Late afternoon, they sat leaning against a tree together. Sharing a box of homemade cookies. The festival was still happening not far away but the couple was interested in getting away from it for a while. Judy pulled out her book and started reading again. Once in awhile she would absently reach into the box for a cookie. Sometimes that sneaky fox of hers would kiss her cheek, then quickly steal the cookie from her paw. She starting bringing another cookie up, then Nick gave his tell that he was preparing to steal it. Right as he went to kiss her cheek, she turned her head and he caught her lips instead. To him this was much better than any cookie. After parting she gave him a sly grin.
"Sly bunny," he laughed.
"Dumb fox," she teased.
"You know you love me," he replied.
"Do I know that? Yes, yes I do," she answered gazing into his eyes, "But I also know you love me."
Meanwhile, a ways off from the tree in question, a different pair of rabbit and fox was having a conversation.
"I fully agree, ma'am," offered Jack suavely, sneering as he made a wide sweep of his paw in general direction of revelers, "It is quite abominable what they permit to happen here. Why, I even heard there are interspecies couples in attendance, imagine that?"
"What? You mean to say they actually encourage this… this… deviancy? Oh, for… I thought the organizers were merely negligent when I found there was no separate area for predators, but this… this is simply intolerable. Think of the children! Why do they have to be exposed to such filth?" an aging vixen agreed, wrinkling her nose as she inched further away from a young, and in her opinion far too energetic gaggle of young rabbits swinging the damnable cotton candy all around.
"Mm, yes indeed. An to think two of them are even the members of Zootopia police force. To think we`ve all sunk so low as to forget the noble principles of staying apart while working together," the striped rabbit agreed readily, "Poor Wildes and poor Hopps. They must have been ashamed to show up for this festival. I couldn't find any of them around."
"...Wilde, you say? A thousand apologies, my good fellow, but I've just recalled an important business to handle nearby. It was a pleasure to meet you, Mr…" she left the sentence hanging, clearly disinterested in rabbit`s name as she quickly made her way towards the tree with the tell-tale orange fur well-visible from afar near it.
"...Savage, my good woman," he offered to her back, "Jack Savage, and it was truly a grand convenience to make your acquaintance."
A short time later, they heard someone approach.
"Nicholas Piberius Wilde!" she stated sternly.
Nick sighed and started getting up.
"Gimme' a minute Carrots, I'll be back," he told her.
He followed his aunt a fair distance away from the festival.
"I'm very disappointed in you Nicholas!" she scolded, "A rabbit. Really, Nick? I was hoping it`s not true, but you are truly determined to break your mother`s heart, aren't you?"
"Here we go," Nick sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Don't you roll your eyes at me, young man!" she griped.
"Aunt Sarah, I'm a full-grown todd! I can make my own decisions and I don't need your approval!" he argued.
"What would your father say!?" she argued back.
"Dad's already met her, and he likes her!" Nick retorted, "I won't accept some bigoted excuse like purism to decide who I shouldn't be with! I love her, plain and simple! Why can't purists like you just deal with it?! It doesn't even have anything to do with you aside from the fact that you happen to my dad's sister!"
"Because you seem to be quite intent on ruining your life by yourself," she tossed in his back acidly, "I guess your parents were wrong about you turning your life around. You're still just as determined to be a scoundrel and a shame to the family as ever."
Nick didn't bother turning around. She didn't say anything he wasn't expecting to hear from her anyways. "Some mammals just can't learn new tricks," he murmured sardonically, as he made his way back towards the tree where he left Judy.
"Did she wander off? I told her I'd be right back," he thought.
Nick turned around and leaned against the tree. Turning his senses on high-alert to see if he could pick out Judy's scent. Sure enough there it was, he began to follow her scent. More than a few rabbits caught sight of him and wondered if he had gone savage. His normally calm and gentle green eyes were focused. A focused predator could be a scary thing to a lot of prey animals but there was a reason Nick was focused.
"Judy doesn't just wander off," he thought, "Not unless something's amiss."
