Revisions

by TheUnknown3-1

Nick's blueberry plan is thwarted by Dawn Bellwether's organization and it nearly costs the duo dearly. The experience of succumbing to the Nighthowler serum changes the red fox's psychology to a degree. Nearly two-years later, the continued trouble with PTSD leads him further into the darkened den and forces an adaptation after graduating from the Police Academy.

25. Across Snowy Plains, Blow Tender Winds

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December 25th, 2020

The waking light was filled with a soft warmth. It was not abrupt or startling, as he had come to expect any single morning, within the city, to be… this one was simply warm and welcoming. Nick Wilde's mind slowly began to boot-up: taking in how the room's softened interior lighting was slowly rising, in overall power, in conjunction with the sun outside of the warren. Somehow, the Hopps family had been able to manufacture or procure sensors that could do produce such wizardry with the lights. It was beyond his understanding.

Something that was not beyond him in the moment was the soft lapine voice that was singing against his cheek. The dulcet tones, slipping off of the nearby tongue, quietly complimented the warmth from the bunny that was wrapped up – literally and fully – around the back of his head and over his shoulders. Even Nick could remember that this was not how he had originally fallen asleep.

As soon as Nick felt as if his motor functions were entirely there, the todd rolled to his forepaws and stretched his aching shoulder muscles out so that he could roll his neck around. If she had been trying to hide a soft, erotic giggling: the clinging gray doe failed due to how close she was to his head. It was almost unbelievable that Judy Hopps was perched on top of the todd as if she were a sloth clinging to a tree. Almost. But, not even the concept of amnesia could halt the memory of their activities during the previous evening.

The todd twisted his neck, a little more sharply than what probably would have been advised, so that he could dislodge the happy bunny from his shoulders. The world changed for him once he could focus on the gorgeous sight that was twisted in the bedsheets below his crouching form. Maybe it changed for both of them. Judy had fallen, with a squeaky giggle, to the soft undertones of the mattress below the duo.

Her sweet face had morphed from an adorably entertained, bubbly candor to that of outright surprise. Once she was finally able to comprehend the todd's semi-conscious state, she ended up filling with a warming redness due to the embarrassment of being stared at so intimately. Her tiny forepaws carefully tugged the sheet over her chest before she could even think about diverting her eyes. It did nothing to change the fact that there was enough light to accentuate the azure tones of the doe's lingerie. There had been enough left for Nick to see; considering the fact that the lighting had ended up aiding his desire to do so.

Nick took the risk of reaching out, grazing his paw-pads against the outer portion of her thigh, so that he could fully extrapolate where Judy's mind was at. He needed to understand what she had committed to with the prior evening's kisses. Vixens learned very young not to do any sort of activity, like Judy had not twelve-hours before, until they were certain that they wanted to share their lives with the lucky todd that had been selected. He needed to know.

Something that Nick had come to understand at a very young age was the fact that each individual mammal – every single one on the whole planet – is a book. And, each of those books is written in a different language. No two are the same. Occasionally, conning is a game of chance. You have to take that knowledge of mammals and adapt to each encounter on the fly, as quickly as if you were piloting a fighter off a catapult from the deck of an aircraft carrier.

The thing with Judy Hopps was that, if he was reading the signs right, she was a book written in another language from another species on an entirely different planet.

Maybe bunnies really are from the moon, his inner Dumbass commented abruptly.

She had been as easy to read as any other mammal: up to the point where she had kissed him… And, now, all Nick knew was that he was lost in the depths of her amethyst eyes.

So, the todd closed his eyes as he leaned down towards the doe. He could feel the vibrations emanating from the doe's body underneath the pressure of his paw-pads. And, then there was the tiny gasp as his muzzle brushed the corner of her mouth before he left her a tiny kiss on her lips. Nick's nerves nearly melted when he felt the tenderness of returned pressure against his own. The todd held his muscles firm so that the two could stay like that for several moments before Nick withdrew nervously. When he opened his eyes to take in the beauty before him once again, he found her just as nervously and shyly smiling up to him. Her ears were far pinker than before the kiss: bringing a sheepish smile to his lips.

"Good morning." Nick whispered, trying to control how husky his tone had become.

"Morning," Judy replied so softly that if he had not been looking at her lips, he nearly would have missed it. "Was that payback for last night?"

"Do you want it to be?" He inquired.

He surmised that she had taken the first step already: enough to say that he had earned the right to test the waters. And, his natural fox hindbrain was not attempting to interfere all that loudly. That was a good sign, right? Judy blinked and turned another shade of red, only offering a polite set of nods to answer the question.

"Properly then?" The todd sought confirmation kindly.

"Please?"

Nick felt his pupils beginning to constrict, while his ears twitched, before they pinned all the way back. He swore her tone had held the softest of a pleading nature. So, he would oblige her.

The todd softly fell onto his left side, next to Judy, and he wiggled his left paw under her head before sliding back in to meet her lips with every bit of love that he could muster from the confines of his entire body. Her lips were parted when they melted together again. Possibly out of eager permission: so, that's how Nick translated it. He knew that if he crossed the line, he would suffer the consequences. The only sound she made, at first, was that she released a muffled meep when his tongue met hers again.

Eager… His brain confirmed.

His body felt like his had stuck his claw in a socket when she started licking him in response to the acceptance of her invitation. Without even thinking about it, Nick's right paw softly found its way over the top of her naked stomach while he used his left to roll his index and thumb around her neck. He knew there were ways to thank the doe for sharing this kind of activity exclusively with the todd.

The decision set her off like a lit fire.

She smelled delicious.

Like a mossy forest.

Covered in an early morning's dew…

Or, the accumulation of raindrops from an overnight storm.

And, it felt as if he was handling the lightning – from said storm – in his paws.

Judy seemed to withdraw reluctantly, slowly releasing Nick's tongue so that she could tenderly nibble on his lower lip for a moment. Once he was released, the two mammals ended up staring at one another with slight, warm smiles as they attempted to temper their excited breathing patterns to something that was calmer.

"I love you, Nick." Judy finally broke the silence. "I—I've loved you for a long time."

Facing the embarrassment head-on, Nick dipped his muzzle just under the doe's right ear before he closed his eyes.

He knew now.

"I have loved you since the day that I met you, Judith." The todd's whisper was tinged with an honest growling tone. He did not want there to be any misunderstanding of how truthful that statement was.

Nick caught Judy, mid-lunge, and fell onto his side so that he could wrap the scantily-clad bunny up in everything that his body had to offer. His forearms, hips, and his tail came around quickly. It was probably the first time that he had not been surprised to find the doe sleeping in the same bed as him.

"What was that song you were singing earlier?" The todd asked out of curiosity, pushing aside his other thoughts.

Of course, because she was currently latched to the fox's scruffy chest and throat, Judy's voice was muffled. "It's an Old World lapine lullaby… I didn't want to risk you waking from that place again." She explained.

"Thank you, Fluff." Nick whispered.

The fluffy gray rabbit ears had been slipped up alongside his skull, flexible enough to brush up against both of his own, but that was prior to hearing the level of gratitude that was in the todd's voice. Even though she attempted to surface, like a little submarine from the depths of his orange and white-accented fur, Nick did his best to keep his nose tucked deep into the side of her neck. It was so clear that the todd felt that he could show himself fully: now that all of the cards were on the table. There was a level of desperation that resonated from his frame into her soul. If this was merely a dream: Nick wanted to wake and remember as much of it as possible.

Fortunately, it was no dream. But, it did have to be put on hold for a little while. Nick turned away enough to catch a glimpse of the bright-red numbers on the clock within the doe's private quarters. He was surprised to find that it was almost nine in the morning.

"We have to get up, Carrots." His statement was a drawn-out due to how tired he still was.

"No, we don't." The doe groaned.

"I would be inclined to agree if it wasn't for the fact that it's Christmas morning." Nick replied without even hiding the touch of disappointment that was in his voice. "I imagine that we're late enough as it is."

"Nobody would miss us today, Nick." She offered.

Nick could not help but laugh a little before laying a thick kiss against Judy's cheek, smushing it firmly, with a caring hum. "You and I both know that that statement is nowhere near to the truth." He whispered before rolling his way out of the bed. The todd could feel the doe's eyes on him, after the sheets had fallen away, even though he could hear the sound of exasperation being released.

Bending backwards a little bit, Nick felt his spine continue crackle while listening to the rustling of the perturbed doe behind him. It was a pleasant thing to see how dispersed their clothes had ended up falling around the edge of the bed. He began to carefully limp around, picking up the articles so that he could sort and lay them out over the pawboard at the end of the bed. The todd's head snapped over when he felt a paw gently curl around his relaxed tail before he received a tug. Judy was standing behind him, partially obscuring her body with his orange- and black-accented appendage, as her twitching nose was perched above the wide, toothy smile on her muzzle.

