Sitting alone in one of the Zootopia Police Department's interrogation rooms was a hare. Roughly Judy's size, maybe a tiny bit larger, she looked worried as she scanned her eyes back and forth, unable to see anything beyond the room. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, rubbing her brown-furred arms with her hands.
Standing on the other side of the glass, Nick tapped the tip of one of his ears. "She's got those black ear tips of yours."
"She's an Anihonese hare," Judy noted, studying the hare's facial expressions. She folded her arms. "Kind of small for one."
"And young," Chief Bogo added, coming up behind the two, looking over some papers. "I need you two to figure out why a nineteen-year-old is ferrying illegal explosives around Tundratown."
"I mean, they are fireworks," Judy moved her hands up and down near her as if she was weighing something.
The fox smoothly shook his head. "Professional-grade, foreign-built. They're dangerous by any count."
"Which is why they're illegal," Chief Bogo said in dull aggravation. "Now, get to it."
"Okay," Judy nodded resolutely. She looked up at her partner. "You wanna do the typical good cop, bad cop?" She gestured first at him, then herself.
Nick looked sidelong at Judy, leaning over slightly. "Maybe I should be the bad cop this time? I know how to handle the lapines."
The gray bunny's head and ears lolled to the side. "Oh, do you?"
"But..." Nick shrugged one arm, "on the other hand, we do have a good thing going. Maybe we shouldn't mess with the winning formula."
"You're messing with my patience, which I have in limited supply," Bogo grunted. "Go."
The buffalo gestured to the interrogation room, and the two much smaller officers obediently scuttled on in. Bogo offhandedly slapped the case file into Judy's chest on the way. The hare looked only mildly surprised by their arrival.
"So!" Judy started with her typical blithe perkiness. "Rini Mizuki. A whole nineteen years old."
Rini's brow lowered slightly. "Mm."
"You want to tell us what you were doing carting around such high-end fireworks, darlin'?" Nick folded his arms, taking up his usual position behind Judy. He was to play the role of the gentle "giant", ready to rein in his little firebrand when she inevitably flew off the handle.
The brown hare's similarly-colored eyes shifted to the side, looking away from the two policemammals. "I don't."
"No, of course you don't," Judy tapped her finger on the side of her cheek. "And even better for you that you're of legal age, if only barely." Rini returned a baffled look, and Judy smiled dangerously. "Else we'd have had to call your parents." Judy swiveled her eyes up to the ceiling. "And gosh, isn't there some sort of thing in Anihonese culture about that? Little Miss Mizuki bringing shame to the family name, caught up in-"
"I am not Anihonese!" Rini barked in sudden anger, taking Nick aback and making Judy's eyebrows raise. "I am a Zootopian! You saw my license, didn't you?"
"You're an Anihonese hare," Judy argued. "It's plain to see."
"My parents are from Anihon," Rini grit her teeth. "I was born and raised here, in Zootopia. I am not bound to any Anihonese traditions."
"Well, that's good for you," Judy leaned on the table, frowning. "So you can just commit a crime like this with moral impunity then, huh?"
"Rgh!" The hare gazed with open disgust at Judy. "You don't know anything!"
"Forgive my partner's crass nature," Nick glanced down at his partner with bemusement, "she tends to be a little loose with that tiny tongue of hers. You must have fallen on some tough times, hm? Some shady guys ask you to do a job, earn a heap of bucks... maybe help yourself and some others with that money?"
"No!" Rini's face wildly changed from anger, to hurt, to something like fear. "It's... listen, I can't tell you!"
"Can't, or won't?" Judy replied in a dim voice.
"I'm already in enough trouble as it is since you caught me," Rini began to look upset. "Everything's ruined. I can't- I won't be able to talk to anyone."
"This have something to do with why you refused a lawyer?" Nick narrowed one eye.
"Do you think you're in some sort of danger?" Judy blinked, looking concerned.
"Yeah, they told me never to get myself caught," Rini looked down, "a caught hare is as good as dead."
"Who are... 'they'?" Judy asked.
"I... I can't tell you," Rini shook her head firmly, taking in and releasing a difficult breath.
"We can't protect you if we don't know who we're protecting you from," Nick said gently.
"It's... ugh..." Rini's next few breaths came quickly. "It's the White Rabbit. Or... more precisely, the Shirousagi."
"The Shirousagi?" Judy echoed, stiffening up. "Who are they, Wilde?"
"Beats me," Nick frowned. "Sounds like a gang."
"Yes, it's an Anihonese gang," Rini confirmed. "Their activity in Zootopia has increased recently, and I- I wanted to know why. The Shirousagi shouldn't be here, and their presence makes me nervous."
"So you... you're working for them?" Judy looked baffled, placing both paws on the table and leaning forward.
