Chapter Fourteen

What Will Be...

From the depths of nothing, the fox's vision started to clear. He made to rub his eyes, hoping to rid them of the lingering spots in his vision, but found himself unable to move his arm. The anxiety kicked in and Finnick's vision cleared. Grunting, he tugged at his arm but found that the pawcuffs holding it to the streetlamp, he was sat against, were as sturdy as they looked.

Sat against the metal lamppost, Finnick twisted his waist around at an awkward angle to look at the metal hoop around his wrist — growling as he tugged again and again at the chain in a vain effort to break it open. It was never going to happen. His snarling face turning to a wry smile, the small fox extended a black claw and put it into the keyhole, sticking his tongue out in concentration as he twisted it this way and that.

"That's not gonna get you anywhere," said a voice in front of him. Finnick's head snapped back, snarling, to look at the smug figure of the red fox looming over him — Nick — showing his teeth in a broad grin with his arm resting loosely over the shoulder of Judy, who was leaning against the fox with a smile no less smug, her arms folded against her chest and eyes glancing between Finnick with a look of smugness, and Nick with a look of pride.

"So..." the rabbit continued for Nick, leaning forwards and bending over, her paws resting on her knees as she brought her head down to his level, a quaint little smile on her teasing face... "Are you ready to answer our questions now?" Showing his teeth, Finnick lurched his fist forwards to punch the annoying rabbit squarely in the nose... but his paw snapped to a stop as the pawcuffs pulled taut around his wrist, mere centimeters away from her unflinching and now-grinning face.

"Look, Finn," began Nick as Judy's smile grew in size, having successfully judged the distance and dragged Finnick's self-esteem, as a prize fighter, through the mud, "it's gonna be a lot easier for all of us if you just tell us what we want to know."

The small fox spat at Nick, who leaped back to avoid the mouthful of goz. "Go jump in the lake, copper."

"Thanks, but no thanks," Nick answered without missing a beat, slowly bending over slightly, while Judy stood back upright. "I'm warning you now — Finn — I am not in a playful mood. I am stood before you: My uniform tarnished and torn, my fur matted and wretched, I am covered in sweat, soot, charcoal, burnt-up dead-guy, and now — thanks to you — flour, just to top it off."

"I don't care if you iz cored head to foot in yer own piss; I ain't never gonna talk!"

"Finnick," Nick warned, raising a finger to point down at him with, "if you don't start being a bit more helpful—"

"Whad you gonna do, Nickey, tell me? Whad?"

Nick chuckled, then answered, "Then, my old friend, I drag your butt down to a cell, hurl you in, and melt down the key."

The small fox lurched forwards — Nick did not back down — bringing their sneering faces inches apart. "You put me in lockdown, Nick— and I'll tell them everything. You hear me? Everything. Every single con, crime and scam that 'we' ever pulled." Nick's expression did not change, yet somehow, the way his face froze up said everything. Finnick sat back, crossing his legs at the ankles to give Nick a disregarding gaze. "Face it, Nickey, I could 'ave you arrested jus' as quick az you could me." Eventually — after some uncomfortable silence — a smile broke upon Nick's face. Neither Finnick nor Judy liked it very much. It was a sad little smile, full of acceptance, but acceptance and resolve.

"And then true justice will be served."

"What!" Both cried in unison, each looking to the red fox with eyes, which were wide with both panic and concern... though, while one harbored those feelings for themselves, the other harbored them for Nick.

"B-b-but, Nick!" Judy stammered, "I—"

"Whad the hell has-zis bunny done to ya?" Finnick yelled, "you seriously putting 'the law' before yer own self?"

Nick looked between the rabbit and the small fox; two conversations were waiting for him, but he only cared for one. "Finnick," he said, "me and Hopps are just going for a little chat... you won't 'go' anywhere will you?" The fennec fox rolled his eyes and muttered a number of expletives under his breath, tugging again on the pawcuffs, which could easily have restrained a horse.

