Terribly sorry for the long wait. But it´s a long chapter at least!

Big thanks to MrShurukan for still helping me with the corrections!

Hope you enjoy!

Zootopia – Springtime Circumstances

Chapter 25 – The Star of the Show

POV Jennifer

"Now" Gazelle interrupted the applause again. The audience, which obviously was dominated by the ladies, calmed down a little and waited for it with great excitement. I did too, but even I was about to get a little surprise as I found out soon later.

"…before we come to this year´s finale of ´the sexiest man alive´, I have a little surprise left for you!" she told us, pointing at the screens besides her with that, "Have fun!"

The video began and I wasn´t aware of that at all. That must have been the reason why they didn´t have any time this afternoon.

It showed Max and Daniel in their best police uniforms in one of the ZPD offices. They were happily smiling into the camera for a second, then they began talking.

"Hi" Max began, "My name is Max Wolfheart and this is my colleague, officer Daniel Fangmeyer" he introduced themselves.

The audience already began cheering, everybody knew about them off course.

"Yeah…" Daniel continued for him, "And we´re the blokes who hung on that high-ass building just two days ago!" he explained, coming a little closer to the camera while saying it. I knew that they were the born comedians, but what they did for this video really worked out brilliantly.

"…Not a nice experience, let me tell you!" Max interrupted him quickly.

The audience giggled happily about that and I just couldn´t stop myself from laughing either.

"…yeah…" Daniel found his lead again, "…but we´re not here to cry about it! We´re still alive and we didn´t even blink once because if that, right Max?"

"Yeah, no, we didn´t, obviously! Only foxes or maybe buffalos would cry about that! But we took it like real men, didn´t we?"

"Yeah" Daniel agreed with an unsure chuckle.

I loved that little video they made, and I was not alone with that. The audience really was enjoying it.

"Anyways, we´re here today to celebrate! The ZPD has done it!" Max continued with an over-acted enthusiastic move of his arms.

"Well…he has done it…" Daniel corrected.

"Yeah, he has done it…" Max agreed, "…but somehow, I´m happier about that than he is himself…I guess."

"Why?"

"…because we finally can pay him back for being so mean on us every day!" he grinned.

"Since when is he mean to us?"

"Oh, shut up, kitten! Just let me finish!"

"…You know that he is probably going to kill us when this is over?"

"… … …well, yeah probably…but anyways…since most of them know who we´re talking about already, why don't we just get to the point?"

"Good idea!" Daniel agreed, just before the shot changed to the scene of the night club where Nick arrested the drug dealers. I never knew this footage existed, but it really was awesome.

"You see?" Max commented, "There is me in the background!" he pointed out.

He just said that when Nick was in the focus of the picture and pouring the full bucket of water over his half naked, black pained, gorgeous body. I wouldn´t even have noticed him, if he didn't say it.

That obviously was followed by some loud and excited noises from the audience, especially the girls where going crazy about it.

Nick unfolded and presented his ZPD badge to the guys on the table, where Cammy was clearly seen as well, and after that we saw his very cool move of knocking out the coyote with his finger gun, we saw Max and Daniel again.

"Damn, he surely knows how to crash a party!" Daniel said while ironically shaking his head in the video.

"Do you remember when she was paining him in those colors? That was a funny afternoon, wasn´t it?"

"That was brilliant! But he wouldn´t do that again I´m afraid…"

"But we´re talking about Nick, remember? It never gets boring with him!"

"Yeah, right! You have a point with that! …Wanna see what I found in the security footage?" Daniel then asked while showing him something on his phone. That video was on screen for us as well now, and I just couldn´t hide another wide grin at what I saw. The audience was going totally crazy around me.

"Nick?" somebody from my colleagues asked him, because was walking through one of the ZPD corridors completely naked, "Are those the new clothing guidelines?"

"Don't even ask" he sighed with a chuckle, apparently totally unbothered about it. They weren´t even bothered to censor that video, and damn that was a good sight again. He seemed to be well equipped for a fox, he had a smooth way of moving about and his whole body was well shaped, not only his abdomen. I liked it the first time I saw it already, but now it somehow was even better.

"Is naturism-night today? Did I miss something?" someone else joked, when Nick just continued his way in the video.

"Ha, you wish! This is my special privilege for tonight!" he said ironically.

"Looking good though!" one of my female colleagues chuckled.