"We should shower then." Judy commented, tugging on his tail once more before heading off for her private bathroom.

Nick did not move an inch as he watched the little doe disappear behind the door. He had gotten a little distracted by how large and wispy Judy's tail was as she walked away. It was like the dot of an exclamation point that sat right above her panty-clad buttocks. The todd had to close his eyes, feeling as the resulting frustration scrunched along his brow, in an effort to stifle the hooting and hollering of his inner demons.

It did absolutely nothing to shut them up.

The outline of the semi-closed bathroom door was accentuated by the flick of the interior light: a yellow hue that was bright enough to quietly illuminate the smallest of details inside the main bedroom. The todd's ears swiveled to the rear of his skull, pinned down, as he turned away from the scene even while three of his internal voices were screaming about it being an obvious invitation. Green-tinged eyes bounced around the room in a desperate fashion to find something else to focus his mind on. Nick lost his focus when the sliver of light expanded across the floor and the opposite wall: with an obviously lapine figure impeding a lower portion of the room from the casted shadow.

"Nick?" Judy called from the bathroom, peeking out from behind the door. "The water's ready."

The doe's shadow disappeared before Nick could even consider offering a verbal reply. The extended width of the entryway did not change when Judy disappeared and it made it abundantly clear that, unless the todd took off through the opposite door, there was only one other option. Nick could not help but silently admonish his father for dying in such an untimely manner as to not have taught him about love and relationships in far greater detail than what he had witnessed as a kit. Having known his father's tendencies, Nick knew that he was forgiven based on the fact that his father, in whatever plane of afterlife's existence, was laughing his ass off. John had been a loving todd, in both aspects of being a caring father and husband, but he was also the reason for Nick's sly demeaner and depth of humor.

His energy was expended at the removal of the doe's gaze from the interior of the room. Nick ended up dropping to the edge of the bed due to the catharsis. His limbs moved as quickly as his shock-addled mind would allow and, then, he carefully begin the process of removing the dress pants that he was wearing. The trip through the threshold to the bathroom was a blur. He zoned out long enough to relieve himself and did not even notice that he had completely stripped the last vestige of his modesty away. He was only slightly distracted by the sound of the flushed toilet over the soft tones of the doe's gentle humming. With one final look down the front of his chest – it was more like a glare – Nick caught sight of his swollen sheath.

Behave… He thought silently.

The ceiling of the shower was made of white marble, and it had a large, silver, rainfall-style showerhead bolted just underneath. It was not all that tall of a shower, unsurprisingly, and it did not offer Nick any sly options to sneak into it. There was no front like he was used to, after all. So, he made a quick decision and pulled open the left side of the curtain so that he could slip inside. He guessed wrong and ended up finding Judy standing right in front of him.

If she had meant to startle him, Nick very likely would have cracked his head against the tiled ceiling.

"There you are." Judy said warmly, reaching out with a paw to grasp his and pull him fully inside before flipping the curtain closed again.

Physically, an oddly warm rain was falling over the todd fox's body as soon as he was inside. Nick's entire face was drenched in an instance and the shocked look in his wide eyes ended up blinding him once the droplets struck his naked eyeballs. There was an immediate pinning of ears due to the discomfort of the feeling. Every single bit of Nick's physical being was hammering, like the warren's threat system, at the momentary sight of the doe that he was standing together with – as nude as they had both come into the world – and it was the damnable water that forced him to stop looking. It was both a blessing and a curse, and it forced his muzzle to dip against the torrent from above.

Two fuzzy paws grasped both sides of his face within a moment or two of it all. The feeling forced his body to respond exactly how the doe wanted him to: drawing the todd lower until his forehead was rested between her clavicles. After a tender embrace was held, Judy wiped at his eyes with both of her paws in an effort to clear the temporary blindness that the todd was suffering from. Almost as if he was putty, she molded him with every tender caress in the moment. There was no mistaking the removal of one of her paws in the pattern: and, then, the pattern of the spray of water changed. Nick never saw Judy change the setting, but he did feel the water pour out from jets that were set in the walls of the surrounding shower. The new feeling was hitting him around his back, below his shoulders, and at his chest while allowing him to blink away the unusual wetness that had entered his eyes.

There was a moment where he could see that the jets were hitting, high, around Judy's shoulders. Just a singular moment. After that, his mind's eye could see how the shorter bunny doe had stretched upwards, on the toes of her hindpaws, to hug him around his larger head. Even though it was physically impossible for the warmth of that embrace to be hotter than the jets of water, which flowed over and around the two, it simply was.

"You didn't hurt your eyes did you?" Judy asked quietly.

Nick squinted and blinked several more times before opening his eyes fully, keeping them aimed at the tips of the doe's raised ears as he made to stand up a bit straighter. He could just barely see the faint smile on her lips from the button of his peripheral vision.

"No, they're just slightly irritated." He replied.

"Good. Hold on a sec'." She chirped happily.

Nick kind of paid attention to the doe as she pulled a stool from near the back wall, placing it so that she had access all around the seat, and tapped on several of the tiles around the stall. For some reason, doing so shut the water off to those tiles exclusively. She, then, grabbed his paw and led him over to the seat: clearly wanting the todd to sit down in it. The upside was that he could shield the normally shy bunny's eyes from his maleness with his elbows placed on his knees and a discreetly curled tail. The downside was that unless he closed his eyes or she walked around outside of his vision, Nick would be able see all of her female bits rather clearly being as his eyes was at her chest's height. He had become too distracted to notice that Judy had collected some bottles of shampoo and stepped around behind him.

So close, in fact, that her next words were whispered in his ear. "There. Now I can look these wounds over. Is that alright?" It almost caused him to launch off of the damn stool in surprise.

All he managed was to stiffen his back to an uncomfortable level: his muscles begging him to calm down due to the punctures that had been inflicted across his shoulders and mid-back.

"Sure." He said, trying to reign-in his nerves.

It was very different to be awash with a blanket of water around his midsection and legs while sitting in a shower, but it was pleasant that there was no possibility for the water to get into his ears. Nick's brain was doing roughly three-hundred miles per hour and pulling itself into seven different directions. The doe's whispering had spurred another half-inch of his shaft to reveal itself. Gods, he felt fifteen all over again…

Think about the water pressure! Complex math for faster-than-light travel! Your hatred for beets! That time you walked in on Finnick beating it to a picture of Gazelle! Tom putting you in a wheelchair for the remainder of the holidays! Literally blow out any other muscle right here and now! JUSTNOTTHATONE!

Meanwhile, Judy was carefully removing the small, soaked pieces of gauze tape and cloth from the wounds over his head, neck, and ears. The hawk's beak did a serious number on the todd's skin. It seemed unlikely that he would need to have new bandages applied in those spots. They were well and truly scabbed over: even darkened to the point where it could be assumed that the skin had healed or nearly so underneath the patches of dried blood. It was the portions of his shoulders and neck that still worried the doe. The hawk's talons had punctured and tore larger lacerations in the thickest portion of his pelt. The dryness of the blood was still questionable due to how bright it was.

"I've never asked anyone," Nick asked as he focused on how slow and gentle her paws were moving. "Is it bad back there?"

"The vixens will certainly be curious if they catch you out on the beach without a shirt on this coming summer, Slick." She replied in amusement. "Ladies love scars, so I think you'll definitely lock down the pick for the exotic calendar."

Nick rumbled with quiet laughter as he rubbed at his face with his paws. "I'm being serious, Carrots." He admonished her.

"I am, too. I can't have those temptresses trying to steal away my big, strong, heroic todd." Judy explained, leaning into his wet fur to attempt to smother her giggles.

"You're impossible sometimes, Miss Hopps." Nick shook his head with a grin.

The levity of the stall took a turn when the todd did not receive the assessment that he had inquired about. There was honesty in every single word she spoke, but Judy had been playing on the humor for their benefit. Nick smiled sadly at the thought that she had learned from the best and now she was running very closely to the professional himself.

It was the weight of her emotions that shattered the façade these days.

"When you shed your winter coat… I don't think that your fur will cover a couple of the scars." Her voice carried enough weight over the sounds of the water around them. "I don't think your fur will regrow here… or, here…"

Nick felt the love of his life press a gentle paw over each spot, with each spoken "here", and silently counted out just over a half-dozen points across his back and neck where her concerns lay. Once she was done, a silence fell over the duo as she moved around to his right side and knelt on the tile floor. He had to lean back when she patted his knee, indicating that she was going to remove the soaked gauze wrap on his thigh. Luckily, the somber mood had stowed-away any thoughts of the sexual nature because he had no choice but to slide his rear forward so that he wasn't sitting on half of the wrap itself. Judy was, thankfully, keeping her eyes from wandering to his prominently situated crotch. She looked far too busy carefully unwinding the white gauze strips from around his leg. It did not stop Nick from being somewhat embarrassed regardless.