Judy was too concerned to really take in Nick's rather cliché gag, as she stared up at him. Her mouth opened to speak, as he put his blue-uniform-clad arm around her shoulders to lead her away — bringing his index finger to his mouth in a gesture of silence. They walked, turned a corner, and stood in the darkness of the overhanging wall of a skanky, run down hotel.

"Nick, what're you thinking?" Judy shouted, but keeping her volume down, as she reached behind her head and threw his arm off her shoulders, turning to face him as she spoke.

"Finnick's right—" Nick said "—I'm a crook just as much as he is; the best thing I could do is own up and take my just deserts."

"No! No, you are not just 'some crook', Nick. And to hell with 'just deserves'; are you out of your mind!?"

"I used to make two-hundred and fifty bucks a day, Fluff, and not a penny was acquired honestly."

"Well that was the past you, Nick, the new you is—"

"Judy, a mammal cannot make good all his past sins by saying, 'you know what? I've been really bad up till now, I'll start a new life, and hallelujah, all my past sins are cured'. His arms, which he had raised on either side as he spoke, dropped dejected to his side. "Face it, Hopps, in the eyes of the law, I'm really no less of a crook than Finn is. Do'y think I'd ever have gotten a job there if I had told them about all the stuff I've pulled? No, no I would not have."

"To hell with 'the law', Nick," Judy shouted, "the ZPD need you!"

The ZPD needs me... how nice. Well, looks like I'm gonna have to do this the hard way. "The ZPD ain't gonna miss me when I'm gone, Hopps. They managed long before I came around: They'll survive."

"Well," Judy fumbled with her words, "it... it's not just ZPD who need... you—" slowly, like the dying embers of a fire, she faded off.

Hmm... nearly. But not quite.

"Well who? Bogo certainly doesn't. McHorn? Clawhauser? Leopold? Little Jim the Toymaker's son?"

Judy looked up and her eyes met his, the hurt clearly visible in her amethysts and overshadowing the normal cheery ring of her voice, "I need you, Nick. Me."

His expression softened... and there it is.

"I mean..." she added quickly, beating down the blush, which tried to form. "You're a very efficient policemammle. You know the city, you know how to talk to people, you have a number of connections, which have come useful in the past. You can keep yourself above the general stresses of the job, and my efficiency would be severely affected if you went away and..." Judy carried on listing all the reason why she thought he made a good copper... not at all what he wanted her to say.

Don't you dare, Hopps, don't you dare try and 'rationalize' what you just said into the cold, hard logic your mind normally works in...

"Carrots," he said, pacing around the corner and towards the cuffed Finnick. "I'm not all that good'a cop— I mean, really— I was one of the bad-guys for about twenty years." She moved her paw to take his arm, but Nick gently tugged his sleeve away. "Look, keep how you feel out of this..." Nick said, intentionally telling the rabbit to do the exact opposite of what he wanted her to, "you would do better without me."

"But, I have to have a partner! You can't leave me without a partner!"

Not good enough, Judy. He thought as the small fox came into view. Sorry to keep pushing you like this. I know it must be hurting you as much as it's hurting me. But I want to hear it.

"Don't worry, Carrots, the next batch of recruits'll be coming along soon. You might even get assigned a rabbit! Now wouldn't that be better?"

"But I don't want a rabbit!" she called after him, "I want to go out with you!"

The words hung in the air. For a long time; silence. He turned to her, the small fox still out of ear-shot over the sound of traffic, and looked into her face. A small blush was working its way over it, as Judy tried to hide it behind the ear that she brought around the side of her face and across her mouth and cheeks, saying nothing as she looked up at the motionless fox.

Well, what do you know... Nick thought after a long pause... I spend all this time thinking of how I'm gonna tell her, and she does it for me.

"You want to... waht?"

