Chapter Four

Up 'n' Out

Nick awoke and was instantly alert, he kept his eyes shut, he was being watched. He called it 'street smarts', Judy called it 'instinct'. But whatever it was he knew he was being watched. There was a lot more to surviving on the streets of Zootopia than being able to talk your way out of situations, after all. Opening his eyes the tiniest of crack — not enough for the movement to be seen by the onlooker, but enough to get a bleary outline of the situation — Nick took in his surroundings.

He could see no color or defined shape because of how close his eyes were to being tightly shut. But he managed, after a few seconds, to realize he was not in fact sleeping on the streets as he first had thought. He was on a semi-comfortable floor, comfortable if compared with those on the streets, a floor he recognized as the one of Judy's small apartment. Then, all the memories of last night came back, and the feeling of being watched? He opened his eyes the tiniest crack more, blurs became shapes and a little color appeared. One smear in particular became the shape of a small, large eared creature with amethyst gems.

Judy was sitting up in bed, watching him. He was a little uncomfortable as he wondered how long she had been staring, but decided to be flattered by the dreamy expression on her face as she leant her chin on her paw, elbow on the bed with her eyes half-lidded. He lay still for several moments; enjoying his secret admirer and admiring her in return.

Oh the surprise I could give her if I just opened my eyes. If I sprang up and leapt at her. Perhaps I should roll a little, just enough to show off maybe a little more 'Nick' then she was planning on seeing. Nothing too much, just enough to get her flustered.

He tried to contain the ensuing chuckle at the thought but all he could do was suppress it to a spluttered cough. Judy, quick as a flash, had turned away and lain back down.

And like that the moment is gone. Well, best get on with the duty of the day.

Nick opened his eyes fully. He looked about at the morning sun as it was coming in through the thin curtains over Judy's window, he looked about at where he had slept for the night and then he looked upon Judy, wondering exactly what had been going through her head while she was taking in all his body's sight. He looked at her clock, an idea came. Maybe the moment wasn't over quite yet. He quickly flicked off the alarm, mere seconds before it were to ring, and shifted onto his knees. He lent over the bed and slowly loomed over her smaller frame.

He smiled as he saw her try to hide further under the blankets without showing she was awake or any suspecting elements that she had been doing what she had been doing moments prior. With the alarm turned off, there was no reason for Judy to be awake, so she could not stop him in what he was planning without revealing she had been aware. Nick knew there was nothing he could do if she revealed she was awake, she could just deny everything, but he knew Judy would be too embarrassed to realize this and carry on pretending to be asleep regardless.

Making the most of this advantage over her he slowly reached out a paw. Placing it gently upon her face he slowly stroked it down her cheek with the back of his fingers — though he thought he could get away with touching her ears but he also knew what ears were to a rabbit and what a tail was to a fox thus didn't want to go too far — happy to just enjoy the soft warmth of her face instead. He chuckled tenderly as she started blushing slightly at his touch. Knowing that there was nothing she could do without giving herself away, he lent forward and planted the softest of kisses on the side of her head. He lingered for a moment, taking in the hitching of her breath, the warmth of her face and the sweetness of her scent; then he pulled away. A smile formed on Judy's face. Judy found she was unable to suppress it.

Then, deciding he had taken enough pleasure from Judy's disadvantage, he reached out again and gently shook her. "Carrots, hey, Carrots. Wake up." Nick laughed inwardly as he watched Judy's impressive display of acting as though she had only just woken up, and she was evidently trying to ignore the emotional confusion she must have been feeling after his affections. She was such a good actor, she mumbled incoherently, her eyes were bleary, she turned her head slowly and focused on Nick with an expression of sleepy surprise.

"Hey there, Carrots. Ready to make the world a better place?"

She grinned, "Always." And then… then she glanced… down... "NICHOLAS PIBERIOUS WILDE!"

Another minute later, Nick was dressed and cowering in the corner of the room with his arms around his legs and his knees against his chest, under the interrogation of Judy who had armed herself with her cushion. "It was the one thing I said, the one thing! 'So long as I don't see anything' but what did you do?!" the last four words came in time with four hefty whomphs from her rather ineffective choice of weapon.

Nick would have found the assault amusing if he was not too busy fearing for his long-term well-being by this point, yet he tried to put on a soothing voice, "Judy, how many times, it was an acc—" another whompf came to be.

"But you admit it was you who caused the cover to slip!"

"Only in as much as my motion let gravity move it."

"But you were kneeling in exactly that spot!"

"Judy, I'm sorry you got an eyeful bu—" his voice was muffled by another hit by the aggressive cushion.