"Yeah, yeah…take your photos now" he waved it off, "That´s not going to happen again…"

"Such a show off!" another lady from that little group chuckled, "Just look at him…"

"Yeah, just look at him!" Max complained ironically, as they were shown in the video again.

"Got nothing to hide, has he? Look at all those muscles!" Daniel commented.

"That must be why he´s getting all the love from the girls!" Max joked, "The Chief would kick my ass if I tried that!"

Daniel put one of his paws around his neck in order to console him a little, but a second later they both grinned again. I couldn´t stop laughing at their amazing performance. The were still looking at the screen of the phone.

"Yeah, yeah…take your photos now!" the video of Nick in the hallway cut in once more, "…that is not going to happen again!" he told them dryly, before he walked out of the shot and the colleagues in the video kept on staring behind him in disbelief. Even Gazelle was watching that with great pleasure.

Then we saw Max and Daniel again, slightly shaking their heads while staring at Daniels phone. The video faded out with that and caused a big applause coming up again. Around me, they still where whistling, screaming and talking to each other in excitement. But when they finally calmed down again, it got even better.

"Should we show them more of that?" we heard Max voice again, now in a sharper and better sound quality, but without the video.

"Maybe later, what do you think?" Daniel answered, "I think he´s still eating blueberries backstage!"

"Should we make up some time for him in the meanwhile?" he asked.

Gazelle was looking to her left and to her right a little puzzled, but she wasn´t interrupting them, she was equally amused as we were.

"But we don´t belong here, we´re not even on the list!" Daniel reminded him.

"Who cares?" Max whispered back shamelessly, "Come on, there is a sigh saying: ´stage´!" he chuckled.

"Okay, let´s go!" Daniel agreed lowly, before they really walked up onto the stage a second later, both of them with a microphone in front of their mouth. They waved the crowd shortly, before the applause suddenly started hailing down on them. Even Gazelle was standing up from her couch now and shaking their paws one after another with a big smile on her face. She obviously knew they would be here, but for us it honestly was the best thing ever.

Gazelle offered them to sit down on the couch besides her, and they weren´t shy of doing that. They were looking good this evening as well, especially in their fine ceremony uniforms which they already had on in the video.

"Max Wolfheart and Daniel Fangmeyer, our bravest officers of the city, everybody!" Gazelle introduced them loudly and the audience got a little louder once again, "Nice to have you guys here!" she told them with great excitement.

"It´s a pleasure to be here!" Daniel answered with a little smile.

"Damn, you guys look good in those uniforms!" Gazelle stated loudly and got a lot of support from the audience for that.

"Thanks very much!" Max grinned happily.

It really was a pleasure for me to see those two up on stage with this much self-confidence. I felt really proud of them. The audience liked them even more than that second-placed tiger already, and they were by far less arrogant as well. They were just as likeable as always.

"First Question that bothers me" Gazelle began, "Was it really that relaxed up there, hanging on the roof of the Zootopia media-tower?" she asked with an ironic smile, because she wasn´t really believing them initially.

"No" Daniel grinned lightheartedly, "It was freaking terrifying!"

Everybody giggled a little about that bold confession.

"We just woke up there in the morning and nearly threw up because of the shock" Max explained, "It gets ten times worse when you try to look down…and that's not a brilliant idea either, let me tell you!"

"I can believe that" Gazelle commented, "How long have you been up there until you finally got rescued?"

"About three hours I would say…" Max answered.

"Wow!" she whispered with a surprised expression, "That´s brave! I think I would have just fallen into unconsciousness!"

Max and Daniel just smiled proudly at the applause they were still getting from time to time.

"So, what do you think of our show tonight?" she asked then, to ease it up a little again, "Were you excited?"

"Yes, very!" Daniel answered, "Hanging out backstage is a lot of fun, especially with someone like Nick around" he added with a little grin.

"It must be a lot of fun working at the ZPD nowadays, isn´t it?" Gazelle asked with a chummy smile, referring to Nick as a colleague obviously.

"Well…sometimes it also can get a little boring" Max took over, "But on other days you get these golden moments, like the one you´ve seen in the video for example."

"Oh, this is so exciting!" Gazelle said with a girly giggle, "But I want to talk to him about that personally, he´s got a lot to explain, doesn´t he?" she asked a little louder, "He has got a lot of details to spare!"

We all clapped and cheered in agreement, I wanted to know how Nick must feel right now so badly. He probably had no idea what´s coming.

