Chapter One

Heights

A glimmer of nightfall, a bustle of noise that the streets murmured in the congestion of traffic and tingling nerves. Downtown was entering the lateness of the day with its ginormous scrapers of magnificence. Only those on the west side-still had the problems of the glare that touched upon them through the curtains of the offices.

Even if the clock of five had been long passed, the sidewalks were filled with people who all had their destinations, their goals and their routines. At least the incandescence of heat had lowered significantly in the artificial shade of glass and steel that was appreciated by all, needed by all, un-noted by all.

Under a bridge that crossed another artery of Downtown, with a rail to its lucrative center, was the rather obnoxious clanking of a tow truck that had had its fair lifetime of service with its scrappy frame and old-fashioned existence. Appearance usually shouldn't have mattered, but in cases such as this, appearance was the number one factor of judge if something was a piece of shit or a waste of existence.

The tow truck was lowering a big police cruise of the ZPD into its expired back, while two small officers looked from a safe distance at the sight of problems and cuts of routine, one of the officers thumping rapidly at the ground with their silver-grey foot. With a very inconsiderable bash, the chains lowered prematurely and the cruiser made the whole tow truck to screech on its unoiled suspensions.

"Watch it! You scratched my cruiser!" shouted the smaller officer with angry fists that rowed the air in glower to the unphased driver.

"It's technically not y—"

"Oh fluff it!" Judy snapped at Nick, as he was the only one to whom she could funnel her irritations of the day. But her head quickly realized her fault, and she put a paw over her mouth with the apologize, "Sorry… sorry, Nick. Urgh, it's just that this heat," she pulled on her uniform's shirt and blew into the neck of it, having had already removed her kevlar armor since midday.

"See, Whiskers," Nick said as he rubbed his claws in his trousers, "it's a privilege for us to be here. Think of the precincts in Tundra and Square, eh?" Nick grinned at her with the pants of his own.

"Privileged… yea, you're privileged alright," Judy snorted as she pointed her paw at his chest, consequently, Nick looked down at his unbuttoned uniform's shirt that exposed his creamy fur to a unprofessional standard.

"I gotta keep up to the standards of my species. People are going to start thinking things otherwise, yea?"

"That's the excuse? Cheese and crackers, maybe I should do the same and show what the ZPD is all about, Slick." Judy retorted as she tugged on the base of her tucked blue shirt. But as her eyes got to Nick's, his head was tilted and one of his fingers was tapping his creamy chin.

"Hm… yea, got me curious," Nick drew through a visible attempt of forcing his cooling pants off in failure. Judy's black-tipped ears lifted in the air, as she couldn't manage to understand the words and their implications-subtle.

"About what?" Judy probed in a step closer to the foxy officer. Nothing made sense to her in that exact moment within the realms of possibilities, until Nick put a claw on his neck and trailed it slowly down to the middle button that was keeping the rest of his body obscured. In the span of a flash, her mind caught onto the hint and her heart jumped inside of her to a raising blush that was hidden by the prior-raised heat.

Her head looked away and into the tow truck from where the ox driver with oily overalls jumped out in the sway of the big vehicle. Nick's curiosity appeared genuine, as his eyes had not been jeering at that moment. They were scrutinizing and thought-provoking in exhibit. Of course, nothing the fox said could ever be taken as the whole truth and it was usually meaningless to try and weight the possibilities, hence, she actually found her race of thought ridiculous and that blush made her throat to tickle in a giggle that beamed at Nick with a glance.

Without even planning, she stuck her tongue at him with paws to the hips. But she didn't notice his reaction as the ox intervened with his words, "I'll drop in Mildmay Down. Hunch this," he drew lazily and leaned at Judy with paperwork in hoof. An incoming vibration like a mini earthquake slowly gained tension around the ground, tho not strongly enough to alarm anyone.

"Mildmay?" she asked as she took the already-stained paperwork for the towing, in the confusion of the area the ox had mentioned. The bridge above shook and the active suspensions on its steel feet started moving, while a lightning-speed train went through, while dust fell from the edges and onto the unsuspecting people underneath.