The hawk's taloned feet had been far larger than normally imaginable. It was only by the grace of Karma that the severing of the monster's spinal cord had caused the foot to snap open cleanly as opposed to spasming and tearing upon their separation in midair. Nick had rerun the scenario plenty… he could have ended up an amputee just as easily as he could have ended up bleeding out in the snow from a severed femoral artery. There would have been nothing that Tom could have done even if the buck had been there immediately after Nick had impacted the ground.

I just never would have woken up, he thought quietly.

Once all of the wrapping was removed, they could clearly see the shaved area around a half-circle of medical staples. The main talons had split the skin, due to the overall pressure of the grasp, between the three points. In the end, that may have been a good thing. It allowed for Tom to open up the area during the emergency surgery to check for any bleeds – or so Nick had been told. He was stapled up after everything was found to be relatively alright. The odd six-o'clock talon had punctured inside the half-moon and kind of made it look like a capital-D that just hadn't been sewn up along the main vertical line. If it had not been for the fact that the talons had been so large, he probably would not have needed the two staples for that single hole. All of this damage was on the top, inside of his thigh. The lack of pressure on his wound had distracted his mind until Judy slipped around his knee and between his legs to face the issue fully.

If it had not been for the fact that she rested her paws on his inner right thigh, Nick probably would have either shot through the roof from the surprised embarrassment or simply fallen backwards off of the stool. Just as equally, her doing that was what made his body subconsciously want to react in such a manner. He was also stilled when the sounds of that unknown lapine dialect hit his ears. When he looked down, he found Judy's paws pressed against each side of the shaved portion of his leg: with her eyes closed, as if she were praying to Serendipity.

There was a pause, an inward lean, and a soft sniff of the wound to check for any subtle signs of infection before the whispered words continued. And, a moment later, she was done. The doe leaned in fully to leave a tender kiss on the wound: causing Nick to gasp from an initial pleasure response that was quickly overridden by a sharp twinge of pain. The todd's head was going to explode from all of the questions that he wanted to ask, but he did not dare interrupt whatever it was the caused Judy to stand up and walk around to position herself behind him again.

Sure enough, the doe's foreign murmurs continued, and he could hear that she was standing upright behind him. After a pawful of words were spoken, he felt her paws caress his right ear before her lips came into contact with the cuts and dings that he had received there. It made Nick's body lock-up while he tried to remain quiet. He was absolutely sure that Judy was praying for a divine paw to assist in the healing of his injuries. Her lips were warm and caring as they were laid over all of the little bald patches: running from his left ear, down his head and neck before covering the swath of wounds over his broad shoulders and down his back.

He had not managed to even continue with the idea of counting out how many times she had kissed his frame's injuries during the little ritual. He also continued to remain quiet even after the soft words had ceased. Enough time passed that the todd finally heard the snap of a shampoo cap opening before Judy began to slowly rub the soap into the fur at the back of his head.

An exhaled groan was all of the vocalized appreciation that was needed for Judy to decide that she could pressed her dull claws into his coat a little deeper. It did not take long for the doe to work her way around the entirety of the todd's back before moving out of the way to tap on three of the tiles so that the water could begin washing the mix of soap and oils away. Nick felt those fuzzy little paws of Judy's cover his ears so that unwanted water would not enter the passageways. When the doe could see that he was well enough cleansed, she tapped the topmost tile to shut off the water that was spraying at the back of his skull.

He listened again as the bottle was gathered up. The appearance of Judy's white frontal fur was enough to cause Nick's eyes to fall towards his forepaws again. It was a pleasant feeling to receive a warm kiss on his cheek prior to the near stillness being broken.

"Hold out your paw, please?" She asked politely.

"Yeah." He replied automatically, holding his paw up.

"Shall I wash your front, or will you allow me to wash your tail?" Judy asked with a playfulness that Nick could only hear.

The todd coughed awkwardly. "I get really vocal when it comes to my tail." He admitted.

"In this case, it will be from the arousal because it's me, right?" She asked.

Judy had struck the hammer right on the head of the nail and Nick merely deflected by raising his head so that he could drag the claws of his free left paw over his throat as if he had some kind of itch. He completely missed the knowing and playfully admiring smile that the doe had ended up wearing just before she stepped around to his opposite thigh and sat down on it in a sideways fashion. The doe made sure to sit close enough to his stomach to keep his sheath out of her view: turning her waist towards him so that she could begin lathering his neck and collar. Judy nearly laughed outright when the todd sounded like he almost swallowed his tongue.

"This is the shyest that I've ever seen you, Nick." Judith said, politely opening the door for a conversation that needed to be had.

"Does that surprise you? With all of the information that I am confident that you already know about todds?" He countered softly.

"A little bit." She admitted. "Will you look at me?"

Thinking that he was going to be able to play the wiseass, Judy watched as Nick's eyes fell right to the tips of her ears.

Two can play this game, Mister Wilde, she thought to herself with a sweet smile.

The doe slowly entranced the todd with a gentle swaying of her ears, side-to-side, before bringing them up-and-down while her paws continued to rub the soap into his chest and fronts of his shoulders. Once Judy was certain that he was properly enamored with her rounded tips, she lowered them quickly behind her head. A small 'o' formed on the todd's lips when Nick realized that he was suddenly staring into Judy's gently smoldering, amethyst eyes. The length of his snout put him right within striking distance and Judy lost no time pressing her lips to his already perfectly formed set. There was a pause in her paws all the while: not wanting to make the todd withdraw from a resulting physical response to her ministrations.

Judy pulled away from the kiss to see that Nick still seemed somewhat star-struck: so, she leaned up past his snout and close to his ear. "You flatter a doe by looking at her, darling." Judy offered him a clue. She had not even been concerned that the words were drawn in a slight drawl.

Two soapy paws reached out to take his right, slathered in a fleeting puddle of shampoo, before bringing it to rest on her belly with a warm smile. Judy nuzzled his jaw eagerly while her paw slowly urged him to draw circles over her fur with his paw-pads. The tension was released from Nick's body with a heavy-sounding exhale as his head fell onto Judy's right shoulder. She could see that his eyes were closed while his paw began to brush through the soap through her shorter fur.

There was a guess on the doe's mind. Enough of the suds had eventually been spread across the front of the doe's torso and even she jumped when his previously absent left paw gently pressed against her opposite hip. And, that was the confirmation of her guess.

It was a lot to take in for Nicholas Wilde. He had very little education and direction from his father about relationships before the elder todd's untimely death. There had also been only so much that his mother could have possibly taught him before he took flight from their family home. All of this, on top of the fact that he was in love with her. Judith Laverne Hopps. A short, lithe little bunny, and probably the furthest thing from being a vixen on the whole planet.

Judy recognized that this was Nick's way of looking at her, so to speak, as his paws ran over her obliques. In an unsynchronized pattern, Nick's paws snaked over her back, breasts, and dewlap with a heavier palm than what she had initiated against his form. Larger, padded paws and all… Unlike the todd's own tempo, Judy was turning loose of long and pleasured sigh. Until Nick was willing to open his eyes, Judy had decided to make sure that all of his other senses were filled with a very happy bunny rabbit.

His nostrils would be able to scent her body's physical desire.

His ears would catch and hold every little bit of audible appreciation.

And, it was all because of what his paws were doing to the female bunny.

All during their first simple shower.

Judy could finally see everything.

Their intimacy patterns were akin to being two entirely different languages.

It might take a little bit of time for his internal system to catch up with the knowledgebase of relationships, but the two would end up meshing together when it was clear that everything was understood, and the confidence was built.

Judy made sure to raise her arms and hook them around Nick's neck, laying back against his body with a smile as he slowly, but firmly, worked the soap into her fur from the tips of her knees, over her hips, up her sides, and around her under-arms. The doe could tell that he was reading the signs properly when the todd pulled her a little closer: his right paw slipped around and across her throat so that he could use his paw-pads to massage her collar. It was a move that brought forth a titter of giggles due to her ticklish nature. It was then that she realized that Nick's eyes were open and he was beginning to rumble out of his own happiness. She was so sudsy by that point that either one of them could have rubbed it in to his chest and stomach. Once his paws stopped moving, she could tell that he was going to leave her ears and her intimate spots, such as her own fluffy tail, alone for the time being. He was content with holding her in a warm hug.

They both knew that things would spiral from those kinds of touches, and they did not have the time for that. Judy felt a little bad that he would not have enough time to take care of his pent-up status after she left him alone, which was an inevitability because she remembered that she had something to take care of.

"I love you, Nick." She whispered, leaning up to kiss his cheek.

"I love you, too, Judy." He growled back with a sheepish grin.