"We didn´t want to hold you up for very much longer anyways" Daniel told us then, "We´re excited for ourselves, this is going to be a lot of fun!" he fired up the crowd, and that worked.

"I thank you two very much for coming tonight!" Gazelle told them quite kindly, "It´s been a great pleasure having you guys here, wasn´t it?" she asked the audience, which answered loudly.

"One last question, guys!" Gazelle smiled at them, as they already attempted to stand up from the couch again, "What´s he like as a colleague? Honestly! I want to ask you before I ask him about it myself?" she grinned.

"It´s really awesome working with Nick and Judy!" Daniel began, "They´re motivating, cool, friendly, full of ideas and full of power, nearly unstoppable as a team!"

"Like fire and ice!" Max continued, "They´re like a dash of energy, spreading good mood wherever they go! …well…except for prisoners, maybe!" he chuckled.

They got another warm little applause and a few laughs for that. Then they stood up from the couch and shook Gazelles paw once again one after another.

"Nicks a great guy and a great colleague! We´re so proud of him for doing this considering the circumstances!" Max told us with a confident smile.

"Yeah, and I wish you a lot of fun with witnessing it for yourself in just a few moments!" Daniel announced for the farewell, waving the audience one last time, "Have a good evening everybody!"

And with that they went towards the exit of the stage slowly, enjoying the rest of their applause, which noticable was a lot louder than what the others got before.

"Has the ZPD ever been more-sexy before?" Gazelle asked, after Max and Daniel had left the stage, "What a shame they weren´t nominated as well, isn´t it?" she asked, "What a great duo!"

I was the one who was clapping the loudest, obviously. I was really proud of them and they deserved it. It took nearly half a minute until the audience calmed down again a little, but then Gazelle interrupted us with her microphone again.

"Okay, guys!" she said, "This was a very good evening already, wasn´t it?"

"Fuck yeah it was!" I said loudly, but because of the applause I wasn´t to be heard anyways.

"Just one of them is left, and oh boy was that a good sight of him already!" she chuckled, "Not seeing that every day!" she said, before her hooves slowly raised to point at the screen once again

"…but as I was told, that was not everything we get to see of him today!" she announced, "Let´s see what else we got!"

With that, another video began.

"Hi" his calm and smooth voice appeared suddenly, just before the projectors faded in again and showed our conference room, where Nick was saying something loudly and it was followed by a lot of laughter from the colleagues afterwards. The chief was resting his face on his palms in annoyance and the fox himself was grinning sheepishly, as Judy nudged him a little with her elbows. We didn´t actually hear any sound from the video, but we still heard Nicks voice commenting it.

"…the name is Nick, but I´m fine with Officer Wilde as well. Chief Bogo prefers to tell just tell me ´Wilde´, which is my last name, coming after the one in the middle which I really hate; but the Chief is basically calling everybody by his last name. Anyways, since I´m told to tell you a little bit about me, this is my story, or let´s say: parts of it. Parts of my story. The Story of Nick Wilde…"

The video faded away slowly and a picture of Judy in her police uniform came up.

"She" his voice began again, "You probably know her anyways, and if not, you should get to know her! Like Max and Daniel just described it very accurately, she is the strongest source of energy the ZPD has at the moment, the best officer they ever had."

Another huge applause broke loose as we noticed that he also was talking live to us, and he seemed to notice, because he paused for a little second. When he began again, he had a little chuckle in his voice.

"…yeah, I have to tell you a few words about them as well in a minute, because they´re actually the reason why I am here today, but more of that later. Let´s get back to the point. Judy is in an induced coma at the moment. There is no point in denying it. But her healing process is good, her room is next to mine and I can visit her every day. She had probably would have enjoyed seeing me here, but you´re getting to see that later darling, I promise!" he pointed out for her. That was followed by a warm little "ow" and some cheerful clapping from the audience.

"She" he got to his point again, "She is the reason why I´m a police officer today. She is the reason why my whole life is so much better right now than it was just about a year ago. She forced me to help her with solving the Nighthowlers-case back then, and that was the best thing that ever happened in my life if I´m honest."

He sighed a little before he continued.

"…we´re still working as a team. Every day we get the hardest and most different tasks to solve from the Chief, and even if we have nothing more to do than just boring paperwork sometimes, I still enjoy being with her for every single second" he told us.

