Chapter 5:
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AN: Remember when I said I'd be rushing some of these chapters out to get to the triple date before I went away for an Easter Ski Holiday?
Well, thanks to the magic of Corona Virus ™, I don't need to anymore!
Updates will remain weekly, though I still plan to have a small hiatus (maybe just a few weeks) before I launch into the full length series finale.
Which may be a good thing as I saw Beastars Saturday…
And yeah, I have a fic called Zoostars now. Go figures. That'll be updating on a looser schedule.
I'm also carrying on uploading my oneshots to its own drabble fics. If you haven't checked it out yet, why not? The latest one has Nick in a Slave Leia outfit!
But enough of me, on with the show.
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"What was what?" Nick asked, before regretting it.
"DON'T!" Skye barked, stepping forwards. Nick retreated a few steps as she began encroaching his personal steps, fruitlessly putting his paws up to try and calm her. She ignored them, the brow of her muzzle furrowing as her lower jaw dropped a little, revealing her teeth. Her tail bristled up and gave a few powerful sweeps before she stopped herself, closing her eyes and breathing out. "I wanted to trust you," she grovelled, grinding her crutch ends into the earth. "I did trust you. After all, you had changed, you said there was no more sneaking or mischief coming from you, you promised!"
"I," Nick began, before looking up the tree he'd just climbed down. "Oh…"
"Is 'Oh' all you have this time?" she asked, crossing her arms and patting the end of her good paw into the ground.
Nick was about to say the standard response to this kind of mishap, the good old 'this isn't what it looks like', before remembering that that never actually worked. So he cut it out and skipped straight ahead. "Me and a few other boys were hanging out up there," he explained.
"Then where are they?" She asked, looking up and finding nothing.
"They went inside."
"And you just happened to climb down."
"Yes," Nick replied.
"Really?" she pressed, not convinced.
"Yes really!" Nick said back. "Listen, I know me sneaking around and climbing down the outside of this house may look suspicious, but it isn't what it looks like."
"Oh, what does it look like then!?"
"I just explained it," Nick complained. "-And what it actually is." He turned away and groaned in frustration. "And always with the same response, every single time."
"You're telling me," Skye snarked, as he looked back at her. She trembled a bit in anger before releasing it in a bitter sigh, shaking her head as she did so. "I was already feeling miserable, and you just had to put salt in the wounds," she muttered, holding a paw up to silence him. "I thought you'd changed," she said, looking into his eyes, hers trembling with disappointment. "I wanted to believe you'd changed…"
"Listen, ask the others," Nick began, only for Skye to turn and march off the other way.
"I'm such an idiot," she grumbled, looking down. Were they not occupied with her crutches, Nick was certain that she'd have both paws gripping her face tightly. "I… I wanted to hope that you weren't the miserable troublemaker I knew back at school Nick, I wanted to hope that you had changed and that we could be friends. I was ready to trust you when you said, -you promised, you'd changed. You said that the old you was gone forever, but here he is again, less than an hour later!" She turned to look at him, tears in her eyes. "Just go ahead, and keep doing your sneaking around and bad stuff. Just know that next time I won't be stupid enough the think that you actually changed." She pushed forwards, speeding ahead on her crutches as she went out into the fields. Nick stepped forwards to follow her before stopping himself.
"Just because it looks like bad stuff is going on, doesn't mean it is!" he called, only for the rapidly escaping vixen to ignore him. Nick just stood where he was, looking down and rubbing his face in his paws. "Now, what would usually happen is that I'd go after her and keep trying to explain it," he narrated
…
"Which I won't do as I can just go inside, wait for her to get back, and have all my witnesses explain it to her." And so he turned to walk back in, though he couldn't help but feel down as he did so. Skye had jumped right to the worst conclusions about him, which he guessed he deserved. It wouldn't affect him in the long run, she'd very quickly be proved incorrect, everything would be fine…
So why was he still feeling down?
Sitting down at the kitchen table, he closed his eyes and thought.
…
It was because he'd disappointed her, wasn't it?
Even if it was temporary, even if it was her fault, he'd hurt her. Nick mirthfully remembered that old him didn't care at all about that stuff. Heck, he'd thought that almost everyone hated him to some degree or other. Yet now, given that he was a role model, someone that mammals looked up to, it did hurt. That was something that he took pride in, that felt good, and failing it, for whatever reason, felt bad.
