Happy Valentine's Day! Happy Gratuitous Holiday Update Day! And most importantly, Happy Finally Got an Actual Request Day! Yes, as a quick reminder to those who haven't read the summary in a while, Born to Be Drabbles is and always has been open to requests, just in case y'all have any ideas. :P

The credit for this one goes to NettFox on Discord, who really wanted to see this thing between Jimmy and the Vixens go as far as we can take it without a content warning. So let the love flow!

Drabble 15: Three and a Half Foxes

Savannah Central

St. Bernarde's Hospital

8: 46 AM

"So do we actually have other hospitals in this district or what?" Jimmy asked curiously, looking down at the bunny in a body cast. "In any case, they did a pretty good job bandaging you up. I can't even tell the difference between the Simon wounds and the Piper wounds."

Judy just groaned in response. "Adrenaline: great while it lasts, a real downer when it runs out."

"Kinda like sugar!"

"Or a hangover!"

"But since the Narwhalter thing has passed and I've now been ordered to recover," she said bitterly, "I'm really grateful you came by to keep me company, Jimmy. What with Nick busy trying to adjust to Rodentriguez life and all."

"Anything for a friend," he replied. "I even brought some games!"

"Um...Jimmy?"

He pushed a stack of board games taller than either of them next to her hospital bed. "How about...Candy Land?"

"I can't use my arms, Jimmy."

"That's okay. I can draw your cards for you. And move your piece for you."

She considered it. "Hmm...I'd like to be able to do something. Got any dice games? I can roll it with my mouth."

"Sure!" He started searching through the stack, creating a second stack in the process. "Monopoly?"

"If I want to play nothing else while I'm here," she said with a smirk. "Also, you'd have to be the banker."

"Oh yeah. I'm no good with money."

"Why are you looking at me when you say that?"

Judy let out a giggle, finding the Jimmy and Wallace show entertaining enough for the time being. "What else?"

"Um...I'm guessing Operation is out? Actually, am I even allowed to bring that here? Feels kinda offensive."

"Hiya!" a voice sounded behind him.

"Eep!" He quickly turned around, hiding the game behind his back. "I'm sorry! I'll get rid of it, I swear!"

"Don't worry. That's, like, not why we're here." A very attractive nurse smiled at him, along with two others. They seemed vaguely familiar in a way he couldn't quite put his finger on.

"Yeah, we so need to apply more bandages to the patient."

"Really? Wow, she's got so many already, but I guess that's okay."

Judy's eyes were as wide as her bedpan. "Jimmy, wake up! They're obviously-MMPH!"

"Trained medical professionals!" one finished, planting a bandage firmly over the bunny's mouth. "You shouldn't talk so much. It could aggravate your injuries, and then you might literally die."

Jimmy gasped. "Oh no! I'm so sorry I tried to get you to be social!"

Despite the warnings of the trained medical professional, Judy not only continued to speak, in muffled but very strongly-opinionated words, she was attempting to force one of her arms to move as well.

The nurses ignored her though, and as they all grinned at Jimmy, they were starting to look very familiar indeed. "Wait...are you…?"

They removed their nurse's caps.

"Could you be…?"

Then their ID badges.

"No way…"

Then the rest of the nurse outfits, leaving them in nothing but skimpy pink bikinis.

"You!" Jimmy fell onto his butt in shock. "I didn't recognize you in that much clothing!"

"Helloooooooo, Jimmy-Wimmy!" the former nurses squealed, lunging for him all at once.

He scurried away just in time, backing himself up against one of the medical closets. "But I left you at the bottom of the not sea! Why are you still after me?!"

"Awwww, don't you know?" Pearl asked as they closed in on him. "You can sink our bodies, but you can't sink our feelings!"

"Hold it right there!"

Is what Judy would've said if her mouth weren't still covered. Instead, she let actions speak louder than words. Having apparently been keeping a loaded tranq pistol under her pillow, just in case, she had managed to defy her own body cast just enough to grab hold of the weapon and aim it at them. She shouted a muffled command that was likely to freeze and/or put their paws up.

