Disclaimer: Here's some general bits of advice that I've found are useful in life, Don't steal characters that aren't yours from powerful companies from Disney (or at least don't let them know that you did), Don't play around with actual tools that aren't toys (like pawcuffs), don't practice hypnotism in a mirror (Hey, stop laughing!), and last but certainly not least don't forget to feed the gaggle of Boop addicted readers. (Seriously don't. *shudder* that pirate crew gets scary when they're hungry!)
Approved and Edited By: Cimar of Turalis WildeHopps, the pirate admiral I suspect told all those readers were I was trying to hide from them (and don't you try to blame your parrots for that! :P )
Chapter 7 – Cuffs & Blackmail
"My fault?! How is this my fault?!" Ralph retorted indignantly, shaking his cuffed paw as their argument started becoming more heated. "You're the one that snapped the key trying to reach back and unlock it!"
"And that happened because you got sneaky and tried to escape!" Nadine replied a bit shortly, giving the cuff attached to her wrist a yank in return.
Ralph had to take a step to keep his balance, but gave his partner a witheringly sarcastic look, "Really?! And I was just supposed to sit there in your lap so you could boop me?!"
"YES!" Nadine snapped, throwing her arms up in exasperation (and dragging his cuffed paw up with hers).
"Oh, so if I took you hostage, then you'd just sit docilely while I booped you? Hummm?" Ralph continued in a mocking voice, giving her a pointed look.
Nadine seemed to almost blush for a second before she crossed her arms and glared, "Like you'd ever be able to take me hostage."
Her sudden movement though, when crossing her arms caught Ralph off balance as the pawcuffs pulled him forward. He let out a startled yelp instead of his angry retort as he stumbled into Nadine, just managing to avoid smacking his nose into her crossed arms… only for it to smack squarely into the center of her softer chest.
"Will you stop yanking me around like that?!" Ralph spluttered as he dislodged his nose and shot a glare up at Nadine. He opened his mouth to say something else but his inhaled breath brought with it a sudden wave of her scent and his mind momentarily skip like the reader pin on an old vinyl record.
That exotically feline scent.
Hints of jungle flowers.
A trace of sweat from her running around.
The faint smell of her fur condition.
The light earthy tones of her fur beneath the conditioner…
Ralph's jaw moved repeating the motion of the last thing he'd said though no sound came out.
All those smells and a thousand more trace scents all wrapped up in one familiarly female aroma that he knew as well as his own scent suddenly overpowered him… fascinated him…
The unique white stripes of Nadine's facial fur pattern shifted to more of a pinkish red and she took a quick step back, looking down at her feet and mumbling a quick apology.
"Sorry! Sorry! I didn't meant to yank you, I just-" Nadine made a motion with her paw, her cuffed paw, and then stopped as it dragged his arm around after hers. She groaned, her shoulders slumped and she gave one more embarrassed and dejected 'sorry'.
There were some snickers from the other wolves watching to which Ralph gave a reflexive glare. They all looked away not meeting his eyes, though the snickering didn't lesson in the least. Bill even winked at him before turning away, rallying the group to start cleaning up the mess from the party. Not that it helped much because all the other wolves kept sneaking glances back at him and Nadine while doing a very poor job of concealing their amusement.
Ralph looked back at Nadine who was looking increasingly miserable; like all the fun and fight was being leached out of her. Something about Nadine, the fearless, hard as nails, never back down, terror of the TUSK team Nadine; his partner Nadine, looking like that was just wrong and made his hackles rise in anger.
Shooting one last glare at the other wolves Ralph grabbed Nadine's cuffed paw with his.
"Come on," he said leading her toward the hallway and stairs. "Let's go see if we can at least get the other cuff unlocked. My gear is in my room and we can use my key."
Even with the other wolves out of sight as he started up the stairs leading Nadine by the paw, Ralph's hackles wouldn't go down and he had to repress the urge to growl. The anger was a bit odd since he was usually very even tempered, and he couldn't help wondering if he was over reacting after his little flare up with Nadine. The snickers from his friends were nothing unusual, it was the normal kind of ribbing that he took in stride every day, that he could usually find amusing… the kind he enjoyed right along with Nadine…
"Ralph…" Nadine started to meet his eyes as he turned to face her but then she looked back down, "I'm… I'm sorry for this whole… debacle. I shouldn't have cuffed you earlier…" she looked at his cuffed paw holding hers and then awkwardly let go, "I-It was stupid and I thought it was harmless and I just wanted to-"
Ralph looked at their no longer clasped but still cuffed paws and frowned. Nadine flinched and went quiet, which only made his frown deepen. He looked up at Nadine only to see her ears splayed glumly and whiskers drooping despondently.
"This," Ralph said sternly shaking cuffs again before giving it a hard yank causing Nadine to stumble forward, "was stupidly brilliant and hilarious and fun and you did it because otherwise you'd never be able to beat me." Ralph finished with a grin as Nadine caught her balance as only a cat could and looked up with a shocked expression only for him to lightly tap her suddenly very close nose with his.
Ralph's grin got bigger as her whiskers twitched and her ears jerked.
"And you're just lucky that we have a truce right now or I'd be closing in on victory." He said leaning back and reaching up with his free paw to boop her nose, smirking at how her long whiskers bounced like the ripples on calm water at his touch.