"I'll wash up first. I need to go dig out your present." Judy explained before slipping away from his lap.

"Alright." Nick replied, sounding a little distracted.

She knew he was finally taking it to heart that he should be looking at her. No doubt, the todd was having trouble deciding on whether he should be focused on her long ears or the wispiness of her fluffy tail. Judy kept her back turned as she stepped into the nearby jets of water; letting the fox ogle all he wanted so that he would feel comfortable doing so.

Many secret discussions had been held with her sisters. One of the subjects, which had come up, was about how different her tail looked compared to when she had first encountered the todd. They had all lost it in a fit of enthused giggles before explaining that the gray doe's body had long known that Judy had found her mate well before the doe herself had realized it. The little cottontail had grown out into a melting gray-to-white teardrop: more prominently defined in shape.

"Well, in this particular case, Judes…" Judy recalled that Kathleen was wheezing from how hard she was laughing while trying to explain things. "We haven't evolved to need them for confusing a predator while fleeing anymore… And, for you… Blessed Serendipity, this is so adorable! Well, for you, your body knows that it is needed for attracting a certain predator, so it got all big and floofy for when the time came!"

They would have all given her a group hug if it hadn't been for the fact that Vera had been too busy dizzying herself in a binky out of her shear happiness to see her sister-in-law going through something that had been so normal for all of the rest of them.

Behind the cover of the steam and spray of the jets, Judy rolled her eyes with a curtailed smile on her lips. Listening as Nick turned on some of the jets so that he could rub his own suds away: still trying to be somewhat of a gentle-todd and keeping his glances restrained to a side-eye here and there. Everything was falling into place in Judy's mind. When the todd finally felt confident enough in the new situation, the two were going to dance quite enthusiastically in the fieriness of all of his russet fur. And, that thought pleased the doe to no end.

"I'll head out first, Slick. Don't feel like you need to rush, OK?" She called over to him. "I'll see you in the Main Hall."

"Sounds good, Carrots." He commented warmly. "I won't be long."

With a flick of the curtain, the doe disappeared in the mist of the hot shower. He knew that she had left the room entirely by the sudden rush of cold air that swirled the mist inside the bathroom. Nick stood up and went over to the back corner so that he could lean his shoulder against it while the water stripped him of the soap that had been pushed in and around his fur. He was exhausted and overheated, so there was a quickness in washing his undercarriage and tail before jamming the temperature dial down to its coldest setting. A relived whine turned into a deep growl as the crispness of the freezing water began to zap his body's ulterior desires. His knot had filled so fully with blood within his sheath that it had been steadily becoming painful and he made no amends about standing right in front of a jet to get it to deflate quickly. The spray of ice-cold water against his tapered rod caused an uncomfortable gasp to slip his muzzle while he waited.

"That doe is going to be the death of me." He whispered with a grin after a few minutes. "And, it's going to be a glorious death."

Sure enough, the todd was not long at all. The shower was turned off and the dials were properly adjusted so that she was not blasted with Tundratown's finest of ice-cold showers before he slipped into the fur-dryer. He recalled that Judy had gone out of the room straight-away instead of using the dryer. There had been no sign of her scent or residual water droplets sprayed out around the dryer's walls.

You're the one who is up-to-bat this time, Nick. She went to sort your present out, his thoughts reminded him.

The todd's demeanor transformed to something of a mix between fondness and embarrassment as he thought about how the new dynamic in their relationship was probably going to lead to some serious hijinks. Nick's mind was already thinking out as far as the next holiday season and the likelihood of a battle between the fox and the bunny regarding who could be the slyest gift-giver. The scenario only made Nick feel more appreciative for being granted a female who reciprocated his feelings.

His muzzle pulled harder in the undisguised happiness while he began to rub himself down with a towel.

Before it had even been comprehended, the love-addled fox was dressed and wandering down the halls of the warren without much of a consideration about where he was going. Fortunately, Nick's mind knew where to go despite the fact that his autopilot had been set to on.

It wasn't until the ding of the elevator sounded that he realized how far along he had managed to go throughout the warren. It was when the doors opened that the todd acknowledged that he was being sought out. Nick was a little startled to find three-dozen or so of the older kits standing at the elevator waiting for him for appear for the gift-giving portion of Christmas. Many of them were wearing Aviator glasses. All of them looked extremely serious in their undersized Zootopian tigerstripe camouflage uniforms and wielding little Nerf armaments. One of the taller kits raised a radio to his muzzle and keyed it.

"Boomer, this is Farm Patrol Five. We've found Big Red, over." The buck reported happily.

"Copy that, Five. The Mad Doctor is contained at this time. All units, you are clear to collapse back to the Main Hall, break." An older buck replied back to his charges through a fit of laughter on the other end of the line. "Five, keep in mind that the HVT is injured. Do not rough him up on the way back. Out."

"So, you guys are the executive protection unit!" Nick exclaimed jokingly.

One of the smaller kits, wearing her little sunglasses, was standing at the front, and staring at him rather intensely. "Wouldn't you like to know?" She squeaked authoritatively.

Pointing a clawed digit at the tyke, Nick grinned. "I know who taught you that line." He said loudly.

In a rather elegant display, the little doe promptly retorted by blowing a raspberry at the fox. The rest of her siblings burst out with laughter while Nick stood there, paws on his hips, while doing his best to look as unamused as he could while staring down at the little one. The poor thing had a runny nose and proceeded to release a concoction of mucus and saliva in the sprayed display. Seeing that she wasn't going to back down, Nick scooped her up and withdrew a handkerchief from his back pocket. Nick had been around the warren long enough to know that was a smart move. Nick held the item in front of her muzzle and followed the sudden surge of bunny kits, as they began to surround him to take him to the Christmas tree, while smiling down at the fussy little doe.

"Blow." He said, watching how the sunglasses were slowly falling askew.

The sound of a loud, wet trumpeting echoed around the hall: making all of the kits laugh again as they hurried along.

"So, if I recall correctly… You're little Zoey." The todd spoke warmly as he flipped the cloth closed and began wiping her chin and nose of the errant strands of drool. "Are you the team leader of this little unit?"

"No. That's Stevie. Brody gave him the radio." Zoey replied, trying to fend off his cleaning with playful bites.

Nick chuckled with wisely withdrew his paw so that he did not get sliced with her newly minted buck teeth. After deftly flipping the handkerchief into a haphazardly folded article, he put it back into his pocket before leaning down to allow the doe to escape from his arms.

Once the group had made it to the main hall, the unit mostly scattered into the much larger throng of rabbits that was within. Only the five eldest kits stayed with him while moving through the area Nick spotted Bonnie and Stu sitting together in one of the larger recliners. As soon as he was deposited in near enough to the couple, the smaller unit disappeared as suddenly as they had initially appeared without so much as a word.

Bonnie was released herself from Stu's grasp and hopped out of their seat; wearing a set of comfy looking sky-blue and cloud-accented pajamas with a dish towel tossed over her shoulder. And, never one to skip out on it, she also wore an apron for the holiday occasion. She walked right over to the todd and promptly gave him a hug around his waist.

"Merry Christmas, Nicholas." The matriarch said warmly.

Had he been wearing a tie; she probably would have pulled him down to a crouching posture. She made do by simply waving him down after releasing him. Once he knelt down, the towel was brought into action as she began to brush his shirt clean of the little drool spots that he was unaware that he was wearing.

"Merry Christmas to you, Bonnie." He replied with a smile. "And, to you, General Hopps."

"And, a Merry Christmas to you, Big Red." Stewart said with a widening grin.

Nick felt the matriarch smack him on the shoulder firmly. "Don't tempt me to flog the both of you." She admonished while the two males were chuckling loudly.

The todd was quickly silenced when he felt Bonnie's paws begin to brush the little tufts of bedhead down across his cheeks, ears, and neck. It had been a long time since he had been mothered in such a manner, but he remembered very well not to resist. Once the doe was done, she leaned in and gave in a kiss on the cheek before stepping back to give him another stern once-over.

"What happened to your bandages, Nicholas?" She asked pointedly.

"I took a shower this morning." He replied. "I'll make sure to see Tom after everything quiets down."

"And, what about your crutches?" Bonnie inquired sweetly, but with a squinted eyeball.

Flexing his paws once again, Nick noticed he did not have anything in them. That made him grimace toothily. "I forgot them…" He murmured.

"Did Judy help you bang your head last night? You're supposed to have those until a doctor says otherwise." Bonnie said sternly.

In a deepening level of embarrassment, Nick felt that it was wiser to hold his tongue than to attempt any sort of explanation. He didn't know how much of what had happened had made it around the warren. No assumption was going to be made despite the fact that there was sound reasoning to support the idea that the Hopps parents already knew what had happened. There was certainly no way the younger couple's dancefloor display had not been spoken of, if not also personally witnessed by the parents.

