Chapter Nineteen

The Rabbit and The Fox

Death. In Tarot reading, the Death card represents an ending. All things come to an end, but keep in mind, this is not just referring to life. The worst part of Death is the struggle of acceptance. Yet Death, like Birth, is completely natural. In this day and age we attach ourselves to a potential level of immortality; we like to think that we never leave this space and time. We don't like to think that all the time and money we've invested into our lives has gone to waste. But the Death card reminds us that it is time for us to confront our fear at the end of the chapter. Death is a journey; the only constant is change. This is undeniably true. We must not fight Death, only practice acceptance.

If the Death card is prominent in our reading, we will find that there is a large amount of change coming our way and we should not fight or resist it. Death is transition — we have a higher power guiding our way that knows more than we do in this moment — and that is a fact that must be accepted for the road before us to clear. Think of it as the Death of the phoenix.

There are aspects to our life that are ending or changing dramatically, and these changes may even be exceptionally hard to deal with. Like the phoenix, these transitions in our life are leading to a glorious rebirth or something new and better. Often, we like to hold on to aspects of our life even after they serve no more purpose for, as they say, it is better to face the known evil than the unknown... but now is the time to let go of that which is not aiding us or bettering our life in some way.

Allow these things to fall away from your life. Let go of your past.Make room for all the new, fantastic prospects in life and allow these things to bring you...

Joy.

…

"Niiiiiiick!"

A loud and piercing explosion rippled through the air, despite the wishes and wants of the wickedness-stricken rabbit whose entire life flashed through her eyes in the span of a second in which her legs kicked her primordially to the urge of self-preservation. The sound separated the air above her head and in between her erect ears, while her whole body fell desperately to the cold ground of the roof.

"Err, Judy? Are you—" Nick tried to articulate amidst his slack-jawness, but Judy was quick to retort due to her furiously raging heart and adrenal-infused focus the prospect of death had created without consent.

"W-what the h-hell, Nick? W-what t-the hell?! You almost shot me!"

"Sorry Hopps, I—"

She wasn't having it, rows of questions and doubts had replaced her rationality, with the most important coming to materialism before her mouth, "W-what the fluff are you doing? Are you trying to kill me?"

"No! Hopps, it's a shooting gallery." Stunned beyond fury, yet still bound to the sensation of trust, Judy took in her surroundings. The roof of Nick's apartment was a wide, long, square platform with a parapet about two feet high on all sides. On three of the four sides, the roof overlooked the rather unlively city, which was lit in a dull gray light from the clouds that were still in the process of parting — though the rain had abated and the wind had died down. The fourth side, however, was connected to a much higher block of flats. This wall — which Judy had stepped in front of when she had rounded the ventilation shaft — had a kind of shelving system nailed to it. These shelves were populated with a number of beer cans, bottles and flower pots... a number of which were smashed and disgruntled.

Stood in the center of the roof was Nick. When Judy had first seen him, he had been stood with his gun out before him at arm's length, aiming down the sights, towards the wall she had leapt in front of. She had believed that she was about to be on the receiving end of a small but very fast piece of murderous led, thus she had thrown herself on the ground as the bullet whizzed past, and into a flower pot less than a foot away from where her head would have been smashed into pieces.

Reminiscing onto the moment that had flashed through time so quickly, she found herself kinda amused by the surprise and worry on Nick's face as he started towards her. At that moment, however, she was too startled to even notice the fox closing in the distance.

"Hopps," Nick said, softly. Having crossed the roof, the remorseful red fox stood before the rabbit still on the floor and leaned towards her, offering his paw — palm up — towards her. "Hopps, I'm sorry."

"Oh, don't be," replied Judy in the calming aftereffects, taking his paw and standing. "It was just an accident, could've happened to anyone."