"Boop!"
Nadine was too stunned to react as Ralph tapped her nose. She'd thought that he'd been upset with how she'd overreacted to finding her cuff key broken and then with her unthinkingly yanked him around so much he'd tripped hitting her… well, he hadn't appreciated being jerked around, and it had looked like he'd even been too angry to speak for a second, not mention how he'd all but stormed up the stairs.
"Boop!"
Her whiskers twitched spastically as Ralph tapped her nose and snickered, before turning and leading her down the hallway. Nadine just stood there before a slight tug had her following mutely after him while she tried to get her mental balance back (and wished that it would recover as easily and instinctively as her actual balance).
Another tug and she followed Ralph through a door, only realizing then that the tug wasn't by the cuff on her wrist but by Ralph's paw holding hers.
When did he grab my paw? Nadine thought in confusion looking back down at it. She could have sworn that she'd let go of his…
Nadine unconsciously released her grip again, starting to let go but Ralph's paw only tightened determinedly hanging onto hers.
She felt a slight echo of the heat that had suffused her cheeks from when he'd practically face-planted into her chest return and fought to subdue the reaction. It wasn't like he'd meant too, the cuffs had pulled him…
Nadine shook her head trying to clear it of her jumbled thoughts as Ralph stopped by a dresser and started rummaging through his police gear. Their little game might have gone a little too far with the cuffs and tree and then when they'd found that the key had snapped things suddenly hadn't seemed all that fun anymore. She wished she hadn't snapped at Ralph and started their argument, and now on top of that she had all these stupid embarrassing feelings mixed in just because she hadn't even taken the time to think about the fact that he was cuffed to her when she'd gotten so agitated and...
"Ha! Found it." Ralph said pulling out his pawcuffs in their belt holster and removed a key from a little pouch on the side. He pulled Nadine over to a bed and sat down on the edge giving her paw a tug to do the same.
As she hesitantly sat next to him Nadine finally looked around the room and noted that it must be Ralph's bedroom. His scent was all over the place, strong enough for her to easily smell and his police uniform top was draped loosely on a hanger, precariously balanced of the top of his closet door which was open… and showed a rather disorganized mess of clothes in the closet. Looking around she saw that 'disorganized' was a pretty good description of the room and couldn't help but let out a laugh.
"What?" Ralph said looking at her in a confused manner as she fought to contain the belly laugh. Nadine just smiled, feeling much better, like that laugh had broken the lingering awkward tension from the fight.
She waved a paw around the room, trying not to snicker as she spoke.
"This looks like a college dorm room. A messy college dorm room…" she couldn't hold back a snicker as she pointed over to a desk next to the bed where there were some posters on the wall as well as a bunch of figurines, "Or maybe more like a teenagers room!" she snickered again.
"Hey!" Ralph said indignantly, his ears turning a bit red, "Those are collectables! Everyone loves Star Trunk."
Nadine smiled again feeling their normal banter slip back into place and remove the last vestiges of their short fight.
"Ralph," Nadine had stifle another snicker, "You don't just have posters, you've got dolls and figurines!"
"Those are not 'dolls and figurines' Ralph sniffed irately, "They're action figures and collector's models. Signed collectors models," He added proudly, "See that Chewbacca model, George Lupus himself signed that!"
Nadine rolled her eyes making sure Ralph could see the gesture. "Out of all the stuff you could get signed, why that one? That character doesn't even make sense, I heard that they based it after some extinct prehistoric creature, what did they call it? Apes or gorillas or something?" Nadine waved her paw dismissively, "All it ever did was make that yodeling sound anyway. And those" she pointed at a figurine of a clone trooper a bit of disdain entering her voice, "Clone soldiers couldn't shoot for shit! They could hit everything but what they were aiming for! You'd think that a genetically engineered army of supersoldiers could…" Nadine trailed of as she saw that Ralph was staring at her, a small smile growing across his muzzle in a way that made her danger sense squawk in alarm and her ears pin back.
"You," he said tapping her with a finger, smile still growing, "are such a fan, admit it!"
"What? No-" Nadine tried to say but he ran right over her.
"You were monologuing about the movie Nadine! You even know trivia about the concept story! Admit it, you're a fan!"
"Am not," Nadine said in a huff and started crossing her arms before stopping as her cuffed paw started dragging Ralph's toward her chest. There was a long moment before she finally managed to lamely finish her defense with, "I just like movies."
"Sure you do." Ralph said in clearly disbelieving tone before chuckling and poking her again, "Though, maybe if they had cloned wolves instead of tigers they might have actually been able to hit something."
"Oh, you did not just imply that!" Nadine said aghast, poking him back. "You know I'm a better shot than you, Ralph."
"Really?" he said his smirk gaining a wolfish edge, "Then how about we put that to a test and winner gets to boop the other."
Nadine narrowed her eyes trying to figure out what Ralph was thinking. She knew he was up to something… she just didn't know what...yet.
"Fine," she said after a moment and just to be safe, decided to skew this side bet in her favor, "Tomorrow. The rainforest paintball arena. We'll just see who loses then."
"Perfect." Ralph said grinning even more in a way that shook her confidence. "Loser of each paintball match gets booped?" he said sticking out his paw to shake.
