NOTE: I am a writer who supports Black Lives Matter, LGBTQIA2+ rights, Trans Rights, and Liberal Feminism. If you don't like any of that, don't read my stories. Thank you.

So. . . What did Judy get from the store, that was so curious? And, what does it mean for the pair, in their regulated FWB arrangement? Whoever knows, though, has certainly gained an insight into what the rabbit is up to now. . . And, what might be going on. The rabbit and fox, on the other hand, continue their school 'careers', before Judy decides to have a night to 'herself' for once. . .

Nick and Judy, Zootopia, all associated, belong to Disney. My original characters belong to me, although the current offer is $20 for anyone to take them away from me.

You have to be Foxing kidding me

Luckily enough for Judy, Nick liked to set his phone alarms for really, early in the morning. 5 AM, regretfully. Judy couldn't help but let out a pained groan as she tilted her head away from the fox, sitting up angrily.

She was a morning bunny, but after last night she wanted nothing to do with the rising sun. Especially considering the couch was not a comfortable place to sleep. The fox was busy yawning, as he got up from the couch and stretched. That was a spectacle, as his long, graceful limbs twisted in a thousand directions.

She stretched a bit herself, shuffled off the couch, and began cleaning up the empty chip bags and other waste from the room. Nick did the same, as he picked up the bag of remaining chips and brought them to the kitchen.

Judy regretted staying up that late, especially watching such crappy shows. They spent the entire time, together, doing nothing. As her mind drifted, she wondered what she could have done with Nick with all those hours. . . . Still. . . Overall, she felt pretty good anyway,

Speaking of doing things with and without Nick, she needed to remember to check later and make sure it wasn't somehow defective. . . Especially before the receipt disappeared, or something. As she looked across the now-cleaner living room, she saw the receipt laying on the ground in front of the couch. Quickly, while Nick was in the other room, she snatched it up and stuffed it into her hoodie.

It must have fallen out when she pulled out a bag of chips. Either way, it was a good thing that Nick didn't find it. As if hearing her thought, the fox padded back into the living room, one rabbit ear flitting back as it caught the sound.

"I regret. . . Well, most of last night. . . Why didn't we stop after, like, the second one?" He asked, rubbing his eyes with his paws. For someone who was used to getting up at this time, he didn't seem so keen on it either. Probably related to the couch, that thing was horrible.

She shrugged. "I don't know, I'd hoped you'd have stopped hitting continue at least at some point last night." Thanks to his fat paw-digit, they stood up watching stupid comedy, rather than the much more appealing options of sleeping or doing something 'together'.

Which was her original plan after the first movie but for some reason she wanted to see the sequel right away. A reason she didn't understand now. "You know, you did not stop me, did you? I think that makes you as responsible."

She snorted. As if. "Whatever. Either way, I won, I stayed awake way longer than you, fox." She smiled, as they both walked out of the living room. Judy absentmindedly threw away the trash, as Nick stood looking from the bathroom to the stairwell.

". . . I don't even remember falling asleep, so I guess I'll take your word for it. . . You wanna shower first?" He asked, turning to look at her. Judy's eyes widened in surprise, looking up at the fox. It seemed a little strange for them to shower together, even with their Friends with Benefits thing going on. I mean, it's a little intimate, isn't it? Or am I just thinking it is. . . I mean, we've both been 'together'. . . Am I just thinking about this the wrong way? No, no I can't. . . She decided, shaking her head.

While the image of the naked fox was delightful, she had no reason to think she wouldn't see it later, anyway. Plus, how long would the shower take then, what with how wandering their paws might get? "I appreciate the offer, but I'll probably shower alone." She said with a smile, hoping he wouldn't be insulted.

The fox blinked. "That's. . . what I meant? As in, do you want to be the first of us to shower? I know there are two showers, but I think the water heater would crap itself." He murmured tiredly, as he continued to blink to shake the sleep from his eyes. Seeing the sudden dawning of realization on her face, he made a weak smile.

"Oh. . . Well, yeah, I'll go first." She said, turning away as the redness in her ears brightened. The way Nick smiled; she didn't want to hear anything else that came out of his mouth. The fox had to be lying, he had to have been thinking the same thing too, right? She pawed her way to the bathroom, shaking her head. She could hear the fox start padding his way up the stairs, slowly legging his way up.

