FFoZ S1E9

Chapter 1

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Skye was going on a date with a rabbit.

A jackrabbit, called Jack!

Driving down to where they'd agreed to meet, she remembered that she hadn't really been expecting that to happen. After meeting him when Nick had called her over to help, she'd soon got to work, picking apart and rebuilding that giant stage of his. Bit by bit by bit…

It was certainly something different to another car, machine or ex-army vehicle, that was for sure. However, while she'd been happy to busy herself away with working out how things worked, or at least had worked before the mess up, and then fixing them, she'd also found that observing the acting hare was more interesting than she'd expect.

He was certainly an interesting character.

He'd muse out loud on what his characters might do, or mentally smash together different plot ideas to see if they fit, or literally act out parts in front of her.

She wasn't sure if that had been him trying to impress her, or just trying to keep himself occupied. When he wasn't occupied, he'd be sitting down and sleeping, or daydreaming, or staring off into the distance.

All very different to her, until it came to that theatre owner.

That meddler...

But that wasn't a problem anymore. One hustle later and all that was sorted, and then they'd accidentally joked themselves into a date.

So, here she was.

Driving into Sahara Square, dressed in a dusty red button up T-shirt and some grey shorts, about to date a jackrabbit called Jack.

Turning around the corner, she felt a little tremor of doubt. When they'd joked themselves into the date, she'd initially thought that she would be the one to organise everything, set it up and take him out. She could handle it all by herself, not wanting to cause him any bother or get anything wrong. Of course, he'd then said that he'd organise the date, and she remembered that it tended to be a thing the boyfriend did, at least for the first time. She guessed they could share the task going on, though she still felt a slight unease at it.

Skye shook her head, it was too late for any doubts now. She saw him off in the distance and pulled up, parking her little two seat convertible, a restored thing as old as she was, right next to him. Looking over, she paused and waited.

And waited.

"Uh, Jack?"

He'd seemed to almost be daydreaming but, on her call, Jack jolted to attention and looked at her, flashing a smile. Running forward, he hopped right over the door and her, landing in the passenger seat. "Doing good?" he asked, oddly suavely.

She smiled back. "Yup. Doing good."

She paused as he looked at her with a critical eye, shaking his head. "Skye," he began, definitely doing the suave accent now. "By the end of this, you'll be doing great." He flashed her a wink, before putting on his seatbelt.

She couldn't help but feel a little charmed. "Nice," she said, grooving in her seat a little.

"Cool."

"Neato."

He nodded, before turning to face the road ahead. "Onwards," he called, pointing his finger forwards, Skye taking it as the que to fire up her engine and drive off. Threading the gears, feeling the excited pep of the engine rev up, she smiled as they were soon cruising down the road.

"Where to?"

"We have an arrangement at the Grand Palm," he said smoothly, the news perking her up a little. She'd never been before, though she knew it was nothing short of a Zootopian cultural institution. It wasn't just the hotel and casino, there was the second biggest performance space in the city, multiple bars and restaurants, and all sorts of conference halls that got rented out here and there. She glanced down at Jack, her curiosity piquing at what awaited them. "So, where are we going when we get there?"

"To a place, my dear, for special mammals like us."

Well, she noted, that was ambiguous. She'd also noticed the way he'd said it, just like everything else that night, was posh and proud. Not the kind of pompousness he'd get whenever his artistic talent was critiqued, this was something else. Almost like…

"Jack?"

"Yes, my dear."

Yup, it was. "You're acting, aren't you?"

"I may be taking inspiration from the greats about how I'm treating a fine vixen like yourself, certainly," he said, before flashing a grin.

She giggled a little, about to speak but then cut off.

"Ahem… Skye," he said, sitting upright and crossing his arms, a slightly sterner look on his muzzle as he almost lectured her, in that slightly pompous and prideful way that shouldn't really be cute.

But totally was.

"I hope you understand that I didn't intend this as a parody."

"Is it my fault if I find you funny?" she asked.

"I'm not being funny, Skye," he said, overly formally in a way that made her almost but not quite sure he was being. She giggled some more, before he spoke again. "Would you like me to try something else?" he asked, his voice a mix of pride and sass.

In a way, she was conflicted about how to answer that. She liked the way he acted things out; the enjoyment he obviously got out of it reminded her of the joy she took from her own work. But, then again… If this were to last or anything, she'd better get to know the real him. After all, she had to make sure the foundations of this thing were all set up and ready before trying to build on top of it. "Maybe," she said, "you can just be you."