"A few days ago, on the evening we´ve arrested those prisoners again, she saved me from a tranquilizer dart that was shot at me by one of those polar bears, but she got hit by it therefore. She took the shot for me, basically, and soon afterwards she was knocked off her feet by one of them. That´s one of the reasons why they´re in prison right now by the way" he added with a little chuckle, "But watch for yourself and hear out the witnesses!"

The video showed an interview with my colleagues Snarlov and Higgins right now, and they were explaining quite detailed how Nick was finishing off the rest of the prisoners all by himself. We had a lot to laugh about that, they really weren´t passing on any details, even Nicks quotes seemed to be really on point.

"…then he said: ´if you really hurt her very badly, I´m not only making sure you´ll get f****d in the prison showers every day, I´ll do it myself!´" Snarlov told us excitedly, "That´s how mad he was at them! …and he had a reason!"

"Then he rammed the knife into the wall between the wolf´s legs and the tranquilizer right into his leg. He went a step back and watched him collapse right in front of him, then he simply turned around and went on his way outside again!" Higgins ended the story, "What a freaking hero that guy is!" he chuckled, before the projectors faded out again.

It hailed down loads of applause again after that was over.

"…well" Nick continued his little speech, "That´s probably a little over-exaggerated, I wouldn´t call myself a hero, but that´s what you get for doing that to her!" he clarified.

Again, he had to wait shortly until we calmed down a little.

"…but it´s not like I didn´t pay for that as well; I got one of my ribs fractured and I have a twenty-inch wound on my back. But that´s alright, the drugs are doing their job quite well…"

The video screens faded in for one last time, showing Nick walking through the ZPD-building with a smiling Judy on his shoulders. They were walking up to Daniel and Max who they met in the hallway just by chance as it seemed, but we didn´t get to hear any of their conversation. Just Nick´s voice right now.

"I have to apologize in advance to a few of you, I don´t want to sound like one of those assholes, but it just is like that: She is not the only one who likes me, I know about that, don't worry! …By ´she´, I´m talking about the only woman in my whole life I ever had real feelings for, and I still do. She has a giant heart -not only for me, she is more than just fair, as I will explain to you later- and not only because of that there isn´t anybody who can even get close to her. She is the only one for me, that´s just like it is, I´m sorry!" he said, as the video slowly faded out again.

Then he chuckled a little more suddenly. "And when I just talk about being sorry: I´m sorry Mr. ´I think he was just doing his job´!" he told us then.

"Fuck yes, Nick!" I thought to myself, just as the biggest applause of this whole evening hailed down on him. Even Gazelle couldn´t hide a big grin anymore.

"…I´m sorry, Mr ´Nobody will ever remember you little fox you don't belong here anyways´" he continued, "I´m sorry for knocking you off your well-earned spot at the top of the list like that…but I haven't told you the best thing yet: I didn´t even know about this competition! I never even dreamed about being here."

That also was followed by a lot of amused laughter.

"Good thing I know about it now, because this actually is a lot of fun!" he told us then, a little louder this time, just before he walked onto the stage with a mysterious little smile, "Good evening everybody!" he greeted us with his calm smile, and I nearly had to cover my ears because of all the girly screaming around me.

"Fuck yeah, what an entrance, Nick!" I thought to myself, and that was exactly what he heard from Gazelle a second later.

"What an entrance!" she said in amazement, "Officer Nick Wilde, this year´s well-earned winner of ´the sexiest man alive´ everybody!"

Nick wore his good police uniform as well, just like Max and Daniel did, and he also looked even better in that than he normally does. He was just standing there and waited for us to calm down a little, as he waited for Gazelle to stand up from her couch and shake his paws like she did with all the others before as well. He greeted her quite like a gentleman and then he followed her towards the couch, where they took a seat and waited for the applause to fade away finally.

"Just feel like at home!" Gazelle offered him for the beginning, "It´s a pleasure having you here!"
"Thank you very much, my pleasure to be here! I had a great evening already!"

"Yeah?" Gazelle asked excitedly, "What do you think about your colleague´s performance?"

"That was -without a doubt- the best thing of this whole evening so far!" he answered in all honesty, "Although they´re not getting away with it that easily, I can guarantee you that!" he chuckled.

"I guess we really have to thank them for this, don´t we, ladies?" Gazelle chuckled back at him, "What a show off you are!" she giggled.

He was cool with that off course. Obviously, he wasn´t mad at her for saying that, but his answer couldn´t be more Nick-ish if it tried.