As she closed the door, she wondered what she should do about winning last night. Better yet, she wondered why he was still so willing to make bets like that, knowing full well that she could make up whatever condition she wanted.

She peeled off her clothes from last night, struggling a bit with the hoodie. It would need to be worn in a little bit before it was truly usable. It was way too expensive to order another, let alone how long it might take only to be wrong again.

The rabbit turned the shower on, testing the water before she hopped into the warm waterfall. The shower stall was big for a rabbit, but that was always better than the alternative. And in the end, all that mattered was the soothing water on her fur, slowly waking her up. Or, compensating for the lack of sleep, anyway.

As she worked the shampoo into her fur, her mind drifted to this whole thing with Nick. More specifically, her thoughts turned back to that night, when she kissed him, and how it evolved into. . . Well, for one, the thing in her room he didn't need to know about yet.

A lot of that night was still fuzzy to her. Judy didn't remember much, likely on account of the alcohol, but she still spent a lot of time wondering why, out of all the people that night, she went after Nick.

It was easy enough to tell him that it was because he was there, and it was because of the 'heat' and alcohol combined at that moment. With how little a fox understood rabbit biology, she could probably have told him anything and he would have believed it wholeheartedly.

Not that she completely lied to him. Her 'heat' did make her somewhat 'horny', and it did somewhat bother thinking when left to its own devices for too long. Kind of like a hunger pang, that nags at your thinking. But, for her just to pounce on him like that. . . That was not really something she could truly blame on the heat.

Especially on a fox, of all species. That was. . . Not something she expected she was going to do as her adulthood.

She could lie to herself all she wanted, but the truth was it was not the first time she'd been curiously interested in pred-prey relationships. Maybe the first time she'd had the opportunity to act on one, but not the first time it had crossed her mind. Let alone the first hundredth time.

Growing up, she was constantly surrounded by rabbits, whether they were her siblings, or friends of the family or other students in school. They were everywhere in Bunnyburrow, hence the name. When she started hitting puberty, she found them to be a little dull at times. Sure, she'd had crushes on rabbits later in high school, but at the beginning, she barely gave them a single thought.

For a stint, when she was like, 12 or 13, she became enamoured by the pred-prey internet fanfictions of the many shows that she loved. For some shows, it was the only way they would ever be together. Pred-prey relationships were still uncommon in most movies and shows, but many fanfiction circles devoted their lives to espousing 'OTP's of various characters, with the more outlandish the combo the better.

It was not a fetish. It didn't last long, she got over it by the time she was 14. Or, maybe 15 or 16. It didn't matter when she grew out of it, she just did. After that, it was only rabbits that interested her. It was a young, stupid thing, that just passed. Brought on by hormones she experienced while growing up.

Not to say that she was predisposed against the idea today. I mean, obviously not. She thought, rubbing her slightly blushing ears with shampoo as the warm water washed over her head. It couldn't be just that motivating what happened that night. It would be strange to regress to that old. . . Interest, even when drunk.

And it still wouldn't explain why she went after Nick. She was surrounded by other males of various species for a notable period during that party before she finally broke away. No, the only logical reasoning was that she picked Nick because she was interested in him.

Maybe she just needed to be honest with herself. She was not and would never be interested in being in a girlfriend-boyfriend, totally committed relationship with Nicholas Wilde. But she spent at least a few moments wondering about what it would be like to physically be with him, even before the party. She remembered dumbly fumbling a few flirts in his direction. . . They didn't work.

Instantly, she blamed it on him. Walking around in his boxers in the morning, as if somehow that wasn't breaking every rule in the book. You weren't supposed to be that naked around roommates. She was almost certain that was likely a criminal offence. Yes, textbook indecent exposure. . . the bastard. Of course, he didn't know she was there, so, technically it was a little voyeurism on her part.

Judy laughed to herself. It was all bullcrap, and she knew it. It didn't matter why she decided on Nick, did it? They were here now, and she was pretty sure that they both were enjoying the 'experimentation'. At least she was.

