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Chapter 5

Judy woke up to the general sensation of warmth and comfort. She felt a source of heat behind her, pressed directly to her fur. And someone held her tightly with something, wrapped around her stomach.

She shuffled a bit and identified what that 'something' was – arms.

Someone had their arms around her stomach. Also, the movement earlier revealed that she had next to no clothes on her, just the underwear.

Before the doe could dwell any deeper into that line of thought, a familiar voice spoke above her head.

"Awake?"

After a moment of thought she quickly figured out the source of warmth. Judy took a deep breath. "Alright, we're grown adults, so let's do this in a civilized way. This is quite an ambiguous situation here, as I am almost naked, hugged by naked fox, together wrapped in a blanket." She said cautiously and closed her eyes. "I will give… 30 seconds to the prime suspect in this case to explain his actions. And if it's not satisfactory, then I will have to use minimum force necessary to deliver proper punishment."

Nicholas had to force himself not to smile. He cleared his throat. "For the record: I am not naked, only half-naked, as I have my pants on. And I didn't do anything, apart from sharing my body heat to warm up a certain frozen bunny and sitting here while suffering smug grins from my son. I plead not guilty."

Judy shuffled her body, so she would now face the fox and look him in the face, only their heads being outside the cocoon Nick wrapped them in. She gave him a distrustful glance from her half-lidded eyes, ears standing alerted. "Can you swear that under oath?"

This time he couldn't stop himself. A smile crept up his face. "Under any oath you'd like."

To his slight surprise, Judy replied with a smirk. "Oh, under any oath?" She emphasized the word in a way that made his throat felt dry.

"Wait… let me rephrase that statement-"

She put a finger on his mouth, effectively silencing him. "Too late." She giggled mischievously.

Nick's shoulder's slightly trembled when his stifled a chuckle. "I was meaning to ask… Why aren't you shoving me away, screaming or something similar?"

The doe shrugged. "It's warm, cozy…"

"I mean, I'm a fox and you're a bunny. Shouldn't you be slightly warier of me?"

Judy presented another smile. "I can defend myself."

"Yes, I had a chance to witness that. But aren't you uncomfortable with this?"

Another shrug. "Why would I?" This caused the fox's eyes to widen in amazement. "But you know," She tapped his chest with a finger. "First time we met, you gave the impression that you don't like me one bit, so I'm curious as to why you aren't pushing me away. Any particular reason?"

After the initial surprise at the question, he raised a brow with a playful smirk. "Is being wrapped tightly under a blanket with a beautiful girl just in her lingerie a reason enough?"

These words resulted in a small blush on the bunny's face. Her ears slowly fell behind her head. "Hmph, you're just saying that."

He leaned slightly, the smirk changing into a wide grin. "What if I mean it?" Actually, Nick surprised himself with this statement. He wasn't being his usual cool and collected self, this girl was doing something to him.

On the other end of this conversation, Judy was also having trouble keeping a straight mind. Such closeness with this fox, or rather, this handsome fox was enough to cloud her judgement. She could feel the heat emanating from his body, pouring into her through the skin. The bunny had one of her paws on his chest and only now she noticed how strong is his heartbeat. Strong and… fast? She looked directly into his emerald eyes.

"What if I'd believe it?" Judy said quietly.

They stared at each other. There was something in the air between them. Judy's body suddenly seemed lighter and she realized that she started rising towards the fox. At the same time, Nick felt some strange force that dragged him down, as if the bunny all of the sudden became some kind of gravity field, pulling him to her.

The distance between them started to shorten.

"Judy!" A happy squeal startled them and both straightened up quickly. Mike darted from his room and jumped on the couch next to them. "Are you ok? Feeling better?" He asked with a mixture of happiness and concern.

"Yes, I'm fine, Mike. Thank you for asking."

The boy nodded and plopped down with his arms folded. "Can I know what happened? You really scared me!"

Judy opened her mouth, but Nicholas was faster. "What happened is that sometimes you come across a dumb bunny who thinks that such a stupid idea as swimming in the river in Tundratown in winter is a good course of action." He said that in a joking manner.

The doe frowned hearing those words. "I'm not a dumb bunny." She growled at him.

Nicholas was unfazed by her reaction and smiled. "But you're not denying that swimming was a stupid idea."

"Wait, why would you swim there?" Mike chimed in, confused by their talk. "I thought you went for dinner."

The adult fox sighed. "We went shopping to Tundratown and while crossing a footbridge someone bumped into me. The wallet I was holding flew out of my hand and ended up in water."

