The Fox, the Bunny, and the Zootopia

File #03: What's the Middle One?

It was an surprising moment when Nick was shown in uniform among other graduates, but what caught my eye was when Judy badged Nick, Nick's name plate was 'Nicholas P. Wilde' and when I see it I was like "the heck's that 'P'?" So I came with this idea.

Judy and Nick were adjusting their car after the suspension broke when a criminal crashed their car into theirs yesterday, hard. The two were no mechanic but both had experience in machines and suspensions and such, experienced enough to enable them to adjust the car by themselves without paying mechanics. Even though the department would pay for such damage, a thing Nick was sure off, Judy felt like 'if they could do something, then do it'. The fox could only agree.

Back home Judy used to fix the tractor when it stops working and his father telling her what to do. Several weeks later she could do it without him. On the other paw, Nick helped Finnick repair his van when it broke down, something the smaller fox really like since he doesn't have to pay.

Judy was coming back from a turn before a red fox in orange mechanic uniform. "How was she?" he asked, coffee in his right paw. "I'm sure it's back to new. Last night's calibration was off."

Judy opened the door and came down, cleaning her own orange colored uniform clean of dust. "Yeah, but it still felt a bit off," she said while passing Nick and grabbed her cup of coffee. She sighed before taking a drink. "Yep, that's a nice cup of Joe."

Nick hummed. "Odd. Let me adjust it a little more," he said while grabbing some tools.

Judy quickly stopped drinking. "Oh. No. No. No," she said rapidly, stopping Nick in his track. " Don't. Just leave it be. It's much closer to normal now."

"If you say so," and the fox came back to the tools table and put down some that he took.

While Nick was organizing the tools, Judy's eyes wandered around the garage until they locked at a hat, a police hat, and Nick's hat that was upside down. While looking at it, around the inside of the hat was some words in white written on the inner ring. 'Nicholas P. Wilde' it said. Suddenly she get curious. She never had known Nick's middle name. Uh, maybe she had read it on a list somewhere, but she forgot!

"Guess our job here's done," Nick said, emptying his cup. "Let's hang out somewhere."

"Yeah," the bunny replied. "Sure." but she hadn't got herself to forget about that 'P' yet.

Several minutes later the two were back on their uniforms. Judy cracked some bones while Nick casually walked outside the base, where the sun high in the sky casting its light and heat down there, warming Zootopia's inhabitant. There was a new cafe that just opened near the base, Nick might as well pay it visit. Who knows? Maybe he'll get a free drink or sort.

"Hey Carrots," he said casually. "Wanna go to the new cafe?" but the bunny was having a paw on her chin, drowned in her own mind, which Nick snapped her back into reality by, well, snapped a finger in front of her. "Hey. You hear me?"

The rabbit immediately snapped out when she realized Nick were waiting for her response. "Good idea, let's go." Judy took the lead while Nick shook his head at her behavior.

They went out from the lobby and stopped before a street where it was still red light. Nick peered to his side to find a still thoughtful Judy. When the light turned green, Judy walked ahead of Nick to get across as soon as possible.

They stopped before the cafe, where Judy actually moved her sight from the ground to see it. It was a nicely decorated cafe. There were two tables each on the side of the front door with foldable orange gradated umbrella. There were flower patches under the windows where many different flowers with varying color of orange and yellow bloom. Most of the cafe itself was orange-yellow in color. The sign above the door read 'Sunset Cafe.'

"Whoever owns this they really obsessed with sunsets," Nick remarked, seeing how much this cafe looked like a cream pie.

Judy shrugged. "They know how to brighten up the atmosphere though. Come on," she said as she walked inside followed by Nick.

The interior was pretty much the same as the outside. Cream colored round tables with a tissue box atop each. The tables' face itself was styled to resemble a sun with color when it sets. Only three people were seen. There was an antelope at the counter, a Siberian husky waiter that was serving a chocolate milkshake, and a customer that received the milkshake in a uniform. Wait what? The two's eyes were locked onto the customer. They was as big of Nick, nearly the same though they were a little bit more thick, so they might be some kind of small cat or dog. Probably a cat because behind his ears was a tuft of black fur sticking out.

The waiter noticed the fox and the bunny. "Welcome to Sunset Cafe where everything's orange," he said. Then he turned to the customer while smiling. "Oh, you didn't say your friends are coming too."

'Friends?' So that one was a ZPD officer too, though neither Nick nor Judy had seen them before. Well, sure they were only one and a half week as ZPD officers, five days for Nick, but so far they already met many officers. Though they hadn't seen many officers stationed in other districts, they were sure they hadn't meet this one, so why not getting acquainted?

But before they could, to the waiter and the two's surprise, the milkshake was gone and the customer got up quickly. "Sorry I'm just here to relax a bit. Congrats on your opening, bye!" he said as he run toward the front door. "Morning, Pi," he said as he passed Judy and Nick.

Neither even said anything before the customer disappeared behind the passing vehicles. Nick took the chance of the surprised waiter and asked him, "Who was that?" meanwhile Judy sat on a chair.

