Chapter Three

Raindrop Deluge

Nick looked out at the now torrential downpour. A perfect storm, but one which will be all in my favor. He looked to Judy, raising his voice against the clamour of the storm, "You sure about this? We could just wait it out in the caff."

"I checked my phone, Nick. That storm's not stopping 'till the middle of the night."

"Okay, Hopps, lead the way." Judy was about to step out from the protection of the porch when another crash of lightning lit the sky and the volume of rain increased a notch.

"Cheese and Crackers! Lets get this over with." With that she stepped out, sprinting down the pavement with Nick following behind. Twenty paces later Judy stopped, she looked about her, then shouted back to the slacking drenched fox, "Nick! I don't know the way!"

"Oh, yea!" Nick drew, fully shouting now, over the cacophony of the downpour, "okay, Fluff, this way." He started running down a nearby alley. Judy followed, being careful to stay close to the fox as he darted from narrow alleys and unlit backstreets, through the maze which was the world of Zootopia, especially when she'd let Nick led the way.

When Judy led the way, it was a simple walk from their destination using the main roads and pavements to get to where they wanted to go, but with Nick it was much more, well — fun he called it, though Judy had her doubts — you found yourself darting from street to street, each darker and more shadier then the next. According to Nick it saved time and kept you out of the way of prying eyes, but in all honesty Judy thought it was just for appearance's sake. It was not uncommon to have to climb an odd fence or traverse an odd garden either, as Judy now found herself to be doing.

She jumped the fence Nick had climbed, while the back door to the residing house swung open with angry but muffled shouts of the apparent owner. "Nick!" she called to reprimand him — an officer of the law — for trespassing, but her voice was lost to another loud thunderous and raging echo sharp.

She followed Nick through the last of a dozen narrow unlit alleys and suddenly recognised where she was. Picking up speed she drew level with Nick as they were only two streets away from her house and as he noticed her next to him, his pace gave way to more. Judy, well aware of the competitive edge each of them constantly shared for outdoing one another, sped up again. The speed of before was but a leisurely trot compared with the momentum with which Nick and Judy were now trailing at. They ripped down the pavement, the large puddles erupting as they passed through them, they were but a grey and red blur in the night. Unfortunately for Nick, one of the large puddles he stepped into concealed a manhole cover...

With a yelp he lost his footing on the slippery wet metal which he had failed to see and landed face-first into the pavement with a heart wrenching thwack. Judy stopped as soon as she heard him yell and was kneeling by his side a moment later, mortified as she saw the tinge of red which the puddle had taken. "Oh god, Nick! Are you okay? Can you hear me?"

Nick heard instantly how worried Judy was and forced himself to recover quickly, even managing a soft chuckle to help calm her, "I'm fine, Judy, jus' a nose bleed, tha's all."

Judy reached up a paw at the now kneeling fox, and Nick moved his head away at her touch, but at seeing the slight hurt in her eyes he quickly added, "You'll get your paw all bloody." Nodding after a moment, Judy instead held her paw out to Nick with defiant confidence to which he noticeably saw no other way and took it, thus getting pulled on his feet again a moment later.

They walked the rest of the way to the door, Judy still holding Nick's paw. The storm abated, if only slightly, and through the thick black clouds a tinge of pail moonlight shone through. Though it was a dull light, faded through the clouds it had to pass through, it did offer some little vision upon the earth alongside the dull yellow of the silently humming streetlights. The masonry steps leading to Judy's apartment were shining marginally blueish as Judy's foot stepped upon them. She released her partner's paw to get her key and he returned it to its standard place within his trousers' confining pocket. "Okay, Fluff, here is where I shall leave you. Thank you for being with me tonight."

Judy stopped, key in the lock, and looked over to Nick with drownful concern in her face. "But... you live on the other side of Zootopia!"

He shrugged, giving her a lazy smile. "Used to it, Carrots. This ain't the first time I've walked across the city in a downpour."

She leaned towards him, unlocking the door with an echoing click. "Last time, you didn't have me to watch over you. You're sleeping over tonight, whether you like it or not."