Still, his words wouldn't make it better. He'd have to endure this for a little bit, no biggy after all. If only Skye could realise that sneaky or mysterious behaviour didn't mean that bad stuff was going on!
He nodded and stepped up, before his eyes widened. "Hang on," he said, patting a paw on the floor. "Hang on just a minute."
He was broken from his train of thought as the door above him opened. Looking up, he saw Mr Fox, Kylie and the boys coming down, Mr Fox pausing as he saw Nick. "Nice to meet you again, I was just talking with the partygoers for a medium length time period…"
"-You were faster down, that doesn't matter," Nick interrupted.
Mr Fox's eyes widened. "Wait, you're not going to try and claim victory?"
"No, I'm not even going to use the argument I had with Skye. It's not important right now."
"You had an argument with her?" Ash asked.
"She mistook my tree climbing for mischievousness and wasn't happy," Nick rushed out. "Of course, you guys can explain what really happened when we have the time, which we may or may not have now. Mr Fox, Foxy, did you tell the others about the missing present?"
"No," he said, a grin growing on his face. "Am I detecting a change of plan?"
Nick crossed his arms. "Don't act quite that smug yet, you didn't think of this, I did."
"Think of what, may I ask?"
"I'll explain in your office," he said, as he rushed in, the others following.
One soon leaving again and going outside.
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Further away from the tree, in the middle of a grassy daisy covered bank, sat Skye. Crutches down, she'd curled up on her side, cosying up in on herself and relaxing.
Pulling one of the small flowers, she carefully pricked the stem, right near its end, before threading it through a similar hole in another flower. The daisy head, far bigger than the hole, got stuck, forming another link in the long chain she was making.
Another flower then came up and was threaded through, and so she went on, carefully keeping her paws occupied. She was idly thinking of whether she could do something more elaborate, like making a dreamcatcher, when her ears rose. Looking over her shoulder, she almost groaned as she saw a red fox approaching, only to realise that it wasn't Nick. "Hi Ash."
"Hi Skye," he said, wandering over. "Too noisy in there?"
Her ears lowered. "You could say that," she muttered, shivering a little. She couldn't help but look at her cast, now covered with hundreds of stranger's names, and all sorts of other odd doodles and such.
"I get what that's like," he said, sitting down next to her. "Sometimes you want some alone time." He paused, suddenly looking a little nervous. "If you want, I could go again."
"That's fine," she said, smiling. "Just don't ask to sign my cast."
He gave a solid nod in agreement. "I'm guessing that stuff might not have been exactly consensual."
"No," she groaned. "Kylie asked to sign it, then some kits who I couldn't really say no to, then a bunch of others getting up close to me and chatting and drawing these things on a cast that'll go anyway soon enough. I mean, I know it's supposed to feel good and that they want to make you feel better… It just doesn't make me feel better. All those mammals just made me feel drained, and cranky, and needing some emergency alone time."
"Nothing wrong with that," he said, shrugging.
"Thanks," she sighed. "Guess you can enjoy the quiet with me. Make the most of it while you can."
He nodded, smiling as he sat down. "You do realise that babies sleep a lot and have earlier bed times. I can have my quiet time then."
"Good point," she noted, as Ash brought out an old bit of stale bread. He threw it out into the grass, hoping to attract some birds to watch. Until then, they were both quiet for a little while, she carrying on with her daisy chain making while Ash picked the petals off of one, one at a time. She was happy there, like that, though when she saw a certain bunny jogging over she was even happier. "Hi Jack."
He stumbled up next to her before bending over, paws on his knees as he caught his breath. "Okay… I'm… not… fit… took… a… while… to… find… you…"
Her ears lowered, before she pulled him in with her arms to hug him. "Sorry there," she said. "I just really needed some emergency alone time. Especially after an argument with Nick."
"What about him?" he asked.
"He was climbing down the tree, sneaking and stuff," she sighed, before frowning. "I was already so tired and wound up when I saw him, and seeing that I was wrong, seeing that he hadn't changed… I just felt like the biggest idiot."
"Skye, your bunny is available to be petted."
