Nick glugged down his bitter and blackened coffee loudly as he stepped into his partner's pickup truck. It was yet another pleasantly sunny day in Zootopia and here he was about to spend it at work. Well, after today he'd have the weekend to look forward to… sort of. He had no clue how he was supposed to act in front of his partner's family; he didn't even know what to wear. Was it a formal introduction? Should he rent a suit? Would it be wrong of him to wear his uniform?

"Earth to Nick, come in Nick," Judy wrenched him from his thoughts as he jerked his head to face her.

"This is Nick to mission control, what is it? Over," He put his paw to his ear as if talking into an earpiece.

"We need you to get rid of that mustache, it's against regulations," She joked.

Looking down, Nick noticed he had acquired a coffee mustache from his last sip and decided just to lick it off with his tongue.

"Real classy, Nick."

"The world could write poems on my etiquette, I truly am a master of charm," He said between sips of his coffee.

"Etiquette, huh? I'll admit I didn't know you could use a word that big," She teased.

"There are many things you don't know about me."

"Yeah, you're a real fox of mystery, I'm sure."

A brief but comfortable silence filled the truck for a moment. Judy snickered at the memory of last night's dinner and leaving her shocked partner with the bill. The ride in to work seemed to be a good way for them to vent out their fill of sarcasm so they could act professionally at work.

"How's your head treating you? You don't seem to be in any pain," Judy observed.

"My head is fine, thanks. The only pain I've been in recently was economic when you made me pay for dinner last night."

Who was she kidding? Even if the ride to work was a year long Nick would still have sarcasm to spare when they arrived. To be honest though, it didn't bother her, it was just who Nick was. She just hoped he could take it down a notch when they visited her family tomorrow. Sure, she didn't mind but her family might not appreciate a snarky fox waltzing in their home and undermining their hospitality.

"Hey, um, Nick? Please remember that not everyone in my family is like me so when we see them tomorrow could you please just remember to be respectful?"

"Of course," he replied.

That was it? No sarcasm or witty remark? Maybe he could pull this off after all. It at least showed that he was taking it seriously.

"Calling me Carrots in front of my family may not be a good idea."

"I'm not stupid, Judes. I'll be on my best behavior, promise."

After parking at the station, Judy rolled her eyes, "I guess there's a first time for everything than."

Getting out of the truck, Judy stuck out her fist, "Ready to make the world a better place?"

"Each and every day," Nick lightly returned the gesture with a smile.

They both decided to tone down the gesture in light of what happened yesterday. With their daily ritual done, they set a course for the front door for today's job. With a short wave to Clawhauser the pair entered the bullpen.

After dealing with some roughhousing officers in the back the chief began issuing jobs and cases to various officers.

"Officers Hopps and Wilde, today you'll have meter duty."

Both Nick and Judy were upset by this but Judy remained silent. She knew she had earned the chief's respect and she wasn't being assigned this out of spite. Sadly, meter duty was just something that needed to be done and they were the ones that needed to do it today.

"B-but chief!" Nick objected, he thought they were past discrimination now.

"No 'buts' Officer Wilde get to it!"

"What's with this? Can't you trust us with something more important?!" Nick was up and out of his seat at this point.

"It's not a matter of trust Wilde. You were in an ambulance yesterday and I'm not sending you off to hurt yourself again."

All of the remaining officers were watching this argument, becoming slightly amused.

"But-"

"That's enough Nick!" Judy stood up and roughly shoved her finger into his chest.

"Don't you-" He started

"No, Nick listen to me and listen good! Swallow your pride for a moment and think about this! You got knocked out by a lion yesterday, a lion, Nick! You're lucky to be alive, let alone be at work today! Please, for my sake stop trying to be such a big hotshot all the time. I couldn't live with myself if something like that happened to you again. I'm sure we can handle one day of meter duty, so please stop arguing with him about it. How would you feel if it happened to me?"

That wasn't fair and she knew it, the fox grimaced. He'd feel miserable if anything like that ever happened to her. Just the thought of trying to care for his only friend's limp and unconscious little body made him feel a little nauseous. All things considered, she probably handled better than he would have.

"Okay… I see how it is. Sorry, Judy," He turned to Chief Bogo, "Chief."

