The Bunny and the Fox Daemon.

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AN: An old oneshot I've held back for a while, and given a holdup in the ZAA group reviews and the fact I want to fully review one GIGANTIC FFOZ chapter there before releasing it, I thought I'd get this out as a second oneshot in a row to make sure I have a little buffer space. Don't worry, next week will be another FFOZ chapter, with things alternating going on from there.

Anyhow, this was a Zootopia/ His Dark Materials oneshot/ idea I had ages ago and, in light of the third and final series coming out, I thought I'd publish it.

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"Here to pray for salvation?"

The words echoed around the incense filled church, echoing off stained glass windows and resplendent painted walls before bouncing back into her great wide ears, both pivoting to the call. Judy Hopps wished that she could see the best in it, believe that it was a sentence spoken too loud or a genuine call of concern.

"Well," a familiar voice beside her spoke, whispering into them in his quiet diffusing manner. "You kind of know it is, in a round-about-way." She didn't need to see him to know he was giving a casual, 'who cares about that loser' shrug at the same time.

Judy (Judiania) Hopps peered over her shoulder to the naked not-a-fox standing next to her. Oh, his fur was red and cream, his ears pointed and his tail big and bushy like the old code of the devil's beasts had said, but he was no fox. Any mammal could tell at a glance that he wasn't one of them, just like they could tell that any 'predator' alive wasn't one of them. Mammalian in form, yes, but he and everyone like them wasn't made of flesh or bone or blood. Her daemon, Nikolause, had formed in the air from dust when she'd been born, mewling scared and worried as he'd pulsed between the forms of shrews and ermines and fox kits. To be a mammal was to have a daemon, your soul in physical form, forever bound to you and you to them. To be a prey mammal was to have a predator daemon, it and the symbol of the yin and the yang used to show how even god's creatures had a bit of the devil's work in them. To be a bunny was to have a small predator one, timid but energetic in their nature just like their bonded mammal.

To be otherwise was to be shunned.

To have a fox daemon, a red fox no less, was to have every dark warning you received for your youthful misdemeanours become true. It was worse than that. It was to become the monster in the bedtime stories, the bogeyman in the news, the evil in the night. The code of the devil's handiwork had listed his kind as the worst of the worst, a dark stain that still pulled on millennia after the last true one had been burned alive. Judy's inner soul took the most evil form it could and, to many in the world, she was sinful to the core.

Judy turned to the priest, her hands on her hips as she glared up to the mammal in question, ready as ever to give him a piece of his mind. "I think actions speak louder than words, so I'll be off making the world a better place." With that she turned, marching off as Nick turned to the priest and shrugged, a look of near innocence on his face.

"I know you must get anger and hatred lot," the priest continued. He was a moose, towering above them both, white robes hanging off of his shoulders and a metal box on a chain hanging from his neck. He paused, his hoof out as Judy turned back to face him, her nose twitching ever so slightly. To her side, a pair of triangular ears tilted back while two vivid green eyes widened. "-To be a Vulpaired mammal is to be hated."

"And what do you know of hatred?" Judy asked, her voice clipped a little. Nick saw it and stepped next to her, his tail going around her legs and his arms around her shoulder for comfort. Being bigger than her, he could hold her, one of a rare few upon the earth who would. It helped her keep the suddenly growing tears in. What did that priest know, huh? She guessed his own daemon was small, like those of all members of the Magisterium. He did not know what it was like to be reading through your secret magazine one day, sifting through pictures of tough built hares until your eyes gazed upon one, then drawn to it as something came through you. She remembered it like it was yesterday, how her paw had gone down and she had felt something so new and different, not knowing what it was. Then, climbing down from that first ascent of a mountain, she heard the panicked voice of the one she'd known all her life, telling her that he couldn't change his form.

It was supposed to be a happy moment, a glorious one when a young mammal became a man or a woman. When your daemon settled into their final form. She and Nikolause (Nick, she called him) had long talked and tried out what he might settle as. But never on their list was a red fox. But there he was, and there she panicked, and there they knew and hugged each other, as he said sorry and sorry and sorry over again, as if he was at fault. As if he could change what her inner self was. She'd felt the pricks of pain on her body as his own claws and teeth dug into his flesh, forcing her to leap forward and pin him down. She'd then blamed herself, over and over again for forcing this onto him, for coming out this way. Together, even as he knew how futile it was, they'd tried to keep it hidden. For one week they reclused to their room, only coming out for food. Then, one fateful day, old Pop-Pop Hopps asked if Nick had settled.

