"Let's not forget that it's you and me versus the problem, not you versus me." - Steve Maraboli
We've all heard that the occasional fight between partners is good for the relationship. Despite their differing natures, Nick and Judy have gotten along just fine. It wasn't hard to believe that they'd get into an argument sooner or later...
For it happens to the best of us...
If you don't bash heads with your significant other every once and a while, then It's clear something may not be right.
Because no relationship is perfect. No two people can stand each-other indefinitely. And no one is capable of liking everybody.
But these apparent facts didn't keep him from loving the life he was living. Nick Wilde couldn't have enjoyed his life much more then he was at the moment; Sitting next to his mate, Judy, as they watched the sun rise over the stretch of seawater that seemed to go on forever. It had been a few hours since the two of them had left Bunny-Burrow in the evening and returned to the city. That morning, Judy had (somehow) managed to drag Nick out of bed extra early that morning, because the the bunny figured that the two of them could enjoy a nice, leisurely stroll on the beach that lovely morning. Despite Nick's pestilent protests, Judy did not relent her advances. She told him that the both of them could use the exercise, alongside the fact that such an endeavor may prove to be delectably romantic.
Nick finally agreed.
Now, the two of them were peacefully sitting atop a blanket of sand, far from the reaches of the more 'public' beach zone: Desiring even more privacy, Judy lead Nick to an obscure little cove on the far east of the Zootopian Coastline.
"Come on Judes, is all this extra effort really necessary? It's five o' clock! We could plant ourselves right in the middle of the beach, and probably wouldn't see a single soul for hours." The fox complained. He didn't really see the necessity of dragging himself to the most obscure corner on the beach, at 'No Thank You O-Clock' in the morning, especially when there was seemingly nobody else for miles in every direction. Judy frowned and spun herself around, facing Nick whilst pacing backwards with a slight smile.
As she walked, she spoke to him.
"Lazy little fox!" She began, almost teasingly. "Don't you want to make yourself some memories?"
The rabbit allowed herself a brief chuckle before continuing;
"Besides, haven't you ever heard that the more effort you put into something, the greater the end product is?"
Nick smirked in response to her question. "I sure have, Whiskers. Problem is, the only end-product we're gonna get outta this is a longer walk back."
The bunny rolled her eyes and elbowed her mate in the rib-cage with a little more force then what could be described as purely 'playful'.
"Unh-Hey now! No need for animal abuse, Carrots!" The fox exclaimed as Judy's elbow met his sternum. "I'll comply." He admitted.
However, in that moment of physical contact between her elbow and his chest, Nick felt a slight stinging sensation: Pain. Albeit weak, but pain nevertheless. He rubbed at his side, thinking back to the scuffle that had transpired at the vegetable fair the other day over in Bunny-Burrow. His body was starting to catch-up with him, by the looks of it.
Judy smiled triumphantly and snatched the fox's forearm in her paw, severing his train of thought.
After about twenty more minutes of walking, the two creatures finally reached the aforementioned cove, much to the fox's delight. He promptly perched himself upon his own haunches before sitting himself down in the sand, his bushy tail sticking with grains as he swept it behind him. He let out a groan of discomfort as he leaned his weight back.
"At last..." He started. "Can we go home now?"
Judy stifled a slight laugh at his out-of-the-blue, but totally expected statement.
"I figured you'd say something like that." Judy confessed. "Can't you just enjoy the sunrise?"
Together, the two tiny mammals silently watched as the sun began to grow over the edge of the horizon, coloring the sky with a miasma of bright red and yellow light. Judy eventually spared a glance back at her husband. On the ground beside her, she noticed something peeking out from his collar for the first time: A missing patch of his red fur.
"Nick... What happened to you?" She questioned him, concern washing over her features as she leaned forward and gently touched his chest.
The fox blinked before staring down at his chest. He bit back a curse.
"Oh, it's nothing." He promised. "Just a scratch."
"What happened?" Judy asked again, more sharper than the first time. The fox glanced down at his collarbone once again.