"I thought he was a friend of yours," said the waiter, a little surprised. "He's an officer too, right?" he picked up the empty glass and put it onto the counter.

Nick snickered. "Not all officers know one another," he said, making him wonder if that officer just now was on a duty here from another district or such. He sat on a chair across Judy and put his hat down on the table.

But something else caught his mind. When he passed him, he said, 'Morning, Pi." Now where did Nick hear that? He was very sure he heard that somewhere, but he forgot. The same thing got into Judy. She thought about Nick's middle name, but after the fox ordered some drink, she couldn't hold it anymore.

Judy slammed her paws at the table. "Pride!" she said a little loud, loud enough to surprise the antelope. "IS IT?" she asked enthusiastically. "TELL ME IT'S TRUE."

Nick's eyes widened in surprise then shifted to confusion. "What pride?"

"Your middle name."

Nick's face returned to his mischievous form. "Heh, wrong call," and he made that annoying smile again that had irritated Judy several times already. "Didn't you read my name when you check on my tax report?"

"I forgot! Oh come on," she said exasperated, returning her body to the chair. "Then, Phylum!"

Nick scoffed in amusement and disbelief. "How could you confuse my name for a taxon of Animalia?" He raised a brow while continuing to watch his best friend guess.

"Pilot." She interlocked her paws in front of her with ankles on the table.

Nick chuckled. "Ridiculous."

"Pomegranate."

"Seriously?"

"Pan."

"Can't cook."

"Paul."

"Nope."

"Philips!"

"Not historic."

"Phineas!"

"Nu-uh."

"Pie!"

"Hey!"

"Paul!"

"You already guessed that!"

"Panther!"

"I'm a fox!"

"Dandy!

"That doesn't even start with P!"

"Wilde!"

"That's my last name!"

"Nicholas!"

"Stop it already!"

The soft argue quickly escalated into a yelling contest, which was a rather weird amusement for the owners who watched the two yell to each other.

Nick laid back exhausted. "Cracks. You should give up guessing my middle name 'cause I'm not gonna tell you and you'll never guess it." Then he slurped an apple juice that was there while they're arguing. He didn't seem to notice, though.

Nick was reaching for his hat when Judy took it in a blink of an eye. "Come on. A 'P' can't be hard," she said as she rotated the hat in various angles to help her guess a name. "Think. Think. Think!" Nick could only grin at her.

Nick asked with his free paw for his hat which the bunny just backed away. "Give it up, Carrots. No one ever knows my middle name beside my family."

Judy snapped her fingers and stood up suddenly. "I know, Finnick!"

"Nope," Nick said after slurping some juice. "He could care less about my name."

That made Judy sit again in silence, something they both need after a series of yelling. Dry mouth tastes horrible. Nick slided a carrot juice to Judy, which she accepted and they spent an hour in silence. An hour made some difference. First, the café now a little crowded and it was getting noisy and disturbing so the duo paid their drinks and walked out.

Nick was thinking something and Judy asked what. "Who did the report yesterday?"

They both stopped and think a bit. "I thought it was your turn to do the report," Judy stated.

"Wha-? I worked out most of the car!" he snapped. "And you know how much I dislike desk work. With that searching the database and such."

Judy snapped both paws. "The database!" Nick peered curiously at her idea. "I bet there's a full name of yours there," she said mischievously and ran off before Nick could say a thing.

She went on full speed and braked when she approached the front desk. "Clawhauser!"

The cheetah officer was surprised to see a bunny suddenly run from the front and stopped before him. "Hey. How can I help you?"

"Show me Nick's profile," she said in a hurry. She frequently looked back, checking if Nick caught up. "Quick!"

"Okay. Okay. Wait a minute." Clawhauser then sits and typed at a keyboard but then stops. "Don't tell me you're looking for his middle name."

"I am!"

"Sorry to disappoint you, but actually . . ." Clawhauser showed her the monitor.

It showed a page, a profile, with Nick's front and side photo in uniform and some other data. But she looked at the top, looking for his name but it read: "Name: Nicholas P. Wilde." There was silence sitting around for a while before Clawhauser decided to speak.

"Apparently, Nick didn't enter his full name at the form. Chief Bogo already told him to reenter the data, but he hasn't yet," he explained.

"Told you so," came Nick's voice from the front. "I forgot to change it." There goes his usual annoying face again.

Clawhauser then snapped, realized something, and asked, "You don't plan to stall the change, do you?" but Nick gave him a mischievous smile and a blink of an eye.

Judy fell to her knees. "Crackers!" she exclaimed, earning a laugh from Nick.

So that's the bunny cop's attempt to figure out Nick's middle name. Seriously, that P was getting my nerves so I decided to surf the Disney Wiki and found it out. Well, check it out yourself to find out! It's actually pretty neat name that's hard to guess. Or maybe it's just me.

Tell me how I did by review of PM. They're always appreciated. I can also write out your ideas for this series if you want to, but expect me to change it a little bit to fit it in this, though. See ya in the next chapter!