"Buddy, that's near the west docks. We're headed to Precinct One," Nick intervened with a step that his tail made air in Judy's direction, something that made the blood that filled her ears a bit in lesser discomfort to the flares of heat.

"Aha… Drive safely," the ox snorted and then just took his leave without any further clarification, advice or whatever.

"We need a drive back!" Judy shouted at the ox, but the big mammle just glanced at her with a pause, and then he just shook his head in disregard. Judy's eyes were then filled with the blue and red of Nick's steps that quickly followed, but when she saw him touching his baton, she instantly grabbed onto his tail and scolded him with a hiss, while the driver clambered into the tow truck with a loud crash of door, and tried to fire-up the whimpering engine.

Nick had stopped instantly at the tug, and then he lowered around his shoulder, from where he bleakly said, "You don't just touch a fox's tail, Fluff." Her paws went away from the bush of soothing fur, and she interwined her arms ahead her body with dislike to his actions.

"You're an Officer, behave like one, Nick!"

"I am?"

"You can't just do whatever you want, you know that."

"Tell that to Muskdam," Nick huffed as he pointed at the ox that had finally revved onto the busy road, but this usage of nicknames had had the speckle of animosity, which could be an understandable element to the hustles of the day, nevertheless, Judy wanted to try and correct her workpartner's attitude and behaviour, even if it usually amounted to her receiving the far end of the stick. Yet, before she was able to have her say, Nick stepped in front of her and edged close to her face with a slightly frustrated stare of exhaustion. "C'mon, just say it," he breathed into her face to the wiggle of her nose.

Her scowl was inevitable, while the increasing heartbeat was strangely unnoticeable to her mind. Defiance made her to remain in this closeness of his jowl that had his upper fangs leaking from his lips. She huffed to his attempt of uncomfortableness, which was rather successful, and tried to squeeze out words to his ears, but then she was met with the warm stream of air that Nick blew at that very moment. She stumbled back from the onslaught of hotness against her eyes and quickly re-collected her whereabouts.

Nick was smiling at her on his propped knees, and despite her annoyance at his antics, she couldn't find it in herself to not shake her head with an amused sigh. "Ugh… let's just go home… there's surely a line at the communal…" Her steps aimed her down from the road they had patrolled on and towards the nearby train station. There were a lot of trees around the street, as the green tried to compensate for the bleak lifelessness of asphalt, steel and brick. She got around some big people's legs and tried to increase the skips of her steps, as she didn't want to get back to her tiny apartment at the dead of night.

Something touched her at the wrist, and she didn't have time to think it through, so her body snapped backwards and she bumped into the warmth and scent of familiarity.

"Carr— wait!" yelped the voice of Nick as she had bumped her shoulder hard into his stomach, due to their height differences. Her lungs gasped to the mistake, and she hurried to check if Nick was alright, before, maneuvering from a crowd of trampling pigs and rams.

"Poison for roaches and fleas!" yelled some kind of salesmammle that was desperately trying to sell his bulks of goods amongst the piles of people. Surprisingly, there was some success…

"Nick, I'm sor— I tho—" she tried to take his paw away from his stomach, but he took a step back from her and dismissed her attempt with quick motions.

"No wonder you're valedictorian…" Nick murmured with a scrunch of a tiny growl, while rubbing his stomach and reaching to the planked surface of the short wall that was surrounding a palm tree-tall. Judy moved with him and waited with clasped paws in front of her chest, as she felt the awfulness for having had hit him so hard amidst the moment of reactions.

"I did—"

"Fluff, I get it, stop worrying and relax," he interjected and gave her a glance of assurance, which she couldn't soak easily due to the scrunching conscious of her actions. Her foot thumped the ground, while she tried to find a solution to what she had done. "As I was going to say… I know we'll be late… but, look," he pointed with his paw between the trees and flats nearby, where the big climate wall rested. "It'd be a nice end of the day, hm?"

"Huh? What are you… what do you mean?"

"Poison, get your poision!"