"Oh, I see…"

Nick shook his head. "And I'm still unable to comprehend what possessed you to jump in like that."

Judy just shrugged. "It was your wallet, why would I let it end up at the bottom of the river?"

"And let your little cottontail turn into an ice cube? Way to go!" He huffed at the bunny.

"Hey, I had experience with cold water in ZPD Academy."

"In a controlled environment, with a medic on standby no doubt. This was different! What if it would go wrong?"

She gave him a smug smile. "Well, I had a sly fox as backup. Surely if things went out of paw, I was certain that he would figure out something."

This reply left Nicholas P. Wilde, one of the best attorneys in Zootopia, speechless. And before he could recompose himself, they both heard a stifled laugh. Mike was watching their conversation with both paws over his mouth, doing his best to contain his laughter.

"Sorry!" He chirped with a wide grin. "It's just… You were arguing like a couple from a romantic comedy."

Both adults flinched. "No, we were not!" They said in unison and at that point Mike fell on the floor, laughing.

.

.

About an hour later, late in the night, Nicholas was driving Judy back to her apartment. She was now wearing brand new clothes, bought by the fox. God knows how he managed to find an open store in the middle of the night, but he somehow pulled it off.

"Sorry about Michael, he sometimes tends to overreact." Said the fox, taking a turn.

"Don't worry. He is rather adorable." Judy simply laughed.

Nick sighed. "From time to time he is too smart for his own good."

The doe cast him a glance of her half-lidded eyes. "Like when he asked you to invite me for dinner?" She had a very sweet smile.

To the fox's credit, he didn't even flinch. His first reaction was a growing smile on his face. "Oh, Miss Detective already found the mastermind behind the conspiracy?"

"Pretty much, I'm only curious if his… request, was a one-time thing?"

"Whatever do you mean?" Nicholas asked innocently.

"I'd like to know whether our second date was his idea… or yours." She put emphasis on the word 'date' and studied his face carefully. But only to find a perfect mask of a smiling fox.

"I will have to plead the Fifth on that question."

Judy narrowed her eyes. "Now look here, you're putting me in a difficult position. How am I to know if you treat this relationship seriously or is it just your way of comforting your son?"

Since they stopped at a red light, Nick turned his head to her. "So… we're in a relationship now?" He said playfully, but quickly noticed a scowl forming on Judy's face. And while he enjoyed teasing the grey bunny, he knew when to stop. "Alright, listen…" He took a deep breath. "I'd like to choose the place for our next meeting and I'm saying this as me, Nicholas Wilde. How's that for an answer?"

Her features softened and a smile returned to her face. "Well, if that's the case, then please do."

The fox smiled too, glad that they could clear this up and that she agreed.

But there was one more thing he wanted to discuss, so he cleared his throat. "Ehm, would you like to talk about, you know… what happened earlier?"

Judy gave him a puzzled look. "Earlier? What- Oh… that." Her ears perked up at the memory. "Well, um… I guess… I guess that's what they call, uh, 'in the spur of the moment'…" She spluttered while rubbing her neck, not looking at the fox. "Sorry I'm not very experienced with this. I imagine that you had-" She froze, only now realizing what she just said. The doe cast a worried look at Nicholas, but the fox kept smiling.

"Don't worry about it." He buried the pain from a hurtful memory under a jovial tone of voice.

"Sorry." She mumbled to the dashboard, ears drooping behind her head.

The fox pulled over next to her apartment block. "Like I said, it's no big deal." He lied with a smile.

"Okay…" Judy put her paw on the door handle, when Nicholas called to her.

"Miss Hopps, can you tell me one thing? What's the real reason you jumped after my wallet into that river? It's just money and credit cards, nothing that can't be replaced. Why risk your life for it?"

She turned to him with a small smile. "Maybe it's a bit rude of me, but when you took it out earlier to pay in one of the shops, I saw that you carry Mike's photo in it. Sorry, professional habit." Judy explained as she got out of the car. "Oh, and one more thing… Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we're past the 'mister', 'miss' stage. Please call me Judy." She closed the door.

This brought a wide grin to the fox's face and he lowered the window on her side. "Well, if you insist, Fluff. Take care." And before the surprised and annoyed bunny could reply, he drove off with a chuckle.

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After the fox got back to his flat, he put Michael to bed, playing along with his joyful attitude about the events of the day and they sat like that, exchanging jokes in his room for a bit, before Nick decided it's high time for sleep and kissed his son for goodnight.