They weren't terribly compelled to do either, as the gun fell from her stiff joints seconds later. She groaned in frustration, trying again to pick it back up.

"Wow, you don't even need to be holding the gun for it to be useless," Opal observed.

"Hey, where's our Jimmy-Wimmy?" Pearl asked.

The door to the room closed automatically.

8: 55 AM

Jimmy took off running through the halls so quickly that more than one actual nurse tried to stop him out of concern. Not willing to trust any of them, he didn't stop until he was out of the building entirely, panting on the sidewalk. "This...feels...familiar."

"Yeah. I even see a bus coming. Try not to get hit by it this time."

"Huh? Oh, perfect!" Jimmy still had plenty of energy to run onto the bus, only just remembering to pay the fare before he sat himself down. "I tell you, Wallace, I've heard of guys wanting to be chased by girls, but I don't think I'm seeing the appeal."

"You'll get it when you're older."

"I'm 22."

"And yet you're having this conversation with a stuffed animal."

A few of the other passengers looked very concerned, also wondering if maybe he should've stayed in the hospital he just ran out of. But not the three innocent old ladies that sat down next to him, hunched over and wearing large, concealing shawls with wooden canes. "Excuse me, young mammal," one spoke in a withered voice, "but can you help me? I appear to have dropped a contact lens."

"Oh, sure thing." Good Samaritan that he was, Jimmy dropped to the floor and started searching for the lost lens, oblivious to the innocent old ladies taking keen interest in his raised posterior. "I'm not seeing it."

"Keep looking, dearie, you're doing great."

"Hey, I found it!"

"Wait, what?"

Jimmy stood back up, to their mutual disappointment, holding up an actual contact lens with a proud smile. "It was pretty small. Lucky I found it."

One of the old ladies took the lens, pinching it between her claws a little too hard. "Yes...lucky…"

A second later, another one stood up, then immediately fell on her face. "Excuse me again, young mammal, but can you help me too? I appear to have dropped myself."

A tiger across from them stood up immediately. "Hold on, I'll help y-"

"BACK OFF!"

The startled tiger sat back down as Jimmy approached instead, grabbing her by the paw and helping to lift her back to her feet. "Wow, you have really smooth paws, ma'am. You must take good care of yourself." He looked closer. "And they're manicured. And smell an awful lot like massage lotion…"

The old ladies grinned from beneath their shawls.

"I knew it!" Jimmy freaked. "You're the Vixens' grandmothers!"

While the bus was still in motion, he yanked open one of the emergency windows and threw himself out. Unfortunately, he picked the wrong side to avoid landing in the middle of traffic, having to immediately jump out of the way of an oncoming car.

"Don't get run over by anything else either, Jimmy-Wimmy!"

"And don't you start calling me that!" Jimmy yelled back, swerving around a few more cars before he safely reached the other side, frantically waving down a cab.

The Vixens, now sitting atop the bus's roof, waved back cheerfully.

A cab pulled up in front of him and Jimmy wasted no time hopping inside. "Drive!" he yelled desperately.

The driver, an aged camel whose name tag read "Chuck", scowled over the wheel. "Now look, buddy, I know you've probably seen that stunt in the movies, but I'm not gonna help you get away from the cops."

"I am a cop!"

He looked back at him now, and brightened up quickly. "You are indeed, sir. Alright, driving the heck outta dodge for one passenger, got it."

"Two passengers," he corrected, pointing to Wallace.

"Er...are you sure about that?"

"Hey! Wallace is a mammal too!" "

"Don't be such a plushist!"

Chuck sighed. "Two it is then."

He floored it, speeding away from the scene as he dodged and weaved through traffic like someone who really did have experience running from the cops. "Where are you headed?" Chuck demanded. "I can either go somewhere specific, or keep going til' you run out of money."

Jimmy was too busy looking out the back window for flirtatious pursuers to hear him for a second. Truthfully, he didn't really have a destination in mind, but one suddenly popped into his head. "Oh. Uh, New Mexicow? I know some guys there who can shelter me."