Nadine looked at it dubiously for a second before reaching out and shaking.
"Great." Ralph said his tail starting to wag, "Now let's see what we can do about these cuffs."
Clawhauser sat at his desk, focusing on the biggest problem he had yet faced that day… maybe that week. His eyebrows scrunched together in concentration as he examined all possibilities, searching for the optimal solution. It might not be a life and death problem but it was close… he was down to his last donut and he needed to figure out how to make the sweet delicious treat last as long as possible.
Maybe nibble around the edge first, then take slow bites? He turned the donut in his paw examining it.
Clockwise or counterclockwise?
Perhaps nibble up from the bottom to end with the icing on the top?
Or he could eat the icing first then-
His phone rang startling him and he dropped the object of his consideration.
"NOOooooo!" he shouted out in despair and dove off his chair for the donut as it tumbled toward the floor. Clawhauser knew he wasn't the fittest of the officers, but he was still a cheetah and when he wanted to (if he was being honest, more like if the situation was desperate enough) he could still move with surprising swiftness.
Just an inch from the floor he managed to snag the donut with a claw and twisted to slam back first into the ground to keep the donut from being crushed beneath him. He grunted at the loud thud from his impact while the phone kept ringing but his full attention was on the donut which, unfortunately, had been sent flying off his claw when he'd twisted.
"CLAWHAUSER!" Bogo's voice bellowed from his office, "What in the buffalo blue blazes is that racket?!"
Eyes wide, watching the arc of donut as it traveled through the air, Clawhauser didn't have time to respond as he rolled to his paws and then leapt like a baseball player aiming for home base… and snapped his muzzle shut on the donut right before hitting the ground in a slide that clipped his desk, sending items clattering to the floor.
"CLAWHAUSER!" Bogo bellowed again, and not in his usual 'how's the weather today' bellow but, 'someone's about to get parking duty' bellow.
Clawhauser swallowed (half enjoying the sudden sweat flavor of the donut, half depressed that he'd eaten it in one bite) and quickly answered the chief.
"Um, sorry Sir! Phone just startled me! Got to answer that!" he hurried to picked up the phone and answer with an overly loud "Hello, Precinct One."
There was some angry grumblings from Bogo's office, but apparently seeing (or rather hearing) that Clawhauser was doing his job the grumbling died down and Clawhauser gave a sigh of relief.
"Hey, Benji! Buddy you got a free minute?" Wolford's voice came over the phone as he took his seat again and looked mournfully at the now empty donut box.
"Sure, Ralph. Weekend shifts been pretty dull so far. I think even Bogo is bored with his Gazelle dance app and is hoping some problem will come up that he could handle personally. What's up?" he asked, this time in a normal voice, so as to not gain Bogo's attention again.
"Um… well, I ah… certainly don't want to bother the Chief. We- I, just had a question about these new pawcuffs we got issued. Certainly nothing to bother Bogo about." Ralph said a bit nervously in a way that immediately set off Clawhauser's gossip sixth sense.
"Ohhhhhhh…" Clawhauser nearly squealed in delight, though he kept his voice low and conspiratorial, "What did you do that 'certainly' isn't worth the chief's attention?"
"Um…" Ralph seemed like he was second guessing his decision to call but continued, "Nadine and I were… ah, doing some practice drills and we seem to have a bit of a… problem." Ralph said sounding a bit chagrined and slightly desperate, before adding, "just a small problem, not a Bogo needs to know about this problem."
Clawhauser grinned. Gossip might not be as good as donuts but it was close and there'd been nothing going on today. He'd been forced to re-watch reruns of Gazelle's concerts just to stay awake.
"Practice drills?" he asked probingly and heard a cough from the other end of the phone line.
"Ahem, Yep! You know Nadine, absolute perfectionist. Said my take down techniques were sloppy and that I needed practice-"
"Your technique was sloppy!" Nadine said disapproving, interrupting Ralph, "Otherwise you might have actually had even a chance at pinning me."
"Wait, I thought you two were watching the game today?" Clawhauser said feeling like he was missing something, and this time it was Nadine that responded sounding a bit chagrined and almost… embarrassed?
"We were!" she said way too fast, "but, ah, since we were hanging out already, we um… decided to get some practice in too!"
Clawhauser was sure there was more to the story and was about to probe further but Nadine hurried on before he could ask.
"Anyway, Clawhauser, we ah… sort of broke the key to my cuffs… in one of the cuffs…" she said trailing off and Ralph picked up.
"Ya, and… well… we can't even get the other cuff to open with my key either… these cuffs should work with anyones key from the precinct, right?"
"Owww," Clawhauser winced. "Ya, Ralph's key would work… except for the anti-tampering features on this model of pawcuffs, remember the briefing on them?"
There was a resounding "No." from both Ralph and Nadine before Ralph added, "Benji, the briefer was Slothson. You and Judy were the only ones who managed to stay awake through the entire thing!"
"Hey! The Chief also managed to get through it," Clawhauser added a bit embarrassed; he'd maybe had one (or four) too many of the new super sugary Snarlbucks Frappuccinos that had come out the day of that now infamous briefing and hadn't been able to help but stay awake (and literally bouncing in his seat. Nick, before he'd fallen asleep, had managed to get a picture of him looking like Tigger from the kit's show Whinny the Pooh, bouncing in his seat with his tail curled almost like a spring).
