Bonnie walked into the dining hall with a huge smile on her face, only for it to be wiped away instantly by the silence and a death stare from Judy.
"You knew about this?" Judy grumbled although she already knew the answer.
"Well… I might have had an idea, but…" Bonnie said shyly.
"A word." Judy growled cutting her mother off before stomping out of the room, leaving Nick alone with what felt like a thousand eyes staring at him.
Judy stood with her foot thumping waiting for her mother to catch up.
"You know how much I hate things like this! And how could you when nobody knows about me and Nick yet? I was going to tell them all but not like this!" She said, her ears burning with rage.
"I-I Just thought that it would be a good way to get it out in the open." Bonnie said, fidgeting with her paws
"Well it's certainly done that." Judy growled
"I'm sorry Judes, I was only trying to help you guys out." Bonnie sounded deflate. Nothing she did with or for Judy seemed to be right. She just couldn't understand how her daughter worked and it frustrated both of them.
"Look" Judy sighed, "I'm sorry Mom, I know you mean well but this." Judy waved her arms towards the dining hall. "This just isn't me, it's not how I do things. I hate being the centre of attention."
Bonnie seemed to understand where Judy was coming form and realised that she should have known better than to spring a surprise party on Judy but seeing as everyone was already here she thought that they might as well carry on with it.
"Everyone's here now and Nick is still inside, so come back in and try to enjoy it. At least for a little while then you can do whatever you guys do, I've heard foxes are quite a handful." Bonnie said in a very embarrassing way.
"Moooommmm." Judy blushed, it seemed that she would be spending a lot of the next week redder than Nick from her extremely embarrassing parents. That is if the other one ever decides to show up.
When they went back into the party Nick was stood amongst a sea of rabbits, answering question after question. Some sensible ones from the older ones like; "Where are you from?" "How did you meet Judy?" just to list a few. Whilst the younger Bunnies were asking why he was so fluffy and why his tail was so long. One of them was even clinging to it.
A young doe shouted up from the crowd. "Are you Judy's boyfriend?" Which was met with giggles from the kits and awkward looks from the older Rabbits.
"Well then… you will have to ask Judy about that." Nick said just as the door closed behind Bonnie and Judy. He looked around and saw Judy smiling back at him with Bonnie beside her. Judy was relieved that Nick had survived what must have been a landslide of young Bunnies never mind the fact that he was getting on well with most of her family.
"Auntie Judy is Nick your boyfriend?" said a chorus of young voices.
Judy couldn't help but laugh a little, she headed over to Nick and put her arm around him with her head resting against him. "Yes, yes he is."
Nick looked down at her and she rubbed her nose against his causing all of the kits to give a disgusted "eeewwwwww".
Nick gave her a quick squeeze and then the music started. The band which was made up of 2 of Judy's uncles and 2 of her cousins, all of them still living in the burrow started to play one of Nick's favourites. on a small pop up stage at one end of the dining hall. A smile spread across his face, if the night carried on like this, he was going to make sure they both enjoyed it.
It was almost midnight, both Nick and Judy were rather intoxicated when Nick heard the opening chords to another of his favourite songs and dragged Judy to the dancefloor. He didn't have to drag very hard, Judy was loving how relaxed he was and if he hadn't beaten her to it, it would be her dragging him because she knew that he knew every word to this song. It wasn't long before a small circle had formed around them, Nick singing in full voice was part of the reason but the way that they moved was the main factor, both of them were good dancers but Nick wouldn't have it said. He only did it either when they were alone or when he was very drunk, the latter being the case tonight. They managed to keep themselves in time but had the occasional stumble over a straw foot every now and then.
The song came to a close and Nick spun Judy into his arm both of them panting. The bunnies that had gathered around them clapped and cheered a little before going back to what they were doing. The band announced that they were going to have a break, and everyone cleared the dance floor to sit at the various tables around the room. Judy took Nick over to a table close to the door where Bonnie and some of Judy's closest aunties and uncles were sat.
"Hi everyone." Judy said as she pulled up two chairs one for her and one for Nick. Once she had said hello to the mammals, she hadn't met already she introduced everyone to Nick.
"Nick this is my uncle Ian, Mark and Grant. And auntie Julie, Kerry and Tracy." Each of them waving in turn. Everyone seemed very open to them and Judy assumed that her mother had had words with them, especially Mark. Judy fully expected him to be in camp taser Nick, but he stayed quiet.
"You two put on quite a show back there." Tracy said after they had all been talking for a while.
"Well, it is one of Nicks favourite songs." Judy said laughing at a memory that sprung into her mind.
"First time we danced was to this song, I couldn't keep up with him."
"You still can't keep up Carrots." Nick said with a cheeky grin.
"I'll have you know I am twice as fast as you." Judy shot back.
"Ok then since your so fast I'll race you to the drinks." Nick said with one eyebrow raised.
"No, don't be so silly Nick." Judy said unconvincingly.
"Fine then Just because you know I'll win." Nick said with a straight face.
"Come on then. 3-2-1-GO." Judy set off towards the table by the kitchen with the drinks on, leaving Nick sat at the table laughing at his own prank.
"I'll have another beer while you're there Fluff." Nick shouted over to her. The other buck rabbits at the table were laughing along with him while the does shook their heads at how immature males were.
"That's not fair." Judy shouted from the drinks table.
"It's called a hustle sweetheart." Nick chirped.
Judy was quite disappointed in herself for falling for another one of Nick's tricks, but it was one of the things she loved about him and it seemed to get a laugh from her uncles, which was a good thing. The more that Nick showed them all how good of a mammal he was the better. Still, she wasn't planning on letting him get away with it.
Judy popped the top off 2 bottles of beer and walked back over to the table handing one to Nick as she passed him. She went to sit beside him but as she did she tapped the base of her bottle on the top of Nicks causing it to fizz all over him. Nick just sighed, looked down at his wet lap and then looked disapprovingly at Judy.
"What? It's called a hustle sweetheart." Judy said, this time everyone at the table burst out laughing even Nick couldn't keep it in.
"I've trained you too well Carrots."