He sped up, trusting his nose to guide him. It turned out his nose led him to the car parking. Where, much to his displeasure, he spied the familiar striped rabbit trying to stuff his girlfriend into a car. Nick didn't even pause to think about what he was doing, his body launching as in the training session in academy. Subdue a single opponent from behind, a basic exercise. He caught the flailing wrist and took a step forward, shouldering the rabbit over his knee onto the pavement. Another step, bend knee, press down, heep the kneepoint just above the waistline for best angle… And done.
"Would you kindly be still?" he suggested in oddly detached voice to the rabbit underneath, pushing his head into the pavement with his free paw, "You've pissed me off something fierce, you know. Better be still, unless you care to lose your shoulder joints permanently. Pure accident, you understand, shouldn't have had really resisted the arrest so much."
Judy rolled over, sitting up awkwardly. She took a look at Nick, at Jack, then nudged her partner with her foot, nodding at the bag of zip ties spilling out of Jack`s pocket. Nick caught the hint, taking a few of them to bind the striped rabbit by hands and feet.
"You alright, partner?" he offered angrily, as he found a knife in the car and cut the ziptie on Judy`s wrists, letting her move her arms at last. Judy grumbled incoherently.
"Bloody prick got a jump on me," she groused, turning away from the whole scene and stomping her foot, "For crying out loud, do I have trouble written on my forehead or something!?"
"Wouldn't surprise me, fluff," Nick jested. Which earned him an elbow from her.
The sheriff approached.
"What's goin' on here!? I got several folks scared outta' their minds that a fox 'round 'ere's gone savage. Mind explainin' yourself, son?" the sheriff asked.
"My boyfriend here had to talk to a relative about something, when he walked off my ex who's tied up in the car behind us, caught me napping and tied me up. Then he dragged me to his car and tried to force me into it. This was an attempted kidnapping that my boyfriend thwarted. If you're really a cop, you'll arrest that rabbit so I can press charges!" Judy explained.
The sheriff had a look that said that he couldn't believe a rabbit, especially Judy Hopps, was dating a fox but attempted kidnapping was a serious charge. Jack started coming to as the sheriff and the deputy were loading him into the sheriff's car. Nick turned his attention back to Judy as the deputy drove off.
"Are you ok, Judy?" he asked.
"I'm fine, Nick. Obviously, he didn't wanna' hurt me otherwise he would've," she replied.
That didn't do much to console Nick, he swept her up into his arms. She could hear him whimpering as he held her.
"I was so scared that I'd lose you," he whimpered.
Judy couldn't think of anything else to do beside hold him in return.
"You're my everything, Judy," he told her.
"I'm sorry Nick," she stated, trying to comfort him.
It took them a bit to realize the sheriff was still standing there.
"Ma'am, hate to interrupt but whenever you're ready t' make a statement," he commented.
"Right, sorry sheriff," she said pulling away from Nick.
The sheriff prepared his notepad and pen. Another carrot pen/voice recorder just like Judy's. Nick wondered if Judy and the sheriff might be related, he certainly looked like he might be an uncle.
"Right, like I said earlier, my boyfriend, Nick, and I were leaning against a tree just outside the festival. We had a moment to ourselves before his aunt, who lives in town, asked to speak with him. I dozed off waiting for him to come back. When I woke up, the culprit, who happens to be my ex-boyfriend, had me tied up and gagged and was trying to stuff me into his car. Thankfully, Nick caught up with us and knocked him out then tied him up and stuffed him into the backseat of his car," Judy explained.
"Your boyfriend's car or your ex-boyfriend's car?" the sheriff asked.
"Ex-boyfriend's," she answered.
"Alright, that should be enough to put the kid away for a while. And on a personal note, I'm glad you're ok Judy," he told her with a sigh of relief.
He looked to Nick and extended a paw. "Terry Velvatine, Bonnie Hopps is my younger sister," he introduced. "Uh Nicholas Wilde," the fox replied, shaking the sheriff's paw.
"Ya' did good son, I don't like the thought of any family o' mine bein' abducted but as sheriff I gotta' give ya' a warnin'. Don't go scarin' folks around here no more, folks 'round here are a might skittish o' preditor folk. Ain' sayin' preds ain' welcome here, we got the Grey family and them Foxglove sisters and some other pred families about but be mindful how other folks 'round here might see ya'," Terry replied.
