A Better Place

by Soulfire72

Nick and Judy have been working at the ZPD for three years, and comfortably settled into their roles as partners, as well as lovers. However, as they explore options into finally forming a family, they find Zootopia itself pushing back. After the city's true nature rears its ugly head, they both resolve to make this new dream a reality – whether Zootopia likes it or not.

1. Another Round

A/N

I've wanted to write for Zootopia ever since I saw the movie years ago. However, the fandom proved to be very capable of delivering many high quality stories. After some consistent inspiration, I've decided to finally put my ideas to paper. Warning: this story will deal with some heavy family subjects.

Credit goes to SkyVixie for the cover image. Cheers for the great work!

I also want to thank my editors, Tinbuzzard11 and thecrazystorywriter14 for ironing out my problematic habits as a writer. It's nice to know the fandom is still very much alive.

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Chapter 1

Another Round

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A lone fennec fox, dressed in his favourite black polo and olive pants, sat on a red velvet stool, slightly too high to climb with his feet alone. Despite the row of half-dozen similar seats on either side of him, he had always found it inconvenient to be on the lower end of the 'small' mammals of Zootopia. The categorical divisions within the city providing its services meant that full comfort to all species was impossible. It was just bad luck, fate – whatever else you'd call it – that he was a fennec fox of a size that was also inconvenient in a joint that otherwise suited his tastes.

'Still on your first one, Finnick? It'll lose that nice chill at this rate.'

Finnick glanced up at the curious moose bartender, the fox's annoyed scowl unchanged from when he had first arrived that evening.

'I'm still waiting on 'em, Murph,' he replied gruffly.

'Still the same time every week, huh?'

Murphy was wiping a large glass mug down with a white hand towel, as bartenders do. It was the quiet time just before most mammals finished their day jobs, when the city shadows grew long and a cool breeze would start blowing in the summer. To Finnick's left, on the corner of the serving counter, a goat barmaid named Chloe was chatting up a pair of raccoons, oblivious to her surroundings. Murphy's Bar was one of those on Savannah Central's outskirts, so it rarely got too busy for just the two of them. With Finnick, however – being a fennec fox with disproportionately large ears – made most bars in the City Centre a no-go. He could hear everything, and it was near impossible to tune out all the noise. Despite this, after spending one night out several months ago, it became a regular hangout.

As a result of their free time, and much to Finnick's annoyance, Murphy and Chloe both tended to pry into their customer's lives when they felt it was warranted. Chloe was studying to be a psychologist, and thus such prying seemed to come naturally. Finnick guessed that Murphy needed to keep tabs on his regular customers, not only to make sure they were taking care of themselves properly, but to prevent nasty incidents. A bar that provided alcohol to mammals of all sizes and tolerance levels necessitated such caution.

Finnick ducked his head down, detecting another attempt by the bartender to puzzle out his personal life.

'Yep. Same every week.'

On that note, Finnick had avoided talking about his problems, but his alcohol tolerance proved so high that Murphy freely accepted whatever requests he made. This had gradually evolved into a morbid curiosity into serving him whatever he could provide, to see if the little fennec fox would ever bite off more than he could chew. Or drink.

Murphy put away his pristinely clear mug, extracting another from the wash rack, continuing his questioning facing the opposite wall.

'You've been waiting here for twenty minutes – one might think you don't have anything better to do.'

Finnick's narrowed his eyes at the back of Murphy's grey vest. After his chilled glass of beer had been sitting there for the past twenty minutes – he finally took a mouthful and gulped it down.

'…Nope.'

Murphy turned around and gave another of his long, searching looks, before shrugging and going back to his work, just in time to attend to several wildebeest coming through the front doors. However, over the bleating and thumping of their hooves, Finnick's large ears twitched at a suave chuckle from behind them; a chuckle he was all too familiar with.

He turned ever so slightly to spot a flash of red fur and a pair of perky grey rabbit ears. He quickly shifted back to his original position, waiting for the pair to approach him as Finnick, Nick Wilde, and Judy Hopps repeated every Friday night.

