"A family is a place where minds come in contact with one another. If these minds love one another, the home will be as beautiful as a flower garden. But, if these minds get out of harmony with one another, it is like a storm that plays havoc with the garden." -The Buddha
Judy and Nick accompanied Judy's sisters Evelin, Mia and Valentina to the Zootopia main station after their visit. It was already late on a Saturday evening and on their way home, Nick hold his tail and arm around Judy's shoulders to keep the cold autumn air away from her. They walked past a few still opened retail stores and at their favorite pavement café they walked in sat down at a corner seat.
"Hello officers!" the red panda greeted them with a smile. "Had a long day at work?"
"Hi Philipp." Judy replied with a smile. "No, just making an evening stroll, we have a free weekend for once."
"Ah, even better! What will it be?"
"For me a hot chocolate with cream, please." Judy grinned with anticipation.
"Sounds good, for me too!" Nick put the menu back to the stand on the table.
"Two times hot chocolate with cream. All right!" The red panda made a short note on his block and walked back to the counter.
"I was never before a bridesmaid, not to mention maid of honor!" Judy giggled.
"You have a few hundred siblings and you were never a bridesmaid?" Nick raised his brows disbelieving, but Judy rolled her eyes.
"I was … busy! School, studying, police academy, ..." she looked thoughtful and put a paw on her chin. "Come to think of it, I really missed a lot of family events."
"Do you have regrets about it?"
"It's a pity but at that time I had other goals and priorities. And by now it's nice to visit my family on a regular schedule. What about you?"
"Was I a bridesmaid? No. No, I wasn't." Nick winked to her.
"Dumb fox. What about being a groomsman?"
Nick shook slowly his head. "Nope. I don't have such a big family, as you know. And I hardly was so close to other animals that they would invite me to a wedding."
Judy turned around to fully face Nick, looking at him with disbelieve. "You were never on a wedding before?" Nick just shrugged.
"I was invited one or two times, but going to a wedding all alone is somewhat depressing."
"I would have bet that you would have been the first to flirt with the maid of honor." Judy snickered.
"Oh, on Evelin's wedding I will, promised!" They both laughed and the red panda named Philipp brought them their cups with hot chocolate. On Nick's one the creaming was formed like the head of a fox, and on Judy's it was in the form of a rabbit.
"Wow, that looks gorgeous!"
"Thank you!" he smiled and walked away again.
"Can we switch our cups?" Judy looked pleading at Nick with those big purple eyes and the fox just raised a brow with a smile.
"Of course, carrots." Judy took Nicks cup with a wide grin and took a sip. "Do you want to taste the foxy cream?" She choked on the foam and snorted with laughter.
"Nick!" she giggled and beat him with her paw on his arm.
"I'm just asking, I love to slurp my little bunny…" while talking he hold the cup with the bunny-top in his paws and licked with the tip of his tongue the ears made of cream away. Judy snorted again and the cream was now all around her nose.
"You are impossible, Nick!" Judy chuckled and wiped away the cream in her face. He put his own paw under her chin and turned her head; darting forward with his head and kissing her on her nose, removing a last piece of cream. "Iieks!" she snickered.
"Hmm, tasty! I think I will eat my rabbit with cream only with immediate effect!"
Judy's inner ears turned dark with embarrassment and she put her paw in front of her mouth. "Shhh, not so loud!" But Judy's scent already gave him goose bumps again, he totally had forgotten that she was still in heat. Quietly moaning he turned back to his cup of hot chocolate and took another sip.
They sat at the breakfast table the next morning, after sleeping in until nearly eleven o'clock. While eating her slice of coarse rye bread with marmalade and curd cheese, Nick was making notes into a notebook. Judy curiously looked at the notebook, but couldn't read anything; the fox was blocking her view with his paw and put the notebook away when Judy raised her head to sneak a peek.
"Hey! What's so secret, fox-trot?" she pouted, pulling a face.
"If I would tell you, it wouldn't be secret anymore." Nick winked with a cheeky grin and took a sip from his coffee. Judy stuck her tongue out and consecrated herself again to her breakfast. "Any plans for today, carrots?"
