FFoZ S1E17
Meditation mediation.
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AN: The A03 version includes a fun bit of art by Giftheck. If you're looking for a quick commission, feel free to contact him, he's available and wanting.
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Walking out across the park, Nick and Judy paused and waved as they caught sight of three young foxes, plus a fourth mammal. The vulpines, Ash, Kris and Agnes, saw them and quickly made their way over.
"Thanks for inviting us," Judy said, smiling at Kris.
"It's nothing. In fact, I'm happy to share these skills with others."
Judy nodded and turned to shake Agnes' paw. It was her first time meeting her and she had to admit that she was a very pretty young vixen; she had white deer-doe like spots, along with a narrow brown denim dress with white blossoms patterned in. She was about to compliment her on her looks when Nick broke her off.
"I guess that explains your wooly friend back there," he commented, noticing a teenage ewe, wearing a loose fitting blue dress big enough to cover her thick wool, walk up, her eyes going wide as she saw them.
"Yeah," Agnes said, looking over. "This is…"
"-Maisy!" the ewe butted in before pausing. "Maisy…" She glanced over at Kris and Ash, shying away a little. "You said you were friends with them, but I didn't really…" She trailed off nervously, before Kris smiled.
"Well, we are, and I'm helping them with a meditation lesson. I invited you along as…"
"-Yup, stressed, schoolwork," she rushed out, trembling a little as she paused to look at Nick and Judy, acting more like they were in their dress blues than their casual wear. "Hi there. Thanks for the night howlers and everything, you-you really helped my foxy friends, I'm very grateful -not-that-I-was-hurt-more-than-they-were… I'm just a sheep, after all, not trying to take the camera away, or..."
"My camera's on my phone," Nick interrupted, making her pause. He reached into his pocket and pulled it out. "Still got it, and don't worry, we're all on team 'be nice to all mammals.'"
Maisy blinked a few times, before Judy stepped out. "Hey, don't worry… I know some mammals began picking on sheep after all that happened," she said. "But just because we solved the nighthowler case doesn't mean we're one of them. I know that some mammals don't like sheep, I've had to deal with some, but one of my oldest and best friends back out in Bunny Burrow is a ewe."
"Oh… uhhh," she said, before taking in a breath and letting it out, settling down.
"Besides," Nick added. "We know you're nothing like the Ewe of Doom."
There was a guffaw from Agnes. "That's a new one."
"Yup," Nick said, looking down. "We know…"
"-Uh, hang on!" Maisy stammered, pulling out her phone. She opened it up and scanned through, before looking up again. "I've got to go. -Responsibilities! So sorry."
"Do you have to?" Agnes asked, as Judy took a worried step forwards, only just managing to halt herself.
"I'm sorry," she said, before turning, waving and heading off.
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…
"I'm highly suspicious about those responsibilities," Ash began, as Judy sighed.
"I know my friend Sharla got shouted at once," she said sadly, glancing over to the retreating sheep. "Was it bad for her?"
Ash scowled a little. "One mammal liked to rub it in – a lot."
"She seemed fine after it turned out to be those weird bad guys," Kris elaborated. "But maybe seeing you struck a nerve? I'll catch up with her tomorrow."
"That might work, but shouldn't we help her now?" Judy asked, as Nick came up and put a paw on her shoulder.
"Give her some space for now. Just like that honey badger, we can be there for her when she's ready for us."
Judy paused, unsure for a bit, before trying but not quite settling down. "Okay then. When she's ready," she said, looking up at Kris. "You can talk to her tomorrow?"
"Sure thing."
"That's good," she said, still a bit unsure.
Kris smiled. "I think we're all a bit put off, but some meditation can take our mind off of it. That's why we're here, after all."
The group nodded, Agnes quickly sending a comforting text, before they head off together. The four foxes and one bunny enjoyed the park as they looked for a place to sit down, soon finding one beneath some trees and in front of a small pond. They all settled down, ready to begin.
"Again, thanks for inviting us," Judy said, looking up at Kris as the young fox walked past.
"It was nothing," he replied, finding a spot. Agnes settled down next to him, the red fox's tail sweeping back and forth.
