HOP
CH01: Glowering Eyes
I do not own Zootopia.

The amount of chills she got upon the fox's touch overwhelmed every innate instinct she had, giving her only one single rational thought. Hop for it.

- O – O – O – O – O -

"See you tomorrow, Carrots… I guess?" The fox's ears dropped ever so slightly as he raised a paw.
Judy raised an eyebrow as she stopped her walk. "Is something…" The rabbit shook her head. "What's the matter, Nick?"
"Are you sure you don't need me to accompany you?" the fox suggested, a small smirk sneaking in his expression.

Judy rolled her eyes. "Look, you're a cop. I'm a cop. I can go alone in the dark. You go to your home now."
The smirk faded. "And here I thought you'd want some more time under the stars and all. I don't know."
The bunny smiled. "I didn't know you to be that type of guy, Nick."
"Really?" The red fox chuckled. "Do you want to know more about that type of guy?"
Judy winked, her smile turning into a grin, and then turned around, continuing her walk. "Dumb fox."
"Dumb bunny." Nick quickly followed.
"Hey, that's not how it's supposed to work."
"Is it?"

Nick adjusted his uniform. "It sure is hot in this attire. Haven't you gotten tired of it yet?"
"It's part of the rules. No one's above it, even Chief Bogo with all of his stars and police record."
The fox rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I never really saw where you're residing in this area."
"Oh, it's just a small room…" Judy's voice faded as she looked at her watch. "I don't really suggest you accompany me up to the hallway. My neighbors are kind of… noisy."
"Carrots, I'll just have a peek."
Judy frowned. "I tell you, you won't be seeing anything."

Nick's eyes brightened at the idea. "Boy, I'm imagining a small comfy bed where our little fluff here spends her night on, snoring so loud in her slumber."
"I do not snore while sleeping," said Judy defensively.
"There's more!" Nick raised a finger. "One window with the curtain to the side for fresh air to enter. Maybe a mini fridge where you keep carrots…" The fox suppressed a laugh. "Food and stuff. Then a drawer or two. Oh, is the fox repellant still there?"

Judy gave him a smug look. "Do I still have it there? Yes. Yes, I do."
"You're applying your lessons, Carrots." Nick grinned.
"So, is this your idea of talking under the stars, Nick?"

"Yes, my dear Carrots."

Chills suddenly ran down Judy's spine, making her stop.

"Hmm? Carrots, what is it? You were saying something?"
Judy shook her head. "What did you say?"
Nick raised an eyebrow. "To what? That you're applying your lessons?"
"No! I mean…" Judy started walking again, albeit a disturbed look streaked across her face. "It's nothing."
Just what…?

Judy inwardly shuddered as she remembered the heavy amount of chills she got.
It felt unnatural.
Plus, it seemed like her mind was making up things Nick would not actually say.

"Hmm? Carrots, are you tired?" Nick asking, putting a paw on her shoulder.
"Maybe I am. This isn't your idea of talking under the stars, eh?" Judy laughed weakly.
"You are tired. Don't force it," Nick said decisively. "I have to escort you up to your home."
"Nick-"
"And take a peek inside your room," Nick interrupted with a naughty wink.
"Okay. Okay. I can't convince you otherwise anyway."
"Great."

"We'll have a good time together."

Judy could swear there was a heavy cold sweat trailing along one side of her cheek, coupled with the ever unsettling voice she could not decide whether it was imaginary or a result of built up stress.
Something was up.
Whatever it was, it totally meant she needed quite a long duration of sleep.
Thank Bogo for being a considerate enough of a buffalo. She could request for the afternoon shift, just hoping that Nick would understand.
"Carrots, you're not going the right way."
Judy looked up with a slight frown. "Nick, you do know where I live, right?"
The red fox raised an eyebrow in amusement. "No…? But I'm pretty sure a dead end won't get us anywhere closer to your room."
"I can't-"
"-hmm."