"No, you misunderstand, Judy. I-I'm sorry. I am so sorry for walking out on you, I, I... I'm a coward, Hopps, I always have been. I run away from everything that hurts when I should be pushing through it like you said I should and I knew I should." The fox started to tremble slightly, "Judy, when I was walking away from you back in that apartment, I knew, knew, I was just running away from the best thing that ever came into my life, but," he continued, hot tears stinging his eyes.

"B-but I just carried on walking and walking— I crossed half the city and didn't even realize… until I was back here, alone, with nothing but myself and my memories. I—" the fox raised a paw to wipe away a tear as it crossed the length of his cheek, the rabbit watching in stunned fascination. "I, I—" Nick took in a long breath, then a painful gulp. "But, you came back. You came back to me, Judy, even after I deserted you."

Judy stood motionless as Nick's powerful green gaze penetrated her soul with emotion. She opened her mouth but no sound came out, and so, she hugged him instead. Stepping forwards, Judy's eyes fell tightly shut as she put her arms around his waist — holding him so tight that he couldn't have gotten away from her even if he wanted...

He didn't.

No, Nick didn't want to get away from her and, the moment she had stepped forwards, he had thrown his arms around the rabbit, grasping her with as much urgency as though he needed her like oxygen itself. His eyes fell closed also as he breathed lungfuls of her sweet, reassuring scent, his warm tears wetting the top of Judy's head. "Why? Why did you come back? For me, of all mammals."

"I already told you, Nick," Judy sighed, "because you're my partner. There's nothing I wouldn't do for you, Nickey, and I hope someday you'll come to realize that truly."

"Oh, God," Nick huffed, surprising Judy as he was still sobbing just a little, "I— I don't deserve you, Judy. Never in a million years do I deserve you." Judy opened her eyes slightly, her cheek pressing against Nick's warm chest in the coldness of the roof air. She wiped a tear of happiness against Nick with a smile, her gaze falling towards Nick's paw... the fact wasn't missed that the gun Nick was holding was a Ruger SR1911. Her brow furrowed, but she knew she had to play it safe, thus said nothing at this time. Her gaze shifted at the gun's six inch barrel. A thought crossed her mind, one nasty and awful thought...

What if Nick is the murderer?... This thought lasted for substantially less than a second and then the rabbit cursed herself for being so untrusting and cast that doubt into the wind, deciding questions could wait for later as she pressed her head back into the reassuring warmth of his chest, her eyes falling closed a second time. "You seriously think you don't deserve me, Nick? Why?"

"Because you're perfect. And you're wonderful and intelligent and beautiful and kind and thoughtful and driven and brave and—" Judy reached up and placed her paw gently over Nick's mouth.

"Well so are you, sweetheart," she replied softly, turning her head to gaze up at him, her paw slipping from his mouth to caress his warm red cheek. "You're wonderful. You're intelligent and thoughtful. You're driven and brave, and so very beautiful." She reached her other paw up to Nick's handsome face — a stretch though it was — as she held his head in her tender paws. And then, as slow as the changing of the seasons, Judy started to draw Nick's head down towards hers. Nick's eyes were full of surprise and anticipation as they drew level with Judy's.

Judy pressed her lips against the fox's deep purple nose in a gesture enjoyed by both of them. She gave him a second, quicker kiss on the nose and then edged her mouth forwards down his muzzle slightly, for a third kiss — a kiss — which would have been on the lips if Nick hadn't interrupted her by apologizing again.

"I'm sorry."

Judy drew back from the closeness she was about to place on the fox's lips, her voice as sweet as her smile. "No. It's me who should be sorry. If I hadn't kept pushing you—"

"No," he snapped. The air around Judy's body suddenly turned cold as the fox stepped away, his voice sharp as Judy's head turned to face him.

"Nick?"

"No, you have nothing to apologize for." With that he raised a single claw and pointed it at himself. "I do," he drawled — his voice hot with accusation — then turned his claw to point at her — his voice far softer, pained almost. "You don't." He lowered his paw. It dropped loosely to his side. "I left you when I needed you the most. You opened yourself up, left yourself emotionally defenseless, threw yourself upon me emotionally — then physically — to try get to me and to get me to stay."

