Judy placed two paper cups down on the table and sat down. The coffee shop was pretty empty that afternoon, and the bunny and fox officers had it almost to themselves.
"'Preciate it," Nick said, starting to mix in cream and sugar.
The bunny tilted her head as he put quite a prodigious amount of both into his cup. She chuckled. "Whoa there! This would be a great time for an 'I like my coffee like I like my partner', joke."
The fox sipped from his coffee and smacked his jowls. "Something I overly rely on to sustain and actuate me?"
Judy's smile wavered, but she kept it on as her brow weakened. "I- I was going to go for more like, 'smooth and sweet', but I guess that works."
The fox sighed. He wasn't in a particularly good mood, mostly because he was very familiar with that look that Judy was giving him. She was trying to find a chink in Nick's armor, somewhere to get her bunny foot in the door and pry open his feelings. He tried to keep his features even, but Judy was starting to be able to see through this bluff.
"So, Nick... I don't guess you wanna tell me what's wrong, do you?" Judy's tone was somewhere between concerned and optimistic.
Nick let out an amused puff, taking a long sip of his coffee. "Did you really think it would be that easy, Carrots?"
Judy's head tilted to the side and her eyes rolled that way as if affected by gravity. "Well, no... but you can't blame a girl for trying."
"I came here for coffee, Fluff," Nick shook his head subtly. "That's what we agreed on."
"It's just-" the bunny grit her teeth. "I don't know. Your mood took such a huge dive after we made that traffic stop. I figured you must like... have some sort of problem with her."
"Wow," the fox's face and tone looked dully surprised, "they promoted you to detective and didn't tell me?"
Judy's expression finally soured and she looked mildly insulted. "Listen, Nick. I know you, and I know you get all sarcastic and defensive when sensitive topics come up. But I'm your partner; you can tell me anything!" She gestured desperately at her chest. "Why won't you tell me what's wrong?"
"Because I don't want to remember my first date with you as 'that time Judy tried to pry all of my deepest, most personal secrets out of me'!" Nick nearly barked.
The gray bunny took in a sharp little gasp at Nick's sudden intensity, but then nodded seriously.
"Okay, Nick, okay," Judy held her paws up in conciliation, then sighed and wrapped both paws around her coffee cup.
An uneasy silence followed as the two continued to attempt to enjoy their coffee. Nick wasn't meeting Judy's eyes; he looked somewhat ashamed at his outburst. For her part, the bunny looked introspective, seemingly lost in thought.
"Nick, ah..." her smile was uncharacteristically meek. "Can I ask you to do something?"
"What is it?" He grumbled.
"Would you feel my left cheek?"
Surprise and puzzlement flooded the fox as he took in her earnest face. With a guarded nod, he slowly reached out to touch her, and Judy leaned her face into this with her eyes closed. Nick swiftly lost himself in the tender moment, feeling his pulse accelerate. Her face was so soft, both in feel and in appearance.
She really was beautiful.
"So? What do you think?" The bunny's voice was soft.
"You- ah... you feel fluffy, Fluff," he mumbled.
"Feel anything unusual...?"
Gathering more of his senses, he attempted to follow up on her question, perusing her face in a more exploratory manner with two of his finger pads. After a little searching, he did find two, no- three, three unusual things. The most minute imperfections were on her face, three lines, almost broken up, and completely hidden by her fur.
"Um, feels like a scratch?"
"Mmhm, scars," Judy affirmed with a nod. He secretly treasured the soft bunny face nodding against his palm, but when the word sank in he slowly withdrew his paw.
"Is that right...?"
"Once upon a time," the bunny sighed and folded her arms on the table, leaning forward. "There was a fox who I caught doing something wrong. And when I tried to step in and do what's right, he hurt me. He told me I'd be nothing but a dumb carrot-farming bunny, and left me to myself."
Nick's stomach twisted into a knot at her little story. He swallowed with difficulty as Judy's eyes didn't meet his.
"B-but I..." he tried to squeeze the words out, "I never hit you."
Judy shook her head. "No, you didn't. This was another fox. When I was nine."
Nick's mind whirled into overdrive, and he was sure he looked like it. Of course! Everything made sense now. Why Judy was so suspicious of him, why she feared his threatening feint at the-
"Oh God."
He sat back in his chair, his tail drooping behind him to drag on the floor. Shame flooded him.