Chuck raised an eyebrow at that, but shrugged and drove anyway.

Sahara Square

9: 41 AM

The drive took a good while, due to morning traffic, and Jimmy grew increasingly more anxious every time they were stalled, even at stop signs.

Finally, as they entered a massive traffic jam blocked up by a buffalo procession crossing, he couldn't take it anymore. "Alright, I'll get out here! How much is that?"

Chuck looked briefly down at his personal gauge. "112 bucks."

Jimmy flinched. "That is...significantly more than I expected."

"Then maybe next time you won't demand I double the fare."

Jimmy opened his wallet, and flinched again. "And if...hypothetically speaking...I'm a little short?"

"Eh. Tallness is overrated anyway."

Chuck was not amused by the pun, nor the lack of muns. "Then you and I need to have a serious talk, boy."

Jimmy was pretty frightened of his circumstances at that moment. He was more frightened the next, when the driver's side window suddenly shattered and three pairs of paws proceeded to slam Chuck's head repeatedly into his own dashboard. "The only one that's paying is you if you hurt our Jimmy-Wimmy!"

Oh right. Assassins. I keep forgetting about that part.

Jimmy had no idea what to do, so he did what came instinctively; get out of the cab and run into the nearest building while apologizing to the driver in a panicked pant.

That building happened to be an old wrestling ring, either closed or abandoned. Jimmy preferred to think the latter, since that made it less likely he'd be arrested for trespassing.

Or breaking and entering, since that thing he'd smashed with a rock to get in here looked suspiciously like a padlock in hindsight.

So it would be an awful waste to not find a hiding spot. He did a dive under the ring that would've gotten at least a 6/10.

It was pitch black under there, so he cozied up to what he guessed was some kind of faux steel chair and stayed as quiet as possible. The old building did the exact opposite. There were so many old squeaks and creaks that any little noise could be the Vixens and he'd never even know it.

Why does my night vision suck so much? Being afraid of the dark is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

"Need a light?"

"My mom says I should say no to those. Oh, you mean...yes, please!"

Three simultaneous matches were lit up at once, illuminating the Vixens surrounding him on three sides. "Hi."

Jimmy screamed. But it wasn't an ordinary scream. It was a scream so high-pitched and girly that it was capable of causing physical trauma to those with sensitive hearing. The Vixens shut their eyes and covered their ears, wincing in pain.

"You've found their weakness: excessive girliness! Now run for it!"

Jimmy quickly crawled out from under the ring and ran for the door, but swerved at the last second and dove into an air vent instead. It's the last thing they'll expect!

The vent led up the wall in a sharp incline and Jimmy struggled a bit to keep his footing. But the Vixens had apparently deduced his plan, or noticed the missing vent cover, because he soon heard several more claws scraping on the metal behind him.

"Aww, you so don't have to try this hard to find a cozy place for us! That ring would've done just fine!"

"I can, like, think of a few better places though."

"I can think of literally hundreds!"

Jimmy kept crawling up as fast as he could, but he could tell he was losing ground, his cuddly, kissy doom growing closer and closer. He could see the light from outside approaching, but he knew he wasn't going to make it.

"Go on! Leave me as bait!" Wallace encouraged.

"What?!" Jimmy gasped, looking down at his treasured friend in shock. "No! I can't leave you behind!"

"We have no choice! It's either me or both of us!"

"But..." Jimmy was tearing up, and raised one arm to wipe them away, slipping a bit further back in the process. "You're right. I'm sorry, buddy."

"I'm sorry too. For killing all of your friends in that dream. That wasn't very nice. Now go! Save yourself!"

With all the fury of Chief Bogo, but very little of the strength, Jimmy hurled Wallace back at his pursuers.

The Vixens, feeling something soft and fluffy in their arms, immediately mobbed it. "Mine!"

"Nuh uh! Mine!"

"Girls! He's ours!"

"You're totally right!"

They all wrapped around the plush, snuggling and cuddling what they didn't know wasn't Jimmy.

