"So, this is it, this is how it ends. Be honest with me Judes, how many pitchforks and torches are there?"
As they pulled into Judy's home she noticed from several of her relatives look up from the sun baked carrot fields to their truck. Smiles began to adorn their faces, some waved and others hollered to alert the rest of her family of their arrival. Familiar scents wafted through the air, filling her with a sense of nostalgia and causing a ghost of smile to creep onto her face.
"Why don't you open your eyes and find out," She nudged her partner.
"No, I don't think my heart can take it, in fact I think they'd skewer it if I did! I'm going to keep my eyes shut for as long as I can. If I don't look at them maybe I'll survive," He had lost his nerve at this point and couldn't tell if he was being dramatic or actually meaning what he saying.
"I doubt you can keep your eyes shut for the whole weekend, besides I didn't force you to do this, you agreed."
"A horrible decision, really," He replied curtly
"C'mon their not gonna hurt you! I'll be there every step of the way. Do you really need me to protect you?" She asked pulling the vehicle to a stop.
"L-let's just get this over with," Nick yielded with a small whimper.
Both Judy and her partner opened the door to the truck, unbuckling to step out. Before either of them could so much as close the doors behind them a swarm of grays and browns surrounded them from every angle. Judy was more than pleased to see the familiar faces of her loved ones again while Nick was extremely intimidated by the sheer amount of strangers staring at him. Excited chatter filled the farm as several of Judy's family members all clambered to get her attention at once. As much she loved her family, reuniting with them could still be overwhelming. Looking over to check on her partner she discovered he was rooted to the spot he stood. He stood tall and stiff, with an obviously nervous grin plastered on his muzzle and his eyes were shut tightly. His paw rubbed the back of his neck in what she could as bashfulness from the sudden attention. It wasn't much longer until a massive amount of children broke through the relatively thin line of adults and teenagers trying to hold them back. Both the Judy and her partner were quickly enveloped by hugs of clingy young bunny paws before they knew what was happening. Being used to this treatment, Judy gladly returned the many hugs and gave some friendly noogies to some of her younger siblings along the way. Nick however, wasn't taking the contact so well, he'd gone completely rigid.
"He's so fluffy!" Exclaimed Amy, a young, blue eyed and particularly clingy, bunny girl.
"I've never seen a fox like you before," Awed Bryan, a quirky, young, bunny with large round spectacles and unusually large, buck teeth, even for his species.
"Judy's told us so much about you!"
"Is it really, true you stood up to a buffalo for her?"
"How'd you meet Aunt Judy, mister fox?"
In all honesty, Nick had never felt more trapped in his life… he hated feeling trapped. Being backed into a corner, metaphorically or physically had never ended well for him. Fear gripped his muscles like a giant iron fist and crept through his veins like a slow but vicious ice. One shallow breath at a time, he attempted to calm his nerves. This was Judy's family, they wouldn't hurt him; they wanted him there. It was odd to have bunnies actually want him around as they, along with several other prey species, never really let him get close before. He still wasn't completely used to giving or receiving hugs yet though, Judy usually being an exception.
"Hey, what did I tell you kits? Give them some space now, they've been here for all but a minute and you're already suffocating the poor dears!" A feminine voice with both authority and concern came from the crowd.
"Listen to your mother, kits. You wouldn't want to make them feel uncomfortable, would we?" A slightly less confident male voice supported.
Several of the younger bunnies let out disappointed whines and begrudgingly let go of their new houseguests. Amy gave Nick one last surprisingly strong hug before she too darted off to catch up with her siblings. The crowd began to part for two rabbits, both being slightly pudgier than most of the others but slightly taller than Judy.
"Mom, Dad, it's so great to see you guys again!" Judy rushed over to wrap her parents in a group hug, with an arm around each.
Nick, with absolutely no clue about what he was supposed to be doing decided to play it safe and wait to be introduced by Judy, even if it was really awkward just to stand in the same spot silently in full few of his partner's entire family. For the first time in his life, he wished he was shorter. He didn't like how his height made him stick out so much and his bright sunset fur didn't help when everyone else had comparatively mundane colored fur. He felt like he was in a place he didn't belong, like broccoli in a fruit basket.