"Uh— I…"

No one expected what happened next. Nick was surprised — Nick was very surprised. Finnick, who had been watching the two, since they re-emerged from around the corner, was surprised. The driver of a black cab and his fare were both surprised. The CCTV camera operative — casually watching the mildly interesting arrest as it unfolded — was surprised. The advanced interdenominational race of super-aliens hovering above the planet's surface — half-heartedly deciding whether they wanted to invade Zoophon and enslave all mammalkind or not, and deciding it probably wasn't really worth it — were surprised. Ethel Morris, an elderly spinster having her fifteenth cup of coffee since lunch, was surprised. All the people, who later heard the rumour of what had happened, were surprised. The rabbit who was the cause of what happened, Judy, was surprised... come to mention it, she was the most surprised of the lot.

All in all, the general reaction to what happened next was: Surprise.

Judy opened her mouth. She tried — she really tried — to force a word, or at the very least a sound, out of her mouth but found it utterly unresponsive. Judy shut her mouth again and closed her eyes, at least she tried to, but her gaze as it was — locked firmly with Nick's — all she could do was stare into the twinkle in his amazingly wonderful emeralds, which twinkled with what, worry? Bewilderment? Desire?... Hope? A little of all perhaps.

She stepped forwards, without consciously sending the message to do so from her brain to her foot — as it moved on its own accord — like it was some kind of 'instinct'. A sort of dizziness took over her — blurring her vision and dulling the surrounding sounds — while bringing other things into crystal clarity and perfect attunement... like the sound of her heartbeat, her slow, shallow breaths. She turned her ears towards the fox, whose eyes were glowing a brighter and more vibrant green than she had ever seen in them before, and picked up on every sound of his body.

His heartbeat was rapid — incredibly so — and his breaths were as quick and as shallow as hers. She spotted he was trembling — almost indeterminably — but her eyes appeared suddenly able to take in every feature of his body at once... while all the rest of the world faded into a dull haze. Judy reached out her arm — at least, she was quite sure it was her arm — but if felt sort of numb, and seemed to move on its own accord. The rabbit watched quite motionlessly as the arm attached to her shoulder moved towards Nick and up towards his face.

The arm she thought was hers reached out and clasped the knot of the red fox's tie. The arm pulled, but it was as though someone else had done it — and that was another strange thing; she didn't feel like she had any weight behind the tug, yet his face shot towards hers with such speed that she must have put her whole weight into it — and she knew it wasn't 'he' who had done it to 'her'... just by how surprised and how wide his eyes shot as he — as she — as they...

Their lips pressed together. That simple soft touch, that tiny little contact, that inconsequential little anatomical juxtaposition of their two orbicularis oris muscles during a state of contraction... which gave cause for shrouded emotions — hither held down, held back, by both mammals for fear the other did not share in such feelings — to rupture and bleed into each of their minds. The kiss that sealed their fate. The kiss that, for the second it lasted at least, was the only thing — the only thing — either Nick or Judy could think about. The kiss that they had both wanted so much for so long. And the kiss...

... The kiss which became the object of forbidden desire for both forever after.

"I'm sorry, Nick, I... I don't want a rabbit," Judy said, trembling, a tear gracing the soft fur of her cheek, her paw still holding his face close to hers. "I want a..." her gaze fell from his to the floor, "I want a fox."

"And don't you know it."

"Jerk..." a fist thumped into his side. "And yes, yes I do." Nick shrugged off the soft punch with a light chuckle before sobering and looking back to the rabbit, her lips temptingly close to his own. A temptation which was a little more than what Nick could handle.

Lurching forwards, their lips met a second time. At this, a feeling of security and comfort — along with the burning emotion, which had flamed up inside both at the first union — grew within Judy for now that Nick had actually kissed her back, she knew; thou feeling... was mutual.

Nick reached forwards with a single delicate finger and took the single tear, she had shed, as it dangled from the bottom of her chin. He rubbed it into his fur, with thumb and forefinger, before looking back into the rabbit's eyes and licking his lips — savoring the taste of 'Judy' which still lingered on them. "So, Judy," he said after a second, "does... this make us—"

"Possibly," she returned, a playful grin on her face, "I guess you'll just have to find out. Assuming you ever get the guts to ask, that is."