He looked nonplussed up towards the window to her apartment. "Fluff, I've seen the inside of you apartment, no way is there room for both of us. Besides," he looked back at her grinning, "I'm a big strong city fox, I can take care of myself." Judy was weary with this back and forth, she was soaked, she was tired and she wanted only to be dry, to be warm and to not have to 'be-awake-all-night-worrying-if-Nick-got-back-okay'.

She kicked open the unlocked door. "Nicholas Wilde! Inside Now!"

...

Five minutes later... Nick was dripping in the corner of the room with his head tilted up, holding a piece of tissue paper to his nose. Judy had dried herself off and changed. Nick, diligently and without requiring instruction, had stood against the wall, turned his back and shut his eyes through the whole thing.

"No, Nick, you tilt your head forward."

He looked at her, surprised. "Forward?" his speech slightly more nasal than normal, "I allays thought you tilted back."

She shook her head, her ears hanging behind her at her injured friend. "No, tilt it back and you might choke on the blood." He did as Judy said, trusting her words implicitly. Several seconds passed.

"I think it's stopped now." He walked further into the room and put the bloodied tissue in the bin, his muzzle now clean.

At seeing her partner returned to full health, her ears pricked up and her voice recovered its musical qualities, "Okay. Come on, get your clothes off."

Nick froze in place for a second, then coyly slid into a lazy smirk. "A little more forward than I was expecting but, pfft! Who am I to complain?"

Judy, fully expecting this reaction from the childish fox, tilted her head and raised her eyebrows — the voice of reason, "No, Nick, I didn't mean it like that and you know it. If you don't take those wet things off and dry yourself you're going to get pneumonia."

"And what do you want me to wear? I assume you don't have anything fox sized in that wardrobe of yours."

"No, but..." Quickly she reached under the bed and pulled out two spare duvets. One she laid out flat on the floor like a mattress and one she piled as a heap above. Then she placed one of her two pillows on the floor and then fetched a towel from a drawer in the wardrobe. "Undress, dry yourself with this," she handled him the towel, "and then get yourself snug under that blanket."

"You won't mind my being, err..."

"So long as I don't see anything, yes, I'm fine with it."

He looked down at the towel, down at the duvet, then up at Judy. "I do, kinda, toss and turn a bit in my sleep," he warned.

Judy rolled her eyes. "Nick, for the last time, take off those dripping clothes or I will. I know you're trying to put on a brave face to impress me and all, but I can see you shivering from here." After a moment his grin again came. Then, with a wink, he reached up and slowly started to tug at his tie and then — the second before Judy would have had turned around — the fox's grin parted, his mouth opened and then Nick Wilde started singing out that instantaneously recognizable theme...

David Rose's... 'The Stripper'

Judy was frozen at this unusual and rather amusing turn of events as the fox slowly stared pulling the tie away from his neck. He slipped it off and swung it around as Judy started to giggle, the volume of his singing increased a notch. After swinging it several times, Nick let go of the tie and threw it to an imaginary audience. Judy's giggles turning to laughter as she caught the tie mid flight. Still bellowing the music, egged on by her obvious amusement, Nick started to undo his top buttons, his hips swaying, his tail flicking, undoing each button with a flourish in time with the music. Judy watched all with captivation at the almost ridiculously hilarious act... And then, then came the first time where things were now strange for the unsuspecting doe.

The grin which had been plastered across her face from the start of the act slowly dropped as the last of Nick's shirt buttons were undone. The sound of Nick's humming seemed to fade. She felt as though she was watching from afar. Something new — an emotion she had never really felt before — stirred from deep within her... and it was growing stronger, stronger with every second as the fox slipped his shirt off, dropping it to the floor, no longer singing and just gazing straight at her, his face lacking his usual slyness.

She had meant to turn around and miss the whole thing, but it started so innocently and playfully with the tie — she didn't want to miss that — and after that there was no real harm in just seeing a couple of buttons before turning around... and now... At last his lazy smirk came as his paw slid down to his belt buckle, while Judy's mouth hung slightly open. "This is about to get a little heated... right abouttt… now."