"The Chief," Ralph retorted, "may have stood cross armed and stern faced through the whole briefing, but he was asleep on his feet! That's how someone mysteriously drew an eye patch as well as an evil villain's mustache and goatee on his face and then put the sharpie in his hoof." Clawhauser did remember that, and had to stifle a giggle. Bogo had been livid, almost piratically so, but the perpetrator had been smart enough to wipe their own pawprints from the sharpie (Bogo had it checked and his hoofprints where the only prints on the marker), "But that's not the point," Ralph continued, "You were actually awake for the whole 4 hour briefing on these new pawcuffs. So, how do we unlock these? Or at least unlock one side of them since the other is stuck?"
"Well…" Clawhauser started slowly, "If the key broke on one side and jammed it, then the anti tamper feature probably has both cuffs locked. You're going to have to come in so our supply and repair department can unjam and release the tamper lock." Clawhaser winced again and added, "And that might be a problem, like a 'we need the Chief' problem."
There was a dead silence from the other end of the phone line so Clawhauser asked, "Umm… did Nadine just cuff you or cuff you to something, Ralph? Because that might be even more problematic."
"And why do you think I'm the one cuffed?" Ralph replied in an indignant and distracted voice as there was a muffled snicker that Clawhauser was pretty sure was from Nadine.
Clawhauser shrugged, though neither of them could see it, before saying in an apologetic voice, "Ralph, the odds of for our training bouts are 3 to 1 against you when you go up against Nadine."
There was another snicker that was almost audibly smug before Ralph snapped, "Well, despite your odds, I managed to cuff Nadine-"
"No," Nadine cut in still sounding smug, "you didn't cuff me, you're cuffed to me and that didn't work out so well for you now did it?"
"Well at least you neither of you are locked to something and we don't need to get the Chief to send someone out to wherever you are…" Clawhauser mussed before adding, "but we still have a big problem. The supply and repair department is only open in the mornings on weekends and we are going to need Bogo to authorize bringing a tech in off hours for an emergency to un jam your pawcuffs."
There was a short silence followed by low furiously whispered argument between Ralph and Nadine.
"Shit!"
"How are we going to explain this to Bogo?!"
"We can't do that, He'd kill us! Especially after yesterday!"
"No. He wouldn't kill us, he'd keep to his word and stick us in one of those joke mobiles!"
"And that's better how?"
Clawhauser curiosity got the better of him and he asked, "What happened yesterday?" to which there was another long silent pause before both Nadine and Ralph nearly shouted, "Nothing!" before their low argument continued, this time too muffled for Clawhauser to hear.
"We're screwed!" Ralph said flopping back on his bed in despair as he held one paw over his phone's speaker, "Bogo is going to be-"
"Bogo isn't going to hear about this!" Nadine said firmly, before looking right at him with an intent if panicked expression. "Look, the supply department will open up at tomorrow morning at 8. We just have to wait until then and that way Bogo will never have to know about our little snafu."
"Only problem about that plan is that we're cuffed together Nadine!" Ralph said giving the pawcuffs a small shake, "Are you planning on spending the night and sleeping here?" Ralph said sarcastically gesturing around his room, and then froze as he'd comprehended what he'd just suggested. They were in his room, his den. If Nadine spent the night with him here… in his bed…
Just him and her…
Both single…
Sleeping together…
He was suddenly acutely aware of her scent again, and a sudden heat suffused his cheeks as his heart started hammering away and his mind freaked out.
Oh, gods if the pack found out about it… and with the incident with the food earlier…
And to think that a pack of wolves wouldn't find out that he was hiding a tigress in his bed in the middle of the pack neighborhood?
This is going to be a biggest scandal in years, decades, centuries! This is going to make the story of Balto look like-
Nadine broke through his thoughts with an amused scoff.
"No. I'm not spending the night here," she said with absolute certainly that, while calming his panicked thoughts, also for some reason made him feel supremely disappointed and dejected.
"You're going to come over and spend the night at my apartment," Nadine finished, and Ralph's heart which had just slammed on the brakes suddenly let up and hit the throttle again.
"What?" he asked stupidly, feeling like he'd had a bad case of whiplash.
Nadine rolled her eyes, getting up off the bed and then when he only blinked stupidly at her, took his cuffed paw in hers and pulled him up as well. Then, deftly taking his phone out of his other paw, she quickly spoke to Clawhauser.
"Benji, we got this figured out. There is no need to get Bogo involved." There was a pause as she listened for a second, then continued, "Nope, we'll be fine. We can get this take care of tomorrow morning when they open up, Ralph can just sleep over at my place tonight." Another pause, and Nadine's whiskers went taught and her cheeks reddened as a high pitched squeal came through the phone.
"Benji!" Nadine squawked somewhere between a whine and a shout and facepalmed. She groaned and then in a defeated and resigned voice said, "Benji, if you swear to never speak of this to anyone I'll buy you donuts for a week… yes, your favorite ones with extra icing."
There was a muffled response and Nadine grunted again before ending the call and handed him his phone back.
"Okay, let's get out of here before anyone else gets any stupid ideas," Nadine said looking around his room.