She smiled a little and snuggled him up. "Thanks," she said, turning around to hug him. She sighed, relaxing as she noticed that some birds had turned up. A trio of magpies were fighting over the crust, and she enjoyed the spectacle while holding her bunny tight, cradling him. "You could be like this with the new kit in a month or so," she said, looking over at Ash.
The red fox nodded, looking at a fourth bird that was holding back scared in the bushes, before turning to her and clearing his throat. "Nick and my family were sitting up in the tree drinking cider, and he climbed down as part of a joke," he said, raising a finger.
Skye looked at him and blinked a few times, speechless.
Jack wasn't. "OVERPETTING! OVERPETTING! CAN'T BREATH!"
She looked down and let go of him, before looking away, burying her face in her paws. "Damn it, damn it, damn it!" she cried. "I'm such an idiot!" She gave the side of her head a few whacks, before sniffing. "I thought I'd been an idiot, now I'm even more of an idiot! And I hurt Nick, because I was stupid and mad and didn't want to listen, because I'm an idiot!"
Jack wandered over, despite a slight groan of pain, and patted her side, only getting a cold shoulder back. She was too far gone even for that. Instead, the jackrabbit looked up at Ash and frowned. "You could have given a warning."
"What," he asked. "Say, 'well if you think you're an idiot now, wait until you hear this?' That just makes it even worse!"
"I didn't say it was for her!" he said, only to pause as Skye turned to him.
"Oh gosh, I hurt you too!" she despaired, though she was stabilised a bit as Jack marched right into her stomach, her arms feebly reaching to stroke him. She paused, looking up at Ash, before looking down again.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't think you need to be sorry to me," Ash replied, shrugging. "I mean, I really like Nick. He's cool. But you made a mistake, you didn't realise that he was spending tonight helping my father track down a missing present."
"A missing…" she began, looking up. Her face winced again. "And so I screamed at him after he was helping out," she said mirthfully, before reaching for her crutches. "I'd better make this right then. Come on Jack, time to go."
He slipped out from her and helped her up, and together they began making their way back to the house. "I'm sorry," she said again.
Ash shrugged. "You made a guess, it was wrong," he said, looking up. He fidgeted with his sweat bands a little before carrying on. "Not the biggest mistake in the world."
She nodded, looking down at him and smiling. "Thanks," she said, as they carried on. "To make it up, I could help out with the search."
"Sure," Ash said. "I thought you might ask that. I thought you might be upset too." He then stuck a paw into his pocket and brought out a cookie. "So I brought this."
Skye looked at it and smiled. "You know, that's much nicer than lots of scribbles on my cast. Thanks." She stopped where she was, freeing a paw to take the cookie and munch on it, while Jack walked up to Ash.
…
"I only brought one."
"Aaahhhh," he moaned, before looking away. "By the way, how big is this present?"
"Photo album sized."
"I'll be happy to join in the search too!" he announced.
Ash nodded. "You can help Skye up the stairs."
She paused, before nodding. "Guess you can help me with that," she said, before offering down the remaining half of her cookie. He smiled and walked up to it, only for her to pull it up above his paw height. She smirked a bit as she led him around for a second or two, before he crossed his paws and looked at her.
"Skye," he lectured. "I am not some simple pet, to be led around with the promise of treats."
She smiled and passed it down to him. "I was just curious if that would work," she smirked, before grabbing her crutches again and taking off, the two boys following her.
Jack frowned and looked back at her, finishing off the cookie. "It was a one-time only thing, and don't you forget it!"
"Suuureee," she chirped, feeling a lot better now. "Again, thanks for that," she said to Ash.
"No worries."
She smiled. "Guess you're practicing for when you're a big brother."
He shrugged, before smiling a little as the three of them entered the kitchen, arriving to find Nick, Foxy, Kylie and Kris waiting for them. The Fox cop in particular was looking very proud of himself, only for that to be cut out as the mechanic vixen spoke his name.
"Nick?"
"Skye," he asked, turning to face her. "Now, if you ask these kind mammals…"
"I know," she cut in, scooting up next to him before hanging her head in shame. "I am so sorry for jumping to conclusions like that. I am so sorry, that after all you've done and all you've helped mammals, that I still judged you as the mammal that I used to know. I'm sorry that I jumped to conclusions, I'm sorry I didn't listen to you… and I'm sorry for hurting you."