"Nothing concrete, maybe bumming around on the sofa and watching TV?"
"You and bumming around? That is so atypical for you!"
"Maybe I just want to enjoy our free weekend, and eventually we can continue where we had stopped last night because a red fured someone was too exhausted." She winked and had those sparkling eyes again.
"You are really getting me down." Nick groaned. "If I had known that rabbits could be so insatiable…" he made a meaningful gesture and raised his eyebrows.
"I know that you are enjoying every second of it!" Judy grinned, and Nick smiled.
"Just like you. But instead of just being fun it's more of an exercise to have intercourse when you are in heat. Are all rabbits so persevering?"
"To be fair, I'm a bit of a late bloomer and have quite something to make good for I think." Judy snickered. "And it's getting better after having the first litter. That's the reason most of us are getting married early and starting their own family."
"But you have quite a lot of older siblings being still single, as far as I know?"
"Maybe there are some unmarried, but fewest are single. And all the hard work on our farm keeps us busy and exhausted." Judy giggled, thinking back to her first half year in Zootopia when she was exploiting herself with hours in the gym.
"So, I should get you a treadmill perhaps?"
"That's not working anymore, one time sampling a fox made me addicted to you." She winked knowing and Nick laughed.
"I knew that I am irresistible, but that sounds like I'm a drug!"
"Well, kind of." Judy grinned and squatted on her chair, ready to leap onto Nick. "And I think I'm in need of another shot!" She jumped in his direction and the fox caught her with his paws, turning her around with a fluid movement and they both landed on the floor.
"What do you think of a cold turkey…" he began but Judy was already so aroused that her scent bemused his senses and he leant in for an impulsively kiss.
"What do you have in your backpack, Nick?" Judy asked inquisitive while they were strolling in the Sahara Central Park in the afternoon.
"Oh, that? Just a little surprise for you." He put his arm around her shoulders and smiled. "We just have to reach the glades on the other side and I will show you."
"Well, in that case…" Judy grinned and out of a sudden she started to sprint.
"Hey! You are jumping the gun!" Nick rushed afterwards her and twenty or so seconds later he reached Judy who was waiting, demonstratively with her paws on her hips.
"I'm falling asleep while waiting for you, hurry up a bit!" she laughed.
Nick just harrumphed and put the backpack on the grass, squatting beside it and opening the zipper. Judy hopped impatiently to him and bend over to take a close look; but all she could see was some red polyester canvas. "Okay…?" she looked inquiring to Nick. The fox smiled, took the canvas and a small spool of black wire.
"Just hold this, carrots." He gave her the spool and took the loose end of the wire, threading it into a small hole in the canvas. Judy looked somewhat puzzled while Nick was pushing more and more of the wire into the red canvas; but it took her just a few moments until the loose hanging cloth was forming a heart shape and Judy squealed with glee. When he was nearly finished, she could see also something written on it. Judy had to turn her head a bit, but after Nick finished he hold the big heart-shaped canvas in front of him so she could read it easily: 'Judy & Nick'
"How sweet!" She beamed with joy, clapping her hands and bouncing with her legs.
"Wait for it." Nick winked and took another spool with nylon cord from it. With a few quick knots he attached it to the heart and now Judy recognized the whole thing as a kite. "What do you think, carrots. Are you brave enough to let this kite fly for everyone to read?" he grinned and hold the spool with the nylon cord out to Judy. She grinned at him and took it eagerly.
"You betcha!" Judy kneeled down into a launch position and looked back over her shoulder to Nick. "Are you ready?"
Nick looked for the remaining foliage of the trees to determine the direction of the wind, and turned around so it was facing him. He holds the heart into the air and winked to Judy: "I'm ready!"
"Then let's go!" Judy shouted and when she started to sprint Nick let the kite go; with Judy running really fast and unwinding the nylon cord the kite was flying high very quickly. While Judy reached the end of the glade their heart shaped kite reached at least twenty meters and was sliding with a few light wind gusts. Nick slowly walked to Judy with a big smile. She was beaming and jumping like a little kit.
