"UGH!" Judy groaned loudly, startling the silence of their office. Nick didn't flinch. Something he'd learned pretty quickly from being around Judy was that his bunny partner was a firecracker of emotions and thoughts. They'd be silently working when she'd suddenly gasp or squeal, having discovered a new possible lead in their case. They'd be waiting in line for coffee when she'd suddenly jump up and down and tug on his tie, excitedly going on about how she knew exactly what they should get Chief Bogo for his birthday. To others, it was surprising, unpredictable. To Nick, it was just another thing he loved about working with her.
"What is it?" The fox asked, spinning around in his swivel chair to face her back. His paws were on his knees, and he smiled as he noted the way her ears perked up at the sound of his voice.
She didn't turn her chair to face him, instead staring at the massive pile of case files on her desk in front of her. "I've been trying to pin down this perp in this robbery case," she sighed, lowering her head onto her desk, "And I have absolutely zero leads! I just can't stand the idea of someone out there, stealing from people and getting away with it! It burns me up! He's hit 3 convenience stores already, and we still don't even have a good surveillance photo of him!"
"You'll catch him," Nick said simply, shrugging his shoulders and lounging back in his chair. "Officer Toot-Toot always gets the job done."
That would get her attention. And indeed, she turned to look at him, eyes narrowed but a smile curving her mouth. "Don't call me that!" She insisted, but as much as she tried to sound angry, Nick could still hear the light laughter in her voice. "Thanks to you calling me that during our last visit to the Burrows, my little siblings won't refer to me as anything else!"
"I guess Toot-Toot's becoming more infamous than I originally planned," Nick said, smiling mischievously. "Maybe we should change the sign on our door from Wilde/Hopps to Wilde/Toot. I'm sure that Bogo wouldn't mind changing your name ta—"
He was cut off by a crumpled wad of paper bouncing off his head.
"Dumb fox," Judy giggled, laughing at the bewildered expression on his face.
He sighed, relaxing back into his typical smirk. "I guess I earned that one."
"You're lucky we're still friends," Judy said, turning back around in her swivel chair.
Friends. Nick didn't think the word was supposed to sound so bitter, it never had before, but whenever Judy referred to him as one…
He thought back to that time a couple weeks ago, when they were both here, in their office, and Judy had been talking to her mother over the phone. "No, Mom!" She'd squeaked, cheeks flushed, and Nick hadn't been able to stop himself from listening. "I don't like anyone!…Nick?" Her voice had lowered then, and he'd sensed her turning to glance at him. "Nick and I are justfriends," she'd whispered, and Nick felt a weird lurching in his gut that made his ears flatten and his grip on his pencil grow tighter.
Or a month before that, when she'd gone on a date. It was with some hare, named Randy or Random or something, and afterwards, when it'd gone sour, Judy had invited Nick over to watch TV and eat some brownies she'd managed to make with her new convection oven (a feat she was extremely proud of). "Oh Nick," she sighed as they sat on the couch, resting her head against his shoulder. "I'm so happy we're friends."
…Needless to say, his positivity towards the word was wearing thin.
"Yeah," he now said lamely, but thankfully Judy didn't seem to notice his lack of proper retort.
She sighed, stretching out her arms before rubbing at her neck, wincing slightly. "Goodness, I'm so tired. I was up working all night on this case, and I think I strained something when we were chasing down that mongoose yesterday, my shoulders are so sore…"
He watched her try to knead her own shoulders, but her angle was awkward and it didn't look like it was helping much.
"Do you…" he cleared his throat, tugged on his collar. God, why was he so nervous? "Well…I mean…I could give you a massage?"
The bunny eyed him over her shoulder, eyes narrowed suspiciously. "No thanks. I don't need some excuse for you to try to tickle me or…karate chop me in the back."
"Why the hell would I ever karate chop you?"
"I dunno! My siblings, when we would give each other massages, they'd just run up from behind and — you know what, never mind. I'll be fine, it's just a little stiff."
"You know, you're really an awful liar, Carrots."
"Am not!"
He mimicked her sing-songy tone. "Are too."
"Well, not all of us can be as crafty and slick as the great Nicholas Piberius Wi — Oh, cheese and crackers Nick, that feels nice."