Judy suddenly found herself crashing conveniently against an old wooden door, which she quickly realized was the very door to her room.
"Watch where you're going now." Nick offered a gentle caress of a paw on her head.
"Dumb fox, are you just taking advantage of my momentary vulnerability?" Judy casually swatted his paw away. "And I told you I know where I'm going. It's my room, for golly's sake."
"Yeah. What about the directions?" Nick asked with what seemed to be genuine cluelessness, which Judy was definitely not pleased to see. If anything, it seemed more of a pranking attitude for the fox and her currently uneasy state would not appreciate such behavior. "Here are your keys before you forget it, Fluff."

"Why are you so fluffy?"

The fox leaned his face down closer to her own, before she realized the fox was already playfully jiggling her keys along her shoulder blade.
"Uhh, how'd you get my keys?" Judy looked at him with disbelief, regardless taking it gingerly.
Just as she was absently fitting the key into the doorknob, the hallway lights suddenly blinked which caused her to instinctively cower a little and squeak.

"Behind you."

"Nick?" Judy's head bobbed around nervously, in hopes of getting a trace of the fox's figure.
"Whoa there, Bunny." She gasped as she felt skin contact on her back. "Easy. You've been acting nervous. I'm just here."
"I'm just tired." The bunny sighed as she finally opened the door. "Sorry for the inconvenience. Must be some power problems."
"You don't say."
Even with the lights out, Judy could totally imagine the long smirk plastered across her partner's face.
"Although this is new. I mean, my neighbors should've already complained out loud." She shrugged. "Maybe they're not here yet. Boy, they'll be so pissed. They, like, have movie marathons every night."

Nick chuckled as her rant ended. "So does this mean you'd be allowing me to enter your room now?"
"Yes, why no-" Judy turned around and tried to touch the red fox. "Nick?"
The door slightly creaked as she felt a sudden weight press on it, followed by a voice she heard from inside the room. "Gosh, you weren't kidding me. This place is small."
"Ahhh…" Judy grunted as she pulled out her cell phone from her the back pocket of her pants. "You can't just barge in here."
She turned on her phone's flashlight and used it to inspect her small room, freezing it over Nick's glowing emerald eyes.
"Ow!" The red fox covered his eyes with both paws. "Don't flash it on me, Fluff."
Judy chuckled. "Sorry." She proceeded to walk to her desk to place a few things, finding relief with the lessened weight on her pants.

"Oooh, so many bunnies." Judy rolled her eyes as she sat comfortably on her chair.
Nick had suited himself on the bed and was currently picking the plush rabbits on her bed, as if they were blueberries in a pack. "You got something for Halloween, Carrots?"
As much as she wanted to laugh with how silly he looked with five bunnies in his arms, Judy perked up in interest as she crouched to get something under her bed. "Clawhauser wants something spooky for the ZPD. So I volunteered with some materials."

She fumbled a little with the unfavorable space under, even for a bunny, and adjusted the intensity of her flashlight, dimming it with a little finger. She spotted the large pumpkin she had hidden, which carved features brightened up, and hummed cheerfully. "That s creepy."
"How about some bunny plushies?"
Before Judy could comprehend the incredulity of his statement, she found the pumpkin being rained upon by tiny bunnies. "Nick, the dolls will get dirty!"
She grumbled humorously as she placed the bunnies in the pumpkin, including her phone, and brought them all out at once for Nick to marvel at.

The red fox smirked. "How ingenious of you, Carrots. It looks like a witch's brew or something."
Judy smiled back, while shrugging. "Don't you have your own flashlight on your phone?"
"I can just rely on my excellent sense of smell." An over exaggerated gesture of his hands was enough to indicate his smugness, even in the dark. "If you ever get lost, you can rely on me."
"Har. Har." Judy removed two bunnies from the pumpkin then waved her hand inside, making the light pop in and out of its holes. "So any suggestions for this one? Something unique."
"Unique..." Nick absently took the two rejected dolls and made them form an embrace. "As in a fox and a rabbit partnership?"
The bunny felt a wave of sudden heat on her cheeks, as if her phone blinked directly beside her face to burn it with its illuminating warmth. "No. Something more helpful."

