A/N
Disclaimer: I ran into a problem with my escape attempt, mainly how to escape when your out in the middle of the ocean. I might have planned that a little better. Sigh. Maybe there will be better chances to escape over at this conspiracy operation I'm being temperately assigned too.
Typo Disclaimer: Um... hey whats that over there? (points to side and runs in other direction)
Chapter 13 - Onto the Coals
Judy was in a shower, wearing only a wet T-shirt, holding and being held by a completely naked fox, okay a hot, attractive, fox that smelled good enough to eat… that was also technically her fiancé, but a fox she barely knew. A fox that was looking at her with the same startled, confused and conflictedly happy expression she was sure was on her face. A male fox, she suddenly became all too aware of, as her face started burning with mind searing embarrassment as part of him shifted ever so slightly, pushing her shirt against a sensitive area.
The wave of giddy elated relief was receding only for a tsunami of embarrassment to replace it as she considered what Nick must think of her for just jumping in the shower like that and then kissing him out of the blue.
There was a small part of her, a teeny tiny irresponsible part, one that she'd never even known existed, that wanted her to simply forget everything, hang the consequences and just keep kissing him, to completely let herself go. That voice was accompanied by a hot wave that made her flush for a whole different reason, as instincts that were usually quiet and undemanding for her seemed sit up and take notice.
It wasn't like Judy had never felt attracted to anyone before, hadn't debated with her sisters about this or that buck, or even hadn't secretly looked at a magazine or website that her classmates only ever talked about in hushed whispers and giggles. But she'd never really understood why it was such a big deal with everyone, sure it was fun, but she honestly enjoyed reading her secret romance books more than that. The hot flush that ran through her now though was orders of magnitude more than anything she'd ever experienced before.
It was so much more, so unexpected, that the sheer startling surprise of it was like a cold slap to the face.
That slight shift between them wasn't just felt by her either, judging by how the inside of Nick's ears turned beat red and his eyes went wide with embarrassed horror.
"Um…" Judy started to say, trying to think about how to deescalate the situation.
"Sorry!" Nick quickly squeaked and let go of her. He tried to step back so that he wasn't pressed right up against her, but her arms where still holding him and his tail was still wrapped around her. His backward step only dragged her a step forward with him and caused their bodies to rub against each other.
Her ears burning as much as her face, Judy let go as well and stepped back while Nick snatched his tail away with his paws like it was a unruly child and used it to try covering up his quite obvious erection as they put some space between themselves.
"Um… sorry I kissed you, I shouldn't have. Just with escaping that and…" Judy said, looking at Nick, who was so red it was even showing through his fur. She couldn't help the but steal a glance lower where both his paws and his tail was covering his lower parts.
She could feel her own face heat up more and was surprised that the water hitting it wasn't evaporating instantly. Judy tried rallying her wits to handle this in a mature fashion.
"look… um… Nick, there's nothing to, um… be embarrassed about." She couldn't help her own paw from tugging on her shirt to try cover herself a bit more, while she stole another glance, "It's… it's, just a completely normal reaction." She finished lamely trying to look away from him and not doing a very good job of it.
"No, no it isn't!" Nick nearly shouted, taking one look at her before looking down at the tub floor, mortified, "This is not a normal reaction!"
Judy could understand his embarrassment, rationally understand it at least, but his remark stung somewhere deep in a way she didn't fully understand.
"Why?! It's not normal because I'm just some plain looking bunny?!" She'd shot back before she'd thought about what she was saying, "Sorry if being near me disgusts you!" She said feeling her eyes starting to water.
She couldn't believe she'd kissed him, that she thought he was handsome, that she…
Judy started to turn, to get out of the shower, to get as far away from Nick as possible.
"Judy!" Nick said in a pleading, exasperated and embarrassed tone, "I don't care what you are! Why would you think that being a cute bunny would disgust me?!"
She stopped before she got out of the shower and looked back at him, her insides a confused mess of feelings.
Cute? Did he just call me cute? Like for real cute?
Then why was he acting like being attracted to me would be something so wrong?
Does he really think I'm Cute? I'm not cute, Jessica is 'cute'.
If me being a bunny doesn't disgust him, why was he acting that way?
"Well you seem to find something about being near me unnatural," Judy said stiffly trying hard not to cry.