Her mother and father had laughed it off, after all they'd never sire a Vulpaired, would they? But that humour turned into concern and then fear as Nick didn't change.

He'd gulped, apologised, said it was his fault and that he deserved the punishment for it. Then Pop-Pop's cane had cracked down on his head, the pain naturally hitting her too. She'd blacked out and, on waiting, her family looked at her as if she was a murderer finally returning home after decades sent away. They tried to treat her well, comfort her and be nice, though you feel it's mostly compensation after Pop-Pop broke the most sacred taboo and touched your daemon, even if indirectly.

They tried to keep it polite, unlike those around town when they heard, but Judy saw it in the corners of the eyes of many who she'd once loved more than anyone. Hatred. What did this priest know of it?

"Nothing like you do," he said, looking around. The nave was mostly empty.

Nick looked down at her and gave her an overly hard pat on the back. "Well, I guess that's a ten-out-of-ten answer."

Despite her anger, despite her determination, despite her hatred at the world for judging them for this… She laughed. It escaped her mouth as a wet raspberry as she felt the joy that only he could bring wash over her.

"I'm sorry," he said, looking up at the priest. "She does this sometimes."

"Niiiccckkkk…."

"And that."

"Quite remarkable," the priest pondered, looking around before kneeling down. He looked into Judy's eyes with curiosity, something new and unfamiliar to her, especially from a mammal like this. It was rare that she found mammals who'd genuinely accept her, and this was somehow more than that. For it to come from a priest too…

"But why?" she asked.

He looked around. "That I cannot tell you here and now," he said, before looking over to one of the confession booths. Both Judy and Nick nodded, as they head over there, locking themselves in. The little partition was opened and, with the sudden sound of some rattling and jimmying, off came the grate. They could see each other clearly now, Judy watching as he pulled up the box he'd carried around his neck. She gasped as he unlocked a secret corner with his hoof, something no official box should do, before pulling off the lid.

"Now this could be interesting," a quiet and feminine voice came from inside, before out popped a tortoise shelled cat, his daemon.

"Interesting!?" Nick said, his voice hushed as Judy covered his mouth with her paws.

"They could sentence you to a tearing for that!"

"I know," the moose said, a sad tone in his voice. "But I felt like I was being torn myself beforehoof." There was a long silence, before he spoke again. "I joined the priesthood like my uncle, wishing to give solace and help to others. I lost a brother… my big brother…" Judy leant forward, her paw slipping onto his hoof, while Nick did the same to his daemon. "My uncle and the others helped me through that," he carried on, talking to the air. "Singing the songs, about god and redemption, about finding solace. I found solace and wished to give it to others. I joined the priesthood to do that, Jaelenna agreeing with it. I remember the day when she smiled at me, telling me to do good as I was officiated, as she stepped into the box and they welded it shut, sealing away the devils work… Ten years I lasted, until the corruption and the cruelty had rendered me to drinking. But my uncle, he saw me and rescued me. I think you'll find that many more priests have these special boxes than you think, though all are different. Breaking out Jaelenna and hearing her voice again, holding her again, I…"

He cracked up, leaning over to her. Nick gave her up, so he could hold her tight to his chest. "I would always love you whatever choice you took in life," she said, nuzzling him and giving his neck a little comforting groom with her tongue. "Those dark last days, when I could feel your torment but not aid you, were the worst. But they're over now."

He nodded, before looking forward. "After all that, I aimed to do the true lords work, no hatred in it. The Magisterium talks about renouncing your link to the devil, and how a daemon is a reflection of who you are. But Jesus talked about compassion and love for all, and after seeing one and reading the other I know who I put my faith in. I will be humble before the lord when the time comes."

"Yeah, and when an inquisitor comes?" Nick pressed, an eyebrow raised.

The moose raised an eyebrow. "You are a talkative one."

"You know it, you love it," he smirked, Judy groaning a bit. Even before he'd settled into his cursed form, Nick had certainly stood out among other daemons. Then again, she'd stood out among other bunnies as well.

"Well, to answer your question," the moose priest said. "I'll forgive him for doing his duty."

Judy looked up at him sadly for a few seconds. "You're a better mammal than I am. I'd kick him in the face."