"Um… stupid ideas about what?" Ralph asked still not tracking all that well as he watched Nadine snag a duffle bag sticking out from under his bed and then pull him over to his dresser.
"About our 'sleep-over' tonight," she said biting out the word. "Gods, Clawhauser can gossip worse than highschool of click of teenager girls! Just because we're going to spend the night hanging out together doesn't mean that we're going to make out or anything!" she finished in an embarrassed, red cheeked and slightly peeved tone.
Spending the night 'hanging out' and sleeping while cuffed together, Ralph's mind noted unhelpfully, making his own cheeks heat a bit and then just to make it worse added, in her den.
"Umm… Nadine," Ralph started hesitantly as she threw some of his clothes in the duffle. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" Given Nadine's determined expression he knew it was pointless question but he didn't know what else to say.
"All my stuff is at my apartment so we have to go there anyway. No point in coming back here after that," she said closing the drawer and opening another. "Plus, you share this house with Bill. I don't have roommates."
"Right, I guess that makes sense- HEY!" Ralph snatched his boxers she picked up out of her paw and blushed furiously.
Nadine looked at her empty paw and then at him questioningly, and then after a confused second giggled.
"Ralph, stopped being such a baby, they're just boxers," She said in an extremely amused voice.
Ralph's blush flared and he took the duffle bag and quickly stuffed the boxers into it before turning to the dresser to add a few more items. Also so he wouldn't have to look directly at Nadine.
That, it turned out, was a mistake because Nadine, like some prehistoric predator sighting a weak prey, practically pounced on his obvious display of embarrassment, leaned in close and purred, "Well I think the heart pattern on those boxers make them absolutely cute."
Ralph's blush traveled up to his ears as he hurriedly finished packing his duffle bag and practically bolted for the door, dragging his giggling partner behind him. He'd nearly gotten her through the door and out of his room when she stopped and reached over to his overflowing dirty clothes hamper and, to his mortification, picked up a pair of white boxers with a red kiss pattern that had fallen to the floor.
"You really should clean up just a little before bringing a girl into your room, Ralph," she said with an ear to ear smirk while holding the boxers up and raising an eyebrow in a preposterously smug manner.
Ralph's face felt like it might melt from the intensity of his blush and cursed himself for spending the morning goofing off rather than cleaning like he'd planned to. Nadine though, leaned in close whispering, "We might have a truce for today, but I won't ever tell anyone about this," she twirled his boxers on a finger, "or the state of your room… in exchange for a boop."
"That's blackmail!" Ralph hissed, ears pinned back as she twirled his boxers around again and her smirk got bigger.
"Oh?!" she asked with a mockingly shocked expression and speaking in an overly demure manner raised her cuffed paw to daintily cover her mouth, "Are you going to arrest me then?!" she gave the cuff a shake and snickered as her voice shifted back to its normal tone and she added smugly, "Not that it would do you any good. So what will it be kissy boy?" she twirled the boxers again and pulled out her phone to snap a few pictures of them and his room.
"Fine, one boop," Ralph nearly growled. Nadine beamed and flicked the boxers over onto the overly full hamper. Then as he braced for her to boop him, she turned and walked past him, grabbing his cuffed paw with hers and leading him back to the stairs.
Ralph blinked and then followed after as she gave his paw a tug.
"Ummm… are you giving up your ill-gotten gains?" he asked in mild confusion only for Nadine to laugh.
"No," she said still chuckling. "I'm just going to wait until you forget you owe me an unconditional boop and then take it." She looked back at him, her hazel eyes sparkling as she grinned, "That's going to be so much more fun don't you think?"
…
'Fun' was not exactly what Ralph would have called that prospect. Nor would that have been what he called their attempt to quietly leave through the back door. Bill had unfortunately seen them and taken one look at his duffel bag before shooting him a not to subtle thumbs up and wink.
The drive back to Nadine's apartment though, he decided, might be termed 'interesting'. By Bogo's decree, Nadine had to drive but her left paw was cuffed to his right, meaning they had to first climb in through the same door, and then that their cuffed paws were awkwardly crossed over each other. It would have been easier for Ralph to drive but they both agreed that it simply wasn't worth the risk of Bogo's wrath and the doom of being stuck in the joke mobile. Given their luck, if Ralph drove they'd probably end up pulling up to a red light right alongside the Chief and get caught.
In Ralph's opinion, 'Fun' was when they got to her apartment and he got a chance for a little payback for her blackmail.
Nadine gave a little sigh of relief after she parked the cruiser at her apartment. The hazardous driving course at the Police Academy had taught her a lot, but it hadn't had a section on driving while cuffed to another mammal. Traffic had been light though and she'd driven slowly. Ralph had even helped as much as he could by trying to give her cuffed paw as much room to move as possible, though having him practically lean on her the entire drive and his arm constantly brushing against her had been distracting in its own way. Good driving though meant avoiding distractions so she'd adamantly tuned out any and all other thoughts beside driving.
After crawling over the seat to exit through Ralph's door she took a moment to arrange his duffle bag so that at a glance it might look like they were carrying it together… or maybe holding paws. Gritting her teeth though she decided that it was at least better than looking like they were cuffed together.