As usual, the pair were chatting about some work-related event or another. From what Finnick had gathered already, it was about a colleague called McHorn.

'–and there it was, out there in the open on his monitor! I keep reminding him of the "lock your screen" policy for a reason.'

Judy was the first to arrive at the vacant stools to Finnick's side, followed by Nick sliding onto the middle one. They plopped their bags on the floor in front of their stools. Nick acknowledged the fennec fox with a nudge and wink, to which Finnick rolled his eyes and had another sip.

The red fox was dressed in blue joggers and one of his tacky Hawaiian shirts, this one being a yellow one, but nowadays forwent his tie as he spent much of his week in his navy blue uniform. Judy wore a white flannel shirt and jeans; she had overused her original police uniform even after work hours, and once forced to get a new one, had adopted some more practical fashion habits after work. Both had then stored a change of clothes in their police lockers specifically for their Friday nights.

'Just because his desk is ten times as tall as mine, doesn't mean I can't tell what's on there.'

'…You jumped on the seat, didn't you?'

Judy pursed her lips for a moment at Nick's playful accusation.

'Not the point, Nick!'

The fox smirked for a moment but waved his paw for her to continue.

'Anyway, try to guess what was on there.'

Nick blinked his eyes overtly as he motioned over his chest.

'Really, madam? You trust me with something so potentially juicy?'

Judy eyed him flatly. 'Nick, we've been partners for… what? Three years?'

'It kinda depends on what you mean by "partner",' Finnick muttered under his breath, though neither of them had any trouble hearing him.

The red fox rotated his stool toward Murphy's direction, holding up a pair of digits, to which Murphy nodded and immediately began to prepare two glasses. Then Nick leaned on one arm over the counter with a confident look.

'Well… I'm guessing it began with "p" and ended with "orn".'

Judy narrowed her eyes slowly for several seconds, before abruptly brightening.

'Good guess! Posterior horn.'

Finnick smirked as Nick's elbow slipped a good several centimetres. Judy, on the other paw, tapped her chin and her eyes wandered over the bar's ceiling.

'I knew something was wrong with him. He hasn't been moving properly for a couple of weeks.'

It took Nick a moment to regain his signature smirk.

'W-well… Why would he have trouble moving if there's something wrong with his horn?'

Judy eyed him flatly again, and she shared an annoyed glance with Finnick.

'Nick, sometimes I wonder how you made it through medical training.'

Nick's smirk fell away again, and he looked side to side at them.

'I don't retain information that I don't use, fluff.'

'Well, I'm no police officer, but…' Finnick smiled with an edge of condescension. 'I'm pretty sure that's what a drunk giraffe tore when I shattered one of his kneecaps.'

'How'd you manage to do that to a Giraffe?!' Judy exclaimed.

'Don't you worry yer pretty head none, he was just in hospital for... long enough.'

Judy narrowed her eyes suspiciously before she shrugged. She opened her mouth again, but paused before she continued. 'Huh – I'm pretty sure I should have spotted something like that if an assault happened within any of the ZPD's jurisdiction.'

'It… wasn't an assault,' Finnick admitted reluctantly. 'He tripped over me.'

They both stared at him for several seconds before bursting into laughter. Finnick's scowl grew deeper with each passing second.

'Pipe down!' He groaned as he took another swig. 'I don't need you two filling my ears with noise too. I wish my hearing was as bad as my age would indicate...'

Judy and Nick slowed down as Murphy brought two small beer mugs and set them down in front of them.

'Oh come on, Finn, you're not that old,' she said reaching for her glass.

'Yeah… oh, and forgive me for not taking my older friend seriously,' Nick said after a deep breath. 'given he's built like a miniature tank.'

Finnick tightened his jaw indignantly. 'You're assuming I came out unscathed.'

'Did you?' Judy asked innocently.

Finnick scowled and turned away, and Nick simply grinned.

'Well… hallelujah.'