Some days, it felt like she was in one of those fanfictions now. . . Smiling, she wondered what the next chapter would bring, as her imagination began to wander.

Nick complained vehemently about how long her shower took, but as far as she was concerned, he could just shut up. Her ears were still burning as she stomped up the stairs, turned into her room, and slammed the door behind her.

It was Tuesday, their first class was at 9. They had lots of time for showers. He could damn well chill the heck out. Whatever she did in the shower, stayed in the shower. . . Well, hopefully.

That fox tended to go sniffing around. . . She did her best to get rid of the smell, but his nose was huge. And powerful. And frankly, both the most annoying and cutest part of his whole damn muzzle.

She grabbed some clothes, throwing them on at random. A nice purple sweater, some comfortable jean pants, the standard.

She grabbed her backpack from the floor of her bed, remembering how she left it there when she returned home last night. As the memory came to her, she looked to the nondescript brown box on the bed.

Beyond the cryptic KK9 on the box and the little white sticker with the part number and barcode, it would be hard for anyone to guess what it was from the outside. She guessed that was the manufacturer's intention, to be discreet for the customer. Not unlike the brown paper bags for liquor, although by now everyone knew that association. But, a random box? It could be anything.

Of course, Judy knew it was a fox 'toy'. But hey, only she needed to know that, right?

She smiled, walked out of the room and headed down the stairs. There would be a time and a place for her to play around with that. Maybe.

The people at the 'Toy Shop' seemed flabbergasted when she came up and asked about one.

A bowl of cereal later, and when Nick finally finished getting himself showered and ready, they headed off for Writing class at 9. Neither of them found that class even slightly challenging most of the time, and today was no different.

Especially since half the class was devoted to working on papers that were coming up, anyway. It made things easy, to the point where neither usually had homework in that class.

From there, they both went and changed for today's gym class. They walked in, early at 10:50 as per the usual. Their teacher, Tanya Willoughby, a Kangaroo, was already there, looking over a bunch of papers as the fox and rabbit padded their way over.

"Good morning, Tanya." Nick called out, playing with his water bottle aimlessly. The kangaroo lifted her head and smiled at the two before returning her gaze to her paperwork.

"Mornin', kits. How's your day going?" She spoke, her Outback accent filling the gym with its warmth. She finally snatched one paper out of the pile and held it up.

Nick shrugged, "It's going alright. What's the plan for today?" He asked as he began some static stretches. Judy had watched him do them several times. For. . . Reasons. . . But, he always did them the same order, the same way, and the same length of time.

He never changed. Judy, on the other hand, experimented with a lot of stretches, trying to maximize the number of muscles that she worked on any given day. Sure, maybe sometimes she forgot a stretch here and there, but at least she made sure she never left anything out.

The kangaroo chuckled as she picked up a set of cones and a large measuring tape. "You're not gonna like it, but we got the 'beep' test today. Just to see how everyone's progressin'. . . Of course, we're going to stretch first."

Judy watched as the fox's smile disappeared. "Oh, shit." Thus, the name of the test. Or, at least one of the reasons.

The beep test, or yo-yo test, is a standardized shuttle test of running back and forth between a set of pylons or cones that are set 20 metres apart. Except, you must do it to the beat of the 'program', an audio file that had a sequence of levels and shuttles.

Each level contained an increasing number of shuttles, at an increased pace, represented by a loud beep that signalled that you were supposed to be at the other end and turning around. If you missed it, you got a warning. If you missed two consecutively, that was it. Every seven to ten shuttles of one speed, it went up to the next level.

The insidiousness of the test is not the difficulty of the running, or the speed, but rather that it presents a gradual increase in demand while sapping the runners of their overall endurance in the lower levels. And, Judy was certain, there was a major mental element involved in surviving.

Level seven was the 'victory' level, the minimum requirement for many agencies. At the start of the year, there were several in their class who did not make it there. Or, meet many of the targets in their performance evaluation, such as the grip strength, push-ups, or sit-n-reach test.

But that was the point of the course. To take the students' fitness levels at the beginning and compare them to the levels at the end of the course.

The problem was, it was now level 10, shuttle 6, and Judy was getting tired. Judging by the panting of the fox at her immediate right, Nick was in the same boat.