"I joined them," Rini nibbled on her lower lip, "I joined them so I could get closer to them and find out why they were operating in Zootopia."
"Rini... you really don't want to get mixed up with gangs," Nick offered. He knew from experience.
"You're basically still a kit!" Judy's voice swelled with both anger and concern. "You shouldn't be infiltrating some sort of criminal organization! That's what we have police and undercover agents for! Why put yourself in harm's way?"
"That's what you don't get!" Rini sneered at Judy. "That's the way Anihonese gangs work... they're usually strictly mono-species, or sometimes there will be some closely related species in the ranks. How many Anihonese hare police do you have, huh? Or secret agents?"
"Er..." Judy flinched.
"I love my homeland," Rini grumbled, "and I want to protect it from the Shirousagi. I couldn't think of any other way to find out what they were doing than to pretend to join them, try to rise up the ranks. But looks like that plan's a bust..."
"Hm," Nick frowned.
"Are you gonna lock me up?" Rini looked up at the fox. "If you do, can you make sure I don't share a prison block with any Anihonese mammals? They could be working for them..."
"We'll..." Judy made a quizzical face. "We'll have to talk to the Chief about this. You're sure you don't want a lawyer."
"Very sure," Rini looked down. "I'm afraid they'd find some way to get one of their own to represent me somehow... then..."
"Well, she's properly paranoid, for one," Nick said.
Chief Bogo tapped on the glass, a signal to disengage. Both policemammals gathered their things and left the despondent-looking hare in her seat.
"Very good, you two," the broad buffalo said. He was handed a report from a smallish arctic hare officer. "Thank you, Skippel." After a brief read, he frowned thoughtfully. "Well, your interrogation and this analysis confirms it. The fireworks did in fact originate in Anihon. Must've been smuggled here."
"So what does that mean?" Judy inquired, looking up at the Chief. "Is there anything else we can do?"
"Unless you can dye your fur brown and you speak Anihonese fluently, no," Bogo almost smirked.
"I- yeah, I could do the former, but not the latter," Judy looked guilty.
"We'll let ICE and the ZBI know what we've discovered, and maybe it will give them a lead or two," Chief Bogo said, mostly to himself, "if there is indeed a foreign gang mustering strength in Zootopia, they'll need all the information they can get."
"What about her?" Judy looked through the window at Rini. "Will she stand trial? Can we appoint her a lawyer that has no connections to the Shirousagi?"
"We'll see what we can do," Bogo nodded. "For now, we can arrange to hold her on suspicion of collusion to smuggle contraband, if she's too afraid to go home."
Nick nodded. "So we're done?"
"File your reports, then you can leave," Bogo grunted, looking over the report he was handed. "Good work out there, you two."
"Well, we wouldn't have caught her had my bookish partner not pulled her over for a very minor traffic violation," Nick teased, looking down at Judy.
The bunny shot him a testy look and her face scrunched up, but she smirked. "Also, it was only due to my partner's incredible nose that we discovered she was carrying explosives."
Bogo rubbed the bridge of his snout with two fingers. "Enough kissing each others' tails. You can do that on your own time."
Judy flinched as the offhanded comment landed in her ears. "Wh-what do you mean, sir? We don't- we're not..." Nick began to look uncomfortable.
"Dating? Sleeping together? I don't care," Bogo spared one second to look at the two before sweeping his eyes back to his notes. "As long as you're both the same rank, fraternization is not encouraged, but it's not forbidden."
"But, we're actually not, is the thing," Nick held up a perfunctory finger cautiously.
The fox caught an intense glare from his boss. "What kind of fool do you take me for, Wilde? You two flirt shamelessly on the job. The scuttlebutt is that you've even moved in together. I just told you I don't care. Leave."
"But sir, just because-" Judy started, holding her arms palm-up.
"Let's just leave it, Hopps," Nick held Judy back with one hand. "Let's... we'll go home."
That evening at their apartment, Nick and Judy were finishing up emptying the dishwasher together. The gray bunny was extra aware of how close she tended to stand to Nick, and it suddenly made her a little uncomfortable. She tried to give him some more room, but their movements around each other seemed like a spontaneous dance. They never got in each other's way, and they flowed with a kind of silken grace past each other while doing this most mundane of tasks.
"So, uh..." Judy dried her hands, looking distracted, "what did you think about today?"
"Well," Nick coughed, but a wicked smile started to spread across his face, "we apprehended a black ear-tipped firebrand of a lapine who was willing to put herself at great risk to defend something she believed in." He tapped the top of his muzzle, looking at the ceiling. "You know- I couldn't tell you why, but that sounds just a little bit familiar."
"Oh, ha ha," she enunciated, tossing her head left and right. She rolled her eyes and moved to the couch, throwing herself onto one end. "I kinda meant, y'know. What Chief Bogo insinuated. Everyone- everyone thinks we're together."