'Eh, shut up.'

Nick and Judy finally focused on their drinks for a minute, long enough for Finnick to break the silence.

'Why is it every Friday I hear you two up in someone else's business?'

'What do you mean?' Judy said.

'Yer always investigating something or other, even on the weekends… Or in this case, your own fellow officers while on break! It's like you've only got police investigation on the brain twenty-four seven.'

'I do not!' Judy objected indignantly, before glancing away uncertainly. 'Do I?'

'Oh yes. Yes you do.' Nick said with a smug but proud smile. 'It's one of the reasons I love you.'

'That don't mean it's healthy,' Finnick continued. 'Sometimes you turn up dirty laundry that was better left in the gutter.'

'I've had my run in with my share of those,' Judy admitted. 'But you're wrong about it being the only thing I have on the brain.'

With that, she mirrored Nick's grin and the partners shared a suggestive gaze. Finnick quickly turned away, feigning disgust.

'You kids are so shameless...'

Judy's ears reddened enough for her to avert her gaze and go back to her drink, but Nick allowed his gaze to linger on her for several more seconds before he similarly went back to his own glass. The tod decided to end the lingering seconds of heated silence.

'So… what ended up happening with McHorn?'

Judy perked right up. 'Oh! I locked his computer for him and sent him a list of paediatric surgeons that specialise in large herbivores.'

Nick chuckled shortly. 'Ooh, I would've loved to see the look on his face.'

'Oh really?' Finnick barked. 'How do ya figure?'

Nick put his glass down and gestured widely, his arms conveniently just passing over the top of Finnick and Judy's heads.

'A huge, tough-looking rhino officer getting told off by my little rabbit of a wife! What's not to like?'

'It's not the first time, you know,' Judy posited, 'and "little rabbit wife"? I'm not sure if I should be flattered or insulted.' She leaned out from the bar. 'Finn, should I be flattered or insulted?'

Nick's ears folded back for a split second. 'Pretty sure I'll know the answer, coming from him.'

Finnick smiled evilly in response. 'Oh, you know it. I think you should take it as a stain upon your honour and deck him.'

Judy smiled. 'Point taken.'

She playfully punched Nick in the side of his thigh. He didn't respond for several seconds, until he brought the top of his paw to his forehead dramatically.

'Oh no… my heart… and somehow, kneecaps… have been shattered.'

'Would you to shut up about that!?'

Nick and Judy shared another round of laughs, before Judy leaned over and spoke in a hushed tone.

'Don't worry, slick, I'll make it up to you later.'

'Looking forward to it, ma'am.'

His flirtatious grin earned another groan from Finnick.

'Ugh…'

The three continued their revelling for a couple more hours until the foxes heard a sharp rumble from Judy. She gave her stomach one pat and smiled sheepishly. Unfortunately for them, Murphy's Bar was not the kind to serve a substantial amount of food, only the occasional snack.

'I guess it's time to call it a night, huh?'

'You know your limits, Carrots.'

Judy smiled up at Nick timidly before peering over the counter towards the back of the building.

'Excuse me for a moment.'

Nick continued to smile as he watched her head to the bathroom.

'So… things going well for you two?'

Finnick's voice had shifted. There was no hostility or groaning, sneering or smirking. Nick couldn't see his friend's face, but he had learned many years ago to take Finnick seriously when his voice dropped like this.

'Yeah. Things are good. Great even. Why?'

Finnick didn't answer directly, opting to pause before speaking again.

'How long have you two been together, anyway?'

Nick lifted his right arm slightly and peered at the silver ring on his fourth finger. It was not a simple question, in more ways than one.

'Depends on your definition of "together", but… It's been a year since the ceremony.'

The fennec nodded with a slight grunt.

Nick studied his friend for a moment, his brow furrowing with concern.

'What about you, Finnick?'

The fennec raised a brow. 'What about me?'

'You need help with anything? Any financial troubles? As far as I can tell, you're still driving around that old van. And even three years ago, it was constantly barfing exhaust out the back.'