"Yeah, thanks a lot for that by the way…glad you found that footage" Nick sighed with an ironic expression.

"Oh, we´re glad about that too, don't worry!" she told him with a big smile.

"…I´m just glad there are no security cameras in the other rooms as well… I bet you would find much more crazy stuff which is happening in that building sometimes!"

"Like being a nice guy and saving a prisoner from her heat?" Gazelle kept on asking with no mercy, and that was exactly what we liked to hear again.

"Guess what I was coming from in that footage…" he grinned confidently, and that made even me speechless, "…guess what happened to my police uniform while doing that…" he added, "Why would you think I´m running around like that?"

Not even Gazelle knew where to continue on that. She just stared at him like he was naked just in this second. I knew that Nick never had any problems with self-confidence, but in front of Zootopia´s biggest popstar, that was just another level of cool. That was legendary.

"…they told me you´d be very relaxed about this topic…" she confessed, "…I was underestimating it a little, as it seems…"

We all giggled a little at her reaction to his superior smile.

"Don't tell me you wouldn´t have asked me about that anyways…" he chuckled.

Gazelle couldn´t help herself but grin widely as well.

"I probably would have, yeah…but I wanted to save the best things for the end, initially…"

"I´m here to answer everything once and for all" he clarified lightheartedly, "I´ve got nothing to hide…"

"Nothing?" she teased, referring to a certain, well known tradition of this show.

"Nothing."

"So, what about that twenty-inch scar on your back?" she changed the topic for now.

He just nodded calmly, before he stood up from the couch again. Then he simply began undressing his upper body, accompanied by a lot of excited yelling from the other girls around me. First, he threw his uniform onto the couch behind him, then he opened the buttons of his white shirt. He slowly turned around during that, and therefore we got to see a good look on the plaster that was going across his whole, muscular back.

"We have a photo without the plasters somewhere…" Nick explained, just as that was thrown at the screens by the projectors.

"Ouch!" Gazelle found her words again, "That looks painful!"
Nick just nodded a little, before he began dressing himself again.

"Not saying that every other job is easy, but even as a police officer you get injured sometimes…" Nick commented mercilessly, and the audience still remembered what the tiger said about him, soundly.

"He should have thought about it twice before he said that, shouldn´t he?" Gazelle asked him with a dirty grin, referring to that.

"Am I doing good as one of those arrogant ´big players´, he told me I was not one of?"

Silence. A big silence followed after he said that. But it was a good one.

"No, you´re not!" she giggled with a big grin, "And that actually makes it so nice to talk to you! This is brilliant!"

Now he smiled a little as well, that was exactly what he had intended to reach with that. But he just kept his quiet and shrugged his shoulders a little.

"And you really didn´t know about our show before?" Gazelle confronted him then, not sounding too offended naturally .

"No, I really haven't. Neither did Max or Daniel know about it, we were told by another colleague of mine. Jennifer is her name and she even must be here tonight as well I believe!" he announced, just before he spotted me in the first row. I waved him shortly and with a proud little grin, it was nice of him to think about me. But they soon got back to their conversation again.

"You just won it within two days and with a great lead of over ten percent in the end!" Gazelle told him, "How does that feel?"

"That feels ridiculous!" he chuckled, "I´m a police officer, a detective in the most cases, as you just saw in that video… …I´ve never ever thought I would end up in something like this!" he explained.

"Are all police officers as buffed and sexy as you are?" she asked, to quickly get back to the more-spicy stuff again.

"I started working out after work because of Judy, because she wanted me to…and I have to be thankful for it if I´m honest, because it turned out to be pretty helpful in a few situations already…"

"Like in beating up two polar bears, two Jaguars and a Wolf?" Gazelle asked, to remind us of his fight again.

"Probably, but as I said before, that´s simply what you get when you´re doing that to her."

"Wow."

"Yeah."

"And what did move you to help that vixen, who also is one of those prisoners I´ve heard?"

"That is the same answer as with the working out: Because Judy wanted me to. I would never have done it if she wasn´t asking me to."

"Wow! Wow, wow, wow! What?"

"Yeah. She felt sorry for her."
"You have to explain that, please!"

Everybody was listening very carefully, I knew about it of course.

"Well…if you want to hear the simple truth: Police officers also are just animals and they also have hearts. I had it for myself this season, for the first time ever in my whole life, and I realized how bad that is, obviously…"

"That means you were in love?" she asked.

