Dear reader,
Ah, there you are! I've been waiting here for ages, just for you... Greg... Oh, your name isn't Greg? Well, this is awkward... Tell you what, if you see Greg, tell him my feet hurt from standing and waiting. In the meantime, why don't you go on ahead and read the story!
-Enjoy
Nick stretched, readying himself for bed. He massaged his tired emerald eyes with a padded thumb and finger as he thought of everything that he had done wrong the previous day. Nick chucked slightly as he remembered Judy's "heart-felt" toast from dinner.
However, his thoughts settled squarely on Judy's father, whom seemed to despise him on principal. The idea of getting Judy's parents to accept him seemed near-impossible, let alone telling them that they were engaged.
Nick's attention fell to the dilapidated-old couch that sat at the edge of the massive living room. Bonnie and Stu had assured him that he was too tall for any of the open bunny-bed, and assigned him a couch on the ground floor. Nick was almost certain that Judy's parents were just making excuses to try and keep him as far away from Judy as possible. However, as Nick looked on the freakishly-long couch he was glad that he would have ample room to stretch out.
Finishing his couch-bed, Nick stepped back to admire his work. While Bonnie and Stu had provided him a blanket and pillow, the summer air was far-too-hot for Nick whom had always been a cold sleeper. Nick laughed as he thought about sleeping in the-buff on top of the blankets, but he knew better than to entertain that idea for two long… He'd at least keep his boxers on.
Shedding his ZZebra Top t-shirt that served as a pajama top, Nick hooked his thumbs in the waistline of his pajama-pants in preparation to lose those as well. Nick lowered the pants to his ankles and began to step out of them as a soft "Ding" stopped him cold, signifying that the elevator behind him had arrived from another floor. Nick smiled as he seized his chance to tease Judy as she stepped out of the elevator.
"Come to wish me a good night?" a smirk crept across Nicks muzzle as he wiggled his butt and tail at his visitor.
"Good night, Wilde" came the steely voice of Stu.
Nick's ears pinned back as he looked over his shoulder to see Stu disapprovingly standing in the doorway of the over-sized living room. "Mr. Hopps!" Nick shouted as he practically jumped into the air, pulling his pants back up the where they belong. "W-W-what are you doing down here?"
Stu approached the other end of Nick's couch-bed, blanket in hand. "I'm sleeping down here tonight… seeing as you can't even be trusted to sleep on the couch."
Nick watched in stunned silence as Stu made his bed directly at the end of Nick's, despite the couch having a good 10 more feet of space.
"You do have your own place to sleep, right?" questioned Nick.
"Yup," replied Stu. "Great big bed, sleep there with my wife."
"But you're, going to watch me sleep instead…"
"Yup."
"You do realize I'm the one with night vision, right?" Nick smirked at Stu as he finished making his own place to sleep.
"Son," replied Stu, taking his own shirt off to match the predator. "If you so much as twitch on this rickety-old couch, I'll hear it." Stu pointed at his lofted ears to emphasize his last point.
Nick placed an exasperated paw on his forehead as Stu bedded-down to sleep, "You've gotta move down the couch or something, we're practically going to be sleeping on top of each other." Nick waited for Stu's biting remark, but the rabbit simply raised his paws, clapped twice, and the living room lights went out.
An hour or two had passed, and Nick stared unblinkingly at the ceiling as Stu snored directly into his left ear, which pinned down in an attempt to escape the audio-assault. Stu had wormed his way up the couch, into Nick's bed and was now sleeping contently with a heavy paw draped across Nick's bare chest.
Nick prayed for the sun to come up as he looked out the massive window that adorned the wall behind the couch. Nick started counting stars before a gray flash blocked his view. His ears perked up as he recognized the moon-lit features of Judy, excitedly peeking in on him.
Judy waved her paw, beckoning Nick to escape his captor. Nick smirked and silently mouthed "The little-guy just fell asleep" before mockingly petting Stu's long grey ears.
Judy threw a paw over her muzzle to smother a laugh, before giving Nick a stern "stop-messing-around" glare. Nick rolled his emerald eyes at his fiancé before slowly working his way out of Stu's sleeping embrace.
After a minute or two, Nick was almost entirely out from underneath Stu. Turning to leave, a paw wrapped around Nick's wrist stopping him cold and prompting Judy to duck back below the window sill. Nick's eyes bulged as he slowly craned his head to look at Stu.
"Where you goin' Bon'?" mumbled Stu almost entirely asleep.
Nick's heart caught in his through as Judy's ears jumped up from below the window sill where she was hiding. Nicks mind raced as he fought to summon his most feminine voice "I'm gonna get me some w-… carrot-juice." Nick clenched his teeth in anticipation of Stu awaking any minute.
Stu let out a faint grumble before letting go of nicks wrist. Not wanting to trip over the last proverbial hurdle, Nick continued "I'll be right back… Stu…ward…"
Judy peaked back out from her hiding place and cocked her head in confusions as she saw Nick give the aged rabbit a kiss on the cheek. Nick stooped to grab his shirt on his way out of the living-room, all the while attempting to fish a gray hair out of his mouth.