But. Judy couldn't stop. She couldn't give in to that voice in her head. Not while he was still in the running. The rest of the class had dropped out by level nine, and now it was a deathmatch.

Over the pounding in her head, she could barely hear the din of cheering coming from the rest of the exhausted class. Some were taking bets, she was sure, over who would pay for drinks tonight probably. And then, through all that faded din, there was the one terrifying, threatening sound, repeatedly.

Beep, 10-9. . . Beep, 10-10. . . Beep, 10-11. . . Bo-eep! Running speed, 11-1.

She picked up the pace, but only slightly, as Judy and the fox tried to guesswork the pace for the new level. The only other clear sound she could hear was the wheeze of herself sucking in breath, as she continued to run. Her mouth was dry, and her ribs were starting to hurt from the repeated heavy breathing.

At every beep, she pivoted and jogged back to the end zone. Again. And again. And again. She'd been able to do 10-4 last time, with the fox trailing behind at 9-10. But this time, he'd worked on his cardio. And. . . Judy was starting to think he was going to beat her this time.

The beep resounded the moment she landed, and she pivoted as she felt her mind decide to give up. She began to run back, knowing that she couldn't. She was going to have to suffer through that smug face all evening, but, at this point, she couldn't-

Wait. The weird red blur wasn't beside her anymore. Where was he? She looked to her right, and her lagging brain finally registered that Nick had stopped. Oh thank you, spirits. She thought as she crossed the line on the other side, the audio blaring a loud beep, followed with 11-5.

She ran past the end, turning to avoid the wall as she slowed to a brisk walk. Chest heaving, she looked to the other side of the track. Sure enough, the fox was on the other side of the gym doing the same as he struggled to catch his breath.

"Good job, everyone! Really impressive! Just keep walking, keep your blood flowing or ya might faint." Willoughby shouted, clapping her paws together, before gesturing for the rest of the class to walk around as well.

She slowly turned and padded over to the fox. If she had the energy, and a better lead, she might have wanted to gloat. The fox, on the other hand, stayed slowly walking around the edge of the gym, his tongue hanging out as he panted heavily.

Judy fell in beside him and reached out a paw in a playful and dismally weak punch of his shoulder. "Nice job, Nick. You almost won." She said between breaths, a small smile appearing.

Nick let out a pained groan in response, as he held one paw to his chest. "Thanks. I tried, Carrots. . . On that last lap. . . I swore I was going to die. . . I could barely breathe. . . . I couldn't even enjoy the view. . . of . . . . of your butt when you left me at the line. . ." He barely whispered out between wheezes, the corner of his maw twitching.

This time she punched him harder. "Shush, idiot." Her ears flopped down as she hid the blush-coloured insides. Nick laughed, and then instantly groaned. "Don't make me laugh. . . It hurts so bad."

The rest of the class was doing short circles, nearing the door each time. Seeing this, Willoughby snorted. "Today is a reflection day, so if I was you, I would not be so eager to pop off. Come and get your sheets, everyone!" She said, placing a stack of papers down on the ground.

A wolf and a lion picked them up, Wulfrick and Manfred, respectfully. Both were fit, but the endurance run always seemed to tucker them out. They began passing them out, calling everyone's name as they went around the mob.

Nick and Judy came up and took theirs, grabbed a pencil, and sat down on the gym floor as the teacher began writing on the whiteboard in the corner of the room. "Now, the reflection for today is, how well did you do in comparison to the start of the year?"

Judy put the question in the box provided, put the date in the corner, and began writing her answer. She did better, but not as good as she had hoped. This meant that she and Nick needed to go to the gym more often, but she figured that was not going to be a problem. At a minimum, it gave her a great excuse to stare at him without anyone in the room wondering why.

When they finished their forms, they were free to go. Except, right after they needed to hurry off to Dave's class. A quick change of clothes later, and they both grabbed their backpacks and headed for class.

They both weren't talking much on the way over, on account of being extremely tired and coughing now and then. The beep test tended to cause coughing after completion, although it was hardly a serious issue.

Entering the classroom, Dave was already in the room, writing review items on the board. Mean, while the projector showed the Kookaburra Learning Games site, with an upbeat techno tune playing over the speaker. Judy turned to Nick and grinned. The competition was already on.