"Hey, gimme credit where it's due, Hopps," he chuckled nervously, "I've been thinking up ways of telling you for months now."

"Well, maybe," she whispered on tiptoe into his ear, "you shouldn't be 'thinking' about asking, but should actually 'ask' someday... You never know, my answer might surprise you."

Closing his eyes, Nick moved his head forwards for a third kiss — quite unable to bereave he had gone, from none in a year, to two in the space of a few seconds — desiring to 'just check' to make sure fox-kissing-rabbit was something she really was okay with; but his eyes opened with surprise as her small paw clamped over his muzzle, keeping it at bay barely a millimeter off her lips.

"Arh— Nick—" she said with a stubbornly playful edge to her words, "— that's enough for now... we're on duty, remember?" All Nick could do was stare at her shining eyes and cheekily grin, as she lowered off her toes and closed one eye in a wink — a wink that set his heart thumping even louder in his chest, if that was even possible — before turning back to Finnick — who had been watching both with captivated interest, not saying a word. At seeing Judy turning to face him, he hid his surprise and interest behind a mask mild lethargy.

To the rabbit, the blush on her face: Painful.

Smoothly, Finnick slipped his free paw into his pocket and brought out a small bag of tobacco. He unwrapped it and let it fall open, a few of the leaves falling into his lap. He reached into his pocket again and brought out a scrunched-up piece of cigarette paper, and flattened it on his knee. The small, rectangular piece of paper flattened, Finnick picked up a sizable pinch of the tobacco between thumb and index finger, and let it drop from his grasp, as he moved his paw along the cigarette paper — distributing it evenly along the length.

He tucked the packet back into his pocket and carefully rolled the paper into a tube shape, being careful to keep the line of tobacco within — not an easy task to manage with just one paw — but Finnick managed with a practiced ease. Bringing it carefully to his mouth, side on, he licked his tongue against the edge of the paper and rolled that last bit of it into the end. Popping it into the corner of his mouth, he reached into his pocket a third time and took out a lighter, flipped up the lid, sparked the end into light, and put the flame to the end.

Moving the lighter back in his pocket, sucking a long drag, he turned to the rabbit, and spoke.

"So... wha'do you wanna know?"

...

Somewhere just beyond the edge of the city of Zootopia — about three miles or so — far past the last of the houses and into the deep forest, which laid all around, stood a shack. It was clearly old and somewhat shabby — once acting as a home to a lumberjack many years ago — which sat among the many old oaks and ferns, the floor laden with sweet-smelling flowers and the birds singing harmoniously in the trees, which glowed warmly in the sunlight.

Within this small wooden shack lay two people — a male and a female. One was a wolf, the other… was not. They lay against one another upon a simple bed with four wooden bedposts. The room was mostly empty but for the bed — except for a single wooden cabinet with a phone upon it, a number of mislaid woodworking tools, two sets of discarded cloths and some very basic versions of life's most bare necessities.

The male of the two groaned happily as he lay back, his legs and arms around the smaller female. He was the wolf. The wolf put his paw to her cheek and kissed her only ear. He rubbed his claws affectionately into the fur, at the back of her neck, and her breath hitched in return.

The wolf was albino. His silken fur was whiter than snow — head to foot white, neither blemish nor mark of any kind, other than the soft snow delight. His eyes glinted silvery-white like the moon... and his heart…

His eyes closed, the wolf pressed his muzzle to the female's face, causing her to jolt. The wolf expected as much. Having only just met one another, it was understandable that she would be 'apprehensive' towards doing what they had just done and were about to do again. She was not of the same species as him — other wolves had never interested him — and her heartbeat became yet more rapid, as the white wolf rubbed a possessive paw across her bare chest. Her breath baited — gasping to a stop — at his next action, her heart leaped yet further into her throat, and she started to tremble with the anticipation of what was to come.

