A/N

This chapter is a little shorter than the normal ones now but I just had too, anyway stop complaining you get to read it earlier now. :P

Message from WildeHopps Pirates crew to Starfang's Secrets: 'One Of Us, One Of Us, One Of Us, One Of…'

Disclaimer: I just want to state again for the record that I'M WRITING THIS UNDER DURESS, I DO NOT OWN ZOOTOPIA, Disney does... for now. (And no matter how much the grinchy side of me approves of the pirate's thievery, that's beside the point). This fact though, does not seem to be enough to appease Disney. They've declared war on pirates and open season on grinches. The pirates are retaliating though, they've sent a commando squad of their best and saltiest pirates to help Fox in the hen house to steal the rights to Zootopia. (I wonder if the peg legs, eye patches and hooks will give them away?)

Typo Disclaimer: Neener Neener! You can't catch me, I'm - oh crap he's only two chapters behind? Ahh run faster!

Chapter 33 – Blast from the Past: Part 1

Nick grumbled as he lifted the last speaker up and carried it out of Finnick's van over to the corner of the warehouse where Finnick stored his gear and tried to figure out how he'd gotten stuck doing most of the grunt work.

With her head start, Judy had too much of lead for him to catch her before she'd gotten to the Tiki-bar and already given the yogurt to Finnick. But while Nick was considering whether he wanted to risk getting into a scuffle with Fin to try to reclaim his yogurt, his friend and his mate had both re-engaged in their silent battle of stares. When Nick had tried to interrupt, them thinking he need to at least make an attempt to recover it, it wasn't just any yogurt after all, it was blueberry yogurt, they both turned their stares on him.

His protest had melted like a pawpsicle in Sahara Square.

He'd gotten sent over to where Fin had backed his van up to the main doors of the warehouse to start moving the DJ equipment out of it while they had gone off to have a private 'talk'.

Nick had nearly thrown a fit at hearing that. He knew Finnick and how most of his 'talks' ended up. But while he might have been the best hustler there, it had been two on one, and he'd ended up sulking away in defeat while threating to shave Finnick's tail if he hurt his mate.

He grumbled more to himself thinking back to when they had returned from their 'talk'. Nick was a sheep and king of Zootopia if they had only talked. Words didn't cause mammals to come back limping and rubbing at sore spots. Granted, it looked like Judy had come out the winner and they both seemed far more amiable toward each other after their figh-, Nick growled again, 'talk'.

He'd nearly lost his temper at Fin and spent the next few minutes checking Judy for injuries despite her protests, but she swore that the small sore spot on her chin was from 'tripping' on her way back. His angry glare at Finnick and question of, 'and your limping and rubbing your side because you fell too?' only got a smirking reply of 'Yep, that floor had one hell of a kick.' Only Judy's smirk back at Finnick and her paw pulling him back toward the van had kept Nick from trying to make good on his promise to give Finnick a new furstyle.

Finnick's amused deep voice calling out, "Don't drop that subwoofer!" from Nick's chair at the Tiki-bar and brought Nick back to the present, only making his grumbling and growl louder.

"And thanks for sharing your yogurts!" Finnick snickered loudly.

"Oh, Shut it!" Nick shouted back. He had some paint somewhere in this warehouse, maybe he could mix it in with Finicks body wash. Having his fur turned purple or blue for a few days would serve him right.

Judy passed him carrying a box cables and bumped his hip with hers.

"Come on slow poke," she said in too cheerful a tone for Nick's mode, "You want that kiss I promised for helping Fin right?"

Nick continued to grumble but sped up non-the less.

Judy smiled as she sat next to Nick buckled into the passenger seat of Finnick's van. Nick was trying hard to stay mad at his friend because of their talk, ok it had turned into a bit of a tussle when she had told Finnick that no one, especially not some toot-tooting fox that still rode in a stroller, was going to ever get her to leave Nick, but her presence seemed to be making it hard for Nick to stay mad. Her kiss had sure helped. His ears had perked right up and not even Finnick's whip cracking gesture and sounds had been able to bring them down. She snuggled up against Nick's side a bit more and his lips curved up in a smile before he seemed to realize it and forcefully put the frown back on his face, but she could see the effort it was costing him to do so.

