A/N: The response to this story is incredible. I'm thrilled you all are enjoying it so much. I hope this chapter keeps it that way for you all.

Disclaimer: When I need to be sly on the go, Nick appears on my dashboard. And when I need to break a few rules of the road to get where I'm headed, Duke goes up instead. And when the blue lights flash behind me, thats when Bogo gets up there and glares at me. These little figurines rock! Oh. Dawn's for road rage.

Chapter 14 - There's suspecting and there's knowing

Of the ancient mammals their species had evolved from, foxes retained possession of multiple abilities and traits that their ancestors had relied upon to survive. A heightened sense of smell allowed the smaller canines to seek out prey and avoid a run-in with larger predators. An apt description as Nick was currently sneaking along the upstairs hallway on his way to find his own prey girlfriend nestled in and waiting for him on the other side of the forest.

The problem was in those 'larger predators' known to him as Mom and Dad. While at seventeen he was already taller than his mom and just about the same height as his dad, as his parents they always seemed larger. And just as he had a stronger nose than most other mammals, they both came equipped with them as well. And as part of a nocturnal species, light sleeping habits at night was a common occurrence. To avoid being detected by his parents noses, Nick had turned on all of the hallway fans to stir up any scents that might give him away.

Keeping the house dark allowed the young tod to utilize another evolutionary throwback trait. Since most foxes tended to be active once the sun went down, they had developed night vision in order to hunt their prey in the evenings. Nick now used that same ability to avoid knocking into any loose objects set in the hall and especially near his parent's bedroom.

Unnerved by his mother's suspicions, Nick had waited longer than normal before setting out for the night. He still wasn't sure what had tipped her off though. Running into Judy at the stand wasn't enough of an occurrence for even his brilliant mother to deduce anything about their relationship. Judy was far too smart to give something away and she would have discussed it with him before revealing anything to their parents.

Reaching the stairwell landing he glared down at the offending planks of wood before him. He had learned early on in his nighttime excursions that several of the boards were slightly warped. During the day the resulting squeak of wood was barely noticeable. However, when the parents went to sleep and the house stilled, that unnoticeable squeak sounded like a flock of ducks parading around the second story. Approaching the banister he hoisted himself up and over, plummeting ten feet to the ground level.

Counting on his paw pads to absorb some of the shock, Nick bent his knees and fell to all fours. His nearly silent landing escaped his parents notice, however experience had taught him to be wary of his surroundings. Leaning back to under the stairwell, he reached and deftly caught a vase his mother kept on one of the bookshelves. It may have been a silent landing but the vibration was just enough to rattle the case just as it had done every night he had pulled that little maneuver.

Placing the vase back on the shelf, Nick straightened upright and began slowly stalking towards the back door. From where he had landed it was only a dozen or so steps compared to a much longer trip to the front entrance. Letting his foot pads carry him silently across the kitchen's hardwood flooring he placed his paw softly on the slightly loose handle of the inner door. It jiggled under the pressure but the rattle thankfully was muffled. It took great care for him to be quiet but his biggest challenge was still to come. Cracking open the back door and swinging it wide was not the problem, even with the loose metal threatening to clang about. It was the rusty hinges of the screen door in his way that would have been his undoing if he had not become so used to applying the necessary pressure at just the right areas over the past few months.

Once he had slipped past the house's passive wards and re-secured the door latches he was off into the night, becoming part of the darkness his kind used to hunt and live in. A few pale glimpses of the moon shining through the tops of the trees was his only light but with his eyes shining and nose leading the way he felt only exuberance.

Leaving the shrouded forest edge and making his way across the vast Hopps grounds had never been an issue. There was no sneakiness involved, nor any kind of deceptive tactic to evade notice. It was simply that the time of night he would come to visit his bunny was well past when most of the other rabbits in the burrow were in bed. A few times he had needed to hunker down into a crop or duck behind a tree to avoid the random mammal sneaking out of the house, but those instances were rare and never posed a problem for him. Rabbit ears were very sensitive but if he held still in one place they were effectively useless in noticing him. Not to mention that their eyes and ears would never truly settle on him in the first place. The darkness tended to bring out a lot of anxiety in bunnies so any does or bucks leaving after curfew were usually hasty to get from point A to point B and didn't want to see anything out of the ordinary.

Those were not for him to worry about that night. After all of his trips to visit Judy he had never once seen anyone sneaking out on a Sunday night. Rebellious teenagers they may be but they all still held enough fear of mom and dad to make sure they didn't oversleep on a Monday morning.