"Bon, quit harassing the todd and give him some coffee so that he can wake up fully." Stu ordered playfully.

"You hush." The matriarch ordered, patting Nick on the shoulder before stepping away to take care of the coffee.

Nick sidled his way up to the armchair and knelt down beside it, facing into the depth of the room as the two males watched the festivities. At some point in the mid-morning, a group of the Hopps' had apparently blown through: leaving decorated Christmas trees all over the room where the dancefloor had previously been designated. Each tree was topped with a star that had a letter in the middle of it. Nick surmised that it was so each litter knew where to find their gifts. He had heard that the unwrapping could begin once every kit from their respective litter was present. So, to Nick, that meant that the younger litters would usually be through their gifts before the older litters had even arrived – Z-litter versus A-litter, for instance.

"Make sure to set some boundaries with the kits today, Nick. You look bushed." Stu ordered after a moment.

"I'll be alright." Nick chuckled. "If I need to, I'll find a quiet fireplace and lay on the troublemakers for a nap."

Stu laughed. "Good. Show them who's boss and don't go too heavy on the coffee. We don't work on Christmas, so there won't be any need to worry about helping with anything." He mentioned.

"I'll keep that in mind." The todd replied.

Bonnie hustled back over with two cups of coffee and passed them to her husband and to Nick. Stu had stood up to accept his just before patting a forepaw on the cushion of the seat that he had been sitting in.

"Take it easy here, Nick. I'll go find Judy and let her know where you ended up." The patriarch offered warmly. "I think Mama's gotta go find Zoey anyway. I'd recognize those boogers anywhere. We need to make sure she isn't coming down with another cold. We'll be back after a little bit."

Stu shot the todd a wink as he took his wife by the paw to lead her off on their own little missions. Just as Nick was about to take a drink of his coffee, he caught the trailing-end of the conversation between the two rabbits.

"Why would we need to find Judy, Stewart?" Bonnie inquired as she was trooped away. "Nick's a big red fuzzball. Judes couldn't miss him even if she was blind, nose-blind, and deaf."

The todd snorted so hard that he almost dipped his nose into the coffee and inhaled from how funny the comments were. The matriarch was acting a little different than usual, but he appreciated how caring she was. Bonnie had assumed that he would have preferred a pour cup of black coffee, as well, and Nick happily sipped away at the delicious brew until he felt a gentle paw rest on his right shoulder. When he turned to see who was greeting him, Nick almost choked on the swallow that he was trying to down.

Judy was standing leaned around the edge of the chair with a little Santa hat on the top of her head and wearing a modestly decorated and Christmas-themed vintage dress. The ornateness of it was around the hem of the garment, having fallen down just above the doe's ankles, and showed a glittering forest theme against a lighter, evergreen background that was splotched with a blustering white snowfall. The sleeveless article was V-cut to accentuate an appropriate amount of her budding dewlap while the cinch was a little higher up, just under her breasts, compared to the dress than he had bought her.

What took the cake was how her paws were trying to hide a rather large present behind her back.

All while smiling like a complete angel.

And, the todd had not missed the fact that she was still wearing that necklace.

"Judy," He breathed. "You didn't tell me that I needed to get dressed up again."

"No, no!" Judy replied quickly, hopping over to stand in front of the todd. He was able to properly appreciate the dress with that move. "It was a gift that Vera got me… and, that she insisted I open so that I could wear it for you…" The last bit was spoken in a rushed and hushed voice.

Before Nick could even think of continuing the conversation, Judy dodged by jumping up onto the chair next to the todd. She turned sideways so that her back was against the armrest, crossing her legs in front of her, and resting a bright silver wrapped present down between the two. The ribbon was a sparkly green to compliment the metallic sheen underneath.

Ha! Successfully distracted him, Judy thought.

After you told him to that it's complimentary to look at you. Good job, the inner Council fired back.

"Sooo, what's this..?" Nick asked with a cheeky grin.

"That? That was a part of Operation Slyest Santa." Judy announced happily.

The smile fell off of Nick's muzzle as he blinked at the doe a couple of times. She nearly jumped when he released a sudden and unceremonious bark of laughter. Once the todd had wiped his eyes a little bit, Judy shot him a curious look.

"Sorry, Fluff." He said before quietly explaining. "After you left the shower, I wondered if we were going to do something like that around Christmas next year."

The gray doe started to giggle at the thought herself. "Well, of course, I will be. Somebody taught me a multitude of methods that I want to try out for myself." Judy bragged.

Nick grinned and rolled his eyes before reaching down to pick up the present. Just as he looked like the todd was going to be overtaken by a kittish desire, Judy blanched and held up her paws suddenly.

"No!" She blurted out. "Don't shake it!"

The todd's eyes popped wide open and he carefully laid the package back on the seat. With an aching back, he decided to turn inwards much like Judy had done while leaving his right leg extended along the edge of the cushion and leaned back against the armrest. The size of the chair made him slightly curious as of to why the Hopps' had a wolf-sized chair in the warren. But, the thought was fleeting.

Once he was relaxed again, he looked at Judy with a grin. "Y'know… you can't do that to a mammal who has been through the department's EOD trainings, Carrots. It scares the dickens out of them." He laughed about it softly.

"Just open the present, dumb fox." Judy said, sticking her tongue out at him playfully.

Nick snorted and reached out to grasp the package. While holding, and spinning the box, with his left paw, he used the right index claw to cut around the obvious lid that was tucked within. Once the circumference was freed, he lifted the fluttering gift-wrap and the thin carboard lid away to reveal a rectangular case made out of black alligator leather. A certain degree of concern sat in the back of Nick's mind about that, but he guessed that it might not have been all that big of a deal if she had brought it out for him to open in the Main Hall. Nick was distracted from the thought by what sat front and center, on the top of the case. His surname was stylishly pressed, in cursive, and imbued with a warm golden color to contrast the darkness of the reptilian leather.

Ohhhh… What did you do, Judy?

Nick was floored by level of detailing despite not having even opened the lid yet.

So, the todd reached in on both sides of the case and lifted it into the air while Judy grabbed the bottom of the wrapping box and laughed as she unceremoniously dumped it onto the floor. Once he figured she was out of the way, he set the case back down on the seat between them. The alligator hide had a rich depth of color and amazingly high-quality overall. There was a handle that protruded towards him, wrapped in another portion of the hide, and all of the latches were made of a wonderfully polished brass.

Judy positively looked like a pink bottle rocket that was about to take flight due to how excited she was. The prospect of knocking Nick's natural cinnamon-colored socks off was getting to her. Not that the todd was paying attention… Which she took note of and immediately because taking pictures with her phone.

Nick undid the brass clasp latches, two of them, one at a time and hesitated long enough for the duo to listen to the gentle clattering of the locking bars. Knowing that she would not be able to see once he opened the cover towards her, Judy stood up and moved over to the seatback of the chair so that she'd be able to see around instead of stretching to look over it. The doe wanted to verbally urge the todd to open it, but she feared she would explode upon trying to speak due to her nervous excitement. He ended up giving her a cursory glance as she sat down next to him.

Using his paw-pads to create enough pressure into the move, Nick gently raised the lid of the case. The darkness of the interior cradle did not fully dissipate due to a black baize interior that was set to match the reptilian exterior. It was purposefully lined that way to accentuate the strikingly golden tone of the alto saxophone that lay within. Two things happened in quick succession. The first thing was that Nick immediately realized that the instrument was a custom piece from an unknown shop in Zootopia. Something about the vintage tone of the finish stood out compared to other brands, such as the Yanagisawa models, was the first indicator of that. The second thing that happened was the todd lost his breath.

The top cover did not lay all the way back. It stood prominently, upright, as the hinging bars locked in place. It was distinct in its own way. That base was lined in a golden velvet compared to the rest of the interior. Set into little corner inlays on the left side of the cover was a photo that he could have sworn had been in his family's album. His mother had taken it. One evening, in the garage at the family house, his father had been sitting on a box of old books that had never been unpacked. A younger Nick had been sitting in front of him while wielding a long-lost instrument: taking lessons from the elder todd with a calm determination. John had perched his elbow on a knee was grinning about how focused Nick had been even though he couldn't quite reach all of the controls to get the notes precisely correct. The father and the son were just happy to be there, in the moment that had been captured by Vivian. On the right of the photograph was a neatly sown version of his full name, in the same font as on the cover, with a generous pocket below it for sheet music or whatever the todd felt like putting in there.

Judy felt her ears fall back in embarrassment when she saw Nick look over at her, for a split-second, before he turned back to the gift. She immediately went into damage-control mode after not being able to precisely read the vibe that he was silently giving off.