A path of fur from just above his chest was gone, likely torn out from that fight the previous day. He had hoped that the fur would grow back before Judy would notice. Nick's conscious then took him back to a moment in time just about sixteen hours ago, give or take. He recalled a trio of thugs cornering him in the Bunny-Burrow spring festival. He remembered getting beat, their kicks and punches connecting to his thin body many times. He reminisced the moment of hope when he saw Finnick come to his rescue.
But somewhat regretfully, he remembered leaving the scene of the throw-down as if nothing ever happened. He and Finnick had agreed not to speak of their actions to anyone else.
What happened in that shoddy mud-pit behind those out-houses was to stay between the two of them.
He formed his answer.
"I-I fell down some stairs." He lied.
He tried to force as much fake truth into that claim as he could, but it obviously wasn't enough. Judy simply knew him too well, by now.
"You're lying, Nick." She told him. "Don't you dare lie to me. Not with this." She placed her arms atop his shoulders and forced the fox to look at her.
She then shifted her weight before staring him dead in the eye. She was not going to take no for an answer. She asked him one last time;
"What happened?"
Nick sighed in defeat. There was no swindling his way out of this one: Judy wasn't going to let him get away without the truth.
"I... Yesterday at the f-fair... I left to go and find an outhouse. I got jumped. That's all there is to it."
Judy tightened her grip on Nick's shoulders and lightly shook him, his head swaying from the action.
"No Nick! That is not all there is to it!" She nearly shouted at him. "Tell me everything!"
Nick was somewhat taken back by his mate's sudden outburst. He couldn't blame her though. If he had found out someone had ravaged Judy, he would be pretty riled up too.
He spilled. Everything. He told her about the thug bunnies; The way they had insulted Nick and his partnership with Judy. The way they had spit at him and mocked him, but even more painful than the beating that followed was the way that that one bunny had threatened to attack Judy herself. That was what had truly set him over the edge.
Nick may sometimes be easily suceptive to annoyance and minor irritation, but there are few things that truly make his blood boil. What that hick had said was one of them.
Nick continued telling Judy his story: She listened quietly and with intent, not interrupting him even a single time. He appreciated that.
The fox began recounting to his mate the moment when Finnick had came to his aid. He described the way that the two of them overpowered the thugs and beat them into the ground. Nick assured her that they didn't hurt the bunnies too badly, but after remembering Finnick's involvement, personally found that assurance a bit hard to believe.
"And Finnick and I promised eachother not to tell anyone." He began, but stopped mid-way when his own conscious interrupted him in a sarcastic tone of voice;
Looks like you certainly kept your promise.
Nick sighed once more. "So we just left the scene." He clamped his mouth shut with finality. He was done. Finished. He'd spilled everything he had to offer on the whole event, and now the only thing he had left to show was bruises... He shuddered before slipping his shirt back on: He didn't want his mate to see his weaknesses.
His bruises...
Judy had stood up and began pacing around in circles, visibly agitated. The sun had began rising across the horizon, but if Judy noticed, she didn't show it. The coming light was pooling around the cove, filling it with a honey-like color.
It certainly was beautiful.
But Nick's focus was trained on that of his own beautiful sun, whom had her fists clenched tight into rigid balls of frustration. After a few short seconds of agitated pacing, Judy turned her attention toward the fox, who scurried backward when the bunny jabbed a finger in his direction.
"Do you have any ideahow serious this could be, Nick?!" She yelled at him. "Did you even think of the repercussions of your little throw-down?!"
Nick stared slack-jawed at his mate, unable to find the words to answer her question. It was true: He hadn't given much thought at the consequences of fighting with those thugs with Finnick. He had gotten so enraptured in the heat of the moment that the thought of having to answer to any potential legal matters didn't simply stick with him.
Judy's furious cries demanded his immersion once more.
"Do you know what could happen if the ZPD, or the public finds out about this?!" She was nearly screaming now. "You could lose your job, Nick!"