Judy ambushed nick as soon as he stepped out of the house, practically knocking him off his feet with the loving assault. Nick recovered from the attack, and the pair kissed affectionately for a tender moment.
It was Judy who broke the kiss to look up into Nick's emerald eyes. "Hay, I got something to show you." Judy smiled warmly up at Nick before leading him away by the paw.
Judy skipped and pulled the red fox around the back of the house before finally stopping in-between a tree-stump which stood a good distance away, and the back of the bunny-hill. She giggled and grabbed Nick by the hips to shift him ever so slightly from one side to the other.
Nick gazed down at the top of Judy's head in confusion. She looked beautiful and absolutely adorable as she wore sweatpants and one of Nick's old T-shirts, which she had cut the bottom half off of to help it fit. "Carrots, what are we doing?"
Judy nudge the insole of Nick's left foot ever so slightly with her own, shifting it to the left just a tad. "There!" Judy said, bubbling with excitement. "Now kiss me!" Judy's eyes closed as her ears folded down behind her and she stood as tall as she could on her tippy-toes, reaching up for Nick's kiss.
Nick chuckled a little as he looked down at the kissy-faced bunny in front of him. "Why here?" questioned Nick as Judy settled back down in front of him. Pointing at his planted feet for emphasis Nick continued, "Why this exact spot?"
Judy shifted a little under Nick's gaze. "well, it's…" Judy looked up into Nick's warm gaze. "It's the spot where my parents got married" Judy was lost in memory and didn't realize Nick's change in expression. "My dad always told me about it when I was a little girl, and I figured that they love each other so much…"
"Judy, no…" interrupted Nick, taking a step back out of the sacred spot.
"Why not?" questioned Judy trying to disguise her hurt. "I love you, Nick. And if my parents shared their first kiss as a couple here… I-I thought… m-maybe…"
"Awe, carrots…" cooed Nick, realizing what he had done. "We can't because that spot doesn't belong to us…" Nick pulled Judy away from the stump into a hug as he continued to explain. "That's Bonnie's spot… and more importantly Stu's spot." A slight giggle escaped Judy as she began to return Nick's hug. "If we kissed there, Stu would haunt me forever…" Nick chuckled. "He wouldn't even have to be dead yet. It would just be his… love… ghost… which honestly sounds more terrifying that Stu's normal ghost."
Judy looked up at Nick with a sniffle, "okay… I never pegged you for the sentimental kind, Mr. Wilde." She gave the fox a quick squeeze before leading him away by the paw again.
Nick trailed Judy, out of breath, as they finally reached the top of a hill. Nick panted and surveyed his surroundings. The top of the hill had some sort of "crater" taken out of it, which was lined with benches that all facing towards one end.
Nick turned around, slowly recovering from Judy's death-march to the top. Catching his breath, Nick staggered over to edge of the mountain where Judy was standing as though she were a statue. Nick's eyes bulged and his breath caught at the landscape that unfolded before him.
A patchwork quilt of farmland stretched out for miles and miles, only punctuated by dozens of little bunny-hills that perforated the rolling earth's surface. Each hill was adorned by a few lit windows, which shone out like stars that had been captured by the patchwork haven. Above him, Nick could see all of swirling creation dance about the heavens, billions of stars shone out as pin-pricks of light against the inky void. In the far distance, a cloud of light betrayed the location of Nick's home; Zootopia.
"Oh my word…" said Nick in near slack-jawed awe.
Judy giggled at Nick's rare bout of speechlessness. "You know, he's not a bad guy… my father." Judy shuffled her feet as Nick continued to stare at the countryside. "He just, worries about me. I can't really fault him on that. If it's any consolation, he was just as bad to my only other boyfriend… and he was a rabbit." Judy intertwined paws with Nick and leaned her hear against his arm, bringing him back from the void.
"I know," replied Nick, knowingly. "He's a good father, better than my dad for sure." Nick swallowed hard as he thought of his own family.
"My dad left when I was only 5… I still remember it like a photo. The night before, he came into my room. He sat at the edge of my bed and set my little alarm clock for 5:30. He told me 'now Nicholas, I have a very important job for you. When this alarm goes off, I want you to come wake me up so I won't be late for work.' I was so excited, my dad never trusted me with anything important… So I stayed up all night, didn't sleep a wink. When the clock went off, I was already on my way out of my room. But, he wasn't in my parent's bedroom. He was already by the door, straitening his tie." Nick choked a little as a tear threatened to escape his emeralds eyes. "He turned to me and smiled, 'Hay there sport, you got up right on time' he said. He gave me five-dollar bill, patted me on the head, and I never saw him again."
The pair stood silently, as Nick wiped away solitary tears with his free paw. Nick swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat as his ears twisted towards the sound of a faint sniffle. Nick looked down to see Judy struggling, and failing, to hold back her tears.