"Deeply in love, and I still am, as you probably can imagine. Judy and I were the best friends for nearly as long as I know her. We shared most of our evenings together, most of our day´s due to our jobs and everything was perfect, until the spring season happened this year. Then it got incredible."

He let that sink in for a little while.

"…and when she realized what I had to go through, because of her, and when she found out that Cammy had it as well, because of me in this case, she asked me if I couldn´t just be nice and end her suffering for the sake of fairness" he began telling the story, "Cammy owns a little coffee shop near the ZPD, that´s why we knew her, and when I encountered her in that sex bar on the evening we arrested them, she got totally insane already."

"No wonder when you´re walking around half naked all evening!" she joked to ease up the situation a little.

"She was tearing apart half of her prison cell, which is perfectly understandable to me, so with a bit of work, Judy finally got me to agree and do her the favor…" he sighed.

"What a gentleman!" she said with a dirty ironic smirk.

POV Nick

"Haha" I thought to myself in that moment, "…gentle…" I couldn´t hide a little grin because of that, but I didn´t say it, obviously.

"…and she really tore apart your entire uniform during that?"

"That´s the reason I was running around naked in the main building of Zootopia´s Police Department, yeah" I confirmed chuckling.

"This is kind of awesome, I have to confess!" Gazelle told me with an impressed expression "Not a story you hear every day!"
"It did the trick though" he said while shrugging his shoulders, "She was calm as a lamb afterwards" he added with a mysterious little smile.

"I bet she´s not the only vixen who might be hopelessly in love with you right now" she chuckled, amused about my still very relaxed expression.

"Got to disappoint you, I´m sorry. That´s not going to change."

"But you will tell us a few more details, won´t you?" she grinned at me sheepishly.

I couldn´t believe it at first, was she really talking about that? Was this normal or did she just go a little too far now? The audience still was listening with great interest and nobody seemed to be bothered about her asking something like that.

"Well…didn´t you see enough in that video already?" I asked with a little chuckle, "…they didn´t even blur anything."

She just shrugged her shoulders a little. I was still stared at from all sides, they didn´t seemed to be satisfied with what they saw already.

"Is it really that important to know?" I asked after a short pause.

"You´re the SMA of this year, the more info we get, the happier we are!" she told me innocently, "Right girls?" Gazelle asked shamelessly, and she got a lot of support for that.

I just shook my head in disbelief a little, but I found that quite amusing actually.

"Come on, Nicky" she teased, "It can´t be too bad after what we´ve seen in that video already!"

"It´s really nothing I could be proud of, I was born like that. I find that not really important if you asked me…" I explained, "…but yeah, it´s easy for me to say that in my situation, I have to confess."

"Really? Are you that confident about it?" she wanted to know with a cheeky grin.

"Yeah…" I shrugged, "…I really can´t complain on that matter."

I gave that a few moments to sink in, but I wasn´t sure what I should think of their reactions. She just nodded a little, but she still seemed to be curious.

"Are you happy with that now?" I asked in a friendly way and with an unsure smile.

POV Max Wolfheart

"Ha, you see?" he chuckled, "Told you it would be fun having him on stage!"

"Just look at them!" I pointed out, referring to the backstage girls who where staring at the screens and fawning over him with big eyes.

"Well, they told me she would ask spicy questions, but that is going a little too far, isn´t it?"

"Maybe it´s a tradition of the show…" I wondered loudly.

"It actually is" the gray and white furred wolf lady besides me confirmed chuckling, "But they don´t force them to say it, obviously. Most of the SMA winners chicken out on that question, usually" she sighed, "They´re even betting about that every year…" she explained.

"Like…really?" Daniel asked in disbelieve loudly, nearly choking on his drink because of the sudden laughter that shook him. I couldn´t hide a grin as well.

She nodded.

"What do you think?" I asked her about her opinion a moment later.

"I think he say´s it, he surely got nothing to hide…" she grinned.

I just shrugged my shoulders a little.

"You seem a little nervous all over sudden, Max" Daniel teased me with a wide grin, "Are you scared of him saying it?"

"You think I´m scared of a fox on that matter?" I answered confidently.

"You seem to be a little nervous…" he continued teasing, the ladies where giggling besides me. I still shook my head.

Then we were interrupted by Gazelle again.