He would love to hit the sack as well, but he had stuff to do. The fox made dinner for tomorrow, cleaned up the kitchen afterwards, checked his emails and sorted out the laundry, so he could put it in the washing machine when he comes back from court tomorrow. Exhaustion nagged him to leave it all and go to sleep, but he wanted it to be done before he goes to bed. All of today's events would be a good excuse, but Nick never believed in excuses. A good excuse made place for a bad excuse and it usually went downhill from there.

After dealing with his chores he took a shower and headed for his bedroom. The fox was about to lie down when one thing came to his mind. He reached to a drawer in his nightstand and took out a small item.

A wedding band.

He turned it in his fingers with a sour expression.

On the inside, it had an engraved inscription and a name.

Sylvia.

With a painful sigh, Nick placed it back in the drawer and went to sleep.

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.

Several days have passed and Nick decided on the place where he could take Judy for their next date. He called her one evening to ask when she would be available, but was not prepared for what he heard.

"Hello…" Croaked a voice in the phone.

"Judy?" He asked, surprised.

"Uh, sorry… I got sig…" She said with effort.

"Sick? What happened?"

"Well, I… I… I-ACHOOO! Guh, sorry…" There was a sound of blowing a nose. "I god flu, I have do sday ad hobe for a weeg."

His mood dampened. "Oh, I see. But are you taking care of yourself properly? I already grasped that you're quite stubborn." He tried to put in a little joke.

"Har, har… I ab, jusd geed to resd…"

"Okay…" He was reluctant to believe that. "Then rest and get well soon."

"Uh-huh, bye…"

.

.

An hour later Nick raised his head to look at the building in which Judy was living. It was rather old and looked in dire need of renovation. He sighed and walked in, a bag with a hot meal in his paw. The fox wasn't sure if this was a good idea, to barge in like this without calling first. But he hoped that it would be a nice surprise for the doe and surely, she could certainly use something healthy to eat right now.

Nicholas didn't know where exactly her flat was, but he had ways of finding stuff like that. A potential source of information came into his view in a form of an elderly armadillo female.

"Excuse me, ma'am. I'm looking for officer Judy Hopps. Could you tell me where I could find her apartment?"

The lady eyed him from top to bottom, not looking very friendly. "Who're you?" She demanded bluntly in a rusty voice.

This made Nicholas smile. In a nasty way.

"Well," He began, fishing out a business card from his jacket. "Nicholas P. Wilde, an attorney and a special consultant with the ZPD. I am here with an official matter to discuss with miss Hopps. It is of grave importance for the city, so postponing our meeting on purpose would be treated as an act against the law." The armadillo's face went pale and she swallowed nervously. Nick took a step forward, his smile growing into an evil grin that would make a devil proud. "Now then, will you tell me where I can find her or do you want to face severe legal repercussions?"

Five minutes later, the fox was knocking on a wooden door. They swung open, revealing a very sick looking bunny, wrapped in a thin blanket.

"Nig?" She asked, surprised to see him here.

"Hey, I decided to drop by and see how are you doing." He took a peek into her… apartment. It was more of a shoe box than a place to live. A rickety bed, broken heater and an old wooden desk. She noticed his gaze.

"Id's nod dhad bad…" But he ignored her and walked in, surveying the walls and the window. He turned back to her.

"How is this 'not bad'?" He spread his arms. "Judy, it's freezing in here!" With one look at the bunny's apologetic expression, Nicholas made his decision. He cast one more gaze at the bed and noticed a suitcase under it. The fox pointed a finger at the doe, reaching under the bed with his other paw. "You're not staying here!" He announced.

She quirked a brow. "Excuse be?"

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.

Dharma Armadillo, the landlady of the Great Pangolin Arms was still standing in the corridor on the ground floor, the business card in her paws. She held it like she expected it to explode at any moment. The fox's words left her quite shaken. And at that moment she heard voices coming from the stairs.

"Pud be down!" Croaked a female.

"Not happening." Replied a voice belonging to the fox she met several minutes ago.

An odd pair emerged from the staircase. A red fox was carrying a big, brown suitcase in one paw and he used the other one to keep still a struggling bunny that was slung over his shoulder. She was banging her little fists on the vulpine's back.

"Dis is kidnabbing!" She cried out as the weird couple was passing by the landlady.

"Yes, yes it is." Stated the fox, unmoved by the bunny's words.

"You can'd do dis!" The doe protested.

"Oh yeah? Sue me."

And with that, he left the building, leaving a dumbfounded armadillo behind.