Zootopia – Springtime Circumstances

Chapter 2 – Sick of Love (POV Nick)

I loved working with Judy. Every single day, whatever we did, I enjoyed it more than everything else before in my life. I never wanted to miss her in any situation of the day; And for her, I would do nearly anything she asked me for. I even started working out because of her, she even managed to motivate me for running with her regularly. I´ve never felt this good before in my life, I was proud of myself every time I saw myself in the mirror.

I owed that cute little bunny so much already, I nearly felt bad for not being able to pay her back for it properly. She brought so much joy into my life. She was the first female, who I ever had real feelings for. Now I finally understood, what falling deeply in love really felt like.

She is clever, she is powerful, she is badass and she is the most beautiful women in the whole city, even beyond that. I found myself staring at her breathtaking appearance way too often in the locker-rooms, in the Office, at any time of the day. I even felt a little suspicious for looking at her all the time.

At night, I was very often thinking about her in a way that couldn´t be described as family friendly. I think I would sink into the ground in shame if she found out about that. But I couldn´t help it. That was the only way to stop myself from turning crazy.

I knew very well that interspecies couples still weren´t really a common thing, even in those times we are living in, and that it often wasn´t accepted by everyone either. But on the countryside, where her parents where living for example, that issue was a lot bigger than here in the big city.

All of that wouldn't matter to me. Not even slightly. No matter what my friends would say, my mother, the colleagues, that all was nothing compared to the feelings I had for her. Boy, what would I give to call her more than just my best friend.

There was just this one problem, which kept me from confessing it to her: I didn´t want to ruin such a wonderful friendship. I had no idea how she would react to it. Even the idea of a serious relationship between us sounded absurd in my head. I always told myself to give it more time, to wait for the right moment, but that wasn´t really making it better. That moment wouldn´t just come if I kept on waiting. We just kept on living our lives, solving cases, working out, watching movies, and everything seemed to be fine, but I didn´t want it to stay like that forever.

Today was a nightmare for me. The first minute I saw her today, the skin under my fur started itching already.

First, it was to be noticed very lightly, just at my arms and at the ankles of my feet, later it got a lot worse. I had to scratch myself a lot in those places from time to time, and soon it started really annoying me. It started itching on my back, on my stomach and on my face as well, and I couldn´t imagine, where that came from. Probably because of the spring time, but I never had it that bad before in my life. The mating season of my species began and I secretly was in love with somebody. That could mean big problems for me, but I had to ignore it for today, in order not to look suspicious.

During the paperwork, which we did in our office, I went to the bathrooms from time to time, just to let some cold water run over my arms and get rid of the itching, but I couldn´t do that as often as I wanted to. It really stressed me, and she noticed that as well of course.

The biggest problem with that was that Judy was sitting not very far away from me and her scent seemed to multiply those feelings and desires by what felt like a million times.

In the late afternoon, when our shift had ended finally, it was close to unbearable for me.

Like always, we went home together side by side until we arrived at the building my apartment was in, and she went the rest of the way home on her own then.

I excused myself for this evening and stayed inside my four walls for the whole rest of the day. That confused her a little of course, but I couldn´t help it. She had noticed that I wasn´t feeling to well all day long, but when she asked what it was, I just told her that I didn´t knew either.

I knew exactly what it was of course, I even considered jacking off on the toilet at one point of the day, but I simply couldn´t just tell her that. I shared a lot with her normally, but that was clearly too much.

I really needed something to calm down my nerves, and I needed to be alone therefore.

Since I came home that day I was running around completely nude, took a shower every half hour, and I constantly had to scratch my itching skin which felt like it was on fire. I was getting sick of it already. To make matters worse, I got a call from my mother in the late afternoon. She was calling to ask me how I was doing from time to time and as usual, at the beginning of every year´s mating season, she wanted to know how her little Nicky was doing. Since I was a police officer now, my connection to her got a little better than before. She wasn´t thinking very highly about my past as a conman, understandingly, and now that I had changed my life like that I couldn´t agree more with her. So, it wasn´t too bad for me talking to her sometimes, and I even enjoyed it a little. She wasn´t losing her sharpness and helpful attitude at all and noticeably, she was still my mother. Unfortunately for my situation right now, like always, she always called a spade a spade. And she wasn´t sparing me that today either, even at such sensitive topics like this one.