Luckily though it seemed that her precautions were unneeded as they didn't see anyone else as they made their way through the lobby and up to the stairs of the old apartment building. Nadine was just thinking that she was home free when she turned the corner on her landing and ran into the last person she wanted to see right at that moment.
"Hey, Nadine!" Megan called from down the hall, causing Nadine to flinch. "I'm heading out to hit the town and have some fun, want to join me? We could go find you a nice hunk and take care of that dry spell you're having- Oh!" the little bobcat, wearing a little black dress stopped as Ralph came around the corner of the hall and into view.
"Well now," Megan said lasciviously looking between the two of them and then eyed Ralph up and down in a very blatant manner. "Looks like you're already way ahead of me."
"No, no, No!" Nadine said quickly taking a slight step forward and to the side, blocking Megan's view of her paw cuffed to Ralph's and franticly waving in negation with her other, "This is absolutely not like that! This my police partner, Ralph and we're just hanging out for the night, nothing more!"
Megan's face looked slightly disappointed until she suddenly beamed with an absolutely evilly gleeful look on her face.
"Wait," she said excitedly despite Nadine's attempt to shut down the conversation, "Is this that 'Ralph'? The one you were calling out for in your dream last night?"
Nadine's face burned as she tried frantically to shush Megan, not that it did any good. One glance back at Ralph, only to see his ears cocked in a very interested manner, made her face and ears seer as she hissed at Megan, "I was not dreaming of him last night!"
"Oh, so he's only a substitute for this other Ralph?" Megan asked in an innocent questioning tone that made Nadine snap back at her.
"There is no other Ralph!"
The moment the words were out of her mouth she wished she could take them back because Megan smirked in a way that screamed 'gotchya!' and she tried to correct her statement.
"I mean no dream Ralph! No dream, dreams!" she nearly shouted, to little effect considering Megan's look.
"He's not my date, he's my partner!" Nadine nearly snarled, and then added exasperatedly as Megan gave her a gleefully scandalized look. "Police partner."
Nadine glared hard at Megan for second before the bobcat finally shrugged nonchalantly.
"Fine, if he's only your 'police' partner," she said looking right back at Nadine and the at Ralph in a predatory fashion. "You won't mind if I hit on him… I've never so much as kissed a wolf before let alone taken one home… and he looks good enough to eat."
She gave Nadine a smug look before eyeing Ralph like a particularly tasty treat, slinking toward him in a hip swishing, tail snapping, sort of way.
Before she could think of how to respond, Nadine had taken an involuntary step in front of Ralph and barred her teeth, a low warning growl coming out that only had Megan grinning even more. Then as if the world was conspiring against her, Ralph spoke up, a teasing playful edge in his voice that warned her that everything was about to go to hell.
"Megan was it?" Ralph said casually, stepping to the side so that he could smile at the bobcat and give her a mildly appreciative and appraising look that had Nadine clenching her jaw.
"That's my name, so how about it hot stuff? Care to come and party with me for the night?" Megan said coyly, practically preening as she slowly arched to show off her dress and figure apparently unperturbed by Nadine's increasing growl.
Ralph grinned but shook his head before responding just as coyly, "Sorry but we wolves really only go in for one partner for life and Nadine's already chained me to her," he said and then held up his cuffed paw, jiggling it around. Nadine's growing growl suddenly morphed into a despondent groan and she tried to hide her face with her other paw as Ralph smirked smugly at her.
Megan snickered and then looked right at Nadine. "Really Naddy, most mammals give each other a ring and mark each other to officially tie someone to them, don't you think this is a bit too literal?"
Ralph choked slightly at that and blushed while Megan snickered again as Nadine's face flared.
"Opps, forgot he's a wolf, guess it is quite literal with him," Megan winked at Ralph who by an apparent sheer effort of will (or Nadine suspected, desire for some payback) managed to recover his composure and despite his still very pink ears, winked back at her.
"You know," Megan stage whispered to Nadine from behind her paw, and pointing at the cuffs with her other hand, "that isn't what wolves mean when they say they're tied to their mates right?"
"Megan!" Nadine pleaded, "That's not what… we're not like that… I mean he's my…" Nadine stammered as her friend's grin just got wider and wider. Nadine gave up and groaning, turned to Ralph in desperation, "Help, please?" she asked desperately waving a paw at Megan. "You've got me, now explain that we're not like that to her because if you want literal, she'll take this literally."
Ralph crossed his arms, pulling her paw toward him by the pawcuffs like she had earlier though he didn't do it fast enough to make her stumble, and smirked at her.
"If she takes this literally, then it's your fault." He said smugly. "You're the one that said my boxers were 'cute' after all." Nadine groaned again as Megan broke into a stifled fit of giggles.
"Ralph!" she whined her cheeks flaring, "Uncle! You won, happy now? What more do you want?" Nadine said desperately.
"Hummm…" He murmured theatrically tapping his chin before snapping his fingers like he'd just figured out the answer. "How about that boop back?" he said and smirked at her.
Nadine stiffened and glared back at Ralph, not even noticing Megan's sudden focused interest.
"No, I won that fair and square," she said cheeks burning as embarrassment mixed with indignation as she thought of giving up here building advantage in there bet.