As the fox took his seat again the room became deathly silent. Everyone knew that he and the chief didn't always see eye to eye. The two of them could argue for hours if they were ever given the opportunity to do so. That was probably why it was such a shock when the argument had been cut short so suddenly. Chief Bogo was a large, intimidating, and serious ox; even the largest and fiercest of animals had some sort of respect for him. However, none of that fazed Nick as he was more than happy to pick verbal fights with him. He had stood unafraid of the chief despite an overwhelming difference in size and strength but had submitted to the will of his partner, a bunny. She had even gotten him to publicly apologize. None of the other officers claimed to know the fox well; he wasn't very open after all. They did know however, that Nick was not the sort of fox that just tossed around the word "sorry" lightly… or ever as far as they knew. So what made Judy so special? As far as anyone could tell she didn't have any mind controlling superpowers and she wasn't very intimidating, even when she wanted to be. So how did she have such an influence over Nick when he didn't even bat an eye to the most respected animal in the building? Well, anyone who had spent more than twenty minutes around the two of them could figure out they cared for each other, right? It wasn't exactly a secret, they did their silly little fist-bump in the parking lot every morning, she drove him into to work, and the two even shared the occasional hug. The answer should have been obvious; Judy could make Nick act that way because he cared about her. It was just… weird though. It was bizarre to see a fox and a bunny care so much about each other; it certainly caught quite a few animals off guard when they discovered the two were partners. Maybe that's why it was just a little hard to accept? Just because society stated that a fox and a bunny couldn't get along didn't make it true. Of course, none of the other officers thought it was wrong, though, quite the contrary. Those two proved were a shining example of what Zootopia stood for, "a place where anybody could be anything." As soon as the pair left the room a single officer spoke to his partner.

"So, we're sure those two aren't dating?"

Chief Bogo pounded his fist on the table to get attention back on himself. He would not suffer through listening to that argument again…

Meanwhile, Nick and Judy had arrived to what Nick sarcastically named "Ticket Central" due to the sheer amount of parking meters in the area. It was just across the street from the elephant ice cream shop where they had first met. Back then, he would have laughed if someone told him he'd end up in the same kind of orange vest covered in reflective tape that she was in. He wouldn't have believed it, called them crazy even but here he was working side by side with the very same bunny he had met such a seemingly short time ago with matching uniforms to boot.

"I still can't believe this," Nick grumbled under his breath.

"Listen, Nick I know you won't like hearing this but the chief is right. You got hurt yesterday so chasing down criminals probably isn't the best option for you right now."

"You're right, Carrots…. I didn't like hearing that."

"Well, look on the bright side."

"What bright side?"

"You make a cute meter maid," Judy jested, lightly elbowing his side.

Nick wasn't sure whether to blush or laugh at that so he decided to try and play it off with a very forced laugh. His face was a little redder than usual but he felt pretty confident his partner hadn't noticed anything suspicious.

"Oh, so it's okay when you say it but I can't?"

"Ye,." She answered curtly.

"You're impossible."

Ding!

Both of their ears perked up as they turned to see a meter had expired; it was time to get to work. Judy, being the ever so vigilant officer that she was had sprinted ahead to get to the now illegally parked vehicle and by the time her partner had caught up with her she had already printed and placed the ticket.

"Try and keep up, Officer Wilde. Wouldn't want you falling behind now, would we?"

"Is that a challenge?"

"Maybe," she countered coyly avoiding eye contact with a small smile.

Ding!

Nick printed and placed a ticket on a nearby truck without even needing to take a step.

"Well, it's hardly a fair one," He scoffed, "Don't think I haven't heard the stories."

"What stories?"

"Oh, you know the ones; the stories about some hotshot rookie who gave out two hundred tickets on their first day."

"Two hundred and one, actually," She murmured to herself; sadly Nick had heard her.

"Really? Wow, and two hundred was such a nice number, too. Do you have any idea who the moron that pegged a one on the end of it was?"

"It was…" She muttered the last word quietly, suddenly becoming timid.

"I beg your pardon?"

"It was… me?" She answered weakly.

"You?! You gave yourself a ticket!" He was chocking out his words between small fits of laughter.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Why didn't you just move your car? Nobody would've known."

"I said I don't want to talk about it, Nick. It was a sad day for me."

"Oh, you poor thing. It certainly sounds like a sad day."

"Yeah, and it really didn't help when a certain fox decided to trick me and then proceed to belittle and stomp all over my dreams later that day," She glared at him.

Ouch. Nick knew he'd apologized for that already but it didn't make it hurt any less when she brought it up. He'd acted like a jerk back then; he could admit that, he had admitted that. Why was it so difficult to just move on from it then? He'd admitted what he'd done was wrong to both his partner and himself and had even apologized for it. Wasn't that what he was supposed to do? Why did he still feel… bad about it? When someone got a cut they put a bandage on it and it healed. Getting the cut probably wasn't a nice experience but it healed and nobody cared about it anymore. Wasn't that how an apology was supposed to work? If not, than Nick didn't really see the point in apologizing to anyone ever again. What good were they if they didn't fix things? Besides, he'd been apologizing too much recently and he hated apologizing. An apology was basically admitting you were wrong but even more humiliating. Yet, some small part of his mind was glad he had done it… he hated that too. It didn't make him feel good that he had apologized but it made him feel the tiniest bit less guilty about what he had done. Was that what an apology was supposed to do? He could think about it for hours and probably never figure it out on his own.

"I'm sorry, Nick. I shouldn't have said that… I just really didn't want to talk about it. It wasn't the best day of my life."

"Its fine," He had no further comment.