Nick looked at her like he couldn't believe she didn't understand as a myriad of emotions played across his face; embarrassment, frustration, desperation, and whole slew of others.
"Because that. isn't. normal!" he said, his very red ears pinning back as he shuffled slightly trying to make sure his paws and tail were covering himself.
"Oh, it's not normal! Your right, I'm just a bunny, I guess it's not right, not normal, for you to like me or me to like you!" Judy retorted, feeling her eyes well up again as something deep inside hurt.
"NO!" Nick said, his paws coming up to grab his ears like he wanted to yanks his fur out, "No, No, No! You don't get it! It's not normal. Not because you're a bunny! Not because I don't like you! I'm a fox, Judy, this isn't normal!"
Nick sat down suddenly and brought his knees up to his chest his tail wrapping around himself as he started to shake.
Judy looked at him, now feeling completely confused. It wasn't normal because he was a fox? How was that any different than it not being normal because she was a bunny? And what did he mean by 'like' her? There was still a small aching pain in her chest, but Nick looked so miserably depressed and upset that it tore at her, hurting far more than that aching pain did.
She didn't understand what was distressing him so much, she wanted to stay angry because that made her own pain hurt less, gave her something else to focus on besides that hurt but she just couldn't leave Nick like that.
With a breath, she let the rest of the hurt anger go and went over to sit next to Nick. She brought her own knees up to her chest and hugged them with her arms since she couldn't with her tail. The shower tub wasn't really big enough for both of them to sit in it and her side was pressed up to his. She could feel him shaking but he'd lowered his head to rest it on his knees and closed his eyes.
She couldn't tell with the shower running if it was just water or if there were tears mixed in with the drops that ran down his face, but after a little while she felt his shaking subside.
"Care to try to explain that, 'Its' not you being a bunny, it's me being a fox'?" she asked after a few more moments.
"No, not really," he replied quietly.
"Nick, I don't understand." She said in almost as quiet of a voice, though she couldn't hold back a bit of hurt confusion, "I want to be your friend, I don't want this to come between us. What's the issue with us maybe feeling a little attracted to each other?" She couldn't look at him directly and she could feel herself start to ramble as she put a paw up to hold down her ears in an unconscious nervous gesture, "We're in highschool, of course we're going to find other mammals attractive. That's completely normal. I'm sure there are others at school that you think are attractive as well, shesh, someone as handsome as you from the city? I'm sure you had a bunch of prettier girls than me hanging around you all the time-"
Nick gave a snort at that, "I think your impression of the city is a little different that mine." He said, and continued after a moment, "I don't want to lose my only friend out here, I don't really have many friends to begin with anyway; It's not that I don't think your pretty or find you attractive, I don't care that you're a bunny either. It's… this is…" he let out a defeated sigh, "Judy, it's… a fox thing."
Judy didn't know when their paws had ended up holding each other's but she found it comforting. The way he was holding onto her paw reassured her that he meant what he said, that she wasn't going to lose her new friend. She still didn't understand what the big deal was and wanted to ask him to explain but she stopped herself. Whatever it was, he was having a hard enough time with it right now. She squeezed his paw back to show him that she was there for him and simply said, "okay."
He gave her paw a return squeeze, before he shifted and gave her a hug, murmuring, "Thanks."
She hadn't been expecting it and found herself hugging him back. That 'thanks' had sounded so relieved and she could feel the tension and distress leaving him, so she didn't mind.
In fact, Judy found herself melting into his warm hug, her arms wrapping around his chest and her nose buried into his neck smelling that wild musky scent of his. Nick's arms holding her and his head against hers felt so comforting that she found herself wishing that the hug had lasted longer as he finally pulled away.
Nick looked at her an almost smile on his face, and then he blushed hard and looked away.
"I'll… um…" He got up, his tail wrapping around his front, "I'll… ah, let you actually shower, we'd better hurry up if we aren't going to be late." He said, quickly exiting the shower.
"Um… right. Shower." Judy only realized she'd been staring at his back and rear when the shower curtain cut off her view. She snapped herself out of her daze and got up, removed her shirt and reached for the bottle of fur shampoo as she heard Nick start to drying himself off with a towel.
…
Judy focused her wandering mind at the task at hand and ended up taking what was probably the fastest shower of her life. By the time she'd finished rinsing out her fur, Nick had only just finished dressing.
