A re-imagining of "Marks", the first Different Tails chapter I wrote.
Stu Hopps wiped his brow as he set a large basket of blackberries down near the primary kitchen area of his abode. Another basket of blackberries followed, this one carried by Nick Wilde.
"That should be enough for right now," Stu wiggled his finger. "Bonnie's pies are second to no one's! ...Well, except maybe Gideon Grey's, but don't tell her I said that."
Nick chuckled a little, dusting his hands off. "So that's it, Mr. Hopps? Nothing else you'd like done around here?"
"C'mon, I told you to call me Stu!" He held both of his hands out. "And I have to insist you call it a day. Here you are on your long weekend and you actually want to work more?"
The fox gave an almost humble shrug. "My sordid past in Zootopia didn't include any farming. I figured I could use the experience; see how things work in a bunny household."
Stu laughed at this, but it was a wide-eyed laugh seasoned with discomfort. This didn't go unnoticed by Nick, whose smirk grew a tad.
"Speaking of, er..." Stu cleared his throat. "I wondered if you wouldn't mind me asking you a question."
"Shoot."
"What..." Stu searched the ground before looking up at Nick inquisitively, "what made you decide to become my daughter's partner?"
Nick's eyes widened slightly at the question. Of course, it was a perfectly logical inquiry, coming from such an earnest and open bunny as Stu. Naturally, the elder bunny would be worried about a fox, especially a bunny of his generation. Still, Nick found himself at an unusual and uncomfortable loss for words.
"I- well I-..." he stammered, gesturing as if to yank the words out of his soul, "she... Judy asked me to."
It sounded lame, even to him, and Stu's puzzled look told him the words hadn't really found a mark.
"Just like that?" The brown bunny's left eye half-closed. "Just 'cause she asked? You abandoned all that- that other stuff you were doing?"
Discomfort began to fill Nick's belly. He looked around for prying bunny ears, but it seemed his novelty had worn off the first couple of days of his vacation. The two were relatively alone. He sighed heavily, mentally preparing a hand and choosing what cards to play.
"I agreed to become her partner because..." Nick gestured subtly, "look, back when I was a kit, I was pretty naive. I believed in that scout code- you have the Junior Ranger Scouts in this neck of the woods?" Stu nodded diagonally, shrugging. Nick saluted. "Brave, loyal, helpful, and trustworthy. Just some kit's mantra, you know?"
"That sounds pretty wholesome to me!" Stu grinned.
"Yeah well, you can't really grow up and continue to be that naive," Nick tried to infuse his words with a jokey tone.
"Nonsense!" Stu held his hands out wide. "I've lived my whole life naive! Well, according to Bon, anyway."
This wrenched an honest bark of a laugh from Nick; he then folded his arms and leaned on a counter, almost losing his balance due to its low height. He slowly began to look pensive, deciding to play another card.
"I just thought..." Nick huffed out of his nostrils, "you know. Judy's... she kind of stirs up that feeling in me. She came into Zootopia with such pure intentions, such blind faith of what Zootopia could be. I- I actually kind of believed it for awhile. Then she pretty much saved the city single-pawed, so I really started to believe it." He topped his explanation with a laugh.
Stu grew a warm smile as he absorbed the fox's words. "From what I heard it was more of a dual-pawed effort."
"Yeah well, she'll tell you that," one of the fox's paws batted the air.
The brown bunny marched right up to Nick and took one of his paws in both of his and shook it vigorously. "I have to thank you again for helping her out, and-" Stu suddenly looked like he was about to cry, "y'know, helping keep her here on the earth."
"Oh, um, you're welcome," Nick replied, his arm wobbling like a noodle.
Stu released a shaky sigh, then abruptly hugged the fox, who immediately felt discomfort both from the situation and the firmness of the hug.
"Rr-really, it's okay!" He coughed.
The brown bunny seemed to find his emotional balance and released Nick. Stu then firmly planted his hands on his hips, giving Nick an appraising, approving look.
"Anyhow, I just wanted to say that you're more than welcome into this family, Nick."
Nick dropped his mental cards, and his eyes bulged. "I-...! Uh, Mr. Hopps- St-Stu, I'm not... well, I'm your daughter's work partner. I'm not her... partner partner."
Stu looked momentarily confused before shaking it off. "Oh! Oh, okay... well! Either way, I'm glad to call you a son of mine! Unless that's too awkward! But I gotta warn ya-" there was another one of his finger wiggles, "I treat my close friends like family anyway!"
"Ah, heheh..." Nick was left to play mental fifty-two pickup, and he wasn't doing it as fast as he was used to.
"Shoo... Judy, huh?" Stu drove his fists into his hips and firmly shook his head. "She's a piece of work. Kept challenging everything we knew. I didn't know how we of all bunnies somehow raised such a forward-thinking daughter!"