Judy threw her hands in the air in frustration before continuing her tirade.
"You're a cop who picked a fight with three civilians, then and fled the scene!" She panted harshly.
Each pause she took between reciting his sins made the next statement even louder and angrier. She was obviously trying to control her anger. It was clear to Nick, at least.
"You... You... DUMB FOX!" The bunny shouted, anger spilling over, between, and around each word.
Nick's eyes glazed over.
His mouth hung open.
His face, emotionless.
Whenever Judy called him a dumb fox, it was always with teasing intention. But this time: hearing those words spat out at him in anger, Nick didn't know what to think.
To him, a punch in the face would have been less painful. Then anger started to build up within him. Who did this bunny think she was? She couldn't judge his actions, could she? He acted in self defense, right? These thoughts and more began clouding Nick's mind. He didn't regret what he did. Heck, he even had fun beating up those thugs!
They deserved it, or so he thought. These thoughts drove him to his next words;
"So? They deserved it! Don't you put that crap on me, fluff! You've gotten in fights before, right? Remember good ol' Gideon Grey?" The fox asked mockingly. "You said you kicked him in the face for stealing your stuff and flooring you. You fought him Judy... so don't tell me you haven't done those same kinds of things!"
Judy's ears twitched at the mention of her past grievance. "I kicked him once, Nick... I've never horribly beaten someone!"
"Oh please..." Nick stepped forward, examining Judy with a look of disappointment. "It's only a matter of perception. I was defending myself with Finnick!"
Nick then walked closer to Judy, stopping right in front of her. "And-I'd-Do-It-Again!" He hissed while poking Judy's chest with his finger, emphasizing each word.
"Those thugs probably ended up winning the vegetable contest anyways. As for me, you want to know what my prize was? Just a bunch of bruises and missing fur..."
The bitterness in his voice leaked over, but he quickly recomposed himself.
"I didn't just get hurt, though." He growled. "They said... I-I thought that they were going to hurt you, too... And I couldn't let that happen."
His words flowed over Judy's long ears soothingly, calming her anger. She realized that Nick was speaking the truth, and nothing but.
Judy realized that Nick had had the right intentions - protecting her and himself- But that he had executed those intentions in the worst possible way.
"Nick, there was no need to hurt them though." She told him carefully. "You could have ran as soon as they let you go when Finnick saved you!"
A small amount of anger came surging back to her. "You should have ran as they let you go!" She then cried.
Nick's eyes narrowed. "I... I wasn't thinking straight. You're right... I should have ran." Nick admitted. He then pulled himself to his feet and dusted himself off.
"I'm going home, Judy." He shook his head. "I knew it was a mistake to come here."
Nick then trudged off in the direction of home, not caring what happened along the way. He stopped and turned around to spare one last glance at his mate, who still stood silently in the shade of the cove, her arms slumped against her sides, face bearing a look of despair.
He then spoke out;
"For what it's worth... I'm sorry." He rotated away from Judy and resumed walking. "I'll be back at the apartment." He finalized softly, near muttering beneath his breath. But Judy heard him, and she willingly let him go: She needed some alone time...
As Nick distanced himself from the cove, Judy turned herself away from the shrinking form of her mate in the distance. She walked over to the spot in the sand where the two of them had been sitting, chatting peacefully just minutes ago...
Judy sighed longingly.
She had originally hoped to undergo some early-morning romance with Nick here in their little private slice of nature, but fate had other plans apparently. The bunny cursed angrily, and in a fit of frustration, raised her leg back and kicking at nothing in particular, sending a wave of sand flying forward. The anger within her soon quickly dissipated.
Then came the tears.
Horrible, heart-wrenching sobs contrived from her as she sat down hard atop the blanket of sand. She buried her face in her paws, not caring about the grains of sand that stung at her corneas. She wept, but not for herself. She wept for her love with Nick, now seemingly in tatters because of their argument. Perhaps bunnies really were overly emotional. To Judy, It mattered not if they could ever fix it, for even if they did, a terrible scar would stay: a gruesome reminder that no relationship was without its flaws.
