Benjamin Clawhauser looked up from his desk at the ZPD's lobby at hearing a gentle throat-clearing. He bent over the front of his desk to see a small, pretty, middle-aged vixen.
"Hello, ma'am!" Benjamin greeted with his typical pleasant enthusiasm. "What can we do for you today at the ZPD? You're not here to turn yourself in, are you?" The cheetah barked out a laugh, then suddenly shrank back. "Wait, I probably shouldn't have said that. Did I offend you, ma'am?"
"Oh no, I was just wondering if an... Officer Wilde was here," the vixen smiled demurely, looking left and right.
At basically the same moment, Nick was walking out into the ZPD's lobby with Judy trailing behind him. The fox's eyes flew open all the way when he saw the vixen standing there conversing with Benjamin, and he quickly moved in front of Judy to block her line of sight.
"Hey! Carrots," Nick smiled a bit too wide, looking down at her. "Um, I just remembered something. We need our coffee before we-"
Judy rolled her eyes up to him, gesturing with two coffee cups in her paws.
"Right, um, oh!" Nick pointed at her. "Before you go, maybe you could tell Skips about that game we played the other day that we liked, Celeste. You know, the one about that red panda that climbs a mountain and in so doing learns to overcome her inner challenges and doubts."
"Uh..." Judy looked skeptical. "Okay, but wh- you know, I'm not going to ask. Fine. You're being squirrely, and I just want you to know that I know that." She gave him a gentle, eyes half-lidded smile. "Also, if Karen snaps at me for badgering her I'm going to take it out of- wait, should I not say that?" She stared straight ahead, eyes unfocused. "Is that specist?" She looked back up at her partner. "Nick, are badgers annoying to you?"
"Just go, okay? Hurry up!" Nick said. "Ten minutes, at most!" He started to head of to the restroom.
"Oh my gourd, Nick," Judy smirked, rolling her eyes and turning her head back the other way. "Did you forget to preen again, you silly fox?"
Just before he vanished into the male restroom, he darted his head to the side to check for gray bunnies, then scooted up over to the front desk very quickly.
The vixen gasped in delight. "NICHOLAS!"
"Hello, Mom..." Nick smiled, looking between her and Benjamin, "what the heck could you be doing here?"
"Oh, just here to check up on you," Nick's mother smiled. "Where's that perky partner of yours...?" She started to poke her nose up, looking around.
"This is your mother!?" Clawhauser gasped. "Wow, she looks like she could be your sister!"
"Oh, you," Mrs. Wilde winked at Clawhauser.
"Okay, well, great, let's catch up then, over here please," Nick pointed quickly, hurrying his mother along to a room.
"Nicholas, is this an interrogation room you're leading me to?" Mrs. Wilde asked with mild alarm.
"Uh, this room, maybe," Nick winced, ducking into a currently empty office. His voice dropped a few decibels. "Mom, what are you doing here? I told you not to pester me while I'm on the job!"
"Oh, so I am being interrogated," Mrs. Wilde smirked, folding her arms. "Nick, I barely get to see you nowadays. While I didn't like it, when you were on the streets at least you had some sort of reason for avoiding me, but now...!" She gestured to him with both paws. "Just look at you! You're my pride and joy. Why do you keep avoiding me?"
"Just... I've been really busy lately, Mom, getting my act together and all," Nick ruffled his paw through his head and ears, looking tense.
"It's the bunny, isn't it?" Mrs. Wilde's eyes half-lid, and her pleasant expression vanished.
"Oh, here we go," Nick rolled his eyes.
"Nick, I'm not an idiot," Mrs. Wilde shook her head. "I know about your predisposition to favor girls of a different species."
Nick winced and held up his paws, pushing them rapidly at her while looking behind him with a panicked expression.
"Mom, could we have this conversation at a time that would be more convenient for me? Like never?"
Mrs. Wilde rolled her eyes to the ceiling and shook her head as if in distaste. "So, it is happening again, isn't it?"
"No, mother, it is not," Nick said solidly, looking irritated. "Judy- Officer Hopps and I are not an item."
"Really," Mrs. Wilde's eyes squinted, and she stared him over. "You expect me to believe that. It's in your pattern, Nicholas. Reformed though you might be, you haven't changed your spots."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Nick hissed quietly.
"It's happened at least twice, and that's just what I know about," Mrs. Wilde drove her paws into her hips, glaring up at him though being a few inches smaller. "You get with this other-species girl, you do whatever they want, then they get bored of you and leave." She halted Nick with a point as his mouth hung open to counter. "Don't you tell me I'm mistaken, that's exactly what happens."
"Mom, this is different," Nick grunted, pinching the bridge of his muzzle.
"Oh, nice, a cliche," Mrs. Wilde gave a bored smile. "What's next? 'The bunny is my true love, I knew it from the moment I met her'?"
"No, definitely not," Nick almost laughed, but then regained his mild anger. "I haven't even- I haven't done anything with her, Mom."
"Right, except start up your little pattern," Mrs. Wilde retorted. "She asked you to change your life for her, and you did. At first I was so thrilled at this because I thought that somewhere, you'd gotten that spark back in your life, that 'I can do what I put my mind to' attitude you had as a kit, but then when I saw it was a female that had gotten to you..."