Jimmy kept going, only sniffling slightly before he made it to the top.

He fell out of the vent and landed, somewhat painfully, on his butt again. "Ow..." No. Gotta keep going. Can't let Wallace's noble sacrifice be in vain. He forced himself back up and started heading again for New Mexicow. If he just kept going in the most festive direction he could, he was sure to find it.

"Heeeeey, wait a minute! This isn't our Jimmy-Wimmy! He's being way too quiet!"

So much for that plan. He took off running again, heading down into a nearby subway instead.

The platform was so packed that it was a wonder that every shift of the crowd didn't send doomed souls tumbling onto the tracks. Jimmy let the tide of mammals sweep him into a train, not caring where it was headed.

It was so stuffed inside the train car that Jimmy's feet left the floor and he was suspended into the...well, air was probably being a bit generous. His head was forced above the surface and remained there, meekly staring up at the ceiling.

The train doors closed and it took off, the hapless arctic fox along with it. Without Wallace, he didn't even have anyone to talk to now.

10: 37 AM

It felt like hours before the doors opened again, and the deluge of mammals poured out.

Yet, oddly, Jimmy was still not on the ground yet. And he still felt a dark presence surrounding him.

The crowd cleared enough that, with growing horror in his gut, Jimmy was able to see three familiar faces right next to his own, as if they'd...

"Have you been here the entire time?"

They nodded.

"Ah. I see." He opened his mouth to scream again, but a paw clamped down over it, stifling his mighty cry.

"Now now, it's okay, Jimmy-Wimmy. We'll so take good care of you."

"The love train has literally reached the station!"

"Like, toot toot!"

"Where's Wallace?" he asked, muffled.

"Ooooh, your cute little plush friend? We brought him too!" Opal assured, lifting a heavily mussed and kiss-marked Wallabeanie in front of him.

"I have seen things..."

The shock and horror of seeing his friend reduced to this sorry(?) state gave Jimmy the strength to break out of their grasp, rushing for the door.

They grabbed his tail and legs from behind, but Jimmy managed to grab hold of the closing doors.

It was a tense tug of war. They had superior numbers, but he had a more stable handle. He kicked his legs and wiggled his toes as he tried to escape their grips.

But that only gave them ideas. "You're been running around for so long, Jimmy-Wimmy. Your poor footsies must be tired."

"You could literally get the worst calluses."

"So let's, like, fix that for you."

While Opal kept him held by his tail, Pearl and Crystal hooked their arms around his legs and dug their magic fingers into his feet.

"H-Hey, wait! I doooooooh, wooooooow." Jimmy's eyes glazed over and his tongue lolled out of his mouth, struggling to keep holding on. His grip was quickly slipping away, along with most rational thought. Maybe...this is fate. I should just...accept it...

"DON'T DAZE HIM, HOES!"

The Vixens shrieked in surprise, dropping Jimmy instantly. "That wasn't a nice thing to say!"

"It wasn't me! Maybe!" Jimmy yelled back as he sprinted through the doors, which closed behind him.

The Meadowlands

Cliffside Asylum

11: 33 AM

Jimmy had no idea where he was or how long he'd been running to get here. All he knew was that he was starting to regret not just taking that foot massage.

It appeared to be near some backroad leading out of town. There was a big building in the distance, seemingly abandoned and radiating an atmosphere similar to most horror movies. It gave him pause to even approach the place, but then he heard the echoing squeals of excited females in the distance behind him. He looked back, seeing nothing approaching, but knowing it was only a matter of time. He looked forward, at the scary and ominous building. He had a choice to make.

Roughly five seconds later, he was climbing in through a broken window, noticing the rusty bars that had warped just enough for him to squeeze inside. What is this place? He shivered, but continued on.

The building had looked huge from the outside. Surely, he'd be able to hide from those she-demons somewhere in here.

He emerged into what looked like an old waiting room, with chairs lining the walls and a broken TV in one corner. No hiding spots here. I'll have to go deeper in.

