Nick sat there on his couch, his paws folded together, staring off into the distance. In the background, the hushed sound of his shower continued, and the knowledge that his favorite bunny was in it caused him some level of discomfort.

The sequence of events that led to this situation seemed contrived; like something out of a romantic comedy. Judy insisted on coming over to his place to shower after their misadventures at the beach. Nick supposed that, as Judy still lived in her little closet of an apartment, he did have a better place than her.

Of course, this place of his was a recent happening. Nick moved himself into a better location in Savanna Central for two major reasons. One, because it was more convenient to get to the ZPD from there, and two, because he finally felt like he was "worth it"; like he was worth living somewhere where he could relax and be comfortable. The place was very dissimilar to the dump of an apartment he lived in located in the Rainforest District, basically a basement of a place that he paid very little rent to inhabit.

But now, his place was moderately spacious; it would probably fit a wolf or maybe even a small tiger comfortably. Nick found his eyes looking around at the comfortable furnishings and tidy look to the apartment. There was almost too much space. He supposed he had hoped at one point, deeper in his heart of hearts, that one day maybe Judy would want to ditch her tiny apartment and come live here. That is, if he was honest with himself, which he frequently wasn't.

Nick was wrested from his thoughts by the sound of the shower stopping. He tried not to think too hard about the thought of that pretty gray bunny toweling herself off before she headed to one of his other relatively fancy amenities.

The din of the device started up, and Nick found his ears going back a little just at the sound. It was one of those full-body dryer stalls. A bit of a luxury to most mammals, but a huge boon to mammals with thick fur like foxes or bunnies, for instance.

The fox had a bit of a thought, something that steered his mind back to how silly the whole situation seemed. Something that made it even more contrived and ridiculous.

Nick looked toward the bathroom door as he heard knocking coming from it.

"Mm?" He got up and walked toward the door.

"Aheh, hey Nick?" Judy's voice came through the door. A gentle, nervous giggle followed. "I uh, I forgot I don't have anything to change into."

Nick rolled his eyes and smirked. Yeah, that was it. Of course.

"Want me to rush down to Omnimart and get you something to wear?" He offered, walking toward his wallet and keys. "What size do you take, anyway? Tiny bunny? Petite lapine?"

"Nick, I'm not going to sit here for like a half hour naked," Judy's voice sounded chiding. "Lemme just borrow one of your shirts."

"Oh right, of course," Nick drawled, "what a simple solution, except that I'm half and again your height."

"C'mon, don't you have a small shirt or something?" Judy whined. "Sure it might come down to my ankles, but it'd be something!"

"Right, right, let me see what I have," Nick walked over to his bedroom and looked through the closet. He thought of the mild thrill he might get from seeing Judy only wearing one of his Pawaiian shirts, but also felt like she might not be too comfortable in one of those, in more ways than one. Rooting through the back of one of his dresser drawers, he found a t-shirt and smirked at it.

"Perfect."

Knocking on the bathroom door, it slowly opened and a gray and white paw held out expectantly. Nick gave her the shirt, then the paw retreated. He grinned preemptively.

"Really, Nick?"

Judy came out of the bathroom, freshly fluffed and wearing a black t-shirt that went down to her ankles. The extra width of Nick's neck meant the shirt covered one of her shoulders and just barely clung on to the other. Nick thought she looked adorable, especially the mildly irritated look on her face, with her eyes rolled all the way up to stare at Nick.

The t-shirt also had art of a vixen on it, provocatively posed on her front, wearing nothing but some colorful socks, which her feet kicked up behind her emphasized, that and her fluffy tail. The saucy, cursive text on it read "Fox in Socks".

"Looks great on you, Fluff," Nick grinned.

"I find it hard to believe you don't have a different t-shirt, Nick," Judy grumbled.

"Hey, I got that one when I was a teenager," Nick tried not to smirk too widely. "I really had this thing for socks as sexy lounge-wear. Maybe because foxes kind of have 'socks' naturally? Couldn't tell you. Either way, beggars can't be choosers." He turned away from her, shrugged grandiosely and wagged his head.