The app was basically 'the standard' in fun group testing games that students could play on their phones. A question would be shown on the screen and students could link their phones to the game and use them to answer the question real-time, with points for speed and accuracy.

A leaderboard was shown on the screen and the percentage of people who got it correct. Because of these engaging features, it was extensively used by teachers as a review tool for exams. And Dave was a huge fan of it.

Judy sat down in the front row of desks as per usual, with Nick joining right beside her. They both pulled out their criminal codes, note binders, and phones as they readied themselves for what was always a fight to the death over speed.

The rest of the class shuffled in, having little time to go anywhere but here after gym class. And, in general, no one wanted to miss a class with Dave. Especially not a Kookaburra day.

As the last student filed in, Dave finally finished writing some notes on the board. Judy could see it was a flow chart of finding definitions as well as methods for using the index. Dave turned to the class with a serious look. "All right everyone, you know what to do. Log in, and we'll get started." The Jaguar muttered, as he set his marker down and got settled in behind his laptop.

Most people used their names, Judy and Nick included. Some used joke names, gun names, or other silly things like that. One even dared to write 'Dave', which earned a glare from the jaguar.

When the questions began, it was always a rush to pick the right answer. And, as Dave was prone to do, he threw in some joke questions or misleading ones that required patience. He was always a tricky person.

Every few questions, someone in the class would get a basic question wrong, and Dave would shake his head and say things along the line of "Really? Someone here thinks the Index is used for pointing at people?" Other times he just shook his head, before moving on to the next question.

In the end, it was a good match, but Nick managed to win by approximately ten points. Which, in converted time would have been about a millisecond. Judy was a little steamy over that, but it was just a game.

After, Dave went through everything one more time before class was over, covering the questions that most people got wrong. That is, most people, as she and Nick had a perfect score as per usual. But they were both still happy to have the review.

It still had barely dawned on Judy that it was over halfway through the first semester. An eighth of the way through their diploma. Part of her wanted to think that was significant, and that she should be more concerned than she was.

Then again, maybe it was a good thing that she was not freaking out about it. If she could avoid stressing, it would probably help a lot with test anxiety.

After class, she and Nick walked back to the dorm room, asking a few quiz questions to one another along the way. Although, if Judy was honest, her mind was not on the test or the questions. She was certain that was going to go fine.

Rather, she was more excited to get home and play with her new 'toy'. She didn't spend the money to not use it. And she hadn't even gotten to open the box yet or see anything other than the picture in the catalogue.

Given the blankness of the box, she wondered if it was possible that someone mixed them up. She chuckled, imagining opening the box to find. . . Well, anything else that was on the wall in the doctor's office.

"What's funny?" Nick asked while pulling out his key. Judy felt the blush in her ears, as she cleared her throat. Nick did not need to know about the dildo. He already had way too big of an ego.

She shrugged. "Nothing, really, just thinking about some of the answers the guys picked today. I hope at least some of the time they were intentionally picking the joke answers." The lie rolled off her tongue. It was funny but somewhat depressing.

Judy felt her phone buzz in her pocket, and she pulled it out in the hopes to prevent Nick from questioning her response. When she saw who it was from, she frowned.

Mom: Hey sweetie. How was your day at school? Have you met any nice boys?

Judy rolled her eyes. Her parents had originally wanted her to call them each day, but Judy quickly convinced them that was not going to happen. But, to avoid them freaking out, or showing up unexpectedly, they agreed that she would text them back promptly every time.

Of course, then there was the other issue. It would be an understatement to say that Judy was mad at her parents for taking her pills. There were many times that she wanted to call them out on it, yell at them, and who knew what else. But at the same time, Judy did not want to give them the satisfaction of knowing their plot had even affected her.

Besides. The current situation with Nick was satisfying, to say the least. She gave him a sidelong glance as she typed her response. He had pulled out his phone, so she guessed that she was probably in the clear now.

Judy: Class was ok. No, I haven't met anyone, nor am I looking.

Mom: I'm glad that class is going well. But you never know Judy. I was not looking when I met your father and look at us now.

