Nick stood there, looking at himself in the bedroom mirror. His paws worked their way up his shirt as he buttoned it. Next to him, his wife was doing much the same. But instead of a button up shirt. She was busy fitting her police issue body armer over her torso.
It has been six months since their Christmas vacation down in Bunnyburrow. Since they returned to reality and their daily routine. Looking back, the whole week felt like a dream. The coming together of such a large family in the same place for a single event.
It's unlikely that the Chief will let them take such a long vacation around the holidays any time in the near future. Until they can again, Nick and Judy will still be able to spend Christmas with his parents in Zootopia, and possibly some of Judy's siblings who want to come up for it. But Nick hopes that the Chief will at least let them take a day or two off when they can for Christmas.
Not too many years ago, Nick would have thought the idea of spending so much time surrounded by a sea of bunnies in the middle of nowhere to be insane. But not so much anymore. Not when he proudly calls all those bunnies his family. And now he looks forward to every trip to the Hopps warren.
"Help me clip this stupid thing on," Judy turns her side to Nick and gestures at it and the loose buckles on her chest plate. She never really needed any help donning her uniform, but she loved the attention from her husband.
"Getting so old, Mrs. Wilde, that you've lost your crazy bunny flexibility?" He clips the buckle in place and motions for her to turn to her other side.
"Hey, I'm only twenty-eight!" He clips the other side of her body armor.
"And that's close to thirty, so according to the younger generation, you're old." After helping Judy with her uniform, he focuses on his again, tucking his shirt tail into his pants and buckling his belt.
"You're one to talk, Scuffy." Judy grabs his neckerchief and slide from the dresser the bedroom mirror sits on. Then she hops up into the air so she can throw it around his neck.
"Who are you calling 'Scruffy,' Fuzzbutt?" Nick folds his shirt collar over the neckerchief.
"Just this ragged looking fox standing in front of me." She pulls the two rolled up ends of the neckerchief together and slips them through the slide, then draws the slide up so that it is snug but not suffocating. Like a well tied tie.
Then she reaches up and gives his maw an enduring squeeze. "There, now you don't look so scruffy."
"Madam, I'll have you know that I am the epitome of vulpine physique." Nick pins her badge on her uniform.
"Keep telling yourself that." She gives her husband's shoulder a pat and brushes her paw over the patch that reads "Pack 314."
They turn back towards the mirror and look each other over. Judy in her standard, every day, patrol uniform. Nick in his Scout Master Uniform.
Since the camping trip and the conclusion of their winter vacation and wedding ceremony, Nick had attended a scout master training course and became an official scout master for Stu's Pack 314. However, the distance between Bunnyburrow and Zootopia has not been very kind.
The 200-mile journey made attending the weekly meetings impractical. Work on the police force had also been a factor, preventing him from participating in every camping trip. Only being able to go on the trips when his off-duty time aligned with a weekend. Naturally, the pack did their best to schedule camping on those weekends.
But despite the obstacles, he looked forward to each trip. Nick had even been able to work out some scheduling with Chief Bogo, who was once a Junior Ranger Scout and saw the value in leading these youth organizations. He just could not promise his fox officer every occasion.
This weekend was one such occasion Mick could get away. Judy drove Nick to the train station on her way to work. But not before picking up Mary. She had time to see the two foxes' train departure before going the rest of the way to Precinct One.
"Thank you again, Judy for driving my ole bag of bones to the station." Mary said as they waited on the platform to board. "Your mother invited me to join her and your aunts to a bit of a girl's day out while these boys ruff it in the woods."
"You're not some bag of bones, Mary. You look as young as ever." Judy replied to her fox mom.
"Hey, what happened to calling me old and scruffy this morning?" Nick protests. "Those are two very contradicting statements about my mother and I."
"You get that from your father's side of the family, dear."
"You know, Nick, if all this back and forth on the train becomes too much, you can always find a pack here that needs some help," Judy leans into him. "Or even get your own started."
"What? And leave Colton hanging? Not a chance, Fluff," Nick replied. Though, in truth, Colton gets along with the pack quite well without Nick there. It barely took the hike to the campsite on his first trip, and they were already treating him as one of their own. And Nick enjoyed being there to see it then and every camping trip since.
"Now boarding train nine for Bunnyburrow." A voice over the PA system announced.
"Looks like that's us," Nick says as Judy embraces him and plants a kiss on his lips. "I'll see you Sunday, Carrots. I love you."
"Love you too," Judy replies. She breaks the embrace and gives a hug to her mother-in-law who pecks her cheek with a kiss in return. "Travel safe."
"Will do, Chief" Nick gives her a two fingered salute with a lopsided smile and the two foxes make their way to their train car to board.
"Oh, and Judy," Mary turns back around to Judy. "I'll be home tonight. But of course, you know that. John's barbequing and probably won't hear the doorbell. So, just let yourself in if I'm not back yet."
Judy nods in acknowledgement before Mary follows her son onto the train. Soon after, the doors. A hiss emanates from underneath as the breaks release and the train starts rolling out of the station. She gives the train one last glance before turning towards the parking lot entrance to complete her commute to work.
Well, there's the end of it. The whole story is a bit of a nothing burger... But one that tasted good. I tried to throw a little bit in there with the Junior Ranger Scouts to give it some kind of conflict, but that did not happen. I originally planned on having a chapter with the camping in it with some hiccups along the way, but my agency to write this story was dissolving.
Writing is not really my thing. I just had these few ideas stuck in my head and wanted to express them in some sort of story. I've always liked the idea of the Hopps and Wildes being one united family like this and wish there were more stories (ones a lot better written than mine) that portrayed them in such a manner.
The name of the story was also supposed to be a triple entendre. One because they're getting hitched, two because of little hiccups along the way (like a hitch in a plan), and three because if I did write the camping trip (And I mean the first one, not the one Nick is going to at the end of the story here), I wanted to incorporate something about knot tying as I remember knot tying skills being an important skill in the Boy Scouts. And hitches are a type of knot. And I had some idea of Nick recalling some of the hitches he learned while preparing for his own scout initiation when he was a child.
If I find inspiration to write that, I may slip it in between the last chapter and this. Until then, I hope you enjoyed my nothing burger too.