"Oh... y-yea sorry." She turned away hurriedly, wondering what made her linger so long in the first place. That feeling, luckily, had gone as quickly as it had come, the rabbit stared fixedly upon the far wall.

"Watch if you want. I won't mind."

"Nick!"

"Only kidding, Carrots, only kidding." She failed to see the humor. Judy had been curious as to what her partner looked like naked for a long time, she told herself she was only curious... and she was sticking to it, but she realized now that this was the perfect opportunity. All she would need to do would be to wait until she'd hear his trousers drop and then, simply, turn around and see what her mind had been fantasizing about from curiosity... She bit down hard on her lower lip to suppress that line of thought before she was to start blushing.

But a blush formed anyway when she heard his buckle undo, his trousers to drop and then his boxers a moment later — cursing her bunny hearing as her mind unwillingly visualized every sound. She heard him rub himself down with the towel for a while and then, after a rustling sound which lasted only a few seconds, Nick's voice filled the awkward silence loud, "Okay, you can look."

She took a small glance over her shoulder — not fully trusting the fox not to be staying stark naked right behind her — no such luck.

What! No such... no such luck..?

Control yourself, JUDITH!

Sweet cheese and crackers, what am I thinking?

She managed to hide her internal scolding for thinking such thoughts as she looked down at Nick, fully covered beneath the duvet and grinning up at her. "Surprisingly comfy." Smiling as she stepped over to him, Judy crossed the room, laid Nick's wet things out to dry, flicked off the light switch and then made her way back to her bed. Dark though it was, the outside streetlight shone enough yellowish light through her thin curtains to give the room enough light to see by. She stepped over at Nick again and into her bed. "No goodnight kiss?" he teased like he'd usually do so.

She smiled, bemused, "Don't push it Nick."

"Okay. Seriously though, thanks for this." She sat up to see him, meeting his warm smile with her own in the shadows of the night, while their sheared looks of warmth conveyed all that needed to be said.

"Sleep well, Nick."

"You too, Fluff."

The two good friends lay back down in their beds. Judy covered her face beneath the blankets, trying to relax into something like sleep while all she really wanted to do was giggle; suddenly very giddy and childish at having Nick sleeping over... with her, in her small home, for the first time.

...

Judy sat up abruptly a moment later, "Nick?"

Nick sat up too, propping himself up on his elbows and straining his neck to look properly at her. "Yes, my little Bunbun?"

"If both of us being sent home was just a fluke, how come you'd booked a table at the restaurant?" There was no pause in his delay. Not that this meant he was telling the truth, it just meant he had already considered this as a possibly asked question.

"I thought I already told you, Hopps," he replayed coolly, "I just called in about half an hour before—"

"No, you didn't," she snicked, "when I went to the restroom I actually sucked a peek at the reservations list. You booked that table three weeks ago, Nick!"

This time there was a pause. Then a long intake of breath, "Okay, you've rumbled me. I shall come out with all." He smiled at the self-satisfied humph Judy made, but his features again became solemn at what he now had to say.

"I have been planning this evening for two months now, I thought about taking you to the movies, I considered taking you out of Zootopia for the day, I looked at about a dozen different restaurants within walking distance of your humble home before finally settling on Joe's Place. I found a florist who sold the flowers you like and eventually decided that a serenade was, by far, the best way to start off the evening."

Judy chucked, "But for all your research, you never checked the weather report?" The fox grinned back apologetically... he had to play along after all. He told Judy he would come out with all... but that didn't mean she had to know he knew full well of the coming storm and had planned and timed their evening accordingly. He was pleased to say his plan had gone down without a hitch as Judy — as he knew — couldn't bare to see poor Nick walk all that way in such weather and was now — as he had foreseen — cosy and warm, in a small apartment... with Judy.

It crossed his mind that he may have shot himself in the foot with all that planning, it could have been quite a different evening if it was not for that storm, he knew he hadn't imagined Judy's lips parting the moment before the bolt hit. All the same, this was the first of a number of small logical steps Nick had worked out long before tonight. It all started with a first sleepover, then other such steps would follow more easily, his place, her place, a weekend away together, a week off in a cottage in the country and then, maybe, they would be living together!