"You risked everything we had, our friendship, for my benefit. And I left you without so much as a word of goodbye in return. I, do not, deserve, you." Nick stood silent for a moment, then continued. "You said, on the drive over, not to expect any offers of help in the future, because I wouldn't get it."

"Ooh— come on, Nick… I was in a mood! I didn't really mean—"

"But," he interrupted... "that doesn't mean I can't 'ask' for help." The rabbit fell silent, staring at the red fox as he slowly lowered himself to the ground. "I'm asking for your help now, Judy. I'm begging for it." It's true, he was. On his knees in front of the rabbit, Nick leaned forwards until his head was below Judy's own eye line. Looking down at the fox for the first time in living memory, Judy didn't know what to think as his paws reached out and took hers in his, clutching them before him as he, almost begged for her help.

"I've been running from this for the past three years of my life. But if I keep running now, I'll lose you, too. I don't want to lose you— I couldn't bare lose you. I have to fight it… there's no other way. But I can't do it alone... will you help me?"

"Of course I'll help you," Judy breathed in reply the moment she regained the ability to speak. "I'm here, Nick. Whatever you need, I'll help you."

"Then hear me. Listen to my past. Let me tell you everything, help me with my burden— I can't..." On the edge of tears, the fox fell lower to the ground. "I can't bare it on my own anymore."

Judy stared for several seconds, lost for what to do. Then, putting her arms around the fox's neck, she lifted his head until his wet, emeralds met hers — both rabbit and fox on the very edge of emotional wreckage. "Then tell me. Tell me all you can bare to tell and let me do everything I can to help."

Nick breathed, a smile for an instant crossing his muzzle — revealed for her help — but fearful of what he now had to say. Slowly, eventually, Nick stood. Judy stepped back from the fox, making sure to appear calmly attentive while all she wanted to do was hug the fox, kiss him, and tell him he didn't have to do a thing which, while it was what they both would have preferred, would not have helped either in the long run.

Nick had asked for her help. That was something Judy could never refuse.

Nick looked away, out towards the edge of the city, and then walked over to the edge of the roof. Judy followed behind. The fox climbed up onto the low parapet of the building and Judy's heart leapt into her mouth as the image of Nick jumping off took her mind, but her fear settled as he merely sat down on the edge, his feet dangling over the ten-storied drop.

Taking in several long breaths, Nick slowly started to push his mind back through the years, forcing control over his emotions in the way he had learned to over his long and unhappy life. Judy's ears quivered as she joined him on the parapet, not touching him, but close enough to offer her support.

"It all started," he began slowly, "a very long time ago. You thought the Ranger Scouts was an old story? Well, I wasn't even born when this stuff started," Nick paused, considering how best to go about this, and then continued. "My Dad was always an abusive bastard to my Mom. I mean, she was strong, almost as strong as you. There wasn't anyone in Zootopia she couldn't stand up to... but Dad screwed with her, mentally. I was too young to see it at the time, but looking back, god it makes me sick."

Nick leaned forwards, his elbows resting on his lap, while gazing down the many feet he could fall before reaching the ground. Judy couldn't handle the fact that Nick could jump or fall off at any second, thus she shifted closer to him and locked her arms around his chest, knowing she was putting herself at risk if Nick jumped, thus certain that he would never do so if it risked her life as well.

"In public," he continued, leaning into Judy just a little, "he would find fault with everything she did, shouting at her for her mistakes and then storm away whenever she tried to apologize. Alone, he would hold her to his chest, stroking her head and telling her how wonderful he thought she was. Some days he'd stand by her side, hold her, love her. Other days he'd leave her deserted, piling blame and guilt on her, 'till she broke down in tears on the floor. He didn't even need to be there, a text from him was enough to give her a breakdown." Nick's voice started to rise with anger. "He'd walk into the room telling her he loved her more than life itself, and then storm out of the room thirty seconds later saying he wished she was dead. His mood towards her changed at the tip of a hat. And it wasn't because he had some kind of personality disorder. He knew exactly what he was doing, and every time he beat her, it only made her love him more when he hugged her again."