She kept on looking down, only to jolt a bit as a paw landed on her shoulder. "Skye," Nick began. "I was only hurt because I hurt you, okay…"
"But it…" she began, only to be cut off.
"We did a dumb thing! Whoopsie, we all do," he said, before smiling a little. "Besides, these good mammals don't have our kind of history, do they?"
She blinked a few times, before smiling a bit.
"In any case, we've got you to thank for solving the mystery!"
"Huh?"
Nick smiled. "Just because it looks malicious doesn't mean it is," he explained. "It applies to me, and then I realised it could apply to our missing present too. A bit of logical thinking, and I think I know where to find it!" He looked around at everyone, before waving onwards. "Vamoose, gentlemammals."
And, with that, everyone followed him, Skye and Jack bringing up the rear. They quickly slipped through the main room and followed Nick to Mr Fox's master bedroom, opening it up. He took a few strides in, only to freeze in shock, as did everyone else as they filed in.
"Uhhh…" Nick began, not sure what to say.
Mr Fox looked around for a second or two, surveying the scene. "I think the words we're looking for is what-on-earth-happened-to-my-master-bedroom!?"
The same question was on everyone's tongue as they looked on at the heaping mess that covered the entire floor. It was as if some concentrated being of pure energy had gone around turning each and every item it could find over, emptying all the storage spaces and overturning a good chunk of the furniture too.
And then Judy burst out of one of the clothes piles, panting. "Okay, I'm pretty sure that it's not in this room, but I might have missed something. Maybe you guys can do a second look while I move to the next room up!"
…
"Carrots?" Nick asked, stepping forwards.
"Don't worry Nick," she said, running up to him. "We're going to find this thing. Now if…"
"Calm down Fluff, I've worked it out!"
"-we're going to save the day, we need to double our efforts and…"
Sighing, Nick grabbed the back of her head and pushed her right into his chest to cut her off, not that she kept trying.
"-MMMmmmmppphhhhhh…"
"Okay, breather there," he said, pulling her back out. She took a deep breath in and looked around. "Sorry there. Just panicking, trying to save the day…"
"I've worked it out," Nick said again, finally getting her attention.
Judy breathed a sigh of relief, before slumping down. "Oh… Good…"
Nodding, the fox stepped back, before looking up at the mess she'd made searching for the missing present. Finally out of her panicked state, she did too, looking around awkwardly. "Errr…"
"Effort, ten-out-of-ten," Nick commended. "Now, may I ask why you were searching for something you shouldn't have known was missing?" He looked back to Mr Fox, who began his rewinding motions as Judy spoke.
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Waiting her turn, Judy finally got to the front of the queue, grabbing an orange pen and drawing a smiley carrot on Skye's cast. "There you go," she said, smiling as she patted it. Her enthusiasm waned a little as she looked up at the swift fox vixen, who didn't look quite as optimistic. Rather, she looked more stressed out, her top two canines biting her bottom lip while she held Jack tight. "Need anything else Skye?"
"-No-thanks."
"You sure?"
"Yep," she quipped, before nervously turning to the next mammal adding their signature. Feeling that it was best to back off, Judy did just that, moving out into the open just as she saw a whole line of mammals come out from the stairs. Mr Fox, Kris, Ash and Kylie. She paused though as she noticed no Nick. In fact, where was her fox? She walked over, picking out the opossum to speak to. "Hi, have you seen Nick anywhere?"
"We were just drinking cider up on one of the branches, he's going down the external route."
Her nose twitched a few times. "Okay… I guess? Anything else you lot were doing?"
"Just a failed search for Dr Silverfox's mysteriously vanished present. It was highly sentimental."
Judy blinked a few times. "What do you mean mysteriously vanished?"
"It's gone, and why it's gone is a mystery. We're giving it five before calling quits and roping in everyone's help."
"Right then," Judy murmured as he walked away. "Five minutes… -I bet I can find it in four!"
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Rewind over, all eyes were trained on the opossum, especially Nick's. "Didn't I ask you if you'd told anyone?"
"No, you asked Foxy."