'It's nothing to do with my finances. That's just the way I like it. That old girl's as reliable as hell, even with her… quirks. If she ever dies on me, though…' He sat back, folded his arms, and frowned. 'I dunno. I could think about getting a place, or just getting a new car.'

Nick continued to study the smaller fox. Despite all the years they'd known each other, he rarely got a glimpse into Finnick's private life. Their past hustles didn't take up all of the fennec's time, so it wasn't a long shot to think he had other ventures he was doing on the side. Regardless, whether those ventures were legal or not, they had not once been at odds, despite Nick having every reason to believe they would after he became an officer. This only piqued his curiosity further.

'And you can just do that? No hassles or threats needed?'

The fennec scowled up at him. 'And what's that supposed to mean? You wanna lose some teeth, pretty boy?'

Nick gave a placating chuckle as he swivelled his stool to face towards the bar.

'Just checking, big guy.'

They heard the bathroom door swing open, and Nick detected the distinct patter of Judy's feet pattering. Finnick showed no sign of leaving, so the red fox swung around one last time and hopped off.

'Nick?'

'Hm?'

Finnick was looking at him with an uncharacteristically concerned gaze. It only lasted a moment, so brief that Nick wondered if he imagined it, before Finnick frowned again and turned away.

'Nothing. Just don't screw it up with her.'

Nick couldn't help but tilt his head quizzically for a moment, before smiling and nodding, facing Judy as she arrived at this side.

'Don't worry, I won't.'

Judy glanced at Finnick's back briefly.

'Sticking around, Finnick? Don't drink yourself to death!'

Finnick nodded without turning his head, waving at her half-heartedly as she passed by. 'Bye, Judes.'

His gruff reply did little to dampen her spirits, and she took Nick's paw as they left the bar, managing a wave back at Murphy as they opened the glass door.

---

After picking up a cricket burger meal and salad for dinner from Burger Pride, Nick and Judy caught the next train from Milton station – one block down the road from Murphy's. His bar was just on the southern edge of the City Centre; as such, it was just within comfortable walking distance from the ZPD headquarters. As the train smoothly picked up speed, Nick resisted the urge to pull Judy into his side and wrap his arm around her. Most of the mammals they knew personally were aware of their relationship, but the pair tried to avoid drawing attention to themselves by keeping it under wraps – both at work and in public.

Judy could tell how Nick felt; the flick of his tail and the every so slight tilt of his ears towards her made it clear. She smiled up at him nevertheless, patting his leg a couple of times before inserting her earphones and starting her favourite playlist, with Gazelle's work remaining her favourite.

As the train rounded a familiar bend, she instinctively turned around and stood on her tip-toes for a moment, in time to see the city square come into view.

There was almost always something new in the wide venue every week. This time, a host of mammal musicians from around the country had gathered for live performances. The setup had four different artists with speakers projecting outward from the centre platform, with large soundproof walls erected between them. It didn't completely prevent the music blending together, but it made it easy for groups of mammals to follow the path around to get a good sampling of each artist.

Judy always found it fascinating to watch large groups of mammals wandering about the town square – so much so that she hopped up and sat in the window sill between the glass and the set behind her. Nick chuckled, and it made her feel like a little kid, but it wasn't long before he turned around and folded his arms over the same sill to watch the passing view with her.

Nick felt his chest flutter warmly as his gaze shifted between the town square and Judy pressing her paws against the window. It's because of her I can see the city like this.

The square was only in view for about thirty seconds, but it was enough for Judy, as she slid back down into her seat with a satisfied smile.

'Enjoy the playground, fluff?'

'Har har – you know I can't get a good view otherwise.'

'Maybe next time get on my shoulders?'

Judy's ears stiffened in embarrassment for a moment, but both their smiles faltered a bit as her gaze flicked to the rest of the carriage.

'Tempting, but we've got to keep our surroundings in mind.'

'Can't even compromise for the fox, huh?'