Nick fell silent for some seconds. The red anger which had raised the volume in his words to almost a shout, fading. "She didn't have a chance. She was brainwashed, literally, and that—" Nick growled, then spat of the edge of the building, spiting at the memory of the mammle he once mockingly called 'father'.

"But this one night," Nick continued, his voice strained, "this one night he was so drunk he could hardly tell the ceiling from the floor. Well the stupid bastard got it into his pissed head to go out to the lake. Mom… she tried to stop him, terrified he'd wind up dead in it or something. She tried to stop him, so, he hit her." Nick's body started to convulse slightly, rocking with the suppressed tears.

"He hit her and he hit her and there was blood and she was on the floor, he broke her nose and cracked a rib and I was only five-but I ran at him and hit him, trying to stop him hurting Mom, and then he hit me and..."

A dull whine escaped Nick as his head dropped into his lap. He remained motionless for a time, but when he looked up again, his voice was steadier, firmer and not so laden with pain. "Next thing I knew, it was three months later. I was in incentive care, just out of a coma from a severe concussion. My Mom was there, all better, and my Dad was serving nine years jail time." A smile crossed his muzzle then — a grin — as he carried on speaking with a voice which was rather warmer. "Those years, when it was just Mom and me… they were probably the best years of my life. No offence to you, Carrots."

"None taken," she breathed, glad to see Nick could still joke — even a little.

"And, apart from the little incident with the Scouts which you already know about, life was pretty good. We weren't 'wealthy' and things were a little stretched at times, but we pulled through okay. I went from being bottom of my class to the top because of the support Mom gave me in revising and, best of all, my Mom seemed to recover and turned back into a good vixen again. Not the brainwashed, soulless fox my dad left her as."

He breathed happily for a moment — sucking in the 'good' memories while they lasted — knowing them to be short lived.

"Life was pretty good for a while. No crime, no cons, no abusive dad... no drugs. But then, a few months after my fourteenth birthday, when my 'dad' was let out of jail... it's a day I'll never forget. I remember there was a knock at the door and Mom opened it, and there was dad with flowers and chocolates and a clean face and a new suit. He embraced Mom and begged her to take him back. She did. She had sworn to me she would never talk to that creep again, but the moment he walked in through that door, like the bastard owned the place and swearing he was a new mammal and that his nine years in jail had shown him how important… Mom was— she fell right back into his arms." Nick grunted heavily, his head despondent.

"But it was the same old shit in the end," he muttered, "I love you, I hate you, come here I miss you, go away I'm tired of you. I'll hug you, I'll smack you. I'll kiss you, I'll..." Nick turned further away, his voice lower still, "I'll beat you." Nick's gaze fell, biting down on his bottom lip until he tasted blood.

He did this until the physical volume of a cut lip equaled the pain in his heart, or masked it… at least, and then continued, "His time in prison didn't make him any better. If anything it made him worse. Rather than just being the abusive bastard of before, in jail, he got 'connected'. Even after all that time, he still had total power over Mom. She was still a brainwashed slave to him and still couldn't see him for what he was. I tried to tell her, help her, stop her. God is my witness I tried— but, it was no good. It was like I wasn't there."

The red fox — the greatest friend Judy had — fell silent into deep brooding for a long time. So long that Judy thought it must have been the end of it, thus she opened her mouth to speak, only to be cut off with, "I thought for a long time about running away from home. But Mom needed me so I stayed. I hated to think of the control dad would have had over Mom if I wasn't there. And dad… if I can call him that… He was always too nervous to so much as to touch me, knowing that I was the only thing that could make Mom see him what he was again."

"Everything was back to how it used to be. My grades fell. I felt sick and lonely every day. I couldn't speak to my Mom, didn't want to speak with my dad and didn't dare leave Mom alone for longer than necessary, because I was afraid he'd start beating her again."