Nick glanced at the furiously yelling elk and chuckled. "I mean. We go there and have a view we both deserve after this long day." Her paws falling to the side, Judy's nose twitched at Nick in the fervor of uncertainty. Where was this even coming from, and how could he see both of them getting to the top of the wall without any official allowance.

"We're off-duty already and it's late. We aren't even allowed to go there and the tourist section is closed," she listed but knew that he was somehow going to go against all she had said in a way to encourage her to make a decision in his idea's favour.

"Officer Straight-Arrow, please be advised that there's more to life than work and rules."

"Yea? Chaos and anarchy."

"Hu— Oh, you fox. Don't do it for me, for yourself," Nick pleaded as he stood and got at a respectful distance from Judy. Nevertheless, her resistance made him to huff and add, "Then for me, since you bruised me dead. I'll forgive you and buy vegie pizza on the way back, yea?" She knew that she wasn't going to do it because of such simple bribery, even if she wanted to make up to him and get a tasty pizza, yet the prospect of taking a small break and just… being, it did give whisper to a sort of… sinful sweetness.

"Fine," she smiled with a turn on her soles, to which her teardrop tail flicked, and her body gained momentum at the direction of the Zootopia Climate Walls.

…

"Where are we— ugh," Judy flinched as she saw a burly spider just in front of her head that glistened in the semi-darkness of the tunnels that they were now traversing. "Do you even know where we're going?" she called from behind her partner, who was swiping with a piece of plank at the stringy webs of spiders and oldness.

"Yea… been some time," he said lowly, and she quickened her steps around the piece of insectoid meat with beady eyes. Her flashlight roamed around the pipes and wires, while she wondered if this had been the right choice at all. They were trespassing on government grounds and, in a way, had broken in this maze of forgotten paths. It had been from the side of the metro, from where they had snuck their way into the active tunnels and to the inactive ones they were currently going through. She had no idea where or what this was leading to, but she trusted Nick's judgement. After all, he knew Zootopia way better than she had ever hoped to reach in terms of knowledge-practical.

"Was this, eeep!" she shouted as something touched her neck, or at least she thought it had. Nevertheless, she rushed behind her partner and stuck close to his back, his tail brushing at her knees as they stepped, while the fox hadn't even peeked to look at what had happened to her. That lack of attention did prickle at her annoyance, but she chose to forget that it had ever even occurred in her head and body. She didn't want attention…

"So this is the relaxing after work you do? Crawling around tunnels like a savage and lockpicking doors?"

"Actually I used to do it with Fin, when we were doing schemes," Nick clarified to her guessing, as he swapped at a spider that tried to stick to him. "It was kinda… exciting, you know? Aha!" The plank touched upon a steel door with a small, hazy window. Nick collected the webs and reached for the handle, which Judy was sure wouldn't let him in, but as it scrunched in rust, the door actually clicked open and gave them a new sight of a service elevator. Nick smirked to her, put the flashlight under his muzzle and muttered, "Fox smarts."

Her stare remained stuck as he moved into the new room of these dingy tunnels, until she realized that she was alone and that the pits of darkness behind her were closing onto her in quickness and relentlessness. In disbelief to his character, Judy quickly got to his side and looked around the many sensors and withered words that decay had filled up. Some of the walls had no concrete and appeared to be consisted of rocks… Like they had entered the wonders of an anachronistic world.

"Have you ever been here?" Judy asked as she looked up through the fence of the elevator and the dark tallness-unseen.

"Ehh, it's been some time. But yea, I have… just let me—" when he touched a lever at the elevator, a loud bang crashed from the frame of old equipment and got both off-duty officers to flinch back at a hefty distance. Had Nick just broken government equipment? But she barely had enough money for rent an—

The lights flashed in flickers around the daft dark, and the lack of hospitability above was illuminated by vision. Nick gave her an assuring smirk and pulled on the safety doors of old, which screeched and bashed. He stopped at the controls and bowed like a fluffhead. "All aboard! The Wall express call for all swaggerers to g—"

"Is this even safe?" she injected with little to no amusement.

