Welcome!

I am terribly sorry for such a long break between the chapters, but... ah, to hell with excuses... Sorry :/

Moving on!

Chapter 2

Whatever dream the cheetah was having, it was most likely connected with something sweet and rich in calories, if the feline's blissful expression and weight were any hints. But now that dream was abruptly brought to an end when a sack landed on the desk right next to his head.

"Waah!" the plump clerk yelled and sprung back, effectively falling to the floor along with his chair. When he gathered himself from the cold wood his gaze went up to the face on the other side of the counter.

"Sweet sugar and pies, Nick! You want to give me a heart attack?!" he gasped at a red furred fox. "Really, knocking on the door wouldn't kill you, you know?"

The vulpine raised an unamused brow. "Want to bet on that?" he replied, eyeing the cheetah.

Benjamin Clawhauser opened his mouth to say something but instantly shut it back. He was discharged from the NCR army two years back, after receiving an injury that made it impossible for him to continue his service. A close friend of his pulled some strings and got him a job as an office clerk, responsible for handling bounties issued on various crooks and criminals. He would manage assigning mercenaries to particular missions and collect proof of hunting down the targets, which was followed by paying up the bounty. Still, he had seen his share in the field and knew that sometimes soldiers got caught in traps when they were too carefree and opened every door or even knocked without thinking. Not to mention booby traps that could explode right into your face if you weren't cautious enough. Veteran mercenaries usually didn't have that problem, because if you are stupid and laid-back you never get to live long enough to become the elite.

And now one of said veterans was standing in front of him.

"Check it," the fox stated plainly and sat down on one of the cheap, rusty chairs by the opposite wall. He pulled out a book that had singed edges and even a coffee stain, from his equally tarnished backpack and proceeded reading it.

Benjamin sighed. "Nick, I know that you wouldn't cheat on the jobs, there's no need-"

"Check it," the vulpine repeated, not looking up from his book.

The cheetah groaned and grabbed the bag from his desk, his sense of smell already picking up what could be inside. He sauntered over to a metal table in the back of the office and untied the string from around the fabric. Almost immediately his nostrils were assaulted by the stench of blood and rotten meat.

"Ugh! I hate this!" he grumbled but turned the bag upside down and a piece of flesh fell on the metal surface with a splat. Benjamin instantly covered his nose with a paw. "Sweet Jawsus Christ, Nick! What is this?"

"His tattoo," came an answer from behind the book.

"Great…" the feline eyed the drawing on the body part and hurried to a one of the file cabinets that were lined up by the wall. His paws tugged open one of the drawers and quickly shuffled the gathered documents. He fished out one of them and flipped through the pages. The cheetah paused to read a few lines from one particular page and nodded. He put the file back in and closed the drawer.

"Ok, it's all correct, satisfied?" Benjamin got a dirty rag from the floor and used it to pick the piece of meat and throw it into to the bag. Then the bag got thrown out of the window and landed on a pile of trash in the street one floor below.

"Sheesh, Nick. I wish you stopped bringing in this kind of stuff. I got yelled at by my boss when he found a piece of one of your bounties lying around."

The fox closed his book. "Proof of death, as per the contract," he stated, unmoved by the cheetah's problems.

"Yeah, but… flesh? Come on, an earring or their favorite sunglasses would do," the chunky feline quickly scrambled to his desk and snatched an open box of potato crisps, deeply inhaling their smell. "Ahh, that's better…"

The red furred predator was already standing by the counter, packed to leave. "Money, Benjamin."

"Yeah, yeah…" the clerk leaned down to an old safe that was placed under the desk and took out a small, clinking sack. "Here, 250 caps."

It was snatched from his paw and disappeared in the backpack. "See ya."

"Oh, wait, wait!"

The fox was already turning towards the door, but stopped.

Benjamin reached to one of the desk drawers and pulled out another piece of paper. "There is a contract that might interest you. I got it only yesterday."

"Maybe some other day, Benjamin."

The cheetah grinned. "The pay is 6000 caps. Plus reimbursement of your costs," this made the vulpine freeze in place. He slowly turned his head to the smiling feline.

"See? I knew you'd like it!" Clawhauser beamed at the mercenary.

"Alright," the smaller predator took off his backpack and folded his arms. "Tell me more."

.

.

Corporal Judy Hopps stared at her glass of water. She was stuck at this bar-slash-barracks for several hours now and her contact either was on bad terms with the word 'punctual' or decided to ditch the job. Since her arrival at the Mojave Outpost, the farthest NCR facility to the south in this area, she was sitting there, wasting time. The interior of the building was divided into two sections - the part with bunk beds and the area with a rectangular isle that served as a bar. She got a few strange looks from other soldiers and was hit on by a drunken fox in a smelly, dirt covered coat and a broad hat that covered his face. Fortunately, he accepted a verbal denial and didn't bother her again, though voiced his disappointment with an unintelligible slur. Still, she patted her pockets just to be sure that her money was still there. Just as she did that, the inside of her ears turned pink in embarrassment. Contrary to the Hopps' family upbringing and her childhood incident with Gideon, a fox from neighboring village, she tried not to be judgmental of other species, even foxes.