Lazily loping across the yard like the predator he was, Nick moved with a calm purpose. The path was so familiar to him that even if he had not been focused on his objective, his muscles would have taken him there anyways.

Once his sweeping eyes had given up their perimeter watch, Nick let the guard walls fall and he hurried forward without care if anyone saw him do it. It took only twenty strides and merely a few seconds, yet at the same time it felt to him like miles and days to cross the yard.

Staying just outside of the light pouring through her window, Nick crouched down on all fours and peered into Judy's room checking for any mammals besides the one he was looking for. It wouldn't do either of them any good for him to suddenly roll through the window and land at the feet of a shocked brother or sister, and especially not her father. Stu Hopps was known by all of the county as a very generous and softhearted individual. He never met someone he didn't feel deserved second chance. He was also known by reputation to use any of his many pointy farming tools to chase young boys from his daughters rooms. He didn't agree with his sons having company over either but he left that to their mother. Nick wasn't quite sure what kind of reception a fox would get being caught in the burrow but he for damned sure knew he didn't need any holes in his tail.

Seeing only a pair of long gray ears tipped fetchingly with black, Nick knew it was safe to approach. Though he was already smiling, the sight of Judy and how she was seated facing away from him at her desk turned the smile into a mischievous grin. A little sneaking before pouncing. My favorite.

Slowly the fox creeped forward, hind and forepaws touching the ground as lightly as possible so as not to give away any sound. He knew from experience that her hearing was practically legendary and that any false step would alert her immediately to his presence. His next objective would probably be the hardest. The window into Judy's and pretty much every other ground floor room was designed in such a way that it had to be unlatched from the inside in order to be opened. When the doe would head out at night she left a paperclip wedged into the latch area to prevent it from closing, but Nick did not have it that easy.

I wonder if Finnick would be proud of me or laugh at my stupidity for this, Nick thought while pulling a small nylon pouch from his back pocket. Flipping it open, the fox let his gaze rove over several slim hooked tip picks and flat pieces of metal. Early on before their fantastical fail of a life of 'petty crime', Nick and his fennec friend had learned how to pick locks. None of it was ever intended to be used to commit actual crimes, but they had been fascinated by movies and tv shows that glorified how the 'bad guys' and sometimes vigilantes and rogue agents would gain entry to places. Lock picking had seemed like a challenge worth learning and so the two had practiced for weeks until they finally had 'mastered the art' as they liked to brag, which in reality was just learning the basics. Finally using those skills, Fin. Yes it's to get into my girlfriend's window so I can jump-scare her but it's the principle that counts.

It took a little more effort than he had expected, having to switch through several tools before finding the right flat pick that would be able to push the latch out of the way. For a moment he thought his attempt had been noticed on one particular clumsy swap, the two metal tools sliding against one another. Judy's right ear tip had twitched forcing Nick to go still as possible but her scribbling never hesitated. Homework. My one ally in this situation.

Cracking the window open as softly as he could, he pressed on the right side forcing it to the wall. The left side tended to scrape on the frame so shifting the window usually prevented that from happening. Once it had cleared without touching the edges the rest of the window swung open without a sound.

Deftly snaking his limbs into the opening, Nick slowly lowered himself down to the bed, making sure to place his hind paws into the puffy comforter at the foot of the bed and also put most of his weight on the frame. He had gotten so far without being noticed that a spring giving him away would be tragic. Glancing down to reposition his paw, he took in a silent breath of relief that nothing had been disturbed. And when he looked up and found his eyes within inches of two bright and beaming amethyst ones, he nearly had a heart attack.

"Gyah!"

Nick slapped two paws over his own muzzle as if to somehow take back the yelp that had slipped past his lips. He had gone so far being completely unnoticed yet in two seconds time it was all undone.

Judy though looked neither shocked nor bothered by his outburst. In fact she looked positively gleeful. "Sly you may be, my devilishly handsome fox. But not quite sneaky enough." Grasping the scruff of his cheeks she pulled him towards her and forcefully pressed her lips to his. It took a moment for his own shock to dissipate but when it finally did he found Judy had already taken his paws and settled them on her hips while her legs had straddled his to bring them closer together. It wasn't a new position for them to find themselves in but neither ever pushed the boundaries too far. Nick was still true to the traditions of his species and he knew Judy was graciously respectful of that. However he also knew that, even as reserved as Judy was, she was still a bunny, and closeness and intimacy were a part of her.

Judy had just begun to chitter with delight at the feel of the tod wrapping his arms around her when a loud knocking came at her door. The couple's lips broke apart but while Nick glanced hastily towards the door in a near panic, Judy continued to keep her eyes locked on his, uncaring of whoever was on the other side.