"This was created by the grandfathers of our grandfathers... of their grandfathers, heh... And they knew what they were doing… Apart from that guy," Nick pointed behind Judy, which made her to turn in her breath at the implication that there was someone else down there in this forsaken place. But there was nobody at all, just—

She heard the movement of the safety door and was quick to find what Nick was doing. He was going to leave her down there all alone! Her feet dug into the concrete and she rushed for the gap that was left for her to enter, to which Nick's amusement fell, so he pushed away the barrier of the elevator. "Fluff, I wa—"

"You jerk!" she clashed with him and thrusted him into the controls from the panic of her rush. It wasn't intended, but it was the only way to kill her speed without colliding with the wall of the elevator. That made the box of rust to crash loudly again to the shortage of Judy's heart, and then there was motion, all amidst her tightened paws around Nick's shirt and their closeness to one another. She didn't mind that closeness at that very moment of ear-chilling screeches and clangs, as it was actually comforting her that they weren't actually going to die or at least that she wasn't going to die alone... Wait, which of the two was it?

But then she looked up and saw the bemused expression that her partner was exhibiting, thus, quickly released her grip. The elevator wasn't very big and it was obvious that it was meant for average-sized people. In front and around all that could be seen were steel supports and concrete, with working or flickering lights here and there. This distraction didn't work long, because she started noticing her awkwardness at being with Nick in this constricted space, as well as the prior moment of body to body. Was she actually having such thoughts, or was it her imagination that was filling her with dumbness.

"You are a box of surprises, Fluff. As I said back then when you came back to me: emotional bunny." Her brows huddled at him, and she didn't find anything suitable to retort with, simply because it was true. Her emotions usually controlled her and got her to act out of the ordinary of her decisions. This was no exception, even if Nick wasn't actually going to leave her alone, her instinct had bellowed at her that immediate action had to be undertaken, and she had believed her instinct without a shadow of a doubt. Was she wrong to do so? Nah…

They rode the elevator up for quite some straining time, and Judy could note that Nick was reaching conclusions from every moment passed. Why did he even want to get her there on that top? What was the point of all this… If he wanted them to hang out, that could've happened like usual in the basks of the weekends, not in the middle of the work week at a time and place deplorable to begin with…

"Who were you with last time here?" Judy asked quietly and believed that she had to repeat herself, due to neither of Nick's ears flicking amidst all the loudness of the box of decay. Yet, he looked at her and gave a tug of a weak smile.

"That's a good question. I wonder what's the answer…"

The answer never came, and the awkwardness molded with the annoyance of being left in the dark without the proper attention. She twitched her mouth, but decided to huff and grow closer to Nick, while they were starting to reach a cleaner and more developed part of this heightness. The view was replaced with a slick surface of some kind of metal that lacked any properties of rust. Did it have a coating of paint or was it in its natural existence… Finally the elevator lessened its speed and reached an opening into the wall, where tidiness and order was all that was.

Nick blinked at Judy in satisfaction to her certainty that they were going to die, and then they crossed into the modernization and civilization of the enclosed corridors. The lack of piping or wires was confusing to Judy and her curiosity to how this structure was handled and designed. Her mind half-expected stones to be the construction of the building-upper, alas, such was not.

She was led through the corridors with many doors by the sides with labels of maintenance rooms, storage and even offices. Finally there were expensive cameras, but Nick assured her that if they didn't act suspicious, no one would bother them. After all, he had included their cover before they had begun this small adventure, a cover which was the badges on their chests. Judy wanted to talk with him, but this stealth of trek had managed to seal her lips, thus, turning her into a mime of action.

They climbed flights of stairs and more excitingly clear corridors, until such luck of emptiness was met with a burly security guard with the name Bob and the face of a jaguar. Judy realized that she didn't mind the name one bit, it was a very nice name, a wonderful at that!

"How'd you sneak here?!" the guard shouted and reached for his stunstick, but then his eyes noticed the badges and his shocked hostility found less disgruntlement. "Who got you in? None tell me about police here… Pete, you clumsy— You're so…" Bob reached for his radio, but then Judy felt the air move at Nick's decisions.