"Oh, honey it's so great to see you again, we've missed you so much!" Cooed Miss Hopps.
"It's great to have ya' back, the return of Jude the Dude!" Crowed Mister Hopps while ruffling her ears.
The fox raised a brow at the nickname but remained politely silent; he'd be sure to make fun of her later for it though. He saw some of the rabbits around Judy's age snicker at the name and had seen Judy ever so slightly flinch at it. The three rabbits ended their seemingly everlasting hug and turn to him causing him to break out into a hopefully unnoticeable cold sweat. Judy walked over to him and gave him a reassuring pat on his shoulder however she had to reach above her head accomplish this.
"Mom, Dad, this is my friend, Nick. Nick, these are my parents," She nodded to each of them respectively.
Every set of eyes looked directly at him; everyone wanted to see how he, the fox, would act towards them. He felt the an immense weight on his shoulders as if someone was piling anvils atop him and his lungs felt like they were being wrapped around by a constricting serpent. His mouth went as dry as Sahara Square on a summer day while his fur was becoming drenched in a worsening cold sweat that he prayed nobody was noticing. He wasn't sure how long he was standing there but it began to feel like hours, it was if a time slowing spotlight was cast upon him. He swallowed in hopes of getting rid of the lump in his throat that would surely cause his voice to hitch if he were to speak with it. Everyone was still staring at him expectantly. His ears splayed backwards, pressed against his head and his tail drooped down to the point where it just wilted on the ground between his feet. He never did like being the center of attention...
"It's okay mister fox," spoke the voice of a tiny bunny girl, "Granny Bonnie and grandpa Stu are really nice! You don't have to be scared of them," She took a few steps from the crowd towards Nick and grabbed hold of his wrist.
"You shake their paws like this," She explained while holding out his arm to Judy's parents.
"There's no need to be shy dear, we're more than happy to finally meet you. My name's Bonnie, thanks for looking out for our little girl," She stifled a giggle and took the paw of the seemingly timid fox only to notice how soft the contact was; it nothing at all like Gideon's pawshake.
Nick was very careful not to let any of his claws touch Bonnie's paw. His paw pads and fur were the only things to make contact with her. The last thing he wanted to was scare them off by brushing them with a pointy claw or goodness forbid accidently scratching one of them. Admittedly his fears were rather irrational and while sometimes clumsy predators would accidently scratch someone during contact it was rather rare and mostly seen as an inconvenience rather than a threat; most of those scratches barely punctured the skin anyways. Still, it was better safe than sorry as they say.
"I-it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance Bonnie, I'm Nick. You two have a lot to be proud of, your daughter is the best cop I've ever seen and she's a great friend too."
"Aww, you mean it?" Judy teased with a light elbow to his side.
"Don't let it get to your head, Ca-," he cleared his throat, "Judy, sorry something caught in my throat for a moment," He lied.
Luckily for him Judy's family seemed to think nothing of his little slip up and let it pass. He would have to be more careful in the future, he did not want to say something that could be taken as offensive to bunnies considering the current company.
"You're doing good," assured the little kit still holding his wrist, "Now shake paws with grandpa Stu. You don't have to be scared I'm right here to help you."
Nick gave a flustered smile and some of his fur began to bristle with embarrassment but he maintained eye contact with Stu.
"Well, like little Lilly here said, my name's Stu. It's nice to meet ya' Judes' told us a lot about you," He too noticed the Nick's rather timid and surprisingly fluffy grip during the pawshake.
"All good things I hope," He laughed nervously looking briefly to his partner and then back to Stu.
"We'll talk about it when we get inside," He teased, "Speaking of which I hope you're hungry because we're about to have lunch."
Nick tried not to think about the irony of a rabbit inviting a hungry fox into their home, how times had changed. Not a single one of them seemed to have an objection to having him over for lunch; this was going better than he expected. Had they seen foxes before?
"The house is this way, just over this hill," Bonnie directed as the mob of bunnies started to disperse for lunch.