"Even with the hiccup with Maisy, It was nice meeting you," she said, smiling. "And we get to spend the day together, so you're not a burden or anything."
"Not a burden yet," Nick said, settling down with Ash next to him.
"Well it's not as if teaching meditation is much of an effort," Kris said with a shrug.
"No," Judy said eagerly. "And don't you worry, your students will be giving one-hundred-and-ten percent."
"Apologies for my bunny's lack of mathematical ability there," Nick joked, "but you get the gist."
"-Actually," Ash pointed out, "it depends if your baseline is a total capacity or average output."
"Or she was just using a figure of speech," Agnes added.
"Or that," Ash stated.
"Well, either way, I'll be giving everything I can give," she said.
"That's good," Kris said, "but not quite the right mindset."
"Huh? How isn't it?"
The silverfox smiled and looked over. "Meditation isn't really something that you push yourself towards so, counter intuitively, trying your hardest might make it harder."
Judy blinked a few times. "That doesn't make sense."
"It's about letting yourself go," he explained. "It's similar to drifting off to sleep. You need to let yourself slowly detach from the outside world, letting your bonds to it drift away. You let your mind empty and float, and when you come back you're at peace."
"Okay then," Judy agreed, before her mouth tweaked a bit. "So, the humming or leg position helps with that? How?"
"When letting yourself go, it often helps to have something to focus on. You latch onto it to release yourself from the outside world, then you let it go. Think of it like a swimming float in a pool."
"Oh, okay," she said, before moving to cross her legs in a lotus position. "Yeah, this is taking a lot of effort," she said, focusing on it. Her long legs and thicker calf muscles were making it tricky for her. "Come on," she said, not seeing Nick's growing smirk.
"Carrot's sensitivity to being called cute, test one," he said.
"Huh?" She asked, looking up at him.
"Science," he replied, "the thing works." He also looked down, bending his shorter and thinner legs into position. "There, that was…"
"Eeeep!" He looked over to see that Judy had gotten her legs into position, but in doing so unbalanced herself and tipped over onto her back. Reaching out with her arms, she pushed herself upright again. "Okay, this feels familiar, like a stretching exercise at the academy."
"Carrots, I thought we were here to destress?"
"Just because you're not a fan of exercise, doesn't mean I'm not," Judy countered.
"Well in a lot of cases the stretch gives you that internal thing to to focus on," Kris explained. "But the position and everything isn't required. It's just one way of doing it."
"Well, glad to know before I sat like this for an hour," Nick noted, unfurling his legs. "Can I sit up against that tree too?"
"Sure."
Nick smiled and slid his way backwards, leaning against a tree. "Ahhh… Feeling more tuned out already."
"Good to hear."
"Yup," Nick agreed. "You know, if this was some cheap little comedic story, I'd have spent an hour sitting like that and gotten terminal dead leg before you'd of told me that."
Kris nodded. "I just want everyone to have a good time," he said, his ears going down a bit. "Though I guess that's limited to everyone here." He then looked over at Judy. "The stretching thing is a little similar to yoga. If you're a more active mammal, that might be a much better way of destressing than meditation."
Judy looked at him, crossing her arms. Despite her first, rather off putting, encounter with that activity during the original nighthowler case, she had nothing against it. Indeed, yoga sounded like a good idea too. However that didn't mean she was going to throw in the towel on meditation before she'd even tried it. Not by a long shot. "Thanks Kris, but I'm going to be giving meditation my all today."
She gave a determined nod, Kris a bit unsure for a moment before carrying on. "Well, next, we close our eyes, focus on our thing, and let the rest of the world start to drift away. I often hum, tuning my breathing to it."
"Okay then," Judy replied, as she closed her eyes. The world went dark, and her ears picked up the silver fox beginning to hum as he slowly exhaled.
She joined in, letting out a long breath.
He stopped, and slowly began pulling one in. "Focus on the action and feel of your breath," he said. "Let it help your mind empty…"
Judy tried just that.
Breathing in and feeling it, breathing out to his humming.
