Grabbing a couple of coffees after work, Nick and Judy had a pleasant conversation while enjoying their drinks at the coffee shop. Then, they headed out to walk a few blocks to get to the subway, where they would part ways. They always walked together after work; there was no reason not to, really. The two stopped at a corner, waiting for the crossing signal.
"Oh, look at that, Nick!" Judy exclaimed, pointing down the street opposite of where Nick was looking. She grabbed at his tie and yanked it to help him look where she wanted. Nick let out a terse yelp as he was brought under the bunny's control.
"What am I looking at?" Nick grumbled, hunched over from the tie tugging.
"There's a couple of rhinos over there with a hippo kid!" Judy said excitedly. "Isn't that cool? I bet they adopted!"
"Or, they're just three unrelated mammals that happen to be standing close to each other," Nick said, straightening up and gently removing Judy's hand from his tie.
"You think so?" Judy's eyebrow raised. "They're walking awfully close together."
"Okay, perhaps the hippo is a child actor and those are her bodyguards?" Nick offered, smirking. He began to fix up his tie's knot, as it was messed up from Judy's handling of it.
"Wow, you really think the rhinos adopting a hippo kid would be that weird?" Judy squinted at Nick a bit. "I have half a mind to go ask them! Even if they are going the wrong way!" Judy started making an over-dramatic strolling pose, and, as she expected, felt Nick's hand on her shoulder.
"Carrots, you really have no sense of propriety, do you?" Nick sighed. "You don't just go ask someone if they've adopted a different species of child. C'mon, it's our turn to cross." The two started crossing the road.
"Well I think they're doing something nice for society, if that's what happened," Judy folded her arms, nodding.
"Having an off-species kid," Nick sucked his teeth. "Dunno if I could do it. That'd be really hard on the kid, don't you think?"
"From what, a bullying standpoint?" Judy tilted her head. The two made it across the intersection and continued. The subway entrance wasn't far off.
"That, and whatever other differences the parents had from the kid that they would need to account for," Nick mused. "Size, diet, temperament..."
"You're saying it wouldn't be worth it," Judy's voice dropped in slight disappointment.
"No, I'm just saying it would be difficult," Nick sighed as he stepped on the escalator to descend. Judy, maybe just to be contrary, took the stairs.
"Well, accomplishing something difficult can be rewarding!" Judy said, merrily skipping down the steps as Nick gave her a dry look, his arm touching one of the sides of the escalator.
"Now you're just talking in general terms," Nick shook his head as he stepped off the escalator. They would be heading to different train platforms soon, and Nick quickened his pace to catch up with Judy and touched her on the shoulder. "Listen, Carrots, can I make a request?"
"Yeah?" Judy looked back, her eyes widening a bit.
"Can you try to keep yourself from tugging on my tie when we're off duty?" Nick had a very slightly exasperated tone, holding his other hand out while he "steadied" the gray bunny with his hand on her shoulder.
"This is the first I'm hearing of this," Judy said in a disbelieving tone, then, she lowered her eyelids halfway. "What, you afraid strangers will see a bunny that's got a fox whipped?"
Nick's brow furrowed, his arms dropping to his sides. "That's not it at all."
"Then what's the big deal?" Judy shrugged. "And why only off-duty? So you don't care if I drag you around at work, but off work is off limits? What sense does that make?"
"Awful lot of questions for a simple request," Nick said calmly, putting his hands in his pockets. "I'm sure that if I cared to tell you what the big deal was, you'd understand."
"So tell me, then!" Judy tilted her head, looking at him with reproving eyes. "Stop being such a kit about this!"
Nicks brow twitched, and Judy saw a hint of his teeth for a split second. She thought she saw his muzzle scrunch up too, but it was dark in the subway. Nick turned to walk away. "Goodbye, Carrots. See you tomorrow."
Judy held her arms out, and her ears dropped. "Wha- Nick! Don't be like that! You're not- I didn't- oh come on! Just talk to me!" Nick silently refused, and headed onto his subway train, avoiding eye contact with Judy.
At her Pangolin Arms apartment, Judy thought to herself how weird it was that anything as loud and obnoxious as her neighbors arguing could become so routine and easy to ignore. Though, even if they were louder than usual, Judy didn't know if she'd be able to focus on anything they were saying anyway. Dressing down for bed, she thought about Nick and their exchange at the subway station.
"Okay, I may have been a little bit of a jerk," Judy accepted, looking at herself in the mirror. "And Nick may have clamped up on me again. But over his tie? Can't say I can understand that."
She jumped into bed and closed her eyes, but she felt like her mind was trying to analyze all the possibilities of what could be up with Nick. She frowned and opened her eyes, looking at her phone on the desk. Maybe Nick was still awake? She sat there in the dark, squinting at the bright light from her phone, wondering what she should type to Nick that wouldn't sound too corny or weak.
[Hey Nick. Sorry for being a bun-head.] Judy winced as she touched send. So much for not being corny. Maybe the bad joke would be a good enough lure for Nick to shoot back. She waited a long five minutes, looking around in boredom and wiggling her feet off the side of her bed.
[I think they have meds for that.] Nick finally shot back. Judy giggled. Maybe she wasn't in trouble with him anymore. Nick sent her another text. [You never told me yes or no.]
Judy's pulse quickened a bit as she had to think a bit about what question she was answering, but it hit her soon enough. [I won't tug on your ties when we're off-duty.]