This time his pridefulness went right up to eleven. "Skye. I am just me," he pointed out, closing his eyes, lifting up his head and gesturing to himself.

"Except when you're 'acting', like that."

And then he seemingly dropped the act, slumping his shoulders and head, slouching a bit and letting his face droop into an innocent expression. "But it's what I do," he defended in his regular voice, while giving an exaggerated, paws out in the open, shrug.

"Well, you don't do it all the time," she pointed out. "Maybe I want to meet the 'you' that's around when acting and all that stuff is off the table. You know… Casual Jack?"

He thought for a few seconds before shrugging it off. "Meh, cool then," he replied, slouching down back into his seat, his feet going right up onto the dashboard. "I'll do that."

"Nice," she said, smiling as she drove on. "I mean, it's fun when you do those things." They were, it was all part of the character she'd met, the one that had piqued her interest. It was a fun quirk, and it was nice to see a mammal that took passion in what he did, instead of just moping about complaining about how 'unfair' things were… "But I think the idea of tonight is to get to know what each other's really like, isn't it? That's sort of what dates are for, so it's what we'll do. Right?"

…

"I guess..."

She glanced down at him, seeing him lazily looking up at the rear-view mirror, or rather the dreamcatcher hanging from it.

"You guess?"

His eyes flickered over to her for a second, before he shook himself out of his headspace. He smiled at her, and spoke suavely again. "Well, having fun is certainly is another important intention when dating."

"Well," Skye said. "Let's have some!"

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It wasn't that long before she'd arrived at the Palm Hotel parking lot, the pair getting out and looking up at it. For the most visible landmark in the city, it had an almost alien presence for many, despite being far more than a mere hotel, so she was excited to finally be going in. Jack wandered along, leading the way, as she followed him to the lobby.

Walking in, the vixen took a moment to take in the scope of the lobby's size and decoration, palm bark like details with backlighting built into all the arches and vaults, before following Jack further in. The striped jackrabbit led her on to the front desk, where a receptionist took one glance at them before speaking. "I guess you're here for OWO?" she asked, Skye pausing, not knowing what that stood for

"I'm guessing my date's prettiness tipped you off," he cooly replied, going all sauve again while giving a coy glance up at her. His eyes hit hers, and she felt a little warm from the attention, a smile growing on her muzzle. Any reply though was cut off as she noted the look the receptionist was giving her, a tired one, laced with a weary sympathy or pity. It was saying, 'You poor thing, is this really what you've settled for?' It broke off whatever happy thing Skye was feeling right then, replacing it with a slap of indignation. She was a grown vixen dammit, and she was hanging out with Jack because she wanted to!

"Maybe it's just…" she began, before pausing, blinking as she tried to finish the sentence but stumbled.

"-Her date is good enough to send her speechless," Jack filled in, as he grabbed the tickets and left the booth. Skye followed him on once more, relaxing a bit and smiling again. She was fairly solitary so she didn't get called pretty often, especially not in a genuinely romantic way like that, and she wouldn't have thought it would have much of an effect on her.

Yet...

Yet…

It did.

She pondered it and the rest of her draw to him, her tail sweeping up into her paws so she could fidget with the end a little as she thought. There was the fun that came from hanging out with him while she worked, and the anti-meddler solidarity, but she had to admit that he did look a little handsome, and him calling her pretty for the first time did feel nice. So maybe, just maybe, she might have a little crush on him?

Nothing wrong with that, right?

"You know," she said, going up to him. "You didn't have to go all acting there…"

"But the opportunity was perfect," he complained, paws up.

"Oh, I'm not complaining," she replied with a smirk. "But I do hope the prettiness thing wasn't acting too."

He looked at her and smiled. "You can act and tell the truth at the same time, Skye," he haughtily lectured, making her smile some more.

"And I can't act," she replied, rolling her eyes. "So, you know I mean it when I say you're fun, cute and handsome."

He blinked a few times. "You're not supposed to call a bunny cute, Skye," he said, in his slightly full of himself manner again. Which only made him even cuter, especially as he looked up at her and gave her a secret little smile. 'But you can…' it almost seemed to say to her.

"Then you're just fun and handsome," she said.

