Chapter 4: Undercover

Nick hatches a harebrained scheme to visit one of a rival company's theme parks.

(Wait...can I use the word 'harebrained' or is that speciesist? You know 'hare-brained?" Hare, is another name for a jackrabbit, also, why isn't a female jackrabbit not called a jillrabbit, or is that sexist?)

"Fanfiction is the madwoman in mainstream culture's attic, but the attic won't contain it forever. Writing and reading fanfiction isn't just something you do; it's a way of thinking critically about the media you consume, of being aware of all the implicit assumptions that a canonical work carries with it, and of considering the possibility that those assumptions might not be the only way things have to be."

— Anne Jamison, Author of Fic: Why Fanfiction Is Taking Over the World

Judy and Nick's Apartment near Walt Disney World

"Slick, just what do you think you are doing?" Judy asked. The gray-furred rabbit in her pink and blue checkered pajamas leaned against their bedroom door while she was watching the fox struggling to pull something over his chest.

"I am determined to get into that Harry Potter place at Universal and so I'm getting into my disguise," the fox answered.

"Do you mean The Wizarding World..."

"Ah, careful! Old Goat says that name is trademarked."

"First, who is Old Goat, and second, doesn't the Fair Use..."

"I'm no lawyer and neither is Old Goat," Nick interjected.

"Isn't Universal also trademarked?"

"Only if used with studio or something, otherwise Universal is...ah, a universal word," he annoyingly answered with a smirk.

"That makes no sense at all! Isn't Disney trademarked too?"

The fox lost his smirk before he paused, shrugged, and finally answered, "I've got nothing." The rabbit gave him a triumphant grin when he grunted while he tried to adjust the "fat suit" around his chest and waist.

"And where did you get that…that…whatever?"

"Thor let me borrow part of his 'dad bod' costume from Avengers Endgame and once I get all of this on, you will never know I am a fox!"

She stood there and tried not to burst out laughing as he pulled on his "costume". Finally, he was finished and admiring himself in the mirror. Besides the padding he wore around his waist, he had pulled his tail into pair of oversized denim blue jean overalls and had slipped on a long-sleeved cotton shirt. His ears were tucked under a floppy tan-colored twill bucket hat. "Ta-Da!" he proclaimed with his arms outstretched after he turned to face her. "What do you think?"

Judy eyed the fox from his head to his footpaws and shook her head before she answered, "You look like a rotund redneck version of Gideon Grey."

"Oh wait…wait!" he excitedly said while he dug into a shopping bag on the bed. Nick jerked out a pair of sunglasses, which he slipped over his muzzle, and then turning his back to her began yanking something else from the bag. Moments later, he turned around and grinned because he was wearing a white mustache and beard on his muzzle and a moppy white wig under his hat. "See, they will never know I'm not a human!"

"Now you look like a rotund redneck version of Gideon Grey trying to look like Santa."

"Ah, it'll work just wait," he confidently proclaimed before he kissed her on the cheek and waddled out the door.

Judy just sighed before she went to make herself a cup of tea.

*Hours later*

The apartment door slammed shut and Nick stood there looking dejected. He had pulled off his fake mustache, beard, hat, and wig.

"It didn't work?" Judy asked.

"No," he mumbled after he unhooked the overalls and let them drop into a puddle on the floor between his footpaws. His now-freed tail gave a couple of wags before it drooped to the floor. A few moments later he had pulled off his shirt and tossed aside the 'dad bod' padding.

"They knew you were a fox?" the rabbit asked the fox now standing there wearing only his underwear.

"No…worse!"

"Oh?"

"They thought I was a sheepdog and told me that only service dogs are allowed in the park."

"Aw, my poor baby, come here and give me a hug."

Nick stepped forward towards her now open arms but he stumbled over the discarded overalls that were on the floor and they both tumbled down onto the carpet. "Sorry..." he began to say while he started to push himself off of her. His apology was silenced when she threw her arms around his neck and pulled him back down into her kiss.

Wrapped in the embrace of the bunny he loved may not have washed away the fox's earlier disappointment but her kisses did make him feel much better.