"Mom, please stop," Nick barely growled.
"Don't you growl at me," Mrs. Wilde narrowed and eye. "What am I wrong about?"
"I wanted this, me," Nick pointed to himself with both forefingers. "Yes, Judy wanted me to be her partner. Yes, Judy asked me to change my life course. But I wouldn't have done it if I didn't want to! Look at where I am! I'm in the ZPD, and not because I'm behind bars! I'm making a difference, I'm actually worth something! Not just to some bunny, but to the city."
"And to me," the older vixen held a paw to her chest. "I just... don't want you to lose this chance that's been thrust upon you, in case things don't work out with that bunny."
"Please use her name..." Nick rolled her eyes. "And like I said, there's nothing there."
"Really," Mrs. Wilde huffed, half-smiling, "so you're telling me you'd turn down a date from her."
"I... I do not think I would do that," Nick said quietly.
"And... after some dates..." Mrs. Wilde started to pace around, not looking at her son anymore while rotating a paw at the wrist, "maybe she'd ask you to marry her. Would you be against that?"
"Mom... I... not really...?" Nick hung his head, rubbing his forehead with his paw.
"Then what, perhaps she wants to adopt a kit or two with you? Would you be opposed?" Mrs. Wilde came to rest in front of her son, looking at him smugly as if she'd struck the last blow.
"What would be the problem with that?" Nick countered.
"That they'd all be her idea," Mrs. Wilde pointed at Nick's chest. "I don't want you to be some mammal's conquest. I don't want someone to just check some boxes off their list of personal life goals. I want you to get what you want out of your life. Understand?"
"Yes, Mom," Nick rolled his eyes. "Now, I'll visit you in a couple of weeks, but I really have to get on patrol with 'the bunny'. So... can you go?"
"Of course," Mrs. Wilde smiled pleasantly with her eyes shut, and Nick led her out of the room.
Nick sucked in a voiced, terrified gasp as Judy was basically right in front of him, but with her head turned to the side.
"Nick, I did talk to Karen..." Judy greeted. "Turns out, not only has she beaten Celeste, but she did all the B-Side levels, and the 'C-Side', whatever that is, I don't remember a water level in the-" She turned her head. "Oh, are you...?"
"Hello, Officer Hopps," Mrs. Wilde grinned. "I'm Nick's mom."
"So great to meet you!" Judy lit up and gave a tiny bounce. "Someone hasn't properly introduced us."
"I was going to get to that," Nick grunted. He cleared his throat with pronouncement. "Ah, that is to say, I had a... a thought."
Judy tilted her head, still carrying her coffees.
"Perhaps, um..." Nick paused, cleaning his teeth with his tongue inside of his muzzle. "You'd like to have dinner tonight. ...Well, with me. At the same time... and place, and together. Tonight."
Judy blinked, flicking her eyes between the two foxes. "Nick, are you feeling okay?" She offered Nick one of her cups. "He's kind of a bit addled some mornings without his coffee."
"Ah, is that how he gets through the morning now?" Mrs. Wilde gave an amused grin.
Nick took the coffee, and took a huge swig of it, nearly yelping at the temperature. He let out a hot breath, then looked directly at the bunny. "Judy, do you want to go out with me tonight?"
There was a huge gasp, but it was from Benjamin Clawhauser. He appeared to be trying to store half the room's oxygen in his chubby cheeks.
Judy looked back at the cheetah, then back up at Nick, smiling. "Sure, I'd love that! Would Mrs. Wilde be coming, too?"
"Er, no, it'd be just us," Nick coughed, rubbing behind his head.
"Okay!" Judy nodded. "I bet there are a lot of great places to eat here in Zootopia."
"There are, a lot," Nick nodded haltingly. "I'll take you to a nice one."
"How nice?" Judy winced. "Will I have to get my claws done?" She looked at her free paw. "Ooh, I've been getting that put off. And my teeth!" Judy opened her mouth wide. "Are the front ones looking a little long? Urgh, I should get a new dowel."
"No, there's-" Nick burst out a bit of a laugh, "There's no code of 'clawnduct' where I have in mind."
Judy laughed, and Mrs. Wilde snickered. Benjamin made a quiet, but extremely high-pitched continuous squeal.
"Great!" Judy chirped, then narrowed her eyes. "So uh... why's your mother here, then?"
"I was just leaving," Mrs. Wilde smiled, "I can catch up with you two later."
"Carrots, could you go get the cruiser warmed up for us?" Nick jerked his thumb in the direction of the parking lot.
"Sure," Judy nodded, half-skipping down the hall and tossing back a smile and a wave.
"There," Nick hissed quietly, turning to his mother, his tail swooshing around his ankles. "You happy?"
"I'm happy if you're happy," Mrs. Wilde grinned slyly. "Now, was that so hard?"
Nick rolled his eyes, then as Mrs. Wilde turned to leave, something seemed to occur to him.
"Wait, Mom. You weren't- you didn't just actually mean to scam me into asking Judy out, did you?"
Mrs. Wilde turned her head to look at him sidelong with a very smooth, very "Wilde" grin. "Told you I wasn't stupid."