Surprisingly though, after their little discussion and brawl, Finnick had seemed far more accepting of her. She wouldn't quite call him a friend… yet, but they seemed to have come to an understanding. Mainly, that if Judy ever did anything to hurt Nick that he'd do his best to beat her to a bloody pulp and that if Finnick ever tried to break them up she'd return the favor. Judy had to hold down a laugh thinking about it. Her dad needed to take some lessons on threating perspective boyfriends and mates from Finnick.

"Still can't believe that your trying to join the Fuzz, let alone that you married a bunny." Finnick said as he drove. He'd offered to give them a lift since he'd been heading toward the edge of the Haymarket area in Savanna Central near where Nick's dad's shop was located.

"Nick Wilde, the eternal bachelor, hustle supreme, brought down by a bunny." Finnick chuckled, and Nicks frown deepened, "She did more than just hustle you good! She fucking hustled you so good that you still can't even see it!"

"You're just jealous." Judy shot back at Finnick smirking. Nick's lips twitched up again and she felt his arm snake around her shoulder to holding her.

"She's right Fin. I think your just jealous that I have such an amazing mate." Nick said and Finnick scoffed with a loud,

"Not in a million fucking years, Nick. I'd marry my van before I married a bunny."

"That, I can completely believe." Nick said a grin coming back, "Anyway who was that fennec vixen you went on a date with a few months back?"

Finnick went stiff, his paws on the steering wheel tightening till Judy thought he might snap it. "Don't you start-"

"Greta wasn't it?" Nick continued, "Granted everyone has their own tastes, I'd take my beautiful cute bunny over any vixen or doe but I didn't think you where into girls that easily outweighed you despite still being shorter than you."

Judy craned her head around Nick to look at Finnick trying to imagine a fennec fox that heavy, while Finnick snarled back, "That wasn't a date, I had a drink and a dance with her and I was completely drunk! That was it!"

"More than just one dance," Nick snickered, he leaned over to Judy and stage whispered, "Honey has pictures, she was dragging him around the dance floor like a rag doll."

"Nick." Finnick said in an attempt at a calm voice.

"Yep, Mr. Charming?" Nick replied easily.

"Shut the Fuck Up!" Finnick snapped and Nick snickered for a bit while Finnick drove, now the one grumbling.

"You two are just like my brothers," Judy noted with a smile watching the two.

"Almost could be," muttered Finnick, "I've always had to watch out for this idiot like he was a stupid brainless little brother. And now he's not only going to try and join the freakin Fuzz but he's playing around at being a private investigator and fugitive recovery agent."

"We aren't playing," Judy shot back confidently, "We broke the Missing Mammals case and brought down Bellwether."

Finnick shook his head, "Bunny, you'd better be damned careful, you don't have the all the rest of the Fuzz to back you up working alone. We might have just been hustlers but we've seen enough of the city's underbelly to know the real dangers. And most of those sleezeballs are not going to take it well when you two come looking to collect their asses for a bounty."

He gave her a hard stare, "I'm holding you personally responsible if anything happens to the dumbass."

"Hey!" Nick said indignantly, "I can take care of myself!"

Finnick gave one hard barking laugh, "No, Nick you can't. Not when it comes down to a real fight." Nick tried to interrupt but Finnick cut him off with a look, "How many times have I saved your tail in a fight? You can usually get yourself out of a brawl. But this time you're going to be trying to take them down, not running away like the fucking smart thing to do."

Judy grinned, "Don't worry Finnick. I got his back."

Finnick shook his head muttering, "I can't believe that I'm trusting his tail to a damned bunny."

"First, I took down a rhino at the academy," Judy said proudly to Finnick's look of disbelief.

"And how the hell did you do that? Did you ask him kindly to fall or club him in the back of the head with a bat?" he asked clearly not believing her.

