Okay, hello again, and I hope you waited patiently for this chapter to come out. I know it's significantly shorter than the last one, but I wanted to get this out to you as soon as I could.

Edit: The easter egg I left in the last chapter was from Kung Fu Panda 3, when Nick said "Well, twenty years on the street, you pick up a thing or two."

Anyway, hope you enjoy, favorite, maybe follow, or even leave a review. Now then, put on that super inspirational song - mine is Lift Me Up by Five Finger Death Punch - and enjoy!

Judy sighed in content as the warm water washed over her body. She was looking forward to a night out with Nick. They hadn't been able to do this in a long time. The last she could remember was going to a small eatery on the edge of town. It had been okay, but It wasn't anything like her mother's cooking back home, despite it supposed to be a home cooking place.

She turned the water off and walked to her locker, grabbing the clothes she had laid out and slid them on. It was somewhere between simple and fashionable. She hoped that her fox partner liked it.

Just then, her phone went off. She picked it up and looked at it. Nick had sent her a text.

'Hey Carrots. U kno where u wanna go?' It read. She responded with something along the lines of 'anywhere is fine'. She giggled at him and his text language. He always used it for some reason. She found it endearing, though.

'Wait, why would I find it endearing?' She shrugged it off and slid her phone into her pocket, walking out of the locker room with her duffel bag slung across her shoulder. Her mind started to wander a little. As it did, it fell on what her and Nick's relationship was becoming. She blew that thought off, telling herself that it couldn't happen, that her parents wouldn't accept him. And what of Nick's mom? What would she think about her?

"Judy, you alright?" She heard Nick ask from in front of her. Apparently she had stopped while she was thinking. She looked up to see worry written all over his face. She gave him a smile and a nod.

"Come on. Let's go eat." She told him, grabbing his arm and dragging him along with her. He stumbled a few steps, having to bend down a little to compensate her height. He smiled a bit at her.

They began to walk, neither of them having driven to work that day, towards the edge of the city. As they walked, the crowd thinned significantly, with this area being normally full of foxes. Some of the residents were out and about, and they gave skeptical looks to the fox and rabbit that were walking next to each other.

"What do you mean by that?!" A voice yelled. It seemed familiar to both the officers, but they couldn't quite put their paw on whose it was. "Come on! You cannot be serious right now!" The voice came again, this time a lot closer. They turned a corner and saw Agent Fangman standing near an eatery with a phone to his ear. The wolf groaned and pulled the phone away, sliding it into his pocket. He then turned and walked into the diner that was behind him.

"Maybe we should try this place out, huh?" Nick asked the rabbit. She nodded and padded towards the door. From the window, they could see it was a rather lively place to eat, with several different places for different species to sit and conversate. They spotted the special agent in the medium sized mammal area, alone with his food. Everyone in the tables around him seemed to be on edge as he ate.

The two walked in and chose a table rather close to the wolf. He didn't seem to notice, or just didn't care. A tall arctic leopard walked over to them, holding menus and a smile.

"Can I take your drink orders?" She asked as she set the menus in front of the two respectively.

"I'll have carrot juice, please." Judy told her nicely. "Nick?"

"Hmm, I'll have a Pawpsi." He said, his smirk still present. The leopard nodded and wrote them down, walking off to get them. "You know, she's kinda cute." Nick suddenly said. Judy raised an eyebrow.

"I guess you could say that." She buried her face in her menu, trying to hide the blush of jealousy that formed in her cheeks and ears. Nick began to chuckle at this. She ignored him, and actually started to look at the menu. There were several different things to choose from. Even fresh meats were served. She was sure that Nick would get something along those lines.

"Hey Nick, you know they have meat on here." She mentioned, pointing to one that said 'Fried Chicken'. She shivered at the thought of it.

"Yeah, but I'm not really much for meat. I mean, every once in awhile, yeah. But not too often." He told her, still looking down at his menu. "I think I'll have a salad today." He told her. Judy looked at him with a little skepticism, as if he weren't serious. "What? I mean it." He scoffed at her as if hurt and set the menu down. His gaze turned to look behind her. She already knew who he was looking at.

Just as she was about to tell him everything was fine, the waitress came back with their drinks in paw.

"Sorry for the hold-up. We're a little busy tonight." She smiled sheepishly, seeming to hope that they weren't mad.

"Don't worry about it." Judy said, waving off her fears. She smiled and pulled out her notepad. After reciting what they wanted to eat, Judy looked at Nick. "So, what brought this on? You wanting to go out to eat, I mean?" She asked.

"I just wanted to have some alone time with my favorite fluff ball." Nick smiled at her, and she smiled right back. "That, and I wanted to tell you something."

Judy gave him a confused look. She rolled her paw in front of her, indicating for him to continue.