Breathing in and feeling it, breathing out to his humming.
Breathing in and feeling it, breathing out to his humming.
Breathing in and feeling it, breathing out to his humming.
Breathing in and feeling it, and what was that splash?
No, focus Judy, breath ou… -no, in now! Then out, feeling it, before breathing in again.
Breathing out, and then in again. Out and then in, out and then in, and…
-Was it really this boring? She could be using that time helping that poor ewe, couldn't she? It'd have to be a slow introduction… Maybe a pre-arranged meeting at a safe place. How bad had she had it? Were… -were mammals using her own actions as justification to bully sheep? Did they think she approved? Did Maisy? Did sheep hold her responsible for others hurting them, or had she made some mistakes after taking in Bellwether… What could it be, what could…
A light tap touched her shoulder, and she opened her eyes to look at Kris. "Are you okay?"
"Just thinking about your friend," she admitted. "Has she…"
He cut her off with a shush, keeping a comforting paw on her shoulders. "She'll be fine. Right now, just let it all go. Recharge."
She blinked a few times. "Right. Meditation." Taking a deep breath, she turned back to the task at paw.
Breathing in and feeling it, breathing out to his humming.
Breathing in and feeling it, breathing out to his humming.
Breathing in and feeling it, breathing out to his humming.
Breathing in and feeling it, breathing out to his humming.
Breathing in and feeling it, breathing out to his humming.
Breathing in and feeling it, breathing out to his humming.
Her toes and body fidgeted a little. After all, she was athletic, -and were those runners she could hear? She could be running, her paws moving under her and racing and -stop it Judy. Don't give up like that, you can meditate.
You can put your mind to it and meditate the heck out of it.
That's right, cut out that birdsong. Focus your mind…
Focus your mind…
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Some time later
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Okay, keep your mind focused Judy, it's been hours and it's boring as cuss, but you can do it. You'll probably feel great after all of this.
Great!
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"Okay," Kris quietly began, "that's ten minutes, how's everyone doing?"
"Ten minutes! -I, uhhh…. -Good!" Judy stated, opening her eyes. She immediately noticed four sets of fox eyes looking at her.
"Masterful control there," Nick said from the back. "You are truly at peace with mind and body."
Judy grumbled. "Okay, maybe I was finding it a bit boring…"
"It felt a lot shorter than ten minutes," Agnes said, smiling. "I was able to let go, it was really peaceful, like a little nap."
"Ten minutes sounds about right," Ash added. "That's about how long I manage, and it's enough to calm me down. Doing it out here was nice though, I could listen to the birds and stuff and make up stories for them."
"I thought the idea was to shut everything out," Judy said.
"Well," Kris began. "They likely weren't stories, more like very weak ideas, or echoes… I felt detached. Like I was underwater, and all the sounds and stuff were ripples above me, and I could feel it. I shut myself off in a trance sometimes, but not all the time."
"I struggled a bit," Nick noted, "but then I heard the bird songs and started to dream a bit about them. It was okay, I guess."
"But that's all doing it wrong, isn't it?" Judy protested.
"The idea of it is to give you a breather and help calm you down, like a quick restart," Ash said. "And you now sound like you need a new one."
"Okay then," Judy said, staring forwards and cracking her knuckles. "Take two!"
"You know," Kris began, putting a paw on her shoulder. "Not all mammals are suited to meditation…"
"Well, I don't know when to quit," Judy countered, closing her eyes again. This time she kept her ears open and listened in.
…
There was a lot going on, something her ears did plenty of work to pick up on.
She heard splashing of fish in the pond, the sound of birds and insects, the rustling of the leaves in the trees and the sound of mammals.
Lots and lots of mammals.
There were ones playing, some running, others just walking. She heard the ringing of a bicycle bell here, or the distant rumble of traffic there.
All of it, out in the open.
She just needed to focus on one…
Just focus on that one bird call she noticed.
Just focus.
Just focus….
-Was that a mammal falling in the water!? No, wait, splashing and stuff. Are they playing? Or is it a bird, wait, bird…
Focus on the bird, Judy, focus and let then let it all fade. Fade as if it were a watercolour dropped in water, slowly diluting and drifting away, -and who was that calling out there!?