All logical steps simple on their own, but together: something very powerful, and it all started... right here.

"And Bogo," Nick was drawn back from his thoughts, "was he in on it?" Nick nodded in reply, "Well, nice work, Slick. How'd you get him to agree to the time off?"

"Oh I just explained how much of an important day this was to you and he accepted…"

"And Bogo gave us the day off, just for that... just because I met you a year ago?"

"Yes, in fact after I explained how important it was, Bogo seemed to think it should be made into an annual national holiday." Judy still wasn't convinced, ignoring the second comment which was obviously a playful lie and a rather pathetic attempt by Nick to throw her off subject.

"So, Bogo, 'Bogo' said..." she huffed, "look, you sure we're talking about the same mammal? Cape buffalo, tough, 'bout two thousand pounds of attitude... secretly likes Gazelle."

Nick chucked, grinning even in defeat, "I really can't pull anything on you, can I, Carrots?"

Judy returned with amusement of her own, "Not anymore…"

"I have agreed to several hours of unpaid overtime to make up for today."

"Nick, you shouldn't have! I'll help you, of course, the'll—"

"Sorry, Hopps, but Bogo Boy was very explicit that I was not to drag you into doing unpaid overtime with me or I'd be doing it in solitary confinement... in a cell... for a week. His orders, not mine."

There was another, longer pause.

"Nick," she began again as she lent down, resting her head on the edge of the bed, meeting his steady gaze, her voice soft and soothing, "why didn't you just tell me? I get the 'not telling me so it's a surprise' part, but why did you pretend it was all last minute?" He answered, but his speech quickly fell to incomprehensible mumbling as his gaze dropped.

"What's that?" her voice raised to a teasing level. If sincerity won't get it out of him, maybe joviality will. "Come on, Slick, even my bunny ears won't pick that up!"

"Huh," he snorted a single, faint laugh after which he fell silent. Several seconds passed of Nick simply looking into her lavenders, as though finding strength in them. He sucked in a breath of air and then continued, "I didn't want you to know how much I cared."

"And… and how much do you care?"

"Go to sleep, Carrots." Judy was silent for several seconds. Nick often subtly changed the subject whenever Judy trod too close to something delicate, thanks to his silver tongue half the time she didn't even realize it had happened until thinking it over after, but he didn't normally make it this obvious... only he wanted to make it obvious when he was done talking on the subject. Judy doubted she would get any more out of him that night. Driven though she was, if he wanted to be, Nick could be impossibly stiff-necked and would just get in a mood and leave despite the storm long before telling her what she wanted to hear. It was coming though, any day now, she could feel it.

She made good of the situation as it was and smiled sweetly then spoke, "Thanks, Nick."

"Not a problem, Judy."

"For everything I mean. This was a wonderful evening, just as memorable as the first day we met and for all the right reasons. You've been golden company and I won't ever forget it." Nick smiled back honestly, his eyes glistening in the dim of light. Then, Judy turned her head briskly away from him to sleep, secretly though, it was to hide the tears of joy which where, for some reason, welling up in her precious windows of vision.

"Night, Jules," Nick's voice came soft and warm, soothing its way through her ears like a soft hug. It calmed and warmed her, which resulting into lulling the blanket of sleep around her mind.

Jules? Haven't heard that one before. Not that she minded the new nickname, truth be told, she loved it. "Night, Nick." Judy replayed a little hoarsely, wiping away a tear, her head hidden beneath the blanket. She hoped he didn't mistake her hoarseness as coldness yet time alluded her mind's thoughts as she drifted quickly to sleep.

...

Nick maintained his loving smile on her for several seconds further. He wanted to sit up, lean forwards, lean over the cute and sweet smelling bunny, plant a kiss on her cheek and then whisper the truth into her ear.

He just wasn't brave enough to do it…

He let out a soft huff and settled down for rest. The day for the admission was coming, he could feel it. For now he were to just let what he had achieved wash over him in the soft knowledge of a good job well done and then, with a smile still in place: He let himself be cradled into the clouds of imagination and comfort come.

…

Author's notes:

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