A moment of more gloom fell, and then Nick chuckled, dryly.

"But, in the end, my dad's corruption was his own undoing. Now, you've heard this bit from Finnick, but I was out partying one night, came back late, and he was just dead on the floor. I knew it was a drug overdose for two reasons. One, a number of the friends he had made in prison were heavily connected with the drugs-triad. And two, he was still foaming from the mouth, white powder all across his muzzle. I woke Mom up like it was Christmas. She reacted like it was Doomsday. The police came with an ambulance, and declared it death by drug-overdose and not a murder. Mom was in tears for weeks. She couldn't walk, couldn't eat, couldn't do sod all. It was no surprise when she had a breakdown. They took her to a mental hospital and pumped corrective drugs into her until she didn't know who she was or what she was doing. And— and then..."

Nick broke into trembling whimpers, anger and heartbreak welling up in his soul. It overpowered his ability to speak for a moment but then he forced the emotion down, speaking on through the cacophony of stress, his voice hot with overwhelming emotion.

"By— by the time I was eighteen, Mom was in intensive care. The doctors tried and tried, but she wasn't responding to anything or anyone. She wasn't eating, speaking, moving— She died before my twentieth birthday… fun birthday that was… still a teenager, and already I'd gone through enough shit to last me a lifetime… That was just the start. After that I ran to Tundratown. A guy can get himself lost there, easy. And it's there I got connected with mammals of… well, shall we say: the more unselective social class of mammals."

"Mister Big, you mean?"

"No," Nick chuckled. "I wish it was, but no. Big wasn't in power then. A different mob ran Tundratown in those days. You're probably too young to remember the Kray Twins, believe me, you're lucky. But, fortunately for everyone, The Firm, ran by the nefarious Ronnie and Reggie Kray brothers, has long-since been dismantled. But, back in the day, the Kray Twins practically owned Tundratown. And I mean, literally, owned it. They didn't just rule the crime in that area like Mister Big, they had every officer serving there bribed and scared into turning a blind eye to anything they saw, including murder without so much as a second glance."

"What happened to them?"

"Chief Bogo happened. When Bogo was put in charge, the first thing he did was replace every officer working in Tundratown with new untainted officers. He combed that part of the city, ratting out every last member of The Firm, until there was just the Krey Twins left, who apparently killed themselves shortly before the last of their power was taken from them."

"Wow, I never knew that about Bogo!"

"Well, the 'governance' want him to keep it quiet. It's a stain on Zootopia's otherwise spotless record and they just gave him a raise and a pat on the back, while any decent government would have given him a medal and declare him a hero of the people— but anyway, let's just say I had to do some pretty bad stuff to survive. I've never killed," he added with a tone of assurance which Judy believed wholeheartedly, "but I worked very closely with mammals who did."

"How come Bogo never found you out?" Judy asked.

"Cause I'm a fox, Hopps. I don't care how many times you've heard a fox complaining that it's speciest to call them 'shifty' or 'sly', but it's damn true. Just like it's damn true you're the cutest officer in the whole ZPD."

"Well," she said lightly, glad for the opportunity to raise Nick's spirits with some playful banter, "I wouldn't say I'm theee cutest." She caressed a paw across his forearm.

"Me? Oh, come on, Hopps. Handsome yes, but not cute."

"No, just cute."

"I am not the cute one, Hopps, you are." Silence fell again. They both knew that was the end of the banter and were sad to see it go, as they knew that they now had to face again the darker and more imminent threat to the red fox's life: his past.

"I really don't want to go into detail with what I had to do, but I ended up in a pretty bad way. I was a lackey to any order the Krey Twins gave me— I even went to dinner with them once, I was surprised to get out of that place alive. But, worst of all, I ended up on the drugs. In fact, the only good thing that came of my time with The Firm was meeting Scarlett." Nick trailed off, his expression almost dreamy as he thought back to her.