"It's okay, Nick, it's okay," Judy smiled, holding a paw out. "It wasn't unprovoked. I attacked him first, even! I kicked him right across his muzzle. And I- I hurt you, too. So... you lashed out."
"I didn't know you had a history with foxes," Nick frowned. "That makes... well it makes what you did a lot more... understandable."
Judy shook her head firmly. "No. I thought I was better than that. I told my parents I was better than that. I even believed it myself. But I- I guess we just can't fully know ourselves, or something. I ended up repeating things I'd been told. My parents thought predators were often bad people... foxes being sneaky, weasels being cheats. Predators being disposed to violence..."
"So..." Nick rubbed under his muzzle. "...So you didn't want to use that as an excuse when the time came. Even though you could have." He chuckled bitterly. "Now I've got to share, huh? That's what this is, isn't it? You tell me something, I tell you something."
Judy shrugged, her smile seasoned with guilt. "Well, maybe... I just thought that, you know... we can help each other? I've had some problems with foxes, and if you- if you had any problems with bunnies..." When she trailed off, she looked at Nick with an earnest expectancy.
"You are helping me, Judy," Nick nodded, his expression heavy. "Right now, though, I'd just like to enjoy this coffee with you."
Sensing the tenderness in Nick's voice, Judy smiled encouragingly and nodded. She slid her paw across the table, and Nick grasped it; maybe a little too eagerly. She didn't seem to mind.
Nearly a month later, there was a robbery at a Savanna Central Omnimart on Nick and Judy's beat. The two were called upon to keep civilians away from the crime scene, as the mega-store remained open for business during the investigation.
The partners' feet were clad in thick boots as they moved around the edge of the crime scene, trying not to walk in the glass of the broken facade. Soft crunches could be heard as they were only mostly successful. Thankfully, no one had been injured, but the damage done by one of the larger criminals had been quite substantial.
Nick looked behind his shoulder as he saw one of the investigators, a wolf, sniffing around the debris rattling off the various scents to his partner. The two began to discuss who had moved through that area. There was some trace blood from the glass breakage as well.
"Hope he doesn't get any glass in his nose," Nick thought aloud.
"Please move along," Judy waved off a rubbernecking deer doe who got near the police tape. She planted her arms on her hips as she took in the rest of the store and just how massive it was. "So... Omnimart, huh? I haven't shopped here before."
"'Omnimart: It's All That'," Nick rattled off their slogan. "Guess you don't have them in Bunnyburrow?"
"Nope," she shook her head to confirm. "It looks... big."
"Started by a small group of omnivores in Zootopia about sixty years back," the fox recalled. "They were tired of having to go to multiple stores to get all their favorite foods, so they figured, eh? Why not just get everything in one store? I guess they did a good job, because now you can get almost anything here, food or not, and they've become a massive chain across many city-states."
"Guess that just makes them a bigger target for crime," Judy observed a pig waving over her partner with a "we got something!"
"If only because they're everywhere," Nick shrugged. "Convenient stores make convenient targets for crimes, I guess. But, since they're so big, they have a good security system. I bet you our investigation gets corroborated by their surveillance videos and the perps get taken in." Nick took some conspicuous sniffs. "Even the rhino."
"Definitely a rhino," the CSI wolf agreed as he walked by. "Think we got some of his blood."
Judy reflexively winced at the thought of a glass shard sharp enough to penetrate rhino hide.
"Nicky!? Oh my God!"
With Judy's attention broken, she didn't immediately notice the brown bunny rushing over to them. She turned and was surprised to see Roxanne Holland, the very bunny she'd given a ticket to just a month prior.
"Oh, hey Officer," Roxi waved, rolling her eyes in self-deprecation. "Paid my ticket like a good girl, won't happen again, yadda yadda..."
Judy laughed in a subdued manner, so she didn't notice Nick's expression morphing from near wild shock to a casual, stern face.
"We're gonna have to ask you to stay back, ma'am," the fox said sternly. "This is a crime scene."
"Oh Nicky, c'mon," Roxi bunched her fists up close to her chest. "You remember me. It's been so long!"
"You know this bunny?" Judy asked, the wheels in her head starting to turn.
"I know everyone," Nick replied reflexively.
"Friend of yours?" Judy pursued in a coquettish tone.
"Oh, we were a little more than 'friends'," Roxi giggled, her tone also becoming teasing.