"Oh yeah?" The fox quickly found his curiosity and a possible look into the psyche of his partner.
"Mm," Judy's father shook his head. "I was so surprised to hear she was such close friends with a fox. It's like that incident when she was nine never even happened, right from the outset!"
Incident? Nick's mind whirred, and formed a new hand.
"Oh right, the fox incident," he bluffed.
"Uh huh!" Stu's head bobbled vertically and then horizontally. "Sure! I mean I can't believe it. Pow!" Stu swiped his hand. "Right across her face."
"And by a fox..." Nick nodded in faux understanding, careful not to pinch his voice into a question, keeping a serious look trained on Judy's father.
"That's what I'm saying!" Stu nodded emphatically. "I'd have thought that Judy would be scared of foxes all her life, being attacked so young. But here you are!" Stu's hands shot out in Nick's general direction.
"Here I am," he agreed, unable to help his brow furrowing. "Judy's just full of surprises."
"Oh, I'll say!" Stu chirped, not noticing Nick's slightly darkening voice. "Moving to Zootopia, becoming the first bunny cop there, saving the city. I kinda wonder where she could even go from there, huh?"
"Yeah," Nick huffed. "I wonder a lot of things about her."
"This just brings back so many memories!" Judy plopped her suitcase down in the upper viewing deck of the train and sighed wistfully. The train began to move, pulling out from the Bunnyburrow station, and Nick walked up to be beside her. "Are you eager to get back, Nick?"
"I'll admit I don't get to see the skyline in person too often," he shrugged. "It'll be nice to see it."
"Right?" A huge smile exploded onto the bunny's face. She clapped twice, bouncing on her feet. "The first time I saw it in person... it took my breath away. The variety! The construction! I just didn't have any words for all of those feelings..."
"And now that you know it's just as much of a hive of criminals as anywhere else you could name?" The fox leaned on the rail near the window blithely.
"Well, that's what I became a police officer for!" Judy replied brightly.
"Hmh," Nick quieted up, looking out distantly at the countryside. His gaze didn't meet Judy's for quite awhile. The bunny looked back in the direction they had come from and leaned over a bit, trying to get Nick's attention.
"So uh... was it too much?" Judy cringed softly. "My family, I mean?"
"Oh no," the fox barely smiled. "I liked the attention; it was good for the ol' ego."
"Pff, like you need any help there," Judy rolled her eyes.
"Especially all the thirsty looks a few of your sisters gave me," Nick was now smiling openly, "coulda given them the time of day, don't you think?"
"Nick, no," she rolled her eyes over to him and lolled her head at him dully.
"I dunno..." the fox looked at the bunny sidelong, "might have been fun. Could have learned some more of those country bunny ins and outs."
"Come on, Nick," Judy deflated, clearly annoyed, "they're my sisters! You're not going to be hooking up with my sisters!"
"Oh, yes ma'am," he nodded sarcastically with his eyes wide open, delighting in her irritation, "I didn't know you were the one that decided that!"
"I thought you..." the bunny had an anxious, challenged look on her face, gesticulating wildly, "I thought you foxes look for more of an emotional connection in a partn- uh, in a mate. Not just some fling."
Nick felt the wind get knocked out of his good mood and his brow began to furrow. He shot a sudden look Judy's way.
"Ah, I suppose you're an authority on foxes now, huh?"
As soon as the words left Nick's muzzle, he knew he had flavored them incorrectly. He meant it to be wry, but it came out bitter. He could tell from the way Judy's long bunny ears swept back that she had noticed. She backed away from him slightly and folded her paws, giving him a look from toe to muzzle.
"Well, my best friend is a fox," Judy replied, "but to tell you the truth, sometimes he can be a real jerk."
Nick sighed faintly and looked away, scoffing quietly.
"Nick, what's gotten into you?" Her words straddled the line between irritation and concern.
"When where you going to tell me?" The question was quiet.
"About what...?"
"About your little thing with foxes," he muttered.
"I don't-" Judy held her hands up defensively, "I don't have a 'thing' with foxes!"
"Not what I heard," Nick dared to look at her from the side of one eye. "Heard one attacked you when you were nine."
Judy's brow weakened and turned up in anxiety. She frowned tightly, shaking her head.
"Okay, let's just set the record straight," Judy slashed a paw across the air, "I kicked him first. Both feet. In his face."
Nick sighed heavily. "How has this never come up between us?"
"Because it wasn't important!" Judy insisted, holding her hands out wide.
"Really," Nick sneered, "because it sounds to me like that was a perfect little seed for you to grow your fear and mistrust of foxes. It makes perfect sense to me now... why you carried that fox spray; why you flinched when I feigned an attack at the press conference."