"You got that by blackmail," Ralph scoffed, "and turnabout is fair play, so what is it Nadine?" he took a step closer, right up to her and grinning, "that boop," he nudging her nose lightly with his, "is my price."
There was a muffled squeal from Megan that Nadine didn't even hear over her suddenly hammering heart as she and Ralph locked gazes in a stare down.
Nadine's whole world seemed to shift, narrow down until it was just her and Ralph and the pounding thumps of her heartbeat as she stared into those unrelenting gold eyes.
Thump… Thump… Thump…
She'd lost earlier.
Thump… Thump… Thump…
And if she lost now she'd also lose what she managed to win. What was hers.
Thump… Thump… Thump…
Nadine couldn't let that happen, refused to let that happen. To lose to Ralph again today, not here… not now… not in front of Megan…
Thump… Thump… Thump…
Gritting her teeth, she pressed her nose back against his and snarled out, "Not. Going. To. Happen."
Thump… Thump… Thump…
Ralph smirked, "Fine then, if that's your choice then your friend can think whatever she wants to of this," he broke eye contact and then kissed her square on the mouth.
There was a moment of elation at winning the stare, a moment of shock at Ralph's sudden move, a moment of pure thrill at the contact, a moment of panicked uncertainly at the thought that Megan was watching.
Her jaw dropped, whether out of surprise or to say something she had no idea but Ralph hadn't stopped kissing her and he took the opportunity she'd unknowingly offered, deepening the kiss. Nadine's world seemed to fade out for a few moments, consumed by more primal senses than mere sight.
There was the feeling of Ralph's lips against hers, the pounding beat of her heart and the thump of her back hitting the wall behind her. A tugging on her wrist and the feeling of fur beneath her paws. All she could think about was the smell, taste and feel of Ralph as the kiss went on and on…
...until it didn't.
Nadine blinked owlishly, trying to figure out what had just happened. If her back wasn't up against the hallway wall she was pretty sure she would have fallen right then because her legs felt like jello. She blinked again and saw a supremely smug Ralph just an inch away in front of her. He smirked and then leaned forward and she fully expected him to kiss her again but his muzzle slid past her's and he whispered into her ear, "Guess you won today. I hope you enjoyed your victory."
"Well, Nadine," Megan said sounding way, way, way too gleeful. "You seem to have a firm hold of your partner so I'll just leave you two be." Nadine blinked again and looked down only to find, to a rising feeling of mortification, that her paws were wrapped around Ralph's back, holding him close to her.
Nadine made a half choked sound of alarm and let got as Megan snickered and headed past them toward the stairs, but stopped before heading down.
She looked back with a predatory gleam in her eye and asked, "He doesn't have any brothers does he?"
Ralph's smug grin instantly vanished, replaced by an alarmed look that Nadine's punch drunk mind and panicked mind latched onto.
She might have won the stare, for all the good that pyrrhic victory was, but that alarmed expression of Ralph's was like a final opening in their running battle of the day and she was desperate to get one last win in no matter how small of a victory it would be.
"S-sure, he does," she said a bit shakily, and managed the start of a grin as Ralph's eyes went wide in alarm. "His brother's number is muhhhahh…"
Ralph had only kissed Nadine because she'd called his bluff… and it turned out to even his own surprise that some crazy part of him apparently hadn't been bluffing. That part of himself that seemed fascinated by her, by her scent, her fur pattern, her eyes, that she was still single…
He'd been sure he'd win, so what was the harm in bluffing… and then he hadn't. Her lips had been right there, so close to his, and he couldn't let her find out he'd actually been bluffing could he? Or so that other part of him had whispered.
So he'd kissed her and instead of some short kiss, she'd opened op to him and he hadn't been able to resist and then she'd started kissing him back, pulling him forward...
That kiss sparked a hope he hadn't even realized he had, a hope that had the crazy part of his mind wanting to howl in euphoria. A sudden hope from the way she'd started to kiss him back that maybe, just maybe, that crazy portion of his mind might not be so crazy… or maybe that Nadine might just be crazy enough to give him a chance… he'd be perfectly fine with that too. Nadine was his best friend, his de facto packmate, but maybe… maybe there was the chance for something more? She had kissed him back after all…
His euphoric thoughts though came to screeching crashing halt at the mention of his brother… of the pack.
The rumors that would be flying around back at the pack from the food incident would be bad enough right now, if that little spitfire in a black dress got ahold of his brother. Well he didn't really care too much if she hog tied Bill and dragged him back to her den, but what she would almost certainly say about him and Nadine…
There would be more than just jokingly muttered rumors and sly suggestions about him and Nadine and he couldn't have that.
Not yet.
Not when he didn't even know if this was just some freak accident never to happen again or if it might be a start to something more… something that part of him seemed to suddenly want very, terrifyingly badly.
And if there was any chance of this being something more, then he couldn't have interference from pack politics ruining it before it even had a chance; he couldn't let that little black dressed bobcat torpedo his fledgling hope.
"S-sure, he does," Nadine said in answer to her friends question as she started giving him a smirk that had him completely and utterly panicking, trying to figure out how to keep her from saying anything more.
"His brother's number is-"
So he kissed her. Desperately. Kissed her hard and deep angling his muzzle to fit with hers so she couldn't say anything to her friend. And kept kissing her as her paw dragged down his back by the cuff until she grabbed his hips like she might shove him away, then kissed even more desperately when instead she pulled him ever so slightly closer.