Judy did not bother responding to that message. There was never a point, her mother would just run that conversation into the ground. She tapped back to the messages tab, glancing over the different conversations in case she missed a message. Judy was about to close her phone when something caught her eye.

Strangely enough, Rhett hadn't messaged her in. . . Well, over a month. In fact, she hadn't really heard from him at all since everything with her pills happened. Unless you consider his friends, who'd come around initially. Since then, it had been strangely quiet.

But she would not complain about that.

"Caroline wants to know if we want to go to a party tonight. Should I tell her no, as usual?" Nick asked, looking from his phone to the rabbit.

Judy nodded in response. Since the whole thing happened, and what happened at the barbeque, Judy had made the smart decision to not go to any parties, no matter the circumstances. Too many people there who would smell her, and she wouldn't enjoy any of the party with their pestering. It was the same reason that she tended to avoid any major group settings outside of class.

In class, no one ever paid attention to her anyway. Except for Nick, but that was excusable.

Nick tapped out a quick message on his phone. A few seconds later, he frowned at it and shoved it into his pocket angrily.

"What's up?" Judy asked, as she opened the door to their dorm and walked in.

Nick shook his head. "Nothing, just Caroline being Caroline."

Judy smiled. Chances were Caroline was either flirting with him or being immature in some way. They walked into the kitchen and were greeted with the sight of their roommates, sat at the kitchen table, seemingly frozen in a paused conversation as the roommate's gaze turned onto the two intruders.

Sharla somewhat sheepishly picked up the phone that was on the counter, turning the screen off and gingerly putting it in her pocket. Judy did not catch what was on the screen. Her eyes narrowed at Sharla, who looked quite like she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

Chrys was the first to speak, although he audibly cleared his throat first. "You're here, good! Right on time, dinner is almost ready." He spoke slightly nervousness. Looking to the right, she saw that there was food on the stove, and finally, the smell hit her nose.

Whatever it was, it was very spicy. "Smells good. . . What is everyone's plans tonight?"

"Ah!" Sharla seemed to interrupt. "Well, we were talking, and, if everyone wants to, we can play a game of Cards against Mammality. I mean, after we eat, and maybe after a bit of studying. . . But we thought it would be fun."

Judy smiled at the thought. She remembered playing the game with some of her friends in high school, and it was both horrible and funny at the same time. It was also always interesting to see what kind of dark brands of humour people liked, as was often the case.

"Well, I'm up for it if everyone's game." Judy responded, looking over at Nick. She was curious why the two were being weird, but she could investigate Sharla later for that.

The fox nodded. "Sure, why not?"

Judy was still chuckling as she walked up the stairs, headed for bed. She had decided to call it early since she was barely able to breathe after the last round. She opened her door, and slowly closed it behind her. Then, she locked it as a grin began to form.

She had 'other' plans for the rest of the night. Nick was fun and all, but there was some experimentation to be had tonight. She could play with him tomorrow. She enthusiastically hopped over to the bed, where the box was waiting. She snipped the little seal with her pointer claw and opened the box.

Immediately, there was a large booklet with an exclamation point on it and a warning. Underneath, it stated, 'Do not use if you are or are related to any of the species on this list' and proceeded to list a variety of small animals. Judy disregarded it, pushing it out of the box to reveal the wrapping paper. When she finally uncovered the fox 'toy', she was somewhat disappointed. It was. . . Smaller, than she expected.

But she still felt that it was probably larger than the rabbit toy that she brought from home. In the interests of 'science', she needed to compare them. And she needed to grab the lube. She smiled, as she bounded over to her closet, and pulled down the smaller travelling case that she'd thrown on the top shelf.

She'd left all her toys in the case's 'secret' compartment on the inside, in the hopes that her parents wouldn't just run across them when they were helping her pack. Which, she didn't ask for help, but at least Judy had the foresight to hide them before they came in.

She set the case down on the ground, opened it, and unzipped the inside pouch. She reached into the bag, and as if by destiny, she felt the rubberized feeling of her more familiar 'toy'. Judy pulled it out and looked at the multi-coloured monstrosity. Looking at it now, she had to admit that it was not as impressive in size as when she first got it, all those years ago.

