Disclaimer . . . should I bother?
I am so mad. I had been working on this chapter for an hour and it all got deleted when my computer glitched. Forgive me for any mistakes because I am too angry to care.
"You know, Judy, if you keep pacing like that, you'll make holes in my floor," uttered Nick from the couch as his partner, currently in fox form, continued moving back and forth in front of him. He, however, still refused to look up from his phone, since he was weeding through his fanmail. The fox had no idea how exactly the masses got their private email addresses, but now his email was constantly being swarmed by 'Thank you', 'We love you', and 'In case you were looking, I happen to be single' messages. Seriously, Nick didn't know whether to be flattered or terrified by the many notes he read that now cluttered his inbox.
"Nick, put down the phone and help me practice," she groaned. "That test is tomorrow, you know. Our first test. Ever." Nick barely even nodded his head, still preoccupied.
"Look, I know you'll do fine. You've already perfected posture, running, jumping, and all the basic exercises, like sit ups and stuff. Even your penmanship is better than mine. You're a natural, okay?" Nick said, briefly looking up. Then it was back to the screen. However, although he seemed calm, like Judy, the fox was surprised they were getting a quiz so early into their training. But Mrs. Spike, after a particularly good practice, had just looked at the two and said, "You have a test in 3 days. Be prepared to amaze. You two better impress me." Then the porcupine had walked out, effectively ending the session of the day. Needless to say, it had been a shocker to both of them.
"You're my friend. You have to say that," the female fox scowled, bored and not making any progress. "We haven't really done anything tonight. Do something interesting!" She laid down on the floor in exasperation, beginning a tangent. Nick took this moment to think about how crazy this all was.
It was nuts. Completely, entirely, nuts. How was it that he and Judy had gone from an adorable gray rabbit and a former conman fox to two police officers working on a top secret mission for the ZPD's sciences? Only 2 months ago were they introduced to this technology. Now they were adapting to entirely new bodies. What was the next step for their partnership? Their crime fighting antics were already being put on long breaks as it was. In the last month, all they had done was handle a small scuffle at an embroidery warehouse when the police department was short staffed. Heck, they had only seen Chief Bogo once since the project began, and that was 3 weeks ago, on the way out of the building. Things were definitely changing fast.
And what would happen to their duo if they got married? There was still tons of time to meet people, but . . .
"Nick," Judy prodded. "Nick." He still ignored her, lost in his own mindspace. Annoyed, the silver streaked russet fox walked up to Nick and shouted in his ear.
"NICK!" she screamed. He jumped up quickly, startled out of his mind. Dropping his phone and shoving her by accident, Nick fell on top of his partner, his body shoved flat against hers. Judy was sandwiched between her friend and the cold hardwood, but she didn't feel the chill. Instead, she felt this tug at the pit of her stomach, warm and soft. She stared at him, wide eyed and surprised, and the fox in question couldn't do anything but stare back, examining her eyes. It could be blamed on the shock, of course, but there was something hypnotizing about the way their gazes linked. Finally, Judy pulled her violet pair away, and Nick lowered his.
"Are you going to get off of me anytime soon?" she asked, trying to lighten the mood, but her voice was shakier than it usually was.
"Yeah, yeah, of course," Nick murmured, slowly getting up off of her and offering a hand. Wordlessly, Judy took his outstretched paw, and then hefted herself up. With the press of a button, she was a bunny again, and she grabbed her bag.
"You know what?" the gray rabbit said, her cheeks slightly pink. "I think I'm going to cut this daily fox lesson short. Thanks for having me, Nick, but I think I want to go home now." And, with that, she headed towards the front of his apartment. Overcome with the sudden desire to make her stay, Nick ran over and caught her arm.
"You can't go yet!" he blurted out. She smiled.
"Why so?" she questioned.
"Because not yet." He internally smacked himself after that great response.
"Why not? Can't I leave whenever I want?" she rebutted with a grin, knowing that they were headed back towards friendly banter and teasing. Finally. Something she was familiar with.
"Well, yes - I mean, no, not today, because . . . because . . ." he struggled. Nick knew he couldn't get away with the excuse 'Because I really, really don't want you to leave'.
"Who's the dumb bunny now, Slick? At least I could make up a good excuse." Nick couldn't help but glare at his friend. She was totally smirking at him now.
"Because . . . I was making dinner. Yeah. I was going to make dinner and I thought, since you were here, you could eat with me." It was a terrible save, and they both knew it. Judy cocked an eyebrow.
"Cook? You actually know how to cook? And you would make something for me, too?" she asked suspiciously. The fox was fighting the urge to grimace. He was awful at lying to Judy; always had been, always would be. She had that effect on him.
"Of course," he said mockingly, deciding to just roll with it. "I happen to be great at it."
"If you say so, Nick," Judy snorted. "So . . . what are you making then, chef?" Nick scolded himself. He hadn't thought that far yet.
"Um, you're the guest, you pick."
"Weren't you the one who said you already had something planned to make?" Judy pressed. Nick winced. "Did you have any plans at all?" He shrugged sheepishly, and Judy sighed in a resigned sort of tone as they moved into his kitchen. "What am I going to do with you? You are hopeless, sir. I swear, if you didn't have me, you would have died already."
Nick couldn't exactly argue. His Carrots had a point; she had saved his life in the field way too many times than he would like to admit. And then, of course, there was the domestic things, like this, that he still had trouble handling.
"I think," Judy began after rummaging through all of Nick's supplies, "that we should make spaghetti."
"Works for me," shrugged the fox. His partner took this as her que. She pulled out noodles, 2 cans of tomato paste, a large pot, assorted vegetables, and some seasonings, laying them out on the counter. Then the bunny filled the pot with tap water and put it over the stove, watching as it slowly heated up and started to boil. In went the noodles.
Attempting to be helpful, Nick opened a can of tomato paste and held it out, prepared to dump it into the noodles, when Judy caught his hand.
"Nick!" she scolded. "Why are you trying to empty a can of tomato paste into the noodles before we've strained them? That's not how you make spaghetti! Have you even done this before?" He scowled right back at her.
"Okay, control freak, I was just trying to help! Maybe I made pasta differently," he complained, throwing his arms wide in annoyance. When he did, the tomato paste flew out of the can and onto Judy's head, landing in the middle of her ears with a splat. She stood frozen still in disbelief. Instantly he felt guilty.
"I'm sorry, Carrots, I didn't mean to -" he was cut off by a pepper hitting him square in the chest. The fox blinked, almost feeling betrayed. "Did you just throw a -" he stopped. A carrot sacked him in the arm, and he shook his head, beginning to grin maniacally. "Oh, it's on," he said with a dark undertone, picking up another veggie and palming it as she laughed across the kitchen.
And so it went, Nick's apartment falling into utter chaos as produce was smashed into the countertops and paste was flung from opposite sides of the island. Eventually the spaghetti did get finished, the remains of which were eaten by a disheveled fox and bunny pair. After their scraps of pasta, the two walked down the block to pick up takeout, ignoring the strange looks they got as they carried bags with brand new stains all over their clothes. To them, it honestly didn't matter.
Judy went home that night with messy fur and a smile on her face. As he shut the door, Nick smiled fondly, passing the kitchen with cheer on the way to his shower. Even though she had left, it was like his partner was still there in spirit . . . especially in his wreck of a kitchen.
He was way, way too attached to her.
So, yeah. Chapter 5. Sorry this took so long (again, my laptop kept on deleting my work). If I hadn't had complications, this wouldn't have been such a long wait. But here it is; ta-da! Be on the lookout for another one soon.