch fire from the blush beneath. "S-sorry about that."

"S'fine," Jamie said, avoiding eye contact. "It's all fine."

"Yeah," Joseph said. "Fine."

"Well," Nick said, back on his feet with his purple-eyed bunny holding tight to his arm, "if you two lovebirds are done with your musical, maybe we could continue skating?"

"Sure," the fox and bunny said in unison.

"So, what do you wanna learn next?" Jamie asked, still trying to avoid eye contact.

Joseph had to gulp before he spoke. "Um, how about we just keep it simple?" he said, a frosty breath of laughter escaping his lips. "I don't know how many more falls my tail can handle."

"Sounds good," she said, finally meeting his eyes. She was somewhat surprised to see nervousness and…was that excitement? "Let's go," she said, pulling him back out onto the ice.

As Nick and Judy watched the two skate away once more, Judy heard her boyfriend whistle the beginning of a familiar tune. The song immediately began to play in her head.

Tale as old as time…

Sixty feet in the air, at the top of a massive pine tree several yards away from the rink, a rabbit with ash-grey fur and eyes the color of gunmetal shook his head in disgust.

Repulsive, the rabbit thought. It's not enough that those foxes have the nerve to touch my kind, but they actually LET them? What has this world come to?

Ivan Karatov was almost always sickened by romantic displays, but to see it between two different species—and between two rabbits and their most hated rivals, at that—made him want to slice those foxes' skins off and make them into rugs. Well, more than he already did on principle, anyway.

"Calm down, Ivan," the rabbit whispered to himself. "You have a job to do." His steely eyes once again scanned the area below him, focusing on the fox that had been singing. That can't be him, he thought. He's a kit. There's no way he could have done that to that marmot.

Despite his doubts, his employer had assured him that this fox, a fox that was constantly with Hopps and Wilde, was the one responsible for the massacre in the alley last week, despite what the ZPD had said. And this was the only fox he'd seen with them.

He decided to notify the boss. He retrieved his phone from the bag at his side, made sure it was silenced, and dialed the boss's number. He answered on the third ring.

"What?" said the voice on the other end.

"It's Karatov," the rabbit said quietly in his thin Russian accent, "I have eyes on the target." His paw reached again into his bag, closing around the handle of the silenced pistol within. "Shall I terminate?"

"No, not yet," came the reply. "If you're certain it's him, wait 'til they leave and then get out of there. I've got a much more…entertaining idea for how to deal with this thing." The rabbit could hear the sneer in his boss's voice.

"May I ask what that is, sir?" said Karatov.

The voice on the other end of the line explained it to him.

A wicked smirk crossed the rabbit assassin's muzzle. "Otlichno," he whispered in Russian. "Excellent. You truly have the mind of an artist, sir." Karatov was glad that he had finally found an employer with a sense of style. It was a refreshing change of pace from the power-hungry brutes who so often required his services. "When?"

"At the next available opportunity," replied his employer. "Tail them for as long as you have to. At the first chance you get, if all three are close together and out in the open, do it. And try to make sure there are people around. I want it to be a public spectacle."

"Thy will be done," Karatov said, and snapped the phone shut.

Karatov carefully placed the phone back in his bag and stared down at the mammals below. "Teper'ya stal smert'yu," the murderous lagomorph intoned, "razrushitelem lis." Now I am become death, the destroyer of foxes.

The assassin sat back against the trunk of the great pine and smiled to himself. For soon, he would see the blood of Zootopia's greatest heroes flow freely through the streets and down the gutter where it belonged.