"Nicky, you sound a little stressed! Does the spring time mess with your body?"

"No mom, everything is cool!" I lied, just to make her stop talking about it before she even started.

"Don´t fool me, you even sound annoyed! Talk to me! Do your ears burn?"

I sighed a little, there was no sense in denying it, "Yes mom, they do…"

"What´s the matter? You never had any problems with picking up nice girls before, did you?"

"No mom, that´s not the matter!"

"Did you get fat?" she asked with no shame.

"Hell no, mom! I´m working out since half a year! Listen! I could probably pick up every single vixen I wanted right now, but I doubt that it would make it better in any way…"

"So… you´re in love?" she concluded very accurately

"Pretty badly, yes" I confessed, "…but I can´t help it."

"You can´t do anything against deep feelings for somebody, Nicky! Talk to her, confess to her, or you probably will suffer from that itching for weeks! I know what I am talking about!"

"It´s not that easy, mom. She is my best friend, she is a cop as well, and I don´t want to ruin what I´m having with her right now. And she is not a vixen on top of that!"

"Are you talking about that heroic bunny girl from the news? The one you cleared that nighthowlers-case with?"

"…yeah" I confessed.

"Nicky…" my mom sighed, "She is a prey! That could be really problematic for the both of you!"

"That´s the reason for my struggles. Glad you understand it now!" I snickered back.

"You sure it´s because of her?"

"Yeah, its unbearable every time she gets close to me. And now that I´m home I´m showering like every ten minutes. The neighbors must be wondering already, but I just can´t help it!"

"Do you think she likes you too?"

"Well, we like each other very much, and she normally has no struggles to get close to me either. She doesn´t even slightly fear me because I´m a predator or something…I mean, we trust each other with everything there is…"

"Just talk to her!" she assured me confidently, "She wants to know what´s wrong anyway, eventually! You cannot hide it for a couple of weeks anyway, can you?"

"No, I probably can´t…" I sighed, knowing that she was right. My ears suddenly started itching again and it stressed me even more.

"I think she will understand…" my mom guessed confidently.

"But what if she understands but doesn´t share the feelings I have for her? I can´t just ask her to help me with that problem, can I?" I enraged myself a little. I knew that I really was in a quagmire.

„There won´t be a lot of alternatives…" she chuckled back.

"There are!" I said childishly stubborn, "…I just stay at home until this is over!"

"Should I talk to her?" my mom suggested now, and I could feel a migraine coming up as well.

"No! Please don´t-"

"I´ll do that, you know me!" she interrupted enthusiastically.

I just sighed loudly. My arms started itching very badly. I felt hot and sweaty. I really wanted this to end, I had barely any energy left to stand through that any longer, alongside with the relentless teasing from my mom.

Before I could answer her again, the lights in my apartment died out from one second to another and the line of the phone was dead as well. Nothing electrical seemed to be working anymore.

I actually was a little relieved about it in that moment. I wasn´t sure if I would have been able to stand my mother any longer. I put the phone down onto my kitchen table and went for the bathroom again.

I quickly noticed that the running water wasn´t working anymore either, and that really pissed me off on the other hand. In that moment I had to change my view on that. I had to admit that I couldn´t need anything less than a power cut right now.

My fur felt like it was on fire. There wasn´t a single thing I could do about it. It felt like I would go totally nuts because of it soon. I furiously ran towards my couch and started rolling around on it aggressively. That didn´t help either. I had the urge to scream in discomfort really loudly. I was getting angry, I wanted to punch something. My mind started racing. I even was scared of myself a little right now. But I couldn't help it. Now I really was glad that Judy wasn´t anywhere near me, because it didn´t feel like I could have stopped myself at her sight anymore.

Thinking about that hit me even harder: "I was becoming a monster because of this. I needed to warn her, she wasn´t supposed to come closer to me within the next few weeks!"