He smiled a little. "I have to admit, I would be tempted to do that to," he said, before looking down at his box and tapping it. Jaelenna stepped in as he locked it up. "Now listen," he spoke, clearly and quietly. "I'm not going to ask how bad it is for you, because I know that to some degree it is. What I do know is that things are easier when you're not alone."

Judy paused, her eyes going wide. "You know other…"

"-Another Vulpaired mammal? Yes. Heck, he's even a bunny… Well, close-ish." He grabbed the grate and began fitting it back in. "He owns a small storehouse on the South West corner of the Jerboa Street Desert biome. Look for the green door, but only go at one in the morning. Ask for Stripes."

The partition was sealed now, all for the better given that a tear was dripping from Judy's eye. She smiled down as Nick wiped it clear, before she repaid the favour. Both of their feelings of relief played into each other. They weren't quitters, they didn't let others see that they got to them, but life was always tough. They more than loved each other, being a mammal and a daemon they were each other, and in many ways they might be more than they ever needed.

But they left that confession booth and then that cathedral, which they'd only entered to light a candle for their ill mother, with a spring in their step and hope in their hearts. To not be alone.

Normally they didn't care about the occasional glare that a mammal, especially a bunny, might give them. The walk to the cathedral had at least one mild heckle, the first for a while but something they could brush off. Today, though, as they wandered past a bunch of cops with their wolf daemons and slipped under the poster of mayor Bellwether, her lion daemon nowhere to be seen, they felt like they were normal in this city. They stopped off into the main post office to pick up another of her parent's care packages, the regular shipping of fruit and vegetables a godsend. They had to wait for a bit as one of the inspectors, a sneering zebra with a tough built wolverine daemon by his side, peeked and probed through it. "Just standard checking," he said, as he roughly bruised some of the fruit and food, looking for narcotics that he presumed must have been there.

Finally, with a lazy shove, he pushed them back. Nick took them, carrying them as they walked over St Francis' bridge, the great building-lined road arching over the stagnant tide pools and hard cliffs and rocks that had once made up the coast here. Turning left, the pair slipped down a cold set of stone stairs, switching back until they were beneath it, inside one of the vaults. Trickles of light came down from holes left between the bordering buildings and the road, or through luxcrete blocks at the apex of the arch itself. Together, they dimly lit up the gloomy cavern within. While the back and front of the arch were boxed in by the heavy stone on the official buildings, the sides were clung to by rougher built bolt holes, like barnacles to a rock. Their path lead to the first layer, with steps leading down four more tiers until it reached the slowly oscillating pool of salty water at its bottom, a dense matt of rubbish and filth floating upon it. Down two flights and the pair unlocked the door into their home. It used to be a shop, selling odds and ends and trinkets that were considered borderline heretical.

With mayor Bellwether in charge, the borderline was taken out of that, and the shop became available to a new pair of tenants. When first hearing about it, Nick had joked about it being a 'completely non-disturbing precedent' and Judy had rolled their eyes. It was their home. It held a room for them to cook and sleep in and a room for them to face their clients, when they came.

It kept them going, certainly, and it was always stimulating. After all, if you were so desperate for information that you viewed a Vulpaired PI's slyness and cunning to be of necessary, then your case would certainly be an interesting one. All that was on their table had been wrapped up though, so it was time instead for some self-care.

First off, get the cooker going. Throwing a bundle of sticks into the smouldering ashen pile, the bunny and her fox daemon blew at it until it lit, before tossing a heap of coal on. Closing up the door on the rusting range cooker, they knew that it would be a while before it got up to anything like a good temperature. Cooking could wait, a bath even more so. Instead, she could do some exercises. Prime on her feet, giving practicing spars and punching flurries, Nick was there for her to face off against. His bruises were hers and hers his, but they both felt the thrill as they matched each other, just lost in the fun for a little bit.

The temperature rising, they turned to the food itself. Fresh produce meant a fresh salad, though the cold weather this time of year had Judy hankering for something hot. Savoury cabbage pancakes, topped with crispy potato flakes and spiced up ketchup. Unusual, but it did the job and more than filled the itch. Judy went over to get her knife, only to be broken off by a canine whine. Nick was standing there, his head tilted. Naked as always, like all daemons, but wanting not to be. There wasn't anything taboo about dressing your daemon, just like there wasn't about walking around like a clown. But to Nick, to be dressed by Judy, to have a little taste about being a mammal, was a special little ritual that they partook in together. He was an unusually needy daemon after all. She snuck under her bed and pulled out the little collection of clothes that were him-sized. Her mouth puckering, she went on a whim and brought out a few.