"This is not really the place or time for some sort of reunion, Miss," Nick grumbled. "If you'd like to catch up, maybe-"
"Nicky, c'mon! Don't treat me like that," Roxi smiled, waving a hand. "I know you! You're a policemammal now? That is so neat! I'm into relationship counseling, myself."
"Doesn't surprise me," Nick muttered bitterly without thinking.
"I mean, I'm the counselor," Roxi laughed, "not that I'm in counseling." Nick had no response. Roxi looked over at Judy, who was rapidly building some theories. "So, is this your..."
"I'm his partner," Judy confirmed with a nod.
The fox's teeth grit tightly in his muzzle as his discomfort was rapidly approaching an all-time high. He felt his fists balling, but quickly told himself to loose them.
"Aw, Nicky...!" Roxi chirped. "Cute! I guess that'd be my fault, huh? You'd heard that saying, right Officer? 'Once you get a taste of the bunny honey'-"
"Look, Roxanne," Nick suddenly held his hand out, coming very close to grabbing Roxi's shoulder, but stopping short. He gestured tersely with his paw. "Let me level with you, okay? What happened between us in school? How I said I was okay with it? I wasn't."
Horror spread quickly over the brown bunny's face, and Judy looked shocked as well.
"What... you weren't?" Roxi gasped. "Mn- but you said..."
"I lied," Nick said bluntly, shrugging. "Guess I was a typical fox after all."
"Nick, I am so sorry!" Roxi's jaw hung open, looking very distressed. "I- I thought we were being honest with how we felt!"
"Well, maybe you were," Nick's eyes wandered to the side. "And... that's on me. So, no hard feelings, okay?" His voice sounded rather deadpan. "But it's my job to tell you to stay clear of here, so..."
"Um, okay... I understand," Roxi nodded timidly. "I hope you- well... bye." The brown bunny awkwardly left, sparing him another look over her shoulder.
Judy turned a concerned, worried look toward her partner.
"Please don't start, Hopps," Nick said, looking out into the middle distance. "It's not appropriate workplace conversation."
"I didn't say anything," she replied glumly.
"Mm, but you were thinking it, weren't you?" He pursued. He clamped his mouth down and moved his tongue along his teeth before continuing. "Having a hard time avoiding an opportunity like this to get into my head, aren't you?"
If she was honest, he was absolutely right. She desperately wanted to know what had happened between Nick and that bunny. But she sighed, her head bobbing forward. She almost missed a hamster near her that was trying to get a better look at the crime scene.
"Please move along, sir, this is a crime scene," she muttered.
Judy set a pizza pocket in her microwave and leaped onto her bed. She stared at her dinner as it rotated within, the timer ticking down slowly.
Nick had some issues with bunnies; now she was certain about that. It seemed like the perfect parallel. Judy was a physical person, and he had suffered a physical incident with a fox that had given her trouble she hadn't wanted to acknowledge. Nick was an emotional fox, deep down, and it appeared his problems with bunnies were also emotional.
Judy opened up her microwave and took a bite of the food.
"Bleh!" It was still cold inside. Judy popped it back in and hazarded another few seconds. After it finished, she gingerly took another bite, only to find that now the pizza pocket seemed to have lava inside it instead of marinara sauce.
"Ow ow ow!" Judy panted, frantically waving her paw near her mouth. "Jeez...!"
Blowing on the food, her eyes watering, she attempted to eat it more carefully. In some ways, Judy was reminded of Nick. Despite what she thought were her best efforts, sometimes he could be so cold to her as he tried to get him to open up. But if she pushed just the littlest bit too far, he'd become unpleasant in the other direction. Fiery, unapproachable.
"Aaaand now I'm comparing Nick to junk food," the bunny droned sarcastically as she examined what was left of her dinner. "Wonderful."
After she finished her food, Judy considered turning in for the night. With thoughts of what to do with Nick swirling in her head, she knew it might not be the most restful sleep, but she figured she might as well try. Just before she started to dress down for bed, though, she heard a knock at the door, making her slumped ears perk up.
"Who is it?"
"It's me."
...Well, it sure sounded like Nick. Judy blinked rapidly and cautiously opened her door. It was, indeed, Nick. He looked anxious as he leaned on the wall near her doorway, maybe even a little sad.
"Hey, Judy. ...Can we talk?"