But I couldn´t warn her right now. All I could do was roll around on the sheets of my couch in pain, anger and displeasure. At least I was getting physically tired because of it, so I probably had a chance of falling asleep later. I had no alternatives anyway.

Because of my inner watch I woke up at about 6AM in the morning on the next day, and I woke up in the same amount of displeasure as I had on the day before. My arms started itching even before I was even able to leave the bed and turn on the light in my sleeping room. The electricity was working again, but I couldn´t remember when it was fixed. I must have been asleep during that already.

The first thing I did was rushing the bathroom and filling up the bathtub with cold water.

While the water was running into the little pool I took a look in the mirror and got shocked by my own miserable looks. My fur was messed up like if I haven't had cleaned myself in the last two weeks, I had some clearly visible scratches all over my body and the veins of my muscles showed themselves even more than when I was working out and lifting weights. I really was looking like a monster. Even my normally emerald green eyes looked sick, having little lines of blood spreading through the white around the iris.

I felt the burning pain all over my body building up once again and jumped into the bathtub without any further actions. That was chilling me down instantly. I felt like I could survive like this. If I just stayed in here all the day long I would be fine, I figured.

I relaxed for a couple minutes, until my thoughts wandered off to the reason for all my recent problems, confronting me with a lot of new ones therefore.

"I had to tell Judy what the problem was. I had to tell her that I couldn´t come to work today and that she couldn´t visit me at my place either…"

I was desperately thinking of a good excuse I could tell her, but there wasn´t something like a sickness I could have caught accidently, which would make me unable to work or have contact with somebody for such a long time.

Besides, Judy wasn´t stupid. Far from it. She would find out pretty soon anyway. She would find out that I was struggling with the mating season, and then she would probably try to help me with that, why wouldn´t she? She would try everything to help me.

I didn´t even wanted to imagine that. Having Judy talking to some random vixens who might could "help" me with certain problems. "That would be so embarrassing!" I whispered lowly while that thought went through my head. But I couldn´t stop thinking about it for quite a while.

The bathtub really did the trick as it seemed. I was really comfortable in here compared to the last evening. But it slowly but surely started to get cold, and that wasn´t too pleasant either. So, I decided to take a little break from that.

It was half past seven when I left the bathroom. I straightly went to my kitchen and made myself something to eat. I haven't eaten anything since yesterday´s lunchtime.

At about seven o clock my phone had been ringing for a while, but I wasn´t in the mood for rushing out of the bathtub and answering it. It was Judy of course, and just as expected, she wanted to know what the problem was. She left me a text message as well, asking me to call her back as soon as possible.

Normally, I would have called her instantly. Now I was hesitating. I still didn´t knew what to say to her.

I just send back a short text: "Sorry Carrots, still sick. Can´t come to work today, it really hit me hard!"

She didn´t answer me after I wrote it, probably because she was on her way to work already. Ten minutes before 8AM she rang at my doorbell, just as usually.

"Yeah, hello?" I asked through the connection to the main entrance of the building.

"Hey Nick, it´s me…is everything alright?" she asked me. Just hearing her sweet voice messed with me so much that it had a hard time to stay sane.

"No, it´s not, Judy! I´m sorry, but I´m really no help to anybody today…"

"What is it?" she asked.

"I can´t tell you, I´m sorry!"

"Oh, okay…" she replied, sounding a bit defeated, "Can I come up and talk to you for a second?"

Now I really was in trouble. I couldn´t let that happen, that would not end well.

"I´ll be fine, Judy. I just can´t tell if this is contagious or not, I don´t want to get you sick too!" I screeched with every bit of breath I had left. My skin was burning like crazy again, it felt like I could even sense her scent from up here.

"Okay…" she sighed, "So… I´ll tell the chief you won´t come today…" she suggested, still sounding a little sad.

"Yeah, do that! Thank you!" I said hastily, in hope she would leave it like that now.

"Hope you get better soon!" she told me for the farewell.

"Thanks Judy, have a good day!" I replied her, before I hung up the phone and placed it back onto its socked beside my apartment-door.

"That was close!" I thought to myself as I straightly went for the bathroom once again. The itching was unbearable.

"But I saved it for now..."