"Jude? Are you okay?" The sound of an older male's voice just beyond the door caused the fox to freeze momentarily before starting to rise up off the bed in an attempt to flee out the window. He made it all of a few inches before the same two small paws from before once again grabbed the scruff of his cheeks to hold him in place.

Never losing her smile, Judy shook her head at the vulpine, telling him in no uncertain terms was he to leave that spot beneath her. "Yeah dad," she almost giggled at the way Nick's eyes widened in fear. "It was just a spider." Placing a digit to the center of Nick's forehead she pushed hard causing him to tip backward and land with his head on her pillow. Moving her body up his until her legs were now over his chest, the gray doe leaned down and kissed her boyfriend again.

"Um, alright. But you aren't scared of spiders, Jude." The locked doorknob rattled a bit which made Nick jump slightly but Judy seemed unfazed and pulled her lips off his for a moment.

"Would you like it if a large arachnid dropped down and landed on your ear?" The doorknob stopped rattling immediately and Nick could pick up the faint sound of two paws stepping away from the door. Judy simply smirked down at the fox and waited for a moment.

"Uh, no. No, nope, definitely not. You um, you have a good night Jude and I will see you at breakfast. Night!" This time the steps were a bit more frantic with a scurrying rhythm to them.

"Dad's deathly afraid of spiders. Makes it hard to harvest the tomatoes so he usually makes me and some of the other 'braver' bunnies collect 'em," she noted with satisfaction. "Now the only sound I want to hear from you right now is a purr," she murmured, a low hint of desire in her voice.

A short time later the two mammals found themselves nestled under the covers, curled up in each others arms. Judy couldn't help but nuzzle into the Tod's soft chest fur. No matter how many times she ran her paw through it or brushed her cheek against him she could not quite believe how silky smooth his fur was.

"You were late tonight," Judy murmured. She did not truly care that much that he had been, but she could not help but tease the fox. Nick took great pride in being punctual which she always found amusing about a mammal that would sleep to the very last minute he could. "Visiting some other bunny?"

"Nah. Sharla invited me over and I guess we were making out too long." He laughed as Judy's ears and cheeks turned beet red before slugging him in the arm. "You know she's only got eyes for one fox just as I've got eyes only for you."

Judy's paws clasped together against her chest while cooing at the sentiment. She knew her fox could be charming but when he turned it on her it made her knees weak. If she hadn't been already laying down curled up against him, she would have knocked him down and nestled on his chest. "You are way too good at that, Wilde." Snuggling back against him, she nuzzled the top of her head under his chin sighing happily.

"I was actually late thanks to you." He looked down at her curious expression and flashed a small smirk. "I had to wait well past my parents heading to bed to make sure they were completely asleep."

"Why? Did something happen?" Her gray paw found itself twirling in the cream colored fur covering his chest. "They didn't find out about you sneaking out, did they?" It was one of their biggest worries that if one or the other got caught then their nighttime excursions would have to end.

"Well, let's see. I got home from fishing today, had a great time with my dad by the way," Judy smiled at that knowing how much time together with his father meant to her fox since his dad worked all too often, "only to come home to my mother and some very interesting questions."

"Oh I saw your mom this morning! She came by the stand. She actually mentioned something about inviting my boyfriend over to keep me company since I was so bored," she giggled. "I told her I didn't have one, don't worry."

"She didn't believe you."

Judy's giggle stopped short. "What?"

"She didn't believe you. She knows. I don't know how she knows but she does." Judy anxiously pulled at her ears, bringing them down in front of her body.

"I didn't tell her anything, Nick. I swear. She couldn't have gotten anything from what I sa-…"

It took Nick several seconds to realize Judy had just stopped speaking before he glanced down seeing her wiggling nose and frantic tweaking of her ear tips. "What is it, Fluff?"

"She sniffed me." She looked up at him and placed a strong paw on his shoulder. He winced at the tightness of her grip but was unwilling to try and throw her off, however he did snort in surprise. "I remember she had said something about my ears and then was talking about scents. And then she said that even if she didn't know me already that she could easily pick me out by my scent. And then that's when she sniffed me. And she looked shocked, too!" She exclaimed while gesturing animatedly. "That must be what it was. She must have smelled me on you at some point and only now pieced it together."

Nick, overwhelmed with Judy's rapid motions and lightning fast speech, let himself fall back onto the pillow, dragging the bunny with him. "Well. That definitely explains why she kept bringing up dating bunnies of all things."