He looked to Judy tipped his hat to both of them with a friendly smile and walked back to his cruiser.
"I thought you were the first bunny cop?" Nick asked.
"A small town sheriff is a far cry from a big city cop, besides Uncle Terry was just a firefighter before I left town," she answered.
"I'm sorry Judy," he apologized.
"Why?" she asked.
"It's my fault you were nearly kidnapped, if I hadn't gone off on my own-..." he started.
"Shut up, Nick. None of this is your fault. You wanted to catch up with family. Jack is a possessive ass and this time he went too far and karma kicked him for it," she replied, "Don't let what Jack's done reflect on you. Then you'll feel the need to change and if you change too much, you might not be the Nick Wilde I fell in love with."
"I promise, no matter how much I might change, I'll always be your Nick," he replied.
This kiss was filled with more emotion that most of their others, a reassuring embrace letting them both know how much they needed each other. After parting they returned to the festival. They held paws as they walked back. A lot of other animals at the festival were nervous when they saw Nick but to his surprise Stu Hopps got between him and the near panicked townspeople.
"Easy folks. I know ya'll are nervous about Nick but he's been a real gentleman to my family. I know he gave us all a good scare but my daughter, Judy, trusts him with her life. So I think he deserves a second chance. Besides, this boy's no stranger, he's Gideon Grey's cousin," Stu defended.
Gideon's reputation in town had changed a lot since he was a kit. To Judy's surprise, his reputation as an adult was more in the direction of a big softie. Even the sheep that Judy was friends with as a girl were friends with Gideon these days. That reminded Judy of something she had forgotten to ask Gideon about. After the crowd died down and everyone in town seemed to relax around Nick, Judy led him to Gideon.
"Hey Gideon, there's something I've been meaning to ask you about," Judy started.
"Happy t' help Judy, what's up?" he replied.
"Whatever happened to Travis?" she asked.
"Well y'see after th' whole Carrot Festival thing 'bout 20 years back his parents sent him off t' military boardin' school. Said they weren't raisin' no thug," he explained, "He came 'n visited after graduation, said he was gonna' study t' be a doctor. When 'e tol' me 'bout how hard boardin' school was I blamed m'self an' told 'im I was sorry. Know what 'e said? He said, if yer sorry then change yer ways Gideon, don' live yer life the same bitter ol' cuss ya' always been as a boy. He tol' me 'e believed I could be a better man and 'cause 'e believed in me I gave it m' best. Still tryin' too."
With that explained Judy started leading Nick away.
"Uh Judy, wait a sec! Sumthin' I gotta' say. Ain' easy t' say it, 'specially with Nick standin' right 'ere with us," Gideon started, "But it's sumthin' I gotta' say or I'll spend th' rest o' m' life regrettin' that I didn' say it. Judy, I love ya' same way Nick does but I ain' Jack so I want what makes you happy. If Nick makes ya' happy, then all th' best ya'll! But tellin' ya' this makes me feel like I'm th' worst cousin in th' world t' Nick."
"You are most certainly not the worst cousin in the world, Gid! Just because we happened to have both fallen for the most amazing rabbit in the world doesn't mean that you're a horrible cousin! In fact, I'm lucky to have a selfless guy like you as a cousin and as a friend!" Nick lectured.
"Nick's right! I'm glad you told me all of this, Gideon. I'm sorry I can't return your feelings but I hope we can still be friends," Judy replied.
"Thanks ya'll, means a lot t' me that ya'll're still willin' t' be friends with me," he stated tearing up.
Once again, Judy was about to lead Nick away then she turned to Gideon.
"Will you join us for the Carrot Festival, Gideon?" she asked.
"Nope, better if I don'," he answered.
"Are you sure? I'm planning to ask the Foxgloves to join us, maybe we'll leave the festival and go swimming in Oresoren's Creek," she offered.
"Well, that don' sound too bad, lemme' know if ya'll do that I'll join ya' then. But I got lots t' do, so I'll talk t' ya'll later," he answered.