"Wow." Little Peter didn't really know what else to say to the story that his parents had just told him.

"Yep. Been through thick and thin, and even thinner," Nick remarked with a slight smile on his face. He looked over to Judy, where she was openly smiling right back to him. Then she turned back to look at her son.

"Life was undeniably hard on us many times, sometimes it even felt like the majority of the time." She shook her head slightly. "But I don't regret any second of any of that pain; it's because we lasted through it that we have you, Lucy, and Grayson with us today. And I wouldn't trade any of you kids for the world."

Peter could see his mom's lower lip starting to tremble a little bit, and he knew how emotional she could get. Hopping down from his chair he walked over to her and leapt into her arms where she hugged him tightly.

"We love you Peter, and don't you ever forget it," she said softly, and Peter spotted his dad give an agreeing nod. There wasn't anything that hadn't been said already, so Nick remained silent.

Once it seemed like everything was in a stable enough place, Grayson gave a small chuckle. "Man, if I'd known you wanted stories about mom and dad's life, I would have told you about how he proposed to her. I still laugh about that one"

Peter's ears shot straight up, and he turned towards his brother. "Really? He proposed to her?"

Nick raised an eyebrow. "Why do you sound so surprised?"

His son shrugged. "Well, I guess I always just assumed that mom proposed, since she's the boss of you two." Nick was about to protest that she was definitely not the boss of him, but he caught one sly glance from his wife, and shut his mouth. Who was he kidding, of course she was.

"That's what I thought," she muttered jokingly.

That aside, Peter looked at his brother again. "So can you?"

Grayson grinned. "You're gonna like this one."

Nick looked around ,their (rather small) apartment, which he'd finished cleaning nearly twenty minutes ago. The movie had been placed in the TV opposite of the length side of the bed, the popcorn was cooked and ready to eat in a bowl he'd poured it into, and the little secret he'd hidden in it was just waiting to be seen.

Tonight was the night.

He'd used up one of his vacation days he'd gotten from work just to prepare all this. He and Judy had been together long enough now, they'd been stable on their own for nearly a year, and he'd made up his mind. No more running away, no more trying to escape. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with that bunny.

He heard a key in the lock of the door, and smiled. That would be Judy coming home from work.

With a creak, the door opened and his favorite bunny walked through, a smile on her face at seeing the preparations he'd made. "Wow, this looks nice! Who are you, and what have you done with Nick Wilde?"

He rolled his eyes at her. "Very funny, Carrots. Y'know, I did have to live on my own for a few years. It's not like I don't know how to clean up a place."

She smirked, and began to change out of her clothes. He averted his eyes to be polite, but it's not like they hadn't seen each other before. It was just a matter of courtesy.

After a minute or so, she'd changed into some more casual clothes she'd grabbed from the dresser. "Alright, so what's the movie?"

"Reservoir Dogs."

She gave a small chuckle. "I thought you didn't like cop movies."

"Technically, there's only two cops in it; the focus is on the crime lords," he said, winking at her, "which you know I happen to have experience with."

"Well, you got me there. Put it on."

They sat on her bed, eating popcorn and watching the story unfold on the TV screen. He looked over at her while he shoveled another handful of popcorn into his mouth. Any minute now, she'd find the ring in the popcorn bowl and stare at him in utter astonishment. He couldn't wait to see the look on her face when those adorable purple eyes looked to him to see if it was really happening-

Something foreign entered his throat, and he began to choke loudly. Judy looked at him worriedly. "Are you okay?!"

He felt something hard and metallic stuck in his esophagus, and he knew exactly what had happened.

He was choking on the ring.

He motioned to his throat, indicating his predicament. She scrambled out of the bed, and moved behind him to assist. "Don't worry, I've got you!"

She began to (embarrassingly) perform the Heimlich maneuver, and after several good slams into his stomach, the ring came flying out of his mouth and landed on the floor.

"Maybe don't eat so fast next time, huh Slick?" she said with a smirk. Then she looked over to what had landed on the floor, and it almost looked like she'd stopped breathing.

"Is… is that…" She couldn't finish her sentence.

Nick walked over to his, massaging his throat, and then moved over to the sink where he rinsed it off.

"Well, I had a great plan and everything," he called over his shoulder, "but things never seem to pan out for me in that regard. I guess I wasn't paying attention to what I was eating."

The ring now clean, he walked back over to Judy. "Now that we've officially got an embarrassing story to tell people later on when they ask us, I'd like to do what I've wanted to do for quite a while."

He knelt down on one knee.

"Carrots, you found me as a broken fox, ready to give up on the world and any idea that there was good in it." He smiled. "I'm so glad you did, because the last few years I've spent with you have been the best years I've ever had, and I wouldn't trade one second of it for anything else."

He held out the ring. Her eyes followed his hand.

"Judith Laverne Hopps, will you marry me?"

There was only a single moment of silence as Judy's mind processed this new information before she leapt into him, wrapping him in as large a hug as she could manage. "Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!" Her words were pouring out of her mouth with the speed of a race car, and tears of joy were just visible in her eyes. He hugged her back; he knew that she would say yes, but that didn't diminish the moment in any way.

Suddenly, she froze. "How do you know my middle name?"

He grinned. "Had to call up your mom to find out. No wonder you kept it from me for so long; Laverne, really?"

She swore.

A/N: College is a time killer. Wanted to get this out for a while, sorry it's so short. Hoping to wrap this story up soon, until the next time!

-Matteoarts