Judy realized after a while that Nick had forgotten about what was going on around him, and so, though it pained her to take him back from what was obviously such a nice memory, she pulled him into the real world, "And who was Scarlett?"

"Hmm? Oh! Er, a red fox. Very beautiful and very clever. She was a dangerous piece of work… but, you know, sexy dangerous. For all the heartache I'd lived through by that point, and she'd been through some tough times too, that's what brought us together. She was on the drugs too, and working for the Krey Twins just as I was. But with her, somehow, everything just became more bearable. Life with her was always on-the-edge. A few years went by like this, and we wanted to move in together and we wanted to get away from the Krey Twins too."

Slowly, then, Nick's words started to shake. His voice trembled more and more until he could hardly speak. This, truly, was the freshest stain, which pierced the sharpest of all the rest of experiences disastrous.

"Scarlett, on one job, managed to steal the income of an entire shipment of drugs and used the money to buy us a beautiful little house in the north of Tundratown. The Krey Twins didn't like that though, and they— they... ah fuck, god I'm sorry Judy, I didn't want to tell you this. I-I got back one day, back to our house with flowers, and the door was broken open. The windows were all smashed in, the furniture was all destroyed and there was— there was... just blood! There was blood everywhere. The Twins had found out about Scarlett's theft and had killed her for it and, I went to the police, and— an... and they thought it was me!"

Nick screamed, his voice harsh. He stood rapidly and rushed towards the wall, leveling his gun and emptying shot after shot into it. Even as tears blurred the vision of his eyes, he shot. His fury and his heartache weighed his head down with lead. Even as his gasped breaths came in sobs from his mouth, bullet after bullet cracked out of his gun. Nick hardly spared half a second to aim each shot — and yet — every single ill-aimed bullet met its mark.

Nick shot and shot until all twelve bullets were spat. Then he just stood there, the empty gun clicking as the fox continued to pull the trigger. It was just click after click inside the compartment of the deadly equipment of death.

Judy stood and walked slowly towards him. "Nick?" The trigger kept on being pulled and more clicks continued emptily trying to find one more casing to smash upon in combustion.

She stood behind him and touched his back. "Nick…" But no reaction came to be but the fruitless chantings of the empty pawgun meant to strike intimidation and horror, yet its emptiness was actually striking this sense of misery and desperation.

Judy moved and stood in front of the fox, despite the small chance of there actually being a bullet in there stuck — the gun level with her head. Empty though the barrel was, Nick still couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger and lowered the gun, breathing deeply. The hateful clicking ceasing to be.

"They thought it was me," Nick breathed, his gaze hard on the wall. "They thought, it, was me: an act of passion or revenge or something, and questioned me to hell, wanting to know if I was seeing someone else, if she was. They went through every possible reason I could ever have for... for killing her, but it wasn't enough. They knew about our addiction to drugs, and suspected our connection to the Kray's, but couldn't prove anything, and Scarlett's body was never found, they kept asking me what I did with it."

Gently, Judy took the gun from Nick's paws. Taking his arm, she led him back to the parapet and he continued talking as he sat, Judy beside him. "Eventually, they had to let me go due to lack of evidence. But the chief of police at the time swore I was the culprit and kept cops on my tail at every step. But then, Bogo came onto the scene, the old chief retired and the Krey Twins lost all their power and their influence. I took the compensation money from the cops and got myself a flat here. I did everything I could to forget my past and, eventually, the pain dulled enough for me to get back on with daily life. I started doing low-level conning, somehow managed to convince myself I was happy, met you, tried to crush your dreams, got hustled... and the rest you know."

His emotions numbed like they had been for years, Nick sat, in silence, upon the parapet of the building, gazing down the hundred foot-plus drop to the ground with Judy silent beside him. Some time passed and still Judy made no reply, so he glanced to her, his eyebrow quirked. Nick thought he had been sad, but Judy was distort. Fear quickly grew on Nick's face at seeing Judy — with tears streaking down her face in a steady stream, her silent sobs kept quiet only by the finger which she had bitten down hard on. Her whole body shook as the sobs continued and Nick pulled her closer, soothing her, pushing his own sadness aside while he focused his attention fully on Judy's.