"She did?" That last part helped surprisingly well towards the doe's anxiety. If his mother was fixating on him dating other mammals besides foxes, and especially bunnies, then surely she was accepting of them being together. "And what did you say?"

"Honestly I tried to get out of there. It got really awkward towards the end when she talked about finding my-…my umm…" Turning his head away he let the final words out as silently as possible, a mere murmur at best. "My magazine collection when I was sixteen."

Embarrassed by the admission, Nick had kept his voice low, however that was a useless tactic when next to a bunny who had trained their hearing for years to pick up sounds most overlooked. "Magazines, huh?" Judy giggled in delight at the way the insides of her fox's ears turned red. "What kind were you caught with? Ruttler? Ooooh, Bearly Legal? Ohhh I know. Playbunny. Maybe that's what clued your mom in." She shook with barely contained laughter while Nick turned redder with each title she called out. As a bunny with nearly three hundred siblings, she had stumbled across more than her share of adult magazines in the burrow. She preferred romance novels but that didn't mean she was completely naive.

"Actually it was…umm…VIXXXEN Mag. The one with the three X's." His face burned and he immediately put his muzzle into his paws to hide.

"Wow. That's supposed to be the really hot one, right?"

"Why on earth do you know about fox porn, Fluff?" His voice was still muffled as he refused to lift his head up.

"Well, I gotta do my research obviously. Gotta say, that whole 'knot' thing seems pretty interesting."

Nick groaned while slumping forward, completely and utterly mortified.

Needless to say Nick did not stay as long as he normally did each night. Not for the embarrassment his bunny had been causing with her constant teasing until they dozed, but because with his mother's suspicions and potential knowledge of their situation he could not afford to be caught coming in at all hours of the night or the time shortly before the break of dawn, otherwise he might as well bring Judy to his house for dinner and make out right at the table.

No, instead he kissed the half-asleep doe on her velvet soft cheek and slid out the window making sure to re-latch it as best he could. He moved quickly, utilizing all of his endurance his body had accumulated during his soccer training. While it was still too early for his parents to be awake, one never knew when a bout of insomnia or late night trip to the bathroom would pan out.

The silence of the woods did allow him to slip into a state of contemplation while letting his feet automatically carry him home. He found it odd that his mother would so blatantly draw a scent from Judy. Normally foxes and other canines kept to a strict code that prevented them from doing just that, besides law enforcement and education examples. Bears, who had a far more powerful sense of smell to where they could not block any of the world around them, just gave up and pretended that they couldn't smell anything. That had to have been it. Education. Once a teacher, always a teacher. Though scent education is something usually done in grade school, not to high school age teenagers who might be HIDING SOMETHING, mom!

He was understandably distracted when he reached the steps of his home. That state of mind was the reason that his brain failed to process what was on the back porch where his entrance was waiting for him. That is, it failed to process until just as he was reaching for the screen door. Stopping just shy of the handle, he mentally smacked himself for nearly forgetting the squeak from the rusted hinges. Taking it slow, he gripped hold of the handle and turned it. Or tried to. It was locked.

He tried it a couple more times, not believing that the screen door was actually locked. He had made sure to keep it unlocked so he could slip back in easily. Oh crap. One of them must have been in the kitchen and saw it. As a family who did not believe in hide-away keys, his only hope would have been his keyring. Unfortunately for the tod, those were currently next to his wallet and cell phone on his bedside table.

Looking down at his feet in despair, Nick took several deep breaths. He hated what was about to come next but it was a necessity. Rounding the corner of the house until he was directly under his second-story window, the fox glared at the offending drain pipe. The metal pole ran up the full height of the house and finished at the gutters next to his room. It was not a new experience for him to use to get in and out of the house, but it was a detestable one.

God I hate this part. Wrapping his paws around the steel, he gripped tightly and began to scale it. Climbing was not something canines liked to do and except for the rope in gym class or the occasional rock climbing his father would take him to, doing this sort of activity was something he loathed. As long as I live I hope I never have to climb pipes again. Heaven forbid I ever get stuck hauling something up one of these things.

Thankfully his arms and paws were rather strong and he made short work of his climb, otherwise he might have given up and simply slept on the ground and waited for morning. Getting into his room was easy since he always kept the window open for the light breeze. Just like every fox he liked a warm den he could curl up into, however he enjoyed the fresh, cool air to flow over his nose while he slept. Within moments the tod slumped into his bed, not bothering to check his phone for the time, just happy for any sleep he could get.