She sighed into her drink.

It certainly wasn't easy for her to earn her position in the past year. Constantly laughed at by other recruits for being a cute, little bunny, she fought her way to the top and got appreciation as the best participant of the grueling boot camp. Through blood, sweat and tears she earned the rank of a corporal, also thanks to recommendation letters from her instructors, which she got in recognition for her hard work and outstanding results. Still, outside the camp she was usually treated like a mascot or a token bunny, even by fellow soldiers, regardless of their own rank. It irritated her that she had to practically demand respect from regular privates, who mostly sniggered or talked behind her back. It wasn't that she thought herself better than other soldiers, but she believed in the military order and hierarchy. Judy couldn't imagine badmouthing a superior officer even if she personally didn't like them, so she wasn't able to comprehend why lower ranks openly disrespected her. It made the bunny feel that two stripes on the shoulders of her greenish-brown armor were invisible to all but her.

And being here, in a completely new environment, didn't help her situation one bit. It was even worse, as large part of the bar patrons wasn't aware how sensitive a rabbit's hearing is. Therefore, she was constantly picking up pieces of conversations around her and none of them were pleasant for her.

…such a tiny ball of fluff…

…got promoted for being cute…

…probably fucked some colonel, that's how she got the rank…

Judy gripped the mug tighter, knuckles whitening, while the inside her ears turned red. And it that exact moment a pig private decided to approach her, climbing to the seat beside her.

"Heey, cutie pie. All alone heere?" he mumbled, his speaking impaired by large intake of alcohol.

The doe took a calming breath. "No, I am waiting for someone."

The pig leaned closer. "Awww, don't beh like thaat. Why don't we haf some fuun?"

Judy snapped her head towards the drunk mammal. "What was that, private?" she growled while tapping the insignia on her sleeve.

But he completely ignored the warning in her voice. "Come oon, instead of a carrrot, why don't I give ya somefin' else to bite on, huh?" He suggested and attempted to wiggle his eyebrows.

But that was the last straw for the doe. Her paw shot forward, grabbing the collar of his armor and she jumped down from her stool. Gravity aided her own weight in pulling the surprised pig to his front and down, causing the drunken mammal to topple forward and land heavily on the bar's floor. The thud he made alarmed several other soldiers and everyone's eyes turned to witness the scene. The thrown pig groaned and rubbed his head, while Judy stood right next to him, her hindpaw thumping furiously.

"I am corporal Judy Hopps and will not tolerate such a display of disrespect! You will address your male and female superiors with sir or ma'am, respectively!" Then she felt the stares from around the room and glared back at the looking mammals. "Anyone has a problem with this?!"

But none of the present patrons and soldiers decided to reply and they only shook their heads, still surprised by the sight of the pig sprawled across the floor.

Judy huffed and stomped towards the door to grab a few intakes of air outside. But one of her ears twitched when she heard a faint metallic sound behind her. The doe spun around to see the pig rolled over to his stomach and dragging out a pistol he kept behind his belt.

Her body tensed, ready to leap at the idiot, who apparently intended to threaten her with a gun.

"I see a problem here." Suddenly said an amused voice behind the angry hog.

The smelly fox who was hitting on her earlier stepped forward, stomping on the lying mammal's wrist. The pig squealed and the pistol dropped out of his grip. Surprised at this turn of events Judy gave the vulpine a once-over to better assess who's she dealing with. The mammal in front of her hid his face under a dusty, hat, his body was covered with a long-sleeved coat that once was brown but apparently, time and sun turned it into a color of the dirt and sand that covered the Mojave. It was unbuttoned, so the doe caught a glimpse of a khaki tank top on his torso with a bit of cream fur visible under his muzzle, plus a glint of a thin chain around his neck and that was it. Nothing out of ordinary that would raise suspicion or interest. Had he not approached her earlier, she would have ignored him as part of the surrounding clientele.

Two other privates, a wolf and a deer, decided to intervene at this point and they've begun approaching the vulpine from behind. "Hey!" one of them shouted, but then his companion grabbed his arm and pointed at the fox's back. Right under the dusty coat the vulpine was wearing, a small bulge was showing a faint outline of a pistol's barrel pointed at them.

Both privates stepped back.

The fox walked up to the bunny, kicking away the pig's gun. "Since when NCR is stupid enough to recruit mammals that forget checking if their enemy is really knocked out and defenseless?" he reached up to remove his headgear and Judy saw a single green eye staring down at her. The other one was covered with a black eyepatch.