She turned the water off, and stuck her head around the curtain.
"Nick, ah…" she momentarily forgot what she was going to say as her eyes trained on him. He was wearing a normal pair of blue jeans and a casual shirt with a collar, but something about the way the clothes fit him and how his long tail gracefully swept down to hang above the floor, only for its dark tip to sway back and forth, caught her eyes and made them stick.
He finished buttoning his shirt and turned giving her a smile like he had before. A smile that sent a unexpected thrill through her.
Earth to bunny? Earth to bunny?! Respond! Your ogling your friend!
She snapped out of her trance and to cover herself quickly asked, "Um, you mind handing me a towel?"
"Sure," Nick turned to the towel rack only to freeze, "Um, Judy?" he said not seeming sure how to continue, though she could clearly see the problem, should have seen it coming earlier since she'd grabbed the last towel off the rack when she'd hastily dried herself so she wouldn't be dripping water in the hallway.
"I am going to kill my sister," Judy ground out. She wasn't absolutely sure whether it was her sisters fault but she wouldn't put it past her either.
She sighed in defeat and waved her paw. "Hand it over, we don't have enough time to deal with this. We need to get out of here before my parents come back to check up on us."
Nick gave her the damp towel with a dubious expression and she retreated behind the shower curtain to dry off.
Judy couldn't help the blush that rose as she used the towel, drying herself as best as she could. She'd only used it to do a cursory drying of herself earlier and probably hadn't left much scent on it. Nick though, had thoroughly dried himself with it and despite having just showered, the towel now faintly but distinctly smelled like him.
As she dried herself the constant faint foxy musk on the towel made her continuously blush. She was hoping that it wouldn't leave much of his scent on her or at least no more than could be explained by normal contact, but as she finished drying her head and ears she realized that she didn't need to worry about that at all. Sure, the towel might be leaving a faint trace of Nick's scent on her, but compared to the strong scent of his mark on her head that she could still clearly smell despite the shower, the little trace scent from the towel was nothing.
"Hey, Judy?" Nick asked sounding a bit nervous.
"Ya, what's up?" she answered only paying partial attention to him while she tried to think about how she was going to explain a carrot freaking scent mark away. She wondered if Sharla would believe that he tripped while day dreaming about some girl and fell on her head.
That sounds ludicrous even in here, anyway she already knows you two slept in the same bed together. Her mind unhelpfully reminded her before Nick replied saying, "I think your dad took your change of clothes."
"Uurgh!" Judy growled in frustration, realizing she should have also already been aware of that little problem too. She buried her face in the towel trying not to scream. Why couldn't Serendipity help her out a little? It was like Murphy was out to make her life as hard as possible right now.
Breathing in Nick's scent from the towel actually helped calm her down, though she had no idea why and the fact that it did only frustrated her more.
She took in one last breath from the towel, then one more, and finished drying. She wrapped the towel around her waist making sure that everything that should be, was covered and after wringing out her wet t-shirt, stepped out of the shower.
"Okay, we need to get out of here without being seen and I need to get back to my room to get clothes," Judy said going over to the door.
"Want me to check to make sure the coast is clear?" Nick asked.
"Let me see what I can hear first." Judy said, placing a long ear up against the door.
She listened and after hearing nothing stood back and nodded to Nick who went over and carefully cracked the door open, checking the hallway outside.
"Were good Carrots," he said pulling his head back and opening the door all the way, "Quick, let's roll, before anyone comes by." He grabbed her paw and hurried out of the bathroom leading her.
Judy was trying to control her reaction to his sudden move taking her paw like that. The contact and their rush down the hallway sent a jolt of adrenaline and excitement through her. It made their quiet run down the corridor seem more like some wild adventure or daring escape. And unfortunately, just like some wild adventure from a long lost tale, disaster seemed to come at just the wrong instant. They were most the way to her room when Judy heard her mom's voice call out for them from the other hallway near the bathrooms
"Judy? Nicholas? Are you two done getting ready, the busses are going to be here soon."
A spike of fear and panic ran through her as she heard the voice getting closer to the intersection of the hallways, where she'd be able to see them. But before Judy could do anything, the view of her world shifted, swinging around as she found herself swept off her feet and into Nick's arms, while he took off running. Running though was an understatement. Sprinting was the proper term but Judy felt like that was also inadequate as Nick barreled down the corridor seeming almost to fly. She looked up only to see his jaw set with a look of frightened determination on his face. And in what seemed like an instant latter he was throwing her door open and leaping through it, just as Judy heard her mother's voice round the corner.