"He's got you there," Mr Fox agreed, the rest of the witnesses nodding along. Even Nick saw the funny side, rolling his eyes before looking down at Judy.
"Sadly, he set Miss Energizer Bun-Bun off, didn't he?"
She smiled nervously, before looking around at the mess she caused, deflating. Eyes in her paws, ears over them, she grunted. "I think I got a bit too carried away…"
Nick, and everyone else for that matter, gave a set of synchronised nods.
"Sorry for being such a dumb bunny," she said.
"Hey," Nick interrupted. "It's the thought that counts."
"It's also not your mess," she said guiltily, looking up to Mr Fox. "I'll clean it up," she promised, paw over her hearts.
He looked down at her before smiling. "Or maybe we could all dig in and help tidy this up…"
"-But I've already cleaned rooms!" Jack butted in, complaining. "Haven't I done enough, it's not like I caused the mess in this one?"
"You're right, Jack," Judy began, only for Skye's paw to shut her off. The Swift Fox vixen looked down at her boyfriend, a cunning smirk on her muzzle.
"This is doing more Jack," she pointed out, "besides, I've got the most excuse to not chip in."
He was quiet for a second or too, giving some silent grumbles, before she leant down and whispered in his ear.
Both of them shot upwards, his eyes wide. "Right, let's get to work!"
"Yup," Mr Fox said, "before we have any more unforeseen interruptions."
He dusted his paws, only to flinch down as an ominous BANG shook the room. Everyone shied their eyes away, before tenderly looking up, gulping as they saw a very irate looking Mrs Fox staring daggers at all of them; before turning them all onto her husband, naturally. "If…" she began, before shaking her head. "I don't even know what's happening here Foxy. You're going to tell me what's happening right now, so I can see if I need to be madder or not."
Her husband, unfazed, stood up to her. "Your brother-in-law's present went missing and I decided to secretly retrieve it, recruiting Nick and Kylie in for the job, which we soon failed at, Kris and Ash learning so; then Nick had an epiphany, he led us here, where Judy, having also learnt of the problem, was doing her best to solve it."
…
"Okay," she began, "I'm not mad now. -Wasn't expecting that." She paused a few times, before her eyes widened a little. "William's present is gone?"
"Completely vanished without a trace," Mr Fox explained.
"Oh god," she muttered, wincing over. Her husband stepped over to hold her, and she held back.
"Now, observe Exhibit B, this kind of emotional response is why I wanted to keep it a secret."
"What's Exhibit A?" Ash asked.
Nick held up Judy's paw in response.
The teen fox nodded. "Got it."
"I… I understand now," Felicity said quietly, looking up again into his eyes. A paw came up onto his shoulder and she smiled. "Thanks, I guess… -But who'd take that present? Why would they want to do such a thing?"
Her ears rose as Nick spoke up, a smug look on his muzzle. "Well, here's the thing, no one did."
"Nick?" Judy asked, confused.
The fox cop smiled, before suddenly walking straight into the en-suite bathroom and out again with the present held in his paws. Everyone's jaws seemed to hit the floor, eyes were wide, and the same question was on everyone's mind.
"What was it doing in there?" Mrs Fox asked.
"Well," Nick began, looking around. "When we all start cleaning up this mess, I'll explain it as we work."
And so they did, quickly undoing the damage that Judy's frantic search had done, the red fox narrating as he went. "We all assumed that someone had some dark reason for taking the present and hiding it. It made sense at first. But, after talking to all the suspects, none had a real drive or motive strong enough to do that. We were at a loss, no hope of finding our culprit left, until a series of strange events led to an agitated Skye mistakenly believing that I was up to no good. I tried to say that just because something looks bad, it doesn't mean it is, not that she listened to me. Thankfully, though, I did, and then it hit me. Who's to say that our present thief had any bad intentions too?"
"But what other intentions would you have for taking a present?" Judy asked.
"Who's to say they thought it was a present," Nick said. "It took a bit more thinking, before I realised just who took it."
"Who?"
Nick smiled, before glancing at Mr Fox. "Rewind please."
Mr Fox did just that.
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AN: That's right, we're ending it here. But can any of you guess how the book ended up there? Feel free to comment and see you all next week.