No relationship was without its flaws...
The bunny replayed those words over and over again in her head, as a reminder of exactly that. She sniffled before softly speaking aloud, "No relationship is perfect."
From there, the hard truth bore into her like a bolt of lightening from the heavens themselves.
"No relationship is perfect." She repeated, this time slightly louder.
Judy got to her feet, her eyes fixed on the horizon which was the rising sun: Which itself represented new beginnings. A new day.
A new chance to right what had been wronged.
In that moment, Judy had stopped crying. She realized that it was pointless cowering here in solitude, giving in to her looming fears and sorrow. She wasn't some damsel in distress! She was Judy Hopps, first rabbit officer at the ZPD, valedictorian of her academy class, and above all else: The wife of the fox she had so thoroughly wounded.
Somewhere out there, Nick was walking off in shambles, hurting because of her. She wasn't going to allow that.
Then she took off in the direction that Nick had went, intent on catching up with him to fix this whole mess. She was through with letting this stay broken.
I'm so sorry Nick...
She sprinted along the beach, the blanket of morning sunlight casting its way across the path to recovery. Together, they would fix this: That much she was certain of.
Nick hadn't bothered looking back after that.
He knew that Judy wasn't following him. He knew that he had left her there, and he knew that he had hurt her with his words.
The fox sighed. He hadn't expected his day to start off so awful, but given his seemingly rotten luck, didn't expect it to get in better.
The only thing that could make him feel better was the thought of going home and getting some sleep, if only to distract himself from his current thoughts.
Gosh... Stupid, stupid! I shouldn't have fought those thugs! Shouldn't have abandoned her back there, either! Nick mentally scolded himself.
Abandoned...
Nick flashed back to that moment nearly twenty six years ago. His dad, fists clenched in anger as he stared down at his wife, who lay strewn across the floor and in pain. Tears were streaming from all three fox's eyes as the terror of the situation settled over them all, suffocating them like blanket.
Nick's father had hit his wife. Just one strike, but that was all it took to change their lives forever. His father had then left without a word.
Like I abandoned Judy...
He wiped his eyes before he went from walking to jogging, then slowly began running. He never liked running very much. Perhaps it was his laziness, or maybe just his current mood. But whatever it was, it didn't matter to him now. He wanted to get as far away from that beach as he could. To put the maximum distance between it and him.
As the sandy dunes beneath his feet turned into concrete pavement, and the city's looming skyscrapers sprouted around him, Nick began wondering if that's what his father had felt like... Felt like when he hadran from his own problems, all those years ago. How he had ran from his own family, if only to get as far away from them as he could.
Nick was sprinting now, running through the streets of the city as fast as his legs could carry him. His father's heart-breaking actions and cruel words swirling through his head. But through the mist that was his crappy childhood, Nick saw a lighthouse piercing the fog. A beacon of hope. A pillar of light, edging him to his destiny.
That beacon of hope,
That pillar of light,
That light in the dark...
Was Judy.
I'm so sorry, Carrots... He internally muttered.
He wasn't paying much attention to the scenery around him as he ran. The backdrop became a blur of colors as his thoughts penetrated his will, forcing him one step at a time toward his destiny. Nick reared around the corner of a building and shot across the road beside it, not bothering to stop and look for traffic. Years on the streets had taught him how to be careful when crossing the roadways, but now, his own thoughts and emotions were too overbearing. The basic act of the routine escaped his mind.
A flicker of movement caught his eye.
He heard it before he saw it.
The horrid screeching of tires on asphalt; Hot friction grinding a massive object to a sudden stop.
Nick barely had time to turn his head in the direction of the awful noise before the vehicle struck him, sending him careening into a world of blackness and pain.
Hey everyone!
Major cliffhanger here, as you just saw. It will be resolved in the coming chapters, I promise. Stay tuned!
'Till next time...
Peace!