While he was turned away from the bunny, he subtly took in a few sniffs through his nose. He could smell Judy; he could smell his shampoo on her and the mixture of her own scent and his clothes on her. It was more than a little enticing. He barely turned his head to look as Judy groaned softly in fatigue, rotating her shoulders slowly with her eyes squinted shut.

"So, you wanna head to bed?" Judy moved her thumb back in the direction of Nick's bedroom.

"Hey, uh, I was thinking," Nick smacked his jowls a little, turning to face Judy. "You know, I agreed you could sleep over here, right? So you go on and take the bed; I'll just sleep on the couch."

"Wha-?" Judy blinked, her jaw hanging open. "Hey, you agreed that we could cuddle tonight." She held up an index finger with a hand on her hip. "No backsies!"

"No 'backsies'?" Nick raised an eyebrow. "It's just... I'm much more comfortable sleeping by myself. Who knows how many times I could accidentally whack you in my sleep. C'mon, you don't want a big clumsy fox in the same bed with you, do you?"

"Uh, I do...?" Judy held her hands out. "That was the whole point of this exercise."

"Listen, we can cuddle some other time," Nick flicked his paw. "Sleeping is different. You go on to bed now and make yourself comfy. I'll set up the couch."

Judy shot a quizzical look to the easygoing-looking fox as he got out some spare blankets and a pillow for the couch. With a heavy sigh, she wandered off toward Nick's bedroom, sparing him a glance before she headed through the doorway.

The fox hopped onto the couch and squirmed around. It was actually pretty nice; more comfortable than the bed in his old place. He stretched out, giving the kind of yawn that caused a tiny canid whine to escape from his throat. He let loose a sigh, feeling more content by the minute. Nick thought of how cute Judy must look snuggled up in his bed, laying on his pillow, dressed in one of his shirts. It was a pleasant mental image, and one that quickly eased all the other thoughts that conflicted within his head, as if begging him to be drawn back to anxiety.

"Nick, why are you denying me cuddles?"

He flinched exaggeratedly as he saw Judy balancing with most of her front half over the top of the couch, her arms dangling.

"Jh-!?"

"It's been a long time since I had a good cuddle," Judy pouted at him. "So what's the deal, Nick?"

"You know what I want to know?" Nick quickly regained his composure and sat up on the couch. "Why do you address me by name in almost every other sentence you say to me? Especially since there's only the two of us around?"

"Oh, that's..." she put a finger on her cheek, "that's a bunny thing. We have so many siblings that we constantly have to refer to each other by name so others don't get confused as to who we're speaking to."

"Ah, that makes sense," Nick shrugged his shoulders.

"Speaking of my kind, though, you're being a dumb bunny, Nick," Judy gave him the mildest of annoyed looks.

"Am I?" He huffed in amusement.

"You know," the bunny slipped over the couch so she was seated on it, "I've gotten progressively less subtle about things as time has gone on. I've weathered your teasing and your flirting; invited you out for a hopefully special day at the beach, never mind how it flopped, and now I'm sitting here, in one of your shirts, basically begging to cuddle you."

"...Rrh-right..." Nick felt suddenly uncomfortable, "and- uh... how does that make me a dumb bunny?"

"Well," Judy clasped her hands together and closed her eyes, "when a bunny is interested in someone else, they have them chase them. It was more literal in ancient times, but now y'know, it's a bit more metaphorical. I'm trying to think how I could be any more obvious at this point."

"And what makes you think I'm interested in you?" Nick's mouth said without his brain's agreement.

As soon as he'd said it, he couldn't believe he'd thrown that verbal dagger. He had been doing everything to try to avoid damaging his relationship with Judy; why on earth had he said that? Why challenge the mammal he cared the most about? His heart skipped a beat as he saw genuine shock on the bunny's face. An uncomfortably heavy moment of silence hung thick in the air, and when Judy grew a tiny smirk, Nick released a breath he didn't know he was carrying.

"What, you want me to write you a list?" Judy chuckled. "You're totally into me."

"Uh huh... and how would you know that?" Nick threw back. He didn't know why he couldn't just stop, grab her by the shoulders, and kiss her. His stomach roiled with discomfort as he felt like he was being wound tighter and tighter. "C'mon, I'm calling your bluff."

Judy bit the bottom of her lip and threw it out in a pronounced "fine."