All too soon though he found himself waking up to the high-pitched chime of his alarm. Slapping blindly in the direction that it was coming from, the pad of his paw found itself pressing down on the key he had needed a few hours before. A shrill yelp came from the pile of crumpled blankets before they parted to show a wide-awake and rather ticked off fox. Narrowing his eyes, Nick pointed a claw towards the desk and gestured threateningly.

"You're on my list, keys. I don't know what list, but you're on it." Because he had been so tired after getting into his room, Nick had not noticed how the climb had affected him. Now though, the soreness in his shoulders was coming through loud and clear. Grunting as he stretched, Nick grumbled under his breath about 'cute bunnies dragging me out at night' and 'stupid parents locking the door.'

As much as he would have liked to hit the snooze and collapse back into bed for a extra twenty minutes, he had a math exam his first class in the morning. So after shaking the cobwebs away, Nick grabbed the first pair of clean smelling clothes he found and moved for an early shower to clear off any extra bunny smell the musk mask hadn't taken care of.

After an unfulfilling short time in the hot water, Nick dressed and gathered his wallet, keys, and phone, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and headed down to breakfast.

Finding his parents already at the table, Nick kept his gaze away from his mother, having a suspicion that he would find an all too familiar smile gracing her muzzle. Instead he wished them both a good morning and poured himself a bowl of cereal before occupying himself by pretending to examine a small crack in the tabletop.

For a few minutes it seemed that he was going to be able to eat and get to school without any more questions from his prying mother. Nobody was speaking to him, his parents engaging each other about his father's work and the projects his mother had planned.

"That's a nice shirt, Nicholas. Something special happening today?" Not expecting to have been brought into a conversation, Nick stared at his mother blankly before realizing what she had asked. Glancing down at his front, he noticed for the first time what he had thrown on. He wore his standard pair of khaki pants, something he had many pairs of. His shirt though was a bit more fancy than he typically wore. Instead of Pawaiin leaf patterns and bright colors, he had on a light blue polo, buttoned up but low enough some of his cream chest fur could still be seen poking above the collar.

"Oh. Umm, not really? I kind of just grabbed this from my drawer."

"Well it looks nice." Satisfied that the conversation was done, Nick scooped another spoonful of Cheerios into his mouth.

"I'm sure Judy will appreciate it."

Nick's cereal went spraying across the table while the tod gasped for breath, the milk having shot out through his nostrils making them burn. Coughing heavily he looked toward the voice that had shocked him. It wasn't his mother.

He met his father's overly cheerful gaze and was overcome with the desire to burrow somewhere deep. The blue eyes were crinkled with mischief but seemed to stare deep into him registering his ability to lie inert. It didn't mean he was going to simply not try however.

"Judy? Judy who? I have no idea what you are talking about." It was probably the lamest attempt he had ever made and was devoid of any clever remarks, a rarity for him.

"Long ears and a short tail. I wonder how that works. Although," his father had a pensive look come over his muzzle, " there's this one doe at work and that little puff of tail looks-" he stopped suddenly and looked over at his wife, -"completely uninteresting. I'm all about the long soft tail and that black tip look totally is it for me."

"Mom, you told him?!"

Vivienne took two fingers and made a 'I'm watching you' motion at her husband before turning to face her son. "Of course I did, Nicholas. And we are both so very happy for you. I was worried you wouldn't find someone here in the Burrows and I am so glad you did. Plus she is just a wonderful little bunny. Very good head on her shoulders." John nodded in agreement.

Nick, still embarrassed beyond belief, felt at least a little better at how both his mother and father seemed to approve of his relationship, though he still wanted it kept quiet. "You guys aren't…you won't tell anyone about this, right?"

His mother lifted her right paw and made an antiquated Ranger Scout salute. "I promise that not one student will ever hear it from my lips." Nick still looked a bit dubious but decided he was going to trust her. Kissing her on the cheek and giving his father a hug, Nick left the house at a run to make the bus on time.

Vivienne watched her son take off down the driveway while her husband headed into the other room to grab his briefcase. Quickly she snatched up her cell phone and punched in a number she knew but had never used before. It rang only a few times before being picked up, a large amount of noise in the background.

"Bonnie? Hi, it's Vivienne Wilde. I'm great, thank you. I apologize for calling so early and I know you have a lot going on, I just wanted to talk to you about something important. Oh I'm so glad it's not a problem. So, you know my son, Nicholas?"

Post A/N: Mothers. A powerful force by themselves. Unstoppable when together. And now both know.

I must make a sad announcement. I know I said it once before but updates for Rivals will be slow for a short while so I can finally catch up with my other stories. It's not gone! Just may be a few weeks out.