The building creaked and groaned, making him jump at every little noise as he wandered through a hallway with what looked like a nurse's station. It occurred to Jimmy a bit too late that, while this place had plenty of spots to hide, it also had way too many blind corners for his taste. The Vixens could ambush him at any moment.

Plap. Plap. Plap. Plap.

Jimmy's eyes widened. Footsteps!

Plapplapplapplapplap!

The footsteps sped up, and Jimmy broke into a run. He turned a corner, and found himself in a room lined with glass-doored cells. Gotta hide! Gotta hide!

Most of them were closed, but one cell was still open! Jimmy ran in and hid under the bed. He felt like a scared kit hiding from a monster. Except it was even worse because there were three of them and he didn't have a night light anymore.

Then the cell door slammed shut on its own with a suddenness that made Jimmy yelp and jump. He ran to it, trying to open it back up, but it wouldn't budge. "Nonononono!"

This was about the worst situation he could've found himself in, but it was also giving him déjà vu. Hiding from unseen horrors in a jail cell, only to wind up trapped inside...

Waaaaaait a minute. I get it now. This is all just another nightmare!

Immensely relieved, though wondering what kind of psychological trauma was causing these recurring nightmares, Jimmy resolved to, first, wake himself up and, second, consult the ZPD's therapist.

He shut his eyes tightly, willing himself to return to the waking world and leave this horrible nightmare behind.

He opened his eyes again, seeing the same surroundings, and the Vixens standing on the other side of the door.

Nope, that just made it worse. Unnerved, Jimmy brought his claws to his arm and pinched himself. "Ow."

They were still there. "If you want someone to pinch you, we are so the right girls for the job."

"It, like, won't be on the arm though."

"Hey, we can literally just walk on in through this side."

To Jimmy's growing horror, the Vixens simply opened the door and stepped inside, one of them having the foresight to stick a knife between the door and wall to keep it from closing again. Not that it mattered anyway. They were blocking his only exit and Wallace was nowhere in sight. They must have put him in time out in a different cell.

Jimmy was backed into the corner, huddled up and terrified as the victorious Vixens approached. No way out this time. I'm screwed. Literally.

"Um...are you okay?"

The devious grins of the Vixens suddenly vanished and they looked at him with...concern?

"I think we're really, like, scaring him, girls."

"You think? Hey, Jimmy? You know we were just playing around with you, right?" Opal asked gently. "We would literally never even touch you if you didn't like it."

Jimmy's shivering slowed, but he was reluctant to move otherwise. "W-What do you mean?"

"Well, it's not like you ever actually told us to stop," Pearl pointed out. "You gotta communicate these things, hon."

He stopped shivering entirely now. "Huh?"

"We totally thought you were, like, roleplaying," Crystal said. "Being hard to get, ya know?"

He blinked several times.

"Jimmy, there is literally nothing more cool than being hugged by someone you like..."

"But if someone tries to touch you in a place or in a way that, like, makes you feel uncomfortable…"

"That's so no good!"

"Huh. I...think I understand," Jimmy said hesitantly.

"Good!" They all sat down now, just looking at him from a safe distance. "You still haven't told us to stop either," Pearl noted.

"I know." He took a deep breath. "I guess...well, it's not that bad. I mean, I kinda do like it. I'm just not used to getting so much attention…"

"And that is literally a crime. You are a precious, adorable pup, and you deserve all the love and protection!"

"Thank you?" He wasn't sure how to feel about that one, but he at least had the confidence to sit back up comfortably again. "Sooooo, do you wanna...I don't know...come hang out at my place?"

Tundratown

Frost Residence

12: 36 PM

"And that's where I've been all morning," Jimmy finished, seated at the kitchen table and sipping from a small cup of hot chocolate.

"Now that just sounds super!" a taller arctic fox in glasses and a sweater vest answered cheerfully. "Need more cocoa there, sport?"

"With more marshmallows?" Jimmy asked hopefully, his tail wagging.

"Abso-posi-lutely!" He took Jimmy's cup and went back to the counter to add more cocoa and the requisite marshmallows, then returned it to him.