Back when she was a playful kit and he could change forms, he'd insist on being dressed up in her father's best business suit one hour, her mother's lazy day summer dresses the next, then some of her litter mates or even her clothes in the afternoon before rounding it off (much to his insistence and her red-eared embarrassment) with one of her baby siblings onesies in the evening. Being a daemon he (claimed to) have no concept of dress sense; they were just clothes to him and he wanted to try them all.

Nowadays, after much perseverance, he had a dress sense that could be classified as poor to terrible, a phenomenal improvement in her mind given daemon's technically didn't have any. In the present, she'd sometimes dress him up posh, watching him slowly caress what he wore like he was some kind of foxy gentlemammal. Other times she'd goof about. This was an other time. "Hey, I can do a tie," he pointed out, as she began wrapping it around his neck. He retreated into a smug silence as she did up the knot and half-pulled it up. "And now what?" he asked, his eyes widening a little as she pulled out a pair of carrot stamped boxers, just about big enough to fit on him. "Do I get pants over these?" he asked.

"If you want to dress yourself you do," she pointed out. "Nothing stopping you."

He paused, wandering over, judging each and every thing that he might wear over them before picking out a frilly yellow skirt. Judy couldn't help but laugh as he pulled it on, stepping over to their little mirror and stretching this way and that. He wasn't a mammal, he was a daemon, and so any clothes were odd. Their little collection currently included suits, tuxedo's, kilts, slippers, flippers, skirts, dresses, panties, blouses, boiler suits, briefs, boxers, cargo shorts, slacks, jeans, t-shirts, robes, toga's, swimming trunks, swimming costumes, short sleeve shirts, long sleeve shirts, pyjamas, footed sleepers, onesies you name it, they'd found one and kept one. While some had certainly felt odder to her than others, being a daemon it all felt the same to him and, in the end, neither of them cared. It was a little thing that they did together that made them feel special.

He pulled an apron over his front and they got to work, him chopping the cabbage while she mixed the batter. Then he peeled the potatoes and chopped them thin, while she prepared a salad for herself. On a drying rack, wafer thin, drizzled in oil and salted and peppered, into the oven the potato thins went. Judy retreated to the table with her salad as Nick began frying up her pancake. While he didn't like the cold greens, the care package did include a few blueberries.

It was incredibly odd for a daemon to eat, seeing as they physically couldn't. But ever since he was young Nick had loved blueberries, often keeping a few in his mouth for hours at a time, savouring the taste. Putting some fresh ones in he did that now, all while his mammal ate and the food cooked. After all, he would still feel hunger when she did, and feel full when she was. Her salad ate, the pancake done, he took out the potato thins and spread them over, plating it all up before giving it to Judy with a bow. "Bon appetite."

"Merci," she chirped, rubbing him on his head as she dug in. Soon they both felt full, settling down to read a book by their wind-up light. Nick curled around Judy, his warmth enveloping her and his tail going over to protect her. Soon the water was hot enough so, out of one corner, came their tub. Filled up, they settled in, soaking in the warmth… At least until Nick began mucking about, teasing Judy until she joined in.

That done, the water hurled out and into the sea, they brought their little basket next to the still warm stove and settled down. A blanket over them, they could drift off here. Their alarm was set though, ready to wake them up later on.

"It's amazing," Judy said, as she scratched his ear. "We're not going to be alone. Someone else who truly understands."

"Just what the doctor ordered," Nick smirked. "Why have one pair of self-hating beings when you can have two!"

She scowled and flicked his ear, her own one twitching from the impact as she did so. "Lighten up, Slick."

He shrugged. "Hey, we shouldn't get our hopes up Carrots. This is a world that likes to hate us, I just want us to be prepared."

"Well," Judy said, rolling her eyes. "This world may hate us. But maybe there's some in it who'll love us."

"You sure…?"

"Yeah," she said, her eyelids beginning to flutter. Today had been a long day. "And so what if we fail in finding them. At least we tried."

Nick kept his gaze on her for a few seconds, eventually leaning forward to give her nose a wet lick. She backed off, coughing and giggling before settling down. "You know you love me," he said, curling up tight around her, his tail like a blanket.

"Do I?" she asked, the world around her fading peacefully. "Yes. Yes I do."