He shrugged, as if she'd said it was a nice day, or that there was an interestingly shaped cloud nearby. "Cool." And off he went, Skye following him.

She guessed the 'real' Jack was fairly nonchalant about a lot of things. Well, she was hoping to find out more about him, and there was something! She wordlessly followed him on as he led her to one of the doors, showing off the sign by it.

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'Outsiders with Outsiders: Zootopia chapter.'

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"Outsiders with…" she read off, before cutting off, blinking a few times as she was hit with a realisation. "This is an Inter Support Group."

"We're inters," he said, shrugging. "Found out about this last night. Seemed obvious…"

Slowly nodding, Skye tried to hide her sense of disappointment. It wasn't like she needed 'support' or anything, and this kind of thing sounded like the opposite of what she'd be interested in. She'd been hoping that this night would have been something fun or exciting together, not one of these kinds of get togethers.

She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her muzzle. Grrrr… This was why she should have planned today. It was probably going to be mammal after mammal talking about this and that, on how things were hard on them because they were inters, or asking about how she and Jack had met. Questions and chatter and moping about and all this talking and meeting and greeting and bumping into stranger after stranger…

It really wasn't her idea of a good time. She stepped back a bit, maybe wondering if she could back out now, before shaking her head. She could try and endure this. After all, it was her fault for deferring the organising onto Jack.

Anyway, maybe it wouldn't be so bad?

"Right," she muttered, as she went up with Jack and entered. She was almost immediately hit by a wave of smells, noise and colours, a smile growing on her face again. Alongside a bustling bar and food area, the exhibition area in front of her was filled out with all sorts of games and booths and other things. Mammals, walking together in pairs both fairly similar and crazily different, filtered between one and another, all of them appearing to have lots of fun. Her ears rising, Skye relaxed; it was most definitely not as bad as she feared. This was much more to her liking and so she and Jack walked off, ready to have some fun.

…

"Hey Skye…"

She ignored him, focussing on the game in front of her. There were dozens of free arcade games, and they were racing on a motorbike one, clinging onto the plastic bikes and watching the screen speed past in front of them. A biker already, Skye's eyes were laser focussed ahead, her body tense and poised while her ears were folded back with a predatory edge to them, the swift fox making sure to dominate all others competing. Jack had already fallen so far behind that she thought he'd given up, so why was he…

"Raindrops keep falling on my head…"

Glancing to her side, she blinked as she saw him sitting up on his bike as if he was taking a lazy cycle. He was even moving his feet as if pedalling! He gave her an innocent look, and then carried on singing.

"But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turning red. Just like…"

He was cut off as Skye screamed, her eyes widening as she saw herself about to drive straight into a pit of lava. Brakes on, pulling and leaning hard to the left, she got back on track, but not before letting her main competitor come right up next to her. Slamming him to the side, cutting the corners, her tongue was stuck out in concentration as she diced and duelled all the way to the finish line, narrowly grabbing the first place position. "Yes! Still won!"

There was a tired panting from her side, and looking over she saw Jack fanning himself with his paw, his face etched with both exhaustion and relief. He nodded, before a choked smile grew on his muzzle. "Good. For a moment there I thought we were in trouble."

Skye's head cocked with confusion, before she rolled her eyes and glanced at his screen, and his dead last position. "Well one of us still is."

In a flash his grizzled face was back to normal, and he leant forwards, balancing his body in a plank on the seat while carrying on steering.

"Are you even trying to catch up?"

He sat up again, before lying on his back, his feet operating the handlebars.

"Are you even trying to cross the line?"

"Are you even trying to have fun, Skye?" he asked teasingly, waving his palms open to ask her. He then flipped himself around, sitting backwards and steering the bike with his shoulders.

"I…" she pondered, before trailing off. Rolling her eyes, she leant down and patted him on the head. "Why would I need to when your silliness is doing that for me?"

Turning around again, he leant on the handlebars with his ears draped over his face, even covering one of his eyes. "I'm worried that you didn't get any of that."

"Any of what?"

There was a pause from Jack. "Oh dear…"

"What!?" Skye asked defensively, before pausing as she looked at his screen. "Also, that's the third time you've driven into lava."

"What's lost is lost," he replied, slipping off the bike and standing next to her. "I thought I'd just humour you a bit."

"You gave me a bit of a thrill at the end, that's for certain," she said, as he began patting the front of his bike.

"Get on here," he egged on.

"Where?"

