Disney owns basically everything about Zootopia, save the custom characters.
Chapter 2) Carrot Smoothie and Fox Coffee
Judy thumped her foot against the ground, paws on her hips as she stared at the doors to the ZPD. Nick was running late.
"Uh... Judy? What're you doing?.." Clawhauser asked from behind her, in his usual, cheery-yet-curious tone.
"Nick's late again," she huffed, folding her arms over her chest. He was late far too often for her liking, and she often chewed his ear out about it. Though this had led to the pair of them almost being late on occasion – which always resulted in him giving her a smug grin when Chief Bogo stared them down on the way to their seats.
"I thought he was getting better at being on time, though?" the chubby cheetah asked, munching on his eighth doughnut of a baker's dozen. "He was, about two months ago." She plucked her phone from her pocket to check the time. 7:12. Wilde, where are you? She thought in irritation, her foot tapping the ground even faster.
She pushed her phone into her pocket just as the front doors to the ZPD were pushed open, her red-furred fox partner trudging in. She felt her nose twitch a bit in curiosity – he looked disheveled compared to usual. As he neared the two, she could also pick up the smell of coffee.
"Nick, what-" she began, only to be cut off as he offered her a carrot smoothie, putting on his trademark smirk. "Got you something on the way, Carrots." He turned and began walking towards the bull pen once Judy took her drink, leaving her to look at an equally curious Clawhauser. "Why does he smell like coffee?" the cheetah asked. Judy could only offer a shrug in response.
Her partner paused midway to their destination, turning to look at them. "Carrots, aren't you always complaining about us being late? Come on." The sound of this snapped Judy back into focus, who nodded and rushed forward to meet him as they went inside the room, casting glances to the other officers as they took their seat.
Chief Bogo lowered his glasses a bit to peer at the pair. "Hopps. Wilde. Almost late again. I'll be expecting an explanation." He said gruffly, before turning his attention to the folders on his podium.
Don't do it, Nick. Don't start right now. Judy thought desperately, hating the thought of another trip to Bogo's office this week.
"What, we-" Nick started, getting cut off as Judy elbowed his side, making him hiss briefly. The chief looked down on the two as Judy glared at her partner for a moment, the scene resulting in a few chuckles from the other officers.
"Thank you, Hopps. Now then, the rest of you have your assignments. Officers Hopps, Wilde, you're patrolling Downtown today, but meet me in my office first. Dismissed."
The group of animals in the room collectively stood and began filing out of the room, save the fox and bunny, who stared at one another in disappointment for a brief moment, before hopping down and slowly heading out the room, trailing after the chief as he ascended to his office.
"Alright, you two. Sit." The cape buffalo instructed once they had joined him, each one forcing themselves into the seemingly giant-sized chairs. They stared up at the chief as he pressed his hooves together, inspecting the duo from his seat.
"First thing's first, your explanation for this morning."
Judy looked over to Nick, having practically no idea what had happened to make the coffee scented fox to make him late today. "Well, sir, a new cologne came out and I just couldn't wait to get my paws on some this morning. Hit the store soon as they opened the doors," he said with a grin. Bogo huffed, clearly not amused. Nick responded with a sigh of irritation.
"Alright, fine. Worse traffic than usual, a stop at Snarlbucks, and a couple of half-asleep customers made me spill my coffee. Not enough time to change, so I just headed here." He shrugged. Chief Bogo gave a sigh. "You should know how the traffic gets by now. You've been doing the commute long enough. But now, the other reason I called you in here. There's been a series of crimes cropping up in Downtown, some mammals reporting seeing assaults, a few coming forth with them. We've not got a lot of details, but I want you to keep an eye out for anything."
Judy spoke up now.
"Sir, do we have a description of who we're supposed to keep an eye out for?"
"As I said, Hopps, there's not that many details. The best we've got is a small mammal, wearing a black, torn up and hooded coat. Aside from that, we've got almost nothing."
"Alright," she said looking down in thought. She hadn't heard of any attacks in Downtown, so these must have been within the past week or two. Assaults were an uncommon thing in the better parts of the city, so maybe-
A cough interrupted her thoughts. She turned her attention back to Chief Bogo. "Any more questions?" He asked.
"No, sir." Judy said, giving a smile.
"Dismissed," was the response, the wave of a hoof permitting them to leave. They responded with a salute before slipping to the ground and heading out the door.
"Hey, you should go change your uniform," Judy suggested as they headed down the stairs. "I dunno, Carrots, I kind of like the smell," Nick replied, taking an exaggerated breathe through his nose before chuckling. "Yeah, well, I don't exactly want our cruiser smelling like wet fox and coffee all day."
"Alright, I'll change out then. But we're stopping for a new coffee, then." Judy sighed softly. "And I guess I'm buying, again?" she said. "If you'd be so kind, Carrots?" Nick said with another grin. "Don't I always pay?" She queried, casting a glance his way. "Coffee? Yes. But I'm not the one who ended up spilling her smoothie all over the cruiser after we found out who was behind the wheel of the race car."
He chuckled at the memory of Judy hitting her head against the steering wheel of their cruiser at finding that Flash, a sloth who worked for the Department of Mammal Vehicles, was a street racer with incredible reflexes when doing 115 MPH down a busy road.
"I still don't understand it!" She said. "How is that even possible? You saw him at the DMV!" she flailed her arms for effect, pausing as Nick neared the male changing room. "Did you forget already? It's Zootopia, where 'Anyone can be anything.'" he laughed a bit as he went through the door.
Judy silently fumed about the situation until Nick came back out, no longer wearing his coffee-stained uniform, sunglasses hiding his eyes behind a dark wall again as he smirked at her. "Fluff, how long has it been since that case? You're still getting worked up over it?" He laughed.
"Yes! How are you not?" She rubbed a paw against her face. "You know what, never mind. Let's go get our cruiser." She turned away and began heading away. "Just don't spill the smoothie today. I don't want to clean it up again."
Judy gasped, rushing for the bull pen, leaving Nick to look after her in curiosity, before she reappeared with her carrot smoothie from earlier in paw. He laughed once and rolled his eyes he began catching up to her.
"Almost forgot it!" she explained as they neared their modified cruiser. "I'm serious about not spilling it though, Fluff. It wasn't exactly a quick thing." He shifted his eyes to her as they hoisted themselves into their seats. Judy laughed. "Then explain how a sloth can have incredible steering at over a hundred miles per hour."
"Alright, you know what, that's getting more stale than the bread that restaurant tried giving us last week." Judy laughed. "How old even was it? I would've had better luck biting into a rock!"
"You know, sometimes I think you could bite into things better than a beaver with your teeth," the fox joked, wincing as he was given a swift punch to the arm. "Alright, I'll admit, that one was pretty bad..." he grumbled, resting his chin on a paw as he looked out the window, the cruiser rumbling to life as Judy inserted and turned the keys.
She steered the vehicle out to the street carefully, only occasionally casting a glance to her partner, who seemed to be having a bit of trouble staying fully awake.
She smirked slightly as the light ahead of them turned yellow.
Maybe a brake check wouldn't hurt... She thought mischeviously.