Nick clapped his hands humorously. "Right. Helpful it is." He proceeded to take the bunnies out of the pumpkin and regarded it with a face of scrutiny. "Hmm... Does it have to be a pumpkin really?"
Judy raised an eyebrow, quickly frowning as she thought the other probably was not able to notice it anyway. "What's the thing associated the most with Halloween?"
"Not pumpkins." Nick hummed cheerfully at Judy's look of disbelief. "We have our different imaginations, voices in our heads, etcete-"
"Wait," Judy interrupted as she held his closest paw. "What do you mean?"
Nick seemed to grow more amused as he glanced at their physical contact. "What do I mean by what?"
"Are you hearing voices too?"

"Can you hear me?"
'Can you hear me?'

Judy gasped, jumping a little backwards as Nick's eyes glowered a deep hue of red and his mouth opened up slowly to show his lower teeth threateningly.
"Carrots, did the pumpkin spook you that much... or was it me?"
It was one blink after that Judy realized Nick had his face inside the pumpkin, and was showing a twisted expression through the pumpkin holes.
"Wait." Judy frowned. "How'd you get your head inside the pumpkin?"
"What're you talking about?" Nick placed his hands under the pumpkin then pushed it up with a boop. "We just carved a hole big enough for my head, using that bread knife you have for some reason."
She glanced at the direction his finger had pointed at, laying her eyes on a small knife.
Since when did she have one in her room? "I mean..."

'You mean this?'

"Ah!" Judy cried as she felt a sharp tingle on her neck, only to find that the room suddenly became devoid of light and that Nick was breathing on her neck.
"Easy. I'm not going to hurt you."
"Wh- what are you doing?" She managed to grunt, just as she felt that there was an edged object under her chin.

"Carrots before that, can you share some horror stories for the night?"
Judy blinked as she felt the air hang still around her, then one more time with as much force as possible, rolling back the dizzying and abrupt vanishing of the things she saw.
Nick was back being seated comfortably on the bed while she was on the floor, looking to have just given him the pumpkin currently in his paws.
Judy breathed deeply in resolution. "Alright, would you believe me if I told you I'm living a horror story right now?"
Nick hummed in approval. "Is that supposed to be the introduction to your story? Cause if it is, it might be a bit cliché but it's definitely a good set-up for plot material."
"Yeah. Plot material." Judy turned her head around to inspect the room. As much as she wanted to catch something peculiar, she had other things in mind.
"Carrots, why do you keep on glancing around?"
"It's the first of November. Isn't it appropriate?" Judy replied, trying to give a hint of amusement. "Now what if someone's behind you?"

She could see the red fox's nose twitch in obvious interest, which surprisingly gave her a much needed relief.
"If that is the case..." Nick raised his head proudly as he pressed a paw to his chest. "I'm sure you got my back, while I got your back."
"Oh, really? What if it's a mirror behind you and I'm seeing myself?"
Even his sly demeanor faltered as he frowned at her premise. "I fail to see what the connection is."
Judy shrugged nonchalantly. "Just as I don't have a proper connection with the voices in my head."

"Dumb bunny."

Whatever the voices meant, the rabbit was starting to take them as a challenge - not that it would be something that Nick should know of. If anything, it meant-
"Says the one who's supposed to be tired!" Nick raised two paws slightly with a shrug. "You're pretty knowledgeable of this stuff."
Judy lowered her head to stare at the pumpkin, before whispering, "How about you share your horror stories first?"
"What did you say?"
The bunny quickly looked up and gazed over the whole body of Nick, putting keen focus on his eyes. "Nick, is something wrong?"