"The front of the bike. In front of the handlebars!"

Still a bit unsure, Skye did so, balancing there as he began lazily driving on, this time avoiding the lava.

Though he was singing again.

"Raindrops keep falling on my head…"

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Looking up on her phone, she watched the clip from Bull Cassidy and the Sundance Kit play out, smiling as she got Jack's little tribute. He'd given up playing the game when he dropped well behind, and given the choice of just lazing around or having a bit of acting based fun, he'd chosen the latter.

Still, it didn't help that she hadn't got his reference.

"Hey, Skye? What's your favourite film?"

She looked over at him, putting her phone away, before thinking. "I'm not sure."

"Well what are ones you like?" he began, before letting his acting side through, evidently back into his area of interest. "Which make you laugh the loudest laugh? Cry the most heartfelt cry? Move you and enlighten you while making your heart beat and your blood pump hot and frantic, as if you were a pred or prey in the savage ages? Which hold a beauty almost as great as the one you see every day in the mirror?"

She choked out a laugh as her ears went warm, stepping back a bit and glancing away, though Jack most certainly saw her tail wag a few times before it went up into her paws for a little pet. Blinking, pausing, thinking, silent for a little bit, words hung on the edge of her tongue… "I'm not sure," she said, "I'm not really a film buff. Or a theatre one I'm afraid. Buuuttt…. I guess I'd say my favourite film series would be either Star Paws or Mad Max: Furry Road."

"Well I see where the last one comes from," he replied.

She laughed. "What about your favourites?"

"Hmmm… For pure storytelling, I'd say The Clawshank Redemption. For admiration for the art of the cinema, I'd say Zoofellas. For getting my heart beating and pumping, I'd also say Mad Max."

"I'll have to watch the first two then," she said with a shrug, not noticing Jack's eyes go wide with shock.

"Skye!" he gasped, almost gawking. "Where have you been?"

She shrugged. "Working. Building. Repairing…"

He rolled his eyes. "Wait… Why am I complaining? Film night excuse!" He then carried on talking about all the things they might see in the future as Skye walked beside him.

"I guess so," she agreed. She knew nothing about film or films, while he talked on and on. He did settle down after a bit and they walked on in silence, Skye unable to stop a little seed of doubt start to germinate in her. Both of them had their fields that they were dedicated to, but neither knew anything about the other's… Would this work out? It might not…

The lustre of the evening faded somewhat as they carried on walking. They were looking for a new booth to go to, and she looked and viewed at the various ones, not sure which was best. Decisions, decisions… She looked down, spotting Jack next to her, slumping down slightly, looking tired.

"Any ideas?" she asked.

He blinked a few times, before jolting to attention. "Well we start you on Clawshank obviously…"

"About where we go next?"

"Haven't you made a decision?"

"I can't decide. So, what do you want to do?"

"I don't know. What do you want to do?"

"What were you even thinking about back then?"

He shrugged. "Stuff."

"Maybe you could help me decide where we go next?"

He shrugged, closed his eyes, and pointed in a random direction. "There."

Skye nodded, and walked over to the booth with him. It was home to an elephant, who was offering up caricature pictures, drawing them with big felt tip pens held in his trunk. Looking at the pair, he pushed them on, talking about poses they could do. Little bits of back and forth fired between the bunny and fox, before Jack ended up on her lap, her muzzle resting between his ears and on top of his head.

"Oh, that's a classic," the artist said, as he began drawing.

This was okay. Jack seemed to relax completely into her, content not to be walking anymore, while to her the feeling of a bunny on her lap…

Well, it was almost comforting. Her nose so close, she smelled his scent and while there was a good deal of dirt and must on it, there was an odd comfort in what was below. More than that, even… It was hard to describe, but looking at him, feeling him on her, it only increased. She wanted him closer. It calmed her down. It made her feel warm and contented, blocking out the noise from the rest of the conference and emptying her head a little, as if she was having some 'me' time… Yet it was more than that.

He moved slightly and, feeling him do that, she moved one of her paws onto his shoulder, the knuckles brushing against his fur.

That felt good.

She let it move again, and he seemed to move into it, so she began rubbing him with them. Then, not really thinking, her paw came up and stroked his side and up his ear.

"Eso es bueno," he sighed contently, as he felt Skye stroking him.

"You speak spanish?" she asked curiously.