She cleared her throat and continued: "Your sniffing."

"Pardon?" Nick swallowed.

"You sniff me. All the time," Judy rolled her eyes. "You know what I smell like by now, right? You must like it, huh?"

"That's- pff, I don't sniff you," Nick claimed, taking a few breaths through his nose, "you mean this? It's called breathing, Fluff, and yeah, I do that most of the time."

Judy folded her arms, cocked her head, put on the sassiest look Nick had ever seen, and enunciated carefully: "Liar, liar, tail on fire."

"Judy, kh-c'mon, you don't have anything," the fox shook his head, "'sniffing', really?"

"You're not just breathing, you're going like this," Judy perked up, eyes wide, and started exaggeratedly sniffing with her nose. The juxtaposition of the ridiculous demonstration with her current state of dress was too much for Nick, who barked out a little laugh before catching himself, fading into a small grin.

"Yeah no, I don't do that," Nick chuckled, "you're imagining things. When have you ever seen me do that?"

"Never," Judy replied, then decisively pointed to her ears, giving Nick a chill. "What, you think these big ol' things are just for show?"

"Gh...!" Nick, for once, had no quick, smart reply. He thought he was done with underestimating that bunny.

"So, next," Judy placed her paws together, "I want you to tell me why you're being like this. If you're interested in me and I'm basically all but throwing myself at you... what's the problem?"

"Hgh..." Nick brushed a paw through his head, feeling his ears go back, "you know, if I could articulate it, I might have done that by now."

"Just try, Nick," she put one of her own paws on his knee.

"Well, here I am at thirty-three," Nick indicated himself, "still without a mate. And heck, you know how charming I am."

"Pff... well, yeah," Judy smiled with her head tilted affectionately.

"I just... I dunno, Judy, I've had girlfriends before," the fox gripped his own legs with his hands, as the latter felt like they were trembling, "even a prey once... and none of them has worked out."

"Guess I'll just have to be the first, then," she smiled and moved both of her paws to one of his own.

"Heh," Nick shook his head, "there's that Judy Hopps overconfidence you always have. Always ready to throw down on a huge gamble."

"Hey, this isn't a gamble," Judy gestured between herself and Nick. "I feel something between us, right? Something real and certain."

"Just makes me really nervous, is all," Nick bowed his head, eyes closed. "Terrified, even. Every time things start to get a bit too flirty between us, I feel like I have to back up, or else I'm going to just snap."

The fox felt a tiny kiss on his nose.

"Bleah, that's wet," Judy giggled.

Nick opened his eyes, staring at Judy. She was looking at him with the most affection he'd ever seen from a female.

"What do you think I can do for you that'd make you more comfortable with being with me like this?" Judy asked.

"Tch..." Nick chuckled, his heartbeat quickening, "if I knew, I'd tell you."

"Okay, well, in the meantime," Judy jumped up, "march, mister." She pointed to the bedroom. "You do not back out on a bunny cuddle promise."

"Fine..." Nick groaned, getting up and walking with a defeated gait. "Twist my arm, why don't you."

"I will, so watch yourself," she warned.

Nick cautiously entered his bed, followed nearly instantly by Judy, who hopped in next to him, glomping on.

She nestled in like she'd been waiting to slot into a hole in Nick's heart for ages, and despite his initial reservations, Nick felt himself slowly unwind. It began to feel more comfortable as he drew his arms around her. Her breathing in particular was a delight, especially the relaxed hum she put out once the two had found the right position.

"Your heart is beating really fast," Judy said in a low voice.

"Fox and rabbit heartbeats are about the same," he replied.

"It's going a lot faster than that," she teased.

"In the first big part of my life, I felt like every good thing I had got taken away from me," Nick surprised himself by saying this again, without a double check from his brain.

"I'll be here in the morning, Nick."

Somehow, that's what it took. The fox almost melted, and he found his tensions slipping away. Fatigue crashed over him like a wave, demanding Nick succumb to his exhaustion.

His tail found its way around Judy, and she responded with a tiny giggle.

"Hey, Nick," Judy nuzzled his chest with her eyes closed.

"Mmm...?"

"Want me to wear socks for you sometime?"

His eyes flew open. Well, he was about to fall asleep.