The air seemed to hang maliciously for a moment, to the point that she could feel tingles along her spine. As Nick remained silent for what seemed to be numerous seconds, Judy blinked ever so slowly while maintaining a blank expression.
She could swear she could see a red trail of light from his eyes, as if it was a pair of back lights of a car in a dark rainy night... but she held her gaze.
So did Nick, who shrugged soon after her nth blink.

"It's getting a bit spooky here, eh?" Nick smiled, allowing a few of his lower teeth to protrude out. "It's like we're offering your bunny dolls for a spirit to haunt us."
Judy crossed her arms on her chest and smirked. "Spooky doesn't define it enough. It's cold and chilling."
The fox only seemed to move his tail along with the pace of his breathing, slow but regular. There would be a hint of spirit every now and then, but Judy just took note of every interesting thing she could get.

"How about we do something... warm?"

"Take it from me." Judy shrugged as she continued to speak, "I sleep here every night and it's only tonight that I felt cold in here."
As Nick leaned back a bit and placed his tail on his lap, Judy shuffled a paw inside the pumpkin to get her buried phone.
The red fox seemed to regard the action with interest, before saying, "What if-"
"No what ifs, Slick." Judy gave a small smile before promptly turning off the flashlight.

"Carrots?" There was a short silence as if both animals froze to catch a hint of each other's presence.
"For your info, I know where you are," Nick continued. "But I don't know what you're doing."
With an ever graceful step forward, Judy leaned in closer to the last position she saw of Nick, hopefully around the area of his face... then whispered, "You're quite the dumb fox, Nick."

The bunny jumped to the space on the bed beside him, and leaned her head on his available shoulder. "Judy?"
The succeeding amount of chills Judy got upon the mention of her actual name surprised her.
…Maybe it was just the cold air.
Notably, Nick did not even point out their current position.
"I'm right here, Nick," she said softly.
Just as she was thinking whether to snuggle closer to him, the fox raised a paw and gently touched her face. "Carrots, am I dreaming right now?"
Judy spared him a hearty chuckle. "I should be asking that to myself."

'Are you dumb?'

Judy stiffened at the recurrence of the voice, before she realized there was a paw on her own two.
She quickly held on it, mildly surprised with how warm she was beginning to feel.
"Carrots, do you think there's a chance that we're being haunted?"
However unnerved she had been, actually hearing about it made it all sound quite absurd and just made her laugh. "Nick, you're not supposed to believe in that stuff!"
"I certainly didn't." Nick breathed deeply before continuing, "Until I started hearing the voices, that is." "Voices?" Judy asked in pretend cluelessness, but was in fact looking forward to hearing his side of the night. "Of things I wanted to say, or rather things I wanted to hear."

'What...?'

"I don't know what you mean," Judy said honestly.
"Not like I'd want you to hear them too but..." The bunny breathed sharply as she felt his tail around her back then on her lap, repeatedly going to here and there. "I guess I have my own fears."
Confused, Judy could only grunt in acknowledgment, unsure of how else to respond. "I..."
"It's the spirit of my subconscious." Nick leaned his head on her own, humming lowly. "I think it says..."

'Hop, dumb bunny.'

That was when she realized... What she had been scared of was not any haunting spirit or the cold atmosphere of the night.

'Hop, dumb bunny.'

It was actually the affirmation of the feelings she had for the fox, something she realized was more overwhelming than the concept of Halloween and ghosts...
But somehow, warmer and something to look forward to.
As her heartbeat rose in anticipation, she managed to laugh at Nick's display of nervousness.
Maybe it was because they actually shared something special.

'Hop for it.'

- O – O – O – O – O -

Hop Hop Hop-py Halloween! (I'm kinda late eh t_t)
The formatting is trickier here. I had the special lines in different font styles when I laid it out in MS Word.
It's really important and gives out quite some significant details actually.
Hint: even just a single quote statement is a difference from "double quotes". It spoke a lot of their characters and the development.