Were they crying for help? Were they the ones splashing?
…
No, birds!
…
And that voice again, what was he saying?
…
Bir… -Why was he shouting out 'goatee'? Was he harassing a goat? Okay, tune your ears, listen in, and again… What is he doing? Why…? And again, 'goatee', with nothing back. Who is he? Is he mentally ill… -Oh please don't let it be like that poor honey badger again, she didn't want to screw up again. But if it was, she'd do better this time. She'd do better for her, she would…
-And again. She felt her lip biting. Who could it be? Why would they be calling out like that? What exactly was he saying? How could she help?
How…
-She paused, freezing in horror, as she heard someone else shout out. "GET AWAY FROM THAT CRIMINAL!"
Her eyes flung open and she pushed her legs out, flipping herself onto all fours. She stood up, racing off to help, then crashing nose front into the ground.
...
Thank you, dead legs.
…
"Uh, where's the fire, Carrots?"
She pointed forwards. "Also, not a fire."
Nick blinked. "Okay, didn't expect that."
"Neither did I," Judy said, pushing forwards but stumbling as her legs failed to cooperate. "Arghhh! Legs not working."
"Need a paw?" Kris asked, holding onto her side.
"Thanks," she said, as Nick came over.
"I'll take it from here, Kit," he said, as he picked up Judy. "You three can follow at a distance. Carrots, point."
She did just that, and Nick followed her instruction, racing on. As they began climbing over a hill and weaving through bits of wood, Nick looked down. "Okay, bunny ears really are this good."
"Yes."
"And your meditation skills really are this bad."
"Not helping," she said, pausing before pointing in a new direction. "Put me down."
Nick did just that, Judy's legs kicking out as she took off. Glancing behind him to confirm that the kits were close by, Nick followed, cutting to the side. Up ahead, he saw her leap over a deeply sunken path and to the other side. He, meanwhile, slipped down the side, picking up a mass of leaves and wood debris as he rode the mini avalanche down to the path below. He then pushed up, scrabbling up the other side, despite the same litter doing its best to pull him back down.
Up on the other side and out into an open area, he paused as he saw Judy talking to a bunny doe and her son.
The doe was exaggerating and gesticulating, her overacted movements almost seeming to push Judy back. Looking at her, the way she moved as if she owned the place, the expensive designer clothes she dressed herself and her son in and the way the doe hung on to her kit, Nick sighed.
She was one of those…
Honestly, if she was speciesist against him on top of it, he didn't really care that much.
Well, apart from if she was packing Fox-Away, of course.
Moving up, he paused as he came up to the pair, the bunny mother still talking. "Is that your partner there? You can send him to sic that delinquent."
"Which delinquent?" Nick asked, wondering where this was going.
"The one who chucked wood at my baby!" She shouted, Nick surreptitiously giving a wink at the humiliated kit.
"The one over there, Nick," Judy said, pointing up to a tree. Looking up into it, Nick froze and did a double take of the woodchuck sitting up in it. "Do I know you from somewhere?" Nick asked, feeling an odd sense of unpleasant deja vu.
The thick built woodchuck, dressed in a loud red hoodie and camo cargo pants, paused, then chuckled. "LOL, nuts…"
"Uh…"
"My father's a doctor," he said, shrugging. "You're the fox cop right? My Dad said he saved your life when you were a baby kit. Apparently you had a crazy flea infestation, worms, and kept biting everyone."
Nick's face piqued, his ears going down as he noticed the bunny mother pull her son away from him slightly. "Thanks," he noted. "Anything going on here?"
"She's accusing me of chucking wood as she's a dumb speciesist with no imagination."
"You can see the wood right here!" The mother cried, pointing at stuff on the floor.
"You're a liar, that was cussing there already!"
"HOW DARE YOU USE THAT LANGUAGE IN FRONT OF MY BOY!"
"You're just a non-bunny mammal hating…"
"QUIET!" Judy shouted, silencing both of them. She then turned to the bunny mother. "Any reason why he was throwing sticks?"