He tried to take a step to catch up with the group but noticed a tiny paw still trying to hold him in place. It seemed like Lilly wasn't going to let him go. He hunkered down to attempt to meet her at eye level and gave her a small but warm smile.
"Thank you for helping me, Lilly that was really nice of you."
She hugged him and buried her face into the fur on his neck. Apparently he was right, bunnies were clingy and emotional and it wasn't just Judy. Still with such a large family this amount of contact would probably seem normal. Being an only child and raised solely by his mother however, he did not see it that way.
"Amy was right, you are fluffy mister fox! You're really tall, too. Can I ride on your shoulders so I can be tall? Please, I helped you remember! I wanna ride on your shoulders like Aunt Judy did!"
"H-how'd you know about that?"
"Sarah showed me a picture on her phone; it was on some internet thing. I don't really know much about that stuff though. All I wanna do is be tall."
Usually, Nick would have declined this request but it was hard to do so in the presence of everyone around him. The fact that someone had apparently posted that picture of him and Judy online also concerned him but he was morbidly curious to see if it had any likes and comments on whatever sort of website it was on.
"Alright Lilly, hop on then," he conceded.
The tiny kit gave out a squeal of delight and happily clambered on Nick's back. He felt oddly at peace with this as he hastened his pace to catch up with Judy. So far he wasn't sure about the impression he was making. He wasn't typically shy but he'd certainly acted like it earlier and while he hadn't had the chance to speak much he felt that he may have sounded too formal. Again, his nerves seemed to be getting the better of him, maybe even getting in the way of him acting like himself. He could admit to himself that he wasn't exactly the classiest of foxes, he preferred to act laid back and loose. It was hard to act in a casual and normal manner when he was trying to make good impressions on around three hundred silently judging individuals, however. He didn't feel like he really had the chance to be himself around these bunnies yet, lunch might be a good way to break the ice provided they were serving something he could eat. Besides, the kits in Judy's family seemed to have no shortage of questions about him and he was sure some of the older rabbits had some to ask as well. He'd have to sit at the lunch table though, with a large majority of Judy's family. He realized that he couldn't just leave when things got awkward as he and Judy were the guests of honor. A morbid feeling rose in his gut as he began to see today's lunch as a trap with politeness being the cage. He hoped Judy would sit next to him so that she could help him break the ice or out of any awkward situations or questions. Was that selfish of him, though? It was her family, not his and if she wanted to mingle with those she loved and had missed than who was he to keep her from that? Another uncomfortable thought bubbled its way into his consciousness; he might be seeing precious little of Judy all weekend because of that. He'd be left to fend for himself in a swarm of chatty, clingy, and apparently hug addicted bunnies. A slightly amusing thought painted itself in his head as he wondered if Judy would suffer some sort of "hug withdraw" if he didn't let her hug him for a while. She wasn't overly clingy of course, compared to her family she'd adapted quite nicely to a lower amount of contact. He could only imagine how lonely she must have felt living all alone in her tiny little apartment. Maybe that's why they spent so much time together? They'd see each other nearly every weekend and every day at work. Maybe bunnies just needed to spend a lot of time with somebody else to be happy? Well, that would certainly explain some things on her end of their kooky relationship but what about him? Foxes weren't exactly known for large families or being social butterflies yet he never truly got tired of having her around. Why was that the case, though? The answer seemed simple enough; he enjoyed her company. Being around her made him feel different she made him feel happier, special and important. Of course there was a lot more to it than that, it was like her emotions were contagious. When she was happy, which seemed to be most of the time, he was happy with her and when she was angry, scared or sad, well, he felt similar too. He'd never forget how scared and dejected she looked back by the cable car when Chief Bogo was trying to get her to quit. It made him so mad! The peppy and smart little bunny that was determined to make her dreams come true was going to have them crushed by some big bully of a buffalo. She'd saved his life just a few minutes ago and that jerk had the nerve to tell her that she'd never be the heroine she already was and the worst part was that she was starting to believe it. He couldn't just watch as she was being humiliated for something that wasn't her fault, for the way she was born. He didn't want her to go through the same thing that he did when he was a kit. It was then that he realized three things; the first being that it was at that moment that he began truly caring for others again, the start of their friendship. The second being that it was that very reason that he could never fully respect the chief; that buffalo had almost crushed his only friend's dreams in front of him. The last being that there might be something more to the reason he spent so much time with Judy but he couldn't place what it was.