"We're here at work, Bob. Pete didn't know better, don't be hard on him. We only had a call about suspicious activity on the roof, so we need to see if all's in order. Yea? We don't want anyone trespassing on your grounds, right Bob? No need for you to waste your constricted time, we're already here." How the fluff had he been able to adapt to the names and situation of the matter. The guard had only muttered the name of Pete, and he had already integrated it into his scheme of deceit…

"Activity? Bah!" the guard yelled and played with his fingers for several moments of indecisiveness. "Yea-yea… you go check, Officers. I gotta go… do stuff, yea," Bob grumbled with a very small smile and quickly disappeared from the vicinity. Had he taken the chance to skirt off his duties at the offer of someone else doing his job? Unbelievable… Judy found no respect for Bob and his attitude.

"Wilde." To her formality, she actually heard him flinch. "You're unethical," was her finalized addition as she drew steps, yet stopping at a crossroad of corridors to the lack of idea to where to go.

"Such a crime. Our careers after we retire," Nick jested as he pointed to where Bob had disappeared into, while opening a grey door of aluminum and exposing more stairs.

"I'm not going to be a security guard!"

"Neither I a fox," Nick returned and she snorted accidently as they clambered up and up the coldness of the height.

They finally reached the end with a big door that whistled loudly with light on its edges, which Judy judged to be the last step to the view that was to come. But the door held no keylock, it held no such mechanism visible, hence, Judy realized that maybe that detail had not been present in Nick's last trip to illicit reaches. She was to pull on his tail, well, his sleeve actually, when he touched on the intercom on the side and spoke to the frost of her muscles, "Boby-Bob, open up."

"Ain't Bob. Who's that— Why're you at the roof?"

"Ask Bob."

"John is th— Stop fucking joking during the night!"

"Why? I ruined your football game?"

"Obviously!"

"Then open up." The door quickly buzzed like it would in prisons, and it opened inwards, while the voice from the intercom flew in echoes of swears and spite. It was already night as the inky darkness had flooded the sky and hung like curtains of many. Judy's ears fell in disappointment for missing dusk and the colors of red that she had so many times seen in Bunnyburrow. A weight grinded in her stomach, and the possibility of getting caught, for being where they shouldn't be, just took stage away from her priorities. The roof was wide and long, it was filled with solar panels and there were tall turbines that rolled to the murmurs of multi-seasonal wind. The transformers buzzed in monotone rhythm and the light in the distance flickered and moved with purposeful purposelessness.

They got to the edge of the climate wall, and from there could be seen Savanna Central, Downtown, the far reaches of the sea that surrounded Zootopia and the tall crowns of the Rainforest District's green. She spun at Tundratown and observed see the mountains-natural in the farness as well as the artificial icebergs of structure that appeared small and insignificant from this absolute distance.

The elevation they were at gave them a view above the rest of the wall that surrounded Sahara Square and its endless fields of sand, which glittered in the smirks of stars alive or withered by.

No longer there was heat, the air was actually perfect to her body that had been rather chilled from the tunnels of old. She leered at the sights, and it didn't matter if dusk was gone. This was… actually better and never before witnessed, this was what Zootopia was all about. Try everything… Huh, should've been more like see everything.

The metropolis of light, the metropolis of life.

Nick got by her and put his paws in his pockets, his fur soothing against the Tundratown's chill that escaped the crest of barriers. Somehow the sight everywhere around her had reduced her excitement, with its funnel moving into the figure of her partner in law and friendship. His emeralds reflected that which he calmly stood against, dancing images of tiny lights filling inside his irises. Fur twinkled like grass and his long tail slowly wagged from corner to corner. She couldn't deny this: he was handsome.

"What's on your mind, Fluff?" Like burned, Judy flinched and quickly diverted her lilacs to the sights that lacked the red fox.

Her rabbit heart entered overdrive, and she stuttered in nothingness, "N-nothing… j-just nice… we m-missed dusk!" She pointed at the silent horizon as if trying to prove her overly glorified statement.