She would have to put them side by side to be sure. Reaching back in, Judy started to wonder how much lube she still had. She really hoped she didn't need to go back and buy some at that store. What if the same workers were there, would they remember her?

With how sparingly she'd used it over the years, it could be anywhere from half full to empty. Heck, for all she knew, it could be nearly-

Shck-shck-shcka. Judy froze, as her paw bumbled into a large, plastic cylinder. Judging by the sound, a person could easily assume there were pebbles or beads inside whatever she'd just bumped into.

Unfortunately, Judy had a feeling that she knew what the sound was. As she pulled out the translucent yellow-orange pill bottle, the memory slowly came back to her.
"Oh no."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

She'd been in the middle of packing that pouch with her toys and pills when she heard her mother and father's paws walking down the hall. Some thought it was impossible to tell people by footstep but given the gait and the weight of the steps, Judy doubted it was anyone else.

The rabbit grabbed the 'toy' and shoved it in as quickly as she could. She heard the pill bottle rattle as the silicone shaft drove everything further into the pouch. Judy was barely able to close the zipper before she heard the click of her doorknob being turned. It was not like her parents did not know she had one, but the idea of it being seen was still embarrassing.

She turned, just as her mother stepped through the door. "Hello, Mom. I'm just, uh, packing right now." Judy smiled at her mother, who looked both happy and concerned at the same time. As per usual.

"Oh hon, but you don't leave for another two hours, right?" Stu Hopps asked as he stepped in, clearly over-quoting the fact that she was leaving within the hour.

The memory reminded her how far behind she was on packing, and she immediately speeded over to her closet. "I know, but I want at least a few minutes to spare, in case I remember something before I leave."

Her mother nodded. "Make sure you don't forget the pills on your nightstand! I've made that mistake before."

Judy suddenly paused as she threw clothes into the nearest open suitcase. Oh, yeah. She nodded. "Right mom, thanks." She grabbed a few more pieces of clothes from her nearby dresser and carried them over to the bed.

It was a good thing her mother reminded her. While she'd packed the filled bottle, there were still at least two weeks of birth control pills on the counter.

"I don't know about this, Jude. It's all so. . ."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Judy was sitting on her bedside, the bottle of pills in her hand.

Sixty tablets of birth control pills, all right where they should be. Internally, she was scolding herself for not checking everywhere for them, and especially for not checking inside her bags. How could she have forgotten that they were in there?

She had no good answer. Yes, she'd been distracted, yes, she hadn't gone into that pouch when she unpacked, but how did she not notice that they weren't with the other pills? The rabbit shook her head.

It meant that everything with Nick didn't have to have happened if she'd only looked harder. She could've avoided the lying, the dealing with her urges, everything. She also could have spent way less time being passive-aggressive to her parents, as well.

Her parents. She shook her head, thinking about how angry she'd gotten for something they'd never done. Not that she had ever confronted them for it, but still, it made her feel terrible for accusing them internally.

Thinking on it with more clarity, it seemed like it was impossible for Bonnie Hopps to do that to her children. . . This meant that Rhett was never part of that plot because none of it ever existed. She looked over at the new, unused dildo beside her on the bed.

She didn't have to buy that, either. . . But, did it really matter now? None of this needed to continue. She could take the pills, and call everything off with Nick. She could return the 'toy', unused, and everything would be fine. Nick would understand, after all.

Heck, he'd been practically trying to call this whole thing off with how many times he asked if she was okay with this, right? He would probably be relieved to know that she'd found her pills.

It could all end. . . Not that she truly regretted what happened. It was an adventure, and for the most part, it had been fun. A little too much fun, if she was honest.

On the other hand, she didn't need to tell Nick. She didn't need to take the pills. They could just keep going on, and she could forget she ever found them. At least, until the new pills came in. Damn, I forgot about that. I guess I could lie and say they still haven't come in. No, that's just stupid. She shook the thought out of her head and opened the pill bottle.

With a quick turn of the wrist, she shook out a pill and swallowed it. The bitter, horrible taste caused her to wince as it slid down the back of her throat. She wouldn't pass up not having to deal with bucks now and again, even for Nick.

Judy shook her head.

And let out a long, relieved sigh.