"Thanks, Dad!" Jimmy blew on the cup a few times before taking another sip. It still wasn't enough to keep him from stinging his tongue a little.

"Careful there, champ! Don't go burning yourself just because we have an excess of ice around!" Henry Frost laughed, snorting a little at his own joke. "Do your friends want something else too?"

"Nah, we're, like, good," Crystal answered. The Vixens had their own seats around the table, their own cups of cocoa, and blew on them in unison before taking a sip.

"Well, you certainly seem like polite young ladies," said another arctic fox in a long, pale blue dress with a snowflake pattern. "If a bit lacking in clothing for this side of the climate wall."

"No worries, we're so used to finding alternative heat sources," Pearl assured, winking at Jimmy, who blushed in response.

"I bet," Abigail Frost said with a slight giggle. "How did you all meet anyway?"

Before Jimmy could even get a word out, the Vixens took over.

"Would you, like, believe that we were hired to join an assassin team?"

"And we first saw our Jimmy-Wimmy while we were technically supposed to be killing him, but he was just so adorbs."

"We started chasing him around and cuddling and kissing him until it turned out it was all one big misunderstanding and that's literally the entire story."

"That is not literally the entire story," Jimmy quickly clarified. "But it's at least the footnotes version."

Henry and Abigail stared at him, then at each other, then burst out laughing. "I see Jimbo's been telling you girls about his funny adventures," Henry said. "He's given us some real knockers ever since he joined the ZPD."

"Oh, like the one where he got kidnapped by nudist Outbackers!" Abigail offered.

"Or the one where he fought in a bike duel against a hick wolf!"

"Or the one where he got beaten up by a rat in a wheelchair who was also a luchadora!" She looked back at her son disapprovingly. "You really worried us when you didn't come home that night, you know."

"I know," Jimmy said sheepishly. "But I did call you…"

Henry nodded. "I remember. The sleepover inside the belly of a giant whale, right?"

"Right."

"Oh, I can't stay mad at you," said Abigail. "Such a colorful imagination should be nurtured, not punished. I'm glad you're having so much fun in the ZPD instead of selling glaciers like us. Just tell us sooner the next time you spend the night with your friends, okay?"

"Yes, Mom."

"As for you three," She turned back to their guests, who were currently snickering amongst themselves, "I don't believe I've gotten your names yet."

"Oh. I'm Pearl Vixen, and these are my sisters, Crystal and Opal."

"Hi there!"

"Nice to meetcha!"

"Wait." Jimmy looked at them. "Your last names are actually 'Vixen'?"

"Uh huh!" Opal answered. "What, we've literally never told you that before?"

"Good to see you making so many friends, dear," Abigail said happily, her own tail wagging and thumping the countertop. "I have to admit, we were a little concerned when you brought the plushie home."

"Boy, this plushism today," Wallace muttered from his spot on top of the microwave. He would soon have a spot inside the washing machine to remove all the lipstick marks, possibly against his will.

"Yeah...it really is nice," Jimmy agreed, shooting a friendly smile at the Vixens that they gladly returned. "But come to think of it, I still don't know you three very well. Why don't you tell me more about yourselves?" His smile faltered. "Minus the, uh, work experience."

"Sure thing!" they agreed.

And as the Frosts and the Vixens settled down around the table for a friendly meal, the stories they told made Jimmy laugh right along with his parents.

Alright, so maybe the title should've been "Five and a Half Foxes", or "Five and a Half Foxes and One Wallabeanie", but the big reveal of Jimmy's parents wasn't getting spoiled for something as simple as logic. Henry and Abigail Frost belong to me.

As for our...stars, we honestly weren't sure from the outset whether or not we were really going to do anything concrete with this arctic puppy love, but between several readers apparently being fans of it, and outright getting this request, we thought, "Sure, what the hell?" This being a drabble, don't expect this little development to come up very much in the main story, but there will likely be references to it.

And speaking of the holiday spirit, check out my Deviantart to see both Jimmy and his new squeezes (in every sense of the word) and a special Valentine's treat with Carla and Priscilla.