"My mom called yesterday. Said she wanted to see me again." Judy gave him an amazed look, her jaw slightly slack. "I know, right? So, I told her I couldn't until this weekend. And when she asked why, I had to tell her the truth. Thing is, she didn't believe me."

"So, what are you implying?" Judy asked, trying to goad him into telling her more.

"What I'm implying is that I would like you to come with me to convince her that I'm a cop. That and I want you to meet her. She's really nice." His usual smile reappeared on his muzzle. Recovering from her amazement at this, she took a sip of her juice.

"I mean, sure, as long as I've got Saturday off, we can go." Nick's smile widened.

"I already took the liberty of checking. We both have Saturday off." He leaned back in his chair, which gave her full access to what lay underneath his shirt as it stretched out. He didn't have prominent muscles like a bodybuilder would, but he had lean and compact muscles, like her own. She could see them ripple along his arms as he positioned them behind his head. She looked away from him, a blush forming in her ears and cheeks.

When the leopard came back with their food, they ate in silence. Judy had gotten a plate of spring rolls and onion rings. Nick actually had ordered a salad, though it had crickets in it, to which Judy almost gagged but tried to keep it from her partner. When she was finished, Judy started to look around. Some of the mammals were staring at them with criticism in their eyes. There were a lot of mammals that didn't approve of interspecies relationships and most of them just didn't understand.

"Nick? Can we go? I'm getting a little paranoid." She asked her companion. He nodded and set some money on the table for the bill, setting some aside and leaving a note for the leopard that it was a tip. As they left, they noticed that the special agent had gained company. It was definitely a female, as she wore very feminine clothes. She was a fox, and pure white compared to the males' rustic grey. They seemed to be eating peacefully, without any care to the criticizing gaze of onlookers.

"Huh. Never expected that out of him." Nick said as the door closed behind them. "You would expect him to be more traditional than most others."

"Hey, we've known him for less than a day. We could learn a lot more than him just meeting her than that, right?" She asked confidently.

"I guess you're right." He said. The rest of the walk was mostly in silence. They had decided to walk back to Judy's apartment first. As they got there, Nick greeted the armadillo at the front desk. She gave a grunt and continued to read her newspaper.

"Well, see you tomorrow, I guess." Judy said, holding her door.

"Yep." Was Nick's simple response. He gave a backwards wave as he walked away, and Judy closed her door as he turned the corner and out of sight. Once she did, all of her emotions leaked out of her. She had been anxious, excited, and even scared. They hit her like a raging torrent.

'Ugh, maybe I can sleep it off.' It was starting to give her a headache. And she had a long day ahead of her tomorrow.

On the other side of town, Nick was just walking into his apartment. It was nice, but not too fancy. Just enough living space for one mammal, maybe two. And he had his mind set on who he was going to try to get into his apartment with him. Though it may not be ideal to some others, he thought it was genius and could lead their relationship further.

He chuckled at the thought and walked into the kitchen. He grabbed some leftovers from the night before and warmed them up. It wasn't long before he had finished and was lying in bed, trying to find sleep. It seemed to avoid him.

His mind drifted to the evening's activities with Judy. They hadn't gone out to dinner for months. Though they weren't dating - that prospect wasn't even on the table yet - they did like to go out together sometimes, as friends.

With that thought leaving his head, and a smile plastering his muzzle, Nick finally slipped into the land of dreams.

Before you say anything, I know it's cliche to leave off on a character falling asleep, but I needed this out asap. I will be going into more detail about Arden in the next chapter, making him more dynamic than static.

Anywho, onto the reviews!

Artificial Python: I'm glad you like it. And go read it! I think it's quite interesting. I'm thinking about making that his background days before he was in the ZBI, but without Bogo and everyone else. Including his wife Lina.

Guest 1: Great! Here it is!

GhostWolf88: You will never be able to predict where this will go lol.

Tantio: Glad you do. Now, to answer your first question, you are right about me making a slip-up. I meant 'being the best officer'. As if she is - and trust me, she is - the best officer.

What I mean by 'results like the ones i just received' is that he was testing for several different things all at once. That was purposeful. Hope that clears that up for you.

Guest 2: No need to wait. Here it is!

Zayasjosh: Did it turn into soup? I hope not.

MidnightCatian: Because I'm evil! Mwahahahahahaha!

BOOM! Done!

Now, I hope you all stay for more and will wait patiently for the next chapter, 'cause it might be a while before I can finish it. I'm going to visit my aunt here in about a week and I won't be back for another two or so.

Also, I will be upping the rating to M once a certain chapter comes out, as it will feature adult themes and sexiness, while the following chapter will be fluff and cuddles, which I hope I don't suck at writing.

May inspiration light your paths,

Leon