"Quick! Get dressed!" Nick said putting her down and turning back to shut the door as quickly and quietly as he could.
Judy's heart was pounding with a mix of excitement and fear and who knew what else. Nick glanced back at her as he finished shutting the door.
"Carrots! What are you waiting for?"
She blushed hard and turned scrambling for her dresser, stripping of the towel. She glanced back to see Nick quickly looking away and his ears red.
"Don't you dare watch!" she said warningly as she grabbed her underwear putting them on.
"I'm not! I'm not! Just hurry, she's coming down the hall!" Nick replied more than a little embarrassed, just as there was another call from out in the hallway getting closer.
"Nick? Judy?"
"pants, pants, pants…" Judy mumbled to herself yanking open another dresser drawer.
"Carrots you got like ten seconds!" Nick said desperate though he kept his voice low.
"Nick, go over to my desk and grab my bookbag like you're in here helping me." Judy said pulling out a shirt.
She'd just managed to get the shirt on and was straightening it when there was a knock on her door.
"Judy, you in there?" the door opened and Judy turned around trying to control her breathing.
"Ya, sorry about waking up late mom! I'm ready, Nick was just helping me grab my stuff."
Her mom looked over at Nick by her desk, "Oh good. Both of you are here. We're getting everyone together out front for a little meeting before the busses arrive, now come along," Her mother started to around toward the hallway but stopped mid-way only to turned back to give Judy another look, this one a rather careful inspecting look.
"Judith," her mother started and Judy's heart seemed to freeze expecting disaster. "You didn't even groom out your fur!"
Her heart started beating again, only to speed up as her mother shook her head and walked back into the room and over to her dresser, where she picked up a brush.
"You can't go off to school looking like you walked through a wind storm!" her mother snagged her before she'd managed to form any sort of protest and started brushing out the fur on her head.
"Moooom! I can take care of that myself, you don't have to treat me like a little kit!" Judy tried objecting and squirming away though that didn't do any good.
"Then you should have done it yourself," her mother replied unfazed and finished with her head and started brushing her tail, causing her to Meep as the brush pulled out a tangle in her fur.
There was an amused snicker from over at her desk.
"Not Funny Nick!" Judy said shooting him a glare as her mother tended to her like she was still a little kit, all her protest utterly useless and not even slowing her mother down.
"Don't worry dear, your fur is just as ruffled as hers, I'll get to you next," Her mother said to Nick, which shut him right up.
It might be humiliating to have her mother groom her at her age, Judy thought, but it was hilarious watching her mother groom Nick. She couldn't help but snicker as she watched him as he squirmed in turn while her mother handled the larger fox as easily as she would any of Judy's younger siblings.
"There, see? Now you two look ready for the day" Her mother said putting the brush back on the dresser, "Come on you two let's get going."
She walked past Judy toward the door, stopping only momentarily to pick up the wet towel and wrinkled t-shirt from where Judy had dropped them.
"You know not to leave wet towels and dirty clothes on the floor, Judy," her mother said as she led them out the door and down the corridor, "It's bad for the carpets, and it's not that hard for you to just put them in the dirty laundry hamper."
She stopped at the open closet at the end of the corridor pulling out a clothes hamper. Right before she dropped them in she stopped, frowning and reached in pulling out a shirt.
"Judy, I thought this was what you were going to wear today?" Her mother said looking back on her, and she tried desperately to keep her face looking innocent. Her mother wasn't buying it though, given the way her expression was changing to 'someone raided the cookie jar and are those crumbs on your paws?' Then to Judy's dismay, her mother's nose twitched, then twitched again and she turned lifting the towel to take a sniff. She looked at the clothes in the hamper, the towel, a closer look at the wrinkled and damp t-shirt and then back at both Judy and Nick with that 'care to explain' patented mother look and waited.
Judy shot a desperate look over at Nick next to her still holding her bookbag, but his ears where pinned back with a grimly frightened look on his muzzle. He gave her a quick glance back that clearly said he didn't have any better idea how to get out of this than she did.