She had apologized to him and it made him feel a little better. Why did it make him feel better? Yes, he was still upset that she had brought it up and he still had a guilty feeling in his gut but it had lessened. He had a feeling that she felt better, too. She had given the apology so easily, though. Weren't apologies supposed to be significant? He wasn't expecting a big speech with it but she sounded rather exasperated when she said it. When somebody said they were sorry after doing something wrong, did they say it because they wanted to feel less guilty or because it was polite and expected of them? He lacked experience with apologies; he didn't usually give or receive them. A small voice of wisdom in his mind told him that with friendship came the understanding of friendly interaction. Nick internally told that voice to shut up. He was confused enough without the cryptic yet cliché messages of fortune cookies buzzing around in his head.

Ding!

A large red pickup truck's timer had expired and the driver was nowhere to be found. The vehicle must've belonged to a very large animal, not even Nick could reach the windshield.

"I've got this one," His partner smirked.

With an amazing display of acrobatics she jumped up onto the parking meter, then to the nearby wall where she pushed off to use a pliable signpost as an improvised bunny-pult. She flew through the air and spectacularly… missed and hit the ground facedown.

After a quick internal debate on whether to ask if his friend was okay or make a sarcastic comment, Nick chose to do the former in reality and the latter in his head.

"Are… you okay there, Carrots?" He asked tentatively taking her paw to help her up.

"Yeah, I'm fine. That doesn't usually happen," She gratefully took his extended paw and dusted herself off when she was up.

"Well, try everything I guess."

Judy smiled at the reference of her favorite song. Even with a scuffed uniform and skinned elbows, her partner had managed to cheer her up. He was surprisingly good at that, even if he wasn't quite as touchy-feely as she was. Even if he could be lazy and annoying at times, he at least meant well for her; besides, he always came through for her whenever she needed him most.

"Maybe we could put the ticket somewhere lower on the car?" He suggested.

"Yeah and we can leave a note of apology for our shortness, too. C'mon Nick take this seriously. Leaving a ticket anywhere else would be unprofessional."

"I'm sure they'd understand."

"I'm not willing to bet on that. Let's just get the ticket on the windshield and be done with it."

"Fine, let's do it the hard way."

Nick crouched down to his partner's level and picked her up, causing her to yelp, before placing her atop his shoulders. Several bystanders turned to look at the strange sight. Nick kept a straight face while his partner desperately tried to become invisible to all of the sudden unwanted attention they were attracting.

"Write the ticket, Carrots. I'm not a ride."

Judy did exactly that, punching in some buttons on her printer and putting the slip of paper on the now reachable windshield. As soon as she finished placing the ticket, Nick set his partner on the ground. It was at this point that they both noticed that some of their audience had their cellphones out. Had they been taking pictures?

"If pictures like that get out my image will be ruined…"

"You didn't seem to have any problem picking me up just a minute ago, why do you care now?" She asked huffily.

"I never thought I'd see these people again in my life. Besides, who'd believe them if they told anyone? Words are like that, they'd tell someone what they saw and nobody would believe them. Pictures however are much harder to disprove and I didn't think they'd be taking any," He grimaced at the thought of silly pictures of him and his partner floating about the internet.

"Well, it was your idea so I hope you're happy."

"I'm not," He scowled.

"Whatever, lunch break is in five minutes, you'll be happy then. I saw this new Mexican restaurant, wanna try it out with me?"

"Oh, no, not after last night's little stunt. I've brought my own lunch today; those fried crickets won't eat themselves."

"Ew, really Nick? C'mon try this place out with me it could be good."

There was a brief pause as the fox considered his possibilities. A small grin became visible upon his muzzle and a playful mirth danced behind his eyes.

"Okay Carrots, you win. Thanks for treating me."

"See? I told you you'd… wait what?"

"You're paying this time, right? I mean, it was you're idea to go out for lunch. Like I said, I have mine back at the ZPD."

"Yeah but I didn't pack a lunch and by the time you go back to get yours and come back to meet me our break will be over!"

"Alright, fine I'll eat out with you and I'll even pay if you agree to a little bet."

Judy narrowed her eyes suspiciously at her partner. He had a cocky smirk and even with his half-lidded eyes she could see he was trying to hide something from her.

"A bet, huh? What kind of bet?"

"It's real simple, Carrots," He started his little spiel, "You swing by my place for a game of cards, after work. If you win I'll pay for this meal but if I win than you gotta pay me back for this meal and last night's dinner."

"That's hardly fair, I'd be paying more. What if I refuse this little bet of yours?"

"Then you can pay for your little table for one all by yourself and I'll head back to the ZPD for my crickets. I think my company is worth a little extra cash, wouldn't you say? Besides, you'd only be paying if you lost, if you win it's free food. Everybody loves free food," Nick grinned, he loved free food and he was going to get it if she accepted this bet.

Silence engulfed the two of them as Judy was became occupied with her thoughts for a moment.

"Fine, I accept, but you'll be sorry."

Nick smiled and shook his head; he'd had his fill of apologies for a while and wouldn't be giving them so easily anymore.