Judy rolled her eyes. As the buildings started to take up more of their view, they spotted some familiar stores through the opposite window, including a small shopping centre and a moderately-sized cinema complex. The residential area began to drop the cream-coloured lighter aesthetic for more gradual blues and greens, evoking some of the natural colour palette from the nearby Rainforest district.

It was here that they reached their stop –High Plains. Nick continued to feel that the name was a bit ironic, given the lack of any real skyscrapers, but researching the neighbourhood with Judy while searching for a place turned up something piquing their interest. The residential area's founder was a Rainforest district native – a jaguar, to be exact – and wanted to convey the heavy but calm landscape of the rainforest, while also providing a more relaxed atmosphere than the busy and frenetic areas immediately surrounding it. After walking around and talking to their potential neighbours, the region turned out to be to their liking; it almost felt like it came out of the country, but had low crime rate, being functionally next door to the ZPD.

It wasn't cheap, though. After Nick had eventually squared away his tax owing (his earnings were fortunately not as high as he played them up to be), they were both just starting to pay off a mortgage. Neither of them foresaw any reason to leave the city, and they were willing to invest in living there permanently. It was part of the reason why they went for a townhouse rather than a freestanding dwelling.

Before they found the place, it was not too difficult for them to meet at the ZPD headquarters once Nick was fully inducted as an officer. The Pangolin Arms had been only a ten minute walk to the building. Nick, on the other paw, had also lived in Savannah Central, but closer to the west bordering the Rainforest District, as his ill-gotten wares attracted the most traffic in that area. Just before they had married, they'd found a modest townhouse not far from the train station; a seven minute walk, and in Judy's case, five.

The train doors opened to a small, two-platform station, with the calm evening crickets greeting them. Once they'd cleared the small line of ticket gates, they walked down the lamplit street until they came upon a row of townhouses; each pair connected as a single building but divided by a stone wall. Their house was on the end of one such row; their direct neighbours being a married pair of retired wolves, Alex and Bertha. Thankfully, the wolves howled rather infrequently and usually during the day while they were at work. Compared to Bucky and Pronk, they were a godsend.

The building overall was only one storey, and while this might have been too small for most mammals, it was the perfect size for Nick and Judy. There was a small stone porch out front with a small lawn of grass, which Alex next door had happily volunteered to mow for them after doing his own.

As most recent developments were, the foundation was brick, and the front and back walls were painted over with an elegant wooden sheen, with the windows sprouting a wild vine design sprouting from their window's decorative casing. The painters really went wild on the left side; all manner of plants, from large tree trunks, flowers, even lines of ants were depicted. Contained on that side they had a vacant driveway, which right now was only used for visiting cars or vans.

As they went down the footpath, they spotted Alex, their grizzled grey wolf of a neighbour, sitting on a long wood chair on a wide wooden balcony. They were about to call out a greeting, but spotted his large teeth and tongue hanging out with an open gun magazine on his lap, along with intermittent snoring. They both softened their footsteps and walked up their grey stone path onto their porch.

The house's large wooden door's overall frame was built first and foremost for medium sized predators, such as jaguars and wolves. However, very early into the construction cycle, the developers realised the demographic they were aiming for was too small to be a viable market. While medium-sized herbivores did not require too much in the way of adjustments, smaller mammals would have difficultly opening and closing the large door every day. As such, all of the houses had modified their doors to have two sections, the smaller one taking about two thirds of the entire frame, with a proportionally lower doorknob. There was a metal beam guard on the door's edge that made it so that pushing the door open using the upper doorknob swung the whole door, while the lower doorknob only opened the segmented section.

As such, it was a comfortable height for Judy to reach up and lead Nick inside. The smell coming from his takeaway bag was tantalising; both of their stomachs were rumbling by now, and they wanted that rectified immediately.

As they were greeted with little but moonlight shining in from their front window, Nick immediately went for the light switch, though he paused just as he was about to flip it, turning back to note how Judy hadn't moved.

'What?' Judy said. 'Don't leave me in the dark, Nick.'

