Story has new intro, be sure to check it out! =D

O-M-Goodness, Zootopia won the Oscar for best animated feature, I am fangirling so hard right now!

I growled, throwing my pencil across the room, then slammed my head on my desk.

Stupid algebra!

I just sat like that for a while, my ears flicking back when I heard crying. I lifted my head, turning the chair around to see Finnick standing in my doorway, wiping his eyes. Mine narrowed.

"What happened, Fin?"

He sniffled, holding the blanket Mom had given him this morning.

"I…We cel'brated my birthday at preschool today," he wiped his eyes again. "And some prey kids…tooked the cupcakes and…"

He cried harder. I ran over to him, sitting on my knees in front of him.

"What did the prey kids do?" I asked. He looked up at me.

"T-They said preds don't get cupcakes," he sniffed. "They dumped the tray on my head, right in front of Miss Whinny!"

He just broke down. I hugged him, trying not to growl. I didn't have to ask which kids it was, we both knew. And I knew that stupid school wouldn't do anything about it. They hadn't for me, either.

"Everyone got mad at them," he buried his face in my shirt. "But the other grown-ups still…"

"Shh, hey, hey," I hugged him tighter, then pulled him back. "Those animals didn't know what they were doing, their brains are broken."

He sniffled.

"B-Broken?"

I nodded.

"Yep, that's why they're so mean, they don't know how to fix 'em," I tried to smile. It was the same thing Mom had always told me. "The problem is a lot of them don't want them fixed, so they spend their whole lives being mean and hurting mammals."

I looked him in the eye, wishing I could do something, anything, to teach them a lesson.

"All you can do is not let them see they get to you, and help anyone else they're mean to. Don't take them head-on, okay? That's not good for anyone."

He was finally calming down. He wiped his eyes one last time.

"I-I'll be helpful," he said. "I'll be the most helpful fox ever!"

I chuckled.

"I know you will," I picked him up. "Now how about we go make some pawpsicles? I saw a whole thing of grape juice in the fridge today, just for us."

He nodded, hugging me.

"I love you, Nick."

I smiled, hugging him back.

"Love you too, Fin."

I couldn't believe it. I'd only been running for twenty minutes, how the hell was I already this tired?

You've been slacking off for a month, I bent over with my paws on my knees, catching my breath. You're letting yourself go, Wilde!

I looked at the sky, the sun had barely started to rise. I'm usually a morning mammal, even weirder for foxes than having zebras for parents. It's not that I hated staying up late, I could go all night without a problem if I wanted to, but there was just something about getting up early that appealed to me. Not that I'd ever tried to figure it out.

I stayed hunched over another minute before straightening, pushing myself harder to make up for lost time. Normally, I'd already be on my way back by now, and I hadn't even reached the end of the trail yet.

I should've waited for Carrots to get up, I told myself. Or at least gone with her when she'd asked.

She'd asked more than once, but I'd always had some excuse: had to look something over for the case, had to rehearse a bridge, had to finish my damn laundry. I'd spit out whatever had come to mind first, barely able to think whenever I saw her in that sweet little get-up she called running clothes. Made my mouth water just thinking about it.

"Shit!"

Next thing I knew, I was rolling head over tail, ending up sprawled in a ditch.

"Ow," I picked myself up. "Guess that's what I get for daydreaming…"

I shook myself off, putting a paw on my forehead; I couldn't help but laugh. Everything that had happened the last two weeks, and tripping over myself is what tears it back open. I pulled my old scout neckerchief from my pocket, I didn't go anywhere without it, and pressed it to the cut. It took forever to walk back, but I wasn't about to call Carrots after I'd been thinking about her like that, and I didn't have my phone on me anyway. When I finally got there, Carrots was already up, sitting on her placemat and typing away at her laptop. I rolled my eyes.

"I've got a table in here, you know."

"I know," she giggled. "But I like sitting here, it's so high up!"

She looked at me, the smile dropping off her face.

"What happened to you?"

I shrugged.

"Went for a run and tripped on something, ended up falling in a ditch," I winced as I peeled off the neckerchief; it'd bled more than I thought. "And I just got the stitches out yesterday!"

"Let me take a look," she put her laptop down and hopped to the floor. "You really need to be more careful, Slick."

I scoffed.

"Listen, Carrots, in the last two weeks, I've dealt with savage preds, broke into an old nut house, caught the mayor in a kidnapping scheme and have had every shitty thing in my past come back to bite me in the ass," I don't know why I started ranting, but now I couldn't stop. "And in the middle of all that I ended up cutting my head open on a table, then again on a run because I can't stop thinking about a certain dumb bunny, so I think I've earned the right to be as un-careful as I want."

I was panting when I finished. She stared at me, her eyes wide, her face blank. After a few seconds, she blinked and shook her head.

"Uh…wow," she threw out a breathless laugh. "I-I wasn't expecting all…that."

I pulled away from her, getting back to my feet.

"Neither was I," I put the neckerchief back on the cut. "I-I'm sorry, Carrots, guess I'm even more stressed than I thought."

"It's fine, Nick," she walked over and put a paw on my arm. "I know how hard all this is on you, and I don't blame you for losing your cool, anyone would in this situation."

I sighed.

"That doesn't really make me feel any better about it, you don't deserve me lashing out at you like that."

She tugged on me.

"I said it's fine, Slick," she looked at my forehead. "Now come on, I'll get that cleaned up for you and then we can have some breakfast. Sound good?"

I stared at her paw as I trailed behind her, my ears heating up as my mind went all the wrong places.

"Y-Yeah," I swallowed. "Sounds good, Carrots."