"Doesn't matter what they think if it's not true," the fox looked slightly cautious, but he sat on the couch on the end furthest from Judy.
"I mean, we do- we do live together," the bunny laughed nervously.
"You suggested it," Nick shrugged. "Our places were both tiny little dumps." He gestured widely at the apartment. "This place was closer. We get along well. It made sense."
"Nick... growing up, how was your love life?" Judy asked with surprising casualness, leaning back on the arm of the chair.
He looked momentarily surprised, then laughed. "Oh, you think it'll be that easy, do you?"
"I can tell you how mine was," Judy looked down.
"Here we go," Nick rolled his eyes.
She was undeterred. "Of course I- I had people interested in me. Ever since I was young, I had my dream to be a police officer. I never let up with it. So I got all those rumors started about me being a weirdo and all. That didn't keep all the bucks away from me, though! Just most."
"Understandable," the fox folded his paws across his chest. "I'm guessing the small-minded hicks down there don't too much appreciate deviation from the norm." He punctuated the last few words with a rustic accent, to which Judy couldn't help but laugh.
"'If she makes your nose twitch, it's time you made a switch'," Judy quoted, pointing at her partner. "So they say."
"Wow, what a ridiculous expression."
"So yeah, once the rumors had hit a fever pitch, I had no date for prom," Judy shrugged bashfully. "Didn't actually go. Ah well. I knew I couldn't hold down a boyfriend in Bunnyburrow anyway, not when I was going to move to Zootopia and everything."
"You don't seem too broken up about it," Nick noted. "Guess it wasn't a priority."
"I won't say it didn't hurt to be constantly rejected and all, but yeah," she puffed air out of her cheeks. "They were all a buncha dumb bunnies anyway."
The fox chuckled. "Is that so?"
Judy brightened up considerably and perked up in her seat. "So how about you?"
"Oh, so this is 'you share, I share'?" Nick smirked. "You think I'm gonna fall for that?"
The bunny crossed her legs and placed her hands on her feet, leaning in like a gossiping schoolgirl. "Well, it's either that, or I bother you until you end up telling me anyway. Just thought I'd go easy on you for my first prod."
"Your magnanimity is truly staggering," Nick deadpanned with a completely straight face. He stared at the clearly interested bunny for a few seconds until sighing. "Fine, I guess I can tell you."
"Yeee!" She clapped three times.
"Wasn't too dissimilar from you, actually," Nick looked at one of his paws, then held up three digits. "Had three girlfriends, all vixens. All of them broke up with me."
"They broke up with you?" Judy's brow furrowed and she looked confused.
Nick smirked. "I'll take that as a compliment. Yeah. It was kind of my fault, to be honest. After getting to know them, I kind of picked out their idiosyncrasies. I'd start teasing them about them, over and over. Just, things about them I didn't like, or whatever. Eventually all of them broke. I drove them all away." He huffed. "I di have a date for prom night, but that's when I crossed the line with her, too. So yeah, didn't go well."
"Why would you do that?" She looked crestfallen.
"I've told you I hustled since I was a kit, right?" Nick asked glumly. "I kind of felt like all of those vixens- like they were putting on fronts, too. Just like I did. Y'know, getting a charming young fox like me to like them... it was more of a symbol than a real emotional connection. I thought that there were layers that I could have sworn I could see through. I saw through my marks during my hustles, and I saw through those vixens. In a part- er, in a girlfriend, I wanted someone I could be completely honest with, even if it came to things they didn't want to hear. But all three of them were the same. They didn't want me at my most honest. They wanted me to be charming, sneaky, and lie to them about how I felt."
"So they reinforced your beliefs about what a 'fox' is..." Judy seemed both intrigued and saddened.
"More or less," he sighed. "So, I basically swore off romance." He swiped a paw. "I kept the females at paw's length ever since, and didn't look back."
"Yeah, and how is that working out for you?"
Nick didn't respond immediately. The bunny's question was more genuine than chiding, and it landed in a strange place in Nick's heart.
"Can't really complain, Fluff."
There was quiet between the two. Judy started to watch a game show.
"Wonder if there's any cruddy movies on tonight," she flashed a mischievous grin. "You feel like watching one and riffing on it with me?"
"Sounds good," Nick nodded. After watching her flipping through the TV program list for a moment, he narrowed his eyes. "Fluff, you don't really want a boyfriend, do you?"
"I... uh..." Judy's eyes widened, but were fixed on the TV. "...I mean, I haven't given it too much thought, to be honest."
"A guy would only hold you down, wouldn't he?" The fox gestured casually. "A driven bunny like you."
"Probably," she nodded rapidly. "I feel like I wouldn't have much time for him. Then, when special assignments or anything like that came up... it'd cause even more strain. That's even ignoring whatever personality clashes we'd have."