"Nick!" Judy waved her hands. "Listen; I- I wasn't going to use that as an excuse!" She stood straight up resolutely. "I had no one to blame for my behavior except myself!"
"Is that right?" Nick's voice became even darker and he turned his head to regard her. "I guess that makes me a terrible person huh? Nursing that wound that the shards of my shattered dreams left in me for twenty years."
"What!? No!" The bunny shouted.
"Just admit it," Nick frowned. "You're better than me, huh?"
"I don't think that at all!"
"Pure-hearted naive little bunny, comin' to town," Nick rattled. "Scarred and scared by a fox, but she thinks she's over that. Until she finds another fox, one that acts more like the species stereotype. And she was right in some ways... he was being sneaky and-"
"Nick, shut up," Judy stamped her foot, thrusting her arms downward. She pet her face near where she'd been cut long ago. "I'm not scarred. The cuts were shallow; barely left a mark."
"Oh, maybe not there, but how about here?" Nick thrust a finger into his temple. "Why didn't you just tell me?"
"Because my experience with Gideon had nothing to do with my experiences with you," Judy said, "and it would have been unfair of me to compare you two."
"Wait, Gideon!?" Nick narrowed his eyes. "That kind, portly-looking baker fox?"
"Uh huh," she nodded, "people can change. ...Like you did."
"Pff..." Nick shook his head and looked away. "I didn't change. I'm the same ol' sly fox I've always been."
Judy drew closer and put her paw on his arm. "You want to know what I think? About which one of us is better?"
"You're just going to tell me anyway," he mumbled.
"Mhm," Judy smirked. "So listen up. You think some dumb bunny that was too naive to know what she was getting herself into is something to celebrate over?"
"You were right, though," Nick replied. "You proved me and everyone else wrong about you."
"I didn't even fully understand myself," Judy laughed. "I admit, I thought I was 'over' the whole foxes thing. But you showed me I wasn't, and it was sobering to have to live those three months knowing I'd probably thrown away the first friend I'd made in Zootopia."
Nick didn't respond, but he felt some of his bitterness being coated by Judy's sweet-sounding words.
"You know, one of my more religious brothers used to tell me something from the Book of the Lamb," Judy bit at her lip.
"Here we go," the fox's eyes rolled.
"I forget exactly how it goes," she tapped on her cheek with a finger. "Something like... the angels celebrate more over a wrongdoer that changes their life course than a righteous person who has no need for repentance."
Nick didn't know how to respond to that, so he only "mm"ed lightly.
"I think that's true!" She rubbed Nick's arm, which still hadn't been moved away from her reach. "Your effort to be the person that you always thought you could be... after twenty years of hustling and whatever else you were doing... that makes you a really great person."
The fox sighed, and for a time didn't respond. He finally turned his head to Judy with a weak smile.
"...Talk about an ego boost," he murmured. "You make it really hard to stay mad, you know?"
"Then I'm doing my job as a friend!" Judy chirped. Her face suddenly twisted into a brow-furrowed challenging expression. "Now hug me. Right this instant!"
"Oh, yes ma'am," Nick huffed in amusement and obeyed her, softly hugging the bunny.
If he was being honest, he liked her hug much more than Stu's. It was gentler, much less crushing. But there was her famous enthusiasm there, and he felt it in the tightness of her paws around him.
It was quiet between them for most of the ride home, up until the skyline of Zootopia came into view.
"There it is," Nick shook his head. "The Gleaming City."
"It sure is," Judy agreed with a nod, "I can't wait to get back out there and start kicking more tail!"
Nick chuckled gently. "What an odd little bunny you are."
"But!" Judy held up a finger and then slashed it across the air. "You love me anyway."
It gave Nick more pause than it had given Judy that first time in their cruiser together. He felt his tongue play across the teeth in his mouth before he gave a casual diagonal nod.
"Yup, sure do."
As the train pulled into the station, the fox and bunny gathered their things. Nick was sure to take extra care with his most treasured gift from the farm, a fresh blackberry pie baked by Bonnie.
The two walked alongside each other as they got to the subway, and soon it would be time for them to part. Until the next day, anyway.
"Oh, Nick?" Judy seemed blithe and almost flirty, tilting her head.
"Mm?" The fox took his eyes off his wrapped pastry.
"I'd just like to say..." the bunny smiled, showing those cute little front teeth of hers, "only one fox has made any kind of mark on me."
Nick felt a glow surge through his core, propagating with alarming speed.
"Oh yeah?" He somehow managed not to react visibly. "Do I know this fox?"
She looked at him over her shoulder as she headed to her connecting train. "Yeah, I think you've heard of him."
Nick tried to not look at her hips and tail as she turned her head away from him and walked away.
It was a valiant effort, anyway.