"Nope, redirected his punch and got him to knock himself out," Judy said smugly. Finnick even looked slightly impressed and muttered quietly but not quiet enough for her ears to miss, 'would have made a hell of a hustler.'

"Second," Judy added, "Where not planning on getting in fistfights. Nick's going in to take his weapons license exam this Friday."

Finnick made a choked squeaking sound, "You're going to trust this dumbass with a weapon?"

"Yep, gonna be just like the old wilde west!" Nick said happily.

Finnick was quiet for a few moments though he was giving Nick a look that asked 'how stupid are you?'

"Nick?" he started slowly as if talking to someone missing a few marbles, "Do you remember the cork gun carnival game back at the warehouse?"

"Sure do." Nick replied his smirk growing, "If I remember correctly I've beaten you at it every time you've challenged me."

"Yes, but you still missed over half the time!" Finnick said, still speaking slowly but with clear exasperation in his voice.

Nick waved his paw as if that didn't matter, "Of course I missed half the time. I tampered with both of those cork guns so they'd never fire straight."

"WHATTT!?" Finnick shouted, his deep voice rattling the van.

"You didn't think I'd put up a carnival game that would be easy to win, did you?" Nick said, his hustler smirk showing fully.

"But our bets? You bastard! You had me betting on a rigged game?!" Finnick snarled.

Nick gave him a look that clearly said, 'and your surprised?'.

"I had to shoot using the same screwed up toy guns as you Fin. Fair is fair, and it's not like I tried stacking the deck at our poker nights." Nick said in an almost patronizingly smug tone.

"I only did that once! And you knew about the guns!" Finnick steamed.

"Honey and Flash only caught you once, oh and you just missed the turn." Nick added helpfully.

Judy had to hold down her giggles as Finnick pulled the van in a U-turn to get back to the auto-garage's parking lot, cursing the entire time. They really did act like a lot of her brothers. Always bickering and trying to one up the other but still looking out for each other.

As they got out of the van, Finnick called over to Judy, "Make sure to take pictures for me when he does something stupid like tazers himself!"

Judy laughed, responding with an enthusiastic "Absolutely!"

"You're supposed to be on my side," Nick whispered, leaning down to her.

She gave him a peck on the cheek, "I am. Consider it incentive to not tazer yourself."

"Kisses are a better incentive." mumbled Nick, though he was smiling a tiny bit.

"All carrots and no stick makes bunnies lazy." Judy replied.

Nick kissed her on the cheek and murmured right in her ear making her blush a little, "First I'm a fox, Second I like my Carrot." He then gave the inside of her ear a kiss and fire seemed to travel up and down from the point of contact.

Judy was trying to come up with a retort but a feminine voice called out from the open bay door of the garage.

"Fin, I though you said you'd be over right at the beginning of the day! You're an hour late."

Judy could feel Nick tensing up. He mumbled something about needing to get going but before he could lead her away, an arctic fox, a very beautiful, even to Judy, arctic fox came out. The vixen finished cleaning her paw on a rag and pointed the wrench she was holding at Finnick.

"And what happened to your face? If your late because you were drunk and got into a bar fight I'm taking back my discount for you." She said sternly.

Finnick walking around the front of the van shrugging, "Wasn't drinking, had a gig last night and a drunk wanna-a-be gangster fresh out of the system got upset at something and started tearing up the place. Owner gave me a bonus for helping to throw him out on his ass since the bouncer was already busy. As for being late," he pointed at her and Nick, "Blame the love birds, their shenanigans held me up this morning."

The vixen turned to look at them and Nick froze under her gaze. She crossed her arms, tapping the wrench.

"Nick." She said

Nick responded with a stiff, "Skye."

"It's been a while. I think you've been avoiding me longer than your mother." Nick flinched, "There've been some very interesting stories going around about you lately, though," she glanced at Judy before returning to her striking lavender eyes, eyes almost the same shade as her own, to Nick, "by the looks of things they seem to be true."