Her mom pointedly picked up the shirt Judy had grabbed when fleeing her room and mother earlier this morning, and held it like evidence at a trial.
"Stu, said something about needing to remind the highschoolers not to leave clothes in the bathrooms, something about having to pick up clothes out of the bathroom when dropping off Nick's."
She looked back at them her eyebrow raised. Judy kept her mouth shut tight determined not to say anything.
Her mother raised the towel and wet t-shirt up in her other paw, "Care to explain this? I'm rather interested in why it smells like both of you."
Judy couldn't help but squirm under her mother's gaze and she heard Nick shuffle awkwardly beside her. They shot each other desperate glances that probably only confirmed her mother's suspicions, though neither of them said a word.
"Right." Her mother sighed, before looking at them sternly, "You two didn't do anything like oh, let's say makeout in the shower, did you?"
Judy, despite her best efforts not to react, could feel her eyes go wide with fright. Nick beside her flinched and made a quiet choking sound.
Her mother's gaze narrowed and her foot started thumping. They broke.
"It was only one kiss, that was it! Nothing else happened!" she pleaded as Nick desperately said, "I swear I didn't take advantage of her!"
Another hard gaze from her mother before a nod, "What about the chair against the door?"
Judy shared another desperate glance with Nick though they were both blushing badly.
"Jessica locked us in together." Judy mumbled looking away from Nick and toward the ground, her cheeks feeling like they were on fire.
"Did she now." Her mother said flatly before tossing the clothes in the laundry hamper and pushing it back into the open closet.
"Come on you two, morning kissing sessions in the shower will not get you an excused tardy pass to school." She said and led them still blushing toward the front door.
…
Outside the sun was still just making its way over the horizon lighting up the front yard where groups of bunnies huddled talking to each other while the kerfluffle swept like a living tidal wave around and between the older bunnies.
Judy grabbed Nick's paw and was about to try slinking away from her apparently omniscient mother with him. They needed to talk and try to do some damage control for the upcoming day anyway, but before she got more than a step away her mother stopped them.
"Hold on you two. I want you right here. We have a little family meeting that needs to take place." She cleared her throat, "Stu? Stewart? I have them, did you get everyone else?"
Judy's father waded his way through the kerfluffle and up to them on the porch.
"Everyone else is here Bonnie." He said fiddling with his hat and then glanced at them, before doing a double take to stare at their clasped paws.
Judy meeped and Nick gave a quiet yelp and they both quickly released each other's paw trying to look like nothing had happened.
"Everyone quiet down," Judy's mom said loudly and the noise of the crowd calmed as all the older bunnies stopped talking and turned to look toward the porch. It took the groups of other highschoolers the longest to stop chatting, but after a few moments the only noise was the constant rumble of the kerfluffle.
"Kits! Do you want desert tonight?" Bonnie called and the kerfluffle seemed to take notice rolling in the porches direction with gaining momentum and calls of 'Yay, Desert!', 'Cake!', 'Cookies!'.
"If you want desert you need to listen. Now stand take a seat," the kerfuffle obediently sat with more cheers about desert, "Quiet down and ears up." The kerfluffle quieted and in one almost synchronist move all the little bunnies' ears shot up and swiveled to face the porch.
"Okay, everyone," her mom started, speaking to the whole crowd, "There have been all sorts of rumors running around since yesterday, so we are going to get all of that straightened out. For those of you who haven't met him, this," she gestured at Nick standing petrified next to Judy, "is Nicholas Wilde." There was murmuring among the crowd which Bonnie silenced with a look, "He will be staying here with us for the rest of the school year. For all of you who don't already know, he and Judith are engaged, so I expect you all to treat him not just as you would a guest in our house but as a member of this family."
Besides the murmuring this caused there was a loud grumble and a thump as an old bunny that had been sitting in a rocking chair further down the porch stood up, his cane thumping as he made his way over to them where he stopped. The stooped old buck gave Nick a look up and down as if confirming what he was actually seeing before huffing and in an old quavering but surprisingly strong voice said, "And why should we go treating this fox like part of our family, Bonnie? Look at him! He's a Fox! You know why their red, it's because the Devil made them!" he finished waving his cane menacingly in Nick's direction.
The injustice of that kind of stereotypical remark touched a nerve in Judy and she stepped between Nick and the pointing cane and angrily said back, "Pop pop, you know that's rubbish!"