"So, I… uh…" The doe desperately searched for the right way to explain herself. Desperately clutching at straws in the hopes that he wouldn't be mad. "I went through your album one night… I got curious! And, I wanted to see all of the pictures of your family… I found that photo and it fit so well with the gift that I… borrowed it? I kind of took it to a professional photography place and had them copy it and I made sure that they didn't damage it and I swear that I put the original right back where it belonged!"

The doe had lost track of the fact that Nick had looked over at her again. Judy was too busy looking down at her paws as they spun in various circles: as if she was mentally replaying everything that she had done with the project. Knowing what would happen if he did so, Nick tipped sideways a bit and wrapped his right arm around the doe's waist, before letting his spine right himself. The gray doe squeaked in surprise as she was hauled up onto the todd's lap. All Judy could see was a bit of the instrument through all of the orange fur that she had suddenly been surrounded by. Nick's arms were wrapped completely around her torso and his tail had come around to shield her in a manner of speaking. The side of his head had lowered and was pressed against her cheek rather firmly.

"I don't even know what to say, Carrots. I don't even know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't this." The todd grumbled through the corner of his muzzle. "Thank you so much."

"Do you like it?" She asked hopefully.

They both looked back down at the saxophone to admire how the reflection of red, white, and green holiday lights showed against the metal. All the todd could do was nod and smile gratefully. The silent admiration of the instrument, and each other, was interrupted in very short order when the duo heard several little voices coming from the end of the chair.

"Are you gonna kiss Aunt Ju-Ju again?"

Judy had to pop her head over the top of Nick's tail to get a good view outside of the upright cocoon that the todd had her within. Outside of it, there had to have been eight dozen pairs of eyes peering over the edge of the cushion nearby. As well as an equivalent number of bunny ears that were held in their alert postures. The doe could feel Nick reaching out to slowly close the lid of the case before snapping the clasps closed. Just in case the fluffle became unruly and he had to respond, no doubt. It could happen, too, considering the kits were hovering between ten and twelve in age.

"Wait. Does that make him Uncle Nick now?"

Judy rolled her eyes upon hearing that. The small crew was old enough to know better. But, like Nick, they were already well-versed in the art of embarrassing mammals.

"No, no. He can only be an uncle after they have sex."

"Yeah. And, it doesn't smell like they did that last night."

The todd made a noise that sounded like he had swallowed his tongue. Judy, on the other paw, was sitting behind the todd's fluffy tail blushing and wishing they were old enough for her to get away with flipping them off.

"Who said that we've been kissing?" Nick choked out as he tried to rein in the youngsters

"We saw you two kissing on the dancefloor last night." One piped up.

"Yeah! Like my British friend says, y'know… Snogging." Another explained enthusiastically.

"Moldin' the clay, if you know what I mean." A third said.

"Canoodlin'!" Three of the others all said loudly.

"I've literally never heard that third one." Nick deadpanned. He was quick on the trigger as he felt the doe begin to vibrate as she was closing in on losing her temper. "Hey! So, do you guys want to hear something interesting about foxes? Something characteristic about them from the ancient times?"

"What?!" They all said in unison and rather eagerly.

"They used to eat curious little bunnies for breakfast!" He growled calmly, smiling like the cat that was about to eat the canary.

Judy snorted as she had not even seen criminals flee an area as quickly as the unrecognized kits did. Fortunately for them, they had kept their identities hidden with the cushion.

One of them was so bold as to shout: "You'll never catch us all!" That caused Nick to begin chuckling as he slowly unwound himself from his partner.

"I've played Pokémon…" He muttered through his own grin. "Suuuckeeeers."

He'll catch them all… Just not all at the same time… she thought.

"And, one by one, they will slowly and steadily disappear from the safety of the warren." Nick narrated the future events as if he had quite literally read her mind.

There was no concern felt for the statements that had been made. Nick had garnered more than enough points from the Hopps family to play around with the double-ended stereotyping that both bunnies and foxes tended to do. Nobody was going to read too far into it: especially when they asked why the red fox had made such a comment. If anyone even brought it up at all. The kits and grandkits knew well enough that he was playing around.

But, for now, Nick was steadily doing his best to stand up and pop his aching joints while Judy was sitting in a literal puddle of the dress that she was wearing. She looked confused. Not totally dejected, but confused, nevertheless. The todd took notice of the contortion of the doe's complexion and leaned down to give her a soft kiss on her lips.

Judy's ears spun backwards and drooped down to their midpoint as she appreciated the contact that Nick was sharing. It was Judy's hearing that made her open her eyes before the todd had even withdrawn from the kiss. As soon as she could refocus her eyes, she could see that his ears were upright and forward, heated and flushed, while his eyes were slammed shut in a purposeful and concerned manner. Possibly even pained.

There was a moment where the doe watched as the tip of Nick's tongue swipe out to gather her taste from the edges of his lips. Just before the brightness in his ears increased and his eyes opened slowly.

"I got caught by your mother and need to go get patched up before she sees me again." He explained quietly, trying to hide a shudder that skittered across his shoulders rather visibly.

Leaning forward on her knees, Judy reached up to push her lips against the todd's once again: effectively stopping his progression from climbing off the end of the chair. She paid closer attention to his reaction. Feeling how his body would still, but also how his nose would twitch softly. Nick's eyes closed in a slow fashion when her tongue tenderly found his. When they parted, Judy could not help but silently smile as she watched Nick's tongue search for her taste on his lips again.

"You doing OK, Slick?" She asked while running a paw down the side of his snout.

"Just trying to etch these moments into memory forever." He whispered back with a smile. "And, I'm stalling because you just got here. I don't want to leave."

"It's such a shame that somebody forgot their crutches…" Judy said in a hushed and playful tone. She was absolutely touched that their intimate moments meant so much to him despite the tease.

Nick finally opened his eyes, and his smile grew. "Dumb fox." He stole her usual line.

"Take the long way around to the East Hill. I don't want you slipping on the ice outside, OK?" Judy requested caringly.

"I promise." The todd nodded. "I'll catch up with you soon."

"You better." Judy grinned.

Nick leaned in and kissed the doe's cheek, gently whispered as he pulled away. "Gods, I hope that's a threat."

As the russet fox hopped down to the floor, landing on his good hindleg, he took his present with him. Judy could not keep the entertained, but slightly embarrassed, smile off of her muzzle.

After a little while, the doe eventually found herself drifting around the room to see many of her family members. Occasionally, she would encounter a kit who wanted to give her a small Christmas gift or share a piece of candy with her. There was a new aura surrounding the warren's Christmas theme now. Judy had spent nearly every Christmas of her whole life in this one hill. She guessed that it must have been because she finally had someone close enough to her to share it with. Not just a friend, but a loved one. Without a pause to even notice it, the time raced around the room amongst the glitter of the holiday lights and the hearth fire. Conversations were held with older siblings – who had been gone nearly as long as Judy had been – and held much laughter and storytelling.

Her parents were found not long after as they were joyfully helping some of the younger grandkits with the opening of their presents. Judy took a seat on the floor amongst all of her nieces and nephews, laden with binkies and blankies, so that they could pile over her lap with their presents, both opened and unopened. They wanted to play or have help with the unwrapping, so the doe juggled both tasks with a grin.

"She looks just like you did when we first got together, Bon." Her father commented without warning.

The soft, half-aiding tug at one of the pieces of wrapping paper was halted as the gray doe looked up at her parents. They were both staring at her with kind smiles on their muzzles. Judy's complexion immediately lit up as her ears fell along the back of her head from the embarrassment of being the focus of their attention.

"I remember the feeling, hun." Bonnie confirmed, shooting an appreciative glance at her buck. "I take it that everything went well, Judy?"

"I don't for a second believe that you missed what occurred last night during the dance." Judy fired off with a sheepish smile.

"Kind of hard to miss when the two of you practically cleared the floor of the other couples." Stu teased.

Instead of admonishing her husband, Bonnie busied her eyes and her paws with another kit's present while attempting to be sly. "And, everything's out in the open, right, Judy?" She asked.

"Yes, Mom." The younger doe nodded.

"Good…" The matriarch admitted as a playful grin worked its way onto her muzzle. "Though, it doesn't smell like much happened after the two of you left the Main Hall last night. Was Nicholas too worn out?"

Her father was shaking his head and he made no effort to stifle the chuckle that came out. Judy's head quickly mimicked her father's while her ears heated up generously.

"Blessed Serendipity, Mother…" Judy lamented. "As a matter of fact, we were both exhausted. Despite that, we still shared a very sweet moment…"

"And, what about this morning?" Bonnie needled gently. She already knew the answer from the lack of certain scent markers on the surrounding air.

"Another sweet and simple moment, Mother…" Judy explained, looking up at the ceiling for any sort of help from on high.

"I get the feeling that the lad's a bit shy in regard to that topic, Bon." Stu chimed in with a soft laugh.