"Hey, hey, come on, Hopps. Come on, it's okay. Shh, shh, shhhh."

"Nick... I—"

"I know, Judy. But please, don't cry. I need you strong."

"But, just, everything! Everything in your life is just..."

"Shhhh, shh, sh. Honestly, Jules, I'm just glad I have you after fluffing up once more. I was scared, worried, terrified that I'd messed up so bad you were gone forever!"

"Huh," Judy's voice cracked, "You were worried? I was the one who was worried, Nick. When I saw you climbing those steps to the roof—"

"Suicide ain't my style, Hopps. You don't have to worry about a thing."

Silence came to be once more between the pair a second time — a more natural, safer silence however. The vast black clouds which hung over the city were high and breadthy but on the very edge there was a slither of blue, where the ceiling and the ground did not quite meet. It was for this reason that, as the sun set in those last few minutes before sunset — that the golden light appeared in the world, lighting up the previously gray landscape with pure, golden light.

"I opened your present, by the way," said Nick as he leered at the now-glorious sight. "I love it."

"And I opened your past," she quipped, and for a third time deafness fell. This silence, however, was from the material of normality — reassuringly simple — without deeper meaning or darker implications. Both mammals leapt upon this opportunity for some mundane ordinariness. With time, Judy reached across to Nick and took his paw in hers. It took him a moment to realize Judy had done so — lost in thought somewhere — but when he did, he considered down at the paw holding his…

"That's the paw you slapped me with, isn't it."

Judy froze... "Yeah… it is," she sighed heavily, then leaned into Nick's side, her voice deeply pained. "I—I am so sorry, Nick. I can never apologize enough for doing that. You never deserved it. I hate myself for it, you know. I'd rather take a bullet for you than know I hurt you."

Nick couldn't listen to Judy's pained voice a moment longer. Pulling his paw away, he turned himself as he sat. Reaching out to the startled rabbit and wrapping both his arms around Judy's smaller frame, he pulled her into his lap — a gesture, which Judy accepted more than readily as she put her arms around Nick's — returning his tender hug with equal warmth — and buried her head into his side, breathing deeply his appealing musk. Nick found the contact of the wonderful rabbit amazingly comforting, so he put an arm around her, sitting on the parapet of the high building and watching the setting sun. Nick's ear twitched; realization came. Here in his arms was the rabbit he loved, there behind him were the hurtful memories of his past, already fading away in the back of his mind. Before him was a view of the city, lit in the glorious rays of the setting sun, lain out before them in picturesque beauty.

He turned to Judy. He had never seen her look so happy, so content to just sit and do nothing. Yes, there was more than a little residual sadness there, but he knew by the weak smile of simple pleasure on her face: there was nowhere she would rather be. There had already been a lot of admissions that night. So, he decided in the wonderful golden glow of the setting sun, why not another? Now, he realized, was the time.

"Come sei bella, più bella stasera. How beautiful you are, the more beautiful tonight." Judy's head rose, her glistening eyes meeting Nick's, his words spoken softly into her ear."I brillare un sorriso di stella, nei tuoi occhi viola. I shine a star smile, in your violet eyes. Anche se avverso il destino domani fermarci, oggi mi fermo per voi. Even if the fates stop tomorrow, today I will stop for you..."

"Tell me about love,
My whole life is you,
Your lovely eyes shine,
Flames, dream, sparkle."

"Tell me that I am not alone,
Tell me you are mine,
Here in your arms, I suffer no more,
For all the world is put right."

"I know that you are an enchantress,
I know I'm lost in your violet eyes,
But what do I care if the world makes fun of me?
I only care if the world makes fun of you."

"Dimmi di più sul nostro amore,
L'amore che abbiamo tra il Coniglio e la Volpe,
L'amore condividiamo. Me, e tu."