"I didn't fly a kite for ages!" she laughed gleefully and Nick snickered, holding his phone up and making a few photos. Finally, he stood behind her, putting his arms around her body below her arms and rested his chin between her ears, watching the kite dancing with the wind.
"I am impressed, carrots. When I tried to let a kite fly my first attempts always ended with some crashes." He laughed.
"We were always too many kits, you know? If one of us wanted to let a kite fly a few dozens of siblings wanted, too. On our big fields was enough room, but it was always somewhat chaotic and we crashed into each other."
"It must be a lot of fun when you are a kit and have so many siblings."
"Most of the time, yes. But when you grow older we all have to take more responsibilities for your younger siblings. And as you know, I'm from an early litter so there were quite a lot of brothers and sisters to watch for."
"I never asked, but are such big families normal for rabbits?"
"It depends. If you are living in the countryside, families are generally bigger as if you are living in a city. And in case you have a lot of farmland they are even much larger because there is simply so much work to do. But you also have enough space and money due to selling your harvests so you can feed them all. The environment is playing quite a big role."
"Mh."
"What are you thinking, foxy?"
"Just wanted to know for what I have to brace myself." Nick grinned, poking her on the butt and Judy squeaked, nearly dropping the nylon cord.
"Hey, be careful or our heart is flying away!" she giggled but Nick just shrugged.
"As long as my sweetheart is staying with me, I don't care." He kissed between her ears and when he put his chin back onto her head he scented her moonily.
After a minute or so of silence Judy asked: "Do you want own kits, Nick?" She could not see him but felt how he nodded slowly with his head. After another few minutes of silence he asked in return.
"Do you?"
"I have to confess I never really thought about it until I met you; but yes, now I'm certain about it and love the idea of starting my own family – with you." She pulled the head into her neck and smiled up to Nick, who gave her an endearing kiss in return.
"Do you think that Evelin and Sven are marrying for this reason?"
"Only few of us are marrying because they are pregnant, but more out of such old school reasons like love." Judy winked. "But she really loves kits and I bet she wants to have a big family on her own in the future, too."
"Oh, this future may be ahead of schedule…" Nick snickered and Judy cocked her head.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, as far as I could tell she is most probably pregnant already."
"WHAT?!" This time Judy dropped the cord and turned around to Nick in such a quick move that the fox nearly stumbled, her eyes wide open with complete surprise. Nick didn't have the time to answer her when she already grabbed him on his shirt and shook him. "What are you talking about? Evelin is pregnant? How do you even know? Did she said anything to you? What…"
"Hey, hey, hey!" Nick laughed and repelled from her shaking-attack, then pouted while looking in the sky where their kite was flying even higher, dragging the spool with the nylon cord with him. "Now you really let our heart fly away, carrots!"
"Nick!" Judy wiped the kite away with a quick gesture, but she finally let go off his shirt, stamping frantically with her right feet. The fox just pointed with his paw to his nose and smiled.
"At first it was a little difficult, because your scent really distracted me. But when we talked in the kitchen alone I was quite sure about it."
"You can smell when someone is pregnant?" Judy just stared at him, his exceptional sense of smell was amazing her even more.
"It's a really subtle change, I think it's some kind of hormones changing or something near it."
"Sweet cheese and crackers!" Judy snickered and put her paws in front of her mouth. "Did you tell her?"
"Of course not!" Nick frowned a bit. "You are the only one whom I told about my special olfaction; it would be hard to explain to other people. And I'm really a special case, because most foxes don't spend so much time with rabbits so it's just getting lost in the shuffle of all the other scents most of us are suppressing."
"Holy green carrot; that will knock Dad for six, and Mom will so be flipping out!" she laughed, then looked up in the sky where their kite was dancing higher and higher. "I bet it's flying up in hog heaven."
"Then I'm sure we will meet him there again." Nick winked, put his arm around Judy's shoulders and they continued their walk through the park.