"Serendipity knows we weren't." The matriarch grinned as she looked over at her husband.

"No, Siree!" The patriarch bragged. "We were like two Old World gladiators meeting in the Coliseum."

While both her parents proceeded to belt out enthusiastic strings of laughter, Judy pulled her ears around to cover her eyes while rubbing them vigorously: trying to get the mental imagery out of her head. Luck happened to be on the gray doe's side.

"Mom!" An annoyed female voice rose up from nearby.

Judy leaned sideways to be able to see that Arabella was walking over and she looked positively steamed. What made it worse was that it looked like a full bag of flour had fallen off of one of the top shelves, right square onto the doe's head. She was covered in the heavy white dust clear down to her dewlap and breasts.

"What happened to you, dear?" Bonnie asked once she had turned around to take in the view for herself.

"The troublemakers are at it again! They invaded the kitchens over an hour ago and ran around like little tornados!" The kitchen lead explained in frustration. "There's those stupid little blue and orange darts everywhere! We're still cleaning up for dinner right now!"

Bonnie sighed and began rubbing her temple with a free paw.

"I told you not to overdo it with all the sugar this year, Mom!" Arabella said loudly before turning to Judy. "And, you!"

"Me?!" Judy squeaked in surprise.

"Yes, you!" Her older sister pointed a fuzzy digit at her intimidatingly. "You better go find that todd of yours and figure out what his role in the incident was!"

"What?!" Surprise morphed into a sharpened tone.

"Oh, yes… They were running circles around him, as well. But, for some reason, he still ended up helping them steal a Tupperware full of cookies before they all made their escape." Arabella huffed.

Bonnie quietly placed two of her grandkits on the floor before she stood up from her seat within the hall. Judy thought that it would be wise to go with her mother: so, she followed suite with her movements.

"Which way did they go?" The matriarch asked wearily.

"They're probably hiding out in one of the entertainment rooms towards on eastern end." Arabella informed them before turning to head back to the kitchen, muttering the entire way. "Next time, someone's getting a mixing spoon across the ass… Now I have less than two-hours to finish dinner prepar… And, I want my Tupperware back, mom!"

Bonnie shot a distinctly frustrated look Judy's way. "Apparently, you didn't wear him out enough, Judith." Her mother stated firmly.

There was nothing for the doe to do but give an awkward, apologetically toothy grin as they headed out to find the source of all the troublemaking. The search did not take long with only a pawful of hallways being traversed before the sounds of belted commentary and choruses of kittish laughter began to reach their long ears.

Bonnie and Judy poked their heads around the doorframe to one of the playrooms to find that troublemakers were all sprawled out on the floor. The group was facing a makeshift cardboard box stage, with the curtains drawn back to the sides so that mammals could sneak on and off between scenes, and all eyes were on the fox standing on it.

Standing on said cardboard stage, Nick was in full character. The red fox pacing back and forth, giving a throaty hero's speech, without a shirt on. Judy was not quite sure what it was, but the todd had been covered with some sort of blue substance across his torso – front and back – and half of his muzzle was covered in the same mockup "war-paint". A giant brunette wig literally topping the fox's scene off. He was "riding" one of his crutches, which had a set of reins and crudely drawn and taped pieces of cardboard cutouts of ostrich heads on both sides of the main paw supports. Slung over his shoulder, across his back, was a comically large cardboard great-sword.

Without hesitation, Judy's phone was immediately brought out and she began taking a couple of pictures before switching over to her video setting, hitting the red record button.

"Seeing that the fighting mammals of Scotland were still wary of the prospect of fighting a larger enemy force, Riverfoot rode across the front of the lines with a final, rallying war-cry." Nick narrated before cutting back into character: accent and all. "Aye! Fight, and you may die. Run, and you'll live – at least a while. And, dying in your beds many years from now… would you be willing to trade all the days, from this day to that, for one chance… JUST ONE CHANCE to come back here… And, tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll NEVER TAKE OUR FREEDOM!"

At least forty little bunnies all jumped up, some with cardboard swords and their Nerf guns, with squeaky shouts of "freedom", as well.

The revolution was quelled when Bonnie Hopps flicked on the lights to the room, standing in the doorway with crossed arms and a stern glare. Every head in the room turned to where the light switch had been: many of the little bunny faces were also painted similar to Nick's scheme. Judy stopped recording and pocketed her phone.

"Nicholas Wilde!" She exclaimed loudly. "What in Serendipity's name is going on here?!"

"SCATTER!" One of the kits screamed.

Pandemonium erupted from the center of the carpet as the kits abandoned their armaments, hopping and tripping over one another, as they bolted for the other entryway. Judy kept her eyes on the todd while her mother was attempting to catch at least one or two of the fleeing bunnies. He had carefully ducked behind the stage and emerged from the right side, hobbling towards the other door as best as he could on his crutches, grinning all the while.

Bonnie was unsuccessful in capturing one of the grandkits for an interrogation, but Nick was not so lucky.

"What happened to the call of freedom, Nicholas?" Bonnie's voice made the todd flinch as he attempted to amble away from the scene.

"If I thought that I could get away quick enough right now, I'd be free, Missus Hopps." Nick exclaimed while still trying to flee. "But, I get the distinct feeling that all I'm into is trouble."

Behind the todd, all he heard was a chortle of laughter, and it made him turn his head just enough to see that the matriarch was holding his long-shed shirt in her paws with an entertained smile. Judy was hovering nearby, laughing into her paws.

"Nicholas, come sit down." She ordered softly.

Oh, the todd felt like he was in trouble. That was for damn sure. But, he did not dare instigate any fury from the doe. So, he carefully spun himself around on the spot before leading over to one of the nearby seats without saying a single word in resistance. The gaggle of kits that had been enamored with his display had fled the scene: just as he had directed them to do. She didn't need to know that part, though… It wasn't as if Bonnie wouldn't have been able to tell who had been watching the act.

The matriarch quietly looked him over, no doubt deliberating in what she should ask first. "What's in your fur?" She said finally.

Nick's eyes flickered left and right, nearly everywhere except for Judy's direction, as he tried to find a reasonable avenue of escape from the seat that he was in.

"Do you want the humored response or the honest response, Ma'am?"

Judy could see that he had already pulled the humor card out of the mental deck of cards based on the fact that his lips kept contorting between his normally calm demeanor and a playful grin. Fortunately, Bonnie was too busy contemplating a reprimand, for the way that he had addressed her, to even recognize that the former was a complete impossibility. Something that the matriarch had already known. Judy remembered what Nick had told her about the mask in the warren, as well.

"There's no mask here, Carrots. There can be no mask here. This, I promise you." It made her shiver at the thought of how he had spoken the words.

"How about we go with the honest response, which will end up coming with the humor that you mentioned, because I know you…" Her mother replied evenly. "What is that in your fur?"

Without helping it, Nick showed all of his teeth in an elevated sense of awkwardness. Judy could see that the todd had probably witnessed the mental greenlight to crack a playful joke depending on how the line of questioning went. She knew that he knew that he was going to receive a perfectly lobbed and set-up question.

Just don't kill him, please, Judy prayed silently.

"It's not cocaine…?" Nick had answered, semi-questionably, as if the todd was guessing the Bonus Round puzzle for the American gameshow Wheel of Fortune.

It was a good thing that the younger doe had been standing behind and off to the side of her mother. She knew that Nick would go for the maximum effect of said punchline and understood that he was completely joking. There was nothing to read into in the statement. Judy had heard enough about his past to know that if he did not deal with alcohol, he never would have dealt with narcotics. Bonnie simply rolled her eyes and muttered a prayer for her own sanity: which Judy heard, but seemingly Nick failed to in his straining.

"How did this situation come to fruition again?" Bonnie inquired for no other reason than to hear him explain. She knew the answer.

"Weeeell… I was coming back from my room, after leaving the medical ward, so that I could find Judy to thank her some more for the gift that she gave me… but, I got ambush by an overwhelming force of little bunny insurgents…" Nick was looking at his lap, waving his paws around as he recounted the tale.

Bonnie's hindpaw was slowly speeding up her tapping of the floor as she rubbed her brow with two firm digits.

Meanwhile, Judy was watching the explanation unfold, growing redder and redder from the fact that she was trying her hardest to not let any of her growing bouts of laughter escape.

"They had many demands of this fox! The two most important ones, though… They wanted cookies first!" He exclaimed animatedly.

The rest of the conversation was akin to that of watching a sloth play tennis with a cheetah in Judy's mind. Her mother would fire off a slowly and carefully constructed inquiry and Nick would hammer a rocket's worth of an answer back.

"Where did you get the cookies, Nicholas?"

"They took me to a cupboard in the kitchen because I was the one who was tall enough to reach the top-shelf."

"And, the kitchen crew didn't stop you?"