"Tell me more about our love,
The love that we have between The Rabbit and The Fox,
The love we share. Me, and you."

Judy Hopps gawked at Nick Wilde — her eyes leering, shining, as the golden sun fell those last slow inches towards dusk. And then, moving slowly, carefully, Judy raised her paw and touched it upon Nick's cheek. Her eyelids fell closed, then opened again, her pupils dilated with intense emotion before she started to edge her head forwards, tentatively. She still wasn't sure if this was what Nick wanted, and so the fox reassured her that it was.

Nick slipped a warm, red arm around Judy's back, helping to pull her body close as he leaned forwards also, letting his nose brush up against Judy's quivering one in a gesture, which Judy found almost as sweet and tender as the kiss itself when it came a moment later — Nick's lips, and Judy's, pressing together in a sign of devoted affection which was so mundane and uncomplicated on the face of it — yet held countless implications of the true emotions beneath the surface — and of what they both hoped they could become, later.

And this, was their first real kiss.

This was not a heat of the moment kiss delivered through fear or pain, this was not Judy kissing Nick or just Nick kissing Judy, and this was not done with outside influence, like a certain alcohol adventure. This kiss was considered and intentional by both The Fox and The Rabbit — who loved one another most deeply — who had hungered for the kiss as they had both for so long hungered for the love and affection of the other.

When the closeness started it was daytime. When the closeness ended, it was dusk.

Nick broke the affection — but only to press his long snout beneath Judy's chin, rubbing his fur against her cheek, neck and chin; marking her with his deep, musky scent. It was not usual for such gestures to be allowed so very soon in a relationship — like sex — but Judy had no intention of stopping him, wallowing as she always had in every inch, every millimeter of fur-on-fur contact shared between them — and loving the fact she was coming to smell more and more like 'Nick' with every passing second.

At any rate, she wanted to be marked with Nick's scent. Judy wanted to be his.

The sun set, the clouds parting, a chill wind set up through the air, sharp and cutting, high up on the roof of Nick's block of flats. The chill cut into Judy, shivering up the length of her spine and making her quiver with the sudden cold. Nick noticed this reaction and reacted, holding her just a little firmer into his blooming hearth and pressing his lips against her ear, his voice when it came as sweet and soft and gentle as it ever could be.

"There's frost in the air, Miss Hopps. We'd best get you inside before you catch a chill."

"I don't think I could ever catch a chill if I'm in your arms, Nickey." Nick smiled, a happy sound escaping from the back of his throat. Then, the red fox kissed Judy on the side of her neck. Regardless of Judy's words, however, Nick then stood up, hooking one arm beneath the smaller rabbit's knees and the other around her back. Then he stood up, holding her close to his chest and carrying her, tenderly, towards the staircase down.

"Will," Nick began unsurely as he looked at the rabbit in his arms, her arms around his neck with her head pressing into his chest. "Will you sleep over tonight?"

"You just try and stop me, sweetheart." Judy took in a quick sniff of Nick's scent as they descended the exterior steps to his window. "I will make you have a shower, though, seeing as you still haven't cleaned yourself up since you got covered in soot at Ladders."

"I thought you loved my musky fox scent," he said, pulling the window to his apartment up with the rabbit still in his arms.

"Yes, but at the moment it's a little... overpowering. In fact, if your scent was any more 'overpowering' at the moment, I think I'd have to quarantine you as a health hazard!"

"Judy," said Nick as he stepped in the dark confines of his room, "you sly, sly bunny."

"You know you love me, my dumb fox."

"Do I know that?" Nick asked — carrying Judy over the threshold — placing the rabbit down on the floor before treating himself to a long and loving kiss on her lips... "Yes. Yes, I, do."

Judy smiled sweetly, warmly — lovingly. She kissed him again and allowed the contact to linger for a long time, feeling out for the window and pushing it gently shut, while the union of shared intimacy deepened yet further.

Yes, he did…

…

Author's notes:

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Grooms decision thus chosen blind.

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