"I was calling him out on his vandalism."
"I wasn't cussing vandalising…"
"You were eating cowslip and fresh dandelions…"
"It's called grazing, you dumb…"
"Woodchucks don't graze…"
"Yes we do! I just had one cussing dandelion as I was cussing bored, but you just wanted all the dandelions for yourself!"
"How dare you, they were for my son!" she shouted, the kit facepawming and face-earing. "He needs all of that good natural food to grow up strong and healthy, and not have things like autism or worms…"
"You're just a stupid cussing dumb du…"
"QUIET!" Judy shouted, cutting them off. Putting up her paws, she got between them. "The Zootopia public municipal code enshrines the right to graze on public land, unless clearly stated otherwise. This is the case for this park, so I advise you both leave each other alone."
"Yup," Nick noted. "I'll escort the underage mammal second most in need of rescue out of here." He walked up to the tree and waved him down. "Come on."
"And is bunny cop going to arrest those two?" He asked, getting down.
"Is she going to?" Nick said, as the pair began walking off. He kept a stare latched onto the new bunny as they retreated to a safe distance. "No, no she is not."
"Oh come on…!"
"Technically they haven't broken any laws," Judy explained.
"But it'll be funny!"
"We're off duty," Nick added. "And while that kit could probably do with a little less mother in his life, I don't think arresting her is the right answer."
"It's the funny answer."
Judy sighed. "I…" she was then cut off by an angry yell, and took off again. Nick looked at the woodchuck and shrugged. "Would you believe me if we said we came here to meditate?"
He then took off after, going down onto all fours. Judy had changed her direction, letting Nick catch up as he cut the corner. He could hear arguing now, both from the kits and a new voice.
A familiar voice.
They both slid down the bank and down towards the three younger foxes, landing on their feet amid a wave of leaf litter and facing off against a fourth, very familiar, face.
"Oh, hi Duke," Judy said, smiling and waving. "How's the community service going?"
The wiry weasel, dressed in his usual ratty clothes but with an orange vest, complete with hi vis strips and 'community service' written across it, growled. "How about you'z two knuckleheads TAKE A LOOK!"
He gestured about, and both Nick and Judy gulped as they saw all the leaf litter and bits of sticks that had slid down onto the path.
"Uhh," Judy said, looking around nervously. "Sorry…"
"Sorry! Sorry?" He mocked, a sneer growing on his muzzle. "Yeh, sure you are, after bringing yourselves here. Even getting kits involved in makin' my life worse."
There was a twig snap, and they looked over to see Agnes moving forwards. "I'm sorry," she said. "We didn't know..."
"Sure you'z didn't," Duke mocked. "And I bet your little paws that you didn't know that I have to sweep and pick all this stuff up, and chuck it in my little cart, and take it all the way back to the main bin. Then do it again and again, to clear this mess up! And here I was, thinkin' that my last day wouldn't be so bad!"
"You know," Kris began, "we could help…"
"Suuure…. 'Help.' Well, if it's Wilde's kind of help, you can go cuss yourself!"
"Duke," Judy scolded, wandering forwards.
"And there you go," he mocked. "They said they did it, but it's the weasel that gets the boot. What kind of cruel and unusual am I gonna get this time?"
"Firstly, you were caught selling alcohol to minors…"
"-Holy cuss, it's the drink weasel!" Everyone looked up to see the woodchuck arrive, panting deeply as he caught his breath. Following Nick's path down, he barged past. "Where've you been, my mam?"
Duke frowned. "Tweedledum, Tweedledumber and Leonid Bearzhnev there got me busted."
"Who?"
"Bearzhnev was the joke name we gave Leonid Brezrev …"
"Who?"
"The Soeviet leader in the seventies," Duke grumbled. "As he was a bear and they thought it was funny…"
"Who…?"
"The leader of Russia with the crazy eyebrows!"
"Oh," the woodchuck said, blinking a few times before snapping to face Ash. "What the cuss, you wet sandwich!"
"Wait," Judy said, "you know them?"