She would have continued but her mother put a paw on her shoulder stopping her.
"Dad," her mother said to the old rabbit quiet calmly, "Not only have both Stu and I, along with Nicholas's parents, agreed to this but they've already marked each other," that sent up a louder murmur among the crowd while the kurfluffle started debating amongst itself trying to figure out what a 'mark' was. Judy went from angry to utterly embarrassed and tried to shuffle back out of the view of the whole crowd but ended up shuffling right back up into Nick. They glanced at each other and then quickly took a step apart as they glanced away, both blushing furiously.
"That doesn't make him any less of a red devil!" the bunny said obstinately and thumping his cane on the ground.
"Well it makes him our red devil, dad." Bonnie continued, "Anyway, he can't be any worse than Stu can he?"
The old rabbit gave Judy's dad a pointed look and harrumphed, before muttering loudly, "Can't possibly be worse than that demon spawn." He gave Stu an icy glare, "At least that fox didn't try running away with her."
Judy's father crossed his arms and harrumphed back, "That was decades ago! I thought we'd got over that, ya old geezer."
"Gotten over that, pipsqueak? No, I forgave you. I didn't get over it, why do you think I tell all my grandkits that tale if not to warn them what they shouldn't do?!" The old bunny said and they glared at each other, before the old bunny turned to Nick his cane coming up dangerously
"You there, fox. Are you going to run off with her?"
Nick shook his head quickly and with a gulp said, "No, sir."
"You going to get her pregnant before the wedding?"
Nick let out a strangled yelp, shaking his head faster and barely managed to squeak out another, 'no sir'.
The cane swung over to whack Stu on this cap before it thumped back onto the ground again while Stu let out a loud 'Oww!', rubbing his head and glaring at the older rabbit.
"See there, pipsqueak? Red devil or not he's already gotten you beaten twice and he's got far better manners than you. You could probably learn a thing or two from that devil pup." The old bunny thumped his way over until he was right in front of Nick, who looked very worried.
The old bunny's cane came up, and Nick filched slightly, but the cane didn't whack him. Instead the old bunny prodded him with it, first in the leg, then the stomach and chest and then on his arm before it finally came up and moved his chin up and side to side like the old bunny was inspecting him.
"Humm… He might do Bonnie," the old bunny said to Judy's mom, "Might make a proper buck out of him, unlike that one," he shot a look at Stu, who just grumbled and rubbed his head, before he looked back at Nick. "Boy, are you going to treat her," he gestured at Judy," and this family properly?"
Nick nodded fervently.
"Good, then I think we'll get along just fine, you and me, devil." The old bunny said and thumped his way back over to his rocking chair.
Judy's mother looked rather pleased with how that turned out and face the crowd of bunnies again, "See, even Pop pop can accept having Nicholas in our family. It doesn't matter that he's a fox, he's one of us, and we will all treat him just like we treat everyone else in our family because he is family. Any questions?" she waited for a moment, "Good. Oh and Jessica, you and I will have a little chat when you get home from school, understand?"
There was a desperate shout of, "I didn't put that chair there!" from one of the highschool age groups of Judy's siblings.
"Chair. I didn't say anything about a chair now did I?" there was an audible gulp from the direction of the voice before Bonnie continued, "I guess we'll have to talk about that chair tonight too then. Make sure your home on time, understand Jessica?"
There was a dejected, "Yes, mom."
Bonnie turned away from the crowd of bunnies which was already talking amongst themselves once again, and faced Judy and Nick.
Judy was trying to prepare herself for what embarrassment might be about to befall them next when she was blindsided by the kerfluffle.
"Judy!", "Nicky!", "What's a mark?", "His tail's so long!"
The tidal wave washed over her and she heard Nick getting swept under with a startled yelp.
"His tails Fluffy!", "When are you two getting married?", "I want to feel it!", "They smell like each other!"
"Judy! *Yelp* Careful with that! Carrooots, Help!" Nick's pleading voice came from somewhere else underneath the pile of kits.
"guys, hey, calm down, take it easy on Nick. Mark, stop smelling my head!"
"He's got short ears", "let's find where they marked each other!", "hey, both their ears have black tips, is that it?", "It is FLUFFY!"
"JUDYYY!" came Nick's desperate drowning cry.