"'Nice meeting ya' is what I say, but that's actually a lie, because it's not a pleasure for me. But, since I'm a fox, lies are to be expected, right?"

.

.

A red furred vulpine walked out of the bar, putting his pistol back to the hip holster and headed to the left to corner the building, an angry bunny hot on his heels.

"Hey!" she overtook him and faced the vulpine by getting in front of him, walking backwards while talking. "You were there the entire time!"

"Well done deducing that," he replied sarcastically, shifting the straps of his backpack a bit. He got it a moment earlier from behind the bar, along with his hunting rifle.

"Why the hell did I sit there for hours, when you could have approached me earlier?!" Judy exclaimed, her nerves already spread thin, this male's reaction just adding fuel to the fire.

"I needed to see who I am going to work with."

"Oh, how nice. And where was my chance to know something about my guide?!"

She received a shrug. "That's how I work, sweetheart. If you don't like it, you can only blame yourself for coming here."

"It wasn't my choice, I was given an order!"

"Then if you have a problem with orders, you shouldn't have enlisted for the army," he indicated her uniform. "It's not a place for dumb bunnies."

They stopped. Her nose twitched furiously and she narrowed her eyes, stomping her hindpaw on the dirt. "I'm not a dumb bunny!"

Click.

"Right," he smirked and pointed at the ground, "and that's not a landmine."

The doe's eyes widened in shock. "W-w-what?!" she glanced down and indeed, her hindpaw was standing on something buried in the sand with a brightly lit tiny red light. There were several other small bulges in the sand nearby.

"Don't move," he ordered her and crouched on the dirt. "Had you paid any attention, you would've noticed that we've reached my motorcycle and wouldn't have stepped on my theft-prevention-system."

"It's your mine?!"

The fox relaxed and sat on the ground in front of her. "Yep."

"S-so you know how to d-defuse it, right?" She stuttered, barely keeping it together.

He rested his cheek on one of his paws. "Hmm, I'm thinking if I really want to…"

"What?!"

"See, you weren't very nice to me, so it's too much of a hassle to save some rude rabbit," the fox explained with a brazen smirk.

Judy closed her eyes and took several breaths. They were rather shallow. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I'll be nice, how's that?"

"Hmmm…" he stared at her for a moment with half lidded eyes. "You know, I've never kissed a bunny before," his smirk turned into a wide grin.

And just his amusement grew, Judy's ears gradually fell lower. Her paws shot forward and she shook them frantically. "NO! Nonono, no way!"

He raised a brow at her reaction, smile disappearing from his face. "Eh? Oh well…" he got to his hindpaws and threw one leg over the motorcycles seat. "So be it."

"What?! You're going to leave me like this?!"

"Why not?" he said while placing the rifle in a special holster attached to the vehicle.

Judy groaned internally, her thoughts speeding in her mind, trying to find a solid argument. "We have a contract! You were supposed to protect me if needed!"

But the fox was unfazed. "I can get a dozen other contracts by the end of the day."

The doe clenched her fists in a nonverbal depiction of her anger. "You… you're despicable!"

Another shrug of his arms. "Sticks and stones, love. No money, no honey."

His words only agitated the bunny even more. "I'm not going to-"

He placed his paws on the pawgrips. "Then nice knowing ya', corporal Fluff."

"WAIT!" she yelled, reaching out to him, mentally scolding herself for this reaction. "I… I'll do it," she muttered through her gritted teeth. "Just disarm it."

His smirk returned. "Okay," he got off the vehicle and crouched right in front of her, his muzzle just inches away from her face, the glittering emerald gazing at her with a playful spark.

"C-close your eyes," she mumbled, looking away.

"Hm? Why?"

"Just do it, you jerk!" she hollered into his face and the fox was forced to narrow his eye from the sudden outburst.

"Alright, alright…" he did as he was told.

Judy could feel her heartbeat accelerating for various reasons. Humiliation and shame being the top two. She always imagined that her first kiss would be something romantic and so pleasant that she'd cherish the memory forever. And now she was being forced to give it up to some nameless, stinking fox under blackmail. She wanted to cry, but forced herself not to. Upon entering the boot camp Judy promised herself to never shed tears, no matter how bad things would turn out. And there was hardly a situation worse than this. Swallowing back the lump that formed in her throat, the doe braced herself for the nightmarish experience and closed her own eyes while puckering her lips.

What she wasn't aware was that the vulpine was observing her from behind slightly lifted eyelid. Seeing the doe's inner struggle painted so clearly on her face, the fox mercenary slowly shook his head. Then he reached out with one paw and cupped her right cheek, while placing a soft kiss on the left one.

Judy's eyes shot open and at the same time she heard another click near the ground.

"See? Wasn't that difficult," he said in a matter-of-fact tone.