So it went on for several minutes, eventually Judy forgave him, but only when he started blushing so hard it was visible even through his red fur. Nick was cursing himself, it had been such a tender moment. When he had seen Judy's face looking up at his, he could see the affection behind it, he had considered trying for another kiss, this one on the lips, before his own damn ineptitude at keeping his private parts covered came to be in the form on untold humiliation.

Judy too was cussing at what had happened. She knew, now, it was unintentional as Nick hardly ever shew emotion — so for him to be embarrassed enough for her to see his blush through his russet fur was quite something — but she had seen it. She had seen 'it'! And it was something she was never going to forget in a million years even if she wanted to and tried.

Ha, okay! Where the fluff did that last bit come from? Judy thought, freaked out to the point of finding it amusing. She threw away that thought before the blush would start... again. She put it down to karma or something, she had been staring at him for a while after all, watching him as she tried to remember all the parts of the dream she had just had and all of the 'experiences' she and Nick had shared in that special dream. The dreams were becoming more frequent with every month but she knew there was nothing she could do about them, even though they were getting out of paw.

She told herself that if there was anything she could do to stop them, she would... but since I can't, what the hell, might as well enjoy them. Judy dressed in her uniform and Nick again stood against the wall, eyes shut. Nick dressed in the clothes he had worn yesterday, they had dried out sufficiently overnight and he could pick up another uniform once they arrived at the department, tho he could get a chewing for it from Bogo but he didn't have time to go all the way back to his apartment to pick his spares up.

There was no conversation between the two, only slightly uncomfortable silence, as he and she had changed. This time she had copied Nick's lead and turned to the wall as he climbed out his wears. He had grinned and opened his mouth to comment but thought better of it. The ensuing silence had allowed Judy to calm down a little and she opened the door with Nick by her side which got her to needingly look at him. By my side... this is where he belongs.

"Nick, I haven't forgiven you for what you did. But—" she carried on loudly as his mouth opened, "it was really nice having you over all the same," her words faulted as her embarrassment grew, "maybe, we could... I mean I know it's hardly practical... one of us has to sleep on the floor, but..." her eyes couldn't hold their ground as bashfulness overcame her. "Actually just forget I—"

"I should like that very much, Judy."

A smile grew as the fox placed a tender paw on her shoulder. Then a blush formed and she poked him hard in the chest. "Next time, Mr. Wilde, you bring a change of clothes with you."

"You mean, you didn't like what you saw?" he teased, and she poked him again but it was more of a heavy punch to the gut this time and Nick wheezed and bent double a little, a tear coming to his eye as Judy set off at a considerable speed down the corridor. He cleared his throat after she was gone, taking some deep breaths until he felt better. Yep, there are definitely disadvantages to being this close to Judy, but she's worth it. Then, locking the door with the key, he headed down the corridor after her. Some seconds later, Nick found Judy waiting for him just outside the front door, he pulled out his sunglasses once he knew Judy was watching before opening them with a stylish flick of the wrist after which came the smug motion of putting them on.

"Come on, Slick. We're going to be late if we don't hurry." Unfortunately — despite one little hick up with a slipping sheet — Nick was in a good mood... and Nick in a good mood was not something that could be rushed. She rolled her eyes as he sauntered past her, humming some old jazz piece and clicking his fingers in rhythm with the imaginary music. From the other direction, a tall camel was slowly going about their day when Nick's smile managed to attach itself to the mammal's still-unattracted attention.

"Hey, sir, how y' doin'? Beautiful day ain't it?" The camel stopped and turned dumbfounded to watch the strange over-friendly fox as he swaggered past, clicking his fingers to a beat only he could hear. They shook their head and walked away while checking their pockets as to surely make sure that their wallet was still where it was supposed to be, to which Judy's head fell into her paw during the pleads of her surrenderful voice.

"Nick will you stop wasting time, we have like five minutes before roll call!"

He turned to face her, walking backwards with his shoulders in a shrug. "Don't mean to be rude, Whiskers, but I'm actually closer to the ZPD than you."

She glowered at the space between them. Yea, by like three paces! Her anger bubbling down within her, she marched on at her full pace, grabbing the tie of the dawdling fox and continuing striding past with tugs in tow. "Come one, Vulpes vulpes."

"I'm a coming, Oryctolagus cuniculus."

…

Author's notes:

Hesitance jumps around your mind,

Grooms decision thus chosen blind.

Your thoughts most succulent of snack,

All delivered by luscious feedback.

So don't hide like a tiny shrew,

Thus share that belovable review!

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