"Mi especie vino de Mexgato," he replied, his eyelids fluttering a little as one of her claws began scritching under his chin. "Puedo hablar esto mas la lengua tradicional de mi especie."

"Right, uh…" she said softly, thinking. "Donde estas?"

He chuckled a little, before crossing his paws. "Skye, where I am right now is in your lap."

"Oh, uh…"

"But senorita," he said, hammy up his vestigial accent to the nth degree. "What I was saying was that my species came from Mexicat, and I speak the language, plus the more traditional native tongue my species often does."

"That's neat," she complemented, as her thumb pad began moving up to the base of his ear. Rotating around slowly, it dug in to the sensitive area, massaging it and sending a wave of pleasure rippling through him. His right foot began hammering down rapidly, tragically breaking off the petting.

Jack couldn't help but chuckle. "Can you carry on? I was kind of enjoying that."

Behind him, Skye's ears folded back from embarrassment, though she shook it off. "I kind of do too…" she said, before closing her eyes as a flash of guilt hit her. "Sorry, I should have asked first."

"No worries," he swooned.

"Right," she began, as she felt him. She wanted to carry on, she suddenly wanted to pull him in and hug him and just coo over him, and this was coming out of nowhere and it was logically dumb but she didn't care, instead she carried on the scritching and petting. "I started rubbing you, and it felt good, I just started doing a little more and a little more and…"

"No worries," he said again, before moaning a little as her thumb pad hit that spot again. "This is the life…"

"Thanks," she replied, thinking a little before carrying on speaking. "Ever seen a baby that you just want to play with, that's so cute you just want to eat it all up?"

Clearing his throat a little, Jack looked behind him and, a hint of sternness in his voice, spoke out. "This better end with you saying I'm that adorable, Skye."

"I thought I wasn't allowed to call you that," she teased.

"That's with cute."

She chuckled a little. "I… I'm just getting that feeling with you. It's dumb, and it's silly, but it's true. I think I enjoy petting you."

"About time you came out with the truth," he playfully said. "And in a rhyme, that gives you a boost."

Chuckling some more, Skye carried on holding him, as if he were some kind of lap bunny. Jack was all too happy to comply. Maybe this wasn't exactly something they had in common, but as things they could enjoy doing together went, he certainly wasn't complaining.

…

"I personally think that the bigger the ears, the better!"

Skye rolled her eyes at his boasting. The finished caricature had given Jack a pair of ears big enough to fly with, to the point where she strongly believed that they'd either drag on the ground behind him or raise his centre of gravity above his head depending on their position. Naturally, her comments and such had him going all prideful about his big, long and striped up acoustic appendages. "Sure, sure," she replied, before looking over at the artwork again. She hadn't escaped the pen either, her muzzle being shown glomping down on the crown of his head, with both paws wrapped around him. In the background there was even a little blur, showing her rapidly wagging tail.

Spot check, it still was now.

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A seed of doubt crept into her mind though.

Wasn't it a bit shallow just to have him because she enjoyed hugging and stroking him? Then again, he did make her laugh a lot, but that wasn't much more, was it? How much did they see eye to eye on things, or what else could they bond on other than the usual hatred of meddlers. Pausing, thinking, Skye was about to speak when she noticed a small area off to her right. A group of mammals were sitting down in front of a speaking podium, with a little sign raised above it.

'Thinkers about Inters. Fun facts about us.

Presented by ZPD Precinct 11's Chief Ramic.'

"How about we try over there," she pondered out loud, pointing at a cluster of free seats. Jack looked over and nodded.

"Over… -Oh, right," he said absently. "Okay."

So, off they went, about to find out what all this was about.

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AN: Urghhh. This chapter was a pain. I ended up rewriting it from the ground up (though saving the general outline, while copying and pasting some scenes). Originally it would flick between both of their viewpoints, while I also attempted to fit in my new ideas for Jack's character (the whole scatterbrained/ spaced out idea when not focussed). In the end, I felt it had no spark so I redid it, entirely from Skye's perspective (which worked well as she hasn't had any character building POV parts yet). I also had Jack specifically drop his 'acting romantic' for 'acting casual' thing much earlier.

Part of the problem is that I want two distinct characters who are both different from Nick and Judy, but who can mesh together well with them when the time calls for it.

Anyhow, hope you enjoyed the first part of a bunnyfox date in the series. Like, subscribe and comment, and see you next time.