The red furred predator gently lifted her leg and dug the mine from under her hindpaw. Just as he placed it on the side, a grey-green mass hit him on the chest and tackled them to the dirt.

"You fucker!" the doe yelled into his face while gripping the fabric of his shirt with both paws. Normally, she never cursed, but this time she was willing to make an exception. "I should skin you alive for this!"

Then, in a blink of an eye, one of the vulpine's paw shot up and yanked her back by the ears. She yelped and the fox used the momentary distraction to flip them over. Now the bunny was on the ground, a pistol pressed to the side of her neck.

"Listen good, as I'm going to say this just once," he growled, their noses touching. "I wasn't hired to be nice, to be your friend or give you a shoulder to cry on. I was hired as your protection and a guide, nothing more. And I will lead you wherever you want go and guard you from everything this wasteland can throw at you, even if I have to pull you out from the jaws of a Deathclaw," the fox withdrew the gun and stood up, putting the weapon back in the shoulder holster. "You don't like me? Fine. You hate me? Whatever. I'm not expecting any sympathy from you, but I'll expect you to trust my skills and experience in roaming around these lands. Are we clear?" he offered his paw at the end of his speech.

Judy shot him a hateful look, but couldn't disagree with his logic. Being a very optimistic and cheerful person by nature, she hoped that she could be friends with her companion. But even if that was impossible, given the fox's character, she would still follow her orders any make sure that the mission is a success. Therefore, she had no choice, but to play along.

"Clear." The doe huffed and reluctantly accepted his help. To her surprise, when she got up the mercenary brushed off the dirt from her uniform.

"Wha-"

"Can't have you dirtying my ride," he put on another smirk. But something in the back of her head tingled her mind, as if to deny his words. Some weird instinct that cautioned her not to believe this sentence. She shrugged it off and decided not to deliberate on this too much. For now, she settled for mumbling under her nose. "Jerk…"

"If you say so, Fluff."

Judy rolled her eyes. "Stop calling me that."

"Why? It fits you."

"Just… don't."

He eyed her for a second and eventually shrugged. "Okay… Carrots."

She stomped her hindpaw. "That too! My name is Judy!"

"Yeah, yeah…" the fox muttered, as he pulled on a pair of gloves. "Before we go, let's make one more thing clear: I set the rules. No! Listen here," he cut her off by raising a paw. "No matter how skilled I am, I can't guarantee your life if you rush the enemy lines with a knife in your paw, got it? So here's the thing, rabbit. I'll tell you how this is going to work," the vulpine pointed a finger at her. "I say a rule and I want to hear 'I'll do as I'm told' as an answer, got it?"

Judy's nose twitched furiously as she counted to ten in her thoughts to calm down. "Fine, Slick."

Her use of a nickname earned her a slight smile. "If I tell you to fight?" he inquired of the lapine soldier.

The bunny folded her arms while putting on a rebellious expression. Nevertheless, she answered. "I'll do as I'm told."

"If I tell you to leave the talking to me?"

"I'll do as I'm told," she rolled her eyes.

"If I tell you to run?"

"I'll do as I'm told…" Judy sang in a monotone voice.

"If I tell you to turn around and bend over?"

"I'll do as- WHAT?!" her cheeks heated up significantly.

The fox sniggered. "Just making sure you pay attention," he settled on the seat and turned to her.

"Let's not waste more time. I assume you too want to get over this as soon as possible, so hop on," he patted the free space on the seat in front of him. Judy didn't move and, seeing her expression, the fox sighed. "Now look here, this is not a joke about your species or your name. It's just an expression that normally functions in our language, okay? So don't look for any hidden meaning behind this and just sit here so we can be on our way."

He ignited the engine and the doe got on the motorcycle, muttering incoherent curses in his direction. Her nose twitched and cringed, now that she was closer to his smelly coat and her body jerked forward a bit to not touch the dirty clothes. But she failed as his arm snaked around her waist and pulled her frame to him, her back now pressed firmly to his stomach. Surprisingly hard stomach. If she hadn't looked at him earlier in the bar and registered that he was wearing only a thin tank top under the coat, Judy could have sworn that he was wearing some kind of an armor. This fox was ripped. The bunny felt a tiny bit of warmth gathering in her body, pretty much against her better judgement.

"Again, don't read into this," she heard from above her head. "I'm just making sure you won't fall off."

"You got a name?" the doe asked of him to point her thoughts into a safer area. She'd sooner let herself be stung by a giant radscorpion than admit right now that she had a thing for athletic males.

"Nick."

"Nick…" she tested the word on her tongue. "Nick what?"

"Nick none-of-your-business," he stated firmly.

"That's a nice name," Judy commented, her voice laced with sarcasm.

"Whatever you say, Fluff."

She used their closeness to sell him an elbow to the ribs, getting a quiet, but still satisfying oompf from the fox.

"Just drive, Nick."