He continued to kiss Nadine with complete unbridled desperation until he couldn't hear even the faint trace of Nadine's friends' snickers as she headed down the staircase. Then kissed her more just for good measure and because he was afraid it might never happen again.
Really, he only stopped kissing her because at some point his mind screamed that if he didn't stop kissing her and breath he wouldn't be able to kiss her because he'd pass out from lack of oxygen.
So he held the kiss savoring every last second of it until he had to break it and gasped for breath, slumping against Nadine.
Then next few moments were a mix a residual euphoria mixed with a rising trepidation as he breathed hard, worrying that maybe he'd pushed things slightly (as in way, way) too far with that kiss, let alone with the first.
"I can't believe you just did that!" she said, not really angrily, well not angry at him, he knew when she was angry at him. This was more angry that he'd gotten one over on her. The relief that brought almost made him light headed, and he hoped maybe he she thought it was all part of their normal friendly back and forth game… just more kissy than normal… because kissing sure as hell hadn't ever been part of it before. (and he couldn't help but hope that maybe it would be part of it in the future.)
"I can't believe you were about to throw Bill to the wolves… um, I mean cat?" he retorted and Nadine gave an involuntary snort of amusement, but then narrowed her gaze at him.
"Fine," she said getting her breathing under control, "but you kissed me twice and that only excuses one!"
"Well, you blackmailed me too," Ralph said giving a shrug, not quite looking her in the eye as he tried to figure out how to stop leaning against Nadine without bringing attention to the movement and making the situation extremely awkward.
Nadine though, solved that problem. She huffed exasperatedly and with her feline grace moved to pick up his duffle from where it had dropped before she stomped down the hallway, leading him by the paw and muttering the whole way about how he'd tried blackmailing her too while her tail snapped back and forth in an unpredictable manner.
"The difference is that you successfully blackmailed me while I didn't," Ralph added, still feeling rather giddy as she stopped at her door and unlocked it, and then added as they entered, "Enjoy your victory while it lasts though because I'm still going to win our bet."
That got another exasperated huff, to which he grinned.
"You realize that Megan's with the Zootopia Fire Department and she's going to be telling all sorts of wild tales about us now, right?" Nadine said tossing his duffle next to the couch in her small living room as she ducked under the low doorway in her apartment, entering her kitchen with a determined stride.
Ralph made a dismissive noise and gesture before adding, "And who at the ZPD would ever believe one of the wild tales the ZFD are always telling? Anyway as long as she, a feline, doesn't start telling tales to my pack I don't really care."
"Ya, well she's my neighbor and I'm never going to hear the end of this," Nadine muttered darkly as she took something out of her freezer and then started rummaging around her cabinet.
"Well, that's your problem to deal with not mine," Ralph said, snickering, "Though, I'd really like to see how you're planning on dealing with her. You sure she's just a bobcat? Not a cougar in disguise or something?"
Nadine snorted in apparent amusement at the idea, before finding what she was looking for. "Ralph, this is how I'm planning on dealing with Megan's gossip for tonight." She said and handed him a bottle of tequila and then grabbing some miscellaneous items and the oversized tub of ice-cream she pulled from the freezer.
"You," she poked him in the chest, saying sternly, "have no idea the kind of headache you just caused for me! Megan is going to be absolutely insufferable for gods know how long now."
Ralph looked at the bottle in his paws and then at the ice cream she was holding and raised an eyebrow, "Anddddd… your solution to this is alcohol and ice cream?" he asked rather dubiously.
"No," Nadine said pulling him back toward her living room as she ducked the low door frame again, but stopped on her way to double check that her front door was locked with deadbolt thrown… and then as if for good measure grabbed a chair and wedged it under the door handle. "My solution is to hide in my apartment with alcohol, ice-cream, and movies until the worst of Megan blows over." She stated flatly like that should have been obvious. "and," she added as she ducked into the living room, pulling him along and flopping down onto her couch, "Since I won the stare, and we're in my house, and this is all your fault, I'm picking the movies."
Ralph shrugged and sat down on the couch. He'd gone with Nadine to enough movies to know her tastes pretty well and they mostly liked the same stuff. Nadine gave him one glance as she thumbed the remote and reached over to snatch the tequila bottle. Unscrewing the top, she took a large swig right from it, not even bothering with the limes and salt shaker she'd dumped on the coffee table.
She then looked right at him with a wicked grin, said, "And just because it'll drive you nuts we're starting with the girliest movie I can think of."
"Oh come on…" Ralph pleaded, a sudden feeling of dread washing over him, "That's just cruel! You don't even like those movies!"
"Well, misery loves company, doesn't it?" she said smirking and offering him the bottle. "So which do you want to watch first? The Notebook or Twilight?"
Ralph groaned, flopping back against the couch and took the offered liquor bottle.
Boop Count
Ralph: 4
Nadine: 3
Truce Still In Effect, so those don't count! :P
A/N
Thanks to GusTheBear for his help with some of the character names and references and also,
a belated call out to BeecroftA of whom I totally did not take the idea for pawcuffs from! :P
(He's got an awesome story if you have't already read it!)