"Mm," Nick grunted, shifting his position. He was slouching to the point of almost laying down.
Another quiet moment went by. Judy felt like her heart accelerated as she stole a look at the reclined fox.
"...And you?"
"Nope," he shook his head once firmly. "Can't say I'm after a boyfriend."
"Nick...!"
Though he saw it coming, he didn't block the throw pillow that was tossed at him, and only slowly removed it from his face.
"If I got a girlfriend..." Nick mused, "I'd have to be able to be myself around her. She'd have to put up with everything I did, she'd have to understand me and empathize with me; she'd have to be my confidant. I'd have to be able to go to her to support me whenever I needed, and I'd have to be able to lift her up, too."
Judy's eyes seemed to twinkle in the light of the TV. She swallowed with difficulty.
"That- that..." the bunny placed a hand to her chest. "That sounds kinda like... like me."
Nick cautiously looked over at her with an unclear expression. "I guess it does, doesn't it?"
"You're looking for a vixen like me...?"
"I'm not 'looking' for anyone," Nick assured her.
Judy heard her breath start to pick up, and the fox started to smell discomfort from the gray bunny.
"Fluff- Judy..." Nick straightened up in his seat. "I didn't move in with you to be closer to you. I swear."
She stood up on the couch and her face twisted between different emotions. Judy gestured at herself.
"But do you want to be closer to me?"
"...You know, honestly?" Nick looked at her with an intrigued eyebrow piqued. "I'm kind of tired. Maybe we can do 'bad movie night' another night." He gave a stretch and a yawn.
"Your evasion is usually a bit more slick than that," she accused with half-lidded eyes. "You didn't answer my question."
"I did not," Nick confirmed. He got up to head to the bathroom.
"Would you be attracted to me if I was a vixen?" Judy shot after him.
He stopped in his tracks and carefully looked at the bunny sidelong.
"...What you are wouldn't change how I feel about you."
"Oh, please," Judy sneered. "I doubt I would have gotten all of those comments from when we first met. I doubt you would have called me a 'dumb vixen'."
"After what I just told you about my girlfriends?" Nick smirked. "I guess you weren't paying attention."
"Nick, why won't you just open up to me?" Judy leaped off the couch and pursued him, standing close to him, but being careful not to step on his tail. "You're just- you're keeping me at 'paw's length', huh?"
"Something like that."
Frustration simmered within Judy as Nick shut the door on her and entered the bathroom. He was in there for quite awhile, and she only at the end heard him going through his nightly routine. The fox flinched as he saw Judy still staring at him with a sprinkling of anger.
"I thought I was special to you, Nick," Judy balled her fists. "I thought you trusted me more than... than just some vixen."
"...You are... and I do."
"What...?" She scrunched her face, looking unconvinced.
"I don't want to wreck a good thing, Judy," he sighed, turning his head toward his door. "Like I said, I didn't move in with you to catch 'accidental' glimpses of you in the shower, or get to see you in your nightwear, or come up with an excuse to sleep in your bed, or cuddle with you on the couch. Because if you felt uncomfortable living with me in any way, regardless of how I felt, then I know that 'this'... whatever we are... it wouldn't work."
"Oh..." the bunny flinched, looking like she was processing his statement.
Nick hesitated before heading into his room, but he couldn't gather what he wanted to say to the confused-looking bunny, and closed his door. Judy stood by his door for a good three minutes.
"I mean, it'd be kind of funny if we did end up together, you know?" She chirped at the door.
"Funny?" The fox's voice was muffled by the door between them.
"Yeah... after everything- you know, after everyone thinking we were together... I mean if we actually were... then... that sure would be amusing, huh?"
"I don't think 'funny's' the word," he replied. "Maybe 'unsurprising' or 'anticlimactic'."
"Tch," Judy frowned, but she realized he was just trying to drive her away, and she clenched her paws, not willing to give in. She reached for his doorknob, but something stopped her. The bunny felt trapped in some sort of purgatory between wishing to respect Nick's privacy and blasting in and demanding he stop being so evasive about how he felt.
Her breathing quieted, but she counted at least two or three more minutes of waiting before she finally started to turn around.
"You're still there, aren't you?" Nick's voice came.
"Yeah," Judy nodded. Some part of her wanted to say "I'll always be there for you", but she squashed that desire rather quickly. "Listen... we have tomorrow off, right? I'll- you know, I'll be here if you want to talk. About anything."
"I know you will."
The reply sent a shot of both encouragement and confusion into the bunny's heart.
She sighed and started to head for her own bedroom.
Faintly, her big ears caught his voice once more. "I know this really bad movie we can watch together tomorrow. You're gonna love it."
Judy finally smiled sincerely, and closed the door to her room.