"Hey, I wanna ride too!" Cried a young, boy bunny.
"No fair, I want a turn!" Whined his sister.
"I call the next turn!" A particularly chubby bunny proclaimed to his siblings.
"You didn't help him so you don't get to have a turn," informed Lilly from atop his head.
"Yeah I do!" A rebellious bunny yelled while suddenly trying to climb his leg.
That was the spark that blew up the powder keg, small kits began to try and climb him from every angle while Lilly fervently fought to keep her spot atop his head. He yelped from a sharp yank on his tail and began fumbling as kits darted between and tried to cling to his legs. He knew he was going to fall so he grabbed Lilly and hugged her close to his chest and turned to fall on his back so she wouldn't get hurt. When he fell, excited young kits began to playfully climb on his stomach and jump around near his head. He knew they were just being young and playful but he started to become scared. The wind had been knocked out of his lungs and he was struggling to regain his breath while keeping Lilly safe from the trampling he was receiving from her siblings. His vision was slowly starting to darken as he was taking longer and longer to sputter a single breath.
"Stop, you're hurting him!" Lilly squealed uselessly from his arms.
His vision started to cloud further as his lungs burned fiercely, begging for the air they'd been suddenly robbed of.
"Get off him right now, all of you!" Ordered a familiar voice.
As soon as he had heard the voice he felt a massive relief of pressure on his stomach, he could breathe again. He gasped for air like it was the most precious commodity in the world and as far as he was concerned at the moment, it was. After a moment of acting like a recently beached fish, he looked up to see his savior, Judy standing above him and offering her paw.
"Looks like you've saved my life again Judy… but you know who's counting?"
"Looks like you are. Seriously though, are you okay?" She tentatively took his paw to help him up.
Upon stumbling to an upright position with the aid of his partner he wrapped his paw around her shoulder to support his weight. He stood there for a minute to catch his breath and wait for his heartbeat to return to normal. He could feel his heartbeat throbbing in his head and he still felt quite woozy.
"I'm okay; just a little shaken is all. I knew I'd be outnumbered here but I wasn't expecting…" He didn't finish voicing his thought.
"Outnumbered? Nick, I don't want you to think of it like that. This isn't you being against us; it's about you being with us. I know I've been pretty bad about sticking with you so far and I'm sorry about that. I just want you to enjoy meeting everyone, make a few new friends maybe…"
A loud sniffle interrupted their conversation as they turned to see Lilly starting to cry as she sat on the ground.
"I-I'm sorry I got you hurt, please don't h-hate me!" She wailed sadly.
This was a surprisingly familiar situation for Nick. A small scene that took place under a bridge came to his mind. Bunnies were so emotional. Luckily, he knew just how to handle this situation. He crouched down to meet her at eye level, yet again and gently wiped some tears off her cheek.
"It's okay Lilly, I'm not mad at you it wasn't your fault. Please don't be sad, I don't like seeing sad bunnies, just ask your aunt over there," He lightly nodded his head in Judy's direction but didn't look away from Lilly.
She suddenly rushed forward and buried her face into his fur in a very bunny like hug… something he still was getting used to.
"Aunt Judy was right about you. I love you mister fox."
"…Mister fox loves you too," He wondered if hanging around bunnies was making him too mushy for his own good.
He turned to look to his partner, "Not a word out of you to anyone about this, okay?"
She smirked simply smirked and held out her pen… that pen.
"Mister fox loves you too."
"I think you've said more than enough."
Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait, I started school again recently so its taking a little bit longer for me to make new chapters. I am still determined to finish this story (and it has a long way to before that happens) so please stick with me! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, if you have anything you would like to say please share your thoughts in a review as I love reading them.