"Well you two and Ash knew the weasel, and Beavis here is our class bully" Kris began, before Beavis charged past him and towards the smaller tod.
"Hey," Ash defended, stepping back a bit.
"Yeah, run you cussing coward, run after ruining…"
"Woah woah woah!" Judy called, running between them and holding her paws out. She took a calming breath, before waving for them to step apart. "Okay, first off, that's not how it went."
"Well of course ye'd say that," Duke muttered.
Judy snapped to face him, before looking up at the woodchuck. "Second off, though you're not in trouble, underage drinking is a crime."
"Who gives a cuss?" He asked with a shrug.
"I do, I'm literally a cop."
"Urghhh," he groaned, before turning back to Duke. "Okay, and who are the other two? The tweedle who and who?"
One of Duke's eyes rose slightly, before he blanky pointed forwards. "Wilde and the bunny."
"What the cuss you two!"
"To reiterate," Nick said, "we are, in the linguistically correct sense, literally cops."
"And total wet sandwiches," he muttered, before glancing down at Ash. "Almost as bad as Leonard Bearnet there," he said, before walking off.
"You see," Duke said, "he gets it!" He gave a high paw to Beavis as he passed, before turning back to the foxes. "They have me here, a little scraggly weasel, picking up stuff much larger than me when a sheep could do it way faster. Cruel and unusual, though not enough for them, as they then come in making this mess for me."
"We didn't mean to," Judy said, "we're sorry and, like I said, we can help."
"Your kinda 'help?' Cut me outta that you favourite pickin', snitching bullies. I don't need you!"
There was a pause, before Nick shrugged. "Okay then, bye."
"Yeh, scram it Wilde. Scram it with you and your bunch of mischief makers…"
Nick paused. "You can call me that, but not my friends."
Judy backed him up. "And you can't call him that either."
"Tchhh, look at you all. The insufferable sellout, your corrupt bunny cop, the weasel humiliating lover pair and the sniveling snitch friend…"
Nick scowled, staring back at Duke, the weasel gulping. "Do not insult me, Duke. Or my friends. We were gonna help you, but now you can pick this up yourself." He turned, and waved on the others. "Come on, leave him. He's not worth it."
"I'll get you for this Wilde," Duke warned. "I'll get all of you."
Agnes flinched a bit, Kris comforting her, as Ash spoke out. "Don't worry about that. He's embarrassingly useless."
"I resent that!"
Nick laughed, as did the others, as they wandered off.
"Just you wait Wilde! Just you wait, and you, eyebrows fox! I'll make you regret that statement! I'll get all of you, you don't know what you're dealing with here! I know things!"
...
He slumped, looking down at the mess he had to clear up. "Awww schucks…"
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"Phew," Judy sighed, "I'm glad that's all over."
"I'm guessing you know him," Agnes said, still looking a bit shaken. Kris nudged up to comfort her, before looking at the bunny and fox duo.
"The Duke of Bootleg," Nick replied, shaking his head. "He's not violent or anything, just annoying. We knew him from the first howler case, when he was roped into stealing the howler plants without knowing what they were."
"Yeah," Judy agreed, nodding along. "We do try and help him, in case he decides to accept it one day."
"Not that that's likely."
"You never know," Judy pointed out. "It took a bit of work to get to you to do it."
"Touche," Nick replied.
"Yup," she said, smiling. "Now, where were we."
"Meditation," Kris reminded her, looking on as her ears drooped a bit.
"Oh yeah, sure," she replied, getting more confident again. "Let's get back to it."
"Actually, I think meditation isn't your best option," Kris began.
"But I can practice," she said, earning a chuckle from Nick.
"Kris, prepare to meet an unstoppable force. The bunny that doth not know whenneth to quit."
"Maybe you could," he said, "but I think there are things that might give a similar result, but are better for a more physical mammal like you. Like yoga. I mean, there's some mammals trying it out over there."
Judy paused, looking over to see a set of mammals practicing on a gym mat.
No, that wasn't quite right…
"Wow, is that a sentient bird?" Agnes asked, peering over. Judy looked too and nodded as she saw the regal looking creature. Even though she wore a light purple vest and black yoga pants, there was something spectacular about her.