"They couldn't… They were pinned down by withering Nerf dart fire…"

"And, then, they made their escape…"

"They exfiltrated the area with me at darter-point, yes."

"If I go into my kitchen, I'm going to find a million darts suction-cupped to everything, aren't I?"

"That wasn't my doing! I am innocent of being aware who provided all of the Nerf hardware to the Cookie Cartel!"

"… Did they shoot you with any of the darts…?"

"Only when they said that I misbehaved. One of the little lassies kept darting me in the butt."

It was a fortunate thing that the rising sound of Judy's wheezing laughter was being wholly ignored by her mother and her technically newly minted boyfriend. There was no amount of squeezing her eyes shut that could stop the tears that were spilling out from how funny this version of the story was from Nick's perspective.

"And, what was the second most important thing?"

"They said it was story-time."

"And, why the half-baked blueberry costume?"

"They wanted to hear a story that they had never heard before… So, I remembered my friend Jacob and did my impression of him if he was William Wallace from Braveheart."

"So, why the comment about cocaine?"

"I didn't know if you knew that film and I didn't want you seeing this as some kind of weird mashup of Cameron's Avatar and De Palma's Scarface."

One doe released a very tempered sigh into the resulting silence following his statement.

The other released a sudden, but very loud string of squeaking laughter into the quiet void.

Nick tried to take the heat off of himself by carefully pulling his shirt back over his head and shoulders.

"Judy, see to it that Nicholas is cleaned up, please. I need to go make sure that the troublemakers are getting washed up for supper." Bonnie ordered dryly. "And, Nicholas?"

"Yes, Missus Hopps?" The todd replied hopefully.

"You're grounded."

Judy had to roll her lips inwards to keep from laughing outright at the look that the fox had on his face. She could practically hear the old modem's dial-up tone running through his mind. Her mother had just grounded the nearly 35-year-old todd and the thought of that caused another giggle to escape.

"Missus Hopps?" Nick mumbled dejectedly.

There was another sigh. "Yes?"

"Are there any more cookies?" He asked.

"You didn't get any of the cookies that you helped pilfer?" The matriarch asked. "Which, by the way, that whole Tupperware was actually made for you because I know how much you love blueberry cookies…"

Judy knew that Nick could not really tell yet, but her mother was trying to hold back an entertained grin. Not that it had mattered, Nick was too busy carefully considering the information that had just been shared. The poor todd looked devastated.

"No..! The Cookie Cartel wouldn't share with the hostage…"

Bonnie raised a paw and wiped down her muzzle, more trying to hide the mounting amusement than anything.

"I'll make some more later. In the meantime, go get cleaned up." She ordered the duo.

Nick and Judy both watched as the matriarch turned to exit the room. She could not have made it far because they both heard a loud chortling from down the hallway.

"The Cookie Cartel!" She exclaimed with a warm laugh.

The pair turned back to look at one another: both wore entertained grins as they tried to withhold their own happy laughter. Nick was more entertained by the entirety of the scenario that he had gotten caught up in. Judy was entertained by the fact that roughly seventy percent of the todd's head was painted blue.

"Sorry, Carrots." He said as they began to walk back towards the Main Hall. "I got caught up."

"I can see that, Slick." Judy giggled, softly boxing the todd in his arm. "It's alright though. All is forgiven considering that I have video footage of the incident."

"Oh, come on! I was literally a hostage, I got grounded because of my association with the demonically cute baby bunnies, and now you're telling me that you are going to end up blackmailing me on top of all that?" Nick lamented dramatically.

Right about that time, her phone sounded of with a message alert. It was an uncharacteristic thing to hear within the warren, considering that nobody from Zootopia would bother sending her a message unless it was an emergency, so Judy quickly checked it and she was glad that she did.

Mom: I want a photo of that fox during his performance for the scrapbook, Judith.

Judy sent the best one that she had without hesitation before turning to considering Nick again. "So, what happened to you after you left exactly?" She chuckled.

"I went and dropped off your present first so that I could get my crutches. I didn't want Tom busting my balls, y'know… Everything was going smoothly, and I was headed back to find you – after getting my back and thigh re-patched – but, I was intercepted." Nick explained diligently. "I'm telling you, Carrots. It's not fair. Geneva really needs to do something about you bunnies and that overload of cuteness thing you all do with your eyes. You know what I'm talking about! You do it, too!"

Judy shook her head and shrugged as if she had no clue whatsoever. "And, what made you think that putting on all that blue stuff was a good idea?" She inquired.

There was the feeling that Nick had slowed down a little as they walked along and when Judy turned to look, she found that the todd was looking down at the passing floorboards with an endeared smile.

"All the jokes aside, Fluff? The plan was to get back to you so that we could hangout some more, but they wanted to play. I was less of a hostage and more of an accomplice." He explained softly. "I love it here, Judy. If anything ever happened between the two of us, I want you to know that I'll never be able to stop feeling like I have family here. It's amazing."

Judy had been caught with both barrels at that admission: immediately feeling how badly it made her heart ache for the todd.

"You will always have a place you because you are family, Nick. And, the only thing that's going to happen between us is that our love for one another is going to grow." She whispered seriously. "And, I absolutely have no problem with you being stolen away to play with my brothers and sisters, and nieces and nephews, and all the cousins. It makes me so happy that you had fun."

Nick sidled up closer to the doe and planted a soft kiss on the tip of her ear as they walked along.

It took a little bit of time to help get Nick cleaned up in one of the bathrooms nearby. She made sure to just have him focus on cleaning up his arms, forepaws, head, and neck. They could take care of the rest of his blue-dyed unruliness in a shower later on: be it after dinner or during the following morning. Small-talk was withheld as she helped wash over the top of his head and back of his neck, so that none of the wounds were inadvertently bothered by his longer claws. Just enough looks were shared during that time that the dress-clad doe found herself set on the edge of one of the sinks so that they could share a passionate session of kissing and hugging before it felt wise to have the todd pull his shirt back on so that they could rejoin the festivities.

Supper was filled with jovial conversations between much of the family and between the duo themselves. Nick had asked to see the video that Judy had taken and he, as well as several of her brothers, broke out in rambunctious laughter after watching the entirety of what she had captured. Several of them admitted that the todd was steadily becoming the most favorite of unofficial family-members for the kits to play with. There was no envy in the statement: just honesty.

Derek and Vera Hopps brought Marcy around later in the dinner. They had been away at Vera's parents house to share some of their Christmas with the buck's in-laws. The little bunny, having missed her best friend for most of the day, was quick to lay down the law as far as hugs and markings went. Giggles and happy gabbing filled the room when Nick reciprocated with his best version of "chinning" that he could muster before Marcy made him mark her like foxes usually did. When it was time for her to go to bed, Nick was firm but kind in his orders for the doe to do as she was told before giving her a warm kiss on the top of her head. Marcy pouted adorably, but she went to her mother without the normal amount of fussing.

Nick had not missed the look that had befallen Judy's muzzle in the slightest, but he tried not to focus on thinking about the heaviness of the longing that had been shown just yet. Just seeing the desire in the doe had made his paws itch with eagerness. He could have sworn that the feeling was born from a sudden intrigue to possibly start a family together. It was a side of Judy Hopps, a rabbit no less, that he had never seen previously. The fresh, newness of it was not unwelcome, but there was no helping how startling the idea could be. Fortunately, there was too much happiness in the warren for Nick to consider mentally cursing himself for having been born a todd instead of a buck. There were a lot of things that he still needed to learn, but he was adamant about working his ass off to learn them through trial and error.

The adults all eventually slipped into their own gears for the remainder of Christmas night. Some of the paired couples went as far as wandering out into the snows beyond the safety of the warren's internal yard: taking walks that had been long put-off due to the threat of the Bird-of-Prey that had been stalking the Tri-Counties. The duo, on the other paw, stayed in and watched as other couples sectioned off a portion of the Main Hall for themselves so that they could quietly listen to music and dance. Nick had initially been apologetic. He wanted to be able to take Judy out there again, but his leg was far too sore to attempt a repeat of the prior night's activities. The doe had no problem shutting him up, while they sat next to a hearth and watched the others, by cuddling into his side to do so. They both ended up paying attention to Derek and Vera, who had already put Marcy to bed, as they went around the floor in a far more spectacular fashion that Nick had managed. While Judy couldn't see it, Nick had ended up grinning to himself softly.

Can't be the best at everything, he thought while watching the buck spin his pregnant wife around. There was no touch of self-deprecation in the thought.

Somewhere after ten o'clock, Judy slipped from the todd's side and pulled softly on his paw. There was resistance from the todd at the idea.

Several minutes later, Nick's russet tail slipped inside of Judy's room as the door slowly closed with an audible snap of the latch.

And, the lights within were slowly extinguished not long after.