"You sure, Fluff?"

"Yes, if you're comfortable with it. And I love your voice."

He smiled. "Yeah, stroke my ego. No, that's my tail, not my ego."

"Sorry," she said, letting go, to his disappointment. But he knew it would be distracting. Even snuggling as he read to her might be, but they'd both missed the contact.

She nestled up against him and he cleared his throat.

"Chapter Eleven: Cattle Drive

"No one could've predicted that the closing of the dairy trade would lead to a revolution in transportation. In retrospect, it makes sense. Just as synthetic fibers required sheep to rethink their relationship to the fashion industry, so that Meadowlands was no longer just about wool, cattle had to find a new identity when they were no longer the main milk providers for Zootopia. Yet this new identity came from a quality that they had never consciously given any thought to: their natural path-setting.

"In the children's book Truck Everlasting, author Natalie Rabbit somewhat condescendingly says, '...the cows, through some wisdom they were not wise enough to know that they possessed, were very wise indeed.' This wisdom is that they searched for clover and other wild delicacies, forming a path that later became a road and eventually a major freeway that allowed commerce across borough lines."

"Leading to more paperwork for con-foxes," Judy teased.

"Right." He cleared his throat again. "As the following stories suggest, the leap to outer space, with cows almost literally jumping over the moon—Hey, Fluff, what do you say we skip over the stories?"

"Ha! And you were scolding me for skimming."

"Yeah, all right. The Cow on the Roof: Long ago—"

"No, Nick, it's OK. We can skip ahead."

He quickly scrolled through the book's text on his Brindle. "This looks interesting. ...The 'Get Mooooving' slogan of the Zootopia Transit Authority is a legacy of this time. Although mammals of all sorts work on and ride the trains that go around Zootopia and its suburbs, it was originally founded and staffed by bulls and cows. This bovine origin is also shown in the looping and spiraling that so many of the lines follow. Despite campaigns for more 'logical' and linear routes, little has changed since the 'cattle car' days, even as the trains themselves have become sleeker and faster. In fact, mammals of all sorts see this quirk as part of the ZTA's charm. When the residents of Little Rodentia established their own train system to cater to the smallest animals, it was modeled on what the cows and bulls designed years earlier."

"That was one of the things that most surprised and excited me when I first arrived in Zootopia," Judy murmured. "The way the train, the Yellow Line, went in a straight line through the Burrows, but then it sort of gave a quick tour of the city, rather than heading straight to Downtown."

He kissed one of her ears. As always, he liked picturing the eager bunny coming to the Big City for the first time. Even though it was less than a year ago, she seemed to have matured so much since then. He loved her more now that she was less fresh and innocent, because he liked complexity, but he also loved what remained of the freshness and innocence.

"Mmm, Nick, that feels nice, but we should get back to the book."

He had meant to just be mildly affectionate, but he forgot sometimes how sensitive her ears were. "Right." He cleared his throat yet again. "So then she looks at the train system, acknowledging that it's also shaped by the unique geography of the peninsula. And then she tells some stories about trains, which I might go back and read at a later time..."

"You're in a hurry to get to Chapter Thirteen, aren't you?" she teased.

"No more than you are, Fluff. So then she segues into a discussion of the space program, including such pioneers as Squeal Farmstrong and Fuzz Crawldin, with the support of a mostly bovine ground crew."

Judy nodded. "I remember her doing a report for science class on them, especially Alan Shepp, the first ram on the moon."

"I wonder if she regrets not going into the space program. It might've been safer."

"Nick."

"I'm just saying." He sighed. "Well, if she had, we wouldn't be cuddling in this charming cottage."

"Right." She looked a little guilty, as if the lines between work and their relationship were blurring too much. But what were they supposed to do, act like they weren't a couple? It wasn't like Sharla minded, and it wasn't interfering with their job, which mostly seemed to be sitting around, or at the moment lying around, reading the book. Then Judy said, "Maybe we should wrap it up for tonight. We can get to Chapter Twelve tomorrow."

"Do you mind if I read it on my own?"

"I guess not. But promise you'll wait for me before going on to Chapter Thirteen."

"Of course." He chuckled.

"What?"

"Well, what if after all this fuss it turns out to be not such a big deal?"

She frowned, failing to see the humor. "I don't think Sharla would be getting threats over no big deal."

"I mean no big deal to us. Maybe crazies have over-reacted."

"Well, over-reacted or not, we need to take it seriously. For her sake."

"Of course." He kissed her cheek. "I know you what you mean."

She kissed him on the lips. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

She slowly pulled away. "But I should go back to my room. I'm getting sleepy."

He swallowed and nodded. "Sweet dreams, Fluff."

"You, too, when you get there, my night owl."

He smiled and then sighed when she slipped out of the room. He scrolled to the end of the chapter and then shut off the Brindle. His eyes were tired, even though his brain wasn't. He got out his earbuds and listened to music on his phone, starting with Tomcat Jones's "She's a Lady." It always made him think of Judy, even though she wasn't lady-like in a traditional sense. He hummed along on "...She can take what I dish out, and that's not easy. Well she knows me through and through. She knows just what to do, and how to please me," but he also completely agreed with "Well, she never asks for very much and I don't refuse her. Always treat her with respect, I never would abuse her. What she's got is hard to find, and I don't want to lose her."

He whispered, "...Yeah, yeah, she's a lady, and the lady is mine."