"A sentient secretary bird," Kris remarked, "incredibly rare."
"And there's a gorilla next to her," Nick added, pointing at one with a pink vest and teal yoga pants. "Don't see many of them over here either."
"It's nicer than that one troop we've had to deal with," Judy remarked, remembering a case with a notable robber gang that they'd helped stake out. They, all of them Gorilla's, had been put away for their crimes, including corruption of a minor given how the leader had forced his son to act as a lookout.
He'd gotten off with probation and currently lived with his mother. She wondered how he was doing right now,. Was he angry, sad…
"Hey, Carrots," Nick interrupted, "try that move there."
She paused, then looked forwards and did just that, pulling a leg around into a stretch. Feeling a slight burn, she pushed on, before letting go as the class did. "Not so bad," she remarked. Indeed, it felt rather good, and she quite liked the idea of joining a class like the one she was watching. It was certainly far more preferable to joining a different yoga class she knew of, one taught by a certain elephant and partook by a certain otter.
"And it kept your mind off of what was making your ears go droopy," Nick pointed out, a smug grin on his muzzle. "Yoga, one. Meditation, nil-pwa!"
"Just as I thought," Kris noted, as Judy looked at the foxes smugly.
"Ha, ha… Okay, you win. But with enough practice I could learn meditation."
"And be miserable," Nick added.
"... -Sweet cheese I would be, it's soooo boring, how do you do it?"
"I just do," Kris said.
"There is no try," Agnes added.
"I just imagine that video of the spinning seal," Ash finished off. "Makes me happy for ten minutes, and that's what I want."
"Yup," Kris said. "I don't mind. As long as you're happy, that's what counts. Maybe soon you and Maisy might be doing yoga."
"Yeah," Judy agreed. "You can make sure that she's okay, that she knows we're not a problem? I really don't want her feeling down because of us."
"I'll text her an explanation, telling her how much of a friend you four all are," Agnes said.
"Thanks for that," Judy said, before turning to Kris. "And thanks for being patient with a dumb bunny."
Kris just smiled. "It's nothing," he said as, together, they set off. The kids planned to head home while, tonight, the adults had a very special date planned.
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An: Just a slight breather chapter between the last work and the next one, you know how it is. Also, for those unaware, I've started a Zootopia-Beastars crossover called Zoostars. It won't be anywhere near as big as FFoZ, only penned in for 13 chapters, but it's been fun to write (especially given the large amount of extra writing time I've recently stumbled upon for unnamed reasons). If you also have extra reading time for (also, but oddly similar) unnamed reasons, feel free to check it out. Other fic Rec's by me include Dobanachi's wickedly funny fic: L'EDgendary, and Merc Marten's ongoing saga 'The Fire Triangle'. All massive labours of love that need more love.
Coming up next week though, the thing you've all been waiting for. The one, the only, TRIPLE DATE! GET HYPE!
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"Were those the heroes of Zootopia just then?" Director Gori asked, as she got up from a yoga move.
Secretary Washimi got up next to her, ruffling her feathers slightly. "I believe they were. How do you think their triple date with Retsuko, Hayden and their friends will go tonight?"
Gori blinked. "Triple date?" She asked, before bursting into tears. "WHY DIDN'T I KNOW ABOUT THAT!? IF I HAD A BOYFRIEND, I COULD BE ON A QUAD DATE!"
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After recovering, Gori and Washimi got ready for the next exercise. They looked on as their main instructor, a massively built kangaroo whose muscles bulged out of his tight purple tank top and grey yoga shorts, got up.
"PROTEIN!"
They got down, only to pause as they heard a voice off in the distance.
"Protein! That was what he was saying! I thought he was saying Goatee, but it was protein!"
"PROTEIN!"
"It all makes sense now!"
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Duke grumbled, straining as he pulled another armful of leaves and litter, dumping them into his cart. "Good for nuthin rutting foxes and bunny," he grumbled, his paws clenching.
He paused, as he saw a new figure behind him.
"Hey," Beavis said. "Got any booze?"
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"PROTEIN!"