"Awe, Judy…" the damn burst, and Judy was reduced to a steaming mess. Nick pulled the distressed bunny in for a tight hug as she attempted to wipe her face dry on his shirt. "It's my sad past, not yours… I didn't mean to make you cry" comforted nick, stroking the top of her head and ears. Judy shook with emotion as Nick continued. "It's ok, really it is. I made it through, and if it weren't for him, I probably would have been a respectable mammal, and I would have never met you…" Nick gave Judy an extra squeeze to emphasize his point.
"I-I know…" sniffled Judy, attempting to regain her composure. "I-it's just *sniff* how could someone do that to a little pup, who's so full of l-love…"
"That's the thing about bad mammals," soothed Nick. "They hurt the people who love them the most. But when I got older, I vowed that when I had pups, I would never hurt them. And I promised myself, that I would be the best dad in all of Zootopia." Nick smiled down at Judy, whom had mostly recovered. "Maybe I'll be like Stu when we have a litter…"
Judy laughed, "How about when we have a litter, you be like you."
"Only if you say so," replied Nick before they locked muzzles and shared a sorrow laced kiss.
When the embrace broke, Nick looked around the top of the hill, and back to the rows of benches. "What is this place, Carrots?"
"We used to have dances here," assured Judy as Nick walked to the top of the rows of benches. "But, we always used to use that part for the live band."
Nick clapped his paws together, and the pair's ears shot strait up to catch the reverberation. A smile crept across Nick's snout as he clapped a second time and really focused on the echo. "It's an amphitheater, carrots!"
Nick jogged down one of the isles to the bottom of the pit before stationing himself in the center. He clapped his paws once more, listened to the echo, and slid a few inches to the right. He then turned his attention to Judy. "You stand there!" Nick enthusiastically pointed to a spot about 1/3 of the way up the center isle of the massive earthen stands.
Judy obliged and took the position with a giggle. Nick shuffled her back and forth a couple of inches with paw-signals before clearing his throat.
"la-la-lala-la-laaaa." Judy stifled a laugh at Nick's mock vocal warmup. Her ears perked up and twitched at the smooth acoustics of the earthen stage.
Nick took a deep breath as a sinister smile began to speed across his snout.
"AAAAAAAAARRE YOU GONNA TAKE ME HOME TONIGHT?"
Judy covered her mouth in a mix of surprise and horror as Nick, assisted by the amphitheater, rocked the note.
" AAAAAAAAAHH DOWN BESIDE THAT RED FIRELIGHT"
"AAAAAAAAARRE YOU GONNA LET IT ALL HANG OUT?
"COTTON-TAIL-GIRLS YOU MAKE THE ROCKIN' WORLD GO ROUND!"
Judy, whom had turned beat-red, charged the stage and leapt at Nick in an attempt to forcibly close his mouth. Nick caught his bunny assailant mid-leap, trying to hold back his laughter at her rage. "I thought you liked Queen!" Laughed Nick as Judy flailed wildly in an attempt to hold his jaws shut. "Oh come on, you know you're my little cotton tail…"
"Nick!" Judy glared crossly at the laughing fox whom was holding her off the ground at arm's length by the back of her shirt. "Stop it…"
"Fine," replied Nick with a chuckle, setting the bunny back on her feet. "I got one more for you then we can go." Judy glared knowingly at Nick whom was still obviously entertained by his own joke.
Judy returned to her spot as Nick tried in vain to cut his own laughter short. Turning around, Judy watched in disapproval as nick took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and began taping a pace with his left foot.
"I never knew there'd come a day, where I'd be saying to you"
Judy's expression softened as her ears perked to the familiar song.
"Don't let this good love slip away, now that we know that it's true!"
"Don't, don't you know the kind of animal I am,"
"No, said I'd never fall in love again"
"But it's you and the feeling comes shinin' through…"
Judy's fur prickled and stood on end and she watch the fox in front of her belt the next lines.
"I'm so caught up in you, bunny girl"
"And I never did suspect a thing"
"And Judy it's true, you're the one…"
Judy charged the stage once again, but Nick's eyes were sealed shut in song.
"Who caught me, baby you taught me how good it could beee-"
Nick's eyes sprung open wide as the grey missile struck its target. Judy wrapped her arms around Nick's neck and locked him into passionate kiss with her eyes closed tight. Nick stumbled backwards in shock and fell over, tumbling to the ground. Wrapping his arms around her, Nick closed his eyes to return the embrace of the rabbit that now sat squarely on his chest.
Nick and Judy had found their spot, and they reveled in it.
Oh hot-diggity!
Did you just read another whole chapter? Yes, yes you did. Did you enjoy it? I sure hope so! If you did, then read another! But before you go, please be sure to write a review, leave a favorite, or make a suggestion. I do this for me, but also for you guy. So please, give me your thought.
-Enjoy the next chapter!