"Well Nicky…I suppose, since you haven´t even known about this show before, you probably are not aware of the little tradition we have in this show every year, sort of a thing where the girls can place their bets on…"

He just grinned at this, he found it equally weird as we did, noticeably.

"…first bet: Is he going to say it? Second one: who comes closest to what he says?" she explained for him and all the viewers.

"…still listening in great amusement" he chuckled calmly, "I have sort of an idea now…but I´m still not quite believing it."

"We´re not forcing you to anything, just to make it clear…"

"No, it´s alright" he chuckled, "If that info makes you happy…"

Gazelle grinned a little again, because he was just so unbothered about it, "That info certainly would make a lot of us happy, just for the sake of fun…"

He shrugged his shoulders once more, waiting for her to continue.

"…I´ve written a number on my moderation sheet here, and I´m going to tell you this number now so you can get the idea. In your case, since our SMA is a fox this year, that number comes down to a 4.3" she announced.

"Are we doing math now?" I asked jokingly, but the girls around us just shook their heads.

"That´s the average size of a fox" the wolf lady told us with a chuckle.

Daniel and I nodded understandingly, still not believing what this show was all about really.

"Any ideas what that number can be?" Gazelle asked a Nick, who still seemed to feel pretty comfortable on that couch.

He simply nodded because he seemed to know about that measure.

"…and you really waited this whole evening to hear me tell you about my magic number?" he asked then, still amused.

"That´s actually the most important question of this evening" Gazelle chuckled, "That happens every year."

"Really? How often do you get an answer to that question?" he asked with great interest.

"Not too often actually, most of them are not proud enough of what they have…"

"Well…" he finally sighed, making it really interesting therefore, "I wouldn´t have a problem with telling you that number…but I still not quite get the point of that! …does that make me a better person? I didn´t even do anything for that."

"Come on, say it already!" the ladies backstage chuckled in excitement at the screens before them. Daniel and I couldn't stop laughing about it, this was fantastically funny, even comical. Even on that, he wasn´t losing his cool.

"It probably wouldn´t make you a better person, but it would make it much more interesting than it is already. And the ladies would fawn over you even more, probably" Gazelle clarified with a wide grin.

"But what if that is not what I want?" he asked, "What if I´m happy with the attention I have already? What if I do not care about what the ladies think of me?"

Still, everybody kept staring at him, wanting him to say it already. It really got a little tense among the watchers. Even we wanted to know it now, but Nick still had fun with teasing us a little.

"Oh, come on, Nicky!" Gazelle told him with an encouraging little smile, "Why don't you let us have a little fun?"

"Alright" he sighed finally, "Whatever."

"Now scared?" Daniel asked quickly, as another short pause appeared.

I still shook my head, it wouldn´t be that bad I believed. Why was I even bothered about it? He is a fox.

"I´ll laugh for half an hour if you pull a scared expression now!" he kept on teasing, but I just waved it off.

"Come on, Dan! He´s a fox, do you really think he can even get close to…"

"…I´ve never really measured it precisely or something, but there is a number it comes awfully close to…" he began slowly.

"Tell us" she encouraged him, "Straight away!"

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Sure?"

"Yeah, just say it."

"Seven" he finally stated dryly, and that shut everybody up for a second.

He didn´t look like he was joking, he rather just shrugged his shoulders while saying it. Knowing Nicks mimic and his way of saying it, it even sounded convincing. It did indeed shock me a little to hear that, but I tried my best not to show it. That was even slightly above the average of a wolf, which I just topped very slightly, and therefore I certainly was a little afraid of him now in that perspective, although I couldn´t really think of a situation where this could be relevant.

The other´s reactions were equally to the one of Gazelle.

"Wow" she just commented.

He shrugged his shoulders once again, still not knowing what the big deal was.

"…you really can´t complain about that, if that is true!"

"I have no reason to make up anything, it just is like that. I have no need to prove that to you either, if this would be the next thing you asked me" he chuckled, "I really don't care if you believe me or not…" he added.

"…there probably would have been alternatives to becoming a police officer" Gazelle giggled in amusement about the reaction of the audience, and she got a lot of laughter for that bold statement as well.

He just smiled a little with yet another unbothered shrug of his shoulders.

"You really don´t seem to mind…"

"Hope you don´t mind if we can get back to more important topics now" he asked as an answer to that. He got a lot of laughter from the audience for that as well.

"Sorry to say it" Gazelle reminded him, "But this is sort of the most important topic for the girls. And this show basically is for girls!"