An adoring smile on his lips, he brought his muzzle close to hers. He opened his jaw, his teeth shimmering, and pushed his tongue into her mouth. Her eyes shut tight and her trembling increased. The wolf slid his paw from her neck, slipping it down to caress the smooth fur of her back. His arousal growing, his paw moved to hold her rump. Pulling with his paw and pushing with his hips, he impaled the whole of his length firmly within her.

The female's scream at his entry was lost to the tongue the wolf pushed deeper into her mouth... not that anyone would have come if she had screamed out; the nearest possible 'help' being three miles away, far away from this unoccupied part of the forest. He started to work at her. She pushed against him, but had neither the strength nor the will to resist. He licked at her face. He growled as his speed increased, but then... his phone started to ring. He grunted, heavily.

Whoever it was could wait... he was busy.

He loved everything about her small body. He loved the smooth slopes of her hips, he loved her creamy-tan fur. He loved all the small moaning sounds she made at every movement he made within her. He loved her scent, her warmth, her cooperativeness...

She moved a little — trying to shift away from him — and so the wolf shot out his arm and held her beneath him, keeping the small prey pinned exactly where she was supposed to be…

He loved the way her body shivered against him, adored the small sobs that escaped her lips. He wallowed in the scent of her fear and her pain, and hungrily lapped up all the blood, which dripped from the many cuts he had etched all across her face.

Her black eye. Her torn face. Her slashed arms. Her crumpled legs. The blood which ran in a steady stream from the nose he had broken. The ear he had bitten and torn off during his last climax. The bruises forming all across her body. The rope tying her to the bed, cutting deep into her wrists and ankles, as she writhed to get away from him.

His silken fur was whiter than snow — cold and remorseless. His silver eyes glinted more distant than the moon — without compassion or emotion — a pale, soulless void... and his heart? His heart was blacker than the darkest pits of Hell.

The wolf rushed to a climax, wanting to relieve himself unto the crying, terrified body which was pinned beneath him — causing a horse wail to escape her in an exhausted cry from the pain. He wanted to finish her properly, but in a few more seconds the call would end automatically... and 'He' wouldn't like it if he missed 'His' call. The wolf knew it was Him calling — no one else did — and He would not be at all happy if the wolf ignored his phone. The wolf climaxed. The female sobbed, begged, "No more, no more!"

The wolf bit hard into her neck.

A final, sickening whimper escaped her lips as her dying breath gurgled out of her, her mouth filling with glistening, crimson blood. The sound was like music to the white wolf, and he made a deep happy noise with the back of his throat, as he withdrew himself from her naked, dead body... which now lay tortured and defiled, tied to bed, bleeding from wounds across all her body. Bite marks, cuts, bruises and tares. Her wrists bleeding from hence the thin rope had cut into her.

The wolf sank his teeth deeper and tore out her throat. He would eat the rest later, but coney never tasted as nice when cold. He stood — sucking up the juices of the raw meat in his mouth — and picked up his impatient phone.

It was a video call. It was from Him.

The white wolf pressed 'answer'.

"Ahh, Wulf," said the image of the person, which appeared in front of him, "there you are, I was starting to wonder." The wolf grunted. 'He' smiled. "Have you been enjoying the rabbit I sent you?" The wolf grinned — a trickle of the rabbit's still-warm blood running down his chin — and the eyes of the face on the screen flicked to look past the wolf and onto the bed, looking at the motionless body — with its arms and legs tied to the four bed posts — the bed-sheets soaked red with her blood.

A twitch of a smile came onto His muzzle, and a cold light lit up in his eyes. "I see you have. Good." His eyes flicking back to Wulf, His mouth broke into a grin as corrupt and wretched as the wolf's. Leaning forwards, the face on the screen spoke again.

"Would you like… another?"

…

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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