Finnick let out a ruckus laugh at that, "More than anyone in their right minds would imagine. Nick hasn't so much as even kissed a girl since me and Trevor got him to kiss you during valentine's day in elementary school and then he goes off in a single night and gets himself married! And to a bunny!"

Judy could feel her jaw drop as she looked back and forth between Nick and the vixen, the beautiful vixen, the type of vixen she'd expect to see modeling not working at an auto-garage.

The only other fact that seemed to register in Judy's mind besides the elegantly stunningly beautiful vixen was the statement that Nick had Kissed her. Then some of what Nick had said at the subway yesterday popped up in her mind. This was the vixen he'd been crushing on. This was the vixen he'd called cute.

A/N

Muhahaha! The Jedi might have the Force and the Sith might have the dark side but I draw my power from pure grinchy spitefulness :} (and coffee)

*snicker* I'm curious as to how many of you picked up on the hints and how many of you got blindsided this chapter.

Also, As far as Skye's eye color, feel free to correct me but I think the original concept art had her with purple/lavender eyes.

…

Now, I'd like to give a general thanks to everyone who has favorite/follow and especially those who have taken the time to review or pm. So Thanks, I can now redeem those for coffee credits. Now for some overdue answers and responses to comments and reviews:

First, congrats to Zero Reader and OldFan123 (Ao3) and Gunslinger99 (Ao3) for figuring out the reference in the last chapter.

Upplet – COOL! Another one of the big time (and real) writers actually read this drivel and liked it! So um I got a question, did the pirates abduct you too, or are you part of the crew? Because if you've been forced to write 400,000+ words in your story and haven't found a way to escape by now, well then that bodes badly for my future.

Man0Man192 – wow that joke was shaping up to be grinch level bad!

Phantomreader42 – well hopefully this made up for it!

Wolfear – LOL you don't know just how true that is… yet!

Zero Reader – Nice pickup on the reference, hope you enjoy this chapter too.

TheAssassin2 – If you're asking about the kool-aid then you need to check what's in that cup already in your hand.

GusTheBear – Thanks again for the names, looking forward to using some of them. As for the time it took to update, it was only a week (looks over shoulder at jailkeeper *sigh* back to work)

Starfang's Secrets – I guess Fin did accept it :) thanks again for all your reviews. Still loving your story. Oh, and as for the previous chapter that 'rubbing it in her sisters face' moment was one of my favorites too, also got to love parents :)

Archangel12575 – Thanks again for the constant reviews (Oh and as for typos, you missed the purposeful typo of somebunny, Muhaha!)

DrL0gic: aka Guest – Here's a nickle! Thanks for the review but I think I see another pirate ship on the horizon, Prepare For Battle!

BlackAngelRider – Hows that for perfect *snicker*

Lurangos – Thanks, it's been interesting trying to keep up such a writing pace especially as the chapters have tended to get longer, but don't worry (or at least you shouldn't, I am) the pirates are keeping me busy.

Cimar of Turalis WildeHopps – How's this for kicking off a 'mad Judy' *snicker* hope you're still enjoying this :)

Uatu – ahh another typo, Run Away! Hope you continue to enjoy the story though :)

Robert Escher – LOL oh you have no idea how true that is!

Kenneth Walker (guest) – Thanks! As for the reason I'm not more explicit in the intimate scenes, well it just doesn't seem to fit the style of this story. Just like the Old Arrangements story style just feels like it should be T rated. I may write a story in the future that is more explicit but first I'd need one that felt right for it, then I'd probably need some (a lot) of liquid courage (coffee) to help me get up the gumbo to actually do it. But both of those are entirely possible, so we'll see :)

There are a lot of others that I probably missed but to everyone I did, Thanks again! (Oh stop gripping all of you on Ao3 I can respond directly in the comments section there. Though oygy (Ao3) gets a honorable gonekrazy3000 proofreader medal for pointing out some truly bad typos)

Till next time, keep hanging on to that cliff! *snicker*