He'd crossed the space between their two desks while she'd been talking, paws going to her shoulders and rubbing gently. He watched as she relaxed underneath his touch, and as he pressed his thumbs into the small of her back, he was further reminded of just how small she was. "What can I say? I got the magic touch." He said cooly, trying to ignore the weird feeling growing in his chest.
"Oh, Nick, please just shut up and keep—" But then his paws got just the right spot, and she let out a small gasp and thumped her foot in approval.
He blamed the growing feeling in his chest on unexperienced nerves — after all, as close as the pair were, they didn't have physical contact often (disregarding the time she'd injured her ankle in the museum), not the lingering kind like this. She'd hug him goodbye sometimes, but it'd be quick. He'd nudge her or tickle her, but it would never last long enough to arise suspicion.
Judy was still trying to come up with a secret handshake for them, which she'd talked him into practicing during slow spots while patrolling in their cruiser. He secretly found it amusing to "forget" the steps and mess up on purpose, just to see her face scrunch up in that adorable way and to hear the cute frustrated sigh she'd emit, but most of all for the way she'd grab his paws and show him how to do whatever handshake she'd come up with that day. But even that wasn't like this — this, where they were so close and her fur was so soft and her ears were drooping in content and brushing against his paws and she was humming and moaning softly and—
He pressed harder into her back, shaking his head slightly. He needed to get himself under control. They were friends. Friends. And if that's what Judy wanted to be, Nick wasn't going to try and force her into anything else.
"Oh, Nick," Judy said, turning as much as she could to look at him over her shoulder. "I'm so glad—"
"Don't," Nick interrupted, and instantly regretted it. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Judy suddenly looked worried, and she frowned at him. "What?"
He stopped his ministrations, but didn't remove his paws from her shoulders. "I know we're friends, okay?" God, couldn't he just shut up?
She turned her chair to face him now, causing his paws to fall helplessly at his sides. "Nick, that's not what I was going to say," she said softly, and he had to avoid eye contact to stop himself from doing something even more stupid or running his mouth again.
Judy was stubborn though, almost as much as him, sometimes even more so. She leaned forward to tug on his tie, forcing him to kneel in front of her chair so that they were now at the same eye level. Then her paw was cupping his cheek and Nick had to grit his teeth to keep his emotions in check because God, Judy always knew how to make him crack.
"Nick, listen…"
Her pager went off then, causing yet another startle in their silence. She pulled away quickly, and it was a message from Bogo, saying that their robbery perp had just hit for the 4th time. They'd escaped in a stolen car, and the chief needed more officers in pursuit.
Judy had never looked more invigorated (okay, that was a lie, she had, many times, but at least not today). "We have to get to our squad car!" She gasped, hopping up from her chair and grabbing her things. "C'mon, Nick!"
He stood up, grabbed his shades off his desk, and slipped them on, ignoring the pestering part of him that kept wondering what she'd been about to tell him. "Nothing like a mid-afternoon high-speed car chase, am I right?" He said, smiling slightly when she grabbed his paw to tug him out the door.
She held his hand all the way to the parking garage, and, counting the time in the museum, it was the third-longest time they'd ever touched. Nick hated the way he kept track of dumb stuff like that, but it was becoming increasingly harder to stop. Every time they touched, every time he made her smile, every time he comforted her, he stored it away, calculating and planning all the different ways he could make it happen again. You're just being a good friend,he told himself. Just like she's just being a good friend to you.
It was the same thing he'd told himself that night on the couch, after her date, when Judy fell asleep in his arms, and she was snuggled up against and around him and Nick hadn't moved.
The same thing he'd told himself after Judy's call to her mom, when she'd found him in the break room making a coffee. "My Mom thought you and I were dating!" She'd explained, laughing at a slightly higher pitch than usual.
"She wouldn't be the first." He sipped from his coffee, smirking at her.
Judy blushed at that, for it was true. They'd recently discovered the ZPD had a betting pool for them and everything. "Can you imagine it?" She'd asked, leaning against the wall beside him. "Us? Dating?"
"It wouldn't be so bad," he shrugged, "I'm sure I could suffer through it."
It was a joke, a thing just for friends, something she wasn't supposed to know he might actually mean. But she laughed again, and Nick stored that away. Then she smiled shyly, looking right at him, and Nick felt his dumb fox heart filled with dumb emotional emotions skip a beat.
"I think I could too."