'Well… sometimes I wonder if a rabbit could get night vision through practice? Gotta start somewhere.'

His answer was a swift thump of a rabbit's foot on carpet. 'TV. Food. Now.'

Nick shrugged and flipped the switch, and Judy immediately hopped forward and over the back of their black velvet couch to the far right corner of the large room. Within seconds, Nick heard voices blasting out of their LCD along with the crunching of lettuce and cucumbers.

Meanwhile, Nick took his burger bag and went off to the left into their tiled kitchen and shoved his meal into their microwave. As he watched his bag on the turntable hungrily, he tilted his ears toward to the TV.

'Number nine. This unfortunate wolf, who we'll call "Ed", got the bright idea of wearing a thick winter mask to hide his face. He plotted to rob this ITREEA branch in downtown Savannah Central during the peak of summer heat, along with an "AC out of order" sign out front. After tailgating this wildebeest in full view of the security camera, Ed decided that the mask was just too hot for him and took it off to steal a swim mask off the shelf that was more to his liking… Also in full view of the camera. The ZPD had two officers waiting for him by the time he was able to tailgate his tail out of there, having forgotten to steal anything of value. The security guard on duty told Ed that they'll have a sale on clown masks if he's in the market next time he tries to rob them.'

'Is that "Zootopia's Dumbest?"'

'Yep! Only just started!'

Nick didn't wait for the five beeps, immediately snatching his meal out of the oven as soon as the time was up and flopped down next to Judy. As soon as he got his chip box out, Judy plucked one of the larger ones closest to her and gulped it down. In answer, Nick swiped one of her berries. Unfortunately, it was only a raspberry, but he swallowed it happily all the same.

They sat there as the next few mocking examples came of criminals one by one, from mice trying to shoplift an elephant-sized washing machine to raccoons getting beaten up by old sheep with canes.

'How come we never bust any of these dum-dums?' Nick said through a mouthful of chips.

'Dunno,' Judy said. 'Might be something to do with us not on call all the time for these guys?'

The fox gave a short nod. 'The Chief does keep us busy.'

They finished their food at number four, and each criminal was beginning to feel samey. Nick flipped the channel, and ended up sticking to a campy horror movie about clowns. Judy edged closer to Nick after tossing their garbage into the minibin next to the couch and pressed to his side. He smiled and wrapped his arm around her, and she shifted with a satisfied hum.

'The burger any good?'

'Yep. You should try it sometime.'

'Hmm…'

He felt the air shift on the tips of his fur as Judy turned to face him, peering into his green eyes heatedly. Nick felt his facial fur heat up rapidly as he stared back into her purple eyes, and she began to caress his cheek fur.

'How about…'

The red fox instinctively leaned forward and his lips met hers. The TV in front of them was forgotten for several minutes as they wrapped their arms around each other and Judy ended up straddling his lap.

The both let out a satisfied breath as Judy broke the contact, heat radiating from her face.

'Well… how was it?' Nick asked smugly.

'…Delicious.'

She leaned forward again, and they continued explored each other's mouths passionately. When Judy's paws started to slip into his shirt, however, Nick broke the contact and chuckled at her dejected look.

'Hold up, fluff – I know where this is going. But we should handle this like mature adults, right?'

His eyes flicked into the next hallway suggestively, and Judy's eyes widened for a moment.

'Oh! Right. I'll… uh… meet you…?'

Nick rolled his eyes for a moment and laughed again. 'Real smooth, Carrots.'

He gently set her aside on the couch, turned off the TV, and got up. Judy distractedly went over to the kitchen to make sure everything was put away. Nick flicked a couple of switches just before their back hallway, switching off the main room lights and leaving a low power overhead light on in the hallway. He grinned cheekily as he scooped Judy up from the kitchen and, and she gave a surprised squeal before wrapping her arms around his neck. He kissed her again as they headed for the bedroom, and by the time he sat her on their large bed, she had already got to work on his shirt buttons.