"But now you got the answer to that question, didn´t you?" he asked back with another little chuckle, "And I´m not here to brag with something I have no reason to be proud of."

"But you´re undoubtedly the most attractive contestant we had on this show, isn´t he?" she asked.

POV Daniel Fangmeyer

At first, I was a little shocked as well when he said that, because that really was a lot above the average of his species, but now it was just amusing. I´ve never witnessed Nick so unbothered about something like this. He really wasn´t proud of it, and that made him even more likable. Like he predicted, the ladies where going absolutely crazy about it, but it was just obvious that he couldn´t be bothered.

Nevertheless, did I found myself being a little jealous about him. About his effect on the ladies of his kind. Just like Max, I tried my best not to show it, but I couldn´t really tell if it worked. We kept on listening though, that shut us up for a little while.

"So, about that fight two days ago…" Gazelle picked up another topic finally, "We´ve heard your colleagues talk about it in the video…"

He nodded.

"…how did you even know where you would find those prisoners?"

"From the vixen who handed herself in… and yeah, the one who was in heat because of me" he sighed before she could even say it herself.

"You think she did it because she was thankful?"

"No" he said while shaking his head, "Because she felt sorry about everything else that happened. The hostage taking of my colleagues Daniel and Max for example…she never wanted something this bad to happen. She didn´t even know about it I believe."

"Have you been talking to the others already? The other prisoners I mean."

"No, I haven't. But they won´t be having fun during that, I can guarantee you that!" he chuckled.

"Yeah, your colleagues sounded like you were a little mad…"
"A little mad? I was infuriated. There are not a lot of things that really piss me off, but try that, and that´s what you get."

"Don't mess with Nick Wilde?"
"Don't mess anybody! Just be nice and respectful, that´s everything that matters."

"What a sentence for an ending!" she grinned, "I had a lot of fun tonight, thanks for being such a good sport! You really are a great personality, no doubt about it!"

"My pleasure!" he smiled, before he also stood up from the couch again, "I learned a lot today and I did have fun too!"

"Ladies and gentleman!" Gazelle got our attention for the last time today, "Nick Wilde, undoubtedly one of the hottest guys we´ve ever had!"

Nick just stood there and still shook his head a little at her words. But he wasn´t complaining, he stayed friendly and waved a little, before the projectors with our final montage of him faded in slowly. We´ve found his video footage from the ZPD training, from the shooting range he was practicing at, we´ve found him walking towards the Chief´s office with the black and gray color in his fur, and finally, we saw him entering his office door quickly after he was coming back from the privacy room. When the video faded out after that, the final applause kept on hailing down on him for more than half a minute.

POV Nick

I still was just standing here and being screamed at. They were going completely crazy about me, and it nearly felt a little scary. Thinking about what just happened didn´t make it better. I was talking to the freaking Gazelle, the biggest popstar of the city, for the first time ever, and we were mainly talking about my dick. How could this get any worse? I would hear that for the rest of my days probably. "Could I even get back to my job as a police officer?" I asked myself already, but I didn´t have a lot of time to think about it right now.

I kept my calm for now and continued smiling and waving, before I finally was done here. This was not a world for me, not at all. Maybe that tiger was right, I just didn´t belong here.

I shook Gazelles hooves in front of the audience and the cameras one last time, and then I went on my way to leave the stage slowly. They were still clapping for me when I was way out of sight already. It felt sort of good though, I couldn´t deny it, but there weren´t just upsides in all this.

My back was itching a little. At least, it got a lot calmer and much more-quiet very soon. Within seconds I felt my body relaxing from the stress, and that was nice.

But as soon as I entered the backstage area again, about twenty people were staring right at me with great excitement. It just wouldn´t end with all the attention I got. I still shook my head in disbelief, but I couldn´t hide a proud little smile.

"Oh boy" I thought to myself, "…this could get a long evening!"

Then, a pretty good idea spawned in my head, a good idea to pay them back a little. "I told them about it anyways, so why couldn´t I have a little fun as well?" I asked myself with an evil little grin. "Nothing is for free you freaks!"

Damn, that was a long one. Over 7k of words.

But more is to come, but I cant tell you when. It´s very busy at work and I don´t really find time to write. But I´ll get it done, I promise!

Anyways, what did you think? I´d be glad for some feedback, not sure if you still care...

Hear from you, love you!

~furrwolf