[Well that's a load off my mind. Sweet dreams, fluff-face.]
"And a load onto my mind," Judy sighed. [Goodnight, foxy.] Judy snuggled into bed, her mind feeling no less hungry for answers.
Okay Judy, she thought, you're a smart bunny, let's see if you can figure this out. What was different about his ties from work and casual life? Why would he be so upset about one and not the other? Could the ties have been a gift by someone? Maybe...
Judy started to have some ideas, but none of them really made her feel any better. When Judy finally drifted off, all too soon she awoke with a gasp. She was having a nightmare, and it woke her up thirty minutes before she was supposed to get up for work. Clutching at her rapidly beating chest, she also put a paw to her neck.
It had something to do with necktie-based monsters strangling her.
"So much for sweet dreams," Judy mumbled as she checked the time and slunk out of bed.
After the morning briefing at the ZPD HQ, Judy slowly approached Nick's cubicle and knocked on the side of it.
"Morning, Carrots," Nick said in an airy voice, turning his chair to look at her. "Uh, what's up? You look a bit less bright-eyed and bushy tailed than usual. And by a bit, I mean, did you not get your morning cup of coffee?"
"Morning, Nick," Judy said with a slightly tired smirk.
"Officer, please tell me you didn't lose any sleep over what happened yesterday?" Nick tilted his muzzle down and aimed his fully-opened eyes at her.
"Oh no, not at all!" Judy lied joyfully. "In fact, I think I figured out why you don't want me to tug at your casual ties."
"Have you, now?" Nicks face showed a bit of concern as he adjusted his position in his chair forward a bit.
"Mhm!" Judy nodded proudly, closing her eyes, and then began to talk rapidly and gesture wildly. "I figured that your ties must be special to you, but why would they be special? It's just a few simple-looking ties! Well, I thought that they must have been given to you by someone special, and because of that, they must be some sort of keepsake that you didn't want to ever get ruined, so naturally you'd be upset if someone touched them, even if that someone IS your best bunny friend. Then I got to thinking who could have given them to you and figured that it was probably-" Nick had a scared look on his face, and with his mouth pursed, he softly interrupted Judy by gently touching her nose. Judy tried to focus on her nose, crossing her eyes.
"Is that your pause button, Detective Hopps?" Nick said carefully with the same wide expression. "How about, uh... how about we don't go down this path anymore, okay?" He took his other hand and made an arcing motion with it. "The path that this line of reasoning leads goes off a cliff, where it explodes into a giant fireball."
Judy processed this. All she could say in response was: "Oh." She saw the line of Nick's mouth twitch a bit, but he just sighed afterwards.
"I'll let you be, Nick..." Judy gave a very small smile.
"Uh, no you won't," Nick chuckled. "Were you catching a catnap during the briefing? We have to do traffic rounds."
"Oh right, I definitely didn't forget that," Judy giggled. Nick got out of his chair. "I think you should probably drive this time, Nick. I'm a little tired, still."
"You think I know how to drive?" Nick asked impetuously. He flinched as he felt a bunny's paw swiftly enter his pocket and retrieve his wallet.
Judy opened it. "Oh look, a driver's license." She half-lid her eyes and looked at Nick smugly, wiggling his wallet back and forth before tossing it back to him.
"Okay fine, you got me," Nick rolled his eyes, putting the wallet away. The two were almost out of the station, but Judy paused before they hit the parking lot.
"Nick, really, if you need a break from me or something, just tell me, and I won't try to chat you up on our rounds today," Judy said seriously. Nick gave a small, genuine smile, which quickly vanished into his typical smugness.
"Can I have that in writing?" Nick opened the door for her, gesturing her to proceed.
"No, but if you take me up on it, I'm probably just going to nap in the cruiser," Judy smirked, heading on out. "Hey Nick? If I bought you some ties to wear off-duty, would you let me tug them then?"
Nick actually gave a small bark of a laugh at this. "Wow, Fluff. Sure, if you want to so bad."
Judy gave a pleased hum. "I'll be sure to pick only the most garish ones to go with those awful shirts." Nick rolled his eyes.
The two got into the cruiser, and over the roar of the engine starting, Nick very quietly said: "I appreciate you, Carrots." His muzzle was faced away from Judy.
Judy's ear twitched as she heard a mumble coming from him. "What was that, Nick?"
"Oh, I said 'I'm pretty sure you care...', uh, about me," Nick blinked a couple of times. That wasn't much better. How did he slip so easily? He got plenty of sleep.
Judy smiled at him. "Well, of course I do!" Judy happily relaxed backwards into her seat.
What a plain, unguarded answer, Nick thought. She always was like that when he made his little quips about her feelings, but he always tried to deflect them when they came at him. What was it with that bunny?
After about ten minutes of quiet on the street, Nick, with his eyes on the road, decided to speak.
"I appreciate you, Judy, I really do," Nick sighed. "I'm so grateful to have an understanding and caring partner like you..." Nick's pulse started to race as his admission was met with only silence. At a red light, he chanced a look at Judy and saw her head lolled in his direction and her mouth gaping. She was, as she had joked, fast asleep.
"Ah, of course," Nick gave a single, amused huff. He made sure to softly accelerate when the light turned green.
Oh well, he thought. There would always be other opportunities.