"Huh… we did," Nick acknowledged, and the aftermath of slowness entered the surroundings. Judy knew there was tension, but she didn't know how to bring it up. "Is it the same here like in your hometown?"

"Eh? Oh, no. Well, I haven't seen Zootopia from here, but… yea, it's way calmer in my hometown. Natural and… handsome, hih…"

"Handsome? Odd word," Nick noted, while she felt the anxiousness unraveling. But it didn't have the required time to stifle her, as it did so anyway with Nick's next words, "Judy," he brought her first name to shock. He never used it if things were not serious, "can I… huh… can I hug you?"

Her head flicked to him in the span of a moment, her mind blurred and her thinking blocked by the unknown that had been created from this totally unexpected question. "What?"

"Do you… just, do you, I mean— can I hug you?" he repeated and she was now idle against him with widened eyes to the cheeks. He wanted to hug her? Did she want to hug him? Why did he even sought to ask about such? Apparently he had understood her unspoken questions and gave one answer through-in, "I'm not being awkward, I just don't want to be hit again, heh." The memory of the accident brought her erect ears down, and she twitched her lips in guilt.

And then, she just shrugged her shoulders and beamed at him with open arms to this strange affection, which was a unique fruit. "Turn around," he whispered with a clawy gesture. She didn't want to give into his request without finding out why, but he was her partner, so trust demanded that she did so without query or doubt at the renewal of the dazzling sight of magnificence-returned. What was he going to do, was he going to finish the joke on her and jeer in his usual charm or—

Two auburn paws moved in front of her slowly and wrapped themselves around her throat and chest, while more warmth touched upon her back and between the gap of her ears, where a long muzzle with teeth and creamy fur hung above her eyes. Faintness of musk reached her twitching nose, and she felt this incredible giddiness and warmth that spread within her belly and heart like a blooming flower of nectar-bliss.

But then there was a motion that pulled her back and she lost footing to her body in an eeeep that ended on the ground. It didn't hurt any and it wasn't cold either, when she had fallen on Nick's body, which pushed further into her to the entrapment of paws, legs and head of the handsome fox, her partner. He nuzzled into her side and hummed in audible affection to this closeness, while her feelings sprouted in fantasies that she didn't have initial capabilities of stopping.

"A view is not a view, if you don't have someone to share it with, Judy… Empty your mind of everything and just… just be in the now."

Rooted onto fields, taking forest, hill and ravine,

A beauty of age, of history, of culture.

Home to many, defender of nation,

Its mark, the apex of civilization.

...

From red tiny roofs, to white imposing flats,

Set in rows of order-disorder, lined with veins asphalted,

Glinting gargantuans pristine, skulking chimneys of heat,

There is no end, there is no peak.

...

Thus this gives me wonder to how ahead we are,

Top the chain, creationists unparred.

Yet still, it tingles somehow wrong, detached,

The row of mountain behind, they somehow give more spark.

"Would you like to… come with me in Bunnyburrow next month?" Judy tried as the moment was more than perfect to the cornering of the agile fox. He couldn't dodge the answer, and he visibly didn't want to get away from the likeable embrace.

"Heh… oh you… Well, since you've left me no wiggle room… As long as there's such nights ther— and blueberries, don't forget that!" Her giggle vibrated upon Nick behind her, and she sighed the tension of relief to the accepting results, while letting the view to linger in her rejuvenation.

"Have you… shared this with someone else?" Judy asked innocently as she nestled herself closer into Nick's benevolent body.

"You're a smart bunny. Question about what is more significant," he finalized and his tail gave a blanket in front of Judy's chest. She saw this as a decision, and it didn't take much musings to find out what the answer was going to be. 'You don't just touch a fox's tail' as he had said, unless a fox's tail wanted to be touched.

In greediness, Judy grabbed the bushiness, hence, the only parts of her body that were left exposed to the world were her feet, all amidst the giggles and playfulness of life.

After all, life was meant to be shared.

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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